I didn't plan to go to a country for holiday as far as The USA, 23 hours of flight is no joke, man! It started with I joined a contest on Asiana Instagram and surprisingly I won tickets of two in August 2016 to travel from Singapore to NY and NY back to Singapore. We decided to travel in October because fall season would be so lovely and so we went for our unexpected holiday for 2 weeks. A lot of planning involved from finding hotels to travel itinerary. I even borrowed books from the library to plan my travel itinerary!
I would also say this is the most expensive holiday I have ever had. Even though I didn't pay my air tickets, but I still had to pay tax, air fuel and other fees that ended up to be almost $800 per person. And hotels in the USA especially NYC are really expensive. I'm not talking about luxurious hotel, just a standard hotel and cheapest decent hotel I could find online can cost around SGD300 per night, yup that's the average! I have thought about AirBnB but my husband & I weren't quite keen with the idea of sharing an accommodation with people/family we didn't know at all! Plus we'll be staying for many days, thus having our bed sheets & towels changed, room cleaned daily would be nice! We wanted a comfortable stay for our honeymoon heheee
The last a few days before leaving Singapore to the USA was really hard and I felt so emo thinking I have to be separated from my baby girl for 2 weeks! That feeling of separation anxiety sucks a big time! Luckily there's Skype! I Skype-ed my kids every single night and seeing their faces made my day! I have arranged the same timing too which was around 8pm NYC time and it was around 8am in Singapore ~ 12 hours time difference! Just nice to catch up with my kids before my older son went to nursery at 8.30am.
If you are travelling from Singapore to the USA, you can get the USA SIM card with 2GB Mobile data for internet use at around SDG50 for one month use and it's so much cheaper than renting portable wifi device at Changi Aiport. I bought the USA SIM card 2 weeks before I flew. Do make sure you do buy earlier because they are always out of stock.
For the weather, fall in NYC was super super cold to me, not sure because I live in the tropical country for my whole life where weather here is always hot & humid and my cold tolerance is just not that good hahaa.. I even wore ear protector, double scarfs, a thick coat and gloves (Plus double legging pants) LOL! my husband in the other hand just wore normal sport jacket & shawl, that's it! It really depends but I would suggest if it's your first time visiting, it's best to bring extra fall/winter piece! It can be really windy some days and the wind can be really really cold! Some days, it can be quite warm too that you don't even need to wear a jacket. I would suggest to bring some casual shirts or pants or dress that you will be wearing in Singapore's weather.
For the food, I would say it really depends where we had our food. The cheapest option would be fast food but my husband is totally 100% Asian, even for his taste buds. He just couldn't digest fast food if he were to eat it every single day! Ended up we went to China Town in NYC & Boston for almost every dinner and we had Chinese food, surprisingly Chinese food in NYC & Boston were so tasty & we found so many delicious varieties and the price was quite reasonable too. Average Chinese food we spent was about $20-$30 and we had really good satisfying meal with rice or noodle! The same price if we were to eat in the fast food restaurant! The more gourmet fast food, the more expensive! Although I didn't mind to stuff myself with cheese burger and fries everyday but my man found it sickening, lol!
The most horrifying would be the long hours of flying and sleeping in the air. I just found it unbearable! 23 hours of long flight is crazy! And jet lag sucks! And there's a transit to Korea too which I felt grateful for because I spent 2 days in Korea for a short trip (with super awesome food) before I flew back to Singapore. I flew from Singapore to Korea at 11pm plus and I reached Korea Airport in the morning with sleepy eyes (couldn't sleep well in the air), waited for 4 hours for transit and flew again to NYC for 12 long hours (direct flight) and couldn't sleep again, just had small cat naps, that's it! Reached NYC around evening time, with 12 hours time difference, jet lag was horrible! Technically, 2 nights without proper sleeping! When I reached NYC, I felt a bit like walking zombie hahaa yet I was still able to explore Times Square for dinner and night walk! Hahaa.. Excitement! For long flight, the first 8 hours was still ok, but when it came to last 2 hours before landing, I found it unbearable, my bum felt sore, my legs got cramped, my back... my whole body just felt achy! And surely, it was really boring too, my only activity was marathon movies non stop! But I guess my man slept better than me! :p
From Korea to New York! So freaking far!
Meals at Asiana Airlines are seriously very very yummy! Meal time is what I'm always looking for in my long flight
Beef and Rice!
So yummy, seafood pasta!
Then we finally landed in NY and first meal we had was an Italian cuisine around Times Square area. So freaking expensive but freaking delicious hahaaa... I guess hubby spent around USD35 for one meal at that restaurant.
This lasagna is superb!
Spaghetti is nice too!
I felt so cold that I needed to wear my ear protector :D Day 1 was super crazily cold with strong cold wind!
Times Square is super happening!
A place like no other, really very alive! A place that never sleeps to me!
USA Taxi, bright yellow color!
We stayed in Times Square for our first night and the hotel name is Night Hotel. Pretty cozy and it costs around SGD300 plus per night! I guess that's one of the most decent and affordable we can find around Times Square!
The street
Street food stalls and vendors are everywhere
Huge H&M Store, didn't buy anything though because I found that the price wasn't that cheap either, pretty much the same as in H&M Singapore plus the fashion that season was fall & winter, absolutely I can't wear that in Singapore hot weather!
Billboards are crazy and everywhere!
Hubby posed an OOTD lol
Did you see the background? There was this man, like street performance acting like Liberty Statue in the middle of the street. Kinda remind me of street performance around Orchard Road Singapore!
Human Traffic is just crazy! Over crowded I would say!
City Tour Bus, double decker, just like the one we have in Singapore! I saw many black men were promoting and selling the tickets and one of them even greeted us in Chinese "how are you?'' thought we were from China hahaa..
So cold that I wore double scarfs!
End of Day 1 ~ super tired with sleepy eyes. We headed back to Night Hotel and had a super awesome sleep. It's like the first time after I gave birth 2 years ago that I didn't sleep for 2 nights! Zombified!
Next post is Day 2 ~ Liberty Statue!
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