Strawberries and Bus Rides

I was invited by a friend to go on a strawberry picking trip yesterday. I was a bit confused at first, because in Canada, or at least on the east coast, strawberry season is in late summer or early fall early summer (I guess I have been away from Canada too long! lol). Here in Taiwan it is apparently in early spring just as the weather starts to warm up (Starting late February).

Our day trip started at 7:30 AM at Taipei Main Station where we met to join what I later found out was a bus tour to several different destinations, one being the strawberry farm. Roughly fifteen of my friend's friends also joined the tour to make it a fairly large group.  

The first stop on our tour was to a nature park. Beautiful flowers, sweet smells, and being surrounded by nature. I don't think there 's a much better way to pass your time! I am not sure what type of flower it is in this picture, but I though it was worth a snap of the camera. 

After spending a couple hours surrounded by nature, we headed on to our next destination which was a small town to buy some food for lunch. We didn't have much time, so everyone ended up buying street food from the hawker stalls. I had a tofu sandwich and also a sausage on a stick. 

Along the way I came across this interesting sight. 

Upon enquiring, I was informed that these are pigs livers that are being dried and are normally used in certain types of Taiwanese food. I can't say that that would be my first choice of food for a meal, but I am told that it is very tasty. 

We left the town on a stomach half full and headed for the strawberry patch to spend about an hour picking and snacking on ripe, sweet and succulent strawberries. Two kilograms of berries cost a mere 200 NTD (6 CAD) so I made the most of it and picked to my hearts content!

After a filling and fulfilling strawberry picking experience we were back on the bus to head to our last stop which was a touristic area mainly meant to coax people into spending their money on the local produce, products and of course strawberries. Outside the shops there was what else but a HUGE strawberry. 

All in all, the day was a lot of fun and I suppose one of the best parts has to be that I was able to return home with a box full of strawberries that I think I will be able to eat for the next week!

Dinner Time

One of the annoying things about finding an apartment for the short term in Taiwan, is trying to find one reasonably priced that has a proper kitchen or cooking area. Of course, if I were to speak the language fluently, I am sure it would be much easier. But since my skills are laking, I gave up on trying to find an apartment with a kitchen, settled on a small place with a sink and hotplate, and took the advice of all of my friends that are Taiwanese or have lived in Taiwan: "Eat out every day, it's cheaper and a lot less of a hassle."

I was a bit sceptical at first that eating out would be cheaper than cooking by myself, but low and behold as long as I am adventurous I can easily find a place to eat dinner for under five dollars Canadian. So, following the proverb "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" I have been taking the opportunity to try new food and eat on the cheap!

Tonight was one of those times that I didn't want to venture too far away from home, so I decided to go to a local food joint that sells 3 sides of various vegetables a main dish and rice all for the low cost of 55 New Taiwan Dollars. For those of you who don't know the exchange rate, that's about $1.80 Canadian.

The dinner looked something like this

                                              Top right: Deep fried tofu

              Middle right: Stir-fried egg plant (Aubergine to some)  

                                              Bottom right: Stir-fried bean sprouts

                                              Main Dish: Fried chicken and rice on the bottom. 

Nothing elaborate or beautiful, but tasty and very filling.  

To top off dinner, I went to one of the local tea shops to buy one of the treats that Taiwan is most famously known for. BUBBLE TEA!!  I have had my fair share of bubble tea in Japan and other places, including Canada, but I would have to say that Taiwan has by far the best bubble tea out there. 

One of the most popular chain stores is 50嵐 and their bubble milk tea looks something like this

This drink costs about $1 Canadian and you can choose to have it with lots of gum syrup, none, or any amount in between, with ice or none and you can also choose big or small bubbles. The last couple times I got small bubbles, but this time I decided to try the big ones. I think I prefer these to the small ones. 

If you have never tried it, I highly recommend searching it out at a store near you!

Sunny at Last!

Sunday officially marks one month from the day that I arrived in Taiwan. Aside from not understanding much Chinese yet, things are going fairly well. One thing, however, that I haven't gotten used to is RAIN. 

Friends had warned me that Taiwan is infamous for raining in the winter, though I brushed this off thinking they were exaggerating. However, I have now realized that they were far from exaggerating!

Of the 28 days I have been in Taiwan,  it has rained on 25 of the days. After not taking advantage of the first two sunny days, I decided that there was no time like the present to do something new here in Taipei. So, after my Chinese lessons I hopped on the MRT and then a bus and headed to a touristic village called Wūlǎi. 

The village lies on the outskirts of Taipei City and takes approximately 40 minutes by bus to get to. 

The first stop on the trip was to a restaurant for lunch. I decided to try the stir-fried noodles featured below. 

Stir Fried Noodles

炒麵

The next stop on the excursion was to the miniature train running 1.6 kilometres  and arrives at a waterfall in the mountains. The ride cost about 1.50 CAD and is about 10 minutes. The ride is quite bumpy and at times it felt like we might come off the tracks when going through the curves, but at a breath taking 5-6 kilometres, I am sure that wouldn't be possible. 

There is also a gondola that brings riders to the top of the waterfall, but we didn't have time to ride it this time. I guess it's good to leave some things to do for next time I visit!

With mountains in the background and a river flowing through the middle, the area the village is very Taiwan-esque. 

Tomorrow and Sunday are also supposed to be sunny and warm, so I will hopefully be able to take advantage of the nice weather to take some photos and visit some other new places. 

Buddha's Birthday?

Having been in Taiwan for three weeks now, I figured it was about time to start doing some sight seeing around Taipei. Since it is my third time here, I have been to most of the major tourist sites, so this time I decided to see a couple of temples that are pretty famous, but I had not managed to visit yet.

Both of the temples that I visited yesterday were Buddhist temples and upon arriving at both locations I was greeted with literally hoards of people. Weekends normally draw crowds of people to the temples to pray for one thing or another, but yesterday exceeded anything that I had ever seen outside of the New Year and any religious holiday. I later found out that it was apparently Buddha's birthday yesterday which explains the crowds. 

The first temple I went to is called Xíngtiāngōng and is one of the most famous temples in Taipei. Here are a couple of pictures I captured at the temple. 

行天宮

A lady giving an offering at the temple

After spending some time in the temple and snapping a few photos, I left to seek out somewhere warm, only to end up in a cafe eating a frozen mango smoothie. 

Nothing beats a cold smoothie on a cold day! lol

The next temple is also pretty famous and is called Lóngshānsì located pretty centrally in Taipei. I didn't realize it until I got there, but I had already visited this temple on my first visit to Taipei, so needless to say, with the crowds the way they were, I didn't stick around for too long. 

龍山寺

What I found more interesting, was the anti-nuclear demonstration that I had good enough timing to stumble upon while exiting the MRT station to get to this temple. Perhaps the organizers wanted to hold the protest in conjunction with the anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan. 

One thing I have learned about a large majority of people in Asia over the past six years is that they are very superstitious and they really like getting fortunes told, palms read, and learning about peoples blood types or zodiac signs. Apparently blood types (for Japanese people anyway) can tell you a lot about peoples personalities and of course palm reading can tell you a lot about your own life. 

So, I decided to join the masses and get my palm read. Now, since my Chinese is far from perfect, I was able to find a palm reader who was able to give my reading in Japanese. 

So, I suppose you are wondering what's the outlook on my life? I am told it looks like this:

Emotions: 2012 will be a stressful year, but will get better as the time passes. 

Health: No significant problems, but I shouldn't hold my bladder…..lol…. And I should eat relatively healthy to put less stress on my kidneys. 

Employment: Finance and Investment is a good field for me and rather than working for someone I should think about starting up something on my own. 

Finances: I will see a lot of expenditures in 2012, but 2013 and after should be prosperous. 

Investment:  I should think about buying property in the near future. 

Relationships: 2015 or after is a good time to get married. 

Colours: Gold, black, white, and blue are good colours for me. 

The palm reader stressed several times that 2013, 2014, and 2015 will be good years and things will only get better from there. 

I suppose most of the things that he mentioned could really be thought up by anyone with any type of common sense, but it is always a bit of fun to go and see what a fortune teller will say and what they predict for your future whether you believe it or not. 

-Pins on a Map-

Pop Culture

When going somewhere new, I always like to learn a little bit about that countries pop culture. Anything from movies to music to the local art scene. Not only interesting, but things like music and movies can also help with learning a language, which is what I am here for.

Through my own searching and a bit of help from some Taiwanese friends I have managed to find a few songs that I have begun to enjoy and thought I would share.

Hebe 田馥甄 - LOVE! 

Tián Fūzhēn is the singers name but she also goes by the name Hebe. A quick google search has taught me that Hebe is actually the goddess of youth in Greek mythology. I guess that goes to show how much I DON'T know about Greek mythology. 

The next song is by a Taiwanese American singer named Anthony Neely who grew up in San Francisco. He participated in a singing competition; the Taiwanese equivalent to American Idol, where he received top marks and became well known. He also has a few songs sung in English so if you don't like listening to Chinese than he is still worth a listen. 

 一覺醒來 Awakening

倪安東 - Anthony Neely

Yesterday I also went to see a Taiwanese movie. Since movie theatres are quite a bit less expensive here compared to Japan (around 8 dollars to see a movie) I have taken the opportunity to indulge in some film viewing. 

愛 LOVE

This movie features some of Taiwan's most recently famous actors and is a story about love, as the title suggests. The interesting part of the plot; however, is how all of the relationships of the characters in the movie are intertwined. 

Another interesting piece of information is that one of the main characters, Eddie Peng actually grew up in Vancouver Canada. Apparently, he was scouted to become an actor while visiting relatives in Taiwan and ended up moving here to pursue his career in acting

I was surprised to find out that the movie had English subtitles. Without them I am sure I would have been pretty confused about everything that happened in the movie. Hopefully I will eventually be able to understand the movie without English subtitles!

My first taste of Taiwanese pop culture has been pretty good and I would have to say it has left me wanting to learn more. I will see what else I can dig up in the next couple months to share. 

Fabulous Eats and Delicious Treats

First impressions of Taiwan?  People here love to eat. No matter what time of the day or where you are in Taiwan, there is always some sort of café, noodle shop, or food stall to be found close by. 

This past Tuesday I was reunited with a long time friend, who lives in Tokyo but was visiting her family in Taiwan. And of course, in Taiwan there is no better way to catch up than over a hot meal or with some type of snack. 

阜杭豆漿

Fùhángdòujiāng

Food and drinks made with soy milk are the specialty of this restaurant and with prices as low as fifty cents Canadian for a bread like dumplings, it's no wonder the restaurant gathers crowds big enough to require waits of up to forty minutes. We were lucky enough to only have to wait for about twenty minutes before ordering. 

My meal consisted of a sweet and salty panini-like bun filled with green onions and a bowl of cold and fresh soy milk. 

厚 燒餅

Hòu shāobǐng

I hope to go back to this place as it was great for a light lunch, or it would even be great for a snack as they also have some desserts as well. 

After eating we wandered around Taipei for a while before saying good bye and parting ways at which time I headed over to a different part of Taipei to meet up with another friend for dessert at a very nice cafe. 

Since I am a die-hard dessert fan, I couldn't pass up getting both a piece of cake and a smoothie made with fresh fresh strawberries which are currently in season. 

An absolutely delicious way to end off the day! I unfortunately didn't get the name of the café, but I remember the location, so I have a feeling it won't be the last time I go. 

So much food, and so little time! I think I am also going to start exercising again so I don't gain an enormous amount of weight from all of the eating!

For anyone visiting Taiwan, I can confidently say if you leave hungry, there must be something wrong with you!

A New Beginning

Five years, six months, and twenty days. The number representing the amount of time I made Japan my home. Add the ten months spent in Japan on my study abroad my total increases to roughly six years, four months and twenty days.

It still hasn't completely sunken in, that I am not returning to Japan to live, but I think I will continue to gradually warm up to the idea of starting something new, unknown and exciting, somewhere in Canada. 

Before making the transition back into Canadian society and to make the most of my remaining time in Asia, I have packed my bags and boarded a plane bound for the Republic of China, more commonly known as Táiwān.

Some information about the country courtesy of Táiwān Tourism Bureau's homepage

Area: 36,000 square kilometres
Population: 23 million
Language: Mandarin/Taiwanese/Hakka/Indigenous Languages


Just to add some perspective, New Brunswick, Canada has an area of roughly 73,000 square kilometres. Roughly double that of Táiwān. Yet the population is roughly thirty one times that of New Brunswick.

Although this is my third time visiting Táiwān, here are some first (or should I say third) time impressions:

-Life revolves around food.
-Things are fairly cheap (Makes sense coming from Japan)
-Taiwanese people seem to love things Japanese (Food, anime/manga, music… the list goes on)


To finish off my first blog post, I leave you with a picture of one of the most famous night markets in Taipei. Night markets are culinary must here in Táiwān, full of hawker stalls selling anything and everything. I haven't been daring enough to try everything, but I have had my fair share of sweets and snacks.

士林夜市

Shìlín Night Market