Notice: Dear reader, please note that most of the photos in my blog are currently not available.  They are currently held hostage by Photobucket (which requires me to pay $399USD/year). I am in the process of re-uploading the images on a different host and this will take some time. If you have any burning questions about my post, feel free to leave a comment. Sorry for the inconveniences caused!

25th May 2010, Tuesday – New York!

and so we decided to venture to new york for a short trip. we woke up at 5:30 or something? we caught the 6am train if i didn’t remember wrongly.
this was the train which brought us there. $15.50 for a one way ticket to new york. the whole ride took around 2 hours.

In fact, my first touch with New York wasn’t pleasant at all. The immense heat greeted me as I stepped out of the train. There was no escalators or whatsoever, we had to climb stairs to get out. Oh wells. After we exited Penn Station, all of us just stood outside Madison Square Garden and started taking a lot of pictures. Like typical Singaporeans. Trying to take as much photos as possible, to prove that we have been there.


There was some filming or photoshoot going on as we walked down the streets.

It was really awfully fast paced and noisy. With all the taxis and cars honking. People walking super fast (comparable to Sg), cars won’t give way to you, unlike in point pleasant. And being in New York made Point Pleasant seemed even more pleasant. And it was kind of irritating that I kept hearing alicia keys the new york song being played everywhere =/

First stop was breakfast! We went to a random small cafe and gosh their portion is huge.


interesting.


haha they seem to like this photo that i took. the feel of this photo was really good.

there was countless billboards everywhere.

ahh the 3-4 storey m&m shop!

The never ending rows of m&m..

and i think across the road or something was hershey! and it was so cheap comparatively to the hershey store in citylink. oh wells.

later, we tried to get tickets for the letterman show. had to go for an interview. but some dear friend did not bring any identification that we are above 18 or something.. they didn’t call us so probably we weren’t selected to be part of the audience. otherwise it would have been rather cool and interesting. oh wels.

and in new york..

i really love the random chairs and tables they have around the city. it is very nice to just sit down and chill. the buildings are so tall such that the sun won’t be the problem. the temperature that day was somewhat cooling.

after that, it was off to central park! this is a rather bad photo. but then again there are people everywhere.

central park is really really really really really HUGE. there is no way you can walk through the whole park. and we only managed to cover a small tiny weeny portion of it and we got really tired.
met some kids when we went to the playground. one’s jap and one’s chinese. not brothers though. just friends. aww.

we didnt bother to find out the price for this..

it’s really pretty in a way. this was the hotel the one in bride wars.

and we slowly made our way there. it was a freaking long walk i swear.

800USD a night. honeymoon maybe.

and after asking for directions, they finally found the place that they were looking for in gossip girls. i was supposed to watch it somehow but seems like i never did and i never knew how it was supposed to look like but then again, this is it. The palace.

do tell me if these look familiar to you if you watch gossip girls. haha.

and so what is everyone queuing up for? the new york guide book recommended us this..

exorbitant prices. but then again, we’re in new york!

awesome food awaits! looking at this picture makes me feel that the carls junior i ate just now was such a terrible choice. gosh and their milkshake was fantastic.

and i know all the tricks to make food look so awesome 😀

pretty buildings and windows.

and when you get so excited about kate spade.

did you ever knew that jack spade existed? not it is not a joke!

and i finally understood why the magical school bus is yellow. seriously, how many buses in singapore are yellow? none? but they are yellow, everywhere in the usa.

the buildings are really pretty.

seems like this is famous in the usa too.

and such places always look so fantastic.

but there is always the different type of artistic..

we visited the 911 memorial site too.

9 years on, and the are constructing a memorial. it is kind of sad to think that 2 tall towers just disappeared just like that. and the buildings surrounding are still tall and stuff like that. oh well. it was really a solemn place.

we went back to times square in the night to see the lights.

if this looks familiar, the only memory i have of it was.. in Madagascar.


the grand central terminal. there was the bright lights because there was some photoshoot going on. awesome ain’t it. we were kind of lucky in a way.

we were lucky to have free lodging at some friend’s place where they rented. gosh it was really damn small. i guess houses in new york are really that that that small. there was hardly walking space. it was just beds, beds, a small fridge, stove, a toilet with barely walking space. it was like a small rectangle and you can’t move or walk in the toilet. there was just this spot you can stand. and when you change, you just hit everything. haha maybe i’m exaggerating a little. but it was lucky enough for us to stay for free. otherwise we would have gone back home.



and this made me thankful of the house back in point pleasant. can’t complain at all.

we woke up really late the next morning. our plan of going early to queue for broadway tickets failed and we went to chinatown for lunch instead. it was really really very hot the next day.i think it was 30 degrees. it’s really crazy. it heated up in one day. the sun was terribly hot. however not that humid so it wasn’t that terrible.

looks normal.

i think they spoke Cantonese.

and we just went past NYU.. i have no idea but it totally doesn’t even feel like a uni at all, cluttered among all the tall buildings. hmm. i guess it would have been an interesting experience somehow.

we didn’t want to stay too late in new york as we had a scary experience the night before. when it gets late, unusual people start to roam the streets and it just doesn’t feel that safe somehow =/ and i finally bought pipagao from chinatown. was having a bad throat then. oh wells.

on the way back!