My onsite trip to Big APPLE - NY

I opened my eyes and saw the time, it was morning 6 (I had reset my clock in Dubai only, before take-off) and the sun was up. I saw down and found condense clouds which gave me the feel of iceberg. I realized that I was very close to New York. I was having the strange feeling of happiness which people get while reaching their dream place: America. It wasn't very cold as I heard about it and was hoping it to be. Some how I reached my quarters with those heavy luggage but after looking at my quarter I forgot all my pain. The club quarters, New Jersey was an amazing place to live and was just next to station.

The walking tour

There I met Ketan (Mamtora; my colleague at Irevna) and planned to utilize Sunday. We first went to the icon of NY: Empire state building, without which the trip would not have been successful. From here, the view of the city is simply awesome. You can see all those skyscrapers very clearly; planning of the city and the best is you feel high as you are on top of the world. There are two levels for visitors: 86th floor and 102nd floor observation deck. We went to the only 86th floor because for 102nd there was a separate ticket. I heard from people that top of the rock (rock-e-feller center) is a better view point.

Then our biggest fight started: finding Vegetarian food. I had last eaten in the flight and then its was already late for lunch. We entered in a McDonald but there was nothing veg food and this we came to know after standing in queue for 10 minutes and analyzing their menu. We kept searching in every kind of restaurant but all in vain. We walked through midtown and visited Grand Central Terminal and Rock-e-feller center. There I saw the most famous ice-skating rink and thought of doing it. But it was a bit expensive so postponed the idea. The place was very beautiful. Whole area was very nice. It was a good idea to walk in NY. Most of the travel guides suggest that NY should be visited on foot. After all these hours of futile efforts we decided to grab a bite on a thadi / dhakaile, so we stopped for a veg Falafal sandwich which was a lifesaver for us. In the evening we went to Museum of Modern Arts (MOMA) and after spending a few minutes there we headed back to our place. On the way back we returned via shining Times Square. Here we can see the true night life of America with big crowd running all around. We were not feeling like leaving that place but we were putting up in NJ so didn't want to get stuck in the problem of night conveyance.

Then came the week with long hours of works. I was always thinking about only one thing, one dream which I wanted to fulfill: seeing snowfall. But came to know that there was no hope of snowfall in the coming time. During the week Ketan and I planned for the weekend and did the required bookings to avoid last moment rush. We had lots of things to do in a very less time since the following week he was going back to India. We decided to cover as many things as possible without wasting time.

Bus tour

We woke up early in the morning and first went to Liberty park, NJ for catching the Statue Cruise to Liberty island. We had booked the ticket from Liberty park because it was near the quarters but then realized it was a good decision. We saw nice row of houses and parks in the morning and there was not much crowd on the cruise too. Secondly we could see the skyline of Manhattan which is great.

The route of cruise was from Liberty park to immigration island and then to the Statue of Liberty at Liberty island and back to Liberty park. Due to lack of time we saw immigration island only from the cruise and went directly to Liberty island to visit the lady. It was freezing cold on the roof of the cruise but Ketan insisted to sit on the top and now I am thankful that he did so. The size of statue is so huge that good pics are not possible from the small island. We took some good pics from that cruise. We had booked the ticket in advance and took it early morning so that we could get a chance to go up to the start of copper statue. Out of approx. 15,000 visitors daily, only first 3,000 get a chance to go to the top.

From there we had a choice to take the cruise either to Liberty park (NJ) or Battery park (NY). We headed towards NY to start our bus tour which we had booked online. There are two bus tours available in NY: red bus of Greyline and blue bus of CitySightseeing. We took All loop Hope-on Hope-off tour of the Greyline company. Since it was a winter time we got a decent discount for booking online. This tour has four loops: Midtown, Downtown, Night tour and Brooklyn to be covered in 48 hours. We had less time than that. All the tours started only from the visitor center of the company near Times square. On the way we took some pics with NYSE bull. Without wasting much time we ran to the visitor center and got a few useful discount coupons. We used one of them at Madam Tussuad's Wax Museum. We first took the downtown tour which took us again to the area we just came from. But the tour guide told a lots of things we could never know while watching them walking all around. Due to lack of time and wish to complete all the tours we didn't get down during any of the tours.

After we completed downtown it was late and cold too. First we thought of dropping the idea of doing second tour (night tour), but we decided to go to wax museum and then see what was the condition. Wax museum was one of a kind in itself. We were stunned by looking at those people standing around claiming they are made of wax.

Thanks to the powerful heaters of the museum; we forgot the cold and got on the bus of night tour. Again with the josh of having a good sight of the city we sat on the top of the bus but thankfully it was covered with a fibre sheet so we didn't freeze that much. Although we had to compromise with the clarity of the pics. They took us to Brooklyn so that we can see the night skyline of Manhattan which is no less than the day skyline. The guide also told about a bakery of Brooklyn famous for its cheese cakes: Juniors bakery. Finally I got something famous, something I could look forward to eat. I was eagerly waiting for the moment when I can taste that cheese cake.

Sunday was a fun day but with lack of time so I got up early (not earlier than the daily timing) and took a long hot water bath, rather long nap in hot water. I also washed some cloths with the machine. Then we left for the bus of midtown tour. In the train from NJ to NY we saw all kinds of people. There it actually feels like we are in a global village. After the midtown bus dropped us we got on the Brooklyn tour and hopped-off first time at South sea port to see the Brooklyn bridge. There in the Pierre mall we had nice Mexican lunch in the food court. We finished the last tour of Brooklyn by the evening and the bus dropped us at the starting point near Times Square. Almost all our evenings were spent at Times square. It was a place which looked different and new whenever we went there.

I was loving New York but still one thing was missing: my snowfall. I was again stuck in my busy schedule of work but one day I decided and finished the work soon and left early. After doing all my research I came to know about a ice-skating rink in NJ. I reached there and for three foot-freezing hours I did ice-skating holding the boundary. Luckily in that week one day it snowed when I was in office. I could not see from my desk so I jumped out and went on the road to feel the snow fall. I could feel the happiness and coolness in myself with that snow falling slowly over me. Even in that winter I was not wearing a jacket so that i could feel that snow and its coolness. Thank god I saw snowfall in my trip.

Museum weekend

Then the day came when Ketan had to leave. I was not feeling good since he was (is) a good companion on a tour like this. Secondly I would have to ask (in Indian accent) others for taking my photo. His flight was in the evening so we went to visit Mecca of financial professionals: the Wall Street. Though we were going there daily but rushing to office didn't make us realize that feeling which we realized then in free time, when we took pics in front of NYSE. After it, Ketan departed from there. Then I met Saubeer (Mann; another colleague from Irevna) who had come from Connecticut to visit NY. I came to know about a ice sports event happening in Central park so we went there to see it but unluckily could not find it. After walking half of the park length we saw one live band playing and a small castle in the park. We walked a lot because of my wish to see that ice sport but Saubeer's laziness stopped us there. Then we entered a museum on the eastern part of the park, The Metropolitan Museum. People were standing in the queue for the ticket but suddenly I saw something which any Indian would love to see. I saw a man going inside the museum without showing the ticket. I told Saubeer and went in. No security stopped me so he also came. we saw that half of the museum and came out thinking if there was a ticket for the other half then it would be useless to pay since we had seen most of it and it was already late. So we walked towards Times square. Later I saw online that there is no ticket of the museum but only donation which is not compulsory.

I read a few (read many) articles on NY and 'what to do in NY'. One article said NY is famous for its parades. I checked the schedule of all the parades happening in the city during my stay there and found that I was lucky to get a chance to see Chinese New Year parade. On Sunday I got ready and rushed towards China town. To my amazement, on the way I realized I had finished the 2 GB camera memory card and had to buy another. (In this tour of half day at Dubai and 6 days at NY, I clicked approx 1000 pics). It was a nice parade where we can see a small china, Chinese culture, shops, food and lion dance. After Chinese parade I had nothing in my plan but I had half day in my hand. I turned north and went to see the other museum on the west side of the Central Park: American Museum of Natural History. I went there and got happy to know that it also had donation system but they were clever to keep the minimum donation amount, a kind of ticket you can say. I took a ticket and went in. When I saw the floor plan I realized that even if I had a full day in hand I could not have completed that four-floored museum. While roaming around there I got a paper with the details of items shown in the movie 'Night at the Museum', which was based on this museum. I had already seen the movie so I went on hunting for the items written in the paper and tried to recall the movie. That was an interesting method to cover the full museum because the items on the paper were spread over all the floors. When I came out of the museum then it started snowing. I could not believe my eyes. I was taking pics of snow like a mad and passersby were giving that kind of look when they saw me taking pic of snow on the road and cars.

Like all days, I passed by Times Square and stopped to have the famous cheese cake. I had two amazing experiences, first the cheese cake and second the ice storm which was freezing me to the bones. This was a the last weekend I had in NY, but not the last day. I was flying on the following Saturday evening so I had half of the day in hand which I could not waste. I thought of everything to utilize that time but nothing great came to my mind.

On the final day I did the packing and left for ice-skating. Then I went to the Newport mall in NJ which is supposed to be good. I spent my last few hours there and in the Path train of NJ spending my last penny in the travel card. The path train ride to the last station Newark was good because it goes underground and over the ground too showing you nice city and lake. On the way back I could not forget a single moment of my trip. One proof of it is that I am writing this blog after 7 months of my travel.

My onsite trip to Big APPLE - Dubai stopover

I came to know that my onsite visit to New York (NY) should be happening in October 2007 but didn’t happen because of budget constraints. It got postponed for next calendar year. When the November came I was so excited about New Year that without any plans and approval from analyst I applied for visa and luckily got the visa too. Then one fine day my travel date got finalized and since it was in January so I was hoping that the travel freeze would not stop my travel this time again.

My planning of a perfect visit started. I was dreaming of my trip to NY since the first time I came to know about my onsite and had accumulated lots of ideas about it. Google maps and travel sites were like my home of planning. There I came to know that NY is also called The Big Apple and I had almost visited the whole of NY virtually before landing in there. My colleagues felt that I was planning a bomb attack on NY. I prepared a list of places I must see and decided to take a hop on hop off bus tour so that I may cover as many places as possible in limited time and cost. From one of my colleagues I came to know about the Dubai dessert safari so thought of taking that too but for that I had to get my flights rescheduled to keep a sufficient stop over at Dubai in the after noon. I checked online that the tour starts at 3 pm and ends at around 9 pm which is almost a day. With this planning I was missing one important item for a perfect trip: a camera. I think my trip was destined to be perfect that I found somebody coming from US who could buy a camera for me. I bought Canon Powershot S5 IS only because of its longgg zoom and rotating screen. And I tell you it helped me sometimes to have those features on my NY trip.

Dubai stopover

I started from Chennai in the morning and reached Dubai at 12.30. I rushed towards the exit of the airport where I should be getting the desert safari trip but I missed by half an hour. They accept the booking till 12 noon and no other operator was there. Then at the government tourism counter I could get one desert safari tour for $45. They had to pick me up at 3 so I grabbed so food at the coffee shop at the airport. Dubai is such a nice place and clean too. The roads I saw were all 8 lane with nice looking cars running at 100+. I got an Indian companion for this trip: Gyani (Gyaneshwar; a hydrabadi architect working in phoenix).The name of the tour guide was Ali who was from Karachi and was speaking a good Hindi. He took us in Toyota Land Rover to a small superstore, 150 Km out of Dubai city. Our desert safari was to start from there. I saw a group of buggies coming from desert and stopping at the supermarket. That was a group of young boys of the age of about 15 to 20 years, looked like offspring of Oil sheikhs to me. I asked them and got a pic of mine on the buggy but missed the ride of that small monster. Then started my one and a half hour roller coaster ride called Dune bashing. The Landrover was running on the dunes in almost all the defined angles and some times there was all sand over the front windshield. It was breathtaking ride but was too long that my body could not bear it. Luckily during the whole ride I could stop my self but I puked just before stopping.

After this roller-coaster ride we stopped in the desert to see the sunset. That was the best moment in the desert. The weather, the sun, the sky everything was looking so beautiful which is out of my explanation. We then headed to a small camp where they had arranged for belly dancing and Arabic dinner.Out of the camp there a small camel ride which was the first ride of my life. Despite staying in Rajasthan I had not sit on the camel earlier. We sat there for about an hour and enjoyed belly dancing on Arabic music. The food was very good but I missed the barbeque food because they didn’t have anything in vegetarian. Then I while coming back to airport Ali took us to a souvenir shop. He dropped me at 9 pm but my flight was at 3 am. For those six hours I saw one of the best airports of the world. The airport itself is very nice and full of duty free shops. It is a heaven for any shopping lover or say freak. :-)