Niagara Falls and Toronto

My “Romantic” trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto

Me @ the Falls
On an absolutely sunny day on 4th May, Jeremy and I set off for Niagara Falls. YQ shared the cab ride with us and was supposed to see us (to collect $$)before we left but we didn’t tell him the gate number so tata!
We flew to Buffalo first. It is supposedly the nearest we could get to the Falls by air. Buffalo City reminds me of Durham…just buildings, industries etcetc. A very familiar sight indeed… The greyhound brought us to Niagara Falls Ontario. It was kinda funny when I went to buy tickets and on Jeremy’s ticket was printed: “Mr Tan”. Did the ticket vendor think he was my husband/brother/or what?

Green or not?
The Falls were absolutely breathtaking!!! The water is emerald green because of the refraction and it’s depth. The Falls on the Canadian side is bigger and horseshoe shaped while the Falls on the American Side is well-um… straight. The force of the water is so great that it is perpetually “raining” on the Canadian side near the falls. Of course, the amount of water going over the Falls can be controlled by a dam that also diverts water away to a subsidiary river.

It's kinda wet over here...

Description of Niagara Falls, Ontario: Very touristy. Many hotels lining the prime Fallsview area and Lundy’s Lane (much further in). Three towers, all for sight-seeing. Not much industrial or commercial activity here due to the prevalence of tourism. Clifton Hill is a glitzy place filled with haunted houses, mini towers, Guiness Records and places to eat.

Clifton Hill


We spent 3 nights at Days Inn near the Falls. It felt great being within a 5 min walk from the falls and Jeremy and I would drop by there at different times of the day to get a variety of photo shots and different perspectives.

1st Day: After admiring the Falls, we set off to find the casino via this very long way. We entered it via the carpark in the end. It was quite stupid cuz we actually walked right past the main entrance without knowing! Anyway, the security scrutinized Jeremy’s passport for a long while before letting us in (the legal alcohol drinking and gambling age is 19. YAY). Casino Niagara is just like a typical Las Vegas Casino, only stripped to its bare essentials. Las Vegas Casinos are designed around themes but not this one. Did you really think we went there to gamble? Ha! Actually not. We were there to exchange money and the casino gave the best rate in the entire region. Dinner at TGIF…burgers…and….ALCOHOL! That giant mudslide drink had Hershey’s chocolate, Rum, Baileys and Kahlua – all my favorite drinks (note that I like sweet alcohol only). Since I was unwilling to get drunk, I keep telling Jeremy to drink…I might have gotten a bit tipsy cuz I was feeling very tired but quite happy. *luffs* When we got back to the room, I kinda fell asleep though I did wake up to see segments of this talk show featuring this old woman who talks about sex. Obviously Jeremy was very amused and continued watching. HHEHEHEHE


View of all falls


2nd Day: Man! We walked about 6km the whole day. Who ask us to underestimate the distance walked? We started off by going to the Skylon Tower and seeing the Falls from higher ground…even got a night ticket to visit again to see the lights.

At the top of Skylon Tower

Then we proceeded to much lower ground on the “Maid of the Mist” ride into the Falls. It was a very very wet ride into the Horseshoe Falls and Jeremy became very snap-happy on his 4 Megapixel camera.

On the cruise into the Falls

We decided to walk to the whirlpool and flower clock that was down the river. Trudge trudge trudge. The scenery was very relaxing. The sides of the river (gorge) was lined with Bread and Breakfast houses and very quaint little detached houses. We saw the original site of the Falls in 1600BC. Apparently, the river eroded away so much in the next 3500 years. The rapids were really scary since the water was virtually hurtling through the gorge.

At the rapids

We read of daredevils who went down the Canadian Falls in barrels or even some who attempted to swim down the river. There were also tight-rope walkers who walked across the gorge and one even fried an egg when he was performing! Later, we saw the whirlpool (not functioning) and the Spanish Aero(cable) car that stopped due to strong winds. Wah I tell you, walking like that can make me peng sang. But it was done at an extremely relaxing pace.

Spanish Aerocar and Whirlpool

At dusk, the Falls were lit up with multicolored lights and it was all so tranquil. I was really glad to stay on the Canadian side of the Falls because both Falls actually face the Ontario side. We walked up and down the posh hotels area and there was really nothing much to see…plus the weather was quite cold and windy.
COUPONS – don’t ever forget these when you’re traveling. You save lots. We were coupon maniacs manz….and always were asking for student rates *flashes ISIC*.

Niagara by night

3rd Day: We visited the American side of the Falls, crossing via Rainbow Bridge and explored the islands and looked over the American and Bridal Veil Falls.

View from the American Side

There was this gorge adventure thing where the life went down 120 ft so we could get closer to the Falls and I was super suey man! A 2#$!#!@# seagull shit on my head. I mean it couldn’t have happened at a worse time! I had JUST removed my hoodie and *splat*. Luckily Jeremy helped me clean it up, while I was visibly distressed. UGH. OK I accept that a person should get birdshit on his/her head at least once a lifetime. Anyway so far most of my friends have kena it before. Next time should go buy 4D.

The Great Gorge Adventure

Since there was not much else to explore, we tried to walk around the town. Pathetic man…nothing to see. The shopping centre was CLOSED! Rather disappointed, we went back to the Canada side, but not after grabbing free cookies and drinks at a Casino nearby (but we couldn’t enter!). BUT…we entered Casino Niagara again to exchange money and even played nickel jackpot. My favorite man! Two of us kinda shared $5 and it entertained us for about 15 min. I was quite lucky cuz I got back all my money in the end. I was kinda worried when I was only left with $2 credit but suddenly I struck something! HEHEE….We spent the night walking to Lundy’s Lane and had dinner there. There was a Canada One factory outlet there but nothing much to buy. I think we walked at least 4km that day.

4th Day: Set off for Toronto on the greyhound! FINALLY… A REAL CITY! Amazing skyline, great Chinatown, vibrance, food! This time not so comfortable. We stayed in a college hotel which functions as a dorm when Ryerson University is open. Being 1.83m tall, Jeremy had to sleep diagonally on the very short bed. Nevertheless, it’s located in the heart of the city. Only blocks away from the bus station and city center! Of course our very first visit was to CHINATOWN! There are actually 5 Chinatowns in Toronto but we only visited the main one. Our first destination was the CN tower.

CN tower

It reaches 500m at least and is the tallest standing structure in the world but we didn’t get to go to the observation tower on the very top.=(. The best part of the tower ride was lying on the glass floor, looking at the ground 300m below in full view! It was extremely scary I must say and the person helping us take the photograph kept asking us to move backwards (we were already lying on the floor)!

Separated from the ground by a piece of glass

To our horror, a little kid jumped on the glass…but it didn’t break lah…it’s supposed to stand the weight of 1000 hippos. Later on, we tried to get tickets for a Broadway show but it was booked for the next 2 weeks! Humph…certainly watching Broadway is cheaper in Toronto but there aren’t as many shows to watch…NYC is still the best for that! We spent the rest of the evening and night in Eaton Centre, a really huge (finally!) shopping mall and walking up and down Younge St (it’s a shopping area but all shops are shophouses). Late at night we went around looking for gays at Church St but I think we were on the wrong street lah, saw nothing. It was quite funny though, cuz every time we saw 2 males walking together we’d instantly presume they were gay. Jeremy was very amused by the great number of straight and gay strip clubs along the street. I bet you he was interested in going in if I weren’t with him… Oh yah…the weather was absolutely GOOD…20C in the day and about 10C that night. Ideal…

5th Day: IT WAS RAINING! Jeremy and I didn’t feel like waking up….practically lazed around till 1030 and still lazed around somemore after breakfast. It was a coldcold blustery day. We took the subway to Casa Loma. It’s this castle that was built in the 1900s by a rich guy who went bankrupt when his shares were deemed worthless. The castle is in the prime location of Toronto and architecturally stunning.

Casa Loma


Jeremy in 360 degrees shower

Jeremy and I spent lotsa time ogling at beautiful bedrooms, nice big toilets and secret passages in the study room. We walked down Spadina Ave (yeah baby, another 6km for the day), explored a shopping area called the Annex, Kensington Market etcetc. Not much life on a Saturday I must say but significantly more than dearest Durham. I remember being so cold that I had to go into a nearby bookstore to browse for a while. Jeremy found this book on good and cheap food in Toronto. Contrary to what the book was about, we splurged on a meal in an expensive Chinese restaurant. It was totally worth it though…the food was SO GOOD! We tried to go to the mall later, but disappointingly, it was closed=(. We spent the time hanging around and checking out U of Toronto’s campus instead. It’s pleasant but not spacious…nothing like Duke though Toronto is possibly one of the best places to school at…minus the chilly weather!

6th day: ANOTHER CLOUDY DAY so we occupied ourselves with books till 12 noon.

Terribly cold day

Our original plan was to go to Toronto Island but it was too cold for recreational activity of any sort. We walked a bit through the city centre’s impressive underground shopping that was of course, closed. I remember occupying myself in Eaton Centre, bought an OP top for $12 CAD. Not a bad deal at all! Jeremy buey tahan, went to hide in the Indigo bookshop and was reading about Food again.That night, we had dinner at a Vietnamese place that sold really good Beef noodles. Or rather, Beef TRIPE noodles…certainly better than Singapore’s chain of Beef noodles. Very very tasty soup. I was wondering why this place had a bar (?). Who eats Beef noodles with alcohol??!!

7th day: Toronto Island! Something like Sentosa but much less touristy. It’s like a park away from the city centre…something like NYC’s Central Park. Lotsa jogging tracks etc. Jeremy and I explored the East side of the island…I think it was another 6km day again. We walked through a farm (and fed ponies) and sat on the swings (man, it’s been a long time since I did that!)

Swee San feeding pony

Anyway, Jeremy particularly wanted to visit the “clothing optional beach” to see if there were any hot babes nude sunbathing but to his EXTREME disappointing there were only OLD MEN suntanning nude. ERGH….so gross, I didn’t even wanna look at them. There was a particular man suntanning with his legs wide open…dunno want to tan a certain part of his body for what…siao…

Clothing optional sign

We reached the East point of the island only to find out that the ferry didn’t’ leave till 2h later and the next ferry from the Central island was coming in 45 min. The very nice Jeremy suddenly turned into a slave-driver…wah walk so quickly that I cannot breathe properly. Aiyah I’m jus grumbling lah…cuz I’m not fit enough. Luckily he was carrying my bag so it wasn’t too bad. We reached the ferry with 5 min to spare (and for me to catch my breath). Dinner was at a Swatow “restaurant”, cheap and tasty.

8th day: Long journey back to Buffalo to catch our flight. It was a pleasant, leisurely trip and a well-deserved break in between Spring semester and Summer term.

Well I’m in the middle of summer school now. I must tell you that moving your stuff from dorm to storage and dorm to another dorm is possibly the most tiring thing to do ever!
And I should really put up photographs…wait till I have the time!