My Fluffy Pillows

Don't be mistaken. That was how our tour guide pronounced Niagara Falls. My boyfriend was slightly better, he calls it Ni-ah-ga-ra Falls. Haha. It should be Nai-air-gra i suppose :P

Being the cheapskates on a tight budget, we booked the cheapest tour we could possibly find and wound up with the Chinatown tour pack. No, I'm not being insulting to label them as such, but the agency was literally named Chinatown tours. You've been warned.

Most of the guides managing the tours spoke survival English, meaning they only know enough English to sustain life in the US. I am not being mean, just plain honest because the non-Chinese people on board did have difficulty conversing with our guide. It was both amusing and frustrating at the same time, trying to make out what he was trying to tell us when we were on board.

For example, he informed that we would be staying at the 'Four-sai-in', to which I gave the what-the-hell-is-he-trying-to-say-now expression for the umpteen time during the trip. We were spending the night at the Fall Side Inn.

Anyway we arrived at the falls and then it started to rain.

Then the both of us were like 'So sway! We came all the way to see the waterfall and it's raining?'


Almost drenched within 5 minutes upon arrival.



Then the bimbotic couple realised that it wasn't raining, but the wind was bellowing the fall's mist into our direction.


I can't see no shit waterfall cause the mist is blocking everything.



Anyway, I learnt on that day that the Niagara Falls was actually made up of 3 seperate waterfalls - Horseshoe Falls, Bridal Viel Falls and the America Falls.



The America Falls during the day.




The America Falls at night with light displays and a shutter adjusted appature to make the waters look smooth.



The next morning, we decided to go on the Cave of the Winds tour for a closer look of the falls.


We arrived at the foot of the falls after an elevtor ride down and made our way along the seemingly haphazard construction of wooden walkways.




The yellow raincoat and sandles were provided for the tours which you can choose to keep or recycle.




As close as it gets.



Then we headed down for the Maid of the Mist tour, a ferry ride to allow as a full view of the falls. It is impossible to get a proper view of the falls on the America side. The Canadian border will provide the full panoramic view instead.


A fellow ferry making a u-turn back towards the dock.



On board the ferry, someone offered to help us take a photo with the Horseshoe Falls as backdrop.


I really appreciate the kind gesture, but we were bolcking the bloody waterfall!

I present to you my Lardy POS sister.

The following is her attempt to capture a family photo during our decent in a glass elevator.


Failed attempt 1: Her ugly face was obscured.




Failed attempt 2: Her fat face was huge and whole but my mum's face was blocked.




Failed attempt 3: Mum's face is clearly visible but she left out mine and her own.




Failed attempt 4: She barely managed to capture my beautiful eyes and lost one of her eye.




Final failed attempt: At least the crest of my head was inside.



After our elevator ride, I showed her what being 'pro' meant and using the self-timer function of her phone, I did this.


An almost perfect shot, with our heads and shoulders knees without the toes.



On a different note altogether, I thought that this little piece of embriodary added a really exquisite touch to the table setting.


The lazy susan, nicely decorated.



And yes, that spining thing on the table of resturants has a name, literally.

We were along One Fullerton and he was trying to take a night shot of the Merlion regurgitating water into the river.

What started off as a light drizzle got heavier and we decided to leave the place.

Then I saw them; hands clasped in front of their chests with their eyes closed and heads slightly bowed. They were praying, to this!


Mini Merlion with his nemesis The Merlion at his back.



Stunned and amused, I went "Faster! Take a photo of them praying! It's a priceless shot!"

Too late, they saw us literally gawking at them with out mouths slightly open and moved off awkwardly from the 'alter'.

All I have to do is kneel down and kowtow to this statue in full view of the afternoon crowd and I won't be surprised to find joss sticks, candles and fruits placed on the ground by some aspiring 'entrepreneur' the next day.

Or they can do the thing whereby you 'bath' the deity with scopes of water scattered with flowers and light water candles.

PS: This post is not meant to show disrespect to religion of any sort. I am just making fun of the family of tourist, who are most probably from Taiwan (according to their accent).

PS again: Is the Merlion male or female? It's quite difficult to, ahem, see :P
Anyway, I am thinking it's asexual, seriously.

The signature Hershey's chocolate store at Times Square turned out looking less impressive than what I saw in Project Runway. In that episode, the contestants had to pick up the store's merchandise to design costumes for their muse. The floor area was much smaller than how it looked like on tv.


How a Hershey's construction worker looks like.




How a Hershey's chocoholic looks like.



Btw the rectangular package on his left arm is a real block of chocolate for sale. Who will buy that? It's like bigger than the computer keyboard I am typing at right now. The syrup bottle is empty, just in case you were thinking it's filled with chocolaty goodness.

Just across the street was the M&Ms store! 3 levels of M&M madness. They had all sorts of packaging ideas for the melts-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hands candies. Besides that, you can also get M&M pillows, luggage trolleys, t-shirts and even make your own M&Ms coins. The store was so colourful it just made you happy to be there.

Anyway there were endless rows and columns of M&Ms filled with different colours and mixers for you to choose from.


The good old M&Ms with a whole lot of other unique colours not commonly found in the usual over-the-counter packs.




Special blends which are already pre-mixed.




My personal favourite is the Valentine mix. It just looks so cute.




There is even one dedicated to Indiana Jones, because M&Ms was one of the sponsors.




And a Central Park special.



Anyway, I personally think that the marketing team for M&Ms is brilliant. It's a really plain and simple product, but look at the creative ideas they are able to churn out.

Many were going gaga over the selections and were buying bags and bags of candy. But not us. Instead, we were picking up the pieces of candy from the in the trough and had our own tasting session of different coloured M&Ms. The black ones taste different :)

On our last day in the city, we were heading to Central Park when I saw Barneys! The super atas departmental store where Becky Bloomwood worked in when Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.


Just took a quick snapshot of the store front without wandering inside.



And a mere 10 minutes walk away, I saw the Plaza Hotel! Where she got married with Luke Brandon in Shopaholic Ties the Knot.

Ok, I better stop it before you guys think I am paranoid. I am not. It's just this wave of emotions you get when you finally see what you've been reading about.


The Plaza. I was able to recognise it because I googled it after reading the book :P



Just across the street stood the Apple Store I was trying to locate. I read from the papers that the architecture of the store was really impressive and was kinda looking forward to viewing the building. But like most Apple products, the hype only lasted for a while during the initial phase. It's really just a glass facade, the store is underground and it looks like any other apple store in Singapore, only bigger and filled with ang moh iphone fanatics.


That's all, really.




At Central Park trying to mimic a fairy tale pose at the spot Giselle from Enchanted had her sing-along entourage finale.

I tried to hunch in bid of emphasize the towering stance of the King Kong Building.




Sometimes, you can stand along the streets. At other times apparently, you are not allowed to.




Grand Central Station with the the Chrysler Building hovering behind.



On a random note, I always thought that the Chrysler Building looks way better than the so-much-more-famous Empire State Building. My thoughts were vindicated on our first day in NYC.


With Morgan Freeman at the entrance of the wax museum. Looks damn real, I didn't dare to stand beside him :P




With a random house along 5th Avenue which looks really pretty. Actually, all the houses along the famous street looks damn gorgeous and atas.




Times Square! The feel is totally different in daylight and at nightfall when the billboards light up.




I can't resist taking a photo at Times Square with the drain cover cause that's the gateway those people from Enchanted came in to the real world.




Ground Zero.



After this shot, I actually felt that we were quite zek ah. People died during the collapse of the twin towers and following that episode, tourist began to flock to the exact spot to take photos and gawk at the construction site.

But then, a mere 10 minutes walk later, we saw this.


New Yorkers are kinda zek ah too.




Along the Hudson River with the NYC skyline as a backdrop beneath Manhattan bridge with Brooklyn Bridge in middle ground.




One of the 4 constructed waterfalls along the cruise ride.




This has got to be the 4 most artificial waterfalls I've came across, it can't get more man-made than that. But then again, that was the intention of the artist who constructed them.

We arrived in Newark, New Jersey without any of our baggage because of some screw-up by the airline company. Our bags were placed on the following flight to NY which was slated to arrive some 6 hours later. Our only comfort is that the bags will be delivered to our hostel.

However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we won't have to lug our bags around the city or waste time checking in our bags before we tour the place.

Anyway we had to pay $15USD for a one way train ticket to Manhattan. The ride only lasted 10 minutes and I paid 15 Benjamins for it. I'd recommend anyone who is on a domestic flight within the US, on their way to NY to schedule a flight which lands at the JFK instead. The train ride from JFK to Manhattan costs only $4USD :)


I can take the MRT for more than one week after currency conversion.




Yeah, expect leather seats and all after paying for your ticket.




Our first day at NYC was done almost completely on foot.

The train arrived at Penn station, Medison Square. From there we walked over to The Empire State building and I stepped into Macy's to use the ladies room :P

Then we moved on to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building and we tried making our way to the Rockefellas.


Searching for the Rockefeller's, which we didn't manage to locate. Grrr.



From there, we made our way down to Times Square and Broadway before making our way to the pier for a cruise around the city.


Consulting our travel guide amidst the crowd at Times Square, gotta look like a tourist when you are one.



And yes, we did that on foot and only took a train to our hostel around midnight.

Pristine beaches, clear waters and an endless sea of fun seekers (pun intended). Welcome to Miami Beach!