Quick Update

Here's a quick update from my very happening weekend... elaboration post will come later in the week (might be a bit busier this week, plus it was REALLY happening)

Anyway, in just the past 2 days, I have

• traveled to Miaoli county by train
• stayed at a hostel right in the mountains
• climbed a hill, saw beautiful flowers and experienced very strong chilly winds
• Pillion-rode a scooter up some pretty steep mountain roads to reach the hostel. It was about 7pm, quite dark at some stretches and raining
• Slipped off my scooter which slid backwards because we were on a slope, the road was slippery, and our scooter brakes didn't hold properly
• Walked up the slope to get to the hostel.. it was sooo exhausting
• Saw fireflies along the walk up... pretty!
  
• ate 7 dishes (and helped prepare 1) cooked by AIESECers across 3 hours as part of a random creative cooking competition we decided to hold at the hostel
• Experienced temperatures of between 11-14 degrees at night and in the morning at our hostel on the mountain
• felt like I was taking a glimpse into heaven, what with all the mist and fog at our hostel and in the surrounding on our mountain
• traveled to Hsinchu by train and sang KTV for the 1st time since arriving in Taiwan

So as you can see, definitely a somewhat random but extremely happening weekend... I'll take a while to organize photos and write a more detailed post :)

Thanks again to the ICX team from whole of AIESEC Taiwan.. seems like I have become a frequent visitor of their monthly functional meetings

Trip to Keelung

So I have been lazy and failed to update my blog as frequently as I used to... but in compensation of that, I promise this post itself will be a proper feature of Keelung, a lovely port city north of Taiwan...

As you can see from the map, Keelung is further north of Taipei but it's really quite accessible. I took the bus and it was a 30 - 4o mins ride. You can also reach Keelung by train, and I'm guessing it takes just a bit longer than the bus ride... Because the city is so north at the coastline, much of its development is thanks to port activity and even till today, while ship traffic has lessened considerably due to developments in Kaohsiong for example, the city still has many trades depending on the sea.

Perhaps due to the fact that shipping hasn't really grown into such a major activity as it did in Singapore, I think Keelung presents a really fascinating mix of modern development (in terms of port activities) and retaining of "old flavor of life".

As a start, let me bring you through the sights I visited:

Bisha Harbor
We started from the National Taiwan Ocean University (which features courses on oceanography and marine biology) to enjoy the view... Imagine being able to see this everyday when you are in school...

We then walked along the shoreline to Bisha Harbor, where many fishing boats dock after their fishing trips. Because of that, the seafood market there is quite an amazing sight in terms of the variety of seafood sold.

Here you see lots of prawn species ready to be bought, cooked and eaten.

and here, you see LIVE cuttlefish!!!! and a LIVE octopus in a net!!!

Frankly, I have only see live cuttlefish and octopi in the Underwater World in Singapore... so it felt a bit weird to come face to face with them just before heading for a big seafood lunch... We also saw live sea urchins, crabs, clams, mussels etc...

Speaking of our big seafood lunch, be prepared to meet some very aggresive restaurant waitresses lining the corridor just outside the market (where the restaurants are located)... they'll literally surround you to persuade you to eat at their restaurants... otherwise, the food there's quite ok (I still think Ilan had better seafood)

He Ping Island (和平島)
This place is sooo beautiful! It reminded me of my Tai Dong visit in 2007 as well as of Cappadokya in Turkey... The island is connected to Keelung by a small bridge and its main attraction is the coastine, which has been weathered by waves and wind into a really beautiful and natural sight...

You see a small inlet where the waves from the sea travel inland, and eventually form shallow and clear wading pools which become home to small fishes, crabs and seaweed.

Further out along the shore, you will find weathered rocks like below:
As you can see, the rocks are kind of in strips separated by "valleys" carved out by the water. There are also small potholes on the surfaces of these huge rocks.

This is shot taken closer to the land. Notice the different colored rocks we are standing on. Clearly the different geological components of the area have led to this very unique final formation. In this photo, you can also see Keelung island, a small hump in the distance which can be reached by ferry from Bisha Harbor.

So in conclusion, if you are a lover of the sea and nature, He Ping Island is a must-visit for its spectacular scenary!

Zhong Zheng Park (中正公園)
Zhong Zheng Park is located at the top of a hill in Keelung city, within walking distance from the train station. It was quite a lot of stairs to climb in order to reach the top, but a climb worth taking. Along the way, we came across a few small temples, a memorial hall for the Lunar Seventh Month festivities and finally reached the Kuan Yin statue that overlooks the town and harbor.

It was nice and breezy at the top, and surprisingly quite crowded by families who had brought their children to enjoy the many carnival stalls there.

However, I'm not sure if there are buses that travel up so if you're not a fan of stairs, you should either take a cab or give this park a miss :)


For more photos of my Keelung trip, check http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6531545&l=cf648dcfdd&id=576355703

And for more visitor information on Keelung, please visit http://tour.klcg.gov.tw/english/index2.asp

p.s. there is a visitor office right beside the Keelung Train Station so remember to drop by and pick up maps of the place!

A tribute to Singapore Kopi

I was lamenting to my colleagues about the lack of really cheap coffee here in Taipei so naturally they asked how much is the coffee in Singapore... and naturally, I told them a cup of hot coffee in the coffee shop costs SGD 0.80, which is roughly about 17 NTD...

Now that's considered very cheap, considering that the cheapest made-on-the-spot coffee you can get here is from 7-11 or convenience stalls and costs NTD 30 (that's for a Latte) Packaged or canned coffee costs about NTD 25 here, so Singapore still beats that...

From there, our conversation continued into how the coffee in Singapore is made, how to order coffee etc... which made me realise how unique our eating and coffee culture is in Singapore...
this post is dedicated to Singapore Kopi! :)

Making Kopi
Here, you have the typical 'equipment' for making coffee...

The boiling water, which goes into the pouring can. On the rim of the can, you can see something that looks like a filter... That is the coffee sock holding the coffee powder. The hot water is poured through the powder.

Here's a close up view of the sock... Here, you can also see the condensed milk and sugar used in Kopi (more explanations on the names in a moment)
Coffee from pouring can then goes into the cup. (p.s. the guy in this photo is showing off his skills.. they don't usually pour from such a height). Depending on the person preparing, the milk and sugar are poured into the cup before or after the coffee goes in.
After adding a final bit of hot water, your steaming cut of Kopi is ready for SGD 0.80!

Ordering your Kopi
Now you know how it's made, you need to know how to order it like a true Singaporean... It's an art similar to how some Americans order their Starbucks (Half-caff half-fat soy latte grande with rose scented syrup and vegan dark-chocolate biscotti)... so here's how it works:



All the above apply to orders for Tea (or in Hokkien, Teh)
Warning though... not all drink stalls may understand this, as far as my experience goes, it works best with Singapore chinese because of all the Hokkien involved... but it really depends, we have ordered Kopi-O gao Kosong at an Indian stall before and it came out just fine...

Prices vary for Kopi, Kopi-O, Kopi-O Kosong and Peng... I don't think they change for Gao and Siew Dai...

and speaking of prices, it also depends on where you have your Kopi...
So here's a quick guide to the types of eating places in Singapore (and where you can find Kopi... If you want to order Kopi in a Chinese Restaurant, do it at your own risk of embarassing yourself)

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall at night

I happened to pass through the memorial hall on Thursday night and took a few shots...

Imagine living in a place where...

you stay in a rustic house like this...

this is the view that greets you from your kitchen window...

this is part of the view just outside your home...

This is the kind of night view you can experience within a 10 mins walk from your home...

No I do not stay in such a place, but my colleague does :) She was nice enough to invite me over to her home on Yang Ming Shan on Saturday (4th April), which is the Tomb Sweeping weekend in the Chinese calendar... the visit to her home was followed by a hike around the area on the mountain...

check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239672&id=576355703&l=6298d651a3

on a very random note, I just HAVE to post this photo... I find it sooo funny :)

Linking Park live in Taipei on Yang Ming Shan! :)
ok ok... so it's just a spring exhibition thingy in the park :)

Way overdue updates...

So yes... I have been lazy and have not blogged anything in more than a week... my bad... many apologies to all you ardent readers out there for the absence (this is me assuming that there are ardent readers in the 1st place... ahhh self-disillusionment)

anyway... I suppose I shall update briefly about the weekend of 28 and 29 March, aka last weekend of March aka my 2 month anniversary in Taipei... how time flies!

If I could choose one word to describe that weekend, it probably will be "Weird"... here's what happened...

Saturday
I was going to visit Cheng Chi University and do a bit of hiking with Jhenyu (LCP of CCLC) in the hills in that area.. the hike will supposedly bring us to 貓空 (mao kong) area where we will be just about in time for dinner and some post dinner hot tea up in the hills... I was supposed to reach the university at 4.30pm, so I dutifully traveled to the right MRT station, found the bus stop and boarded the right bus number... Just when I was wondering why the journey was taking so long (Jhenyu definitely mentioned that the university is quite near the MRT station) when our bus exited the tunnel and horror of horrors, I saw Taipei 101... which meant I was headed in the opposite direction and was back in the city area!!

Lesson 1: always check the bus boards for the bus routes, and if I can't seem to understand the routes (which I occasionally still cannot manage), ASK THE DRIVER!

so I had a brief tour of the 101 area on a busy Saturday afternoon... only consolation was seeing the Merlion appear in Taipei:

Yes the Merlion was featured on the poser for some Taipei Travel Fair :)
After that round trip by bus, I finally reached the university at 5.40pm... and since the sun was starting to go down, Jhenyu and I mainly walked around one of the smaller slopes on campus... better than nothing I suppose... :) after that we took a bus up to 貓空 and headed for one of the tea shops along the slopes...


Dinner was good as usual... featuring my goose meat mini hot pot meal, and our chinese tea set... thank god for Jhenyu.. despite many tea joys in Singapore, I have yet to master the art of making chinese tea...

Sunday
so I had a good dinner on Saturday, good conversations with Jhenyu and good tea... unfortunately, thanks to the tea, I could not sleep on Saturday night!!! I think I managed to drift off fitfully for a while, though not enough to call a proper rest...

Lesson 2: don't drink too much chinese tea after 9.45pm

In any case, I was up early on Sunday to visit the Martry's Shrine.. it was 329 (29 March),　Taiwan's Youth Day which commemorates the revolutionary Tenth Uprising in 1911 and there was a marching ceremony at the Shrine...
unfortunately, we arrived too late, only to find that the marching ceremony was already over... and that due to some commemoration ceremony that day, the shrine was closed to visitors that morning...

Lesson 3: when it comes to schedules, check and check again :)

so yes.. it was quite a strange weekend in that sense.. but nonetheless, I did visit some places that I have never been to before, plus I always appreciate the great conversations I can have with the people I hang out with...

more photos from that weekend (and some from the weekdays before that) can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239661&id=576355703&l=0a32b48fa2
p.s. also features some photos on "mini elections" hype in Taipei