Cancun

Hello ~

If you have read one of my previous posts, "Silent Warm Nights," I mentioned how I was going on a family vacation to Cancun, Mexico.

Whilst I'm writing this, I'm back from the trip!

Being the anxious person I am, flying is not 100% fun for me. Sure, when there's no turbulence and pain in my ears, I wouldn't tense up as easily. However, when the plane takes off and lands at uncomfortably nauseous movements, nope. NoPe. NOPE.

When I get nervous or really anxious, I would clam up and stay silent in fear. All my thoughts turn into possibilities of things going wrong. My fear of heights also triggers more ideas of plummeting to death.

Isn't my mind a soothing place?
*Sarcasm*

When the plane's flying smoothly, and when my mind isn't frantically pressing the panic button, I'd try to distract myself by watching movies, listening to music, or sleeping.

Despite having to wake up at 4 in the morning to catch our connecting flight to Atlanta, I didn't feel very sleepy on the plane. So I watched movies, took photos out the window, and listened to music.

The landing into Cancun was horrifying. The plane was swaying side to side, up and down during the last 10 minutes of the flight. GEEZ. I felt my stomach flipping around, my head spinning, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.
It was one of the worst feelings I've had recently.

Besides my series of mini panic attacks, we made it past security and border control and exited the airport.

BOY it was humid and sunny! X__X
It wasn't as unbearable as Hong Kong though, so that was a bit better.

When we got to our hotel, we upgraded our rooms and got a better view.

The crashing sound of waves was really nice in terms of calming down my nerves.




You can also see the moonlight hitting the dark waters. The way the moon hides behind hazy clouds, or when thunder flashes in the distance.

We signed up for two mini trips to have outside of the hotel, one at a water park-thing, and another for submarine riding.

If you want to see Day 1 of my trip, it's actually on my YouTube channel :)

Click Here to watch.

On the third day of our trip, we went to spend a day at the water park. There was only 4 activities to do, zip lining, ATV driving, river paddling, or river swimming. I only did 2, zip lining and ATV driving. We did these 2 before drying off and having lunch. I didn't want to get wet again, so I read a book whilst my parents and brother went river swimming. 

I hate heights 100%. No doubt.

My parents and brother forced me to zip line because they "didn't want to split up and possibly have me lost."

I CALL BULLSHT.

It was the worstttttttttttttttttttttt.

My fingers were cramped and raw with redness from clutching on the harness so tightly. My whole body could not move, and I felt dizzy after getting from one landing to the other. The whole zip line activity is an hour long. There was also 4 different exits, but I couldn't leave my family.

D:

The zip lines were like 20-30 km off the ground, over forests, roads, etc. My legs felt weak, and I could barely breathe. It was cloudy and rainy, so the rushing cold wind didn't help much.

X __ X

Sometimes, there would be bridges made of rope and planks to get to the next zip line platforms.
Here's one for an example, but the one's there, had no metal support on the hand rails.



It was sometimes worse than going on the zip line because some people thought it was freaking funny to jump and sway it around.

Let me TELL YOU.

If you are ever one of those people.
STOP.
It may seem funny to you, but not for some others.
Be CONSIDERATE.
Not only for people's POSSIBLE ANXIETY AND FEARS, BUT ALSO FOR YOUR OWN AND OTHER PEOPLE'S SAFETY. It won't be funny if someone gets hurt, or has a panic attack. And it certainly won't be fun for you or the person if something does happen.

Moving along...

The only time I felt comfortable with the zip line was the final line that lead to splashing into the river. My feet were probably a foot or two from the water, so it wasn't as scary as the other ones.

After that, we all went to ATV driving.

Being the messed up parents my parent's are, told my brother to just lie about his age to be able to drive before we got to the water park.

(He's 17 right now, and the age qualification is 18 or up).

Anyways, when we got there. My parents drove off before we got a say in getting in the back of their ATV.

Great.

So my brother got behind the wheel of a ATV, and I sat in the passengers seat. A staff worker asked for his age, and he lied about being 18 and had no I.D. to prove it like the worker asked.

Despite that, the guy let us go and my brother managed to drive away.

Note: MY BROTHER NEVER HAD DRIVING LESSONS OR DRIVING EXPERIENCE AT ALL. SO THIS IS HIS FIRST TIME ACTUALLY DRIVING A VEHICLE THAT'S NOT A TOY OR GAME.

A few minutes down the curving path, my brother would hit a few branches or two from driving off of the path by a bit. That is until he smashes into a tree and gets a rock stuck under the ATV.

We spend about 5 minutes trying to push the ATV, pulling the rock out, and driving away but it doesn't budge. The smell of gas would just cloud up around us. A group of people eventually drove up and tried to help us, but nothing they did helped. A line of ATV's formed when the people gave up on helping us and drove away. They did drive away to get help, but we eventually jogged back to get someone.

We were finally freed and my brother drove more cautiously and slowly (but not better by much). I don't think I've ever shouted "ease," "right," "left," or "turn" so much in my life. He'd still hit branches, walls, and rocks though.

We got into another crash at a big dip into a cave of water. We rammed into the side of the cave and couldn't move for a while. I heard a loud bang a few moments later when the people behind us got out and helped us. From there, we eventually got to a checkpoint where a worker was stationed there and pulled us over. Apparently, the front right wheel was flat.

~ Slow claps ~

We ended up riding with two other people to get to the end of the course.

It took about 45 minutes for us, when it's supposed to be like 20 to 30 minutes.

-___-

It was still rainy and cold, and to top it off, I was then covered in dirt, sand, and mud.

The next day, we went to Cozumel to ride a submarine and look at reefs. They even gave us a certificate XD

After that, we got some snacks and ice cream before heading back to our hotel. Mmmmm, raspberry sorbet and cheesy goodness.  :)

When we got back to our hotel, it was time to pack up and leave the morning after.
The flight back wasn't that bad. I didn't even notice that we were taking off on the way to Atlanta.

A few hours later, My family and I finally made it back home in the middle of the afternoon.

Ahhhh...

The sweet and stable Wifi.

It was a nice change of setting for a while. The soothing sounds of the ocean; and of course, the buffet.

;)

I'm all about that food and photo opportunities.

~ Vicky

Return of the Medieval ~ Castle Village

Greetings my brave knights, for you have traveled beyond ye hills.

(I don't know why I did that, I thought it would go along with the title's theme...)

If you don't already know, I'm a New York City based blogger/film maker/photographer/etc. When people hear the words "New York City," most people would automatically think of Times Square, Madison Garden, The Empire State Building, or other famous landmarks in the city. I mostly see tourists roaming around these areas, but they rarely branch out to the hidden gems that surrounds them.

All these local restaurants, bistros, cafes, and bars rarely get visited by new comers (unless you go online of course). You may disagree with me, but this is what I've seen so far.

Now that you know this, I'm going to circle back to it later on. Bare with me.

In my previous post, I mentioned how I was a part of a documentary program and how it was kind of difficult to get production days down. When we all were beginning to shoot our documentaries, people had split up with their groups to go out and film whatever they had to film. My partner was out that day, so one of the program's instructor and I went out to Washington Heights to get some b-roll for the film. We spent the whole day walking from 165th st to about 195th st. The weather was nice, so the b-roll scouting didn't seem much of a hike.

In the end, the footage I got was never used in the documentary .-.

Haha, it wasn't a waste of time though. I really enjoyed the walk. We stumbled upon a gem of an area called "Castle Village" (see? I'm circling back now).

I never heard of this neighborhood, but my breathe was taken when we continued to explore the place. The apartment complexes looked AMAZING.

For someone that loves to observe and study the little things, the architecture is absolutely beautiful. It's like you walked into The Renaissance and the Medieval times.

The walkways, gardens, and rooftops were made with grey bricks that gave off a very earthy feeling. It reminds me of the book and movie, "Ella Enchanted."


It's magnificent.

I don't have the footage from the first time I went there, but I did go back recently with two of my closest friends. They were just as amazed as I was, and (of course) I brought my camera to capture our surroundings.

The area's location is brilliant, you get a great view of the George Washington Bridge and the Hudson River. Boats sail by as you hear the rush of passing cars on the freeway. In the distance, you can see cars crawl across the bridge over to New Jersey.

It's a place you wouldn't expect in a city like this.

With the sunny and humid weather, we didn't stay long. Even though it was a short visit, I wished we could have enjoyed the view more. The  sun was beating down our back, so that didn't help the relaxing and beautiful feeling I intended for it to be.

Despite being there for only two times, there's still moments I will try to grasp on. 

If you ever get the chance to visit New York City, or even if you do live in NYC, try to explore new places.

The cafe you always walk by on the way to school.
The little bistro that you pass by all the time.

Just find someplace new, you might find something worth while.

~ Vicky

(P.S. It kinda feels odd to end a post without my usual ending of "Until then, bye ~" but it feels different in a nice way).