The world is full of good and bad people. But in general people are good. You'll be surprised how many people will actually help you out if you were to ask. Just always be cautious, careful and selective.
When we finally arrive in NY Chinatown, the first thing I did was ask the bus driver where the meeting place would be to get back to Philadelphia (common sense- it was the same place where we were dropped except opposite side [I had to make sure]). I also took notes on what streets it was on (Division and Eldridge) and a main store (Ming's hair salon) that would help me identify it, also a landmark (across from a bridge with trains and cars). This was especially beneficial later on when it was nice and dark.
After asking the driver, the next thing I needed to do was look for a bathroom (2 hour bus drive while drinking plenty of fluids). I read in the guide that Canal street was one of Chinatown's busiest section. I deduced from this that it'll have plenty of cafes/restaurants or establishments with bathrooms (was I wrong). I went inside this store and asked. They pointed me east, but they sounded unsure so I decided to continue west. I went inside a laundromat. She said to go north.
We found ourselves in a Buddhist temple and the workers there were kind enough to let me use their restroom. We continued northward and we encountered NY cops handling traffic.
The first cop we saw I asked him to point me to the direction of Conficious Plaza. He wasn't sure, he asked me if I had a map so he could see and I showed him. He told me to keep going North. We saw another cop (a female one). I asked her and she straighforwardly told me that she didn't know, she wasn't familiar with this area because she usually worked in Brooklyn. The third cop I asked didn't know either but before he could reply I saw the statue of Confucious.
The cop and I had a little chat. He asked me where I came from originally and I asked him why there were Brooklyn cops in Chinatown. I wanted to know if something was happening with the bridge that they were monitoring. He explained to me that it was part of an exercise the cops were doing to counter terrorism. When I told him about Confucious Plaza, he told me that he didn't know anything about it and that he learned something about Chinatown (he assumed that the typical tourist spots were in uptown Manhattan). He learned from an outsider- I think this is one of the good things about tourists, they're not only good for the economy, in some ways they bring awareness to the locals (consciousness about the land and its resources).
While looking for the Metro subway station, I asked several Chinese residents and they pointed to a direction. Of course I needed to be reassured so every street we passed I continued to ask. I ended up asking this brownish-red headed woman for the nearest Metro. I think I startled her when I chased after her asking her in my "outdoor voice": excuse me! I told her that I was going towards Central Park. She told me that two trains were going 'uptown' the 'N' and the 'F' train. At first I got confused (in my mind, I asked why do you need two trains that would go in the same direction), and then I slowly got it, they were going the same way just different paths (this almost sounds like philosophy doesn't it?).
She told me that the N train was a fifteen minute walk to my left. To simplify things I asked her which was the nearest train to where we were at that moment. She said it was the 'F' train. I rationalized that since they were both going uptown we were going to be at least near our destination.
Posted by Michael Diezmos at January 8, 2006 8:14 PM