The Niagara Falls consists of three falls side by side. On the left side of the picture is the American Falls. Towards the middle, the little strip of falling water is called the Bridal Veil Falls. Towards the Canadian Side of the river is the impressive Horseshoe Falls.

It is possible to do a day trip to the Niagara Falls from New York as it is only about 4 hours drive away. We opted to take a coach tour from New York's Chinatown(where you get really good value for money from Golden Horse International Tours Inc.). The tour to the Niagara, including a stop at the Corning Glass Center and a night's stay at the Buffalo Hilton Hotel, costs us slightly more than a hundred US dollars each. This includes the transportation and hotel but does not include food, entrance fees or tips.

Most meal stops were made at Burger King outlets. If you are taking the coach tour, you will do well to keep some food with you in case you get hungry at night. By the time we reached the hotel, most of us were too tired to go out again to hunt for food, and anyway, most of the shops in Buffalo were closed by then. Still, it is possible to eat in the Buffalo Hilton's restaurant, that is if you are not put off by the horrendous prices for the simple fare on their menu. At the Niagara Falls, there are quite a number of places to eat(fast food joints, cafes) including a T.G.I.Friday's outlet(if you have the time for a sit down meal). Or you can walk over to Canada to eat, like we did. Interestingly enough, there are also a number of factory outlets near the Falls.

On the coach tour, we stopped by at the Corning Glass factory. Of couse there was the usual glass blowing demonstration and the tour to see various glass products. I was intriqued to see a glass spring. There are also some bargain items of Corningware at the factory.

Rainbow, rainbow everywhere. Here I am, wondering if there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

There was a bridge across the river at some point below the Falls. We walked over the bridge to the Canadian side. It was a good thing we had our passports with us. Browsing through the shops in Canada, we could not help noticing that prices were higher in Canada than in U.S. , even after allowing for currency conversion.

The Perpetual Rainbow Here, we are standing on American soil(Goat Island). In the background just across the river is Canada. Tourists who brought along their passports may be able to walk across by bridge to the Canadian side, which was what we did.(Malaysian passport holders do not need a visa for this) Also, you need loose change for the turnstile on the Canadian side($2 , I think).

Shopping at the Niagara Falls at the many factory outlets there can be quite an experience. There are not as many outlets as Barstow or Woodbury though. You woulndn't think that we would go there to shop, but shop we did. Bargains can be found here although the only things I bought were socks. Socks? Yeah, I needed them at that time. We did see some China-made stuff in the factory outlets, which was strange as we expected to see only U.S.-made products in factory outlets.