Comparison Between Tomorrowland, Coachella, and EDC Vegas

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.

Tomorrowland 2023
Continue reading Comparison Between Tomorrowland, Coachella, and EDC Vegas

THIRTY Super Good Tips To Have The Best Tomorrowland Experience

Tomorrowland is one of THE music festivals that you have to go to once in your life, especially if you’re into EDM and dance music.  I was incentivised to go this year since I was collecting a lot of NFTs over the past years and also decided to collect Tomorrowland NFTs as well, which gave me access to presale for tickets!

This was my first year going to Tomorrowland, and it was definitely a very worthwhile experience to attend.  And so, I want to share my tips and thoughts about going to Tomorrowland for those who are planning to go soon or even for Tomorrowland veterans who might pick up some new tips as well!

(p.s. I uploaded a lot of Youtube shorts at https://www.youtube.com/@travelwithabutterfly for those who want to see what Tomorrowland 2023 was like! Search Tomorrowland in channel)

Continue reading THIRTY Super Good Tips To Have The Best Tomorrowland Experience

Get Up Close and Personal with Turtles and Dive into Cenotes in Tulum

In my previous post, I talked about the accommodations and restaurants of Tulum which you can read right here.  Additionally, if you’re looking for tips on how to avoid scams in Mexico, you can read that right here.  But right now in this post, we are going to be talking about the things I did in this trip that you can also add to your itinerary when visiting Tulum.

I personally think that staying in the resorts is of itself an activity you should spend some time enjoying rather than just treating it as a place to stay.  Not only are there usually different activities to do, but there’s like spa/massage or yoga that you can participate in as well.

But of course outside of the resorts, for this trip, we went to five(!) different cenotes, swam with turtles in Akumal Bay, visited one of the new seven wonders of the world Chichen Itza, and also checked out Tulum Pueblo and took some photos at some touristy spots. Continue reading Get Up Close and Personal with Turtles and Dive into Cenotes in Tulum

Taste and Luxe: The Most Amazing Hotels and Most Awesome Food of Tulum

Tulum: A Tropical Paradise You’ll Never Forget! -> I’ve been trying a lot of stuff for ChatGPT, whether it’s for writing lyrics, asking history questions, and helping me write blog posts.  So a bit of the stuff you’ll find might be more “ChatGPT” voice, but I’ll include any details where I think it’s missing from my own experience and emotions.  ChatGPT is here mainly to make the language more colourful and to provide more facts and information that pertains to each place of interest where I myself am too dumb to know all of it, that way as a reader I hope you’ll also get more insight to what the place is about rather than just rather I like it or not and why.

This post will focus mainly on our hotel resorts and food/restaurants.  For things that we did in Tulum and car rental, click hereTo read about how to avoid common scams in Mexico (car rental, gas, driving tips), click here.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by Tulum. I didn’t expect it to be as vibrant as it is, but the endless sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters were a sight to behold, not to mention all the water activities this place offers. It reminded me of Bali, a place I cherish very much, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was back in my favorite tropical paradise. As much as I loved Tulum, I was surprised to find that it’s quite pricey. Even more so than what I’m used to paying back in Hong Kong! I was also surprised that it was getting pretty hot at the end of April as well, around 30 degrees I believe. But don’t let that dissuade you from enjoying all that Tulum has to offer.

My trip to Tulum didn’t start that smoothly. I missed my flight to Cancun due to unforeseen traffic on the road the morning after the Coachella festival. This left me with a stressful and frustrating two-three hours of trying to book the next flight at lightning speed. We even almost purchased a flight that departed at 12:30pm/1pm (original flight was like 10:30am) through the phone (since the flight didn’t show up online as it was cutting close to departure) but the man at the check-in counter told us that 5 minutes before check in closes, we had to have paid the flight otherwise it would have been too late and we would have paid and not get on board, so that was another stressful 45 minutes that resulted in us giving up at the payment step.  We ended up missing out on all the flights that day and had to take the one that departed that night at 1:30 am! We had to cancel our first night’s lodging (successful) and rearrange our car rental pick up for the second day. If only we had gone to the airport earlier. Live and learn, right? Continue reading Taste and Luxe: The Most Amazing Hotels and Most Awesome Food of Tulum

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

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

Flushing New YorkOn my way to Flushing

Flushing New YorkI’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)

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

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)

Marathon CoffeePassed by this coffee place and wanted to give it a try

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

 

FableticsFabletics (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)

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

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)

A Perfect Three Day Itinerary in Los Angeles

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

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

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

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

“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.

Coachella

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)