New York, New York

I had my first trip to New York last week and what a great trip it was...!! First to NY and first to the US!

The journey started with an Emirates driver collecting me from my place. Checking in was a breeze, since I had the luxury of flying business class. woo hoo. Arriving 14 hours later in NY, I stepped off the plane, PROMPTLY put my jumper, jacket and scarf on (i felt like that dude out of Cool Runnings) and heading to the customs processing area. The procedure was relatively quick here and involved finger print scanning, passport stamping and a portrait photo of me - for reasons that are obvious... hmmm...

Once through customs, I looked for the board with my name and there it was, along with my checked in luggage that had already been fetched off the belt for me. Man, I didn't have to do squat.

I arrived in New York on the Monday - which was actually President's Day (public holiday) allowing me about 6hrs of site seeing.

The first thing that struck me, besides the C-O-L-D, was the ice everywhere! It was awesome!! It snowed about 5 days beforehand so the ice was rock hard and very slippery. It was a really cool site - particularly walking through Cental Park, and along streets suck as 42nd Avenue, 5th Avenue, Times Square and other iconic streets. I went up the Empire State Building in search of King Kong. I couldn't find him but did find the most fantastic 360deg view of NY! It rocked. I could see all of the building you hear that NY is famous for - including Trump Tower, Chrysler Building, Times Square, Rockerfeller Centre, Madison Square Gardens, among others. Don't ask me why I listed Trump Tower first. Crap it was cold. like, rediculously bone biting cold.

I was keen to walk down the stairs to street level just coz I felt like it. I got as far as a sign that said 'Level 84, no re-entry'. Another 15 levels and the photo would have been better. I had come all the way from level 86 and had to turn back.

Grabbing the lift... sorry.... elevator... down to 350 5th Avenue onto street level, I continued back on to the hotel and had a little nanna nap before heading out for a bite to eat.

Most of the next four days were business and very little pleasure. Although I did eat at New York's version of the Buddha Bar on the Wednesday night which was fantastic!

Arriving at the airport at 11:45pm on Friday night I was peeved to say the least that my Business class seat from New York to Dubai was overbooked. However I was soon calmed and happier after being offered a complimentary upgrade to First class. I eventually accepted. BLOODY OATH I ACCEPTED!!! WOO HOO!! It was nuts. The menu was crazy nuts - including Iranian caviar, Dom Perignon, 1980's wine, free pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, blanket and the most rediculously over the top toiletry kit I have ever seen - it was leather, and had a gold plated toothbrush and shaver, calvin klein after shave and the usual other stuff. It's a 14 hour flight for pete's sake.

All in all, New York rocked. The trip was tiring but I was fortunate to be able to walk to all of the places i needed to, taking me along Fifth Avenue, past Times Square every day. The final meeting was in the Empire State Building which was pretty cool.

So, that's NY! Enjoy the pics. These are the best I had and are a mixture of Nokia and Pentax pics.

I would place more on Flickr but I can't as Flickr is still blocked in this part of the world.