Rush Hour (Tourist Edition) Part I: The Day of Museums & The Night on the Rock

The last 3 days of our New York leg saw us utilizing our 3-day New York pass. For this section of my travels, I'll be blogging it in a slightly different way. Instead of the usual day-to-day journalling, I'll split this 3 hectic days into 2 portions - one for the tourist attractions that we managed to squeeze in (Tourist Edition) and the other for the foodie spots (Foodie Edition).

Before I get started with the lowdown on the sites that we visited, I'll give a brief description of how the New York Pass works (and thus explaining the mad rush). The New York City Pass (not to be mixed up with similar sounding passes like City Pass) gives you access to more than 70 sites, including the Empire State Building & The Statue of Liberty Cruise, and comes with their very own guide book (thus I suggest getting the book early). 

Your pass and guidebook

The pass is activated on the first day you use it and has to be used consecutively. Furthermore, it does not work on a 24-hours basis and end on the midnight of your final day (so do not activate it in the night). Some of the site passes give you access to the fast pass and some doesn't, so check it out in the guidebook or on their website before heading down. In addition to the passes, you can top up $45 for their hop-on bus services. I recommend that you skip this as a 7-day unlimited transport pass for $29 is better as it covers more grounds and is available for longer hours.

The New York MetroCard

Here are the different prices for the NY pass:

1 Day Adult Pass - $80

2 Day Adult Pass - $130

3 Day Adult Pass - $140.25 (Discounted) $165 (Original)

7 Day Adult Pass - $178.50 (Discounted) $210 (Original)

Some information that might be useful:

1) You can either order online and ship (postage applies) or collect it in person at various locations including one in Time Square (Planet Hollywood).

2) An average attraction will set you back from $13 - $25 (excluding fast pass). So plan your day(s) properly to make sure that you fully utilize your pass.

If you need more information, you can always visit the New York Pass website

Personally, I am not 100% sure as to whether this is the BEST deal in town. However, after doing some calculations and comparison, we concluded that we easily saved at least $50 by getting the pass at the cost of rushing around the sites. So my advice: If you want to take your time, you might want to consider another pass. If you don't mind the rush, this pass is for you.

To our first stop: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Read on for the MET, Natural History Museum and many other sites



The Metropolitan Museum of Art 


The choice of our first location is a no-brainer. Any visitors to the Big Apple HAS to visit this world-renowned museum, even if they are not a fan of art. Besides being one the iconic symbols of New York, this museum isn't too "heavy" on its exhibits, making it enjoyable even for a quick walkthrough.

Entrance to the Met

The exhibits are nicely spaced out in a spacious environment and the layout is simple and easy to understand. The museum itself is sorted out by time periods, beginning with Roman era but follows no chronological order. Overall, with ease of navigation and the spacious feel, the museum itself is pretty enjoyable for different level of art enthusiast, which explains its popularity worldwide.

Here are some of the usual exhibits you'll find:

Perseus and Medusa

Medieval hall

Arms and armor

Egyptian exhibtion

Renaissance art

Some of the more interesting ones include:

Asmat Bis Poles

Optical illusion by Salvador Dali

The Priestess Tagerem in the special exhibit of the Temple of Dendur

The famous View of Toledo by El Greco

Overall, we spend a total of 2 - 3 hours in the museum which wasn't enough to cover everything but enough for the highlights. This is one museum that I'll want to come back for.


Time recommended: 1/2 day - 3/4 day
Ratings: Must-go

Website: http://www.metmuseum.org/


The American Museum of Natural History 


Popular amongst families and schools, the American Museum of Natural History is also one of the largest museum in the world. Taking a walk down this museum brought me back to my childhood days of collecting Dinosaurs magazine and being fascinated over these extinct creatures. Obviously, this museum offers more than just Dinosaurs, with partially every type of animals being littered around its halls including mammals, insect and marine life.

Front of the Natural History Museum

Besides its exhibits, most people remember the museum for something else - its pop culture representation. The two most famous (which I can recall immediately) ones is in Friends (where Ross works) and in Night at the Museum. So besides looking for animals, I tried to find familiar scenes out of these shows.

Robin Wi...oh i mean Theodore Roosevelt

Two Dinosaur welcomes you

The museum layout is pretty much straightforward - all the way up to the Dinosaurs and you progress downwards to different classes of animals. Within the floors itself, it can get a little confusing, especially when the lift doesn't take you to the start, with no clear indications at all. So basically, we actually starting at the 2nd last section of the exhibit (the sequence is chronological). 

Rexy from the Fossil Hall

The exhibits themselves were pretty exciting and the descriptive boards were very informative. It was a fun experience for me going through all the fossils and diorama, and relearning all the information written all over. My only complain (if I were to nitpick) was that despite the size of the museum, the place seemed very jammed up and there wasn't much space to move around (there wasn't much of a crowd when I got there).

Mammal Halls

Milstein Hall of Marine Life

Overall, this museum did excite me for awhile at the Dinosaur part, it went downhill. Mostly its because many of the exhibits were off limits to us as our pass only got us the basic tickets. So we couldn't get in to the Rose Center and Planetarium or any of the special exhibits. On top of that, many of the the permanent exhibits were closed early (we reached in the afternoon), either for the function later in evening (as you can see from the Hall of Marine Life photos) or for general maintenance. Considering I have gone to the London and DC counterpart, I wouldn't rate this museum very highly.

Time recommended: 3/4 day

Ratings: Nice place, Good-to-go

Website: www.amnh.org

NBC Studio Tours

Last place of the day - The Rockafella Center, home to the famous NBC studios. We headed (more like rushed there) to get tickets to our scheduled Studio Tour timing. It was a little confusing to get to the NBC store (considering we came from the subway) but we still made it in time. A little tip: It is easier to navigate to the NBC store (where we get the tickets and start the tour) from the streets. 

NBC Studios 

I won't reveal much regarding the tour (it'll be more exciting if I don't spoil any of their surprises) except that it gets you to the Saturday Night Live studios - pretty exciting stuff for any SNL fans. The tour was really an interesting experience, though it was a little bit too short. The guides were quite energetic and the information was very relatable. I highly recommend taking this tour for anyone (and definitely for SNL fans). I would also recommend watching at least one episode of SNL before going for the tour.

Time recommended: 2 hour (1 hour tour)

Ratings: Must-go

Website: http://www.nbcstudiotour.com/

All ready with our NBC passes!

Top of the Rock

Last agenda of the day. Nothing much to talk about, besides the obvious fact that Top of the Rock is literally Top of the ROCKafella center. From here, you get the fabulous view of the city line of New York City and heading there at night just adds an extra gloss to the already-lovely experience.

The iconic Top of the Rock photograph

Before heading out to the observation deck, you'll get to read some of the Rock's history. It's definitely not very exciting stuff but it makes a good read if you have the time. The observation deck itself is made up of two levels - the first deck is bigger but  has a glass panel all around it while the second deck is totally open but leaves you exposed to the elements of nature. Obviously, the photos taken from the second deck was so much nicer but the strong and cold wind made it unbearable for anyone without proper clothing. 

First Observation Deck

People always ask me which view is better - TOTR or Empire State Building. I can't give a definite answer but I can list down one advantage of each. Empire State Building is obviously taller and has unrestricted view. For the TOTR, you can have an unrestricted view of the Empire State Building from up here (though the Chrysler Building is blocked). My suggestion - Go to TOTR at night for the city lights and Empire State Building in the day for the unrestricted aerial view (provided you get the pass too). 

Time recommended: 1-2 hours (including queue)

Ratings: Good place, go if you have the time

Website: http://www.topoftherocknyc.com/

Here are some of the selected shots. Enjoy.

New York city lights 

The Empire State Building

The Chrysler Building (hidden)

Another side of New York

Well, thats 4 sites within a day. It was a really tiring day for all of us, but nonetheless a very satisfying one. The attractions today were very appealing in their very own ways and I was glad I went through them all. Personally, I would definitely want to go back to the MET. 

The next two days wasn't as packed with attractions but it was still an enthralling experience for us. I'll leave the rest of the reviews to my next entry: Rush Hour (Tourist Edition) Part II.

Check out my Facebook page for more pictures on the sites that my group visited today: Click here 

In the Streets of NYC - 5th Avenue, Central Park, La Esquina & Eileen's Cheesecake

Today marks the halfway mark of our journey through the amazing city, New York. We decided to take it slow on this day and simply head to Central Park and chill out. Though things didn't really turn out as planned (we were rushing to get to Central Park to actually have our lunch there and we underestimated how big Central Park could be), it was still quite an experience and I do look forward to heading to Central Park again.

We decided to take the 5th Avenue route towards Central Park, so as to kill 2 birds with one stone (which didn't turn out as well, because we ended coming back here a few more times). Along the way, we visited the New York Public Library. Flanked on both sides by lions, the New York Public Library's exterior as well as interior are equally impressive. Beautifully designed, the interiors are filled with long hallways with several lovely reading rooms. Unless you are an avid fan of books, it wouldn't take long to tour the entire place. Please take a peek into the New York Public Library if you are around the vicinity.

Entrance of the New York Public Library

Lions Flanking the Entrance

Grand Hallway of the NY Public Library

Going through the history to the library

One of the many reading areas

Exhibition Area

After exiting the public library, we took a short (albeit rushed) walk down the famed 5th Avenue. This esteemed avenue (especially between 49th to 60th street) is known for its prestigious shops and is one of the most expensive shopping districts around the world. Naturally, you will find shops like Tiffany and Co., Bottega, Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, etc. So shoppers, beware, because this street deserves more attention than the 1 - 2 hours that my group had given it. Oh, and for the Apple fans out there, the iconic apple store is located at 5th Avenue, near the entrance of Central Park (sadly, I didn't go in and take a look).

Welcome to Fifth Avenue

Streets of 5th Avenue

Lots and lots of these Kebab Stands

Side view of the Trump Tower

Trump Tower

Apple Store

Past the Apple Store lies the entrance to Central Park. As aforementioned, we underestimated the size of the place and it took us longer than expected to get into the main park itself. Here are a few pictures of Central Park from the entrance to the reservoir.

One of the many entrances of Central Park

Zoo in the park 

Sneak peek into the zoo

One of the many rest stops

Walking up towards one of the picnic areas

5th Avenue by the lake 

Alice in Wonderland - one of the many statues erected

This looks straight out of Don't Mess With the Zohan

Baseball Pitch

The Jacqeline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

The Jacqeline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

After the long park through and around Central Park, we finally decided to get out of there and have our first proper meal (we had a takeaway bagel for breakfast and a kebab cart takeaway for lunch). We headed to a place suggested by Andre - La Esquina.


The place wasn't too hard to find once we figured out the correct station (was a breeze actually). It was situated in a corner of the Kenmare Street & Lafayette Street and very noticeable from far.

Note: They have 3 different locations (in the same area) - first one is their "Taco Shop" or Taqueria which is at the corner of Kenmare & Lafayette, the second one is their upscale restaurant or Brasserie located in their basement and requires reservation (there's where you will most likely find the often spotted John Mayer).

We took our seats in their last location, which is their Cafe, where its in between their upscale restaurant and their Taco Shop, and it doesn't require any reservations.

Shop front of La Esquina

Simple interior design

As you can see, the interior of the shop ain't big at all (the picture was taken with me at the front door), so if you want a seat here, come early. Alternatively, you can always make a reservation for their Brasserie.

The easy part of recollecting my memories of this restaurant is remembering how good the food is, the tricky part is actually recalling exactly what food I ate. This is a testament to the quality of the food being served here.

La Esquina (if you haven't known by now) is an authentic Mexican restaurant that claims to sell only the freshest of products. This well-known place is also famous to be one of the hang-outs of the renowned singer John Mayor.

We looked around for inspiration and got 2 pointers from our fellow guests. Firstly, the portions are huge--so sharing is the way the go. Secondly, everyone seemed to be ordering the sides Yucca Fritas, so that was one dish decided for us.

Yucca Fritas

If you don't already know, Yucca comes from the root of the plant Yucca and actually taste like Tapioca. The plant itself can be used for many medical purposes. The Yucca was fried really nicely but was rather chunky for my liking. It goes very well with the Creama Mexicana sauce. This side dish can be quite filling.

We were recommended the Tinga De Pollo (Pull chicken stew, tomato, chipotle, cinnamon, avocado, cabbage & tortilla) and the Bistec Tacos (Char-grilled skirt steak, charred onions, cilantro, salsa de chile de arbol). Note that I am actually guessing the dish from the looks of it for now, so there is a high chance that I might be wrong (but the type of meat is definitely right).

Our dinner for the day

Steak Tacos 

First and foremost - A disclaimer: The food looks better than it looks. I apologize to the fantastic restaurant for making their food look bad. 

Lets start with the Bistec Tacos (Steak Tacos). The skirt steak was nicely grilled. The onions and cilantro (a.k.a Coriander) blended perfectly and didn't overpower the taste of the beef. The salsa de chile de arbol (a.k.a Red Salsa) was SPICY!!! It was a little too spicy but I can't blame them - its Mexican food afterall. Love this dish - wouldn't mind a take out if I were to be back.

Pulled Chicken with Black Beans, Rice and Veg

Next up - Tinga De Pollo (Pull Chicken Stew). This is one dish that has many things happening at once. You have the white rice as the base, the stew chicken for taste and the black beans for texture. The cabbages and avocado slices just add that "cooling" effect to this mildly hot dish. Nice blend of flavors that makes me crave for more mexican food.

Happy Customers - Andre & Dawn

Final Verdict: I would definitely return to this place for more Mexican food. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is one of the best Mexican places in town (due to my lack of knowledge in Mexican food) but La Esquina does make me want to take it a step further. A solid 8/10.

Corner Street

After dinner, we went to Eileen's Cheesecake, which was conveniently located opposite La Esquina and recommended by our dearest Dawn.

Shop Front

This was as big as this place could get

Their menu was really extensive

The shop is very small (3 - 4 small tables), so I would recommend a takeaway. We ordered the shop's signature Oreo Cheesecake and the popular Strawberry Cheesecake. 

Oreo Cheesecake

Strawberry Cheesecake

Personally, I'm not a fan of cheesecake in general. So I can't be the best judge of cheesecakes. But judging from how much Andre and Dawn enjoyed the cheesecake (and the fact that we came back a few days later), I believed that this is definitely worth trying out. I took a bite or two and found it to be pretty tasty too (though the "cheesy" taste did put me off - i hate cheesecake). Do try out this cheesecake place, especially if you are around the area. Good stuff!

Maybe thats why they are so good 

So here are the recommendations of the day:


1) La Esquina 
114 Kenmare, New York, NY 10012
(between Kenmare & Lafayette)

2) Eileen's Cheesecake
17 Cleveland Place  New York, NY 10012, United States


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