day10: taichung

monday, 4/7/2008:

monday i took a picture of part of my sunburn to follow up on hualien's mishap. this is now day5 from getting burned. for some reason, this oval spot next to my watch was burned especially bad...reflection off my watch face? anyway, that part went through some extensive peeling in the last few days, became very white, and then got especially red due to the sunny adventures in bali/danshui and the children's recreation center. my arm looked pretty ridiculous.

anyway, that day i planned on going to taichung, to visit my grandma (mom's side) and uncle+family, but didn't get to a very early start. first i ate a gui yuan (some kind of chinese dried fruit) cupcake, which tasted like a normal cupcake, plus a gui yuan flavor, and plus occasional gui yuan chunks. what really held back my start to taichung, though, was finding a hotel for alishan. on my train ride back from hualien, this guy suggested i visit alishan. he said to take the train up the mountain and then there would be a lot of hotels. i asked if there were any he could recommend, but he just said there were lots and not to worry. so this was my plan, just get myself up the mountain and then find a hotel when i get there. my cousin thought it would be better to book one first, and while at first i thought it wasn't necessary, later i was glad we went through the trouble. we started with a list of hotels i had found, and she looked up prices and reviews online. finally we settled on 青山別館 (qing shan bie guan), the reviews said it was affordable and clean, and later i would learn that, the reviews were right! we booked the hotel, it was 1800NT (~$60), a pretty good deal i thought!

with the hotel booked, i went on my way. i pulled this huge suitcase with me (since i was bringing some stuff to my family in taichung) to the mrt station, took the mrt from shilin to taipei main station, and then had to find the greyhound type bus stations, which wasn't that easy. unfortunately, the bus stations are not actually in the train station (unlike the mrt and trains, which are all in the same building). i tried to follow the signs and at least exit from the correct exit (there are like a million exits out of taipei main station), but as soon as i left the train station, the signs stopped. i asked a few people, but they didn't seem to know where the bus stations were. finally i asked this guy that seemed to know. i wanted to take ubus (tong lien), not kingbus (guo guang hao), but the guy pointed to kingbus which he thought was pretty close, and then ubus which he insisted could only be reached by way of a huge skyway across a busy intersection that involved a million little steps up then down (and i had this huge suitcase with me). after his directions, i'm not saying his directions are bad just that this place is seriously this hard to find, i still wandered around a while (pulling my giant suitcase) before finally finding the kingbus station. but then after entering the kingbus station, i realized i just had to cross the street to get to the ubus station, so then finally i got to the ubus station. these buses in taiwan are really convenient. since monday afternoon is not a busy time, you just go and buy a ticket to taichung, and then wait for the next bus, which comes every 15 minutes. since there wasn't a lot of people, everyone could get on the next bus. the drive to taichung is only about two hours. i didn't leave shilin until around noon, but i still got to taichung around 3pm.

i got off the bus at the stop near this big hotel, which is also near my grandma's house. she walked out to get me because i didn't remember how to get to their apartment. on the way back, i guess she didn't want to go all the way back to the apartment (really not that far) to drop off my suitcase, so insisted we stop by the market near the apartment WITH my suitcase. i protested, which she was just like, "let's just put it by the side of this road", and then i was like, "okay i'll roll it through the market". we bought fruit: guava and water apples (only my favorite fruit in the world and you cannot get it at all in the us). we also bought some scallion pancakes and other stuff from this really tasty looking stall (picture). one of the best things we tried there was this flat meatbun with basil and a fried egg on top! we also bought some goose meat, which i like. then it was back to the apartment to eat!

after dinner my uncle asked me my plans for going to alishan the next day. at which point he brought up that, since it was cherry blossom season, train tickets might not be as easy to come by as i had imagined. since i planned on going to alishan on a tuesday, i didn't think there would be any problem. but the alishan forest railway only sends one train up the mountain on weekdays and two trains on weekends, but since it's cherry blossom season two trains everyday. still, the seats for two trains i guess was not enough to go around. the hotel i had booked was surprised i had not already booked my train tickets and gave me the name and phone number of a guy who might have tickets to sell me. the guy said he had nothing at the moment, but told me to just try my luck at the train station, and if i was out of luck to call him 30 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. of course i would have no problem getting up the mountain because there are buses, but half the experience of going to alishan is the alishan forest railway. i could also buy a standing ticket, but the ride up the mountain is pretty winding and 3 hours long, and more importantly, i wanted to be close to the window.

anyway, all turns out well, in case this post is causing any anxiety.

full set of pictures at picasa!

day9: ximending, children's recreation center, modern toilet

sunday, 4/6/2008:

i spent sunday with my other cousin, the one who took me down danshui old street the night before. first we went to ximending, a popular and youthful shopping area in taipei, and the site of the movie exit no. 6. after some shopping, we happened across a mos burger, and i had a sudden urge for mos burger, so we entered! mos burger, the mcdonalds of asia, is known for its burger buns that are made of rice. i had some kind of beef rice burger and my cousin had the fried seafood one. i was so busy taking pictures of my burger that my cousin was finally like, don't you want to include me in a picture? i guess i'm always so into taking pictures of food that i forget people want to be in pictures too. my favorite part about mos burger is the sink that is next to the trash, so you can wash your hands (without having to go all the way to the bathroom) after you eat and throw away your garbage. after mos burger, we passed this popular noodle shop, which had a ridiculous line and all these people standing and squatting right outside eating the noodles. in taiwan, people really know what's good and what's not good to eat. the really good places always have so many people willing to wait in line forever. then we passed the famous old theater in ximending, before getting back on the mrt to our next destination.

there were two important preplanned goals for the day, and the first was to go to taipei's children's recreation center to see sharon li, one of the contestants in the first season of one of taiwan's singing competition shows, one million star. i LOVED the first season of that show (never did watch the second or third season), but actually disliked sharon li. her singing is never very inspired, almost boring, but you can tell she works really hard at her dancing and singing. but, since i loved the show and thought it would be fun to see taiwan celebrities that i had been watching on my computer, i insisted on going and started to work up an enthusiasm for sharon li! actually, the truth is, sharon li isn't much of a celebrity, since she wasn't even one of the more popular contestants on the show, but she did make it to the final 10. we got to the children's recreation center just as the show was about to start. it was mostly little kids and their parents, and there wasn't very many people. there were two singers that sang before sharon li. the first, a guy, named zhi xiang, apparently has an album coming out. the second, a girl named wa wa. i had no idea who they were, but tried to act really into it and took a lot of pictures, to get the full experience. i wanted to act totally crazy, partly to get the full experience, and partly because the singers were singing to a really cold audience and i wanted to see how the singers would react if they thought someone in the audience was actually obsessed with them. my cousin, though, was less amused by this idea, and then i didn't have the guts to go through with it. finally sharon li came on and started singing. this whole time i'm loving my 10x optical zoom camera (btw, my camera is black, not silver), because all my pictures are SO close up! anyway, sharon li was sharon li, nothing has really changed since the competition. she had a few fans (people that didn't just happen to be there with their kids) and one person holding a sign. the last song she sang was without any accompanying music, and i remembered the movie function on my camera, so i decided to try it out! too bad i started it after the song began, but whatever. also too bad that i decided to shoot it vertically and now i can't figure out how to rotate the video so sharon li is right-side-up. other than that, my camera faired surprisingly well! the video is clear and the sound is really clear too! i was pleasantly surprised! anyway, after her singing was the autograph session. it was really sunny and sharon li's mom had come (sharon li is famous for always bringing her mom everywhere. her mom was at all the tapings for one million star.) and held an umbrella for sharon li to block the sun as she walked the 2 minutes to the autographing table. there was a pathetically short line to get an autograph from her, maybe 40 people? anyway, after an autograph and a picture with sharon li, my cousin and i had accomplished the first mission of the day.

the reason i had wanted to go to the children's recreation center was to see sharon li, but my cousin had wanted someone to go do the kiddie rides with her. so we walked around the place, ate some food (quail eggs again, a watermelon popsicle that was actually a pink wedge with a green rind and chocolate spots for the seeds, and then this ice cream that looked really cool but then turned out not to look like the picture but then actually tasted pretty good it was melon flavored, among other stuff i can't remember), and then went on three kiddie rides (swings, twirly things, carousel). btw, there are no melon flavored anything in the us, but in taiwan many things come in melon flavor! i like melon flavored things even more than melons themselves! my cousin wanted to go on the bumper cars, but the line was ridiculously long. then we were too tired of the long lines, so we decided to be done with the children's recreation center.

then we shopped around shilin night market briefly before we went to accomplish the second important preplanned goal of the day: EAT AT MODERN TOILET! my cousin and i met up with her bf (he was a good sport. he wasn't really amused with the place.) and went to the shilin modern toilet, a restaurant that has a bathroom theme, where you eat sitting on toilets and eat out of toilets. i had a spicy hotpot, which came in a toilet bowl (picture). when i tried to move the toilet, a little of the spicy soup spilled over the edge, which made the whole thing look even grosser...HAHA! all the meals come with a drink, which mine came in a plastic bed urinal (extra 30NT/~$1) but i had them not put the drink actually in it so it wouldn't get sticky, and a dessert, which is a poop-shaped ice cream in a little squat toilet. the various meatballs in my hotpot were not the tastiest, but each had a unique look and filling. when the ice cream came, i was so busy taking pictures that my ice cream was half melted by the time i finally ate it. the table next to us was two very not skinny girls and they each got the extra big dessert (extra money) which was ridiculous and actually did look kind of gross when it came out in squat toilets. and their squat toilets were much bigger than our squat toilets. we wondered if they'd be able to finish...and they did. all in all, it was overpriced food, but a fun experience and a cute idea. and i'm glad i went!

after modern toilet, my cousin and i shopped around shilin night market some more. seeing all these girls in taiwan carrying around bucket purses, i wanted to get one too, so i got a cheap one on the street. actually, i had no idea they were called bucket purses, but i was explaining to my cousin, "you know those purses that look like a bucket?", and she's like, "you mean bucket purses?", "no way!"...hehe. then we headed home, where i caught the very end of tka!! and some of a rerun of why why love! on an actual tv!!

WORTH SEEING: modern toilet

full set of pictures at picasa!

day8: bali, danshui

saturday, 4/5/2008:

saturday was my second seriously sunny day since i had been in taiwan (the first being when i got burned in hualien). after the very patchy experience in hualien, i spent a long time and applied sunscreen REALLY well and thoroughly. then, my cousin and her bf took me to bali. last time i was in taiwan, i had gone to bali on my own, saw this egg on the grass in the park, took a picture, but then lost my pictures from the trip. i had been thinking about that egg and curious about why it's there ever since. (i still don't know anything about it.) luckily, this time, we easily found the egg again (picture). the bali and danshui area is also really good for biking, and i saw lots of bike rentals, but my cousin and her bf didn't seem to be interested. my next trip to taiwan i am definitely going to spend a day biking in bali/danshui (and drink lots of water!). after the bali mission was accomplished, we took a ferry back across the river to danshui. and now began my personal one day tour of danshui, at least half of which, was a food tour!!

first stop was a ma's plum tea, taiwan's most famous plum tea. it was pretty refreshing on a hot day, and pretty good as far as plum teas go. next stop was danshui's famous fishball soup. danshui is famous for its fishballs. we each had a bowl of fishball+wonton soup and a meatbun. first i was eating my fishballs and i was like, "AHH!", and quickly grabbed my camera! and my cousin and her bf were laughing at me. all the fishballs i have ever eaten are just solid fishballs, but these fishballs had a ground pork filling! i bit into my first fishball and was SO SURPRISED! anyway, i usually don't like fishballs, but these were pretty good, and the soup was pretty good, the wontons were average. next i started eating my meatbun, which was pretty average, until my cousin explained that the meatbun is supposed to be eaten with the special red sauce (seriously that is the name of the sauce). generally i don't like sauces, and i almost always try things without their sauce first, but i tried the red sauce and it was SO GOOD, kind of sweet and ever so slightly spicy.

next mission on our tour of danshui was to the "niu dan" (literally: twist egg) store. my cousin kept talking about it before so i just had to go! the store is filled with lots of machines, which you can put in 50NT (~$1.50), and then twist the knob, and out pops a plastic egg that has some cute figure inside! each machine has a theme, and about 6 different possibilities that can come out with the egg. i wanted to get a mini shaved ice figure that can actually shave a tiny ice cube, but that machine was no longer at the store! instead, i finally decided to twist the machine that was dispensing figures of mini niu dan machines...apparently the little figure will actually work too, it comes with lots of little eggs, i have yet to put mine together! then on my way out of the store, i saw another machine that was dispensing cute nintendo ds styluses, so i twisted one for my brother.

next we were on our way to fort san domingo. on the way we passed an old, western style church, which of course everyone who passed by wanted to take pictures with. then we went to the bathroom at a phone company (or something?)'s building. in taiwan, there are many toilets with the two function flush, like shauna had blogged about previously. they come in all different kinds (buttons and levers), but all the ones i have seen were well labeled. this one was kind of like a normal lever flusher, but there were two levers. the smaller flush (for after peeing) was the bigger lever, since it's used more frequently, but also labeled with the character "small", which in chinese can also mean peeing. the bigger flush (for after pooing) was the smaller lever, and also labeled with the character "big". outside the building, was the mascot for the phone company, which was pretty cute!

on the way to fort san domingo, we also passed streets by the danshui river that i think were in jay chou's secret (which we saw the night before). my cousin and her bf said that the big tree that almost touches the water was in the movie. (they are slightly obsessed with this movie.)

fort san domingo, a fort that has been occupied by the spanish, dutch, and british, was not the most exciting of stops on my tour of taiwan. it's basically looking at old western style buildings and rooms, which is not wildly fascinating for me. i think i would have liked to go there alone, though, so that i could read all the placards and learn some history. instead, we basically walked through and looked at / took pictures of everything. i thought it was ironic that i took pictures with some giant dutch clogs, because i had originally planned on going to the netherlands to visit shauna this spring. when leaving the place, we walked through a nice, well-groomed path, and noticed some cute tiny flowers. they reminded me of the lego flowers i used to have when i was younger. somehow, the three of us (each with our own cameras) became obsessed with taking giant pictures of these flowers, and this is where i realized/discovered the macro function on my camera! (okay, i'm not the most experienced photographer.)

after fort san domingo, we walked through aletheia university, which my cousin and her bf said was also part of the filming location of the movie secret. the campus is large, so we couldn't really make out what was in the movie, but it's a nice campus to walk through. what i thought was strange was that, within the college's campus, there were also elementary and middle schools. is there no drunken streaking on this college campus? the campus was more like a park (at least the section we were in) and there were a lot of families with kids there, and a lot of pigeons. these kids were feeding the pigeons, and i finally made good use of the 10x optical zoom on my camera (mine is black, i feel that is important to note) to sneak pictures of the feeding, without scaring away the pigeons (or letting the kids know i was spying). i made a good choice with the camera! the zoom is great and the image stabilization definitely works well!

and then my cousin and her bf took me to eat a gei, of course at the best shop for it. i had never even heard of a gei before! but it was soooo goooood! it is basically a big fried tofu, with cellophane noodles inside, and then the tofu is sealed shut with fish paste. on top is a special red sauce, i couldn't tell if it was the same sauce, probably not, but similar, less sweet, slightly more spicy.

at this point i was passed off to my other cousin, who had just finished taking an exam for getting into a masters program. she and her bf met up with us. they hadn't eaten all day, so now begins our food tour of danshui old street: a whirlwind of eating! first of all, danshui is famous for it's very tall and cheap ice cream, that is not necessarily good, just cheap (well it wasn't too bad). they come in pretty tall for 10NT (~30cents) or REALLY tall for 20NT (~60cents). it's difficult to finish the REALLY tall one, but i wanted to take a picture of it!!! so i got the mango and taro twist REALLY tall cone and my cousin broke off the top part and helped me eat it ;) next we ate grilled stinky tofu...OMG SURPRISINGLY SO TASTY!!! then we had some seafood sausages. and then candied and roasted taro, sweet potato, and some REALLY purple potato-y thing that was a taro crossed with a sweet potato (literally). then we had quail eggs on a stick, again really tasty. the quail egg vendor has this (basically a) frying pan that has all these impressions in it, basically just big enough to crack in a quail egg. that fries a while, then gets turned, and the result looks like a meatball, but tastes like a bite sized fried egg. the quail egg vendor strings 5 on a stick and sells them for about 15NT (~50cents). i also tried part of my cousin's corn dog, surprisingly, REALLY tasty, but i guess i've never really had a state fair corn dog in the states, only the gross ones you microwave or bake from frozen at home. and we had the famous danshui shrimp rolls. they were okay, nothing special. then we had these fried shrimp balls, what a waste of stomach space. then the eating was finally over.

my cousin and her bf went home on his motorcycle, but i stuck around danshui and walked the old street toward the mrt station. while the day was hot, it was getting to be quite breezy at night and by the danshui river. there was an occasional singer trying to perform. i enjoyed walking by the river, feeling the breeze, and slowly trying to digest. there was also a woman playing the guzheng, a traditional chinese string instrument. i watched a while and then rode the mrt back to shilin.

WORTH SEEING: danshui

WORTH EATING: fishball soup, special red sauce, a gei, grilled stinky tofu, quail eggs on a stick

full set of pictures at picasa!

day7: guang nan, bulk earrings, shilin night market

friday, 4/4/2008:

i wanted to buy stationary, so my cousin took me to guang nan, near taipei train station. that place is amazing: cheaper prices and selection, selection, selection! mainly i wanted to buy little planners and notebooks that i can carry with me always to jot notes and contact information of strangers. (i was starting to think i had made a habit of it, since i always made sure to take notes of what i did everyday during my vacation, and i would often need to take out my little notebook to exchange emails with strangers...but, since coming back to reality, i have found that, once again, i talk to the same people everyday.) and of course i wanted to buy pens! o yes...and RULERS! as for notebooks and planners, i had a few criteria: 1) a plastic protective cover. 2) some sort of pocket that i could stick scraps like contact info or train tickets. 3) cute. after a lot of searching, i did find a few models that met my demands! and the searching was quite painstaking, partly because there was a great selection, and partly because all the customers in that store are packed like sardines, saying "excuse me" all the time, trying to get to the next section of the aisle. it wasn't the beginning of a school year or semester or anything, yet there were SO MANY students in that store! taiwanese people must LOVE stationary, which is why their stationary is SO AWESOME! the pens always write SO WELL (picture), i don't know how white people in the states can stand their severely inferior pens! ALSO! in minnesota, i have been tutoring these two boys from taiwan, and one of the boys carries a ruler in his pencil case. and the moment i saw his ruler, I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT! it's a clear plastic ruler (which is helpful when you are trying to line up the ruler, opaque rulers are a pain), BUT it also has a wide metal strip wrapped around one side so that the ticks are in metal on one side and plastic on the other. it's amazing because i have had plastic rulers break, but this is so well protected by the sheet of metal! anyway, of course at guang nan, i found rulers like that!! i probably spent at least 2 hours sifting through every inch of guang nan. my cousin was done after like 30 minutes, and had to wait for me. she was about to kill me as i was finally checking out.

i wanted to continue to the next stop on our shopping trip, but my cousin absolutely could not go one more step, so we took a break and had lunch at a small cluster of food vendors. the duck blood and stinky tofu soup was pretty standout, something i didn't think i'd like, but ended up liking quite a lot. i didn't really like the duck blood, but the soup and vegetables were tasty, and the stinky tofu was also surprisingly tasty. stinky tofu is an acquired taste, and i have somehow acquired it, because i know i didn't like it when i was younger. also, everywhere is advertised these "frog eggs" vendors, which i had to try because i work with frog eggs in my research. well, i was disappointed because the drink looked nothing like the frog eggs i work with. the "frog eggs" are basically tapioca balls, but it's the big kind, so way too big to look like the frog eggs i work with, also they just don't look anything like frog eggs. if anyone has ever had those basil seed drinks, they look EXACTLY like the frog eggs i work with in my research. and on the topic of drinks, in taiwan, they are SO GOOD at designing awesome things that are perfect at what they do. for example, most drink places have these plastic bags that are exactly the right shape to fit around the drink cup so that you really can carry around your drink in a plastic bag without worrying that it's going to spill. also, there are these drink "bags" that don't have a bottom. it's basically a plastic handle to carry your drink! i really wanted to take a picture of one of these, and my cousin was like, okay we'll just get a drink. but i thought it was somewhat ridiculous to buy a drink to take a picture, but i wanted the picture, so we were going to. but then this random guy had one, and i was like, let's just ask if we can borrow his for a picture, but my cousin wouldn't (was too embarrassed) and so we didn't ask. but then when he left, he just left his drink + plastic handle! so you can check out the picture in picasa!

anyway, next stop was near the back of taipei train station. my other cousin had told us about the place that all the street vendors buy their earrings and such to sell! all i can say is that, it's not very good quality, and you wouldn't want to pay more than these discount prices for these earrings. but they can get pretty cheap there, so it was definitely a worthwhile shopping trip! some stores make you buy at least 10 pairs of earrings to get the discount price. (for instance, the discount price might be 30NT (~$1) and the "regular price (WAY OVER PRICED)" would be 150NT.) some stores were like, if you buy 5 pairs of earrings it is 50% off, if you buy 3 pairs of earrings it is 25% off. this is the "bulk price", but my guess is that people who actually sell earrings and buy A LOT would get an even lower price. the great thing about this place is the selection. usually when you buy earrings on the street, it's a really random selection, but here, there's every color of every style. (so good jewelry is a little like this in a more expensive, less big, kind of way.) again, i spent quite a bit more time here than my cousin had patience for.

after basically only two stops on our shopping trip, my cousin looked like she was about to die, so we head back toward home, but then met up with her bf at shilin night market for dinner. when eating night market and street vendor type food, it actually is pretty important to have a tour guide. they knew which of the million vendors selling shui jian bao (pan fried meat buns) was the best. and it really was VERY GOOD! i had the veggie one, that had a cabbage filling. the line was extremely long, but very worth the wait. we also had these some-kind-of-dried-seafood-put-in-a-batter balls. i wasn't a huge fan. and another popular night market food we had was seafood, meat, tofu, or vegetables on a skewer and grilled. the squid is REALLY good. finally we had this awesome ice that was ice covered with grass jelly, then topped with tapioca, pearl barley, and candied sweet potato. the ice was completely hidden by the grass jelly! with all that sweet stuff on top, the ice was SO tasty!

then we went home and watched jay chou's secret, which i thought was fairly entertaining, but nothing special. i always think jay chou is really full of himself, so i'm never too impressed.

WORTH SHOPPING: guang nan, bulk street vendor jewelry area

WORTH EATING: duck blood and stinky tofu soup, shilin night market shui jian bao, skewered and grilled squid, grass jelly tapioca pearl barley candied sweet potato ice

full set of pictures at picasa!

day6: gong guan, shi da night market, tong hua jie

thursday, 4/3/2008:

today was a laid back day, after my escape from dehydration in hualien. i took my time to get ready in the morning. my shower actually hurt quite a bit, as i was definitely developing a severe sunburn. the most unfortunate thing was...i did not apply sunscreen very evenly on my face (or arms either, but that didn't matter as much), so there were definitely patches of my face that were burned more, such as the top of my forehead. in fact, the top of my forehead did not peel thin layers of skin like a normal sunburn, rather, whole and thick pieces of skin were coming off my face. about the dehydration, i have learned my lesson, and am now entering a phase of my trip in which i am constantly drinking water. my dehydration stems from a fear of mine that, when i have to go to the bathroom, there will be no bathroom. i have learned a few things since the beginning of my trip: 1) there are a surprisingly abundant opportunities to use the toilet. 2) when you sweat a lot, you don't have to pee a lot 3) but you really should drink a lot.

on my way to the mrt stop in shilin, i passed this random store that had these two mini chickens just hanging out in front (picture). they weren't tied up or penned up or anything, they just never ran away. and they just hung out like they were pets, like poodles or something. people walking along the busy sidewalk in front of them didn't seem to phase them at all. my uncle and i agreed to meet at the gong guan mrt stop on the green line at 12:30pm. this is the area right outside of tai da. first we picked a restaurant for lunch (there were about a million to choose from). we settled on korean food, but the restaurant turned out to be not that good. then we shopped our way to the taipower building mrt stop (the next stop on the green line). all i can say is, tai da students must be the happiest students in the world! the shopping in that area is so good! there is definitely good di tan (street vendor) shopping and bad di tan shopping...and this was definitely GOOD di tan shopping. i ended up buying a lot of earrings. in that area i could find more quality, unique, tasteful earrings that were, of course, more expensive than your average earrings on the street, but not over priced either.

after arriving at the taipower building mrt stop, we took the mrt to the shi da night market. it hadn't really gotten busy yet, but we just walked the one street. then we took a cab to the tong hua jie area. a quick walk through and then we went to an all you can eat hot put buffet, where you still order what you want, but you can order as much as you want, but there is a time limit for how long you can eat, 2 hours. my favorite thing about the restaurant was the tables, which had tissue dispensers built into the side for every seat.

other than discovering a great new shopping spot, the day was pretty uneventful. after hotpot i head back to shilin. even though shilin is home of one of taiwan's most famous night markets and is known for its xiao chi (taiwanese street vendor food), i never have stomach space left by the time i'm coming home and so haven't yet ate at the shilin night market!

WORTH SHOPPING: gong guan area outside of tai da

WORTH EATING: hotpot

full set of pictures at picasa!

day5: hualien

wednesday, 4/2/2008:

on my last day in hualien my tour buddy took time out of class and took me biking by the ocean! she came to meet up with me at the hostel about 8:30am, where i rented a bike, and we biked (through the city) to nanbin park, where the bike path began. i was really nervous about biking through the city, but i made it through alive. although the past two days had been cloudy and sometimes drizzling, this morning was VERY sunny! the ocean was a beautiful blue and i was very excited to be seeing a lot of it. we started on the trail. the destination was chishingtan. not long after we started out, i realized i was severely not feeling well. the night before, after getting back to the hostel, i had realized that i had not drank water in like two days, since i left taipei, so i walked to the nearest seven and bought a liter of water and drank half of it. i guess that was not enough to rehydrate me, plus the really intense sun did not help. now i know why my tour buddy was in a hat, sunglasses, a mask, long sleeve shirt, and gloves! i was like, "aren't you hot?" she's like, "but the sun!!" anyway, i wanted to forge on, but we rested a lot along the way. hualien has mountains (with beautiful clouds sometimes!), industrialism (all these stone factories), and beach/ocean. at first i really paid attention to the beautiful scenery along the way (picture). then somehow i realized we were definitely no longer on the correct path, because i hadn't seen the ocean in a long time and i kept on riding next to dusty trucks. at this point, i decided it was pointless to go on and so my tour buddy led me back to the hostel the short way, through the city. as we turned around, i could see a glimpse of chishingtan, the destination!!! but i was feeling too nauseous to care, plus my tour buddy said she'd just take me back to chishingtan via motorcycle once we returned our bikes...good plan! i think we got back to the hostel around noon or 1pm. after a short rest, my tour buddy took me to her home, near the hostel, where she lives with her family. then we went back to chishingtan on her motorcycle. unfortunately, by then, the sky had clouded over again and the water was back to a grey color, but it was still very nice to feel the ocean breeze. i wanted to get the full experience before i went back to taipei, so i changed into shorts and flip flops and waded among the powerful waves! it was cloudy and the water was cold, but still fun.

then it was back to the shops near the train station that sold hualien's famous muaji, a sticky dessert made from rice flour and that has various fillings inside. hualien is supposed to be known for its muaji, but it's actually sold all over taiwan and asia, and i didn't taste anything really special about these muaji. they had these handmade ones that were pretty good, but i guess i'm not a huge muaji fan. the best was the ice cream muaji, sticky rice flour wrapper with ice cream inside! my cousin wanted me to bring some muaji back to taipei for her and my mom wanted me to bring some back to minnesota, so i left the store with two shopping bags of various muaji. then we went to buy my train ticket, and went back to say hello to the guy (i talked to my first day in hualien) in the information center. it wasn't until then that we realized how much sun we had gotten that morning, because of the info center guy's remarks. i guess it was so bad that he gave us complementary bottles of sunscreen. i was all (or patchy) red, and my tour buddy's nose (the only part of her not covered) was red. that morning i had even applied sunscreen! but i guess unevenly and not very well...hehe. i decided to take the 5:31pm zi qiang hao back to taipei. there was still time before the train came, so i went back to get another ice cream muaji for the train ride! as i boarded the train, i realized how much stuff i had with me: messenger bag (with my purse in it), duffel, and two shopping bags of muaji. i must have really looked like a tourist, with all this stuff, plus i was wearing a hooded t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes while others were in normal pants and sweaters (it was getting a little chilly and there was drizzling by now), and i also had the worst sunburn by then. my seat on the train happened to be next to this guy who, i found out later, happened to be the same age as me (so random!). he definitely gave me a weird look when he got on the train. he started scarfing down his dinner as soon as he got on the train, at which point i realized i was pretty hungry (i had eaten a slice of bread for breakfast and some pineapple later in the day and the muaji ice cream, but not nothing else since i wasn't feeling well), at which point i remember my second muaji ice cream! unfortunately it was somewhat melted by this time, but still good. anyway, i started chatting with the guy next to me, from which i learned two things: 1) we were taking the special taroko train, which meant we would be in taipei in about 2 hours! the train runs on the same tracks, but has these two layered wheels so that when turning, the train does not have to slow down, but can just kind of lift off the tracks. the train cars were pretty nice since they were new. 2) i should go to alishan. he suggested a few different places i could visit during the rest of my time in taiwan, but really pushed alishan, suggesting i take the little train up the mountain, walk around, stay the night in a hotel, and wake up really early to see the famous alishan sunrise. i ended up taking the suggestion and it turned out to be the best thing i did the whole trip!

we got to taipei 7:40pm, only a 2 hour and 9 minute train ride! i headed back to shilin by mrt, had a little dinner at home, chatted with my grandpa, and then my cousins, and sleeeeep!

WORTH SEEING: chishingtan

WORTH EATING: hualien handmade muaji

full set of pictures at picasa!

day4: taroko, hualien

tuesday, 4/1/2008:

the day before, the hostel had arranged for me a one day tour of taroko national park, 998NT (~$30). i like exploring places on my own, but usually on a tour i can see more sites because my own transportation involves public transportation (which often involves waiting) and walking (which is slow), and because the tour is better at planning an efficient day. usually i don't mind having a less efficient day and even seeing less stuff if i can navigate my own day, i always have more fun, get to talk to interesting people, and feel more accomplished at the end of the day. but today, i decided to leave it to the tour guides and see as many taroko sites as possible, life is such a compromise. two other people from the hostel were also going on the taroko tour that day, a romanian woman who was teaching in taiwan and on vacation, and another woman on vacation from hong kong. (the hong kong woman took a week, flew into kaoshiung in the south of taiwan, traveled by rail up the east coast of taiwan, visiting taitung, hualien, yilan, and finally taipei, and then flew home from taipei...i need to plan a more efficient trip next time!) a van came to pick us up at the hostel at 8am and took us to the tour bus at the train station, where our tour officially started. it was about a 40 minute drive from hualien to taroko national park. shortly after entering the park, we were let out after the tour guide explained that the bathroom there was "award winning". ...i guess it was okay for being in the mountains, but nothing special. in fact, on this 3 week trip, i felt that, in general, all the bathrooms were pretty okay, i don't think i had any particularly frightening bathroom experiences. most of the first part of the tour was just sitting on the bus and looking out the window as the tour guide pointed out stuff. he kept saying, i can't let you get off here we have to keep driving because there is danger of rocks falling on us, which i guess is partly true. the view was pretty good; the marble gorges (main feature of the park) were pretty impressive. we did get to get out of the bus at a couple of places to take pictures. at the tunel of nine turns (picture), we were finally allowed to take a small hike/walk. this is an extremely easy and short "hike". then we were bussed to the lyushui trail, and took another small hike. then we had lunch at grand taroko formosa (some fancy hotel) at tiansiang. what i really wanted to do, though, was eat at the little foodstalls nearby!!! and we were pretty much on our way back to hualien, stopping one or two times more to see a few sites. the last stop on the tour was chishingtan, a beach just north of hualien. the whole day was pretty cloudy, so the water wasn't very brilliant, but it was still nice to watch and hear the waves lap onto the beach. this was supposed to be the last stop of the tour (~4:30pm) before heading back to the train station, but since we were close to the harbor, the three of us that stayed in the same hostel asked the tour guide/bus driver to drop us off at hualien harbor instead of taking us back to the train station. at the harbor (pretty normal harbor), we saw some boats and docks and what was left of the fish market was pretty small, but there was still some pretty interesting seafood to look at. our purpose for taking a detour to the harbor was to try the very cheap sashimi! i wondered at the hygeine of the sashimi, which was sold by one of the vendors selling seafood, and cut by this old woman with grubby hands. the three of us got about 9 pieces of sashimi (3xtuna, 3xsalmon, 3xbass) for 100NT (~$3)! i'm not a huge sashimi fan, but it was pretty good, very fresh! after eating, there was not much to look at. the clouds looked somewhat ominous at the time, and the harbor seemed quite a long walk back to the road, so the seafood vendor called us a cab and we rode our way to nanbin park. nanbin park has another beach, this time made up of large rocks (i love this kind of beach!). we took pictures, and i even caught a rainbow! then next to the park is nanbin night market (where i had wanted to go the first night, but didn't quite make it). again we didn't pick a very happening time to go to a night market, it was just starting up, but we walked through the games section and food section. i think it would have been fun, with friends, and later at night. my hostel mates went on their way to the street of stone art craft, and i stayed at the night market to meet up with my tour buddy again!

my tour buddy took me to meet four of her friends and we went together to a japanese restaurant. it was fun to chat with them and they asked me a lot of interesting questions, one that i remember was, "are american guys or taiwanese guys hotter?" after dinner we walked around hualien a bit. by the time we went our separate ways, it was 10pm. my tour buddy took me back to the hostel. i was so thankful for how easy transportation became once i met up with my tour buddy!! that night i stayed in the hostel's 6 bed dorm style room, which was a good deal at 400NT (~$13)!

WORTH SEEING: taroko national park, hualien coast scenery

WORTH EATING: cheap fresh harbor side sashimi

full set of pictures at picasa!

day3: hualien

monday, 3/31/2008:

unfortunately, i always have a late start to the day. after getting up and getting ready, i realized i might not make the 10:30am train to hualien, so i waited to leave for the train station to take the 12:18pm zi qiang hao to hualien. the trip takes 3 hours, and on the way i ate another bag of lucky snacks and a bottle of kiwi juice i bought at a convenience store before boarding the train. one comment i have about trains (and this is true about the greyhound type buses in taiwan too) is that it is good that they have bathrooms, but it seems like a lot to ask of me to squat and aim for the "toilet" while the train/bus is jostling around. luckily there were no mishaps. and there was a sink and toilet paper!

i arrived in hualien at 3:20pm, and promptly went to the visitor information center that is in a building to the right of the train station as you exit out the front. although i didn't need it, i will have to say, the guy tending the info center has excellent english. he suggested some places that i could still visit by foot for the rest of the day. i walked to my hostel, formosa backpackers hostel, which took about 15 mins. after getting situated at the hostel, i headed back out into the city. my first destination was pine garden, which turned out to be a building on top of a hill. it was after 5pm by the time i got to pine garden. i guess i didn't set out from the hostel immediately after i got there, and the walk to pine garden was somewhat long and, honestly, kind of miserable, since it was drizzling. at one point i started to go up a somewhat steep hill that was also curving. i happened to be on the inside of the curve (on the left) and there was no sidewalk. the sidewalk was on the other side of the road, but i was too scared to cross the street to get to it, and i knew that pine garden was going to be on the left. as i tried to stay in the minuscule shoulder of the road, a ton of bicycles with middle school and high school boys came streaming down the hill. seems kind of scary! it was drizzling and the road was curved and they were just on the road and it was steep! most were two on a bike. some bikes were also in pairs, joined by having one biker holding onto another biker's shoulder. i finally made it to pine garden, and after going up that hill, at least there was a nice view of hualien, especially the harbor (picture). i think that was more worth it than the pine garden building itself. since it was after 5pm, the exhibits were all closed except one, which had all these household items made from banana tree trunks. the coolest was the cloth that was made from the fibers of the tree trunk, and the clothes made from the cloth. they weren't like, o these are made from bananas, they were quite fashionable! next it was back down the hill and i had planned on going to the night market by the ocean. but i got a little lost, and when i asked for directions, the guy made it sound like way too far away to walk. another day and i would probably have gone anyway, but i was already tired and it was not the best of weather, drizzling on and off. he suggested i go to the street of stone art craft, which was a little closer, and that was next on my itinerary anyway. ...not that it was too close either... on the walk to stone street, i thought i was lost again, because i had to walk through a part of town that didn't seem to have much going on, and it was dark by then, so i was somewhat uneasy, but alas, i kept on going and finally got to some neon lights! street of stone and art craft is basically a square, which is lined on two sides by many many small stores that sell stone jewelery and other stone crafts. hualien is known for its chrysanthemum stone, which is cut from fossilized coral (i think). this has a beautiful effect, with many patterns that look like flowers! these stones were really, very beautiful! most of the stores were similar, but every rock is naturally different and also cut different, so i spent quite a while sifting through all the stores and ended up buying two chrysanthemum stone pendants and a pair of coral bead earrings, each item at a different store. i had gotten to the stone street earlier than planned because i didn't go all the way to the night market, so i kept walking around the square until 8pm, at which point there was an aboriginal dance show. in the middle of the square is a small stage with a bunch of stools in front, and apparently there is a dance show there every night of the week. the dancers looked to be about high school aged and i thought they did a pretty good job and were pretty enthusiastic. at one point, when they were doing a bamboo poll dance, one girl's foot got snapped by the polls and she fell and twisted her ankle. one of the guy dancers that was on the sidelines for that dance immediately joined in and danced the girl part (because there weren't any extra girls), not a beat was missed. at the end they were selling these yarn braided headbands, a simpler version of what the dancers wore, for 50NT (~$1.50), and kept on saying how it was money to contribute to these kids students school fees, so then i got suckered into buying an ugly headband, but i was pretty impressed that these kids came everynight to perform (i'm sure it's not always the same kids), so i figured the headband was worth it, since the show is otherwise free.

in hualien i had also contacted a tour buddy! she had suggested the hostel i stayed at. she had classes during the day, but we were supposed to meet around 6pm! my uncle had lent me his cell phone to use during my trip in taiwan, and somehow, i'm really bad at using that phone... anyway, somehow i never answer any calls. my tour buddy and i finally got a hold of each other shortly before the dance show was about to start, and she came to meet me at the street of stone art craft. we watched the show together. then it was about 9pm, and i had been walking around the entire evening, since about 4:30pm, except the hour i had been watching the dance show. the idea of walking across town back to my hostel was quite depressing. when i saw my tour buddy, her little motorcycle, and the extra helmet, i was REALLY relieved. we went to eat. she took me to gong zhen bao zi, a wellknown shop in hualien for eating xiao long bao (little steamed meat filled buns). they were pretty good. then she took me to get pearl barley ice...which sounded REALLY GOOD, but i was kind of cold, so i opted for the hot version, pearl barley soup, which was still really good. it was nice chatting with my tour buddy. i had walked around by myself all night so it was nice to just sit, relax, eat, and chat with a new friend. then she took me back to the hostel.

the first night at the hostel i stayed in the private double room, which i thought was a good deal at 1000NT (~$30). the room was japanese style, everything on the floor, nice hardwood flooring, and very cute. i had a great night's sleep, finally in my own room after sharing a room and twin bed with my cousin for the past few nights!

WORTH SEEING: street of stone art craft

WORTH EATING: gong zhen bao zi's xiao long bao, i bet the pearl barley ice would have made this list

full set of pictures at picasa!

day2: hotpot, longshan temple, chiangkaishek memorial, taiwan storyland

sunday, 3/30/2008:

another day, another salty soy milk! on the way to the salty soy milk (this time with my other cousin and to a different breakfast shop, but also near home), we walked through the traditional market again. my cousin ate a "twins" (shuangbaotai), which is basically a piece of sugary fried dough that has identical halves. i broke off a piece and tried it...tastes like heaven. anyway, finally to my second bowl of salty soy milk and i also got a shaobing youtiao (flaky bun with stick of fried dough...i know it may sound the same, but this fried dough is totally different from the previous fried dough). the shaobing youtiao was also exceptional, way better than any i have eaten in the US.

we are never very good at getting out early, so that means, by the time we get back from our breakfast excursion, it's time to head out for lunch! today my grandpa, uncle, aunt, 1 cousin, and i go to a hotpot restaurant nearby! hotpot is only my very favorite meal! i order the lamb meal, of course. it's not much different from shabu zen in boston...i think even the dishes are the same! i'm pretty particular about the process of eating my hotpot. first i drop in the corn and tomato, they mostly contribute to the soup; usually i don't eat them. then i start eating my thin lamb slices, never boiling more than 1 or 2 slices at a time so that i can keep track of them so they never get over done. after a few slices, i start boiling my various meat/fish balls, as i continue with the lamb. i also start boiling the taro chunk, because that needs a while. if there is seafood, this is when i boil and eat that. then i boil and eat a few leaves of vegetables. then boil and eat the mushrooms, don't cook the mushrooms too long. then i start boiling the tofu products. then i eat the meat/fish balls. all this time, i'm continuing to eat a few slices of lamb in between. then i eat more vegetables. then i start to eat the tofu products. then i finish off the vegetables, lamb, and eat my taro chunk. now the soup is mostly empty again and i crack my egg into it and make and eat a poached egg! finally i cook the cellophane noodles. (omg writing this made me so hungry.)

after hotpot, i left the family and headed out to longshan temple to meet my tour buddy! when i was doing research on my trip, i came across taiwan's youth travel website and the wonderful tour buddy program! taiwan seems to be trying to promote tourism to taiwan among foreign youth, and so have created a host of wonderful programs! in the tour buddy program, taiwanese college students are trained and volunteer to be tour guides. this is awesome because college students are way more fun than middle-aged tour guides (no offense to them), the tours are one on one, and because these tours are free! when i got to the longshan mrt station, i found out that my tour buddy had also brought 4 of her classmates! they were so much fun and so sweet (picture)...hanging out with them turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences during my 3 week trip! the tour began at the longshan temple in wanhua, where the tour buddies showed me one of the more famous temples in taiwan, and explained a lot of its history and the cultural and religious practices in the temple. then we went to the nearby huaxi street tourist night market ("snake alley"), where you can eat snake and baby alligators and such. it was still afternoon when we went, so there wasn't a whole lot of activity, but we were still able to see some animals: snakes, baby alligators, etc. the tour was coming to a close, but i found out that the tour buddies were college students from taoyuan, which meant that to meet me in taipei they had taken a 45 minute train ride, so they planned on spending the rest of the day hanging out in taipei. i was 臉皮厚 and invited myself into the rest of their day!

...and this is where the tour really started! first they took me to eat shaved ice. then i found out they were going to go check out the chiangkaishek memorial, a place i have gone to a million times, but truly enjoy every time. it is a really nice, open, relaxing space in the middle of busy taipei! AND, i haven't seen it since it went through its name change and some other ridiculous changes in decor, due to politics of course. we went to chiangkaishek memorial, took pictures and saw the ridiculous kites that are hung in front of chiangkaishek as he sits in his memorial hall. next stop was dinner and the tour buddies decided to take me to taiwan storyland, which is next to the taipei main station mrt stop. this basement space is a mini-neighborhood that has been decorated to represent taiwan from the 50's to the 70's. the entrance fee is 180NT (~$6), but then you get 180 taiwan storyland dollars to spend in the "museum". inside are old streets, food stalls, restaurants, a movie theater, a school room, a police station, barber shop, dentist, western medicine, eastern medicine, a pub, little shops, games, and many more things i can't remember, all 50's-70's style. we ate at the food stalls; i had an oyster omelet. then we were walking around and one of the tour buddies had stopped to eat at this non-impressive looking food vendor that just had all these big dry buns hanging on his cart. but then we all tried some of what she got...and omg...it was SO GOOD! first the guy drizzles sweetened condensed milk in your bowl, then he puts in the big bun (which is really a flaky basically hollow pastry bun with a little sugary filling inside), then he drizzles more condensed milk on top, then he adds some hot water to the bowl, and then you eat it! i found out a lot of taiwanese people don't even know about this, but it tastes amazing! apparently it's called 牛奶碰餅 (niu nai peng bing) or i also heard it called 疏餅 (shu bing). after eating we explored the various streets and scenes in the museum, bought some souvenirs of candies, and played some games with our left over money. we played a very rudimentary pinball game! and we also all bought tiny diy models of famous places in taiwan! i have yet to start mine, but i'll post when i finish ;) then it was pretty late, so i headed back to shilin on the mrt and they took a train back to taoyuan...hopefully they didn't have class too early on monday morning!

WORTH SEEING: chiangkaishek memorial, taiwan storyland

WORTH EATING: salty soy milk, shaobing youtiao, hotpot, 牛奶碰餅 (niu nai peng bing)

full set of pictures at picasa!

day1: shilin traditional market, jinshan, yangmingshan

saturday, 3/29/2008

i left minnesota thursday morning, arrived in taiwan (and finally shilin, where my relatives live) late friday night, couldn't sleep at all that night, and saturday morning the activities on my trip came to an official start!

first thing on my agenda was having a bowl of salty soy milk. my cousin walked me through the shilin traditional market and then to the nearest breakfast shop. salty soy milk is one of my favorite foods! it's a bowl of hot soy milk (unsweetened) and then they add salt, a little vinegar, sesame oil, little dried shrimp, salted dried daikon, green top onion, spicy oil, etc. but the soy milk looks curdled, i think from the vinegar. don't let the curdled look stop you from drinking the most delicious soy milk ever!!

anyway, back home, and then my uncle came and he, his gf, my cousin, my grandpa, and i, went to taiwan's north coast area to see the little cubby, in a big tower of cubbies, where my grandma's ashes are stored. then winding through more and more traffic on the way to jinshan, we passed a zongzi (sticky rice and meat wrapped in bamboo leaves) shop in sanzhi, liu jia's zongzi, which is supposed to be well known. it was like a dozen small zongzi for 100NT (~$3)! the sticky rice was made perfectly so that each rice was it's own self, and not smashed together and merged with each other. i'm not a huge sticky rice fan, but the zongzi were made well enough that it was still worth eating. (i hate wasting stomach space and calories on bad food in taiwan, because i know i only have 3 weeks worth of eating!) then to jinshan youth activity center for lunch (the zongzi was a snack, hehe), which is my grandpa's routine. i had a drumstick and rice set, definitely NOT worth eating. from jinshan we wound through more traffic and stopped at these docks on the north coast. there was a lot of rapid water there, i think from an energy plant or something, i don't remember. there were people selling kites and snacks: grilled squid, fish balls on a stick, ...corn dogs (didn't expect that). also there was this scooper truck thing that i thought was really cute! it looked like a little dinosaur as it scooped trash and debris on the beach. and then we wound up yangmingshan. there we ate at a food stall on the side of the road, not that we were the least bit hungry. the bamboo shoot soup and the fried taro and fried sweet potato (picture) were SO GOOOOOD! especially the fried taro and fried sweet potato, which were lightly battered before they were fried. then we just turned around and wound back down the mountain because everyone was tired. next time i'm definitely going to go to yangmingshan by myself so i can see a few things other than just food.

then back home, at which point i was asked, "you want to have some dinner?" i was like, "o god, save me!" instead my uncle walked me to the mrt stop and back so i could learn my way. then i chatted with my other cousin, who didn't come with us. she has a table full of snacks in her room. and even though i was still beyond full, the snacks were just too cute!! she had taiwanese, japanese (she was the cousin who gave me those amazing japanese crackers i posted about before), and even american snacks (can you believe she loves snyder's pretzels?!). i chose a bag of taiwanese chips that she says are a staple for every tawainese kid. the chips are called "lucky" and are in the shape of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds! and are SO TASTY! then i finally had my first (although short) night of sleep.

at the end of every post, i will include a "worth seeing" and a "worth eating" section. almost everything on my trip was worth it, but the stuff i list at the end are high recommended and should not be missed!

WORTH EATING: salty soy milk, yangmingshan bamboo shoot soup and fried taro and fried sweet potato

full set of pictures at picasa!

ktv

i can only say, going to ktv is about the funnest thing i've ever done.