The Adventures of Thumbfighter!

It’s been along time since i wrote in this or posted any pic in this blog…… ive been busy working and keeping my relationships. Now im unemployeed………. I wish that my dream didnt fall through but you never know when you are going to wake up. As i look through my last 6 months im truly happy to have done what I’ve done. I’ve worked with A-list celebs and I’ve had the freedom to do my own thing as well. Though all that I believe that I’ve come up with sometype of story that i want to tell…. im just not sure what type of order it should be in.

Alot of people say that my life is interesting, but i only think that i have a normal life. I feel that I’ve been let free and that my mind has been set free as well. My creativeness is re-inspired and i feel renewed i love life and i hope that it will throw everything that it has at me, i wont keep down. lets roll.

Hi All, its been quite some time since I’ve updated my blog! I must be better about this!!! The first two pictures are from Taiwan, the thrid one is from Japan and the 4th is from South Korea.(They all have captions so check em out!)  Although my travels are over, I feel that my journey through each country has given me a new view of who I am and what I want. It has also inspired me to think differently and appreciate things for what they are, no matter big or small! Anyway I’ll be posting more pics soon Enjoy everyone!

I went to Dan Shui (shallow water), and there was some magical “jacks” shaped rocks that help divert the water when it comes crashing to shore… really breath taking and unusually beautiful.

I also took a brisk walk around the Taipei Main MRT station, I found some sweet streets and bridges!

Trying out my HDR skillz… take a look! 1st one is Taipei 101 and the second one is Muzha Station by the Taipei Zoo.

Gloomy skies in Taipei, means its time for rainbows!

REWIND 05.08.09

Today I woke up a little later then usual, around 11:30 and had some lunch with my aunt, uncle and cousin at they house. It was a simple lunch of leftovers from the previous night, but was still delicious. After lunch and a short nap(teehee)… i went to go explore Long Shan Temple.

Before I went to the temple, I had to make one of my multi-daily trip to 711. I picked up a milk like container of “fruit drink”. Damn this drink was good, fresh fruit in liquid form def up there on my list of things to drink from 711. below are some pics of the fruit drink and some pics of the awesome buses haha yea right. One thing I did notice here is that people are more polite while on public transportation. People are every so willing to let go of their seats for the elderly, women and children. One other cool thing is that in the subway system (MRT) there are escalators. On these escalators, as people are going up and down, someone here has created an ingenious way creating a fast lane and a slow lane on the escalator! They simply drew a line right in the middle of the step, if you are in no hurry, you step to the right, creating a single line. If you are in a hurry, you walk straight up the left side!! Its so logical its blew my mind! haha!

Anyway, I digress. When i get to the temple, there are masses of people and i find myself waiting at the front to get a perfect shot with no people in it. Unfortunately there was no such opportunity so i just started snapping away. This temple was one of the larger temples in taiwan and there were masses of people there praying for good luck in health, work, etc etc… I got some good shots of people doing their thing, but i felt kinda guilty, so i prayed that they wouldn’t be offended!

After the temple, I went to my friend Sylvia clothing shop (Unik Clothing). She sells Affliction, Monarchy, and Sinful clothing at a hip location near SOGO (shopping center). I would dub this place a much more tame Melrose (trendy shops, a bunch of young people with money to spend). I did like the area and felt calm and content strolling through the streets. I chilled there for a bit and made plans w/ her and her friends to go clubbing later that night.

So that night we hitup 2 clubs, Spark and Primo. Both clubs were upscale and near Taipei 101. Clubbing felt the same as it does in LA, but the songs are just 6 months old and no one knows how to dance… such a burn! Anyway we hit up those 2 clubs and called it a night! 8)

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REWIND! 05.07.09

sweep, sweep, sweep…..

The day before, I felt like George Jetson with hundreds if not thousands of scooters zooming by. Today I felt like I took a step back into the past. My uncle, aunt and cousin took me to “Tong Hua Mountain Park” (tong hua is a type of flower which when in the right spot in the park, it seems like its snowing…

First we stopped for a bit to have some delicious “bien dang” aka lunch boxes for you n00bs. Me and my cousin had the chicken cutlet which was a lil dry and my aunt and uncle had the fish which was super delish!!!!!!!

After lunch, we procedded to hike up the mountain. The hike was a medium difficutly hike. There were man made steps which made the hike alot easier, and alot of places to rest and take pics. As we walked higher and higher, the very became ever so clear, and when we reached the top, we could see all of taipei and its surroundings… beautiful!! (too bad it was hazy)
The hike was a great way to keep the fat off and take a look at the local wildlife etc! It probably took about 2-3 hours to hike up and down the hill, which isn’t too shabby. Here is a portrait that we took with one of those mountain curve mirrors…

(per Gary Lee, I’m separating my posts into paragraphs.) After the hike, we headed back to the city. our first stop in the city was the market place, which i posted a youtube video of so you probably saw that. We bought some groceries for the next day and head back to take 5 back at my aunt and uncles.

When night fell, my cousin and I went to go find what else, but some food!! My cousin took me to this bomb duck meat specialty restaurant. The only thing I can say about that place is that is was bomb and here are the pics to prove it.
I had the duck and mung bean noodle soup and we shared a plate of the duck meat. Though the place was ghetto for american standards, it was full of people, and the the best part about it is that it the meal was 200NT for both me and my cousin, this equates to about 6 bucks!! woohoO!

After we ate, we went to xiemen shopping area, which I would probably compare to 3rd street in LA. It was filled with teenagers and so much “small food” (appetizers) that I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures without eating so I’ll save that for later 8).

We walked the shops of Xiemen for a bit and decided to shoot some pool. We hitup some pool hall which was 6 bucks for 2 hours and free drinks, OMG I couldn’t believe how cheap Taiwan is, no wonder all these Taiwanese people in america are cheap bastards!

We shot pool for 2 hours and headed back home where we stopped off at the local 711(which is on every block) and picked up some beer and snacks for the rest of the night. I got the STRONG 7 beer, because it made me feel more manly, and some spicy potato chip like snack.  haha at this point, I’ve made up my mind to try everything that 711 has to offer, before I go home, so wish me luck Hope everyone at home is good and well happy belated Cinco De Mayo! RRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrAAA!

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Check out this craziness. I went shopping at the local market place a couple days ago, which was filled with people up to the kazoo. There were parents, kids, dogs cats and most of all people on scooters cutting me off. . . I think Americans got the idea that asian are bad drivers because there is too much space on the road in the US. Ha! Enjoy the video and bare with me while I update!

11 mosquito bites, the love my blood, soooo itchy must.. get.. benadryl!!!!

As I found myself strolling through the streets of Taipei, I find myself feeling out of this world. With no cell phone in my pocket and a couple thousand scooters on the road I felt like I was on another planet! I felt like I was on the jetsons! I slept in, as usual and had a simple but tasty meal with my uncle and aunt… Sweet Soy Milk and a Croussiant mmmm.. then my cousin and I went to grab some lunch at the city center.  I totally commited a vacation foul, because I brought my camera, but I left my memory card in my laptop!! FAIL!!! Reguardless of that, I had some awesome beef noodle soup and some taiwanese style spicy dumplings in red oil. DEEELISSSH! We then hit up a small tea house called Grass Terrace.  I ordred the black tea… which took a really long time considering it black tea, but something cool about all these lil shops in taiwan is that they give you a “lottery” ticket everytime you purchase something from them. My cousin says that they have a drawing every 2 months so I handed over the ticket and wished him luck and told him that he owes me tea if he wins. haha. After the tea house, we decided to get some errands done, so we went back home to get my passport and I got a prepaid phone! CALL ME! (ill call you back on another line, i only have 29 minutes! haha 0981714378 *standard rates may apply*. after i got my phone, we went to the “global mall” to check everything out, i was pretty impressed with the mall. It was super clean and had plenty of room, unlike the rest of taipei. After the mall, we hit up a hotpot joint.. the pics are below, I had a duck blood and pig organ soup, extra spicy, and my cousin had the seafood mix. This was by far the best coagulated blood I’ve ever had. it was so soft and soooooo good and flavorful! If i was a vampire, I would def be pleased! By the time we finished dinner, we were super stuffed, so we decided to walk to the 32nd floor of the taiwanese county building. When we got there, we could see alot of the city from up there, so we made a game plan by point at various groups of lights. We planned to go to several small night markets and save the big ones for another day. I was sad when we got to the night markets though,  because we were soo full from dinner still, that we couldnt eat anything and everything looked delicious!!!! This is pretty much the night, my pictures are just a small reflection of the things i saw… although there were some stand outs…..

sars mask count: 2543
scooters with babys on board: 53
scooters with full grown basset hounds standing on the footrest and sniffing everything on the road: 1
mcdonalds deliver guys on scooters: 1

I’m totally gettin McDonalds delivered next week!! Good Mornin everyone !

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