Day in Changhua County - 18 May 2009

This post is way overdue.. but to do justice to the trip, I still have to update it here :)

as mentioned in the previous post, I traveled with Prior and Eva to the middle of Taiwan... Saturday (17th May) was spent in Nan Tou county where I finally saw the Sun Moon Lake... Sunday (18th May) was spent in Changhua itself experiencing lots of wonderful food... :)

Here's a map just to show you very quickly where Changhua is within the whole Taiwan Island... It's quite a quiet place where you can see immediately that the pace of life is quite different from that of Taipei. There aren't as many tall buildings either so it's refreshing to be able to see so much sky...

We started by picking up Sandy (who was in the area having attended a wedding the day before) and headed to our first stop, the temple street at Lugang...
You can probably tell from the roof that this temple is really old.. old enough that its construction did not involve using any nails at all; everything is pieced together using wood...

As a matter of fact, walking around in this part of Lugang gives an overall "old" kind of feel...
The houses here really date back tens, even hundreds of years for some... so it was definitely a cool experience walking around in these narrow alleys and occassionaly peeping into people's homes...

We also paid a visit to 八卦山 where there is a sitting Buddha statue that overlooks the entire Changhua city... I thought it was really great that they made the area around the statue so family-friendly since it brings people together and makes things more lively...

That aside, the rest of my Changhua trip was mainly full of food.. here's a montage of all the food I ate and had taken a photo of (yes I missed out some)

1. Yam Pork Bun
2. BBQ Squid
3. 麵茶, a kind of paste in peanut-ish sauce
4. 地瓜球 (Tapioca balls)
5. 狀元糕 (literally means Scholar Cake), tastes a bit like Kueh Tu-Tu in Singapore
6. 五味庚, a dish that had cuttlefish, prawn dumplings, pork dumplings, mushrooms and vegetables (hence the 五 or five in the name)
7. Shaved ice dessert
8. Pork Bun
9. Fried chicken wing
10. 肉圓, pork dumpling (ate this on Monday morning in the office)

I actually ate more cos we had breakfast and dinner at Prior...

All in all, extremely fulfilling weekend trip to mid-Taiwan which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a cultural, scenic and gastronimical experience!

For more photos, visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258209&id=576355703&l=d79096179e

Day in Nantou County - 17 May 2009

So this is again way overdue but because I'm committed to the cause of enticing more people to come to Taiwan and discover its beauty, I'm still going to post this :)

So on Friday evening 16 May 09, I traveled to Zhang Hua county with Prior and Eva since Prior was going back to his hometown and invited me along.. this is my first time to the central part of Taiwan and it did prove to be an amazing weekend...

on Saturday 17 May 2009, we headed to Nantou county (see map on the left). Prior drove and the trip took just abit over 1 hour thanks to a new expressway that opened linked Zhang Hua and Nantou...

As you can see from the map, Nantou is actually the only county in the whole of Taiwan that does not touch the shoreline... so yes it's entirely inland...

Yet despite that, I can assure you that it's visited by many many people because the allure of the Sun Moon Lake is just too great


It really is very very beautiful! they say that the lake looks different at different times of the day and I do believe it even though I did not see it (we spent about 3 hours plus there)... surrounded by mountains covered in greenery, the lake gives a really peaceful feel to visitors...
The road goes all around the lake so there were a lot of tourist buses as well as cyclists... our 1st stop was the Wen Wu Temple (文物廟), a beautiful temple directly facing the lake.. a large part of it was damaged in the 1999 earthquake but thanks to aid that poured in from within and outside of Taiwan, it has been properly restored...

We then went on to take a boat ride on the lake... these boat rides come with and without guided tours... we did the one without since Prior was pretty much an experienced tour guide already :)

The boat trip was about 1.5 hours and included a stop at another smaller temple as well as a view of this mini island in the lake (it used to be much bigger but most of it sank in the earthquake). If you go during the weekdays, you can even go on the island... you can't do that on weekends since there are already too many visitors then and I'm sure that island will sink if we all went on it :)

for more info on Sun Moon Lake, visit http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/sun.aspx?Lang=EN

After the Sun Moon Lake, we then headed to the Pu Li brewery
The brewery is actually featured in the book "Blue Ocean Strategy in Taiwan" as one of the case studies... Once a pure brewery that almost went out of business, it is now one of the biggest and most famous breweries in the whole of Taiwan and draws huge crowds of locals and tourists every day to buy products related to 紹興酒 (Shao-xing wine, a form of traditional Chinese wine fermented from rice) or to visit its museum and learn more about the process of making various forms of alcohol as well as random facts about alcohol...

A tunnel whose walls are made up of wine urns...
More on Puli Brewery at http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/TW/04001114.aspx

Our final stop of the day was at the 中台禪寺 or the Chung Tai Chan Monastery... located in quite the rural part of the area (we passed by farms and large plots of lands before reaching it), the monastery is built by the largest (I think) Buddhist association in Taiwan and is said to cost NTD 4 billion to build...

From the outside, you can already tell that a lot of effort was put into the design and construction of this monastery... when you step inside, it's even more amazing...

Here you see the grand hall of the monastery on the 1st floor... that statue on the left is one of the four guardians in the halls and is 5 storeys tall and weighs 120 tonnes... It is entirely hand-sculpted, just like many of the other statues and structures in the monastery...

They definitely didn't hold back when it came to getting the best materials and the best craftsmen for this monastery...

Only the 1st two floors are open to the public and there are monks and nuns who help explain about the statues, the construction and of course about Buddhism... they cater to foreigners too (we passed by a group where a nun was speaking fluent English)...

It's an interesting way of spreading Buddhism to the world... this organization has also opened schools in the area where children learn Buddhist values from young while receiving high quality education (all students have to learn Chinese, English, French and Spanish)..

To find out more, check out http://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/html/index.htm (the chinese website features more information but the english one is not too bad.. comes with a virtual tour too :P)

So all in all, it was a very enriching day where I saw great scenery, learnt about wine making and had my breath taken away by the monastery while learning more about Buddhism... Definitely a worthwhile trip!

More photos at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6892183&l=3934180b1e&id=576355703

Just a thought...

People have often asked why I chose to come to Taiwan, considering that the culture between Taiwan and Singapore are quite similar... and I am always confused by this question...

I'm confused because I don't understand how people know that the cultures are similar when they have not lived in both Singapore AND Taiwan...

After all, isn't culture more than what we see on the news? in the newspapers? in books? Isn't culture more than just food? and fashion? and isn't culture also more than that group of friends you have from that country?

Definitions tell me that culture is a set of behaviors, values, beliefs and attitudes within a group/community of people... I don't dispute that, I think it does make sense... but on the other hand, some part of me insists that culture is nothing more a pair of "perspective lens" that Man puts on due to our very innate need to group, to classify and to distinguish...

Isn't it conflicting? We seek to belong yet we seek to differentiate ourselves... We learn the accents that the locals speak, we shake hands and exchange name cards the way locals do, we hang out at local spots to experience life like the locals and sometimes we fear being found out because it means we will get charged tourist prices.. yet we also seek to be special; we look for differences, we ask questions about the way things work, we point out how things are like in our own countries, we ponder why some things suck back at home when they work so well here locally...

and it is in this process of classifying, grouping and distinguishing that we slowly get the sense of what, in general, this "culture" thing really is... so if you think about it, cultures exists, or more accurately, we recognise culture BECAUSE there are differences... it's like how you can't see air which is all around you, but you can recognise it when you experience
1. a lack of it or
2. the differences in the environment when air moves or changes its state (e.g. when the wind blows)

If this is the case, saying that cultures are similar is also acknowledging that there are differences.. and if differences exists, that means that there is something to experience by going or living there... and if there is something to experience, why does it seem strange for people to uproot themselves sometimes and live in another country?

Am I making sense or am I going round in circles? Just a thought...

HIV / AIDS in the World

Fantastic talk and presentation by Dr. Hans Rosling on HIV/AIDS...

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_truth_about_hiv.html

I can't embed it here but I assure you it's definitely worth a view!

Dr. Rosling talks about how we always tend to oversimplify the HIV/AIDS problem into something that is "Africa" and he shows with hard core statistics the disparity within African nations, and even within the different cities of an African nation... He also talks about why it's essential to tackle the problem by preventing transmissions instead of only focusing on developing and delivering treatment...

Something that really struck me was with regards to statistics that we typically see. For example, we occasionally see statistics about the number of HIV/AIDS infected people in a certain country, or the % of people in a country / region that has the AIDS. This really doesn't paint a very accurate picture if you think about it.

For one, if people don't get tested, naturally the number of infected people will be less. Because we just won't know.

For another, in some of the worst hit countries in the world that are too poor to deliver much medical support to those infected, these people die young from the disease. Which then affects the total number of people infected (which usually only refers to the living)

If you flip this around, it means that a country with a moderate number of infected people and has the ability to provide more medical aid can help these people keep the disease at bay and ensure they can live longer and more meaningful lives. And this again affects the total number of people infected.

So what should we do in the face of this daunting challenge that faces mankind, and the very strong tendency for us to "over-simplify" or "out-classify" the problem when we see the news or the statistics?

As far as I can say, let's get ourselves tested so we know for sure and let's spread the word so people know more about HIV/AIDS, how to protect themselves and how to curb the transmission of this terrible virus.

Dilbert MBA Series - funny!

This 2nd one is so classic Alice :)

Help with survey

Please help with a survey, it will not take more than 3 mins of your time! Thanks in advance!
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cms1aFQtWlhCNEU3SjQwN1EwOGtlOVE6MA

or

http://tinyurl.com/o2lzmp

(they are the same so just fill it up once :P)

Labor Day Company Outing

Labor day wasn't an official holiday in my company but quite a few other companies were off so while we did go back to the office, it was extremely casual... plus, we had half day off for our own company outing...

The outing started with the all-important item: food!

and it was Thai food!! and quite authentic one too!! which meant it was tasty spicy!! sooo good... unfortunately for my colleagues though, they were all sniffing by the end of the meal...

anyway we then headed on to 大溪 (I don't really know where it is exactly but I think it's somewhere west of Taipei city and lies along the border of Taipei county and Tao Yuan county).. there we met up with our boss and went for a nice stroll checking out the rice field and greenery around..
everything here is so green... very good for the eyes :)

There are Tung flowers here as well lining the side of the hill... for more about Tung flowers, check out my previous post on Miaoli...
This is us at a "garden cafe"... you can see my colleagues and the king of the day, Da Wei! He's Quentin's 2 year old son and I think he had the most fun that day :)

The other major highlight of that day was seeing fireflies.. it was too dark to take proper photos and videos but it was really an amazing sight! The bushes and undergrowth were dotted with small blinking lights and some lights were even flying along... I also managed to catch one and in general they seem quite content to just stay on your hand and just.. flicker :)

So yes it was another outing full of nature... loving it!

for more photos, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251682&id=576355703&l=0ad88f9675

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