New York: Day 4

New Jersey Outlet Shopping – Stomp – Times Square at night

Before I begin the post for our 4th day, here are some pictures of the New York subway.

57th St station

Train coming in

Passengers on the platform

On one of the newer trains

On our 4th day, we decided to be adventurous and head out of New York for some factory outlet shopping. We did some research and found out that Jersey Gardens had a big shopping outlet and to get there all we had to do was to head over to Port Authority Bus Terminal, buy our bus tickets and head to New Jersey!

Excuse this blurry shot of Jersey Gardens Mall. It was taken from a bus.

It took us about 40 minutes to get there by bus. New Jersey looked like an industrial area with heavy machinery and smoke stacks dotting the scenery. We did quite a bit of shopping here and I got myself 2 pairs of shoes! Hehe.... Bargain!

Shopping concourse

We left the place at 4pm but only got back into the city at 5.30pm. Rush hour traffic! All I have to say is, the bus system in New York is no better than Penang. The wait to get into Port Authority was by itself 20 minutes! It was 3 lanes of buses from all directions squeezing into one teeny flyover lane. One! I was a bit concerned that the flyover wouldn’t be able to hold up the weight of all the buses on it. It was quite ridiculous.

We then rushed over to TKTS – where we bought STOMP tickets at 50% discount for a show at 8pm that night. STOMP was showing at the Orpheum Theatre at Astor Place which is a subway stop very close to New York University.

I initially thought, STOMP.... bah, what’s new? I already knew their concept and some bits of their performance. Knocking on things, making rhythmic noise...etc. But boy, was I surprised. I guess with low expectations came a greater sense of fulfilment. We were not allowed to take any pictures (which was a shame) but I suppose it’s to maintain copyright. I made a couple of observations that night and will list them down below.

1. Stage set up – real cool.
As we walked down to our seats, all around us were day to day things hanging off the walls and off the ceiling. Objects like bicycles, sinks, toilet bowls, hub cabs, rubbish cans, road signs, pipes, pans, pots, buckets, broken chairs, tables..etc - All very visually stimulating items. I was a little concerned about having a toilet bowl drop on my head though. It would not have made for very pleasant headlines in the New York Post :)

2. The Show

The show began with a single guy on stage sweeping the floor, tapping to his own rhythm. He was joined then by one, then two, then three and eventually the entire cast. As each one came on stage, they added on to the rhythm. I could keep count with the different tapping rhythm of every cast member up to the 4th person. After that, I lost count because there was just too many of them. It was a cast of 8 in total. I was really awed at this point. It would take a lot of practice and concentration just to keep to one rhythm, getting the tempo right to not mess up the entire performance because there were 7 other performers to consider. Also I didn’t think there could be a lot of variety to rhythm but I was very wrong. So yes, I was very pleasantly surprised. Low expectations = greater satisfaction.

3. Not the best for asthma sufferers
The stage was elevated from the crowd. At the first few rows, the stage level would be just slightly lower than eye level. During the sweeping scene, a lot of dust was flying around and that could not have been good for folks suffering from asthma or sinus. We were seated at row 6 and I was slightly bothered by the dust. At one point in the show they poured extra sand on the wooden platform to provide a different sort of sound- sand against wood. That increased the dust. My word of advice, sit from row 5 onwards to avoid from being completely overwhelmed by dust.

4. Audience involvement.
To keep the show interesting (after a while, constant rhythm tends to send people off to sleep) they introduced parts of the show that requires audience participation. Everyone claps in unison to the directions of the single performer on stage. And of course, we the audience could not get it right. But it did provide some variety to the show.

5. Loved the comedic character in the show.
In another effort to keep the show interesting, there was a ‘Dopey’ in the show. Remember Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Well this guy looked just like Dopey and together with the other cast members kept the audience amused with his silly attempts to fit into the cool, tough looking cast.

6. Muscles

All the cast members had very toned bodies.I felt tired for the cast, watching them knocking things together, tapping, dancing, jumping, flipping to a constant rhythm the whole time. I can totally understand the muscle fatigue caused by their repetitive actions, 2 hours a night, 6 days a week. And I am not surprised that they all have muscles on their upper and lower arms and a very toned abdomen.

7. Need ear plugs

At certain points of the show, the noise got a little unbearable for me. Kinda wished I brought ear plugs. But I am known to be sensitive to excessive sounds. A loud single sourced sound I can tolerate. But when it comes as a myriad of objects making loud sounds with different rhythms, I feel like all my buttons are being pushed and my tolerance hits its limit.

All in all, I really enjoyed the show. More so than I thought I would. Do consider STOMP if you are in New York. Its fun and a refreshing performance. Although you may want to take my advice and sit further back from the stage and maybe bring ear plugs.

After the show, we headed back to Times Square for night shots. It was beautiful to be standing on a traffic island, surrounded by changing colours.

ABC Today Show Studio

Bubba Gump: Momma always said, "Life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know what you're gonna get."

There was a police post right in the middle of the road. I thought it was rather unusual. In fact, I noticed quite a number of police cars patrolling the area.

Cop in a police vehicle -- INSPECTOR GADGET!! :)

Yellow cabs: New York Taxi

More lights
Times Square

New York, New York.....

cheryl

New York: Day 3

Statue of Liberty – Wall Street – Tiffany’s – Ground Zero – Chinatown –Little Italy – Bryant Park

We did quite a fair bit on Day 3. Itinerary looks choc a bloc if you refer to the above. We actually woke up really late that morning. We initially thought we had adjusted to the different time zone, patting ourselves on the back for doing such a good job overcoming jet lag. Little did we know our bodies would completely zone out on us the moment we slept.

Alex woke me up on Day 3 going, “Wake up honey! It’s 11.30!!”

Groggy me said, “That’s not possible. What is it....pm?

Needless to say we jumped out of bed and hurried out of the hotel as quickly as we could to make the most of the rest of the day. We decided to go see the Statue of Liberty. To do that, we had two options.

1. Take the Staten Island Ferry – It’s free and it goes past the statue. The only hitch was we had to run around the arrival and departure halls of the ferry terminal the moment the ferry docked to make the same ferry back to New York.

2. Take the ‘tourist’ boat ride to Ellis Island which also stops on the island where the statue stands. The cost of this ride was $20 per person.


We took option 1. Free-la! Also I wasn’t too keen on spending time up close to the statue when we could be doing other things. I have never been a big fan of national monuments. Not back in Malaysia, not in Australia and the same is said for the US.

Staten Island Ferry Logo

Seats on the ferry

The logo at the ferry terminal

See the ice blocks floating in the sea? Brrr..... cccooold

Staten Island Ferry going the opposing way

The view of Brooklyn Bridge from the ferry

View of the city from the ferry

Ellis Island

Another view of the city from the ferry

Statue of Liberty!

Statue of Liberty (2)

Statue of Liberty (3)

The ferry ride was really cold. There were 3 decks on the ferry and we took our time on each level, trying to get the best shots of everything. However each time we couldn’t last very long on the deck before having to run back in because our ears and nose were frozen to the point where they hurt. Alex had a beanie so he wasn’t running back and forth as much.

Alex on one of the decks on the side of the ferry

There were also sea gulls gliding above us which looked really pretty against the bright blue sky. I tried my hardest to capture photos of them flying above us.

Picture of the park benches covered in snow.

After that we took the sub to Wall Street. We saw the statue of George Washington, the New York Stock Exchange Building, Trinity Church and one of Donald Trump’s buildings. The Trinity Church was the location where National Treasure was filmed. Remember the clue in the movie, “Heere at the wall”? It was referring to the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, which was initially called D’Heere Street.

Trinity Church

The photo speaks for itself

NYSE side entrance (New York Stock Exchange)

NYSE front entrance - love the lights depicting the US flag on the front columns

Statue of George Washington

One of Donald Trump's buildings. Not sure if those trimmings are solid gold?

Tiffany's!

Our next stop was World Trade Center - Ground Zero that was surprisingly only a short walk from Trinity Church. There wasn't much activity going on at the site. Everything was cordoned off.

Ground Zero

Chinatown was a buzz of activity and I love that we found a Chinese bakery where I could have my all time favourite – chi pow tan kow – in a direct translation says, egg cake wrapped in paper. I love, love, love it! Every time I walk into a Chinese bakery, I have to buy this. Good ones are not too sweet, light and fluffy. Back in Penang I remember asking my parents to drive around the island just looking for stalls that sell this. To this day, I only know of one stall that sells them. It’s the stall at Pulau Tikus Market at night. YUM!

We next walked into Little Italy. It was a very ‘Italian’ area, for lack of a better expression. Haha. Nice restaurants with al fresco sitting, lovely Italian men with the nice accent standing outside trying to bring customers into their restaurants. We enjoyed the atmosphere of the street but at the end of our walk, decided to not patronize any of the restaurants.

As we were walking back, we went by Bryant Park and the ice skating session for 2008-2009 was still ongoing! So we decided to ‘carpe diem’ and go for it. :) It was a big mistake to my bottom. I remembered the days when there was an ice skating ring at the Bukit Jambul shopping mall (that was like 12 years ago) and I thought I would probably still have the ability to move without falling as I did in the past. How wrong I was! Age adds to clumsiness, stiff knees and a drop in flexibility. I fell a total of 4 times! One time I fell on my bum and then slid on my side and nearly turned face over onto the ice. Hahaha! I really made a spectacle of myself on the ice.

The ring all lit up - It was beautiful

Ugly bright blue rental skates :)

It was good fun though. I would do it all over again if I could. I couldn’t be bothered with the embarrassment of falling. Some folks standing on the outside of the ring watching said, ‘I will never do this. It’s too humiliating.’ For me, it’s a case of if not now, then when? The later in life I choose to do this, the higher the risk of a fractured wrist, twisted ankle, busted tooth or even severed finger! Hahaha... Over dramatic. But really, did it occur to you that if you do fall, someone who could not stop in time could easily skate over your fingers? Especially since your arms would be spread out in attempt to soften your fall. Got you thinking there eh... Hehe.

Look at their grace, their movement....

My stiff clumsiness

Hehe...

This was our wrist band for entry into the park.

So thus ended Day 3. Although we started out late, we sure made up for it with all the spots we covered, all the walking and ice skating! I really enjoyed New York.

cheryl