Left on 2nd May at 6am, and it was still 2nd May at 3pm in New York. The time in New York is 12 hours behind Singapore, so it was 3rd May 3am in SG!
TRANSPORT
When we reached the JFK airport, we booked a van at the airport. There is this transportation service right in front of the arrival gate and the staff there would assist in getting one for us. For 6 people, it was supposed to be about 68 USD, with the tips, we paid like 90USD to the driver when we reached Flushing ( the place in NY where most Asians stayed) . I am not too sure if that is over priced but since he helped with our luggage very diligently, that amount should be reasonable.
FOOD
Food in Flushing is mostly Asian food, so at least the older folks in my group would not go hungry. By the way, most of the food portions is relatively big, we made a wrong choice by having an order per person the first night. For small eaters, alot of food will go wasted. In NY city, you would see more Western food on the streets, burgers and fast food cafes are pretty common. All restaurants require a 15 to 20 percent gratuity, in other words, tips for the waiter or waitress who is serving us. Anyway we do adhere to this but there was this instance, the waitress served us in a sulky face and i was not very willing, so i just give lesser like 10 percent, she actually requested to be up to 15. Personally, i felt that tips are given for good service, when i patronise your shop, and i am greeted with such unhappy faces, would i enjoy my meal?
Anyway, My cousin joined us the next day and we started planning for the folks. First we decided to go take a trip to NY city to see the statue of liberty and the charging bull and plan a visit to the outlets the next day to get proper shoes.
For travelling around the city, it would be best to get a metro card. We got this metro card for 31 USD each that allows unlimited travel for 7 days. It would be helpful to download a map of the NY subway to help to plan your routes too. The subways can be quite confusing.
And after getting the card, we decided to see the statue of liberty. We took the metro and alight at the South Ferry station. The moment we exit the station, there were people trying to sell their packages for the Liberty cruise. After much negotiation, we got this cruise at about 45 USD per person, with this 2 day free hop on buses by Skyline sightseeing. It does not seem too worth it as we keep missing the timings for the buses and the bus is always crowded too. If you have alot of time, you may want to check out pier 15, that is the place where we board the liberty cruise, there is this office there that also sell the cruise package only. I heard that there is free cruise to see the statue of liberty, but there is always a long queue and i am not very sure which pier to board it from.
Here is the statue of liberty and the sky scrappers in the surrounding. Enjoy!
After that we head to the 911 memorial site and lastly to Times Square at 5th avenue
Everyone loves shopping. It was outlet shopping on the second day. We had our free breakfast and made our way to the...
And after getting the card, we decided to see the statue of liberty. We took the metro and alight at the South Ferry station. The moment we exit the station, there were people trying to sell their packages for the Liberty cruise. After much negotiation, we got this cruise at about 45 USD per person, with this 2 day free hop on buses by Skyline sightseeing. It does not seem too worth it as we keep missing the timings for the buses and the bus is always crowded too. If you have alot of time, you may want to check out pier 15, that is the place where we board the liberty cruise, there is this office there that also sell the cruise package only. I heard that there is free cruise to see the statue of liberty, but there is always a long queue and i am not very sure which pier to board it from.
Here is the statue of liberty and the sky scrappers in the surrounding. Enjoy!
We went to the Wall Street area to look for the charging bull.
After that we head to the 911 memorial site and lastly to Times Square at 5th avenue
Everyone loves shopping. It was outlet shopping on the second day. We had our free breakfast and made our way to the...
Woodbury Premium Outlets.
There are like 220 stores over there, and can seriously shop till you drop. To make things easier, we booked a Woodbury Outlet bus in Flushing which would bring us there and back
www.gotowoodbury.net costs 30usd per person and departs early at 830am or 9am (cannot really remember the exact time) Keep in mind that it is compulsory to tip the driver too. The driver would help go to the counter and pass you a book of vouchers.
It is nearly 2 hours trip from Flushing to the outlet. We reached like 11ish. But let me share my shopping experience. Going with a group is a headache, folks can be pretty undecisive and that results in a lot of waiting time.
"This one seems good but pricey"
" that one like too girly..." " too man..." : this pair can?"...so on and so forth
There are just too many choices. Well in the end, i took near to 2 hours in the first few shops...and that was Nike, buying only two pairs of sports shoes. And with lunch time, i had only about 3 hours left to shop.
And after these 3 hours, i felt that i did not really buy alot.
Let me just summarise what i learnt
1. Do not spend more than half an hour in a shop, 45 minutes maximum. If you like the item, and it feels good, price ok, JUST TAKE AND GO
2. Have to be very focus on what you want to buy, and which shop to go. If you are buying for others, it would be better to get a photo of the item first. By the way, outlets may not have the exact product you want as most are old stocks.
3. There are always some sales assistant at the door, smile at them to see if they would give you vouchers. I received one at Coach which offers 50% for all.
4. Go in small groups of two or three. If there is too many people, time is sure wasted in waiting for each other. I ended up walking around alone.
5. Check out the items in the carts, sometimes you might find some really cheap and good quality branded clothes. I managed to see some, but i have no time to try. :(
It does not help that, it started to rain for awhile and i was stranded in one shop. So somehow a part of me does not feel too good that i spent 30 on transport and yet came back with nothing much.
The next day, we packed our things to go to my cousin's auntie place to put our luggage there and only carry a haversack and smaller bags for the rest of the week. That day, after having lunch at the auntie's place we headed to Bronx to stay in this apartment that i booked from AirBnB for 3 days. I wanted to find a place to stay in Manhattan, but apartments in that area are just too expensive. Bronx is the area where most of the Blacks stay. This family, Julio and Mimi were very nice. Julio welcomed us from the subway station, put our luggage in his car and drove us to the apartment. He introduced us to his wife and daughter too. I was warned to be alert and be very careful when we are out because we are like the minority there.
The apartment was very comfortable, with a kitchen as well. The place we stayed is about 5-10 minutes walk to the subway and it is much nearer to downtown than Flushing. Our apartment was of walking distance to the Bronx Museum and is situated at one of the streets by the Grand concourse road.
The following day was a trip to NYC downtown.
More buildings...New York Public library...beef burgers...
Spring...Flowers blooming...people watching...
Night view from Rockefellar center. My cousin got the tickets online, when we were there at 8, we were told our slots is at a pretty late timing. I have no idea how they scheduled but we managed to catch the view around 10 ish. There was a big crowd and we have to queue, security was very tight there. The place closes at 1130pm if i remember correctly.
The return trip was miserable, as it was late at night when we exit the Rockefeller center, and the nearest subway there was closed. We have to walk about 5 streets to get to the next subway. It wasn't a problem to both my cousin and me, but it is a problem to the older folks. When we reached Bronx, it was 1ish already, very late at night. I was praying in my heart that, we would be back safely, that God would send his guardian angels to protect us. There was not alot of people on the streets, and ok we got lost. I was so sorry about it, i brought them to the opposite side, but i wasn't scared at all. I was just worried for the old folks who had to walk with me while we find the way back. One police car drove past us and another one was by the main road. I felt safe. We asked a couple who just happened to past by, they patiently helped and tell us the way back. Praise God for the guardian angels and the kind people he sent!
After a hectic day, the old folks decided to stay in the apartment to rest. So i took the chance to venture out alone. To central park and walking around the city area. Central park has fantastic views, the air there is just so so fresh. I wished i had changed into my jogging gear for a run there.
We woke up very early in the morning at 4ish to head to State College in Pennsylvania. The subways operate at 24hours, however there is a lot of waiting time in between trains as frequency is longer. That morning, we lugged our handcarry and haversacks, to go to the subway station.
After few days of training, most of the folks got the hang of inserting the metro card. You know, in Singapore, all we need to do is tap, and the gate would open. Over at the subways, when you swipe the card, there is a little screen that says go, and you can push the gate. But our folks have some problem reading the words on the screen, they thought the moment they swipe, they can just push the gate. At first, they swipe super slowly. So it turned out the machine could not detect and expect them to swipe alittle faster again. So obviously, when the gate would not budge, they got gan jiong (worried) , they swipe faster and did not insert the card fully to be detected. I remembered during the first few times, the two younger ones have to go through the gates first, to help with swiping the card and check the screen to get them to go when instructed. We always create quite a big hooha at the gates somehow.
That morning, one of us could not get through the gantry after all the swiping. It could be that, the go message was missed and the card was swiped again. (not too sure for what reason)...It does not allow double entry though.
Everyone has got through already, and there were no subway personnel there to help us early in the morning. There was a young man in his 20s, who was waiting near the gantry, those who look like "street punks" kind, he saw us in distress, in a very cool manner, he used his card and let my relative go though.
You know what, we were really thankful. Looks are really deceiving, people whom you least expect to lend a helping hand, they did! We were fortunate we met very fantastic Black Americans during our three days stay in a pretty safe neighbourhood. :)
THANK GOD for all the awesome people who has helped us!
It is nearly 2 hours trip from Flushing to the outlet. We reached like 11ish. But let me share my shopping experience. Going with a group is a headache, folks can be pretty undecisive and that results in a lot of waiting time.
"This one seems good but pricey"
" that one like too girly..." " too man..." : this pair can?"...so on and so forth
There are just too many choices. Well in the end, i took near to 2 hours in the first few shops...and that was Nike, buying only two pairs of sports shoes. And with lunch time, i had only about 3 hours left to shop.
And after these 3 hours, i felt that i did not really buy alot.
Let me just summarise what i learnt
1. Do not spend more than half an hour in a shop, 45 minutes maximum. If you like the item, and it feels good, price ok, JUST TAKE AND GO
2. Have to be very focus on what you want to buy, and which shop to go. If you are buying for others, it would be better to get a photo of the item first. By the way, outlets may not have the exact product you want as most are old stocks.
3. There are always some sales assistant at the door, smile at them to see if they would give you vouchers. I received one at Coach which offers 50% for all.
4. Go in small groups of two or three. If there is too many people, time is sure wasted in waiting for each other. I ended up walking around alone.
5. Check out the items in the carts, sometimes you might find some really cheap and good quality branded clothes. I managed to see some, but i have no time to try. :(
It does not help that, it started to rain for awhile and i was stranded in one shop. So somehow a part of me does not feel too good that i spent 30 on transport and yet came back with nothing much.
The next day, we packed our things to go to my cousin's auntie place to put our luggage there and only carry a haversack and smaller bags for the rest of the week. That day, after having lunch at the auntie's place we headed to Bronx to stay in this apartment that i booked from AirBnB for 3 days. I wanted to find a place to stay in Manhattan, but apartments in that area are just too expensive. Bronx is the area where most of the Blacks stay. This family, Julio and Mimi were very nice. Julio welcomed us from the subway station, put our luggage in his car and drove us to the apartment. He introduced us to his wife and daughter too. I was warned to be alert and be very careful when we are out because we are like the minority there.
The apartment was very comfortable, with a kitchen as well. The place we stayed is about 5-10 minutes walk to the subway and it is much nearer to downtown than Flushing. Our apartment was of walking distance to the Bronx Museum and is situated at one of the streets by the Grand concourse road.
The following day was a trip to NYC downtown.
More buildings...New York Public library...beef burgers...
Spring...Flowers blooming...people watching...
Night view from Rockefellar center. My cousin got the tickets online, when we were there at 8, we were told our slots is at a pretty late timing. I have no idea how they scheduled but we managed to catch the view around 10 ish. There was a big crowd and we have to queue, security was very tight there. The place closes at 1130pm if i remember correctly.
The return trip was miserable, as it was late at night when we exit the Rockefeller center, and the nearest subway there was closed. We have to walk about 5 streets to get to the next subway. It wasn't a problem to both my cousin and me, but it is a problem to the older folks. When we reached Bronx, it was 1ish already, very late at night. I was praying in my heart that, we would be back safely, that God would send his guardian angels to protect us. There was not alot of people on the streets, and ok we got lost. I was so sorry about it, i brought them to the opposite side, but i wasn't scared at all. I was just worried for the old folks who had to walk with me while we find the way back. One police car drove past us and another one was by the main road. I felt safe. We asked a couple who just happened to past by, they patiently helped and tell us the way back. Praise God for the guardian angels and the kind people he sent!
After a hectic day, the old folks decided to stay in the apartment to rest. So i took the chance to venture out alone. To central park and walking around the city area. Central park has fantastic views, the air there is just so so fresh. I wished i had changed into my jogging gear for a run there.
We woke up very early in the morning at 4ish to head to State College in Pennsylvania. The subways operate at 24hours, however there is a lot of waiting time in between trains as frequency is longer. That morning, we lugged our handcarry and haversacks, to go to the subway station.
After few days of training, most of the folks got the hang of inserting the metro card. You know, in Singapore, all we need to do is tap, and the gate would open. Over at the subways, when you swipe the card, there is a little screen that says go, and you can push the gate. But our folks have some problem reading the words on the screen, they thought the moment they swipe, they can just push the gate. At first, they swipe super slowly. So it turned out the machine could not detect and expect them to swipe alittle faster again. So obviously, when the gate would not budge, they got gan jiong (worried) , they swipe faster and did not insert the card fully to be detected. I remembered during the first few times, the two younger ones have to go through the gates first, to help with swiping the card and check the screen to get them to go when instructed. We always create quite a big hooha at the gates somehow.
That morning, one of us could not get through the gantry after all the swiping. It could be that, the go message was missed and the card was swiped again. (not too sure for what reason)...It does not allow double entry though.
Everyone has got through already, and there were no subway personnel there to help us early in the morning. There was a young man in his 20s, who was waiting near the gantry, those who look like "street punks" kind, he saw us in distress, in a very cool manner, he used his card and let my relative go though.
You know what, we were really thankful. Looks are really deceiving, people whom you least expect to lend a helping hand, they did! We were fortunate we met very fantastic Black Americans during our three days stay in a pretty safe neighbourhood. :)
THANK GOD for all the awesome people who has helped us!
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