Remarkable Experience of Niagara Falls Trip

Friends, I'm back with one more notable updates about my stay in US. This time I had been to the world's second largest falls i.e. Niagara falls. World's first largest falls is Victoria Falls in Africa. That whole week I was eagerly waiting when will weekend come and I can go to Niagara. Finally the day arrived on 06/05/2006.All our room mates and another colleague working here all planned to visit together. So my colleague Ravi hired a vehicle so that we can go by road. Niagara falls is 167 miles from our place and it can be covered in 2 hours.


We started our journey at 9:00 am and as per Weather.com the climate is sunny except some showers at our end. You know, the prediction of the weather forecast is very accurate here. Well during the transit we halted near a service area and had some snacks. Here also I had my snacks at McDonalds. I think I and McDonalds are made for each other. The biggest problem i found in US is getting vegetarian food. As usual I have to order Cheese Burger without meat, which is like eating raw bread. Anyway I got used to it . The highway roads here are called as Express Highways and they are proplery guided with directions . So there would be no problem for a person to reach his destination easily. This is one part which I liked about US, anywhere you go either New York or Niagara you are properly guided, no need to ask here and there and waste your time and we have a service on the internet i.e local.google.com and www.mapquest.com. Just provide the source and destination it will give you complete map of the travel. Just keep a copy of that map while you are travelling.


We reached Niagara on 11:15 am and and parked the vehicle near the Cannada Border. The bridge which separates the United States and Cannada is called as Rainbow bridge, because the shape of the bridge is like that. You can look into the photos which i will forward the link.As I was approaching the Falls all the time I remember was my DAD. If he would have been there, he would have felt so much proud. I know he is seeing from top and guiding me all the time. Love you DAD. Coming back to Niagara, we took some snaps near the niagara river which was heading towards fall. The first thing we did was took snaps from the Observatory deck, from where we can view the falls very clearly. Let me tell you some history/facts of the Niagara Falls. Niagara falls comprises of three falls. The American falls, the Bridal Veil Falls and the Cannadian Horseshoe falls. 90% of the falls come from Horseshoe falls, 8 % from the american falls and the 2% Bridal Veil Falls. These three falls collectively called as Niagara Falls. After looking at the falls from the observatory deck, i was filled with enthusiasm to see more. Our next trip is Maid of the Mist, a boat journey which takes us near the falls. This service is running since 1846 and on an average 2 millions people visit falls in an year. We took the elevator from the observatory deck and went down 200 feet. We were given rain coats to cover ourself to avoid getting drenched. There are two services of boat operating one from the american side and other from the cannada side. We were able to clearly see the buildings and the sky scrapper in that country. Our boat was approaching the first falls i.e. American Falls. When we reached the falls, I never in my life had seen such nature's beauty. The falls were so fierce that it was generating the mist everywhere and reaching heights of 170 feets. Quite mind blowing. As we approached near the Horseshoe falls, the Father of all falls, I can't express in words the beauty of it. WOW ! What a scen man, I'm telling if you ever get a chance to visit US, please don't miss watching Niagara falls. Its lifetime experience for me and I'm gonna cherish this moment for whole life. There was so much mist near falls and we were not able to see the things properly. Well our boat took a U turn and we reached the shore. I had no intentions of getting down from the boat, but I forced myself to get down. Next part of the journey was to visit Goat Island, where we can have a clear view of the Horseshoe falls and the Bridal Veil Falls from the above.


Do you know, why the canadian falls are called as Horseshoe falls, because if you have a arial look of the falls it looks like a horsehoe.The volume of water is 600,000 US gallons per second and that of american falls is 150,000 US gallons per second. There is a hydroelectric power station which generates electricty to US and Cannada states.In history of Niagara falls, only two times water was stopped to flow. One it was in 1848 due to icejam in the river and other time in 1969 to determine the feasibility of removing the large amount of loose rock from the base of the falls to enhance it's appearance. The interesting fact about it is that there are some dare devils who jump from the falls. The first person to do this activity was a lady, c'mon believe me it was a lady and she survived the falls. It was like she was tied in a barrel and it was thrown in the water and she survived with a bruise on her hand. People are so crazy about doing such activity.


Our trip to Goat Island is to visit the Cave of Winds. A small trip where you are down near the Bridal veil falls and you are just 20 feets away from the fall! yeah just 20 feets away. I was thrilled when I heard about it. Here also we wer given the rain coats and additional we were given slippers(tight grip), so that you cannot slip. We reached down through elevator and a guide followed us towards the falls. We need to walk on the wooden bridge and approach the falls. Seeing falls from boat is a different experience and going towards falls is completely different. You know we were able to see the rainbow near the falls and it was captured in a photo also. As we went near the falls, we got completely wet and as we reached the last point of the falls. Alas ! what a view, water was pusing us backward and we tried to go near. What a experience man. Awesome. Well this was the best part of the trip. I enjoyed a lot. We came back from cave of winds and headed towards the Terrapin point. Its the point where one can have a clear view of the horsehoe falls. We took lot of snaps here and returned back to main entrance. We had some snacks there in an indian restaurant. I'm very lucky that on my every trip, I get a indian restaurant to have food. We started our return journey around 8:30 pm and reached home at 12:00 midnight. Quite tired and exhausted, but a breaht taking, memorable and distinguished experience of the trip.


Well folks, I hope you too enjoyed reading the blog, just shoot down comments and wait for my next updates on the blog.

My trip to New York

Well Folks, here I come again with some updates. Last weekend I had been to the most populous and everyone's dream city yeah.. NEW YORK. I was as usual excited about everything in US these days so was for my travel to NY. I travelled to NY on friday at 3:00 AM. Took a Greyhound bus service and reached NY around 7:00 AM. My Colleague Santosh came with me and we planned to stay at his friends place in Parson's Blvd in Jamaica. We got down at 42nd Street, it is also called as port of authority. The bus terminal here reminds me of our Imlibun Station. It is also very big and got lot number of platforms. There is Subway (Metro railways) connecting to the bus terminal. Most of the New York is connected through subway, something like Local trains of Mumbai city. I'm sure Mumbai people would love this CITY, as the same thing which I saw in mumbai, exist here also. People rushing, getting down steps to catch the train and doing all thier chore activities in train itself. Well the best part of Subway is that even a stranger can easily guide himself and reach the destination. Because the platforms are well mapped and directions are properly guided. One can see complete route maps of subway at each corner. If you know the street you can easily reach it. The New york city address mostly consists of streets and each streets are further divided into avenues. So If you have the street no and avenue no, you can easily reach to your destination.
We got down at a place called Jackson Heights, which is know for indian community with all the indian shops and cuisine restaurants. I was really hungry ;-) and that too Indian food for which I was desparate. Got into an indian restaurant and had good buffet lunch around 12:00 noon. What a way to start the journey. Next we reached 34th Street (Penn Station), the place where the world's 20th Century tallest building is situated. Yeah you guys guessed right, I was referring to EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. I saw the photos of ESB with my DAD. And now I will be taking his place. Well to tell you some facts about ESB. It was built in year 1931. The tower was constructed in record 1 yr and 2 months with average 4000 workers per day. Quite amazing stuff. It has 102 floors. We went upto 86th floor and the scene from there was awesome, never in my life I climbed so high. Well many of the things happening with me are first time :-). We were able to view complete NY city and the sky scrapper buildings, they were reallly amazing, was wondering how people will get ideas of such tall building. I have taken good number of snaps, which I have updated on site (URL:). Our next destination was World Trade centre, took a subway and reached there. Really the twin towers which was NAGINA of NY is missing there. We also went to Wall St and other surrounding areas. We went to Battery park, took few snaps there. I couldn't go to Statue of Liberty as we went to the place late and tickets were sold. May be someother time I will plan to visit. Next we visited Brookyln and walked in the Manhattan area for a while. We were really tired and went back and took rest. The next day i.e. 04/29/06 we planned to go to Coney Island , we have a beach there and some fun rides. Before that I need to meet one of my friend (Srikanth) in Elmhurst Blvd, met him and he took us for a ride to near by places. We drive over brookyln bridge and Srikanth showed us the Science museum and Warships and Submarines also. We also saw the Rock Fellar Museum Centre from far as we were driving. The uniqueness of this museum is that other than the United Nation office, this is the place where all the Countires flag are hoisted.. We were really hungry by this time, so we had some snacks at McDonalds and moved our journey towards Coney Island.

Coney Island is small island which has a beach and some fun rides. We spent good time there, wathching people doing fishing, some playing in water and sea gulls moving here and there. From Coney Island, we came back to friend's place and collected our bag as we have to catch our Syracuse bus. We got down at 42nd street and went to Times Square around 8:30 pm. This was the best part of the trip as everyone says, when you visit NY you have to go to Times Square at night. Wow ! what a place man, the streets are completely lighten with diffrent kinds of lights, animation and advertising. I really liked it very much, as they New York is the best entertainment place. It lives to it's name. Took LOT of snaps and had some snacks again at McDonalds and moved towards Bus Station.

Well that end my trip of NY, it was one of the memorable trips and cherished one in my life. There are few disappoints also that I could not cover few places like Statue of Liberty, Madam Tausauds Centre, New Jersey and Empire State Building at night. Well I may plan to visit again sometime during JUNE. I will try to cover them at that time. Well Folks, hope you must have enjoyed reading the Blog. Please post your comments about it.

Guru