It is 8 in the morning, I have been awake for 3 hours. You do the math. Jet-lag sucks. Unless it isn’t jet-lag but a mere result of sleeping almost throughout the entire 21 hour flight from New York and that 3 hour evening nap yesterday. I’m going to be a zombie by 2. And I’m starving.
New York was awesome. The first time I saw Times Square I didn’t know where to look. The flashing bilboards, the lights, the non-stop running news shorts, the posters, the screens… That was the closest to gawking I got the entire trip.
The second closest was the opening scene of The Lion King musical, though technically I wasn’t gawking because I cried when the elephants and the giraffes and the birds came out. It was so unbelievably beautiful and creative, maybe a part of me cried because I couldn’t even imagine someone coming up with that, let alone come up with it myself.
Maybe it’s a good thing I’m awake now, cos I’d never have the time and opportunity to blog otherwise.
Rather than bore you with minute by minute details of my 2 week adventure and sit here till lunch, here’s the lazy way out:
Only Time We Played Our Honeymoon Card
Getting business class seats from KL to Stockholm. We were unceremoniously dumped back into economy when they changed crew and the new inflight supervisor was a rude pompous ass.
Weirdest Experience
Getting sunburned on my scalp. It was red for days and hurt everytime I washed/combed my hair. Now it’s peeling and I look like I have really bad dandruff.
Coolest Experience
Snorkeling in the Bahamas. The waters are said by some to the clearest in the world, and the underwater views are as good as The Great Barrier Reef. Feeding the fishes by hand definitely ranks as a top highlight, as does swimming with reef sharks (apparently they’re scavengers and not interested in human flesh). Well, it must be true because we’re here, aren’t we? A big one came unexpectedly near us and I didn’t freak out and die so I’m quite proud of myself.
Most Painful but Morbidly Cool Experience
Getting stung by a jellyfish deemed invisible by the clear-as-tap-water sea. That was the painful part. The cool part was peeling its transparent tentacles off me so calmly I didn’t recognise myself. It was my 4th jellyfish sting since I was 9 (they love me as much as I hate them), and again, I’m uber proud of myself for not shrieking and flailing and making a mad dash for shore as per my first 3 encounters.
Rudest Encounter
The cab driver and uncountable others. New Yorkers are a rude, rude people. In general of course. Special mention goes to the cab driver who snapped at Yuchun, “you think I’m going to take your money like that?” when Yuchun asked about the change he got; and the cashier in Guess Factory Outlet who told us to queue up in a corner and proceeded to serve everyone else who came after us but didn’t queue up there. When Yuchun asked, “Didn’t you just ask us to queue up there?”, she replied, “I don’t remember.”
New York Sights
Times Square. That place never sleeps.
Rockefeller Centre including the NBC Studio Shop. We decided not to take a tour of the empty studios because we were watching our budget.
5th Avenue including afamed Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nike Town, FAO Schwarz (the oldest and probably coolest toy store in America), NBA Superstore and a ton of massive brand names. Oh and Trump Tower, where they film The Apprentice.
Empire State Building. Gives you a wonderful view of New York State from its 86th floor Observation Deck.
Brooklyn Bridge. The biggest man made construction of its time. It stupefies me how people built things like that with horse drawn carriages and no cranes.
Statue of Liberty. It rained during the cruise so you had a boatful of the most miserable holidayers and practically no view because of fog.
World Trade Centre Site aka Ground Zero. Four years down the line, there’s nothing to see there anymore. It looks like a very neat construction site now.
Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange is no longer open to public viewing. The street around it has been cordoned off and there’re police officers and dogs guarding it everyday. It gets boring for the poor policemen I tell you. Thanks to the London bombings, which happened while we were on the plane to New York, security around the city has been upped, especially the subways. The policemen on duty do nothing but stand around and pose for/give directions to/take photographs for tourists.
SoHo. Great mix of cheap and expensive shopping.
Central Park. Is bordered on one side by a mile of museums which we passed on. We did see Yoko Ono’s memorial to John Lennon in Central Park though, along with disco skaters, street acts and wild squirrels.
Madison Square Garden. Choked with history and interesting tit-bits of general information most people don’t really care to know which I loved. No, we didn’t get to see the actual auditorium (where they had the Grammys one year), and the arena where they play their NBA and WMBA games.
Woodbury Factory Outlets. The place is HUGE. We barely covered a quarter of it, and that took almost an entire day. Needless to say, that’s where we got most of our bargains.
Various Highlights
Seeing the beaches of Bahamas for the first time. I never thought I would see beaches so beautiful.
Feeding endangered parrots by hand in the Bahamas zoo. You stick out your hand holding an apple and they’ll come land on you to peck at it.
Stomping all over a giant keyboard that plays when you step on it at FAO Schwarz, and watching the staff play Chopsticks and The Entertainer, among others, on it.
Eating at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the waiters and waitresses are all Broadway hopefuls and take turns singing all day long. They are good.
The Lion King musical. A slight let-down because Simba was seriously off in the singing department that night, but definitely a must-see.
Being constantly fed to bursting by Yuchun’s aunt while in New York. I was most surprised to find I didn’t gain any weight. Must have been all that walking.
Biggest Bargains
A Victoria’s Secret camisole for $10.
2 Calvin Klein capri pants for $20 each.
2 pairs of shoes for $5 and $12 respectively.
Biggest Rues
Not being able to find a nice pair of stilettos. Shoes are so much cheaper in America. As are clothes.
Not seeing a single celebrity despite Manhattan being the location for over 10 television series including Will and Grace, it is home to dozens of celebrities, and Angelina Jolie and Keanu Reeves were both in town.
Facts We Learnt
Bahamas is a highly religious country. Almost all shops are closed on Sundays, but when they’re open, jewelery, cosmetics, perfumes, leather goods, and a host of branded names are duty free. Tourism is their number one industry, banking is number two. It’s probably one of those places people hide their money.
Manhattan is one of five boroughs that make up New York State. The other four are Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. Manhattan has the most skyscrapers in America, the best wages, and an overwhelming majority of the people who live there are not born there, making them one of the most diverse populations in America.
Dumbest Thing I Did
Drink rum punch on an empty stomach. Bahamas is the home of Bacardi rum so everything there is about rum, like rum punch and rum cake. The alcohol didn’t hit me until over an hour later but when it did, I near fainted in the zoo.
Amount of Money Spent
Accomodation and airfare aside, we spent $2200. And that was only because Yuchun’s aunt fed us for like a week. All that tipping and tax really does add up.
I won’t promise pics anytime soon. But I promise to try real hard.
