Day 3 Toronto: Niagara Falls

Joined the Moose Travel Network to Niagara Falls (Cost CAD$50 for a whole day trip at Niagara Falls) today together with a new Korean acquitance, Sung Gu Park, 35 years old, Teaches English to kids in South Korea and is currently travelling around to improve his English speaking skills. He told me that many English educated Korean are able to write well but not speak well unless they are rich and went to the Ivy league equivalent of English school in Korea else they got to learn it the hard way. Sung went through the hard way as evident by the way he speak English but its not a problem at all, I got funny English too with the make-up Texas Accent mumbo jumboed with Singlish sometimes.

Bilateral relationship of South Korea and Singapore

Headed for Niagara Falls in a small little bus with 2 Scottish aunty, 2 Swiss, 2 English man from Manchester and Newcastle (hmm...), an Australian and a Brazilian lady on her first oversea trip. Now I was expecting Niagara Falls to be totally Natural and was surprise to see the kind of Concrete Jungle that have thrived around this Natural wonders all for the simple reason of tourist revenues. The area is totally raped by Sheraton Hotel, Niagara Casino, Marvel Adventure Center, Starbucks, KFC, TACO Bell, KFC, Lots of gift shop... , if the Waterfall is not even here, it look just like another city. Thank goodness the two water falls itself is left untouched and the view is the most awesome stuff I ever come across in my life. In fact I never seen a Natural Waterfall right in front of my eyes in my 25 years of life and the sight of one of the great natural wonder of the world simply overwhelmed me! Especially the sight of a full arch rainbow beaming from one end of the Waterfall to another. The rainbow really looks like it pop out of the water. First time I see the end of the rainbow otherwise usually seeing it popping out of the roof of HDB flats . Picture speaks a thousand words...

The Concrete Jungle...

The Big "Horse Shoe" waterfall...

And the small brother water fall just down stream from it.

Nevermind about dwelling into how Niagara Falls was created which can be easily obtained from the Internet by Googling or Wikipediaing. But here is some interesting notes I learn about the Falls,

1- The water way is the Natural border between Canada and United States.

2- The full view is fabulous from the Canadian Side rather than the American side, so American drive over the Rainbow bridge to Canada just to get the great view from their neighbours windows.

Not always rosy for the Americans, so a Rainbow Bridge for the Yankees to come over to Canada for a good view of something so close to them yet so far.

3- Rainbow bridge is named for the Rainbow that arches from one end of Niagara Fall to Another.

Rainbow popping out of the ocean like some kinda Magic!!!

And Arches across the sky!!!

Dipping within distance of facinated Homo Sapiens...

4- There are many people who attempt to challege mother nature by diving into the Niagara Falls. Some survive while most was never found again. A man challenged the English channel and sucessfully swam from England to France Normandy coast, the man tries to swim across Niagara Fall, the man was never found again. A kid fell into the water while fishing upstream, got swept downstream, down the waterfall and survived in his life vest. And today, someone got so mesmerized by the sight that he decided to bungee but miss the water by inches...




So realise that they got a "High Angle River Team" specialized in conducting rescue of fallen people or the salvage of dead bodies at the bottom of the cliff. Even with the Danger signs going around, there are some who just wanted to enter the extinction list sitting on the railings.

4- There seems to be a half hearted bridge building effort in the past...

Guess the budget ran out and the end got seal up to become a observer tower for the Small Brother waterfall. What a shame that it started from the American side... not a good symbol of power.

If you are at the Niagara Falls, be sure to see the best of both world...the Day and the Night... Every night, there will be different colors spotlight shining on the waterfall and every Sunday is firework day. I did not catch the firework but got some night scene pictures to share before ending my blog entry for the day...






This is Riccardo, reporting LIVE from the Canadiana Backpacker Hostel....

Bilateral relatioship of Brazil and Singapore