Back from the south

Hi there, and welcome to possibly my last update from Taiwan!

It's Tuesday, tomorrow will be my last day at ASIAA and I won't have regular access to the internet until I return to Germany.

Today, I will finally go up Taipei's tallest sight, Taipei 101. The weather should be nice and visibility rather good. Phew, almost missed that one :)

Last weekend, on Saturday, Christof, Birgit and I went to Kaohsiung. The bus there was crazy! Sooo comfortable and convenient! Each seat was fully adjustable, giving you an automatic massage even and there was a TV for each seat with a whole menu of computer games and movies to choose from. I recommend the Steven Soderbergh movie: "Everybody needs a release." Really cool.


In Kaohsiung, we were picked up by Andy and Steph. He had just moved most of his stuff back to his hometown, since he will start working at ESO in Garching on October 1. We arrived in the evening and took it easy. Just had some beers with Steph and Nelly, a girl from Mexico City who had dropped in on short notice. It was a cool and relaxed evening involving Taiwan Beer and sitting around on the wooden floor in a Japanese style room in Andy's house.


Sunday around noon, we went shopping to what is Taiwan's largest shopping mall, Dream Mall. It was really huge and expensive. The high abundance of Western stores a bit disappointing. I had hoped to find some cool Asian stores, but instead, I was surrounded by the same old stores I get at home or in North America. There was one cool exception, though. A store with moving shelves and really funky decor. It sold hats, T-shirt, shoes and fingernails, but also hosted a variety of small shops selling drinks and a larger restaurant. The ambient music made it all a very relaxed setting, but I couldn't figure out how to perform the actual shopping part, since the shoes were hidden in plastic bubbles, for instance. But I've run out of money a while ago, so it's maybe better that way...



For lunch, I tried another Taiwanese specialty that I hadn't had before. Check the picture and comment on what you think it is. Andy showed us later that you actually eat the bones and stuff as well, but I didn't like that stuff that much anyway...


After lunch we just drove around a bit more, had coffee in the harbor building on Cijin, the harbor island in Kaohsiung and took a walk outside before going for dinner in a place only really known to locals. Each dish was 100 NT$, which translates into 2.20 Euros. Of course, the five of us ordered around 10 of them, which got all of us quite full. Here's one of my choices: Whole fish, fried, with their bodies completely filled with fish eggs. You eat the whole fish, by the way, including head, tail and bones. And, as most of the time, the stuff was really yummy once you forgot what it was that you're eating...



After dinner, we walked around some more in downtown Kaohsiung. To the right is ba-shi-wu dalou, the tallest building in Taipei (85 floors).


This river is called ai he (love river), but is actually a canal. With Mid Autumn Festival coming up on Tuesday, there weren't many people around, but you could see occasional fireworks in random places.


Christof left for Taipei again that night and so it was Steph, Birgit and I who went to Henchuang the next day. In Henchuang, some old guy with rotten teeth drove us to a rental place that didn't want to rent out their "cars" to us. The second place we went to did, but at a rediculous price. After about 20mins of bartering, we arrived at a value just slightly higher than we had wanted - 1300 NT$ for three scooters. Bartering is fun, especially, if you don't know Chinese and they don't know English! The machines we got were in a really good condition and fast! At 100km/h I got scared. Here's me and my machine - awesome helmet, eh?


The scooters took us to a remote location whose English name I don't know (and I can't write Chinese characters). It's a path along what starts as a river and gradually turns into larger waterfalls which have formed basis that you can actually swim in. This place was soooo beautiful. The ascent was a little bit challenging, you had to cross the river quite often and pull yourself up rather steep muddy or slippery paths. Totally worth it, though! When do you get the chance to hike around in a rainforest and then get a natural waterfall massage?





Since it started raining as we were up there, we decided to go for lunch and then on to hot springs. Riding scooters in the rain is fun! But only if it's 28 degrees while it's raining, I guess. The hot springs were'nt too spectacular, but very relaxing! We hung out there for a couple of hours and had dinner. That's us machine heads.

After returning the scooters, we got back on the bus and commenced our mammoth bus ride via Kaohsiung and arrived at our house in Taipei around 5 am this morning.

Later today, I'll have to rehearse my presentation for tomorrow, study some for my last Chinese lesson tomorrow morning and finally get started on planning my Vietnam trip. Now it's time to go to Taipei 101, though.

See you guys later! And good luck with your exam on Thursday, BigSis!

11 days and 1 typhoon have passed

since I updated this cute little blog of mine. What happen? Somebody set us up the bomb! In form of a final presentation this coming Wednesday. And to make the fuse a bit shorter, Monday and Tuesday are off due to Mid-Autumn-Festival, one of the few national holidays in Taiwan. This meant that I had to finish my work until today, so that I could go through everything with my supervisor before giving the talk... On each of the last 10 working days, I spent at least 10 hours at work. Some time was needed to study Chinese, too, but really, not too much exciting stuff happened during these days.

Last week, the new semester started in Taiwan. That meant lots of what we call "Ersties" in German. Freshmen. And it's really funny, Taiwanese girls look so young anyway. Considering that first semester female students always look really young, these girls looked young squared. Or I'm getting old... I dunno, I forget.
Anyway, here's some of the campus madness that went on. I had a look around and checked stuff out and I must say that I'm quite impressed with the way the new students were welcomed. Kinda reminded me of Lund. Good ol' Lund... sigh.


Here's the Post office, a formerly quiet place where you could get your lunch boxes without meeting Major Hassle. You should see it now... lunchboxes are SOLD OUT!!! Who'da thunk that was even possible?


Really cute. That was the second time I saw people take wedding pictures on campus. This time I got 'em. hrhr. In the background is the library, by the way. The opposite direction is a super long straight road, flanked by lots and lots of really cool palm trees.


Birgit, Christof and I now take Chinese lessons three times a week, did I mention that before? This means getting up at 6.30am, though, and isn't all that comfortable. But our friendly LaoBan at this breakfast place makes our life better. Mhhh, peigen dan bing hen re de nai cha! Yummy!


Thursday last week, I overslept. Oh no! I took the bus downtown, since the shuttles were gone already. But: The bus didn't take the usual route and I didn't notice. So I walked down this cool looking street with crazy market action and a monk sounding a deafening bell right next to his ear. By the time I had a first look at a map, I had wandered off the path quite a bit and headed back for the next MRT station, which was still about 20mins away. Who cares, it was only 28 degrees or so... On my way through these untouristy quarters of Taibei, I stopped to take quite a number of pictures. Apparently, some fat dude on a scooter wasn't too happy with that. He passed me, turned around, stopped. Accelerated past me, turned around again and raced right past me, then turned again, facing me. Then he took off his mask, did one more turn and stopped right next to me, yelling something in Chinese. No, I didn't understand, but I have to admit I was afraid of having scorned the Taiwanese mob. In the end, I think, he just wanted me to delete the picture. But since he provides such a good story, I have to post his picture on the website! Too bad you can hardly see him... :(


When I finally arrived at university, I finally found out why we all educate ourselves :D


Friday last week, I just went to LongShan temple and the adjacent snake night market (yes, you can eat snakes there, and turtles, but I didn't) after work, since I had big plans for the next days and didn't want to be too tired the next day. I was greeted by an, of course, super friendly Taiwanese man who gave me seven sticks of incense (pardon my bad Engrish) and explained to me how praying works. So I gave it a try, but it's quite complicated, actually.


Last weekend was nuts-ly packed! But we chose it to be that way. Justus came up from Tainan and so Birgit, Justus and I did some touristy stuff in Taibei. We were a small group, cause all the others had left Taibei to go biking, hiking or surfing on the other end of the island. So the three of us met at ShiLin station at 9.45am and joined the first tour at the National Palace Museum in the north of Taibei. The museum is packed with the greatest treasures of the Chinese people. It was brought here by the Nationalists when they feared defeat by the Communists in the late 1940's. It's far too much stuff to see and also becomes a bit repetative for the non-artisan. But the 1 hour tour was really cool and we stayed for almost one more hour. My favorite was an hybrid axe-hammer with an ivory peak, maybe 50cm long. That thing was soo cool. Unfortunately, you weren't able to take pictures inside, so one of me outside will have to suffice.



After the museum, we went to the largest Confucius temple in Taibei. Right next to the MRT station was a large-scale demonstration with I think about 50,000 people or so, sounding their opinion that mainland Chinese and Taiwanese are actually just one people and shouldn't try to be anything different. On the same day, there was a demonstration with about 300,000 people in KaoHsiung, promoting the independence of Taiwan. Maybe you heard that recently, Taiwan has tried over and over to join the UN, but are denied to do so. Complex issues, I'm tellin' ya.


Our way to the Zoo was looooooooooong. But it was a cool ride on the Brown MRT line, above ground.


At the entrance of the Zoo, we were greeted by officials in full body armor.


And I'm not sure, if this guy was so happy that I took pictures of him.


Calc, this one's for you.


After a really cool Zoo experience, we went up the Maokong Gondola and had beer and hot pot looking down on the lights of Taiwan's capital and largest city.


An extended Taiwanese family joined us and chatted with us on that rooftop patio. The one guy seemed quite a bit drunk and we had no idea what he was saying, but they kept giving us tea and liquor, so we didn't complain. Also, I made two little friends. 5th graders, I think. Their English wasn't great, but hey, they knew some! And they especially liked high fiving me ;) cute...


It took us about 2 hours or so to get back to I-house, our dorm. And after another short night, Andy, Birgit, Justus and I picked up a girl named Steph and started our hiking adventure in Yangminshan - after the obligatory breakfast, of course. Andy had borrowed his sister's car for that, which was super awesome to have, of course. The mountainous area around Taibei called Yangminshan is of volcanic origin, as can be seen from the hilltops, the milky looking sulfurous lakes and the smoke coloumns rising from a huge hotspring. You can also smell it, by the way. Smells like a really nasty old-egg style fart. Yummy.


We walked to a very beautiful spot with a little waterfall which also featured many little basis with miniature waterfalls right in the middle of the woods. Afterwards, we continued hiking around, up to some grassland (we saw the snakewarnings on the way back) and just hung out and enjoyed our Sunday morning.



After lunch, we got back into the car and seized the drive to Jinshan to take a nice relaxing nap.


That proved to be an excellent idea. We had come to Jinshan for surfing and Typhoon Whipa was just a day away. Imagine the waves. On top of strong, rolling waves coming randomly in a 45 degree angle, undercurrents and tidal forces made our lives harder. Not to mention the small coral reef close to the beach. But hey, we didn't know all that beforehand! (We actually only found out about Whipa the day after, when it hit Taibei that night). I have to say, surfing in that water was a challenge, but in retrospective, it was a way too dangerous. I was entangled in my board's leash twice. Once around my arm, which is still bruised and once around my neck, which really freaked me out and showed me that I was out of energy and control.


That's me, surfer boy, before I nearly died of exhaustion... :)


And that's how tired I was afterwards.


A hot pot makes everything better, it's sort of like a fondue, but everyone has their own pot and it's Chinese.


After dinner, we went to 24-hour hotsprings and stayed there for a couple of hours until around midnight. It was awesome! But I had never imagined that 40 degrees warm water is that hot and exhausting! Not to mention the pain of the surfer-rash, especially on the backside of my knees - OUCH!

On Monday, I went to Hsinchu with Andy, since he had to return his sister's car. He took us out to a nightmarket and ordered food for us. Now, if you're ever in China, eat ZhouDoufu (stinky tofu). There are a couple of ways to prepare it, but this one was the craziest so far. It was a soupy mix of a little cabbage, lots of tofu and lots of solidified pure duck blood. Yes, I ate it. There was a second kind of stinky tofu, which I also ate and I think my body isn't made for that much food which smells a bit like a sewer problem (sometimes quite a lot so). It tasted quite good, but I got sick and was afraid of puking during most of my bus ride home.


Tuesday was Typhoon Day and no work for us Tschaermans. Well, I still studied and prepared my presentation, but not much else happend. "Danish Delicacies" is an excellent movie.
I mentioned before Taiwan's ambition to join the UN. If you check out Taipei 101 between dusk and 10pm, you will see the catch phrase "UN for TAIWAN" in bright letters near the top. Here's what it looks like from the top of the Physics Department of National Taiwan University around 6.15pm.


Yesterday was beautiful weather as you can see from the above picture. It would have been perfect for going up 101. Can't believe I've been here for almost 2 months and still haven't gotten around to get up there... So I thought, ah well, maybe Friday, but of course this mornings great weather (check out the view from my room this morning) is gone by now.


Phew, that's quite the update again, eh?

Tomorrow I think I will sleep in a bit. The last weeks were very busy and I need a bit of a rest. Spread out during the day, quite a couple of us will go to KaoHsiung, Andy's hometown. On Sunday, Andy wants to go hiking there with us and we'll probably see some nasty monkeys that rob people. On Monday, I'm planning to go back to the very south and go surfing around Kenting, or maybe see some beautiful waterfalls in the rainforest. It'll be beautiful, I'm sure.

Next week on Tuesday will be Mid Autumn Festival and nobody has to work, so I will probably finally get around to planning my trip to Vietnam. It's about time, I'd say. My flight there leaves on Saturday at 7.30am and it still feels like it's weeks away. sigh... Taiwan is awesome!

I hope I'll get a chance to do another update before I head out to the Communist Republic of Vietnam. From there, I'll also try to write some stuff on here, but I'm not sure how that'll work... we'll see. Anyway, on October 12 around 7am I'll be back in Germany and go to Aalen for the weekend. Classes in Goettingen start on Monday and there won't be a lot of time for me to waste while I'm there, but I hope to see some of you!

Zai Jian!

It's Monday night again...

... and I'm sitting in my office, updating my blog ...

How are you guys and gals? Thanks for your comments and e-mails! It's really nice to get some feedback after spending so much time writing all this stuff. Thanks!

Last weekend, Christof, Birgit and I went to Central Taiwan. To TaiZhong and LuGang, to be exact. But since getting up early on a Saturday morning is really hard, we ended up arriving in TaiZhong later than anticipated and had to cancel part of our plans. After walking around for a long time and getting ripped off by taxi drivers a couple of times, we decided it would be best for us to just spend the rest of the day in TaiZhong instead of heading out to Changhua. Cheers!


After some food and beer - quote waitress: "You know that that's beer, right?" - we went to the botanical garden which belongs to the Museum of Natural Sciences. It's really quite small, though. There was a fairly large greenhouse with a tropical rain forest - no, they did not need to heat it, the windows were open - which featured a really cool elevator to the tree tops, which was closed, some mosquitoes (I think I got bitten 6 times in there) and a couple of smaller exhibits. Not too amazing, but still pretty.


So we went and bought some terribly expensive Bubble Milk Tea at the cafe which supposedly invented it. Quite yummay!


The quarter of town was called the European District and was a little side street about 100m long. Quite pretty, though. But I guess going to Taiwan to see something European is a bit off, eh?

After having another beer we went to our hotel to get some rest before heading out to Xaga, the biggest nightclub in town. Dominik, another participant in this exchange program, and his Taiwanese friend Naomi joined us. Earlier, we had heard from a Taiwanese waitress that her Dutch boyfriend had been beaten up by the same club's bouncers just a couple of weeks ago and was still in hospital. Maybe that's why, as soon as we got there, the manager came up to us, gave us free admission, free drink vouchers and free shots... And then we were taken pictures of and presented to the crowd - PR... It was a cool party, though and se Tschermens danced until the lights turned on.
Apparently, TaiZhong has a fairly large problem with organized crime and half the clubs are locked down by police at the moment. There even was a checkpoint right in front of the club we went to. Ah well, we had fun!

The next day, we got up fairly early and caught a bus to LuGang, a very old harbor town about 1hr 45mins from Taichung. It's really incredible how many really interesting sites there are in LuGang. And the coolest thing is the relaxed-ness of the town. It's fairly small - I'd guess below 100,000 citizens - and appears very authentic and not at all touristy. It is as if the locals hardly cared about the tourists that come to visit.
Here's the entrance to a larger side street off what appeared to be the main road through LuGang (which, of course, was called ZhongShan Rd.)


Walking around, which we did all day, we came by a bunch of abandoned houses, this one had it's windows conveniently open.


In LuGang, it used to be tradition for the richer families to get completely drunk off of wine, when their daughters married. As a means of 'recycling' and displaying their wealth and the party, the empty wine jars were then used for construction, see below.


That's such a typical picture in smaller town Taiwan.


By chance, we came by an old teacher's house which had been built a hundred years ago or so. I think the guy's name was Qing, but I'd have to check to be sure. He was one of the main scholars of Taiwanese cultures at the time and had a really amazing mansion which consited of several buildings that were arranged almost temple-style. Here's the inside of what appeared to be the office.


As a scholar, he, of course, had to know how to draw!


Outside the building, Birgit was attacked by friendly Taiwanese people who wanted to take pictures with her. I was invited, too, as you can see from the picture...


Then we continued walking. Here's a place called nine turns lane, a really narrow little road with many lanes. The little "skyway" there belongs to the house of the 10 entertainments. There, people used to do all sorts of stuff, amongst which were appreciating flowers (which, in traditional Chinese cultures are presented by hot chicks, pardon my French), drinking lots of alcohol, smoking tabacco and gambling. The Chinese really know how to appreciate life.


This temple is dedicated to MatSu, the goddess of the sea, I believe. It is said to be the oldest such in Taiwan, built in the late 18th century. It was really small and not all too fancy, but really nice.


To the right of the entrance, you could see this dragon...


And right next to the temple, a beautiful example on the dilapitatedness of some houses here


which is further exemplified by this picture:


Then we continued on to LongShan (DragonMountain) temple, the oldest temple in all of Taiwan. It was built in the mid 18th century and then moved to a different location in the early 19th century. In the so-called 921 earthquake of September 21, 1999, many interesting places in Taiwan were severely damaged. This temple is no exception and they are still working on rebuilding it. While we were there, there was a group of old ladies performing some sort of trance singing and praying. That was nuts and sounded so cool! Also, the temple itself is the largest in Taiwan and is sometimes referred to as Taiwan's forbidden city. Just beautiful.



After LongShan, we went to Wentai Academy, the "birthplace of Taiwanese culture", which encompasses a school, a shrine and a temple. Wow, there's too much to say about this place, look it up on Wikipedia or something. :-P



Inside the shine sat the good old god of war, who is also a saint for all people in commerce because of his superior calculating skills and his honesty. There he is, the old fella.


In case you were wondering, what Chinese graveyards look like, here you go.


And if you'd like to install your own little shrine in your living room, I suggest you check out this place. Kinda reminded me of a piano store, the first time I saw it.


And here's a very typical Taiwanes road scenario. Sorry for the shaken picture, I had to be quick.


Later in the evening, we grabbed some food in the nightmarket, which wasn't really a night market. Mmmh, yummy! Note the lack of a sidewalk. Everybody shares the road.


Mhhh, Papaya Milk!


The busride back to TaiZhong was really uncomfortable, the subsequent one to TaiBei a little better. I don't like going by bus. But it's soooo cheap here! 5 Euros to go from TaiBei to TaiZhong! And 2 Euros from TaiZhong to LuGang. Nuts!

Today was very busy again, as usual. Language course in the morning, work afterwards and now some blogging and learning Chinese. I really want to keep it up when I'm in Germany, it's such an interesting language!

I don't really have any plans yet for this week, there's a lot of work to do for my project here and my final presentation has to be done next Friday. So I guess, I'll do some TaiBei tourist stuff this weekend, maybe go surfing, hiking and to some hot springs. They're everywhere here. I also still want to go the the National Palace Museum, the Zoo and take the Maokong Gondola up to the tea houses up on the mountains around Taibei. Should be cool!

Have a good one everybody!