Buffalo: The City of Good Vibes and Great Food

When people go to New York, they're usually in awe of the city that never sleeps. Times Square, Broadway, Manhattan, night clubs, top fashion houses, massive skyscrapers, jam packed streets and the richness of the city is mind-blowing. However, for those who prefer a relaxed vacation with spectacular views, free music concerts, festivals, parades, art and more, Buffalo is the place to visit.

An 8 hour drive from New York city is Buffalo, a small city with relatively few people. The drive to Buffalo is silken smooth with lush green fields on either side.

Sunrise en route to Buffalo

View from the bus.

It's one of those off-beat places that no one would expect to find just a bus away from Times Square. Tourists who arrive at Buffalo are usually there because it's the closest airport and bus stop to Niagara Falls. Over-shadowed by the Niagara Falls majesticity, a lot of people overlook Buffalo's gorgeous surroundings.

We happened to come across this place by chance. I traveled from India to the US for the first time, while my girlfriend traveled from Denmark to the US. We had absolutely no plan in mind, all we wanted to do was backpack and explore America. People told us that we were crazy to try backpacking in the US because everything had to be booked online and well in advance. We didn't have talk time balance or internet on our phone but we hit the road anyway. All we had with us were rucksacks along with our tent and sleeping bags. We decided to go to Niagara Falls and had a fantastic time there. However, we needed a place for the night, so we took a bus to Buffalo and then walked to the camping ground. This is how we landed up at Buffalo and I knew then, that it was a good decision. :)

This tiny little city has everything you need; Pristine surroundings, amazing nature, fantastic food, intriguing architecture, great night life but most of all, some of the friendliest folk you may ever encounter.

Surrounding Buffalo are the towns of Tonawanda, North Tonawanda, Amherst and Kenmore which were Native American territory and now consist of small unique home grown stores, plenty of resto-bars, one dollar stores, beautiful houses and lush green lawns.

The smaller stores in town are usually run by a few locals who somehow manage to bring about their unique vibe and creativity to it. This for me is absolutely amazing because every store is contrasting from each other and yet they manage to harmonise perfectly with the surroundings. Most store owners design their own products, renovate their store to their own tastes and add a personal touch to them, which is something you do not find too often in a big city. Every store specialises in unique items ranging from crystals to home-made scented candles, soaps of varied fragrances, art, biker gear, hipster clothing, antiques and so on. It's magical to say the least. The locals love their art and music and do not hesitate to block off main roads for music and art shows.

Super moon at Tonawanda.

Streets of love.

The people we met along the way were extremely friendly. We were walking down a highway with our backpacks when a complete stranger (Mike) offered us a lift in his car, drove us around town, invited us over for dinner, introduced us to a lot of his friends and we ended up staying at his place for the rest of our trip.

Mike and his dog Jackson (Not a stranger anymore).

Scott; randomly met him in a bus, showed us around, invited us over for lobsters to his place! :) Introduced us to varieties of exotic cheeses and stuffed our bags with brand new clothes before sending us on our way.

Scott and his shadow.

An elderly lady running an art shop gifted me a bottle of honey from her son's bee farm.

Another guy loading a massive truck with bread threw us a loaf when we waved out to him.

A group of people we met at a bar made us try different varieties of local beer and refused to let us pay for it.

A group of campers who were fascinated by us backpacking their country, loaded our bags with beer and pretzels.

A lady from a store called Hip Gypsy in North Tonawanda gave me a whole lot of discount coupons because I mentioned that I needed to buy fabric dye.

And just like that, the one line that crosses my mind is "I get by with a little help from my friends" - The Beatles.

In terms of hospitality, Buffalo tops my list. When we shared our adventures with people in New York and back home, they were shocked because they felt that we put ourselves in danger by talking and hanging out with strangers.

Buffalo is paradise for food lovers. With a massive variety of mouth-watering delicacies from world over, there are restaurants for almost every type of food available in the USA. Food festivals are not uncommon. I got to attend an annual food-festival called "The Taste of Buffalo" which is a two day event with plenty of food stalls from restaurants in and around the city. If you're short of cash, it is okay because there is no lack of free food samples, games and live music performances.

The hot-dogs in Buffalo are the best I have ever tasted. I have been to Coney Island and hogged on their world-famous hot-dogs at Nathan's, but even that did not compare to the $2 street dogs at Buffalo.

However, the dish that did it for me were the chicken wings. These wings are knows as Buffalo wings around the world because they originate from this place. A restaurant called Duffs is arguably considered to be the restaurant that invented chicken wings.

Couldn't resist eating them before clicking the snap.

Art is everywhere. Buffalo is an artist's paradise and the one place I missed going to is the sculpture park. However, the streets and gardens in Buffalo are filled with various kinds of artwork.

Massive tree root with glass reflectors.

I don't know what this is but it's super cool.

We never for once felt out of place. The vibe of the area and people opened us up to others.
If you happen to be a nature, food or art lover, Buffalo is a dream city. In fact we left for New York and New Jersey after our initial trip to Buffalo, but the city with all its charm drew me back in less than a week.

Still waters run deep.

The Hampi Side of Life

Imagine walking through lush green paddy fields, living in a shack beneath a coconut grove that faces incredible rock formations and just chilling out without a care in the world.

Welcome to the other side of Hampi (Karnataka, India); A land of peace, music, adventure, freedom and nature.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. - William Shakespeare

Nature always wears the colours of the spirit. - Ralph Emerson

If you think that this is heaven, you have seen nothing yet because, the next image is that of the shacks right in the midst of a coconut grove. That's where we stayed. The photograph was taken while we were rock climbing.

View from the rocks.

On the rocks.

The view from the ground was not bad either. The shacks we stayed at reminded us of Goa. They were comfortable, very reasonably priced and had an amazing vibe to it. It was such a feel-good place that getting out of there was a task.

Hammocks!! a laid back life.

It's places like this which slow down time.

Hampi is known for its temples, rocks and ancient structures of the lost days. According to Indian mythology, the monkey God, Hanuman was born in Hampi and the structures were from his time.

The Queen's Bath.

View of the outside world from inside the Queen's Bath.

These structures have the entire Ramayan mythology depicted on its walls.

The temple elephant is apparently over 100 years old.

Hampi is divided into two parts by a small stream. One side of the stream contains most of the temples. While the other side is a relaxed land filled with tourists from across the globe. The easiest way to cross over is by boat which is what we did. The second side of the river is actually known as "The other side of Hampi" even in the addresses of the shacks there.

The boat ride.

The journey to the other side.

Relaxing at a small pond got us experimenting with water reflections of structures overlooking the water and we loved the outcome. It's not always how well an image is captured, it's how differently it is.

At the pond.

Sketching in water.

A real water painting?

Ripples in clear water.

This inspired a friend of mine to pose everywhere she went and we ended up creating a portfolio.

It was our first time at Hampi and we performed a music gig there. There is a tiny shop containing the widest collection of musical instruments I have ever seen. Instruments were from different parts of  the world including Africa, South America, Australia, India, Sri Lanka and more. You can jam there and take the instruments to your shack for free and drop it off the next day.

The African jambees, thunder drums, rattlers, shakers and more.

Diggeridoos on the ceiling. They are Aboriginal wind instruments.

After jamming with the store owner, he asked us to play a gig for the opening ceremony of a new resort a few kilometers away. He arranged for a tempo traveller and off we went playing music at the back of the vehicle through the dirt roads while picking up random people on the way.

Travel Jammin'.

View from the tempo.

On the road again.

Girls contemplating jumping in.

The relaxing restaurants have great food. Mostly European and Middle Eastern. The shacks are laid back and the waiters do not bother you until you call for them. Most shacks have interesting psychedelic artwork to keep you company.

Chilling at a shack.

We came across wannabe Sadhus(preachers) who earn their living by posing for pictures with tourists and collecting money from them after that.

The part which I missed out capturing on camera is the night music sessions at the shacks where random people come together, create music and have an amazing time. People join in if they want to and some just relax and enjoy the music. We were a part of the music scene that night and loved every moment of it. It was beautiful to see so many unknown people of different ethnic groups and countries bonding over music. It was a powerful experience which made us realise that differences are socially created and we're all one. It was at that moment when we were all engrossed in the music that we forgot about our cameras and mobile phones and thoroughly enjoyed the moment.

Who wants gadgets in a place like this anyway?