To celebrate my one year work anniversary, I decided to travel to the United States with my mum on a two week holiday. It was pretty much a toss of a coin between the United Kingdom and the United States. I decided with the latter because… if not now, then when?
I had considered my mum’s age, and I was really in the mindset of “I can earn back money”. Hence, United States was on my cards. For this post, there will not be any deep discussion or sharing about how much things cost because I didn’t keep track of anything and I know it would be an expensive trip, thus kept all my credit cards on hand in case some payments didn’t go through.
Just to share, this trip will be documented into several posts. This one will cover our NYC leg!
Is United States safe?
This is the number one question I received when I told my family, friends and colleagues of our travel plans. Honestly, it is a valid question that even I asked myself all the time. With what’s happening in the world, especially with the US political relations domestically and internationally, safety is a concern for many travellers. The last thing we want is to be stuck somewhere, without any way to contact somebody for help.
After mindless scrolling on forums like Reddit (that place is a black hole, seriously), I decided to continue the trip to the US with my mother in tow. It was a conscious decision, because I know for a fact that the people do not represent the government and vice versa is true. (Psst, just like a lot of Singaporeans want to immediately call for an independent Palestinian state but the Singaporean government is not upfront about it till pretty recently. And even then, places a lot of conditions to do so.)
Plus, the United States is huge. The experiences we will have is unlikely to be homogenous, even across towns within the same county. A lot of Americans are proud of not just being American, but there simply is a lot of identity politics at play which affects your travelling experience. However, one thing I note really strongly is how open a lot of Americans are to express themselves which is vastly different than my daily experience as a Singaporean living in Singapore. It is a very eye-opening experience for myself and also for my mum!
A lengthy spiel — safety now is a relative thing which considers many factors like your self tolerance of what constitutes unsafe, how you react to another culture (and your innate self compares to your own culture and society’s norms) and the actual “acts” of unsafe like robberies, kidnapping, sexual harassment and the likes. What might be safe and “normal” to one is not to another!
Our experience in the States was smooth-sailing, alhamdulillah. There were shootings in various districts while we were in Washington DC, and the following week when we left DC, two Israeli diplomats were killed near the Capital Jewish Museum. I find that most “unsafe” acts are mostly targeted towards specific people, and petty acts like theft is really a random pick. We were in a produce store one street away from our hotel, and saw someone stole and ran away. We were just stunned because he looked completely normal, and the store owner tried to give chase but soon gave up. After reviewing the footage, the owner was like meh since the guy stole food (homelessness is an issue, and a completely different topic altogether).
So should you consider travelling to the United States at this time? My honest answer to you is to just go. Disregarding the increasing costs due to the tariffs, the United States offers a lot of experiences which is completely unmatched. The country is blessed with a lot of natural formations and the American culture is quite beautiful, I would say.
New York City
We flew from Singapore Changi International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport via Singapore Airlines on 16 May. The flight we took was a direct one and the seats were minimally Premium Economy. It was our first times boarding on Premium Economy and the small upgrades made a huge difference in feeling much more comfortable as we cruised through the 18 hours. We were fed at least twice, and when we got a bit hungry during certain parts of the flight, the crew were amazing in giving us free chips and fruits. Other than the 18 hours painful flight, I would highly recommend flying direct to save time. I managed to get the tickets for around $1,600 and redeemed miles for my mum.
The last time I went to New York City was in December 2015 on a partially solo trip. Not many things have changed, honestly. It was crowded, crazy and downright NYC to the core (which I love!). We took the Jamaica express train and then headed towards our hotel at Courtyard by Marriott New York Manhattan/Times Square West. The thing about the subway was that elevators are not the norm so we did clock in quite a lot of steps in NYC as a whole (this experience is pretty similar to Japan and South Korea as well). The few steps from the junction towards the hotel was pretty sketchy, but we safely made it to the hotel.
Brief review on Courtyard by Marriott New York Manhattan/Times Square West
Small rooms, just enough for us. We stayed there for 3 nights, averaging around SGD200 per night. We were able to open two luggages and have a bit of room to spare to do our prayers. There is no bidet (bummer) like everywhere else in the United States. Beds were very comfortable and the view outside is just a building. There’s laundry machines (payable and affordable by NYC standards and bring your own detergent) and a gym with simple equipment. It’s cheaper than the other Courtyard by Marriott Times Square, and relatively close to the subway.
As we landed in the evening, there wasn’t much for us to do and the jetlag was starting to sink in. I went out to get us some food and we stayed in for the evening.
Central Park and the American Museum of National History (17 may)
The next day (17 May), we took a stroll around Central Park. Unfortunately, I was actually having diarrhoea/indigestion since I was back in Singapore, and it just got worse. Made a run for the toilet in Central Park so many times! (Thankfully, I went to get some anti-diarrhoea pills from CVS which worked like magic!) Not a great way to start the trip!
We walked from Columbus Circle all the way to the American Museum of National History, just in time for the opening of the museum! Since Summer holidays were about to start, there were quite a number of school-going students and their families queueing up. We purchased the tickets directly from the Museum.
Honestly, the exhibits were great. I have never been to this museum before, and there were so many things to see! My favourite part was the gemstones area because it truly tickled my love for Chemistry.
My mum got bored though, since museums aren’t her thing. We left the museum and decided to go shopping! I had a few stuff to purchase such as Kate Spade bags, so we headed to Diamond District. Absolutely taken no photos! Haha.
We went back to the hotel, bought some street cart food and just chill out to settle the jetlag.
Staten Island Ferry, 9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn Bridge and Flea Market! (18 May)
This whole trip is actually very much planned + free-flowing, where if we are not up for something, we’ll just ditch it and go for something else. Thus, I didn’t get any tourist pass since there’s a lot of calculation to make sure something is worth it. I didn’t have that much bandwidth honestly!
We started our morning with a train ride to the tip of Manhattan, where we boarded the free Staten Island Ferry. It is a commuter ferry, but despite it being free, my mum thought that it was one of the highlights of the entire US trip. The ride was a great half an hour and you can bring on board food and drinks. We chose to sat outside both times, watching the New York skyline and the seagulls chasing the ferry.
We didn’t spend any time on Staten Island, but just opting to take the return ferry almost immediately. It was really cold but rejuvenating!
Since we were already near the 9/11 memorial, we decided to go for a stroll. It was my second time there, but the whole site still gave me shivers and recollection of 9/11. I was still a child when the Twin Towers fell, but could remember how my world as a kid froze when I saw the news.
By then it was past noon. We decided to walk across the Brooklyn bridge and saw the Gentlemen’s Ride! I was amazed by all the bikes and felt a little bit fomo (for real!). The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is a worldwide community where bikers are dressed in gentlemen-style (think suspenders and bowties!). For this particular ride, the gentlemen were raising funds and awareness for men’s mental health and prostate cancer research. It is a wonderful effort by the community and I highly encourage you to check out the website here.
We took a whopping 1 hour to walk across the 1.8km bridge, and decided to explore the borough! There was a lovely flea market right under the bridge and I got some beautiful earrings for my friends.
By then it was evening, and we decided to head back to the hotel.
I happened to have a friend doing a work-study semester at New York University. We went to grab some tacos and hung around at his apartment’s rooftop! Pretty cool to witness NYC’s skyline at night. We just caught up with biker stuff and he sent me back to the hotel afterwards.
I’ve been to the States once and that was back in 2015. I visited the Big Apple and went on a tour to DC. But this time, I had the chance to bring my mum along and I myself have not visited the West Coast.
Cool Observations and Insights
In my opinion, New Yorkers are the most raw-est group of people I have ever come across. I still remember my first attempt to order some Auntie Anne’s. I’m a pretty soft-spoken person in real life, and the cashier just sassily said you gotta speak up honey, I can’t really hear you! I wasn’t offended or anything, but it gave me a hint that I need to be a bit louder and present.
Similarly, we had several encounters with strangers who just greeted us (actually, more of my mum!) Assalamualaikum. They were just casually walking along the streets, and we were just stunned. Nobody will do this along the streets of Singapore and Malaysia, honestly!
Because of this simple interaction in New York City, my mum feels really positive about the American society, despite what she hears on the news. A lot of people we met, not just in NYC but also in the other states we visited, were really sweet and helpful to us.
Stay tuned!
Well, that’s all for our NYC leg! I’ll be taking some time to write on the next part, which is Washington DC.
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