Friday, March 21, 2008

Taiwan - Part 4

Thanks to two great Taiwan friends, I had the privilege of touring 陽明山 Yangmingshan. Without a car, it would have been near impossible to see this place extensively because this national park is actually made up of a cluster of mountains. As we went up and down, bend and round the hills, I realised that not only do you need a car, you would also need an experienced driver to manoeuvre the vehicle through those narrow roads with steep slopes and tight corners. I have to say I was highly impressed with my friend’s driving skills. Along the way, she was most thoughtful to make periodic stops for this tourist to take in the sights and capture some pictures. However, this dimwit had forgotten to charge her camera batteries and had to miss out on taking many beautiful scenery >_<. But honestly, to truly appreciate the awesome views, you have to be there and see it for yourself. Here are some of the pictures that I managed to take before my batteries went flat.



We met a lady with two shih tzus at the park. My good friend took a couple of pictures of me with one of the dogs but she added one of her fingers in the first shot and chopped off part of my head in the second. I decided to stitch them together. Cute huh? I meant the dog lah! :p

You get the impression that it’s all farms and nurseries when you drive pass this place but many of them actually also housed restaurants and cafes offering 野菜 and 野山雞 which I would translate as wild vegetables and free-roaming kampong chickens. My friends wanted to show me 海芋 (kala lily) at 竹子湖 but unfortunately I saw only the leaves. Hehehe… wrong season but I still enjoyed seeing the other flowers in the nurseries.
We had lunch here. The place looked so deceivingly quiet and small from outside but the moment you stepped inside, you’ll be amazed how popular and crowded the place was. As you can see, we had those wild vegetables which I believe are ferns…very nice! I think that pot of kampong chicken soup would have been enough to feed ten people. Much as we tried, the three of us couldn’t even finish half of it so my friend had to pack it home.




After Yangmingshan we went to another mountain, 法鼓山 Fagushan or Dharma Drum Mountain, a buddhist centre founded by Venerable Sheng Yen. I’m not exactly an enthusiast of Chinese mahayana teachers but several years ago, a profound speech by this scholarly-looking monk on tv caught my attention. I subsequently learnt that he is also a writer and has published lots of books. Having read several of his publications, I must say I’ve become an avid fan of this teacher and his teachings. Venerable Sheng Yen advocates the conservation and protection of the environment so when the centre was being developed, care was taken to minimise harm and damage to the nature. I saw many old trees fully intact right next to new concrete buildings. This place certainly left a lasting impression. I had half expected to see lots of glittering golden buddhas and colourful ornamental rooftops often associated with Chinese temples but what greeted me instead were the vast nature and grey buildings made of hardy concrete or granite and bricks. I thought the practicality and simplicity in the design gave the place a sense of serenity and calmness…most conducive for meditation practise. Here are some of the pictures of this green buddhist centre with a panoramic view.









I can’t express how grateful I was to my friends for arranging this special trip to Yangmingshan and DDM. They had to climb and walk so much with me that day, it must have tired them out. When we started the ride back to the city, the friend who drove actually said to me that I must be exhausted by the whole day’s hectic activities and should just sit back and take a nap. The ride back to the city was to take more than an hour so if anyone had the right to complain about exhaustion, it had to be the driver right? My Taiwan friends are simply such marvellous hosts. I was so touched by their hospitality.

I would also like to convey my gratitude to my other Taiwan good friend Taco for hosting my group of friends and bringing them to 淡水 Danshuei. From their many pictures, I could tell that the group went on an eating spree and definitely had a wonderful time at the old town.

Early the next morning, Taco was again at our hotel to bring us to 烏來 Wulai, a place known for its hot springs. I was already running on reserve battery that day due to continuous over-activity and lack of sleep. My heart felt really weak and I was more like a walking zombie that day. When my friends went to get a dip in the hot spring, I decided it would have been too risky for me to join them. My heart may just give up on me so I took a nap instead at the lobby of the hot spring. Here are some of the pictures of Wulai, mostly taken by my friends.





After Wulai, we made a brief stop at 碧潭 Bitan. There was a night market and games bazaar beside the river. I was surprised to see game stalls similar to those I played during my childhood days. Pedal boats were also available for rent at the river. What a great place for families to spend their weekend. I saw a guy having a game of dice with a stallholder selling Chinese sausages. My friend explained that the guy would get a sausage for free if he beat the stallholder in the game…how interesting.
After Bitan, I had no reserve energy left so I went back to the hotel for a rest while Taco brought my friends elsewhere for further shopping and eating.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Woes of a MRT commuter

I’ve not been coming into the office promptly for a long long time. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I made it to office before 9am…probably…at least…three years ago? Perhaps even more. But today, I made it to work by 8.55am. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap! That’s me giving myself a round of applause…hehehe! But this post is not about my feat. Today, I need and want to rant about some inconsiderate commuters I have to tolerate on the trains every day. I had the misfortune of meeting another one of them today.

During the rush hour this morning, a young guy standing about a metre away from me was blasting his music through his iPod. I could practically hear what song was being played so I turned to stare at him hoping that he will turn down the volume but he didn’t seem to notice. I told myself, “Its ok, just focus on reading the newspapers” and that’s what I did. Halfway through the journey, I managed to get a seat. I sat down and continued reading my papers. Guess what? After a couple of stops, that guy also sat down and right next to me! His right ear was only centimetres away from my left and I could hear with clarity 曹格 crooning away “…紧紧相依的心如何say goodbye…” No lor, I just wasn’t in the mood to listen to Gary’s 背叛. Firstly, I think 蕭敬騰 and 楊宗緯 can sing that song better than Gary and secondly, if you don’t mind, I prefer to read my papers in some peace and quiet in the morning. I turned twice to stare at him real hard. He noticed but simply didn’t find anything amiss. I was on the verge of asking him if he had a hearing disorder but my horoscope says I should keep a low profile and avoid all confrontations this year so I just kept my mouth shut and suffered for the rest of my journey. In the end, to escape the jarring sound on my left ear, I had to resort to bending forward to read my papers >_<.

Another type of commuters I dislike meeting on the trains are men who stuff all kinds of bulky and hard objects in their pants pockets. If you’re a regular train commuter, I am sure you must have experienced been poked by these objects when you sat next to them. It is bad enough that women have to endure with men who need to occupy a bigger space on the seats due their bigger physique, not to mention those men who like to sit with their legs wide apart. But since that is due to the construction of their anatomy, I can forgive them for that. Frankly, I can tolerate it if it is something beyond their control. But guys, if you’re reading this, can you just kindly remove those mobilephones, PSPs, DSlites, MP3s and PDAs from your pants pockets before you sit down? Please spare a thought for the person sitting next to you because it is definitely not comfortable to have a hard object jabbing at your thigh when you commute.

The third kind of commuters I want to rant about today are the mobilephone loudhailers. I know that having a mobilephone is a necessity in today’s world and practically everyone who works owns a phone. But why is it that some people need to talk at the top of their voice on the phone and share their telephone conversation with the entire carriage of commuters? Almost every day I have to endure with Chinese nationals having a long loud chat with their native friends in a dialect I do not recognise, highly motivated insurance agents trying to sell a policy to a potential customer over the phone while they make their way to meet another customer, aunties instructing their maids to carry out some household chores they forgot to assign before they left the house, businessmen hounding clients for payments or dodging payments to suppliers, throngs of people telling their friends they are only two or three stops away from their meeting point, etc etc.

Do I sound like a very fussy and intolerant commuter? No lah. I just need to get this off my chest. Hehehe…one of the traits of an extrovert according to the MBTI test. Will blog about this psychometric test if I have the time.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Taiwan - Part 3

When our coach completed the round-island trip and returned to Taipei city, the typhoon had also stopped chasing us…what a relief. We got to 忠烈祠 Martyr’s Shrine just to see the change-of-guards ceremony. These two pictures were taken by KK as I probably would have been able to capture only pictures of the tourists’ heads.

We also visited 士林官邸 Shih-lin Official Residence of Chiang Kai-shek where a chrysanthemum exhibition coincidentally was being held. The flowers were quite lovely but we were unable to appreciate the entire exhibition as the guide gave us only 15 minutes there. We basically walked about 200m from the entrance, snapped some pictures and had to quickly run back to the coach. That limousine on display was supposedly used by Soong Mei-ling, Chiang’s wife.




The last item on our itinerary for the guided tour was a visit to 士林夜市 Shih-lin night market. This place is known for its food and night bazaar. As per the standard style of the tour, we also didn’t get to see much there because we were only given an hour to roam the place. We did get to taste the famous XXL chicken cutlet but the queue was ridiculously long…stretched over at least 100m. Don’t think it was worth the wait because we had sampled better ones elsewhere. If you do visit this place, I would say one item worth trying is 官財板 - a thick slice of toast deep fried and filled with chowder. But you got to eat it when it’s still piping hot.


When we were liberated from the tour group, the first place most of us wanted to visit (or rather revisit) was 故宮博物院 National Palace Museum. We went there in the morning and spent half a day there, totally fascinated by the vast display of intricate Chinese artefacts. It amazes me how all those treasures, 600,000 pieces of them were transported from the mainland to this island. I don’t think logistics management systems existed during those days. The chap who coordinated this must have been one hell of a genius! Photography wasn’t allowed in the exhibition halls so I can’t show you the “pork belly” or “cabbage”. I can only post pictures of the museum facade…hehe! Go see it for yourself, this museum is really huge and impressive. I would highly recommend it if you’re a first-time visitor to Taiwan…of course you must also have some interest in Chinese history, art and culture. The museum ticket also entitles you free entry to 至善園 Chih-shan Garden located next to the museum.




Below are some of the other pictures of Taipei city that I took. As with all cities, there are some distinctive buildings such as the Taipei 101 building, the City Hall and the Taipei Railway Station.
We stayed at a hotel near the very busy and happening 西門酊Ximen Ding. That is where the famous Ah Chung Mian Xian is located. We happened to witness an anti-global warming campaign on one of the mornings. People in Taiwan seems to be more aware and concerned about environmental issues. Taiwan friends tell me that many of them carry their own recyclable chopsticks and bags everywhere they go.



We also visited the upper-class 信義商圈 Xin-yi business district and 永康街 Yung-kang Street. In case you’re wondering what's that last picture, it says “There’s dog poo.” Some kind soul covered the dog poo on the pavement with a box and wrote the Chinese characters to caution pedestrians.

Powered by Blogger