Day 15: New York City - Philadelphia - Washington DC

We took another Megabus from NYC to Philadelphia, the fare was only USD 3.50 for a three hour journey. Like the one we took from Boston to NYC, this bus was excellent too.

Philadelphia (or Philly in short)
Everybody told me there is nothing much to see in Philadelphia, so we just transit for a few hours before continuing our journey to Washington DC. On the contrary, we enjoyed Philadelphia very much that six hours did not seem enough.

Subway (SEPTA)
Much cleaner and brighter than NYC subway.





Betsy Ross
She is the flagmaker of the first American flag. The flag might have been made in this house.


Betsy Ross House

The first American flag with 13 stars that represent 13 states at that time.



Benjamin Franklin Bridge



City Hall





Philadelphia was not as small as I thought, I'm impressed!!



John F. Kennedy Plaza / Love Park









The famous Pennsylvania Railroad
It is not a coincidence that there are so many Penn stations.



Philly cheese steak


That's my lunch. Yummy!

Independence Hall
We had a tour in Independence Hall and Supreme Court. Quite boring and confused after awhile since we didn't know anything about their history hehehe..., but it was the only way to go in and see how it was like.












Compare the painting with the real Independence Hall.


The room where representatives of the 13 states signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.


The stationery

First US Supreme Court



Liberty Bell


The cracked bell



Chinese Abraham Lincoln



Washington Square


The fallen soldiers of Washington's army are buried here.

Chinatown




Road name in English and Chinese characters.

Dim Sum Garden
This restaurant is just a few meters away from the Chinatown bus office. Many newspaper reviews were pasted at the entrance, so we gave it a try and ordered their xiao long bao. The bao was bigger than those I had in Singapore or Taipei and contained so much soup. It was really good!







The condiments


USD 6 for eight baos.

Chinatown bus condition was in par with Greyhound, but the young driver was crazy. I didn't know whether he was speeding or not but it was really really fast. I was quite worried actually. Luckily we didn't join the Chinatown tour, if not I would be worried sick for the whole trip.

We arrived safely at DC Chinatown and went for dinner before going to our hotel.


Ornate Chinatown gate

Tai Shan Restaurant
We went in because of the many awards at the entrance. But this is the worst restaurant ever, we ordered a wonton noodle soup and roast duck noodle soup. Both are very salty, so we asked the waitress to add more water. It still blah, we had a few bites and left. We checked again the awards when we left that place. They were given more than 10 years ago!! So moral of the story, don't just see the awards, check the year too. And we also realised, we were the only Chinese there, so don't ever come to a Chinese restaurant without any Chinese customers.


Look alright until you tried it.



Hyatt Arlington
Love this room, very very cosy.






iPod dock

Since we didn't eat much during dinner, we ordered a room service. The pizza was great but there were too many service charges. The charges came up to be as much as what the pizza cost. :P

Day 16 >>