Vacation Visual Diary: Day 2 - Grand Canyon

Day 2 has us in Grand Canyon National Park where we walked most of the Rim trail which brought us to beautiful overlooks. We did not walk some parts of it near the end and thankfully there is a shuttle bus that took us all the way to the end which is Hermit's rest. 

That night we headed over to the Desert View Watchtower to catch the sunset which we barely missed but the lighting in the canyon was absolutely beautiful that night. The skies were clear but the wind was also blowing hard which dropped the temperature out there to a "Real Feel" of 13 degrees or so. After dinner we headed back out to try to get some astro photography shots and thankfully at that point the wind died down a lot so we were not that cold.

To see Day 1, click here!

Throwback Thursday: Arizona

This week's throwback is from my first trip to Sedona exactly two years ago. We drove from Phoenix to Sedona in the same day and along the way the scenery changed so much, it was mesmerizing the whole entire drive. 

We stopped at Cathedral Rock where we hiked for a few hours but this week's pictures are not from there so if you are interested follow the link to the older post!

The two photos below were taken while we were en route to Sedona, showing how beautiful that day was for hiking.

Vacation Visual Diary: Day 1 - Airport + Hoover dam

The first day of our trip there was a lot of travelling involved. We took a 5hour flight from JFK over to Mc Carren Airport in Vegas and picked up our car. From there, we drove around looking for food and a Walmart to stock up for our roadtrip!

After we bought all of our supplies, we started our 4.5 hour drive towards the Grand Canyon South rim stopping by the Hoover Dam.

BACK FROM VACATION!

Phew! It's been a long time since I wrote a post but I was on vacation so I hope I get a pass =)

My trip to Utah, Arizona, and Nevada was amazing and I have a lot of images to share. I have actually taken over 2300 photos and culling them is proving to be really hard right now. After culling, I still have to edit my photos! 

Thankfully I have some that I edited along the way and uploaded to Instagram ;) Look forward to some posts coming in the next few days where I detail what I did for the whole week! Hopefully I can get the first post out before Thanksgiving is here =)

Vacation starts tomorrow!

So for those who did not see my earlier post about this upcoming trip, tomorrow I will be leaving on a plane to Arizona! A total of six of us will be landing in Vegas early morning and we will start on a counter clockwise route that will cover the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Zion National Park. (See map below)


I am super excited for this trip because I am so ready to hike and see wonderful views from different vantage points in all of those locations. I am the most excited about Antelope Canyon because it is on my bucket list. I will be posting pictures along the way on my Instagram  using the hashtag #ChandemicRoadtrip so if you are interested come find me!

Throwback Thursday: Lake Pukaki, South Island New Zealand

One year ago I was in this beautiful country viewing this spectacular lake that was used in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. The lake is called Lake Pukaki and when you drive past, you HAVE to stop and take it all in. The water is baby blue and it's not because of the sky, but rather it is the sediment from glaciers that make the water that vivid. Those glaciers are the Tasman and Hooker Glaciers!

We stopped several times on our way to Mount Cook National Park and actually got stuck in a ditch. Luckily for us, a nice man saw that we were stuck and came back around to pull us out. Of course I only took a photo when we knew we were in the clear, but I have to admit that I was freaking out since the car started to lean over.

Kollaboration NY Speaker Series : MC Jin

On Oct 28th at Jebon Sushi, Kollaboration NY and Apex for Youth  hosted their first sold out speaker series together with MC Jin. It was an intimate setting with about 75 people and he was there talking about his musical career as well as his TV career in Hong Kong.

It was very fascinating to hear him speak about his ups and downs as a musical artist. His stories about how he had to break through was very inspiring to any creative who is trying to do the same as he has done. MC Jin also just released and album which is currently available so if you are a fan, go and pick up a copy! At the end of the speaker session, he had several copies to sell and he was signing it for everyone there, so of course I got myself one. =)

In the one hour of him speaking, I learned so much about him as an artist and a person. From his personal life and how much he loves his son to how he treats his fans, MC Jin is a person who is  very easy to get along with. I have to be honest that when I first saw him, I was afraid to approach him for a photo but he made it very easy to get over it when he started to make fun of my name haha.

If you missed this speaker session with MC Jin because of whatever reason, don't worry we have it all recorded and will be posting it soon! 

Kollaboration NY will be holding many more speaker sessions like this so if you are interested and want to be one of the first people to know, go check out all of the links below!

Website: http://www.kollaborationnewyork.org/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kollabny
Facebook webpage: https://www.facebook.com/KollabNY
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kollabny
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/KollaborationNewYork

Links for MC Jin:

Website: http://www.mcjin.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/iammcjin
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/iammcjin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iammcjin
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Mcjin

Rise of the Jack O Lanterns - Old Westbury, NY

A week ago, on Halloween, several of my friends and I went to the Rise of the Jack O Lanterns at Old Westbury, NY. It is an annual event where 5,000 pumpkins are carved with various faces/shapes/etc and displayed along a path for people to view.

It took about 20minutes for us to walk through since it was raining and there were quite a few people there. The park was really dark so most of my photos are grainy and at some points the lens was wet but I tried!

My favorite two pieces had to be the huge giant tree covered in pumpkins and the memorial for all of those that passed away this year. I have carved pumpkins before and it takes a really long time for something simple and to see them carved/shaved at this magnitude was very impressive.

If you are interested, go check out their website next year for tickets! I bought mine off of living social so it was a bit cheaper =)

Throwback Thursday: Singapore!

Singapore is a very small country, coming in at 277 square miles and has a population of over 5 million people. It is one of the world's major commercial hubs and it has the fourth biggest financial center and one of the five busiest ports in the world.

We spent two very short days there and luckily for us it is a very small country so we did not miss much but I still wish we had more time there to spend exploring as well as with my family there. The first night we were there, I was able to take pictures of the iconic Marina Bay at night and it was then where it had hit me that I was on vacation on the other side of the world.