Take your digicam out for a walk

I'm off to Asia in November; yet another funfilled trip during my vacation season of October-November and February-April. Why these times of the year?

It's usually hot and gross during the summer high season and winter is also high season because of Xmas-New Years-Lunar New Year all happening between Dec-Jan.

Tickets are prohibitively expensive during this time and the weather during the other times.

I recently got a new Palm Pilot, the Tungsten C. It is fast and has wi-fi built in. Ideally, I wanted to leave the Powerbook at home this time around because I can keep up with email via the Palm Pilot and try to post from the road.

I'm going to give this a shot later on and I guess you'll read the results if it works.

10 July, all day.

Food day again!

Met my friend @ Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side. That's a big old school deli that is new again with the hottie crowd, especially on weekends. However, it was late lunchtime on a Thursday which meant it was only kind of crowded as opposed to being really crowded. Had a thin sliced pastrami with chicken noodle soup. Mmmmmm.

As far as I could tell, this was the place where the infamous deli scene in "When Harry met Sally" was filmed. Nice movie, even though it was directed by Rob Reiner.

Wandered around other parts of SoHo and TriBeCa before having to head back uptown. Found Dean and Deluca's and had a NY Egg Cream. No egg but some cream.

Dinner was Pizza Blanca, or white pizza. NY seems like the only place you can find this thin crust pizza. Came out of the subway and had the fastest dinner in recent memory.

Went to the Great Lawn in Central Park to catch a performance of the NY Phil. Their summertime in the park series of concerts are free and attract a LOT of people. It was nice. Big. And organized. Best of all, no bums so you could enjoy the show.



Everyone stayed until the end to catch the fireworks. They were intense but brief. 5 minutes of fireworks! So short!



I would wind up walking 25 blocks back to the hotel since the MTA wasn't running buses down 5th Avenue. Naturally, when I got back down to 58th Street, three busses show up. Maybe their bus division is secretly run by MUNI. Bleah.

But right at the entrance to Central Park, there was this really nice fountain. So i took it. A picture, that is.



Of course, these are the folks responsible for keeping New York clean! I have a healthy respect for the work they've done over ther past seven years...

9 July, all day.

A friend asked me why I go to New York so often. Of course she should talk since she's from Singapore, land of the most traveled of travelers. And she got to go to Scandinavia last summer!

Why do I go to New York? Because New York is so big, each time I go there solo, there's always new places to visit. Today was food & booze day. I was taken to a store called Century 21. Thought it was a place for real estate (ha!) but it was a big crazy clothing shop housed in an old bank. My NY friend has pretty good taste in what works clothing wise. It's the big deal over there.

Lunch was at Shanghai Joe's in Chinatown (xiaolongbiao is great) with shopping afterwards. Kind of routine, eh? Wound up strolling up to SoHo to drink coffee while she shopped around. There was a fantastic Apple Store in the heart of SoHo. Free broadband to boot. Nice. I spent two hours in there.

When it's really hot outside, it does goofy things to your appetite. So no dinner tonight; more like a bunch of snacks. Green Tea ice cream with mochi at dinnertime in a chi chi Japanese place and a Cookie Dough Surprise sandwich at a peanut butter restaurant in the Village behind NYU. nice. And that was dinner.

Campbell's Apartment is one of the few surviving cigar bars in New York. Mayor Bloomberg, the ultimate RINO, has pushed through a smoking ban very similar to California's but with no loopholes.

It's a classy joint in Grand Central Station. Get into your nice clothes and smoke a Habano. Their martinis, excellent!

I met a bureaucrat from the UN there. She spouted the same garbage that Kofi Annan and that bunch of corrupt third world outcasts use against the US. "Pay your dues and do what we say". What has UN membership done for the US lately? What have we gotten for all the billions of dollars we pour into that? To keep corrupt third worlders in New York?

How about this: Move UN headquarters to Boise or Des Moines and see just how plum that assignment is, eh?

8 July, High Tea to Dinner Time

Wisdom of free Wi-fi

After my visit to the house of Nat, I sauntered across the street to Bryant Park. This is a community park that was taken back from the powers of scum (drug dealers and bums) by the powers of good. Besides free Wi-Fi that blankets the park, there's a cafe and games and private security. Very safe and very busy.



So I sat under a tree in 90+ degree heat and went online. Did my business for two hours (!). Time passes when you have free Wi-Fi. Even in that kind of heat.



Met up with my Hells' Kitchen friends at John's Pizza near Times Square. A famous pizza palace in an old church. Mmmmmmmmm.

8 July, Early AM

It wasn't too bad getting into town. Took the Airtrain to NJ Transit commuter rail into Penn Station. 40 minutes. Nice. Beats the subway from JFK. Faster, cleaner, less stops, place for baggage.

Subways are not designed for baggage.

The station turnstiles and gates are also not designed for baggage. Try going through these with a roller and a backpack!

Got an early check-in at the Helmsley Windsor. It's on W58th @ 6th Avenue. Very nice location. Central Park is a block away, the Madison and 5th Avenue shopping districts are close. And the F line (subway) is across the street from the hotel. The hotel is a bit worn, but for $85/night, I'll deal with it.

Went puttering with one of my friends who escaped San Francisco. She likes it here but misses her home in Southern California. Can't blame her, but she IS in a better place than San Francisco.

We met at the Popover Cafe where they serve popovers with strawberry butter. Yummy place. Stuffed animals all over the place. Kinda cutsey. Stayed there for two + hours because of the heat and my need to recover from my flight. Lots of coffee...

Madison Avenue has all the chi chi shops and we puttered up and down the strip. Dunhill moved here from Park Ave and they have a very spiffy new humidor. I think we stopped at or poked into every fancy haute couture boutique before we split up. She went back to Hell's Kitchen (where she and her husband reside) and I went down to Nat Sherman's to pick up some supplies...

7 July, late night.

I don't like red-eyes.

I understand how they're useful. Once you arrive at your destination, you have the entire day to do stuff. This is with the proviso that you can sleep on command once you're airborne. Door closes. ZZZzzzzz.

I can't do that. Not even in 1st Class. Granted, it was 1st Class on an A320 (small plane) but nevertheless, 1st class.

I wound up tossing and turning and sleeping for only half the flight. The 1st Class food was a coldcut sandwich served with a hot bun and nice plates. The coldcuts were pretty good and we had our own flight attendant. But still coldcuts! Can't imagine paying full fare for 1st class and getting coldcuts.

When we landed, we emerged into Singapore heat. 95 degrees with 100% humidity. Crap! At least I packed properly. Lots of linen shirts and some shorts and pants too. Welcome to Newark.

I remember promising my Asia logs, but there's a lot of stuff to go through. Pictures. Pages. Lots of work. But there needs to be new stuff to read.

So I'm going to post stuff from my July trip to New York. An easier read and not as boring. =P