Taipei, so yummy!

Yesterday Katelin and I went to the Taipei International Food Festival. Her Chinese tutor gave her the invitation, saying that they needed foreigners to eat some food. So we went, only knowing vaguely where to show up and not really what to expect of the whole thing! Turns out there was a tent set up on the sidewalk area around the 101 with about 100 seats inside. We were shown to our seats, while being videoed! I have never been filmed before, so I didn't really know what to do. We knew the show had started when a man in a white medical coat (one of the official judges) picked up a big red mallet and hit the large gong on stage. There were maybe 9 or 10 different chef stations set up around the perimeter, and the hostess of the whole production talked briefly with each one (the whole thing was being videod and shown on a big screen at the front, behind the stage.) Most of the chefs were from Taiwanese restaurants, but there were also some from Japan and Thailand. We’re guessing that why we were invited as foreigners (without having to pay anything!) is because it was Western day, although none of the food was particularly Western.
We were each given a slip of paper as well; Katelin and I figured out by reading that one line was for our name, but we had to ‘cheat’ and look at someone else’s to figure out what else we were supposed to write for the other one. At least it was easy compared to the 3 page survey we were given at the end, which we ended up getting help to fill out.
Then we got individually served some of every dish that was made – it was amazing food! We had linguine with egg yolk balls, grapefruit-sized potato balls, tuna rolls, shrimp with mango, salmon steaks, chicken asparagus rolls, spicy Thai vegetables, Japanese hot pot soup, chicken skewers, and fried fat lumps in a pancake. Strange as the last one sounds, when each audience member picked their favourite dish by placing a small silver spoon in front of the dish, the fat lumps won by a land slide!
We also got a show with our meal as a bartender spun flaming bottles while making cocktails on the front stage. Impressive!

Sunrise Hike

Katelin and I decided that we wanted to hike up Mt. Qixing (the highest peak -1120m- in Yangmingshan National Park) and watch the sunrise. So, we planned it all out and left our apartment early this morning at 2:30am, making the necessary 7-11 stop for coffee. Then we made the 30 minute scooter ride up to the park and found the trailhead. Things were still pitch black at this point so we were equipped with a headlamp and flashlight. The wind was blowing and the bamboo makes a pretty eerie sound when it rustles together and there’s no one else around, and to complete the scene, there was also a garbage can lid banging in the wind – eek! We set off and almost immediately encountered a massive toad the size of a large grapefruit in the path – both of us shrieked in surprise, but luckily those were the only animals we saw. (We were a bit concerned about seeing any of the numerous poisonous snakes that lurk in the vegetation here...)


We got about 2/3 of the way up and all the sudden we realized that we were in pea-soup fog, so we decided to hike back down so we wouldn’t get stuck up there and see if we could find another place to watch the sunrise. Once back at the trailhead, we drove just about 5 minutes and found a suitable place – we had a perfect view of the sunrise as we ate some fruit and drank milk tea on the side of the road. We were commenting on how pretty it was, and all of a sudden we realized we could also see the ocean! By then it was pretty light out and still only 5:15am, so we decided to make a short impromptu scooter trip. We drove up through the mountains to the northern coast, and made it about 3/4 of the way to the beach before we turned around because we were tired of being on the scooter. We found a very large cemetery with an accompanying crematorium/shrine/mausoleum thing – quite impressive!

So we arrived back at our apartment at 7:30...usually about the time I’m getting up for work during the week! I won’t be doing these sunrise hikes often, but it was really fun and quite pretty with all the colors and wispy clouds.

Cinco de Mayo

Don't worry! Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated (in any strange way) in Taiwan, but I couldn't think of another name for this post. Anyhow, things have been busy as usual here. I haven't been able to keep up on here, and now it's hard to condense everything from the past 2 months, but I will try.

I started Chinese classes 2 times a week and it's great to see a little progress by being able to understand some of what people say, and also talk a little. I am also learning to read and write the characters but that takes a long time since each word has a different character and they can combine to form new words! It is a difficult language, but I am determined to keep it up.

My parents also visited in mid March and we had an amazing time! We got to go to some places that I had already visited so I could be of a little help in showing them around (Jioufen, Taroko Gorge, and of course Taipei.) We also went to some new places - Green Island in the South, and we also did some driving along the Eastern coast. The scenery is absolutely spectacular in those areas, especially when it's sunny and the water is a perfect aquamarine with white waves and lush greenery.

I just signed another year contract at my same school, so I will be teaching the little kindergarteners again next year! I will have the younger class (right now I teach 4-5 year old), so I will have the 3-4 year olds - it will be fun, funny, and a huge challenge all at once.


Our semester here ends in July, so once our big end-of-the-year show finishes, I will pop onto a plane the next day and head to Thailand! I will be meeting my boyfriend there and we will travel around for 2 weeks before school starts again. It will be a really relaxing way to spend my vacation. I still feel so lucky that I'm able to go to all these places and see such amazing things! I was a little hesitant about booking tickets to fly into Bangkok because of the current situation there, but I thought that since my trip is 3 months away, something most likely will have been figured out by then. So we'll just see...

ವಿಎತ್ನಂ - Vietnam

My latest adventure over my Chinese New Year break was a great time! There was lots of traveling involved as we had to cover 1700km in 9 days, (in our 8 nights, we spent 4 in hotel beds and 4 in various forms of transport - bus, boat, train, and taxi) but well worth it!

Kenzie and I flew into Hanoi and promptly took a bus to our hotel that blared music videos from the '80s on the mini DVD player the whole 45 minute journey. Then we wandered around and found that many things were closed because it was the beginning of Tet (lunar new year festivities.) The next day we journeyed to Halong Bay and got on a 'junk' boat for an overnight tour of the area. It was fun - we stopped at a cave on an island that was lit with bright colored lights, kayaked, and had a great evening that included our tour guides/boat operators drinking loads of Vietnamese vodka and singing bad karaoke....


We also went to Hoi An, a place famous for hundreds of tailors that custom-make clothes for cheap, where we took a full-day motorcycle tour in the countryside. At one point we came to a long floating wooden bridge and jokingly asked our tour guide if anyone had ever fallen in; his response: 'we just started using this bridge...' Hah, but it was a great way to see things a little more off the beaten path. We also spent a day to go diving again - although the site was supposed to be the best in Vietnam, Kenzie and I didn't think it was that special, but I think we were spoiled having already dived in Bali (which is world-class with beautiful corals and different fish.)

We finally made it down to Ho Chi Minh City, (HCMC) which was an epic adventure that took 8 hours overnight in a taxi. Basically up until that point we would buy our tickets to get to the next city the day before we left and it worked out fine, but when we needed to get to HCMC, everything was full (bus, train, plane) because it was nearing the end of Tet holiday. So, we hired a taxi with 2 other people we had met. It was a crazy ride because we left at midnight (so we wouldn't waste daylight hours traveling) and the only main road going south was clogged with 3 lanes of massive tour buses - all swerving and honking madly- on the 2 lane road. So the whole journey, I kept seeing headlights coming straight towards us, only to veer back just before we collided. This was all set to the tune of acoustic '80s pop songs that our driver (and no one else) enjoyed. Oh boy! Up until that point we hadn't seen any accidents, but as we approached HCMC just as the sun was rising, there was a car that had been reduced to about half it's original size from a massive crash - pretty scary. Later on, one of our tour guides cheerfully informed us that while over 400 people had died during that week alone due to traffic accidents, 'it's a good number-don't you think?' !!! Vietnamese traffic is generally is chaotic, but slower paced than here in Taiwan. However, they do not have any stoplights or stop signs, so this means that everyone uses their horn at all times. Even if you have already crossed the street and are on the next 'sidewalk,' they still give you a toot or 2 on their way by...

When we got to HCMC at 8 in the morning, we popped across the street into one of the numerous 'travel agencies' to learn that we had just 15 minutes before the tour of the CucChi tunnels left, so we hurriedly stashed our things in the back of the office and brushed our teeth before climbing on bus for another hour of transit. The tunnels were pretty amazing, especially when we learned that people basically lived for years inside them. They are tiny, and although I'm not claustrophobic, it was not comfortable even for the 5 minutes I was inside. There were also displays of some of the traps the local people used against soldiers; they were very crude but extremely damaging to anyone who came upon them. We also visited 2 museums about the war and the War Remnants Museum was particularly dark. It was mostly pictures from international photographers during the war, and it was hard to look at a lot of them. Even though I learned about the war during school, I feel like I understand a lot more about what happened and why the whole event was such a disaster.

So my trip was a really good time and I was left knowing that I want to go back at some point, for at least several weeks. There was so much to see and now I know which places I want to go back to!

Update

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything - things are quite busy and time just flies by! Here is a quick synopsis...

Over Christmas, my roommate Kenzie and I went to Bali for a week. We saw monkeys, went scuba diving in a shipwreck, watched traditional Balinese dancers, and relaxed on the beautiful beaches. It was a great break from the cold weather in Taipei, and lots of fun....although strange to see so many foreigners (ie white people) again!

The beginnning of January was filled with preparing for our Chinese New Year show at the school. The holiday is a big deal (bigger than Christmas in the west,) so there was lots to prepare. The kids learned dragon and lion dances, played drums outside, and blessed their parents in a tea ceremony. It was fun to learn more about a holiday that I have only heard of before.

And now...it is time for Chinese New Year holiday! Almost everyone in Taiwan gets a week break and Kenzie and I are heading to Vietnam, which is only about 3 hours plane ride from Taipei. We are planning on travelling the same style as in Bali, ie not booking any hotels etc so we can decide our plan along the way and see where we end up. That being said, we do have SOME plans - fly into Hanoi and make our way South to Ho Chi Minh City (over 1,000 miles in 9 days...) while seeing caves, taking trains, doing boat tours, visiting floating markets, and going scuba diving along the way. It should be adventure filled!

Oh yes, and because I have enjoyed my time here so far and like teaching the little ones, I have decided to stay on another year!



<--The North-east coast of Taiwan, where I drank a local beer made from green algae~




Watch for another post after I return from Vietnam...