Saturday 28 August 2010

Wet n Wild

We reckon it’s fair to assume that in the average person’s lifetime, there aren’t many occasions when you witness something truly, jaw-droppingly magnificent. But on those rare occasions when we do experience a scene that words fail to eloquently describe, 90% of the time its likely to be a Natural World experience rather than a man-made one. However, this inevitability doesn’t stop our narcissism getting the best of us and our endless pursuit to build what we think is more beautiful, on top of natures efforts …often we get it so wrong. So here we are, with a selection of the other 28 million tourists that visit the Falls each year, and were wondering why, with such a beautiful 173ft high, 3600ft wide natural spectacle dumping 202,000 cubic feet of water per second, would anyone want to construct a Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Atlantic City, NJ) amusement park in mockery of such splendour!

Alas, we had to leave the sanctity of our ‘room with a view’ and venture outside into the chaos and disorder of downtown. But before doing so, we took a boat trip on the Maid of the Mist into the belly of the Falls and got very close up, personal and wet. Being so close to the immensely powerful water and getting soaked by the violent spray was awesome (we also met a lovely girl from London who is now living in upstate New York… Hi Meera). As difficult as it is to recount the beauty of water falls, finding the right words to describe downtown Clifton Hill, Falls Avenue and the ‘car crash’ of amusement parks, karaoke bars, fast food outlets and wax work exhibits that lined their kerbs is near impossible. The wax-works were the funniest… filled with Play-Doh figures crafted by the local 5th graders that resemble no-one (the only way you could distinguish the effigies of Tiger Woods from Michael Jackson was by the lines/queues of female tourists bending down in front of said figure #1, giggling hilariously whilst having their picture taken).

Dodging tourists in the manner of walking down Oxford Street or 5th Ave btw 55th & 59th, we found a little Jewel of India, a sanctuary where we could sit down and eat authentic Indian food in a peaceful environment. Needless to say, the restaurant was ¾ empty because it didn’t sell burgers and fries, but we had a great meal, poppadams-and-all, washed down with a couple of bottles of KingFisher.

Back on the road tomorrow ...ooh nearly forgot c'mon Lewis and well done the Arse!

Us x

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