Road Trip Nov 2014 (Vegas & Mojave Desert)

Mojave Desert Nov 2014

Mojave Desert Nov 2014

Vegas 
November is the month for new experiences in old places. This is my 6th trip to Vegas.
I still remember my wide-eyed awe at Vegas Strip on my 1st trip. My 2nd and 3rd trip revealed how Vegas do not change and I'm still walking up/down the Strip. But my primary thoughts were how tediously long it is. My 4th trip with friends showed me the clubbing and spa world in Vegas and my 5th trip with band reveals Vegas downtown and other mundane area of Vegas.

Anyway, Wynn offered an awesome deal and hence, i'm on my 6th trip to Vegas.

Wynn print the name of hotel guest on their room card. Cool!

What is missing from this trip is walking up/down the Strip, window shopping and watching the "street shows". Instead, we spent time on 2 good shows, good food and enjoying the pool and the Wynn hotel.

The tropical jungle at Wynn

The main pool in Wynn. This is the small interconnection point for 2 large pools at the end

The hotel room at Wynn was one of the best hotels I stayed in Vegas and it's comparable to the 5 and 6 star hotels in Singapore.

Also, we upgraded our room to the 53rd floor and the view of Vegas Strip is priceless.

View of Vegas Strip from the room

Le Reve is part of our package.

Le Reve

I really liked the energy of Le Reve. The music alternate between a slow number and a fast number while outlining a dream  Since it's a dream, the possibilities are endless and unbounded. The choreography and the skills of the acrobats/divers are really good.

We ate at Allegro at Wynn the first night as everyone are too tired to go out. It was decent but overpriced. We also got 2 buffet tickets and the food is good with lots of variety. But buffet food has never been my favorite =)

Meal At Allegro. Good Hummus dip for the bread and great Bean with shrimp dish

I also learned how to play Craps in this trip. Novice level but i got to throw some dice and learned the basics. =)

The other new experience was eating at Giada. It's a new Vegas restaurant by the food network chef and the food is awesome.

Giada : Bacon Wrapped Dates, Caponata, Spaghetti squash,  Scallop & Crab Rissoto. Good bread basket

It also has a view of the Bellagio fountain and the Eiffel tower at Paris Paris.

View from Giada (Paris Paris and Bellagio Fountain)

We also watched Penn and Teller show after Giada. The energy level for the show never got very high but i concluded Penn is the equivalent of the pretty magician helper girl for Teller =)
The show is entertaining with a lot of audience participation and Teller is a very good illusionist and magician.

Mojave Desert



After the epitome of capitalism, we went to the bottom of minimalism =)
We spent the night camping in Mojave Desert which is a really good experience.

Our tent for the night @ Hole in the wall 

See the hole in the middle?

We camped in "Hole-in-the-wall" campgrond and my personal take is there is a true hole(s) in the wall in the rocks.


The desert has very interesting rocks and cliffs formations and we had a good time hiking and climbing boulders.

The Ring Loop Trail

The petroglyph @ the desert

The other interesting thing about Mojave desert is the presence of sand dunes. They are formed by wind encountering mountains and dropping the sand that they carry (learned something new). I also learnt that sand is equally annoying in the dessert without the benefits of the ocean.

The pound of sand in my shoes after hiking from the top to the car.. Grr

After the day of desert, we stayed another night at Palm Spring. The next morning, we visited the Palm Spring art museum and head home.

Miami Nov 2014 (Oreste and Kevin wedding)

Participating a milestone event of 2 friends brought me back to Miami after 5 years.

Miami Bay

The grooms, with the Singapore flower pot and cherry blossom flowers that we made together for the event

The church where the service was held

Wedding program

Beautiful wedding of Oreste and Kevin 

The Mums and the Bridesmaid

One of  Oreste's cute niece. I can't get her sister's picture as she's too fast and too shy

It was a great trip seeing Oreste's family again after so long and meeting Kevin's family for the first time. Everyone in Oreste's family remembers me, the Asian girl who ventured into their family and culture 5 years ago. I also met his 2 nieces for the first time and they are ADORABLE.

An old friend reunion : Cassandra who does not age and still embrace life with enthusiasm and innocence.

Cass and me : in our dresses for the wedding event

I met a lot of great people in this trip, learn a little more about Kevin and Oreste through their old friends who stayed with them through the years.

Adults being silly with photo booths

The girls in the same car for the wedding

Of course, I had a lot of GOOD food, mainly cuban.

First breakfast in Miami : Guava and cheese pastries, croquettes, cuban spanish, spinach pastry from Gilbert Bakery
The guava pastry from this bakery is sweeter than Versailles, and my vote goes to Versailles. But it's still really good!


























First dinner in Miami with Cassandra, at Seasons 52. We ordered a bunch of the happy hour small plates, shrimps, scallops lamb chops and chicken teriyaki. Flat bread from 52 is always good, and complete with their signature desserts

Good cuban food from LA Carreta. Note their iconic chicken smoking cuban cigar =)

I did more sightseeing this time on the Miami Big Bus that gave me a big picture of  Miami.

Cool effect of my 2nd camera on my face!

Cass and I did the full 3 loops around Miami
It was a fun experience and a quick way to go to parts of Miami that i never seen before, all in 5 hours!
Each tour bus has a different tour guide with completely different temperaments =) The bored ones, the experienced and energetic ones and a crazy bus driver who got yelled at several times by the tour guide for driving too fast =)

We also had to duck a bunch of branches and i captured this shot which is interesting. It shows how close we are to the trees on the open top bus

Little Havana mural

What was interesting for me, was the Wynwood walls in Miami
http://thewynwoodwalls.com/
I love great Graffiti and these are really good. I learned that shops opening in that area has to get an artist to paint the outer walls.

The Graffiti zone of Miami 

The financial district of Miami

I also learned that there used to be a little Haiti area in Miami and it has famous singers like Ray Charles who goes there. However, the building of the I95 tore up 20k homes and destroyed the neighbourhood and it never recuperated from that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Haiti

The holocaust sculpture (Rocks from Jerusalam are used to make the inner walls) 

Also, south beach is one of the few man made islands in Miami. They build a few islands and a bunch of rich and famous folks live there. South beach was also tore up by 1926 hurricane and they rebuild it with some areas in Art Deco look. Apparently you cannot change the facades of those Art Deco building or paint with non-pastel colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Beach


My perfect ending: last meal in Miami - Versailles in the airport! Guava pastries, croquettes, Cuban sandwich! yum!

Big apple adventure day 7 and 8

Today is our last full day in New York.
Having recovered from the 8 hours in Met, we decide to tackle the Museum of Modern Art today.

First thing first, breakfast from a nearby bakery in Chinatown. Everything we had is very good and cheap.
The perfect coconut tart with really flaky crust and Hong Kong milk tea.

Museum of Modern Art (Moma)
Moma is an interesting art museum. It's much smaller than MET and almost too crowded.
It's not designed to be wide and spatial, but more tall and modern. Not the best combination for crowds.

Great Picasso pieces and i like the girl in the mirror

Picasso (More fun)

They have one of the biggest Monet water lily canvass that I ever seen, too big for a good picture.

Van Gogh starry night and olive tree is on display, on top of Andy Warhof art pieces.

Van Gogh Starry night and Olive tree

Calf kicking a ball, with energy

Lunch at Moma

Leaving Moma, we found this artist who did a Brooklyn Bridge painting that we really like. She painted one on the spot for us.

Jazz standard
For the last night, we met up with Peter and Faranak at Jazz Standard for dinner that night.

I really like the music and the ambience. It is pretty cool watching a good jazz bands playing in a basement. The band is extremely relaxed and the trombone player/vocal singer has a beer on stage =)
They are also discussing what pieces to play and how to play it, through the performances. Every player has top notch technical skills though. Impressive solo playing.

Dessert: hookah bar
My first experience with Hookah. It's fun. A cool way to finish the last night in New York with a new experience

Day 8
The next morning, we only had a few hours before heading to the airport on the last day. We walked around little Italy and find Parisi bakery, Lombardi pizza, the public theater and the shopping area on Broadway.

I find Lombardi pizza over rated though. Joes pizza is still better although Lombardi pizza sauce is more complex. Another new York joint that only takes cash.

We packed the chicken cutlet sandwich at Parisi bakery for the flight. For $10, it's enough to feed both of us for 2 meals again. 

Half a chicken cutlet sandwich. Now THAT'S a sandwich!

Coming to the end of the trip, my impression of NY has changed.
It's still dirty, messy and chaotic in some places. But a lot of gentrification is going on.
What i internalized is the city is still growing and still under going changes. NY only start developing into a financial hub ~ 30 years ago and it's impressive for what they achieved in that relatively short amount of time.
Walking away from the city, i learned a little more about it, and a little more about America.
But i still wished they don't leave trash out on the streets =)