New York!

31st August 2008 (U.S Time)

-Sunrise seen from Sheraton Newark Hotel-

Had to wake up early in the morning to meet up with the other ppl in the tour gp and start touring the east coast of USA and Canada. The tour gp consists of ppl not only from Singapore, but from other countries such as China, Indonesia, Australia, Canada etc. But most of them are chinese and they converse in chinese or canto.. so our tour guide wld explain things 3 times - in english, chinese and canto.. haha.. was quite irritating at first.. but now i have gotten use to it :):)

From Newark, we travelled to Chinatown in Manhattan to eat a quick breakfast.

-Chinatown: super quiet (and smelly) early in the morning-

We then proceeded on our tour of Manhattan, New York.

First up was to vist ground zero (site of the former World Trade Center)

Then we walked to Trinity Church.. *remember National Treasure??* :)

Nearby was the New York Stock Exchange along Broad Street.

And adjacent to it, along Wall Street, is the Federal Hall National Museum where President George Washington was sworned into office.

Further down Wall Street is the Trump Building!

We then walked to habour to take a Water Taxi to see the sights of New York along the Hudson River, and most importantly, to see Statue of Liberty!!

-The Water Taxi-

Along Hudson River, there is the Manhattan Bridge and the Booklyn Bridge to connect the two places together.

-Booklyn Bridge-

-Manhattan Bridge-

Other then separating Manhattan from Booklyn, the Hudson River also separates Manhattan from New Jersey.

-New Jersey- -Hudson River- -Manhattan-

*Notice the Empire State Building in the skyline of Manhattan?*

Next up is the main attraction of the boat ride.. Statue of Liberty! *Nice!*

After that the boat made its way back to shore, passing by Governance Island and Booklyn.

-Governance Island-

-Booklyn-

Also got to see some new art installation along the Huson River. They called it the New York Waterfall and in total, there are four of them.




After the boat ride, we travelled to the United Nations Building. Nothing much there as we couldn't enter the conference room.. so we could only view some exhibitions

-Peace!-

From UN Building, we travelled to Times Square!

But first we went to vist the Madam Tussauds Wax Museum. Got to rub shoulders with many famous personnels. :)

But verdict is that the musuem was nothing great and i think the museum in other countries wld be much nicer. The supposedly haunted house within the museum was also not scary..


*can u identify the stars?*

-These wax figures were a salute to the fallen firemen of 911-

Finally Times Square!!

The place was mainly filled with tourists but it was still an experience to walk down the street in TIMES SQUARE! :)

Too bad we didn't have much time to walk around.. so we could not enter any shops to see see look look.. only could just walk through the streets.

-A store full of M&Ms!-

-A Hersey's Store-

Second last stop was to Rockefeller Tower. Just a quick stop outside the building to take some photos.

(The Rockefeller family owns quite a number of buildings in New York!)

And the last stop of the day is the Empire State Building! Got to sit a sky ride that basically let one have a bird eye view of the whole New York like you are sitting in a helicopter. Something of a simulator.

After the ride, we proceeded to the top of the Empire State Building for the view of New York!

All thanks to the clear weather, the view was awesome!

-The Empire State Building in the distance-

Then it was time to leave New York and head to Philadelphia. :(

Manhattan Syline from the bus

Stayed for the night in Hyatt Regency Penn's Landing

Overall it was an exciting day in New York, but if given the chance, i would have like to stay longer to explore NY further.. such as visiting Central Park, Madison Square Garden, be able to explore Time Square, and catch a Broadway!

so New York, i'll be back! :D

-Philadelphia and Washington D.C up next!-