Now that I'm back, maybe some of you are curious to see how the trip was. I was supposed to be gone till May 11th, but came back early because I saw all that I wanted to see.
First time we (Legend and I) got to the airport, we got this ride from a guy in a van who runs this small business of shuttle transportation. He drove us to the hostel room, but during the whole ride, he drove like a maniac, swerving, honking like crazy, cutting people off, forcing people to go out of lanes, and at one point, he went through three consecutive crosswalks and nearly killed several pedestrians. He was a nutcase. Later we learned that pedestrians jaywalk all the time and cross red lights all the time, even in front of the cops, but nobody cares.
Sorry for the small pics, but I'm just trying to make this thread a little easier to browse through and not take up too much space. I took about 600 pictures, and they were all in 1200xwhatever resolution.
Here is Paris Hilton at Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Also got to see others like Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton, Ghandi, John Paul II, George Bush, Prince, Madonna, Oprah, Salma Hayek, Brad Pitt, Lance Armstrong and a crapload of others.
Here's Times Square during the day. It was an incredible sight to see such huge flat ads and television ads. It's like walking into commodification heaven, where you can't help but be in awe of the culture and technology but at the same time, you are totally disconnected with anything natural to a purely man-made artificial atmosphere.
We went to the top of the Empire State Building. Taking a look at the whole city was incredible simply because it took so much man-power and effort to put this city together, to put up such huge towering structures is just mind boggling.
Here's the NBA Store in Manhattan. It had a shitload of stuff and accessories that's a dream to any NBA fan, but it's hella expensive! They even had the NBA All Star Game 2007 leather jackets that the players get to wear there.
A shot of Times Square at night. Pretty much half of Manhattan are run by taxis. Taxi drivers are crazier than the shuttle bus driver I mentioned. All the transportation I've done was through subway, and the subway was efficient as hell. I'm so impressed with how easy it is to get to one place to another in a population of 13 million.
Took a ferry down to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Statue was pretty cool, and it's very interesting to see that her legs are actually stumpy and short, but from a distance, she looks tall. It's just an optical illusion that are commonly used by artists for many centuries. Ellis Island was disappointing because it was just a statistical museum of how many immigrants came to New York over the years.
We took a tour of Madison Square Garden, and I even got to go into the New York Knicks locker room. It was pretty dull and simple, but it's cool to see the equipment and the balls they use, and to simply go on the floor of the Garden. To enter through the gate that Michael Jordan and several famous people in the past into the huge stadium was neat.
We even saw David Blaine in his famous water bubble. He just relaxed there, waved to people, and just went around watching through his glass. Just found out yesterday that he tried to break the holding breath record but ended up short and getting liver damage. Ouch.
Central Park was huge and a lot of people go there to run, to walk their dog, or just to enjoy the scenery. It was nice to see several parks in Manhattan, just to get away from the huge buildings and to just enjoy the scenery of nature.
We got tickets to the David Letterman show. Just a day before, though, we were picked after walking by NBC Studios to get into the Conan O'Brien show. Unfortunately, despite having a "90% chance" we got the short end of the stick and missed out. The Letterman Show was cool, though, we got to see the stage and to see how the entire show was taped. Julia Roberts and Pearl Jam were there, so it was awesome to see a famous actress and band attend the show.
Yeah, just it so happens that Bill Clinton, his daughter, and the secret service walked into the Neue Museum. I got a few good pictures of him, including this one:
There's so many pictures and so much more that I've seen, I couldn't write more about. I've been by the Trump Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, the Rockefeller Plaza, Broadway, Wall Street, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Paul's Chapel, and a lot more.
Museums that I've been to were the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Sex. The Guggenheim was disappointing simply because it was mostly on this sculptor that I didn't like, and we were not allowed to take photos. The Metropolitan Museum was great because they covered art in different eras and places like the Italian Renaissance, the Baroque period, Egyptian art, Mayan art, African art, Ancient Greek, Medieval times, and modern. The museum of Modern Art was awesome because they had so many paintings of the world famous such as Picasso, Munch, Monet, Manet, Pollock, Dali, Matisse, Bacon, Rothko, and a long list of others. There were also some great contemporary design works that I really enjoyed. The Museum of Sex was interesting, but extremely explicit. First level was Japanese art from old paintings that were just as explicit as contemporary anime. Second level showed old films dating back to the 30's of pornography to the 50's. Third level showed a wide variety of art and gadgets used in sex. Interesting stuff.
The whole experience was unforgettable and definitely worth the visit. I wouldn't want to live there because of the noise and crowded atmosphere, but it's definitely a place to visit at least once in your life.
, I'm glad you enjoyed and fact that Legend is alive makes me even more happier. I have couple of questions though:
) picture?
at poor Blaine.
It was still ten cents per minute to use!
