*Thursday, April 07, 2005*
paris: jour un
we then headed to our hotel…but not before forking over a hell lot of euros for our travel pass (which was only valid for 3 days…18 euros for 3 days. bah). i guess i should be thankful i didn’t have to go to the toilet, which cost the other four 1 euro. ;) anyway, we got to our station (blanche) without problems...and then walked straight into the red light district of paris. there were sex shops EVERYWHERE. not forgetting the very famous moulin rouge. (funny thing is, when i told raveena about this, the first thing she asked me was: did my sister book the hotel for you? hahaha). it wasn't really a surprise though, as ash googled it the night before to see if royal fromentin provided towels...well. we didn't get the answer to that question, but we did find out that montparnasse was the red light district. scandalous. but when i googled it (after the trip), turns out that the actual "official" red light district is pigalle. hua's and li kun's stop. HAHAHAHA. likun=sex. are we surprised?? ;)
the interesting thing about our hotel was that it had those old fashioned elevators (or is there a special term for it? hmmm) - the ones i'd only ever seen in movies. and our room was HUUUUGE (though we only found out after we got back from eiffel tower - our rooms weren't ready when we checked in). to accomodate extra "people" : ash's theory. *grins*
the first place we visited was champs elysees, and arc de triomphe. the scariest thing about it was the 9 lane roads which led up to the roundabout. no jay walking, i'm afraid. we wanted to get to the centre of the roundabout, and i must say it took us AGES to find the underpass. ages. when it was right in front of our faces.
we then headed off to eiffel tower...i must say it was really amazing seeing it. it really feels weird when you are in two countries in one day. a little bit surreal. =) ash, sato, hua and i went up the tower (ramz was scared - don't deny it!, and likun had already been up before). the queue was horrendously long. i can't imagine the number of people that visit the tower each year. but the queuing was worth it - the view was fantastic! and i (obviously) started taking photos like an insane and deranged person. hahaha. i was complaing about the cloudy weather, as it cast a hazy mist over the city....but not long after that - it started to RAIN. i was so pissed off. i'm thankful we were already at the highest level at the time, which was covered. but in the end, the rain was actually worth it. as the clouds began to clear the way for the sun....we suddenly saw a rainbow! (i think it was en route to finding the "malaysia" distance signboard thing). and the best thing was that it was a double rainbow. it was unbelieveable, seeing a rainbow from up above. i could actually see the entire arch of the rainbow(s)!!!
sato and png left soon after in search of a toilet (it turned out that there was one on the top deck)..while ash and i stayed on for the sunset. but all the waiting was more than worth it...
i would love to post every single photo i took, but that simply isn't possible - i took around 500 photos in the 4 days. =) but here's one more from the top of eiffel tower. i was quite obsessed with this river, and took countless photos of it.
after spending nearly four hours in eiffel tower, ash and i finally decided that it was time to leave. we ate in this italian place on the way to the metro station (we didn't have the energy to go food hunting) before heading back to the hotel. where both of us had a nap while waiting for ramz to come. and when i woke up, i was shown a photo of someone fast asleep, with a yellow streak on her face, and a clip holding up her hair: ME. thank you for that, ramz. idiot. apparently i didn't even budge when she did it - whereas ash tried to push their hand away. i bring a new meaning to the saying "tidur mati". =)
we went out at 2am - to this irish pub. we stayed there for a couple of hours, drinking, taking, taking photos and dancing. very enjoyable - especially since i have been on a clubbing hiatus since january. ramz was, as usual her crazy insane self...rock star. HAHAHAHA. you should see the photos, my dear. hilarious.
[22:18]
