Dharma & Nita travel blog

Wow! This is my 100th blog post!!

Last day today, we were leaving for the airport around 1pm, lazy start to the morning. Packed up our bags, checked out and left the bags with the hotel bell desk.

Last breakfast was at Bouchon Bakery – my fav, along the way, stopped by at Times Square for last sights!

Arrived at Bouchon Bakery opp Rockefella centre around 11am, time for my fav Chai latte along with their amazing pastries. The Chai latte was so good, had to go for seconds!

A last minute sight of the Rockefella area.

Back at our hotel – Riu Plaza,

, grabbed our bags, our car had arrived, time to head off to JFK, goodbye NYC, you have been awesome and tiring (too much walking) at the same time!

Drive time to JFK was just under an hour, then it was the crazy security queues at the airport – make sure you allow 3 hours, the security queues are soooooo slow!

Flight from NY to LAX was on time, first leg 5.5 hours.

Arrived into LAX 7:30pm, had around 4 hours before the flight home, again more waiting at the security process. NY was bad, but LAX was worse!!

Finally through that, into the departure lounge, we now had just under 2 hrs before our flight home. Time to eat, the fast food options were not too appealing, looked around and stumbled upon a Sushi place which looked ok. Turned out to be the BEST sushi we have had, even better than Natsumi!

Refueled, headed to the gates. Browsing on FB, noticed Kapila was also checked into the LAX terminal, left her message on her post stating I was also there – most probably she had already left.
Few minutes later, Kapila was there! Small world.

Was good catching up with her, she had been to Orlando for the wedding and was also on her way back home.

Bid her farewell and bid USA farewell, long flight back home, this had been a GREAT holiday without kids, thanks to mum & dad, Bhavik & Tina, for taking care of our girls – now the hard part – getting back to reality!

Till our next holiday…….

Today was a visit to Queens. The objective was to find Twinkies!, had been on the lookout for these in Manhattan with no luck, ringing around had located them at Target, the closest one close to a subway station was in Queens!

Took the yellow line Subway from 42nd to 63 Dr-Rego Park. First stop was Rego Park mall, Nita wanted to visit the Ulta Cosmetic branch. Whilst she was there, I headed up to Century 21, this was a much better store than the one on Broadway! Found some great things for the girls, waited for Nita to get there and we ended up getting loads of things for them all. Century 21 is brilliant, loads of branded goodies at outlet prices! We stayed there for over 2 hours and came out with both our hands full of shopping bags .

Next stop was Target @ Queens Place, time to get Twinkies. Grabbed the last few from the shelves. Unlike our Target in AUS, Target in US has a supermarket side of things, selling all groceries items along with the clothes. The concept was great, however what was not so great was their service – absolutely rubbish, checkout operators here had no sense of urgency, they would have to be the SLOWEST I have ever experienced, much much slower than even the trainees in AUS. Finally managed to make our way out of the checkout. Time for a quick walk around the place, then made our way back to the subway and headed back to Manhattan.

Got off at 49st station, it was already 3:30pm and still had not had lunch. Decided to head to Natsumi for the brilliant dumplings and sushi we had tried on our first night.

Late lunch done, then off to the Hotel, dumped the shopping and time for a afternoon break.

Around 6 pm we headed out again, Nita wanted to experience the Brooklyn Bridge view and Manhattan skyline view once more for the last time – off to the Kal Ho Na Ho park under Brooklyn Bridge, a good spot to experience peace in the concrete jungle.

Today was more crowded, there were a couple of models having their photo-shoots done, was interesting watching the process and how they managed to change clothes in the open!

Time for our own pics

Headed off around 8pm, subway to Macy’s on Herald Square, had to take back my Dockers Pants, sales person had not taken off the security tags!

Got off at 34th St and made our way to Macy’s, it was a brilliant night sky with the full moon next to the Empire State Building – what a view!

(full moon and Empire State building in the background)

Finished off Macy’s, back down the Subway and off to 42nd st, then a short walk to Utsav on 46th st. Last night in NYC, time for some good indian!

Nice interior, had to only wait 5 minutes before we were given a table. Ordered their spicy variety – was super!

A very good meal at Utsav – highly recommended. Get the Chicken Chettinand HOT, so so so tasty!

Last dinner in NY was done, now for the last night in Times Square, Nita had to finish off her challenge set by Daljit & Sanil, the challenge was to dance Prem Ratan Dhan Payo in Times Square!

Very proud of Nita, she was able to perform the dubsmash of PRDP in two takes and then it was on her instagram – challenge completed, apparently now it was Daljit’s turn to do the same on Harbour Bridge – I am waiting for that!

Nita totally embarrassed from her live performance in front of the massive crowd in Times Square, now it was time for our nightly Cheesecake fix @ Juniors, this was the best way to finish the night.

Most of the sights were now done, today was a leisurely walk down 5th Ave. The tour guides had highlighted this street as a must walk, with lots to see. During the tour yesterday we had noticed a good coffee shop in the vicinity of 56th st, decided to start our day from there, breakfast pastry at Tisserie – 7th Ave between 56 & 55th st.
Walking past Times Square, good opportunity for some more pics!

Made our way to 7th Ave to the Tisserie Bakery place. The pastries and coffees were both very good here. One problem I have found in NY or US for that matter, is finding good breakfast that we are so used to from back in AUS. Breakfast here seems to be massive, greasy and just not that nicely put together.
What we did find was the amazing pastries, these were better than back home, and we made that our breakfast start!

Refuelled, now off to 5th Ave, it was time to explore the place, and the best way to do that was on foot!

Passed some interesting streets and even more interesting eating places. We were quite a way from Times Square, and here the eating out places were where locals went – the GOOD places!
Found one such place , on 57th st, between 6th and 5th ave – Mangia. The place inside had everything to eat, the front had a coffee area with pastries and ready to go subs/sandwiches, walk further in and there was big buffet serving area, then further on the sides were a-la-carte – Italian, Mexican etc, and the place was busy – it was 12:30, and locals were getting in for lunch. We grabbed a coffee and another pastry, had to try at all these places! Coffees on this side of town was soo much better than near Times Square!

Finally made it onto 5th Ave, now to walk all the way down!

Window at the Tiffany store

NY library

NY library

NY library

NY library

It was already past 2pm and we had only managed to the 40th st, still a long way to go. Time for a lunch break, opened up YELP and located a highly rated Schezuan place just around the corner. We were there in less than 5 minutes – was so nice to take a seat, legs were in need of much required rest!

Ordered their KangPao and Chilli Garlic Chicken, unfortunately food was not as good as we had expected, Nita only had a small bit – well you cannot always win .

Back on the street, more street scape to take in, it was around 5:30pm before we reached Union Square. Noticed a Max Brenner around the corner! Time for a much needed rest.

Unlike the Max Brenner in AUS, this place served proper food as well as the chocolate fix. Ordered a Chicken Pesto Pizza, Nita had a much needed mocha, I settled for a coke. Food here was very good, very impressed with them.

Legs got some much needed rest, it was now close to 6:30pm, headed out and down to the Union Sq subway station, took the yellow line to High St Brooklyn. Nita wanted to visit the scene from Kal Ho Na Ho, where they are looking onto Manhattan skyline. This was a small park beneath the Brooklyn Bridge on Brooklyn side.

Getting out from High St station, it was only a short walk to the park we wanted. Passed some amazing Brick Oven pizza places with long queues. Made a note of these, hopefully I could make it there.

Finally made it to the place where Nita wanted to visit, yep the same location as in the movie Kal Ho Na Ho! This place did provide a lovely view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan.

A very nice vantage point to see Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge, highly recommended.

Great spot to view Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge

Finished off after 8:30pm, got the subway back to Times Square (42nd St). Did not feel like dinner due to the late Pizza at Max Brenner.  Decided to do takeout Cheesecake from Juniors and simply relax in our room.

Had been a long day – feet were killing us but we had covered lots today! Time to enjoy the cheesecake.
Tomorrow was a visit to Queens, chance to see a different side of NY .

Day 2 of Hop on Hop off Bus, doing the uptown tour today. The downtown tour yesterday was great, today a chance to see Central park and the surroundings including Harlem!

It was a cold overcast day today, sitting on top it was definitely very chilly but there was no other way to see it then to be up there!

waiting for the hop on bus

Streets of Harlem

We did not get off for most of the tour, viewing from the roof top was great. Got off at the Central Park stop 38 – time to explore this magnificent man-made park in the middle of the concrete Jungle!

Bow Bridge

Bow Bridge

What an experience the Central park, and we had only seen a quarter of this place! Very green and picturesque, some amazing pics we took and a very calming stroll in the park. Highlights for us were Bethesda Fountain, Bow bridge, and the lake.

We came out of the park at Columbus Circle and headed to the Time Warner Centre, it was already 2:30pm, time for lunch. The evening plans were to go to a broadway musical – fingers crossed as we had not bought tickets yet, but the timings were such that we would have to skip dinner prior to the show, so hopefully this late lunch would carry us till after the show.

An interesting sculpture in the foyer of the centre!

Found a branch of the Bouchon Bakery in the centre with amazing views out to Columbus circle, this would do for lunch.

Lunch was good, now for a quick tour of the centre, most of the stores here were all high end, there is only soo much window shopping you can do, time to head out of this place. I had noticed a Century 21 nearby, we headed there, sightseeing was done, now back to shopping.
Located the Century 21 near the 66th st subway station on Broadway. We ended up staying there for just over a couple of hours.

Finally done, now to rush back to Times Square to get tickets to the Finding Neverland show!

Took the red subway from 66th St station and were in Times Square in a few minutes.
it was around 6:30pm , now to get to the TKTS ticket booth. For those that do not know, this is a great place to purchase half price show tickets at the last minute. We got lucky with tickets to the show we wanted – Finding Neverland, show was at 7:30, giving us less than 1 hour. Got to the hotel, quick freshen up and were at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in good time – we were lucky the theatre was on the same street as our hotel – 46th.

Our first broadway musical and it was FANTASTIC. We both absolutely loved it, this was so well done – we rated it 5 stars! If we had more days, I would have loved to squeeze in another musical, this would have to wait till our next trip.

It was around 10pm, next stop was Juniors on 45th st, they were very well known for Cheesecakes. Got there and wow, a massive queue to be seated at 10pm!! Got our names down and only had to wait 10 mins for our table – great being a party of 2, you always get quicker service!

Ordered their famous original cheesecake and a Red Velvet Cheesecake. The original was so so so goood, red velvet cheesecake was nice.

New York Baked Cheesecake @ Juniors on 45th

Red Velvet New York Baked Cheesecake @ Juniors on 45th

A great day today, and even better evening with the musical – one off my bucket list, and then a great dessert to finish off the night!

Sightseeing day today, travelling on the hop-on hop-off bus.

As part of the New York sights pass, I had the 2 day hop-on hop-off bus tickets, today we were doing Downtown, tomorrow was uptown.

This is a great way of quickly seeing NY if you have a limited time! Lots of good sights to catch. Since we had already done a bit of downtown, we stayed on till the Rockefella cente, which was almost the entire loop!

NY Library

home of Sarah Jessica Parker

It was around midday when we got around to Rockefella centre. Got off and headed for lunch in the plaza. Located a nice Italian place, Harry’s Italian, they made fresh pasta and pizza.

Was a good hearty lunch, then off to the top of Rockefella centre. Unfortunately the next available slot was 1.5 hours later – this was actually better than Chicago where you simply had to wait, an allocated time was much better, got out tickets for that slot.

A good opportunity finish off Grand Central Station in that duration. Was a short 10 minute brisk walk.

Got to the famous Grand Central station – had seen this place many times in the Madagascar movie with kids, finally seeing it in real!

Reliving the moments from Kal Ho Na Ho (for Nita) and Madagascar for me! Loving Grand Central

Quite a large station, would have loved to explore the place a bit more however we were running on a tight schedule, made our way back to the Rockefella centre and walked straight through the queues up to the top of the ROCK! Great having a timeslot ticket.

Looking onto Central Park from the Rock

Central Park from the Rock

Concrete Jungle

hmmmmm, where should I go next in this mess of concrete Jungle

Seflie on the Rock

What a view from the top, the Rock provides the best views to Central Park and also to downtown NY including views to the famous Empire State Building!

Tip: The Rock provides the best aerial view of Central park of all the observation decks here in NY. Better to see the Empire state building from here!

Got down to street level, time to wait for the Hop-on bus to come by. Whilst waiting for the bus, headed across the street to Bouchon Bakery for a quick hydration. This one turned out to be my fav bakery.

Back on to the Bus, next stop, Empire State Building. A smaller queue here .

Empire State Building

with the mighty King Kong

Concrete Jungle

Concrete Jungle

Views from the Empire State were good however we preferred the views from the ROCK. Still not bad.

Back on street level, we had done the downtown sights for the day, made our way towards Macy’s @ Herald Square – why not! Along the way Nita’s phone rang, it was a facebook call from Vipul! He had seen our pics on FB and decided to call Nita just to have a chat on how we were going and whether we were here attending the wedding in Orlando! He was keeping a tab on us.

(Nita on FB call with Vipul!)

Next was Macy’s time! The tour guide on the hop-on bus had given a bit of a background on the founders of Macy’s, apparently the husband and wife had died on the Titanic – not sure how true that was??

Was close to 9:30pm when we got out of there, took the red subway to 50th st and then a short walk to our fav Mexican joint in NY on 9th Ave – Casa Agave. It was around 10 pm when we got there, place was busy as usual, found a table and ordered our fav fresh Guacamole and Fajita – YUM!

Shopping day today, destination – Jersey Gardens Outlet mall  in New Jersey.

Headed to the Port Authority Bus Terminal for Bus # 111, this linked us directly to the Jersey gardens mall. Buses were leaving every 10 minutes, a short wait and we were on our way to New Jersey.
Had not realised how close the Port Authority Terminal was to Lincoln Tunnel, we were only on the road for a minute or so before we were in the tunnel going under the Hudson River.

On the other side and a further ride of 30 minutes before we arrived at the Jersey Gardens outlet place.

This is the biggest outlet mall in New Jersey and unlike the other outlets, it is all enclosed/covered, no need to fight with the cold/rain!

This was a whole day affair, lots of shopping. We stayed there till closing time – 7pm then made our way back. On to the Bus and back to NY.

Back at the hotel, quick freshen up then headed out to Shake Shack (corner of 44th and 8th ave) – famous burger joint chain.

A bit of a queue on a cold night! Luckily the wait was only about 10 minutes. Finally got in there, a further 20 minutes of wait and finally got the famous Chicken burger and the Vanilla Shake. It did not look much more than a KFC burger with a bit more salad! Tasted the shake and it was NICE, however not as good as the one from Johnny Rockets in San Jose. The burger was ok, nothing to rave about, not sure why this chain was so highly rated, the Grill’d burgers from Australia are so so much better than this.

Back onto 8th, heading up towards 46th, stopped by at Amorino Gelato – famous for designing ice cream cones like flower petals.

A good treat, then off to bed, tomorrow we were going on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. Needed to start early on that.

Sightseeing today, wanted to cover Statue of Liberty, 9/11 location, visiting the One world observatory (Freedom tower) and Brooklyn bridge.

Morning quick breakfast, then down to the Subway for a train to South Ferry station. Subway travel is very efficient here, and I think essential to get around quickly, much quicker than taxis. Also a common misconception I had, the subway systems in NY were grubby, dirty and dangerous, could not have been more wrong. The Subway station and the trains were all clean with ZERO signs of graffiti and we did not at any point feel unsafe!

Due to weekend maintenance on train tracks the train terminated at Canal St, Buses ferried us the rest of the way to South Ferry. This worked out well, sight seeing the lower Manhattan.

At South Ferry, we booked a Hornblower Cruise that included the Statue of Liberty , the Brooklyn bridge, and views to New Jersey and lower Manhattan. A bit of walk to Pier 16 then a short queue and off on the cruise.

The NY skyline does look nice from the waterways!

Some amazing sights from the cruise, a great 90 minutes.

From Pier 16, we walked to the Freedom tower, passing some more great structures along the way.

It was past 2pm and we had not had lunch yet. Located an indian food cart at the corner of Broadway and Liberty, a few people in queue, so hopefully it was a well known cart.

Nita ordered a Paneer wrap, found a nice place for a break in Zuccotti Park – directly opposite the food cart. Wow, street food is indeed delicious here. The wraps were very tasty.

Close by was the famous Wall St.

Made our way to the Freedom Tower – sight of the 9/11 attacks. Had heard and read about this event so much, however it is not until you are there that you begin to feel the impact of this! The memorial site has been very nicely developed.

Made our way to the one world observatory over 100 stories high, providing a great view of the city.

Finished off the observatory, down at the street level, noticed Brookfield Place across the street – a mall catered to designer labels. This deserved a visit.

Nice mall with a even better eating area, were amazed at the food area. This was unlike any I had ever seen in a mall, essentially open plan kitchens leading up to restaurants. Located a nice coffee shop, time for a break!

It was past 5pm when we got out of the centre. Next stop was Brooklyn Bridge. Walking to sights was proving the correct choice, lots of viewing that we would have missed otherwise.

Finally made it on to Brooklyn Bridge. No need to describe, that, pictures are enough!

Spent close to an hour on the bridge, taking lots of pics and watching the skyline change with the sun going down.

Made our way across the bridge to the Brooklyn side, walked to High St subway station to take us back to Times Square. Unfortunately due to the weekend rail works High st station was closed, we were directed to Jay St – MetroTech station, another 10 minutes walk through Brooklyn. Got our train back to 49th st near Times Square, this was closer to the Mexican place I had found on YELP.

It was close to 9:30 when we made it to Casa Agave on 9th Ave between 48th and 47t st. This was a small place, and very busy – a good sign. We were lucky being a party of two, much easier to find a table!!
Ordered the Guacamole, chicken Quesadilla and Shrimp Fajita. The Guacamole was made at our table – wow, freshly made Guacamole is goooooood!! The Quesadilla and Fajita were very very good – this was even better then the Mexican we had in Chicago and back home – by far the best mexican to date!

What a day, lots of sight seeing and then topping it off with the best Mexican food! Highly highly recommend this place!