Birthday Trip, New York City, May 2015 (Day 4)

So after Day 1 and Day 2 and a challenging Day 3 (haha) in New York City, I thought kita dah buang suay already! 

But as you may already know by now, we had an issue with our pre-arranged helicopter ride (as blogged here) on Day 4, and had to change our itinerary for Day 4 to this:

9 May 2015 (Day 4)
[New York Pass activated]

- New York Water Taxi Ride
- Jane's Carousel
- Luna Park & Deno's Wonder Wheel (Coney Island)
- Madame Tussauds NYC

After we realized we'd have to go for our helicopter ride at a different time, Saliheen and I sat down at a nearby park to figure out how to reconfigure our schedule, and that was when I had an idea - since we were at the pier, planned to go to Brooklyn on this day, and we had to activate the New York Pass on this day anyway... why not take advantage of the all-day access pass on the New York Water Taxi, offered under the New York Pass?????

Coincidentally the pier where it departs from is just beside the heliport (where we were supposed to go for our helicopter ride)! So ape lagi.....

Marvelled at the sight of Brooklyn Bridge as we docked at our Brooklyn Bridge Park stop.

It turned out to be very nice and very calming to lepak at the top deck of the water taxi, just admiring the view. The air was very cold since it was in the morning, and I actually liked how the fogginess added to the allure and atmosphere of the area. The water taxi we took had a few drop-off points but since we wanted to go Brooklyn, we dropped off at the first one which was the Brooklyn Bridge Park stop.

It is at this point where I should probably admit the one and only frivolous reason why I wanted to go to Brooklyn is:

THIS BABY THIS BEAUTY RIGHT HERE.

I loved it SO much, I rode it twice. (That's what she said) Do I look like I care what others would think of a fully grown adult woman who willingly and eagerly queues up with little children and ride the carousel twice in a row? Hell no. 

I love the fact that parts of Jane's Carousel have been around since 1922 (you can read more about its history here) and kept wondering what the carousel has "seen" through the years, how it must have been like in the US in 1920s and wondered about the people who sat on the carousel seats, and their stories.

After my fun on the carousel, we walked down the Brooklyn area to look look see see, popped into Foragers Market to look for my Dona Chai concentrate which was out of stock!!!!! Rude!!! Part part gini buat aku pasrah ok!!! HAIZ

After that, we took the train down to Coney Island to check out their boardwalk and theme parks.

Always wanted to know what candy apple tastes like and I got to live my personal American dream lolol. Turns out it is just an apple (I chose green apple) covered with thick and sticky caramel sauce and rainbow rice. Sheesh. The sauce "melted" pretty quickly and I can totally understand now why we don't have this at our local funfairs/pasar malam.

I should probably mention that there are two different theme parks at Coney Island. I Googled for the name of the theme park in Coney Island before we arrived in NYC and saw the name Luna Park - I assumed that it was one giant theme park but turns it is actually 2 different ones located side by side - the iconic Wonder Wheel belongs to Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park whereas the popular The Tickler ride and several others belong to Luna Park.

We weren't in the mood to try the rides so we didn't collect the free 4-hour Luna Park wristband redeemable under the New York Pass; we just walked around taking pictures, laughing at stuff and soaking in the atmosphere. 

Oh! Another disappointing thing that happened on this day: we didn't have much time left to travel to Smorgasburg (which is a well-known weekend food market in Brooklyn)!!!!! We already wasted so much time waiting for the helicopter ride (ANGRY!) and travelling to Coney Island took some time, so we had to skip Smorgasburg in the end. I was looking forward to feast at Smorgasburg very much okay :(

Ok, back to the rest of Day 4! Since we already purchased the New York Water Taxi's all-day access pass, Saliheen and I decided to catch another ride, but this time back to the Manhattan area. We didn't plan on visiting the Statute of Liberty so early in our trip but since it already came with the water taxi pass and was on the way to our next destination, why the hell not, right?

We had some time left when we arrived back to Manhattan so we utilized the New York Pass and redeemed entry tickets to Madame Tussauds NYC. Would have totally chosen camera-friendly outfits and I would've worn make up if we knew we were gonna head to Madame Tussauds to ambik ambik gambar!!!!! We were supposed to have a different itinerary if the helicopter ride had gone through as planned, remember.....

May the odds be ever in your favour!!!!!!!!!!

(Eh hai, siapa kat sini massive fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, angkat tangan dengan I pls)

I don't really understand the attraction or the hype of Madame Tussauds' wax museums honestly, but I figured since we were in NYC and had complimentary entry, we might as well check it out. It was oookay lah but not enough for me to return to Madame Tussauds again if I ever return to NYC. I don't think I'll even bother stepping into another Madame Tussauds (anywhere else in the world, even less so the one in Singapore), unless I have free tickets and/or I have children in the future and wax figures are their sort of thing (I sincerely hope not).

The only interesting aspect for me was the fact that all the wax figures are of the same height and measurements as the actual persons so it was quite cool to see which celebrities/icons were taller than expected / as short as us, etc. Hehehe.

Walked back to the hotel to wash up then walked down to 53rd Street and 6th Avenue to buy dinner from the crazy popular The Halal Guys cart! Queue was long but moved quickly. We weren't expecting much at first but the chicken and gyro over rice we had turned out to be really good!!! Lived up to their hype as the best halal food in the city.

Seriously, if you're ever in NYC, don't bother buying from other halal carts (unless you are dying from hunger and not within walking distance of a Halal Guys foodcart haha). The other halal carts are overpriced and their food tastes like the tears of a fallen superstar - salty and bloody disappointing. 

Picture of my gyro over rice platter. This is plain without their famous hot sauce and white sauce because kita kentalan buah lychee and didn't know we were supposed to add the sauces ourselves (the bottles are at the side of the cart) hahahaha. We only figured it out only after this picture was taken and we had a few bites.

But at least that kental lycheeness made us discover that their platters taste good even without the sauces okay. Still much better with the sauces of course but here's a word of caution - their hot sauce is pedas gila babz!!!!!!! We cannot figure out what it is that makes their hot sauce so pedas but most likely cili padi seguni dua ah. For someone who makan pedas, even my pits basah kuyup and I got myself a misai made of water droplets during my meal hahaha. If you tak makan pedas then suspect kuat their hot sauce will make you berak keluar api HAHAHA BYE