manhattan – w w w . x e .s . c x

New York City: Manhattan – Part II – Wall Street & WTC Memorial

On our way to the World Trade Centre (WTC – when typing WTC, I kept typing WTF) memorial, we passed by the famous Wall Street.

Lunch in a park

The Tribute WTC Visitor Centre is located in a small building next to the site where WTC use to be.

It is quite small but yet very interesting. Upon entering the memorial, we were greeted with a wall full of posters. The posters were posters made by people who were looking for those lost during 9/11. There were also numerous billboards containing quotes of those involved in the 9/11 attack. The one which caught my attention was the quote of Brian D. Sweeney, who died in the the ill fated United Airlines Flight 175 which crashed into one of the Twin Towers of WTC.

Imagine hearing this from a loved one 🙁 And then it gets deleted automatically. GAAHH

United Airlines Flight 175 departed from Boston before crashing into South Tower of WTC – 18 minutes after the first attack. The hijackers took 30 minutes to breach the cockpit of the flight and killed the pilots thereafter. Coincidentally, my flight from Boston to NYC flew from the same airport as Flight 175. It only took me an hour to get to NYC. I always wonder why didn’t the passengers of Flight 175 fought off the hijackers just like United Airlines Flight 93. I guess there were nothing much they could do because Flight 175 crashed into WTC about 20 minutes after the hijacking.

The most interesting bit of the memorial is the collage of pictures of those who died in WTC. A lady gathered the visitors including Tim and I and told us about WTC before the crash and after the crash. She also revealed that one of the victims was her son, who was a fireman who went to safe those in WTC. The impact of the collapse of WTC was so great until many bodies were shredded into pieces. The body of the lady’s son was never found except for his pendant. His picture is placed among the collage. It was a heart wrenching story. I guess this is one of the ways for the lady to heal herself from the pain of losing her son.

The site where WTC used to stand is now barricaded and being rebuild.

After visiting the Tribute Centre, Tim and I went to search for a place recommended by Lonely Planet for lunch. When we arrived, we found that the place no longer exists -_-

We ended up eating in a typical American diner – burgers and coffee.

DIY Coffee.

Next stop, Empire State Building!

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!

New York City: Day 1

If you didn’t know, I had to bunk over at TimothyTiah‘s hotel because I didn’t book a place to stay in NYC on my arrival night because I thought I’ll arrive the next day. All my travel schedule throughout the entire trip was a comedy of errors. I think I can have one blog entry just to blog about all the wrong things I did. I really need a PA.

Anyway, after touching down in JFK airport, I took a bus to Manhattan. It took around 40 minutes and it only costs me USD15. The bus dropped me in front of Grand Central Terminal on the 42nd Street.

And I had no idea where Grand Central Terminal was. Thank god the roads system in Manhattan were easy to understand.

Tim’s hotel is about 20 streets away hence I dragged my luggage to his place. So upon arrival at Tim’s hotel, I dropped my stuff there and we headed to Times Square thereafter.

This is Tim’s hotel room. Comes with a small toilet with frosted glass walls. Niama can see Tim’s nekked silhouette.

We had a hot dog while on the way to Times Square. I had ketchup, mustard and onions on it. It tasted awessomeee! Mustard was extra sour!

Although there was an attempted terrorist in Times Square few weeks before, the place was packed. The buildings had magnificent amount of lighted and illuminated billboards in all sorts of shape and sizes.