New York , New York !

*final part of my US trip*

After shopping at San Marcos, the next part of my trip was to New York to visit a very good friend of mine from school.

I almost didn't make it to New York though. When I was in Houston, I was half thinking of flying back directly after the work week, cos the NY flight tickets were more expensive that I budgeted (darn the 7 day window!!) and mainly cos I was missing Elyssa so much. I called up MAS but was told that every flight was fully booked for that week. In hindsight, that turned out to be a blessing as I really enjoyed shopping at San Marcos and my New York trip :)

Excluding travel time, I had 4 full days in New York. I didn't visit any of the famous museums like Guggenheim Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ha hah..... I guess I wasn't feeling particularly "cultured" and preferred to spend my time just leisurely walking around or stopping for coffee when I felt like it. But of course, I did spend some of my time doing some of the pre-requisite touristy stuff like Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero ;)

Overview of where I went -

Day 1
- Statue of Liberty
- Ellis Island Immigration Museum
- Famous "Bull" at the Financial District
- Ground Zero
- Twin Towers Memorial Centre

Day 2
- 5th Avenue
- Chrysler Building
- Empire State Building
- Rockerfeller Centre
- Radio City
- Macy's
- Times Square (this place is just amazing at night)

Day 3
- Macy's (yes, again)
- Central Park (an absolutely lovely park - how I wish there's something like that in KL)
- Flatiron Building

Day 4
- Breakfast at Williamsburg, Brooklyn
- 5th Avenue
- China Town (didn't really like it. People were rude and place was dirty)
- High Line at the Meatpacking District


Some photos -

Statue of Liberty

The Bull

Macy's

Times Square

One of the many subway performances (but this was good!)

Central Park

Some Random comments:

1. New Yorkers walk super fast!!!! Once I was walking down the street around the peak after work 5+ pm time. Somehow followed the walking-like-my-pants-on-fire speed of people around me. Then I realised - eh, I'm on holiday what.... why am I rushing like them??

2. New York subway system is really confusing. I keep getting on the wrong train and if it's the right train, then it's the wrong direction !! I never had this problem even when I travelled alone in Beijing or London. I only figured the "correct method" on my last few days there!

3. I took the budget Southwest airlines from Houston to New York. Unique thing about Southwest is the announcement style of the flight attendants. I normally tune out of flight announcements as it's usually very standard and monotonous. But at Southwest, it's done in a very lighthearted manner. After the standard wording on flight safety, the air hostess said "hey, just look at our Tom here (pointing to the flight attendant). Doesn't he just look dashing in his jacket??" and then when Tom took over later, he sarcastically said " With an attitude like that, no wonder she's still single!!". There's something you would never hear in an Asian airline !!

But talking about flight announcements, I still did miss something - cos on the way to New York, I got down from the plane when I wasn't supposed to !!!! I got the fright of my life when I noticed that I was in the wrong city and I thought I took the wrong flight. Luckily I asked the flight attendant and was asked to reboard the plane. Phew !! And after that, there was an announcement again - about who was new to Southwest. I sheepishly took up my hand. And then the announcement went something like - "Now we know why this lady got off the plane. But everyone, pls welcome her to Southwest, give her a big round of applause to welcome her" Everyone clapped while I blushed red and tried to sink down my chair!! ;)

4. Surprisingly, I felt safer in New York at night compared to Houston Downtown.


I enjoyed my time in New York. The main downside was the timing of my trip - my friend was particularly busy that week so I couldn't spend much time with her especially on the first few days. Up to Day 3, I had actually spend more time talking to her mum, boyfriend and brother !! Luckily we managed to catch up during breakfast and dinner on my last day there :)

After New York, I spent another night in Houston before starting the 20+ hour journey back home. Because of the time difference, the journey felt awfully long - I left Houston on Saturday evening but only arrived in KL on Monday afternoon. But despite having a great time in US, I was happy when I boarded the plane cos I couldn't wait to see my little princess again. Indeed no place is sweeter then home with my loved ones :)