https://www.zealty.ca/mls-917005/175...Parksville-BC/
https://www.zealty.ca/mls-922281/751...Parksville-BC/

Man, if I didn't have so many attachments (elderly parents and in-laws) to Vancouver I'd seriously consider moving to something like Parksville in a house like these. For that kind of money I'd be practically mortgage free. I'd be cruising around in a blue Lexus in no time.

Also, crazy to think that a million dollar house would be considered a "bargain".

^those look excellent. all the home you need. Too bad its just far as shit.

What would you do in Parksville though? For fun, or work for that matter. I do know there's remote options, but that's not possible for most.

I can work remote (I'm in tech) and my wife can sorta work remote (federal gov't - can go to any office). I dig island life and Parksville is nice and chill but close enough to a lot of amenities (Costco) and sights like Tofino that I wouldn't be too bored (my 4 year old dictates that I have a boring life anyways).

I'd also free up so much income that I could swing a low miles 991.2 GT3 and go spend my free days down at VIMC (just an hour away).

Mini golf. Parksville has 2 amazing mini golf places.

If you're on the island you could also go fishing with great68.

People used to LM would be dying for stuff like authentic food like Pho, Ramen, sushi, etc. My friends moved back to Prince George last year, and they're complaining about the quality of food up there in addition the lack of anything fun to do.

So it cost more to PPF a car completely than to paint a house. Interesting.

Part of the reason I can't leave is cause of the food. Vancouver doesn't have the bestest food of all cultures, but the sheer amount of quality options is what's great. I live on Victoria Drive and there's like 4 different styles of pho within a 5 min drive. There's 3 great authentic sushi joints within 15mins, and the sheer amount of Chinese/Canto options.

Prince George is a hole though.

Younger me would dying from the lack of the good food but old me is too busy to go to most of those places that I love (I'm lucky to visit LA Chicken and BBQ Master once a year now) that it's no big deal. I also have the money now to make like Guy Fieri and fly into town for a 3 day food binge every few months.

FWIW, Victoria has a pretty solid food options - living there I would miss a few things but it wasn't like a deep craving all the time.

Between 33rd/41st? That stretch is pretty amazing for options. Cheap, authentic, and delicious with so much variety. Might be the best all around stretch in all of the lower mainland. Maybe Fraser between 41st/49th or Main on either side of King Edward could compete.

Wouldn't call it cheap anymore when a bowl of bun cha ca from Hoang Yen is $16.50. But the choices for Viet food are great as there's Hoang Yen, Hoi An, Hanoi, Pho Duy, and the viet sub saigon place.

We used to go to Shimaya for sushi as they were amazing. The owner retired and it's now Yoshida Sushi. Went last week and it was not bad. Waiting for them to establish themselves and offer more choices on fish.

We used to always get sushi from Shimaya as well. Owners were the nicest people ever.

Is Yoshida Japanese run as well?

I've never tried Shimaya, wanted to try it

I'll suggest Yoshida to the wife. We're always looking for local, new to us sushi places.

I've been getting Pho from Pho Zen at Marine and Fraser lately. Wife's fam who were from Vietnam are fans of the place too.

Oh man... the old owner couple retired? Their stuff was legit!

Someone please report back on how good/bad the new place is if you happen to try it. We used to get sushi from Shimaya from time to time too.

Add Tax + Tip and maybe spring rolls and you're at $25! But $16.50 for crab soup is a steal for what you get.

I got Viet mama last night at like 1AM, solid 8.5-9/10 for late night vs goldentrain and TT, 7/10 daytime.

Nanaimo has 18 sushi places
8 Indian restaurants
6 Mexican
7 Korean
13 Chinese

The ethnic food scene in small towns has exploded in the last 10 years.

If my wife and I ever got offered the option of full time remote work (with maybe the odd scheduled appearance) I'd be looking at acreages around and between Cowichan/Nanaimo the next day.

Things like "proximity to sushi restaurants" rank below "land to play around with" in my book. I don't even like sushi :P

We tried already. It's a legit JDM place.

IMO Sushi Hachi in Richmond is better for a slightly less convenient/further drive. But I can't complain about Yoshida for being 5mins from home and I will go back. I'll probably ask if they'll bring in red tuna as they didn't have it when we went last time.

The second benefit is they just opened, and seems like no one knows they are opened so getting a table is relatively easy. I would go before they start getting swamped with people as there's nothing similar in the are other than Yuji.

Lol Donk u mad I don't like sushi?

I 2nd that place as well but I'm not Viet. Lol

Sushi and Pho was just an example I used. "Fun" stuff can apply to anything outside of food scene.

only 8 Indian restaurants, but probably 60% of what you listed is owned/operated by indians. lol

What I was aiming at is what someone calls must have "fun stuff" is subjective to them.

For most of my life we only had one Indian restaurant. We have a lot of Asians, Mexicans and blacks moving to Nanaimo. A couple of my customers are from Atlanta.