New York!!!

Since it's work and travel, and work has officially ended, now it's time to travel!!!

First up, New York! New York wasn't in the initial plan, but since Ben, Kok and Alex have plans to visit New York, I might as well tag along as well. The only downside is that I have to lug my luggage practically across half of New York, nearly took the life out of me...but I guess it was all worth it...for the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridg. Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange etc

So we took a Chinatown Bus from Richmond to New York...it's really run by people from China!!!

The bustling street in New York's Chinatown...

And here comes the Manhattan Bridge...

Too bad only cars are allowed on it...can't go on foot

Manhattan Bridge and Me...the sun's in the wrong place-_-

And here's Brooklyn Bridge...

Took a walk on it in the evening...shall elaborate later

This image is postcard worthy if I edit it a little lor...

Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, the City and ME!!!

The New York Metro Subway

U always see it in American tv series or Hollywood movie...people coming in and out from underground. Or when the bad guy needs hostages, he would go down the Metro and get take his pick (usually a small girl or an old lady)...HERE IT IS!!! THE METRO SUBWAY

Ben and Zhichuan buying the Metrocard to get on board the train...

I think we phase such cards out in Singapore like 10 years ago?

Just some pics on the early morning peak hour rush...

On one of my trips on the Metro, there's this homeless guy who came onboard and started to tell his story, on how he does not have a family, so random stuff abt God and Buddha (how do u even tell a story with both God and Buddha in the same context) and basically tragic stuff that happened to him in his life...of course to get money from the passengers. Quite interesting...he probably rehearsed it like many times and obviously the passengers are rather used to and immune to such incidents. There's another more interesting one which happened later...will touch on it soon

Stumbled on to this on the way to the ferry to Liberty Island

So it's a memorial/monument that was damaged in 9/11. Will talk more abt the 9/11 later as well

And here we have the world famous Statue of Liberty!!!

Worship the Goddess

I was pretty disappointed with the Statue of Liberty. I always thought it was the size of a skyscraper, but it turned out to be even smaller than the Merlion in Sentosa. Those special effects people in Hollywood really know their stuff...always thought that the Statue was so grand and magnificent (It still is...but not to the extent I thought it was)

And this was the place where Alex got lost. Everyone was sleeping on the top deck of the ferry when he went down. When we alighted, he was nowhere to be found...apparently, he went to the lower deck to sleep to avoid the sun and missed the Ellis Island stop. Still, kudos to him for being able to cover as much ground on his own as well as finding his way back to flushing street

The well known bull in Wall Street

I wonder if this can guarantee me an office in Wall Street in the future?

Undeniable evidence that I was in Wall Street...

Look really really closely...

See it? It's the freaking New York Stock Exchange (NSYE)!!!

This explains itself

Reconstruction of one of the tower still in progress since then

There are many artifacts and heroics exploits there, but this one struck me the most. The belongings and left-behinds of those involved in 9/11, covering a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty

As well as this...read the words on it. It contains the names of those killed in 9/11...how significant...really shows the resilience of the United States of America

And that is the Brooklyn Bridge...

It's actually very scary sitting there...because

...of all these cars zooming past

Would make a very nice picture if we can only get the people out of it

Love this picture...shows the intricacies in the design of the Brooklyn Bridge

This one as well...look at the ropes holding the bridge together!

The Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge

The usual stuff...

As u can see, a lot of pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge. I've been wanting to visit the Brooklyn Bridge ever since I started reading spiderman. Peter Parker's greatest failings happened on this bridge (The Death of Gwen Stacy) and the Brooklyn Bridge sure doesn't disappoint.

This picture is very interesting. We got onto the Metro to get back to the hotel...however, we were greeted by this group of punks playing their rock music and breakdancing...in the midst of the cabin. One of them even almost jump into me. I guess this is a form of basking as well, since they were asking for donations after

And this final picture to wrap up the day...got cheap accommodation from some street

On to day 2 in New York!

Mark, finally travelling

PS: Lugging my luggage along sux big time