Day 1 (NOV, 2 1998)
Arrive Newark Airport at 1000hr, we board a greyline bus
service which is totally cool & cheap! Who says you have to spend a bomb on cabs & limo services??? Arrive at the New Yorker Hotel, kinda disappointing as it looked so great on the internet. =( Anyway, the 3 days free accommodation came along with my airtix promotion, great location....no complains!!!
We took a walking trip to lower Manhattan, Chelsea to check out the youth hostel I booked via the internet! Well, disappointing outlook, guess we've been 'fooled' by the internet again...but the neighborhood seems nice. Then we walked to the famous Times Square & Broadway...caffeine boost at Starbucks! Everything here has only one tempo that is allegro con brio...it's fascinating!
Tip: TAKE GREYLINE or other coach services to get out of the airport, it's cheap & great...but don't forget to tip the nice drivers they have!!!
Day 2 (NOV, 3 1998)
Rise & Shine!!! Took the coach to the WOODBURY COMMON PREMIUM OUTLETS, about an hour's journey from Manhattan.
Yippee!!! SHOPPING.... Wow, it's a huge compound, beautiful sights as well!!! All my fav shops are here, J-Crew, GAP, Anne Klein, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Polo Ralph Lauren, GH Bass, and Nine West.... they even have the Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet, Barney's NY Outlet...totally cool!!! The downside of the entire trip was waiting for the coach service back to Manhattan...we waited outdoors (the bus stand) hungry & cold for more than an hour, I think it was in the 20s or 30s Fahrenheit. Scariest day of my entire trip, fear of not getting back to the hotel in one piece, no cabs in sight and it doesn't feel good to be stranded in the cold with bags of bargains! But I guess the 'fear' and depression ran away to haunt someone else once we stepped into our warm hotel happily packing the stuff in my luggage! Call me a shallow woman, I don't care...I got my bargains!!!! Ha! Ha!
Day 3 (NOV, 4 1998)
Took our first subway trip, it's pretty easy to learn the routes, juz don't board the express train if you are not familiar, you get 'transported to the unknown’... =P
Mid Manhattan, visited the St Patrick's Cathedral, 'foot tour' ...saw the Ed Sullivan Theater, lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center...then reaching Lincoln Center to collect our Opera Tix, for Carmen.
Attended the opera feeling overwhelmed, dazzled...everything is so beautiful & unrealistic, I finally understand the meaning of 'dress-to-kill'!!! Nevertheless the opera was marvelous; it marks my first great impression of opera, since I wasn't ever a fan even though I love classical music.
Day 4 (NOV, 5 1998)
MOVING DAY, Goodbye New Yorker Hotel, here we come Chelsea Youth Hostel.... Well, we were totally depressed by the sight of our room: old, dingy, impossibly small, one horrible double bed
...juz depressing!!! Immediately after we moved in our stuff, we had to get out of that place...hang out at Midtown again, collected concert tix from Carnegie Hall, bought souvenirs for friends at Hard Rock Cafe & Planet Hollywood. There's a neat bookstore near the Carnegie Hall, I think it's 'Coliseum Books', they have a great selections of interesting titles & stuff! Concert by the Kirov Orchestra, All-Tchaikovsky program! It's like dream come true to be able to sit in the famous Carnegie Hall with excellent acoustics, unlike our VCH (Victoria Concert Hall). I sat there with mixed feelings, reminiscing...reading about the Carnegie Hall years ago, day-dreaming in Singapore.... There I was sitting in the Carnegie as an audience, not a performer. I guess that good enough for me.... Back to dingy 'hell-hole' after the concert. =(
Day 5 (NOV, 6 1998)
Day of remorse regrets...we moved out of the 'hell-hole' to some hotel, Senton Hotel! It's worse than Chelsea hostel...words like sleazy, scary.... kept running in my head when we were there! Scenario: 'old, stale cigarette-stench, dimmed, dirty bed, porn on TV but bad reception...' we 'dashed' out of the hotel, regretted we gave up our room in Chelsea...we went back to Chelsea hostel with no other alternatives!!! Luckily we got another room...not much better but at least we got a bunk bed...a little more 'space'!!! We only felt relieved when we finally got the room, decided that no one could make us move until we leave for Singapore!!! Tired, exhausted but happy...I don't know what can happened if we stayed in the Senton Hotel, call me a paranoid & exercising my imagination a little too much...I don't have a good feeling abt that place, no matter how cheap it was! The entire day was wasted on moving in & out...we visited the Empire State Building in the evening. Long hour of standing in the line getting tix or taking the elevator...all that romantic feeling I harbored for the Empire State Building juz diminished...but it was an astounding sight up there...if anything else can be more beautiful??? Unbelievable!
Day 6 (NOV, 7 1998)
Laundry day, yup....did our laundry in the hostel! 'Foot-tour' again, we went downtown.... The Village, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown...long tiring walk, but interesting sights & weird people around! Lunch at Chinatown, great food & it felt like HK.... Or Guangzhou, China! Haven't seen so many Chinese in days.... Back in Chelsea, took the night off lazing around, watched television, and wrote some postcards to friends at home! Met a fellow Singaporean, kinda funny...coz I thought he was Japanese, as he was rather attentive with baseball news. He thought I was Japanese too coz I looked like one (Everyone in the hostel thought I’m Japanese, ha! ha!)!!!
Day 7 (NOV, 8 1998)
Museum day went to the American Museum of Natural History. It's a huge, interesting place with all my favorite dinosaur bones and they have 3 large dinosaur halls! Extremely neat!!! =)
Took a Cab to the MET, as it's on the East Side, Fifth Ave... The other side of the Central Park. Too bad it was close on Mondays, & forgetful me has totally forgotten about that, wasted the cab fare!!! Proceeded to the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, very intriguing place for the modern art fanatics, both the distinctive spiral art space & the impressive collection! Shopping at Bloomingdales, FAO Schwarz, Carnegie Hall gifts shop....
Day 8 (NOV, 9 1998)
went back to the MET, well.... Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful impressionist & modern art collection! Going to the 2nd floor is must, if you are a European painting fan like me, you'll find works of every artist, including self-portrait of Van Gogh. The gorgeous collection of Stained-glass works by Louis Comfort Tiffany is along the enclosed garden space.... How I wish I could spend the entire day immersed in the stunning art collections! Too many paintings, too little time!!!
Day 9 (NOV, 10 1998)
Rise & Shine, well...it's a cloudy day but we had to see the "dirty green thing" AKA The Statue of Liberty today! I have to take some photos of the dirty green thing to prove to my mom that I've been to New York!!! Ha! Ha! Bought a ferry tix from Castle Clinton, then board the ferry with a bunch of noisy Mainland Chinese...yak yak yak, non-stop & not forgetting LOUD, very LOUD!!!! Well, it's nice to see the spectacular view of Manhattan
From the ferry ride! We took a couple of photos at the Statue of Liberty, but we didn't want to climb it...it's seems juz too crazy for me to climb 354 steps to the crown! Then we stopped over the Ellis Island to take some photos of the Immigration Museum...then back to Manhattan! Took a walk to Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, Federal Hall, the former Custom House...Went to the Ed Sullivan Theater at 4.30pm for the taping of Late Show With David Letterman, it was really, really fun & I had a great time!!! Found a Boston Market at the corner of Chelsea, yummy chicken dinner!!!
Day 10 (NOV, 12 1998)
2nd last day in NYC, walk to Times Square, Carnegie Hall, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue...did some last minute shopping & went back to the hostel!!! Found a rat in my bag...Yikes, I was scare stiff & didn't know what to do! Luckily I had a brave friend who managed to drag my bag out of our room.... One of the German guys helped us got rid of the rat!!! =) We went back to Boston market for a good dinner after the frightful event!!!
Day 11 (NOV, 13 1998)
Last day...*sob, sob* we ate breakfast at a diner, then took a walk to the Washington Square Park.... NYU & the neighborhood!
Back to the pack up.... Depressing moment...can't write anymore...greyline to Newark Airport, SQ flight.... *Sob, sob*
Epilogue
There's still so many unaccomplished stuff, like having my little picnic the Central Park, eating huge desserts at Serendipity & EAT, spent more time at the Village, Soho.... Hope I can do more in my next trip at the end of 1999!!! Hopefully... =)
