Bowstaff skills, Nunchuck skills, and now I got Sword skills too
We took another overnight train to get from Beijing to Xi’an, the next stop on our China trip. At one point Xi’an was called Chang’an, and it was home to the first Emperor of China. This first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, unified China by defeating the 6 other Warring States at the time. He standardized its currency, measurements and writing. He also completed huge infrastructure projects, laying miles and miles of canals, roads, and the first version of the great wall. Unfortunately he was also quite a tyrant who liked to burn books on good days and bury scholars alive on bad ones. Before he died he had an army of terracotta soldiers built for him to accompany him into the afterlife. This subterranean army is the main reason we came to Xi’an.
The Army of Terracotta Warriors is about an hour out of Xi’an so we caught a minibus from the city to get there. The site itself is pretty big and split into 3 different pits. The first one is the most impressive with over 6000 horses and soldiers in battle formation. Other parts of the museum let you see bronze chariots, chrome-plated weapons, and different types of soldiers (a kneeling archer, a standing archer, a cavalryman, an officer, and a general) up close. The detail is absolutely incredible, especially considering that they are all well over 2000 years old. What’s also remarkable is that no two faces of the soldiers are alike. We’ve seen some pretty amazing tombs over this year of traveling, including the ones in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings, but to have a full standing army built to go with you into the afterlife is pretty badass. Say what you will about the ruler, his influences on Chinese culture as we know it are still felt today.
When we got back to Xi’an that night we walked around the Muslim quarter. There is a sizable Muslim population which has been around for hundreds of years here. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Xi’an is the beginning of the Silk Road, though I’m unsure if that’s the reason. Either way, the Muslim quarter is a pretty cool part of town and that’s where we ended up having a massive dinner of cumin-doused street-meat-on-a-stick and beer. Pretty good combination if you ask Phil.
The next day we decided to go to Hua Shan (Mount Hua, pictured above). I climbed this mountain 6 years ago and liked it so I thought I’d take everyone there to do it again. For those who don’t know, Hua Shan is the most sacred of the top 5 Taoist mountains in China. It’s one of those legendary, mythical places where immortal Taoists hang out and meditate, dispensing the truth for those who are willing to be disciples. It also holds an allure for those of us who are into Kung-Fu movies and stories. Supposedly, the Hua Shan sect’s style of swordplay was invincible as they knew the Nine Swords of Dugu style (I know, awesome, right?). A great movie illustrating what I mean is Swordsman II starring Jet Li and Brigitte Lin. The Chinese believe in this thing called Chi (or Qi) like in Tai Chi. It’s kind of like a life energy, sorta thing. Anyways, Hua Shan is supposed to have a lot of sword Chi. So seeing as I’ve been up the mountain twice, my sword skills must be pretty killer due to the absorption of the sword Chi. We took the gondola up to the North Peak and from there we hiked another 45 minutes to get to Golden Lock Gate. The views were stunning, and Hua Shan is truly a granite beauty with striking vertical rock faces. Poetry and Taoist proverbs are also skilfully carved into the mountainside. It’s regrettable that we didn’t have enough time or it would have been nice to do the whole 6 hour hike from the very bottom without taking the cable car. Unfortunately the bus ride to and from XI’an was a gong show and took way longer than expected, so maybe next time we’ll bite the bullet and hire a private driver. If I went up another time though my sword skills would probably be outta this world. I dunno if I could handle that much power.
On our final morning in XI’an before heading back to Hong Kong we rented bikes and cycled the old city walls which took about an hour. Xi’an is one of the few cities in China whose ancient walls are still left standing. They are over 500 years old and from the Ming Dynasty. The bikes we were able to rent also looked like they were 500 years old and from the Ming Dynasty. While Phil was cycling the pedal completely came off his bike. Luckily he didn’t crash and fall so the historic wall wasn’t damaged.
After Xi’an we hopped on a flight back to HK for a few days before Phil and Talica went back to Vancouver. There really isn’t much to say about that except that we partied like it was 1998 (the first of many years that Phil and I went back together to HK). A lot of his friends from Halifax were in town, and a lot of my friends from Vancouver were also there. This conglomeration resulted in a pretty powerful combination which then resulted in Talica and Di doing the robot for about 4 hours in this club called Volar. Supposedly I was belting out Justin Bieber (that’s Steve Jue and Christine Pang’s fault for introducing him to me) as well. Good thing I didn’t have a sword in my hand while I was dancing Bieber styles, I don’t think Volar or any of its patrons would have survived that.
Beijing – The Capital of China
I’m not a big fan of overnight traveling, but taking a new fast overnight sleeping train doesn’t seem bad at all. And that’s what Phil, Ta, Eug, and I did to get to Beijing from Shanghai. The sucky thing was that we couldn’t all be in the same cabin but the good thing was that we all got top bunks in the 4 bunk rooms. And it was Ta’s first time taking the overnight train too! I was super stoked to be in Beijing because I’ve always wanted to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square. The last image of Tiananmen Square that was embedded in my brain was a line of military tanks driving slowly towards a student protestor who was blocking its way. That was 1989 before we moved to Canada. Like a curious but shy kid, I anticipated the visit to Beijing with mixed feelings. On one hand, I couldn’t wait to see the sites; on the other hand, I wasn’t sure if I’d like what I was going to see. It turned out that my worries were absolutely unnecessary. Beijing was far from what I thought it was as a child and the sites we managed to cram in during these short 4 days were incredible, and we had some really good meals too.
We wasted no time to try the yummy Peking duck after checking into our serviced apartment. Finally, Peking duck in Beijing! We went to Da Dong Peking Duck and it was really the best Peking duck I’ve ever had. The skin was crispy and the meat was lean yet full of flavour. The wrap itself was almost paper thin. So good! The squab was probably the best one I’ve had as well and every other dish we ordered was delicious too. The price wasn’t cheap by China standards but it was definitely worth it for the quality we got. Having satisfied our appetite, we headed towards the Forbidden City. We took the subway to the Tiananmen East station and walked to the palace. The palace was huge and seemed never ending, gate after gate, and each got grander and grander. There were other exhibits on the sides as well. By the time we wanted to check out the clock tower and the treasury, they were already closed. That was a bummer but what we saw was tons already.
Right across the street in front of the big picture of Mao by the entrance of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. As we were walking towards it, my heart sank a bit recalling the image of the tank. Even though it was just across the street from the visitor packed Forbidden City, there seemed to be only a few groups of tourists on the square side. Tianamen, which is actually the world’s largest public square, was surrounded by big boxy gray and imposing communist style buildings. It was such a great contrast between the posh, new capitalistic steel and glass buildings in Pudong that I almost forgot we were just in Shanghai the day before.
The next morning we visited the Great Wall. Eug was here about 6 years ago and he snuck into the Great Wall at 5 in the morning with some friends when it wasn’t opened yet to catch the sunrise. He raved about the experience so we did the same this time. Our driver picked us up at 4am and we were dropped off at the Mutianyu section of the wall. Eug previously snuck in at the Badaling section so we thought we’d try another area that many actually consider more beautiful. We hiked up to the wall in half an hour in the dark and the drizzling rain with flashlights. It wasn’t exactly clear and sunny but the misty surroundings gave a different feel to the place. As the sun came up it didn’t take long for us to start appreciating the mysterious and majestic look of the Great Wall, especially wrapped in clouds and with no other tourists in sight. We couldn’t see the sunrise though, next time! We also visited the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. Both were equally extraordinary. We were told Beijing has a more cultural aura compared to the modern and posh Shanghai, and we did find that to be true. Our Shanghai friend Heidi told us we must visit the Hohai area so we hung out there one night despite the rain. It’s a long strip of pubs and bars surrounding a lake. At night time the outside is well lit by a neat row of red lanterns. You’ll hear live bands performing different songs from every single bar, Chinese oldies, pop, western hip hop and rock and oldies as well. All were sung by talented local singers and bands. We had a really good time there. We also checked out the famous Wangfujing shopping area. There’s a night market that has all these weird creatures for you to consume and it’s in almost all the travel shows you see. Things like star fish, silk worms and scorpions are all on the menu. NO THANKS! And even though I love stinky tofu and pig’s blood and other crazy stuff that Taiwanese people like, it was pretty gross to see people actually eating live scorpions. We double dared Phil to eat the scorpions but he chickened out. Plus Talica wasn’t going to kiss him afterwards if he ate them. But mostly it was because he chickened out.
Though we liked it here there were a couple of negatives. The air isn’t exactly of the best quality as the cities’ constantly covered in thick smog (thicker than in LA). The traffic is also insane, and we were almost never able to hail taxi in less than half an hour. The Mandarin spoken here is completely incomprehensible to my Taiwan Mandarin ears. But there’s something about Beijing that lures you in and you somehow can’t get enough of it. Being here made me realize that the image I had was from a long time ago and China is definitely a different place now. Word on the street from those in the know say Beijing is more fun than Shanghai, and we can see why. Beijing is kind of like Shanghai’s older, cooler, and more confident sibling. It doesn’t try to shove the “I’m popular and people want to be like me” vibe down your throat like Shanghai does with its brash parties, big lights and flashy architecture. Beijing knows it’s cool, and it has no problem letting Shanghai take the spotlight. I wish we had more time here to ride out the rainy days and see more sites as we still missed quite a few. And if the epic partying in Shanghai didn’t leave us in such a tired state we would have liked to have taken in more of the Beijing nightlife. Luckily we have a few friends living here, which gives us an excuse to come back to visit soon!
Shanghai – The Future New Centre of the World?
We had an awesome time in Shanghai. First we came to visit one of my closest friends Shingo, who has been living here for a couple of years. In addition, Di’s parents showed up with their Taiwanese friends for a short 5 day tour of Shanghai that coincided with the days that we were there. And to top it off, my BFF Phil and his girlfriend Talica came from Vancouver to spend the next 2 weeks with us. Sweet!
Shanghai doesn’t have as much of a dignified history as cities like Beijing and Xi’an. In fact, there was a time when corruption was rife, gangsters ruled, and many different European countries controlled large sections of the city unhindered by Chinese law. Opium dens and gambling joints were ubiquitous with this extremely busy port town. I’m actually not sure if the Shanghainese are proud or ashamed of this past, but I’m quite positive that they think extremely highly of their current position in China and the hopes they have for their future on the world wide stage.
It’s because of this sense that Shanghai is the next “It” city for business and development that so many of our friends are here. As I mentioned, Shingo is here from Japan. When he came to pick us up from our hotel, in the car was Mits (a friend I hung out with in New York way back when) and Jeff (a Taiwanese guy who went on an exchange program with Di in Japan 13 years ago)! It was crazy to see those 2 with Shingo, having lost touch with them and not knowing they all knew each other; such a small world. In addition to that, sitting at the table next to ours at the club was our buddy Areef, who lives in Jakarta but was also in town for business. What are the chances? Oh, and our French friend Martin who we met on Kilimanjaro was also in town and partook in the festivities of the night. What I’m trying to say is that people are gravitating here. I met many others throughout the nights here, and they were from all over the world. When I asked them why they were here, pretty much the universal answer was “to get rich”. Most of the Asian guys had family business from other parts of Asia to expand into the China market, but pretty much all the European and American guys were here to seek new opportunities and make new contacts. I haven’t witnessed that kind of energy in any other city we’ve hit so far on our travels.
It was also good to grab dinner with Di’s parents and their friends. Since there was so many of them they split everyone up into 2 tables, with dudes on one side and women on the other. So I got to chill with Di’s dad and 10 of his Taiwanese speaking buddies. These guys were all from the South of the Island, which typically has a more pro-Taiwan/anti-China sentiment. However, at dinner it seemed as though the sentiment was more towards cooperation on the business front (I didn’t get into the political front as that would have opened up a can of worms). They were talking about how in their youth when they had to do military service, China was their enemy, but now those times are past and the future is about teamwork and mutually beneficial relationships. I for one was ecstatic to hear these guys say that, as I’m all about building bridges and I’ve been hearing the negativity in China/Taiwan issues for way too long.
We were able to visit most of the areas of the city we wanted to see, such as the Yu Yuan gardens, Nanjing Road, Xin Tian Di and the Bund. We lived in the French concession too which was a nice part of town. In addition we went to the world Expo for a day, which was immense, though not in a good way. We basically only entered 2 pavilions, which was enough for us as we had no interest in lining up over 2 hours to check out another one. In addition our friend Heidi hooked us up with river cruise tickets as her friend owned the nicest boat on the water. The views at night on both sides of the river were quite stunning, with one side the historic European waterfront of old Shanghai (the Bund) contrasting with the other side, the modern steel and glass financial powerhouse district of new Shanghai (Pudong). For those who visit I definitely recommend this cruise to get a glimpse of the new architecture (a lot of it nice, some like the TV tower, not so nice) that is being built at breakneck speed.
One quick note about food. Shanghai’s most famous dish is probably xiao long bao, a small steamed dumpling that’s ridiculously good when done right. Well, there’s been the argument that Taipei’s are better, so Di and I went out all over town to the most famous joints to give them a try. I’m sorry to disappoint the Taiwanese readers out there, but Jia Jia Tang Bao in Shanghai was tastier for us than Din Tai Fung in Taipei. And yes we know Din Tai Fung well, Di lives across the street from them and we eat there almost every 2nd day we’re in Taipei. When you’re in Shanghai you have to give Jia Jia a try.
5 days here gave us a pretty good feel for Shanghai, especially with so many local friends. I was here 5 years ago, and though it was developing a lot already there were still a lot of visible social issues, especially begging. This time around, I didn’t see even one panhandler on the street. And though the odd person still budges in line, it’s definitely rarer than my first time here. This city is evolving, and fast at that. The infrastructure is first rate, and the new buildings rival those of any built in the rest of the world. Though China is still a developing country, Shanghai is confidently leading the charge for its transition into a first world powerhouse. Being here, in the front line of change, almost made me want to grab a suit, a cell, and a notebook to join the army of entrepreneurs looking for excitement and their piece of the pie. Then I remembered I was travelling the world with Di, and Phil and Ta were along for this part of the ride, so I emerged from my stay-here-and-get-rich daydream and happily we moved on to Beijing to let the adventure continue. Shanghai definitely impressed us though, and I’m sure all of us will be back. Maybe by then it will fully attain that international city status the Chinese government so wants it to have.
Heaven on Earth – Hangzhou
Having never been to China, I felt like I was the last Chinese person who hasn’t visited my heritage yet. Needless to say, I was very excited about going. Our plan was to fly to Hangzhou from Taipei, then train to Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi’an. I’ve seen pictures and images of Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi’an before, so I knew what to expect for those cities. However, that was not the case for Hangzhou. I only knew that there were numerous beautiful poems written by many famous Chinese poets back in the day about the beauty of West Lake in Hangzhou, but that was the extent of it. And there’s this Chinese saying about how Hangzhou and Suzhou are heaven on Earth – "Heaven Above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below" (上有天堂，下有苏杭). Marco Polo also described this city in his book as “beyond dispute the finest and noblest in the world”. I was looking forward to seeing this with my own eyes, and this might sound strange coming from the princess me but it was nice to be on the road again after having been stagnant for the past 3 weeks. If I stayed in Taipei any longer, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to move again because it was so comfortable staying at home and it was heartbreaking to leave my adorable niece.
We arrived in Hangzhou after a short 1.5 hour plane ride from the Taipei airport. Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejiang province and is well known for its beautiful natural scenery, the most famous being West Lake (Xi Hu). After arriving at the brand new Hangzhou Xiaoshan International airport, we took two nice air-conditioned buses to the Hangzhou zoo near the southern part of the West Lake where our hostel was, and walked around for about half an hour in the unbearable humidity before finding our hostel. By the time we got to the hostel, our t-shirts were completely soaking wet. It was not the most pleasant feeling. And there was an old friend from our Libya hotel in our room, hi again cockroach! Ugh… But as soon as we sorted out our itinerary for the day and took the bicycles out to see the West Lake, all these annoyances were gone with the wind.
West Lake is in the city and has a lot of scenic points: pagodas, temples, gardens, paved walkways, and you can hop on boats to go around the lake as well. I admit the colour of lake itself isn’t the clearest or the prettiest, but the scenery around it is picturesque and calming. I thought I was looking at a Chinese painting when looking out to the lake and its surroundings. Eug almost wanted to recite Chinese poetry right there like his ancestor Tao Yuan Ming. The centre of town is also very close to the lake too. We biked all the way around the lake and to the centre of town and tried a few delicious meals. One of them was at Grandma’s House – a local favourite for some tasty Hangzhou food. Tong Po pork meat is a famous dish that originated from this city. And if you are into tea, Longjing (dragon well) tea is also from here. One evening, we watched an amazing show on the lake directed by Zhang Yi Mou. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s also the guy who directed a little spectacle you might have seen, the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The show we watched live was called “Impression Hangzhou” and it was spectacular. I don’t want to ruin it for you but it’s definitely worth seeing if you ever get the chance. We sat next to a very cute grandma and grandpa from Hangzhou and it was their first time seeing the show too. Their son had seen the show and asked them to go see it. I smiled each time they wow’ed and commented on how great the performance was, very heart warming indeed.
I was very impressed by the infrastructure of the city too. The centre of town has countless ginormous department stores selling international brand names, high-end hotels like Sofitel, most chained coffee shops (Starbucks, Coffee Beans, Costa Coffee); anything you both need and don’t need can be found here. The buses are new and have air-conditioning and LCD TVs playing Chinese pop music videos. There are tourist information booths almost every block. The roads are clean. The traffic moves in an orderly fashion. The list goes on and on. And contrary to popular belief, not very many people spit, not very many people walk around with their shirt rolled up to their chest so only their tummy is showing because it’s too hot, and not many people cut in line or talk on the phone really loud.
I really enjoyed Hangzhou, and since we’ll come back to Taiwan once a year and China is just a short flight away, we’ll definitely visit Suzhou and other nearby places in the future. It’s my first visit to China and seeing the gorgeous sights and the rapid development of the city really makes me feel proud to be a part of something so great.
I should have listened to my dad
My dad is an avid scuba diver who has traveled all over to dive, and he believes that the best place to dive in the world is Palau. So when we saw that it’s a popular 5 day holiday destination for many Taiwanese, with reasonable ticket and hotel package deals leaving from Taipei, we signed up and went, foregoing some of our time in our next stop China. My dad warned us though that if we went to Palau early on in our diving careers, it would be very hard to match the experience later on. Though I really hope that’s not the case, after a few days of blowing bubbles here I’m almost sure that it is.
We did a bit of research online to find the best dive outfit in town, and Sam’s seemed to be the one that most of the English speaking clients went with. When we got there we realized we were in a real diver’s shop. On our boat alone there were a couple of marine biologists and a US Navy diver. Though the Taiwanese may fly here to relax for 5 days as it’s pretty close to them, it is really out of the way for most people. There aren’t many nice beaches or resorts either so it’s not much of an international well known holiday destination like Bali. The people that make it here are divers, and serious ones at that.
Our first dive was at a site called the Ulong Channel, and there we saw an unreal array of colourful soft corals and sea life. When I saw my first reef shark diving in the Philippines previously I got really excited, as did everyone else we were with as it supposedly was a rarity. At the Ulong Channel, I saw 5, thinking that was amazing. Our next dive was at Siaes corner where we did something Di and I have never done. The divemaster gave each of us a reef hook, which is basically a rope about 4 feet long with one end attached to your BCD and the other end a hook which is supposed to attach to the reef. This way you are hooked down into position, with the current having no effect on you so you can enjoy the view without expending much energy. As I looked at all 8 of us divers hooked in, it reminded me of a bunch of kites sailing effortlessly in the air. However, at any one point in time there were about 10 reef sharks circling around us. The kite-in-the-air analogy soon gave way to bait-on-a-line in my mind. The white tip reef sharks look friendly enough, but the grey reef sharks are quite a bit bigger and fatter, and can look quite menacing, especially with their icy-cold eyes. Though I knew that they are rarely dangerous, I will fully admit I was a little bit nervous with that many in our midst. We later unhooked and just let the current carry us as we glided over the rainbow coloured coral with marine life teeming all around us. We even saw giant 500 pound clams! After diving everyone just chilled at the bar at Sam’s, drinking beers and telling stories. It was a great day to say the least.
The next day, September 3, was Di’s birthday, and for her present I planned with the sea gods to give us an unforgettable day. Thankfully they delivered. Our 2 scheduled dives were the Blue corner and the German Channel. We hopped into the German Channel first and were told to keep our fingers crossed as there is a manta cleaning station (as in manta’s come here to get cleaned by other little sea creatures) here, and we were dying to see a manta ray. It’s not manta season yet so we were actually the only boat there, though we were told when it’s high season you can easily see over 20 boats at this spot. Anyways, we descended to the ocean floor, about 20 metres deep, and were instructed to rest on the sandy bottom and wait. We stayed for about 5 minutes with no luck, so we went to dive around a bit to check out the coral and fish. About 10 minutes later we returned to our manta watching spot, and almost immediately the most amazing creature I have ever seen slowly glided over us. Its wing-span was easily over 8 feet, and it moved effortlessly as it gracefully flapped its “wings”. The picture above is of a manta, unfortunately we had to jack this picture from another website as we didn’t have an underwater camera but felt that a pic of a manta was really needed for this blog post. The one we saw kept circling around us, and if I reached out my arm just a little bit I could have felt its underbelly. Di was so excited she kept shaking my arm every time it slowly approached and went over or by us. It looked as though it was conjured up in the pages of a Harry Potter novel (I admit I like Harry Potter movies), one of those creatures with magical (I admit I like magic), hypnotic powers. It graced our presence for about 5 minutes before it disappeared into the ocean, and as we returned to the boat a baby manta with its puny 4 foot wing span came by to say hi. For almost everyone on the boat it was their first manta experience, and the excitement was definitely palpable. I would have been sceptical that our second dive could have matched the German Channel experience, but we were going to the Blue Corner, constantly ranked as one of the top 10 dives in the world. The blue corner is a wall dive, and once you get in the water you immediately descend with a large coral wall on your right. We followed this wall for about 20 minutes before getting above it to once again hook into the reef. As we followed the wall we saw a spectacular collection of fish and coral. Large schools below us were circling in a tornado-like fashion. When we hooked in we were again surrounded by a lot of sharks. I was the one hooked furthest out on the reef at the edge of the wall drop off, and one large grey reef shark keep coming by me, the last time at arm’s length. Yup, I won’t lie, I was a little scared. Thankfully I’m a yellow belt in karate and a tae bo aficionado so that shark would have had nothing on me if it charged. In addition to the sharks there were large schools of all sorts of fish: barracudas, Moorish idols, angel fish, triggerfish, so many that I can’t come close to naming even a fraction of them. The comical-looking and massive Napoleon fish would swim around us as well. If it weren’t for that minor issue of running out of air I could have stayed hooked into that reef for a long time. What an unbelievable day of diving!
I even forgot to mention that before those 2 dives we went to Jellyfish lake, a lake that formed a long time ago when land isolated a body of water from the ocean on an island. Over time the salinity of the lake decreased and the jellyfish were able to survive and thrive while other organisms died out. As they had no natural predators, they eventually evolved to lose their stingers. Snorkelling in the midst of thousands of these bobbly, bouncy creatures was kind of weird, yet really fun. They ranged between 3 millimetres wide to about 15 cms, with mushroom like caps. Though they differed in size, everything else about them looked identical. With a little kick of your fin the current produced would send these little creatures into what looked like a death spiral. Once they got out of it though, they would just continue on bobbing, as if nothing happened. Pretty cool.
As you aren’t allowed to dive 24 hours before boarding a plane, we really only got to log 4 dives. At least we now know how close this diver’s paradise is to Taiwan, and with proper planning, we’ll be able to do a lot more next time. I hope the experience here doesn’t cause me to be disappointed with dives everywhere else; if it does, my dad can tell me he told me so.
As a little addition to this entry, on our flight back to Taipei from Palau I ended up sitting beside an older Austrian Biology prof who was diving in Palau for 10 days. As we chatted he got excited hearing about our one year adventure, as he had done the same in 1980. The fire lit up in his eyes as he told me about his experiences and the incredible adventures he had back then. It was inspiring to listen to his stories, see his enthusiasm, and hear his encouraging words. I wonder if one day I’ll be that same older dude on a plane.
Crazy but true, I’m not model material
Don’t let my chiselled features or Herculean-Calvin-Klein-underwear-model body fool you, I’m no Derek Zoolander.
At the BnB we stayed at in Hualien, the owner was a photography aficionado. On the top floor of his building he set up a mini studio, and part of the deal with his BnB was that you got some free studio shots if you stayed there. Taiwanese people love their studio pics, so we all went up to give it a shot.
Di and Ting-Ting were pretty good at doing what he wanted or what they thought would look good. I, on the other hand, was a miserable failure. I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time. I’m sure Di wanted some nice shots of us, but she’s pretty used to me taking bad pictures with her so I think she was cool. Ting-Ting is also used to me being a jackass, so I think she found some of my antics comical. The photographer, nice as he was, looked like he was getting slightly frustrated. So I took a seat and let the girls finish the pics as I sat and watched.
Here is my favourite pic. It’s funny to me because to stop me from cracking up Di told us to pose for the camera by making a scary face. I went ahead and attempted to do that; Ting-Ting obviously misunderstood and went ahead and did a “I’m scared” face; and Di, who came up with the idea, well I have no idea what she’s doing. What the hell is that?
Formosa Stylez
I was 16 when I first begrudgingly arrived in Taipei. I say begrudgingly because my parents and their friends basically enrolled the 4 of us (myself, my sister, and our friends Tim and Charlotte) in a free Taiwanese government run summer camp. Supposedly we were to learn Mandarin and about Chinese/Taiwanese culture. I know, to a 16 year old it sounded terrible. After arriving on the plane we were greeted by Taipei’s airport, by far the worst I had ever been to in my spoiled childhood. The taxi ride to the camp residence was equally disappointing; I had never seen so many crappy scooters in my life, and none of the car drivers were following the road rules I was used to in Canada (4 lanes on the highway here meant you could fit 7 cars across). In addition, Taipei back then in 1995 looked like a big dump compared to the 2 other Asian metropolis’s I had been to, HK and Tokyo. However, 2 months later I left to return home, having just experienced the best summer of my life.
Lots of our friends back in Vancouver are Taiwanese. Lots of our friends back in Vancouver are from Hong Kong (or are descendants of those from HK, like me). Thus there’s always been a friendly feud over which place is better; naturally I’m on HK’s side so I always poke fun at Taiwan. But in all honesty (and no I’m not just saying this because my girlfriend is Taiwanese) Taiwan is pretty awesome. I liked it here so much after the first time I came that I returned to do the summer camp offered for university students (again paid for by the Taiwanese government and aptly nicknamed “Loveboat”). On both of those summer camps I toured around the island, and since Di had never done that even though this is her native country (tsk tsk), we decided to brave the roads and go for a ride.
After we had our fun in Taipei our friend Aven, who went to UBC with us and is Di’s god brother, lent us his car to check out the sights. Our first stop was Hualien, a city about 3 hours south of Taipei on the Eastern Coast of the Island. We checked into a fantastic BnB (more on that in the next blog entry) that DI’s best friend Ting-Ting had booked. Early the next morning, Ting-Ting (her English name is Jen, but I personally like her Chinese name Ting-Ting way more) flew in from Taipei to meet up with us, and we went river tracing. This entails putting on a wetsuit, a lifejacket, and a helmet and walking up the Shapodang river and then back down (see above pic). Most of the companies who do this are run by the minority aboriginal population, who descend from peoples more related to the Polynesians than the majority Han Chinese in Taiwan. The river was beautiful, cool, and extremely clean, and there were ample waterfalls and cliffs for you to jump from with deep pools to land in. The 3 of us had a ton of fun. River tracing here is actually very popular, and there were at least a hundred people doing what we were doing that day. Most were local Taiwanese from the big city which resulted in a lot entertainment for me. The faces and accompanying shrieks of a large number of the girls as they peered over the ledges of the cliffs they were supposed to jump off of were priceless. The corresponding loud encouragement from all the guys in unison (really cheesy, corny and not cool by our standards, though definitely warm-hearted) was almost as comical. Though I hate to stereotype, bravery and athleticism seemed to be missing in the majority of the female participants. However, Di and Ting-Ting were not the norm and had no problem tackling every jump, the tallest of which was 12 metres. All the local guys were momentarily dumbfounded at these 2 girls who were more courageous than a lot of them. Great job ladies!
The next day we drove 15 minutes out of Hualien to Taiwan’s top tourist destination, Taroko Gorge. It is an absolutely beautiful park with great hiking, beautiful rivers, and lush green vegetation covering its numerous mountains. We went for a hike and hung out on the banks of the Shakadang river for the day. Next time I come back hopefully I’ll stay in the park and not in town as it really is a serene and stunning place. Unfortunately Ting-Ting had to go back to Taipei that evening so we dropped her off at the Hualien airport and continued or journey south.
The next town we arrived at was Taitung. Again we found a fantastic BnB and explored for a couple of days. What we found was good food, really nice people, and a chill laid back vibe. Half an hour away from Taitung is the Chihpen hot springs, so that evening after dinner Di and I made our way out there. Of the many resorts at the springs we chose the Hotel Royal Chihpen (BnB recommendation) and at about 6 CAD dollars per person to use the facilities I thought it was a steal. We spent most of the night just soaking in the numerous hot-spring tubs in the spa-like pool area. Pretty relaxing.
The next day we drove to Kenting at the southern tip of the island. There is definitely a more resort like feel to this town, with surf, diving and nightlife in abundance. Though the beaches and the water may lack the staggering beauty of nearby SE Asian islands, it still is pretty nonetheless and there were tons of tourists here enjoying themselves. We serendipitously rolled into town the one night of the year they have this big festival where teams of men try to climb an extremely tall wooden pole to grab a red ribbon near the top. They do this by stacking on each other’s shoulders and there’s a big safety net to catch them if they fall. Oh and I forgot to mention, the pole is covered in grease. It was fun to watch, and fun to get into the excitement of the huge crowd even though I couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying. That’s because the southerners speak a different dialect of Chinese (from the Fujian province of China) that is unintelligible to my Cantonese/Mandarin understanding ears.
The following morning we first drove up to the town of Neipu to meet up with Di’s grandparents, who could easily compete with mine for being the cutest grandparents ever. Her 84 year old grandpa insisted on driving us to the restaurant to eat lunch in his Honda civic, and her hilarious 82 year old grandma ordered us a feast. When we were about to leave, a tropical rainstorm descended upon the town. Di’s grandpa, who literally can still move as fast as a ninja, ran out to the car to drive it to the front of the restaurant to pick us up. However her grandma was unwilling to walk the 4 steps it would take in the downpour to enter the car. So we watched as ninja grandpa was trying to convince reluctant grandma for about 10 minutes to walk while he was holding a big rainbow coloured umbrella. Super cute. Luckily the rain slowed and she got in, and we were able to make it back to their house where freshly cut fruit was waiting. After leaving them we drove 20 minutes to Di’s dad’s office where he was working at in Pingtung. He’s a well-known architect and just outside of Kenting he’s got a massive hotel that’s currently being built. Anyways, we had some more fruit and coffee with him and a great little visit. Our friend Mike (who also works in Pingtung) then met up with us at the office and he led the way to his house, 30 minutes away in Kaohsiung, where his wife Claire and daughter Kaitlin were waiting. It was great to see him as we all went to school together in Vancouver. He took us out for dinner where I watched him interact with his wife and daughter, occasionally in disbelief. Why? Because it was Mike, a guy we partied hard with as students, now a loving and devoted father and husband. Good job bud!
After crashing at Mike’s for the night, we took off to Taichung for one last stop where we had a meal with Di’s high school friend Flora. We had a good time catching up with her and hearing about her transition back to a Taiwanese life from a Canadian one. After dinner with her we returned to Taipei, having spent 6 days driving around much of the island from the eastern coast to the southern tip, back up north along the western coast.
A lot of things on this road trip have changed since I first did it in 1995. Firstly, the highways themselves are fantastic; smoothly paved and quite wide with clearly marked signs. 15 years ago, they were death traps on the verge of collapsing into the ocean. Kaohsiung and Taichung have completely transformed, with both actually being very nice, especially Kaohsiung. I remember Taichung as being a scary place (I saw a woman yelling and angrily waving a machete at another person) where I would have never considered living. Today it’s been redeveloped and Flora’s neighbourhood is extremely new and pleasant. There were tons of mountain bikers on the highways of the east coast, and with the road fixtures and the stunning coastline it’s easy to understand why. Though the infrastructure has improved greatly, the people haven’t changed. They are still as friendly and as warm as I can remember (minus machete lady). Coming back to Taiwan and driving around the island reminds me a lot of why that summer was up until that point, and maybe even up until today, the best summer of my life. This island will always hold a special place in my heart. Did I just write those words? The corniness of the local guys on the river tracing trip must really be rubbing off on me to finish with a sentence like that.
Taipei – I love this city!
Ni hao ma? That’s ‘how are you?’ in Mandarin. Hope you guys are all doing well. We are in my home country Taiwan! It feels very nice to be back at my second home, especially having been on the road for exactly 6 months now. Yes, 6 months, can you believe it? We are halfway through our trip already. Besides enjoying the comforts of being at home and seeing my family, I am also having a blast hanging out with my 1.5 year old niece. Excuse me if I sound like a proud parent, but she’s so smart and adorable. Even Eug can’t stop smiling and laughing whenever she’s around. She looks like a mini version of my brother but much girlier. She seems to have a great talent in always finding new ways to amuse you. And she’s able to order Eug around by just pointing her fingers here and there. I definitely need to learn from her.
We did the usual Taipei must-dos, like eat xiao long bao (soup dumplings) at Din Tai Fung; walk around Taipei 101 and Sogo area; and of course karaoke and hang out with friends. But since we had more time than the typical 5-7 day visits before we decided to check out some tourist attractions in the nearby suburbs such as Jiu Fen and Yilan, and drive around the entire island to visit other cities that I never got to visit before.
My god brother Aven took us to Jiu Fen, a small area on top of a short mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean and surrounding small islands. The narrow paths of the ‘Old Streets’ (picture above) have not changed since Aven was there 5 years ago, and from the looks of it, Eug can guarantee that it hasn’t changed since 30 years ago. But that’s exactly the point. Besides the endless food vendors, most people come to Jiu Fen to drink tea. Most of the tea shops have an ocean view and you can make tea the right way (which is the long way) before drinking it. We did exactly that, and it was quite interesting. We bought a small bag of ‘Jin Shuen’ tea leaves, and that came with unlimited hot water and a complete tea set. Our friendly young tea waiter showed us how to make tea for the first time. He skilfully poured the hot water all over the tea set to clean and rinse the set (I said skilfully because later when Eug and Aven tried to do the same thing, the hot water spilled everywhere), then proceeded to make the tea. He then rested the small teapot on the edge of the set and made circles around the set a few times to signify ‘Welcome’. He used the first pour as the smell-test by pouring the tea into the slender and taller tea cup for us to hold and roll between our palms and then smell. It was very very hot. And finally we were able to drink our freshly brewed tea from the regular small tea cups. It was very relaxing to chill in the mountain and enjoy the flavourful Taiwan grown tea.
We also did a day trip to Yilan, a city about half an hour away to the east of Taipei. This is where our friends in Taipei go surfing. We found a nice stretch of black sand beach and saw a handful of locals taking surfing lessons or just surfing on their own. It was surprising to see so many of my peeps surfing. As we watched them for a bit, I was quite proud of both those who caught every wave and those who caught none yet never stopped trying. Maybe it’s because they were opposing the stereotype of Chinese people not doing many sports. Bravo to my fellow country mates!
Another highlight was going to see Boyz II Men concert. Thanks to Jen (my best friend since elementary school) who got us the concert tickets. They were awesome! Eug wasn’t used to people sitting down at concerts and tried to set an example by standing up, dancing and screaming on top of his lungs. It kind of worked. Boyz II Men said they love Taipei!
Taipei is much more relaxed compared to Hong Kong. And people seem to be smiling more here too. They are also way more willing to help when you need help. Hong Kong may offer everything you can possibly want but Taipei has that charm that you have no choice but to fall in love with. As much as Eug makes fun of Taiwan, he does like it enough that he came to ‘love boat’ (a Taiwan government program for overseas Chinese youths to learn Mandarin and Taiwan culture) twice when he was still in school, that’s two full summers. Since he couldn’t get his Hong Kong ID, he will try to be Taiwanese to get a Tai Bao Cheng (Taiwan ID) to make it easier to visit China. Stay tuned for Eug becoming Taiwanese. One faux pas is to ask Taiwanese if they are blue or green (kind of like asking Americans if they’re Democrat or Republican). It will lead to a passionate and endless political conversation without them answering your first question. That’s because the Taiwanese love Taiwan and really care about her, and to be honest, so do we. We love Taiwan! Peace Peace!
Hong Kong – I Love This City!
Since the first time I touched down at the old Hong Kong airport as I child, I have been fascinated by this place. The question is why? After thinking about it during our past 9 days here, I’ve tried to come up with some answers for myself.
First there are the obvious; this place is a shopper’s paradise. There is something for everyone, and no matter what time of day it is here the consumers are always on the prowl, dangerously keeping you in the shopping vibe. I’ve been the victim of Hong Kong’s shopping culture many a time, buying things from the likes of Marc Jacobs and Shanghai Tang and returning home, never to wear them. We haven’t really shopped at all for the past 5 months but we willingly succumbed here.
This place is also a foodie’s paradise. I admit I am partial to Cantonese cuisine as that’s what I was raised on, and no where does it better than HK. This is my favourite place to enjoy the bounty of the sea, as the seafood is as fresh as it gets. We had a meal in Sai Kung where we were picking our live shrimp, fish, shellfish and a bunch of other things that I don’t know the English name for right from the tanks out in front of the restaurant. A few minutes later they were on the table, piping hot, uniquely prepared, and absolutely delicious. All over the streets you can find great noodles, BBQs, congees, the list is endless. And that’s just the Cantonese offerings. There are also fantastic options from all other regions of China and the world. We had a wicked steak dinner of imported Wagyu beef at a steakhouse in Central. We also had a couple great Japanese meals, and if time allowed I’m sure I could have added every great cuisine to that list of tasty meals available in HK. A lot of the big New York, Paris and Tokyo chefs have opened restaurants here, and it’s no secret why. Oh and two more words: Dim Sum. Nuff said.
In my opinion Hong Kong also has the most beautiful high rise skyline in the world. Nowhere is this more noticeable than when you’re at the Peak looking down, or on the ferry in Victoria harbour looking at the Hong Kong side buildings. The modern architecture is stunning here, and every time we come back there are new design gems somewhere to be found. This time it was The Upper House on top of the Marriot hotel. The contemporariness of the design and architecture is part of the reason this city feels really international in comparison to other neighbouring cities (like Taipei haha).
Ok those were the easy ones that can apply to everyone. Now for the ones that are more personal to me.
My parents roamed these streets as children and youths, and my mom especially really enjoyed her time here. My grandparents on my mother’s side also love this city. From my childhood to present day they would tell stories about their life in HK. All the stories were of happy times and good experiences, so that must have rubbed off on me somehow.
During my university years I spent at least a couple weeks every summer here, and some of the best times I’ve ever had were during those summers. There were first the days of Manhattan and ING when we would go on Thursday nights to try to get the girls to get us free drinks (Ladies could drink free on Thursdays). Then the days of raving took over in the late 90s, and yes they were awesome. In the early 2000s everyone started to have high paying jobs and everyone worked around Central, so our Lan Kwai Fong (the nightlife district) days really hit their full stride at this time. We always hung out in LKF since my first year of university in 1997, but we were students with student budgets. By 2001 and on, most of my friends here were young investment bankers on top of the world, which translated into a lot of fun in the clubs of LKF. I will also include the quintessential karaoke nights in Causeway bay into the night life mix as well. Yes I admit it, though I wasn’t much of a singer, the right mix of nostalgic songs and drunk friends made for great evenings (which usually morphed into mornings). My tribute to that would be our above picture. For those in the know, Di and I are singing the Jacky Cheung and Regine duet “In Love With You”. I am also trying to re-rock the middle part hairstyle for this pic.
We were here for 9 days because we had to apply for our China and Indian Visas, and the Indian Visa took 8 days. During the past 9 days we have pretty much met up with a different group of friends every night. It’s great to return to a city where you still have a lot of good friends, most of whom are from Vancouver and/or went to UBC with me. Those university days were fun for everyone, but it’s pretty hard to not have fun as a student, especially when the bulk of us were lucky enough to travel halfway around the world during our summers just to play. Now that everyone is kind of “grown up” my friends that moved here are all succeeding. And when I use that term succeeding I don’t only mean in a professional manner, most have great personal lives as well and are very happy people. Coming to a place where everyone made it really ups your opinion of that city.
Though the Middle East and Africa are amazing, I am extremely happy to be back in Asia. It’s nice to be in a metropolis where everything works, seemingly as efficiently as humanly possible in comparison to most of the places we’ve been. I feel like that old woman paying with a cheque at a grocery store when I use cash here to pay for something at a 7-11 as everyone just uses their instant-pay Octopus card. There’s also a definite entrepreneurial spirit in this city; a spirit that I haven’t felt anywhere else in our travels. Cities like Istanbul and Cairo have their unique versions of energy, but it’s definitely different than here. Also compared to our previous destinations, Hong Kong is refreshingly very secular. It’s nice not having to talk about religion after 4 months of having it in your face.
Being in unfamiliar cities for the past 5 months has made me really appreciate returning to a place where I don’t need a map, guide book, or translator. Apart from Calgary (my hometown) I can’t say I’ve visited a city as much as Hong Kong since 1996, the year I left home. This gave me the luxury of watching its evolution (albeit as an oft- returning tourist and not as a citizen) from the handover back to China to present day. Since then the city has had its downs, namely SARS and the financial crisis. However, it has recovered with more energy, spirit, and confidence than ever. It holds on to its heritage, yet is nimble enough to roll with the changes of the world and what’s coming in the future. Hong Kong is punching well above its weight (literally, look at how small this place is), and I’m loving the fact that it is.
I felt like I just wrote a junior high essay on the topic of why I love Hong Kong. Hope I passed.
Wine, Whales, and Whites (Great Whites, that is)
We decided to head out of Cape Town for a couple of days as the surrounding area has a lot to do and see. Our first stop was a little town called Hermanus, 122 km south of Cape Town reached by driving on a beautiful coastal road. Hermanus’ claim to fame is that it’s the world’s best land-based whale-watching destination. The southern right whales come every year between June and December from the Antarctic waters to calve in the warmer shallower waters off the coast here. The town was cute and there were plenty of restaurants with windows overlooking the bay so that you could whale watch. We found a great spot for lunch and we sat there, staring out into the water waiting for a whale to show up. Supposedly if we came a month later there would be over 50 whales in the bay, but being a little early we had to wait and stare. Sure enough, about an hour later, we could see water flying out of the sea in a V shape pattern, indicative of the blow holes of the southern right whales. After that, a whale would continually breach (launch out of the water and crash back into the sea with a huge splash) which was a truly amazing and powerful thing to watch. Another whale came right up to the shore to swim around and gracefully play in the kelp. I could only imagine what it would be like with 50 in the harbour, as watching 2 of them was already a really moving experience.
About 50 kilometres past Hermanus on the same coastal road is a town called Gaansbai. Though this town was not as picturesque, an experience of a lifetime was waiting for us there. A 20 minute boat ride from the Gaansbai coast lies “shark alley”, and Di and I were signed up to do some cage diving with great white sharks. We went with a company called White Shark Projects which is a conservation and ecotourism outfit. They were passionate in the saving of the sharks and before we hopped on the boat we were given the stats and issues with the dwindling shark population of the world. Their estimates are that the great whites would be extinct in 10-15 years if what’s going on out there continues. “What’s going on” was really embarrassing to Di and I, as we were the only tourists of Chinese origin in the group of 18. Sharks around the world are dying at alarming rates, pretty much all due to shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy that I am extremely guilty of indulging in my whole life. After we were given the informative talk we took the boat out to a spot the captain thought would be favourable for finding sharks, and then chum was thrown into the water. Like whale watching, he said we would have to just hope sharks were in the area and we would have to wait. Di and I were in the first group to get into the freezing (about 12 degrees) water. We put on 7 mm wetsuits and dive masks and jumped into the cage which was just hanging off the side of the boat. Though it’s called shark diving you actually don’t get scuba gear as they found the bubbles were not conducive to the experience, so basically we would just wait in the cage with our heads above the water, and when they yelled “Down!” we were to drop ourselves underwater and hold our breath as a shark swam close by. They would lure the sharks around the boat with the chum, and then they would use a large tuna head tied to a piece of rope to draw the sharks close to the cage for us to see. Now the waiting in the water was not fun as the waves were quite choppy and as I said before the water was cold. In addition the visibility was only about 2-3 metres when you were underwater. But when they yelled “down” and you tried to focus on that tuna head being pulled toward you, suddenly a large shark would emerge, jaws open ready to bite. That experience is completely indescribable, and no matter how many times you’ve seen it on the Discovery Channel it cannot compare. Having an apex predator literally an arm’s length away from you with its eyes looking at yours as it swims by is unbelievable. There were times in between shark sightings (after seeing how formidable they looked) when I would look at the extremely meek looking cage that was protecting us and think, “what the hell am I doing in here?” After 45 minutes in the water we got out so that others could get in, and watching the whole thing from the boat was to us equally as exciting. The sharks would breach as well like the whales, but they would do it with their jaws wide open trying to eat. Witnessing that definitely brought some different emotions (namely fear) when compared to watching the whales breach. As you can see from the picture above the sharks are right beside the boat, and following their dorsal fins as they slowly circle us with their silhouettes just underneath the water is absolutely spell binding. The captain said we had a very good day as we saw 7 different great whites, all ranging from about 3-4 metres in length. Unfortunately the even bigger ones are hard to spot now as a lot of them have been fished out. Watching these incredible predators was mind-blowing. They are beautiful, graceful, powerful, and terrorizingly (I’m pretty sure that’s not a word) awesome. Plus our oceans need them, so we’ve decided to not order any more shark fin soup, and I hope you’ll do the same. I also hope that that will be last time Di and I will ever run into them underwater.
Lastly we spent a few days in the wine country. The setting was stunning. Then again, when is wine country ever not stunning? We spent a few nights in the picturesque towns of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, our bases for visiting the vineyards. South Africa is now the 9th largest producer of wine in the world, and the quality is outstanding. The signature grape here is called the pinotage (a cross between the pinot noir and cinsaut) and over the many days of tasting we really enjoyed this varietal. Though all the wineries were beautiful, our favourite was one owned by the golfer Ernie Els! Its location was as scenic as it gets, and his wines (named after himself) were the favourite of our trip. If you can, try to find a bottle of his Bordeaux blend. As with all other wine regions, amazing food usually goes hand in hand, and every meal we had here was fantastic. We were told that the highest rated restaurant in South Africa, and also consistently ranked as one of the top 50 in the world, was in Franschhoek, so we had to give it a try. It was called The Tasting Room and Chef Margot Janse gave Di and I one of the best fine dining experiences of our lives. We each had the tasting menu and every single item brought to the table was incredible. I’m usually not a huge fan of the flavoured foams and the dry-ice presentations but it really worked here. The quality was world class, yet the price was extremely reasonable (about 1/3 the price of places we ate it in Paris and New York). To emphasize my point, we had an excellent bottle of wine here and it cost us the equivalent of 30 USD, about the same price we paid for a glass of wine at Le Cinq in Paris.
As Di wrote previously, Cape Town is a remarkable place with a lot to offer. However we could have easily spent an extra week just outside of Cape Town as well. As a destination, South Africa is in my opinion under-rated. Everyone is concerned about safety and though there are these issues, we never felt really unsafe the whole time we were here (though Johannesburg is supposedly different and far more dangerous). Maybe it was low season, but the prices we were paying for food and accommodation were extremely affordable for the quality you got in return. Hopefully one day the social issues will resolve, because with that fixed, Cape Town and its surrounds would be one of the greatest travel regions around.
fromwonderintowonder 
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