They Came, they Saw ....They are Frozen!!(NY Jan 2007)

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They Came, they Saw ....They are Frozen!! I can’t think of a better title for this page, as I start to describe my experience of my 7th visit to New York City since joining JP Morgan Chase. It just feels wonderful to be back here to this mega city... which I always dreamt of visiting at least one time a few years back. So what’s left to see now? Let’s see....Statue of Liberty?? No...Empire State? No.Times Square?? No...Battery Park? No...NYSE...No...WTC??...No...Helicopter Ride of NYC?? ..No...Central Park??...No..Well...it seems that I have to work a bit here to identify the place to visit this time. And I did that homework long back before arriving here. As with Philies, I wanted to visit some other places that I wanted to visit in my last visits, but missed out. What Are those? They are Central Park Zoo, Rockerfeller observatory, A movie in Lowe's in times Square, United Nations. Places freezed...what’s next? Timing...8.20 am from Wilmington to NYC & 6.30 pm from NYC to Wilmington. Overnight Stay?? Courtesy - Arvind Nayak, 30th Ave, Uptown Queens, NYC.

All set, we left our apats at 7.45 am after having a Maggie. We have already booked the cab previous night. Fare # $ 32. the wait at bus station was not long. the bus arrived & left on time. At 8.25 we were on our way to NYC. All the memories of my last visit here lingered in my mind. By 10.30 am, we got down at port Authority Station. Outside it was cold...super cold. We later came to know that it was minus 6 degrees that day!! Wow!! We walked the city in this temperature!! I can’t believe myself!!

Meeting Arvind at 42nd street was a bit a problem. but it was ok, as it took us around 10 mins to meet him finally. After exchanging greetings we marched ahead to his apats in Astoria, Queens by boarding a N up train from 42nd Street Station. It took us only 15 mins to reach his apts. His place is very conveniently located in Queens...just 5 mins walk from the 30th Ave Station. After reaching, we quickly reassembled the stuff in our bags & stepped out on our frozen expedition. Good thing that we did on our way, took a daily MTA pass. Cost $ 7 - unlimited travel throughout the day on MTA bus & trains. Our first halt was at 49th street. We straightaway went to Rockerfeller center to book our tickets for its observatory. Its winter time so there was no rush. We booked our slots for 8 pm batch. After setting up the Top of the Rock, we moved on to Brooklyn Bridge. Metro A 7 - Downtown for City Hall.

After reaching Brooklyn, we decided to walk down the whole bridge & get to the other side, where we had KHNH shooting done. Its fantastic spot for snaps. Many of the most beautiful snaps that I have been taken here. After enjoying the view, we started our journey back to Battery Park. Walking in cold. Rather super cold can be really tough & to add to our agony, we had some chilling wind. Our legs were tired now & our stomachs empty. We decided to hop into the first McDonalds that we can locate. And it wasn’t too late. We located one on Wall Street. It was nice & warm in there. We took our parcels of Chicken Burger plus fries & got ourselves a seat on first level of the joint. There was a live piano being played by a lady in the Restaurant. It was a pleasing experience.

Our next stop was Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park; it took us some directions to finally reach the museum. It was nice & warm again inside. & guess what all JP Morgan employees have free access to the museum. Why? B'use JP Morgan is one of the corporate sponsors of the museum. This holds true for majority of the museums / site seeing spots in NYC as JP Morgan has played in important role in the development of NYC over the years. Tall buildings have fascinated me since childhood & getting a chance to visit a skyscraper Museum was nothing less than a feast for me. This museum exhibits pictures & replicas of the tallest structures around the world. After getting a little warm & buying some souvenirs we got out to visit WTC site. The work there to construct World Freedom Tower has already begun. After strolling around in that area for a while, we then picked up a uptown train to get down at 57th street.

It was around 6.30 so we had some time. So kill time, we moved inside a shop to do some window shopping. Actually we went inn b'use it was too cold outside. No better way to get warm than to getting inside a shop. Majority of souvenirs shops in NYC are owned by Asians. This one was owned by a Bangladeshi. We spent almost 45 mins inside & purchased nothing. So before the shopkeeper asks us to leave, we decided to make a move on our own. We were still ahead of time for our 8.15 slot at Rockerfeller, but we still thought of trying our luck. & it worked. The security there allowed us inside in the 7.30 batch since there was no big rush.

Rockerfeller is truly one of the most beautifully decorated buildings from inside. A 25 feet schadeller grabs your attention once you step in & from there on, everything inside keeps you amused. Even the elevator that took us to the 67th floor of the building has a laser show on top on a transparent glass as your lift moves at 60km/hour towards the top. On top, there are 3 levels from where you can watch the entire NYC in 360 degrees. The first two levels have glass boundaries so you can see thru. Imagine how cold it must be at 1100 feet in the sky when its around minus 15 on the road. Super Duper Cold. But we still manage to visit all the 3 levels & took some wonderful snaps. NYC at night is as wonderful as it is in daytime. Last time I saw it from top of Empire State in daytime. This time at night from Top of the Rock. Empire State has one of the most beautiful structures & you can have the best shot at that from Top of the Rock. 1453 feet structure shining with bright red lights on top. God. it doesn’t get better than this!!

After picking up some souvenirs from the obsevatory, we turn towards Times Square...our fav spot. But you know what the cold was making us more & more tired and hungry. Where to rest was the question in our mind & as we walk a wonderful idea stuck my mind. Why not watch a movie at Lowe’s? They show Hindi movies too. We stood in the queue. Guess what they were playing Guru among others. But it was 30 mins since the last show started so we decided to skip it. What’s next best? We don’t know!! We looked around & a title caught our attention - Catch & Release. Its a multy story theatre with around 25 screens. Ours was on level 2, screen 15. Inside it was pleasant. Soon I realized that movie is pathetic. It was time to sleep & so did I. I had a small nap only to get up 10 mins before the end of the movie. $ 10 for a seat & some heat!!

Now it was dinner time. You guessed it right!! It was McDonalds again. Same one that we visited in morning. I had my standard meal with coke. Now it was around 11.30 pm & we have decided with Arvind that we will not reach before 11.45 b'use even he was out with his friends. We took a leisurely walk in Times Square to pick up the Uptown N train. Never once we thought that a dreadful experience awaits us at his apartment.

We reached his apt at around 12.15 & were anticipating Arvind to be home. But he was not! We thought of calling him only to realize that we have misplaced his number. We had no alternative but to wait for him to come. The wait started at 12.15 & with every passing minute it was increasingly difficult to stand in that chilling wind. We even went to Subway station & came back. It was 1.45 now & still no signs of Arvind. We started preparing ourselves to shell out a good 80 - 100 bucks if Arvind doesn’t turn up in next 15 mins.even those 15 mins were beyond our cold tolerance, but its better to have another chance rather than paying 100 bucks for 6 hours of uncomfortable in a barn!! & finally at 1.15 Arvind arrieved...much to our delight! Inside the apats, Arvind was slightly upset with us for misplacing his number. But it was ok! I later came to know that he is a bit short tempered! In no time, we both were deep asleep in his living room.

Sunday morning I got up at 9 by his call. Arvind was talking to his new wife on phone. He got married in last week of Jan in Mumbai & his wife also hails from here. Very courteous of him as he brought some hot tea & Maganlal Chikki for breakfast. I quickly jumped on to that. His room offers a very good view of Manhattan skyline from the living room window. Some desi music on his plasma TV, it was the warmest breakfast that I could have got in NYC that morning. After tea, I had my bath, packed myself with 2 t’s, a to spend his time home that day. That was good for Sweater & a Coat to move out on our last day of sightseeing in NYC. We kept all our bags at his place only. He has scheduled us!!

That day our first halt was at United Nations. Now this building is also on the banks of Hudson River. So more cold! But I was more than eager to get inside this historic building. But all my excitement was shattered when we were told by the Security that UNO tours are closed during winter. Nevertheless, I took some snaps from outside the building & without much delay moved towards Central Park. Destination, Central Park zoo. On our way, I showed Lawrence the Grand Central Terminus as he wanted to see it from inside. Huge & very artistically Grand Central is one of the tourist attractions of NYC.

We entered Central Park from the 59th Street on Columbus Circle, where we have the famous Turner Tower, CNN HQ. Last time we had visited the CNN center so that time we both couldn’t stop ourselves from going inside to refresh those memories. After getting refreshed in their washrooms & doing some window shopping at Samsung Center, we got crossed the roads to enter Central Park. Now this park is huge...Centrally located in NYC from 59th street to 84 streets, it would easily stretch from Church gate to Bandra in length. Locating a zoo in such a huge park could be really hard, especially when you have entrances from all side to this park. We both kept walking. Due to winter, there were a few people in the park to whom we could ask directions. Finally we got somebody. & good that we got him on time, as we were walking in the wrong directions. After coming on right track, it took us hardly 10 - 15 mins to reach at the main entrance of Leap Frog Zoo.

This is one of the 2 zoos that we have in Central Park. As the name suggests, apart from having some rare varieties of Leap frog, it also houses some pythons, penguins, Seals & Polar Bears. But the most amazing attraction of the zoo is it’s artificially created Rain Forest. As we started moving towards that we came across the Leap Frog Cafe. No second thoughts when hunger strikes! Inside the cafe, we took good 45 mins to finish our standard meal. It was much needed rest for our legs!!

Rain Forest is simply fantastic! A huge dome inside which you have a controlled climate conditions, similar to those of Rain Forest. Exotics Birds fly in front of you in their man made habitat. Trees, leaves water streams...its really like a forest & a beautiful wood walk so that you can have a walk enjoying the views. You wont believe but its rains also inside after every 15 mins....Super experience! Outside the forest, they have special sections for Penguins & Polar Bears with climate control. It was the first time in my life that I was watching Penguins & Polar Bears live in front of my eyes. IN the central, they have a wonderful show of Seals, who do some tweaks & turns for you in their ponds as their instructor guides them. Prize a fish! Great fun! The site seeing could not have ended on a better note than this!!

Out of the park we straight went to Arvind's apt. I prepared some tea for all of us. By 5.30 we were out on our journey back home. At Times Square, I did some last minute shopping before boarding our Greyhound bus at 6.30 from port authority station 2 levels below street. It was yet another cherishable experience! I don’t know when will the next time I come back but for now I have enough to carry home as my memories from this city that never sleeps! I wish my love Sonu gets a chance soon to see all these places & have a experience to cherish for herself similar to the one that is frozen in my mind forever!!

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Photos

Empire State frm Rockerfeller Centre
From Observation Deck of Rockerfeller Centre

@Central Park Zoo
Seal Show inside Leap Frog Zoo