VIETNAM - Saigon, Feb. 11

One of the "joys" of staying in a hostel is the hustle and bustle of staff and travelers coming and going. So, I wasn't surprised to be woken at 7am by the sound of crashing pots and pans coming from the kitchen just downstairs from my room.

I had a slow start and eventually wandered outside around 10am. I walked to the intersection of Le Lai and Le Loi streets to see if the Ben Thanh Market was open. Sadly, it being the day after Lunar New Year it was closed. So, I kept walking down Le Loi until I got to Nguyen Hue Street, which is described by various sources as "the most beautiful street in Ho Chi Minh City." When I got there, the street was blocked off and the locals were having a helluva street party. The entire street was lined with flowers, mostly yellow chrysanthemums. The main activity, from what I could see, was taking photos of yourself and your family and friends in front of various Lunar New Year decorations. Sadly, it was difficult to get a good photo of the scene with my little point-and-shoot camera.

Notre Dame Cathedral

I also walked up and down Dong Khoi Street, which runs parallel to Nguyen Hue. In the guidebooks, Dong Khoi is described as the "Paris of the Orient," so I was expecting French cafes, bakeries, and restaurants. Perhaps I'm not very discerning, but I didn't get a very French vibe from the street.

That said, Dong Khoi Street is where you will find the Opera House, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and my favorite place - the Central Post Office. The Opera House and Notre Dame Cathedral were closed to the public so you could only admire them from the street. However, the Central Post Office was open and doing business.

I stopped at a small cafe on Nguyen Du Street. It had three floors so I went up to the top where there was a nice open-air patio with a great view of Notre Dame Cathedral. I ordered a fresh watermelon juice and it was a fantastic thirst quencher. I will tell you this - Vietnam does fresh squeezed juice really, really well.

Central Post Office

By this time I was feeling the heat so I headed back to the hostel. I chose to walk along Nguyen Du Street because it was quieter than Le Loi and it had more shade. At the hostel I had a cold shower and - most importantly! - washed my feet. The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are filthy and after a while your feet are completely covered with dirt and other kinds of detritus that you probably don't want to think about.

I had another disappointing dinner at a "Vietnamese" restaurant. I forget it's name, but I was tempted to give it a try because of the appetizers. I ordered deep fried veggie spring rolls and chicken satay. The spring rolls were a chewy mess that did not come with dipping sauce, as I expected. The chicken "satay" was not satay at all, but some kind of stir fry with an unidentifiable sauce. Again, there was more onion than chicken.

After eating I wandered around the "Western" area, as it's called, in ever-expanding circles. There's something about just wandering around with no specific purpose that allows you to really take in a place. I stopped and took photos of interesting things, laughed at the sight of local kids playing on the sidewalk with their families, examined how different street food carts were arranged, and observed shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and touts doing business.

VIETNAM - Saigon, Feb. 10

I don't know why, but I had a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong with my mini-hols in Vietnam. I was almost stressed about leaving, even though technically it was a very simple trip: a short non-stop flight, staying in just one hostel in one city, and lots of options for things to do in the immediate vicinity.

Well, that gut feeling was proved right when I arrived at the visa desk in the Ho Chi Minh City Airport. I was surprised to see a list of required entry documents - that I didn't have. Now, I'm a fairly experienced traveler and I had checked entry requirements for Vietnam on two different web sites, including the Ho Chi Minh City Airport web site. Nothing mentioned that I needed a passport photo and a letter from the Vietnam government inviting me to visit. I filled out the visa application form anyway, and was able to pay a tout a USD$5 fee to take a passport photo right there at the visa desk. What I didn't have was the letter of invitation.

I was asked to wait until the bulk of the visa applications had been processed, so I did. About 30 minutes later two different visa desk officials asked me why I didn't have the letter of invitation. I calmly and politely explained that I had not seen that requirement when I researched the trip. I asked if there was any way to get the letter of introduction issued right there at the airport. They looked shocked and somewhat offended, and I was told no. As they walked away I steeled myself for the possibility that I'd be catching the next flight back to Taipei.

I waited a while longer, answered whatever questions the officials asked, and eventually a military officer came up to interview me. He was very stern, with that cold stare that makes you want to die inside. Again, I was calm and polite and - most importantly - patient. When he left, another official came up and explained that since it was Lunar New Year the officer was willing to sign a letter of invitation but that I would have to pay a USD$160 fine for breaking the law. That was no problem, except that I didn't have enough cash. I was allowed to exit security and go outside to a bank machine to withdraw the money - sans passport of course! I paid the fine, got the visa, collected my luggage, exited security, and found a quiet place to sit outside to absorb the last hour's events.

With the hard part over, I found a taxi and paid about three times the normal fare for a ride to the hostel. My driver dropped me off at the side of a busy road and pointed to a small alleyway, and said that my hostel was down there. "Okay," I thought. The alley was filthy, and full of people and noise and confusing smells. At night, the strangeness of a foreign land seems even more strange, if you know what I mean. A younger me would have turned and ran, but I carried on with a "let's see" attitude. I found the hostel with no difficulties, and it was just as modern and clean as it looked on the website. Things were looking up!

It was close to 10pm by this time and I hadn't eaten in a while so I secured a map and walked to a nearby street called Bui Vien that, according to the hostel staff, had a lot of restaurants. I'll write more about Bui Vien later, but let's just say that at night it's a madhouse of socializing locals, drunk foreigners, scooters, taxis, street food carts, dogs, and touts.

I picked a restaurant - any restaurant would do by that point - called the Vietnamese Kitchen and had an entirely disappointing meal of chilled beef salad, which was mostly pickled onion. The stress of the day had taken it's toll by then so I paid my bill and retreated to the air conditioned bliss of my private room back at the hostel. I watched a bit of telly but it wasn't long before I turned out the lights and slipped into unconsciousness.

Street food in Danshui and ... English high tea?

Yesterday afternoon Roshana, Emma, and Kathryn and I met in Danshui for the express purpose of stuffing ourselves full of street food or "xiao chi", which translates to "small eats." The last time I went to Danshui I was with a strict vegetarian who was also experiencing a bit of culture shock, so needless to say we didn't try any food from the hawker stalls. I was jazzed to have a chance to eat weird things on sticks!

Deep fried mushrooms and squid!

Danshui has a mix of hawker stalls (semi-permanent structures) and truly mobile hawker carts.
One thing that you often see with hawker food, especially on the mobile carts, is that most of the food is pre-coooked to some degree. This saves space - no prep area - but it also means a faster turn-around when a customer orders something. The hawker typically just has to finish the order off with a quick deep fry or a few turns on the barbecue grill.

The hawker stall kitchen where it all happens!

I didn't get a picture of it, but there are some hawker carts that have small engines on them that power the cooking equipment. You can actually see the arms and pistons and belts and gears moving! It's fascinating. There's usually a rubber band or two holding everything together, too!

Almost everything is served on a stick, even things you normally wouldn't eat on a stick, like eggs. The Taiwanese freaking LOVE eggs and eat them almost every day. One special hawker treat is quail eggs on a stick. I tried them and they were ... eggs on a stick ... cold eggs on a stick. They were okay but I'm not sure I would have them again.

Quail eggs! I had some of these.

Kathryn and Emma had the fried potato crisps on a stick. They're kind of cool because the potato is cut into a continuous spiral and then fed onto the stick before being deep fried and seasoned. You could probably get more crisps for your money by buying them in a bag from the store, but the thing is, it's just fun to eat your crisps on a stick. That's worth it, right?

Kathryn got potato crisps on a stick, as well as the spring onion pancake you see in the stall behind her.

Ice cream is very popular. There are several soft serve ice cream stalls scattered throughout the hawker market. Kathryn and Emma tried vanilla and chocolate. They said that it didn't have a strong taste, nor did it taste like milk-based ice cream. It was probably some kind of non-dairy product. The berry-flavored ice creams were also very popular with locals. 

Kathryn and Emma got soft ice cream cones, a popular treat!

Toward the end of our food tour of Danshui, Kathryn got an iced fruit juice drink that was largely colored sugar water. That's very common in Taiwan. Natural sugar isn't sufficient - the locals top it up with fructose syrup until it's nearly undrinkable. 

I opted for sugar cane juice which you might be surprised to learn is not terribly sweet. At least, it's not sweet compared to the other "juice" options. It might be artificially colored, though, because I don't recall the sugar cane juice being such a bright green color when we drank it in Malaysia.

Sugar cane juice! It's very refreshing and not nearly as sweet as the other "juice" options.

After stuffing ourselves in Danshui we hopped on the MRT to head back into Taipei. I wanted to go to Yongkang Street by the Dongmen MRT station to shop for shoes. I'd been told by a colleague at work that there were some good shoe shops there. At first only Roshana was going to join me, then Emma and Kathryn decided to come along as well.

When we got to Dongmen there was a general consensus that it would be nice to sit down and have a drink - tea, not alcohol - and Roshana suggested the Rose House tea room. She'd walked by it numerous times on her way back from the university and had always wanted to try it. We decided to give it a go.

The Little Prince Afternoon Tea set.

It was a wood-paneled, heavily carpeted, and garishly floral English-style tea room with staff dressed in maid and servant uniforms. There were two menus - one for food, and one for tea and coffee. Roshana, Emma, and Kathryn were a bit peckish and decided to order afternoon tea. I figured in for a penny, in for a pound and joined them. We ordered two Little Prince Afternoon Tea sets - English sandwich, bacon "burger", mini quiche, creme brulee, English scone with clotted cream and jam, Scottish shortbread, fruit roll cake, cheesecake, rose lychee jelly, and rose macaroon. It was decadent. And, it was cheap - $10 per person including set gratuity.

The afternoon tea pretty much finished off Kathryn and Emma, so shopping was really out of the question after that. We dawdled down the street until we got back to Xinyi and the Dongmen MRT station, and decided to head our separate ways - the girls back to the World Scholar House hostel and me over to the Daan MRT and home in Dazhi.

And that, my friends, is how you eat in Taiwan - from hawker stall to English tea house in one day!

A day trip to Danshui

I belong to the Couchsurfing network, which connects travelers looking for a "couch" to sleep on with people who have "couches" to offer. I won't go into details about how it works, but I've found it a great way to meet people from around the world. My apartment in Dazhi is quite small, so I can't host Couchsurfers here in Taiwan. Instead, my "couch" status is "available to hang out."

I thought this was the Longshan Temple, but alas not.

Now, for those of you who thought this post was going to be about a day trip to Danshui, I'll get to the point - a Couchsurfer from Olso named Jay contacted me to say he'd be in Taipei for a week for a conference and asked if I wanted to hang out. "Sure!" I said.

The weather had improved by New Year's Eve, so I arranged to meet up with Jay and head up to Danshui, an historic port town north of Taipei. It has been settled/occupied/conquered by the Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese over the years due to its prime location at the confluence of the Danshui River and the Taiwan Straight.

Today, it's a popular day trip destination because it's very easy to get to on the MRT and it's a nice place to get a bit of fresh air and sun outside of the city. I was excited to go there because the guidebooks described a lovely new pedestrian-only boardwalk along the waterfront. I was imagining a relaxing perambulation away from the crowds. I was so very wrong. It was more like what I call "crowd shuffling," or the slow and frustrating transit of a gigantic crowd of people along a ridiculously small walkway. Add in baby carriages, backpacks, bicycles, scooters, etc. and it was more stressful than relaxing.

Me standing outside the ornate temple entrance. I wasn`t sure if we could enter.

Jay and I managed to escape the crowds every now and then. There was a gorgeous temple just off the boardwalk that we stopped to admire. Neither of us was entirely sure if we should go in, so we simply admired it from outside. If my Mandarin were better I would have asked the security guard if we could come inside.

Incense burning at the temple entrance. It was a lovely scent.

A dragon - one of two - at the entrance to the temple.

The funny thing about this temple is that it was hidden behind a semi-permanent street food stall that sold quail egg kabobs (the link leads to a short video on YouTube). You could barely see the temple behind the ugly tarps and the industrial cooking equipment. But, as I have learned since arriving in Taipei, you have to look beyond what`s just in front of you. There is always something interesting down the lane, behind the main building, or around the corner.

Food, of course, is a big draw in Danshui. The boardwalk is lined with street food stalls selling a variety of delicious snacks. And, as I mentioned in a previous post, the food smells rise and mix and become something almost indefinable. Is that fish? Meat? Sweet? Sour? Who knows!

The Turkish Ice Cream vendors played tricks on people.

Jay is a vegetarian so we didn't stop to sample anything - it's hard to tell what has meat in it and what doesn't. Next time I go, however, I am definitely trying the squid on a stick. I've been told to order it spicy.

Squid on a stick!

There is a definite carnival atmosphere in Danshui. In between the food stalls there are stalls where you can play games for prizes, just like you would see at a country fair in North America. Shooting games seem to be popular all over the world and there were plenty in Danshui. The most valuable prizes were these blow-up "baseball" bats. The Taiwanese people were crazy for them! Of course, they were too polite to actually hit each other with them, which is what I would do if I won something like that and was out with a bunch of friends. Sadly, the Taiwanese seemed satisfied by simply posing for pictures with the bats.



There were also small stalls and shops selling knickknacks and small gifts. The most popular shops sold accessories for your phone - dressing up your phone is a national obsession. The most popular accessory right now is a plastic case that fits around the body of your smart phone but extends beyond the phone into shapes like Pokemon characters, Hello Kitty, or whatever.

I was hoping to spot the Starbugs Insect Mall, which the guidebooks describe as a "shop specializing in the care, breeding and raising of gigantic beetles." Sadly, it's located down a lane - natch! - and we missed it. I think Jay was a little relieved that we didn't find it. But, I have to do these things for my sister Simone, who has been known to kiss and coo at her giant beetles. What's a good sister to do, except investigate the shop and report back?

I think Jay started to get overwhelmed by the crowds in the lanes.

"Drive-thru" fish ball factory!

At a certain point the boardwalk ends but you can walk up and down small lanes. The lanes are, of course, lined with food stalls and filled to overflowing with people. I think that Jay started to reach his "limit" with the crowds at that point. It can be very disorienting in the lanes. It's like your brain is completely flooded with sensory information - where do I step next? where do I look? what's that sound? what am I smelling? who bumped into me? where are my traveling companions? where's the exit? what's that weird thing over there?

We wandered down one lane that wasn't particularly busy and found a fishball factory. One of the popular food stall snacks are fishballs cooked in broth. So, it made sense that just a few lanes away would be a small warehouse where people were making hundreds and hundreds of fish balls to be sold in the food stalls that day and night.

Jay from Oslo, enjoying a breather out of the crowds.

As we got further away from "main" Danshui the crowds thinned out and we got to enjoy a bit more breathing room. There was a stone "wharf" along the waterfront that was more of a laneway.

A view of Bali, a community across the Danshui River.

A small breakwater. There were maybe five boats tied up.

One thing that I find odd about Taiwan is that it is an Island, but there are no boats. If this were North America the Danshui wharf - for there is only one - would be chock-a-block with pleasure craft. In Taiwan, the only boats you see are fishing boats and the odd marine rescue boat. Pleasure boating just doesn't exist. I asked about this on Forumosa, an online bulletin board for expats in Taiwan. It seems that pleasure boating was banned under martial law, and fishing boats were closely monitored to ensure there was no illegal smuggling of goods or people. There was never an opportunity to develop a pleasure boating culture. Another person who replied to my posting also pointed out the frequency with which Taiwan is hit by typhoons and tropical storms. This naturally dissuades people from owning pleasure craft.

A gorgeous bird of unknown breed sitting on a disused boat.

Our final destination for the day trip was Fort San Domingo, an old Spanish fort that is now an historical site. It's located on a hill above Danshui. It was originally built by the Spanish to defend against the local tribes who naturally didn't really like foreigners messing about with their culture or fishing economy.

Walking up to Fort San Domingo.

Looking up at the rebuilt fort.

The original fort was razed by the Dutch when they evacuated Taiwan - those pesky Chinese were back to reclaim the island - and the only remaining structure is the south gate. The Chinese tried to rebuild the fort but only got as far as rebuilding the gates and wall. In 1863 Britain leased the fort and rebuilt it, and added a modern consulate as well.

The Taiwanese government has done a good job of building interpretive panels throughout the fort and consulate. The only drawback to visiting the fort is that volunteers strictly enforce how you tour the fort. There is a definite order in which you have to view the rooms and exhibits. This is due to size constraints - it's an old fort, and therefore quite small. You just can't physically fit more than 40 people in one room or building at a time. I imagine that in the summer there are line-ups to get into the fort and the consulate.

The south gate, the only remaining part of the original fort.

After visiting the fort, Jay and I were both hungry. I suggested going to Alleycats, a pizza chain that is quite well known in Taiwan. I had spotted it on the way to the fort and figured that Jay could get a veggie pizza there.

We were originally seated in a booth next to a couple who were clearly having a marital spat. The husband was Western and the wife was Taiwanese, and she was bitching him out something awful. We asked to be moved a few booths down because it was quite uncomfortable to listen to.

Although it was fairly easy to order our pizzas in English, it took forever for them to be served. Mine arrived a good 15 minutes before Jay's. And, when Jay's arrived, it had pepperoni on it. I guess the servers had misinterpreted "pineapple" as pepperoni. By then Jay was too hungry to wait for them to make another one, so he just settled for picking the pepperoni off his pizza. It was a disappointing dining experience, to say the least.

From there we headed back to the MRT and caught the train back to Taipei. It was getting late and the train was full of people heading downtown for the New Years Eve celebrations at City Hall. Jay got off at his hotel, and I got off just over the river and caught a cab the rest of the way home. The trains were so full that I didn't want to try to change lines downtown. It was easier - and less stressful - to use my mangled Mandarin to direct the taxi driver to where I live in Dazhi. And, you know what? I did a pretty good job again. Thank Jeebus that BeiAn Road is a main road and quite well known.

So, that was my day trip to Danshui with Jay from Oslo. I'll definitely go back to explore the town and to try some of those delicious-looking street foods. I'll also look into catching the ferry to Bali, across the river. And, you never know, I might find the bug store!

The balcony kitchen is complete

It can be difficult to find an apartment in Taipei that has a kitchen. I'm not talking about a full Western-style kitchen. I'm talking about a hot plate, a sink, and a bit of counter space. So, when I was searching for an apartment I already knew that my budget might not allow me to find a place where I could cook at home.

The balcony - laundry and kitchen combined!

When I looked at my apartment in Dazhi I liked the size of the room, the Western-style shower in the bathroom, and the fact that the unit was newly renovated. There was also a small desk, a new bright red couch, and a small bar fridge.

The apartment came with a washing machine, which was located on the balcony. (This is very common in Taipei, and probably most of Asia.) However, most apartments in Taipei only have a tiny balcony. The balcony for this apartment was huge, and covered.

The only problem with the apartment? There was no kitchen. Hmmm. That's when I came up with the idea of setting up a camp-style kitchen on the balcony. People have cooked outside since the beginning of time, so I figured I could kick my Western sensibilities aside in this case and embrace something a bit more rudimentary as far as kitchen facilities were concerned.

I didn't - well, couldn't - rush into setting up the kitchen. I had to prioritize setting up the bathroom and bedroom, and sorting out storage. Then I got sick with acute bronchitis. That was a whammy in my plans. Anyhoo, yesterday I finally had the time, energy, and motivation to make a big shopping trip to A-Mart to buy the necessary bits and bobs for the balcony kitchen.

A closer look at the pantry cart, hot plate, kettle, and storage

One thing you should keep in mind as you read this is that I don't have transportation. I have to rely on the MRT and my feet to get most places. A few weeks ago I went to Carrefour in Tienmu and hauled some household items home on the MRT. I learned that I never wanted to do that again. My plan this time was to take the MRT to A-Mart and then catch a cab home with all of my large purchases. So that's what I did, and it worked beautifully! I even managed to direct the cabbie to my exact address which was a bit of a Mandarin miracle.

The dry storage/pantry inside

Thankfully everything I bought was easy to assemble and didn't require tools. All of the appliances worked, too. (One of the things I secretly dread is having to return things that don't work. Oh, the miming I would have to do!)

Now that I had the structure to cook, I had to get food. I packed two large bags and headed over to the Wellcome grocery store. I've only ever bought snacks and drinks over there, and a little bit of fruit. This time I got a cart and loaded two baskets onto it, and shopped.

I tried to focus on basics - tea, oatmeal, sugar, soup, broth, canned vegetables, spices, rice, noodles, cooking oil, soya sauce, vinegar, etc. It was a big shop by the locals' standards - NT$1,800 or about CAD$60. And look at how my dry storage/pantry is filled up! It's located inside the apartment because I don't want to attract vermin or have to pick pupae out of my dry goods.


My first cooked meal at home was spaghetti, of course. I am a noodle girl. The only problem is that I bought a Taiwanese brand of bottled spaghetti sauce. The Taiwanese love sweet things, so everything is loaded with sugar. The sandwich bread is inedible because it's so sweet. And even if you can stand the sweet bread, there's the sweet mayonnaise, sweet mustard, and sweetened sandwich meat. I'm sure they'd add sugar to cheese if they could. (Maybe they do - I hate processed cheese slices so I have no idea what the cheese tastes like.) Well, I learned last night that they also put a tonne of sugar into the spaghetti sauce. Ick! I got down as much of it as I could, and threw out the rest. So, while the act of cooking was successful, the results were a little disappointing. Oh, well. I am looking forward to the next meal, and the meal after that, and the meal after that...

Only in Taipei ... dinner at Modern Toilet

This post is mostly going to be photos, because words just don't do the experience justice.

There are a number of theme restaurants in Taipei, and the one that is probably the most famous is Modern Toilet. As you can imagine, the theme is ... bathrooms and toilets. A small group of us decided to go check it out. We caught the MRT to Ximen, and then realized that none of us had written down the restaurant address or directions. We were fumbling through a Lonely Planet book when a woman stopped and asked if we needed directions. When we told her where we wanted to go, she thought for a moment and then said "It's too hard. I will take you there." It's true what they say, people in Taipei are really friendly and helpful.

Emma and her parents from Holland, Cidric from France, Raz from Israel, and Roshana from Australia

Our arrival at the restaurant was a bit chaotic. The greeter misunderstood me or was just being difficult, and seated us at two separate tables. Roshana sorted it out, though, and we were finally shown to a table where we could all sit together. The table, as you can see, is a bathtub with glass over top.

Oh, my! The rye bread is artfully baked into a turd shape

Ordering was also chaotic. They give everyone a menu, then they give one person a menu with the table number written on it. That person has to then write down what everyone at the table wants to eat. If that isn't hard enough, you also have to pay before you are served. We did the mental math and then scratched around in our wallets for exact change. Most of the table could do it, but Raz and I had to go downstairs to get change and settle up for the rest of the table.

My spicy Sichuan hot pot (in a toilet bowl) with chillis and rice

The "dish" of choice was hot pot. For those unfamiliar with hot pot, it's a boiling pot of broth in which you cook a selection of veggies, meat, or fish. I had the spicy Sichuan beef hot pot, which came with exactly four strips of thinly-sliced beef. The rest of my hot pot contained cabbage, enoki mushrooms, fish dumplings, tofu, "crab" stick, and a spotted prawn donated by Roshana.

Green tea in a toilet-shaped mug, fruit juice in a urinal-shaped glass

The restaurant reviews aren't terribly good for Modern Toilet. Most people say that the restaurant is overpriced - natch! - and that the food is mediocre to bad. Our experience was pretty good. My spicy Sichuan hot pot had a lovely rich broth, and everyone said that portion sizes were generous.

Raz's penne au gratin came in a bathtub-shaped bowl

My one disappointment with the meal was the service. The servers seemed quite grumpy, which was odd considering that all they had to do was show you to your table, explain the menu system, and serve the food. Oh, well. The other thing I didn't like was that the servers' shirts were stained with food. This was obviously because the hot pots were so heavy and there was bound to be some broth sloshing over. But, still - you could tell that some of the stains were not fresh. Ick.

Dessert was turd-shaped "ice cream" which was really just flavored ice shavings

All in all it was a fun night out. I probably won't go to Modern Toilet again - not because I didn't like the experience, but rather because there are so many good restaurants to experience in Taiwan.

Christmas in Taipei

This was my first Christmas away from home, ever. I was sad not to be able to celebrate with family, but at the same time managed to find a good group of people to share the holiday with.

In Taiwan, the 25th was just another work day. Well, Santa came ho-ho-ing by in the afternoon with elves to hand out treats, but other than that it was business as usual. Roshana, Emma, and Evan (fellow hostelers at World Scholar House) had to attend classes at the Mandarin Training Center as well. But Roshana arranged to cook up a holiday feast of spaghetti, coleslaw, and cake at the hostel afterwards and I was invited to join in, which I happily did!


I was late arriving because of the brutal transfers at the Zhongxiao Fuxing and Zhongxial Xinsheng MRT stations. There is only one MRT line that travels west-east across the city, and at peak hours the station platforms are completely jammed with commuters. I'm sure it's not as bad as Japan, but it's still quite an experience.

Cidric from France, Raz from Israel, Evan from the US

 It was a full house with Greg, his lovely daughter Iileitia, Emma and her parents from Holland (sorry, forgot their names!), Roshana, Winnie, Cidric, Raz, Evan, and myself. (The hostel manager Diane was also there, but in her room with her grandchildren enjoying a Christmas pizza.) The main room in the hostel is about as big as most people's bathrooms, so as you can imagine every surface was being used to serve the food and perch on while you scooped said food into your mouth. The only plate left when I arrived was a kid's serving tray. And the only eating utensils I could find were chopsticks. I was surprised to learn that it's actually super east to eat pasta with chopsticks - forget the fork and spoon thing!

Roshana and Winnie

After the pasta feast there was cake. Two cakes, actually, since both Emma's parents and Roshana had bought one. Roshana also busted out an awesome marshmallow and chocolate fondue, which fascinated the kids.

It was an early night for all of us because we had to be up for work the next day. On my way home on the MRT, I noticed that the lady sitting next to me had an odd-looking case. I mimed "badminton raquet?" to her and she mimed back "no, musical instrument." I tried to ask how many years she had been playing but I actually asked how many raindrops there were. Oh, well.

Then she did the nicest thing. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a DVD of her orchestra's last performance. And she gave it to me! So, not only was I sitting next to a professional musician, she generously gave me the DVD to enjoy - on Christmas night, no less!

Greg and Iileitia and yummy fondue!

I might be living in the bad part of town

I have been sick for the past several days. I woke up yesterday with wicked case of cabin fever. I just had to get out of the apartment. The weather wasn't the best but I decided to explore Dazhi to the east of Bei-An Road anyway.

I took a look at Google maps and noticed the Miramar Entertainment Mall. It looked interesting. It also didn't look too far away so I figured I could walk there.

I was just a few minutes into my walk when I began to realize that I might be living in the bad part of Dazhi. To put it another way, I definitely live in the old part of Dazhi. Once you cross Bei-An Road there are wide streets with artfully paved and tree-lined sidewalks. The buildings look new, with modern architectural designs and highly-desirable underground parking. All of the condo towers seem to have lively piquant French cafes and bistros on the ground level.

Gorgeously paved, wide, and landscaped streets in eastern Dazhi - but completely devoid of pedestrians.

The only thing that I would describe as a drawback to this new Dazhi is the lack of people on the streets. Widen the streets and make room for parking, and ... people tend to drive everywhere instead of walking. I was one of the few pedestrians enjoying those lovely streets. Where I live, everyone walks while they run their errands. There is life in the streets and laneways.

Two new towers under construction.

The first thing you notice about the Miramar Entertainment Mall is the big Ferris Wheel. You can see the top arc of the wheel above the other buildings from quite a distance. As I got closer I could hear music. Then I saw brightly-colored market tents set up by the mall's main entrance. I had to check that out! I thought it might be a Christmas-themed market, but sadly it was just a typical pop-up market of food vendors.

The Miramar Entertainment Mall and the big Ferris Wheel.

Pop-up market by the mall entrance.

Funny "hot dog" stall in the market.

The Miramar Entertainment Mall itself is a fairly typical Taipei mall - full of "branded" fashion stores. The Taiwanese are just crazazy for name brands. You name it, they want it: Dunhill, Aquascutum, DKNY, CK Calvin Klein, Anna Sui, Nine West, Guess, etc. The Miramar doesn't have the super high-end brands like they have at Sogo. Instead, they seem to serve the middle-range name brand market.

I've been looking for a handbag for a while because the clutch I brought with me to Taiwan is barely big enough to hold my wallet, phone, and company ID card. The problem - with me - is that I don't like overly-branded handbags. I also don't like blingy or "cute" handbags. I want something more unique and would prefer to buy something that is made locally.

On the second floor I found a small boutique for a brand called Partake. I didn't know this at the time, but Partake is a Taiwanese brand focused on designing handbags that are functional, stylish, and suitable for a variety of occasions. That's exactly what drew me to the boutique! I shocked the clerk by doing a bit of man-shopping and buying a handbag within 5 minutes of entering the boutique. She nearly fell over. I also didn't bargain with her, so she gave me a funny look and then suggested a lower price. (I figured that since it was a boutique in a mall with a fixed price tag that I shouldn't bargain, but it seems there's always room for a little negotiation.) Anyhoo, I'm very happy with my new handbag. My fashion instincts proved me right again!

My new handbag from the Taiwanese design firm Partake.

I was quite exhausted by the time I left the Miramar Entertainment Mall so I caught the MRT back to the bad part of Dazhi. In the eastern part of Dazhi, even the MRT stations are shiny and new! So pretty!

Jiannan MRT station in eastern Dazhi.

Now *that's* how you start a Sunday!

It's just before noon, and I am happily digesting a late breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast, and fruit. Oh, and a big-ass glass of home-made iced tea. At NT$180/CAD$6 it was a bit pricey, but it was well worth it.

(That square patty that looks like sausage is actually hash browns. The toast comes plain, but there is a pat of whipped garlic butter in a small ramekin on the plate. And, sadly, no jam or marmalade were on offer.)

I had this delicious repast at The Door, an American-style diner that is - happily! - just down the lane from my apartment. They serve breakfast all day and have the usual options - classic breakfast dishes, omelettes, and bennies. The lunch and dinner sections are fairly typical as well, with burgers, sandwiches, and pasta. I definitely need to go back and try more dishes. The Buffalo Chicken Melt sandwich is tempting me!

I read about The Door in the blog a hungry girl's guide to taipei when I was researching food and restaurants in Taipei. However, I didn't realize it was in my neighbourhood until I did a Google Maps search this morning for nearby cafes and restaurants.

I must admit, I felt kind of bad about going there. It's such a cliche - Westerner has a Western breakfast at a Western-themed diner. However, I'm still having problems ordering food in Mandarin and I'm afraid of the local food stalls selling eggs and ... stuff I don't recognize. It was nice to have a stress-free meal with familiar ingredients and predictable tastes.


The review of The Door mentioned that service was a bit sketchy. It wasn't bad, just slow - and the reason for that was fairly obvious. The place was hopping and there was just one server to manage all of the tables. Around 11:00am another server showed up for the lunch rush and there was a definite up-tick in the speed of service.

One thing I really liked about the place is that you're allowed to help yourself to tea, coffee, water, and iced tea. These are all available at the counter. Some diners seemed completely at home serving themselves - they even went behind the counter to grab Tobasco sauce - but others requested top-ups from the server. They, of course, had to wait a bit while the server shuttled orders from the kitchen to the hungry diners.

I didn't get a picture of it, but there's a patio outside with a couple of tables. It's "fenced" in with rough wood planks, and there are lots of creeping green plants. It looked quite lovely in the morning sunlight. As I left, I noticed two other whiteys having brekkie on the patio, which eased my Western guilt a bit.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

As soon as I typed the title for this post, I was reminded of the best music video of all time - "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim. You have to be a Christopher Walken fan to understand just how amazing it is.

If you can't run the video on this screen, you can go to YouTube to view it directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8

Anyhoo, it's noon on a rainy, rainy Saturday here in Taiwan. I had a delicious sleep in this morning. It's funny, but when you aren't working you don't appreciate sleep-ins. You're just waking up. Sleep-ins are naughty indulgences. You know you probably should get up and do something productive, but you choose the blue pill and snuggle back down under the duvet.

Speaking of duvets, here's a picture of my "bedroom" in the apartment. As you can see, I finally found a mosquito net for the bed. I attached one end of the net to the curtain rod. I attached the other end to the ceiling using those 3M hooks that you can remove without leaving marks.

I think I mentioned it earlier, but I was surprised to find out that there are mosquitoes all year 'round in Taipei. I got bitten terribly my first week here, and the bites got infected. It's two weeks later and they're still not healed.

So, getting a mosquito net became a high priority. I spent a couple of hours online researching where I could buy one, and then a couple more hours walking around Taipei from store to store. I finally found one in a Japanese home furnishings store in the basement of Momo. I think it only cost NT$299, or $10. It's worth every penny!

There are screens on the windows but they don't fit properly. Plus, whenever I open the door to go onto the balcony the skeeters can sneak in. I'm glad I have a second layer of defence.

So, it's Saturday. For those of you who are keeping track of things, that means I've just finished my first week of work. It went well - the people are all very nice and helpful, there is a semi-formal company orientation process, and there is a lot of documentation for the company's products. I was issued a new laptop and monitor, which caused some pangs of jealousy among team members who struggled with hand-me-down technology when they started.

I definitely chose a good apartment as far as commuting is concerned. It only takes 20 minutes to get from the Dazhi MRT station to the Liuzhongli MRT station. Then, I have a short walk over to Dunhua Rd. and the office.

The "office" is in a 19-floor office tower. Trend Micro uses 18 of the 19 floors. The first floor is occupied by a gorgeous Audi car dealership. (There are no outdoor car dealerships in Taipei - they're all inside buildings.) My department, HIE, occupies the entire 19th floor. On a clear day I will take some pictures of the city from our floor. We have pretty close to a 360 degree view!

Thought some of you might enjoy seeing my Chinese-English keyboard. I don't know how it works when you're typing Chinese characters. I'll have to get someone in the department to show me one day. There are literally thousands of characters in Chinese, so I don't know how people can create all of those characters with just a few keys on a keyboard. Thinking about it makes my little pea brain hurt.

Here's my Lucky Cat login screen. I thought it was a good image to choose, given that I've made such a big transition in life and work.

My biggest challenge right now is finding something familiar and nourishing to eat. The apartment doesn't have a kitchen - yet - so I am limited to uncooked food at home. It's cheap to eat out, but my Mandarin is so poor that I have to rely on places that have English translations of their menus, or pictures of specific dishes.

I've started keeping a log of where I've eaten and what my experience has been like. My first entry was a place called Whalen's that is near the office. It's run by Canadians and they have a fairly Western menu, which actually includes poutine! The food was good but I felt like I was copping out by going there. Going there reminded me of my experience at Taipei 101. I got there at noon and I was hungry, so I went to the food court. There were about 50 different places to eat but none of them had English menus. There were also hundreds of people there and the lines were huge. By the time I walked around and examined all of the options, I was so hungry that it started to affect my mood and my thinking. I finally just went to Burger King and got a Whopper. Problem solved, but burger-eating Westerner stereotype reinforced.

Another, more recent, log entry is for New Health Idea. It's like Salad Loop, but for Chinese food. You grab a take-out container and some tongs and start assembling your meal from the 10 to 20 items on offer, which change daily. Some items are cold and some are hot. One thing I like about this place is that I can take a small amount of something I don't recognize and give it a try. (I tried three different greens yesterday - the spicy watercress was good, but the pickled cabbage was bad and the shredded broccoli was meh.) Another thing I like about this place is how they figure out what you pay. At Salad Loop you pay by weight. At New Health Idea, a sharp-looking woman at the till examines the items in your container, does some mental arithmetic based on food cost and portion size, and tells you what to pay. She charged me NT$70 ($2.00) for the meal shown above. Yesterday she charged me NT$100 because I had a slice of curried pork "schnitzel" and some sesame chicken, as well as veggies and rice.

The other night I got home from work and I didn't feel like having yoghurt and cereal for dinner, so I walked around the neighbourhood to see what was on offer. It's quite common for food carts, cafes, and restaurants to serve breakfast and lunch but not dinner, or to only open for dinner. Some places only open on certain days of the week. So, you have to take your chances and just wander around until you find a place that's open and serves food that you want to eat.

I decided to try Lan Xuan, a classy looking place by Shih Chien University. They had an English menu outside and the "stir-fried spicy green beans with shredded pork" sounded delicious. What they served, unfortunately, was boiled green beans with ground pork. It was the saddest plate of green beans that I've ever seen. I ate about half before I became disgusted by the texture (I hate overcooked, soft vegetables) and abandoned the cause. Sigh. You win some, you lose some. I'm sure that other items on their menu are good, but I'll never order the stir-fried green beans there again!

Well, it's 1:30pm now and my tummy is starting to rumble. I think I'll go to the Wellcome and get some basic foodstuffs first, though - water, orange juice, yoghurt, cold canned coffee, and biscuits. I still have lots of fruit in the fridge so must finish that up before buying more. After that, I'll walk around the neighbourhood and play food roulette again!