Ba Jiong Comes to New York — Will the U.S. Refuse to Cooperate with China's Repatriation? Reduced to Sleeping in Central Park and Working at a Laundromat?
Bajiong arrived in New York, USA, checked into a hotel near Central Park, and experienced the local expensive laundry service. Afterwards, the two went to visit Central Park, toured various facilities in the park, and bought food at a park shop, experiencing a small episode due to maintenance of a Taiwanese credit card online banking system.
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Hello everyone, I am Bajiong. Today we are staying near Central Park in New York, and looking out the window, you can see Central Park. The cost of staying here is not small, it's over 900 USD a night, which is almost 30,000 TWD a night, absolutely terrifying.
And you know what, we have accumulated many days of clothes, mine and hers, including underwear, probably about 20 pieces. In many hotels, if you want to wash clothes, look, here is the price list, just like in Europe, 18, 20, 19. Do you think this is for one wash? Wrong, one T-shirt is 18 USD (550 TWD), just one piece, and one pair of underwear is 16 USD (490 TWD), and so on. So, how much would it cost to wash 10 or 20 pieces altogether? Terrifying. So, we have to go to a nearby laundromat to wash them. I checked online, and it said washing and drying a load is at most 10 USD. So look, 320 TWD versus over 10,000 TWD in laundry fees. Wow, I can't understand why the price difference can be so huge. Don't you just throw these clothes into a washing machine? Why is it charged per piece? This, I can't understand. So now, we are getting ready to go wash clothes, because washing them should take over an hour. Let's go, let me show you Central Park. Look, that is Central Park. Where? Ah, otherwise what did you think that was.
Wow, alright, time to wash clothes. And then, this, and I don't know either, do we pour it here? These two, start, start washing clothes, doing chores. Have you ever washed clothes in Taiwan? In Taiwan, at home, washing at home. I mean, you have never washed clothes outside in Taiwan. I have never washed outside, really. Personally, I have never seen a prepaid card in Taiwan, but this prepaid card costs two USD. Yes, two. Hey, buy two first, and then top up money later. But we are not locals, so we are, so you just top up the exact amount, otherwise there is no other way. It must be for locals, right? If it can't be refunded, it feels like losing two dollars. It probably can't be refunded, right? How much does it cost for us to wash? One fifty to buy that laundry detergent, and five forty to wash the clothes, so later with drying, it feels like around ten USD, definitely.
All right, the time is up. I need to go dry the clothes, take them out, and then put them in the dryer. Let's see how much it costs—it's going to take 24 minutes to dry. Okay, the wash is done and we need to head back to the hotel to drop off the clothes, and then go to Central Park. Alright, let's hurry up. Okay, so we're already back at the hotel. Doing our laundry just now cost 6.44 USD, which doesn't include the 2 USD card fee. If we were locals, that 2 USD for the card would be negligible, but if we really have to factor in those 2 US dollars, doing a single load of laundry cost us over 260 NTD. Still, compared to other options, washing it ourselves is way cheaper. If we had that laundry professionally done, it would easily cost 10,000 to 20,000 NTD, which is terrifying—we might as well just buy new clothes. Anyway, without further ado, we are now heading to Central Park. Let's go.
Alright, we've now arrived inside Central Park. Over there, there are tons of pedicabs and horse-drawn carriages, and some small food vendors inside as well. Central Park is just so huge; I really feel, wow, pretty shocked. Comparing this to Daan Forest Park, it doesn't seem to be on the same level at all. I'm so hungry. Let's check what there is to eat nearby. What's going on over there? What is that, a little princess gathering? What is that? Wow, so cute. It really is a combination of city and nature, pretty interesting. This place is great for bringing kids, really nice and super budget-friendly. This is just one small section, too. The area I've reached right now is probably just one-twentieth of it all. Wow, so you could hang out in this little section on Monday, another section on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday just figure out where to go wander. Because the way you make it sound, nobody has to work or go to school—you just see where you want to wander off to, and the kids go to a different place and spot every day to beg like this, holding up a cup saying, "Give me some money, some love," just like that Black person yesterday. Money is love. Look, there's a sandy beach over there, see? That's a baseball field, and in the distance is a tennis court. There's definitely a basketball court here, and could there even be a soccer field? Cool. Ever since I rode in a horse-drawn carriage in Italy, I haven't wanted to stay here. Hey, there are tons of people over there. What's going on over there? Is that some kind of naturist colony event or something? There are so many people over there. What kind of naturist thing would that be? Well, otherwise, what do you think the event is? It's just that we've reached the central core part, and everyone is gathered here. Hey, let's go check that out over there. I'm so hungry I can't take it anymore. Looks like there's a restaurant over there. Yes, let's go inside. I can't take it, I'm going to die. Wow, there's food! Hurry up, I'm going to die. I'm dying of hunger, let's hurry up and eat. They sell ice cream. My credit card is under maintenance. Her credit card is under maintenance too. We use different banks, and basically every Taiwanese credit card bank's online banking is under maintenance. Good thing I still have a little bit of US cash left on me, and we just need to hold out until 7:30 to 8:30 PM when our cards can be swiped again. It was the same when I went to Europe—super awkward. The card was under maintenance and I had no idea, two or three cards completely unusable. People probably thought I was a scammer trying to con money out of them, and it's really hard to explain, especially with my poor English, you know.
Okay, so after we bought our things, let's go eat at Central Park in a bit. Their bag is so pretty, and they have their own exclusive design; it feels very high-quality. It seems pretty nice. Even though it's just a small shop in the park, it has a good feel to it. Yeah, and he ordered chicken, and it actually came with this, potato chips, and what else? Let's unbox it. Chicken, and then there's this really long one. It's a bit like a burger, but it says sandwich. Yeah, a sandwich, and it's soft bread. Hurry up and eat your ice cream; it's going to melt. Why is it that every time you eat ice cream, it turns into water, and then you eat it again? I like eating this. Let me show everyone. We've only done this much so far, and this is the total. What's up? Seeing that Manhattan, wanting to go rowing, you little flirt. This is where many of those romantic movies are filmed; they'd be right here. A chance encounter (xièhòu) or... dirty (xiègòu)? Xiè... encounter. You're the dirty one. Your turn. Didn't you just twist over there? Didn't you just twist? Go on. Damn it, let's go. This is a famous place for taking wedding photos. But there aren't that many princesses at the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower, I don't know. Do you know? It seems like this spot is actually a place where many people propose. So this is where people take wedding photos, see? That romantic feeling. If two people were to meet here, if you proposed at Daan Forest Park, it seems, it seems really bad, it seems like it wouldn't work. Damn it, you just said you were going to fall in, right? Yeah, if you fell in, the river goddess would come out and ask me, "Which one did you drop?" I would definitely guess wrong every time, because she wouldn't give you back to me. No, whatever you guess, she would give it back to you. Then I won't guess. It's all yours. Don't, don't be like that. It's all yours. Don't be like that. One is already disgusting enough, and now you're giving me two.