How we did New York on a budget.

Accommodation was Airbnb. There have been some negative things written online about using Airbnb in New York. This is apparently due to the local government wanting to clamp down due to fire regs, tax and because the hotels don't like it. I like Airbnb, though. You get to meet real people, they give you great local tips and the places are often quirky. I like a home from home.

We stayed with Victoria and Michael on Staten Island. They were really helpful, super friendly and we had a great stay. Staten Island is much, much cheaper than Manhattan and is easily accessible with regular transport. The ferry is free, for instance, and we got to see Carole every day. Accommodation needs to be booked a bit in advance to get the best bargains.

For activities and transport. I'm not a great planner and I rarely have an itinery (or a clue). I booked the Yankees game at home via Ticket Master. There is a real range of prices, I chose the block numbered 200 because its physically lower and you get a great view of the game (100 lowest, 400 highest). I also pre booked the one world observatory, but only so we didn't have to queue. Otherwise, we just looked for free stuff to do.

In terms of transport, we bought a 7 day metro pass for $32 each - total bargain-and used this to hop on, hop off and go where we wanted. This option takes you anywhere on the metro. There is a version which includes buses for $60 ish. Another plus point about the metro is that the carriages have air con. The metro is pretty easy to understand, but less intuitive then you'd hope. Some connections are hard to find and at some places you need to get out, go up, cross the street and descend again if you have made a mistake (for example..ie we did) and are going the wrong way. Overall, it's clean, safe and easy to use.

We had $60 a day for food, drink and treats for two people. Its easy to find mega cheap options for food (supermarket noodle pots $1.49 / street vendor hotdogs $2) but we didn't want to eat like that. We asked for local recommendations and we searched online when we were in a given area. We ate one good meal for about $20-$30 each, inc drink, daily.This included a good tip (15-20%) wherever we went. This is fair and important. Coffees and other drinks are about $4-5 dollars each, so we really limited ourselves on those. I didn't really drink any alcohol. He illegally sipped my beer when I went to the not a restroom. during the game.

We had a good time, used a taxi once and didn't feel like we were missing out. This really is a place where you can holiday for $60 bucks a day, or $600.

It's up to you. New (kick) York (kick) New da da da dada

Packed up and left the flat this morning. Took our final trip on the Staten Island ferry, turtle like, with back packs.

Did something we'd never done before - went to Macdonalds for coffee. $1.60 bargain.

Met up with friends of dad of NN1, had lunch. Asked our server to take a photograph.

Asked our server to take another photograph.

Spent a fair bit of the day just milling about, had back packs and didn't really want to lug them far.

Treated ourselves to a coffee, I had a chocolate mocha latte, after two tries he asks.. 'can I just have a little bit more?' Drinks half of it.

We decided to take a bus...yes, a bus... To Canada. Its an overnight thing. Lucky we did as flights were cancelled due to a huge storm across NY. View from the bus:

On the bus NN1 offers me some dental floss. I decline.' C'mon,' he encourages me, 'it's like a midnight snack.' 

If I can make. It. There.

Thursday: we both woke up really late. On the ferry to Manhattan I  thought NN1 looked really American 🇺🇸 He fits right it. 

During today's ferry trip the US coast guard decided to flank us:
'It wasn't me, officer.'

This man's job entails trying to keep his machine gun pointing safely upwards whilst perching on a slanted metal rail at the front of the boat to which he is attached by a bit of bungy cord.

I don't really know how bad people in boats announce themselves, but I'm guessing they're inclined to be secretive about being bad. How do you know when to shoot? And all the boats round here are huge. How are you going to shoot a secretive bad person in a cockpit, high up on their big boat? Especially when you're bouncing around on a bit of bungy cord on a small boat? Luckily, this is not my problem to worry about.

Our foodfest continued: in Harlem today, we went to Sylvia's. Open since 1962, Sylvia's serves soul food (see the New York episode of Man vs Food on YouTube.)

He had the fried chicken and waffles. I had the bbq ribs with two sides: mac n cheese and buttered corn. The order came with corn bread and the waffles were served with a large jug of maple syrup. We drank lemonade (me) and iced coffee (he). NN1 made his own menu:

Starter: buttered cornbread
Main: half a chicken
Dessert: waffles and syrup

We devoured its homemade deliciousness. The waitress was really lovely and had just come back from a holiday in London. We chatted.

Afterwards we wandered through Harlem. Saw market stalls, the start of a free concert, stopped briefly at H n M to bask in the aircon. It was really horribly hot today.

Went past this building where the concert was. Named in tribute to Adam Clayton Powell, baptist minister and collector of money to feed and clothe the poor. Also civil rights activist. Also married and divorced three times. Also had two sons by two different wives and called them both Adam Clayton Powell (the III and IV respectively). I LOVE life's details.

Then we took another metro train because we were GOING TO THE GAME. A baseball game in the Yankee's stadium Yankees vs Kansas City, up in The Bronx.

We arrived in a sporty melee and decided to buy some drinks.

Stand back, all those who count themselves amongst my nearest and dearest, my loved ones, my clan, for you have been usurped. By this lady. On account of the fact that when I ordered a beer, she asked me for i.d. Yes! I know! I. D!

So, Mrs I.D lady has rocketed to the top of the favourites list, where she is occupying places 1, 2 and 3.

Yeah, and before anybody says it: her new glasses are in the post and her guide dog is called Peter.

The game was a really good experience. Fun, interesting, different.

For instance, unlike during a football match in the UK, people don't keep their eyes on the pitch and they get up and move around a lot. Buying food, drinks, chatting. It's a lot less intense. There's virtually no swearing and it's a real family event. 

The best bit was at half time, when the grounds people were smoothing the red sandy bit (see photo above) and they stopped everything three times to go into a synchronised dance. Now, that was funny..

Statue of Lin Ze Xu / Lin Tse Hsu.

OK, so I saw this statue in Chinatown to a Chinese man who was instrumental in taking measures to  stop the opium trade in the 1840s.

I remembered reading a book about the opium trade a few years ago and the statue confused me. The story is that the tribute to Lin Ze Xu is because he was anti drugs.

However, I was wondering if this statue was a poke in the eye for someone. I was suspecting for the British /imperialist colonisationists/ all round bad eggs. I thought I'd check it out.

You will need to bear with me here. I will try to be as succinct as I can be:

Sugar cane was being widely cultivated in British colonies for years before tea became popular. The British used tea as a vehicle for consuming sugar (tea + sugar = enhanced sugar sales). Milk was added and it became the fashionable drink of choice.

However, tea was grown in China as a commodity. The Chinese were not keen to share the plants / methods and China was not a British colony. Britain had nothing to trade which the Chinese wanted and couldn't invade this ancient civilisation, what's a small imperialist country to do?

They decided to trade opium. Opium was made in India by indentured servants. Britain was openly against slavery from 1833 (ish), so what the British did to find a way around it was worse. They used indentured workers. An Indian in India signed up to work a piece of land. They were legally tied to British (or Indian) land owners and had to work the land for a given period. They paid a (very high) rent to the landowner and had to buy all their groceries and equipment from the land owner.
Now, those of you who have earnt a living making opium will know that it makes you addicted. Smelling the fumes all day, you become sick, you die. Your family is indentured or homeless.

Indian workers were stuck in a rut. Opium production rocketed.

The British imported opium to China. At first they gave it away. They promoted it. They set up dens and plied the Chinese with it. Then they started to exchange it. Silk, porcelain, tea. British merchants became rich moving opium and Chinese products around the world.

China developed a huge drug problem, the British became the biggest drug pushers ever and monopolised the tea trade. (see also Boston Tea Party for how Americans and British fell out over tea).

Chinese authorities started to take measures to prevent the British bringing opium in. These included: storming ships and confiscating product, refusing to let British ships land, on pain of being blown up with gun powder, closing dens and arresting opium sellers. Lin Ze Xu was instrumental in the first opium war and the ideas (listed) behind its prevention.

Interesting fact: in 1906 it was estimated that 23.3% of Chinese adult males were addicted to opium.

Interesting fact: Lin Ze Xu had hundreds of workers who mixed the confiscated opium with lime and sea salt before throwing it in the sea to get rid of it. The gave apologies to the god of the sea for pollution.

SO, the British lost their trade, the Americans broke away from the UK (starting with tea) and the Indian population were eventually united by Ghandi against the imperialists and sought independence.

But why Lin Ze Xu in China Town? Well...turns out he's from Fujian Province. During the 20th century the number of Mandarin Chinese people in NY outstripped the number of Cantonese Chinese people and while 'Confucius is for all Chinese' (Zheng Dezhang,  Quora), Lin Ze Xu represents people from Fujian. In NY people from Fujian had (apparently) a reputation for selling drugs.

So, possible reasons for Lin Ze Xu:
1. One upmanship between Chinese immigrants.
2. To remind each other (and the world) that a Fujian bureaucrat was instrumental in stopping the world's largest drug trade, as opposed to the Fujianese being drug sellers.
3. To demonstrate how the Chinese  worked with Americans (tea related) and were allies during independence and when the British were naffing everyone off tea-wise (Boston tea party again)
4.  To send a poke in the eye to the British by reminding them that you can't have everything and you need to stay in your own dance space.
5. All of the above? Something completely different?

Phew. Many layered.

And steps around the heart ♥ of it..

Wednesday:
I frequently have the propensity to be exceedingly dull. (Using 'dull' in the South Walian way of meaning idiotic.)  Wanted to make some cinnamon raisin toast this morning using the cinnamon raisin bread ('Contains no fructose syrup') which I bought at the supermarket at 9am Tuesday. There is a toaster here, but its on the window ledge. There is a plug socket to the left of it, which the lead does not reach. Hmmm. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' said my mother. So I utilised the bin as an aide cookoire.

NN1 watched me curiously. He is a quiet, thoughtful sort of person who often keeps his opinions to himself. This time he didn't. 'why don't you just use the plug socket below the window?' He wondered. What? The one I hadn't even noticed... 

We both laughed at my idiocy... OK, OK, maybe he laughed whilst I moved the toaster back off the overheating bin. We ate our breakfast (following a small, fire alarm incident 🔥 ) and decided to get ready. 

During a recent shopping expedition NN1 bought some ripped jeans. He likes them, they look great on. 

'Look,' he says, 'while I was putting my jeans on, I put my foot through the rip and made it worse.' 

HA! I may be a walking fire hazard buffoon, but at least I can dress myself without incident. 

Mostly. 

We set off for 'town'. I ate a Californian black plum. I have a slight obsession with these. NN1 refuses to try. 'It's just a plum.' He tells me. 'But it's from California, and it's black.' Comes my plantive reply.

We decide to head to Governor's Island. $3 return trip and the best 360 view in NYC. Once there you can hire bikes. I search the net and discover these:

I get very excited. I want to hire one. He takes one look,   'No.' he says. And goes back to his game. 

However, it's raining. Misty, drizzly rain which obscures the view. We leave the island for another day. 

We head to Grand Central Terminal. Once there we fall over a lot of stupid tourists who stand at the top of the stairs, taking pictures. We stand at the top of the stairs and take some pictures. 

It's definitely grand and beautifully made, with lots of marble. We start talking about options for lunch and completely forget to go to the whispering gallery. We head off for lunch. 

We decide to go to China Town. We're on a budget but want to eat out every day, so we pre find reasonably priced options with good reviews. We walk along. 

Passing the Supreme Court. 

You know, the place they send presidents when they get indited. 

We arrive in Chinatown. NN1 is delighted he has found a place I can wait whilst he goes shopping:

At a junction of many roads is a statue of a man called Lin Tse Hsu /Lin Ze Xu. More on him later.

 We see some street art.

And find the noodle place. Golden something, on the corner. I forget the exact name.

We eat really well and get some free tea with our meal. Then the bill...$14.20. Utter Billy Bargain.

 

We leave and pass a bubble tea shop. I love bubble tea. I stop to get one. NN1 doesn't want one but asks to taste mine. He doesn't give it back. We go back to the shop for another. 

We head back to Macy's  to check out the sale rail. NN1 buys a t-shirt. I photograph the Empire State building. The we head to Times Square.

You know, the place where storm troopers hang out on their day off, when they're not terrorising the rest of the galaxy. 

The place is MANIC. we hang out a bit, then go to a shop called Old Navy, where they have a huge window/ viewing platform and decent restrooms. 'I might be here for three weeks, but there's no way I'm saying restroom.' Says the kid from Yorkshire. 'it's a toilet.'

We watch the world go by. It actually  looks like a lot of the world.

It keeps going by.

Times Square is named for the tower which used to house the New York Times. The square was originally called Longacre Square, but was renamed after the Times moved there in the early 1900s. To celebrate their move they threw a big new year's eve party their first year. This tradition has continued. They have since moved again but the building remains. However, it is uninhabited and unoccupied by any business currently. This is because the exterior of the building is covered in bill boards and NYC regulations have a minimum window access for people working or living in a building. The bill boards do generate an annual revenue of 30 million dollars, though. So I don't think the owners are concerned about rental loses.

At 6.30pm we meet a friend from the UK. MyCool. MyC arranges to meet us by the subway exit: Broadway and West 43rd. There is no subway exit called Broadway and West 43rd. So we just loiter til he finds us (we use our phones, he isn't Hercule Poirot).

MyC had a surprise for us. He takes us to a Broadway show! It's called: The Play That Goes Wrong. It was so funny, we all laughed ourselves silly. My favourite bits were:

1. Handcuffed to the chaise longue
2. When they moved the clock.

(it could have been a PI production, if you are one of my ex PI colleagues)

After the show we go to The Westway Diner (another great eatery) for burgers, we hand over some crumpled Scottish shortbread biscuits to MyC and go home. On the ferry at midnight NN1 turns to me, 'THAT' he says, with emphasis, 'Was the best show I've ever seen' .

Good call Good Heavens. 

These vagabond shoes..

Tuesday: the day we decided to go up the One World Trade Centre aka The Freedom Tower to the One World Observatory, but first we had to find it. 

'WOW,' I say to NN1, snapping a photo. He rolls his eyes. 'That's not it,' he replies, 'it's the bigger one round the back.'

It's too early to go up, so we grab some lunch. Mexican from Choza Taqueria. Great food, great place but nowhere to sit. In the whole of the Westfield One World shopping centre and major train terminal to Jersey there are about 12 child sized seating bean bags. We go outside and sit near a market. This has its benefits...a jam 'donut' for afters. He can't finish his half...'Too much sugar.'

Opposite where we sit is a small, beautiful, grey church. We've had a recommendation. 'Your dad recommended there' I tell him. Neither of us move. It's a slow day..it's hot, it's humid, I feel sick. I refuse to believe its donut-sickness. Eventually we drag ourselves up. 

NN1 dawdles on the porch. Inside the church its cool and calm. Phew.

The church is really beautiful. And very clean. I like clean. There is a small chapel monument to the workers of 911, who used it as a base during the few days following. I wonder how many people visited the church before that time. 

This is a photo of the back of a pew. The confusion and nightmarish surrealism of the aftermath is impossible to imagine. Nearly 3000 people died, but since then it is estimated that the health of about 37000 have been affected by the dust and debris from the buildings. I wonder how many of those workers were affected.

We carry on around the church. Its pretty old by US standards and there are memorials dotted around..

'in the midst of his usefulness' what a great line! I had a vision of him clocking off halfway through making a cuppa tea. 'Oh' sighs Mrs McKear, 'just when he was about to do something bloody useful at last. ' But this was my favourite:

Why did he ceafe but it isn't Feptember? And look at blifsfsfful! I doubt that the honourable Effingham Warner would have realifed the joy he fpread long after hif deaf, not by his piety and virtue, but by the fpelling of the ftone mafon.

We left as we arrived, quietly.

NN1 fuggefted. Sorry, suggested a nosy in the shopping centre en route to the observatory. I wasn't impressed. He described an activity he does with his mates, 'you go into Bose, listen to your favourite song on their most expensive headset, pretend you might buy them, then leave'. Never one to allow my age to dedicate the maturity of my behaviour I reluctantly agreed. I mean, sounds like a pretty dumb activity...how much fun could it be?

LOADS OF FUN!
it's loads of damn fun. Here's me pretending to think about buying a pair of noise cancelling Mark IIs for $349. Actually....they were amazing...maybe I'll treat myself for Christmas.

We headed back through the centre. Its like being inside the rib bones of a huge whale. Just with less plankton and sea water. Through the gap you can see the One World Trade Centre.

FOUND IT!

We toasted our success with a coffee. This was the funniest part of the day.

The skills you need to work at Starbucks:

1. Politely and nicely take the order from the two people in front of you.
2. Ask the two people for a name. When they say 'Thomas' note it for the order.
3. Use your skill to make the coffee.
4. Despite the fact that there are only two people in the entire store and you served them approximately 6 minutes earlier, hold up the drinks and scream 'THOMAS' repeatedly, in deafening pitch, until the two people standing approximately 0.8 metres in front of you tentatively raise their hands to claim their refreshments.
5. BOOM! job done.

We drank our drinks by a fountain, where the world's largest inflatable balloon poodle had deflated and come to rest. *

The view around and about. Its actually a really lovely, busy and bustling area.

We walked on to the monument.

This is part of the monument to the people who died. Its actually very impressive. Two large pools, each surrounded with names. Then a huge drop, with granite (looking?) walls to another smaller pool in the centre. You can't see into that one. The entire feature has water cascading down the sides. It's surrounded by trees. It's very, very impressive. Very fitting, sombre.

We stand awhile. This is a place of remembrance, a place of freedom, a stance against terrorism. I have a niggle... I wonder how this fits in with the work of the IRA in the UK in the 70s, 80s and early 90s and funding they received from sympathisers in the US.

Then we move on to the Observatory.

How to get a priority booking ticket up to the observatory when you've only paid for a standard one:

1. Book your tickets online.
2. Mess up how you've saved the booking on your phone.
3. Get to the 'scan your ticket' place, where they will be unable to scan your ticket.
4. Get sent to the help desk.
5. Present your phone.
6. Get given two actual tickets.
7. Go back to the 'scan your ticket' place.
8. Look forlorn and a bit dumb.
9. Get sent to the priority entrance because they want to get rid of you. Yay.

The 360 view was very fine indeed and there was a lady giving commentary who was very good. Notably, the slogan of the Observatory is 'Seeing Forever'. Very American.

After our visit, we did our usual trick of having to change trains on the metro three times because we can't get the hang of it, then we went home. 

Found a humongous ant on the wall. Chucked it out, went to bed. 

* if this is a memorial to something really important and I have inadvertently offended someone with my poodle commentary I apologise profusely.