Travel - Travel With A Butterfly

Wonderfruit is supposed to be the Asia “Burning Man”, or at least it was somewhat influenced by it. Created by a bunch of rich Thai kids, Wonderfruit is a wonderful event for you to explore, dance, create, and experience. And doing all that in hipster clothes and style.

The discovery of this event was during a tipsy moment when we were talking about my Visvim friend’s chair in his apartment. He bought the chair in the music festival, and soon enough, the hype about the event led to my impulsive purchase for an early bird ticket of the event later in the night. I bought my ticket extremely early, in July, to show commitment that I am definitely going to the event and that other people will follow suit since I’ve committed. The worst is when a group of friends talk about doing an event, and no one follows through, and ends up no one goes to the event. Once one person does it, other people will want to join. Continue reading Hipstering in Wonderfruit

Misc.

Travel Bucket List

ByRyan Lee

Decided to add a travel bucket list in case anybody was interested in doing a trip in one of the following locations below. The list does not include the places where I have already been to; these are all places where I’ve never been. Also while the list is quite compact at the moment, expect for me to add on more places and more description whenever I feel like it. But just contact me if you want to travel together.

Continue reading Travel Bucket List

Greece

Roaming In Athens

ByRyan Lee

Unlike the city of Dubai, Athens is a city to walk around in. In fact, I would say Athens is a city where you’re supposed to roam around in. Pretty much everything around here is centered around the Acropolis.

If you’ve never been to Greece before, you may feel a bit nervous or worried; after all, it’s a city that’s been in the news for it’s near bankruptcy, for its austerity measures, for always needing bailout money, and for its high unemployment rates. I remembered back when I was still working in a brokerage department, markets were falling because of the potential for Greece to default, because of the future that if Greece left the Eurozone, a lot of countries would follow suit, and because of the fear that it would create a domino effect of defaults in Eurozone. This was back in 2011. Continue reading Roaming In Athens

Japan

Tokyo Is Like A Bento Box

ByRyan Lee

You read that right, Tokyo is like a bento box. A perfect metaphor as I sat watching my friend struggle to think of a way to eat his bento box… without a spoon. You’d expect a bento box bought in Family Mart to come with a spoon somewhere in the packaging, but actually you would need to get the spoon individually. I guess he didn’t double check as we were rushing to take the train to Shinjuku from the airport… trains in Japan are never early, never late, always punctual, and so we wanted to be at least 2 minutes early to the platform. Continue reading Tokyo Is Like A Bento Box

Greece

Offseason In Santorini

ByRyan Lee

Don’t go during the very offseason in Santorini.

A lot of amazing accommodations are not opened. A lot of amazing restaurants are not opened. The weather can be terrible – frosty and cold while raining, making the cobbled pathways slippery and uncomfortable to walk in. Sometimes, it hails at night. It’s pitch black during the night. A lot of shops aren’t opened.

Yet again, perhaps due to these reasons we had cheaper accommodations and flights. Perhaps that’s why Santorini seemed like it belonged to us, as there were no other tourists to fight with. Continue reading Offseason In Santorini

Travel

Dubai Is Not A Walking City, But A Dining City

ByRyan Lee

I once read a blog saying that there were many cities where you’re supposed to walk and take in the experience of the new travel destination, but Dubai was not one of them.

I concur.

Our final destination was supposed to be Athens, Greece. However, there were no direct flights available when we went just before Christmas from Hong Kong; there had to be a stopover. After looking at multiple choices, we settled on Dubai. Why? Well, the feedback we’ve gotten from Dubai was that it was a city where you can spend two to three days there and it was enough. My own opinion on that later.

So, we arrived quite early at 5:35am to the Dubai International Airport. Contrary to all the lauding and praise of the airport, I was not amused. Nothing suggested modern, forward, or unique. Sure it was in light desert colors, giving it of Middle Eastern theme, and sure there were restaurants and shops that were open at 2am when we were on our flights back to Hong Kong, suggesting they were probably opened 24/7, and sure it’s gigantic, but it didn’t stand out. I mean, I would take the HK Airport or Singapore Changi Airport over Dubai Int’l Airport.

The feel of Dubai was a simple, laid back city. The restaurant service, the walking pace, everything felt very leisure, in a non-rushed pace, which was quite an annoyance at first just coming from Hong Kong and trying to get out of the airport asap. Even the metro felt it was driving at a “colloquial” pace. Not saying it’s casual or unprofessional, just saying it’s the way of life here. Continue reading Dubai Is Not A Walking City, But A Dining City

Japan

Okinawa aka All You Can Eat Agu Pork

ByRyan Lee

Just like you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you shouldn’t judge a travel destination by its pictures. I’ve been to places where the photos are prettier than the location, but Okinawa is the opposite – just when you think the island is just about the beaches and the sea (like Kenting), Okinawa provides a lot more than water activities and tanning.

Even though American military (navy) is based on this island, don’t think that you can speak English anywhere. In fact, treat it as if you were at anywhere else in Japan – they couldn’t speak English most of the time! Body and hand signals are vital if you don’t know how to speak Japanese! Continue reading Okinawa aka All You Can Eat Agu Pork

France

Cote D’Azur with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yachts, and Bastille Attack

ByRyan Lee

You see all these pictures of the French Riviera and think this area cannot be that nice right? Right? When I arrived in Nice, it was everything I expected and more.

I was based mainly in Nice for the week I was at Cote D’Azur… Nice is ideal if you’re traveling to places like Monaco, Antibes, Eze, and Saint Tropez. Actually, I would recommend staying one night at Saint Tropez as there is no public transportation to go there (well very inconvenient), so usually people either take the boat or drive there themselves. Besides Saint Tropez (spent a night there), all of my other trips were day trips. I didn’t go to Marseille, but from what I’ve looked at you will probably need more than a day there plus it is a bit farther. However, you can definitely go there by public transportation, ideally the SNCF train. Continue reading Cote D’Azur with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yachts, and Bastille Attack

France

Shop, Shop, Shop in Paris

ByRyan Lee

My trip to France was split into two parts – one was a few days in Paris at the beginning and one day at the end, and in the middle was my trip to Cote d’Azur. If you’ve seen my older posts before, you will know that I’ve been to Paris once… although it was just for a two day weekend trying to cramp all the tourist attractions possible. So if you’re looking for more info on Eiffel Tower, Sacred Coeur, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the love lock bridge etc., I suggest you read my post C’est Paris!. The purpose of my visit for Paris this time around is to act a little less touristy. Continue reading Shop, Shop, Shop in Paris

Taiwan

Surfing in Kenting

ByRyan Lee

This is my second time going to Kenting. The first time was about water activities, food, sightseeing, and chilling. This time, it was about surfing.

Kenting is a simple, quiet area which offers little of everything else and plentiful of beaches and waves. Kenting is often visited most by couples, families with children, and high school students, as evident by the people we saw. Besides the Kenting night market, there is little elsewhere that you would see crowds, particularly at night. A 15 minute walk from our hostel and not a single sighting of a bar; this place does not have any entertainment after sunset except for the night market. There’s even one nightclub, the King Night Club, which to be honest from the outside looks nothing like a nightclub – all I see are dart tables, and no trace of a dance floor. (OK I’m on their Facebook and there are tables and chairs and you watch performances… and sometimes you can dance on the floor). What can I say, we didn’t go in so maybe I shouldn’t be judging, but Kenting just isn’t a place for nightlife. Continue reading Surfing in Kenting