NY Day 1 - Sep 05

And so after reaching PH's fren (Lynn) place on 32nd Street in Astoria at like 2am in the morning, we crashed and slept till the very next morning where we drove to the nearest car rental to return it. Yes, we got these safe and sound, despite the crazy New York City morning rush hour traffic. It's just traffic afterall...

With no more car, we had to take public transport. =( Haha, not that it was a bad thing but there were some express trains that doesnt stop at certain stations so u had to open ur eyes n ears to see if it's the right train. So we took the train (or subway) to Downtown Manhatten.

And finally we began our New York New York tour! We had decided to buy the 3-day pass at US$114 where we could get into some tourist attractions and eat at some places at a discounted price within a total of 3 days. Yeah, that explains why the 1st 3 days were SO SUPER rushed. But we did managed to cram a lot of places though.

First up Carnegie Hall. Nothing much, nothing exciting, cos the place was closed on the day we visited it. I suppose it's much like our very own Victoria Concert Hall, except that it's bigger with 3 stages and houses a bigger audience capacity at each of the stages compared to VCH.

We didnt get to go inside the halls, but took some photos outside the largest hall - the Isaac Stern Auditorium that has a grand total of 5 levels of seating is that impressive or is that impressive? For some reason, the name reminds me of Itzhak Stern of Schindler's List haha.

Next up was CNN NewYork Studios tour in the Time Warner Centre at Columbus Circle. It took us quite some time to finally locate the building.

The 50-minute guided tour provided a much needed air-conditioned place for us to rest our feet and shelter from the light drizzle. Haha, of course it also gave a little bit of insight to the CNN news gathering process and their journalists.

NY Day 2 - Sep 06

Guggennheim Museum at 5th Avenue.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the building's distinctive structure is home to some of the finest collection of modern art.

The spiral shape observed from within the building starts with a ramp at the ground floor and continues all the way to the dom-shaped glass roof, and exhibitions are housed at each level along the ramp.

The day that we were there, the museum was having an exhibition of reknowned Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid,whose designs include the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany and the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck. I might seem to be just name-dropping here; perhaps Zaha Hadid Architects being the master planner for one-north Singapore seems more relevant here.

After we were done with the Guggenheim Museum, we made our way to the United Nations HQ building which extends from 42nd street to 48th street.

Check out the flags of member states flying outside the building. A total of 192 flags there, with the latest addition being Montenegro.

The crescent and five-stars red and white home flag making its presence in UN. Singapore became a member state in 1965, the year it gained its independence.

See our reflection in the globe?

Inside the Security Council Chamber.

Norman Rockwell Mosaic.

This was based on a Norman Rockwell painting called the Golden Rule, which was a common theme of all major religions of the world. The mosaic depicted people of every race, creed and color with dignity and respect and contains the inscription "Do unto Others as You Would Have Them Do unto You".

Economic and Social Chamber.

There's our name, though it might not be that clear.

After the one-hour tour ended, we loitered around the UN bookstore where I bought some lovely cards with inspiring words of wisdom. Yeah, i know i'm a perfect consumer who falls prey to beautiful but redundant products. Sue me.

By the time we were done at the UN building, it was about evening time so we walked down to the busy streets of downtown Manhatten in search of our next attraction, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Look, Hugh Grant was there.

And Miss Shakira herself, the voice behind Hips Don't Lie, the song that we hear every single morning on the bus to Cedar Point.

Johny Depp from Pirates.

And the Beatles...

with each of us snagging one.

Lina is...vertically challenged. Especially with Michael Jordan next to her.

Oh. The Spice Girls.

Why do I have to be Scary Spice? =P

Jessica Simpson.

Pat spanking (or caressing) Miss Simpson's butt?

Surprising all of us had a good time at Madame Tussaud's. I thought it would be pretty boring since it's just wax figures but there was some kind of haunted house thing inside the museum and we tried it just for the heck of it. Haha, fright really bonds us girls. The four of us huddled together and held onto each other when the 'ghosts' jumped out at us. I think we were basically just laughing and screaming our heads off the whole way. It felt kind of like a stress relief especially because the previous two days had been pretty rushed and tensed.

So there we are at the end of our 2nd day in the Big Apple. We were actually trying to capture the night lights of the city in this photo.

NY Day 3 - Sep 07

Liberty Island tour. Home to the Statue of Liberty

Sun was shining brightly. FINALLY. After 2 days of drizzle and wet shoes, our 1st sunny day in New York =)

A reason to photo whore on board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

Statue of Liberty, colossal statue given to the United States of Americaby France in 1886, stands at Liberty Island, in the mouth of Hudson River in New York Harbor. The statue commemorates the centennial of the US and is a gesture of friendship between the two nations.

Well, after arriving at Liberty Island, we reaslied that we actually had to book tickets IN ADVANCE in order to go into and up the statue. Oh well, there's always the all-essential tourist museum store to entertain us.

As well as some interesting-to-know-but-not-really-that-useful bits of information about the statue.

Such as, the length of her nose (?), width of mouth, etc...


Oh, and the skyline of New York from Liberty Island.

As usual, photo-whoring took up most of our time at the island.

PH was assigned photographer, hence his absence in the photos. He doesnt really like appearing in photos anyway, right. I think.

Yep, and they were really fascinated by their reflection on my shades that they started taking photos.

And AS USUAL, they are amazed/mortified/disgusted by my ability to eat anywhere anytime anyplace (while waiting for the ferry) and wanted to take a picture evidence of my unglam-ness. It's juz a choc muffin with whipped cream, it can't be THAT unglamourous right?

We got onto the ferry, skipped Ellis Island because of time constraints.

Taken along the streets of New York, a style.com advert. Nice, cool, sleek.

Next on the itinerary - Rockefeller Plaza.

Basically we skipped the tour of the Rockefeller Centre because of time constraints too. Juz about that much that we can do within a day if we wanna go everywhere else...

But we did go into the Radio City Music Hall and did a short Stage Door Tour. Coincidentally there was a rehearsal going on then for the Fashion Rocks(TM)...Again! Third Annual Live Concert. So yeah, we were in the same building with Elton John and Beyonce for a while.

Us posing with one of the supposedly world-famous Rockettes. She was like way up there, as in i think i was only up to her chest level. See, she's even taller than PH.

After we were done with the tour, while crossing the road, we spotted a band playing at the front facade of the place, like outdoor live entertainment on level 2.

Dusk falls and we took the 75-minutes Circle Line Cruise to catch the sunset of the city that never sleeps.

I remember loving the breeze that was blowing in my face, staring into the sunset horizon, wishing that this holiday would never end... Wishful thinking huh.

Check out the lights on the bridge. Nice doesnt do it justice.

To round up the end of the 3-day Amazing Race tour, we visited the Empire State building at Fifth Avenue to take in the panoramic view of the surroundings.

The 102-storey derived its name from the nickname for the state of New York and is one of the seven Modern Wonders of the World. Wow I did not know that.

A view of New York City at night from the 86th Floor Observatory Deck at the Empire State.

Oh and guess who we COINCIDENTALLY bumped into at the foot of the building?!? Agnes and Leon! Oh my goodness. How small is New York City and what are the odds of bumping into someone u know there! I mean, we did try to arrange to meet up with them since we left Sandusky because they left a day after we did. But we didn't really actually planned and fixed a date to meet up so imagine our surprise when we actually met them there!



The four roomies of 1107 Room E.



NY Day 4 - Sep 08

With all the sightseeing done, it was now shopping and leisure at our own pace! Waiting for the subway to hit the stores...



Victoria's Secret. Need I say more?

And then it was dinner time soon. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant at Times Square. The seafood restaurant is inspired by the movie Forrest Gump.

There is a unque paging system for waiters/waitresses. License plate (as shown below) "Run Forrest Run" from Jenny's quote means all is well, whereas "Stop Forrest Stop" signals that a table needs service.


Check out Pat using her super say and expensive spanking new SLR.



NY Day 5 - Sep 09

I can't really remember what we did in the day. But at night, we went to some atas literally way up there club with Lynn and her friend. Literally because it was at the roof top. And it was really cool because u see everyone there really dressed up nicely, not like the clubs in Singapore where ppl juz wear a spag top and jeans and simply gain admission.

But we left early since we didnt really know anyone there and there wasnt much space around.

We did some camera-whoring again since we were all dressed up.



Ok, enough me.

I realised we were all very a-go-go dressed. Haha. Forever Fever!

Ah, the good times good times.

NY Day 6 - Sep 10

Again, I can't really remember what we did during the day except go around Chinatown. We kind of went on a shi-zi-lu-kou spree there, eating non-stop. Like going into a cafe, order some snacks, pay the bill, go out, step into the cafe 2 doors away, same thing, go out, buy some snacks from some bakery to eat along the way, go into another cafe again and so on. We must have been really Chinese-food deprived through the past 4 months. At night, we went to this neat lil cafe along East 60th Street known as Serendipity 3. If I'm not wrong this quaint lil cafe was one of the sets in the movie Serendipity where Kate Beckinsale met John Cusack.

The interior of Serendipity 3.




If I'm not wrong, the table where the characters of Serendipity sat at is known as the Star Table now. And the drink that they drank is the famous Frozen Hot Chocolate.



Pat ordered the Chocolate Blackout cake shown below, and I had the Humble Pie, a creamy peanut butter pie with graham cracker crust. Swoon.

I could come back to Serendipity 3 anyday anytime, especially since it offers such a delectable range of sweets and desserts.