technically day 2 and day 1 are kind of like... overlapped. but argh who cares.
after a couple more roundabouts and illegal u-turns, we find lodging at this place called the homestead inn. was pretty reasonably priced for a comfortable relatively spacious room.
but unfortunately the woman at the front desk in the morning was a bitch, and she rudely told us we couldn't get a room till after 12 noon at least. so our plans of getting some shot-eye were completely busted. instead we decided to get breakfast @ this restaurant called "melissa's" next door - shared a yummy (but fucking expensive) omelette and pancake. then it was on to explore the quaint town of banff.
yes. as you can see, the town of banff is very pretty. the place looks small and woody and pretty, and it's a continually surreal experience to see gorgeous mountains as the backdrop to your field of vision. but unfortunately, banff is also very touristy (i.e. the usual shopping outlets, which we aren't interested in), and can be almost completely explored in half an hour...
so we decide to go the scenic lake louise 58 km from banff.
this is the scenery from the drive towards lake louise.
we take the small slip road instead of the highway, and we head towards this place called johnston creek.
where we end up doing yet another impromptu activity - an impromptu ice-walk... but without the proper equipment (i.e. no snow boots or cleats).
tt's me so-called confidently walking down the path.
but don't be fooled. where the path is covered in a slick layer of smooth smooth ice... it's *fucking* slippery. kanina.
me and ben (ben took this photo. i've come to realise tt almost every photo tt ben takes of the both of us himself... he doesn't look v glam. hmm).
but yes. the photo was taken before i slip twice and add 2 more orh ches to my already impressive collection on my legs. after tt when ben sees my legs he says tt they look like a map of the rockies. ugh.
nonethless. this doesn't stop the scenery from looking pretty and worth the trouble and pain. ow.
pretty frozen creek. we see a lot of frozen water.
ben sliding through the bridge across the creek.
and me. bwahaha. one more of those "i was there!" photos.
yet another "ben so cool" photo. yeah. so he doesn't fall. nabeh. life is unfair.
fortunately life is not *tt* unfair. remember one of my previous posts were i commented tt "you can take the ah beng out of singapore, but you cannot take singapore out of the ah beng (or vice versa)?"
voila. squatting and smoking. even in the rockies.
anyway back on topic: the johnston creek trail becomes increasingly treacherous, so i demand after some point tt i've had it with falling over, and we head back.
onwards to lake louise.
and this is called "castle mountains". one of the mountains we pass on the way.
looks like a postcard, don't it? ;)
and then... maybe to console me, ben lets me drive! YAY!
small road with little or no cars. can hit a high of 140km/h. but my turning per se still leaves much to be desired. but man. i think driving can be addictive. muahaha.
so we gotta take the "me and the car i drove" photo!
admittedly the g6 looks *nothing* like what it looked like when we first took the keys. then it was fucking new and fucking clean. at this point in time... it was about as away from both as you could get. goddamn dusty mountain roads. bah.
anyway we made it to lake louise, albeit with a couple more roundabouts and illegal u-turns (bwahaha).
and the lake, when frozen in winter, looks like this:
all covered in snow.
ben and i (admittedly, you don't really notice tt we just had a massive snowball fight just before the photo and tt there is snowflakes all in my hair).
and me trying to make a snow angel.
unglam to the core i know, but since when did i ever give a fuck? ;)
another shot of lake louise - i think this one was taken by ben.
...and then it is on to try...
*SNOW-SHOEING!!!*
we rented snow boots and snow shoes so tt we could plough through thick snow without falling in.
after tt you had 2 idiots literally trekking *everywhere* off the trails through the trees in the forests looking for god knows what exactly.
ben.
me.
fuck. i'm walking i'm walking.
but don't be deceived by the relative ease with which we are walking - it is *fucking tiring*. kanina.
damn tiring.
we gave up after i ended up sprawling in the snow refusing to move and eating snow (which totally horrified ben. muahaha. but it was damn clean tho.) then we had dinner at the old spaghetti factory, and later spent the night vegetating back in the hotel room watching cable.
