We are only young once..

Beautiful weather greeted us as we made our way to La Rhonde, the Six Flags themepark up in Montreal.

Roller Coasters make us happy!

Totally psyched!

Le Map

With my last visit to a themepark being Disneyland in Orlando last Apr, it was swell experiencing again coasters like, 20x the size of say, "Peter Pan" or "Space Mountain" (which has been SO hyped up by dad! "It's pitch dark okay...with sudden turns and drops...aiyoh can get heart attack")

Wait 'til you get your ass strapped down to one of these babies!

Our warm up - 'Le Monster'. Monstrous (and creaky) it sure is!

You get to stand on this one - "The Cobra" - so when it twists upside down..you're technically doing a headstand!

I remember seeing this back when I was a kid, at some themepark in the UK...

Now I finally get to ride it!!! (That's Dan btw kicking Yi Lin's swingchair...if you're wondering why he's grinning like that)

SOAKED! On the log flume. Good thing the sun was up and dried our clothes in 30mins.

We blazed through the 6 main coasters and the rest of the rides within 3 hrs, going for second rounds on most of them. The great thing about going to the park on a May Saturday are the short Qs. (Coasters are notorious for making you Q 2 -3 hours for a freakin' 1 min. ride, of which half of it you don't see because the speed makes your face and thus your eyes all scrunchy). Which means we get to enjoy them more with less frustration from the long Qs! However be sure to bring along some entertainment for the waits, be it a book, an ipod, or better still, a brother and a brother-in-law, who, as seen below, provides other very useful services:

A safekeep for the popcorn and coke bottles while on the rides :)

Much appreciated since most of the time your hands would be too busy holding on to the safety grips, up in the air, wiping drool from your mouth or shielding your mouth and eyes from on-coming flies.

Eventually, all that work and the screaming and running around got us really hungry, and so we settled for middle eastern food.

Damn good Falafel and hummus!

Too hungry and absorbed in savoring our $50 lunch, we ignored the evil gulls above us eyeing our food, and, in a vindictive act of spite, one gull released a dollop of poo millimetres away from our coke, and landed on the table with a loud SPLAT!!! We certainly wern't expecting that, and snatched the bottle away from the infected area. Hopefully the 3 second rule applies here too.

Sanitizing religiously at every chance

Filled stomachs didn't stop us from continuing our rides, and by the time we decided to leave, it was almost 6pm. Spent from our adventures at Le Rhonde, we set off on another quest in search of the infamous Walmart bucket of wings, but, we'll leave that for another time. Enough adrenalin for a day.

(Un)French Food

Even though Montreal can be as French as France can be, it proved itself to be an international city in its own right over the last weekend of May by hosting an international food and cultural festival along the Old Montreal waterfront. We saw (and tasted!) food samples such as Spanish empanadas (relatives of the good ol' Singapore curry puff), churros (the sugary version of you tiao) and maple syrup sweets. The Aussies were there having a hellava good time getting curious people to pay good money for a mouthful of kangeroo meat on a stick. Which is disturbing, cos I distinctly remember seeing bags of chilled kangeroo meat in Australian supermarkets under the pet food section :/

It was pretty interesting watching some of the food being prepared, especially the maple syrup lollies:

Step 1: Pour strips of 100% pure Grade A maple syrup onto a bed of ice

Step 2: Roll it quickly around a stick before the syrup cools and hardens

Step 3: Lift and Lick!

Over our steak dinner the night before, we were talking about different types of meat and what we have eaten or would like to try. It all started cos my brother ordered buffalo steak (aka big hairy bison meat) grilled into a bloody medium rare state. It tasted rather gamey to me. Ugh. Although I've tried bits of kangeroo, ostrich and alligator meat (and even some bug mush on toast while on an Australian bush walk), and I might give guinea pig a go when I get down to Peru, I'm not exactly collecting medals when it comes to eating exotic animal meat. Which is why I gave those hyper Aussies a miss but the guys swapped $2 for a couple of pieces of kangeroo meat. Hoppity hop!

Finally standing still for a pic after I gave them a pissed-off look. Pissed off cos I was struggling with a mouthful of melting maple maltose, which was happily stringing itself all over my hair, face, hands and camera, and they refused to cooperate too. Grrrr.

Fancy a taste of Australia, Spain or Canada?

Familiar food - Ovaltine and some Milo hiding in the far corner

I guess this crepe flinging guy was the only French ingredient around

But hey, the fair seriously lacked some good Chinese food! So we headed for the everything-also-got Asian supermarkets in Chinatown to get provisions for dinner. The Chinese are really the pros in importing all their favourite food items into whichever country they get their foot into. We found you tiao and mooncakes even.

I'm dearly missing hot, freshly fried you tiao with porridge or tau huay already

We got what we needed to make our own dinner back at our hotel (which is highly recommended if you're heading into Monteral - Les Square Phillips Hotel & Suites, a repeat winner of TripAdvisor Reader's Choice awards for its reasonably-priced and quality rooms.) All we needed was the all-Singaporean ingredient - the foreign domestic worker. Which, on this occasion, turned out to be me. My sister, the part-time maid, only turned up for work during commercial breaks on TV.

My childhood past-time in the 1980s

Meet Maria - she wrapped 50 wantons!

I swear this was the best meal available in Canada (and the US of A) that night: home-made wanton noodle soup!

Yummylicious!

Old Montreal

We drove up north into Montreal, which is about 3 hours away from Stowe. Passing through immigration was a cinch despite having a vanload of people and luggage. The only hitch in the otherwise seamless process was when the immigration officer peered at us and asked "Okay, which one of you is Tan?" and 5 confused Tans peered back at him. And somehow, my sister managed to claim first rights to the name "Lin" and I became "The Other Lin". And I thought I was the firstborn here.

I have mixed feelings about Montreal. I just don't get the French thing. I mean, I knew that it was a French-speaking city, but I wasn't expecting so much French and everything to be in French. I thought the residents, though conversant in French, would use English more widely, as with other Canadian cities (with the exception of, I guess, Quebec.) They speak English with a French accent! It was like being in a pretend France and having to remind myself that I was really in Canada, and not Europe. It was especially strange when a lady, who was clearly Chinese, tried to converse with us in French, and us having to tell her that we didn't understand what our fellow Chinese was saying. And the funny thing is, the Canadians here seem to have adopted the cold demeanour that their French counterparts are so infamous for (although I'm sure some really nice French people, when I do meet some, could prove me wrong and show me how misunderstood they are.) They were definitely not as friendly as their neighbours across the border, whose warm welcomes and cheerful conversations we have grown accustomed to.

The blustery cold Montreal weather didn't help either.

I did like walking around Old Montreal though - along the cobblestone streets and old buildings. And the waterfront promenade was also quite a nice place to hang out at, which amazingly didn't get too crowded with all the walkers, cyclists (they have bikes for up to 5 people!), Segways, in-line skaters and tram service. To cut a long story short, here are the pictures! (Also cos it's 2.30am on this side of the world and I need to get some sleep soon!)

Horse-drawn carriages still ferry visitors around the old city

Interesting building facade fronting a cafe - but there's no actual building!

Geraniums in the sunlight

A Christmas shop - open all year round

Peek a boo!

A painting of Buddha and Christmas ornaments displayed side by side

Textures of Old Montreal

We were lucky that we had timed our visit to Montreal during a food and cultural festival taking place over the last weekend of May. The narrow streets were packed with musicians, singers, artists showcasing their works, vendors selling hot food and produce from all over the world, costumed characters hosting games for kids - it was all very exciting!

Impromptu drumming session - just jump in!

A kid trying out a type of chess using pebbles with his mum

Another mother-and-child pair bonding over a traditional game

An exotic tent housing a Middle-Eastern tea party

Little kids getting to be pirates for a day. Yo ho!

Jazz ensemble crooning for the audience

Enough of the festivities? Head into one of the many art galleries or small museums for some quiet time.

Movable seats - I likey

Tired of walking or sitting around? Rent a bike at this self-service kiosk and explore the city on wheels.

Lilac bush blooming for only the 2nd time in 14 years. Wow.

An historic domed building that now houses a quaint art market

The vibrant waterfront promenade against a blend of old and new skyline.

We can be just as happy in Montreal... just let us go master some French first!

Warp Speeding - the best way to warp lives and cars

We drove into Montreal with the family after spending 2 lovely nights in Stowe, Vermont. Upon reaching the city, we were already aware that the drivers here are a different breed from the relatively friendly Americans.

The people of Montreal are French-speaking, and sad to say, they seem to behave like the typical French (or some would argue, Singaporeans). No one would give way, if they could. And they would also toot their horn at you to show their displeasure. In Singapore, road markings are fairly clear, and you would know when you are at fault for drifting, turning from the wrong lane, and so on. Not so easy in Montreal. The road markings there are so faint that at times I had trouble determining if I was in a single lane or 2 lane road.

Because of this, and also because parking was so darned expensive, we spent most of our time in Montreal walking around. And it was during one of these walks when we came across what seems to be a road safety exhibition.

I thought it was pretty neat, that the city just took up the parking space at the side of the road for this public service exhibition.

The Autobot was into bondage

And the exhibition was pretty simple too:

3 trucks, with 3 cars secured on them, and a signage that told you a story. Now, this was aimed at locals (because foreigners are already scared off the roads), so it's in French.

I've never studied French before, so I hope my interpretation is correct!

Julie, Age 18
Drove at 150km/hr in a 100km/hr zone.
Fine $339 and 5 demerit points.
LICENSE SUSPENDED

Simon, Age 22
Drove at 100km/hr in a 50km/hr zone
2 infractions too many?
Fine $668 + 10 demerit points
LICENSE SUSPENDED AND HE HAS A SEXY VEHICLE

Mathieu, Age 20
Drove at 121km/hr in a 50km/hr zone
Lost control and crashed
DECEASED

This was indeed a sobering reminder not to take road safety for fun. Lives CAN be lost.

The Little One

Little brothers get away with everything. Especially when they are cute and chubby-cheeked at 2. Even when they dump a snowball down your back at 12. And even when they're on the verge of 22 and already taller than everybody else in the family.

After generously letting him spend the past 2 weeks slouching in the back seat of the car plugged into his iPod and simply part-timing as the family porter, we decide that it was high time he took on more responsibility on this trip. So the older siblings (comprising 2 meanie sisters and 1 brother-in-law) gang up and nominate him for dishwashing duties. The father readily supports the nomination (simply because he didn't want to end up doing the dishes) and makes a quick getaway to the couch. But not before dishing out a warning not to use the dishwasher. The last time this silly Asian family tried to do it in New Zealand, we OD-ed on the detergent and flooded the kitchen floor with bubbles. The mother diplomatically refuses to take sides and busies herself wondering what to do with the remainder wanton.

After emitting a few puny screams of blue murder which fall on deaf ears, Cinderella gingerly picks up the first stack of dirty dishes with the verrrryy tips of his fingers and sniffles pathetically, "Eeeeee, saliva." So that's why this beefy kid refuses to wash the dishes. He's scared of touching saliva!

But who cares, right. His unsympathetic couch-warming family just tells him to rinse the dishes first then touch them (duh!). Left with no choice, he obediently picks up the scrubbing pad and starts washing.

Mummy's little helper

During a commercial break, I head back into the kitchen to check on the progress and discover that he had convinced Mum to let him use the dishwasher!!! Cheaterbug.

Not happy at being caught getting some illegal extra help

But he still had to handwash some of the bigger stuff that couldn't fit into the dishwasher. Five minutes later, we look up from yet another commercial break and find our slave comfortably perching on the arm of the couch right next to us.... er, so who is doing the dishes?

SuperMum to the rescue

The sneaky bugger actually managed to get Mum to take over the dishes! Well, once the baby, always the baby.

Happy Birthday in advance, baby brother. Try not to grow up too fast.