jstn

Amazing trip report. I'm so jealous. I had mine in Sept. cancelled.

SFO777

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

Short hair Francis

I agree, let the DOT runs its things, if we don't hear anything max in a month, then probably let it go.

Don't forget there is the Freedom of Information act, should we wish to see what happen between the DoT and COdbaUA.


I will try to get another section up within the next 2 hours
No guarantees however,
doing 2 TR concurrently is rather difficult

Short hair Francis

Part 4 - 2 days of Half Awake/Half Asleep in New York City

With the need of an early wake up for the trip down to downtown Manhattan, I decided to book 1 night down at the Andaz Wall Street. Jfkeze’s office was around there. I was still nowhere near the 25 stays needed to re-qualify for Hyatt Diamond, end so I did need some stays still.

Check-in was promptly and I got a former XL King (now Andaz Suite).
I do like staying at this property as the room is very generous in terms of space compared to other hotels in the area. For anyone recommending Andaz Fifth Avenue, I have sworn to never stay at that property due to a prior incident.

Andaz Wall Street











The mini-fridge of goodies is also a nice touch I like with the Andaz for sure.
Nice places to chill all the alcohol minis from the plane



The shower isn’t quite as see-through as other showers in this hotel which was a plus if you have another friend stay around who isn’t of the opposite sex. Room seems to configure weirdly between the bed/work area and sofa area, so similar to my Vancouver suite earlier in the year, a lot of square footage was wasted in the hallways.
Needed to process some paperwork so that took the entire morning out, met jfkeze for a quick lunch grab since he was nearby. I had planned a bigger lunch, snack/brunch elsewhere later on.
1:15pm approaches, body completely shuts off, you NEED to sleep.
I don’t even know what was with my bodies, I don’t do drugs or anything like that and my body is still a train wreck.
Alright alright, you win, off to bed for 1 hr 30 min.
Zzz…..

Quick Shower and off to my favorite place of eatery in New York City.
Every trip to NYC, I always try to go to the Oyster Bar at Grand Central provided its open of course, they aren’t always.

Oyster Bar Restaurant





About 20 mins of waiting and 20 mins of eating, one of my favorite food
Yummy oysters



Sadly I don’t always get to enjoy oyster on a regular basis, I mean my lunch just cost 45 bucks!

Walk around midtown trying to look for cheap belt, like a 5 dollar one. In the meanwhile, I was on a hunting mission all over the place. Now why would I start hunting for a cheap belt on Fifth Avenue, yes I’m a moron in this situation

Part 4 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

I’m rolling in dough lol


Since when did a Timmies opened in New York City??? I’ve seen them Upstate but not in the city.

As I was very sleepy, I did go for an iced capp just like any other regular Canadian.

*Do beware US size and Canadian size are no where similar, a US small is comparable to a Canadian Large, lol
Thank god we are nowhere as obese up North due to the need of shoveling snow

Why would anyone want to sit around in a viewable bus driving around Time Square
Singing Broadway tunes is beyond me?
Two Words, TOURIST TRAP!!!





I wonder if I’m going to be here for NYE 2013, I know it’s not going to be in HKG for once thanks to Myanmar Junta


With jfkeze’s suggestion, off for some happy hour drinks, at first started out well, then you guessed it, brains saids no, no, no, its time for you to sleep, CRAP!!!
Literally passed out at the bar having only 2 drinks.
A late snack at this place for sandwiches, drinking munchies


Aren’t we a little early counting for Oktoberfest


Time to head back to bed



So are the rats inside the New York City subway system

I really should’ve head over to 14 Street/Union Square if I wanted their pics lol

8.5 hours of solid sleeping, boy did I needed that, headed downstairs for brunch.
Sadly had very lousy service at the restaurant, food took forever, no top off request for coffee or other food item was certainly for the morning.

Short hair Francis

After that, I asked jfkeze to show me Brooklyn Heights, sadly the last time I try to go there, I was on the 2009 or 2010? Brooklyn Reality Tours hosted by dhammer53. Let just say, I was running 2 hours late from JFK, miss the original pick-up in Midtown, took a Queens bound train instead of a Brooklyn bound subway. Literally spent an entire morning on a wild goose chase with the tour bus.
No such bad luck today except for the amount of tourist on the Brooklyn Bridge, there were other consequences later in the day,








We will never forget 9/11


Skyline of Downtown Manhattan


Statue of Liberty


Brooklyn Bridge


And urban sand pit and pool for all those desiring Miami?


Copying from SFO777 of taking pics of cute girls


Due to some other activities jfkeze had originally assigned to do, it was time for me to head back to the hostel, it was 3pm at that time and finish up some of the TR and catch some snooze..



Sadly, there is a reason why you don’t schedule someone like me to go an hour and a half of speed-walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and hit the bars/club the same day.
I was
1) Still Jet-Lag, the body couldn’t tell the sun from the moon for hell. I was sleeping at absolute random intervals. Like 2-5am, 10-12pm, 4-9pm, my body was just all over the place.
2) I admit it, I’m not the healthy dude on the planet, as if that wasn’t evidently enough with my excessive eating shown on previous TRs. Thankfully I can still walk a quick pace, I still had to catch classes just a few months ago.
3) I am also a lousy drinker, the reason I drink usually isn’t to get excessive and go find a rando for the night (can I say that on FT????)
I drink because I don’t want to look out of places and I want to spend time with my friends whom I don’t always have a chance to see.

Of course when 1, 2 and 3 line ups all at once, guess which SHF do you get?
The hibernating bear kind which an earthquake can’t even wake up.
Your still debating this? I had a false fire alarm at the HR SFO airport last month, apparently my parents said it took about 90 secs before I start responding to anything.
Of course in a real fire, I will become a your next KFC Chicken meal

Step forward to today, jfkeze comes back just around 8pm, tries to wake me over an hour without any response.
Eventually even he gives up on sat night plans, doubt you can drink without eating anything and slept like a crazy B!

And guess what, I haven’t ate since breakfast, it never cross my mind, and I still owe him a dinner, here comes 100 dollars of Sushi take-out, which he blames I ate the majority of it.


What can I say, coming out of hibernation, I need to eat

Then less than an hour, I feel I need to sleep AGAIN, what is going on with my body.

Next Part
Part 5 – Finally something called a regular travel day

BrewerSEA

Thought I was on Facebook talking to people my age for a second!

Short hair Francis

This might not be Facebook but there still are people our age out there

Whatever, lets go find some hot and drunk college chicks!

Wonder if these qualify

BrewerSEA

PUI? :P

Short hair Francis

Sadly not this time

I've only done drunk dial American Airlines and Cathay Pacific at 2am, and to book a ticket online while intoxiated

And check for my upgrade at T-100 while dancing at the club

flyhen

I guess it's safe for me to say, on behalf of all the FTers, we are happy for you, that you are one of the few lucky ones to snatch this deal. I originally got my 4-mile trip commencing this coming weekend. Yeah, I am bummed that I got canceled, but oh well. At least I know someone ACTUALLY got thru with this. Hope you had fun!

mkjr

so funny....i am kind of shocked at Timmy Ho's US sizes. wholly smokes.

in some respects flyhen, if they cancelled without authority, think of it this way, you could probably book at any time you want. i probably would have take SHF's approach and gone ASAP although i must say, it sounds like he had the jet lag dizzies for most of the trip...i find that hard going to HKG from YYZ...that 12 hours is hands down the worst jet lag IMO. just thinking about the dizzies..your body does not know up from down.

JamesBond_ppk

What kind of an idiot serves oysters with ketchup??? No offense to anyone here who does eat that, but jezz, that's like combining the most amazing delicassy around with the most common sauce around. And it's just ruining everything.

Tip for those who don't know; try one of these: lemon, lime, the traditionnal french sauce (red wine vinegar with finely diced échalottes), the latvian one (lots of dill, lemon zest, olive oil a dash of lemon juice and sour cream) or even tabasco.

Side question: I wonder if any airlines serves oysters in F?

And yeah, Short Hair Francis, btw, great trip report, I'm glad you could enjoy the 4 miles miracle

mkjr

I am confused...you talk about delicate flavours and then suggest you mask the same with lemon, lime, vinegar (an ingredient in ketchup) and strong flavours such as dill in another vinegrate type sauce....and tabasco...sorry, i am just confused.

personally, i eat my oysters with nothing but one might consider your suggested condiments as equally idiodic...

Zoui21

Great stuff Short Hair Francis

Eagerly awaiting Part 5. Hope you had a bunch of fun in the great city of NY