Discovering Formosa : Day 2 - Jiufen and Taichung

We had a better look of Keelung this morning as the sunlight revealed the harbour and the backdrop of hills. However we were not lingering any longer in this town as we were off to Jiufen right after breakfast. Jiufen (or 'Nine Portions') is an old gold-mining town set in the hills overlooking the sea. A popular tourist destination today, it was made popular by the movie 'City of Sadness' (never heard of it before but it is mentioned in every guide book) and later on was the inpsiration of the ghost town in Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away'.

So I was pretty much expecting to see an old town in the hills, instead we stopped in front of a narrow pathway between two buildings. Well this was just the entrance to the famous shopping street in Jiufen. It ran upslope flanked by shops and teahouses, selling anything from sausages and almond tea to handicrafts and leather goods. We had time to walk up to the end of the street while sampling the famous Yam Balls dessert. At the end of the commercial street, there were a few teahouses that had good views of thePacific Ocean. Here was also where we finally spotted the rest of the old town set on the slope overlooking the ocean. The time spent window shopping did not allow us to futher explore the rest of the place.

Our next stop was lunch in Taipei. We had a quick steamboat lunch before heading to Hsinchu for a short visit to a temple there. It was more like a toilet stop. Anyway we did manage to buy the popular Hsinchu Rice Noodles there.

It was then back on the bus for a two hour drive to Taichung. When we finally got to Taichung, we headed straight to the busy Feng Jia Market. This was a street market that had grown around vicinity of the Feng Jia University. There was a youthful air about this market with quite a handful of young entrepreneurs manning the stalls. Vicky enjoyed browsing through the many fashion boutiques there and we agreed that this was one of the best night market in Taiwan. The time to leave came to soon. Well this was part of being in a tour group where the schedule cannot cater to your personal whims. We were sent to our hotel for the night. We had time to go out for a bite before calling it a night.

Discovering Formosa : Day 1 - Taipei and Keelung

The Portugese named the island "Ilha Formosa" or 'Beautiful Island' way back in 1544. To see whether the island indeed lived up to its name and greatly helped by the publicity it garners on its many live show productions and travelogues, we decided that it was to be our next holiday destination. This time though, we decided to take it easy by leaving our backpacks behind and join in one of the Group Tours.

So just before dawn on the 14th of May, we found ourselves looking out for the pink shirted ASA tour leader at Terminal 1. Checking in was a breeze and the flight just took over 4 hours. On getting onto the the top deck of the tour bus at Taoyuan Airport , our Taiwanese Tour Guide, Sony, introduced himself and from then on was personally responsible that we had a good time there. Of course, all commentaries was in Mandarin with a smattering of Hokkien, so that ensured that I barely understood half of what was said. The easy way out was to turn to Vicky for instant translation, but sometimes I allowed myself to hear the whole speech and then try to figure out by context, or just let it slip by and catch forty winks instead. Yeah, I took lots of short naps on the trip.

Our first destination was the Taoyuan train station where we caught the high-speed train up to Taipei. From there, the tour bus took us to Ximending (or West Gate 'Ding' as Janet Hsieh calls it), the youth culture hub of Taipei. The weather was sunny and breezy, just the right condition to stretch our legs. Our first stop there was the famous Oyster Mee Sua.

Here's how you use the card High-Speed Train

Oyster Mee Sua

Streets of Ximending

Sights at Ximending

For a quick bite before dinner, we settled for 'xiao long bao', dumplings, fried rice and vegies at a local restautrant. It felt like dinner but Sony quickly reminded us that the main course would be on our own at the Mioukou night market in Keelung. This concept of multiple meals in a day would be a common theme throughout the trip, so much that the trip basically revolves around this few activites - eat-see-sit-sleep. No cracking your brains on how to get to the next destination or worrying about missing your next ride, just follow the leader and worry only about what to eat at the next stop.

Next we headed for Keelung, a port city north east of Taipei. This was where we were spending the night, the Laurel Evergreen Hotel. The hotel was only a 5 minute walk away from Mioukou Night Market, so we had the luxury of taking in the sights and scents before we plunge in for our very first Night Market fare.

Back in the Lion City

We are back from Taiwan. More photos and stories to follow.

May Showers

When it rains, it pours.

May is a month where people look forward to for the double public holidays. I am giving myself an extended holiday starting this Thursday. Yes, a mid year break. We will take pause from the rat race and take the first plane out. To recharge? Maybe, but it is always hard to put your mind back to work when it indulges on leisurely pursuits that are far away from overcrowded inboxes and grid-lines. However the weather will be working against us as the heavens are set to pour in the next few days. Oh well, I'll take the wet weather over the office cubicle any day.

Half full or half empty?

A company had invited over a Japanese Guru for a 'Lean Manufacturing' Workshop. These was part of a series of workshops that had started over two years ago, with the main aim to inculcate 'Lean Manufacturing' values and good practices that will help the organisation improve its processes and systems, reduce waste and drive cost savings.

At the end of the workshop, something caught the eye of the Japanese Guru. The keen-eyed man had noticed the many unfinished mineral water bottles on the tables. These bottled water are commonly handed out at such workshops. He then asked the audience to find out how many bottles the unfinished water could actually fill up. The results revealed that the water filled up half the total bottles that were opened. This was 50% waste! The Guru was dissapointed that his lessons on cost savings and waste reduction had not been entirely taken to practice. The management immediately stepped in and pledged to look into this issue.

Well one thing is for sure, all future workshop participants and visitors to the company will have to drink straight from plastic cups from now on.

Of cat fights and singing contests

What has the recent AWARE saga in Singapore have in common with the ongoing American Idol competition?

In this little corner of the world, you have the new AWARE exco (make that ex-exco) with their 'Christian agenda' and the old guards with their alleged pro-gay stand.

And on the other side of the world, if you have been religiously following the weekly Idol contest, you will know that Danny and Adam are favourites to face-off in the finals. One is a Church Music Director from Milwaukee while the other is highly favoured to be the competition's first gay winner (after Clay had gone so close).

Strange coincidence huh?

By the way, Adam gets my vote. He's sure one heck of a performer...

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AWARE = Association of Women for Action and Research