USA Trip Part 4

Continue from previous post.

It was Christmas eve at New York! We were excited to be in USA to celebrate Christmas! Whenever we watch movies, it always seems like it will be damn awesome to have Christmas in USA, Christmas lighting everywhere, the whole atmosphere of Christmas will be so amazing! BUT… It’s not like what we will expect. Not much Christmas atmosphere around the Central district of New York. Only maybe Rockafella Centre has the atmosphere and maybe Central Park with all the small stores just like our Pasar Malam.

As it’s Christmas eve, we went to Time Square thinking that it might have countdown party since Christmas is an important occasion for the people there. We saw quite a big crowd there too. All waiting for the celebration. While waiting, we kept taking photos around. OH YAH.. Just to note… If you don’t wish to tip the ‘mascot’ walking around at Time Square, please do not take photos with them. They might come to you and ask if you want to take a photo with them, but please kindly decline. But if you are willing to tip, just go ahead. They really have some interesting costumes. Hahaha.

Forgot to mention! We went to New York’s Factory Outlet to buy Christmas gifts for each other!! It’s about 1.5hrs drive away if I recall correctly. When we reached there, we didn’t have much time left to shop as it’s Christmas eve, all the shops are closing early that day. So we only had 2 hrs to shop! New York Factory is really very nice to shop! Lots of big brands! I think it has more brands than those outlets that I went.. But… Pricing wise, still Vegas outlet is the best!

Managed to capture a beautiful sunset at the outlet. Photo taken by my Iphone 6s Plus. Hahaha. Iphone rocks!!

We waited for about 1 hour at Times Square for the Christmas Celebration. Lots of people waiting too! Then comes 12am! Everyone was counting down at Time Square looking at the famous countdown clock.AND……………………………………………… at 12.00am… Nothing happened. Nothing! Nothing at all! Not a single, MERRY CHRISTMAS greetings from the screens in Times Square! Disappointed max! Hahaha. You can hear everyone damn sian. Especially those tourists, all were like..”Huh? No celebration??” Then people started moving off. 3 of us started to exchange our gifts at Time Square! WoOooO!!

Disappointing New York trip…. No Christmas countdown celebration. No SNOW…. So… I don’t know is it I am unlucky, or they really don’t celebrate Christmas. If so… Please don’t go to New York during Christmas period!

 

USA Trip Part 3

After Vegas, our next trip is to NEW YORK!!! Yes! This is actually the only state that both Samantha and I didn’t go during our Honeymoon, so we were rather excited about it! Time Square, Statue of Liberty, many many more!

Before we went for this trip, quite a number of people shared to us that they don’t really enjoy New York as people are hostile, alot of homeless people around and that’s why you won’t really feel safe when you walking on the streets during night time. Mikaela’s paediatrician shared with us that he hates New York. He told us, “when you lie dead on the streets, the only way the people will notice you and help you is when you start to smell. That’s how unfriendly the people were.” We didn’t really think so much during that time and we felt that he might be abit “kua zhang”. Hahaha. One sad thing is that, this year New York is rather hot. Not like usual, snowing period. The people there in US told us that this year summer came late, that’s why every state the weather is affected. So.. No snow for this year at New York.

Upon arrival at JFK Airport, we called our hotel transfer company to check what vehicle are we suppose to look out for. She said, a long white limousine. I was thinking….”Could it be the LONGGGGG LIMOUSINE which is damn atas…???” We only booked a normal SVU transport to our hotel, but the company upgraded us really… it was the long atas limousine! hahaha. 

We looked damn tired after the flight. Hahaha. Pardon for the “sian face” Haha.

After we unpacked our luggages, it was around 10plus at night around. But we were feeling hungry, so we decided to go out for supper. Tina brought us to the Korean street for Korean food! yeah!! ASIAN FOOD! hahaha.

Nice nice! hahaha. The standard is like Singapore ba. Nothing much but it’s really good to taste good asian food once again.

The next day, we went to take their HOP ON BUS SERVICE. It’s that kind of bus like duck tour, bringing us around to their places of interest. You can just stop at any stop, go to the tour area and catch the next bus back.

We stopped at the Statue of Liberty station. Need to take a ferry to another island to see Statue of Liberty. As usual, security checks took abit of our time. But we finally get to see Statue of Liberty! Oh yah, just to mention. The hotdog that they sell on the ferry is really very very nice! Totally didn’t expect it! Haha. The bread is soft, the hot dog was… awesome!

It was raining, and very windy.. So it was rather cold there. hahaha. Luckily I brought my jacket!

Next stop, we went to have our lunch before going to the Charging Bull to touch it’s testicles. HAHAHAHA! There was a long que to touch the testicles. Why people do so? Because there was a myth from long time ago that they say if you touch the testicles of the Charging Bull, you have have good fortune, great prosperity! hahaha. Though we don’t believe in this, but no harm trying right?

After Charging Bull, we went to the saddest museum I had ever been to. THE TWIN TOWER MEMORIAL CENTRE. Standing at the 2 exact location of the tower, you can feel a certain kind of sadness in the atmosphere. Nobody were fooling around, trying tot stand on the walls, nope. Nobody at all. We went into the museum. There were areas that they kept playing back of the communications between those who died in the tower and their loved ones. Really sad. If you are in New York, you should really go to the museum as the museum is actually the basement of the twin tower.

Next stop, the Rockafella Centre! The only place that really had the Christmas lightings! There was a ice skating at Rockafella, but as it was raining, we didn’t get to try it out.

Ok.. Stop here for a now. Shall continue another day.

 

 

USA Trip(Part 2)

Continue from where I left off… Malibu.

After Malibu, we went to Hollywood Universal Studios! We went there once before, but we wanted to experience the Christmas feel in Hollywood Universal Studios for the first time! And another reason was to bring Tina to take the 3D ride of King Kong! This time we went, the theme was Grinch Christmas. We didn’t manage to take a photo with Grinch as there’s a long que. We went to que up for the 3D ride straight. This time, they added Fast and Furious 3D effects into the ride. Quite cool.. But I feel it’s a bit draggy. Haha.

We went back to rest after Universal Studios as we will be setting off early to Vegas! Driving up to VEGAS! Yeah!!

We woke up early in the morning to return the rented shitty car(Advantage). Then we went over to Alamo to collect our next vehicle. One good thing about having a baby with you in United States is that they will upgrade your vehicle for free!! Hahaha. We had the Chevrolet Premium SUV. Didn’t manage to take a photo of the car.

We went to take photos of the Hollywood sign and had Pink Dogs(Quite famous Hotdog store) for breakfast before going to Las Vegas.

Start of the 4hours plus drive to Vegas! Actually should be 5 hours la as we did a few stop over for toilet break. The scenery view of the drive is like what we imagine it to be. Desert……. hahaha. Vegas is actually located in a desert..

We reached at Las Vegas at about 6.00pm. We checked-in our hotel at about 6.30pm which we booked before hand, Caesars Palace hotel. Why did I mention about the time? Later I will explain.

After unpacking our luggages, showered. We went to return the rented vehicle and decided to go for a walk at The Strip(the famous street of Vegas). So while driving to return our rented car, we noticed that road along The Strip is filled with Ambulances and Police cars and the roads are closed. We engaged a Uber Driver to drive us to Planet Hollywood to have our dinner after dropping off the car. We went to Gordon Ramsey Steak House Restaurant for our dinner and also to celebrate Tina’s birthday.

After dinner, we thought that the ambulances and police cars might have cleared already and we can take a walk. But it’s not. This time, we saw reporters running around to find a good spot to record the happenings. So….. Being a ‘Kpo” myself, I went to twitter and search through hashtag, #lasvegas. Found out the reason. Apparently, a lady in her 30s with her 3 year old daughter in the car, decided to drive her car up the walking pavement and started to ram her car at the pedestrians at 6.18pm! You will think maybe she lost control of her car that’s why. But no!! After 1 round of ramming into the pedestrians, we did a U-turn and start all over again! She did quite a number of times! People were trying to stop her but unable to do so. Finally she stopped due to her car crashing into a truck which was on the road.

Oh man!!! Remember we were still checking in during 6.00pm in the evening???  If we were to reach Vegas earlier, checked in earlier, return our car earlier, it might had been us been knocked down! Thank God for His protection! We went back to the room, watch the news on the happening. The lady knocked down about 37 people, of which most are tourists. About 4 people were dead due to that incident. Scary!!

Our 2nd day at Vegas, we went for Exotic Racing! Drive sports car!! Hahaha. Only I have driving license, so that activity is just for me. Hahaha. Booked a Lamborghini Gallardo for 6 rounds. Costing about $300plus.

Before we can actually drive the vehicles, we need to have a tour of the race track. So there’s this young chap who is racer himself brought me on a tour in his Porsche. Oh man! He can really drive. Twisting and turning. I felt like vomiting after the tour. Hahaha. Anyway, took a few photos with the cars and I realized that I’m way too big size to be comfortable in them.

Driving the lambo was damn shiok! hahaha. My top speed was 285km/hr. WoOooo! Happy!! Hahaha. In the beginning, I wasn’t familiar with the vehicle, didn’t dare to really “chiong”, so the instructor was beside kept say, “drive faster! drive faster!! More speed! More speed!” Hahaha.

During night time, we went shopping for Chrome Hearts clothing, buying for one of colleague, David. Hahaha. At first I was thinking Caesar palace quite small in the inside, but outside look so big leh.. How come? So here we are in their shopping area! It’s huge!! Alot of stores and the place is very beautiful! Hahaha. We were amazed by the design of the place. =) Nice nice nice! hahaha.

Forgot to mention, we went to the factory outlet in Vegas! There are 2 factory outlet in Vegas, North and South. Before coming, we actually read the reviews and alot of the people said that it’s the best factory in the whole of United States in terms of prices and number of brands!!! We only went to the North Premium Outlet as it’s bigger and more brands. South is more like a smaller outlet, so you don’t really need to go there. It’s true that Vegas prices are cheaper than most of the outlets we went to. Samantha saw a Coach bag,asked for the price, it was USD$189. Cheap… yeah.. But I told her, since we are going to other outlets, let’s just go there and buy as we don’t want to carry so much things at the beginning of the trip. So…. When we went to other outlets, saw the exact same bag. Asked for the price, it was SD$299. WHAT THE SHIT! Hahaha. More expensive by a USD$110!!! That’s like freaking alot! Hahahaha. We went to every outlet to ask for the price of the bag and every outlet gives a different price. So in the end we bought it from Orlando Factory Outlet at a higher price at USD$250. So…. Please do your shopping at Vegas Factory Outlet. Hahaha.

Ok.. That’s all for Part 2. Vegas! =)