chinatown 2: some pics

McDonald's asian cheesiness =P


durian stall (just like malaysia...)


yay under 5bux IS possible!


pearl river mart, its not really in chinatown..
but pretty close by in the very cool Soho and very cool store!

Chinatown

I love chinatown, and if i had an awsome super duper digital SLR (which i don't ~_~), i think i'd snap so many pictures that the memory card in it would explode! Lol.... well maybe that wouldn't happen, but my point being that its a pretty cool neighbourhood.

We had our first meal in NYC right here, and as we were on a budget....we had to eat on a budget (seriously...like 5 bux was considered overpriced) and we knew before we stepped foot on american soil that chinatown is land of cheap! Aaaas a result our first meal did turn out to be fairly good, fairly cheap.. tho the tipping thing didn't go down too well for me (at first) as i wasn't used to it .

As an ethnically asian person, it was exciting to see a place like this smacked within a plethora of distinct neighbourhoods all around NYC. A McDs with a chinese sign, a stall hanging with durians, a crab escaping from the seafood stand....it had familiarity to the countries i've visited and lived in asia...quite homely actually =).. and as we stayed a bit longer, we discovered more eating wonders, cheap grocery markets, quirky shops.... and chinatown became bigger and bigger as i wondered off the usual tourist track...impressively big.

There is one thing i didn't like tho.... hair salons. Me and Jlo have both been to one on seperate occasions and the haircuts they give just seem really unstylish and/or generic (compared to similar asian hair salons here in NZ). I don't think mine looked any different from his OR the guy who walked out just before i entered. I wonder why they even bothered asking me how i wanted my hair cut, as they didn't really do as i asked.......

Oh well....I guess that was just another "discovery"..

flushing meadows-corona park

On one of my last few days in New York, i made a visit to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens..... having written down a list called "the 'endless' list of the places to go before I leave". Of course, i never even came close to fufilling that list (which included The cloisters, Prospect park, brooklyn museum, anywhere in the bronx so i could at least say i stepped foot inside the bronx...=P....etc..), anyways the park was on that list.

The place was empty, pretty much no one in sight..(was friggin freezing)...except for this middle aged caucasian guy jogging around the unisphere....asked him to take a photo with me in it...he was sorta reluctant...but after a bit of convicing that itd be quick...he took the camera. The guy really couldn't take a clear picture......and apparently couldn't even speak english, not being able to understand my instructions.."just half click...then push down", "can you come a bit closer?", man!!...oh well i gave up after a few tries...and he tells me "sorry, im little bit blind" and just walks away...hm...oh...

Aaaaaaaanyways....the unisphere is pretty cool...140 feet high and the "world's largest global structure". So I starred at it.....snapped pictures of it....circled it a few times.....thought about the countries/continents as I circled around.....
USA: (looking specifically at where nyc is)...yay for being in NyC!
Africa: so much shit going on there....
Australia: so weird how i go travel half a world away to new york, to japan, to switzerland....but i can't be bothered taking a three/four hour flight to sydney or gold coast or something....heck my father lives there too!...your next to be tackled big brother!
New Zealand: ohhhh there you are....lil' old new zealand tucked all the way down there...why can't you be more central huh!? huh!?.......miss ya tho...honest!

I soon came to be aware that my feet was burning numb....and i couldn't feel my hands....TIME TO GO!....=)