"The Big Apple through my eyes"

In the midst of the heat in summer break, I flew to NYC with much anticipation.

My first time in New York ever. I got to see NYC in such different lights, albeit a compact trip.

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Day 1 : China Town - 911 - Wall Street - Statue of Liberty - Brooklyn Bridge

After landing at LaGuardia airport in late morning, we hurriedly headed to Airbnb booked in advance, located in Astoria next to Manhattan island, we even got a special price that was unusually cheap.

We left our stuff in our unit before going straight to China Town, our first destination was the famous dim sum place. (you can't blame me, I was so deprived of excellent asian food after living in America for 2 months)

Jing Fong is a huge Cantonese restaurant serving a variety of dim sum on rolling carts. The food was awesome, plus super fresh complimentary tea.

However, no waitress/waiter is going to speak English with you. Certainly, you CAN use English, but don't expect them to reply you back in English.

Being milk tea suckers we are, milk tea as a dessert sounds about right.

There is a wide range of choices in a big city like NYC. Searching on Yelp, probably the most reliable platform among Americans, Ten Ren Tea Time is likely to come upon top 3 ranking. Nice thick smell of tea, but too much of creamer. :(

Lesson learned: don't trust everything on Yelp unless you've got the american taste.

Vesel st. and its mural art while we're heading to lower Manhattan.

Next stop is 911 Memorial in lower Manhattan.

We didn't explore the underground museum itself. But, here is some tip; admission tickets are free on Tuesdays.

On the way to Wall street, we didn't pass the chance to get a taste of Lady M Cake, a renowned boutique café chain originally from NYC. We ordered cheese crepe cake, unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectation. American's sweet-tooth is definitely different from mine. (a friend told me later that they're more famous for green tea crepe cake. what a bumper)

Expect LOTS of crowds swarming around the charging bull.

In lower Manhattan, you can see historic sights among developed architecture. Narrow streets in between high-rise buildings.

Wall street is one of them. This area is also known as financial district as it's the home to NYSE and few bank headquarters.

At the depth of Wall street below is Trinity Church, which was once the tallest building in NYC.

There is 2 ways to appreciate the beauty of the Statue of Liberty.

1) you pay for the day trip/tour

2) ferry for FREE

2 is a no-brainer for me, sorry.

So, you go to Staten Island Ferry, it's a pier where you can get on a giant ferry travelling back and forth to the Staten island. It's free of charge all the way, no tickets needed. Expect a long queue of crowds.

We got to this close! not that bad. (25 mins for each leg, total time spent on the ferry would be at least an hour)

The stunning sight of Manhattan island on the way back. (The land on the left is New Jersey by the way)

Can't help feeling like those pals from Madagascar getting excited to see a whole new world.

We got off the ferry, picked something to eat (read as: halal food truck). It was late afternoon, we decided to wait and to see the sunset from Brooklyn bridge!

For Brooklyn Bridge, you go all the way or NOT go at all. Almost 2 km distance, the bridge connects Manhattan island and Brooklyn. There are a lane for people walking and another lane for bikes. You can expect a lot of tourists. Walk carefully, stay in the right lane, because the bikers are racers. lol jk They're mostly typical New Yorkers. It was a rush hour in the evening, there were many people who just got off work and hurriedly commuted home by a BIKE. Don't get hit!

When we were in the middle of a relaxing walk, a car below us literally caught fire.

Everything couldn't move until after the EMT and NYPD came. PHEW

We arrived at the other side of the river, called Dumbo. There is a so-called photography spot in between the buildings. But it was too late and too dark to capture anything photogenic at this point. It's a shame because this was the only chance we could see the Brooklyn bridge's signature sight from afar.