As my profile suggests, I am more interested in exploring India because I truly believe this country has a lot more to offer than the whole world. Hence, I am not really excited to travel abroad but a short business trip took me to a relatively unknown place in Canada called Moncton. This town is in the state of New Brunswick and has a population of just over 100,000 and is about an hour and forty minutes by air away from Toronto. The town is actually a cluster of three areas called Dieppe, Riverside and Moncton itself.
It is the only other place on Earth that has a Magnetic Hill apart from the Srinagar-Leh Highway. The difference here is this one has a lot of greenery on it with houses built on it and a couple of hotels as well. As a tourist you can actually boast of staying on a Magnetic Hill if you are able to book your stay in one of those hotels. If not, then you can surely try the age old practice of switching off your car at the foot hill and experience the magic of the hill as it pulls your car uphill.
Moncton also has the Petitcodiac River flowing through the middle of the town and this river is red in colour because of the colour of the soil in this region. There are lot of sit-outs and cafes lined up in the main street which runs next to the river. So you can pick up maybe a burger or sandwich along with a coffee and just spend some time alongside the river with the multi-coloured maple leaf trees in the background. There are huge expanses of fields with tree lines running for miles and it is more like the drawing board of the Lord Almighty where dark green is changing to yellow and then to orange and to red. So you can just go on clicking and capturing these colours or maybe just record the changing colours.
The town has a baseball ground along with a golf course as leisure activities and host of very good hotels and home-stays. While Dieppe houses most of the commercial activities like shops, mall, offices etc., Moncton and Riverside are primarily residential areas with some very nicely and beautifully built cottages. So if anyone is in Canada and wants to take some time off can surely visit this quiet town and experience the magic of the Magnetic Hill and the Red River.
