Taipei, Taiwan! Dec. 30 - Jan 3.

After so so so so many years (say 5?) away from Taipei, I am finally going home! In many ways, Taiwan is my home more so than Hong Kong is, I lived there for 8 years of my life. Which actually is the longest duration I've remained in one city ever. Best of all, Taiwan as THE BEST FOOD! Noodles, fried chicken on the street, the most pure soymilk ever....soooo gooooooooood.

Day 1 consisted of the plane ride and waiting in the hotel to check in. No so interesting really. We had a late lunch and then went out to dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Liao, my dad's old colleagues. The restaurant was pricey of course, but very good. The best way to describe it was as a Chinese/Japanese restaurant. The white tuna sashimi was incredibly fresh, and to Ricky's delight, Mr. and Mrs. Liao ordered a fresh alaskan king crab. The gigantic crab was sitting happily in its tank and then it ended up salt-baked on our table. Needless to say, very fresh. :)

Day 2, we decided to go to Wu Lai (烏來), a hot springs resort area. We went to a hot spring "resort" (these are all really small) called Beauty Spa (美人湯). Being shy as we are, instead of going to a group hot spring (you have to be naked) we booked our own little rooms. So Ricky and I had our own room with two tubs, one big one for hot spring water and the other for ice cold freezing water. The idea is that after you get really hot in the hot water, you plunge yourselve into the freezing water for a while, then back and forth. It's supposed to be good for your skin (stimulates the pores) and your circulatory system. The water came through taps, but this way it is much cleaner and more private (of course). The room also has a view, so as you relax in the incredibly hot tub of water, you also can look out over the mountains.

I was so relaxed afterwards, I kept yawning on the way to lunch. :) For lunch we went to the local "mountain people" (山地人) or aborigini run restaurants where they serve very local specialties. They even grow their own vegetables and these are vegetables that aren't for sale anywhere else in the world. The bamboo rice was also extremely good, a little bit sweet with the smell of bamboo baked right into the rice.

The restaurant was situated on a busy street full of little restaurants and shops, mostly run by the local aboriginis. The area is famous for the sticky sweet dough (mua ji) covered with seasame powder, iced eggs, and other street eats. Ricky bought a huge pork sauage from a stall that called itselft the first "black pig sausage" stall in the area. The sausage was pretty huge, and I think Ricky liked it!

After Wu Lai, we drove home to rest and get ready for Cathy's wedding. I was pretty excited because I would get to see a lot of old friends from TAS who I hadn't seen for years! The wedding was Chinese style, so it was not very personal (but of course!). But Cathy looked gorgeous. After the wedding, we took the car to a little bar where TAS was holding a New Year's Eve party. The plan originally was to first go home and change into more casual clothing. But the streets were so packed with cars (because it was New Years Eve) that we barely got to the bar on time.

After the countdown, Ricky and I hightailed it back to the hotel, we were tired. It took 30 minutes to go one block. We saw an ambulance stuck in the traffic in front of us and I thought, if it really was an emergency, the guy is probably dead. The streets were flooded with people, trying to get rides and then deciding it was better to walk. The subways were so fully that people were kept waiting outside the stops until people started clearing out. Nuts! But kinda fun to watch from the safter of your own car. Ha ha... In the end, Ricky and I walked through the middle of a NYEve concert to get back to the hotel...very eventful!

Day 3, was a tour of Taipei city. We started with breakfast at a local market (noodles, yummy) and then headed over to the Palace Museum of Taiwan (故宮博物館). It's a must see for any tourist as the museum houses a lot of treasures that Chiang Kai Shek took from China when he fled the communists. The downer was that the main museum was under construction, hence a lot of the largest (and most spectacular) pieces were put away. Bummer... more for Ricky than for me. Then we had lunch. After lunch, Uncle Keith came and picked us up to go to more places. First we went to the Martyr's Shrine and was just in time to catch the changing of the guard (there's this whole ceremony -very fun). Then we went to the Grand Hotel for some pictures, another tourist must-see. After that, we stopped by the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial for some pictures. Whew, whirlwind tour of Taipei.

We went to a highly recommended Japanese restaurant for dinner, but Ricky was sick of Japanese food and therefore in a bit of a "mood". Food is THE most important thing for him. Haha... plus, before dinner we dropped bya mini night market (just happend to walk by) and bought fried stuff from a fried chicken stall (salty crunchy chicken). Ricky prefered the street vendors to the fancy restaurants, so even though we ruined our appetites for dinner, it was OK.

After dinner, we took the mass transit (me for the first time in Taiwan!) to Shi Lin Night Market, the largest night market in Taipei. It was really crowded! We walked around, just to get the "experience" but didn't really buy anything. I wasn't in the mood to push around with other people just to buy cheap stuff. But we did buy food...fried chicken steaks (there was a line), malaysian "pulled" tea (which came in a plastic bag...so Taiwan), pepper cakes, lots of yummy stuff at night markets. :)

Day 4, my parents left today becaue my mom has some cantonese opera performance on 1/3 that she had to go prepare for. Ricky and I decided to just take it easy and chill out. We went to some of the shopping malls in the area just to see the city (as the locals do!). We made it a point to go to a bubble tea place that is famous for being "the first" bubble tea store in Taiwan. Started in Tai Chung, it opened a chain store in Taipei, no doubt knowing they could make a few extra $$ that way. Then we spent a few hours at Eslite book store, 8 stories with a coffee shop, a tea shop, gift shop, etc. Ricky and I love buying books...so we went nuts. Ricky bought mostly books for learning Chinese, which often not available in the U.S. I bought some souvenirs for Helen and Heidi. For Helen, and architect book, and for Heidi, a day planner printed especially by Eslite...and a Chinese novel for myself.

We got lost in the book store, had too much fun, and was almost late to Catherine's b-day party!! The party was at a Xin Jiang barbecue place, very cute. The only draw back is the Xin Jiang people eat a lot of lamb, and we don't...ugh. But the company was great, my old TAS friends. It was so much fun catching up and seeing what everyone is doing now. Yuting and Andrea, who weren't at Cathy's wedding also came, so it was nice seeing them!

Day 5, after one last Taiwanese style lunch, it was time to go back to HK. I'm gonna miss Taiwan!

As tourists in Hong Kong... - Dec. 27 - 29

I've never been a tourist in Hong Kong. It was an interesting point of view to adapt as I took Ricky to the various attractions that never bothered to go to.

Dec. 27 - Victoria Harbour
I had allotted today for the "spectacular" views of the HK harbour as so often described in travel guidebooks to Hong Kong. However, the morning broke foggy and dreary, ugh, so unlucky! Nevertheless, Ricky did not have much time to spare in his whirlwind tour of HK, therefore we went according to plan.
We met up with Helen over on the Kowloon side on the "Avenue of the Stars." It's a little tourist attraction that Hong Kong came up with to copy Hollywood with handprints of the stars and all, except these are Asian stars. They als have a statue of Bruce Lee there, also a popular tourist attraction. Here are pictures of my handprint, compared to Andy Lau's (my childhood idol) and Ricky with Jackie Chan's. :)

That night, it started raining, so after walking around for a while, Ricky and I just went home and rested after eating dinner at the ramen place in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Dec. 28 - I don't remember what we did on the 28th... pathetic right? :) That's what happens when you don't update your blog in a timely fashion!

Dec. 29 - Mom, Dad, Helen, Ricky and I drove out to Sai Kung, an area of Hong Kong famous for it's seafood for lunch. The day was beautiful, sunny and breezy! We walked along the ocean front looking for a good place to eat and admiring the views. It was amazing how clear water can be in Hong Kong. I always felt that the little island is so incredibly polluted, but in Sai Kung, you could see the fish swimming in the sea, and there were schools of them right by the pier, very pretty.

We decided to have lunch at Hung Kee, one of the first restaurants we came across. The way it works in Sai Kung is that each restaurant has tanks of fresh seafood sitting out side. Crabs, fish, lobster, shrimp, squid, they are just happily swimming around. Then you come along and go, I want that one...and the next thing they know, they are cooked and on your table. Ha ha...sounds cruel...but Chinese people need their food fresh, and there is nothing more fresh than seeing them swimming around one minute, watch them being caught, and then see them sitting on your table...as a dish! :) After lunch, Ricky and my Mom went and explored the seafood for sale by the pier. Fishermen go out and catch what they can, then sell it right out of little boats to people onthe pier. It's a pretty cool experience.

After Sai Kung, we drove back to the city. We were scheduled to have dinner at Grandma's that night, so we went and hung out there for a while. Because we were bored, Ricky and I went to the Hong Kong Products Expo taking place in Victoria Park. The Park is just a block from my grandma's so we figured we'd go check it out. The place was really crowded. But we navigated through and I got to try a lot of free taster's food. Soup, noodles, candy, dried pork, sauces, medicines, you name it! I thought it was kinda fun. :) But just too crowded...we bought some snacks: nuts and crackers and famous HK milk tea...and went home with many packages.

Christmas in Hong Kong - Dec. 25 - 26

I just got back to the U.S. yesterday and already miss Hong Kong. It's a crazy city with too many people all moving at a pace much too fast. The efficiency of the people is striking, everything is done in fast forward. Customer service is immensely impressive provided with such speed, accuracy, courtesy with at least the appearance of amazing enthusiam. There are greeters at McDonalds and even banks, it's just amazing.

Anyways, I spent a week in Hong Kong just traveling to SZ and back, doing a little shopping, getting over jet lag.

Dec. 21.
Mom and I visited the tallest building in Shen Zhen, really not very tall. But my dad's cousin, auntie Margaret was visiting from Australia, so we decided to take her there for a little look see. The theme of the top floor was SZ-HK, because you can see HK easily from there, which to some Chinese "continentals" is the closest they can get to HK. To be honest, the views sucked because of the smog covering both cities, but I guess it was an "experience."

Dec. 25
Ricky arrived on December 25th, just in time for Christmas and my grandma's birthday party. I picked Ricky up at the airport express in the morning. I was determined to take him to the 'touristy' places in HK because he never had a chance to go the last time he visited. We were too busy planning for the wedding and all. Since Ricky said he had slept well on the plane, we decided to make good use of the afternoon and hit the peak. We took the peak tram up an impossibly steep slope .

Then we walked the "loop" around Victoria Peak to get an aerial view of HK, it is a surprisingly beautiful city, the buildings have such impressive architecture. At 2:30 we met up with my parents for lunch at Cafe Deco.

After lunch mom and dad dropped us of at the Wan Chai convention center. The site of the WTO conference not just a week ago. Now that the delegates have left the city, the place is once again crawling with tourists. It was also the site of the annual video game expo, which turned out to be much for fascinating then I thought. Although we didn't go inside (neither of us are big video gamers) we did see the people who were dressed up as characters of video games congregating in the public space. They posed for reporters and friends alike, wearing otherworldly costumes and wigs. Very entertaining.

That night was my grandma's birthday party, an annual gathering of family and friends that I have been lucky enough to be able to attend almost every year. This year was quite special since Noel, Helen, Heidi and I were all able to make it. In past years, either one person or another would be missing since we now all live in different locations. It was so cool to have all four of us together again, singing karaoke. :)


Dec. 26
Helen, my cousin the architect now living in Sydney, loves to drive. She also happens to know the roads in Hong Kong quite well. Therefore, we drove Ricky, mom and I to Repulse Bay a popular beach and toursit attraction. In Chinese the beach is called "Shallow Water Bay," I have no idea why it is Repulse in english, so unattractive! There is a popular Temple in Repulse Bay with many statues of buddhist gods and such that provides great photo ops for tourists and the like. Going to Repulse Bay brought back memories when I used to go there as a kid, with Helen no less. We'd picnic with our parents, setting up camp on the sand and eating chicken wings in between building sand castles and irrigating canals for sea water. Ahh...the good old days.

After Repulse Bay, we drove to Stanley Market, another popular tourist attraction. Stanley is full of small shops and outlets that foreigners love to wonder through. Unfortunately, Ricky was not into shopping there so it was kinda a bummer for me too. We visited the old Murray House, a government building built back in the colonial days in Central (on HK island), but was moved stone by stone and restored in Stanley so that it's architecture could be preserved. Now Murray House houses several restaurants and the Maritime Museum. The views of the ocean from Stanley are beautiful. The little town also has many cute little al fresco restaurants, built specifically to cater to the foreigners who often live in the area. It's like a little seaside retreat, very special.

We contemplated staying in Stanley for dinner but decided against it since Helen and my mom both had a commitments that night. Interestingly, Ricky and I ended up going to Helen's "commitment", a party at the house of an interior designer, auntie Angel's friend. Auntie Angel called and asked if Ricky and I had plans and we said...ehh, no. So she invited us to go along. It was an interesting crowd...to say the least. It's hard to have too much fun among strangers, but it was fine...good food at least!

Hong Kong and the WTO - December 18th, 2005

The first week in Hong Kong was also the week of the WTO. The atmosphere was quite tense in town, especially around the Wan Chai area, where the conference actually took place. I think the people in HK was over-reacting a little to the WTO, in typical HK fashion the protests were overall very peaceful. On the last day of the Conference, farmers from South Korea clashed with the police, who blasted them with pepper spray and high pressure water canons. The news kept repeating scenes of protestors attempting to overturn the police van, but that was really the extent of the violence. Few people were hurt and businesses were pretty much intact and ready to go after the event.

I ran into the protestors marching out of Victoria Park one day and took pictures. :)

Every day the protestors congregated in Victoria Park and marched along a pre-determined path towards Wan Chai where the convention center is.

There were police escorts along the way of course, as well a volunteers who were around to help keep order.

The pictures below I took in the park the day before. They are of artwork that accompanied the protestors, set up int the park for dispay.
I know they look quite creepy but of course, the point was to make an impact. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about the WTO. I'm also not knowledgeable enough about the issues to be qualified to even have an opinion. HK is still struggling with the WTO as the government had arrested some protestors whoe they are now trying in court. Protestors of the hearings are on hunger strike outside the courthouse, demanding that their comrades be freed. I think HK is in for a long and public battle, but it is a great learning experience for the little city.