Thursday, October 06, 2005

28th September







What lovely weather to start off the day!

We took the sub to the New York harbour. Hopped onto a ferry and the first stop: Statue of Liberty (the world's promise of freedom). I have seen two miniatures before, one in Tokyo (2005) and the other in Paris (1999), but nothing beats this one in terms of size and grandeur. Well, I was enlightened with some interesting facts. This "lady" was a gift from France to celebrate the end of the American civil war. The interior iron framework was designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, also designer of the Eiffel Tower ( I did not know that!). It's as tall as a 22 story building and the 7 spear crown represents the 7 continents. The reason why the statue is green is due to oxidation of the copper. Interesting...

The next ferry stop, Ellis Island. (If you watched Hitched, you will find this familiar). The story of Ellis island is the chronicle of the more than 12 million immigrants (mostly europeans) who passed through its doors in the early 1900s. It signifies the immigrants' faith and dedication in their pursuit of happiness. A step by step view of immigrant processing is revealed through historic photographs, artifacts and personal items from the immigrants themselves.

We headed to Chinatown thereafter. You see hawkers selling perfumes, leather goods, souvenirs, pirated DVDs, fresh fish, and chinese herbs. I have been to many different Chinatowns in the world and they are all very similar. This one is no different. Similarities: filthier streets, cheaper and yummier food, crowded, weirder layout of roads. But there is a certain hype in the people. Everyone is ardent to do business, be it big or small. They have this fluster plastered in their faces and they seem to build barriers around them. In order to "break" these walls, there are two ways. Do business with them (as in buy from them), or just speak mandarin or cantonese. It works wonders, especially the latter. When Pearlene first ordered, she spoke in English and the chinese waiter felt foreign, replying to her back in English. I ordered my food in Mandarin and there you go. The waiter was grinning from ear to ear. He questioned us why we didn't speak Mandarin. But we all got into a little tete-a-tete. He was from Malaysia, complained about the life in New York and insisted that Singapore's way of life should be more comfortable.

Little Italy was just beside Chinatown. So we went to one of the cafes and had coffee and biscotti, while trying to plan our next destination.


We decided that a little jazz would highlight our evening. Jazz standard was termed as the "best jazz club" by new york magazine and has the "best BBQ" by time out new york. Although we did not have our bbq, we had scrumptious seafood. The jazz was exquisite...we both are living such high life now...unbelievable.

1 comment:

Durrow Gal! said...

It's people like you that keeps me blogging. Thanks!=)