Birthday Trip, New York City, May 2015 (Day 7)

A week of NYC already, guys! But first, please read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 and Day 6 first k. 

We only did two main activities on this day, I think, but the day felt packed somehow. Probably because of aaaaallllllllll the walking we did for a pre-scheduled Little Italy, Chinatown and Soho tour that we booked under New York Pass and the shopping run we did after that. But let's start our cerita from the morning dulu k.

12 May 2015 (Day 7)

- Museum of Modern Art
- Little Italy, Chinatown and Soho tour

We started out a little late on this day, had breakfast at our favourite deli (it's just beside our hotel!) then while waiting for Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) to open at 10.30am, we browsed through their in-house store. So many clever and artistic products on sale and we almost bought a Van Gogh replica piece for display in our living room! Unfortunately, its dimensions wouldn't be able to fit into the frame that we already bought for our living room. Shame.

Anyway, we were so distracted by the store sampai we didn't realize the museum was suddenly filled with throngs of visitors and queues were starting to snake! By the way, if you're entering the museum via New York Pass, make sure you're in the correct queue okay, it's shorter! I almost waited in the wrong (and longer) queue but realized it within a few seconds and quickly went to the correct one. 

I should probably mention that Saliheen and I only allocated about 30 to 45 minutes to browse through MOMA because we both agreed that we're not art enthusiasts and have almost zero knowledge and appreciation for art. Plus someone told me that the MOMA is pretty boring so I figured we won't need to spend much time in there, just jejak masuk to look see look see apa yang ada. 

Turns out we were GROSSLY MISTAKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Maybe because they were holding several exhibitions that we were super interested in during our visit and/or we underestimated what MOMA can really offer, but Saliheen and I looked at each other in despair (hahaha!) when we realized we had to leave for the next item on our schedule. Mehhhhhhh. Even considered forfeiting the next thing on our itinerary but decided we didn't want to do that either so we left MOMA with heavy hearts sigh sigh SIGH. 

If we ever have the rezeki to return to NYC one day, MOMA will be the first place I want to return to!!!!! And I will spend at least two hours minimum in there!!! There was quite a crowd while we were there (but still comfortable enough to browse in peace) so I guess it's not just us who feel the same way. One thing I regret is allocating more time for American Museum of Natural History (which turned out to be a total snoozefest for us) instead of channeling that time to MOMA (which kept us captivated for the mere 45 minutes while we were there.)

Even though we were so heavy-hearted to leave MOMA for the next activity, we tried to keep an open mind and hoped that our pre-scheduled guided tour around Little Italy, Chinatown and Soho would be half as interesting. There were about 15 to 20 pax in our group and we got Rachel as our tour guide... she was so excitable and so animated and so earnest in sharing about New York City,  that it was hard to find fault with the tour hehe. 

We enjoyed the 2-hour long walking tour, although this is probably something we'll do only once and not something we'd recommend if you'd rather walk around and get lost amongst the streets yourself. Saliheen and I wanted to learn in depth about the different neighbourhoods from a local/almost-local so this guided tour was suitable for us + we redeemed it from our New York passes, anyway. Saliheen was especially excited because he wanted to see the locations where triad members / mafia members used to clash or have a stronghold of (He read about the gangs in this part of NYC from a book titled Born to Kill by  David Thai) haha. Tapi memang interesting ah.

An Indonesian and Malaysian food restaurant we saw in Chinatown. Just a few steps away from this restaurant, our tour guide showed us the place where members from different Chinese triads clashed in a bloody fight oooOooOoOooh

Rachel also showed us the fourth floor apartment where Heath Ledger (10 Things I Hate About You, Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight) died from drug overdose. As in, she showed us the building la, not like we got to go inside the unit or what. It's the white building shown in the picture above the Little Italy signboard picture. 

Can't really remember what we did after that (Padan muka, siapa suruh hegeh hegeh with the blog entries) but I think this was when we walked back to the Soho area (the guided tour ended at Chinatown) and Saliheen went on another gila shopping spree. As always, ini budak LAWAN TAUKE. Tak tau la tauke mana dia lawan, tauke lori balak agaknye.

Oh yaaaaa, we also went for another round of cereal milk ice-cream from Momofuku (part ni is aku punya kehendak hehehe) and tapao-ed platters from Halal Guys and went to visit his friend who just started staying in NYC. Had a nice dinner and chat with his friend, and kita feeling feeling la sangat inside his apartment hehehe. Also grabbed mini cupcakes from Baked By Melissa on the way back to our hotel, they were okay la, harapkan cute aje. 

Below are pictures of the aforesaid mini cupcakes and the Late Show with David Letterman signboard which we passed by while on our way to his friend's apartment: 

Eh eh, macam tau je print advertisement dalam subway ni.