New York City: Manhattan – Part I – Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Since Tim and I had jet lag, we woke up at 6am to start our day. Breakfast was at Dunkin Donuts. I didn’t know they serve breakfast there.


I had sandwich with melted cheese, bacon and ham and also super sweet coffee. Damn sinful.


To get to Statue of Liberty, we took the subway to Bowling Green. From Bowling Green, we walked to Battery Park where we purchased a ferry ticket to Liberty Island (where Statue of Liberty is located) and Ellis Island. The cost of the ticket is US$12.


Although we were there extremely early, the queue was bloody long. We had to go through security – with metal scanner and xray machines. Fortunately, it didn’t take long.


The 2-storey ferry was packed with people!


Statue of Liberty was smaller than I thought. It looked so much bigger in movies. Initially I thought they brought us to see a fake Statue of Liberty – like the fake floating market in Bangkok.


At Liberty Island, we got to see the Manhattan skyscrapers from far.

We didn’t bother to enter Statue of Liberty but managed to snap loads of photographs of it.

Our next stop was Ellis Island, which used to house US’s immigration station. Those who had entered New York in the 1800s would have to passed through Ellis Island’s immigration centre.


Great Hall, where immigrants were processed


The Great Hall, in the early days

The main attraction of this place is the museum. Many former immigrants’ stories and documents were documented and displayed in the museum.


Old Passports!


Anti Chinese publications were quite common in those days. I wonder why those guai lous hate Chinese so much last time.

The entire trip took us half a day to finish. We moved on to explore Manhattan thereafter. Next stop, Wall Street, World Trade Centre Memorial, Empire State Building and 5th Avenue!