One thing I don’t really like about travelling is having to fiddle with the hotel’s shower system. The one I have at home is the old-fashioned one; you just need to switch on the heater and turn the shower on. The newer types; you have to slowly adjust the knob so that you get your desired temperature. And I always get it wrong; it gets either too hot or too cold. But on the whole, Hotel Mela was ok, it was clean, new, just that it was too small.
Got up around 7am the next day (7pm on my mobile phone – I didn’t change the time since the time difference is 12 hours. I just had to be used to be waking up in the pm). When all of us met in the small lobbly, apparently the big boss wasn’t too happy with having to put up in such a small hotel and decided to make a move to Grand Hyatt, where my other colleague was putting up at. I sort of rolled my eyes and thought: “Wasn’t this my initial intention?” I had initially proposed staying at Hyatt so that we could be together with the other colleague (since we needed to conduct an interview there on Sunday), but of course, me being the small fry, my suggestion was turned down. Hmpf!
So this began our traumatic experience with the agent on both the Singapore and New York side who helped us to book our hotel. When we checked with Mela, the receptionist said the US agent had not paid them yet.. so the correspondence with our staffing officer in MOE Singapore started. Poor chap! It was nearly 8pm in Singapore!
Before going down to Hyatt, we had breakfast at an American deli. No way were we going to have Macs again! There was a wide variety of food, from pancakes to muffins, to omelettes, toast, bacon etc. But it wasn’t cheap too. A typical meal came up to around US$4 (S$6).
After breakfast, we made our way down to Grand Hyatt to enquire on vacancies there. It was cold cold cold!
Along the way, we took the opportunity to take photos of Bryant Park, the initial location where Singapore Day was to have been held. It was beautiful!
Although it was a busy weekday morning, we still managed to spot New Yorkers sitting at the tables, enjoying a Starbucks and reading the New York Times (I presume!) Such a life!
When we got down to Hyatt at 44th street and enquired with the reception, there were rooms available but it was on a first come first serve basis, so there was no guarantee that the rooms could be held for us. And guess what? We made our way back to Hotel Mela again to confirm with the reception on our payment! What a terrible waste of time!!
Then a fresh round of negotiation and irritating correspondence started. Everyone was frustrated; due to the time difference, we couldn’t contact our guy in Singapore, nor the agency office in Singapore. The New York office was also not picking up our calls. Our boss finally realised that it was no point wasting our time so we made our way to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets! Yay!! Finally! I was getting closer to getting my Coach bag!
We took the Shortline bus from the Port Authority bus terminal. Got our tickets from some sales guys on the streets. Usually I am quite skeptical about purchasing tickets from “unauthorised” (they are authorised by the way) sources but they were so friendly and they ended up giving us a US$1 discount each! The ticket cost US$38 instead. When we reached the bus terminal, we had a hard time locating the pick up point because of conflicting instructions on its location by different people. We nearly didn’t make it for the bus!
It was a one-hour ride to the venue as it was in the suburbs, one hour north of New York. Along the way, we saw Borders, Walmart, etc and there were American flags everywhere. New Yorkers have a tendency to erect their national flags everywhere. Most of the flags were flying at half mast, in mourning for the killings at Virginia Tech just a few days ago.
We finally reached the place! It was really shopper’s paradise! All the familar brands! Coach (of course!), Burberry’s, Aldo, Nike, Osh Kosh, Chanel, Levis, Nine West, BCBG, Fendi, Liz Claiborne, Polo Ralph Lauren, and many more! It was really a mixture of both high end and middle high end outlets. And with promises of sale and discounts everywhere, it was too tempting a place to miss! And of course, amist the shopping, we took the time to take in the scenery.. Not many photos, just 2 will suffice.. we were too busy shopping!!
Nothing is perfect. As much as how I liked this place, there were still some flaws. Being a discount outlet and an American one, there were many items I liked but didn’t buy because it didn’t have it in my size. And the display of some outlets was quite messy as it has been rummaged many times by so many people!
In the end, I only bought my Coach bag! But that was really enough to satisfy me. It cost US$199 and I had a 20% discount! Frankly when I was in the store, I made many turns before deciding on my purchase because I was quite disappointed with the selection. The outlet did not have selections with the classic Coach signature; that was only available in the department stores. But I was determined to get something from there, and so I got my bag! I quietly decided to get another one from Macy’s later on!
While my colleague was raiding Osh Kosh for their dirt cheap children wear, I explored the area a little. It was quite sad, I saw quite a few shirts and pants that I liked, but didn’t have it in my size. And after a while, I grew tired of rummaging through the huge pile of clothes. But it was ok, my Coach bag was enough!
As I was walking along the streets, an old lady, who was probably with her grand daughter cam up to me and started telling me she picked up a great bargain for a pair of pants! I felt a little strange at first, but I sooned warmed up to the thought of it. She was so friendly! In fact, most Americans were like that! They see you in the lift, they ask you how your day was and some even engage in small talk with you during the short lift ride! In Singapore, such actions are deemed as siao, and that the people have nothing better to do!
We finally, finally decided to do lunch at 3pm.. we had forgotten the time! As we were craving for Chinese food, we had lunch at a Chinese style foodcourt. I had sliced beef and garlic rice. Was quite disappointing, didn’t really like it as the garlic slices were so thick!
The owners were speaking in Cantonese among themselves and we started conversing in Cantonese with them too! It is really quite a strange feeling to know someone speaking your language in a foreign country.
After lunch, we did a little bit more of shopping at Levis and Liz Claiborne before deciding to venture on our own and “dump” the other 3 ladies! We took the 5.45pm bus and because of the rush hour, we only reached around 7.15pm! We made our way to Macy’s! First things first, we went to the Visitor Centre and obtained our Visitor Discount Card, where we were entitled to a 11% discount! Woohoo!
I contacted my relative to meet near the Louis Vuitton outlet, which was incidentally just next to the Coach outlet! Hahaha! We caused a bit of embarrassment here. I haven’t met this relative before, and I only know how he looks through the (outdated) photos he sends over. I am not sure if he has seen me before too. So the two of us stood side by side outside the LV outlet waiting for each other. I stole glances at him; he probably did too, before he approached me. So pai seh man!
And he offered to take all our bags while we continued shopping. It was quite awkward because he was just standing outside the outlet carrying all the bags while the two of us browsed the goods, empty-handed. Although he insisted it was ok, I felt super uncomfortable, so the moment we finished our purchases (I bought my second Coach – the one with the classic Signature!), we left Macy’s.
We hailed a cab from the streets to take us to Chinatown (he had left his car at Chinatown) for Chinese dinner. As we “casually” mentioned we wanted to buy fruits, he stopped the cab near a fruit stall to buy our fruits. Strawberries are really cheap in New York; only box costs only US$1! I bought 5 oranges too. And the fruits too, were paid by him… -_-
Because of our “casual” comment, we ended up having to walk for approximately 10 minutes before we reached the restaurant. It was cold, it was dark and secluded and my feet were killing me!
The restaurant was really the old-fashioned type, with those shuang xi (double happiness) characters, Chinese KTV (not genuine), mini stage. The diners were all Chinese, there were no Americans there. And I made the mistake of letting him do the ordering of dishes without indicating our preferences. The waiter came back with dishes like steamed prawns, stone fish, clams, fish soup, crab, lobster. I felt I was in Fuchow again.
My other colleague, S, who was flying in today, contacted us and we arranged for her to come down to join us for dinner. When she reached, even the cab fare was paid for my relative. He takes the zhou dao (hospitality) spirit to the highest! It was quite a strange dinner; this was the first time both of us met and the things we know about each other are probably through my dad. I struggled to maintain coversation with him and my colleagues and I tended to drift into our own conversation at times. I hate entertaining! Before he left, he pushed an angbao to me without I had no way of rejecting at all….
When we left, he even ordered for a personal car with fees paid to pick us up and send us back to the hotel!! Wah lao!
We reached Mela around 11pm. I was reluctant to go home so early so S and I decided to venture into the “unknown” and explore Times Square! We went to Duane & Reade which is one of their big pharmacy chains (it is like Guardian, 7-11 and Watsons combined) to get some supplements. Then we walked around Times Square, which was still buzzing with activity at such a time. The lights were so dazzling! A cliche, but New York is really a city that never sleeps! Maybe this is why I didn’t get any jetlag. I saw all the big buildings – Nasdaq, MTV, Hershey’s, Prudential, M&Ms, some news network company etc. There was really never a moment of boredom; there were things to see at every angle!
We passed Planet Hollywood to find a huge crowd and some policemen stationed at the entance. Being curious, we decided to join in the fun too. Asked some New Yorkers which star they were expecting to see, many didn’t know! They just crowded around! Then I heard that Kevin Spacey was probably there. We stood there for a while and got a little impatient and cold so we left. It would have been fun and memorable if we managed to see a star in New York!
We slowly made our way back to the hotel by foot and reached it around 1am. I seriously did not think I would stay out until this time with all the warnings of New York being an unsafe place and being unfamilar with it. But it was real fun and the cold made it even better! That concluded my second day in New York!
I\'m not foolish 
