Sam’s Photo Blog

Flying is highly dependent on personal preferences, each person have adopted to a certain set of guidelines and tries to stick to it. Some prefer the isle seats to easily move around, some prefer the center for least turbulence, while some prefer the window seats for the view and a place to lean.
I personally go by window seats; music with earbuds; and no food.

The commotions and rumbling metropolitan engulfed by nimbus clouds.

It is a matter of luck which side gets the view of the city and interesting cloud formations.


Cruising at 33,000ft.


Toronto from above, with the flat and grid-like layout. Quite a contrast against the Hong Kong skyline surrounding the shoreline.

Staring down Yonge Street. Almost home.

For the last 2 weeks, I had stayed primarily in Dongguan, China. We have been very busy with work so haven’t wandered too far away from the office, hotel, or the main restaurant district.

Incidentally, I realized I had written another post, “Life in China” in July of 2008, during my internship. Things have changed a lot in the city, there are construction cranes everywhere and the government have drastically reduced the number of motorcycles on the road. However, it is still so much fun to see the bikes, boats, and daily life in China!

Dinner time in the buggy!

Urban planning in China: why do they laid down the roads before the buildings?


Evenings in the square, family come out to chat, dance, and let their kids roam free.

How did you spend your Canada Day? Philip and I decided to join the China office in a day of team building activities.

We were assigned to team Wolf, incidentally there is a Wolf Wang on our team!

Team Teddy Bear.

Comrade Reading Zhang from Team Spaceship.

After we lined up according to the teams they turned all drill-sergeant on us….


Some of the activities involved crossing shaky bridges as a team and helping each other.

Crossing over a 40m long tight-rope. It got pretty shaky in the middle.

Team Teddy Bear showing off their team spirit.

Lunch time!

Water obstacle course.

WTF? Get a move on!

Slowed down and got wet at the last jump!

Triple FAIL. Falling into the water in a white dress.

Award ceremony.

Team Tornado won First place!

How many people can swing over and cram onto the platform. Best game ever.

Continuing from Part I of our hiking trip in the Adirondacks Park.

In the 4 days we experienced all sorts of weather conditions. On the 3rd day we woke up with 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground, here is Ludwik defrosting his boots. I dreaded putting on my frozen boots, as my toes would be freezing for the next couple of hours.

Unsure of the weather forecast we packed everything and returned to the visitor center for some updates.

In the snow covered forest, it was so quiet.

Taking a break to enjoy the scenery.

With a promising forecast for Monday we decided to stay in the park. In the afternoon, we decided to challenge Cascade Mountain.

However, we had driven too far and spent 45minutes climbing up a waterfall and wondered why it was so difficult….

As we neared the peak. It was snowing hard with strong winds.

Last push to the peak in the deep snow.

White-out at the top of Cascade Mountain - 4098 ft (1249 m). It was an amazing experience even with the snow blowing sideways and very low visibiity.


That night we had a nice campfire and had a huge success making popcorn (usually it ends up being a giant fireball…).

Brian reviewing some of the footage from the peak.

Our last day at the park brought fair weather, we were very excited.

We packed everything into our rental Ford Flex. It was a tank.

Ludwik leading the way looking for trail makers in the snow covered paths.

It was quite slippery with snow and ice covering the rocks. But going up was easier than going down.

Taking in the panoramic view at 3352 ft (1022 m).

The brothers being silly.

The lookout to the other mountains in the region.

Kenny living on the edge.

Brian and his best friend. I still don’t know how he felt safe letting go of the tripod.

Chief Hojo.

Back to the ground level and start on the journey home.