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July 2021
My First Covid Era Trip Read more
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  • TravelerNew York
    Day 1

    Prologue

    July 22, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Like so many other people everywhere, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Covid vaccine. I have never wanted to get jabbed this badly! After receiving my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in April, I eagerly awaited the point at which the United States would attain herd immunity and life could get back to some semblance of normalcy. We all know what happened next. Despite a roaring start, a combination of factors - vaccine hesitancy, politicization of science and masking, conspiracy theories, deliberate misinformation, etc. - meant that vaccination uptake slowed to a crawl. I felt so frustrated and defeated when I came to realize that the US would not reach herd immunity in the foreseeable future.

    Meanwhile at work, my plan to take close to a month off in October-November was upended when my program’s go live date was rescheduled. Suddenly, I found myself with a balance of vacation days that I had to clear before the end of the year, and no plan to clear them. Last year, I carried over the maximum number of vacation days I could into 2021, and I reluctantly spent the balance of my vacation days on Oʻahu. The thought of doing the same again this year filled me with dread. The island fever was real. I desperately needed to get off this island.

    After considering all the factors listed above, I came to the conclusion that, since we're not going to reach herd immunity, I should figure out how I am going to live with Covid, and decide what my risk tolerance would be... which leads me to my decision to resume travel. I decided that it would be good for my mental health to start traveling again, but I would, of course, take the appropriate precautions. I resolved to only travel to places with high vaccination rates. Domestically, this pretty much ruled out most of the Red States (i.e., the states that voted for Trump). A quick scan of car rental rates ($250 per day on average!!!) further led me to rule out any place where I needed to drive. So, that left me with cities in Blue States with good public transport. Given that American cities are designed around the automobile, my list of options was depressingly short - New York, Washington DC, Boston, maybe San Francisco or Chicago. We settled on New York.

    We planned to spend only 2.5 days at our destination because we weren't comfortable leaving our elderly cat alone for too long. Looking at hotel prices, I found a surprisingly reasonable rate at the Holiday Inn near Wall Street. The hotels that cater to business travelers must really be hurting with business travel not trending upwards anytime soon. Since we were staying in Lower Manhattan, we decided to focus our activities in that area. For the entirety of our trip, we never ventured north of 31st St except in transit to and from LaGuardia Airport.

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…

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  • TravelerNew York
    Day 1

    Honolulu to Charlotte

    July 22, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    American Airlines AA552 | HNL/CLT
    Premium Economy Class
    Boeing 777-200ER | N777AN
    ATD/1838 | ATA/1002+1

    ==============================================================

    My first pandemic flight was a little nerve wracking. We flew via Charlotte both ways, and we paid a little extra for Premium Economy tickets on the Honolulu-Charlotte sectors so that we could have a little more space away from other passengers.

    On the outbound journey, we had a two-seater with nobody next to us and a wall behind us. This worked well for us as it was clear that there was no social distancing possible in the crowded Economy cabin behind us. The layover in Charlotte was a little uncomfortable as this was the first time since the pandemic hit that I was in an indoor space with so many people around me. Premium Economy was not available on the short hop between Charlotte and LaGuardia, and it was a little uncomfortable having a stranger beside me and other people close by in the rows in front and behind us.

    We were upgraded to First Class (with lie flat seats) on the Charlotte-Honolulu sector and so we had no issues with social distancing on that flight. Thankfully, everyone adhered to the mask mandate. My ears ached as I have never had to keep my mask on for such a long time before.

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…    Read more

  • TravelerNew York
    Day 2

    Arrival at LaGuardia

    July 23, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Jeff and I arrived in NY early afternoon on Friday. Exiting LaGuardia, we hit our first snag: we discovered that the direct bus service to Grand Central had been discontinued. If we wanted to avoid an expensive cab ride, we would have to take the public bus to the nearest subway station, and then connect to the subway to Manhattan. While this option was a little time consuming, it didn't bother me much because I immediately got to interact with the subway. This may sound odd to many people, but being a big city boy, I feel as if a part of me is missing if I haven’t been on a subway for too long. I was deliriously happy to be taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the subway.

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…    Read more

  • TravelerNew York
    Day 2

    Chinatown

    July 23, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After checking in to our hotel in the Financial District, our first order of the day was to find some food. As we were near Chinatown, we made a beeline for one of our favorite restaurants - Buddha Bodai, a vegetarian kosher restaurant on Mott St.

    En route to Chinatown, we experienced our first culture shock when we observed how many people were unmasked. In Hawaiʻi, mask usage is still high, even outdoors, despite rules having been relaxed. Indoor mask usage is still mandatory in Hawaiʻi, so seeing the number of unmasked people indoors in NY was a bit of a shock. I felt somewhat uncomfortable. During my time in the city, I continued to wear my mask indoors, but I did remove my mask outdoors when I wasn’t around too many people.

    At Buddha Bodai, we opted to sit at an outdoor booth. One of the novel ways New York coped with the pandemic was to close lanes on many streets in order to accommodate outdoor booths for restaurant patrons to dine at. Throughout our time in the city, we saw many such booths. Most booths were basic, others were done up nicely with plants and even fans to keep patrons cool. Many other restaurants simply put out tables and chairs on the sidewalks or on the street.

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…    Read more

  • TravelerNew York
    Day 2

    Rooftop Bar with Ahmar

    July 23, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    While dining at Buddha Bodai, my friend Ahmar contacted me, and we arranged to meet for drinks at a rooftop bar. I met Ahmar in Bagan in 2017. We had gone to the same MBA program at UCLA, but 17 years apart. In Bagan, Ahmar helped me figure out how to ride an electric scooter, and we had fun riding our scooters to explore the myriad temples on the plain.

    After dining, Jeff and I made our way to the rooftop bar at 27th St on foot. We walked through Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and Union Square. It just felt so good to be in a big city again. I’ve missed the vibe. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy my life in Honolulu, but my inner being aligns better with big city life.

    At the rooftop bar, I had a pleasant time reconnecting with Ahmar. Throughout my time at the bar, the Empire State Building was in my direct line of sight. We watched it reflect the evening sun. After the sun set, we enjoyed a light show. The jet lag hit around 9.30pm, at which point we bade goodbye to Ahmar and headed back to our hotel.

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…    Read more

  • TravelerNew York
    Day 3

    The High Line

    July 24, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Our first order of the day was to make our way to Greenwich Village to partake of the quintessential New York breakfast - bagels. Honolulu’s only decent bagel shop shut its doors a few months ago, and I was missing quality bagels badly. I got an everything bagel with lox cream cheese which we consumed in a small park nearby.

    After eating, we made our way to the Meatpacking District and waited for Jeff’s friend Kristine to arrive. Once she arrived, we walked up to The High Line and began our three mile round trip.

    The High Line is an elevated train line that had fallen into disuse. Originally slated for demolition, it was instead restored into a 1.5 mile walking path lined with vegetation, sculptures, and other public spaces. Scanning the new developments on either side of the High Line, it was clear that this was a catalyst for other projects. The High Line ended at Hudson Yards. Waiting for us there were a high end mall and a structure called The Vessel, which looked to be a series of staircases laid out in a circular fashion. A little north of that, I saw a new skyscraper with a huge observation desk high up. We didn’t go to either place as we wanted to check out a public space at Hudson River that we spotted during our walk. With this goal in mind, we doubled back southbound.

    We exited the High Line in the Chelsea area when the public space came into view. Crossing the West Highway, we saw that this was a park built over the Hudson River. Design-wise, it looked like a multi-level raised park built on funky shaped piles. We learned it was called Little Island. We also learned that it was fully booked and that there were no available slots before 9.30pm. Ah well. We decided to walk south on the Hudson River Park before making our way back to Chinatown for a late lunch with Jeff’s cousin and his family.

    https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/highline

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  • TravelerNew York
    Day 3

    Greenwich Village

    July 24, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After lunch, Jeff and I walked north to Greenwich Village where we had earlier spied an ice cream shop called Big Gay Ice Cream. We couldn’t resist checking it out because it had rainbows and unicorns, and we wanted to support an LGBT business. It turned out to be a fun little place. We ate our cones at the Stonewall National Monument across the street. There, we were entertained by drag queen who had a somewhat unexciting lip synching routine, but no matter, she was clearly living her best life. After that, we explored the Greenwich Village area by foot before heading back to the Financial District.

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  • TravelerNew York
    Day 3

    Financial District

    July 24, 2021 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    Our goal for the remainder of the afternoon was to seek out the famous Fearless Girl Statue. Unbeknown to us, the Fearless Girl Statue had been moved from its original location staring down the Wall Street Bull to a new location nearby staring down the NY Stock Exchange. Jeff googled directions to the Fearless Girl Statue, while I googled the bull sculpture assuming it would lead us to the same place. This led to confusing and contradictory directions from our phones. To add to the confusion, some streets were closed for filming.

    We eventually found the bull statue, but no girl. There were two long queues of tourists - one queue lined up to take photos of the bull’s head, the other to pose with the bull’s testicles. We opted not to wait in line. Instead, we went back to our hotel for a quick nap.

    That evening after dinner, we again sought out the bull and girl statues - which were thankfully devoid of crowds - and then called it a night.

    https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fearless-gi…

    https://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United…    Read more

  • TravelerNew York
    Day 3

    Brooklyn Bridge

    July 24, 2021 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    In the evening, we headed out for Malaysian food. I indulged in a roti canai appetizer and char kway teow. There aren’t any Singaporean or Malaysian food outlets in Honolulu so this was a special treat. After eating, we walked to the Brooklyn Bridge where we enjoyed the nighttime skyline.

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