Instead of the usual Statue of Liberty mainstream tour, this time I took the road lesser travelled. I explored to the east side of Manhattan. Right from midtown Times Square, I walked east until I reached the United Nations Headquarters. One would wonder such important building where world leaders meet is not open for any visitors due security reasons. I was wrong when I spotted the visitor pass office opposite the UN building. I took the chance to walk in and was happy to discover that the UN building does open for visitors. One only needs to provide an ID or passport for on-the-spot pass approval. However do note that on certain days, the building will be locked down from any visitors when there are any high level meetings between important world leaders. You are advised to check the UN website here: http://visit.un.org/content/tickets#individuals for dates of closure and also online ticket purchase if you would like.
After going through security checks at the main gate, you are free to roam around the compound of General Assembly area. Inside the General Assembly building, you need to purchase the guided tour ticket for visit to the meeting rooms. Limited tickets are on sale at the counter for different timings and languages. Therefore you are advised to purchase them online or you could arrive earlier to purchase at the counter before it runs out of tickets of your preferred timing or language.
The tour lasts about 40 minutes and depending on your luck, some meeting rooms are not open to the public if there is a meeting in progress. I was very lucky as the security council meeting had just concluded and I managed to visit the iconic Security Council room as well as the General Assembly room.
I spent the rest of the afternoon by taking the Roosevelt tram to Roosevelt island. The tram station is just a few blocks away from the UN building. This iconic tram ride is one of the recommended attraction for visitors to New York. On Roosevelt island, you'll get a scenic skyline view of East Manhattan including the UN building. You can have a nice stroll at Four Freedoms Park at the south end tip of Roosevelt island. If you can spend longer time here, you'll get to watch the sunset as the city lights come to life.
Also on this island at the southern tip, there is a Smallpox Hospital ruin which is also a heritage site. Some say this is the most haunted place in New York. So go visit if you dare. I was there on Tuesday and unfortunately it was closed. It is only open on Wednesdays till Sundays.
When I strolled down Central Park in New York during summer, I promised myself to come back here during autumn. There were rows of trees planted neatly along The Mall and Literary Walk towards Bethesda fountain. I knew it would look awesome during autumn. I was right when I had the chance to come back here last month. The golden leaves here are just out of this world.
Well, if you have done a basic day tour of the Statue Liberty, Wall Street, Freedom Tower, Times Square, Empire State and Rockefeller, then perhaps you can refer to this alternative one day itinerary for your extra days in New York.
You can start off the morning by heading to Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. This is the decommissioned USS Intrepid aircraft carrier that served in World War 2 and Vietnam War. It opens at 10am. The visit can include the submarine USS Growler. The aircraft carrier itself is huge with open deck, control tower and hangar. You can find all kinds of exhibits and aircraft on display. Notable ones are the SR71 Blackbird, F15 Tomcat, Concorde and even the Enterprise Space Shuttle. Your visit should be done by noon time just in time for a good lunch.
After lunch, you can head off to Central Park. You should start from Columbus Circle. Walk east direction along the edge of the park to warm up until you reach the Gapstow Bridge for a beautiful view of the lake and city buildings reflection. From here, walk north direction along The Mall pathway. This pathway is lined with trees on both sides and it should be a wonderful sight during autumn. You will reach Bethesda Terrace, fountain and another lake. Another famous spot in various films and games. On a good day, you can rent a boat to row in the lake. From here, you can continue to walk north across another beautiful bridge called the Bow Bridge and then reach Belvedere Castle. This is almost halfway point of Central Park. Time check: it should be around 4-5pm now. Walking either east or west from here will bring you to the museums on both sides of the park. The east side is Metropolitan Museum of Arts and the west side is American Museum of Natural History. You may save this visit for your next day or trip.
By 5pm, it is the perfect time to exit the park on the east side and hop onto subway 4 or 6 along Lexington St by 77th St. Take the southward bound train to Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall. From the station exit, you should be able to see the bridge and start your walk across this iconic bridge. The city skyscrapers and sunset will be behind you as you walk across. Once you're over the Brooklyn side, look for pedestrian exit on the left side. The staircase should lead you into Washington St. Walk back up north to the riverside park and a little distance to the left. You should reach Jane's Carousel. If you bring along kids, they will surely love the merry go round ride. Else, find a bench and enjoy the sunset here and watch the Manhattan skyscrapers light up once the sun is down. During summer, you may need to stay until 8-9pm here to see the golden view. So it is best done during spring or autumn when the sun sets earlier and you don't have to wait too long.
After a long day walk, you may now hop onto either trains from High St or York St which is not far from the park to take you back to Manhattan. If you have energy left and keen on supper, you may also walk back via Brooklyn Bridge and head to Chinatown for a good meal before calling it a day.
This is my first time in New York and like any other tourists, I tried to maximize my time here because there are just so many things to do and see here. Is it possible to see the entire New York with 2 day itinerary? No it isn't. But 2 days are enough to warm up to this city and prepare you for your future visits.
My hotel is at Times Square which has the best location and starting point for sightseeing. As I arrived in the afternoon and needed a quick nap, I woke up close to evening time around 5pm. A quick recce at Times Square and then off I go to the Rockefeller Center; few blocks away from where I started. I went up to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck to catch the best sunset and night view of New York City. Entrance fee is not cheap. It costs $32. So plan your trip wisely if you want to see the best sunset view. Choose a clear day to go up. I was short on time so I had no choice but to go up even on a cloudy and drizzling day. I still had a great time up there but I'd probably return again in the future on a clear day to capture more breathtaking shots of the city.
After that, I returned to Times Square for some night shots. I couldn't stay awake much longer due to the jet lag so I called it a day afterwards. For info, Rockefeller Center is along 5th Avenue so you can actually do some night shopping there or save it for another day.
My second day was burned due to rain. The only place I managed to visit was the Central Station. After Central Station, I walked along 5th Avenue for some window shopping while trying to avoid getting soaked now and then.
Third day came with clear blue skies but chilly. I woke up early to rush down to Battery Park for the ferry to Liberty Island. From Times Square, I hopped onto subway no.1 at 50th St, South Ferry Loop. I didn't go down straight to South Ferry Station but made a detour by alighting at Chambers St. Reason being it was around 7am so I decided to see the 9/11 memorial and the new Freedom Tower. Bear in mind the memorial and tribute center only opens at 10am. I just wanted to see the 2 pools which was the former Twin Towers. It was a very sad feeling seeing the names of those sacrificed etched on the plaque around the pool.
I continued to walk south along Broadway and reached the Wall Street area. This area is heavily guarded now but is still accessible to pedestrians. The iconic New York Stock Exchange is not to be missed. Back to Broadway and continuing south, I reached the Charging Bull. Touch it for a dose of good luck perhaps? Another reason I advise others to reach here early is for you to have the whole bull to yourself. If you're here late, the Chinese armies will reach here in bus loads and I guarantee you will not have any space left to touch the bull, let alone taking pictures.
The Bull is just before the entrance to Battery Park. I bought my ferry ticket from Castle Clinton around 8am. Ferry departs at 8.30am and after going through airport styled scans, it is just about the right time. So my advise to you is to stick to your time schedule tight if you plan to do the 9/11 and Wall Street detour. Give yourself an hour for the detour starting from 7am and be at Castle Clinton ticket counter by 8am.
Do take note that normal ticket to Liberty Island and Ellis Island includes both return ferry rides. It costs $18 and includes entrance to the Pedestal only. If you want to climb to the crown of Statue of Liberty, 99.9% you won't be able to buy it at the ticket counter. Buy it online from the official operator Statue Cruises and it runs 2-4 weeks in advance reservations. Meaning anything less than 2 weeks, tickets to the crown are most likely sold out.
Also a word of caution. There are many touts operating around Battery Park entrance and South Ferry terminal station. They are trying to hard sell you tickets to the Liberty Island. My suggestion is avoid them at all costs. The only official operator is Statue Cruises and the ticket counter is right there in Castle Clinton at Battery Park.
I only spent my time on Liberty Island but skipped Ellis Island. The latter island was a former immigrant processing center which has its own histories. If you have the time, by all means visit this island after Liberty Island. It was included in the ticket anyway. By skipping Ellis Island, I was back in Manhattan by noon time.
As time was not on my side, that wraps up my short sightseeing trip in New York. As you can see, 2 days are not enough to cover this metropolis. But it does get you to the important landmarks around New York.
This year, my Christmas wish of taking city night light pictures of San Francisco came true. I was granted good weather and was very well rested. Without wasting a single minute, I explored the city from day until the city lights up with Christmas lightings at night. Day time was very well spent at California Academy of Sciences at San Francisco Park. If you have not experienced a real earthquake in your lifetime before, this is the place to visit. The earthquake house replicates the 1906 San Francisco earthquake up to a magnitude of 7. After sunset, the city comes to life with beautiful Christmas lightings. If you ask me where to find the most beautiful Christmas tree, I'd say the one at Pier 39 is not bad. From the pier, you can also walk a bit to Embarcadero Ferry Building. Here, you'll be able to see the beautiful Bay Bridge and also the city skyline.
I spent my Christmas in San Francisco again. But this time with my lovely wife. We rented a car for Christmas shopping and also to explore hidden places in the city. After watching Ken Block's Gymkhana 5 on YouTube, I have always wanted to go up to that hill for the spectacular night view. This year, my Christmas wish came true.
While lazying in my room being a couch potato, I felt pity for my camera as it lays by the side without any action. It would be a waste if I don't do anything with it after I carried the heavy equipment all the way from Singapore. So I propped up the tripod and set the camera up by the window. It turned out to be an interesting result. Here's a time lapse of sunset over San Francisco and the coming of fog taken from Canon 5D Mk2. Credits to Edward Maya for producing such an awesome music used in this video. Title of the song is Love Story.
I've returned again to San Francisco, this time via Hong Kong stopover. Being so familiar with this city already, I decided to sight see via public transport. With just a 2 dollar ticket, you can hop on hop off any MUNI buses to the destination of your choice. The ticket is valid for 2 hours, but most of the time, the bus driver is kind enough to throw in half a day worth when he issues you the ticket. Knowing this will definitely save you tons of money on transport because tourist buses normally cost 30 dollars and above for a day pass. I ventured to the Palace of Fine Arts which has a beautiful surrounding lake and park. I also climbed up the Coit Tower for a beautiful 360 view of San Francisco city on a blue sunny day.
I had a great Christmas shopping weekend in San Francisco. Just the place to be as the weather was perfect for the whole week. Clear sunny days make walking on the street such a pleasure. Met up with a friend who happened to be there on his job assignment. We drove up to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area where we had a great view of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge from the peak. Also on this peak, there is an abandoned gun site built in the WW2 but was never used.
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The next day, we drove to Lake Tahoe. The border of California and Nevada lies around this lake. There are many ski resorts around the lake but because there wasn't any snow yet, only a few were open with artificial snow slopes. We went to Heavenly Ski, but made a mistake of not renting ski equipments from the base station, thinking that we can rent uphill. So we were quite disappointed when we got up there to find no ski equipment rentals.
Last year, we were colleagues and went out as friends. This year, we were back there as husband and wife and celebrated our honeymoon flight back to the place where it all began; San Francisco. This city serves the best clam chowder in the world. And a testament to that, $11 for the chowder was all it took to win her heart and she agreed to marry me. Hahaha. Chowder aside, it was the wonderful work of God who crossed our paths together in this magical city and through many more miracles; that we are able to be happily married now. While SIA has got their TV ad being shot in this city, we too, had our own mini real life love story here. =D
Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood and some of the biggest stars on earth. This is where the films and movies being mass produced and sold to the world as American Dream. So what is this American Dream? Fast cars, posh Beverly Hills homes, sex, drugs and alcohol. Hollywood sure does know how to sell their movies and implant the American culture in every youth on earth. While I was here, Arnold Schwarzenegger was all over the news for breaking up with his beautiful wife because he was banging his old hag housekeeper. Yawnzzz...nothing new. Everyone is banging each other and I think it is a norm in their culture. This is the American dream and culture yo! If you ain't doin' it, then you ain't cool. Remember kids, you follow the American dream, you're gonna live dangerously and die young; just like MJ. After coming back from here, I only have one word in mind - "I'll...Be...Back...". Damn...even I couldn't resist the glitter of this Tinseltown. I'm gonna go back for the Universal Studios, the Disneyland and of course shopping spree. Now I understand why this flight into LA is called a charity fight despite the handsome pay. I just contributed to the economy revival of USA. And I'm not even a charitable person. =(
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4 looneys, 1 cool Mustang, and a stupid camera. Driving on the streets of LA in the middle of the night. The result = awesomeness.
For this trip, let me take you through a trip to the prison on the rock as a prisoner. This rock is famously named the Alcatraz and featured in many popular movies like X-Men, The Rock, and many more. This prison housed many hardcore criminals. Although it is marketed as no one escaped the prison before, prison breaks did happened before and a number of men escaped. Records only showed those who escaped were caught again or killed, but never mentioned those who were unaccounted for. They were presumed missing and died in the cold waters. I think those guys really made it to the mainland considering the close distance from the rock. Lucky bastards.
On this trip also another new beginning and "adventure" began. God really gives you surprises when you least expected it. So peeps out there, remember when you're down, always look up in the sky. The rain clouds will always clear up for a beautiful sky and rainbow at the end of the day. So keep on believing and smiling as good things do come to those who wait.
If you have watched X-Men: The Last Stand, then you'll remember how the famous Golden Gate Bridge was literally pulled off by Magneto to be used as his personal bridge towards Alcatraz Island. Welcome to San Francisco. This city is featured too many times in many movies and is so internationally well-known. It has become a top international tourist destination. The Golden Gate Bridge itself is an iconic structure that no visitors will leave without seeing it. The Alcatraz island also draws millions of visitors in a year alone. Then there are the famous cable cars/trams weaving around the famous downhill paths towards Fisherman's Wharf and the bay area. The Chinatown is also one of the largest and most densely populated by Chinese in North America. I was very lucky to be there on the weekend and caught a great show of dragon/lion dances. West side of the city has degraded into a ghetto and is not recommended for tourists. Further west is the mostly deserted Japantown, when most Japanese were taken away to the camps during World War 2. Turning south from here is the hippies' town; where many Victorian houses are left to decay while the hippies moved in. Among the thrash are the row of freshly "Painted Ladies"; one of the few restored Victorian houses now becoming a tourist attraction. Sausalito is up north across the Golden Gate Bridge. This place is definitely a place for the rich and famous. Bungalows and luxury cars dot the hills overlooking the scenic bay.
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