My last post came just before the holiday season which was an eventful one for me. Christmas Eve was preceded by a couple days of cold weather in Taipei. While others complained about the cold, I basked in it as it seems an appropriate compliment to the Christmas Season. I had my big Christmas dinner on the Eve with a nice meal at a typical Taiwanese 'hot-fry' (熱炒) joint. The meal included some frog meat which is not part of the Christmas dinner that I'm accustomed to, however the food was tasty nonetheless. I spent the remainder of Christmas Eve having beers with friends and dancing into the wee hours of Christmas morning.
My lack of homesickness on Christmas was most definitely aided by the knowledge that my parents would arrive in Taipei on December 27th.
After 9 months away from home, it was wonderful to welcome my parents to Taipei. They arrived in Taipei late on the 27th and early the next morning we were aboard Taiwan's impressive High-speed rail (HSR) en-route to Kenting.
Kenting is Taiwan's premiere beach-town and it is located at the southern tip of the island. While, Kenting is at the opposite end of the country from Taipei, the HSR significantly shortened the journey by shooting us to Kaohsiung in just 1.5 hours where we took a Taxi for the remaining 1.5 hours of highway driving to our Hotel.
Our hotel, was an impressive beach resort on the edge of Kenting town providing excellent access to both the beach and the town. While the beach views were nice, and the weather warm; rain and cloudiness dominated the forecast meaning we didn't spend any time lounging in the sand. Our hotel rooms did come equipt with a couple of sunset-view balconies, perfect for a few laid-back "sundowners".
Kenting town consists of a nice, albeit touristy, strip lines with bars, restaurants and tourist kitsch shops. The strip converts to a night market in the late afternoon with many local specialties from all over Taiwan.
My parents and I departed for a long walk along the seaside highway on Saturday. Unfortunately, rain showers interrupted our journey, but alas, my mother and I continued on until reaching Kenting's famous fortified lighthouse that sits at the southernmost point in Taiwan. Our walk was aided by my mom's discovery of an old umbrella hanging in a roadside tree that would provide ample shelter from the rain (once she finished shaking out the several geckos that inhabited it).
One last evening of over eating in Kenting before we boarded the HSR back to Taipei.
I was excited to re-introduce my parents around Taipei (their first visit was over 30 years ago) and the show them first-hand why I've chosen to live here. We toured Taipei's major sights including temples, monuments, night-markets and, of course bars; and sampled local delicacies around the city.
Our second day back in Taipei was New Years Eve. It's been a long time since I last celebrated New Year's with my parents, however considering the fun night we had, I may have to celebrate with them more in years to come. My parents, my girlfriend and I found a pleasant, not-too-crowded, spot to catch a glimpse of the Taipei 101 fireworks. To be honest, a "glimpse" is all I can justify calling it given the brevity of the display. While I'm not one to complain about a free show, I was somewhat disappointed having watched previous years' displays on Youtube.
Following the firework viewing we found a suitable park bench to sit and pop a bottle of bubbly.
Not to be outdone by my sister and her fiancé, my parents were keen to display their adventurous eating skills. Taiwanese delicacies which they sampled included and were not limited to:
I was glad that my parents were able to try such a wide range of specialties from a cuisine that has a deserved reputation throughout Asia.
For me, one of the highlights of my parents visit was an evening we spent in Taipei's high-end Xinyi district. After a couple beers at a brew-pub we decided to find out if it was possible (affordable) to sit for a drink at the top of Taipei 101. We were pleased to find that the restaurant which occupy's the tower's 89th floor was almost entirely empty and that they were happy to waive the usual minimum purchase of $800NT ($25 CAD).
The nighttime views from our window-side table were spectacular but personally, I found the view's from a urinal lined window in the men's bathroom to be the most impressive. A clear front-runner for the title of best bathroom I've ever peed in!
Another highlight of my parents' stay in Taipei was our final dinner together at the Taiwan Beer Brewery's 346 restaurant. The restaurant is located square in the middle of the operational brewery and hosts live musical acts and serves traditional Taiwanese and beer inspired beers along side freshly brewed Taiwan Draft. The evening of good-eats, beer, and live entertainment proved a suitable farewell for my parents and the following morning they were en-route to Vietnam.
After exploring the property, I set out walking North to the bus of Yangming Mountain where I would accidentally come across what may be my favourite Taiwanese Temple I have see to date.
Through a large decorative gate and perched atop of 226 stairs is a temple with great views over the whole city and further. I am surprised that this temple had evaded my attention for so long and the view made the hike to the top more than worth it.
Last week was the end of the winter semester for my young students. They (and I) are now on a 4 week Spring break that will end after the Chinese New Year Holiday week. Leading up to this break, I have been busy with test marking, report-cards and also undertaking the process of converting my Working Holiday Visa to a work permit and work visa. I have to undergo some medical tests and vaccines as part of the process but as far as I'm aware the visa procedure is going smoothly so far.
With all the extra time off from work I decided to explore some regions near to Taipei. My first destination of choice was the Eastern city of Yilan. I chose Yilan because at just a 1 hour and 20 minute bus-ride away it was an easy day-trip allowing me to return to Taipei for some acting work the following day.
The very reasonable priced bus ride took me through Taiwan' longest tunnel (over 12km) which bores straight through the country's second highest mountain. Yilan is a quaint and nice small city with at least a day's worth of sites to see. The highlight for myself was the the Taiwan Liquor museum and distillery.
The museum is entirely free of cost and housed in a fully operational distillery. One exhibit detailed the history of liquor in China and Taiwan and the history of drinking culture. My favourite exhibit was the Liquor Bank. The Taiwan Liquor Bank provides investors with an alternative way of investing their money in a commodity that, though ageing, is continually gaining value. A very keen tour guide offered to give me a complementary tour, I keenly accepted although we were both well aware that his lack of English and my lack Chinese would make the tour somewhat of a challenge.
Utilizing the best of my Chinese listening abilities, I was able to comprehend around 15% of what the guide said, which I think, all in all, is not bad. His enthusiasm for the subject was surely the best part of the tour.
Following my tour I the distillery I discovered that I had made the unfortunate/idiotic mistake of forgetting my tablet computer on the bus to Yilan. Feeling distressed by my loss, I immediately walked back to the bus station to report the loss. I admittedly had low expectations that I would see the tablet again but to my ecstatic surprise I received a call from Yilan Police while aboard the bus back to Taipei. They informed me that someone had found, and turned in, my tablet computer and that it was waiting to be retrieved at the Yilan Police Station.
I might have hoped to take a day-trip to a different region of Taiwan this week but as fate would have it, I was once again aboard a bus to Yilan, early Wednesday morning. Retrieving the device came with no hassle and the officer working even offered to assist me to phone the Chinese-speaking man who had found it so that I could thank him. I am very thankful, and yet again impressed by the kindness of Taiwanese people.
Having seen most of Yilan city, I chose to walk through the countryside to the town of Jiaoxi. The walk took me about 2 hours but it allowed me see a part of Taiwan I had only previously seen through the windows of buses and trains.
Jiaoxi is a tourist hot-spot, literally, as the town is famed for it's hot-springs. Hot-spring hotels and spas compete for customers on every street as tourists flock in from all over Taiwan. I limited my hot-spring experience to a knee-high dip in one of the many public hotspring wading pools around the town. It was very relaxing and cleansing following my lengthy walk from Yilan. Before catching the bus back to Yilan I sat in a hot-spring-side beer garden and sampled a odd beer from a local micro-brewery.
The beer, which is a sickly green in colour, is flavoured with the addition of algae which the brewers boast gives the concoction all-kinds of health benefits. I didn't find that the algae gave much additional flavour to the beer but it was a good-tasting beer regardless. I'll have to remember this brewery as an alternative to ingesting copious amounts of food colouring during St. Patrick's day celebrations.
As I previously stated, I have a bit of a break from work right now and as such I've booked a flight to Osaka, Japan. I will be spending 12 days total in Japan's Kansai region and I am very excited to be departing tomorrow! Expect my next post to be filled with mouth-watering Japanese cuisine...
I celebrated Christmas morning with my girlfriend by opening stockings and gifts in front of my computer screen fireplace whilst being serenaded by Kenny G's Christmas tunes. All-in-all, I had a great Christmas and was successful instilling a Christmas spirit within myself despite being so far from family and home.
My lack of homesickness on Christmas was most definitely aided by the knowledge that my parents would arrive in Taipei on December 27th.
After 9 months away from home, it was wonderful to welcome my parents to Taipei. They arrived in Taipei late on the 27th and early the next morning we were aboard Taiwan's impressive High-speed rail (HSR) en-route to Kenting.
Kenting is Taiwan's premiere beach-town and it is located at the southern tip of the island. While, Kenting is at the opposite end of the country from Taipei, the HSR significantly shortened the journey by shooting us to Kaohsiung in just 1.5 hours where we took a Taxi for the remaining 1.5 hours of highway driving to our Hotel. Our hotel, was an impressive beach resort on the edge of Kenting town providing excellent access to both the beach and the town. While the beach views were nice, and the weather warm; rain and cloudiness dominated the forecast meaning we didn't spend any time lounging in the sand. Our hotel rooms did come equipt with a couple of sunset-view balconies, perfect for a few laid-back "sundowners".
Kenting town consists of a nice, albeit touristy, strip lines with bars, restaurants and tourist kitsch shops. The strip converts to a night market in the late afternoon with many local specialties from all over Taiwan.
My parents and I departed for a long walk along the seaside highway on Saturday. Unfortunately, rain showers interrupted our journey, but alas, my mother and I continued on until reaching Kenting's famous fortified lighthouse that sits at the southernmost point in Taiwan. Our walk was aided by my mom's discovery of an old umbrella hanging in a roadside tree that would provide ample shelter from the rain (once she finished shaking out the several geckos that inhabited it).
One last evening of over eating in Kenting before we boarded the HSR back to Taipei.
I was excited to re-introduce my parents around Taipei (their first visit was over 30 years ago) and the show them first-hand why I've chosen to live here. We toured Taipei's major sights including temples, monuments, night-markets and, of course bars; and sampled local delicacies around the city.
Following the firework viewing we found a suitable park bench to sit and pop a bottle of bubbly.
Not to be outdone by my sister and her fiancé, my parents were keen to display their adventurous eating skills. Taiwanese delicacies which they sampled included and were not limited to:
Pineapple cake(award winning), all 5 kinds of taiwan beer, pig intestines, ginseng booze, chicken essence, pork floss, dachangbaoxiaochang (sausage-in-sausage), ironeggs, canned squids, mochi, dried tofu, pan fried buns, DinTaiFung xiaolongbao, stinky-tofu, oyster omlette, lurou fan, bbq & hotpot, peanut pancakes, pork bloodsicle, pork short ribs, scallion pancakes, pepper buns, Shilin sausage, Chinese baked goods, tea eggs, red bean cakes, kaoliang liquor, millet wine and beef noodle soup from a renowned vendor.
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| Lining up for Beef Noodle |
I was glad that my parents were able to try such a wide range of specialties from a cuisine that has a deserved reputation throughout Asia.
For me, one of the highlights of my parents visit was an evening we spent in Taipei's high-end Xinyi district. After a couple beers at a brew-pub we decided to find out if it was possible (affordable) to sit for a drink at the top of Taipei 101. We were pleased to find that the restaurant which occupy's the tower's 89th floor was almost entirely empty and that they were happy to waive the usual minimum purchase of $800NT ($25 CAD).
The nighttime views from our window-side table were spectacular but personally, I found the view's from a urinal lined window in the men's bathroom to be the most impressive. A clear front-runner for the title of best bathroom I've ever peed in!
Another highlight of my parents' stay in Taipei was our final dinner together at the Taiwan Beer Brewery's 346 restaurant. The restaurant is located square in the middle of the operational brewery and hosts live musical acts and serves traditional Taiwanese and beer inspired beers along side freshly brewed Taiwan Draft. The evening of good-eats, beer, and live entertainment proved a suitable farewell for my parents and the following morning they were en-route to Vietnam.
While I was saddened to have my parents leave I was very happy with the time we were able to spend together. It's not often that I am able to spend so much time my parents and I'm very grateful that they came to visit me and that we could ring in the New Year together.
Continuing on with my exploration of Taipei's tourist sites I visited Chiang Kai Shek's official residence in Shilin. Chiang Kai Shek (CKS) is essentially the founder of Taiwan's current government and ruled over Taiwan as a dictator for 25 years until his death in 1975. CKS's former official residence property is now a public park with the house itself standing as a paid-entry museum.
The grounds and house are both massive very lavish. CKS's house is, very much, decorated and laid out in a Western style, reflecting his wife's love for Western culture. One thing I had in the past failed to learn about CKS is that is was a devout Christian and he even had a full size church on his property (now, I wonder why Christmas is not a public holiday here).
After exploring the property, I set out walking North to the bus of Yangming Mountain where I would accidentally come across what may be my favourite Taiwanese Temple I have see to date.
Through a large decorative gate and perched atop of 226 stairs is a temple with great views over the whole city and further. I am surprised that this temple had evaded my attention for so long and the view made the hike to the top more than worth it.
Last week was the end of the winter semester for my young students. They (and I) are now on a 4 week Spring break that will end after the Chinese New Year Holiday week. Leading up to this break, I have been busy with test marking, report-cards and also undertaking the process of converting my Working Holiday Visa to a work permit and work visa. I have to undergo some medical tests and vaccines as part of the process but as far as I'm aware the visa procedure is going smoothly so far.
The very reasonable priced bus ride took me through Taiwan' longest tunnel (over 12km) which bores straight through the country's second highest mountain. Yilan is a quaint and nice small city with at least a day's worth of sites to see. The highlight for myself was the the Taiwan Liquor museum and distillery.
The museum is entirely free of cost and housed in a fully operational distillery. One exhibit detailed the history of liquor in China and Taiwan and the history of drinking culture. My favourite exhibit was the Liquor Bank. The Taiwan Liquor Bank provides investors with an alternative way of investing their money in a commodity that, though ageing, is continually gaining value. A very keen tour guide offered to give me a complementary tour, I keenly accepted although we were both well aware that his lack of English and my lack Chinese would make the tour somewhat of a challenge.
Utilizing the best of my Chinese listening abilities, I was able to comprehend around 15% of what the guide said, which I think, all in all, is not bad. His enthusiasm for the subject was surely the best part of the tour.
Following my tour I the distillery I discovered that I had made the unfortunate/idiotic mistake of forgetting my tablet computer on the bus to Yilan. Feeling distressed by my loss, I immediately walked back to the bus station to report the loss. I admittedly had low expectations that I would see the tablet again but to my ecstatic surprise I received a call from Yilan Police while aboard the bus back to Taipei. They informed me that someone had found, and turned in, my tablet computer and that it was waiting to be retrieved at the Yilan Police Station.
I might have hoped to take a day-trip to a different region of Taiwan this week but as fate would have it, I was once again aboard a bus to Yilan, early Wednesday morning. Retrieving the device came with no hassle and the officer working even offered to assist me to phone the Chinese-speaking man who had found it so that I could thank him. I am very thankful, and yet again impressed by the kindness of Taiwanese people.
Having seen most of Yilan city, I chose to walk through the countryside to the town of Jiaoxi. The walk took me about 2 hours but it allowed me see a part of Taiwan I had only previously seen through the windows of buses and trains.
Jiaoxi is a tourist hot-spot, literally, as the town is famed for it's hot-springs. Hot-spring hotels and spas compete for customers on every street as tourists flock in from all over Taiwan. I limited my hot-spring experience to a knee-high dip in one of the many public hotspring wading pools around the town. It was very relaxing and cleansing following my lengthy walk from Yilan. Before catching the bus back to Yilan I sat in a hot-spring-side beer garden and sampled a odd beer from a local micro-brewery.
The beer, which is a sickly green in colour, is flavoured with the addition of algae which the brewers boast gives the concoction all-kinds of health benefits. I didn't find that the algae gave much additional flavour to the beer but it was a good-tasting beer regardless. I'll have to remember this brewery as an alternative to ingesting copious amounts of food colouring during St. Patrick's day celebrations.As I previously stated, I have a bit of a break from work right now and as such I've booked a flight to Osaka, Japan. I will be spending 12 days total in Japan's Kansai region and I am very excited to be departing tomorrow! Expect my next post to be filled with mouth-watering Japanese cuisine...
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