(Clarion Hotel, Ontario, Canada, on a hill next to the Falls)

I am writing this quickly because we have to leave the hotel with the tour group tomorrow at 8am. This armchair is wonderfully comfy. So is the hotel room. It has a heater that actually works, polite staff with uncomplicated accents, and an indoor pool next to to the lobby. The air is clear and crisp, the roads quiet and orderly. Though on the flip-side, it definitely lacks a certain... flavour. It is a welcome difference, nevertheless.
More cosmopolitanism in our tour group! We now identify a French couple, an Australian lady travelling alone and an elderly couple who introduce themselves as "partners". The man is Scottish, the lady Irish. I almost ask if they met online but decide against it. We are the only Asians. Our gangsta-dressing driver who is bald and leather-clad asked if we had seen the pu-pu or something and it took us some time to realise he wasn't being rude but meant pu bu (waterfall). He got into trouble at customs and was forced to drag out practically all his belongings for inspection due to an untrustworthy appearance. "I think she likes me," he says with a wink, in reference to the no-nonsense, female customs officer.

A sneak preview






The real deal!







We've seen the Niagara Falls from both sides now, traipsing about Buffalo, NY on bridges and ridges on the American end, then crossing over to Ontario for the Canadian view. We are staying in a township practically created for tourists visiting the Niagara. There are shops, chintzy fun-houses and amusement parks, and a casino. I find them all in poor taste. We were dropped off at the hotel at 8pm, starving, and walked down the street to find "grub" (as my grandfather would say) in the growing darkness. But is beautifully peaceful and cool. We spy a lame and ancient *NSYNC-and-Britney promotional Planet Hollywood billboard, and end up eating huge steak-and-shrimp dinners at our favourite affordable Denny's where the waitress seems exceptionally polite and efficient. Mum leaves big tip. By this time, there are multi-coloured lights illuminating the Falls, making them flicker from gold to mauve to blue to rainbow. The water pounds down with such incredible force a mist rises, and yet the surface below is calm, with just traces of foam.