Come Away With Me...
|
MILOOOOOH!!! XD The next part of the trip was the coolest and warmest yet. It was a "holiday in a holiday" - a 5 day 4 night tour of north east USA. It is also on this trip, that I learnt that 1 tour bus is too small for 2 cool guys... Sunday morning 6.45, Auntie SY brought us to Flushing mainstreet for breakfast. Flushing is home to many Asians, and NY's 2nd Chinatown bears a resemblance to KL. And what better way to bridge the differences between NY and KL than to savour delectable Malaysian food. So that's what we did that morning. I had Nasi Lemak and MILO!!! Yeah MILO! XD And it was PIPING HOT MILO. Great way to begin a day. That warm brown liquid, upon contact with lips, recalled a feeling close to...oh nvm. It just tastes heavenly after such a long evasion from my tastebuds. From Flushing, a shuttle bus took us to NY's Manhattan Chinatown. We waited along the street for the bus. Then MD walked by... *MD, also referred to as red-head/DM/MP, is another cool dude...during the course of the tour the 2 cool dudes (quite uneccessarily and unanimously) entered into competition to raise(or lower, whichever you like) the temperatures... The wait wasn't too long, and we were off. The tour comprised of pan-Asiatic globetrotters. There were Singaporeans (us), Malaysians, Thais, Indonesians, Filipinos, Mainland Chinese and Chinese from Macau from Portugal. The tour guide, a Chinese green cardholder, had the talent (and lung capacity) to meticulously explain everything in English(unintelligible), Chinese (well and good) and Cantonese (which I unfortunately do not comprehend). Initially he also spoke in Thai for the benefit of the Thais, but stopped after a few sentences. Saks and the city We whizzed through Manhattan (passed Saks' sexy window displays - "SAKSY"), stopping midway at Rockafellar Centre for 15mins (getdownsnapsnapsnapgetbackon - you get the idea...), and arrived at the UN HQ, followed by Hudson River for our Circle Line Cruise. The semi-circle cruise took us round the southern tip of Manhattan and back. We passed many landmarks, like World Financial Centre, Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, NY Ferry Terminal (the most beautiful shed on the waterfront), passed under the BMW bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan and W-something) and saw architecturally renowned pieces of NY's skyline, like the Empire State Building, the Woolsworth building, Chrysler building etc etc etc. Chill I alternated between the breezy upper deck, warm lower deck, and chilly bow. Of course, MD was at the cool bow for most of the journey, sitting on the railings for no apparant reason (possibility: posing). Maybe he was chilling in his short-sleeved wear (windbreaker tied around his waist for same reason as stated above). If he was chilling, he would have achieved his motive, for I later learnt from my father that he was shivering throughout his time there. Which was, almost the whole journey. The other guy whipped out his Timberland windbreaker and alternated between decks. Cooler than chilling on the bow in short-sleeves. We docked around 1pm, (lunch was on the ferry) and next headed for the Intrepid Air Sea Space musuem. Its like, that Oriental Greenboat "aircraft carrier". Only this is the real thing. A decommisioned US Navy aircraft carrier with tanks, planes and exhibits in the hull, and various aircrafts on the deck. But the main focus of my visit was the Concorde, the most sleek airliner ever created. I've seen it thrice (twice it was flying, once it was parked as it was grounded after the Paris crash), but I've never been so close to this beauty before. It's really the epitome of luxurious hops across the Atlantic. If only it lived long enough to see me across the Atlantic in style. Concrete Canyons   Back to the bus, on to the Empire State Building. We were supposed to come earlier but the NYC Marathon was on and the weather was not the best. After waiting in lines which snaked through this art deco masterpiece, we finally arrived at the lifts, taking us all the way to the observation deck. Just as we arrived, the evening sun cast the last rays of the day, giving a faint glow to Upper Manhattan. Mesmerizing! With lower Manhattan in the same direction as the sun, all we saw was the darkened rear view of the buildings. Nevertheless, I managed to identify the Flatiron building, Macy*s, Times Square, Metlife building, The Plaza Hotel...Chrysler building, the other art deco masterpiece of the city. Since I arrived, I've been revelling in all the architectural splendour of this city. Wandering through canyons and canyons of glass and concrete, one cannot help but marvel at such scale and attention to detail. Well at least I can't help it... Meeting our tour guide at street level, we then made our way to Wall Street. The buildings are so close, Wall Street must have been a no-brainer. But actually no, the city wall(or at that time, town wall) was here, thus the name. Looked and looked but never did I find that bronzed bull. Found out it was in the next street, between Wall Street and our final stop: Ground Zero. On the outside it's pretty much just a pit in the ground (construction for Freedom Tower has yet to begin) but it carries much meaning. Among others, it symbolises the thousands of lives lost, the brutality of 911, and war against terrorism... Freedom Tower, like a pheonix rise from the ashes, will dominate the skyline, being symbolically 1776 ft tall. Till it does, this place is a symbolic pit of reflection and contemplation and strength and so on and so forth. Just as the sky turned a deep blue hue, we bade farewell to the Big Apple (for now at least) and crossed over to New Jersey. Now, behind us was the dazzling skyline of NYC, ahead lay rows of lights of industrial New Jersey. Passing EWR, I saw SQ's majestic 345. Ahh if only I took this here... My sleep was cut short as the bus pulled into a commercial complex, where we had dinner at this Chinese-run buffet restaurant. Mad rush to maximise the cost of the dinner by consuming more. So ended up not having everything. Then onto the road and before I could fall asleep, we arrived at the Hiton Cherry Hill, not far from Philadelphia...  With regards from Solar Sojourner at 6:02 PM
 |
||
| Airliners.net Archive file 1 |
Come fly with me Let's fly Let's fly away Wanderlust Free Web Counter 
|