Montreal, Quebec, Canada

its a good thing joe beat me to blogging about this place. got writer's block and can't really think of what i wanna write. so if you really wanna know what's been going on just go read his blog.

its true. the couple we've been staying with the past 2 nights have been hospitable and inviting beyond words. their reception and welcome towards strangers like ourselves and even mark and his merry gang(yes, we're ALL staying under one roof now, all 6 of us) is exceptional and really an eye-opener into the degree of the kindness of strangers. in fact the pay it forward attitude the danny(the husband) spoke to joe and i about where they were first accorded such hospitality while they were in algeria by a family of muslims is somewhat infectious. and we hope we'll do our part as well.

speaking of which joe and i were chilling out on top of mount royal in downtown montreal yesterday(where you can see an aerial view of the enormous city of montreal) when we saw this stranded korean duo who were looking for the area code of kingston. to cut a long story short we found it in our hearts not only to approach them while they eyed us with suspicious conmen alertness but also to actually aid them in finding a youth hostel and even giving them one of our rare hostel maps which we got in singapore. needless to say they were all smiles thereafter. but i think what my just-woken-up mind is trying to say is that under real circumstances and societal norms, joe and i would've just flicked our cigarette butts away and drove off, if not for the infectious spirit of sharing and caring.

so apart from that everything else has been still really rockin' hard. joe and i went on a city tour of montreal whole of yesterday. the tourist info center is probably the best i've visited so far in this american tour. old montreal is spectacularly bohemian and arty-farty coupled with its 19th century architectural getup really creates an atmosphere of olden montreal, place of narrow cobbled streets and buildings of stone enveloping you for blocks and blocks in the city.

mark's travelling with another 2 guys and a gal(there's this freaky story about the gal which if anyone's interested ask me when i come back) and they seem pretty nice people. but they're travelling on an ultra budget as well and it looks even worse for them because 4 of them share a car smaller than ours and even sleep in that little automobile. how to survive? but they do. well to each his own level of comfort and how they wanna spend this trip lah.

and still i can't stop praising the mckinleys(danny and marian), the couple that took us in. i feel indebted and i guess i'll send some bak kuah back when i get back to singapore. they entertained us with a lovely chicken dinner last night over beer and wine. it was fine all-american household dining. and we chatted for a really long time over alot of things. it really helps that they're retired teachers so much of this good attitude also spawns from their thirst for opening their minds to new cultures and more knowledge. i just hope that we've created a good impression of us as singaporeans. naturally we've already been labelled as nice smart intelligent and adventurous people. hopefully we don't rear our ugly side.

so the ugly side in me came out for 2 nights in a row when i felt the urge to go gamble. luckily i set a limit of $20 both time i went to the montreal casino. first night i lost it all on the quinzella machine, last night i lost about $7.50. nice to have such fun at times.

think thats about it. joe and i have been travelling together for almost a week and a half liao. and we're still having a great time. so thats a good sign. joe said at the end of the trip eitehr we'll hate each other or we'll bond closer. i'd say at the way things are we're certainly heading for the latter.

life is good.