The past few days had been pretty boring, so no updates. Now I finally have stuff to talk about.
As I'm sure you all know, my first month in Taiwan has been dedicated to figuring out life. Papers, work, apartment, etc. I'm sure that all of you would love to read about apartment hunting, but I'll spare you too many details.
Rinpoche has been helping me a lot since arriving here. This is the Rinpoche I met by accident through a wrong number, but he's been helping me out a lot. Several of his students offered to help me find a place in Taipei. However, Taipei is like any other major city and it's very expensive. Tiny bedsitting apartments for too much money. After some discussion, I decided to go to Taoyuan instead.
My friend Lily (who is currently hosting me) introduced me to one of her friends in Taoyuan, a really nice girl named Mandy who helped me find Rinpoche's center on my first trip there. As it just so happens, the complex where she has her office had an open apartment. As of yesterday, I am the proud renter of a beautiful, top floor, new, well furnished apartment in Taoyuan. I might post photos. However, as my family knows, I'm a bit superstitious about posting photos of my apartment.
Big bedroom with a queen sized bed, dressing table, wardrobe, TV. Living room with laquered wooden sofas and chairs, table, lots of cabinets and drawers. Kitchen with 2 gas ranges, mid sized fridge, brand new washing machine. Tiny second bedroom which I'm going to turn into a study room. Oh, and a bathroom. Western style. Shower, bathtub. Hot water.
Rinpoche invited me to sing at a Green Tara empowerment that he and some other lamas were hosting. The ceremony was really nice and I met several nice Taiwanese students. Afterwords I was invited out to dinner with Rinpoche and several students.
We went to a restaurant called Kiki's cafe. It is apparently a very famous Sichuanese restaurant owned by a popular Taiwanese singer or television host. The food was unbelievable.
Crispy egg tofu. A faux tofu made of steamed egg then lightly fried on the outside. Softer than silken tofu.
Ground pork with chinese chives and fermented black beans, spicy, sweet and crunchy.
Crispy fried duck skin with green beans and chilis.
Mapo Tofu, tofu with ground meat and chilis.
Some sweet beef stew thingy.
Some difficult to eat pork thingy.
Cold chicken with chilis and garlic.
Cold Chicken with sesame sauce.
A big soup of lots of stuff, including sausage. Delicious, light broth.
The meal was stunning. The tea, however, was horrible. For the first time ever in my time in Taiwan, the tea was terrible! At my first taste, I recognized it as Lapsang Suchong 拉普山小種, a smoky tea that my parents flavor. I've always hated it, complaining that it tastes like sausage tea. My dad cooks with it, and that works well, but as a beverage? I'm not a fan.
But this? This was unforgivable. Lapsang Suchong iced tea, with lemon and honey. Sausage Lemonade. EWwwwwwwwwwwww!
The meal was good, though. But the tea. Blahhhh.
Yesterday I went back to Taoyuan with Lily and Mandy. Mandy and her family made Numb-Spicy Hot Pot 麻辣火鍋. It was pouring rain outside as we went out to sign contract on the apartment. The street was full of floats and cars decorated with flags and images of the Taiwanese gods. There was lots of music and parades all day and tents with life sized images of the gods. Yesterday was the birthday of one of the gods, not sure which one.
As Lily and I took the bus home, we watched the fireworks. I do love living in a place with local gods, like Thailand and Taiwan. Makes life more interesting.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
A few relatively boring days
Not much exciting has been going on here, hence no updates. Life right now consists of paperwork and apartment hunting, both of which should be finished (at least to the point that is necessary for now) by tomorrow.
My biggest news is some sleep issues. I think once I've settled into my new apartment and routine I'll do better. Then when I'm sleeping better, I'll blog more!
My biggest news is some sleep issues. I think once I've settled into my new apartment and routine I'll do better. Then when I'm sleeping better, I'll blog more!
Monday, April 4, 2011
\Houtong and a day around town
It's a series of public holidays right now, so everyone is taking a vacation. Monday is children's day, Tuesday is a day to visit the ancestors tombs.
Sunday, Lily grabbed a high school classmate and we took a train up to Houtong, a place known for its cats. Being that it is a public holiday long weekend, the train was beyond jam packed. We had to stand for the entire one hour ride.
We arrived in Houtong and i was surprised to see cat artwork everywhere. The town itself was clearly old and hadn't seen much renovation in recent years. There was an old, broken down coal refinery in the center. It seems that, like many towns across the world, this place's entire economy had rested on the coal refinery. When that shut down, so did the town. The town is full of old Taiwanese houses that are abandoned and broken down. There are very few places that are actually inhabited, and even those are very run down.
But there are cats. Plenty of cats.
In the beginning, it was just a few cats, but the locals who stayed behind started feeding them, and before long there were more and more cats. Now the town is famous almost solely for the cats. The cats, like all cats, ignore the visitors who flock around to take photographs.
After playing with cats and getting lunch, we headed back to Taipei, another difficult journey due to crowds and a very late train, but we did make it back!
In the evening, I was invited by a Rinpoche from Derge, who is also the uncle of a friend of mine, to attend some teachings, so I did that. We then chatted for a while about life in Tibet and India and Taiwan.
Today, the weather took a turn for the worse. Icky and misting rain. In the morning, Lily and I were lazy, which was nice. At lunch we visited Lily's parents who had a special treat! I have no idea what it was called, but it was a crepe filled with shaved peanuts, sugar, and different cooked vegetables. It was very delicious! I also now know one word of Taiwanese: Todaohu. Peanut. Lily's Grandma (who only speaks Taiwanese) was very happy with me!
In the afternoon, a friend picked me up to show me around town. We drove to some different places, then got Shabu Shabu for dinner followed by a foot massage. The foot massage was awesome, but those ladies who do it should be in the military or something. SO strong. Ow...
Worth it.
Sunday, Lily grabbed a high school classmate and we took a train up to Houtong, a place known for its cats. Being that it is a public holiday long weekend, the train was beyond jam packed. We had to stand for the entire one hour ride.
We arrived in Houtong and i was surprised to see cat artwork everywhere. The town itself was clearly old and hadn't seen much renovation in recent years. There was an old, broken down coal refinery in the center. It seems that, like many towns across the world, this place's entire economy had rested on the coal refinery. When that shut down, so did the town. The town is full of old Taiwanese houses that are abandoned and broken down. There are very few places that are actually inhabited, and even those are very run down.
But there are cats. Plenty of cats.
In the beginning, it was just a few cats, but the locals who stayed behind started feeding them, and before long there were more and more cats. Now the town is famous almost solely for the cats. The cats, like all cats, ignore the visitors who flock around to take photographs.
After playing with cats and getting lunch, we headed back to Taipei, another difficult journey due to crowds and a very late train, but we did make it back!
In the evening, I was invited by a Rinpoche from Derge, who is also the uncle of a friend of mine, to attend some teachings, so I did that. We then chatted for a while about life in Tibet and India and Taiwan.
Today, the weather took a turn for the worse. Icky and misting rain. In the morning, Lily and I were lazy, which was nice. At lunch we visited Lily's parents who had a special treat! I have no idea what it was called, but it was a crepe filled with shaved peanuts, sugar, and different cooked vegetables. It was very delicious! I also now know one word of Taiwanese: Todaohu. Peanut. Lily's Grandma (who only speaks Taiwanese) was very happy with me!
In the afternoon, a friend picked me up to show me around town. We drove to some different places, then got Shabu Shabu for dinner followed by a foot massage. The foot massage was awesome, but those ladies who do it should be in the military or something. SO strong. Ow...
Worth it.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Day Trip to Wulai
This morning, Lily (my friend and current hostess) and I met up with another friend, Chia-Ling and headed up to Wulai. Wulai is up in the mountains and has several natural hotsprings.
As you go up, you pass dozens and dozens of hot spring resorts, all looking very inviting...
Wulai is definitely a tourist attraction and there are hundreds of shops lining the streets. But more than anything else are the food stands, especially Mochi oddly enough. Wulai apparently shares my belief that all food tastes better if it is grilled and served on a stick.
I tried:
Mifan: Thin rice noodles with vegetables
Grilled mochi with a sticky sweet/salty sauce
Grilled corn that appeared to be rubbed down with BBQ sauce (very good)
and the weirdest was a crepe with shaved peanut, oddly flavored icecream (I think it was sort of marzipan-ish, but I really couldn't identify it) and cilantro. Yes, cilantro.
Photos forthcoming.
Lily, Chia-ling and I went down to the river, which looked like a normal river except that people had made these odd little circles out of stone and were hanging out inside of the circles. When we came down, we realized that the pools closest to the shore were HOT. PAINFULLY hot. People had then segmented off parts of the COOOOLD river so that the hot water would pour in and mix to create a comfortable warm place to hang out. The contrast was shocking.
We found a nice pool, while another guy also using the pool kept rearranging the rocks to get it a bit hotter, which was really great. The water seemed to change temperature a lot, sometimes coming in luke warm then suddenly turning very hot. It was nice but we had to be careful. Also, the sand was sometimes REALLY hot. However, it was nice, kind of like the heated seats in a mini cooper.
After a few hours and me getting too much sun despite the sun block, we headed back to Taipei. Chia-Ling went home, but Lily and I went up to Shilin market to meet my friend Dora and get dinner. Dora took us to an unbelievable vegetarian restaurant. I wouldn't have believed it was vegetarian had it not been advertised that way. It was amazing.
The market was a madhouse. We didn't consider that it's a weekend of some public holidays so EVERYONE is on vacation and came to the market. It was impossible to move around even, so we decided against wandering the market. We might do that after a few weeks. Then Lily and I grabbed some coffee and headed back to Xinzhuang. We are both completely exhausted. I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow we are going to "A place with lots of cats."
Um...ok....
As you go up, you pass dozens and dozens of hot spring resorts, all looking very inviting...
Wulai is definitely a tourist attraction and there are hundreds of shops lining the streets. But more than anything else are the food stands, especially Mochi oddly enough. Wulai apparently shares my belief that all food tastes better if it is grilled and served on a stick.
I tried:
Mifan: Thin rice noodles with vegetables
Grilled mochi with a sticky sweet/salty sauce
Grilled corn that appeared to be rubbed down with BBQ sauce (very good)
and the weirdest was a crepe with shaved peanut, oddly flavored icecream (I think it was sort of marzipan-ish, but I really couldn't identify it) and cilantro. Yes, cilantro.
Photos forthcoming.
Lily, Chia-ling and I went down to the river, which looked like a normal river except that people had made these odd little circles out of stone and were hanging out inside of the circles. When we came down, we realized that the pools closest to the shore were HOT. PAINFULLY hot. People had then segmented off parts of the COOOOLD river so that the hot water would pour in and mix to create a comfortable warm place to hang out. The contrast was shocking.
We found a nice pool, while another guy also using the pool kept rearranging the rocks to get it a bit hotter, which was really great. The water seemed to change temperature a lot, sometimes coming in luke warm then suddenly turning very hot. It was nice but we had to be careful. Also, the sand was sometimes REALLY hot. However, it was nice, kind of like the heated seats in a mini cooper.
After a few hours and me getting too much sun despite the sun block, we headed back to Taipei. Chia-Ling went home, but Lily and I went up to Shilin market to meet my friend Dora and get dinner. Dora took us to an unbelievable vegetarian restaurant. I wouldn't have believed it was vegetarian had it not been advertised that way. It was amazing.
The market was a madhouse. We didn't consider that it's a weekend of some public holidays so EVERYONE is on vacation and came to the market. It was impossible to move around even, so we decided against wandering the market. We might do that after a few weeks. Then Lily and I grabbed some coffee and headed back to Xinzhuang. We are both completely exhausted. I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow we are going to "A place with lots of cats."
Um...ok....
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