On our last day in HuaLien we took our scooters for a very long ride. Out away from HuaLien and down the coast towards TaiDong. It was an amazing ride but the weather slowly turned sour. It went from pristine and beautiful to rainy and windy, not fun weather to drive a scooter in. Since I'd never really driven a scooter very much before, it was actually a lot of fun, except for the freezing cold! The trip took all day long and into the night even when leaving at 8am in the morning. You drive in one big circle, down the coast and back up the freeway towards HuaLien.

Right immediately outside of HuaLien we saw some really cool sights: Big Taiwanese Amusement Park, Rocky Beaches & a huge, huge temple with a gigantic Buddha on the top. The temple was surrounded with small cartoon looking characters that were from the 12 chinese animal signs.

The sights continued to be great, but the weather did slowly worsen. When the rain and cold really started to hit, we had to stop at 7/11 and get ponchos and some gloves. My scooter slipped once while we were driving and my blue poncho turned brown from muddy water, hah! I'm not even sure how it happened, I was driving straight, hit a puddle and the scooter started slidding off-balance. It happened so slowly I had time to react and I was fine.

We continued on and got some more cool views of the coast and saw some expensive high-class hotels along the way. One of the girls with us got hit by a large crashing wave and fell back onto the rocks. Got a little hurt but she was fine. The weather was really turning sour. It got really dark, really quick and I didn't particularly like driving a scooter in the dark but had to finish it off.

We were tired and starving so we went to the same famous beef noodle place. It was good once again and definitely worth the long drive and long wait. Afterward we dropped off our scooters and retired to sleep for the night.

The next stop in HuaLien for us was at ToRoKo gorge. This is a beautiful gorge with many unique looking rocks cut away by a stream of water throughout the years. We took our scooters through the gorge for many hours climbing up the mountain right in the middle. There were many pathways that we look and walked on (trail of 9 turns) along the way up and down the mountain. Take a look at the pictures and at least one should qualify was breathtaking even though I'm no professional photographer. If you ever get the chance to go to ToRoKo gorge, know that there's also a bus you can take to go through it.

The first pictures are all on at the entrance and on the way to ToRoKo gorge from HuaLien. It was about a 15-20 minute ride away. Scooters are really fun to ride but probably very dangerous. The beginning of the ToRoKo gorge trail shows you exactly how beautiful the whole trail would be.

We crossed many bridges and saw many different parts of the gorge that the river had cut away. More and more, so much to see its hard to take it all in at once or even over the hours that we were there.

The almost perfect picture with the temple & waterfall about is a very famous temple in Taiwan. It's just picturesque and for some reason looks perfect. Inside is just a normal temple but outside looks so awesome. We went back to HuaLien and went to a famous restaurant. Their great dish was simple beef noodle soup. It was actually very good, spicy like I like it.

The next stop on our vacation was a town called HuaLien on the coast of east Taiwan. HuaLien could be called a 'surfer' town as that is one of the main things that pulls tourists to this unique city but as I saw it surfing was merely a minor part of HuaLien. While we were in HuaLien we toured the city, then got scooters and cruised around the surrounding area. Toroko gourge & the coast line were the main attractions for us. Pictures of those two places will be in the next two posts. So for now enjoy a series of pictures around the town of HauLien. Temples, tea shops & just general vacation fun!

The first few pictures are us leaving YiLan and taking the train to HuaLien. It was a quick train ride, only lasted about 1~2 hours. After getting settled into the hostel we walked around the town of HuaLien. Stopped by a huge temple and god a good view of the city from the top of it.

More pictures from around the temple. For dinner we went to one of the night markets and found a famous restaurant that served pork bun and dumplings. As long as you order enough it's very good and very filling. The night market was bustling with activity as should be expected. The shops were all pretty much the same as other night markets, just vendors trying to sell their "stuff." We were at one point 'mugged' by a group of Taiwanese going around giving random people hugs~strange for me.

These are just the last few pictures of our first day in HuaLien. Only random shots so nothing terribly special or unique.

Every year the Feng Chia (逢甲) Language Center in Taiwan has a talent show and many of the international students show off whatever it is that they can do. Some people did a skit, others sang a song (in their own language or in Chinese), some people did a cultural dance or just modern hip-hop and even more...others introduced cultural differences between Taiwan & their home countries. The talent show as a whole was all in Chinese (of course).

The first few acts were done by the Americans, Panamanians, Thailanders, Indonesians & one Austrian girl. There weren't many westerners so most of us had to join together in skits or acts. The Indonesians mostly sang songs & danced. One girl from Thailand did a cultural dance that was very well received.

Next came a bit of a Raffle. Everyone who attended the talent show was entered into the raffle and they gave like 20 things away so most people won. I won a Chinese Calligraphy Set. Chinese calligraphy is extremely hard but I like trying! Here's a video of a dance some of the Korean girls did:

The last few acts were all done by Koreans. The very last two acts were done by friends of mine. The first one En-Song sang a Korean song and very last, Ka-Won played a song on the piano and sang. Here's a quick video of Ka-Won:

In Taiwan a very popular way of getting lunch is by going to any of several local restaurants and getting take out. A popular Taiwanese restaurant adopted the idea of the Japanese Bento-box which quickly thereafter spread across all of Taiwan. In Taiwan this type of take out is called a 'Lunch Box'. Anywhere in Taiwan you can routinely see people with a large bag filled with stacked lunch boxes going for delivery to...a school, business meeting or almost anywhere someone needs food.

The pictures above are from one of our local restaurants called MaK & May. It's a pretty good place. A little expensive by Taiwanese standards but you get a lot of food. Filet of Chicken/Pork, Potato Salad, Lettuce Salad & Steamed Rice. This is an example of one of the places nearby that sells a 'Lunch Box'.

The idea of the 'Lunch Box' has spread so far throughout Taiwanese culture that even on long train rides you can find them for sale by someone walking up and down the isles (and they almost always sell out). This is exactly how popular they are.

The time for vacation came quickly and the first stop for my vacation in taiwan (during Chinese New Year) was YiLan (Chinese: 宜蘭市).YiLan is a small city in the northeast of Taiwan. It is not too far from Taipei but has very little public transportation. Most people live in the outskirts of the city and have a car or motorcycle to get around. We left from Taichung (Chinese: 台中) and took the train all the way up north and a little east to arrive in YiLan. We met our friend Kerry there who was going to show us around.

On the second day we got a quick breakfast at one of the local breakfast-sandwich places. I got a Taiwanese rendition of a breakfast 'burger' and some dumplings. I really like how somehow dumplings are a breakfast food in Taiwan. After breakfast we started driving to TaiPing Shan (太平山). We stopped off at another famous restaurant and got some takeout food for lunch. The place had a cool yellow box for its famous food. We also picked up some random vendor food around the restaurant and then continue to TaiPing Shan (太平山).

We arrived at TaiPing Mountain (太平山) station at around 11am and wondered around for a while. They had a small museum about the area and explaining why the recreational preserve was necessary. There was also a small train that takes you around the mountain and to some other trails you can walk around. It was very pretty despite the amount of fog surrounding us. We saw a lot of nature and traditional Taiwan.

After roaming around TaiPing Shan (太平山) we went to Luodong (羅東) to hang out for the night. Downtown Luodong (羅東) is an hour or so drive away from YiLan (宜蘭) and has quite a lively nightlife. We went to one of the more famous "Shabu Shabu" (涮涮鍋) restaurants in the area. Shabu Shabu (涮涮鍋) is a Japanese variation of the Hot Pot style of restaurant. Basically you pick out the food you want with what spices and then cook it in boiling flavored soup. The last few photos are of the place where we spent the two nights sleeping. Our friend Kerry's relatives had an empty house that they let us sleep in. That was rather nice of him and his family I thought!

The train from Taichung (台中) to YiLan (宜蘭) took a few hours and Kerry picked us up at the Train station about 10 minutes after we arrived. He droves us out back to his part of YiLan and we stopped at what he said was a pretty famous noodle restaurant. The Noodles looked pretty good and there were a lot of people outside so I don't doubt that it was famous. After we left the line got even longer!

After lunch we went to a Nearby museum of arts. There were actually several museums at this place all with their own little specialty. Some were crafts, some were about coal and one really strange one was constructed entirely from cardboard. We sat and watched a few cultural shows of acrobats, got a coffee and then headed off to see some temples and the beach.

To finish off the day we to the beach and relaxed for a while. No swimming though! Most beaches in Taiwan have a no swimming sign because the water gets real deep real fast which creates a mega-under toe or something similar. Then we went for dinner to a seafood restaurant. Seafood is very popular in Taiwan. One seperate proof is that at Subway in Taiwan the seafood special sandwhich is the most expensive (roast beef, ham, turkey? all cheaper!). Which reminds me of another off-track moment. I bought chicken nachos at a semi-mexican restaurant (they offer chicken or veggie nachos) here and the waiter replies to me: "well we only have steak....would that be ok to substitute?" needless to say I got steak nachos that night. The last picture of a Spider is actually a real spider we found near where we were going to sleep! Haha!

Our last stop before ending the day was at one of the many hot springs in YiLan. No pictures are allowed inside the hot spring so I only have these few shots outside. It was really relaxing. One of the pools has a bunch of small fish inside that nibble away at your dead skin. It feels really weird, the bigger fish kind of almost hurt but no blood or wounds, just relaxation.

French fries (Freedom fries if you like) and Hash browns, or just plain potato foods are sometimes hard to find in Taiwan. Although french fries certainly gained popularity from western influence, hash browns have yet to make much headway. After seeing how much oil they use on basic foods like Chow Fan and Chow Mien, it would seem like hash browns would just fit in on the side somewhere. However, don't despair, they do indeed exist in Taiwan and I have proof!

I was walking back from school with a friend when I spotted a pile of these at one of the vendors on the side of the road. So apparently, in Chinese, Hash Browns are called shu-bing "薯餅". I think that's a shortened version of the name though so that it would fit on the vendor's menu. Frying stuff in oil seems to be a Taiwanese special ability so the hash browns were pretty good plus they gave me an extra, something, for free!

I had no Idea what it was but gave it a shot. At first it reminded me of maybe a small donut but as soon as I bit into it, it definitely wasn't a donut. The inside was very 'doughy' and generally had little flavor, but since it was free, no complaints. I would never buy it on my own though because the hash browns were far better.

So this is me still living the simple yet very fun life. I found hash browns woo-hoo!

One of the cool things about night markets in Taiwan is that there is a never ending supply of things to look at, each store/vendor with something unique and different from all the rest. To show you exactly what I mean, I picked up this little gadget from a store in the night market. It's just a small toy you plug into a computer's USB....

There seems to be no purpose for this little device other than for pure amusement. It didn't cost much, just a few US Dollars, but somehow it's always amusing. Night markets are full of small toys like these, among other things are the very unique foods and clothing items as well. If you ever make it to Asia, be sure to check out a nightmarket somewhere, anywhere! You will be shocked in many ways (good/bad/other) by all the 'stuff' available.

Happy New Year 2009 (in Chinese: 新年快樂)! Although I had originally wanted to go to Taipei we ended up celebrating the New Years back in Taichung which was no problem. Some of our Taiwanese friends chose a pretty good restaurant to celebrate in. It was a kind of all-you-can-eat hotpot restaurant. This means you cook the food your self, however they keep bringing it to you. In addition they also had several types of sushi which were quite good. Being that we were eating dinner so late, we were all starving by the time we got seated!!

Some of my friends went to the Taipei 101 to see the fireworks display. It always is very beautiful, take a peek at the picture above. We stayed out munching away and drinking until probably about 2 or 3am. Hotpot style cooking is in a vague way similar to fondue, but you have to wait longer! Here's a few pictures:

The last picture shows the totality of our 'destruction'. Frankly put, we ate a lot of food and it was damned good. I had never been to this type of 'hot pot' restaurant before but it was a really nice way to spend bringing in the New Year.

For starters I'll say, beware! This post might make you a little hungry just as it is making my hungry as I sit here typing it. For this thanksgiving we went to a little foreigner district in Taichung, Taiwan known as 'Little Europe'. We've gone there a few times now. Two of the bars/restaurants were serving thanksgiving style food. One was an all-you-can-eat buffet and the other was just plates of thanksgiving style food. We opted for the the single plate as it was significantly cheaper and we weren't starving-hungry.

The little alley way is all of 'Little Europe'. It really isn't much, just a few bars and restaurants run by Canadians & Americans. The place we went to for a mini-thanksgiving feast is called PJ's cafe. The cafe is aptly named after the owner-PJ. Normally it has a healthy mix of tex-mex style food. Good stuff. One thanksgiving plate like in the picture above was NT$195, which is about USD$6. Pretty cheap (actually expensive by Taiwanese standards), but not much food.

So, our appetites weren't quite filled by the plate of traditional thanksgiving food, so we went over to Fubar (a bar just down the ways in Little Europe) and got chicken wings, chicken salad & 3 plates of nachos to finish filling out stomachs. Nachos are so good. Fubar is co-owned by one of our classmates so he always makes double sure we are well taken care of. It's pretty cool to know the owner of a bar!

After quite a bit of time traveling around the insides of Taiwan we felt it was time to see the ocean! Luckily, Taiwan has plenty of ocean all around it. The nearest 'decent' beach from Taichung (台中) is Da'An (大安). The plan we had set out was to go to a fish market nearby and have a bite to eat for lunch, then to go hang out and 'Skim board' at the beach. A large group of Taiwanese & foreigners arranged it all over a website called couch surfing. So we met up early that morning, (all the carpools had already been arranged) and set off for the fish market!

The fish market had all kinds of types of fish and foods I had never seen before in my life. We also got a type of 'sugar cane' drink that was not very sweet and generally didn't taste very good to me. It was sold everywhere so I think Taiwanese people like it. The different types of fish that we tried were awesome but it takes some guts to eat some of this stuff based off of looks alone. Some people went to a restaurant and ordered quite a few different items, that looked to be the best idea. The fish market was pretty big and pretty filling so everyone had a good time.

This beach was definitely like no beach I'd ever seen before. The tide left about a 1 kilometer gap between the front of the beach and where the ocean actually was. During the evening the ocean quickly crept up about 1 kilometer. That was incredible to me. The beach itself was not that great. A lot of trash about and....windmills. I've never seen electricity generating windmills at a beach before. Many people went a head and skim boarded but I opted out being that I had no swimsuit to wear. It looked like more pain than fun to be honest. The night came pretty quickly since winter is coming near and we left the beach at about 6 for home. Everyone slept quite peacefully on the ride home.

Whether you are or aren't a fan of Pizza Hut, you have heard of it. Believe it or not Taiwan has many branches of Pizza Hut. We saw a few in Taipei and here in Taichung there's more than one. Although many of the same items and tastes exist at Pizza Hut here, it is very different from what we have in America! Today I grabbed a quick flyer for Pizza Hut to post a few pictures up on here so you could see. Some of the additional Items look good, some you'll wonder why and others just look plain disgusting. So without further adieu onto the pictures!

This is the little brochure I found. So...yea, 1.25L Pepsi bottles, soup, chicken buckets like KFC and pizzas with broccoli and squid. The specialty pizza on the front is pizza with mini hot dogs for the crust of the pizza. Definitely a different taste here.

We had a long movie night and got some pizzas for it. Two pizzas & a box of chicken wings. The pizza I wanted ~ a normal meat lovers ~ was cheap at about NT$300 = USD$10. The other guys ordered some kind of 'taco' pizza that turned out to be Squid, Mayonnaise, Potato, Cheese & Soy sauce pizza. I could only swallow two bites of that one. The chicken wings were sub-par as well, but alright enough to eat. So I just stuck with my meat lovers pizza =D.

The next time we got pizza was because I wanted to treat some of my friends from Indonesia for helping me out in Taiwan. This pizza was only half strange to me. Chicken, Onion and Corn! I think if it hadn't of had so much corn on it, maybe it would have qualified as a normal pizza to me. It was still pretty good though, but there is definitely better in Taiwan. The familiarity is all we seek in ordering food from Pizza Hut.

As we walked through the Shilin night market in Taipei we saw a lot of things we didn't understand or know what they were. This person probably was the peek of our feelings about being lost:

We didn't really have any clue why he was dressed like that, maybe some kind of Monk or Buddhist? He was saying something as he walked, but we weren't sure what it was. For westerners people like this only ever remind us of mystical ideas from movies we've seen like Lord of the Rings, except it's not fantasy, it's real life.

My little disclaimer to go a long with these photos is that I have much respect for the many cultures in Asia. It is only that many Asian ideologies inherent in their languages translate poorly into English. Even with these translation errors, I am completely grateful that so many things are translated into English, it has been infinitely helpful to me.