i have writer’s bloc. perhaps due to me being consumed by bitterness and boredom from our last minute flight cancellation. im sitting here at the airport on my final hours of what was an amazing seattle trip, trying to reflect on everything we crammed into 3 cold and rainy days. actually, thinking about the good times makes me forget my bad mood. i won’t let southwest get the best of me!

tim and i joked about how we did every touristy thing seattle has to offer but i do believe it’s almost true. on day 1 we visited the pike place market. we first witnessed the fish fly then off to happy hour at elliot’s oyster house – which became a little too happy for us. after attempting to do some buzzed shopping, we ended up agreeing to take a “nap” that turned into deep drunken slumber until 6am the next day. this was definitely not a sleepless in seattle trip. there’s just something so soothing about sleeping in a toasty bed while it’s raining outside. it’s almost hypnotizing.

feeling rejuvenated, we crammed most of the sightseeing in day 2. after a delicious breakfast at lola (a tom douglas restaurant), we took the monorail, rode the ducks around the city, explored seattle center including the emp museum, pacific science center and of course, the space needle. though i enjoyed the seattle center, i found myself wanting to explore the more lively pike place market. pike place chowder was recommended by friends and sure enough, did not disappoint. we also hit up the “cups of crab” stand in the middle of the market then accidentally stumbled upon the infamous gum wall. tim was going to offer me $5 to lick it but i countered with $100 (he was too wuss to accept it cause he knows i’d do it.) our last pitstop before nightfall was for the famous donuts, featured on the food network, from dahlia bakery (also a tom douglas restaurant, notice a theme here.) at the bakery, a homeless man who claims he has over 750,000 hits on youtube approached us and performed a tune using an empty water jug. i can only hope he is as happy and carefree as he seemed while singing.

seattle nightlife is more my style too…a bar/gastropub scene. great local beers and they seem to love their scotch. +1. we shot pool with some locals and strolled around downtown to random bars.

on our last full day, tim and i sped through the seattle aquarium then attended my cousins wedding reception in bellevue. photos of the lovely couple to come in the next post! en route, we agreed seattle looks just like forks in twilight…hardly any sun, lots of clouds, and covered in evergreen trees. it’s the exact opposite of socal’s 80 degree winters but nonetheless enjoyable and beautiful.

the reception was intimate but boasted lots of love and laughter. it was priceless to see my relatives, some who i haven’t seen in over 15 years. it’s a trip to think we’re all at this event to celebrate the union of 2 people beginning their lives together yet next week, I’ll see some of them again at our grandpa’s funeral in taipei to celebrate commemorate his life and passing. it’s the circle of life in 1 week’s time. too deep.

finally, though drained and still full from the reception, we made an effort to try the last 2 restaurants on our want list: serious pie (tom douglas, again…) and japonessa. i’m glad we did to end seattle right. and bloated. who says having 2 dinners in one night is excessive? not i.

btw, since we went to 3 tom douglas restaurants, all of which were recommended to us by friends, i took the liberty of wiki’ing him. he should be glad i did because i found not only does he pretty much pwn the downtown seattle food scene, he beat morimoto in an iron chef america salmon challenge. mad respect, tom!

and now, i’m at the airport concluding this trip. excited to get the photos uploaded and shared with y’all. seattle treated us well and i feel like i blabbed too much so i’m going to stop here. blame southwest for making me wait 3 hours at the terminal.

final note – here’s a vid i captured of the homeless man i was talking about earlier. also, don’t mess with me when i’m bored

the aisles of vons, ralphs, whole foods and the like are well-groomed and systematically organized. fluorescent lighting bounces off the polished floors, vegetables receive a refreshing spritz every so often, and meats are wrapped or cased to reach america’s high sanitary standard. hell, many markets now provide antibacterial gel or wipes for their mysophobic patrons. now, imagine the exact opposite and you’re likely to picture something more similar to a traditional market in taiwan. it’s not to say the market is disgusting or uncivilized – just very, very different. i thoroughly enjoyed visiting the market on my visit to my home country last month.

taiwan’s markets are a maze of exotic fruits and on-the-scene slaughtered meats. innards and animal parts you’d never imagine were edible hang everywhere and if you’re not cautious, a large intestine or cow tongue will probably grace your face. it’s festively loud, with mopeds honking their way through the stands and everyone haggling for the best price. many vendors are old. they wake up before the sun and haul their harvest to the market each day. it’s quite amusing and surely a humbling experience.

no, this is not the last human city on planet earth post man vs. machine nuclear war. this is zion, in springdale, utah. far more gorgeous i’m sure. the speed limit on the 15 north is fairly generous at 75mph (which is really 90mph) so the drive seemed to go by quickly. we woke up before sunrise saturday morning to try and get permits for the subway bottom-up trail but unfortunately, they were all taken. at least it gives me an excuse to go back up there next time! who’s with me?!

we headed off to angel’s landing, a 5-mile, 1500 foot elevation gain day hike that overlooks the vast red canyons of zion.  i never knew how flexible my dad was until now…he stretched those quads like a 12 year old gymnast! go dad! the last mile of the trail was strenuous but most exciting, with chains lining the narrow paths aiding the weaker-kneed folk. i led this part some of the way and whenever i’d turn around to make sure everyone was alive, i couldn’t help but laugh at my view. it kind of looked like the human centipede slowly climbing up…i won’t go into detail. anyway, making our way past the steep cliffs was such an adrenaline rush as we approached the peak.  finally, up top, you kind of do get that “angelic” feeling, or was that vertigo…

the next day, we rented some drypants at zion adventure company and hit up the narrows, an extraordinary river hike.  it was absolutely magnificent, with towering walls on both sides of the river. we hiked up to the split and decided to take the orderville canyon narrows just for a bit before heading back. the feeling of being waist deep in the water is astounding, imagine a vacuum sucking you into a cold abyss!

*sigh everytime i come back from a trip like this, i can’t help but feel a little depressed. i’m a slave to the bills and money-making! maybe, perhaps, hopefully…one day, i’ll get to live in the wild. til then, at least i’ll have photos to commemorate the passage.

i felt like i was on the set of asian entourage, following 4 dudes around for 4 days with no electricity and hardly anything but my trusty camera. prior to the trip, my mindset was, yay! i get to hike, eat healthy, and be one with nature. i just might shed some pounds. we tried to pack mostly healthy veggies for curry night and hot pot night but alas, we couldn’t help but bring the junk. chips, croissants, muffins, alcohol, beer, scotch, and s’mores. fast forward to after the trip – me being back in my room, dirt stuck in my finger and toenails, and 8 pounds heavier. what a fail.

on night 1, the 4 macho men insisted on making a fire sans starter logs, lighter fluid, etc. i stood idly aside while i watched and snickered. they were successful for a good…10, 15 minutes, then the fire would completely die out. night 2 and 3 consisted of many many starter logs and squirts of lighter fluid. cue the “i told you so!” the days consisted of exploring, gathering wood, and hiking — the usual camp stuff. then at night, we brought the party to site 146. ice cold beers, 25+ tries of OFWGKTA light photography, my favorite scotch, huge feasts, s’mores and some card games!

deer, squirrels, and blue birds, surrounded the campgrounds when the sun was up, making for a pleasant disney-like surrounding but once night fell, the spiders, bugs, and worst of all, raccoons came out to haunt us and steal our chips.  3 huge raccoons came to visit us each night, their pupils glowed like elijah wood’s character in sin city. not cool man. other than the hissy raccoons, big sur was everything i imagined and more. the gigantic redwood tree forests, countless shining stars/planet X nibiru, and scenic cliff views of the pacific coast must be seen by the naked eye in order to truly appreciate its majestic beauty.

*5dmk2 and lx5

kaskade’s new single “eyes” just dropped yesterday!  the first listen flooded my emotions with images of landscape and vast untouched land. i think it’s appropriate to include this song in my mt. baldy post. a couple weeks ago, a group of us including ting, tim, coworkers and friends, hiked up to the 10,064 foot summit. it was an amazing experience and the first of many summits to come.  imagine listening to this song while overlooking the san gabriel mountains and L.A. basin. pure bliss. i’m putting this on my newly purchased mp3 player so the next mountain i climb, i can do just that.

duh nuh duh nuh duh nuh duh nuh BATMANNNNNNNNNNNN!!

we hit up the carlsbad caverns on day 4 and boy oh boy oh boy, what an experience! my eyes adjusted to the darkness and my ears could hear the water drip slowly from the stalactites.  i felt like batman..er, batgirl. sadly, i’d forgotten my flashes so i was really limited as to what i could capture but it was still an amazing site to see. to think, these caverns have been here millions and millions of years and each stalactite and stalagmite is formed by the minerals in dripping water. stunning.

king’s palace room

this really shocked me. these little nipply things are actually stalactites 79 years old. now, you can imagine how many years old those huge ones are. IN-SANE.

HUGE ASS STALAGMITE in the hall of giants. 0.O how is this even possible…

the descent into earth’s core

it’s been 16 years since the 4 of us have traveled outside of LA together. we all agreed on a trip to texas and new mexico to visit the white sands desert and carlsbad caverns.  i will cherish those 6 days forever…come to think of it, i don’t know when the next time we’ll all be able to travel together will be. we hiked all 3 trails of the white sands desert and came up with some fun photo adventures along the way.  the color tones consisted of pretty much one hue so i had to spice things up some how. towards the end, i decided to take my boots off to feel the cold, gritty sand against my bare feet. my girly excuse? i wanted some au naturale exfoliation. then followed the fam and i couldn’t help but capture that moment with a shot of our imprints. ahh…it’s only been a week since but i already miss it.

obviously, i am most evolved

<3

who’s who?

nothing beats this year’s world expo held in shanghai, china. and i’m not talking about how great it was, i’m talkin about the unbelievable lines. word has it the chinese government wants to beat a record (how surprising) so their goal is to have 400,000 people at the expo PER day. thankfully, it rained the day we decided to check it out so there weren’t as many people as usual but damn…the lines were still insane. the highly talked about saudi arabia pavilion normally has a 7 hour wait but on a rainy day, “just” 5 hours. tim and i refused to wait in lines that long so we ended up just walking around and looking at the pavilion exteriors. we did go into north korea’s pavilion which was…interesting. right when you walk in, there’s a sign that reads “PARADISE OF PEOPLE”. haha! hardly. i smell propaganda. don’t forget to watch the video at the end of this post. i love turkish ice cream!!! enjoy!

even before you reach the expo, there are lines! this is just the waiting area to get onto the SUBWAY that takes u to the expo. imagine on a dry day how packed this gets.

anticipation

the impressive china pavilion. they’re going to keep this one but tear the rest down. kind of looked spaceship-y like geisel library at UCSD.

saudi arabia pavilion. long lines await.

row of china flags + pandas. can’t get anymore chinese than this

china pavilion in the background

looks like a nice city right? well..this was north korea’s pavilion. they made it look all nice but we know how it really is here. thank god for block-free internet!

it surely was a kingdom

bye bye expo

highlight of my day: getting ice cream from the turkish man

people always talk about the huge class gap in china where the rich are insaneeeeely wealthy and the poor are downright po’. tis true. even though factory workers in china are “lucky” to have a job, you might be surprised how little they are paid. there’s no minimum wage in china so it really depends on the factory but from what i hear, on average they take home about $2 – $5 per day. shoot, you can’t even buy a McDonald’s combo with that. though it sounds horrible, these dedicated factory workers are still able to make a living and survive off those wages.

i visited a recessed lighting factory in the outskirts of shanghai and saw first-hand what the conditions were like. yeah, most shifts consists of only 3 boring movements — take metal disc, place on machine, punch hole, repeat — but i was pleasantly surprised to find a clean, spacious, and safe working environment. the QC manager was nice enough to give us a tour then we headed off to the owner of the company’s house mansion for some drinks (he ended up busting out 5 of his best whiskeys and gave us a little tasting sesh). you can really get a sense of the class difference…here’s a bit of what i saw.

step 1, 2, 3. repeat to ∞

grindin’

industrial-ness

dipping the finished metal parts into chemicals to seal and shine

finished product ready to be shipped to stores like home depot and lowes

bossman’s back freakin YARD. talk about havin’ it all

bossman’s grand living area