Niagara Falls : one of the wonders of the world!

I first visited Niagara Falls back in 1987. I came to visit my brother's family in Vermont. My brother drove us to Niagara. It was a long drive. We stopped at Ottawa on our way to the Canadian side falls. I remember vividly the horse shoe shaped falls... roaring .... pouring down! We also looked at the falls from Skylon. Water everywhere. While watching these falls it reminded me of my childhood visit to Dhuvan Dhaar water falls near Jabalpur, India.





Almost 20 years later I got to see the falls again last year when I was visiting my youngest daughter in Easton, Pennsylvania. This time it was a different experience. The falls have not changed much, but this time I got to go with my grandchildren. That is something special. This time we visited the American side of the falls. We all went on the maid of the mist. It is simply superb. It takes you so close to the falls .... the feeling is simply amazing ... no words can describe this feeling. My children and grand kids enjoyed this tour too. In fact my youngest grandchild just turned a year old when she went on this tour. She was very brave (her mom too)! all of us were completely drenched in our blue rain coats. Once we got back from the "maid of the mist" we went climbing up some stairs which took us qite close to the falls. We were all exhausted after this climb. Then we went food hunting and were lucky to find a punjabi dhaba. The food reminded me of home. It was quite tasty. That evening we went back to see the falls in all it's glory and color. We got to see the falls in all different colors like red, yellow, green and so on ..... My grandchildren and I were delighted by these colors. After that we returned to the room.



Next day we stayed on the American side and started taking a lot of pictures of the waterfalls and all of a sudden a huge rainbow appeared right in front of the falls. It was simply spectacular and I took a lot of pictures. Then I saw the "maid of the mist" boat passing through the rainbow. I took a picture of that too. Next we went to the cavefalls where you get to hike all the way very close to the falls. It's quite slippery there. Initially I was a bit hesitant to go too close to the falls, but my husband forced me and I did go to the nearest point. It was very thrilling under the falls. I was the last one to come out of the falls. Niagara is one of those places, no matter how many times you visit it always looks beautiful and breathtaking.

Kabini National Park, Mysore, India

Kabini is named after a river in Mysore. It is a forest resort about 80 kilometers from Mysore. We started from Bangalore around 8.00 a.m. in the morning. It took us two and half hours to get there. As we approached Kabini we saw lot of greenery any where we looked. Rooms are spacious and comfortable with no outside disturbance of any sort since there was no television or telephone in the room. We are not supposed to wear bright colored dresses and perfume. We were given steaming hot coffee and cookies as soon as we arrived. That was the only food served in the room. For all the other meals all the guests had to gather in a dining area called "Gol Ghar" where we were served our meals. The food was simply delicious and was more like home made.





By 2 p.m. we got ready for our safari ride. we went in an open jeep. It was a thrilling but at the same time kind of scary as the jeep was completely open on all sides and there were lot of wild animals in the jungle. While on the tour the first animal we got to see was Bison, followed by deer, some peacocks, monkeys, elephants and many more. In fact one of the elephants came charging towards our jeep. The driver just stopped the vehicle and waited. It then went away to its family. It was bit unnerving. After the safari we headed to Gol Ghar where our dinner was served around a camp fire. It was warm and cozy.





The next morning we went on a coracle ride in the Kabini river. There were not too many animals near the river. The tour guide said in summer the river is flocked by all kinds of animals, especially tigers, cheetahs and other wild animals. The ride was short but fun.

My Trip to Malaysia

Last summer I went to visit my daughter's family in Johar Baru, Malaysia. This was my first visit to Malaysia. During this trip I had been to different places like Theoman Islands, Malaka Port, Twin Towers to name a few. Of all the places I visited the one I enjoyed the most was Tioman Islands. We had to take a ferry from Mercing to Tioman Islands. It took us an hour and a half to get there. We stayed there in a beautiful cottage and got to taste authentic Malaysian food (It was steaming hot). We went on a steamer and it took us to the middle of the ocean. There you could snorkle and my daughter and my grandchild got to see corals and colorful fish and she said it was very colorful. I was kind of scared to try that. My husband and I went for long walks along the beach. It was so peaceful and serene. The view was breathtaking.