Honey'baby'moon : New York

why honey'baby'moon : because we haven't got the chance to go for a real honeymoon since married. we did went for a mini honeymoon which was sponspored by his aunty in Tanjong Jara Resort, T'ganu after the wedding which was Best la, kata free! and 'baby' -because I was 4.5 months pregnant while on this vacation.. which I think after this, no more travelling until baby is a lil bit big =)

5.5.2010 : Dublin is one of the country affected with the volcanic-ash from Iceland-no fly zone during April-May which totally made us sgt worried if our flights were cancelled too. So even a few weeks before we did not really planned the trip n book hotels bcuz we might just postponed since there was so much of uncertainty...Sue pun asyik nak sleep n laptop allergic so i left everything to my husband to plan/book/manage everything for this trip. kinda giving him space to suprise me! =)
On the day itself, all flights are cancelled! except for those flights to fly to the U.S as we are going to the opposite way from the volcanic ash!. Alhamdullilah, we are definitely the lucky ones! last minute packing pulak tu. haha.

Day 1:after 6 hours from Dublin, we arrived JFK airport, excited sgt bcuz dah lama nak pergi US asyik postponed, I got my US visa dah 2 years ago, but finally arrived! so the first thing we saw was rows of rows of NYC yellow cabs..

Off to Manhattan. the heart of the NYC, when arrived at the hotel, the cab cost us $60 =(, and even we gave the cab driver tips, he said this is unacceptable, the tips must be 20% of the total fare. We have been advised by colleagues that US ppl sgt nak tips, but tak agakla byk like that, so, we habis byk on tips cuz covers all taxi cabs, door man, bell man, waitress at the restaurants, semua la..

We found that hotel we stayed in is just around the Macy's and about 8 minutes walk to the Times Square. lucky that its near to everything so no need cabs or subways. The hotel is very comfy, even the breakfast served was nice, you can even do your own pancakes, hubby loves them so much, makan 8 pancakes kot..haha, and its free wifi. we highly recommended the hotel.

since check in hotel can only be pukul 3ptg, we looked for lunch and i found Victoria Secret around the corner, gosh sgt besar, and everything is in there is cheap and pweety. unfortunately cannot borong sesuka hati since body lotions, parfumes semua if byk will make our luggage very heavy, and of course kena save duit for the next 15 days in the States.

malam, eventho it was so tiring after long hours on flight, we kluar jugak just to make sure that we are not jetlagged, the time difference by 5 hours. we went to the famous Times Square. the buildings are skyscrapers,rapat rapat, but very organised, the adverts are all huge, and flashing.. sgt cerah la this city at night. they also provide this stage like where ppl can just lepak and feel the busy-ness of the city..like alicia keys Newyork song - the city made u feel brand new.. thats what i felt. we also went to M&M world, in the photo below, my babybump is obviously showing! 4.5 months and that big? yeah, i know, its gonna be a big Healthy baby, insyaAllah...



day 2..post continue after a month!..if not this post will never be completed and only memories remains..

ok day 2, weather forecasted will be a stormy afternoon in manhattan, so we decided we better shop (excuse sbb tak sabar to go to the Woodbury Common), so off we went from morning after breakfast, walked a few blocks to get the bus. The bus fare cost $42 each for 45 minutes drive je. oh goshh mahal giler for 2 dah $84! but no other options..

over 220 shops, we spent 11 hours there..however dpt cover berapa percent jer, cuz tooo huge and we only picked n choose which shop je nak masuk. overall, mmg nak la nak pengsan cuz the prices are really cheap.. but not labels from europe like chanel, dior, d&g tak payah masuk 1. cuz very limited and i found it rather expensive. so the ones to go is coach, juicy, dkny..guess... hasil tangkapan 7 coach handbags and only 1 juicy! the rest are dresses, tops and jeans.. sgt hectic shopping we forgot to take photos! malam tu i couldnt move anymore, i went to bed straight after. we wish we could spend more time there, cuz barang baby tak sempat nak tgk pun!

day 3: fine weather, so we bought the NY tour package which also include ferry ride tgk statue of liberty. at first hubby reluctant nak naik ferry sbb he worried about me having sea sickness. but bila lagi..so i wore my blue wrist band, well it does work, and tak pening pun =). so if any preggors having morning sickness, beli la the blue band to reduce your nausea..

so at last, we had the opportunity to see statue of liberty since small tgk kat tv je. the statue was actually a gift from french ppl, originally it was in bronze colour, due to sea salt/water, it turned green as we sees it today!

before the ferry ride, we had our lunch just blocks away from the Times Square..at the same time, on CNN live tv - ada bomb scare at the Times Square. the week before,a bomb exploded in a car at the Times Square, i guess NYPD took a little too much precaution cuz then it was just a water cooler..!

we took the tour ride around the city - covered 5th evenue, soho, broadway, ground zero where the two towers collapsed to the ground on 9/11, the china town, and the wall street!every 5 minutes mesti ada police siren, or bomba, there is always something going on. then we felt like, gosh, what a hectic life new yorkers are having..soon we realised, we preferred the laid back chill life in dublin.

malam - we stopped at Rockafella Centre at the end of the tour, went to Saks Fifth Avenue. I was expecting more i guess, Saks is famous of its luxurious shopping experience, but i think nothing beats Harrods! Harrods Knightsbridge in London is the best!

I had a date plan to meet my long old school friend - Munirah like 10 years or more tak jumpa. Munirah and her husband was also on their getaway trip in NY..so I was delighted to see her. She also brought a friend who lives in NY. actually Bank Negara sent him there to work for our country's reserves..mmg salute la.kan. We had a really good Asian dinner=)

Day 4: after breakfast, went for a quick shop kat Macy's before we went to catch our flights to Los Angeles.. before airport we stopped by our friend's house in Manhattan to leave our unused luggage as we will be coming back to NY after the Vegas trip. Sampai kat his apartment, wow, its like an apartment dlm citer Sex n the City, which ada butlers and doorman.

Our friend said the rent for a month at that block is $7k! so only millionaires lives there.. i wish i could live there as well, balik malaysia kerja Bank Negara, then ask them to send me there! ahaha..dream on..

flew to Los Angeles, 6 hours flight..

day 5-day 8 : Los Angeles, California (next post)

day 9 - day 13 : Las Vegas, Nevada (next post)

Day 14: Back in New York after 5 hours flight from Las Vegas. As we arrived so early in the morning, we could not check-in the hotel not until 3 pm, so we went to our friend's apartment to pick up the bag and tumpang sekejap at the apartment until we can check-in our hotel yg ke-8 ni. His wife is very pleasant siap buatkan lunch for us.. thank you for the hospitality as we are so tired after 2 weeks holiday, at this stage nak balik rumah and rest. The weather was very wet and strong wind, we could not able to jalan jalan even we wanted so, so we rest for the whole day, malam kluar to get dinner, but it was raining heavily, we kluar sekejap je, anyway, we thought we had enough fun..the body needed to rest before our flight back to Dublin for 6 hours tomorrow..

Day 15: fresh! we went to Central Park, teringat the scene where Charlotte did her running every morning at the Central Park.. the place is very peaceful we forgot the park actually is in the middle of the Manhattan city. We have a few hours left before leaving US, so we went for a quick lunch and last minute souvenir shopping..lots of lots of baju i ♥ NY. and for the last few dollars we had, we splurged it to the $70 luxury cab ride to the airport.. unsure why we did that, i think we are already tired, we need some luxuriness before going back to reality..

back to Dublin...

alhamdullilah, everything went as smooth as planned, even better.. we glad we did the trips before i get soo big, and I think we are ready to have the baby, no more jalan for quite some time after this.. until baby besar skit =), insyaAllah.. i had a really great time during our honey'baby' moon, thank you to mr.hubby for being so brilliantly well jaga his pregnant wife, and keep her 'fine and happy' all the time during the trip.. ♥ him loadss...