Taiwan and Hong Kong: some pictures

I have too many pictures to play with right now, so here are a few from the past few weeks.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Let me know if you have any questions!  I'll be happy to entertain them.

TAIWAN

Kenting: southern Taiwan.  We went on an off roading expedition.  

Kenting at night.

Hualien: we were on a paddle boat with a penguin as our captain.

Temple: Chijing Island, Kaohsiung.  Saw this on our bike ride around the island.

Kaohsiung.

View from the Love River, Kaohsiung.

Love River, Kaohsiung.  

Chijing Island, Kaohsiung.

"85" - tallest building in Kaohsiung.

Night show at Hualien.

Beach side at Hualien.

The mountain side of Hualien.

HONG KONG

Water side of Kowloon.  Olympic decorations were up.

Hong Kong Island.

Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong Island

View of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon, HK.

The Peak, Hong Kong Island.

Taiwan: Day 6 - 9

It's been a little while since I posted, so let me try and remember what I have been up to.  We departed on a trip to visit the southern part of Taiwan.  I forgot to bring my camera memory card adapter, so I won't be able to post any new pictures from our tour of Taiwan.  I had my first experience on a high speed train, something America desperately needs.  The train traveled up to 300 km/h (186 mph), which isn't the fastest but was very impressive.  It wasn't loud and it effortlessly brought us to our destination: Kaohsiung.  However, our final destination was Kenting at the southern most part of Taiwan.

Kenting is a very small town and is more of a tourist area.  We went on a crazy off roading trip in a beefed up Jeep Wrangler.  We stood most of the time (the top was chopped off) and held on for dear life as we navigated the steepest paths I have ever seen.  It was easily 45 degree angles on turns.  During the tour we saw a lot of the beautiful scenery that is Taiwan.  During the evening, the main road transforms into a city alive with small vendors and lots of people.  It's beautiful to see empty streets become filled with so much activity as the sun sets.

The following morning we went to the Kenting aquarium before we went back to Kaohsiung, where we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights located next to the Love River.  We walked a lot in order to find the night market, only to find out we walked in a big circle.  It was worth it though.  The foods, smells and massive amounts of people and excitement should never be passed up, even if we are tired.

The last day we spent in Kaohsiung was incredible.  We rode bicycles on Chijing Island for 3 hours (Eric is super red now, like a rojo lobster), saw many beautiful views of Kaohsiung, visited Kaohsiung Sky Tower (85 floors, looks like what Emperor Palpatine's building would look like) and had dinner at the Dream Mall.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by Sanfongjhong street, an old and traditional night market that specializes in dried food.

If you read all that I just wrote, I'm quite impressed.  I apologize again for the lack of pictures.  I will work on a publishing them when I have time, which unfortunately will be a while.  Enjoy!

Day 5: Beach and food

I'll start off with a night picture for the month long midsummer ghost festival.  This festival is very famous in Keelung.  It's a time for everyone to treat the ghosts, so people bring food, pray and celebrate the ghosts.  This particularly building shown below was set up for the occasion.

During the day, 6 of us went on a trip to Yilan, a popular beach where locals hang out and surf.  Here's the surprising thing.  Most of you know I don't know how to swim.  Guess what I did???  I surfed!!  I hung out where the water was about waist high, but it was just fine for surfing.  The waves were small, the water was warm and very salty.  I managed to catch a few good waves.  Standing and balancing isn't too difficult (to go straight that is).  The hardest part was finding the right wave and gaining enough speed to meet it.  It was fun and I never thought I would have ever done that (and not drown).

We had dinner at a traditional Taiwanese restaurant.  Lots of fish and different foods I've never had before, including shark.  The seafood is very fresh here and the price is low.

Sashimi seems to be everywhere for a fair price.  It's difficult to pass on such a delicious feast.

I also had taro, red bean and peanut ice cream, which is a special dessert in Taiwan.  Also on the list was Taiwanese sausage (super good, especially with a bite of garlic) and of course Taiwan beer and oolong tea.  There are lots of 'small eats' here for under 1 USD, but taste better than anything in the US.  I'm not sure how I'm gonna enjoy American food and prices when I return...

Day 2-4: Danshui, Ximending

I'm gonna start by describing some differences that I found between the US and Taiwan.  The cultures are drastically different.  I learned a lot by simply watching the traffic.  The roads are shared by cars and scooters.  There are about 100 scooters per block and much fewer cars.  Scooters go wherever they want.  In fact, they trickle through traffic and fill any gaps to be found.  I imagine it as sand finding its way into every crack.  People honk a lot, but not because their upset but because they warn others that they are there as to not cause accidents.  There isn't any road rage, people go about their business.

I've seen dog's riding on the scooters with their owner, kids standing on scooters without helmets and people carrying a trunk full of stuff between their legs.  Every man, women and child rides a scooter.  It's just the way it works because their are simply too many people for everyone to have cars.  

Life doesn't stop here when the sun goes away.  In fact, it picks up in many places and is more lively than the day.  Night markets, street vendors and stores all thriving at night.  We walk down streets where scooters drive right by us, using the same road.  They miss us by inches.  Because this place is sooo dense, I sensed that taking pride in ownership is not as prominent here as it is in America.  In fact, America feels rather cold, where people want space when their walking or driving and will get extremely upset if you get close.  I'm more hesitant to talk to people in America because everyone is much more defensive.  Here in Taiwan, everything is shared.  From the roads to the stores, the lack of space forces people to be close to each other.  Everyone goes about their business but are happy to help each other.  They all know how hectic life is here and understand when people need help.  People don't appear to hold grudges here. 

So what have I been doing lately?  I went to Danshui, a beautiful area on the water, for Valentine's Day.  I went to Ximending which is where my mother grew up.  I also had dinner with my Auntie and Grandma in Taipei.  I visited Taipei 101 (2nd tallest building in the world, formerly 1st).  101 is a huge, towering building with no building remotely its size in the vicinity.  I saw The Dark Knight at the IMAX (again).  When the lights went off, it felt like I was in the US.  Lights turned on, definitely not in the US.  I also went on a big ferris wheel (I was actually kinda scared).  I visited more street markets and ate stinky tofu (yum!).  I had a traditional Taiwanese dinner with family members, which included seafood and pig intestines (also yum).  Thats it in a nutshell.  Later!

Taiwan: Keelung Day 1

I'm officially 15 hours ahead of everyone now, which means I'm posting from the future.  I'll let you guys know whats up, especially if the world is coming to an end.  The plane ride to Taipei went by quickly considering I was able to sleep for most of the time.  So far, I don't feel the jet lag, since I had a red eye flight and was able to sleep.  My brother and I arrived in the morning the 'next' day, so our rhythm isn't too much out of wack.

When first arriving at the airport, I didn't quite feel like I was in a completely different country and culture.  I did not have a window seat and the airport itself was very user friendly.  On the way to our home in Keelung, I began to notice just how different this place really is.  The surrounding environment is lush and green, almost like something out of Jurassic Park.  The weather was incredibly muggy, even though it wasn't hot I felt like I was in a sauna due to the high humidity.  The buildings, I noticed, are significantly different than what I'm used to.  There are huge complexes raised everywhere.  Things just appear to have sprung out of the ground when needed, with no pattern or unity among buildings.  It was a beautiful sight.

Just standing on a street corner in the morning made me realize just how different this place is.  There are much more scooters than cars on the road and the amount of users on the road surpasses that of New York.  There is an incredible amount of people living in a small place.  While US cities feel somewhat cold and highly individualistic, Taiwan felt more like a living, breathing creature.  There were many intricate parts, from the scooters sharing the road with the buses (and no one follows any traffic laws here) to people crossing the street to greet vendors.   People have specialized jobs here.  Someone excels at procuring a certain type of fish while another is an expert at crafting goods.

I spent some time in downtown Keelung, there are hundreds of scooters on every block.  I got a glimpse of the harbor, the haunted house and also the fruit and seafood vendors who shared a space with parked scooters on the sidewalk.  Later that day, we went up to the gold museum, where we were able to get a spectacular view of the harbor, huge temples and the lush mountains.

In the same area was Jiou Fen, a famous vendor area located on narrow streets in the mountain.  The first thing I noticed was the smell.  Rarely have I gone to a place and was able to catch the scent of so many different flavors of food.  It was an attack on my senses, one that I would welcome any day.  Some smells were great, others were scary, but it added to the incredible experience of being there.

The day went on and we were tired, but we made it to the Keelung night market to pick up some food.  We didn't spend too much time here, but I'd love to come back another night.  It was just getting dark, which made for an amazing view.  When US cities get dark, everyone goes home and gets ready for work the next day.  But here, the evening breeds a whole new life.  Everything is incredibly social here.

At times I felt like I was living in Blade Runner or the anime Tekkon Kinkreet.  This was just the first day and it was already more than I imagined.  And its incredible to think my family originated from this country.  What a beautiful thing it is to see what the world looks like when I've been living in America for so long.

UPDATE: for some reason the links to larger versions of the posted pics above are not showing up.  So here are the direct links:

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/Pdl2thmdl/prettyview.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/Pdl2thmdl/keelung-downtown-nighttime.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q5/Pdl2thmdl/jioufen.jpg