Couldn't quite wait to update Hong Kong travels together, so here's the next installment.
Woke up really early today, it's going to be a tiring day today, a lot of walking, shopping, exploring in the big business district of Hong Kong.
After a quick breakfast of congee and milk tea, we went off to see the sights, and buy what is needed to be bought. :) Hong Kong's transportation system is magic, it's very organized, extremely well placed, and very convenient to get around the large metropolis. The key to the magic? The Octopus Card. This card comes with 150 HK dollars on it, and can be used for almost any type of transportation short of private taxis found in the city. I believe even some grocery stores will take the Octopus card for quick and easy transactions. Unfortunately for me, the parents did not believe that it was worth the money as we were only in Hong Kong for a day (their mistake, believe me). It is so much easier to just swipe a card and move on, instead of looking for a ticket booth to buy single-journey tickets everywhere. Whatever, their problem, I just get to stand around and wait for them while they get frustrated by the automated ticket machines.
At any rate, we ride the subway into the center of the city, and even at 7 in the morning, this place is bustling already. The smaller street stores have not opened yet, but the bigger department stores are all ready for action. First stop for Hong Kong? The Great Peak and the Sky Terrace. We ride a tram up the mountain and get to see the magnificent sight that is Hong Kong. There was probably about 20 stores up here, but we didn't get anything as it was the sights we went to go see.
So coming down from the Great Peak, we went to Victoria Park, where I saw a group of young men playing soccer...they weren't very good. Eh, didn't have time to go play them, so whatever. We dive into the bigger shopping districts, and there are so many shops, with like 10+ floors in every "mall." One of the bigger ones we went to was called Times Square...aptly named. This place was huge...the only thing missing was the crystal ball.
One of more well-known stores is Chow Tai Fook, or (Zhou Da Fu), a gold and jade jewelry store. My mom got a buddha, and my sister got a little double heart pendant. It's the same chain of stores that I got my Guanyin bodhisattiva from.
Later, we came upon the Ladies' Market...before you say anything, this is the largest street vendor booth set up that I've EVER seen. It sells everything from polo shirts to purses to soccer jerseys. Speaking of soccer jerseys...they're all fakes. The saleslady was trying to convince me that Michael Ballack, an idol of mine, played on a team that I KNOW he didn't play on. There's no point in trying to sell a fake soccer jersey to a guy who actually follows soccer. So after some shits and giggles from that venture, we kept going...after my mom got a purse, a wallet, some shoes, my sister got sunglasses, and my dad got 2 fake Polo shirts...the whole thing cost maybe...300-350 HK dollars...lol
Next stop? The Avenue of Stars...yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a parkway along the side of the Hong Kong bay, and has all handprints and names of many famous Hong Kong movies stars and directors. Too bad for me, I didn't really know too many of them. Although, a few famous names did come up: Cecelia Cheung, John Woo, Bruce Li, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Stephen Chow. I compared hand sizes with Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Andy Lau. Jet's hands are smaller than mine, Jackie's are about my size, and Andy's hands are puny, which surprised me indeed.
We finished the day of exploring Hong Kong by eating at a restaurant that specialized in xiao long bao. I think I was extremely hungry or something, because I ate until I fell half into a food coma. Man, I think I have a weakness for those little things. Still, no complaints about food around here.
Right on schedule, pictures!
Octopus Card: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/15/hongkong_octopuscard.jpg
Chow Tai Fook: http://img1.gootrip.com/attachments/326167/1216870083/12168704151716106206.jpg
Avenue of Stars (No I did not actually get to see him, but I did see where he left his mark): http://www.jackiechankids.com/images/JC_Ave_Stars_2.jpg
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Traveller's Update 6/19/09
Mmm, might as well update you guys as much as I can while I still have a stable internet connection.
Today started way early, as we are leaving Taiwan and jumping on a plane to Hong Kong. We rode on Cathay Pacific, a Hong Kong airline, and my god, for a two hour flight, it was a pimped out plane. Normally, any flight that doesn't really last more than an hour or two, won't provide any food, since it's like up and down in air time. We got a full plate of breakfast: a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, fruit salad, a cup of orange juice, some Gruyere with crackers, and a roll. Nice.
After arriving in Hong Kong, the airport is huge. We went through immigration and customs faster than Usain Bolt ran the 100m, so that was a plus. My dad is here for a meeting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), so a contact of his picked us up from the airport and drove us nearly an hour to the mountainous campus of CUHK. We stayed in the Guest House, which for a University isn't half bad, but that isn't really saying anything...this place makes the Knight Center at WashU look like a 4-5 star hotel, but I guess that's not a fair comparison. Let's just say even the internet connection was iffy until I set up a VPN connection through the school's dial-up network. At least that didn't take too long.
Aside from the Hot and Humid weather that I'm already used to from travelling around in Asia, Hong Kong is still organized much like the British system, where the driver's seat is on the right side, and everyone drives on the left side of the road...disorienting...silly Brits. After dropping all the luggage in the rooms, we went to grab lunch...at the CUHK student cafeteria. Now before you all cringe at the fact that I went to get cafeteria food, remember, this isn't University of Michigan cafeteria food (I'm not sure all of that is edible, sorry guys.), this is Hong Kong. You go up to the counter, and you pay first for tickets of whatever it is you want to eat, and then go to the correct booth (noodles, stirfry, japanese, grill, etc) to get your food. I got Roasted Duck + Rice, cost about 20 Hong Kong dollars (that's about $2.60!). Hell, after this trip to their cafeteria, I wouldn't mind being a student of CUHK just for their food, haha.
So we came back after lunch, and went back to the Guest House. The entire campus is like carved into the mountainside, so the roads are all either uphill or downhill...tiring. I'd be in great shape just walking to class. There is nothing else on the TV, other than Cantonese children's cartoons, and AlJazeera...haha, at least I get my world news from AlJazeera.
While my dad went to give a seminar for professors about his research, my mom, my sister and I went to the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong to get some more HK dollars. Coolest thing ever: Hong Kong has a new 10 dollar bill, which is not made of paper. Rather, it's plastic and "washable." Man, these guys think of everything. Now people who are forgetful and put money through the wash can rest easy that their 10 dollar bills won't be phased what-so-ever by the wrath of their washing machines.
I tried contacting Jessica and Liz since they were both in Hong Kong at the time, but only Liz replied, and due to a dead cell phone that doesn't work in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, I'm stranded. Bah, so close and yet so far.
We'll continue to explore Hong Kong tomorrow.
As expected, picture time!
CUHK Campus: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/40thanniversary/1024x768.jpg
CUHK Cafeteria: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ow6S8PmFACM/SWtEhUfOsnI/AAAAAAAAAFY/ZPkEmoqODUk/DSC00016.JPG
Roasted Duck + Rice: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/monophoto/leap%20day/2pm.jpg
Washable Money: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aEQLNTFH_iU/RpK6w2bkqYI/AAAAAAAAAV8/5shZ2M7ShgY/s320/hk-money.jpg
Today started way early, as we are leaving Taiwan and jumping on a plane to Hong Kong. We rode on Cathay Pacific, a Hong Kong airline, and my god, for a two hour flight, it was a pimped out plane. Normally, any flight that doesn't really last more than an hour or two, won't provide any food, since it's like up and down in air time. We got a full plate of breakfast: a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, fruit salad, a cup of orange juice, some Gruyere with crackers, and a roll. Nice.
After arriving in Hong Kong, the airport is huge. We went through immigration and customs faster than Usain Bolt ran the 100m, so that was a plus. My dad is here for a meeting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), so a contact of his picked us up from the airport and drove us nearly an hour to the mountainous campus of CUHK. We stayed in the Guest House, which for a University isn't half bad, but that isn't really saying anything...this place makes the Knight Center at WashU look like a 4-5 star hotel, but I guess that's not a fair comparison. Let's just say even the internet connection was iffy until I set up a VPN connection through the school's dial-up network. At least that didn't take too long.
Aside from the Hot and Humid weather that I'm already used to from travelling around in Asia, Hong Kong is still organized much like the British system, where the driver's seat is on the right side, and everyone drives on the left side of the road...disorienting...silly Brits. After dropping all the luggage in the rooms, we went to grab lunch...at the CUHK student cafeteria. Now before you all cringe at the fact that I went to get cafeteria food, remember, this isn't University of Michigan cafeteria food (I'm not sure all of that is edible, sorry guys.), this is Hong Kong. You go up to the counter, and you pay first for tickets of whatever it is you want to eat, and then go to the correct booth (noodles, stirfry, japanese, grill, etc) to get your food. I got Roasted Duck + Rice, cost about 20 Hong Kong dollars (that's about $2.60!). Hell, after this trip to their cafeteria, I wouldn't mind being a student of CUHK just for their food, haha.
So we came back after lunch, and went back to the Guest House. The entire campus is like carved into the mountainside, so the roads are all either uphill or downhill...tiring. I'd be in great shape just walking to class. There is nothing else on the TV, other than Cantonese children's cartoons, and AlJazeera...haha, at least I get my world news from AlJazeera.
While my dad went to give a seminar for professors about his research, my mom, my sister and I went to the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong to get some more HK dollars. Coolest thing ever: Hong Kong has a new 10 dollar bill, which is not made of paper. Rather, it's plastic and "washable." Man, these guys think of everything. Now people who are forgetful and put money through the wash can rest easy that their 10 dollar bills won't be phased what-so-ever by the wrath of their washing machines.
I tried contacting Jessica and Liz since they were both in Hong Kong at the time, but only Liz replied, and due to a dead cell phone that doesn't work in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, I'm stranded. Bah, so close and yet so far.
We'll continue to explore Hong Kong tomorrow.
As expected, picture time!
CUHK Campus: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/40thanniversary/1024x768.jpg
CUHK Cafeteria: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ow6S8PmFACM/SWtEhUfOsnI/AAAAAAAAAFY/ZPkEmoqODUk/DSC00016.JPG
Roasted Duck + Rice: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/monophoto/leap%20day/2pm.jpg
Washable Money: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aEQLNTFH_iU/RpK6w2bkqYI/AAAAAAAAAV8/5shZ2M7ShgY/s320/hk-money.jpg
Traveller's Update 6/18/09
Last update of the batch. Other days will probably be added up when I get the time.
Today, my family and one of my dad's old friends family hired an entire van just to ourselves, and a tour guide to go with it. This guy was pretty hilarious, he knew mandarin, the local dialects, and even some shaky English. The guy's name? Ambrose...even spelled it out for us, in case we didn't know.
With everything set up, we all loaded into the van, and we were off. It was a 3 hour drive to Hualian, which is next to Taidong. Ambrose was definitely very knowledgeable of Taiwan's history, down to every detail about Jiang Jieshi and the KMT, and how it all related to Chairman Mao and the CCP. He seemed to know a good thing about everything; apparently Taiwanese rice was closely related to wartime procedures, and was introduced by the Japanese, which was why the rice was somewhat sticky but nothing too mushy, which was pretty much perfect for sushi. The name Taiwan also originated from the way the aboriginal people pronouced "Big Garden" or "Da Yuan." Slowly over time, as the Han people moved in, and heard the aboriginal name, "Da Yuan" slowly evolved into Taiwan.
When the van arrived in Hualian, and the history lesson over, we got out to see Taroko National Park. This included the sights: Swallow Valley, and the Cave of Nine Turns. There were huge deposits of limestone and marble around the cliffs, and a small stream that still steadily flows from the mountaintop down. Every 3 minutes of walking or riding in the van, we would see more signs that warn us of possible rockslides and such...the fact that there are this many signs warning against it meant that it was pretty common. To lighten the mood up, we saw some genuine Engrish: "the disaster falls the stone." What a great warning indeed. When we got to the top of the mountain, we got to eat at the mountaintop 5 star hotel/spa/restaurant. The food was amazingly fresh and delicious. Man, Taiwan's spot on for food! Coming back down, we passed by a factory that manufactured jade and marble products, my mom ended up getting a cat's eye, whose value is completely determined not by size of the jade that it's found in, but rather, the width of the cat's eye slit. The straighter and thinner the line, the higher quality the cat's eye is. As we continued our way back to Taipei, we saw a huge cemetary, and honest to goodness, the tombstones weren't tombstones. They were huge houses, obelisks, near-monuments for the deceased. The running joke was that the houses for the dead were bigger than for the living. Damn, with a monument like that, who needs to be famous?
Finally, last stop on our way back before we got back to Taipei was a shop that made handmade Taiwan Mochi by the local aboriginal girls. Not only was it delicious, it was cheap, and offered by the aboriginal girls themselves. Cute girls selling you cheap, homestyle mochi? Pretty hard to say no, eh?
As you guys are all accustomed, pictures!
Taroko National Park: http://www.easyasiatravel.com/files/images/Taiwan-Taroko-1.jpg
Cat's Eye: http://www.mineralminers.com/images/jade/jlry/jadj128.jpg
Cemetery/Tomb: http://www.taiwan-guide.org/aa/tomb.jpg
Taiwan Mochi: http://epicurious.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/chiayi3b.jpg
Today, my family and one of my dad's old friends family hired an entire van just to ourselves, and a tour guide to go with it. This guy was pretty hilarious, he knew mandarin, the local dialects, and even some shaky English. The guy's name? Ambrose...even spelled it out for us, in case we didn't know.
With everything set up, we all loaded into the van, and we were off. It was a 3 hour drive to Hualian, which is next to Taidong. Ambrose was definitely very knowledgeable of Taiwan's history, down to every detail about Jiang Jieshi and the KMT, and how it all related to Chairman Mao and the CCP. He seemed to know a good thing about everything; apparently Taiwanese rice was closely related to wartime procedures, and was introduced by the Japanese, which was why the rice was somewhat sticky but nothing too mushy, which was pretty much perfect for sushi. The name Taiwan also originated from the way the aboriginal people pronouced "Big Garden" or "Da Yuan." Slowly over time, as the Han people moved in, and heard the aboriginal name, "Da Yuan" slowly evolved into Taiwan.
When the van arrived in Hualian, and the history lesson over, we got out to see Taroko National Park. This included the sights: Swallow Valley, and the Cave of Nine Turns. There were huge deposits of limestone and marble around the cliffs, and a small stream that still steadily flows from the mountaintop down. Every 3 minutes of walking or riding in the van, we would see more signs that warn us of possible rockslides and such...the fact that there are this many signs warning against it meant that it was pretty common. To lighten the mood up, we saw some genuine Engrish: "the disaster falls the stone." What a great warning indeed. When we got to the top of the mountain, we got to eat at the mountaintop 5 star hotel/spa/restaurant. The food was amazingly fresh and delicious. Man, Taiwan's spot on for food! Coming back down, we passed by a factory that manufactured jade and marble products, my mom ended up getting a cat's eye, whose value is completely determined not by size of the jade that it's found in, but rather, the width of the cat's eye slit. The straighter and thinner the line, the higher quality the cat's eye is. As we continued our way back to Taipei, we saw a huge cemetary, and honest to goodness, the tombstones weren't tombstones. They were huge houses, obelisks, near-monuments for the deceased. The running joke was that the houses for the dead were bigger than for the living. Damn, with a monument like that, who needs to be famous?
Finally, last stop on our way back before we got back to Taipei was a shop that made handmade Taiwan Mochi by the local aboriginal girls. Not only was it delicious, it was cheap, and offered by the aboriginal girls themselves. Cute girls selling you cheap, homestyle mochi? Pretty hard to say no, eh?
As you guys are all accustomed, pictures!
Taroko National Park: http://www.easyasiatravel.com/files/images/Taiwan-Taroko-1.jpg
Cat's Eye: http://www.mineralminers.com/images/jade/jlry/jadj128.jpg
Cemetery/Tomb: http://www.taiwan-guide.org/aa/tomb.jpg
Taiwan Mochi: http://epicurious.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/chiayi3b.jpg
Traveller's Update 6/17/09
It's that time again. The following day of adventure in Taiwan.
Went down to the bottom floor of the hotel for breakfast. And what do you know? I meet up with May Fu there, apparently her parents are here too...small world. At any rate, we got the catch up a bit, she's staying in Taiwan for a bit before going to Mainland, whereas I get to stay longer overall...booyah.
An interesting observations about Taiwan: The writing is in traditional, but what's more interesting, is that it's still written from right to left, making it quite an interesting read for people who've grown used to reading Chinese left to right. Can't tell ya how many times I've read something backwards, thinking it didn't make sense, only to realize that I read it backward.
Jumped into a taxi on our way to the old rail train system. We're on our way to Jilong, or as the locals spell it out, Keelung, a pretty famous harbor on Taiwan. We went over to Yeliu Geopark, where we got to see many interesting rock patterns and formations created by weathering of wind and water. One of the most interesting ones, was a mushroom rock that looked like a Queen's head. Outside of that, there wasn't anything too outside of the ordinary that I haven't seen at a place like the Grand Canyon. However, unlike the Grand Canyon, the ocean breeze was well appreciated and kept us cool for most of the day.
The last part of today was spent at Jinshan marketplace, which is a smaller mountain village, which is famous for their duck. There was a guy right outside the place where we bought the duck cutting up many, many more ducks that have been broiled, steamed, roasted, etc. Again, no complaints about the food. Simply delicious! After coming down from the mountains, I treated myself to another shaved ice, honestly, can't get enough of that stuff, haha. Today wasn't too bad, weather-wise, and even tiredness. Solid.
Picture time!
Queen Head: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hMGAnqABsBs/SGYSMO3uHvI/AAAAAAAABo4/Remmc_7UwzA/s320/yeliu5.jpg
Broiled Duck: http://www.soba-daian.com/english/dinner/img/sumibi_img01.jpg
Roasted Duck: http://www.ctmenusonline.com/images/rp_2_roast_duck_60.jpg
Went down to the bottom floor of the hotel for breakfast. And what do you know? I meet up with May Fu there, apparently her parents are here too...small world. At any rate, we got the catch up a bit, she's staying in Taiwan for a bit before going to Mainland, whereas I get to stay longer overall...booyah.
An interesting observations about Taiwan: The writing is in traditional, but what's more interesting, is that it's still written from right to left, making it quite an interesting read for people who've grown used to reading Chinese left to right. Can't tell ya how many times I've read something backwards, thinking it didn't make sense, only to realize that I read it backward.
Jumped into a taxi on our way to the old rail train system. We're on our way to Jilong, or as the locals spell it out, Keelung, a pretty famous harbor on Taiwan. We went over to Yeliu Geopark, where we got to see many interesting rock patterns and formations created by weathering of wind and water. One of the most interesting ones, was a mushroom rock that looked like a Queen's head. Outside of that, there wasn't anything too outside of the ordinary that I haven't seen at a place like the Grand Canyon. However, unlike the Grand Canyon, the ocean breeze was well appreciated and kept us cool for most of the day.
The last part of today was spent at Jinshan marketplace, which is a smaller mountain village, which is famous for their duck. There was a guy right outside the place where we bought the duck cutting up many, many more ducks that have been broiled, steamed, roasted, etc. Again, no complaints about the food. Simply delicious! After coming down from the mountains, I treated myself to another shaved ice, honestly, can't get enough of that stuff, haha. Today wasn't too bad, weather-wise, and even tiredness. Solid.
Picture time!
Queen Head: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hMGAnqABsBs/SGYSMO3uHvI/AAAAAAAABo4/Remmc_7UwzA/s320/yeliu5.jpg
Broiled Duck: http://www.soba-daian.com/english/dinner/img/sumibi_img01.jpg
Roasted Duck: http://www.ctmenusonline.com/images/rp_2_roast_duck_60.jpg
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Traveller's Update 6/16/09
It's been a while, guys. Finally found some time to update, let's catch up, shall we?
Hot and sticky, humid like no other in Taiwan.
Started off today with a cool breakfast, with cold soymilk and some congee. Went outside, and realized something. Motorcycles. Tons and tons of motorcycles. So many motorcycles and mopeds that I thought Aarthi was here in Taiwan too...joking. Anyway, first stop, the National Theatre and Concert Hall. Huge decorated buildings that have elaborate interior designs. The next show that was going to come next to the Theatre was Bizet's Carmen, but alas, no time to watch. We kept moving, and soon came upon Freedom Square and the monument devoted to Jiang Jieshi. Impressive, to say the least. Now that we're all tired, and as hot and sticky as the weather, we needed some stuff to cool down: nothing quite as good at cooling you down as a red bean iced milk drink, eh? The next stop was the Executive Building, which is where all the government processes occur. Granted, we only got to get within like 50 yards of the place, as there were still armed guards and sentries all around the building: government is still in session or whatnot.
Another thing I noticed: masks. A lot of people were wearing masks, but not as many as I thought. Many of them actually said that it was to protect against air pollution, and not swine flu. The swine flu protection offered by the mask was actually more of a side bonus. This was actually pretty surprising for me, since I thought the H1N1 scare was pretty big in Asia.
Before continuing, it was about time for lunch, but I wasn't really in the mood for a hot lunch. What did I end up getting? The most incredible, amazing thing ever to have been invented: Mango Cream Shaved Ice. Taiwan is known for its shaved ice, and I am now a believer. Pieces of fresh Mango, Tapioca Jellies, a heaping portion of shaved ice, and a dash of condensed milk to splash on top. Delectable is an understatement.
Next stop: Yangmingshan National Park. This is where we got to see some great scenery, some monument dedicated to scholars, and a big clock made of flowers. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to enjoy the hot springs as we originally planned. When we were on our descent from the mountain on our way to the hot spring bathhouse, it started raining, which quickly turned to pouring...Goodbye hot spring bath. Oh well, maybe next time, eh?
Hopping on the bus, paying a fare equalling a little less than 50 US cents, we arrived at the Shilin Night Market, renown for Stinky Tofu, and other cuisine. Needless to say, we loaded up on food, and Stinky Tofu is actually pretty tasty...just don't smell it, it smells somewhat of a combination between salty fish and rotten eggs, can't quite describe it. Called it a night after finishing up dinner, in preparation of the next day.
And just to pique you guys' appetites, pictures!
Red Bean Ice: http://d2.biggestmenu.com/00/00/ab/d2a729b6b6c7b441_m.jpg
Mango Shaved Ice: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1156/727948067_2a89e67352.jpg
Spicy Stinky Tofu: http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/cinzia326/stinkytofu.jpg?t=1245507442
Hot and sticky, humid like no other in Taiwan.
Started off today with a cool breakfast, with cold soymilk and some congee. Went outside, and realized something. Motorcycles. Tons and tons of motorcycles. So many motorcycles and mopeds that I thought Aarthi was here in Taiwan too...joking. Anyway, first stop, the National Theatre and Concert Hall. Huge decorated buildings that have elaborate interior designs. The next show that was going to come next to the Theatre was Bizet's Carmen, but alas, no time to watch. We kept moving, and soon came upon Freedom Square and the monument devoted to Jiang Jieshi. Impressive, to say the least. Now that we're all tired, and as hot and sticky as the weather, we needed some stuff to cool down: nothing quite as good at cooling you down as a red bean iced milk drink, eh? The next stop was the Executive Building, which is where all the government processes occur. Granted, we only got to get within like 50 yards of the place, as there were still armed guards and sentries all around the building: government is still in session or whatnot.
Another thing I noticed: masks. A lot of people were wearing masks, but not as many as I thought. Many of them actually said that it was to protect against air pollution, and not swine flu. The swine flu protection offered by the mask was actually more of a side bonus. This was actually pretty surprising for me, since I thought the H1N1 scare was pretty big in Asia.
Before continuing, it was about time for lunch, but I wasn't really in the mood for a hot lunch. What did I end up getting? The most incredible, amazing thing ever to have been invented: Mango Cream Shaved Ice. Taiwan is known for its shaved ice, and I am now a believer. Pieces of fresh Mango, Tapioca Jellies, a heaping portion of shaved ice, and a dash of condensed milk to splash on top. Delectable is an understatement.
Next stop: Yangmingshan National Park. This is where we got to see some great scenery, some monument dedicated to scholars, and a big clock made of flowers. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to enjoy the hot springs as we originally planned. When we were on our descent from the mountain on our way to the hot spring bathhouse, it started raining, which quickly turned to pouring...Goodbye hot spring bath. Oh well, maybe next time, eh?
Hopping on the bus, paying a fare equalling a little less than 50 US cents, we arrived at the Shilin Night Market, renown for Stinky Tofu, and other cuisine. Needless to say, we loaded up on food, and Stinky Tofu is actually pretty tasty...just don't smell it, it smells somewhat of a combination between salty fish and rotten eggs, can't quite describe it. Called it a night after finishing up dinner, in preparation of the next day.
And just to pique you guys' appetites, pictures!
Red Bean Ice: http://d2.biggestmenu.com/00/00/ab/d2a729b6b6c7b441_m.jpg
Mango Shaved Ice: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1156/727948067_2a89e67352.jpg
Spicy Stinky Tofu: http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t49/cinzia326/stinkytofu.jpg?t=1245507442
Monday, June 15, 2009
Traveller's Update 6/15/09
Woke up pretty early actually, I wasn’t about to miss the Lakers win the Championship! (After all, it may be 8pm EST, but we are in fact in Taiwan means I get to watch it at 8 in the morning!) So after I saw Kobe get his number four, I went down out of the hotel and searched for breakfast. First thing that hits you is the humidity, I felt like I was drenched in sweat and sticky within 5 minutes of walking outside. Luckily, Taiwan has tons of little booths of people selling various breakfast items; I end up buying a 6 meat buns and 2 fried crullers, as well as two cups of soymilk, to share with my sister. The food is amazing, as well as cheap…can’t complain there.
After finishing up breakfast, the family got together and went to explore Taiwan. First thing we do, is ride a taxi to the nearest subway station. The subways are extremely organized, and perfect for managing the heavy levels of pedestrian traffic when it comes to the school and work rush. We jump on, and ride a few single-ride tokens, and scan them to get into the platforms, and after riding the subway, threw in the token to exit.
First stop, Taipei 101, the world’s tallest observatory. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperative, being rainy and somewhat foggy, but the view was still amazing nonetheless. The building itself broke like 15 different world records, a few of them being: world’s tallest completed building, world’s tallest occupied floor, world’s fastest elevator, and world’s biggest wind damper, impressive indeed. In addition, the first 5 floors of the building were all huge shops for everything imaginable. I later found out that the other floors were used mainly for offices, or structural integrity. They have little commemorative dolls that were based off the big wind damper that helps keep the building stable: they were called Damper Babies. There were a total of four of them, each of them having representative trait that goes with them. Lucky for me, I forgot what the black one stood for already, but the other three were: Rich Gold, Lucky Red, and Smart Silver. Fancy that, huh? After going through the entire tower and eating a VERY big, and delicious lunch (man, I’m loving the food) consisting of a lot of those little soup buns that are steamed in those little wicker baskets, we head off to the next destination!
Next stop, the National Palace Museum! This place has a lot of huge historical archives of different ancient Chinese relics. The story behind the place itself, is that when Jiang Jieshi moved the Nationalist party from China to Taiwan, they had taken a large amount of various treasures from the Forbidden City in Beijing before taking off. There were paintings, scriptures, calligraphy, ceramics, you name it. You think it looks good, it’s here. The three of the most impressive works of craftsmanship that I’ve ever seen was also exhibited here. The first one was an imperial gift given in dynastic times; a ball of complete ivory, but carved completely so that there were two more free-rotating balls within the biggest ball of ivory. The second and third works of art are very famous for the National Palace Museum, considered national treasures. The two are a set, both are jade works of art, and crafted to look like a bunch of bok choy, and a piece of seasoned pork. Yummy enough to eat, no?
Last stop for today was at Jiang Jieshi’s private residence. A lot of the place was actually still under renovations, so we couldn’t see the entire estate. However, there were plenty of sites to see even in the portions that we were allowed to wander around. There were literally thousands of roses in the rose garden, a huge tropical like theme, and just huge estates and offices. Hey, if you’re gonna live, you gotta live in style...Jiang Jieshi, knew style.
Oh, and pictures for those who want to see what I'm seeing:
DAMPER BABIES: http://www.chinanews.com.cn/tw/dnjw/news/2008/05-07/U124P4T8D1242159F107DT20080507153415.jpg
IVORY BALL: http://images.johnsontuma.com/jtimg/thailand/ivory-ball.jpg
JADE BOK CHOY: http://images.johnsontuma.com/jtimg/thailand/cabbage.jpg
MMM, PORKY STONE: http://images.johnsontuma.com/jtimg/thailand/stone-meat.jpg
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