A Day in Keelung

Inspired by Anthony Bourdain's episode of Layover Taipei (EXCELLENT PORTRAYAL OF THE FOOD CULTURE), Boyfriend and I decided over breakfast yesterday morning to make a day trip out to Keelung to explore. Keelung is a port city of located in Northern Taiwan, only a 50 minute train ride from Taipei Main Station but a completely different feel. As soon as we got off the train and walked a few minutes over to the waterfront, it felt exactly like Seattle. The air was fresh and salty-I could see cargo ships everywhere as we sat on by the docks to map out what we wanted to do. As almost always, the weather was beautiful.

Since we were only there for the day, we stayed around East Keelung. Downtown is small, a few main streets with lots of exciting dark alleys and the famous MiaoKou Night Market. We walked through the markets and were surprised that lots of stands were already open, and they all had English signs showing what kinds of cuisine were being served. We wandered through some back streets and up a mountain looking for the ZhongZheng Park, which was supposed to have a birds eye view of the city. It was just a random destination, and we enjoyed the journey there. Oh, what fun it is to just go somewhere new to see what you can see! (Actually, as I attached that link I realized we never made it there! I never saw that statue!!!! Oh well, we were SOMEwhere!)

After we were satisfied with our pictures, we embarked back down to the city center and took Bus 101 to Helping (Hoping) Island, less than half an hour up further north to see these cool rock formations I've been wanting to check out for years! Unfortunately, as soon as we stepped off the bus the temperature seemed to have dropped dramatically and I was freezing! If you come to Keelung, bring a jacket!! I could feel the misty/stickiness of the ocean. It's a small little park with a pathway around these rocky shores, and people can walk down to take pictures of these crazy twisted rock formations. 

Back downtown, we combed through MiaoKou Night Market, overwhelmed with the variety of food everywhere. I have been to a lot of night markets, but this one was just insane. Everything I've ever had at a night market was there, and more. Actually at one point I felt nauseous from all commotion and overload of mixed smells. I wish we had taken a picture of the crap load of food Boyfriend and I brought on the train with us to have on the way home. On that day, we had salad rolls, gua bao, fish tempura, oyster omelette, stone cooked corn, wild boar meat, fried crab, starchy stuff I don't even know, egg tart, ginger hot chocolate, etc.

Anyway, like Boyfriend said, it was an excellent way to prepare our appetites for our upcoming holiday-THAILAND!

Don't make decisions when you're angry.

Don't make promises when you're happy.

...and don't text when you're drunk. 

A Tuesday

Today we checked out the Taipei Fine Arts Museum that I have been curious about since moving here. I used to love going to museums back in Portland, but in Taipei the opportunity rarely arises. Maybe cause my friends all love sport, food and parties more than art?!

Anyway, it was all super contemporary, a little more than I could handle. It was Andy Warhol who once famously quoted: "Art is anything you can get away with" and boy, he knew what he was talking about.

Maybe I'm just not artistic enough to appreciate a bunch of plastic buckets taped together with a garbage bag. Or tables with a printer on them. I spent about an hour in that museum in a state torn between amusement, boredom, and confusion. The most interesting 'exhibit' was actually a form of animal abuse trying to get by as 'art'. There was a little cute black bird in a cage in an all-white room with speakers just blasting the sentence 'My name is Little Black' in over 400 different languages. I think the bird at some point was meant to repeat or learn how to regurgitate the phrase but it just hung out. I hope someday Little Black will escape and fly free!

Anyways, then we wandered around that area and ate at a park. Then went for a jog along the riverside and had dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant blah blah blah blah. Oh, the stove got fixed, that was exciting too. Now I have no excuses to not learn how to cook. My life is full of thrills!!!!!

Sun Moon Lake

There is a place in Taiwan where lovers go. It has claimed to be the most romantic, most scenic spot in Taiwan, and it's called Sun Moon Lake. Guess where my boyfriend wanted to go for his birthday! So off we went over the first weekend of 2013. You can go by either HSR or bus, and we chose the bus to avoid transferring down in Taichung. Sun Moon Lake is a lake in the middle of Taiwan, surrounded by mountains and next to Nantou, home of One Piece Theme Park and an aboriginal village!
We were excited to ditch a dreary, rainy week of Taipei weather for some warm sunshine and a brilliant blue sky when we arrived! We quickly figured out that our resort was on the other side of the lake, and our first view of the lake was from a 50NT ferry ride over it.

We checked in, and grabbed our bikes to start exploring only to discover that there wasn't much to do around the area, just a little open town square and aboriginal-styled stands and shops selling guabao and sunglasses. We decided to park the bikes and take cable cars from the lakeside over to the theme park for the day. I have been to the One Piece Theme Park/Aboriginal Village before, and it was just as I remembered it-lovely, sunny, and uncrowded. There are only really like five good rides, but since there aren't any lines you can go on them as many times as you like. Boyfriend and I jumped on to every ride, fearless, and laughed ourselves silly from the queasiness til we got soaked on the 'Caribbean Splash'. The cable cars stopped running at 4:30pm so we headed back to the lake to catch the sunset.

THE NEXT DAY was adventure day-we were determined to bike around the lake. We had heard about a famous scenic bike trail, and so we set off early in the morning to conquer it. There is only one path around the lake, so you can't get lost. If you know me at all, you know that biking is NOT my favorite outdoor activity. However, if all conditions are optimal (perfect weather, flat trail, good company and pretty views) I will go. For the first two hours or so of our bike ride, this was not the case. The view was pretty but it was all uphill on a twisty concrete road, and the end was no where in sight. However with the persistance and annoying encouragement from my fitness-crazed boyfriend we finally hit flat ground, and the legendary spectacular bike trail after all. We could NOT stop taking pictures-it was too gorgeous and so worth it.

BEFORE

AFTER

We reached the opposite side of the lake where we took the ferry from, after about four hours. This part of the lake was a bit more lively-swarming with tourists actually-and we had lunch on the sun-shiny boardwalk. Thankfully, bikes were allowed onto the ferry for extra charge and we didn't have to bike the rest of the way around the lake to get back to our stuff. We packed up, and strolled around enjoying the view a bit before heading back to Taipei.

First Hike of the Year!

My friend Paul invited us to go on a hike last Saturday, and what a hike it was!!  We met up on Saturday morning in Muzha, and took a cab to an intersection in the middle of nowhere. The English name and directions are unknown, apart from what you can tell from this map.

The hike started off with concrete steps for the first 20 mins, so I ate a pizza bagel and lagged behind til the boys were out of sight. I wore the same shirt I slept in cause 1) I was lazy/half-asleep and 2) I thought it would be short hike. The terrain eventually evolved and soon we were pulling ourselves up with ropes and dangling on metal chain ladders! It was actually pretty dangerous in some areas, and we heard that lots of people have died trekking this mountain before they put in all the ropes and ladders. The hike turned out to be very popular-we ran into tons of people and even a tour group!! The path was very narrow and there were a lot of roots, rocks and dirt…yes, like a hiking trail. I hadn’t been on a hike for a really long time, and this one felt like it went on forever, in a good way. 

We made it to the ‘end’ which was just a really high point of the mountain, although signs had eluded to a lake-nowhere to be seen nor heard of. It was beautiful. The whole hike took about 5 hours total, starting and ending at the Muzha MRT. Sometimes I love feeling like I live nowhere near a city and going on hikes really helps.  Fresh air is good, y’all!! 

Oh, the next day was my first rowing practice of the year as well! Kazu (one of the captains from last year) has been setting them up every weekend and Sunday was the first time I could make it this month! I LOVE BEING ON A BOAT IN THE RIVER ON A SUNNY DAY. Although we won't be starting real practices until March, it was good to see familiar faces and meet new potential teammates. ****IF YOU LIVE IN TAIPEI AND IS INTERESTED IN JOINING THE BEST DRAGONBOAT TEAM IN TAIWAN, PLEASE COME LET ME KNOW**** 

****PS. See my shirt? It's a GAELIC FOOTBALL jersey and we are also starting to recruit for next season. So, IF YOU LIVE IN TAIPEI AND WANT TO PLAY-LET ME KNOW!****

Thank you, 2012

Oh, 2012, you were a year of self discovery. It followed the trend of my life-each year gets even better than the last. I spent this entire past year living and working in Taipei, and although it sounds pretty mundane, it was anything but. Here are some highlights:

Team Max: My first team sport happened to be dragon boat rowing. Very, VERY competitively-and my girl's team won FIRST PLACE! Definitely one of the happiest moments of my life because we worked HARD. Like, getting up at 5:30 am every weekday to work out like crazy, and then going to work smelling like lifejackets and river water. Also, I met very cool people, some of which are my best friends here in Taiwan now!

SHIDA: I love going to Chinese school. I took a second term at National Taiwan Normal University this Spring, and almost finished Book 3! It's amazing being able to read out sentences and whole stories and understand it all. Plus, my classmates were a wild bunch and made the whole term unforgettable. It's never too late to learn a new language!

Lu Dao Island: That was also unforgettable. This trip showed the power of true friendship to prevail against all weather. Mariel, Joanna and I went to Lu Dao, an island off the east coast of Taiwan, to spend Joanna's birthday weekend. I was absolutely miserable but ironically I also had one of the best weekends ever. We were cycling around the island, most of which was uphill, during a typhoon that lasted all trip, and I refused to wear a poncho. Good times.

BEING SINGLE: Yes, that was one of my highlights this year. I enjoyed the heck out of it too! I went hiking with friends, I partied, I went on causal dates, bought a guitar, I went on all-day cycling trips, went to concerts, jumped off rocks, ate everything I wanted, and soaked in my summer of freedom. I was insanely happy, in great shape and barely had to work. I was proud of myself for standing tall and being able to laugh at my future with confidence.

Taipei 101 Run: One of the coolest things I can tell people when I'm old!!! I ran up the stairs of Taipei 101, from the bottom ALL the way to the top. Taipei 101 is one of the tallest buildings in the world! (2nd? It keeps on changing! Stop it, Dubai.)

Bali: Sun, sun, sun. Beautiful beaches, streets full of colorful shops, Bitang beer, perfect.

My Students: Over the summer K2 graduated, did a spectacular job on their graduation performance, and now I am their K3 teacher as well! I know every parent brags about their kids, but this class is really talented. I know each one well by now-I know what they want to be when they grow up, I know what they are allergic to, I know which ones have lost which teeth, I even know how many rooms their apartments have (cause they tell me everything). I taught them Gangnam style and they picked it up in an hour. I can teach them any song, in English, and they'll singing and making up dance moves for it by the end of the week. I adore them, and they adore me.

Gaelic Football-the Celts: After Team Max, there was the Celts. Gaelic football is a cross between rugby and Australian football. You catch with your hands, kick, or pass it over the goal. It was the most confusing game to learn, but it was good fun. This is how I was covered in dirt every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday over the summer into the fall. And I almost picked up an Irish accent too. Well, at least I picked up an Irish boyfriend...

Love: Most definitely always a highlight! Sometimes the most unexpected things turn out to be more wonderful than you could ever have imagined. (I'm pretty sure that's been quoted by someone, somewhere.) No room for the whole love story here, but we met on Team Max, went river tracing w a group of friends, ran into each other at a few more parties, I joined the Irish sport, and BAM now we're taking on the world togetherrrrrrrr.

So, here's to 2012-may the next year continue to bring in good health, strong friendships, new adventures, and true love.

A VISA TRIP- Day Three

We woke up early on Day Three, because we had planned to see the Giant Buddha before heading off to Macau! It was another dismal, rainy day, and we ended up having breakfast at Starbucks again. Next time I go to Hong Kong I will do a very thorough search for cafes that serve breakfast if our hotel doesn't!! Boyfriend and I both love, love, LOVE breakfast. I've never met anyone who loved breakfast as much as me, and (sorry we are obviously in the 'in love' stage of our relationship) having breakfast with him in the mornings, whenever we can cram in time, is one of my favorite things that we do together! Sorry. Okay so we didn't have a great breakfast but we had decent coffee!
We took the MTR to Tung Chung, cause from there cable cars take you up to the foggy mountains where there famous tourist attraction sits. The line was long, but it was to be expected for a Saturday morning. I don't particularly love or hate cable cars, I think they are a cool alternative to other modes of transportation and sometimes you can take cool pictures! Ironically, as soon as our cabin went over the first mountain, all we could see was grey. It was like floating in a cloud all the way to the buddha! I'm pretty sure the reason why I had never heard of this attraction is because my family are conservative Christians and my mother would have lost her mind if she knew I wanted to go see a BUDDHA. So as a disclaimer in case she sees this, mom I have not converted, I just wanted to see a big statue on a pretty mountain :)

And it was pretty indeed! There was a little street full of touristy shops leading up to the stairs of the mountain, and the whole place was really foggy. I felt like I was in China! (And as far as I'm concerned, Taiwan is not China, it is an island next to China and since they are not land connected then I say Taiwan it it's own country) Boyfriend and I marveled at the view from buddha's throne, snapped a few shots and came back down. We wrote wishes on a wooden tag and hung them on a wishing wall. I wrote something tacky and Boyfriend called me out on it, but I thought his was corny too!

Anyway, after a relaxing lunch we eventually made it back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and boarding the ferry to Macau! Going to Macau from Hong Kong is fairly simple. The ferry docks are down Canton Street, but on the opposite end of the normal ferries that take you to Central. I forgot how long the float was, about an hour? But they check your passport and go through immigration like at the airport! I had never been to Macau before, and neither of us knew anything about it. It was kinda funny, at the docks we were asking ourselves and other people what language was spoken there, what currency they use, what country they were?!?! It was funny and exciting, two things I always embrace on trips.

When we got out, it was dark and I could see sharp lights standing out from the darkness. We got to our shuttle and I was glued to the window as we zoomed past grandly lit European styled buildings, glitzy Vegas styled buildings, flashy fountains and just classy lights galore. I think living in Taiwan,  I just don't associate 'lots of colored lights' to be beautiful anymore, but these in Macau were way more elegantly done. They say Macau is the Vegas of China, but I didn't realize that they actually made replica buildings such as the Venetian...only Macau's casino revenues surpassed Vegas years ago! After we checked in our hotel (I can't remember the name now but it was nice! Had a wedding and 80th birthday going on we were tempted to crash) Boyfriend and I head out to Old Town for dinner before hitting the casinos.
Using travel brochures, maps and information desk people for a crash course of Macau 101, I learned that Macau was the first and last European colony in China. They were ruled by the Portuguese, so they have a heavy influence from them with their food and cultures. They were handed back to China in 1999, and right now as far as country stuff goes they are kinda special on their own but not, like Hong Kong. The official language is Portuguese but the people I heard and spoke to, used Cantonese the same Chinese dialogue spoken in Hong Kong (and my family-me not so much).
We walked around til we found this delightful, authentic-looking corner restaurant called Galo. This is not a food blog, but if anyone wants a recommendation for good Portuguese food I would strongly recommend this place! We were so lucky to get in half an hour before the kitchen closed, I didn't know what to order so we went based off recommendations and the whole place smelled amazing. I felt like I was sitting in someone's kitchen, and the menus were just laminated photos of the dishes, but the food was wonderful! 

We ate quickly and happily. Honestly I could be eating chicken slabs off a concrete ground in a tent and be happy with him, which we have done before, during of which I WAS still happy. That was a whole different trip adventure in Hualien, too far back to blog about but maybe someday will come out in my book ;). Then, we explored the Chinese Vegas!

Okay, I am not a gambling type of person and I actually borderline disapprove of it. I wanted to go to Macau to check out the buildings and go be in another country, not gamble. But we were there, and the buildings were breath-taking so it was fine. We wandered through Galaxy and ended up at the Venetian, exchanged some money and sat down at some tables, won some money and lost some money, had a drink at the bar and went to sleep!