Category Archives: New York
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Travelogue: Lucky Cheng’s Drag Queen Karaoke in New York City
Okay, so these Groupon and Living Social deals can really get addictive. We all know that. But because of them, Navdeep and I have definitely had some experiences we wouldn’t have otherwise indulged in — ice climbing, anyone?
Another case in point: Lucky Cheng’s Drag Queen karaoke on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, largely the bastion of alcohol-fueled, giggle-heavy bachelorette parties and birthdays. A straight guy’s no man’s land. Still, when they offered up a two-for-one deal on Living Social, I convinced Navdeep we should give it a go. And just for amusement, he said okay. At the very least, it would be a nice Chinese dinner, right?
Musings: Osama Bin Laden is Dead. Now What?
Celebrating the Death of Osama Bin Laden in Time Square.
Over the weekend, Sona had a journalism conference near Grand Central, so I met her afterwards for dinner. And it was a lovely day, so we decided to go for a long walk, randomly ending up in Chinatown. And equally as random, we decided to walk to the World Trade Center PATH station, something we never do. And the only reason we did was because we didn’t want to stop in Hoboken (the other PATH line to Jersey City stops there for a good ten minutes).
Ever since I’ve been in New York, the area immediately surrounding the World Trade Center PATH stop has been fenced up with massive billboards and images of a projected futuristic Jetsons-like renovation planned. We were in a typical New York mood as we made our way to the PATH: happy it had been such a great day, chatty, but tired from all the walking. That changed pretty quickly. Behind us we heard a father attempting to explain to his two young children what the explosion had done, not just to the twin towers, but to many of the surrounding buildings, and what the renovations were going to look like. But the kids just weren’t getting it. We crossed the street just as one of the kids asked why the explosion had taken place in the first place. And it’s a question that we will inevitably have to talk to Kavya about in a few years, and something we don’t fully understand ourselves.
Musings: Closure At A Cost?
Yesterday, Navdeep and I grabbed dinner in Chinatown and decided to take the World Trade Center Path back to Jersey City.
It was about 11 p.m., and the place was as crowded as it always was with tourists and travelers and locals making their way home through the crowd and the construction on the World Trade Center Memorial, which has been in the works for nearly a decade.
We were walking hand-in-hand toward the Path stop, and we overheard some parents “explaining” 9/11 and its impact to their kids, who must have been around eight and ten. And it’s weird, thinking that you can just explain something like that. Because really, it’s been nearly ten years, and I still don’t get it.
Tonight, I woke up from an extended post-ASJA conference nap to see major news breaking on Twitter. Yes, I found out about the death of Terrorist Number One Osama bin Laden on Twitter, via my iPhone.
The news shook me. Even to this day, almost ten years after the fact, I can’t go to the World Trade Center Path without pretty much tearing up. That’s sort of pathetic, but I think it’s understandable. This was perhaps the defining moment of a generation, the one that will stay with us — the one where we’ll always remember exactly where we were when it happened. It’s left a gaping hole in my city, and also somewhere inside me.
And yet, I can’t get into the crowds chanting and cheering at the WTC or the White House. As much pain and suffering the man caused in so many lives, it still feels odd to celebrate a death. It does, though, bring a sense of closure.
But also, ten years later, it brings more worry. I have a baby who is 14-months old. We live across the river from the World Trade Center. All the patriotism that’s being shown on TV and the Internet and all over the media will no doubt reignite some of that anti-American sentiment that has always been simmering. Will we face the wrath of that again. I worry for my family and my country in the wake of this celebratory night.
The impact of Sept. 11 is still with all of us — whether you were in New York, California or watching on TV from across the planet. I hope this closure doesn’t come at an even bigger cost.
Photo: WTCProgress/Flickr
Video: Ice Mountain Climbing in the Catskills, New York!
Neither of us have ever claimed to be coordinated, and as the video above will prove to you (beyond a doubt), we are not liars. What possessed us to go Ice Mountain Climbing in the catskills of New York, we have no idea. The actual ice-climbing was a lot of fun. Slushing up the mountain, however. . . not so much.
Photo Gallery: Ice Climbing in the Catskills, New York!
Check out the photo gallery of our adventures and misadventures as we attempt to go ice-mountain climbing in the catskills of new york!
Going Local: Ten Best Coffee Bars in New York City
Best Coffee Bars in New York City
In a pinch, we can drink coffee anywhere in the world. We have drank burnt espresso, overly milky frappuccinos, and super-sugary Keralan cold coffee from street coffee shops in places like Vietnam and India, at chain stores like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, 7-11, and McDonald’s worldwide. But we’ve also tasted a coffee brewed to perfection at coffee plantations in India, been intoxicated by the fresh aroma of drip-coffee at coffee bars in Milan, Naples, Paris, San Francisco, and New York City. You heard us right, New York City has finally gotten with the program for the serious coffee drinker!
New Yorkers used to have to rely on West Coast roasting companies like San Francisco based Blue Bottle Coffee or Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon to supply the coffee beans for their favourite joints. Now there are plenty of roasters right here in town (including roasting companies that supply not only coffee bars, but restaurants and carts all over the City), like the Brooklyn Roasting Company, Porto Rico, and West Coast roasters mentioned above. There are a handful of companies that already do on-site roasting, and many of the coffee bars listed here have plans to roast their own beans within the year!
Here are our picks for the best coffee bars in New York City:
Neither of us are strangers to travel, but we are very different travelers. Navdeep can brush aside a cockroach from his food and continue eating. Sona flies into hysterics at any creepy-crawlies (real or imagined) within a ten mile radius. 
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