Round the World in 48 Days

Been Busy...

2008-02-10T19:43:51Z

Sorry it's been a while. Time is short when you're busy adventuring and eating! I promise that I will update soon. At least when I arrive to NYC in a week. In the meantime, I have just uploaded a ton of pics of India, Egypt (mostly food) and Greece to Flickr, if you've got time.

PS - Some people have commented that they like my food commentary. If anyone wants to introduce me to someone that would be interested in hiring me as a food writer, I'd be the happiest (unemployed) eater on the planet!

Been Busy... remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Upset Stomach?

2008-01-30T11:03:26Z

When I got to the airport, I found I had an hour or two to spare before my plane boarded. I thought I'd walk around and check out what the stores had to offer. Soon, I was having uncomfortable pain in my abdomen. Oh no, I thought, it is never good to have GI issues in a place that only has public bathrooms. My mind raced back over the foods that I had eaten that day. Was is something at the Floating Market or at the local lunch place? What could it have been? Then it dawned on me. Right before heading to the airport, my friend and I had stopped at Starbucks. I ordered a iced tea, but they misunderstood and gave me a iced tea latte... It's not the first time that I've forgotten that I'm lactose intolerant. Ha, so I had a little laugh -- with all the street food that I ate in Thailand, it's Starbucks that gave me indigestion. Knowing what it was made me feel better and the pain soon went away.

Lesson of the day: watch what you eat (and drink), even at the Western chain places!

Upset Stomach? remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Local Lunch

2008-01-30T07:41:22Z

As we got off the boat at the Floating Market, my friend asked where we could get a good lunch. He recommended a place just down the road. We went "down the road", but then the road split in two directions... We chose the left path and soon found the joint. Right off the road, it had some guys grilling outside and some tables under a thatched roof. No tourists at all, only Thais. I was psyched. The place is known for their papaya salad, so we ordered some "not so spicy." Then we had some sliced pork and cucumbers, pig stomach and kidney mint salad, sticky rice and grilled chicken thigh.

The papaya salad was actually quite spicy. Either they didn't see the note on our order or they like it really spicy. My friend said it was probably the later since people in rural areas eat food much spicier than in the city. The pork and cucumbers came with a dark red chili sauce that wasn't that hot. And the pig mint salad was quite good and slightly spicy. The chicken was meant to be eaten with the sticky rice in either a chili fish sauce or a sweet chili sauce. Having a sweet tooth I had a lot of the sweet chili sauce. I found the sticy rice very interesting. It's not like East Asian sticky rice, which is short grained and very moist. This rice is medium-long grain, not moist on the outside, but is very "adhesive." So it's very easy to get a big clump of it and dip it in sauce. My friend warned me that it's very hard to digest and can make you feel pretty sleepy. I definitely fell into a food coma on the drive back to Bangkok, but I don't know if it was from the amount of food or the sticky rice...

Local Lunch remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Floating Market

2008-01-30T07:01:44Z

On Saturday morning, my friend took me out to the Floating Market, which is a bit outside of Bangkok. As we were driving out, the scenery turned industrial and then agricultural. Soon it was rice fields, salt drying fields and palm trees instead of the concrete jungle of Bangkok. We took a local shortcut there which involved looking out for the giant soysauce bottle and then turning left at the giant fish sauce bottle. hahah.

Once we got there, we quickly hopped on a boat to do some floating shopping. We both hadn't eaten breakfast, so we both had food on our minds. We got some noodles, coconut pudding and some thai iced tea for brunch.

You can see the noodle lady and her boat in the background. It was sort of a build-your-own-noodle-dish affair. I opted for rice noodles with some sprouts, coriander and a bit of pork. Then you add the condiments, such as fish sauce, crushed peanuts, sugar and dried red chilis.

The coconut pudding came in a little leaf package and also had roasted coconut inside.

Yum!

As you float down the canal, the sides are lined with stores that sell mostly tourist souvenirs and other boats have fruit and other food to eat.

Besides touring the main canal, my friend talked to the guide in Thai and we went down an older, traditional canal and had some palm juice and bought dried fruit. It was nice; having been in the city, I had forgotten what it was like to have just a few people around and enjoy the quiet.

It was a grand old time -- very colorful and fun. I even got to see a Thai celebrity filming one of her TV series!

The Floating Market remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Japanese Food -- Thai Style

2008-01-29T18:24:48Z

On Friday afternoon I met up with my friend for some more time eating and touring the malls. Our first stop, MK Restaurants. She said that I had to go here if I was in Thailand. It's not traditional Thai food, but the Thai people love this place so much that there are multiple on each block in some areas of the city (just like Starbucks!). It's a style of food called Thai-suki, which is basicallly the Thai version of Japanese hot pot. There are raw vegetables, tofu, fishcakes, meat, noodles brought to the table and you cook it yourself in the boiling broth at the center of your table. The most Thai part about it was the garlic chili sauce that you add to your cooked food once it's come out of the hot pot! Good fun, with a Thai twist.

Next, I got a bit of Thai fast food. Related to my previous Taiwan post on McDonalds, this item was from KFC. I had seen TV and poster ads for it: deep-fried sushi. Why would you do that? I'm not sure, so I had to taste it myself. It proved to be a lot of fried batter around a california roll. I really couldn't taste much other than the fry flavor. Maybe I tasted a bit of mayonaise? Not that great...

If that wasn't enough, when we went into a grocery store, my friend told me about deep-fried seaweed. The Thais took Japanese food and fried it again! It was the thin strips of nori seaweed, fried and packaged like potato chips. I bought a pack out of curiousity, but haven't actually had it yet. Maybe because it's more interesting than it is appetizing to me.

Funny what happens when cultures mix. Some successes and some... not-so-successes.

Japanese Food -- Thai Style remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Aw Taw Kaw Food Market

2008-04-24T05:48:55Z

Early Friday morning, on my friend's advice, I went to Aw Taw Kaw market, where the "best" food is sold. I had to find out what the meant (and tasted like). It was explained to me briefly as an up-scale outdoor food market where all the finest, biggest and most beautiful produce was sold.

I wandered out of the underground metro to see a large tented areas with tons of tables. There was definitely a lot of produce and it all looked quite good. But which to try? Then I spotted it. It looked like durian, but when I asked if it was a lady shook her head and said something in Thai. (Not many people spoke English, but I managed...) I found out later it was jack fruit. The man selling it was cutting the large fruit open to reveal smaller orange pods of flesh surrounding a seed. He would separate the pods, remove the seeds and serve them on a plate.

You can see the whole jackfruit on a stand in the background.

Next up were two young guys using a hot cooking stove with three little platforms. On each platform, they would smooth on a little bit of batter and cover it with a little conical lid. Then after a while they would put on a bit of dark filling and wrap the half-cooked batter around it. I got a tray full of the little dumplings and they added some garnishes like chilis, fried garlic bits, coriander and lettuce.

A little bit further, I saw a man making little cups of something very white. The bottoms of the cups were golden brown and crispy and the top was soft and still wet. On some of the cups, he would throw some chives. He pointed and said "Coconut," and I got half a tray of chive and half of plain.

Still not satisfied with my brunch, I looked for one more item. When I saw a lady behind a pile of raw oysters and mussels, I knew I had to have whatever she was cooking. It ended up being a sort of egg scramble. There was a bit of batter fried with eggs, oysters and mussels. It was served with a sweet chili sauce.

My whole meal, assembled together.

The egg scramble was my favorite, the sweet chili sauce made it so different than the kind of egg dish I'm used to. Then the little dumplings were sweet and salty inside (I learned later that its roasted coconut and peanuts). I tried it first plain and then with all the garnishes, which was much tastier. Then the jackfruit was very interesting. With the lingering sweet pungency of durian, the slight tropical flavor somewhat like papaya, but a firm, dry, slightly starchy texture and mouthfeel. I liked the coconut cups, especially with the saltiness of the chive topping. I couldn't eat it all, so I took some back to the hotel as a late night snack.

(It still tasted good cold, by the way.) Happy eating!

Aw Taw Kaw Food Market remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Shopping, Food and shopping

2008-04-24T05:49:34Z

Any sort of shopper will be happy in Bangkok. There is something for everyone: the rich, the poor, the mass-amounts-of-cheap-things buyer, the art collector, the fashionista (high-end and hipster), the cute souvenir buyer, the shoe lover, the bargainer, the gold lover, the shop-till-your-feet-hurt-and-then-get-a-massage shopper... you get the picture. I experienced a lot of it on Thursday, with a bit of eating in the middle (of course).

I was told that I had to go to Siam Paragon, the newest mall in Bangkok. And it was truly amazing. At about 1pm, I walked from the hot sweaty crowds from the sidewalk to the crisp air-conditioning and sleek white marble of this upscale mall. It had it all -- from Gucci, Chanel, Burberry to the hippest Thai and East Asian designers. The design was impressive, more like a minimalist 5-star hotel then what I pictured for a mall. Also, a world class aquarium lies in the basement! But what impressed me the most was the food court.

I followed the arrows to the escalator for the food court. As I got closer to the food court, I was was blown away. It was at least 7 times bigger than the average American food court and designed with cool curves of frosted purple and blue glass. Then something really caught my attention: 60-gallon fish tanks that you can eat at. Wow. I quickly tried to browse all the stalls when I realized that a special event was happening with 5 large tables. The banner said, "Authentic Taste of Thailand." I was in.

Not much English was spoken by the staff, so I just picked the most interesting things and paid them what they asked.

I got the Som Tom Pue, the papaya salad with the raw fermented crab that was mentioned in an earlier post. I figured that I had to try it, especially when I pointed to the basket of crab and the server replied, "Thai-style." The guy next to him picked up a 8 small green chili peppers and asked me something in Thai. The server mixing my salad slapped his hand away and started laughing. I assumed the whole event meant that I didn't look like I could handle that sort of heat. I probably couldn't. I gestured with my thumb and index finger close together and said, "Just a little?" My salad mixer guy put in two chilis. Phew.

I also picked out a small deck-of-cards-size package of something wrapped in green leaves and steamed. The server attending to that section said, "Seafood" when I pointed to it, so I went for it. At what seemed like the dessert table, I asked for small little cups of gel-ish custard that was labeled "banana" over which the server generously sprinkled shredded coconut.

There was no way I was going to pass up eating right in front of a giant fish tank. Surprisingly the coral reef tank was less crowded than the other theme tanks (freshwater, koi, aquatic plants), so I settled my self in front of some clownfish and dug in.

To drink, I opted for the coconut juice, fresh from the natural container. I didn't waste the fresh coconut meat either. It had been a long time since I had had fresh coconut and it surprised me how different it tasted from dry shredded coconut. The flavor is more mild and a bit more "green."

The Som Tom Pue was not all that hot, thanks to my thoughtful server. The fermented crab was not as strong as I suspected. It was quite easy to eat because the server threw in the whole crab and pounded it a few times in the salad. The legs ended up broken from the body and if you just bite down on it, the raw meat just squishes out. I found that the closer you got to body meat, the more pungent and fermented the taste was. I can't lie; I had a few moments of fleeting nausea. But I pushed through...all for you, my faithful readers.

The leaf package was quite good. It was a red curry, seafood (fish?) and rice mash with some whole shrimp and squid in it, all steamed in the leaf. Strong lemongrass and ginger flavors were also present. It was a bit spicier than I could handle, so each time the burn got unbearable, I took a bit of the banana custard cups and it tamed the fire in my mouth. Quite a good amount of food, but I decided that it wasn't anything that a few hours of mall-walking couldn't burn off.

So I set off to burn off the food at the other malls in the area. yes, there about 6 malls in the Siam area of Bangkok. Two of them are attached to the Paragon. Then others are across the road. It is a massive shopping town. With all sorts of different things. Siam Square is outdoor and has local Thai designers that cater to the young hip crowd. Then MBK is an outdoor market brought indoors. If you need to buy 1000 different dressy shoes for onlly 8 dollars each, it wouldn't be a problem at MBK. Or any sort of cell phone accessory. Or 60 different belts. They have it all, in any color and for a cheap price.

I met up with a friend from Berkeley and we went for dinner and then to yet another shopping spot! We had pad thai at a famous place in the Ari area of the city. They make pad thai with traditional noodles, rice noodles, even with papaya shreds. It's so good that even the princess of Thailand has been there! After dinner, she explained street food to me while we headed to the Sun Luum Night Bazaar. It was my favorite of the day and I recommend it to anyone visiting Bangkok. Open from 6pm to 12pm, it has four sections of outdoor stalls that sell souvenirs, clothes, artwook, furniture. But it has a artistic, craftmans sort of feel to it, which made me like it. And there's a huge beer garden and food area where you can take a break. After that, there are plenty of foot massage salons to rejuvenate your aching arches!

Man, what a day.

Shopping, Food and shopping remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wat Pho and Wat Arun

2008-01-26T10:54:01Z

These two temples are recommended after the Wat Phra temple, so early Thursday morning I set out to see them.

Wat Pho is a temple and the official massage school of Thailand. If you want to have a massage business in Bangkok (of which there are many) you must first get certified at Wat Pho. It also houses the huge golden reclining Buddha, which was quite a sight to see. It was so large and the building so tightly built around it that taking a picture of the whole statue was quite difficult.

The rest of the buildings and stupas at Wat Pho were an different style of mosaic with many Chinese style statues:

After Wat Pho, I couldn't resist the sweet fragrant smell of roasted bananas. It was 4 pieces for 10 baht and as advertised on the sign, they were -- "Good"!

A quick ferry ride across the river took me to Wat Arun, also known as the Temple of Dawn. It's done in the older style and is similar to the famous Khmer-style temples in Siem Riep, Cambodia.

The towers in the background are Wat Arun. You can see the stairs above the orange roof. To prevent becoming an exhausted, sweaty excuse for a human in the midday heat, I opted not to climb up Wat Arun...

Gorgeous flower on a tree outside the temple.

The sun, humidity and heat were not conducive for lingering and appreciating the temple, so I took a quick look and headed to the other famous attraction of Bangkok: shopping. (Indoors, with air-conditioning)

Wat Pho and Wat Arun remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Out to dinner!

2008-01-26T08:14:10Z

I was lucky enough to have a friend of a friend take me out to dinner on Wednesday night. It was a beautiful restaurant by the river and one of the bridges. Seemed like quite a local secret as there were barely any foreigners.

As we sat down, dinner boat cruises passed by decorated in colorful neon. One of my favorites was a boat decorated with colorful flowers and the words,"We Love Our King."

First came the fried fish with a chunky chili-pineapple sauce. Crunchy skin outside, tender soft meat inside drenched in sweet spicyness perfect with a bite of rice.

Next came the young vine tips sauteed with shrimp and deep-fried shrimp cakes with a sweet syrup. I was told that the shrimp cakes were best drenched in syrup, so I did as told and we had to ask for more syrup. Might have been my favorite of the night! We finished off with the shrimp tom yum soup that filled our table with the scents of lemon grass, ginger, shallots and lime leaves... I can't quite remember all the ingredients, but it was good. Great dinner in the warm Thai night. It was just the beginning of my Thai food adventure...

Out to dinner! remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ayutthaya

2008-01-26T08:41:35Z

Before Bangkok, there was Ayutthaya. While Bangkok has been the capital for around 200 years, the city of Ayutthaya is some 700 years ago. It isn't still standing as it was destroyed in a battle, burned to the ground and the royal family wiped out. But, the ruins are kept has historical national parks so that visitors can imagine the grandeur that used to be.

The first temple I visited was the most intact.

As evening grew near, my stomach started growling and I opted to fill it with a coconut creamsicle.

At first I thought the "1" on the cart meant that the popsicles were 1 baht. But the guy told me, "No, ten baht. Me, number one." Then pointing to another man with a popsicle cart nearby, "He, number two." We all had a laugh, including popsicle man number two, who took this picture for me.

More pics at Flickr.

Ayutthaya remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Grand Palace and Wat Phra

2008-01-26T08:30:53Z

On my first whole day in Bangkok, I knew I had to go see the Grand Palace and Wat Phra - the must see combo of the city. The Grand Palace is the old royal residence and Wat Phra the most sacred and beautiful temple in Bangkok. I took the new BTS sky train to the river and then took the river ferry from there. Some of the views from the ferry ride up the river:

My ferry was not as speedy as the first boat, a longtail, or as pretty as the second old wood boat. Oh well, got me up the river for 15 baht! (50 cents)

The Grand Palace was closed to tourists so that Thais could come to pay their respects to the recently passed sister of the king. So I went ahead to see the temple. It was as promised, amazing and very impressive. The four walls around the temple had a long mural telling stories that I tried to follow. There were kings, wives, demons, monkeys and wars! I think you can imagine the drama:

Parts of the mural were being restored and painted with fresh new golden paint.

The buildings and stupas were beautiful, all gleaming with gold paint and intricate mosaics. The emerald Buddha (actually jade) is housed in the main building. It is one of the most revered images of the Buddha and wars have been fought to capture it. I don't have a picture of it, but it was much smaller than I expected. I especially loved the statues of demons and monkeys and winged beasts.

I stayed at the temples for hours basking in the beauty of it all.

More pics at Flickr.

The Grand Palace and Wat Phra remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sweating in Bangkok

2008-01-22T12:38:54Z

Wow, this is winter in Bangkok and it was 97 degrees F today. And humid. I got in from the airport at around 11am and checked into my hostel. It's in the busy, modern Sukhumvit area, but is off a small road (Soi 11) and is quite a cool set up. It's in a small alley and there is a security guard that makes sure that you are coming into stay at the hostel or use the other facilities. As you walk in, there is a spa on the right and a restaurant on the left. All three buildings are made of dark wood really giving you an old Thai feeling, right in the heart of Bangkok. The hostel itself is four stories of long hallways where you walk over raised wooden decks. Every once in a while there is a small patio with a table and chairs, green plants, a bicycle tuk-tuk, a shrine or something interesting. After following the receptionist up stairs and through hallways, I was sure that I was going to get lost on the way back out. I was quite impressed and happy with the room. It's a decent sized room with air-conditioning (thank goodness) and a small toilet room. Outside there is a balcony that has an outdoor shower (shaded from the outside of course) and a sink and mirror. Everything is quite clean and I think it's quite a steal for 480 baht ($15).

Walked around a bit, met an Australian guy, had some lunch, exchanged some money, and made some tentative plans for the next few days. Took my time and tried to get to know the area a bit. Lunch was at the restaurant near the hostel. We sat Thai style on cushions on a raised wood floor and had papaya salad with shrimp, pad thai, lemonade and singha beer. I ordered the papaya salad medium, hoping that I would be able to handle it. At first, it was so good that I just started chowing into it, but then I felt the burn. That distinct Thai food burn that comes unexpectedly and won't go away... I am going to have to get better at eating hot food while I'm here. But I refuse to order anything mild that is supposed to be spicy. I think it just wouldn't be right or true to the food.

There is tons of street food, which I love! But I'm dissapointed that I have no one to explain it to me! My dad suggested that I take my time getting into the street food, to at least let my gut adjust to the local bacteria. I couldn't resist these little tasty delights:

There was some language barrier, so I could only understand them with my taste buds as crispy mini sweet crepes folded to hold a bit of marshmallow creme and tangy salty shredded cheese (?). (If someone can correct me, I fully welcome it.) More street food to come, I'm sure.

Sweating in Bangkok remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ultra-Portable Rice Ball

2008-01-22T12:13:48Z

Every culture has the portable food. The sandwich, the shawarma, the burrito (ok, not an original Mexican creation, I know). The portable food has to be dry on the outside while still containing moist tasty ingredients inside. Tricky, but can be done. In Taiwan, it is the ba tzang: sticky rice, peanuts, pork and cooked egg yolk wrapped in bamboo leaves to neatly form a pyramid of tastiness. Even though it's not warm, the glutinous rice stays moist and sticky, so the ba tzang doesn't have to be eaten hot (although its better that way).

Lucky enough for me, I got one for the road when I was off to the airport in Taipei. It made it all the way to Singapore, when at 4am, I decided to gnosh. Untie the string, unwrap the bamboo leaves and have at it. Delish!

Ultra-Portable Rice Ball remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Layovers

2008-01-21T22:22:49Z

So I am currently at the Singapore airport waiting for my flight on to Bangkok. I arrived at 11pm last night from Taipei and my flight leaves at 7am, which is in about an hour. When I told people that I had an 8-hr layover, everyone thought I was crazy to book a ticket like that. Well, it ended up saving me $100 in flight fare and a night of hotel cost, so I don't mind so much. Plus, being a boarding school ARAMCO brat made me pretty used to passing time in airports waiting for connecting flights.

If I have to be laidover anywhere, Changi is a pretty damn nice place to be. Just for reference, it's huge, has a lot of shopping, is spanky clean and is rife with wireless laptop and free internet access computers. As for needing rest, it has a transit hotel, which I was tempted to get a room at. The budget rooms that have shared bathroom use are about $30 for 6 hours. In the end I decided I was too cheap and that I would scout out a dark quiet corner to curl up in for a couple hours. Luckily, I managed to sight a sign for a "Rest Area," which turned out to be much better than my original "corner plan." Off of the shopping area, 12 or so reclining chairs are set in a dark area and I started to get comfortable, when I realized I had no alarm to wake me up at 4am. Without one, I was worried I wouldn't wake up. So what's a girl to do? I decided that even though I was too cheap for a transit hotel room, I needed the peace of mind of an alarm clock. It was nearing 12am and shops were closing, so I quickly ran into an electronics store and grabbed the smallest alarm clock. Got back to the rest area and managed to catch about 3 hours of occasionally interrupted sleep (the man next to me seemed to have a strangely loud breathing/yawning/coughing habit).

Although I checked my bag all the way to Bangkok, when I got to the transfer desk here in Singapore, they told me that I had to exit the airport and claim my bag and then check in again. When I left Taipei, my brother told me not to lose my passport. I hadn't done that, but I have lost my baggage claim ticket... My bag was not at the baggage claim, not at the lost and found and the staff at the check in desk couldn't locate it without the baggage tag. My original plan was to carry-on my baggage with me on all flights, but it is proving to be too heavy (13.3 kg). They've reassured me that if it was tagged to Bangkok that it should get there. Hopefully they are right!

Layovers remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I ate a bee!

2008-01-20T17:19:54Z

We stayed in Kaohsiong Friday night and on Saturday morning attended my uncle's company banquet. I am finding that some of the most interesting foods are appetizers. At this banquet, fried bees and cashews were served. A gentleman at the table explained that the bees are not actually fully-formed bees yet and are harvested before they are "born". They're deep-fried to a crisp and served with sauteed cashews. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but the cashews and the bees end up being the same curved crescent shape!

Eat 'em up, yum!

I actually only had one, by the time I finished taking the pictures, the rest of the bees were all gone! It really didn't taste like much, just fried crunchiness. But I guess quite popular, at least at my table!

Also pictured is the caviar cake slice and green onion described in a previous post.

Oh, on a similar note, while the caviar appetizer is harvested from the female oh hee, a local large Pacific Ocean fish, a main dish was served later in the banquet that was the male reproductive organ from the same fish. It was explained as the fish's prostate, but I don't think fish have prostates... probably the testes? It came sauteed whole with vegetables in a thickened sauce. It looked like and had the texture of very soft tofu, but had a slightly fishy flavor. Wasn't that great, but wasn't all that bad either.

Hurrah for new foods! (Can't wait for Thailand. I hear there is a very pungent fermented crab papaya salad that I should try... wait and see!)

I ate a bee! remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Eastern coastline and Southern Taiwan

2008-01-20T17:10:12Z

On Thursday we continued to drive south along the east coast of the island, which provided more great scenic pictures:

We passed through some small towns, but for the most part, easter Taiwan is pretty sparsely populated. More of the population on this side of the island are the native Taiwanese aborigines that are of the Malay descent. When the immigrants came from mainland China, the aborigines were driven from the western plains of the island up into the mountains. Although a minority in Taiwan, from what I observed and heard, the aborigines are increasingly having more equal political power and social services and becoming culturally more mixed with the Chinese Taiwanese.

We stayed the night in Taitung and on Friday continued down to the southern most point of Taiwan in the Kenting National Park. Views from the southern most tip, where the Erlanbi lighthouse is located:

It had been raining on and off for our entire trip, but the upside is that we managed to catch a pretty nice rainbow!

More pics at Flickr.

Eastern coastline and Southern Taiwan remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Taroko Gorge

2008-01-20T16:31:42Z

On Wednesday, we headed south from Taipei along the north east coast of Taiwan. Most of the east coast of Taiwan rises up sharply from the Pacific to high mountain ranges. The drive was mostly on curvy, cliff-side roads, but it was so beautiful, that I spent most of the time hanging out the window.

Amazingly bright turquoise water near the shore!

After a small fishing town, we turned inland to take the very old East-West Highway that crosses the island and also leads into the Taroko Gorge. The entire island of Taiwan is formed from the collision of the Phillipine and the Eurasia tectonic plates. This created the high mountain ranges and also formed large deposits of white marble in the mountains. As rain fell and a river eroded the marble over time, the Taroko Gorge formed. It is over 1,000 meters deep, dwarfing people, buses or trucks. As you walk along the pathway through it, you look up to see lush mountain vegetation and down to see white marble cliff faces and boulders. Definitely a humbling and beautiful experience.

You can judge the size of the gorge by looking at the road cutting through the mountain and also the tiny little people near the center of the picture (red and white shirts).

Interesting to see that the water that flowed from the marble was as bright turquoise as the water seen earlier along the coast. What makes water blue or turquoise? Even the omnicient Wikipedia didn't quite fully explain it.

This guardian dog at the entrance of one of the bridges in Taroko Gorge is a product of the extensive white marble in the area.

More pics at Flickr.

We made it all the way to the small town at the end of the gorge area and turned back around to head out to the coast again. Checked into a motel in the city of Hualian and rested up for the next day of the Hsu Family Taiwan Roadtrip!

Taroko Gorge remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Psst!

2008-01-19T16:55:57Z

That the recent election for Taiwan representatives was rigged! Actually, this isn't surprising gossip. Both my grandma and my aunt told me that in the past they've had campaigners come to their houses the night before the voting day to "buy votes." A good $100 dollars or so can be made as more than one candidate comes by the house. This year, no one came by my gramma's house, but people are saying that its still happening and is responsible for one party's overwhelming victories. The bribing doesn't happen in the bigger city, but is pretty common in the smaller towns.

I guess having elections does not necessarily mean that there is free choice.

Psst! remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tea, Caviar and Oyster Noodles

2008-01-19T16:45:43Z

On Tuesday, we set off on our road trip around Taiwan. The first day involved mostly catching up with extended family; great-uncles slightly south of Taipei and an aunt and uncle in Taipei. At our first stop, we had tea with my great-uncles and their friends.

I found out that making tea is quite the process here, much different that popping a Lipton's tea bag in a mug of hot water. There is a special tray that holds the teapots and cups while also draining water or tea away from the table with a small tube. Only mountain water is boiled to brew the tea, as tap water "makes the tea taste awful." First, the boiled water is used to rinse off the first teapot. Then the tea leaves are put in the tea pot and water poured in to brew the tea. The brewed tea is poured into a second teapot to avoid brewing in the leaves too long. Then that tea is poured into all the teacups. But it's not served. The tea in each cup is poured into the next (the overflow drains away) until they are all empty. My great-uncle's friend explained that the tea from the first brew is no good and that you have to rinse all the teapots and cups w hot tea. Then a second brew is done in the same manner and this time the tea is served. If you're ever running low in your cup, tea is quickly brewed to refill it. I quite enjoyed watching it all; the rituals around food and drink fascinate me.

From there we drove into the crazy cement and neon maze of cars and scooters that is Taipei. It's a great city that has old parts full of tiny alleys, street vendors and neighborhood parks and then new parts with huge boulevards, sky scrapers and international fashion boutiques. We always stay with my mother's oldest sister that lives off of the old city's major avenue. She made dinner at the apartment and I helped her set up the appetizer. Dried caviar cakes with green onions and daikon. The sac of eggs is taken from a large ocean fish and dried whole to make one solid caviar "cake". Then its sliced thinly and served with a slices of a very spicy variety of green onion and slivers of daikon, both raw. Its an interesting combination of salty fishy caviar and spicy freshness of vegetables. Highlight of the meal for me. The meal and accompanying wine and brandy left me sleepy and I went to bed early dreaming of the next morning's breakfast...

Oyster noodles!! It's a favorite of mine when we're in Taipei. It probably sounds strange as a breakfast food to most people, but I guess it's quite a long-standing tradition. My aunt says that this one street vendor has been selling the noodles for more than 30 years. It's quite simple: tiny noodles are served in a slightly thickened broth with oysters and a hint of white pepper. That's all he sells, in either a big bowl or a small bowl. You can eat it plain or add more condiments. I always go for vinegar and hot sauce, maybe some more white pepper. Yum!

My bowl: small. Bro's bowl: big. Both bowls: good.

Tea, Caviar and Oyster Noodles remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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A Tank

2008-01-17T14:11:15Z

On the freeway, we trailed a flatbed carrying a military tank. My brother was impressed and insisted that I take a picture -- so here it is: a tank on the Taiwan freeway.

A Tank remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Another Day, Different Mountain

2008-01-17T14:07:20Z

Monday was a day trip up to a national park in central Taiwan called Ba Shen San , which means The Eight Immortals Mountain. (Why it's called that I'm not sure.) It was a rainy, foggy day, but that made for less tourist in the park. By the time we left the park around 4pm, we were the only car in the parking lot!

On the way, we stopped at a Ke Ren Cultural Center, which was unfortunately closed on Monday, but we walked around the grounds and fed some fish.

When we arrived, the national park was full of mist, occasional rain ... and giant spiders! Green and black striped abdomen, yellow and black legs. Bonus points for any etymologists that can identify it for me. Hard to catch a good picture, but I tried.

We hiked about a 3-km loop up to the mountain path trailhead and back. And this is what we saw:

Rivers and waterfalls...

Misty rest stops...

Native flora...

Mountainside temples to house the spirits of boulders...

And bamboo forests...

As we left, the mist lifted and left us with beautiful views.

Another Day, Different Mountain remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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McDonald's in Taiwan

2008-01-16T00:23:06Z

If you don't already know, McDonald's has menus in different countries that try to adjust to local tastebuds. They have beer in Germany, shawarmas in Saudi, rice bowls in Japan... So as we took a rest stop near a McDonald's in central Taiwan, I couldn't resist sampling the local McDonald's offering of:

The concept is to replace the bread bun with a rice patty for those Taiwanese that, like me, can't get enough rice. The patties are lightly grilled on each side to brown them and keep them together, but on the inside the rice is white and sticky.

Good idea, but as much as a tout the virtues of rice, I suppose I'm more accustomed to a chicken sandwich involving bread. Other thoughts: the sauce wasn't able to soak into the rice patty like it would with bread, so a lot of if dripped out and the rice didn't mix with the chicken in the mouth, because it was all stuck together from trying to act like a bun...

In conclusion, I must say: Bread and rice -- same food group, but completely different purposes and properties. McDonald's -- good attempt, but you don't have me sold on the Grilled Chicken Toasted Rice Burger.

McDonald's in Taiwan remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Goin' with the flow

2008-01-16T00:22:12Z

Plan have changed, so I have the chance to blog a bit and give a short update.

We decided to do a day trip yesterday instead of leave on the road trip. Today we'll head north to Taipei and then south and then around again. The plan is to get back on the 19th, but who knows?

Happy trails to yooooou!

Goin' with the flow remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Taking to the road now

2008-01-13T11:12:54Z

Tomorrow I leave on our family road trip around the island and don't know when I'll next have internet connection. We plan to head south along the western shore until we reach the southern most point of the island, then drive north along the eastern mountainous section, hit Taipei and then head back to Beidou. The plan is to travel for six days and return on the 19th.

Should have some interesting posts coming up, stay tuned!

If you'd like to know by email when I post (rather than suffer the repeated disappointment as you feverishly check for new posts) you can subscribe to the blog.

Taking to the road now remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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National Forest, Fish Balls and Sticky Food

2008-01-20T17:08:51Z

On Saturday, we drove up a a different part of the mountains east of my gramma's house to do a bit of sightseeing. As we gained elevation, we passed large tea fields. First, neatly trimmed rows of tea bushes. My gramma explained that you can only get them that neat by harvesting with a machine, which trims the bushes and vacuums up the tea leaves at the same time. Then, at higher elevation was the higher valued oolong and dong ding tea that is hand picked. From there we headed to the lush Shitou National Forest. Here in Taiwan, the national symbol (besides the flag or the bird) is depicted graphically as 2-D green shape of the island. I am beginning to realize why; it is the "winter" here, but everything remains green, from the flatland agricultural fields to the mountainsides.

(Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the bamboo forests, which were beautiful. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)

After about 3 km of hiking about, we stopped for a snack, boiled fish balls. (That is not a very appetizing description, I know.) As the Swedish have their meatballs, Germans have their bratwursts, and the Americans have their hot dogs, the Taiwanese have their fish balls as a meaty snack. Served two or three on a skewer, they are cooked in soup and served along roadsides and at every 7-11. They proved to be quite tasty, I made short work of them (with little help from my mom).

Lunch and dinner were both sticky foods. The more I describe Taiwanese food, the more I realize that a lot of it is made from glutinous grain flour making it sticky, gooey and springy all at the same time. After driving out of the national forest, we made a stop to partake in a local specialty, sticky rice cooked in a bamboo segment. The short-grain rice is put in raw with some mushrooms and bits of meat into a bamboo segment and steamed. Right before it's served, the bamboo is split open so that the dish is served right out of the bamboo. The rice is supposed to come out with a distinct bamboo flavor (which I didn't really detect...). However, still fun and filling!

As we drove back late in the afternoon, we decided to eat dinner in Beidou, rather than cooking dinner at home. Beidou is famous for their ba wan, which is somewhat like a Chinese dumpling with the wrapper made of sweet potato flour and is filled with pork and bamboo shoot bits. After steaming and frying, the wrapper makes quite a thick glutinous layer around the filling so much that the dumpling is cut into quarters before serving. Traditionally, it's served with a thick sauce, that has a bit of a miso flavor. (Apologies that I don't have a shot of the dumplings, pre-sauce.)

In the background, more sticky rice and tofu soup (not sticky).

It was a good balance of exercise and good eats. Hope you're all enjoying food too!

National Forest, Fish Balls and Sticky Food remains copyright of the author hsustyle, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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