Day 11: New York

It was 6am in the morning and I was already up to my usual morning chores and by the time all of us were done with our breakfast and ready to roll, it was already 7am. Without wasting much time, we headed to the subway station and hopped onto a train, and after one transit and a journey of around an hour, we were finally at the Whitehall Station (which was nearby Battery Park). We knew that we were going to be late in collecting our Monument entrance pass and we were praying hard that there will still be tickets available for the day, and luckily our prayers were answered and we managed to get hold of 3 monument passes. So we boarded the ferry which will take us to Liberty Island but not after going through much stringent security checks.


The ferry that we boarded

It didn’t take a very long time for the ferry ride to and soon we were on Liberty Island with the majestic Statue of Liberty standing tall on the island.


A view of Manhattan from the ferry


The Statue of Liberty

Soon after the ferry docked, we were able to set foot on the famous Liberty Island for the first time in our lives.


The entrance of Liberty Island welcoming us

The very first thing on our mind was to head straight for the statue itself, but before entering the statue, we were put through another stringent security check. In the pedestial of the statue, we were brought through along a corridor where the history of the statue was told. We learned much about the statue and her beginnings and the most important was that we got to know the true name of the statue to be ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’ instead of the ‘Statue of Liberty’ which was more commonly used. At the end of the corridor was the elevator or stairs up to the observation deck which was at the top of the pedestial of the statue instead of the torch (which has been closed to the public). The view at the top of the pedestial itself was really magnificent, where below are a few pictures of the surrounding sceneries.


Ellis Island and Manhattan as the backdrop


Liberty Island and note the shadow of the statue

After we were done with the top of the pedestial, we headed for the lower parts of the pedestial for more pictures.


The Statue of Liberty close up

Once we were satisfied, we boarded another ferry which took us to Ellis Island. Ellis Island has always been famous for once being the biggest Immigration centre of the United States which served nearly 12 million immigrants into the US (but is now no more in use).


The Immigration Building on Ellis Island

We took a free tour of the Immigration building itself and we were told of the initials of the Island and how the building served the US as the biggest center of immigration.


The Great Hall of the Immigration Building which was used to house immigrants trying to enter the US last time

After a knowledgeable visit to Ellis Island, we headed back to the mainland and it was already close to 2pm. Dickson suggested that we look for the biggest Nathan’s (hotdog shop) in New York and after questioning a park ranger, we got to know that the Nathan’s Hotdog was situated in Coney Island itself. After a long subway ride, we had finally arrived at the Coney Island, and guess what, the subway we took wasn’t a subway anymore as the train has been travelling above ground after exiting the Manhattan Island.


The ‘subway’ station above ground


The street right outside of the station

To our delight, the Nathan’s hotdog shop was just across the street outside the station but to our horror, the shop was really crowded as the line could be seen stretching out onto the roads.


The Original Nathan’s (first in the world)

The hotdogs must have been really good to attract a crowd like this and after a painstaking half an hour wait, we have finally got our hotdogs, and indeed, it didn’t disappointed us as the dogs tasted just fine. You can call us crazy or something but right after our meal, we headed back towards Manhattan (we came all the way to Coney Island just for the dogs). Our next stop would be the Central Park in Manhattan, and after another long subway ride, we had arrived at 59th street which was just along the Central Park.


The Waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge which we spotted while in the train


59th Street


The entrance of the Central Park (the Park in the middle of Manhattan City)

The park was just beautiful with all the towering trees and lush greens with the fresh and cooling air around the park. Below are pictures of the park.















Before we could cover the whole park, the sun was already going down and we had no choice but to leave the park as it was getting dark. And so we decided that Chinatown would be our next destination for our dinner and T-shirt buying. And guess what, earlier, we had just came across a restaurant in Chinatown serving Malaysian Cuisine in a tourist booklet and we were just so eager to try it out. After a 10 minute search of the restaurant since we arrived at Chinatown, we have finally found the restaurant.


Jaya Malaysian Restaurant :)

It really feels like back home when we saw the food on the menu and even better with most of the waiter and waitresses are Malaysians. And guess what we had for dinner? NASI LEMAK! It was a delicious plate of Nasi Lemak indeed but a very expensive one (USD 5.50) too compared to those sold by ‘Mak Cik’ in Malaysia.


The plate of Nasi Lemak which I had

After we were done with our dinner, we went hunting for our ‘I Love NY’ shirts, and we found a shop which has the best prices and we got a bunch of them as souvenirs. Our little shopping was the last for the day and we headed to the nearest subway back to our hotel. But guess what, while waiting at the subway station, we met a few Malaysians, but they are not just Malaysians, but students of Nottingham University of Malaysia (who are participating in the W&T program as well) What a small world indeed, after not seeing any Malaysians for the past 3 months and suddenly seeing so many of them in a day. We had a short chat while waiting for our train to arrive and it wasn’t too long before we are on our way back to our hotel already.