Last full day in NYC already, everybaaady!!!!! But before I start all the reminiscing and perasaan pedih pedih, you all please read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6 and Day 7 first ok.

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Guess what we did on our last full day in NYC, you guys????? We woke up bright and early to......

..... see the Statue of Liberty!!!!! Again!!! Kwa kwa kwaaaaa.

You'd think that after we saw the Statue of Liberty via water on our 4th day and via air on our 6th day, we'd be very bosan with that statue already, right. But nooOoOoooOooOOooo, laki aku masih ah nak pergi visit the lady herself! This time betul betul on her own island i.e. Liberty Island pulak.

I asked him over and over again, you betul masih nak pergi tengok? You betul belum puas? We've seen the Statue of Liberty upclose and personal already, two times somemore! But mati matiiiii he insisted, mati mati dia nak jejak Liberty Island itself. Padahal pergi dekat dekat pun bukannya boleh pegang bontot!!!!! Haiiiiiii gasak kau lah nak.

13 May 2015 (Day 8)

- Liberty Island (Statue of Liberty)
- Ground Zero - 9/11 Memorial (North & South Pool)
- 9/11 Tribute Center
- Wall Street Walking Tour
- Brooklyn Bridge

Went to redeem our free ferry tickets to Liberty Island (via New York Pass) and the morning crowd wasn't too bad. We didn't have to wait long either, although everyone were subjected to strict US airport-style security checks before boarding the ferry. Had a very, very nice clear view of the Manhattan skyline as we made our way to Liberty Island via ferry, and once we arrived, it was time to check out the lady herself.

The bontot that my husband did not get to pegang.

The ferry operator that we got was Statue Cruises, by the way! If you're not redeeming it under the New York Pass then the regular fee is USD18.00 per adult. Kalau nak naik sampai to the crown of Statue of Liberty, add another USD3.00.

We chose not to naik all the way to the crown because it is 377 steps (via spiral staircase!) all the way up and there is no elevator access from the top of the pedestal to the crown platform. Thanks, but NO THANKS. Siang siang I told Saliheen already, jangan berangan nak naik sampai ke crown, unless he wants to go through another one of my meltdown episodes inside the Statue of Liberty ala my meltdown while trekking in Ubud ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

If you don't want to pay to see the Statue of Liberty, don't mind taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty from afar, don't mind not stepping foot on Liberty Island, and don't mind squashing with 10 million other tourists and locals (who use this mode of transportation to travel to and fro work) then the free Staten Island Ferry will be your best bet. The ferry (which is ginormous by the way) will pass by Statue of Liberty and you can take pictures as it does.

Tak free VS Free

I have to admit I actually enjoyed visiting Liberty Island and seeing Statue of Liberty up-close and personal hehe! I think it was because queues and waiting times weren't long and irritating and it was pleasantly surreal to see the actual icon of New York towering down on you, y'know? Must say the statue is WAY smaller than I envisioned it to be since I was younger, though. All those TV shows and movies making it seem more gigantic than it really is... Haha rubbish!

We hopped on the subway after that, grabbed food for lunch then walked over to the Ground Zero (9/11 Memorial) to see the North and South Pools which used to be where the two Word Trade Centre buildings used to stand.....

This is the new Freedom Tower, which is next to the North and South pools of Ground Zero.

We also visited the 9/11 Tribute Center (entry tickets under New York Pass) to see the artifacts and memorial pieces from the tragedy. I will reserve Saliheen's and my opinions about the September 11 attacks because it is a very sensitive and controversial matter after all, but when we were in the 9/11 Tribute Center, all I wanted to do was remember that there were real human lives lost to such horrible and senseless attacks on that unfortunate day :(

I think I was the most affected when I saw the memorial corner (the one with tissue boxes!!!) where there were pictures of all the innocent victims who died during the September 11 attacks. Took the time to look at every single picture and wondered about their hopes and dreams, their aspirations, and their families and friends who they didn't get to go home to..... I imagined packing Saliheen off to work in the morning and then receiving a phone-call telling me that his office building has collapsed after getting hit by a plane a few hours later and my eyes just started watering OKAY.

After about an hour in the memorial centre, we went on to a guided tour which was pretty nearby - a Wall Street walking tour by Wall Street Walks this time because we wanted to learn more about the workings of Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange and the financial district in New York. This is more for Saliheen than me actually, since my mind turns into sludge when it comes to numbers, mathematics and finance hahaha WHAT

Graveyard is not part of the guided tour la haha but we saw a plot of land with gravestones next to all the office buildings and modern skyscrapers while we were making our way to the meeting point. It was pretty cool to see something from 1700s against a 21st century setting! And as always, I start thinking about all the possibilities, the way of living, the occupations, the faces and styles, the cause of deaths of all the names that I saw engraved on each tombstone and how the surroundings must have been like between 1700s to just before the current buildings took over...... FASCINATING!

Anyway. We ended the guided walking tour at the Charging Bull, which is pretty iconic la and I wanted to see it for myself in real life. Turns out this is how it looks like during mid week at 3.00pm:

Lahabao betul. Ni dah macam ape tau, macam Expectation versus Reality.

TENKZ.

Didn't bother to get close to touch or take picture with the Charging Bull because at the end of the day kan, INI SEMUA BERHALA! Hahahahaha abeh bitter eh. Okay la bulls made of bronze frightens me a little anyway, I mean, have you guys heard of the brazen bull torture method????? THAT SHIT NASTY.

Once the tour was over, we went to Brooklyn Bridge next! I was exhausted gila after the Wall Street walking tour but how can I not step foot onto Brooklyn Bridge while in NYC kan?! Terpaksa semangatkan diri. Had to walk quite a fair bit before we were really, truly standing on the Brooklyn Bridge but don't worry, there wasn't any epic meltdown, just a really satisfying feeling of accomplishment hahahaha

Went to makan at City Kitchen at ROW NYC after that, the concept is something like our local food courts...? The whole place is air-conditioned, and has about 9 to 10 F&B stalls with popular brand names in NYC.

I mention this because this is one of the makan places that I would return to if I ever patah balek NYC. No halal certified stores though, so if you was was then this makan place is not for you. But if you don't mind checking it out, I recommend the lobster roll set from Luke's Lobster! Much yums. Doughnuts were from Dough, and they were one of the food items I wanted to eat so badly in NYC so - ting ting ting - achievement unlocked! Hehe.

The doughnuts were pretty delish by the way, but I think it might have been better if I had chosen a conventional flavour like chocolate instead of my poppy seed lemon doughnut. Chose it just because poppy seeds are banned in Singapore so kirakan macam mana punya badass ah makan benda yang ada poppy seeds HAHAHAHAHA BYE LA

Went back to the hotel to wash up then we went out to borong the last bits of souveniers to bring home, grabbed a tub of our favourite Magnolia Bakery's banana pudding and takeaway platters from The Halal Guys food-cart then sat down on the famous red steps in Times Square, just eating, chatting, people watching and taking everything in.

We must have spent at least 2 hours on the steps, watching the world go by and enjoying Times Square as it pulsated with its bright lights and loud sounds and almost bursting from its colourful stream of wide-eyed tourists, eager business peddlers and shady characters haha. We left Times Square at around midnight, buzzing from the crazy energy that Times Square fed us with, but also feeling sad knowing that this was the last night we'd be able to that... for now.

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