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.

Birthday Trip, New York City, May 2015 (Day 2)

After recovering from Day 1 with a full night of sleep, we went out bright and early for our Day 2 in New York City :D

(Little did I know that this would be the only day my carefully crafted schedule will go as originally planned.....)

7 May 2015 (Day 2)

- Explored Chelsea Market
- Explored The High Line
- Went Shopping at Soho
- Coffee at Happy Bones (Broome Street)
- Visited Flatiron Building
- Chilled out at Henley Vaporium
- Shopped at Times Square

I was quite excited to go to Chelsea Market because it looks quirky (I like quirky) and has so many stores selling artisanal stuff, mostly food! I wasn't that blown away by my Chelsea Market experience though - I mean, I liked it, just that it wasn't as interesting as I hoped. Might be because we went there a little too early in the morning or bought the wrong things? The crepe and doughnuts we ate weren't that phenomenal, although I did like my rainbow cookie from Eleni's. But I mean... it's a rainbow cookie seh. You cannot not like a rainbow cookie seh.

Walked over to The High Line next, which was nice, and has an interesting history - it is a public park which used to be a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. I wasn't that keen to go initially because I'm not a big fan of parks but it is in every single Top 10 list of places to go to in NYC hahahaha siak ah, takkan tak pergi kan kalau dah gitu?! We had a nice time chilling with our coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee (they had a pop-up counter when we were there) anyway so it wasn't a wasted trip. A place to go at least once if you're ever in NYC, I guess!

Some pictures from our trip to Chelsea Market and The High Line:

Next, we went shopping in Soho! Mainly for Saliheen because all his favourite brands are there - Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream, A Bathing Ape, Stussy, The Hundreds, etc. Member shopping baju macam nak stock up for sepuluh tahun haha. I don't blame him though, because most stores had good solid designs in his size and at affordable prices!!!

All my chubby people friends, you know how difficult it is to cari baju yang fitting baik but won't be so expensive and buat your kocek koyak right. (Although technically if it fits well, it shouldn't make your kocek literally koyak right..... geddit? geddit??? HAHAHA I AM SO HILARZ SOMEONE PLZ JUST KILL MY VIBE NAO)

Ended our his shopping binge at Broome Street, where we grabbed coffee from Happy Bones. Wanted to sit down, rest our feet and ambik gambar hipster kopi atas meja but the space is super small and crowded so kita tapao je. Kwa kwa.

Took the train to Flatiron district, where we gawked at the Flatiron Building pulak. I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be quite magnificent in real life... no wonder it's an NYC icon and possibly the most photographed building in the world! The structure of the building is pretty cool actually, the building looks 'flat' if viewed from another angle like this. (Also, I got a little too excited when I saw a video clip of Flatiron Building in an old 'Friends' episode that I watched on my flight back to Singapore hahaha)

Walked to Henley Vaporium (a vape lounge) because... you know... vaping is cool and harmless but (unfortunately) illegal in Singapore so... you know... my husband wanted to try it out. You know, for fun. Not like he already knows what vaping is like or anything like that. And not like we could buy anything and bring them back to Singapore. Kan.

I love the dudes over at Henley Vaporium though, they're so friendly and laidback and not pushy at all. If anyone is into vaping or just want to be educated on what vaping is about, they're the guys you'd want to talk to. No pressure, no sales tactics, just pure desire to share more about vaping and let you see and test what's available in the market.

After that we went back to our hotel, washed up, had dinner then went out to Times Square for more shopping hahaha. I borong baju from Forever 21 and H&M!!!!! Because ada size!!!!! I really cinta sama the Forever 21 and H&M stores in NYC lah, both of them have dedicated plus-size sections so plus-sized girls like me pun boleh membeli belah dengan selesa lololol. And their plus sizes bukan adik adik setakat UK14, UK16 je k, they have sizes up until UK20, UK22 segala k. My only gripe about shopping in NYC is that their closing system is damn merepek lah.

For example, if you shop in the evenings like I did and by the time you nak try or nak bayar it is already near to closing time, there is a high chance most of the dressing rooms or cashiers are closed. Sometimes takde orang pun nak redirect you, other times if you're lucky there will be a sour-faced employee nearby who will tell you which level punya dressing room or cashier is still open. So let's say you're at 4th level but all the cashier counters there are closed, an employee will tell you oh you can go down to 3rd level cashier counters for payment. 

You go down to 3rd level, find out their cashier counters are closed too so you're redirected to 2nd level. You see a line of people waiting to be served at 2nd level's cashier counters so you join the queue. Tiba tiba an angsty bitch of an employee datang raging and screaming that nobody can join the queue at that level already because the cashier counters are also closing and you will have to go down to Level 1 punya cashier counters for payment. (True story bro)

KNNBCCB BILA MAU GAME SIAK. TUNGGU AKU KURUS PE?????

I mean, I understand lah dah closing time and everyone working there needs to do packing and cashier closing but why not close the main entrance to stop people from entering so the human traffic stops??? Let remaining shoppers pay at whichever cashier they are at then once dah takde orang you can start your closing kan??? They were still letting people in when I left k, mampos ah cashier counters kat Level 1, semua korang kena settle. I don't think this is common practice in Singapore right????? Tak kasi chance kat tourists who might not know their usual closing practice langsung!

But whatever. Aku nak complain pun buat ape, since I am willing to close one eye and love my shopping loot unconditionally hahahahaha. Susah datang wei dapat borong baju size UK14 in different cuts and designs at prices like USD16.99 and USD24.99!!!!! Selalunya baju plus size mahal k, al-maklumlah kena pakai kain lebih hahahahaha.

Ok dah, please stay tuned for Day 3 punya story, because on that day, kita punya nasib macam kentang bacin.