The travels of BBQboy

January 16, 2009 – Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, about -12C and sunny (sunny days have been rare; we’ve had lots of snow and gray skies so far this winter). Lissette decided to stay home and her womenly stuff (you know, cleaning and cooking and all those female things). I decided that I didn’t have to stick around for that crap and decided to hike up the mountain and take some pictures.

It was a wonderful walk and I think half of Montreal was up there. Beautiful afternoon. I even picked up some cleaning products for Lissette on the way back so she could get her work finished.

Saturday December 13 – the ice from last week’s ice/snow storm was still hanging off the branches and made for some nice pictures. The below are from Parc Lafontaine on Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal.

Yes, yes, I know I look silly in tuques – everyone always tells me tuques and caps don’t suit my mishapen head.

Its rare that we have ice on the trees – although we get more freezing rain now than ever (because of generally warmer winters than in the past) it’s rare that it actually stays frozen on trees for an extended period. The worst case of freezing rain was the January 1998 Ice storm which brought down power lines in Montreal and left people without electricity for weeks. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Canada and required the deployment of the Canadian Forces.

Anyway, this ice storm was nothing in comparison (although parts of New England were hit very bad). The weather warmed up from -15C on Saturday to plus 8C on Monday, melting everything. Then it got cold again Monday night. There’s no more ice on the trees and most of the snow is gone – all that’s been replaced by a sheet of ice everywhere. Today everyone is slipping on their asses. The joys of winter…

Last night I was lucky enough to get invited to watch a Montreal Canadiens game from a lodge box at the Bell Center. Montreal is a crazed city when it comes to hockey, I know people who would willingly donate internal organs for such an opportunity. The lodge belonged to Scotia Capital and we were about 10 invitees – free beer, Australian wine (Linderman’s Shiraz), and tons of food; smoked salmon, roast beef, chicken stuffed with something…then the desert buggy came and I had cheese cake and Grand Marnier.

The views were incredible and I just wish I could have taken better pictures; the new scoreboard (huge! Was built for the Canadien’s 100 year anniversary) and the ice are so bright its hard to get the right lighting.

Below: zooming in on the scoreboard. It is unbelievable – 7.6 M by 12.2 M (the largest in the league) with incredible resolution.

Lissette and I won’t live this life forever; we both look forward to quitting our jobs and doing some travelling and settling overseas for a while. Routine kills, no matter how good life is, people need changes and new challenges. Being there last night made me realize how lucky I am and how others would think we are totally bonkers to even contemplate leaving a comfortable lifestyle for the sake of new experiences. Travelling in South-East Asia when you can stay here and be invited to soirees where you get free wine and chicken stuffed with things? Yup, we must be crazy and stupid. But we’ve also been living this life for almost 20 years now and looking around, at similarly-aged banking aquaintances who are suddenly gray-haired and aging prematurely only reinforces my thinking. You only live once.

So I’ll appreciate these great perks that come with the job when they come, and remember them with no regrets in a few years when we’re travelling through the Philippines or Indonesia or Thailand, finally living on our schedule and doing things we’ve always dreamed of doing.

Anyway, great experience but a lousy game. Montreal lost 3-1 to Tampa Bay, one of the worst teams in the league. A real stinker.

2nd week of December and we’ve already had our first major dump of snow (with more on the way). What’s interesting about this one was the freezing rain which then turned to snow. Look closely at the branches below.

Trees are hanging low, branches have snapped, and parts of the city lost electricity during the night of Dec 10th.

But there is beauty even with freezing rain. The pictures below were taken in Westmount Park; the light reflecting off the ice just makes everything kind of spooky looking.

Oct 16 – Last days of fall in Montreal. Colours are losing their shine – in Montreal you can have a day like the above and then, within 24 hours, wake up to snow / slush / freezing rain / frigid 75km wind blowing through you as if you had no clothes on your back / grey depressing, hopeless skies. Then the people change; from happy and latin to miserable and long-faced – kind of like they are all year long in Toronto, hehe. The bright side is winter only lasts 6 months of the year.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada and we were lucky to get great weather in Montreal (around 20 C). Parc du Mont-Royal (Mont Royal Park) is the 1st place in Montreal that any visitor should go to – great views and the best spot to get oriented with the geography of the city.
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/BBQBOY/montreal-travel-tips-and-photos.html
It’s not usually this busy but on this day it was packed!

I can’t think of a more touristy place in the whole province than Mont Tremblant village. There’s pros and cons to the place. Almost anything you could want is in this Swiss-style modeled village; restaurants, bars, classy shops, a cinema, an SAQ (liquor store), fancy hotels, and spas. That’s why we came here – after the crappy hike to Mont-Ham a couple of weeks ago I decided to treat Lissette to a 3 hour spa session (Amerispa, in the Fairmont Hotel). While she was in there I went up the mountain and took a hike.

Below are some of the pictures I took from the summit (compare this the the winter pictures I took of the place a few years ago during ski season: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/BBQBOY/mont-tremblant-quebec-photos.html)

The intention was to take the Summits trail (Sentier des Sommets) from the peak of Mont-Tremblant (I took the ski lift up) to Pic Johansen. Only problem is that I got lost around the summit of Mont Johansen; ended up going down the mountain (which I found strange anyway, being that I thought I was heading towards a “peak” duh). Came accross a map and had to double back up the mountain a different way…long story short I never saw Pic Johansen. BUT I did hike about 5 km in that direction (and back) and, although a nice walk through the forest, I can’t recommend it for it’s views (again, you’re in the middle of the forest and its rare that you actually get to a clearing with some views). For those who really like views, I recommend just staying around the summit of Mont-Tremblant, the views are much more impressive (and you don’t really have to walk much).

(the above: I was suprised by how lush the top of the mountain was. Lots of moss on the trails, kind of reminded me of the West Coast. The 2nd picture above is from Pic Pangman, the nicest view I saw on the Summits Trail).

I mentioned the pros of Mont-Tremblant village above. The negatives: tons of people, everything is expensive, lots of kids and the village gets VERY loud at night (kids getting drunk and running around yelling). Lissette and I both agreed that we much prefer any of the places we visit in the Eastern Townships to those in the Laurentiennes; in general the Laurentiennes attract tourists and rich locals (a lot of Mercedez and BMWS…). It was fun to be able to park the car and have the spa/hike/supper/hotel all accessible in one spot – but we were pretty happy to escape the crowds and the overall chi-chi ness of Mont-Tremblant the next day.

A hike in Mont-Tremblant park that I would recommend (we did this one last year and just a few weeks earlier – you can tell by the colour of the trees) : http://blogs.bootsnall.com/BBQBOY/parc-national-du-mont-tremblant-quebec-photos.html

Another Eastern Townships hike – Mt. Ham is about 2 hours from Montreal. http://www.montham.qc.ca/
I have mixed feelings about this hike – there are some impressive 360 degree views from the top and you can see faraway Mont-Megantic and Mont-Orford. The views are quite awesome. Reminds me of the views from Mont-St. Joseph in Mont Megantic park (http://blogs.bootsnall.com/BBQBOY/parc-national-du-mont-megantic.html)

What we really didn’t like at Mont Ham is the trail and geography. It’s a mess between the mud and the loose rocks in certain sections (including on the less difficult “Detour” trail to the summit). If you don’t like rocks you won’t like this hike – Lissette hated it (“I’m no f***ing billygoat m*********er” said she). If your girlfriend doesn’t love hiking in the first place, this is not the mountain to bring her to.

Summary: Impressive views but a crappy trail which puts girlfriend in bitchy mood. 3 hours of bitching and moaning (roughly equals the time to get to the summit and back down). We’ll be back the day they have an elevator going up to the summit.

I’m always taking photos or writing about exotic foreign places and it hit me that I’ve never posted photos or written anything about the city where I’ve lived the last 23 years. It is easy to take the place that you’re living in for granted especially when you associate it with the day-to-day routine of working, buying groceries, etc – you just don’t look at it with the same eyes as when you’re on vacation. But it sometimes hits me as it did recently – Montreal is a great city. It is vibrant (there is always some kind of festival going on in the summer), it has great and affordable dining (fantastic food of every nationality), and is scenic and clean with a lot of green places and some nice viewpoints looking over the city. It is a very safe city by North American standards. Many people come here for the great nightlife – Montreal is definitely the nightlife capital of Canada. It is renown for its beautiful women (I can’t think of any place I’ve been with more head-turning women per capita than Montreal!). It is also a cosmopolitan and cultural city full of small boutiques, restaurants, and cafes with a very European character – you can get great coffee, fresh croissants and baguettes around every corner! With that in mind, I’ve compiled some of my better pictures and some tips for anyone traveling to Montreal.

Sightseeing in Montreal has to start in Mont Royal Park, the mountain (actually more like a big hill) situated in the heart of the city. The rest of the city is flat so it’s a great spot to get orientated; from the chalet at the summit you see the whole of downtown, the river and Ile St. Helene and Ile Notre-Dame (the 2 islands in the St. Lawrence), as well as right across the river to the south shore. A lot of tourists to Montreal head straight to the Old Port area (Vieux Montreal) – I think it’s over-rated, commercial, and honestly a bit boring; I definitely suggest starting on “Mont-Royal” as we call it (it’s a nice hike from downtown – just walk up Peel street until you hit the park, follow the path to the stairs, then walk all those stairs to the summit where the chalet is. It’s beautiful!). After looking at the views from the summit, walk back to the top of the stairs (but don’t go down!) and take the path to your left. This path skirts the top of the mountain and has some really nice viewpoints on the city before turning east and giving views over the eastern end of Montreal – the river, the Jacques-Cartier bridge, the Olympic Stadium, Parc Lafontaine and Le Plateau Mont-Royal district. If you continue on that path it will bring you to a viewpoint very popular with tour buses. At that point, you can either go back along the trail and head back down the stairs to downtown, OR, continue from the viewpoint down to the Plateau Montreal district (covered later). To do this latter option; just after the viewpoint you’ll see a dirt walking path on your right – go down. It zig zags down through the park and will eventually take you down to the monument on Park Avenue. From there you can cross the street and explore the “Plateau”.
There’s lots to see in Mont-Royal park but I think I’ve covered the best above (although Beaver Lake, “Lac aux Castors”, is also very scenic and should be seen and walked around if you have the time).

Downtown: not really my bag , but that’s where you’ll find some nice shopping centers and all the usual big retailers that you see in every city. You can walk down Ste. Catherine Street and you’ll find all that along with trendy bars and cafés and strip-joints (Montreal is famous for strip joints). There are a couple of streets full of bars and terraces: Crescent Street and Bishop Street are the most popular. Crescent is full of terraces, it’s really the place to go to hang out for a beer on a hot day and just people watch. It’s not super sophisticated though (it’s the “pick up” place) and attracts the younger 20-30 year old Anglophone crowd. A really nice place to go for drinks, if only for the views, is Altitude 737 at Place Ville-Marie where they have an outdoor terrace looking out over the whole city (you can actually look across at the summit at the top of the mountain). Its more sophisticated and the best time is when the after work crowd gets there (go on a Thursday in the summer – only open Thursday and Fridays and for some reason it’s dead on Fridays..). Anyway, I’m covering ‘places to see’ rather than ‘places to drink’, so I’ll leave it at that for drinking places -there are tons in Montreal, you don’t have to look far.

Montreal is a fantastic place to ride a bike (recently voted #1 North American city for cycling) and you can now cover most of the most scenic attractions just staying on the bicycle path. Just this year they’ve completed a bike path that cuts right across downtown, so even if you’re staying at a big downtown hotel you can get on the bike path and head off anywhere. I strongly suggest renting a bike (there’s a bunch of places in Le Plateau Mont-Royal district, most around Parc Lafontaine) where you can do this, although I imagine there’s also some spots downtown as well. The official website of Velo Quebec, the cycling organization (includes maps): www.velo.qc.ca/english/index.php

Places I recommend going on the bike (or even by foot): Parc Lafontaine (beautiful park, bike path cuts right through it), The Botanical gardens and Biodome (both next to the Olympic Stadium and both easily accessible by bike path), and Ile Ste-Helene and Ile Notre-Dame (where they hold the Montreal Grand Prix). The two islands are really worth seeing; both have beautiful gardens and streams, Ile Ste-Helene has great views of downtown Montreal from across the river and has quiet bicycle paths, while Ile Notre Dame has the casino, the race track, as well as a very popular beach on a man-made lake. They are both quiet and peaceful and easily accessible from downtown by bike (via Old Montreal, “Vieux Montreal” – also worth seeing if only to see all the old buildings and the port). Also recommended, when coming back from the islands, ride your bike (or walk) across the Jacques Cartier bridge. It gives great views of the city and the river down below. By the time you get back downtown you’ll have had your exercise!

If you want to keep your bike ride shorter, go from Old Montreal to the Lachine Canal and follow the bike path down the canal until you get to the Atwater market (about 15 minutes max.). It’s a really nice place to sit down for a coffee.

Lachine canal:

Le Plateau Mont-Royal district (ie. “The Plateau”) is really worth seeing. It’s 10 minutes by subway from downtown and is the cultural heart of Montreal as far as I’m concerned. It is a very European looking neighborhood with some great restaurants including BYOBs (bring-your-own-wine restaurants) boutique stores, B&Bs, cafes, and pastry shops. Avenue Mont-Royal is fun and trendy, yet not touristy and has some nice restaurants. Avenue Laurier is a bit quieter, more family orientated, and also has a few very nice restaurants and boutique stores. The neighborhood also has some pretty parks (Parc Lafontaine, Parc Laurier). I really recommend staying in this area instead of downtown, it’ll be cheaper and I think more interesting.

A good website for Bed and Breakfasts in Montreal including on the Plateau: http://www.bbcanada.com/quebec/montr%E9al/montreal

Walking from the Plateau back downtown can be done in about 40 minutes (or take the subway to Metro Mont-Royal, that’s about 10 min from anywhere downtown). I recommend walking down rue St. Denis, another street full of terraces, restaurants and upscale shops. About mid-way between Avenue Mont-Royal and Sherbrooke is Rue Duluth which has a concentration of BYOB restaurants.

The above will keep anyone busy for about 3 or 4 days, I recommend you get a map, rent a bike and/or take the metro to get around.

Quebec has a bit of a reputation due to the language factor. It can be frustrating, especially for the visitor as all road/highway signs are unilingually in French. But that’s just because of our screwed up politics – the average person on the street is quite friendly and will happily help you out in English.

If anyone has questions on Montreal just drop me a message. Enjoy the city!

We were actually a bit disappointed with Luang Prabang; 1) it’s overcrowded with tourists – we couldn’t get over how many tourists there were in this little town, 2) We just had a feeling that the locals were in over their heads with the tourists, that they couldn’t cope the way the Thais have in the more touristy places (a case of too much, too fast?), 3) I somehow expected Luang Prabang to be a bit more grandiose – it wasn’t. Temples were actually not as impressive as ones we’d seen in Thailand (actually, when comparing, you can see that most temples have in Thailand have had a lot of restoration work. Luang Prabang’s temples are a bit shaby in comparison – Laos however, is also a much poorer country). Finally 4) we were surprised by the weather – everyday in Luang Prabang started cloudy and cold. Not cool but cold. The sky would clear up a bit in the afternoon but even then wouldn’t get really warm. Evenings got downright cold!

The selling point of Luang Prabang is that it’s a relaxing, laid back kind of place. Maybe it used to be (in which case I can see that it would have been charming), but it certainly wasn’t in February 2008. Just too many tourists…