I had my first trip to New York and I could not have been more excited. Here is the recount of this trip (so that when my memory starts to fail, I will still have this blog to remind me)
The flight was at 1.30PM and while checking in my small suitcase, I noticed that I have forgotten to put a lock on the zipper handle. But since it has a built-in padlock with combination numbers to hold or release the zipper handle, I tried to brush off my worries and let the airline officer checked in my luggage. Flight was delayed for an hour and the flight was on a very small capacity plane. The plane had only one column of passenger seats on the left and two columns on the right, and the walkway isle was super narrow. This was the first time ever that I had been on a plane this small. Thinking back, it was scary as the plane shook so much while taxing down ... luckily, I am still alive ... huehueheu. Upon arriving Newark airport in New Jersey and while waiting for the air train to leave the airport, I noticed that one side of the padlock which hold the zipper handle on my suitcase had been damaged. The other end of the padlock, which opened to the shorter end of the zipper track, was still intact. Obviously, someone had break it on purpose to see what I had store inside the luggage. I was so pissed!! More problems arose shortly. The air train, which was the hub between terminals in the airport and from the airport to the train station, was not operating; instead there was to be a shuttle bus to take us to the train station. We had to wait so long for the bus to arrive (do'h).Luckily it did not take long to commute from the airport to our hotel close to Newark Penn Station. I loved our hotel so much that upon checking in, I told John that I wanted to just stay in but fortunately, John pulled my lazy bum out of the hotel room and off we went to downtown New York. As soon as I step out onto 7th and 32nd Street, I was glad that I did not spend the rest of the night at our hotel. Everywhere I looked, there were people walking, chattering, talking on the phone … it was bustling with activities. My spirit was uplifted. We walked along 7th Avenue from 32nd to about 52nd Street, all the while excited and hungry (me). Finally, we settled to dine at Tad’s Broiled Steaks at around 9 pm and even at this hour, the line up at this joint was long and people kept coming into the restaurant to join in the queue. Food was very good and affordable. And the portion here is just nice, it was enough to fill up a hungry me.
I always could not sleep late on the very first day in an unfamiliar surrounding. I was fully awake by 6.30 AM and decided that since I could no longer sleep, I might as well get ready to go out. John was up by 8.30 AM and after a light breakfast at a café nearby; we were on our way to New York, first destination, Chinatown. I always heard and as the result, had this misconception that Chinatown in most cities in the US was not as big as the one in Toronto (except for San Francisco). Being in Chinatown in New York totally changed that. Along Canal Street were shops and stalls and so many people … buying, selling or just looking and walking. Not only that, smaller intersections were also very busy. The major commodities on sale here were fake designer handbags, watches, fragrances and hats and scarves. Here and there, sellers of fake goods were trying to score businesses by calling out to customers, some I found hilarious like one Chinese lady who was asking two guys looking at her trades “ … likey?” or one guy who yelled out “LEE-BUH-DONG!” .. I think he was trying to say “Louise Vuitton” huehehe …After surveying several places to eat, we settled to have dim sum at Jing Foong which nearest translation is Abundance of Gold. A few steps from the entrance were elevators, which seemed to go forever, leading to a large dining hall on the second floor. Dim Sum here was excellent, the only complaint was smaller groups of people have to share tables. We were at first directed to share a large round table with a few others but we asked for a smaller table and was ushered to a square table for four. A couple minutes after we sat down, an Iranian couple from New York joined our table and it turned out to be fun as we ate, we chatted about New York, traveling and stuff. After Dim Sum, we headed to Central Park which the earlier Iranian guy told us that it was a must-visit place in New York. Around 4 PM, we headed back to the hotel to take a nap; I was unconscious as soon as I was on the mattress. Back in downtown again around 7.30 PM and off we went to shop at Macy’s. I was given Macy’s card for my purchase on the previous night and the card came with 15% discounts on first and second day of approval of card. As it was late and the store hour was only until 9.30PM, I was scrambling around to find something nice to buy. In the end, John got his jeans and I got nothing (which was okay since I normally don’t make purchases in just one visit hehe..). Dinner was at Maxie's restaurant around 10PM and inside of the restaurant was still packed with people. Food was not memorable but portion was HUGE. I expected a very cheesy cheeseburger but was quickly disappointed to find only one slice of cheese with my meal, then I kept eyeing John's Classic Reuben sandwich and kept stealing a sliver or two from his plate. After dinner we had plan to catch a 11.57PM train but missed it when we stopped to get some bottled water at a store along the way. As we only had 20 minutes till the next train arrived, we had decided to take the subway to the train station but as luck would have it, we took the wrong subway line and ended up missing the next train as well. In the end, we managed to catch the 1.12AM train and reached the hotel all exhausted.
Day 3 to be continued on next blog …
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