See many of you didn't know there was a new york story to begin with, but this has to be put down for posterity, for memories of those 72 hours are beginning to fade.
See lil ol 23 yr old me visited the united states in october for work and I managed to sneak in some time at New York, thanks to two amazing people, Vaishnavi and Harish. They were awesome enough to have me in their comfy home for about 3 days. Thanks to them I left NY with some amazing memories. Big sloppy kiss to both you!. I love you guys!
Erm, ok now lets start at the very beginning, that's the moment I landed at JFK airport on a flight filled with restless hasidic jews. enough said I think. Then came immigration, where the officer says "You're 23? you look like you're 18". Little did I know that that was going to be the slogan of this trip.
Hokay after that, I learnt my first big lesson, in the US they charge you for your luggage trolley. I mean which Industrialized nation does that? I mentioned that only because, if they hadn't charged for luggage trolleys, I wouldn't have given the er luggage trolley dude 100 dollars instead of 10. That was going to be the theme of this trip - How a supposed 23 yr old who looks like an 18 year old waif loses money in USA.
Remember we are already 100 dollars down (I didn't know it at that time though). now comes the episode of the cab driver. Cab drivers anywhere are bastards. nothing less. oh but Indian Cab drivers, they make your average bastardy cab driver seem like god's little cherubs. So whilst I was at my supposed -23-but-decidely-18 -waify best, this desi dude walks up to me and says "do you need help?". Lesson to everybody out there. If you see a desi who's not family or friend in a foreign country airport, just run.
I said I needed a cab, and desi dude (DD) proceeded to help me out and pulled up in a large shiny SUV. I knew I was in trouble right there. I said no SUV, me want a big yellow taxi, the type that you see in the apprentice, but he conned me in to believing that yellow taxis do not ply into Manhattan. The bastard. And this after I have watched every episode of third watch! Anyway long story short, cab ride was very expensive. More like 130 dollars expensive.
Yes 2 hours in NY and I was already at -230 and this when the budget was 300. Gulp indeed!
2 comments:
Interesting experience.
Help which arrives unasked by unknown is suspect. I learnt it the hard way too.
Hey, were they SUV's or Lincoln's? Lincoln's are expensive.
Well, the 23-who-looks-like-18 is now more savvy, ain't she?
I hope the big loss in your first hour in NY is now a distant memory. You're always welcome to our place any time you're here (we now live much closer to the city, BTW and have round the clock train access).
Cheers!
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