Falling for the Niagara Falls

After raving so much about the autumn foliage, how can I not talk about another wonderful work of nature – The Niagara Falls! They look equally magnificent in the day as at night! Hearing and seeing the gushing down of water gives you the adrenalin rush. The view from Toronto was much better than from New York as you can take in all 3 falls - It’s somewhat like a beautiful girl not being able to see how good she really looks (American Falls) and others can see it better (from Canada). Get the idea?

The maid of the mist ride is a must! The cruise will send you all the way into the falls to experience the mist and get close to the birds hovering over the falls. Of course they will give you a poncho to keep you dry but your camera definitely can’t escape unscathed.

There are many legends to the Niagara Falls. One of it is that a beautiful young Indian lady (aborigines) ran away from her village to avoid marrying someone she didn’t like. She plunged into the falls and was saved by the son of the water god (or something like that) and he made her the goddess of the falls.


Niagara at night, New York. Can only see it from the side. Side note: the pasta sold at food court was a little too soft.

Bird’s eye view of the Falls at Skylon Tower, Toronto.

I love autumn foliage!

I just can’t get enough of the autumn foliage! It was a touching and magnificent sight as our coach (with the lousy tour guide on board) drove past rows and rows of the beautiful trees. We took many videos of the scenery. Enjoy the photos, for even that of fallen leaves on grass is a perfect wallpaper!

Paradise Vacations: It drives you to "Paradise"

We joined a 5-day tour to Canada with Paradise Vacations – one of those run by Chinese immigrants. Quite but it includes no meals and admissions.

The driver was a careful and responsible one. The tour guide by the name of Jacky… can't say much cuz besides saying "Ok, everyone", Take a rest (on the coach)" and "toilet to your left" and "we'll reach in approximately XX minutes", he said nothing much. No info on the itinerary for that day, no background on the places we were visiting.

Some older folks said this was the worse tour ever and they couldn't sleep as much on the coach as Jacky had wanted them to. Jacky suggested we subscribed to the meals otherwise we could find NO food on our own and even if we did, it would cost us 3 times as much. And don’t we patronize the same restaurant as the group cuz we won’t be served as quickly.

He even chided an old couple for tipping him in Canadian dollars instead of USD cuz he had to change them back to USD.

I would do my own free & easy tour any time.

And look out for his little blue umbrella which doubled up as a guide flag.

Welcome to East Harlem

This is a story about East Harlem, New York and to be very specific, 105 St Lexington Ave. We stayed in a 4-bed dorm at Central Park Lexington apartment the 6-7 days we were in New York. Contrary to tales that it was a danger zone and crime hotspot, the non-whites a.k.a. the South Americans, blacks and Asians, are extremely friendly and helpful. We felt like one of them living in the little neighbourhood.

The adventure happened in the apartment which looks totally different from the photos on its website. When we checked in the first night, a black lady in her blue nightgown checked us in. she had her hand on her face all the time and didn’t seem very sober, so we though she as on drugs. It turned out that she had a bad toothache. Shortly after we checked in, we met her kids including a 10-month old baby – a black kitten. It was squatting outside the common toilet and hiding in the bathroom the first few nights. On the third night, a Turkish lady checked into our room. Appalled by the condition of the place, she checked out the next day. But and 6-ish the morning before se checked out, the black lady came knocking on every door (still in the same nightgown – we suspected it to be her uniform). She was looking for her baby under the bed and all over the room. I later saw the baby hiding beside the toilet bowl and informed her. She offered to buy me breakfast and was weeping.

We didn’t see her and her baby for the next few days.

We came back one day and accidentally closed the door loudly. The lady heard us and opened her bedroom door and greeted us. She then told us as a by the way thing, that her kitten had died. It swallowed a strand of the mop. We froze cuz we couldn’t believe what we heard (the mop on top of the death). She thought we didn’t understand what she said so she took out that very mop. My friend couldn’t hold her laughter and excused herself and ran up to the room.

It was a totally safe apartment in a safe area. I got all the good training in Little India. No bedbug problem that is bugging New York cuz the bunks are metallic and plastic sheets around the mattresses are still intact.

This was just one of the highlights of our trip. More to come.