Mouse Eared Kiwi in Taipei

Pizza Hut and Pandas

2009-03-28T22:41:00.005+13:00

Ordering Pizza Hut Online

A traditional Tuesday night meal in Wellington was often Hell’s Pizza. Why Tuesday? Because on Tuesdays if you ordered online home delivery was free. (Never mind that the closest Hell’s Pizza was a 2 minute walk down the hill.)

Here in Taipei you can order Pizza Hut online, but you have to do it in Mandarin. So far, I have therefore only ordered over the phone (my closest store’s English being good enough and my Mandarin being good enough to have a pretty accurate meeting of the minds). Today however, throwing off the shackles of low carbing for an evening of pizza, I decided to give online ordering a try.

Here is my basic step by step for non Mandarin speakers on how to order Pizza Hut Online in Mandarin in Taiwan. Go to http://www1.pizzahut.com.tw/eorder/step1.asp. The page will come up looking something like this:

1. Select home delivery or take out

The first orange box with the text “請登入會員，即可帶出你預設的聯絡資料，進行訂購作業” states that for already registered users, they can click the first button (to bring up their information). Carry on down to the second orange box which reads “第一次訂購的朋友，也可以填寫下面的資料直接進行訂購流程” (essentially, first time friends proceed from here).

Immediately underneath are two options, the first “外帶” which is what you click on for store pick-up, and the second “外送” which is for home delivery. I am assuming you are selecting the latter option.

2. Complete your delivery address

Following on below are boxes to select and write in your address. The first box is which city you live in, so if you are in Taipei City the correct option “台北市” will automatically have been selected.

The second box is which area of the city you live in. For this you will need to know the mandarin characters for your area, such as 中山 for Zhongshan, 大安 for Da-an, or 士林 for Shilin. Select your area from the drop down box.

In the third box, write your street name in Mandarin. If you do not know the characters for your street name, this could be tricky. I have one slightly complicated method described at the end of this step.

In the fourth box, select from the pull-down options which section of the road you live on (段 or “duan4” is Mandarin for road section). On the second address line, fill in your lane (巷 or “xiang4”), alley (弄 or “long4”), street number (號 or “hao4”), street sub-number/letter (之 or “zhi1”), floor (樓 or “lou2”) and room/apartment number/letter (室 or “shi4”) as appropriate in the relevant boxes.

2.1 Learn how to type your address in Mandarin

First, you will need to know the pin yin sound of your city street (tones not necessary). Go to Google maps and look up your area of the city to see what the Mandarin symbols for your street look like. Then go to http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html. Select to search by pin yin, then one syllable at a time search the list of characters for the sound of your road’s name to find the correct one. Finally, copy paste the symbols into a notepad file so you will never need to repeat the search. Usually the word “lu4” or 路 is used for “road”.

3. Fill in your other contact details

Click on the button at the end of the second address line to bring up your closest store and its contact details.

Ignore the next box down labeled Hot 點卡卡號 (“dian4ka3ka3hao4”) as it is a friend referral scheme.

In the box labeled 姓名(“xing4ming2”) type in your name, and in the box labeled E-mail – well I think you get the picture.

In the box labeled 電話 (“dian4hua4”) fill in your telephone number. The area code for Taipei will be pre-selected. The 分機 (“fen1ji1”) box is for your phone extension if you have one.

Alternatively, enter your cell phone number in the third box labeled 手機 (“shou3ji1”).

Finally click on the red button with the arrow. Before you do so though, you may want to know what the small print underneath is saying:

4. Pretend to read the small print (then read this very rough translation)

1. The store will call to confirm roughly within 15 minutes (credit card over phone not accepted), if you don’t receive a call please call the store to confirm they have received the order.
2. Stores will try to deliver within the expected time.
3. If picking up, at time of collection you will need to provide your name and telephone number.
4. Minimum delivery order is NTD300, below that a service charge will apply.
5. When using credit cards, order changes will need to be paid in cash and coupons may not be used (this translation is verging on a guess).

5. Time to check out the menu

Moving onto the Step 2 screen, the cluster of seven brightly coloured boxes bring up different menu options in the drop down boxes. This is where is starts to get tricky for non Mandarin speakers.

Until such time as I can be bothered translating out the whole Pizza Hut menu, the best thing to do is to open up the Pizza Hut website in another window. On the Mandarin version of the site, look at the Menu, use the pictures to see what appeals, and then find the correct characters in the drop down menus on your order page.

For example, I take a look at the afternoon tea menu 下午茶 “xia wu cai” and like the look of the shrimp and pineapple foldover:

I see that the characters are 明太子鮮, so back on the order page, I select the green下午茶 box, find the correct symbols (in this case in the second pull down box) and add two to my order.

6. Completing the order

After selecting the big red button to continue on to Step 3, you will be greeted by a page looking something like this:

First, check your order carefully. Then use the drop down boxes to select your preferred delivery time.

In the next box down, with the sentence above reading “1.現金交易時若持有優惠券，請於備註欄中註明（信用卡刷卡不能使用其他優惠券）”, write down the details of any coupons you wish to use (remember, if using a credit card they don’t accept any coupons”, or any other special instructions.

The final box at the bottom is a place for businesses to add some sort of a uniform tax code if required.

Finally, there are two buttons for continuing on. From what I can understand, if you intend to pay in cash, select the button on the left. If you intend to use a credit card, use the button to the right. (I have not selected the latter of these options so don’t know what will follow).

A small pop-up box in Mandarin will appear noting the time of the order, and you will then be directed back to the first order page. At this point you should check your email to see that the Order has gone in.

7. Enjoying the fruits of your labour

If your local store is as awesomely fast as mine is, you won’t be receiving a phone call within 15 minutes because your pizza will arrive at about the 17 minute mark. You’ll receive some packages that look like this:

At this point, you should open the boxes and consume the contents. Pro tip: Cheese stuffed crust is yum.

Panda-monium

Taipei Zoo is a nice escape from the city; cheap, convenient by MRT, park-like and suitable for all ages. First time visitors may be surprised by the breadth of the collection and the on the whole well-set up enclosures. (See http://english.taipei.gov.tw/zoo/index.jsp for further general information.)

As all and sundry know, the Zoo recently become the home to two panda bears (this blog is non-political so no political comments please). Using the excuse of a Kiwi visitor, earlier this week we set off to check out these iconic animals (in Mandarin, 熊貓 or “xiong2mao1”). When you enter the zoo, you will be given a little ticket with a time to enter the viewing area to help crowd control. The actual enclosure is on the left hand side of the park beyond the first train-car station.

Their reputation for cuddlyness and cuteness is well deserved. For the most part, they seemed oblivious to their stardom, content to snack and play around their enclosure. Here are some video clips and photos of the dynamic duo:

While you’re at the Zoo, don’t forget to check out some of the other more unusual animals, such as the penguin house:

the multitude of monkeys, apes, gorillas, orangutans and chimps (who were especially friendly, coming up and tapping on the glass to get our attention):

and the insectorium where you can walk around in rooms full of butterflies such as this pair of pretty ladies:

Keep an eye out for this pretty lady too, who followed us from one end of the enclosure to the other. Have you ever met a giraffe that you didn’t like? Neither have I.

Pro tip: Go at opening as the animals will be livelier as the temperature will still be cooler, and the animals will probably be still getting fed, like this herd of hippos:

Addendum on ICLP:

In response to visitor comments, I was considering posting on my experiences so far at ICLP. As I am attending for specific learning objectives which are not applicable to usual students, on reflection I feel it would be inappropriate to attempt any sort of assessment, particularly as I have not studied Mandarin previously and therefore do not have a baseline to compare it to. Best of luck to those applying for the next intake, hope to see you there in the next academic year.

Ice Ice Baby

2009-02-28T01:58:00.003+13:00

If you’re a New Zealander living in Taiwan, I’d recommend signing up to the New Zealanders (Kiwis) in Taiwan Facebook Group. From time to time useful organized souls post details of upcoming kiwi events in Taiwan, such as ANZCham sundowner events. ANZCham= Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (http://www.anzcham.org.tw).

This week, the New Zealand U18 Ice Hockey Team were in town to participate in the International Ice Hockey Federation Div III competition (http://www.iihf.com). I was unaware of this until the game roster was posted on the Facebook group website (many thanks!) but once informed I turned up for the first game in the tournament held this afternoon between New Zealand and Australia.

Bear in mind that I have never in my life watched an ice hockey game. It had been so long that I’d even set foot inside an ice skating rink that I only thought to grab a jersey for the cooler temperature as I was heading out the door. Needless to say, I’d never visited Tapei Stadium before, but the facility to my eyes was first rate and well maintained. Also, entrance was free. Bonus!

When I walked inside, the ice smoothing machine was hard at work only minutes before the match, the event banner was hanging up on the far end wall, and the officials were settling into their sideline spot at the computer table:

And the five flags of the participating teams hung on the wall at one end of the rink; Australia, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, South Africa and Mongolia:

As I try to give a description of how the game proceeded, please bear in mind – I know nothing about the rules, and about every 5 seconds I cringed at players full body slamming, skating full bore into a wall and spectacularly going skates-up on the ice. The New Zealander supporters were far out numbered by the Auzzie supporters, but it was great to see all the parents who had flown out from New Zealand to watch their sons play.

First the Kiwis came out for a quick lap around their half of the court:

Huddled in front of the goal – either having a last minute pep talk, or fighting over which night market was first on the list – who can tell from the sidelines!

Then both teams lined up to face off before the game kicked off:

Once the game got underway, it all got a little unclear. Lots of sin-binning, lots of breaks to change players, lots of narrowly averted goals (thumbs up to NZ’s goalies who were put hard to work from the get go), lots of elbows, tangling of sticks, falling over – even a broken stick. I had no idea what was going on, so I just kept yelling – Go NZ, Let’s go NZ, You can do it NZ, (“insert encouraging words here that avoid the fact I have no idea what exactly I’m encouraging the players to do”) NZ!!! P.s. my throat is sore.

Our boys gave it a good effort, although the end result was a substantial win for the Auzzie team. After the game, the teams gathered for a sportsman-like shake-the-hand down the line:

If you can get along for a match, it’ll be worth it to support our boys in black. The rest of the games are at the following times (copied from the Facebook group):

28 February, 2009 (Sat)
16:00 Tapei Ice Rink 3 AUS vs. RSA
19:00 Tapei Ice Rink 4 TPE vs. NZL

2 March, 2009 (Mon)
16:00 Tapei Ice Rink 5 AUS vs. MGL
19:00 Tapei Ice Rink 6 NZL vs. RSA

3 March, 2009 (Tue)
16:00 Tapei Ice Rink 7 MGL vs. NZL
19:00 Tapei Ice Rink 8 RSA vs. TPE

5 March, 2009 (Thu)
16:00 Tapei Ice Rink 9 RSA vs. MGL
19:00 Tapei Ice Rink 10 AUS vs. TPE
21:30 Tapei Ice Rink Closing & Awards Ceremony

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for: game shots! Capping off this
post is a (very shakey sorry - especially near the beginning where we thought we'd scored a goal but didn't and the camera went everywhere - I may have been both jumping and screaming at the time, uncomfirmed rumour) video of random footage from the game, and the few of my pictures that didn’t come out blurry:

Cougars, queens and more on carbs

2009-02-25T02:05:00.002+13:00

Finding a cougar equivalent

One of ICLP’s catch phrases is “Shuo hua, shuo hua,shuo hua.” Continually reinforcing the vocabulary and grammar structures during group class conversations and getting immediate suggestions/corrections from teachers has been an important part of my learning so far.

This semester (my third semester both learning Mandarin and at ICLP) my texts are Modern Chinese Conversation (新編會話), Practical Audio-Visual Chinese III (實用視聽華語(三)), and Taiwan Today (今日台灣). The third textbook is a series of readings around different everyday life in Taiwan topics. This can lead to some quite wide ranging conversations about cultural differences. In a class of three guys and one gal, a fly on the wall during the chapter on finding a husband or wife would have been well entertained.

During the current chapter, discussion wound its way to the completely unrelated topic of cougars. What is the significance of “cougar”, the teacher asked. In English, a cougar is typically thought of as either an adorable yet dangerous large feline, or a lady of a certain age who particularly seeks out the company of younger men. A short side debate on whether the cougar had spots, stripes or nothing later, the teacher thought the meaning might be equivalent to the local expression Bai4 Quan2 (敗犬) – literally roughly meaning lost/lowly dog. After some further exploration, I thought “bai quan” might be closer to spinster or old maid.

Queen of the cougars

In any case, during the cougar – lost dog debate, my teacher in all her wisdom fed my Taiwan drama addiction by mentioning the phrase was used in the title of a new local drama: 敗犬女王 (Bai4 Quan2 Nu3 Wang2), roughly translating to lost queen. This drama stars the charismatic Cheryl Yang (楊謹華 / Yang Jin Hua) and the leading man of the moment, Ethan Ruan (阮經天 / Ruan Jing Tian). You may remember Ruan from Fated To Love You – he was the good looking guy with a lot of screen time who kept saying “Jia you Chen Xin Yi!” You remember? Good.

Yang plays Shan Wu Shuang, an almost 33-year old unmarried career woman who is trying to make her name in the media business by busting a local politician who has a wife and kids, plus a bit on the side. Ruan plays Lucas, a roughly 25-year-old odd job man; a younger man (oooooh!).

We quickly find out he is the heart throb martial art instructor at a local high school (some of the translation in that scene is a bit strong, surely attack would have been less cringe worthy than molest with the same dramatic effect!), and dresses in a Santa costume for rent money (the first scene is set on Christmas Eve). As a side note, these actors are playing roles that are the same or thereabouts as their real ages; a breath of fresh air from western dramas where 20-somethings will play high school roles.

Things get rolling when they of course have an encounter of the infuriating kind with each other. Although I’m only on the first episode, this is definitely finding a regular slot on my watch-list. Catch up on the first six episodes at my http://www.mysoju.com/my-queen/ then follow the drama as it unfolds on TTV/SETTV Sundays 22:00 - 23:30.

Carb Catch-up

For those who were interested in my previous post on low-carbing in Taiwan/Taipei, here’s a quick update: Boy is it hard to low-carb over holidays. Never you mind, I’m back in the saddle.

Jasons now has ground flax seed both at the location mentioned in the previous post, and in the health supplement section between the frozen fish/salmon and the toiletries at the back of the store. Also, I located at the top right hand shelf of the oils section virgin coconut oil, for those who like to (hopefully) kick the metabolism this way.

Weight Watchers drink flavour sachets are now available at Jasons. If you enter the store through the bakery, immediately as you exit the bakery into the store one of the aisles on the far upper left has them alongside lime flavouring sachets. Beware; they’re pricey and do have carbs which could easily add up!

Hot-pot as it turns out is not just for eating out. I am well into my exploration of turning out a just as yummy low-carb equivalent at home. This has been made very easy by the availability of low in carb frozen hot-pot soup bases at just about every grocery store I’ve seen so far. I like to pep up the soup base with a good handful of fresh coriander. So far duck and ginger has been my personal favourite packet base. This mutton and herbs base was also pretty good, and (according to the back of the packet, cross fingers it’s accurate) is particularly low in carbs:

For those who want to branch out into different kinds of mushrooms (I’ve been a traditionally timid button girl myself, although golden mushrooms as mentioned in a previous post have stolen my heart); pick up a pre-packed selection such as this ones which also came from Jasons:

Everything can be easily picked up from your local supermarket – thin sliced meats, seafood and veges of all descriptions. If you have others in the house who are not low-carbing, they can add noodles (near the end of the meal so that not too much leeched sugar is contaminating the soup base), and dumplings which can also be found in pre-packed hotpot selections, such as the one below:

There you have it – low-carb hotpot at home, it’s so so easy.

Smelling the roses

2009-02-23T00:35:00.003+13:00

As part of the 2009 Yang Ming Shan Flower Festival (further information, see http://www.taipei.gov.tw) flocks of locals have migrated to Chiang Kai Shek’s Shilin Presidential Residence at no. 60 Fulin Road to take in its extensive gardens, in particular the many rose (mei2 gui1 玫瑰) varietals.

View Larger Map

It’s easy to get to these gardens using public transport. Hop on the MRT to the Shilin Station (not Jianguo) and take Exit 2. Immediately turn left and follow the road (including across a traffic light intersection) for about 5 minutes. If it was anything like today, it will be easy to figure out as everyone else will be flooding out of the station and following the same path:

You’re getting close when you pass some massive herbaceous bovines on your right:

Then a driveway leads the way inside (you may miss the relatively small entrance sign but it’s fairly easy to figure out):

Alternatively, from Exit 2 you can walk straight ahead and take the other entrance on your left hand side. A short way inside the entrance you’ll find a pathway lined by the same tall trees used at the Taipei Botanical Gardens:

Their dramatic effect helps distract from the decidedly un-picturesque open drains:

From some perspectives, they also make this collection of sculptures appear to be behind jail bars – an eerie but cool (presumably unintended) effect:

The main reason for the crowds was the large collection of rose bushes planted throughout the grounds. Although it’s hard to match the Wellington Botanical Garden’s rose garden for quality and beauty, the Shilin Residence was by no means lacking for admirers. Families young and old enjoyed the relatively comfortable weather and each other’s company; and of course life here is not just to be experienced, but also (importantly) captured on camera.

Some areas of the gardens smelled rather like bubblegum - I never found the source of the fragrance. Artistically ordered in a number of configurations, you could view rose bushes winding up trellis arbours:

Alongside curving paths:

Set out in row upon row and flanked with trees, as though it were a rose orchard:

And inside greenhouses, protected from the elements and decorated with ribbons, pearls and trinkets:

Dui wo lai shuo, the most enjoyable parts of the gardens were not the roses, but the number of other treasures tucked around the place, such as this large shady tree with its trunk and branches completely wrapped in leafy vines:

Scultures complementing existing plants and trees, and in turned enhanced by the foliage:

Traditional gardens with plenty of shade and dancing fountains:

Wide open spaces for families to picnic and kids to run amok:

And buildings with tiny details that many people might walk right past and miss:

Set alongside a lily lake, this tucked-away building was lush with greenery, tiny blossoms and berried plants (although the ceiling was low so taller people needed to duck!):

Other greenhouses contained large numbers of orchid plants, and indoor courtyards decorated with draped vines and flower arrangements including animal figures:

To the amateur's eye, the orchids themselves were no different in quality to those found at the Jianguo flower markets, but the setting served to enhance their beauty:

(These were my favourite!):

And of course, who can resist checking out a rich dude's wheels!

If you're interested in checking out the roses, I'd recommend not putting it off if you want to view the blossoms in their best condition (many were already showing that they were into the second half of their race to the grave). As this is a blog post on rose gardens, please humour me as I cap off the entry with a few snaps of the day's beauties. Enjoy!

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

2009-02-08T03:11:00.003+13:00

There comes a time in every mandarin language student’s life when they try to apply their new found knowledge to the world of KTV. No song is sacred from the mangling of s’s, c’s and z’s. The best part for many young scholar is of course: no tones.

In case my name (Mouse Eared Kiwi) didn’t clue you in, I happen to be a big Disney fan. This leads to a natural progression of finding Disney songs and then finding the same songs in Mandarin. Difficult? Oh no, my friend, not with (behold) the power of YouTube.

Take one Disney movie set in China, extract one song with an easy melody, add an iconic actor and what do you get? Jackie Chan singing I'll Make A Man Out Of You. Awesome. (Video uploaded by AirialBoy):

Next, with (behold) the power of Google, find lyrics in mandarin characters or in pinyin or both. Here are the lyrics in pinyin (as found at the very helpful findalyric.com):

Da jia tong xin zuo zhan rang xiong nu jue wang
Wei he zhe qun shi bing dou xiang ge gu niang
Ni men ben zuo san man you niu nie
Wo hui gai bian ni de qian tu
Yao cheng wei nan zi han bu ren shu

Za wen ni de bu lv nei xin yao jian ding
Kai kuo ni de xiong jin qiu sheng yao jue xin
Dan xiao you hai pa xin luan ru ma
Ni jing huang mang ran wu zhu
Yao cheng wei nan zi han bu ren shu

(Wo qi chuan ru niu kuai duan qi)
(Xi fang ji le deng wo guang lin)
(Wo kan da jia quan dou bei ta xia sha liao)
(Ta men dan zhan you xin jing)
(Wo de shen fen hai shi mi mi)
(Diao dao shui li ke hui yao le wo xiao ming)

(Nan zi han) Xing dong kuai su xiang na jiang he tuan ji
(Nan zi han) Po huai li xiang na feng bao wu qing
(Nan zi han) Man qiang re xue xiang na ye huo ya jing
Shen chu gui mo xiang na an ye de e meng

Shi guang hao bu liu qing xiong nu kuai bi jin
Ting cong wo de zhi ling cai neng gou huo ming
Sha chang tai can ku xue guang sha lu
Ruo hai pa ta shang gui lu
Yao cheng wei nan zi han bu ren shu

(Nan zi han) Xing dong kuai su xiang na jiang he tuan ji
(Nan zi han) Po huai li xiang na feng bao wu qing
(Nan zi han) Man qiang re xue xiang na ye huo ya jing
Shen chu gui mo xiang na an ye de e meng

(Nan zi han) Xing dong kuai su xiang na jiang he tuan ji
(Nan zi han) Po huai li xiang na feng bao wu qing
(Nan zi han) Man qiang re xue xiang na ye huo ya jing
Shen chu gui mo xiang na an ye de e meng

For those unfamiliar with the song, here is the English version (uploaded by xFliiy). The movie is about a girl (Mulan) who secretly goes off to war in her ageing father’s place. In this song, the lead warrior (also Mulan’s love interest) is training the new recruits. As the movie Team America taught us, all you need is a montage:

Although in English, I particularly like this young man’s lip sync – especially the part of the song where a number of characters sing a line each. Feel the passion! (uploaded by jayakarim):

Once you get going, it’s amazing how many interesting variations of a song you can find. Here somebody melded the song in a number of languages together to create a multilingual version (uploaded by WeiFanggg):

For the discerning viewer, a DragonBallZ parody version (uploaded by TeamFourStar):

For an added dose of extra awesome, this class of school mates did a pretty good job trying to re-create a lot of the movie scenes for the song in real life (uploaded by kellersmiles). My favourite authentic moment is at 3.03:

Although not a re-creation of the music video, this group who style themselves as the tomato bandits did a great job providing a lot of funny moments. Extra points for the moment where someone makes karate moves look like the robot dance, see if you can spot it (uploaded by tomatobandits):

If someone could only make a video for this song consisting solely of Chuck Norris and The Hoff, I think we would have a winner.

Down the Cosplay rabbit hole

2009-02-07T23:57:00.003+13:00

Picture this: It's a normal Saturday, 8am, raining. You take a look outside, and a mass of umbrellas is queued all the way around both sides of NTU's sports centre. There can be only one explanation: Cosplay is in town.

By mid-afternoon, the crowds were thinning out but there was still plenty to see, so I popped on down to snap a few shots myself.

This time, contact lenses were out in force, and many were using more subtle shading rather than block colour as I'd seen in the past. Although my point and shoot camera can't really capture that sort of detail, this young lady's bashful blues were really quite stunning in person:

This couple used subtle red shaded contacts:

As usual, there were many great costumes that included a stylized weapon of one sort or another:

There was also the usual assortment of elegant traditional costumes, cute frilly numbers, and mysteriously masked gentlemen:

Ever a child of the 80s, I love the fluffy skirts sported by this pair:

Although some groups work together really well in putting together their costumes and poses, it can be a bit of a pot shot trying to get photos with them all looking in the same direction:

This Harry Potter threesome managed to pull off looking in the same direction - in this case, directly towards me:

Some of the characters use quite intense expressions in their poses. I love to capture their faces while they are changing positions. Sometimes I get lucky and snap them sharing a joke with their friends or the photographers; their faces light up with a smile and look quite different:

Always strange, always strangely normal; Cosplay.

Pre-Promised Videos

2009-01-26T02:45:00.002+13:00

As a final house-cleaning before the Chinese New Year, here are some videos I promised way back which I had problems with earlier loading onto YouTube:

Air Raid Drill August 2008

Taipei Thunderstorm 2008

Closing off the year on MEK In Taipei, a thank you to all my family, friends and others who have visited my blog this year, especially those who left comments (all of which I do read and appreciate). A special thank you to other bloggers in Taiwan who have given words of encouragement and support for this little blog. Let's see what the Year of the Ox brings!

Blessings to you all! 新年快樂!

An ICLP Chinese New Year Celebration

2009-01-24T05:32:00.002+13:00

As you may know, I am currently studying mandarin at National Taiwan University's International Chinese Language Program (ICLP). This week ICLP kicked off the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday with a bit of a celebration; feasting and fun. Although I didn't manage to make it to the previous day's CNY activity (exploring the beauty of Chinese Calligraphy through the writing of auspicious Spring Festival Couplets) on Thursday I managed to remember to snap a few pictures of the afternoon's activities.

Of course, in preparation for the time of year ICLP had already decorated its floors with seasonal items, such as this display in the student common room.

Hanging from the ceilings in the halls were a number of red and gold decorations.

Many doors had red signs placed above or on their surfaces, such as this one:

Kicking off the afternoon was a speech from the Director, 梁欣榮所長 Prof. Leung Yanwing, who was presented with a token of appreciation.

While respectfully paying attention to the speech, students chowed down on this gorgeous lunch spread provided by ICLP:

Still low-carbing, my plate looked somewhat less diverse than other students', but rest assured it was still all delicious. (Note: following up my previous entry on low-carbing in Taipei, I finally found flaxseed in both seed and milled form at Jasons, right at the end of an aisle next to the milk.)

Then followed a lottery, with just about every student winning something from ipod shuffles to cash prizes.

Here is a winner of one of the more expensive prizes - note his restraint in not having torn off the wrapping immediately!

In order to collect the prize, each student was required to give a 表演 (biao3 yan3, performance). These ranged to reciting "lucky" mandarin sentences, to singing a few lines of mandarin songs, to telling blond jokes in mandarin, to this brave fellow who demonstrated some polished martial arts moves.

Following the feast and lottery, some clever clogs had come up with a fun gameshow, putting a twist on Name That Person - name that person's mandarin name! The majority were ICLP teachers and students, but a few celebrities were thrown in as well to mix it up.

Students then split the next few hours wandering around various activities. Down in the common room, head teacher 范美媛 Fann Meeiyuan 老師 helped students try their hand at 麻將 Mahjong.

In a separate room, 李盈瑩 Li Yingying 老師 demonstrated on various students the fine art of 算命 Fortune telling.

Of course, thanks to the assistance of this booklet:

And the magic of YouTube:

Students also got in some KTV practice. Even some future students got in on the act with tuneful renditions of Liang Zhi Lao Hu (which is set to the same tune we know as Three Blind Mice).

My favourite activity was led by the lovely 黃傳娟Huang Chuanjuan老師 who is one of my teachers this semester: 剪窗花、貼窗花、紅包袋加工 customising red hong bao envelopes.

Having acquired a red envelope, the first step was to choose a stamp design, such as one of these:

The stamp was dampened with some sort of liquid, much in the same way you would press ink onto a stamp block. The tricky part came after carefully pressing the stamp down onto the surface of the envelope. Metal shavings were carefully tipped over the dampened pattern - careful not to spill!

A few extension cords later, hairdryers were wired up and ready to push hot air onto the metal shavings, slowly melting them:

Until the final result, which looked something like this:

Definately the most fun activity for someone like me who would be a closet scrapbooker (if only there were enough hours in the day). Xie xie ICLP!

Jiu Shi Ying Gai De (Xin Nian Kuai Le)

2009-01-19T01:36:00.003+13:00

First, you may be shocked to see that I am posting twice in one day. That's what happens when I create something so truely aweful I must share it with the world. Okay, you knew it wasn't going to take me long before I broke from the mandarin training and started to do crazy things to distract myself from the piles of cue cards. But seriously? Writing a song?

Thus the birth this weekend of Jiu Shi Ying Gai De (Xin Nian Kuai Le). Against all odds, a monstrous beast clawing at the heart of musicality and shredding it to tasty bite size morsels has erupted from my apartment. Not knowing much mandarin didn't stop me. Neither did a healthy ignorance of grammar. Nor a lack of a decent recording device - behold the marvel of a 20 buck on sale at Dick Smiths in New Zealand generic brand MP3 player with the front LCD panel smashed in. Yes, that's what I used. What's more, I had to put the piano damping pedal on for the whole song to limit all the distortion in the recording. To top it off, Americal Idol I aint. Not even Local 7/11 Idol. So, enjoy.

For the folks back home, here is a rough translation of the pidgin mandarin I've used:

(Verse 1)
Early morning in winter, I hear the music inside your heart.
More and more the cold departs,
Tomorrow you then need to fly.
Of course, the fragrant and fresh morning encourages me to hope you'll return,
It's best that you follow your music,
Perhaps the music will make you miss home.

(Chorus)
Happy new year, happy new year,
Build a new road towards tomorrow and graduate from today.
Happy new year, happy new year,
Right now we don't fear the world,
This is as it should be.

(Verse 2)

Don't forget, always,
In the night markets of life,
You get what you pay for,
My love is not something sundry.
Now, please decide carefully,
If we together seem happy,
Tomorrow we don't need to have concern.
We all sing, we all always sing:

(Chorus)
(Bridge)
We could sleep 1,010,000 years,
Afterwards all people male female old and young
Will for certain still be singing:
(Chorus).

Sightseeing: Pingxi (without the lantern festival crowds)

2009-01-18T22:20:00.003+13:00

When most people think of Pingxi they think of the Lantern Festival, which once a year lures thousands of people there to watch lanterns drift up into the night sky. On a sunny but sadly smoggy day here in Taipei, I escaped with some fellow kiwis to this sunny quiet haven which is a short drive from the city (well under an hour). Many of the road signs have “Pinsi” as the pin-yin, so if in doubt look for the mandarin characters: 平溪.

Without the lantern festival crowds, Pingxi melts back into a small town centred around the rail line running through. Nestled in between thick forest-clad mountains, it remains drenched in the winter sun. If I were to describe the township as a piece of clothing, I’d say it felt like a snuggly winter fleece; a few years old, by no means fashionable and in need of a good washing, but somehow still a favoured piece of clothing.

One Taiwanese we stopped and chatted with who lived in a nearby town noted that Pingxi was often this peaceful and generally without much air pollution. If she decided to divorce her husband, she was thinking of moving there! (You often find out alot about a stranger very quickly by New Zealand standards).

Nothing says country township though like a path right over the rail lines. This picture is taken from the path:

Without a torch it was difficult to see much of the bomb shelter caves near budda’s rock. The ceiling was very low and the floor a clay dirt; if you’re a tall foreigner living locally, in any instance of falling explosive objects I’d recommending seeking shelter elsewhere!

To the right of the tunnel entrances was a typical homespun set of steps cut into the hillside.

Compare the pale clay rock step in this photo (one step) with the pale rock of the stairs in the first to see exactly how shallow and narrow these steps are.

This seemed to be the main street running through the township, with a number of trinket stores and xiao3 chi1 (little eats). Mostly locals with a handful of tourists and a couple of occasionally fiesty dogs wandered up and down its length. I picked up a car mirror lantern hanger and a cute cellphone charm (don’t forget to bargain.

Around smaller towns, I look out for the drain covers which often have a more interesting design than you’d see back home in (stuck-in-a-grating-rut) New Zealand.

On the other side of the township, we stopped off at Monet Café:

Just off the roadside, this was an outdoor café with a central pod surrounded by a number of tables under sun umbrellas:

On this particular Sunday, the café was very popular with a number of bikers (motorbikes not scooters) who were travelling mostly in small flocks:

Despite the heat, the majority were clad in top to toe leather jumpsuits complete with racy designs and supportive pads on every joint – straight out of an 80s costume party, but in their own way still rocking the cool. Compare bikers back home with these home grown Taiwan tough dudes (complete with peace signs):

Many of the tables were set around a series of small ponds. The waitresses would weave between the chairs and along the pond paths to deliver trays of (a little pricey but) pretty decent quality café food. Their various fruit and coffee based drinks were definitely ahead of the curve at least in terms of presentation. Although one friend warned against the vegetarian sandwhich (which contained fruit slices as the main ingredient) they had ordered on a previous occasion, this time their lasanga had a generous cheesy crust on top.

And in Taiwan, where there are ponds there are scary fish with huge mouths always looking for their next meal, which in this case was courtesy of a sweet father and son pair:

The café sells little packets of fish feed at 20 NTD a pop. All in all, a great roadside café to kill some time in the sun, just remember to take tissues for the bathroom.

By the bye, I hope this zebra near the caves isn’t a historical treasure. He doesn’t seem too impressed with his new leash!

Low-Carbing in Taipei: Mission Improbable

2009-01-14T22:17:00.005+13:00

Right about now we’re about smack in the middle of the time between the new year as celebrated in New Zealand and the new year as celebrated in China. One common new year’s resolution is to go on a diet. For those of you in Taiwan who have decided that this is the time to give low-carbing a try – you’ve probably chosen the worst time of your life to start. Seriously – have you had a meal here lately? Rice, noodles, dumplings, with loads of sugar in most sauces. Good luck.

I am one of those idiots. Having low-carbed here since November, with a 10 day break over Christmas and New Year’s, I’ve come to realize that it’s not mission impossible – just mission improbable.

So, for anyone else out there that is thinking about giving it a try, or anyone who already is on low-carbs and is preparing to move to Taipei, here is the low-down on what I’ve been able to find where.

Books

Taipei 101’s Page 1 bookstore: walk all the way through the store to the far end, to the left of the children’s area: there you will find the health/diet section. In November, they had a decent range and had in stock a copy of the 2002 Atkins book. (As I bought it, I don’t know whether they still have it in stock.)

Grocery sources

My groceries are sourced from three different places: my local Wellcome supermarket in Shi Da, Costco in Neihu, and Jasons in Taipei 101.

Costco is where I buy the bulk of my groceries. Upside: decent quality, good range of meats (fresh, frozen and tinned), often find imported goods you weren’t expecting to see, such as Hass avocados from New Zealand. Downside: The packages are bulk size and one cart can set you back a lot of qian2. If you don’t chow through your veges, you may find they have spoiled before you have finished the package. So far I have had pretty good luck.

From Jasons, I generally buy cheese (they have a decent range), salad veges I can’t find at Costco, herbs, and dietary supplements.

Wellcome brings up the rear with the remaining herbs (generally coriander), and New Zealand cream and butter (Anchor). And cat food, which I hope to never eat.

A low-carb pantry tour

Philadelphia (everywhere)
3-lbs Daisy sour cream (Costco)
McCormicks herb and salad dressing mixes (Costco)
Tinned oysters, tuna, crab meat, and (a new one for me) chicken (Costco)
Anchor New Zealand cream and butter (Wellcome)
Babybel individual cheeses (Costco)
Anchor shredded mozzarella cheese (this time Wellcome but usually Jasons)

Convenient mix of frozen veggies, remove the carrots to reduce the carbs (Costco)

Buy bulk packs of meat, fish and poultry and divide them up into ziplocks for convenience. Picture here are ziplocks of chicken breasts (Costco).

Bulk Splenda in individual packets (Costco). I have yet to find jars of Splenda.
FiberMate –psyllium husks without too many carbs added (Jasons, pricey)
True lime – individual packets of lime flavouring for cooking or drinking (I use with coriander to make marinades and with sparkling water to drink) (Jasons)
Bulk macadamia nuts, one of my best buys – unlike other brands, is not swimming in extra added carbs, be careful for example not to buy honey roasted (Costco)

If anyone knows where in Taipei I can find flaxseed, I’d love to know.

Other frequent low-carb buys

Fresh salmon fillets and USA beef steaks (Costco, butchery department)
Frozen non-marinated salmon steaks (Costco, freezer department)
Assorted small packs of seafood such as cockles (Jasons)
Pre-peeled garlic and pre-shredded ginger (Jasons)
Sparkling mineral water in bulk (Costco)
Romaine lettuce, capsicums, onions and tomatoes in bulk packs (Costco)
30-count trays of eggs (Costco)
Bulk Kirkland non-marinated non-smoked non-precooked bacon (Costco)
And finally, a shout out to my favourite mushroom: Golden mushrooms!! (Everywhere)

Reading labels for Carbs

Ladies and gentleman, I present the only frozen pre-prepared food I have found in my Wellcome with acceptable carb levels. Mini chicken steak with garlic and black pepper:

On the reverse side of the package is the label showing nutritional information. Here are the characters for carbohydrates: 碳水化合物 (tan4 shui3 hua4 he2 wu4).

Be careful though: in this case, the information is for a 100 gram serving and package is 350 grams. Grams: 公分 (gong1 fen1)

Eating out

Eating out can far more of a challenge than back home in western countries. Take a city which uses carbs as its main food group, add in language barriers, and you may wish you’d stayed at home.

By far my favourite option for eating out low carb is hot pot. Find a nice low-carb base such as lemongrass (I hope), add green veges and a world full of meat, fish, chicken, eggs and bob’s your uncle.

(Picture courtesy of my older sister who visited over Christmas and New Years)

Korean BBQ can also be okay depending on what sauce the meat has been marinated in.

In western restaurants, do as you would back home. Order a steak with sauce on the side, order a green salad, and order another steak if you’re still hungry. Eat the topping but not the pizza base. At Burger King, toss the buns. Take the breading off the fried chicken. You can sometimes try this technique in Chinese restaurants (ever tried eating just the inside of the dumpling? Messy but can be tasty) to get by until you can get home and eat a proper meal. At my local Thai restaurant, I often order kebabs without the sauce or steamed lemongrass seafood.

At any restaurant In Case Of Emergency: Order a plate of qing1 cai4. Basically, sautéed green leafy vegetables. Sometimes, it’s as close as you’re going to get to low carb. Then eat the nuts you should be carrying in a Ziploc for times such as these, and you’ll be fine.

Cooking at home

Back home, low carbers try to recreate their favourite carby foods such as pizza bases or mashed “potatoes” using cauliflower. This year I’m hoping to figure out how to recreate some of my favourite Taiwan foods into a low-carb equivalent.

Witness my first attempt this year: Shaved ice.

Take a NZ weight watchers jelly (kindly provided by a visiting relative or friend), make up with ½ cup hot water (until crystals are dissolved), then the remaining liquid using chilled water. Grab your cheap Taiwanese electric beaters, and slowly pour in half a litre of whipping cream (you can buy litre cartons from Costco).

Beat beat beat until niiice and frothy. Set the bowl in the freezer for an hour, then beat again. Repeat (freeze, beat). Then leave to freeze overnight. Remove bowl from freezer, take a ceramic soup spoon (the frozen ice will bend a metal spoon) and scrape at the top layer to form the shaved ice. Once the top layer is off, the rest seems very easy to scrape (due to the gelatine?) and is remarkably like our favourite summer Taiwan treat.

Here is a bowl of lime (yum! Don’t bag it until you’ve tried it) low-carb shaved ice:

School fairs and church potlucks

2008-12-02T23:13:00.002+13:00

Rammstein and raffle tickets - TES Christmas fair

On Saturday, the Taipei European School (http://www.taipeieuropeanschool.com) held a Christmas School Fair. Not having any kiddywinklets myself, my friends (justifiably proud parental units of some gorgeous specimens) took me along so that I too could watch six year old girls plie in purple/pink leotards in front of doting parents and use all my willpower against the lure of the candycotton stall.

Immediately obvious was the stellar job the school did in setting up a courtyard with lots of lunch options, categorised by the cuisines' countries of origin. The german sausage stall was particularly popular, although I was partial to the chicken satay skewers further along. A mass of tables contained a throng of ravenous families who had coughed up the 10 TWD entrance charge and made it past the raffle gauntlet.

The centre of attention was the stage set up to house a variety of acts, from diva mothers bringing home "All I Want For Christmas", to the school choir:

To a teenage band covering Rammstein songs (just what every school fair needs, compulsory viewing and popular with a number of young fans going by the applause):

Set up around the school were various craft DIY stalls (painting, peading, Christmas decorations), physical games using blow-up bouncy structures and the usual array of balls and goals, a room of Christmas decorations for sale, and of course several rows of stalls selling everything from Christmas hampers to stuffed toys:

I managed to snaffle a rather cute sparkly red and white pendant for 150 TWD and felt satisfied that I would not be leaving empty handed. I was really thrilled though to see that the school had set up a giving tree with Christmas presents for less fortunate families - reminded me that my high school back in NZ used to do the same thing.

While on the subject of Christmas trees, the next day a very generous fellow kiwi brought over her Christmas tree for me to use as she will be home for the holidays.

You may be faintly able to make out that some of the decorations are famous New Zealand symbols, such as a kiwi and a tiki. My younger sister a few weeks back sent me a pohutakawa decoration. Pohutakawa is the New Zealand Christmas tree. By astonishing concidence it was made by the same designer as these other decorations. A little bit of kiwi Christmas to be had in Taipei!

The church potluck that never was

A major barrier to finding a church in Taipei can be language if you're not a mandarin speaker. Fortunately, there are several churches in my area with english services that I found with the help of http://across.co.nz/TawainChurch.html. Unfortunately, my particular denomination does not have a congregation in my part of the city, but recently I have begun attending a Presbyterian church where I really feel the warm welcoming attitude of the members.

This Sunday was the planned day for a Thanksgiving potluck meal. If you're not familiar with the idea of a potluck, essentially everyone brings a dish to share with everyone else. Some people might bring a dish they're particularly good at making, others might bring something that is convenient for them to source, and so forth. As no-one likes to appear stingy, this generally results in a ridiculous oversupply of food!

Being a baking fiend myself, I was pretty excited to discover from a friend of a friend on Saturday that right across the road from the Taipei European School is a little store selling various baking necessities. As well as replacing some cake decorating items that I misplaced during my move, I also managed to acquire some chocolate-making moulds. With these little beauties, making chocolates is very easy and you can have some fun with colourings if you're using white chocolate. A bit of effort on Saturday afternoon, and I made these chocolate and boysenberry beasties:

I know, not my prettiest efforts, but it was all about having fun with the chocolate moulds.

The sad footnote to this fun weekend was the development of a stonking great headcold (I'm still crossing fingers that its downward path to the lungs changes plans) and so these never made it to the potluck. Such is life!

Rainbows, Pianos and Baron Chen

2008-11-16T01:14:00.004+13:00

Somewhere, over the rainbow...

With the increased rain quota lately as the island slips into dongtian, Taipei has been lucky to see a few rainbows lately. There is something quite magical about rainbows - pots of gold, leprechauns, rainbow brite (and for some reason I also associate rainbows with unicorns).

Earlier this week while chopping up capsicum for my morning omelete, I was able to gaze out the window at what seemed to be my own private rainbow made just for me. Carefully trying not to let my breakfast burn, I grabbed my camera to take this photo before it completely disappeared so that I could share it with you too:

Renting a piano

Like many expats, I won't be in Taiwan forever. With a transient lifestyle it is often easier to rent large pieces of furniture rather than cart them around in a shipping container. Like many kiwi kids, I received piano lessons while growing up and still enjoy tinkering around when I have a spot of free time. In most major cities rental pianos are easily available, and Taipei is not an exception.

On the recommendation of a friend, I contacted Holly Hua who rents assorted instruments, appliances and furniture to set up an appointment.

With affordable rentals between TWD $500 and $1500 a month with no deposit or delivery fee, the showroom had quite a selection of upright models. I was able to try out as many as I liked, and after some consideration I selected a mid-priced Yamaha with a pleasing tone and touch (followed by a lovely cup of tea and chat with Hua Xian Sheng at a nearby location). The very next day, I came home to the piano already in place in side my apartment in exactly the correct spot (don't worry, I made arrangements with the apartment building staff - they didn't break and enter!)

If only all things in life were this painless! If you're looking to rent a piano yourself, this is a good place to start.

Sticky Note Girl - oh, the drama!

My new addiction: Fated To Love You (or Sticky Note Girl), a Taiwan drama with all the intrigue, accidents, love triangles, money and far fetched implausible scenarios you could think of, wrapped into one big bundle of more-ish viewing.

In Taiwan, there does not seem to be the array of long-running week-day soap operas that you might find in the States, or long-running dramas like Shortland Street in New Zealand. Instead, they have really long mini-series type dramas. Fated To Love You is 24 episodes in total; I am currently on episode 13.

The first few episodes reminded me slightly of Ugly Betty in its flow, although not as over-produced. I don't think I'll be giving away too much of the storyline when I say that the whole mess begins when a nobody-Taiwanese girl and a rich Taiwanese businessman accidently sleep with each other on a one-night cruise through a series of contrived plot twists, setting into motion love-disaster after love-disaster for the both of them.

The actors are fabulously into their roles, the soap-y editing tries to out-do the dramatics of the actors, and you can't help but love and identify with the lot of them. And who wouldn't want that adorable grandma to be their own? My favourite though has to be the quite dreamy (do people even use the word dreamy anymore? He is quite deserving of it, I assure you) Baron Chen (陳楚河). A quick Google doesn't tell me too much about him except for the vital stats - age, weight, and - (why this is a fact worthy of being banded around I don't know) his blood type.

For non-mandarin speakers, this link includes english subtitles. Enjoy! http://www.mysoju.com/fated-to-love-you/

Sight-seeing: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

2008-11-10T01:08:00.004+13:00

Undeterred by the light rain, today I decided to hit another tourist spot which had not yet made my list. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (http://www.yatsen.gov.tw/) is easily reached from the MRT station by the same name on the blue line, or you can take a cab to 505 Jen-ai Road, Section 4.

Situated in central Taipei, the hall is easily visible from Taipei 101 because of its enormous bright yellow roof. From many vantage points, photos of the hall gives it the appearance of sitting at the feet of 101, although 101 is really a 10-15 minute walk away depending on traffic lights.

Porches seems an odd word to describe the wide verandas lining the outside of the hall, but for want of a better descriptor, several dance groups were practicing along the porches. In front of the hall a small fair was set up. Not quite in the sense of a New Zealand fair, it was mainly just a few lines of stalls. In New Zealand, in my mind, it takes a horizontal bungee to make a fair worthy of its name - perhaps I'm showing my country roots. Although, for accuracy, the horizontal bungy always came second in coolness to the tractor rides around the paddock at the annual Sunday school summer holiday party. When I say tractor rides, I mean a sack tied by a length of rope onto the tractor. Kids sit on the sack and then get tugged along like a sled by the tractor around the pasture, cow pats and all. So painful, yet so fun.

Anyway, back to the hall: the crowning glory of the outside of the hall, aside from the well maintained gardens, is the impressive entranceway with pillars and a sweeping roofline.

Just inside the entrance, the hall houses a large bronze statue of the hall's namesake, with a changing of the guard every hour on the hour. A well-attended sight of absolute precision and spiffy gun-spinning moves (just see the intense concentration in their eyes).

The hall also houses an exhibit, gift shop, library, auditorium, and other facilities.

To the left of the entrance hall is a small gallery which is a good starting off point if it's your first visit to the hall. At the end of the gallery is a small gift shop - convenient for picking up souvineers if you have overseas guests, as well as postcards.

For stamp enthusiasts (such as myself) several of the display cases have philatelic items, and the giftshop also sold themed Taiwan stamp packs.

In the centre of the gallery was a small cinema, showing at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. The movie was in mandarin with mandarin subtitles, but you might still find it worth a few minutes viewing to watch some of the old footage (and the locals seemed to find the seats comfy enough to take a nap, I will withhold the photo evidence to protect dignitas!)

One last feature of the hall I'd like to mention are the number of artworks displayed in its corridors - art buffs might find a few things they were glad they caught. Here is one that caught my art-illiterate eye.

Blog awards and the promised stationary post

2008-11-03T00:18:00.002+13:00

Taiwanderful 2008 Blog Awards

First on my list of topics I would like to cover off today is the Taiwanderful 2008 blog awards (http://www.taiwanderful.net/blog/best-blogs-taiwan-2008-final-results). Due (I imagine) to support from friends, family and other readers back home and in Taiwan of my fledgling blog, I snaffled the category "Best Taiwan Personal Blog 2008".

Thank you so much for your encouragement, and I hope the awards encouraged you to read around some really great blogs written by far more dedicated writers than I here on formosa. When I figure out how, I will incorporate a nifty little commemorative graphic onto my site's template provided very thoughtfully by the people at Taiwanderful (after a weekend away overseas it's a bit much for my overtired brain to figure out right now).

As a result of the competition, according to my server I received a massively increased record of 15107 hits last month. I have no idea how it's calculated, but it does mean that with the increased numbers of photos I am posting on this blog, I will now start using photobucket which I hope won't cause any problems, fingers crossed.

And finally, a little plug for the overall winning blog The New Hampshire Bushman which is always a great read (http://www.thenhbushman.com/).

The promised stationary post

A little while back I promised to share a bit more of the local stationary. When you spend alot of time practising mandarin characters, you run through alot of exercise books. Here are a few favourites that have recently crossed my desk.

"I am a shamrock
Who hides on the ground.
When you come and find me,
Don't make a sound.
Pick me up very carefully;
Don't let me fall apart.
You can make a wish from me
By holding it close to your heart."

"Fatiao Monkey
Hello! Hello! everybody! my name is Fatiao Monkey! let's be happy!
Hello!
do you
like
banana?
Ha!"

"You can make yourself
feel wonderful...
i'm singing
Mood NIGHT"

"2020. March
SWEET
Best Wishes 100%
Cheer up!
You're my best friend.
American
Show Your Smile
The sky looks beautiful
Clouds appear whiter than usual
There is nothing so beautiful as spring
Dreams Come True
A life without a friend
is a life without a sun.
honey
Enjoy Your Life
May the joy and happiness fill
every minute of your day.
So shiny.
So cute."

"Happy day
WISH
Forever
I am so happy.
I am in seventh heaven now.
i'm singing"

"The Perfect decks itself in beauty for the love of the Imperfect.
Queen Cat
Power said to the world, You are mine.
The world kept it prisoner on her throne.
Love said to the world, I am thine.
The world gave it the freedom of her house."

"Happy Piggy
Hello ! Hello ! Hello ! Hello ! everybody ! my name is piggy! let's be happy !
Boo
Are you happy?
Hello"

"My tour of Eurpope
Holes in the road are a pain.
A lifelong friend
FRIENDSHIP..
Friendship is more. Precious to me
than anything else.
merry ghost
Are you far away from here?
Can you hear me?
The world is always changing
nothing stays the same
We"

"Wellcome
to pig pig
family....."

"These notebooks make writing more fun.
Whatever you write on them is bound to be bright and happy.
happy happy~"

"Tell me that you need and I'll be there
I'll be there waiting
Summer Day"

Sightseeing: Taroko Gorge

2008-10-29T21:09:00.002+13:00

Where have I been for the past two weeks? In between studying and travelling with a guest of the familial kind, things have been pretty busy here. This weekend just passed, among other areas, I visited the beautiful Taroko Gorge.

Taroko Gorge was the destination most recommended to me whenever I asked a local. Blessed by excellent weather, it was incredible how few people were there (even though the tour guide said it was relatively crowded) to gawk along with me at the naturally chiselled walls of marble, topped by lusciously green forestation. The entrance was marked by this gateway:

The government website is at http://www.taroko.gov.tw/, and the tour company we used was Edison (http://www.edison.com.tw/eindex.htm). Our tour guide the lovely enthusiastic Josephine really added to our experience, although I have noticed a curious trend for local guides to have speakers strapped to their persons belting out their spiel to all and sundry. With scenery this beautiful though, I admit I was often too busy gawking to listen.

Tumbling down the length of the gorge was a stream, the water stained a whitish grey by (presumably) the marble fragments. New Zealanders who have visited the Fox and Franz Jospeh glaciers and seen the streams leading away from the ice will have some idea of what shade of grey I mean, as it is very similar.

In several spots were clearer aqua blue pools at the base of waterfalls - these looked as though they could have been spring water rather than rain water, although I am no expert.

The best way to see the area was to pop out and walk along the tunnels carved into the gorge with viewing openings. The guide pointed out several tracks of varying difficulty for those more serious about tramping (include a rather high track with dubious-looking suspension bridges erected circa 1914 by the Japanese).

Further down the gorge, at times you may be able to see fish jumping along this high waterfall (none were out and about when we visited).

Hualien on Taiwan's east coast makes a good stopping off point for reaching the gorge, especially if you're not going with a tour group. Hualien is easy to reach by plane and train (I haven't driven in Taiwan so I can't speak informedly about the drive down, although I have been told it's about 4 hours).

(p.s. a little shout out to my sis who took these photos on my point and shoot camera).

Sightseeing: Taipei 101, Beitou

2008-10-12T18:30:00.003+13:00

After only a few months of living in Taiwan, the inevitable stream of guests has begun. This of course means an increased quota of sightseeing. Every so often I will blog about some of the places I have taken guests. First up, Taipei 101 and Beitou.

Yi Ling Yi - Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is currently the world's tallest completed structure (there is always another building somewhere aiming to go just a little bit higher). It has a website at http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/. To get there, hail a cab and tell the driver "Eee Ling Eee" (Mandarin for 1-0-1).

Inside the building's basement is a decent sized foodcourt with many decent options, and Jasons (a grocery store with an inhouse bakery and many western products). A variety of higher-end clothing stores and jewellers fill about 4 floors worth of space; worth a wonder around for those interested in shopping. For expats, the fourth level is a great place to find reasonably priced english language books at Page One.

Near the top of the building is an enclosed platform/floor open to the paying public with 360 degree views of the city. Tickets are purchased on level 5, next to the queue for the smooth high-speed elevators. Larger bags will need to be left at the ticket counter.

Tickets cost 400 NTD for each adult and 370 NTD for each child under 12, and include the audio guided tour around the viewing area of the city's major sights.

For a better view of the city, try to pick a day with better weather and minimal haze. The first time I visited the viewing platform, electrical thunderstorms were hanging over the city; not as helpful for visibility, but quite an atmospheric experience.

On this occasion, we made it to the viewing platform shortly before sunset, and watched the last rays dip below the horizon.

As the daylight faded away, the city began to light up. I would recommend this as a good time of day to bring guests. If they are particularly keen to see the city buildings, arrive with enough time to have the audio tour before sunset for better visibility.

Beitou - Spring City Resort

In the northern part of Taipei, steaming hot springs have led to a packed cluster of hotels for people to soak away their city stress. The easiest way to reach Beitou (especially if you're in the southern part of the city) is to catch the MRT.

This was the first time I had caught the MRT in Taipei, being mostly a taxi-hound. For the first time, students in the International Chinese Language Program have the proper National Taiwan University student ID cards. The major benefit of this is that those cards also act as stored value cards giving discounted MRT fares.

The MRT was easy to use, quick, well maintained, and not too crowded on ours journey from CKS Memorial Hall station to the Beitou station (pictured below). The full adult fare each way was 35 NTD.

We visited Beitou on Friday 10 October, which also happened to be my birthday. In light of this not so auspicious occasion, I booked an overnight stay at Spring City Resort (http://www.springresort.com.tw) for my first Taiwan hot springs experience. The resort had a free shuttle service between the hotel and the Beitou and Xinbeitou MRT stations.

Inside the Japanese themed grounds, we enjoyed a number of smaller pools, including several with different kinds of bubbles, quiet pools, sleeping baths (constructed for lying down in the hot bubbly water), a super hot pool for the brave, and an area laid with heated smooth marble stone slabs for resting on.

My favourite pool was the waterfall pool, where several waterfalls pummelled down giving my shoulders an awesome massage. The sole cold spring pool, a small circular granite pool with rose petals floating on the surface, was a close second; firstly for cooling off in between the hottest pools, and secondly because no-one else ever seemed to use it so I had a little floral scented paradise all to myself.

Another enjoyable feature of the hotel was the private hot spring tub inside the hotel room for use after retreating from the public areas:

As a closet hot spring junkie, I can see Beitou quickly becoming one of my favourite parts of the city, and can recommend the springs at this hotel. I look forward to trying out other hotels in the area too (for research purposes you understand, to give myself a basis of comparison -one must suffer for one's hobbies).

High Speed Rail - the toilet perspective

2008-10-08T03:45:00.004+13:00

This afternoon a visitor and I zipped down to Kaohsiung and back on the High Speed Rail. The trip took 1h30m each way and cost (business class) $6240 return for two people. We booked and paid for the tickets online at http://www.thsrc.com.tw/en/index.htm This site has an english language option and is very easy to navigate. You'll need your ARC or passport handy.

With my handy dandy camera, I took a few pictures along the way for those who have yet to experience the HSR. Arriving at Taipei Station looks a little something like this:

And at the Kaohsiung end, a little something like this:

Once inside, if you have booked your tickets online you need to pick them up. We chose to stand in line and get old fashioned face to face service. The business class line was to the left (purple sign), the passengers requiring special assistance line was to the right, and in between was the line for the remaining customers. Collecting the tickets was very painless, with just a look at the print-out of the emailed confirmation required.

Alternatively, we could have visited one of these automated kiosks.

Here's what a HSR ticket looks like. In the rear of this picture is a train waiting at the station in its white and orange livery.

Once you have your ticket, check the electronic signs to see what your platform number is. The easiest way to find it on the sign is by the train's number, which is also printed on your ticket. Then use your ticket (magnetic strip side up) to gain admission to the waiting area through the turnstiles.

Once through the turnstiles, there are plenty of places to sit and wait for your train's arrival. These chairs were surprisingly comfortable.

The electronic signs and a loudspeaker announcement (in both zhongwen and english) will indicate that your train has arrived and is ready for boarding. Take an escalator down to your platform. At the Taipei end, the attendants checked tickets at the top of the escalator and would not let passengers onto the platform until their train was ready for boarding.

Down on the platform, find your passenger car, which should also be printed on your ticket. Outside the business class car, attendents checked tickets then welcomed you on board.

Inside the business class car, seats were in rows of two. The signs on the wall seemed to indicate that instead of turning the train around on a circular track, the attendants somehow swivel and reverse all the seats in the cabin for the return journey so that the passengers are not seated backwards. I would be interested to hear if anyone can confirm this.

The seats were quite comfortable and reclined a fair distance. Each seat had side-wing headrests, coat hooks on the wall, a pull down tray, a footrest, power sockets and audio channels (although you needed to provide your own headphones).

Partway through the journey, the friendly attendants come around offering nuts, coffee, tea and water.

As you can see, we had a pleasant experience on the HSR. There is one important facet I have neglected thus far to mention. I feel strongly that an important indicator of the quality of public amenities are its restrooms. In Kaohsiung, I nipped in to check these out and found a sparkling clean facility.

What upped the grade to outstanding was the attention to detail. Each roll of toilet paper had been folded into the traditional hospitality industry triangle. I forgot to take a "before" photo, but in this "after photo" you can see that the roll on the left side still has its end folded. From the toilet perspective, I give the HSR an unashamedly geeky two thumbs up.

Leaving aside my HSR experience, the last time I visited Costco I snapped a shot in the foothall area. Clam chowder doesn't seem to be offered in many places in Taipei. Here at Costco, I tend to order the chowder when I go. It's fine. Not awesome, not bad, just fine (and a little too salty for my taste).

In case there was any doubt, it seems from this photo that the chowder is definately Campbells. I thought any fellow chowder consumers who wondered about its origins might be interested, so here's the shot:

And a final note: a great big thanks to those who have left comments on earlier entries! I really enjoy hearing about other's experiences, both those kiwis in Taiwan (or have been in Taiwan) and Taiwanese over in New Zealand. It seems we're in agreement on the magnificence of the fruit supply here - yes lychees are awesome (especially after they've been chilled in the fridge a while). Thanks also for the language tips on my video further down. Xie xie nin men!

Flag seeds and celestial fruit

2008-10-04T00:49:00.003+13:00

The flora in Taiwan can often look a little different to back home. Recently it seems that someone planted flag seeds all over the city and blossoming season has arrived.

These children have already picked flag blossoms in a variety of colours. Here they are excitedly waving them all around - perhaps they will make a flag chain a la daisies.

I'm not sure what strange seed varietal produced these botanicals. A large number of people seem however to be watching them grow.

Yes, a beautiful afternoon for gardening at CKS Memorial Hall.

These readily available local delicacies are the dragonfruit (pinky red) and starfruit (yellow). I have often seen them at the fruit vendors but this is the first time I have succumbed to their piao liang exteriors.

Cut across, it soon becomes apparent why this is named starfruit.

This was a bit more of a surprise! Sweet, juicy, and reminiscent of a kiwifruit.

In search of the bread aisle

2008-10-02T00:12:00.005+13:00

There are plenty of small scale local supermarkets around the neighbourhood. Stepping inside is however a little different to Foodtown in Greenlane. This evening I embarked on a quest to find a large size scotch brite pad. Newcomers to my local Wellcome supermarket may find themselves embarked on an even tougher quest - to find the bread aisle.

Along the way I snapped a few pictures for your perusal. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of the entrance. Better lighting would show that the parking lot consists of a row of about eight scooters on the footpath.

Grocery shopping is not a disabled friendly exercise, and tends to focus the mind on what you really need. What goes home must come up the entrance stairs again, generally by hand (unless you've learned to balance pineapples on your head. I haven't).

Here we are in the vege aisle, which consists largely of many asian greens, 7 mushroom varietals, and small quantities of things needed in a stirfry. A quirky thing you may notice is that often floating about in your bowl of soup when eating out is the presence of shredded lettuce.

In the seafood section, the fish come whole rather than filleted, and are accompanied by a range of squid, whitebait, prawns, sardines, sprats, octopus, and fishballs. Aside from a lack of scallops (and dubious use-by dates) the selection is pretty good.

Next door in the meat section, there are very few joints, roasts and packages of mince. Costco has a much better selection of cuts. Instead, meat mostly comes chopped for stir fries, in small bony pieces for fatty sweet sauced dishes, or sliced for shabu shabu (hotpot).

While searching for the bread, you will come across the noodle aisle, which stretches down the length of this photo. I love the range of noodles here in Taiwan. These packages range from your basic 2 minute varietal to monster bowls with 4 different seasoning packets and a foil pouch of marinaded meat.

Nearby is the complemetary soya sauce and fish sauce section.

In the dairy department, it is very common to find snack size samples of other beverages packaged in with the bottles of milk. Today for example on this shelf with 2 litres bottles are cardboard drinking cartons of chocolate-flavoured and "pudding"-flavoured milk.

Down the cold aisle is the large iced tea section. My favourite iced teas come in grapefruit and muscat grape flavours. Hen hao chi! Those red and yellow signs advertise current discount specials.

In the freezer section, at least half if not more of the space is devoted to dumplings, steamed buns and fish balls. Pork steamed buns, if boring to some, are my favourite. I first had them in Singapore back in 1999 and it's been a quiet love affair since.

For those of you who were wondering about the bread aisle I mentioned earlier - here it is. All two half-shelves of it. Bread in Taiwan tends to be quite sweet.

The loaf on the bottom shelf, left hand side, is called "Milk Toast". It is generally the kind I buy, but the loaf is so tall that halfway through toasting I have to take the slices out and turn them upside down to make sure it's heated all the way around the slice.

The other shelves in this very small section have slightly asianised versions of other baked goods, such as swiss rolls and nut clusters.

As a final note - my quest for the scotch brite pad was successful. All's well that ends well.

Air Raids and KGB

2008-10-01T00:23:00.005+13:00

Earlier today I sipped a hot cup of something with a fellow kiwi in a case with a name beginning with R on the eastern side of Fuxing South Road in the block between Xinhai and Heping (a nice cozy place that would fit right in back home in Wellington). While sipping this hot cup, I mentioned to my friend that I liked the movie Pearl Harbour not because it was necessarily a good movie, but because I liked its 1940s atmosphere.

A random chain of thought then led me from this war movie to remember I took a few clips of the air raid drill back in August. Disappointed as I was at the lack of people screaming, running about waving their arms, and yelling "The aliens are coming, the aliens are coming!" it is still a little creepy to see the almost deserted roads and hear the sirens. YouTube is defeating me at the moment but once I have it sorted I will post the video clip.

During the weekend I paid another visit to the KGB. That is, Kiwi Gourmet Burgers, the takeaway that shows how a kiwi burger should be done. You can find it here:

This is the reverse of KGB's card. As a note to newcomers, one of the easiest ways to find a path back to a good eating spot is to pick up the restaurant's card. You can then show the card to a taxi drivers and bob's your bobo. Taxis in Taipei are very cheap compared to back home. Flagfall is 70 NTD (about $3.20 NZD), and a trip around town usually costs me about 110-150 NTD. YMMV.

Back home, potatoes are a kitchen staple. Roasted, baked, mashed, scalloped, boiled, hashed, chipped, microwaved, casseroled, souped, oh my! Here in Taiwan, potatoes are somewhat a gourmet item, coming in packs of two. Potatoes that is, not kilos. Eat your spuds before you arrive (Onehunga Roasts, I miss you! Call me sometime. xxx.) So here you have it - KGB chips.

Sometime I will give you a mini tour around the wonderful world of Taiwanese stationary. A combination of cutesification, chinglish and a lack of appreciation for colour schemes result in exercise books that I don't just use but also adore. Along those same lines, I quite liked the pattern on KGB's chip wrapper, and I will take care to heed its advice.

Jianguo weekend flower market

2008-09-27T15:48:00.003+12:00

This morning I paid another visit to the Jianguo flower market, held in a strip of parking spaces under a highway overpass (Saturday and Sunday from 9am). You can find it alongside the adjacent block north of the eastern side of Da-an Park.

Orchids are the no. 1 attraction here, and you can easily pick up a nice plant for 100 nt, or a bit more for something splashier. Alot cheaper than back home!

The vendors aren't pushy beyond the normal friendly greetings so it's a low pressure way to check out the local flora. Keep an eye out for vendors that wrap special tissue fabric around the top of the plants to protect the blossoms. A few knocks on the way home could leave you de-blossomed otherwise.

Bonsais, larger potted ornamental trees, and fresh cut flowers can also be good finds here. The lengthy market is kept cool and moist by overhead water mist sprays. North again from the flower market is the popular jade market, and south a handicraft market. Here are my finds from today:

Nothing like the fresh scent of blossoms wafting through your apartment!

Anatomy of a Taiwanese Receipt

2008-08-10T20:01:00.003+12:00

Recently I acquired a new piece of plastic for my wallet. Having a 7/11 downstairs in your apartment building makes it the convenient stopping point for all your short-term Coke Zero and dumpling needs. 7/11 has its own recharge card system, whereby you load money onto an "ICASH" card and use it for purchasing your bits and bobs.

Aside from the convenience of just grabbing the card and taking it down when I feel like a bite (and not ending up with a pocketful of coins in change) selected items that change from time to time effectively have a discount as they earn icash dollars. On this purchase, the items earned $8 (about NZ 30 cents) although it's not visible in the photos below.

Speaking of receipts, there must be some smart cookies tucked away in the Taipei National Tax Administration. In order to get stores reporting (taxable) income, Taiwan has a receipt lottery system. Every receipt is effectively a lottery ticket, with a top prize of around NZ$45,000. Because of the lottery, people ask for receipts when they purchase an item, which records the purchase in the system making it taxable. Now there's a real carrot instead of stick approach!

I collect all my receipts and click them together in a safe place - below is my current collection for July and August. In the photo, you can see a green circle at one end of the receipt with some letters and numbers printed over it. Those characters are the receipt's individual number. Every two months, numbers are drawn and people can check all their receipts to see whether they won anything.
To check your lottery numbers, visit the Ministry of Finance's website (http://www.ntat.gov.tw/) and look for a link along the lines of "Uniform Invoice Winning Numbers". Use Google translate if reading Mandarin isn't your forte. The next draw (covering July-August 2008) should be announced in Sepetmber 2008. Good luck!

First video from Taipei (Mandarin)

2008-08-03T04:33:00.009+12:00

First video, using my five weeks of Mandarin. Please excuse some of the pronunciation (kerrrrrrrrshi!!). Rough translation for people back home:

"Hello everyone, my name is Shan Shan (my Mandarin name, means Coral), I am a Kiwi. Today is August 2nd. I came to Taipei on 24 June this year to learn Mandarin. I feel that Taipei is very hot. I understand some Mandarin. Mandarin is hard but interesting. My spoken Mandarin is not good, sorry.

"Right now we are inside my kitchen. I like to eat Taiwan things. Chinese food tastes good, but I most love Kiwi nosh. This is Japanese sushi. It looks and tastes good. This is my fruit. I enjoy eating grapes, apples and peaches. I don't like eating bananas, but I still want to cook a banana cake (probably poor mandarin, string of grammar guess-work). I also like to drink cola and white wine. I buy alot of pearl milk tea. It costs 30 NTD a cup - cheap!

Thanks and goodbye."

Picture books, pies and Da An Park

2008-08-03T00:50:00.003+12:00

To have fun while improving my Mandarin reading, I have begun buying picture books. Really, it's more just an excuse to buy children's books without actually having children - I love the artwork in picture books, and sometimes those stories can be real page turners!

This one pictured below is the one I am currently translating. There are some pretty crucial words I don't yet know, so although I am about a third of the way through pin-yin-ing it, to be honest I'm not sure what it's actually about yet. I will update on this when I figure it out.

Today marked my first visit to Pie Boy, a kiwi pie shop (blog.yam.com/pieboy). Nom nom! The great thing about this place, besides satisfying my taste for home made pie pastry, is the yummy vege soup. Just like home!

While walking through Da An Park, I came across this free traditional story telling drama event, which was apparently attached to some Children's Arts Festival. Random but cool. The lead character was wearing a headpiece with what looked like huge antennae, and the supporting actors were quite acrobatic.