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10-11 october, banff national park 6:19 PM

Readers beware! The pictures you see in this entry and hereafter probably won't do justice to the actual sights I'd witnessed, but I hope you'll be able to sense my excitement and just how breathtaking it was to come so close to the spectacular alpine landscape of the Rockies. And yea, especially when I spent my birthday here and experienced my first snowfall ever! - we heard it still wasn't time yet to get this cold nor snow here, but 老天爷 was kind enough to create that magic for me, haha :) 

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Canadian Rockies. Located 110-180km west of Calgary, it is about an hour's drive from the city. We were told that by cruising along the Trans-Canada Highway, we'd be given the unique opportunity of initially gazing at the Rockies in awe from afar, then experiencing the euphoria as the alpines gradually increase in size upon our approach, and eventually just over-towering alongside us! So yes, it was cool indeed to have witnessed that for real..

 

From inside the car - you can see the mountainous terrains here vary greatly place to place, ranging from snow-capped to duller-looking ones (like what we normally see in Batu Caves in KL..). But yea, at the risk of sounding silly, I must still say that the Rockies do look very rocky indeed! Haha.

 

Banff Town
Banff Town is a resort town and one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations, well-reputed for its mountainous surroundings, hot springs and variety of outdoor sports facilities such as hiking, biking and skiing. Standing at 1463m, it is also the town with the highest elevation in the country.

    

We explored a little trail near our hostel, where we had a chance (and very close) encounter to wildlife here - I think it was the elk. And I know I look really wrapped up here, but it went down to almost -8 deg C that night, so better be prepared and toasty! I think I had difficulty walking up and down the steps though, just felt like a fluffy puffball, haha.

   

Street of Banff Town, complete with quaint fancy shophouses (mostly selling food, gifts, cards and books).

   

Birthday dinner at Wild Bill's, slightly pricey though mine was free cos Thalia and Adriana treated me! Haha.. I had their specialty "Legendary Fajitas", and the Mexicans taught me how to hold, wrap and appreciate this dish from their home country.

     

Highlight of the night - bumping into Shuwen and Huilin once more on the streets of Banff! It was hilarious cos we'd spotted 2 Asians from a distance; they did too, and we all suddenly realized it were us! Totally pounced on one another and there was alot of screaming and hugging yet again, haha.

And then we did silly things like dancing in the snow and tasting the flakes, and..

 

Touching our boobs.. 

Anyway, Banff Town is also well-reputed for its abundance of nightlife and we went to one of their two famous nightclubs, Hoodoo's, where I got a specially-concocted cocktail on the house (cos Adriana and I announced the occasion to the bartender, whee!). It was a blend of Malibu lychee and others; very sweet and palatable.

 

"It's snowing!" - actually everyone'd expected me to only perform this "snow-dance" in end-October, when Winnipeg will experience its first light snowfall, heh. Now they won't see me create such a scene on-campus anymore (I hope). :)

And yea, our car was so covered in snow we didn't know how to drive anymore..!

 

The Banff Gondola
Saturday morning we took the Banff Gondola (essentially a cable car), scaling the eastern slope of Sulphur Mountain to its summit ridge. Up here, visitors are treated to a 360-deg spectacular view of the Bow Valley. A boardwalk can also be followed on foot, leading to the top of Sanson Peak, a whole 2256m above sea level!

    

The gondola and its very long boardwalk. It was -8 deg C that morning; we had to walk on very slippery ice and snow ground without proper footwear nor insulation! Suffered from some frostbites and cold feet, LITERALLY. Heh.

 

View of Bow Valley and many other peaks in the surrounding area

 

 

It was amazing just watching the alpine landscape, really. Anyway, we were niao-ed by our Canadian friends for wearing so much compared to Adriana and Thalia (we were said to have layered as if it was already -30 deg C!) -_-  Haha, but I think Js looked more like an abominable snowman compared to me! Hahaha :)

 

Lake Louise
Lake Louise was our next stopover, being on the way to the Icefields Parkway and Jasper National Park. It is said that Lake Louise has one of the most scenic views of the numerous lakes in this region. And it was pretty indeed, though we caught it at a bad timing of 4-5pm, where the sun was at its brightest and there was just too much backlight for good pictures. :(

   

    

The vast turquoise waters, simply refreshing and breathtaking to admire

 

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, a luxurious hotel and popular tourist destination

 

This looks very much like the shot I took back in Vancouver's Stanley Park! Haha.

So well, completing our 2nd leg of travel in Banff, I must contend it was a simply unforgettable 22nd birthday, spending it amidst 游山玩水-ing in the wonders of Nature. :)

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Winifred Lim
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About me
You are an enthusiastic innovator, always seeing new possibilities and new ways of doing things. You have a lot of imagination and initiative for starting projects, and a lot of impulsive energy for carrying them out. You are stimulated by difficulties and are most ingenious in solving them. You can get so interested in your newest project that you have time for little else. Your energy comes from a succession of new enthusiasms and your world is full of possible projects. Your enthusiasm gets other people interested too.

Your feeling preference shows in a concern for people. You are skillful in handling people and often have remarkable insight into the possibilities and development of others. You are extremely perceptive about the attitudes of others, aiming to understand rather than judge people. You are much drawn to counseling and can be inspired and inspiring teacher, particularly where you have freedom to innovate. With talent, you can succeed in almost any field that captures your interest.

A difficulty for you is that you hate uninspired routine and find it remarkably hard to apply yourself to sometimes necessary detail unconnected with any major interest. Worse yet, you may get bored with your own projects as soon as the major problems have been solved or the initial challenge has been met. You may need to learn to follow through and finish what you have begun, but are happiest and most effective in jobs that permit one project after another, with somebody else taking over as soon as the situation is well in hand.

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