Day 2: New York Tour

Early morning, I rushed down to Bowery Street (Chinatown) to board the bus for my 5 day tour. I was surprised and a little disappointed to find out that the tour i signed up for was actually organised by a Chinese company and hence I had a chinese tour guide. Not that its bad to have a chinese tour guide, they were really nice people in fact. However due to their proficiency in English, it was hard to understand what they were trying to say when they tried to explain the history of the various places of interest. Nevertheless, the tour was a pleasant one even though alot of time was spent on the bus, moving from one place to another.

The first day was a day tour around New York beginning with Empire State Building Observatory.

From the tallest building in New York, I was able to get a bird's eye view of the entire city.
Lower manhatton. If the World Trade Center Twin Towers were still around, they would be at the right corner of the photograph.
Next stop was a brief stopover at Rockefeller center for photo session.

A new york tour would not be complete without going to Times Square!!

The next place of interest was a place I would never have thought of going on my own - The USS Intrepid Museum. I got to go onboard this aircraft carrier built during World War II period. Cool! Wish I had more time to view all the exhibit in the museum though.

Inside the control room of the Intrepid.

Military Band performance.

After that was a tour along the Hudson river. The one hour boat ride on a hot afternoon was sleep inducing. Most of the people fell asleep during the ride, including me. lol.

However, if you were awake, you get to see the New York City Skyline from the river and most importantly...

The statue of liberty. The circle line ferry ride doesnt allow you to go on liberty island. It didnt bother me as I had been on the island before back in 2007.

The next place they brought me to was a place I had visited before too - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This place is a must if you are visiting New York City. The museum is huge and has a huge collection of art work and artefacts.

One of the exhibition halls.

A beautifully crafted artefact.

I am a big fan of scupltures. Here is Perseus holding the head of Medusa.

Exquisite artefacts on display.

I was allowed one and a half hour in the museum which is totally not enough!! Thats the sad part of following a tour.

The United Nation building was the next stop. It was sunday so all the flags were not up flying which is quite disappointing. We didnt get to go inside, just allowed to take photographs outside..quite lame. I would love to go in.

Our last stop for the day is Wall Street and here I am posing in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Standing on Wall Street.

Thats it for the first day. We headed to New Jersey for the overnight stay and next morning will be straight to Washington DC.