Thailand -- the Gold, the Thrill, and the Hitch

My trip to Thailand was with a mixture of feelings.  It was March 2010, and unfortunately after I paid for the trip, it was non-cancellable even with the sudden Thailand rallies lead by the red-shirted protestors.  With hope that it won't turn into a bigger violence or threat, I started my tour at this amazing city with overload of senses -- Bangkok.  Fortunately the tour guide carefully avoided the places with rallies, so I was still able to visit all the wonderful attractions to see the beauty of Bangkok.

I visited the famous Royal Grand Palace and a few temples such as Emerald Buddha Temple.  I think people in Thailand really like "Gold", so you'll see gold color buildings and trims around--not only for the Palace, but also in various temples and arts.  When passing by the Chinatown and I see many jewelries shops with hanging "gold" jewelries on the wall that you can see through the windows.  I bet they must have a good security method to keep them safe from the thieves. 

I've watched different shows, and the most remarkable is a famous Alcazar cabaret show.  It's a good mix with traditional and modern elements, and is comparable to those great shows in Las Vegas, but also with its unique "deceiving" element -- can you believe these beautiful people below are not...women?

In Thailand you can also see various animal shows where Tigers can fly through a fire ring, people can play with poisonous snakes, or elephants play with hula hoop or basketballs.  Although these are very exciting shows, I do worry how these animals or people are treated behind the scenes and hope they are really happy with what they are doing...

Baiyoke Sky Hotel Tower is a must-see attraction in Bangkok, not only they have some great photo-taking spots, also the buffet at the Sky Tower Restaurant was the most fabulous meal that I had during my Thailand trip.  They have all different kinds of foods from Mediterranean to Asian, and I especially love their seafood and cute presented desserts--which taste delicious too.

The sunset at Bangkok is gorgeous along the bay.  You would feel so relaxing while watching the sunset and having dinner on the Princess Dinner Cruise on the Chao Phaya River.  At evenings you can go to a few night markets to find local artistic products or hand-made jewelries.  Local food to taste include coconuts, durian (which I don't eat normally but the durian ice-cream tastes good), shark fin, Coconut Bird's Nest, and fried crocodile meat (?! ...Thailand may not be a good place for animal activist afterall...)

If you have more vacation days you can visit the nearby Pattaya island for water sports such as parasailing or motor cycling, but the beach was not as pretty and clean as what I've imagined before the trip.  Overall my trip to Thailand was pleasant and luckily safe, but here are some tips if you ever plan to travel to Bangkok:

• It is better and safer to go with a tour because there are scams around the street, jewelry shops or even with local taxi.
• Because of the rallies I did have chance to see the "inside" streets besides the tourists areas, and I found that the pollution in Thailand is quite severe afterall, with many flies and trashes around the city, so I am very conservative on their food and snacks...except in high-end restaurants or hotels.
• There are many good deals on jewelries, gems and artistic products, which is good news for shoppers such as myself.

I wish someday Thailand will become a cleaner and safer place for tourists to fully enjoy the fun, the excitement, and great shopping experience.

May God bless Japan and its people

After weeks of following the disaster news in Japan, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant crisis scenes keep appearing in my mind from times to times.  I really wish its people who have lost their homes and families can stand up and build their homes again, and hope they can see the light in darkness.  Personally I have only been to Japan once about 5 years ago (thanks for the inflating air fares... --!), but the beautiful scenes and fun are kept in my memories.  I would like to share some beauty of Japan from my memories, and wish Japan can retain its beauty, solve the radiation crisis soon, and re-build homes for those poor people who are in needs.

Japan has always been a peaceful place for travelers, and you can feel the relaxing atmosphere once you've landed on it.  Japanese are calm, yet very polite, and I wish other countries can learn the ways they respect on good things.  Because of their respects on nice things, they can produce things in good quality and delicious cuisine in the most beautiful settings.

In Tokyo you can find upscale shops at Ginza. And you will find alot other attractions including temples, gardens, or shopping malls.  Top attractions in Tokyo include Asakusa Sensoji Temple, Nakamise Street Mall, Palace of Tokugawa shogunate, and Nijuhasi Garden.

 
Mountain Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan. Its beautiful shape is a Japanese symbol.  We did have chance to climb up the Mountain Fuji on the bus to 2.305M to get a closer look of it.  The tour guide said we were lucky to see a clear Fuji mountain since it's often shrouded in clouds.  The white top of Mt. Fuji seems really gorgeous.  

There are many different temples with red entrances.  The red entrances, named as Torri, symbolically mark the entrance to a sacred space, and as a protection symbol to the temple and its people.  Even if you have other religion or no religion at all, it is good to visit those temples to see their special structures and beautiful scenes along the way.

During our trip we had the chance to see a tradition tea-making process, a traditional Japanese costume show, and a fall festival where people put vegetables together in beautiful structures to celebrate the harvest of the year.  I always admire their professionalism and attentions on details.

The hot-spring is something that you don't want to miss in Japan.  You can try it in many different traditional hot-spring resorts.  There are some hot springs that are too hot for human body--but you can eat the hot spring hard boiled eggs, called "kurotamago", which got a black shell because of the thermal hot spring.  According to the tour guide, there is a traditional myth saying that by eating each "kurotamago" black egg can add 7 years to your life span--you may guess how many black eggs I have eaten...  :)

I always miss the great food and street snacks such as octopus balls, soft-serve ice-cream, sashimi and shabu-shabu.  It's impossible to find the same tastes outside of Japan--at least I haven't found in California yet...

I had plenty of relaxation, ate alot of great food, and saw many beautiful scenes from the trip.  I wish Japan will recover from all the crisis and disasters soon and continue to be a great place for travel again.  And hope the whole world will have true peace someday, with no war, no disaster, no pollution, and no crime. 

Epeler Game for iPhone / iPad -- Clear the Words, Clean the World

If you ever want to create a cool iPhone game, what would you want to make?  For me I want it to be educational, fun, and meaningful.  So with the team at my company GTuneStudio, we had created Epeler -- a fun arcade-style word game for all ages.  Epeler, in French meaning "to spell", isn't this a cool name?  At least quite special I guess...

So now what is it about?  Perhaps the best way to describe it is a word find game like WordsWorth mashed with Tetris.  As you begin, alphabet tiles will fall from the top-right of the game play area and then slide left. Your mission is to clear the tiles by tapping the alphabet tiles in the appropriate order to create valid words. When ready, tap on Check to verify the validity and submit it to your score.  Make your way through all levels to win, and the game is over once the screen is full of letter blocks.  With 7 colorful environmental themes, your mission is to retain the beauty of the world with your word spelling knowledge.

The game theme is about our environment.  Since we're living in a polluted world, I've turned our world pollutions into alphabet tiles, emitting as pollutants from cars, trains, electronic wastes, etc.  As you're clearing certain stages, you'll see the source of pollutants disappearing from the globe.  I hope you can hang on 'til the end, as the road to clearing out pollution is always long...

You can also challenge your friends by posting scores to your Facebook wall or bring it on with direct multiplayer against a friend with an iDevice over Wi-Fi. Multiplier requires a Wi-Fi connection for both iDevices located on the same network segment.  I hope you all will enjoy this little game and remember to protect our world from pollutions!  Please visit http://www.epeler.com/ for more game details.

Mystery Spot -- Mysterious or Not?

I've heard of the Mystery Spot for a long time for its gravitational myths but never had the chance to visit there.  Finally I decided to go take a trip to Santa Cruz and had a chance to find out the truth of the Mystery Spot on a sunny Saturday.  The road driving up the hill to the Mystery Spot is quite narrow, so you would want to drive slowly and watch out the opposite traffic carefully.  I feel excited when I finally reach the sign.  To get in the place you would need to pay $6 for a tour. 

The nice tour guide lady tells us about the history of the Mystery Spot along its way, and shows us the amazing gravitational myths of different sights and buildings.  Such as below wooden house doesn't seems to be collapsed easily on the uphill even though it's built in a weird direction.  And the tour lady asks a group of volunteers to stand on a wooden bar so show an amazing visual effect--where they won't fall down even though they seems to lean so much forward, but in fact they would feel they are standing "straight".

Inside the house there are many fun posing that you can do and take amazing pictures.  I would leave this part to yourself to feel and experience when you visit the Mystery Spot next time.  During the tour there are many gravitational experiments that seem to be "anti-gravity" such as a ball rolling upward instead of downward, but I would think they are illusions created by a team of great architectures using the uphill characteristics of the site. 

Before I went there I thought there would be really some mysterious spot where people can float in the air, but in fact there are simply some deceptive spots and structures where you can take some funny pictures.  I would still think it's an amazing trip where you can see the trees standing so straightly on such a steep uphill.  Although the tour of Mystery Spot is pretty short, it is very interesting for curious people like myself and it can be a very fun family day trip with kids.  I also got a souvenir bumper Mystery Spot sticker from the tour.  I hope you'll have the time to visit there and enjoy the fun of the Mystery Spot when you pass by Santa Cruz in California, and you can decide if it is mysterious enough or not.

Catalina Island -- A hidden gem in California

I have been living in Northern California for over a decade, and California seems to be full of treasures and waiting for people to explore.  My first time to Catalina Island is surprisingly relaxed, and it is for sure a hidden gem in California.

On a sunny morning, I board the Catalina Express boat (roundtrip $66.50) from Long Beach port, I feel calm as the sun shines through the boat windows.  Nothing seems to matter anymore as you start to feel the magic of nature, and I can't wait to start a beautiful day.

Within an hour I've reached to the beautiful Avalon of Catalina Island.  From the harbor you can see the beautiful coastline and a grand, white round building--Casino (unfortunately for the gamblers that it is not a gambling place, rather it is a historical theatre and ballroom).

There are all different kind of activities you can do on the island, hiking, kayaking, parasailing, etc.  I tried the semi-submarine tour to see the underwater world around the island. 

This is an about 45-minutes underwater tour ($39), where you can see different undersea lives and creatures, and you can feed the fishes by pressing a button inside the boat ($2 a shoot), it is definitely a fun interactive experience.  I found the trace of a cute purely bright orange gold color fish which is very amazing.

If you want to go up the hill on catalina island, you can rent the golf carts to drive around the island, where you can find a botanical garden up the hill, or a small sky tower.   On the way uphill you can see many different shapes and families of cactus, some can be huge, and you can find traces of wild animals such as baffalo or deers if lucky.

For lodging I stayed at Catalina Island Inn, which is close to the harbor, and is clean and modern decorated.  Its family suite is at good affordable price.  I regret not trying the parasailing, which seems to be very fun and it is the first place I see having "double seat" parasailing.  I hope I will have chance to go there again.  At the end of the trip I would say goodbye to a huge "bird" that was always standing around the iron bars of the wharf, and it doesn't seem to be afraid of human being at all. 

You can find various bars and restaurants around the island that fit your taste, and there is a small supermarket where is great for grabbing few snacks or cup noodles.  The only minus of the island is that the "beach" is just a small sand area, so don't expect to see a beach for swimming or getting suntan there.   As a conclusion, Catalina Island is definitely a good weekend getaway place from the busy city, where you can relax and feel the sunshine and have a closer touch to the nature.