USA: Chapter 6 - A Tale of Two Countries

And so there I was in Niagara Falls. Alone.

I had made use of the WiFi on the bus, in the later part of the journey from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, to track the bus's route using google maps, so as to know where I was relative to the Wanderfalls Hostel. Turned out it was quite a wise move because it was quite a long walk to the hostel.

Behind me there was a Chinese girl walking, also having alighted from the Greyhound Bus. On the bus I had suspected her to be Malaysian at the very least.

There aren't many hostels in Niagara Falls, and she had a general direction of which direction of where she was walking because she asked around. It was quite obvious that she was going towards the same hostel as I was. Simply because Wanderfalls is really in quite a strange part of town. Perhaps I'd talk to her later after I freshened up.

However, she had also figured out that I was going to Wanderfalls. Plus I had a map. So she said hi.

It turns out that Yu Fang (that's her name obviously) was from Singapore too, also from NUS, and also travelling alone before her Exchange started. Her travel plans were way more extensive than mine, mind you, but then, she had a lot more time to travel before term started for her. She was also from VJ, but strangely not much common ground could be derived from that simply because she was 2 years my junior. Plus VJ wasn't a fantastic time for me.

So we walked to Wanderfalls together, and waited outside to be let in by the owner, who apparently was still sleeping. I mean, it was barely 8am in the morning.

And so I wasn't alone. Again.


We were finally let in around 8.15am, and we checked in. As expected, we wouldn't be seeing our room till later, because there were still people sleeping in our beds. But we left our bags in the lobby, freshened up a bit, and then left for a little breakfast place that the owner had recommended to us.


The Why Coffeeshop was a page out of the movies. A small town diner that you would only expect to see on TV. Where the waitress walks around and serves coffee and says 'honey'. The food itself was quite good, and for quite cheap too. Cheaper than Singapore Macs breakfast, mind you.


It was nice to chill there, actually, but we really didn't come to Niagara Falls to sit at a coffeeshop. Plus Yufang only had one day in Niagara Falls - she'd leave tomorrow afternoon. Furthermore, there was a long queue outside of people waiting to be seated. You don't see THAT in the movies...

The walk from the hostel (located in a relatively residential area) to the falls proper was about 15 min walk, even without heavy luggage. By the way, apparently, in western context, that's defined as 'near'.

On the way there, we passed by the Aquarium. It's not particularly something that we wanted to see (underwater world sentosa?) but it's one of the 5 main attractions of the American half of Niagara Falls that is covered in the Discovery Pass. I think more on the Discovery Pass later.

Yufang's friends were apparently still in Buffalo - they thought it was nearby Niagara Falls. Well, it is. Just, again, refer to above when I explained the context of 'near' in the Western World. It was a 45min bus ride.

Anyway, so that meant we had time to kill before they came over, so we bought the discovery pass at the Aquarium itself, and walked around inside.



We even managed to find time to watch the Sealion Show. And finally now I can tell the difference between sealions and seals. They look quite similar to be honest. Except for the fact that sealions swim way faster and look more like assault submarine while seals swim slower and look like slower battleships. It's something to do with their limbs differing. Not too sure. Shan't bore you with details, can check wiki if you really want to know.


By the end of the show, Yufang's friends had arrived in from Buffalo, so we went to see them. They were all the way on the other side of (the tourist portion of) Niagara Falls, at the Cave of the Winds. So we crossed and spent another 15min walking across to Goat Island.

Even in walking that distance, we didn't see Niagara Falls. I mean, the famous falls that you'd alway see in pictures and movies. All we saw were rapids along the upper niagara river, before it reached the falls.

When I walked that route a couple more times later on, I realised that we missed out on seeing the falls simply because we were more captivated looking at the rapids upstream, rather than looking downstream, where you'd actually be able to see mist rising as the falls crashed down Horseshoe Falls (the famous one)

Anyway, back to today.

We gave our discovery passes to the ticket person at the Cave of the Winds, and she gave us in return a complimentary poncho and sandals. Definitely an omen; we are going to get wet. It was a hot summer's afternoon so to be honest, I think people go to Niagara Falls celebrating the fact that they're going to get wet. As did I.

We had to wait for Yu Fang's friends, Nicole and Chua, to buy the tickets because they didn't - and weren't intending to get - the discovery passes. They were, after all, only staying half a day here before flying off to Las Vegas.

And finally we were travelling downwards in the elevator going down to the base of the falls. I'm not sure exactly what distance we descended, but I know that when we stepped out of the elevator, suddenly the temperature was very cold. Cool, rather. An effect of this tunnel being dug out of rock, which protected it from the sun. Plus the running river that it leads out to helps cool it down further, I think.

From the exit of that tunnel, the sound of the waterfall in the distance was quite obvious. In fact, there were decent views of Horseshoe Falls. We wouldn't know it as yet, but we would get much better views later. Anyway, for now we contented ourselves with picturesque shots of the Horseshoe Falls.


But the main attraction of the Cave of the Winds was not the Horseshoe Falls; after all, the Cave of the Winds is located some distance from those falls. On the other hand, the Cave of the Winds does go right under the Bridal Veil Falls, which is just about next to the American Falls.

So, we got the opportunity to walk on the boardwalk underneath the Bridal Veil Falls.

Ironically the Bridal Veil Falls is the smallest of the three waterfalls of Niagara Falls. Soon, I would realise that that's the main reason why it's actually possible to have a tourist attraction at its base.


Even under this relative midget of a waterfall, dryness stood no chance at the Hurricane Deck.


And so I got drenched. For the first time.

*

As I mentioned, Nicole and Chua had to leave relatively early, and we still had to see the other main attraction of Niagara Falls, the Maid of the Mist boat ride. This ride departs from both the American side and the Canadian side of the falls, but I think (not sure about this) that the American side is cheaper. By the way, Niagara Falls is shared between the US and Canada. And the Niagara river forms the border around this point. A very good sort of border because I don't think it's even possible to swim across this river.

Anyway so we couldn't stay too long in the Cave of the Winds. No matter how fun it was to get oneself drenched in the waters of the Niagara Falls. Some of the white kids (and some adults too, in fact) actually removed their poncho so as to allow themselves to actually be drenched by the water. We had cameras so we couldn't afford that.

Up the elevator and we took the trolley (tram) across the Niagara River to the entrance of the Maid of the Mist attraction. En route down to the dock we passed through the observation deck. Which made the early picture look very ordinary at best.

The Maid of the Mist brought us as close to the Horseshoe Falls as possible - close enough for my camera to be useless due to the water droplets being splashed on board. Oh yes, I forgot to mention. They had given us ponchos again. So yep, we kinda expected to get wet. Again. For the second time.



Back to movie referencing, and the Maid of the Mist is where Bruce Almighty finally snapped because Evan had been promoted ahead of him to the news anchor.

And back to Niagara Falls.


Upon docking back on the riverside, I saw some of the people in blue ponchos walking to separate path. By the way, the ponchos given by the Maid of the Mist were blue and of good quality - they proved useful even after I left Niagara Falls - while those that were given by the Cave of the Winds were yellow and ripped while we were trying to take them off even. Nichole and Chua had to leave already to catch their flight to Vegas so Yufang left with them and I followed the path of the blue poncho-ed people.

This path took me up the side of the American Falls. The path ended halfway up, in fact, and even there, relatively far from the actual falls themselves, the power of the falls was frightening. Even more powerful than the force of the falls at the cave of the winds. So powerful, in fact, that breathing was a little difficult.


If you recall a little, you'd notice that I didn't take any pictures at the Hurricane Deck at the Cave of the Winds. Simply because my camera was new and expensive, and most importantly, not waterproof. So naturally, no photos are available for this part either. But I can say this: I got drenched. For the third time. And it was third time wetter than ever.

And this time, the poncho didn't help that much. So I just took off the hood and let the water pour down. Fun.

I didn't stay too long up there, mainly because, as I mentioned earlier, the force of the American Falls was so strong that breathing was difficult. Otherwise I probably could have stayed forever. Or at least until summer was over.

So back up the elevator, keeping the blue poncho not so much as a souvenir but more so because I didn't have a poncho for this trip, and this blue poncho was of good quality. I called Yu Fang and we met up for lunch at the visitor's center. Which was overpriced and under-appetising. Such is the price for convenience.

Actually considering that the falls are such a tourist attraction, the price wasn't THAT bad. I mean, the prices at Marina Bay Sands or Sentosa would definitely be at a higher premium as compared to mainland food in Singapore.

*

I am so tempted to cut this chapter into half, because truth be told, we're only halfway done. And if you, my dear readers, think its tiring to read this long, trust me, it's more tiring to write this long. But the integrity of this daily account must be kept.



As I have mentioned earlier, Niagara Falls is shared between the US and Canada, linked by this bridge. The view from the Canadian side, however, was supposedly much better. In fact, the lonely planet said that there was absolutely no reason why you should go to the American side, as compared to the Canadian side.

The reason why I didn't originally plan on going to the Canadian side to begin with was because I wasn't sure if I would be allowed back into the states, considering the visa entry etc. Yu Fang, on the other hand had no such fears, so that's how we ended up leaving the states, albeit for a couple of hours.

The initial opinion, before actually crossing over to the Canadian side, was that it looked much more touristy.

The Canadian Side.
The American Side.

Anyway gathering from how awesome the American side was, I couldn't imagine how much better it possibly could get. And so, to find out, we crossed the rainbow bridge, finally convincing myself that even if I wasn't let back into the states, we could just act blur our way back.

Canadian Niagara Falls Town was indeed more touristy - everything was more expensive. Initially I thought that there was no big issue there, because perhaps when you convert the money back into US dollars - in the background you hear Barney Stinson reiterate that Canadian Money is useless - it would be the same price.

Of course, later I discovered that the US dollar, in this terrible state that it is in now - is actually lower in value than the Canadian Dollar. By quite a bit, in fact.

Anyway, the free stuff to do in Canada was to just take photos.





See, the reason why Canada's view is so much better is simply because the American Falls, as well as its little sister the Bridal Veil Falls, are on the American Side. Same argument as you can't see the empire state building from the top of the empire state building. So you get the whole view of all three falls.

The best part is that the view just kept getting better and better as we journeyed further and further away from the Rainbow Bridge; hence our camera shots got better and better along the way.

Then is started to rain. For the first time I was in America. It's even funnier that I actually WASN'T in America to be precise. Anyway not the normal kind of rain - it was more like walking into a mist. It was so much like mist that I originally attributed it to the falls themselves. The wind is carrying the mist from the falls towards us, I said.

That theory got shortly put down abruptly by Yu Fang, observing that the drops were coming from the forests behind the falls rather than from the falls.

We didn't really need cover from this mist-rain, but perhaps our cameras did, so we went to check out the attractions there. A lot more expensive, by the way, for similar things. The gulf in cost further exarcebated by the relative strength of the Canadian Dollar.

The only thing that they had above the US side was a 4D show. Side note, apparently USS (Universal Studios Singapore) has a 4D show; should check it out. Anyway the show was about CA$15. Approx US$13, I thought - actually it was US$17.

Anyway, I tried buying the tickets for us - but the credit card was rejected. The lady was very sweet though, she said perhaps they didn't know that I was oot of the country.

Ok this account may be littered with typos, but the above one is not a typo; she really said 'oot' instead of 'out'. YES we were definitely in Canada.

Credit card was about the only way we could pay for this since we had no Canadian Dollars on us. So Yu Fang paid for me.

The 4D show was quite good - the US side's version is just a movie. This 4D presentation included - you guessed it - a(nother) poncho! Ominous.

And so I got wet for the 4th time.

Not too bad this time, though. It was just a smattering of water, as compared to the torrents of the American Falls thundering down on you.

Canada is a good place to stone. Well, actually anywhere along Niagara Falls is a good place to stone, in good weather. Because stoning is free, it's the best thing to do on the Canadian side of the falls.


On the way back, judgement. But before that I noticed a sign demarcating the middle of the Niagara River i.e. the actual border between the two nations.


And not being able to resist the temptation I hopped back and forth across the line. So how many times did I cross the border? I don't know. At least 20.

Oh come on, it's at least more sensitive than hopping back and forth across the Berlin Wall. Done that too, by the way.

Anyway upon reentering the states, there was no problem at all. In fact, they didn't even stamp or chop anything when we came back in. Oh well.

By now the sun was setting over Canada. By the way, over here at Niagara Falls, Canada is actually to the west of USA. Sadly by the time we reach the Niagara Falls State Park, the sun had already gone down. But still, the pictures were quite nice.

Still, perhaps we should have come earlier - I promised to try to come earlier to capture the sunset over Canada the next day. But what would actually be better is sunrise over the American side, seen from the Canadian side. That would be awesome; the sun peeking over the Falls themselves.

Realistically speaking, however, I knew I wasn't going to wake up early enough to catch that so I guess I'd have to look for pictures from google. That would be simpler than waking up, crossing the border, and crossing back.

By then I, for one, was hungry. We walked back up 3rd street, where all the bars were - bars open till late here. We picked a pizza bar and shared a pizza. Quite nice, even if the bar was completely empty, and the barkeeper was sitting playing one of the arcade games in the bar.

By the time we reached home, it was already 10.30. Not too late, luckily, because we were yet to be shown to our rooms. It was a long day indeed. One more thing left for the day; I needed to fix my credit card issue. Sadly I think I blew a lot of my money on doing so - it was an overseas call to Singapore and they made me wait quite a fair bit. But admittedly it was necessary.

USA: Chapter 5 - The Great New York City Hike

Yesterday was a tiring day, no doubt, and today Pammie would be leaving to go home from JFK. But we had till 11.30 to check out so we took our own sweet time. After all, Pammie only had to leave for the airport around 12. And I was still unsure of how to survive the day with my huge luggage.

The tentative plan, for me, was to store away the big backpack at a luggage storing facility, and then go around with the smaller luggage for the rest of the day. I could have easily stored the luggage at the hostel, but it was all the way in Brooklyn. And as we found out from the last few days, there is nothing in Brooklyn. I mean, I didn't want to go all the way back to Brooklyn just to collect my bags and then all the way back to Manhattan to take the night bus to Niagara Falls. After storing the luggage away, I would be freed up to do anything I like.

So we start the day, me donning my new ubuntu t-shirt for the first time. Exiting the hostel, it gets its first like. Apparently it's normal in America to tell someone that. "I like your shirt... "

At Morgan Avenue, we split; Pammie was going eastward towards JFK and I was going westward towards Manhattan.

And so I was finally alone.

I wouldn't actually be alone for that long, perhaps a few hours only, since Nat and Mat would be coming into New York from Boston at 6pm. They would only be here for a night and would have to fly off to Chicago the next morning.

Anyway, back to being alone.

As planned, I stopped at 34th Street to drop off my luggage. I had found the place, Schwarz Luggage Storage or something like that, on the website. But I walked and walked along 34th Street but I couldn't find the place. Maybe the website was outdated. That's the problem with the internet, archaic remains of websites sometimes aren't taken down.

Then it turned out that I had been walking along 34th Street, and the place was on 36th. Too bad I discovered this after I embarrassed myself by asking a receptionist at one of the buildings on 34th. And I had to apologise to the Internet. Anyway the place was quite shady, but still, can't ask for too much. I could dump my bags off there and walk relatively freely then on. I say relatively because I was too cheap to spend another $7 on storing my other bag. Besides, it could be wheeled around, so there was no problem.

Still a little paranoid I went to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to check out where I'd be taking the bus from later. It turned out that I could actually collect my ticket, so I did. It also turned out that I could have just left my luggage with the greyhound luggage storage people. Same price.

So, in general, all things settled. Now, I was free.

One thing that I didn't get to do, which I wanted to do, if you recall, was visit the Natural History Museum. Now, that's on 81st Street. I was on 36th. So after weighing in the pros and cons of walking there (save $2.25 vs wasting a lot of time and energy) I decided to walk.

After what felt like forever I finally reached Central Park, at Columbus Circle. I was shouting 'Hooray!' for a bit before I realised that I'd only completed half the journey. So I just pacified myself with kebab rice, again, and walked into Central park to sit down on a bench and eat.

Once again, it was disappointing. Perhaps the one at Walls Street really was that good. I shall recommend it. Its at the further end towards the water along Walls Street. I think the second last stall before you reach the water.

Anyway, back to Central Park. Needed to get moving again otherwise I'd be late to meet Nat and Mat.

Another half length of Central Park and I was finally outside the Natural History Museum. Again. But this time I had the time to go in.

Apparently there is a completely variable entrance fee/contribution to enter the museum, but I paid the suggested price, $12. I think just being Asian entitles me to paying half that amount, though. As I think most of my Asian brethren would testify to.

I walked slowly around the ground floor - Asian and African mammals and civilisations. Only the curator knows why it's grouped that way. As a builder of my own civilisations, I could empathise and understand very well what went through the process of building the civilisations. In fact, under the african civilisations section, one of my favourite civilisations, the Malinese Civilisation, was on display.




I think ever since I started playing Civilisations, I can never study History.

Next to some exhibit of a Chinese man, I finally decided to rest on a seat. And pulled out my map of the Museum. And realised that there was more than one floor in the museum. But time was already running thin; I wanted to avoid the rush hour jam going down to Penn Station.

The dinosaur exhibits for which this museum is so famous for was all the way on the top floor. So I decided to give the other floors a miss (American Mammals, Birds etc) and head straight up to the dinosaurs.


Amazingly I realised that some things have changed since the last time I learnt about dinosaurs. Like they have realised that stegosaurus's plates are probably not a defence mechanism like previously assumed, but instead are there to regulate its body temperature.

However time and energy limitations made my rush through my visit to the dino exhibits, spending less time on it than on either the previous two exhibition halls.

It wasn't really time issue, to tell the truth. It was the energy issue. After all, I was lugging my bag all the way up from 34th Street to 81st Street. Under the hot sun. That does things to you. Tired, I got out of the Museum, having no more energy to find the spot featured in HIMYM where you can hear the whisper on the other side of the room. Go watch it, if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Anyway I sat down in Central Park again, resting, before finally gathering enough energy to overcome the energy barrier and get off my butt. Nat and Mat were already almost reaching Penn Station and I would have to contend with NYC rush hour traffic on the New York Subway.

Ultimately I reached a little late. I couldn't warn them ahead of time, because sadly for all the modernity that the USA enjoys, cell reception cannot penetrate the subway system. And I've finally truly appreciated Singapore phone services that you'll always be able to get, even if you're far underground.

And then I wasn't alone again.

Nat and Mat are my friends from CSS back in Singapore. I realise that I didn't mention this before, but most of the people who came to send me off at Changi were from CSS. Their operation 'send the Indian off to Amrika'. They didn't call it that, but I think it's more apt.

Anyway the reason I mention that is because Nat and Mat were in charge of operation 'welcome Ben to America'. And so they did.


We went for dinner (shepherds' pie) at a pub near the Empire State Building where I actually tasted non-bitter beer. Apparently they have this thing called barley wine. Which is like beer except perhaps higher alcoholic content. I got educated in beers abit by Mat; he's quite knowledgeable in the subject. I think I had a Pale Yale. Not bad. But I went through one beer while Mat went through 3. Not bad either.


I also came face to face with such strict laws against underage drinking, or rather, such strict enforcement of such laws. They even asked us for our ID. Apparently as long as you look below thirty they'll ask you. Also made me wonder why you have so many issues of underage drinking in the movies.

Maybe it's just the movies. Or maybe its the fact that its easier to be underage in America than in Singapore - the age limit is 21 as compared to 18 in Singapore.

I couldn't walk too much after that, so we just walked around a little, in the general direction of the baggage storage area. They had gone up on to the top of the rock when they came to NY earlier (like perhaps 5 days ago), and they said it was amazing. So that renewed my commitment to somehow get yp there.

Finally I collected my bags, and we walked the few streets to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. They waited with me for awhile, sitting on the steps so we couldn't see the no-sitting-on-steps sign, until about 10.30, before cabbing back to their hotel.

The bus had Wifi - I could imagine Henrik Larsson's face light up with delight. Mainly because mine did. However, the bus seats were just too damn comfortable, and so I fell asleep half an hour later. Perhaps it was the lethargy from all today's walking.

I woke up periodically waiting to transfer buses at some particular station - had no idea where but I was quite sure that I had to transfer somewhere. Ultimately my waking up again and again was unjustified because it was a straight bus to Niagara Falls.

Also, I realise that there's a good chance I would be returning from Buffalo using this same bus, since it passed through Buffalo as one of the stops. And also the fact that NYC was en route to Philadephia.

Anyway, it's morning in Niagara Falls; and time for the next chapter.

USA: Chapter 4 - Broadway

Finally I had completely adapted to NYC time. Perhaps that's just because yesterday's walk took too much out of me. Or perhaps it's simply because it'd already been 3 days. Anyway, we had to be in Times Square by 12nn today, because I was going to meet Lai there.

He's on a work and travel program to New York, Long Island to be precise, and he was on off today, so we arranged to meet up. And there's no place as central as Times Square, as far as New York City is concerned. Well, plus the fact that Times Square was on today's itinerary.




We reached Times Square punctually - Lai was a little late, perhaps 5 min. But hey, Long Island isn't near to Manhattan. Meanwhile Pammie went to queue to buy tickets for herself to watch a Broadway play. I decided not to because I wanted to perhaps hang out with Lai, rather than spend a few hours and many more dollars watching a musical.

However, two things happened. First, Pammie was declined buying the tickets; they only open the counters at 2pm. Second, Lai was interested in watching a Broadway Play too. So, merely for the experience of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch a play on Broadway, I agree to catch it.

But, as I said, we had 2 hours to kill before the counters opened again. So we walk around,



and return to Shake Shacks. With Lai, this time. And this time, I have proper photos.



By the time we return, at 1.45pm, there was already an insanely long queue outside the TKTS counter. You'd almost think we were in Singapore queuing for Hello Kitty (remember that craze?). But - as mentioned in one episode of 'The Noose' - queuing does have benefits i.e. meeting interesting people. We queued in front of a friendly old white lady; I think at that time the obvious conversation starter was the weather. Sweltering heat, by the way. But can't complain too much; the people in the other queue were actually in the sun most of the time, while our queue was mainly under the shade. Still hot, though.

Now, the amazing thing about old people is that they usually have such interesting stories which they are more than willing to share. But I think her stories were a level up.

She used to be - get this - a broadway dancer. In Broadway. In fact, her theatre was St James's. Later, coincidentally, we would get tickets to watch our play at that very theatre. So one can imagine that frail old lady was once jumping around and dancing as the new generation does now. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back to the queue. There was a tout selling tickets to Wicked there. Wicked is a play, by the way. Supposed to be very good. But you can't buy it at the counter. Why? Because TKTS counters sell discounted, last minute tickets; those that can't be sold at higher prices. So Wicked is never on the board. I pitied the tout; he was sitting on a fold-up chair under the hot sun trying to sell tickets.

Interestingly enough, apparently what he is doing is either perfectly legal, or the security don't care him (ahh, Singlish...). I think someone questioned his credibility before buying tickets from him and HE, the tout, called out to security.

We finally bought the cheapest tickets on sale - to Hair - a show about the hippie (counter-cultural) movement during the Vietnam War. So we now had a few hours to kill before 7pm.

After that we walked for a bit. Originally I had intended to visit the Empire State Building - and go up - because well, its an iconic part of New York City. But it was too far downtown so we decided to skip it. According to Lai, it's not that worth it. I mean, similar logic applies to why you don't go up the Statue of Liberty - you don't have a very nice view of the Empire State Building from the top of the Empire State Building.

The Top-of-the-rock offered a better view. Plus it was relatively nearby. However, in the end, the price to go to the top of the rock was too steep for Lai or Pammie. I thought perhaps if the views were that good, it would be worth going up, but I thought better of it. No point going up alone, I thought. Flashback to 'no point having such an awesome view and no one to share it with'

So we contented ourselves with the views from the bottom of the rock.


Pammie wanted to see Grand Central Station, so we went there after visiting the bottom-of-the-rock and stoning there for awhile. Upon reaching the station, it becomes quite apparent what is so amazing about that station. It didn't really resemble a train station, more so a grand dining hall.




And again we rested there, sitting on some seats in the basement of this fascinating building.

After that, Pammie wanted to go shopping and I didn't, so we split, agreeing to meet up at 6.30 outside the theatre. I wanted to see the United Nations building, having built it so many times playing Civilisations.


However, it was quite disappointing ultimately because the UN building closes to visitors at around 4.30. And it was already 5pm by the time we reached there. So we decided to just walk over to the Singapore Embassy nearby - so patriotic right?

Actually Lai wanted to know when the National Day Makan session was going to be held this year.

But the embassy, too, was closed. So we trudged back to Broadway after that double disappointment.

The queue outside St James's Theatre was already quite long - I can't think of any reason why, since it wasn't free seating. Perhaps shear enthusiasm about catching the play.

Bursting with this enthusiasm, we joined the queue. And Pammie joined us from her shopping escapade soon after. I think she bought a dress and was very happy about it.

The climax of today - the broadway show!

Stepping into the theatre lobby in itself was a grand experience - I felt like one of those pretentious snobs from the Titanic. Cool shit feeling, by the way. I say my good fellow... Ahh...

Anyway we were shown to our seats - $61 gets you that service at the very least. And suddenly I felt caught in the moment. I was going to catch a Broadway show!


Sadly, and obviously, no photos allowed during the play; and I'm not going to spoil the story for anyone. But what I can say was that, it being on the counter cultural revolution in America, was quite interesting. Just last semester I had taken a module on Film and Religion that caused me to never be able to look at a film in the same way - at least some bit of close reading was bound to happen, even if I were watching an ordinary film.

This, however, was no ordinary film. It was a musical. On the hippie movement.

This is significant because on of the films we studied for the course was Jesus Christ, Superstar. Which is also a musical on the hippie movement. So it was very interesting (and relatively easy) close reading the play.



I explained the close reading to the other two, at least my interpretation of the film, over dinner. Dinner was kebabs again. Not comparable to the one at Walls Street, but the dining experience made up for it. We sat munching our dinner, surrounded by the lights and billboards of Times Square, sitting comfortably at a table.

USA: Chapter 3 - Downtown Manhattan

Again, I woke up early today, albeit not as early as yesterday. Slowly and steadily adjusting to NYC time. Pammie was out cold for quite some time; so I just spent the earlier part of the morning relaxing and waiting for 8am when she promised to wake up. Breakfast would end at 9am, and breakfast at this hostel was quite something to look forward to, as I mentioned yesterday. Today, I actually took a picture with my Joghurt mit Cereal.


It was a good hour or so before we mustered enough energy to overcome the inertia that was prompting us to sit on our butts at the hostel itself. After all, it was quite a nice environment at the hostel itself. But, today was going to be a long day.

A bit of good news first; we could now comfortably take the L-train, and hence didn't have to walk all the way down to Little Puerto Rico just to take the subway. Finding the station was a little tricky - it was kind of hidden by bushes; almost as easy to miss as the Leaky Cauldron.

But once in the subway system, the trip downtown was simple. The train went under the East River, rather than over it. And, as I mentioned yesterday, you can actually feel the sharp drop in altitude when that happens.

The whole itinerary was ripped from a wiki-answer response to a question posed by a user; so the first stop was actually Walls Street. Later we realised that perhaps the answer given was not the best one, because we ended up backtracking quite a fair bit during this tour of South Manhattan.

What is in South Manhattan? Well, Walls Street, for one, as mentioned above. The World Trade Center used to be here prior to 911, so now its the site of Ground Zero (which I wanted to visit, though Pammie had no interest for it). The Statue of Liberty - well its not really on Manhattan, but the ferry to go there is. And the Brooklyn Bridge too, which connects Manhattan to Brooklyn.

We started at Walls Street - at Trinity Church, to be specific. If anyone has watched National Treasure, they'd know that there's treasure buried under this church, under Parkington Lane in the crypt of the Church. My enthusiasm for visiting such a site was not shared by Pammie. Not entirely unexpected, though, I should add.

I watch too much TV.

From Trinity Church we saw a sign pointing us a few blocks northwest towards the WTC memorial site. So, I managed to convince Pammie to come along to see the memorial site. But Pammie soon lost interest and was distracted by PayLess, a shoe shop along the way there. So we split for awhile while she goes shopping and I go to see the memorial site.

To be honest, I heard of the memorial site more from the spoof news network Onion News Network rather than from legitimate news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk0M0PsaTLk&feature=BFa&list=SL&index=8

Then we backtracked towards Trinity Church and Walls Street, which is just outside Trinity Church actually ("Heere at the Walls" - another quote from National Treasure). But I must mention, Walls Street took me a little by surprise. For one, I had never anticipated that it was a pedestrian street. But it is.



Walls Street, in case you didn't know, is the location of the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), where I think lots and lots of money flows through every day. History has proven time and again that when this place crashes, the world tends to go down like dominoes. But that's business and that's boring. What's interesting is what is flying OUTSIDE Walls Street.


Mind you, that is NOT a result of photoshop.

Yes, I was wondering the same question as you - What on earth is the Singapore Flag doing flying outside Walls Street? I mean, I think there's a good chance that I could ask most of the passers-by what flag that is and not many would actually know.

Should I have done that? Mm.

Anyway, walking down Walls Street, we get to the riverside; but not before passing by some delicious smelling Briyani Rice street-vendor. Definitely worth a visit soon. But first, to the Staten Island Ferry.

Now, there's nothing really at Staten Island itself worth mentioning. What's awesome about it, however, is that its connected to New York by ferry. The ferry, interestingly, is FREE. Better yet, the ferry ride offers great views of the Statue of Liberty.


On board the ferry, I think most of the people were actually only there for the view, rather than actually intending to get to Staten Island. And all these people, together with us, of course, got off the ferry at Staten Island and quickly reboarded the next one headed back to New York.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the map, you'd realise that Staten Island, as well as Liberty Island in fact, are actually closer to New Jersey than New York. In fact, the waters surrounding the two islands actually belong to New Jersey. As yet, I'm not too sure how different the laws are in these two states; but I'm quite sure that state policies and laws do differ from state to state.

After getting back to New York, we were famished; and that Briyani Rice was definitely calling to us. So we obliged.

It was fabulous Briyani Rice - even better than some that we have back home. I think it was a cross between Kebab Rice and Briyani Rice. Definitely worth another visit.

We backtracked further after that - back up Walls Street, in fact. All because we were heading towards Chinatown and Little Italy, as per the instructions from the WikiAnswers.

Ultimately we look at the map and realise its just too far, so we just head to our last item on our itinerary - the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge is not as fantastic as the Golden Gate Bridge, but its iconic its own way. From the other side, however, there's a great view of Manhattan. That's apparently one thing there is in Brooklyn - a good view of Manhattan.


By then, Pammie was really really tired from all the walking - we had walked about 8.5km by then. We wanted to get Pizza from one of the shops - Grimaldi's - but they don't sell by the slice. So we decide to go back to Little Puerto Rico and find something to eat there.

In the end we ended up eating Pizza anyway - and not by the slice. But it was $5 for a whole pepperoni pizza. How could one pass up that opportunity? We ate a few slices on a bench in Little Puerto Rico itself; dodgy to the max, by the way. And then afterwards carried and ate as we walked back to the hostel; it was getting a little too late to stay out, even in such a safe neighbourhood as Little Puerto Rico.