Around the World – Page 7

Day 4: Not so confused anymore

Things began to fit into place. I wasn’t always so confused about where I was going. Although I was still dehydrated and tired from the previous day, I was definitely more settled and calm mentally. I got to Waseda and picked up lunch at a convenience store, with the intention of eating it in class. My professor later told me and some other classmates who had turned up at class with a konbini (another word for convenience stores) lunch that eating at the desk is a very Japanese thing to do.

The professor talked to us about the Meiji period in Japanese history and we learnt about Edo, Samurais and the significance of water in Japan. After class, I went to Shibuya, which is comparable to the Times Square of New York. As I stood on a bridge watching people cross the scramble crossing, it was scary to see such a large number of people walking towards each other. And the way they were walking was almost mechanical and robotic. It seemed as if they were walking in sync.

I also discovered this little button that Japanese toilets have which make a flushing sound on being pressed. But they don’t actually flush. According to one of my friend, it is used when people are peeing so that it covers the sound of peeing from people outside. Brilliant, isn’t it?

I returned home that night to find a delicious meal on the table cooked my Kaori-san! We had salad, oranges, rice, soup and korokke, a deep friend meat cutlet. Eating the korokke with chopsticks was a new experience for me, something I did not think was possible, since I would earlier just eat cutlets with my hands or a spoon.

I spent a long time hanging out with Kaori-san and Masaki-san after dinner, and it was really fun. We tried to make weekend plans, only to be distracted several times by the television and other random topics of conversation. From one of Kaori-san’s books, I learnt about geishas, the uchi-soto concept and other arbitrary things related to Japanese culture. I only got to my readings for the next day of class after they went to sleep.

Day 3: LOST

My first day going to Waseda was CRAZY. This was the first time I was seeing Tokyo’s rush hour and the first time I was riding the trains by myself. I kept getting lost and the option of taking my time to find the right train was virtually a non existent option considering the constantly moving crowds. I got lost a few times and finally made it to Waseda. After getting lost one more time, I made it to the Okuma auditorium, the designated meeting spot.

After a quick orientation, we split up for lunch. Along with three others, I spent a significant amount of time looking for a suitable restaurant. We finally settled for a Japanese curry restaurant, a kind of food that I didn’t know existed. Nevertheless it was good, and surprisingly spicy considering we ordered a dish of spice level 1. Being four people who didn’t speak Japanese, we barely knew what we ordered and the waitresses words and questions fell on deaf years. But yet, communication happened through a lot of gestures, pointing, smiles and broken phrases.We got lost again on the way back, but by now I was so used to it that I’d be surprised if I didn’t get lost. After a three hour class we got a campus tour of Waseda and a fancy welcome party at the University cafe. It was great getting to know some of my new classmates from Yale!

On the way home I once again got lost as I took the wrong exit from the train station. I took a few wrong turns but finally made it back home very exhausted. I tried onigiri, a popular Japanese snack, for the first time that night as supper along with Yocan, a jelly like Japanese dessert.

Day 2: A New Family

Breakfast at the hostel was a cultural experience. Bread and jams occupied one small part of the breakfast layout. A majority of it was rice, soup, Japanese cutlets, and [other things I was clueless about]. I tasted nato for the first time, which is fermented soybeans, a popular Japanese breakfast item eaten with rice. It was the strangest thing ever, I could barely taste anything in my mouth. The smell was repelling. It reminded me of my first time trying durian in Singapore. I know that this will probably be one of the foods that I will end up loving by the end of my 7 weeks here. An interesting food item that one of my friends had brought to breakfast was coffee jelly, and it tasted great! The water filter dispensed cold water, hot water and green tea. I loved the idea of green tea being available as easily as water, and it reminded me of how different a culture I was dealing with here.

Later, we were all given our cell phones and tickets for commuting between our homes and Waseda University. I was confused to see three different tickets given to me, but I was told that my host family would explain the system to me. The same day, I was picked up by my host family comprising Kaori-san and Masaki-san, a young couple who live in Saitama, which is a suburb of Tokyo. We went around Tokyo the first half of the day, running errands and getting to know each other. My host mom and dad took me along the entire train route from Waseda University to their house. They told me that there are around 10 different companies which are running trains in the city, and each of them have different tickets, which explained the three different tickets I had received to travel on three different lines each day.

My room for the next 5 weeks

My host mom and dad had both studied sociology in college, which was once my dream subject. Spending all afternoon with them taught me more than a classroom has ever taught me. Apart from learning several Japanese words and how to navigate the confusing train system in Tokyo, I learnt about Japanese family dynamics, cuisine, lifestyle, etc. We went to lunch to a cute little restaurant which had little wooden compartments made for four people. Kaori-san and Masaki-san told me that these places are usually for drinking at night, and have great and cheap food during the day! The restaurant had a little device on each table which you could use to call the waiter. What a brilliant concept! I went grocery shopping with them later and learnt about all kinds of new foods that I wasn’t used to seeing. I tried sake for the first time that night, and loved it! It wasn’t too bitter nor too sweet. Or rather, it was both bitter and sweet. I don’t know. Either way, it was great.

The comfort level that I reached with Kaori-san and Masaki-san on the first day itself was incredible and totally unexpected. I had only heard of Japanese hospitality before this. However, I felt like this was more than just hospitality. It was genuine concern and care under which I suddenly didn’t feel lost anymore.

First Day in Japan

I flew by Japanese airlines. The flight was unexpectedly full of Japanese people. I half expected to see lots of Indian people on the flight either visiting Japan or transiting, but there were only a handful. The service on the flight was unexpectedly good and the aircraft fairly fancy.

I arrived at Narita airport on Saturday morning. I was surprised to not find a more advanced and fancy airport. Things were a little bit confusing. Seeing so much of Japanese written everywhere didn’t help. There were signs around immigration with scary words such as ‘quarantine’ written here and there. I was half expecting a medical checkup before I was allowed to pass through immigration. Customs happened quickly and so did baggage claim. The customs was surprisingly thorough and asked me for my invitation letter from Yale before they let me go. After spending a few minutes in Japan’s very clean public bathrooms, I bought breakfast from a convenience store. Everything was in Japanese and I had no idea what I ate that day. But it was good. And cheap. When the cashier said “300 Yen” with a Japanese accent, I wasn’t sure I heard right. I was expecting more of “1500 Yen”, having heard about how expensive Japan is.

I took the Narita Express, also known as the NEX to Tokyo and made my way to the hostel. My first reality check came when I was trying to look for my hostel and asking people on the street didn’t help. Most people didn’t understand what I was saying, and others didn’t know where the hostel was. When I finally did get to the hostel, I was pleasantly surprised at how large the rooms were. I had expected dark and dingy rooms with barely enough space to stand. It was quite the contrary. I was amused to see the system of the public bath, which comprised of a huge bath tub in which people could collectively bathe.

I walked around the area looking for lunch and found a small restaurant with bar stools and vending machine on the side. This was pretty new to me. The concept is that you decide what you want to eat, pay for it through the vending machine (which is generally quite cheap ~$5) and then you get a ticket in return. You take the ticket to the counter and the waitress brings you the food in a matter of seconds. I don’t know what I ordered, since everything was in Japanese and I had just pressed a random button on the vending machine. But what I got was the best fast food I’d ever had. I was later told that what I had eaten was gyudon, which was beef slices on top of rice along with miso soup, a Japanese specialty that is eaten with almost every meal. The soup was served without a soup spoon and I wasn’t quite sure how to go about drinking it, until I saw the man next to me drinking it straight from the bowl. Great way to economize on extra cutlery!

As I walked around after lunch, I saw many little food stalls on the street and quite a few European restaurants. There were people handing out flyers on the street and advertising their restaurants. When I’d walk past, people would look at me and decide not to hand me the flyer or shout out their advertising slogans to me because it was so clear that I wouldn’t understand them. Being in a country where I clearly stand out as a foreigner was new to me. All the places I had been to before were those where people could have thought of me as a local-US, Singapore Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada, etc. This was also the first time I wasn’t seeing any Indians or brown people on the street.

At first, I though that Tokyo was not as fancy as I expected it to be. The streets were small and the buildings were often old. But slowly, I realized that Tokyo is advanced in the most functional sense. The restaurant waiter at dinner had an app on his phone that could send orders to the kitchen and track the order later. One train line had several types of trains-local, rapid, semi-rapid, so that people who live faraway don’t waste time because of the train making stops every 2 minutes.

My first takeaway? Don’t judge a book by its cover.

A day before Japan

I leave for Japan tomorrow. I’m going to be in Tokyo for 5 weeks and some other undecided place for 2 weeks after that.

I have been preparing for my study abroad and Japanese immersion. The readings provided by the Yale professor so far have been immensely useful in orienting me with Japanese culture. They give a lot of historical background about Tokyo. Some novels that I’ve been reading have been helpful in familiarizing me with Japanese names and places. Some tit bits of information I’ve got from friends who’ve visited Japan are that its very orderly, the Japanese are very polite, patient and helpful, Tokyo is huge and can be quite confusing. A lot of my college friends are crazy about Japan. They love the place. Although I’m excited to be going to a place which so many people admire, I’m keeping my expectations as low as possible, so that I won’t be disappointed.

Yesterday, I called the hostel that I’ll be staying at in Tokyo the first night before I’m picked up by my host family. They were really nice. The first woman who answered greeted me with a few lines of Japanese. So my first sentence to her was “Hello! Do you speak English?”. I should probably learn how to say that in Japanese. I’ve learnt some Japanese words, like hello (konnichiwa), thank you (arigato), etc. Anyways my call was transferred to man who spoke fairly fluent english. Off course he had a Japanese accent, and even when I asked him to spell things out for me, the way he pronounced English letters was very different and a bit hard to understand. But thanks to his patience, I finally got the directions to the hostel.

Considering that there might be a language problem in Japan, I initially thought about learning Hiragana. Kranji was out of the question. I still might learn some while I’m in Japan. But I think for now, I’m going to try and get by without the local language through gestures and phrase books. These days I’m of the opinion that it’s not very practical to learn the language of every country you visit. And even if its not purely for that purpose, I feel like its not worth the effort to remember and practice the language after you’ve learnt it. The world is increasingly speaking english and from a practical standpoint, learning a language may not make sense. Plus I think its an interesting to challenge to try and get by with the language you already know.

I’ve been emailing my host family, and they seem like really cool people. I’m quite excited to meet them. They’re a young couple living just outside of Tokyo. I’m glad I got a small household. I fit in better in a setting with fewer people. When I asked my host how I should address her and her husband, she said that I can add a san after her name, which is a casual version of ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ That is a valuable piece of information. Based on what friends have told me, Japanese people greet each other by bowing. I love that. I’m going to do that so often. I’ve been told that Japanese people are fairly indirect in conversation and won’t say exactly what they want. I’m lucky to be from a culture where people are indirect too. My Tokyo guide mentions the gift giving culture in Japan. Although I don’t personally care too much for gifts (I haven’t quite understood the logic behind it yet), I bought lots of local exotic gifts! It was actually quite fun.

I’ve also been googling travel in Japan. I’ve learnt some amusing things about their bathroom systems. Firstly, they have something called toilet slippers which are a separate set of slippers that you wear only inside the bathroom. Japanese bathrooms have a little remote control type thing next to them which can be used as a massage machine and dryer and what not. Also, Japanese bathing is very interesting. People wash themselves first and then get into a bath tub of which the water is shared by all family members. I shall make it a point to understand the logic behind that.

While I was reading my Tokyo guide book, it mentioned eating options in Tokyo. Apart from restaurants, they have cheap food found in tachigui eateries which are stand in and eat noodle shops. I love noodles. Apparently, the Japanese version of fast food is different too.

Based on my research and hearsay, Japan is pretty expensive. It costs $10 per meal on an average. For the first time, I have a pre-travel budget and it’ll be interesting to see if I can stick to it. I am normally very frugal while travelling, but Japan will be a challenge.

I won’t have a phone until Monday, and I’m quite happy about that. I’m not a huge fan of constant connectivity and I don’t plan on using a phone much other than for emergency purposes. Japan is a very safe country, safer than Singapore I’ve heard. That certainly increases my mobility and independence in Tokyo. I can actually ask myself “whats the worse that can happen?” and give a truthful answer that doesn’t involve kidnapping.

Strangely, I don’t feel nervous. I think its partly because of frequent travelling in the past one year and partly because of a TED talk I saw on stress. The talk said that stress is actually helpful in preparing you to face a situation. And if you think of it that way, then stress won’t affect you in negative ways. I know that if I get nervous or anxious, its only going to help me be more alert and careful while travelling. In any case I’m going to re-adopt my strategy of taking one thing at time and letting myself absorb all that’s going on.
I know I’m going to get a culture shock in Japan, and that’s what really excites me. Whether I like what I see or not, I’m going to learn a lot this summer.

Dear Nice Man on the Train

I saw you when you were trying to explain to the other train passenger why you couldn’t exchange seats with her. I don’t know exactly what you said, but I was enchanted by how friendly you seemed. You were smiling all throughout as you spoke to that woman who would do anything to keep her family of eight together in the train. I wish she didn’t try so hard and inconvenience other people.

Well the woman is beside the point. I actually just meant to appreciate your patience and friendly attitude with her. You are a person who at first glance, I would have immediately characterized as careless, unemployed and of low morals. You had an ear ring and a rough look about you. Your thin frame and dark looks made you seem like one of those men in Delhi who can’t stop staring at every woman in the vicinity. But you aren’t from Delhi, are you? You got on one of other stations of which the name I don’t recall.

Forgive for my ignorance. I hadn’t heard of four out of six places that the train stopped at. Well that changes things. I’ve been reminded over the past few days that people in smaller towns are much nicer and less selfish than people in cities. And they’re also so much more diverse. A nice looking old man could easily be the troublemaker of the town and a rough looking young man like you could easily be the nicest person in town. In the city, on the other hand, it’s much easier to place people in broad categories and be right about them. I’m not sure why. That might just be me knowing city folks better.

Getting back to the point, your smile changed my first impression of you in a split second. It lit up your face, and your patience in explaining why you couldn’t exchange seats was admirable. I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but you sounded very reasonable. From what little I could hear three rows away, the smoothness and clarity with which you spoke, packing as many words as you could in each second, increased my confidence in my second impression of you. I was sure that you were a nice guy. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know.

Hearing the benefits of smiling and the quotes that have become clichéd with time, I had become accustomed to ignoring them, and overtime, forgetting how much a smile can do. Unconsciously, I had stopped smiling as much as I used to, simply because it was more effort than keeping a straight face all the time. You reminded me that smiling does make a difference, one that matters. A smile can make somebodies day brighter, it can make a hard blow seem softer and it can make bad news better.

You also made me catch myself judging people before I talk to them. Here I am, proudly believing that I don’t judge people until I get to know them. Maybe I don’t set eyes on a person and say to myself “Oh, looks like a bitch”. But on seeing a person like you who turns out to have a personality seemingly different from what I would have expected, I realize that I do judge people simply by expecting them to be a certain way. I certainly won’t look down on you for being that way, but I’ll assume I know you already. When I expected you to be an immoral, unemployed, selfish man, I was judging you based on your looks. Even worse, I categorized you, assuming that all people who look a certain way have similar personalities and backgrounds. You challenged that and reminded me that the human race is diverse in its personalities, habits, behaviors and appearances, none of which are necessarily interconnected.

I am mostly done with my philosophical rambling, but I want to tell you one last thing. I wish I could erase the last time I saw you from my memory. It was a few minutes after I first saw you talking to the woman. You picked up your backpack and went past me towards the back of the train to find your new seat. I don’t know how that woman convinced you, or why you caved. Did you do it because you didn’t want to assert yourself and further argue with her? I know a train seat is something that doesn’t actually mean much, but seeing you give in to her relentless persuasion reminded me that there is some truth to the saying nice guys finish last. The people who are kind and sensitive to other people’s troubles get left behind when there are selfish people to take advantage of them. This is not about the train seat. Your new seat was probably just as comfortable as your original one. This is about nice people like you getting pushed around by people who don’t care if their demands cause inconvenience to others. And if that’s the truth, what’s the point of even trying to be nice when you can get things your way being selfish and pushy? If it wasn’t for my liberal arts education, I would have completely given up on trying being more thoughtful of other people. But seminar discussions, casual debates in the dining hall and college in general have taught me that being nice and assertive aren’t worlds apart. There is a middle ground where you don’t have to selfishly push others around and at the same not be a pushover. It’s unfortunate that few people find that middle ground. Most are on either end of the scale. But people are increasingly self-aware now and I have faith that more people like you will find that middle ground. Until then, keep smiling.

Yours Truly,

A distant admirer

Dear Susan..

How are you? I hope Indonesia is all that you expected it to be.

In case you don’t remember me, I’m the young college student from Singapore you met in the Rainforest Bakery in Penang last month. The couch across looked cozy and you looked like a warm person. When I came up to your table, I had absolutely no intentions to steal you from your kindle. In fact, I had my own kindle in my bag. I had spent my last few days in Penang sight seeing with my friends, and I felt physically exhausted from walking around in the heat. I was not in the mood to converse, and had come to Rainforest Café looking for some quiet time, only to find opposite. And I’m so grateful for that. Talking to you that afternoon changed the course of my trip.

To be honest, I didn’t expect to hear a story too different from what I’d heard in the past few days from other travelers in the area. But when you told me such astounding stories from your work with victims of domestic violence back in Holland and your recent trip to Burma, I felt refreshed. For a few moments, I felt like I was living your life through your stories, and learning from your past.

Inspired by our conversation, I decided to spend my next three days in Penang in search of more conversation. I wandered around the streets of Georgetown’s Heritage city the next day by myself. Even though I had walked these streets before, I saw things I hadn’t noticed before, and I smiled at people more often. Sometimes I’d just wave at them, and sometimes I’d stop to talk to them. Every local and every tourist I met was very different from anyone I knew, and everyone had something new to say. As I learnt about Penang and Malaysia from the locals, I learnt about other parts of the world from other tourists in the area. I realized that although it isn’t possible for me to go every place I want to go, it is possible for me to hear from people who’ve been to these places.

So Susan, I thank you for teaching this young traveler that travelling is never really about seeing monuments and museums. Rather it’s about the people, who can take you miles away from where you are and show you so much more than your eyes can ever see.

The Indian Christmas

Indians don’t like being left out of festivities. And with so many different religions and cultures in our country, there are an indefinite number of festivals to celebrate. We manage to find stuff to do on the Indian festivals. On bigger festivals like Holi and Diwali, we freak out with sweets and parties and crackers and colours. But then come the festivals which one would call miscellaneous or etc, etc (in other words most of us have no clue what their relevance is, but are more than happy about their existence because of the random 1 day holidays that come our way due to them.)

You may think that a day off wouldn’t be much to cherish, but you’d be surprised at how quickly these add up and take away days from our summer break and paid vacation. Normally, on those days, you’ll find people in the malls or at PVR.

But then comes Christmas. And it fits into neither category. And that confuses us Indians.

To the non christian Indians, it has no practical relevance whatsoever.

But still, we don’t want to be left out. So how do we celebrate? We can’t decorate a Christmas tree. Our houses aren’t big enough to fit 2 feet tall plants inside them. We can’t go around giving presents, because we spent all our money on Diwali gifts, and we definitely can’t hang stockings in our living room, mainly because we’d find them empty the next morning baffled by the fact that Santa didn’t turn up.

So here’s what happens. Everyone ends up in the malls. Now the malls know what is going to happen. So they start commercializing, They put up huge Christmas trees, find a santa, decorate the entire area, etc. Last year one of the malls put up a castle right out out of a fairytale in their park.

I happen to live a km away from one of the big malls of New Delhi. And the 5 days preceding Christmas saw the roads leading to the mall so jammed, that everytime I look outside I felt like I’m having a déjà vu, seeing the same set of cars outside my window, until I realized that I am looking at the same thing I saw 20 minutes ago.

So basically everyone is in the malls. It’s too cold to do anything outdoors, so there are anyways few other options. Now the malls are pretty big, but not big enough to accommodate the entire city. So as a result, there is pushing and shoving and no space to walk (or air to breathe) and suddenly, it is so hot, that you feel it isn’t winter anymore! The eating joints are in full fledged business with long waiting lines.

You would think that we’d eventually learn not to end up in the malls like we did last year, but we just CANNOT bear to be left out. We will be shoved and pushed and stuck in a traffic jam for hours at a go.

But there is no way in hell we’ll be excluded from any sort of festivity!

Because if the whole world celebrates, so shall we!

Ellis Island

Two months ago I visited Ellis Island, an Island next to that of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Island). It was basically an island which welcomed immigrants (and by welcomed, i mean the only way in for them) and was kinda like a gate into America for people from all over the world.
I didn’t think it was worth writing about, since I didn’t see more to it to be anything more than a port.

But going through some of the pictures I took there, I realized what a big deal it was. I thought of all the people-Europeans, Asians, South Americans, setting assail from there homeland, for the land of opportunity, hoping for a better life. They all had their own reasons for doing the same. The also had their own stories.

A picture among the exhibits at Ellis Island of some newly arrived immigrants of the country.

In 1920, Johann karl Sceinder told his family that he was going to seek “golden opportunities” in America. He packed his belongings in a canvas satchel and journeyed from his village in Switzerland to France, where he set sail for New York. After a stormy two week voyage in steerage, he arrived at Ellis Island, and then went to upstate New York where he worked on a dairy farm. A year later he was able to send for his wife and three children. They eventually settled in Connecticut.
His daughter who was ten years old when she made the journey, saved some of the many things her mother brought with them to their new home.

Another such family, is that of Diab Catoni Thomas, who immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1892. After working for 9 years peddling dry good in Virginia, Diab returned to Lebanon where he married Ramah and had two children. Mary and the children, Salene and Alene, immigrated to the United States in 1907. The family settle in Virgina where Diab opened a succesful general store. Diab and Mary had 9 more children in America, bringing there family to a total of 5 daughters and 6 sons. By the 1930s the family had moved to Mullens, West Virgina where they operated a grocery store. Diab died in Mullens in 1971 at the age of 103.

A statue of Annie Moore, the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island.

One of the counters where the immigrants were processed into the country

All these people brought with them their cultures and their traditions, which makes the United States as diverse as it is today.
For us, travelling to the other side of the world is nothing but taking a 24 hour long flight. For them, it meant taking a 2 month long journey. (Remember? No airplanes!) They did not know whether they would have enough money to return, or when they would talk to their family ( Remember? Not many communication services.)

Ellis Island marked the beginning of a new world, one where people lived together, worked together, learned to accept each other. I hope to see many more Ellis Islands in the world soon!

New York City

The favourite city of the world-NYC!

We spent about a day and a half there, because of which we could only do about half of what we really wanted to. We were with my mom’s side of the family this time.

Some of the places we went to were the WTC, Wall street, UN headquarters, Times square, Empire State Building, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.

The first day we took a hop on hop off bus, which took us all over the place. They also pointed out a lot of places to us on the way. But given a chance, I wouldn’t go on one of those again. To begin with, the guides on the bus talked way too much. It was irritating after about 5 minutes of being on the bus. Secondly, I saw people who were on a bicycle tour. So they were actually biking around the city, which sounds so much more fun.

Residential Apartments in Manhattan

One of the famous NY News Reels

Tiles put up by children in memory of victims of 9/11

The Empire State Building stands high

The World Trade Center AKA Ground Zero was pretty impressive, considering their rebuilding of the WTC was going pretty fast. They also had a museum which was set up as a tribute to those who died in 9/11. It was pretty sad to see all of that and to once again be reminded of the thousands who died.

The rebuilding of the WTC

Everyone crowds in front of a picture of what the WTC will look like once it’s complete

Paper Cranes at the 9/11 museum: A japanese tradition of prayer which after the Hiroshima attacks came to be recognized as a symbol of peace

One of the very touching signs at the 9/11 Museum

Wall Street wasn’t too great. I thought that it’ll be something more, but it was just like any other commercial office complex. But then again, it is one of the most influential places of the world!

United Nations Headquarters was soo great. It’s one of the best places i’ve ever been to- and one of the most powerful. Unlike the rest of the buildings in NYC, this particular building did not belong to any one country. It belonged to 192. We managed to see the General Assembly and the Security Council. The whole place seemed so influential. It probably is.

The UN security council

The General Assembly

My cousin and I next to Ban-ki-moon, UN secretary general

They also had this gallery, where they had put up stuff about what various agencies (UNESCO, UNICEF) of the UN do. It was the best thing ever.

Next we went to Times Square. We didn’t stay there too long, but we stayed long enough to see all the advertisement boards, and the lights and everything else. It would be a great place to hang out.

My cousin and I at Times Square

The Empire State Building was amazing! Although we had to wait in line for almost 2 hours, it was worth the wait. We went at night, since it was open till late and it anyway would have been better at night, with the lights of the city and everything. The city from up there looked like it had been built out of lego. Everything looked so tiny. And the lights added to it’s beauty. Up there, I couldn’t stop thinking of the number of people who live in the city.

The view of the city from Empire State Building

On our 2nd day in New York, we went to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.
The Ripley’s museum had all kind of crazy things.

Johny Eck’s torso ended where his hips should have begun

Grace Mcdaniel, better known as the ugliest woman in the world

Prisoners found guilty of heresy were subjected to the embrace of the ‘iron maiden’ which was designed carefully to pierce the eyes, throat and heart.

Liars in China 1200 BC were slowly roasted

A portrait of Obama made with beads

The central park was beautiful! Too bad we only had little time that we could spend there. But you could spend a entire day there! It was HUGE. And there was so much activity going on there. There were yoga classes, artists, joggers, cyclists, people on a picnickers. Whats more, we even saw a wedding going on there!

Picnickers in Central Park

The family in front of the lake at central park

The metropolitan Museum was too big to be seen. It was incredible to see that so many artifacts can be contained in one museum.

A painting of a view of Oyster bay

Long Necked Bottles from the embalming cache of King Tutankhamun

A statue of Goddess Sakhmet

At the end of our New York trip, I kept wishing we had more time to see the rest of the places there. But we did manage to see all the good ones!
New York reminds me of New Delhi and Mumbai 5 years from now. It has the same city bustle and car honks! The best part of NYC is that no one cares what you’re up to!
At the end of the day, I was glad to have been able to see what people call ‘the greatest city in the world’