Starring:
Beanie – Best friend from Singapore
Akira – Beanie’s husband
Holyrain – otherwise known as Wink
Gryain – Chronicler of adventures
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We had a really packed and unforgiving itinerary scheduled this vacation. This first day saw Holyrain and I boarding a train to NYC. The plan was to meet Beanie and her husband in New York, and then leave the next morning to explore the wonders and glory of North East USA.
The train from Framingham to Boston was almost 1 hour late, and we'd reached the train station early too. An inauspicious start that would foretell great trials in the near future! We got to the Boston station minutes before the Boston to New York train was due to leave. It was a really comfortable Amtrak train ride though. Most of the time, all you can see from the train are trees and more trees, green leaves beginning to take on their autumn hues whizzing by at a comfortable Amtrakish speed. But when we got closer to New York, we passed lots of water. Since my high school geography lessons didn’t extend to USA geographical water features, I don’t know what seas we passed, but it may have been the Atlantic Ocean.
Dusk had settled in by the time we reached New York City. We took a cab to our hotel (centrally located in Times Square!) and had a few minutes to freshen up before we had to meet Beanie and Akira at JFK airport. The hotel room was really small, but it was recently renovated, according to the website. The main feature was the transparent bathroom door. I called the front desk to try to change rooms, but was informed that, apparently, all rooms in the hotel posses the “transparent feature”. Yay! I was the one who chose and reserved this hotel, and my criteria were basically price and location. The advertised “free breakfast!” definitely pushed this hotel to the top of my shortlist as well. I only hope Beanie and Akira wouldn’t be disappointed, because we’re all four of us sharing this one little room. Hey, it is New York City!
Holy and I took a cab to JFK, and managed to safely escort Beanie and Akira back to New York City in a “private cab”. I think it’s a car owner out to make some extra bucks, and didn’t want to begrudge him this in a faltering economy. We exchanged news, and Beanie met Holy, etc. They were understandably exhausted from their 20+ hour flight, perhaps even too tired to be much alarmed at the transparent bathroom door. Akira did manage to open the window (which had a DO NOT OPEN sign plastered upon it), and we realized our little room opened up to the staircase. Fake window!
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The next morning, we woke up really early, and trooped down for our free breakfast. We were going to the renaissance faire in upstate New York, and it’s quite a long way off. Breakfast consisted of a selection of toast, bagels, croissants, yogurt, cereal, bananas, and a tip jar. It was a pretty normal breakfast, more than we usually eat at home, but not vacation-fancy. Anyways we ate our fill, and then went to the bus station. The bus leaves promptly at 10am, and there was only the one bus going to the faire. We have return tickets, so it’ll also bring us back at 6pm. I thought this left far too much time at the faire, but there isn’t much we can do since we didn’t have a car.
The mood was festive despite the long bus ride. Some of our fellow passengers were already decked out in costume, a couple wielded glinting swords. Beanie and I had much to chat about since we hadn’t seen each other in almost a year. She exclaimed over all the colourful leaves, and found upstate New York very pretty and charming. Hehe. I wondered privately if she’d still feel the same after a couple weeks on the road. The ride was long, but somehow it didn’t feel too bad with her company. (Holy and Akira mostly slept on our many road trips, in case you were wondering. The girls snatched the window seats most of the time, and they didn’t find the aisle view very stimulating.)
As our bus pulled into the faire site around noon, we saw a lot of faire-goers on their merry way. About half were dressed in costume, but not all costumes seemed to suit the occasion. There were a lot of Snow Whites, Cinderellas, and little fairies complete with sparkly wings and wands. Little boys were mostly dressed normally in street wear, but a few grown-up Darth Vadars stalked the renaissance faire. We’d never seen anything like that in our lives! America is very funny and interesting, hehe.
The faire was littered with medieval shops selling all kinds of souvenirs, costumes, folk craft, ancient arts, things like that. There were also plenty of refreshment booths and game stores, just like any other faire. Except everything was at hugely inflated prices. It reminded me a lot of Disneyland, except with bad bathrooms. Still, it was really exciting to see so many people confidently striding around in costume, a few even trying to use Shakespearean English to chat. There were many performances; Conjurers, jugglers, comics. Since we were there from noon till evening, we had the sun blazing down upon us most of the day. It was really hot, and the mead (‘tis sweet honeyed wine) available for purchase with a valid ID only goes so much to quench a thirst at $5 a thimble! My favourite performance was the old storyteller. He sits in a shady, sheltered alcove, and tells modified fairytales in a loud voice. Holy and I listened to him through three stories, mostly because we were trying to hide from the sun. The final performance of the day before the faire closes featured a lot of performers. It was about Queen Elizabeth I and how some rogue lord was trying to usurp her monarchy. There were a lot of knights, a lot of peasants, jousting and fighting and all that jazz involved in the performance. Overall, we had fun, although we’d have been fine with leaving a few hours earlier. The bus ride back to New York City wasn’t as fun. Mostly because I hated the faire ground restrooms, and the Lincoln tunnel was horribly congested. Welcome to NYC, right?
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Early the next morning, we were due to travel (by bus, a guided tour) from NYC to Buffalo, Niagara Falls area. The bus was almost 1 hour late getting to us. When everyone was aboard and the bus on its way, we realized that our fellow vacationers were mostly from Israel and Italy. 70% Israel, 25% Italy, 5% us. English was the minority language! There were 2 guides - One spoke Hebrew, and the other spoke Italian. Both had a smattering of English. When they tried to explain in English, someone or other would yell, “Speak Hebrew!”. Haha.
Turns out, most of the Israel people were all vacationing in the US, and somehow we’d intercepted their tour. The Italians were all newlywed and on their honeymoon. Since language was a barrier, we didn’t get to interact much with our fellow passengers. During rest stops, when we bought snacks to munch on, I’d have passing thoughts of sharing snacks with them, but didn’t know if they were kosher munchies. It made me apprehensive, and I decided to eat my delicious snacks myself. Beanie is a lot less reserved, and friendlier with strangers. I think she’s just a genuinely nicer person than me basically. She exchanged more smiles with everyone, and made the old Israeli couple sitting in the seat in front of her quite happy.
We stopped at a big outlet mall on the way. All of us purchased multiple bargain items. Akira won some lucky draw and purchased a Guess jacket really cheaply. Beanie goes around armed with a shopping list for her friends from Singapore. Apparently some items are cheaper when bought here, and her friends had a long list of items for her to purchase on their behalf. Oakley sunglasses, coach and LV bags, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, none of the items they wanted could be found in the outlets, where things are cheaper. Haha.
We also made a stop at the Finger Lake area, and walked into some canyon and waterfall. It was really pretty. I decided to drink some of the waterfall water. YUCKS! Apparently water doesn’t taste as good when it looks great. (This is in contrast to this year’s Ig Nobel Prize awarded research, which discovered the crisps taste better when it sounds crunchier.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2006/may/23/highereducation.research) The white falls had a salty aftertaste that I couldn’t get rid of despite gulping water like a maniac.
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Only 8 of us are stopping at the USA side of the Niagara falls. The rest will overnight in Canada. Fine by me. After a couple days on the bus, I really just wanted to use the bathroom and sleep. Apparently I’m not up to the rigours of travel, unlike my nomadic ancestors. (Hakka ancestry,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka) Our motel was really bad. It was an econo-lodge. Location wise, its within 10 minutes walking distance to the falls, which was fantastic. But the motel looked tired and worn out. Oddly, the bed/mattress was one of the more comfortable ones the entire trip.
After freshening up, the four of us decided to take our first peak at the falls. It was 8pm, and was a pretty chilly night. But even despite the dark, despite our weariness, and the fact that we could hardly see anything, the fall was magnificent! We were guided to the falls by the sound of the rushing waters. There was some pyro-lighting display over on the Canada side. It really only served to detract from the beauty of this natural wonder. Of course, there are always those among us who seek to conquer nature personally through various unorthodox ways. (I’d purchased a couple books to read on our long bus rides. One was the Darwin Award book.
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2000-26.html)
Since we were all hungry and tired, and would have plenty of time the next morning to admire the falls, we decided to stop gawking, and forage up some foods. Our endeavors brought us to Hard Rock Café Niagara Falls, where we enjoyed various scrumptious delights. Beanie and Akira wanted to walk dinner off near the Falls, but Holy and I left to seek out the Casino nearby. We walked and walked towards the bright lights, but then we reached our motel first. Dilemma! Bed or gambling? We chose to go to bed. Actually, we ended the day with Die Hard 3 on HBO.
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The next morning, we grabbed some cereal and toast (free breakfast), and waited for the tour bus to arrive. It was late as usual. We even had time to walk to the falls, and then to the casino. Since I didn’t bring my ID, I couldn’t play. And I was going to win a million dollars too. BOO!
The Hebrew speaking guide was the main guide on the trip. First, we visited another part of the fall by bus. This portion was even more magnificent than the other view we had. Unfortunately, I’m fast running out of superlatives to describe the falls. I guess I can say, splendid, or wonderful? Anyways, words don’t really begin to do it justice. I believe natural wonders can only be experienced, and hope to have the opportunity to see more before it all melts away, or gets hammered away like the Three Gorges, or whatever.
We saw two rainbows on this portion. There’s probably something about the water, and the direction of the sun, that causes so many rainbows to form? It’s been a while since I saw a rainbow. I remember seeing one in Chicago, when I was walking by the lake after a sudden burst of spring rain. The sight of a beautiful rainbow made everyone smile back then, and it brought smiles to everyone this day too. There’s just something about a rainbow…
After a while, we got ready to go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. Every grouping of humans has a few stragglers who are chronically late, a few who like to stick near authority no matter what, a few who would chat in extremely loud voices, and many more. Well, the stragglers on this trip had already caused the rest of the group to be late a number of times, and they upsetted the Hebrew guide greatly on this occasion. We were getting ready to descend on the lift, to get to the boat boarding area. Suddenly our guide rushed in and held his arms out dramatically, and screamed, “NO, NO, NO!” The maid of the mist folks tried to hold him back, and we didn’t know what he wanted, because he was mostly babbling in Hebrew at the majority of our traveling companions. They stepped out, so we did the same. Turns out, because the stragglers were having fun in the souvenir shops and restrooms, not everyone was grouped up and ready to go, and so we were to stay around as a group, wait for them, and then just hang around (because we’d have missed the boat, so to speak,) and take the next ferry.
I’d actually been to Niagara Falls a few years ago with family. But this was my first time on Maid of the Mist. We were given plastic raincoat coverings. I like costumes, so I put it on immediately, and covered myself up. Those who disdained to securely wrap themselves soon discovered why raincoats were handed out. The Maid of the Mist navigates to right beneath the falls, in 2 places. We saw 2 more different rainbows on the boat. It was awesome! When the boat neared the horseshoe fall, the fury of the Niagara poured upon us all. We were soaked through, even with the meager raincoat protection. It felt like we were caught in the middle of a carwash, except more fun.
I love Niagara Falls area, and would live there year-round if I could.
We spent the night in New Jersey, at a Howard Johnson. It wasn’t as bad as the Econo Lodge. There was a IHOP next to the motel, so I got excited. I thought we could perhaps have IHOP dinner, it’s the American way! Sadly, although there appeared to still be people eating inside, the restaurant was closed to us. So we decided to partake of another great American tradition – the Chinese takeout! Except, since we were on vacation and had no car, we had them deliver to the hotel instead. It was to be Beanie and Akira’s first introduction to American-Chinese food. Ever the genial host, I knew I had to order General Tsao’s chicken, the perennial American favourite. Back home, we’d probably call this dish “Sweet and Sour Chicken”, and chuckle as we eat it. Because it’s just so non-Chinese. Beanie and Akira didn’t think much of it, or the Chicken Curry dish. They liked the Yangzhou Fried rice though. Chicken Curry is also another Americanised dish. In America, the authentic curry versions can usually be found only in Singaporean or Indian restaurants. Ahhh…..
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We did manage to try IHOP in the morning though, because the bus was late. Beanie claims never to have tasted such good pancakes, hehe. I liked the food, but I won’t swoon over pancakes. The bus, when it arrived, turned out to be a 12 passenger van. We were going to DC, and the driver doubled as our guide. An old Israeli couple from the previous trip was here with us. The other 4 passengers all spoke Hebrew too, but I never figured out if they were from Israeli or not, just that they only spoke Hebrew. Around this time, I realized I didn’t know the Chinese word for “Hebrew”. I know the word for “Israel”, but “Hebrew” escapes me.
It was an extremely long, and bumpy ride to DC. Out of consideration to our aged fellow passengers, the 4 of us were in the back seats of the van, and have to clamber in and out at every stop. You get used to it.
I like this guide. He also speaks Hebrew to the other passengers, but could communicate a lot more fluently in English. He also didn’t abandon us most of the time, unlike the previous day’s guides. Finally, Beanie thinks he looks like Mel Gibson. She’s kinda right. I think he looks like an Israeli ex-army man! And he broke no nonsense, no siree! He herded everyone in and out with military precision, noone is to be late! When he says “15 minutes rest stop”, he really means it! And he gets unhappy when anyone remains in the van during rest stops. He wants us all to stretch our legs and use the restrooms. Hehe.
He brought us to all the usual touristy areas in Washington DC. Since it was a small van, it was probably a lot more maneuverable than a huge tour coach. We saw all the memorials, museums (BORING!), and stood outside the White House for the longest time to try and see if we can spot any famous faces within. The White House had interior house tours in the past, but ever since 911, yada yada yada. Oh well. My favourite museum was actually the Holocaust Museum. I don’t know why really. I didn’t like the science, or nature, or even the Art museums much (Sorry, but I think the Chicago Arts Museum is a lot better than the DC one.) But the Holocaust Museum was a moving experience. I could have spent another hour there, but my military tour guide is not to be trifled with.
We drove what felt like a long, long way to get to dinner stop (near U of Maryland), and then another long drive, to the motel. I was convinced we were in Virginia! Beanie and Akira decided to try another great American tradition, the pizzeria dinner. She ordered a calzone, and Akira had a pizza. Unfortunately for them, the serving sizes were made for hungry and poor U of Maryland students. They couldn’t finish the calzone, and could only manage a slice of pizza between them. But being frugal-minded, they couldn’t bear to throw the pizza away. It served to feed Akira very well the whole of the next day. Holy and I decided to have noodles (non Chinese style) for dinner. I washed it down with fresh ice cream. Hehe.
The next day, we somehow managed to enter DC area after just a short time on the road. Turns out, we were not in Virginia, as I'd thought, but just on a weird road that curves. So although we were on the road a long time to leave DC, reentering was fast.
We visited more touristy places, like the Mint, where they print the American currency (sorry, no free souvenirs), more memorials and the Mirror lake, and some graveyard where they bury famous people and soldiers. I recognized Mirror Lake immediately. It was in Forrest Gump! Lincoln memorial was right there too, and there his giant statue sits, enthroned forevermore. I like Lincoln. I vaguely remember, long ago, getting an A in an essay about him in high school – The person I admire the most. Something like that. The cemetery…hmm. What struck me most was actually that enlisted soldiers get uniform, white little marks on their graves. While any officer can be buried with his wife, and receive bigger tombstones. I dunno. Death is an equalizer. Everyone there had fought for their country and their cause. Ah well. Death is one thing I haven’t come to terms with. Valar Morghulis, right?
We drove back to New York City this evening, and tipped our bilingual, Mel Gibsonish guide a nice amount for his services. I have opinions about tipping in USA, especially in New York City, but this is probably not the place or time to discuss it. We were to stay a couple nights at our transparent bathroom hotel, then take a bus back to Framingham, where Beanie and Akira will stay for the next week and play with us. We were given a better hotel room then before, probably because it was our second stay at the hotel. The front desk recognized us, and although our bathroom door was still transparent, it was built such that only the sink can be seen from the room. We also had a real window, with a street view this time round.
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Unfortunately, the very next day, Beanie and Holy both got sick. Flu hit them hard, and it was all they could do to sleep. We fed them Tylenol, and they dozed uncomfortably. We’d already prepaid for New York City tours for all four of us, but there was no way either of them could walk, or even sit and tour. They wouldn’t eat anything either. Akira and I survived basically on pushcart foods. Pushcart foods in NYC is really quite good, and cheaper than restaurants, though not as cheap as instant noodles. There were 24 hour pharmacies near us, and it sold instant noodles, but this hotel didn’t have microwave like the motels we were in.
Tylenol didn’t seem to help either Beanie or Holy. So Akira and I decided stronger measures were necessitated. We went to the 24 hour pharmacy, and were guided to get Advil. The two invalids were then dosed with Advil. The next day, Holy felt a lot better, and could eat some food and move around. But horrors of horror, Beanie had swelled into a swollen Beanie! She was obviously allergic to one of the medication, and it was either Tylenol or Advil. We all suspected Advil, because it was a much stronger medication than Tylenol. We were going to watch a Broadway show, Chicago, that night, and since it was expensive and we’d paid for it already, poor Beanie forced herself to go, swellings and all. She couldn’t enjoy it thoroughly obviously. Poor Beanie.
I decided the 3 of us who could eat definitely had to try the famous pushcart gyro on 53rd and 6th. It was strongly recommended by our World of Warcraft friend, who plays a druid, so he knows everything! It was the first time I’ve had to queue for a pushcart store. There wasn’t much choice really. Lamb or Chicken (or lamb and chicken), on pita bread or rice. It was a Muslim Halaal foodstall, which is kinda like Kosher food for the Jewish people. I ordered 3 servings for the 3 of us, and the servings were very generous. It was quite good, but I didn’t think it was worth going out of the way for really. Our druid friend disagrees – he’d drive from Jersey to New York City for this food, and he informed me sadly that I’d chosen the wrong sauces for the gyros. Hehe.
When beanie stopped taking all medication, including Advil, her swellings subsided, and both invalids felt well enough to try a bus ride so we can rest at home.
Our previous days on the road had hardened us. We were all formidable road warriors by now, even the ill and afflicted. The 5-6 hour greyhound ride was inconsequential! Home sweet home!
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After another day’s rest, Holy was well and in high spirits, and Beanie felt well enough to explore Boston. Unfortunately, the weather had been really bad these few days, both in New York City, and Boston area. We drove around Boston, and did all we could to show them around town. I think they enjoyed the view and stories from the top of the Prudential tower, and then Faneuil Hall (
http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/) which is a touristy marketplace that I really like. There are street performers all around usually. However, it was an extremely rainy day. We saw only 2 street performers, and whenever the drizzle turned into downpours, they’d pack up and so would everyone else.
We drove around MIT, and Holy put on his tour guide hat, and explained about the Harvard Bridge and how it’s measured in Smoots. (
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/04/smoot.day.ap/index.html) He tried his best to steer into Harvard area too, but some roads were closed, and we couldn’t see a way to go near Harvard. It’s been quite a fun day overall, despite the uncooperative weather, and we had fun.
The next morning, we settled Holy’s car insurance problems in the morning, and were relieved when we were assured immediate coverage, heh. Then we had a wonderful sushi buffet lunch, where we all ate to repletion. We were to go to a nearby farm to do some autumn fruit-picking next. You don’t get to do stuff like that in Singapore! However, disaster struck. As we drove out of the parking lot, holy turned into an incoming car…BAM!
None of us have ever been in a car accident before. The impact of 2 colliding cars was really huge. All of us had seatbelts on, nobody, including the other car driver, was injured. But we were all shaken. We didn’t know what to do. The other car driver was driving a company car, and wasn’t too upset. He was genial and friendly towards us, and came around to ask if we were all okay. (Yep). Cars behind us stopped, and drivers came out to ask if we were injured. (Nope.) We were all in shock basically. I know Holy and I were. He’s a pretty good driver usually. But a satisfying lunch, and a moment of distraction, and….
We had to call for the police, tow truck, etc. Obviously this was not the perfect end to a vacation. This may also rate as our most expensive vacation ever. * Beanie and Akira chose to leave early and go back to New York, because we’d all prepaid for tours, and they missed it because Beanie and Holy were sick. They had the option of finishing it now. But because of the car problems, Holy and I were no longer in vacation mode. Sigh.
The next few days passed in a blur. We rented a car, our car was rated too damaged to repair, and we’re going to have to buy a new car. But you know, all I can think about is…it was really a miracle that nobody was injured. Not even a bit. It could easily have been
so much worse. Thank God!
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*Immediately after the accident, when we'd all reassured each other that nobody was hurt, we left the car, and Beanie walked over to the front of our poor Camry to perform a very Singaporean action -- take a snapshot of the license plate numbers of the cars involved, and enter the numbers in the lottery! Which, by the way, we didn't win. Yet another example of a tradition that was lost-in-translation!
http://www.humorbin.com/showitem.asp?item=114http://geminigeek.com/blog/archives/2006/04/4d-toto-strike-rich-with-it/The Chinese saying is, "If you survive a small mishap, you're bound to experience fortune later."
I won't be holding my breath.
