You've Come To The Rong Blog: Getting to Know Taiwan..

So, I'm starting to get use to life in Taiwan. There are many aspects of Taipei that I really like. Here's a list:

1) People are very friendly. If you're lost or don't know what's going on, you can ask anyone on the street and they will be willing to help you out. It's definitely refreshing (ahem *most of* Hong Kong) Some people even come up to me JUST to tell me I'm good-looking. I mean, they have great taste (hahahah j/k......)

2) THE FOOD! It's cheap and tasty. I fucking love the food here, i.e. stinky tofu, oyster pancake, deep-fried chicken fillet, beef noodle, and mango ice. YUM YUM YUM. Too bad I'm on a diet :( wah wah wah.

3) Laid back lifestyle. Unlike Hong Kong's busy-get-in-my-way-and-I'll-push-you-out-of-the-way lifestyle where EVERYONE seems to be in a hurry, people in Taipei are a LOT more laid back and easy-going. Makes me not as on edge and I can actually relax when I'm walking from point A to B.

4) Night Markets. So much fun with cheap things to buy, great street vendor games, and the best food.

However, like anywhere in the world, there are some things that I don't really like in Taipei, or just need some time getting used to:

1) Public transportation is not as effective here! The buses are small, old, and slow (they take forever to get to stops and you have to wait outside in the oven temperature for them to arrive). Plus, the traffic is very scary. Mopeds EVERYWHERE and turning vehicles don't get their own light. They have to wait for pedestrians to cross AND for straight-moving vehicles to pass and hope there's enough time and space for them to squeeze in a turn.

2) I miss HK food (Cafe de Coral where are you?!?! I want my BBQ Pork Rice!)

3) EVERYTHING is in Chinese here. That's not a bad thing, but it just makes me tired to have to read signs in a second language because I often don't know characters which forces me to whip out my ipod touch dictionary. It's just tiring

4) The temperature here is SO humid. I can't stop sweating before I get out of the house! It's ridiculous

5) They just recently made it a law/enforcement that all buildings must set their AC temperatures to room temp. This isn't very comfy when you're trying to get out of the intense summer heat.

6) The hiking trails in Taiwan aren't as well kept and exotic as the ones in Hong Kong. Plus there are huge ASS SPIDERS!

7) to go with number 6 THERE ARE SO MANY SPIDERS IN TAIWAN

It might seem like I'm complaining about Taiwan, but I'm really not. I just need some time to get used to things (never number 7).

I took a swimming test the other day to see if I could join the local swimming pool (one of the best in Taipei). We have to take a test to make sure you can handle swimming in the deep-end (and I mean DEEP). So the test consists of you being able to swim 1KM in under 30 minutes. This doesn't sound like much, but it does take some bit of endurance and swimming knowledge to achieve. I have endurance, but I don't really know how to swim properly. Well, I passed with 25:33 as my time. After I was done, the lifeguard told me "Actually, it's pretty impressive that you could get your time with the way you swim" which aka means, You DON"T know how to swim right. hahah He said I swim the way lifeguards do where you keep your head above water at all times. I just don't like putting my head under water.... But supposedly it's not the way to swim when you're trying to go fast. I'll work on that...

My grandmother was recently diagnosed with cirrhosis, which is another reason why I'm here. I've been making trips to the hospital to make sure she's ok. For the most part, she's fine and isn't in pain, but currently she's been getting fevers which means there's infection somewhere in her body. The doctors are still taking tests and making sure she's alright to be released from the hospital, so please pray with me to make her strong and overcome this disease's symptoms. She's strong, and I hate seeing her lay there on the hospital bed.

My cousin, Melody, is having a baby in 2 weeks! I will blog about that when it comes to the day! Pray for her safety too! I'm uber excited!

Well, here are some pictures for you to marvel at:

This is Simonee! I met her season 5 of Taiwan's singing competition "Star Avenue." and we've been great friends ever since. I'm glad to have her in Taiwan with me, otherwise, I would have no American humor outlet. I miss my friends in America and Hong Kong. :(

Well, one day, I decided I wanted to take a hike with my two friends. We planned to wake up at 6:30AM (so it's not as hot) and go hiking on one of the trails that I looked up. Yeah...they didn't wake up, so i just decided to go on my own. This trail starts from DaHu MRT station Exit 1 (Big Lake) and goes to Yuan Jue Temple.

This is a shot from the MRT of Dahu

Dahu Park

This is Dahu, I guess (means Big Lake). They left out a word: dirty

TOUCHE

Old people working out! How cute. hahaha

A lot of Asian parks (including HK and Taipei) have old people gathering working out their limbs and doing old school Chinese dance moves and Taichi. It's fun to see everyone trying to stay young!

This is the Nine Curves Bridge. Nothing significant. I wondered why the name was so and as I walked through the bridge, I counted nine turns (curves) -____- LAME

Cool-looking bridge in Dahu Park

I thought this was an interesting "garden" in front of a house. I wouldn't want to fall down there cuz imagine all the snakes in that pit!

So looking for the trail I was trying to find, I set out with my little drawn map that I copied off the internet. Look how elaborate it is...

Miraculously, I could actually follow it. I found the elementary school and circled it to find Dahu Street Lane 131 (that's another thing I don't like about Taipei, all the streets don't have like a specific name. A lot of streets are just lanes off of a bigger road so it makes looking for places quite difficult)

Cool vines on Lane 131

So following Lane 131 as my map told me to, I found out that I had to actually break off onto an unlabeled road into the forest. Since I didn't catch the memo, I walked off further into the road less traveled and came across a spider the SIZE OF MY FOREARM. Scared the shit out of me. It's so big it looks fake. I've NEVER seen a spider that big (i'm slightly arachnophobic) but at the same time, I'm so fascinated by them..

I turned into a neighborhood and a man told me how to find the hiking trail I was looking for. So I turned down into this random mining tunnel to reach the path. There was actually carts of coal all around

One of the many Buddhist shrines along the way

Signs showing the way to Yuan Jue Shrine. I'll take the other way next time. Liyi shan is also supposedly a nice hike with a lot of history and sites to see.

A rock sign teaching you philosophy as you hike. This one is telling you to be patient and hold strong. It's also the first character for "ninja".... so the nerd inside me started daydreaming of a NINJA ATTACK (fondles with nerd glasses)

Sign is saying "Good mountains, good water, good atmosphere, please take your trash off the mountain" Great message, too bad some stupid asses still litter. It's a pet peeve of mine. I mean seriously, WHY is it so hard to just take the damn trash with yoU!?!? "Oh, this is a pretty site, let me ADD MY TRASH TO IT TO MAKE IT BETTER"

STUPID

The Yuan Jue waterfall is just around this bamboo thicket...

...and then I see this. THIS is the waterfall???? Wah wah wah.

It's very small and dried out, but I think it's cuz it hasn't been raining recently. I decided to move on

up the stairs. These stairs were very ancient looking, and as much as I wanted to stay and marvel at the beauty of old stairs, the images of spiders popped in my mind so I quickly leaped off the stair case.

Random little building by the waterfall with toys hanging around everywhere

I finally reached the top of Yuan Jue. This is the bottom of a staircase that leads to the Yuan Jue temple. This place just reminds me of a place where murderers and rapists go to do their business. Creeeppy

View of the wilderness from the top

No, it is not an illusion. These stairs ARE lopsided. I got dizzy just climbing them. hhaha

LANDSCAPING FAIL

One of the reasons why I chose this hiking trail is that it claimed to have a great view of Taipei. It wasn't what I expected, but still not bad. It's a bit too far though

Yuan Jue Temple

A mini shrine

A stone incense burner

Pretty scenic view

So, after the hike, it was around 9:00 and I wanted to start heading home. But I had NO idea how to follow the maps. The icons are so random! Little swatsikas and smiley faces?!?!? What's going on! Those Swatsikas (sp?) are actually signs for temples, it's actually opposite directions as the German Nazi icon, but first time I saw it, I was like "ohhhh snap"

I saw this cool little building and saw she was selling teas and drinks, so I decided to buy a mango drink and caught the mini bus 2 (which stops anywhere along the road to pick up hikers) to go back into the city.

This is the mango drink I go. The little black things are a special type of seed where after you cook it, a clear jelly forms around the exterior giving the seed a jello-like feel. I think the appearance is creepy though, like little eyes staring at you as you sip them up.....

mmmMM Food time! (one of my friends thinks I'm a total fatty since my blog's pictures are CONSTANTLY food related.) haha

Red Bean Ice with Condensed milk

Red bean is a very popular dessert among Asian people. It's very subtle sweet and has a slight bean taste that people seem to love here. I used to HATE red bean. I think it's just cuz Americans don't eat beans as dessert. The texture is mushy which we are not accustomed to in the states. However, being in Asia for a year and a half, I am now warming up to it, but only can eat a few bites before it gets weird.

YUMMY! Mango/Taro Ice!

Eating a "Xiao Lung Bao" (Little Dragon Dumpling) at Ding Tai Feng, a tourist favorite restaurant. The little dumplings are filled with pork meat and are famous for how juicy they are. Once you bite into the skin, the juice pops into your mouth