Tag: statue of liberty

New York City – Sightseeing


Typical NYC sight

My wife has never been to New York City hence we went to the usual sightseeing spots like the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Centre and Central Park. But this time round, we explored the city for good spots to eat. Will write another food guide for this.

Speaking about Rockefeller Centre, we went up to the Top of the Rock at night to see the concrete jungle at night. The sight is better at Empire States Building as they only barricade the top using clear glass walls. Also, some parts are not barricaded leaving you a clear view of the skyline.

We also visited the World Trade Center Memorial and also the National September Memorial & Museum. I visited the former when I was in New York two years ago. It still looks the same after two years but they have loads of tissue boxes placed around the memorial. I guess some people could not hold their tears.

The latter (minus the Museum) is now open to the public. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers. The memorial has two square pools, where the Twin Towers once stood. It also has names of all the victims engraved on bronze plates attached to parapet walls which forms the edges of the memorial pools.

There are a few other interesting sites around the World Trade Center area. One World Trade Center (formerly known as Freedom Tower) is still under construction but it’s a great sight.

The 200 over years old St. Paul’s Church is also worth visiting.


September 11?

Catching a play in New York City is a must. This time round, we caught “How to succeed in business without really trying” starring Nick Jonas.

Unlike the last play I caught namely Avenue Q (which I fell asleep. Sorry Tim!), this show was quite interesting and entertaining. It’s basically about how a young guy (Nick Jonas) climbs the corporate ladder. Plenty of tips and tricks but unfortunately, it’s no longer relevant to me since I’m not an employee anymore (not young too!)

After the show, we walked back to Times Square to find this.

We overheard some guy saying, “I can’t believe the crowd here. It’s not Barack Obama but Ricky Martin!”. Looks like everyone was trying to catch of glimpse of Ricky Martin. Reallly??

One of the best thing about New York City is accidentally finding interesting places. We passed by a flea market.

There was a small stall selling antiques and there were stamps. I managed to find 4 antique stamps.


Siam Occupation of Kelantan stamps. During the Japanese occupation in World War II, Kelantan was controlled by Thailand.

It costs around US$50 on eBay but the guy sold it to me for US$4! F YEAAAH!!

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!