Jiaozi Skins and Orchid Island

Well I finished up my time in Taipei and Northern Taiwan last week. Over the weekend I went and visited Li Yuxuan's family in Xinzhu (新竹 means "new bamboo"). I think I am very luck to have been so fortunate meet such lovely, generous people here. The first day I was there we went for a hike which was very beautiful.




Later that evening Yuxuan (Li is her surname) and I went and visited with her neighbors who were also extremely hospitable and very interested to talk with me. I made some tea for them and we stayed up late chatting, they were very keen on talking about my Chinese studies and taught me some new characters to see if I could write them (they were very complex ones). The next day we made jiaozi with yuxuan's family (jiaozi are Chinese style potstickers that are usually fairly small and are most often boiled). I offered to make that dough for the wrappers, Yuxuan's parents were surprised that I knew how to make them (I don't think they quite believed me at first) but I told them that I had worked in a bakery for a long time so I knew how to do it. We made a couple hundred at least and gave some to the neighbors, they were very good.










Here I am making the dough and receiving a jiaozi making lesson from Yuxuan's dad.



















This is Yuxuan, her mother, her father and her younger brother.


I spent a day or two in Taipei after returning from Yuxuan's and we went to a bar that serves Belgium beers. It was a nice place and the beers were decent but some of them were a tad old and had gotten over fermented and skunky. I pointed this out to the owner who was sitting at the bar, he admitted that some of them where a little old (I don't blame him it's probably quite expensive to import beers to Taiwan). He let us try a brown ale that was from 2006, I think it was from his private stock, and it was exceptionally tasty (and very strong to boot). Later we got to talking about beer and his experience of it in America, he was quite an amiable fellow.



Yuxuan took this picture of us chatting.









The next day we went to a book store and I bought a bunch of kids books in Chinese
to help me practice when I get back. I sent them back by mail to the states along with a bunch of tea, the international shipping prices are pretty good here.





Here I am in the book store reading the hungry hungry caterpillar in Chinese. I was reading it out load and the little girl sitting next to me was giving me these funny looks.


Yesterday I took the train down to Gaoxiaong and then the bus to Kenting which is way way down on the very southern tip of Taiwan. This morning I took the ferry out to Lanyu (which means Orchid Island) which is the southern most island off the coast of Taiwan in the pacific. It's fantastically beautiful here and there aren't too many people here which is nice. I can smell the ocean coming up off the beach as I sit writing this in the cool evening breeze. I'll post more of the pictures I took today later but here is a taste.






Well that's it for now It's getting late here and dark so I should go home before I get attacked by wild dogs or billy goats (just kidding though there are a lot of goats here). I'll leave you with a cup of tea!










-Nate

Stinky Tofu, Cool Rocks and have I Mentioned the TEA!

So it's been a little while since I posted, I've been pretty busy. On Thursday I went to my first vegetarian buffet, got a foot message, and went to a night market. The vegetarian buffets here are incredible, you basically pile up as much food as you want and pay by weight and it's really cheap. They do excellent imitations of meat dish using different kinds of tofu and gluten.














After that I met up with my friend Lee who treated me to a foot massage at a message parlor. It was one of the hardest messages I've ever had, It kind of hurt, but it did make my feet feel better.




At the end of the day we went to a night market and tried a whole bunch of different foods there. Stinky Tofu is fermented tofu that is deep fried, this batch was served with Chinese kim chee. Stinky tofu is aptly named as you can smell the stuff from a bout a block away and it completely overwhelms everything else in the area, the smell is reminiscent of rotten garbage! It also has a very unique flavor that I liked and disliked at the same time, very hard to describe.







I also tried something that is quite uncharacteristic for me, steamed cubes of sticky rice mixed with congealed pig's blood. I only took one bite which was enough, it was very gelatinous and tasted like blood, mmmmmmmm. I'll post the video I have of me trying it at some point (just so Zak can derive great pleasure from watching me do it). To get the taste of blood out of my mouth I sampled some of Taiwan's fresh fruit, probably the best fruit I've ever had to, in particular the mango and dragon fruit (which is like a gigantic purple kiwi).







Ahhh.... much better than pig's blood!










On Friday I went and did some hiking around Taipei, which was pretty nice considering how close I was to the city. Saw some butterflies as well as a gorgeous white heron which I was unfortunately unable to photograph. Over the weekend I went to Taipei Zoo on a whim which was interesting, I made me remember why I don't go to zoos. They had some interesting animals there and their facilities are pretty good but going to zoos always makes me sad. The place was also crawling with people with little kids that very very loud, so I didn't see some of the more reclusive animals. They had a neat Insect exhibit there but unfortunately half of it was closed. In the afternoon it started absolutely pouring rain, so I took refuge in the reptile house before going home. It was an ok day trip over all, I've definitely been to worse zoos.













This wasp was bigger than my entire thumb!








On Monday I took a decidedly better trip outside of the city down the north coast to Yeliu National Geo Park. The hour and a half trip out there by metro and bus was well worth it, the bus ride along the coast was actually quite nice. Fortunately I was blessed by good weather despite the fact that I could see a storm brewing farther inland. Yeliu is a rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea from the northern coast of Taiwan and is home to some of Taiwan's most spectacular rock formations. I can't post even a quarter of the pictures I took there. Unfortunately the park is far from pristine as it is regularly swarming with tourists which definitely has an impact despite the careful measures taken by the government to preserve the area. Certain areas of the park are marked off with gregarious red lines that definitely subtract from the natural beauty of the park. Also large amounts of garbage get washed up on the shores from the two large cities, Taipei and Keelung, that flank the park on either side along the coast.












Despite this once I got out further along the peninsula I had the place mostly to myself which was very nice after congestion of Taipei. The view from the lookout at the end of the park, surrounded by ocean on three sides, was gorgeous and I was greeted by a cool ocean breeze that was refreshing after the stifling stickiness of the jungle. That evening I went and had a vegetarian hot pot that was amazing! I love hot pot and to find one that was completely vegetarian was even better. For those who don't know, hot pot is a very communal style of eating a bit like a fondue. A large bowl of soup, sometimes subdivided so you can have more than one kind, is place over a burner in the middle of the table. You then get all manner of various raw vegetables and meats and tofu and mushrooms and noodles, which you then throw into the pot of boiling soup to cook. Then you pull bits and pieces out as they get cooked and eat them, it's a lot of fun and a very leisurely way to eat. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures as I forgot my camera in my room, I'll go back some time before I leave Taiwan and take some.











The only other really interesting thing I did was going to Maokong yesterday which is a really big tea growing area just outside of Taipei. Not only that but they have an incredible concentration of tea houses there, something like 20-25 within several kilometres of one another! Just what I needed as I was feeling kinda of sick yesterday (I'm getting over it now, just resting today). One of the coolest parts of Maokong is getting there you can take a gondola, it was built a couple years ago, from the edge of Taipei up the mountain to Maokong. The whole ride passes over densely overgrown jungle with some tea plantations mixed in and an incredible vista of the city.



A side from that I've just been buying and drinking lots of tea. One of the best parts about buying tea here is sitting down with the people at the stores and trying the tea (which is definitely a necessity for any serious buyer!). It offers a good opportunity to escape the muggy heat and exhaust of the city streets as well as a chance to chat with people and practice my Chinese.







I've already got close to a kilo of tea! Which means tea parties for everyone when I return!




Anyway, I've got a ton more pictures but I'll save them for later, it's some what time consuming to upload them as the connection in my room is not very fast. Next week I'm off to Taroko National Scenic Park on the east coast. I'm really excited to spend several days there and do some serious hiking, it's is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places on the Island and I'm going midweek so hopefully I can avoid the crowds!

Take care everyone!

-Nate

Wow....and I thought India knew how to do hospitality!

Now I've thought for a while that the Indians had the best hospitality in the world but think I have been mistaken. Of course no one has offered to bath my feet yet (which does happen in India) but I have been treated to a foot message at a message parlor and been invited to spend next weekend with my friend and her family. I think it's a good trade off. Seriously though the people here are so genuinely friendly here that it's taken me completely off guard. I got on the wrong bus the day before yesterday with out realizing it and when the people on the bus saw me looking lost and confused they started asking me where I wanted to go and had the bus driver stop and get me on the right bus line. And that's only one example. When I was at the Wisteria teahouse the day after I arrived the girl that was sitting across from me with her friends apologized to me because she thought that she was being too loud and gave me her e-mail address. We met up the day before yesterday for tea and she has been showing me around Taipei ever since, her name is Li(Lee). She has even invited me to come and spend next weekend with her and her family, seems that they have a habit of taking in wayward travelers. I think I have been very fortunate to make such a good friend so soon after coming here!
Here are some pictures from the national palace museum, unfortunatly, though not unexpectedly, I could not take pictures inside.


















These are traditional Chinese lion statues that you all over the place in China and Taiwan, these ones were particularly nice. They are always presented in pairs like this. The one on the right with the ball under it's paw is the male and the one on the left has a lion cub under it's paw and is the female.










The museum not only has one of the larger collections of Chinese art and history but also one of the best in the world. One of the best parts is their massive collection from the Qing dynasty most of it relics from the imperial court. The Qing dynasty was in power from the early 1600s all the way up to nationalist revolution in 1911, it was the last Chinese dynasty. The Qing emporers created their own court workshop to create works of art exclusivly for the Qing imperial court. Most of the things at the museum from the Qing era were excesivily lavish and opulent. Perhaps this had something to do with why the qing dynasty was over through by the Chinese people?
Well I'm really tired now I wish I could write more as I've been doing lots of other things like going to night markets and going tea shopping, but alas it will have to wait until tomorrow.

再見！
-Nate

Tea, friends and lots of yummy food...

Well my second day here was decidedly nicer than my first. I had a bad migraine coming off the plane which didn't allow me to do much. Anyway feeling much better today and with only a little bit of jet lag! My accommodations in Taibei are very minimal but clean and comfortable. It took a little bit of searching to find it though as the Taipei Hostel is tucked a away back in an ally. you can see the sign for it here in this picture to the right, it's up on this dilapidated old apartment building.



My room is rather small, it's about as big as the picture makes it look, but it has a nice little open veranda outside, you can see the view from it in the pictures below












It's rained here both days in the afternoon, probably as much rain in two days as we've had in the Missoula in the last month, it nuts. I think Taipei gets something like 17 inches of rain in June alone. You can kind of see it in this picture here.




Today I mostly just explored the area surrounding my hotel some and bought a few thing I needed. There are MRT stations all over the city that connect the underground rail system, which is cheap and fast. However it seems like it is just one gigantic underground mall connected by trains. I swear there was a shopping center at most of the stations I visited today. I guess it was good for buying some extra rain gear.



Here's a shot of one of the mall
corridors as well as a case of
some rather strange looking food.








Later on in the day I went to some absolutely excellent vegetarian restaurants, I'll get some pictures of them later as I'm sure I'll be back. However the highlight of the day was the Wisteria Tea House which is hands down the nicest classiest place I've ever had tea! The old style architecture sticks out immediately from the business of the Taipei streets. And as you enter you're greeted by a lush garden complete with a pond full of koi.






You can see a view looking out onto the street here.











Inside there is an area with tatami mats and one with tables and chairs. I went with the tatamis, it seemed much more atmospheric.



And of course we can't forget the tea.



I also may have made a couple new friends here. One guy just came in and sat down and started talking with me, he was very friendly, in fact most everyone here is usually quite exceptionally friendly. A lady at the table across from me also struck up a short conversation with me and gave me here e-mail, so I might have a friend to some me around Taipei! We'll just have to see...

At any rate I'm very tired and it's getting late so I'll wrap it up now but hopefully I'll have more tomorrow. I'm thinking about going to the national palace museum tomorrow, which has one of the largest and best collections of Chinese art and history in the world.

再見！
Nate

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