Kyoto, Japan'08 (Holiday I)

I had a full day to walk around Kyoto and soak in the temples and shrines culture. I had a great time just walking around, observing people, enjoying the good weather and sampling the local food.

Everytime I see a leading staircase like that, I asked myself in my heart if the staircase lead to heaven? A stone path in a quaint Japanese garden Saw a real life Geisha in one of the temples Entrance to a shrine Sake barrels @ shrine entrance Walking under the shrine threshold A typical Japanese temple You need to wash your hands and rinse your mouth before entering a shrine A prayer area in a shrine Traditional Japanese shops along the street Popular dining area in Kyoto - next to the river A Kyoto sunset I saw this in a Kyoto supermarket - chewing gum that helps one to relax?

Kyoto, Japan '08 (Work)

I decided to fly into Kyoto earlier for a day of walking around the quaint little city before starting work. The last time I was in Kyoto was in 2004 and it was nice to re-visit some of the places again. I prefer Kyoto to Tokyo because it is less crowded and less hustle and bustle.
Kyoto (京都市) is in the central part of the Honshu island in Japan. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of the Kyoto Prefecture with a population of 1.5 million.

With my Japanese colleagues and the Kyoto city as the backdrop of the picture

Drinks during the Final Dinner

Drinking red wine Japanese style - filled to the brim!

(L-R): A cosmopolitan group of Donna from Hong Kong, Sun from Korea, Graham from Australia and me from Singapore

All of us clowning around

The serious work - look @ how neat the Japanese are. The extremely straight bar charts are made up of chocolate pallets!

That's our team - a total mess on the table. Definitely not as neat as the Japanese!

The cow's expression on each chocolate pallet are different! So cute!

A formal group photo

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I have been watching a LOT of movies lately, but it has been ages since I last stepped into a cinema. I watched all the movies onboard the plane. :P
However, I caught The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in a nice movie theater recently and before everyone else in Singapore too! Did it together with Ryan in Los Angeles where the movie was released earlier than Singapore. The cinema in Cluver City, LA has free seating (no seat number in tickets above). Quite a weird concept as it means going into the theater and then choosing whichever seats you want. If you are there early, then you have the choice of the whole theater.

Los Angeles '08

I spent the most wonderful weekend with Ryan Holliday in Los Angeles! The last time we met was in Feb 2001 and it was great to see him again after such a long time. I missed meeting up with him last year due to my own stupidity and I made sure that I wrote to him waaaaaaay in advance to book his time for the weekend!

We hung out together and basically spent time catching up with each other. It warms my heart to know that I have friends out there whom I may not have met for a loooooong time but yet when we meet up, we chatted like old friends :)

We spent the first afternoon exploring The Getty Museum. This is the view of Los Angeles from the Museum. We spent an afternoon walking around Hollywood Foot and hand prints from the cast of Harry Potter; and thats my feet at the bottom Godzilla along the Walk of Fame A Scientology building - Ryan gave me a lesson on Scientology 101 in that afternoon We went hiking twice. That's both of us during the first hike in Malibu.
On our second hike near Hollywood, this was the sign that greeted me as we entered the park. Rattle snakes! I have to take picture of soup because according to Ryan, I have a picture of a bowl of soup in all my travel posts :P The biggest salad I have ever polished off in one sitting! Grilled swordfish from The Reel Inn along the beach. It was delicious! Grilled Shrimps Grilled Salmon with a Corona Greek Kebab - Ryan said the white sauce on the right tasted funny after I polished off the entire thing!
We shared a tub of Ben & Jerry's by the pond on my final day just before leaving for the airport.

Grand Canyon '08

The pictures here do not do justice to how awesome the Grand Canyon is.

The Grand Canyon
A different angle

Me with my "glam" hiking hat!

I was sitting very close to the edge behind which drops all the way to the bottom of the Canyon!
Sunset @ Grand Canyon

Las Vegas '08

I went to Las Vegas recently for a conference. It was a great trip - I got to meet up with the friends that I made during the same conference last year in Orlando; I got to visit Las Vegas for the first time and soak in the "sinful" culture, I got to watch a Cirque De Soilei show; I got to visit the Grand Canyon (that is another post altogether); and the highlight was I got to meet up with Ryan Holliday (that is also another post altogether!).

There are slot machines at the boarding gates at the Las Vegas airport - goes to show how much gambling is in the Vegas culture.

I was staying @ The Venetian which is an awesome hotel! I had a suite for the room - it was huge!
This is the ceiling of the lobby @ The Venetian

Friends of the Forum after the Cirque De Solei show

Streets of the Las Vegas Strip

The Fashion Show shopping mall
Las Vegas Strip during the day

This is the shopping mall in The Venetian - check out the sky (its painted!)

This is in The Venetian shopping mall - modelled after St. Mark Square in Venice

No post is complete without food. One of the seafood buffet I had in Las Vegas. Yummy!