Dave was in town!

Dave was in Taipei for about a week thanks to the Golden Week in Japan (where's the golden week in Taiwan??) so of course we hung out and had lots of fun :) it's also cool cos this is the 3rd time we've met up with each other and it's always been in a different country... 1st in Japan in March 2008 during APX, then in Singapore in December 2008 when he was on holiday, and now in Taipei... I wonder where we'll meet again next...

Anyway, this post shall be a photo feast cos otherwise it's too hard to describe all the stuff we did :)

We had Sichuan noodles lunch with the rest of my colleagues and Dave was cordially invited to join us the next day at...

Karaoke! random self-organized thingy in a really fancy KTV place... I thought it was a hotel when we walked in... plus, they served really good dinner, had very well-dressed waiters and waitresses, and all in all really looked like a hotel... our KTV room even came with an attached bathroom... I am so impressed with KTV in Taiwan... even Dave was impressed, which says a lot since he's in the land where KTV was born (Japan)

then we went for hot spring at the 八煙溫泉會館 Ba-Ian Hot Spring Resort on a Saturday... my first Hot Spring experience and a really cool one... the place was in the middle of another mountain 金山 so while soaking we could see outside to the vast amoun of greenery...
and we ordered the package that came with lunch, which was a Japanese meal with a lot of dishes! here's Dave posing with his Unagi lunch set... there was rice, salad, cold tofu with sea urchin sauce, curry fried chicken, mushroom soap and pickled fish with lots of roe...

So we got back to Taipei city at about 3pm and since it was Dave's last day in Taiwan, we had to try something very Taiwanese... which led us to...
Ding Tai Fung 鼎泰丰 for dinner! This is our basket of fish dumplings and a bit of our vege dish... Aside from really tasty food (it tastes better than the Singapore one), I was really impressed by the service quality because

• when I submitted our orders (you get to place your order while waiting for your seat), the waitress asked if I was new and recommended their Xiao Long Bao... I told her my friend doesn't take pork and she went through our other orders and pointed out that the shrimp dumplings came with pork. She then proceeded to inform me which ones didn't contain pork
• The queue was really long as usual and we were told we would have to wait about 45 mins. But 30 mins into waiting, another waitress came up to us and asked if we were ok to share a bigger table with other guests. We said ok and were ushered in.
• Turns out they placed us at an international table as the other guests who arrived were all Japanese... so all the waitresses and waitors who served our table were the ones who could speak fluent Japanese (and English of course, since they didn't know Dave is "from Japan" too)
• when our 1st dish arrived, the waitress checked our order list and confirmed if we did order a pork bun... which meant she actually knew that ours was the sort of "don't eat pork" type... and this was a different waitress from the one at the door.. so they have really efficient communication throughout the whole restaurant!

and finally, after our sumptious dinner with great service, we headed to Ice Monster 冰館 for some dessert: Mixed Fruit Ice! We were both so full after that :)

So it has been a bunch of very fulfilling days and meals.. isn't it great when friends visit? :)

Weekend in Miaoli / Hsinchu - 25 and 26

I didn't realise how much of a backlog this was until I looked up the exact dates I was in Miaoli... But I'm committed to clearing all that backlog today so reader beware: you're in for my blogging diarrhea fit! :)

so yes... the trip to Miaoli was quite a last minute decision... Justian from YZLC MSNed me on Friday evening asking if I was interested in joining their ICX Functional Meeting (yes again.. I am becoming a regular on their monthly FMs) which will be held in Miaoli this month (April)... so naturally I said ok and next morning, we met up at Taipei Train Station for a 1.5 hour (I think) train ride to Miaoli.

Miaoli is further South of Taipei and at this time of the year (end April till early May) is famous for its Tung flower blossoms. This is the season when the flowers start falling from the trees and because the flowers are white and extremely plentiful, they have been described as 五月雪 or "Snow in May".. you can read more about the flower and the season HERE

Of course, one can see these flowers in other parts of Taiwan as well (even in Taipei) but this season is even more significant in Miaoli because of its link to the Hakka people and their culture, which is another characteristic of Miaoli...

If I could summarize this weekend trip to Miaoli in one word, that word will easily be: Nature.

We stayed at a peaceful hostel high in the mountains... riding up on scooters from the train station took us almost 45 mins and involved some pretty winding hill roads as well as some really really steep roads... but the scenary along the way was really amazing and once we were at the hostel, it was so refreshing to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city...
Here are some shots of the hostel (it's actually a 三合院, one of those oldish chinese houses with a courtyard in the middle) and the greenery found on the way to and around it... (they're a bit small but don't worry. I will provide my facebook photos link at the end of this post)

The hostel is called 黃石山莊 and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to spend some time within nature... they only started operating early this year as a hostel. Their main "trade" is actually hand-making lights using bronze and colored glass so the craftsmen work in the left section of the house, while the hostel rooms are on the right...and needless to say, you'll get a chance to see their works of art around the house...

Anyway, after checking in we headed to the Wood Sculpture Museum area, not to visit the museum but to check out the mountain (hill?) park beside it... it was surprisingly crowded and goes to show how the Taiwanese enjoy their nature :)


We climbed up quite a lot of steps to reach the top of the hill and all along the side we could see Tung flowers on the ground... some people were even picking them up and stringing them into a flower bracelet :)

right at the top, we were greeted by the sight of a HUGE tea plantation maintained by some Buddhist society... and beside the plantation, there was a specially maintained meditation area which is open to the public.. (Shirley, I think you'll love this place :P)

So in terms of actually introducing Miaoli, this is really all I have... for the rest of my photos, check out http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6633795&l=547d5e9d81&id=576355703
You'll find some shots of the hostel in the early morning with fog rolling all over the place.. it's like being in some really zen and heaven-ish place :)

We headed to Hsinchu on Sunday afternoon instead of staying on in Miaoli because the weather was getting quite bad with rain and lots of fog... and I didn't get to see much of Hsinchu since the trip was mainly to go for Karaoke there :) lots of fun, but more on Karaoke later on :)

Think about it...

"Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon's location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?"

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

How many people have you Validated today?

Sunday in Ban Qiao 板橋 - 15 Mar 09

After a very eventful Saturday, I headed out again on Sunday, this time to Ban Qiao 板橋 in Taipei county... many thanks to Justian and Yue Guang from YZLC for being my tour guides that day :)

Ban Qiao is the largest and most developed area in Taipei county, and is also where the County government is located... interestingly, the building is open to the public so we headed to the top floor (oops I don't remember which floor it is) to check out the view...

it's clearly quite a tall building for us to have such a superb, unobstructed view of the surroundingsfrom this next photo, I am sure you can roughly guess the ratio of scooters to cars in Taipei :)

After that, we headed for lunch and on the way we came across THIS!!
a store selling Singapore fried noodles, rice and Bak Kut Teh!! haha... we didn't eat there though, which was probably a good choice cos I did enjoy our lunch: hungarian beef noodles :)

Our post-lunch itinerary involved total immersion into chinese culture so we headed on to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden (林家花園) - chinese names always sound funny when translated to English, don't you think?... you can read more about the history of the place at http://www.tonyhuang39.com/tony0500/tony0500.html.. there are loads of photos there and in my Facebook album (link will be at the end of this post) so at this point, I shall just feature these 2 shots from the garden:


This guy was just one of the many people painting in the area.. do you see the resemblance between his painting and the real thing?

the environment there was really great and we ended up spending almost 2 hours there, simply because it was so relaxing and conducive for conversations... (p.s. from now till 31st May, entrance to the garden is free as long as you produce a receipt from any other shop in Taiwan)

So if you happen to drop by Ban Qiao, remember to visit the garden, and while you're there, ask for directions to a store selling cuttlefish soup... if you get to the market area, it's hard to miss because there's always a looooong queue... but well, if there's cheap and good food, the queue will be worth it :)

Carrot cake (HUGE!) for only NTD 15 and cuttlefish soup (overflowing with cuttlefish!) for only NTD 35!!!

So yes these were definitely the highlights of my trip to Ban Qiao 板橋 :)

For more photos, check http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231685&id=576355703&l=b45c83980a

p.s. finally I have cleared my backlog of updates
p.p.s. I just realised that most of my trip updates feature food :)

Danshui Trip - 14 Mar 09

14 March 2009 was White Valentine's Day (mostly celebrated in Japan and Korea as far as I know) and I spent it with a big crowd of AIESECers at Dan Shui...
Dan Shui (淡水) is located north of Taipei and literally translated, means "fresh water"... it's famous for the Dan Shui river, which flows into the Taiwan Strait so naturally, one would expect lots of water, and boats like below :)

The trip was planned by some of the members and we started off with a "store treasure hunt". We were split into groups and each group was given 6 photos taken from stores in Dan Shui... so we had about 1.5 hours to explore the areas and locate the stores... it was quite fun and fulfilling, especially since we also took the chance to explore the food in the area...

This is my ah-gei 阿給, it's glass noodles packed inside tofu with some kind of sauce... isn't it creative? why have boring noodles outside of tofu when it can be inside?

This is me with my stick of potato chips... again, Taiwanese creativity with food... why bother having chips separate from each other and packed in a bag when you can "curve-slice" the potato, skewer it and roast it over fire? (I don't think there's such a word as "curve-slice" officially but it's the only word I can think of, considering the slices are cut such that they are linked together... like skinning an apple in a single slice)

Other tasty food I encountered: Dan Shui fish balls (with meat fillings!) and Iron eggs or 鐵蛋 (eggs which have been repeatedly stewed in a mix of spices and air dried)... that means I've pretty much eaten all the supposed famous food from Dan Shui... hooray for treasure hunts!!

so with a very full stomach, and an incomplete treasure hunt paper (we only managed to find 4 of the 6 stores), we gathered again with the other groups and headed out for part 2 of our Dan Shui adventure...

After a brief (but very windy and cold) boat ride across the river, we reached Ba Li (八里) island... yes there's a Bali in Taiwan too!! :)

It's a small township, and mostly visited by people looking to enjoy some nature and cycling... Here I am with Maxx, an intern from Thailand/New Zealand (he's Thai but has studied in NZ since he was 13) who is working in Kaohsiong but comes to Taipei some weekends just to sightsee and hang out with AIESECers here.

Ba Li is quite nice for cycling, since there are specially constructed tracks for cyclists and you get some really nice views along the way

for example, rows and rows of mangrove trees beside us (that wooden path is for pedestrians)
and a blend again between the city, factories, nature and open space...

So all in all, it was another great day spent with lots of cool people exploring another cool place in Taipei... and just to round it off, here's part of what I had for dinner :)

Mussels, prawn balls, Miso soup, sauteed squid, vegetables and (missing from the photo) diced chicken!!!

for the rest of the photos, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231682&id=576355703&l=2087f7cab4

Speak Out for RED!

I was extremely touched and proud to come across the “Speak Out For Red!" multimedia competition organized by AIESEC Singapore. What a creative yet impactful way to reach out to the masses and engage them in the fight to raise awareness and dispel discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS. For more information, please visit www.speakoutforred.com

Please support the cause for HIV/AIDS!!

Intellectual and Classical Friday (13th!)

time really flies... another week has just gone by! and all this while I was lazy to update about last week.... my backlog is getting worse... anyway, here's some updates about last Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday
My colleages and I went to the Grand Hotel in Taipei to attend a seminar “金融海嘯下，企業經營生存之道研討會” (How enterprises can survive in this financial crisis)... the hotel was quite fancy.. very old-ish kind of flavour (see here) and the seminar was mildly interesting... my boss was one of the panelists sharing his advice and another speaker, Professor Seeto also left quite an impression for the way he was talking about the need for education system to be closer to the industry, so that the people who graduate have the skills and knowledge for the kinds of roles they will play in the industry work force... definitely got me thinking (and I will probably share more about that later on)


After the seminar, I had a quick dinner with one of my colleagues, Quentin at Shilin Night Market, where he introduced me to 水煎包, pork rib herbal soup and smelly tofu... it was really a nice dinner :)
After dinner, I headed to the National Concert Hall at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall for a symphony orchestra concert titled White Day Concert (next day was White Valentine's Day you see... 白色情人節） Ereca, another colleague had given some of us free tickets so I was at the concert with Prior and his wife, Phoebe, Sandy and Sandy's friend (whom I didn't get to meet cos their seats were further away)... anyway, the music was really good... I felt so cultured and classical after that :)

and that was Friday... very eventful, wasn't it? I think for ease of reading, I shall put Saturday and Sunday into separate posts... :)