United States - Travel With A Butterfly

Having been to these three mega music festivals, Tomorrowland, Coachella, and EDC Vegas, I wanted to do a comparison from my own experience so that if you are deciding on which festival to go to (first), you can get an idea of what to expect from each one.

Please note that at the time of writing in Aug 2023, I’ve been to Tomorrowland and Coachella this year and EDC Vegas in 2015, so there may be a bit of recency bias and obviously a better memory of what happened at Tomorrowland and Coachella than at EDC.

The topics I will go through include: getting there and back, food, accommodations, music, venue, stage production, value, the crowd, fashion, art/partnerships, and just the overall vibe and atmosphere.

Read my EDC Vegas blog, Coachella blog, and Tomorrowland blog for more details about each of them. You can also check out other music festivals I’ve been to such as Fuji Rock and Wonderfruit.

Continue reading Comparison Between Tomorrowland, Coachella, and EDC Vegas

Travel

Discover New York in 6 Days: One of My Top Ten Meals I’ve Ever Had! (Part Three)

ByRyan Lee

Alright, welcome to the final post on my week long trip to New York City! You can read about Part one and Part two here for the rest of the itinerary. Let’s go straight away talking about Day 5 and Day 6 of my time at NYC.

DAY FIVE

On my way to Flushing

I’ve never been to Flushing before, but in this photo you can see many Chinese characters. Actually in Flushing it feels more like the real Chinatown, whereas the Manhattan Chinatown Continue reading Discover New York in 6 Days: One of My Top Ten Meals I’ve Ever Had! (Part Three)

Travel

Discover New York in 6 Days: Skip the Tourist Traps and Dive into Genuine NYC Magic Nobody Talks About! (Part Two)

ByRyan Lee

Continuing on from our previous post of Day one of New York (which you can read here for accommodation, transportation, and other things I did), here we will keep talking about the itinerary for my other days. For part three of this blog post, click here– (for Flushing, the real Chinatown, and more Greenwich village and the best meal ever)

DAY TWO

Marathon Coffee (website)

Passed by this coffee place and wanted to give it a try

Can’t really sit down anywhere, so it had to be a to go

Fabletics (website). Saw it was a tennis shop, but it was actually more than that and they sold activewear / sportswear clothing Continue reading Discover New York in 6 Days: Skip the Tourist Traps and Dive into Genuine NYC Magic Nobody Talks About! (Part Two)

Travel

Discover New York in 6 Days: Skip the Tourist Traps and Dive into Genuine NYC Magic Nobody Talks About! (Part One)

ByRyan Lee

Having been to New York many many times, I find New York pretty much like home. I always tell people New York is more like Hong Kong than other cities in United States; they’re both top financial cities, they’re both melting pots, they both have lots of skyscrapers and extremely high rents, they both have an eclectic selection of amazing restaurants, they’re known for their direct and blunt attitudes, and Manhattan is to Hong Kong Island and Brooklyn is to Kowloon and Queens is to New Territories. The list of similarities goes on.

This year, I wanted to go to New York because I wanted to attend NFT NYC. While the conference itself was happening, the usual events from blue chip NFT communities were not hosting alongside the main conference, apparently because they were boycotting to give a message to the main conference people about feeling used, so this year NFT NYC was not as lit as the two years prior. Continue reading Discover New York in 6 Days: Skip the Tourist Traps and Dive into Genuine NYC Magic Nobody Talks About! (Part One)

Travel

A Perfect Three Day Itinerary in Los Angeles

ByRyan Lee

I’ve been to Los Angeles many times, because I studied college there, and so a couple of my friends are based there, and because it just so happens to be a place that has many events there or nearby, one time in Las Vegas for EDC Vegas, and this time to go to Coachella. It just so happens that we had three days in Los Angeles to spend before going to Palm Springs, so here I will outline a good itinerary for three days in LA. Take note – this post is not for first timers, or maybe even second timers in LA; you’ll probably want to visit more “touristy” attractions and places if that’s what you’re aiming for.

Continue reading A Perfect Three Day Itinerary in Los Angeles

Travel

Meeting Rapper Royce 5’9″, One Half of Bad Meets Evil, in Detroit

ByRyan Lee

Going to Detroit probably isn’t on most people’s bucket list. It wasn’t on mine either. But owning an NFT gave me the chance to meet one of Detroit’s most notable rappers. Since I was going to NFT NYC, I thought I’d take the chance to also go to Detroit, because who knows when the next time I’ll be in US again. Better now than never.

So after confirming that I would go to New York, I also booked my flight tickets to go to Detroit. But like I said, it really was just to visit Royce 5’9″ and his Heaven Studio, so I booked a roundtrip ticket to go and come back on the same day. It was incredibly, incredibly exhausting.

This blog post will be quite short, simply because the only exposure I had of Detroit was my ride to the studio in Birmingham and back. So to say I know Detroit at all would be laughable, straight up embarrassing. Continue reading Meeting Rapper Royce 5’9″, One Half of Bad Meets Evil, in Detroit

Events

One Coachella Is All It Takes (and Tips on Surviving Coachella)

ByRyan Lee

“One Coachella is all it takes, falling in love with you, possibilities, you look like all you need…”

Coachella has always been a part of my bucket list of things to do in my life. Told myself, better to go now than when I start having to take care of children or having to take care of my family or when I start to have more life responsibilities in general. Since I wasn’t really working at the moment, and considering my age, it was sort of a “now or never” kind of moment. Plus, I wanted to go NFT NYC the week before, so the entire sequence of events flowed perfectly.

I for one enjoyed the lineup this year. For me, it felt like Coachella emphasised on Latino artists, international acts, hip hop, dance/electronic/techno, and up and coming artists from online platforms such as Youtube creators. Acts we got to see included – Blackpink, Calvin Harris, Testpilot (Deadmau5), Metro Boomin with The Weeknd, Jackson Wang, Eric Prydz, Kaytranada, Skillrex, and more. Personally would have liked if Frank Ocean was there instead of Blink 182, but unfortunate for the replacement. Continue reading One Coachella Is All It Takes (and Tips on Surviving Coachella)

Travel

Yellowstone Day Four

ByRyan Lee

For each of the Days posts in Yellowstone, I’ll be pretty much photo dumping a lot of beautiful photos I’ve taken throughout my route for that particular day. Some of you who wish to be mesmerized upon reaching there, you can just read the text in these beginning paragraphs.

Route taken (focus on southeast of park): West Thumb, LeHardy Rapids, Mud Volcano area, Sulphur Caldron area, Hayden Valley

For all my Yellowstone tips – The Best Tips For Yellowstone When Visiting From West Yellowstone

Spoilers ahead of amazing Yellowstone photos!!

Continue reading Yellowstone Day Four

Travel

Yellowstone Day Three

ByRyan Lee

Route taken (focus on Northeast of park): Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Brink of Upper Falls then Lower Falls then Lookout Point then Inspiration Point), Washburn Hot Springs Overlook, Tower Fall

For all my Yellowstone tips – The Best Tips For Yellowstone When Visiting From West Yellowstone

Spoilers ahead of amazing Yellowstone photos!!

Continue reading Yellowstone Day Three

Travel

Yellowstone Day Two

ByRyan Lee

Route taken (focus on Northwest of park): Gibbon Falls, Artists’ Paintpots, Norris Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs

*For Mammoth Hot Springs, we took a detour on day three to come back to see the Canary Hot Springs since we missed it on Day two. However, we suggest that when you are in Mammoth Hot Springs to also visit there to save time

For all my Yellowstone tips – The Best Tips For Yellowstone When Visiting From West Yellowstone

Spoilers ahead of amazing Yellowstone photos!!

Continue reading Yellowstone Day Two