A weekend never to forget

And more importantly a passport never to forget. Though that forgetfulness is what made me a "blogger" - of course this is my first blog, ever. And a friend of mine who calls herself "Raven", her blog and a pretty please.

Well, a trip to Niagara, no Indian's soul will be in rest if he hasn't visited the falls after being in the US. A 6 hr drive from NJ took us to Amherst and 6 hours sounds long, it definitely is too, especially when you start your trip at 8 in the evening and load a van with stuff and people.

Fun began the next day, a cloudy saturday and a half hour ride from the place where we stayed should have taken us to the Niagara. Well, there was a GPS and a good one too, marked the destination as Niagara falls and I started driving the van.

There was a sign board stating American falls on the left side, I didn't bother as I wanted to see "Niagara" and not the American falls and my GPS was showing the right direction. I drove through the city and at a corner on the left a sign said "Parking" while my trustworthy GPS pointed me to go to the right where a sign said "Niagara".

Turn right, lo & behold, we were right into a booth of Canada customs.


Officer: Can I see your papers, sir?
Me: No, I don't have any
Officer: Can I see your passport?
Me: No, I don't have any
Officer: Can I see your identification?
Me: Yeah. Here it is. Sorry I took a wrong turn, I shouldn't be here but here I am.

So it went.... We were ushered into the customs office, met an official and he politely gave us some papers and sent us back to the US side.

Crossing the bridge, we did get a glimpse of the Canadian side view of the falls. It wasn't too very appealing then.

Enter into the US side, the routine followed. The officer collected all our ids and then gave me a chit of paper and said "Go right over there, park your vehicle in between the red car & the silver one. Walk up to that building and meet the Immigrations officer".

I thought "Wow! That's simple." And simple it was. Only when we walked up there, we saw some 100 people waiting there for different things, getting a visa to get into the US or trying to exchange money to USD.

After it seemed like an ice age, one officer came and shouted my name and said "You, and the whole battalion follow me". I wish the Americans learn some politeness from their neighbours, the officer started questioning us the usual stuff, me being the scape goat (or being responsible because I was the fateful driver at that time or just being responsible) answered all his questions. He said "Without a valid permit I can't let you in to the country, I can put you in jail until your permits are validated". I was being cool, as somehow I thought they never can or will do that.

My mom was constantly reminding me that if not for my stupid mistake (though, honestly I think all the other 6 also were stupid enough) we would happily be spending our time site seeing.
After Ice age 2: the meltdown, the officer again came out and then pointed out to 2 of my friends and my mom and told us that he couldn't get the details for these 3. We again went up to him so that three of them could give their finger prints to get a match and thus the details which worked.

Finally he sent us out but not without saying "Now you know, you need to have your passport with I-94 always with you". Yeah, right.

PS: After we returned, a friend of one of my friends did say that they were held for 7 days for a wrong turn into Canada. Ok, lets try Mexico next. Hola Mexico, yo soy próximo!