Voila! Montreal (Biodome, Chinatown, Otakuthon)

By Saikit Thursday August 6, 2009

BIODOME

Day 3: The morning was raining hard, so we decided to head indoor and check out Montreal’s biodome inside Olympic Park. The biodome is essentially a zoo. Once inside, you get to see animals from different ecosystems.

Without a doubt, the penguins and puffins in the arctic zone was the more intriguing. I even saw the pengiun that resembles Cody from Surf’s Up.

Arctic Penguins

Cody from Surf's up is a Rockhopper Penguin

Arctic Puffin

In rain forest, there was a newborn monkey. The size of the newbord was smaller than a human palm. He was riding on his mother’s back the whole time.

Mother monkey with newborn baby on her back

The newest addition to the biodome is a trio of Lemur from Madagascar. These guys are not as active as I expected them to be when we were visiting. It actually took them quite some time to turn around a look at me.

Lemurs from Madagascar, Africa

CHINATOWN

The location of Chinatown was in between Old Montreal and downtown. So we partically passed this spot over a dozen time. On top of the, the core streets of Chinatown is open to pedestrians only; no cars allowed, which gives us lots of spaces to explore. It did seem that there was a large Vietnamese community established in Chinatown (with all the Pho restaurants everywhere).

Montreal Chinatown Front Gate

OTAKUTHON

The Otakuthon Anime Convention happened during the weekend we stayed in Montreal. On Friday night (the first night), we dropped by the Montreal Congress Center to see how the scene is like. Being located on the second floor, the line upf or the registration was insanely long. If it got any longer, they would have to line up on the escalator. We decided to leave and come back on Sunday night.

Escalator leaving to the main conference hall

Before the convention ended on Sunday, we got a glimpse of all the awesome cosplay leaving the convention. Of course, we stopped a few of them and ask for pictures. As the crowd begin to form, there was a large photo gathering near the escalator. What a perfect moment for a group shot.

group of cosplays at the Montreal Otakuthon

Here’s a few of the outstanding cosplays:

Cloud from Final Fantasy

kankuro from Naruto

Soldier from Team Fortress

Female Kakashi

That concludes my Montreal trip summary. If I get a chance to go back in the future, I would differently eat out more at the restaurants. Try out more crepes and their Japanese food (there were a lot!). Go to the amusement park (I hear it’s expensive thought). Attend Osheaga at Parc Jean Drapeau (We missed Coldplay and Beaties Boys).