New York - Day 1

KT and I arrived on the morning of June 29 (Monday).  We took the cab to Manhattan to check into our hotel and meet up with SV.  We are staying at the Hudson Hotel, near the Columbus Circle, one of my favourite hotels!  You can't beat the location; it's half a block away from the Columbus Circle subway station, and you can practically go anywhere from this station.  It's also a hop away from CVS just in case we ever need anything in emergency (medicine, water, etc), and a hop away from Whole Foods Columbus Circle, arguably one of the most profitable Whole Foods in the US of A (or so I've heard from somebody at work).

This is the lobby of the hotel.  Really beautiful and unique.  It's very spacious and open, when there aren't a gazillion people lining up trying to check in.  They have this really long check in / check out table, but only 2 or 3 people would be working at one time, even when there are 10 people lining in the lobby.  Thankfully, I haven't experienced that; my experience lining up at the lobby so far has been problem-free (maybe a 5 minute wait, but that's it). 

The room itself?  Typical of a New York hotel in terms of size; it's tiny.  But, the rooms at the Hudson are modern and very minimalistic.  It feels like a studio apartment more than a hotel room.  It's very compact.  Having said that, the bathroom is surprisingly quite big for this standard room.  A couple of years ago, my girl friend Annabelle and I stayed at the Deluxe Room, which is more spacious, has a walk in closet, but the bathroom is super small, even for us girls.

There's a small fridge (thank goodness) and a safety deposit box in the room, along with a cabinet space to store your clothing or other things

There's a small closet area, which was quickly filled up by our luggages!  we also hang all of our dresses in the closet.  

There's a flat screen TV on the side of the bed, which is OK because it has one of those swivel holder thing so we can move it to wherever we want (restricted movement, of course, it would only go as far). 

We first hit the subway station to get our 7-day unlimited pass.  Anyway, we quickly realized that we were hungry, so off we went to Hell's Kitchen, which is just a few blocks away from our hotel.  Our first stop is a small bakery called Amy's Bakery.  It's a small rustic cafe, great place to hang out, but they get busy/full most of the time.  

  

I got me an Asiago cheese twist and an iced mocha

Lo and behold, our journey didn't stop there.  After we grabbed a quick breakfast at Amy's, we decided that we were now ready for lunch!!  We walked for a couple of blocks, and went to Pam Real Thai.  I have been here before, to eat their oxtail soup.  I love oxtail, and I very rarely find good oxtail soup.  Their oxtail soup, while very rich and fatty, is super delicious!  The oxtail is very tender and easy to eat (some oxtail soup has very very chewy oxtail, and it could be a pain trying to get the meat off the bone).  

We started with some appetizers:  Tom Kha Gai

And also Tom Yam Koong

Next, we got a chicken pad thai.  We forgot to ask them to cook the bean sprouts.  but that's OK, it was still delicious.  We took this back to the hotel (the leftover), we put them in the fridge and ate them later in the day.  Yes, we ate it cold, but it was still good!

Last but not least....the oxtail soup.  You can see how rich and fatty the soup is!  but it was delicious. The stomach wins!

Next, we hit Times Square.  I promised KT that we would go and see Times Square during the day, and Times Square at night, so that she can experience both.  They have different ambiance and feel in different times of the day, although both are very overwhelming and overstimulating.  

Our trusted shoes.  We didn't plan this, but I guess we kind of knew that this was going to happen because the Converse is our go-to shoes.  We took this pic while we were lining up in front of TKTS on Times Square to get a discounted tickets for a Broadway show that night.  I think we lined up for about 45 minutes.  Thank goodness it wasn't sunny that day (it was a bit cloudy), otherwise I think I might have passed out from the heat.  

Ta daaaa...we got tickets to see le miserables!  KT and SV's first New York Broadway experience.  The production was so good, I was in awe throughout the whole show by their voices. I wish I could sing like that. The stage is also very impressive.  

I think the show ended around 11pm, and we started walking towards Times Square. If it weren't for the sake of KT, and for the sake of taking pictures, I probably would not go so far into Times Square. I hate walking shoulder-to-shoulder with other people, and trying to make sure that I don't lose the girls in the process.  

That's how we ended the night!  That's KT and SV posing at Times Square. 

Oh wait, I lied.  We didn't end the night there. 

It was 11pm, we were tired, we were  hungry.  What's still open at 11pm at night where we can grab a quick dinner?  The trusted Halal Guys, of course!  Kylene and I got the mix chicken&gyro on rice each person, and Sharon got the chicken sandwich (which she later regretted and wished that she had ordered the rice....but not to worry....we went back to Halal Guys on the 2nd day, and Sharon got her mix chicken&gyro on rice!!). 

Okay, now we have truly ended the night.  I think we tucked in pretty quickly, the last time I saw my watch, it was around 12:30AM.  I will try my best to post regularly and keep you guys updated of our trip to New York (just be prepared to see lots of pics of food).