Sunday, March 15, 2009

This morning we woke up very early to catch the morning ferry to Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty is located. It was super cold, and we had to wait for around half an hour before they let us in for security screening and boarding. The screening part was a pain in the neck, and it was really troublesome to remove all our coats etc...then still have to enter a scanning machine, to blow air under our shirt and skirts (lucky I wear jeans) to check whether we got bring bombs inside...Doesn't make sense when we already removed all heavy clothings... but well... this is america, always like to exaggerate things la...prob security more tense in NY bah..which is a sad thing for the residents here..I also noticed that there were many policeman patrolling on the streets, which was a delight for us so that we can easily ask for directions...hehe..ok back to the topic...so we boarded the ferry..and Cha as usual, wanted to take good shots so we had to sit at the upper deck with no heater and shelter!! haiz...Again, I was freezing, lucky Cha bought me a hot coffee which helped to soothe my chill a little.

We can already see the statue of liberty from afar liao, and it looked even more impressive upclose.. I was really excited to see this world-famous statue, cuz I always see this statue in TV back in Singapore de...din expect that I will get to see her in such a close range, it's like seeing a movie star in real person...wahaha..taller than I've expected =p

After we toured the Liberty island and went up the statue for a paranomic view of the Manhattan skyline, we rushed for the next ferry to return to NY city... Then we went to the Financial District to see the wall street... My gosh, another iconic international symbol, although it is in a total slum now lar..but the New York Stock Exchange looked very impressive lor, especially with a gigantic American flag hung in front of the building...Really happy to catch a glimpse of this world-renowned stock exchange building...We also managed to catch a shot with the bronze bull, the mascot of the wall street..but hor, it was so crowded with tourists, that it was not possible to take a few solo shots with the bull lar...

After that we took the train again to the Chinatown. Haiz...so miss the Chinese culture over here... The town was HUGE...so many Chinese stalls and restaurants lining the streets, I see liao was so damn happy that I forgot all my fatigue and took over as the lead in the trip..haha...but by this time, we were really starving liao..so we had our lunch at this HK restaurant..I had dumpling noodles, while Cha had roast duck rice...we also ordered shrimp rice roll as supplement lar...The meal was quite good, got standard wor... Then we toured around Chinatown, and bought finger food along the way, and was really full by then..HOWEVER, before we left for next destination, we spotted a teo chew restaurant (Cha's dialect) and knowing how Cha missed the Teo Chew food, we decided to settle for our SECOND lunch again!!! Our first lunch was barely 30 minutes before this...My gosh... But we really enjoyed the food lar...and I was bloated to the max with food...haha..really impressed with Cha for being able to finish all the food man...hehe..

Then we took the train to the World Trade Center site... Although the twin towers were no longer around, but there is a bigger development for more impressive buildings to be completed in a few yrs time bah..how I wish I could witness the new establishment..Felt really sad for the thousands of ppl who lost their lives here...It seemed so impossible that such majestic buildings would fall..haiz..

After that...we walked a long long way AGAIN to a good viewpoint (The Seaport) of the Brooklyn Bridge.. It was again a must-see place as I've seen so many movies with this bridge as the backdrop...Wah..the nighttime view was stunning lor, and there were other 2 bridges behind the Brooklyn bridge which adds on to the lovely beauty of the night skyline...again..I was freezing and was willing to go outdoor only for the photoshoot...haha...I was again eating chinese food inside a foodcourt while Chaa took night shots of the bridge by himself..dunno what came over me to be such a greedy pig...hehe