Chongqing, Fenghuang Gucheng, and Zhangjiajie - China

Hi friends. After I came back to Thailand on October, I got a chance to go to China for sightseeing right after that. I went to Chongqing, Fenghuang Gucheng, and Zhangjiajie where is featured in the movie Avatar. The scenic views were so beautiful and the shopping districts were very lively. The restrooms in China were very infamous as usual, and the bus ride of this trip was way too long (more than 24 hours for the whole trip). Overall I can still find this trip enjoyable thanks to the beautiful landscapes.

I will get started with the place called Fenghuang Gucheng. This city still keeps its traditional way of living. The architecture and local lifestyle are still the same as the old days.

Ride for sightseeing around the old village

Happy ride service

The shopping district of this city was also gorgeous. There were many people from local tribes coming to the marketplace, offering their local products.

Even though the day I visited this place got the grey sky, I could still manage to get some nice shots. I was still sad that I didn't give a shot at the local Chinese liquor store.

Ancient liquor store

Beautiful scenic view of the shopping district

Various goods can be found here

I departed from this city to Zhangjiajie, the place where Avatar is featured in. It took about 12 hours by bus to get there. It's long but worth it.

Getting up

Gorgeous scene at Zhangjiajie

At night, I watched the local,seasonal play called The Love Story of a Woodman Fairy Fox. The play was well made and the stage is beautifully natural made. I'm sad that the battery on my camera ran out too early before the play ended.

Big stage for the performance

Next morning, I had to take another 12-hour ride to Chongqing. This place is one of the major cities in China. It is arguably comparable to Shanghai in term of the civilization. The nice restrooms and western brand goods can be commonly found. The shopping district was also revamped in a nice way.

City at night

The shopping district

Late afternoon landscape of Chongqing

China has changed a lot in these past years. There are so many many places yet unseen, waiting for me to explore. I think I will still enjoy sightseeing in China in the future despite all infamous stuff.

Floating Market Klong Lat Mayom, Bangkok - Thailand

Hey folks. The trip I'm about to write this time takes place in Thailand. After I come back to Thailand, I get a chance to go to a floating market Lat Mayom in Bangkok, Thailand. It might be hard to explain what a floating market is in American sense. I will try to make it simple. A floating markets is the place where visitors can buy many fresh agricultural products and exclusively local food. Local people bring their own products and food there.

Seafood looks fresh

Besides that, nothing else I can say about the floating market here. I just then enjoyed local food offered by the community. Hope you will enjoy the photos I took here.

Little pineapples

Sterilized coconut nectar drink

Local agricultural products

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon Trip - Traveling 1000 Miles in the U.S.

Alright, this time I'm gonna write about the long trip I had during the week of 4th July. Me and my friends decided to go to Vegas and Grand Canyon by car. This trip is a budget one, so some hotel we stayed might not give nice pleasure as expected. Well, we saved up for gambles and great buffets anyway. The whole trip was about 1000 miles long, so let me give my thanks to Justin Phan who solely drove the car during the whole trip and brought all of us safely back to L.A.

The beauty of Las Vegas never fails my expectations. Plus, this time we went to very very nice buffets at Wynn and Bellagio.

Conservatory and Botanical
Gardens at Bellagio

Gondola @ Venetian

Just visiting all attractions would take couple days, so we decided to visit some of those interesting ones because we wanted to gamble too.

Fancy Buffet at Wynn

Sweeties at Bellagio's

Take a Chance!

One thing visitors should never miss out in Las Vegas is Cirque du Soleil's shows. They are so gorgeous and fascinating. I watched Mystere before, so I went after KA this time. Of course, it's worth every penny I spent for the ticket.

The grand performance's about to begin

We spent 3 days and 2 nights at Vegas and be ready to go to Grand Canyon. It took 4-5 hours to get there from Las Vegas. Yet, I can guarantee that the scenic view at Grand Canyon will impress anyone.

We decided to go hiking at Grand Canyon. It sure is challenging because of the long distance, high elevations, and dangerous species. Oh speaking of which, I had encountered a snake within 2 feet while hiking. I was surprised like hell. Overall, I enjoyed hiking at Grand Canyon a lot and would not hesitate to do it again next time I visit this place.

This pretty much covers most of my impressions. This 1000-mile trip sure was fun. Going wild in nature after visiting a man-made city gives nice pleasure and ease of mind. These 2 places should be in anyone's list to visit at least once in a lifetime.

Again thanks to my great friends who also made this trip safe and enjoyable.

You guys rocks!

Fishing at Dana Point, CA

Hello friends, I want to resurrect this blog, so today I have the fishing trip to write about. This trip was in the week of 4th July. I know it is kinda late but it contains so many good memory that I want to share with you all. This trip started when my friend Son Vo called me and asked me to find someplace nice to go during the week of 4th July. We decided to go fishing at Dana Point because it sounded promising.

I looked up online and found some good sites for fishing services. We ended up with Dana Wharf. On the day, we got on the boat and be ready for our adventure.

The weather was so nice: not much sunlight and little windy. The sky was a bit grey earlier but it turned out blue toward the end of the trip. I was so excited as it was the first time I went out offshore. Once the boat stopped moving, all crews were free to try their luck. I actually didn't know much about fishing but luckily fishermen were all so friendly and helpful. We ended up catching some fish but they were too small to be kept.






I enjoyed this fishing trip a lot even though I didn't manage to get any fish back home. While the boat going back to the shore, I saw so many birds under the blue sky waiting for some fish leftover. The scene was so fascinating.

Nice blue sky

Too bad, it's too small

I would say this trip is so fun and enjoyable because of the nice services provided by Dana Wharf's fishermen. If you want to get some good experience fishing in the ocean, Dana Point is highly recommended.

Hello My Fellows

I will resurrect this blog soon. There have been so many circumstances that make me being unable to update this blog (due to being lazy and busy lol). Please accept my apologies and hope my readers will still enjoy reading my works here in the soon future once again.

Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal - Canada

Finally, it's my time to take a real vacation after my hard final exams. Since my parents came to my graduation ceremony, my dad suggested that we all should go to Canada for a nice vacation. I honestly didn't know much about Canada, so I decided to visit Canada by getting a tour program for convenient purposes. I used the tour service from Tour4Funs, which is unexpectedly good.

After long searching, I decided to pick a 4-day tour program that heavily emphasizes on Niagara Fall. I and my family spent almost 2 days around Niagara Falls and then spent the rest of the tour at Toronto, Ontario, Ottawa, and Montreal respectively.


Niagara Falls:
My folks spent very long hours on the bus, going from Manhattan to Niagara Falls in the first day of the tour. But the long wait on bus is worth because Niagara Falls are really gorgeous. Here are some photos at Niagara Falls:

Niagara Falls at Night

The most remarkable thing to do here is Maid of the Mist. You will get on a boat and be brought closely to Niagara Falls. It is very exciting (a rain coat is provided).

Maid of the Mist

At the afternoon of day 2, we got on the tour bus and went to Toronto.

Toronto:
We visited Canadian National Tower and Nathan Phillips square.

CN Tower

The View on the Top of Canadian National Tower

Nathan Phillips Square

At the beginning of the next day, we went to 1000 Islands, located at the border between Ontario and New York.

1000 Islands:
There are about 1,800 islands in this region. Some are a bit bigger than others. Some are very very tiny (yet they still consider them islands).

1000 Islands

 There is a sad story behind a castle, one of the architectures in this area. There was a wealthy man who devoted a lot of his wealth to build a castle because he wanted to have a good time with his beautiful wife in the castle. Sadly, his wife died from illness before the castle finished, so there was no one ever lived in that castle.

The (sad) Castle

At the end of the day, we were heading to Ottawa, the capital of Canada

Ottawa:
We visited the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. It's so beautiful.

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill

We didn't spend so long at this city because it is very small and does not have many remarkable things to see. Montreal then became the next journey right after the visit at the parliament.

Montreal:
I was so surprised when I arrived at Montreal because the tour program brought me to St. Joseph Cathedral, the largest catholic church in North America. Father Andre is the founder of this church and his heart is still preserved as the dead wish from father Andre. There are many miracles happen for ones who visited and prayed. For example, some has been completely cured from cancer; some can walk again even though the leg injury was permanent and incurable.

St. Joseph Cathedral

I decided not to take a lot of photos here because I had only half an hour allowed to be here. I mostly spent my time praying inside the church.
In the afternoon, we went to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Olympic Stadium

The view from the Top of Olympic Stadium

I actually spent almost 6 days for this trip because I spent a lot of time flying from LA to New York and the other way round. I think one should visit Niagara Falls at least once in a life time because its beauty is grand and unique. Hope you enjoy my narrative trip here :D

Kouraku Restaurant, Little Tokyo - LA

Nothing is better than having good food after intense final exams. I've looked for a new place in Little Tokyo and found this Japanese place as my new favorite. It offers delicious Japanese food for decent price. The typical dishes here are Yakisoba, Katsudon, Ramen just to name a few.

Katsudon (Pork Cutlet)

Yakisoba

The only negative thing in my opinion is that this place accepts only cash. If you are comfortable with that, this is a must to try.

They serve Sake and Japanese beer too. This place closes at 3 in the morning (except Sunday), so it could be a good place to have late meals along with a nice conversation with your friends.

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam, Nevada

My spring break has finally come! I found a good chance to visit Las Vegas as well as Hoover Dam. I planned to see shows in Vegas at night and went to Hoover Dam in the next morning. I booked my schedules for Cirque Du Soleil and Phantom of the Opera shows.

Cirque Du Soleil Mystere and Phantom of the Opera tickets

Hoover Dam

I was really impressed with the services Treasure Island offers to its customers. I made an embarrassing mistake about booking the online ticket; I booked my Cirque Du Soleil show for the next week after my spring break instead of the day of my visit at Las Vegas. I found out my mistake about 10 minutes before the show at the front gate. One of the staffs notified and brought me to the ticket office. Then she canceled the next-week ticket and gave me the ticket for the show that was about to happen. She even offered me a better seat than my original ticket. The service offered by Treasure Island is my most remarkable memory among my spring break trip.

Here are some photos I captured during my busy schedule, just 2 days 1 night, in Vegas and Hoover Dam:

Venetian