New York, The Big Apple...

Well, i always enjoy my trips to the US, and New York has a particular interest for me...

Why not, with 1 £ fetching $2, it is a great time to be coming to the US, and sorta buying up the house... (oops pun not intended on the housing market) - i did end up buying a few baubles though...

My best experiences- this is a city with buzz, and one can see why this is the financial capital of the US, and it is always a pleasure dealing with newyorkers- no nonsense, focused, and very very competent...all my business meetings were jolly good fun...

I also found that it is not enough to have the address, but what is more important, possibly vital to ensure that your taxi driver will not end up screaming at you, are the "grid coordinates"- drop me off between the 50th and 51st on the 5th avenue is probably music to the taxidriver's ears... whereas 76, park avenue is met with a pained look, and possibly sorry, have just decided to take the rest of the day off...

And oh, plan your meetings around the taxi shifts- i found myself unfortunately requiring a taxi at 4:30 pm- and there is a shift change at 5 pm- so around that time, all taxi drivers will studiously ignore you, even if you did the whoopi-whoopi -war dance wearing bright yellow markings with your hair dyed in the colours of the rainbow...

the hotels were something else, though... Apparently it was the UN in session and the fashion week, but i very quickly found that getting a room for less than $500 was not possible, hence had to stay in a rather poor quality hotel right next to the JFK (the double tree) rather close to an interestingly named Jamaica. Rather strange, why it is so difficult to find a decent place to stay in New York for a pocket that is not a millionaire's, or one that does not require authorisation (or atleast raised eyebrows) from authorities to spend a princely sum sleeping in a bed...

Ofcourse staying in this hotel meant that i had to schlep across to Manhattan every day, and the traffic was quite painful- but i did make a few friends amongst the taxi drivers, who, seemingly were all from the subcontinent- found myself conversing in english, and very quickly moving onto hindi, punjabi and bengali... (did you know that the license to own and drive a taxi costs nearly $500 K?)

finally, a word to my airline- i was asked if i would fly EOS, and i must say it turned out to be a very pleasant experience...