Photos of USA '06

new york new york. the city so nice, i went there twice

off we were to new york today to meet up with abdullah who's currently on an all-expenses paid summer programme to yale which is just north of new york. the day started out real bad and we almost did not make it to new york.

we had spent the night at babe's sister's place as there was a bus service nearby that would take us to new york at USD5 per person per round trip. compare that, in terms of round trip, to the service at chinatown for USD20 per person or USD 28 per person at the greyhound nearby and you'll understand why we took this option. however, when we reached the office of the shop that was suppose to sell the ticket, it was closed. that was at 8am. the schedule said there was suppose to be a bus leaving at 8.30am but it never turned up. finally at 9am, a guy in a pickup truck drives by and told us that the place had closed down for good and was wondering why there were no signs saying so. the thing that got me thinking was that how did this guy, out of the blue, just come out like that to tell us this piece of information?

so off we headed back to chinatown to get our tickets. it was already 10am by the time we got there and we were suppose to meet up with abz at 11. i dunno why but on that day there were no queues formed for those waiting to board the bus. just as well for us as we were already late. and when the bus came, there was just so much pushing and shoving that we both felt lucky to get on it. we got the back seats but that was when we found how unlucky we were. throughout the 2 hour bus ride, we had to deal with the stench of urine and vomit as the toilet was located just behind us. and if that was no tenough, 3 times people got up to use the stenched toilet and that made the atmosphere even worse when it happened.

or you could use a tissue and cover your nose. more effective but even better when you wet the tissue.

if you're wearing a t-shirt, you could always use the hands-free version and use that to cover your nose. just make sure the t shirt doesnt smell. we learnt our lesson that day and from that day on, make it a point to bring sweets/something sweet smelling on any bus journey that we take.

after meeting up with abz, we walked around and had lunch at this really great place selling kebab. when the guy asked us if we wanted hot sauce, we gladly said yes but i regretted that decision. for when i bit into mine, it was the hottest thing i had tasted in the US, even as spicy as some thai food i had tasted before. i didnt know they had sucj potent stuff there. but abz sure was enjoying his spicy meat which was why he came here in the first place. sorry folks but i dun have photos of that place. will try and get it from abz and post it up here when i see him.

so after lunch we were walking around aimlessly until we reached 5th avenue, shopping haven of the world. if you have loads of moolah that is.

there's rolex ad st. john (i dun think its the HQ of the hospital).

there's edmiraldo zega (dun know if i got that correct) and salvatore ferigamo (dun think i got that spelling right too but you know what i mean :P)

and loads of other shops down the street to your left and right. it looks like this stretch of shopping just never ends.

me and abz

this was a shot taken in new york and not singapore. yes, that's takashimaya, the same one you see at orchard road in singapore.

and what do we have here? TRUMP TOWER!!! woohoooo. finally. i was hoping to catch one of trump's buildings while in new york but to see trump tower, that was like the icing on the cake.

another shot of the entrance. and there was even a sign above the door that said "Open to Public". we definitely needed no further invitation.

an upward shot of the magnificient building.

the famous elevator that we always see on the apprentice. the one of the left goes all the way up to trump's office and thus, were not open to public. the one on the right is for everyone's use to go up or down to the shopping/eating levels.

trump fragrance. you know this guy will put his name on anything and everything he can find. this frangrance was first introduced in the latest season of the apprentice, towards the end of the season, for those of you who have watched it.

trump bar. the place to go for all your meals.

trump's ice cream parlour. located on the ground floor of the building, this place was introduced in the apprentice in season 4 if i remembered correctly.

naturally i had to try some. 1 scoop at USD3, 2 at USD4 and 3 scoops at USD5. i thought the scoops were gonna be small so i bought 3 scoops, considering it was just USD2 more than a 1 scoop. but boy was i wrong about the size. each scoop of ice-cream is just slightly larger than the size of my fist. here you can see the flavours we bought: chocolate, cookies and cream and butter peacon. and the taste? HEAVENLY!!! just like great ice-cream.

after our little outing to the trump tower, we walked out, with full stomachs and went further down 5th avenue. that's GAP store on the right.

the skyline in new york is pretty nice and themix of architechture, both old and new, really gives this city a unique feeling.

a landscape view of the city.

here we are finally reaching grand central station where we would depart ways, me and babe heading back to chinatown to board the bus to philadelphia and abz waiting for his bus nearby that would take him back to yale.

often when i watch movie that have scenes shot inside the grand central station, i always thought they exagerrated the size of the place. but guess what? it really is that big. so big that we got lost and were not sure how to get to our subway. left or right? hmmmm...

finally we found the subway entrance but before reached the platform where we were suppose to take our trains, we heard some loud music and decided to investigate. and there were some guys who were doing break dancing. managed to get a 2 minute video clip of this guys doing their thing and will upload it here at another time. stay tuned!!

the last shot i took of new york. the grand central signboard to tell people who are on the train that they've reached grand central station. till next time folks.

posted by Tariq @ 9:39 PM