Update from the Midwest

It's been ages since I've gotten to travel now, so this blog has really settled down (read: died). But I do have something in the works: a three-week trip to Europe in May. The current plan entails flying into London, and through a series of planes, trains, and automobiles seeing Berlin, Munich, Linz, Vienna, and potentially Barcelona or Prague. Along the way I'll reconnect with friends from my time abroad and no doubt make a whole slew of new ones.

Expect more as I plan more. As with the four-week expedition into China, I'll be keeping it light with only a carry on bag and maybe a small daypack. This time I'll be retiring that old canvas rucksack in favor of something a bit more modern: the Osprey Porter 46. I've put hours into researching new gear, and have to admit I can't wait to try it out.

Taiwan!

(as per usual click for descriptions)

I had heard from everybody who had been before me that Taiwan was their favorite place of all. But I didn't want to get my hopes up too much because I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. However, Taiwan lived up to what everybody said. The food was amazing, the people friendly and helpful, the city was clean with good transit, and the women were among the most attractive I've seen. It easily ranks as my favorite country during all of my travels thus far and I would gladly return.

That being said, story time!

First day I had some phenomenal ramen for breakfast at the airport. My flight left 90 minutes ahead of everybody else's so I had some time to spare upon arrival in Taipei. I chose to take the high speed train, as I had never been on one before. It was a bit more, but it was definitely worth the 5USD. Once in the city I went straight to the hostel to drop off my stuff so I could explore and start eating street food. We were staying at the Camels Oasis near Chiang Kai Shek memorial. The place was fairly removed from night life, but near to the MRT Station (subway). It appeared to be an apartment that had been converted into a hostel by the owner, Shaun. The place was very tidy, well-decorated, and comfortable. It had a kitchen, laundry room, two double rooms, an 8 bed dorm and a 6 bed dorm. Unfortunately it only had 1 bathroom with 1 shower, which was the cause of a decent amount of lost time. But nonetheless I would gladly stay there again. Everybody got a storage locker inside the room so you could stash your passport, electronics, and any other valuables you had without fear of losing them or getting them snagged.

Once checked in I went off to explore the neighborhood to get my bearings. Found a bun place and got to use my first bit of Putonghua. As I am a vegetarian, I must be careful about what I eat. Pork is especially popular in Asia, and seems to find its way into almost every dish. I successfully asked whether there was a vegetable bun option, and whether it had meat, and if not, what types of veggies were in it. This bun ended up being amongst my favorite foods while in Taiwan, and for only 35NT (1.08US) it was a steal. Picked up the others from the MRT station once they arrived and showed them the way. It wasn't long before we were off exploring the city.

The first place we went was the Shilin Night Market. Now, when you say night market in Hong Kong, instantly you imagine something along the lines of the Ladies Market, where you can buy "designer" clothing, bags, souvenirs, etc. However, in Taiwan, a night market is sort of a carnival. There are games to play for prizes and dozens of street food vendors.

Rather than narrating the whole trip in this manner, I think I'll leave the rest of it to descriptions on the photos and just cover the in-betweens and things that stick out most:

1. Taipei, though densely populated, is much more spread out than HK. There is more space in between buildings and more green within the city itself. It makes it a lot further to walk places, but overall a much more enjoyable environment.

2. Taipei's public transit is phenomenal. It would be difficult to compare to HK's simply because the populations are so different. But I would say that it works just as well if not better than Hong Kong's. The stations are very open and all of the signs and maps are clear. They even have section views of some stations to help you find the right level.

3. Scooters are a way of life in Taiwan. In fact, there are designated scooter lanes. And at intersections there is a designated area for scooters (as they will inevitably weave between cars and go to the front anyways).

4. I know Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world, but I guess I had no concept of how big it really is. The food court at the base has some excellent food and some of the architectural stylings inside are nice. However, overall, I don't feel like the interior lives up to the expectations that the exterior sets.

5. As I said before, the people in Taiwan are pleasant and helpful. Now, the other places I have been when people are helpful it is because they want something in return or it is simply an act to trick you out of some money. It's not that way at all in Taiwan. People come up to you if they see you hesitating about where to go and offer help. When we went the wrong place in Pinglin, some people not only told us where to go to get to the bicycle rental place, but also called ahead, got us a special deal, and gave us a ride there in their pickup truck. Again after the bicycle ride, my friend Paige and I missed the bus back into town, so we were going to go find the bus stop to wait for the next. Some people in a $70,000 (140K USD in Taiwan due to fees) Lexus pulled up and offered us a ride to the next bus stop, which was 20 minutes away, despite the fact that we were profusely sweating. None of these people asked for anything in return, even when we offered it: they just wanted to be of help.

6. Food. This might just be my favorite thing about Taiwan. There are so many street vendors and vegetarian options there it's almost overwhelming. And none of the street food costs very much money. I seldom payed more than $1US for a dish.

That's about all I care to type for Taiwan. I could go on for days with stories of it, but this is already a novel so I'll leave it at that.

Expect more small updates during the month of June while I backpack China. I won't have access to Facebook or YouTube in the mainland, so this will be my primary means of communication.

Countdown

It's crazy how fast this semester has gone. Only one week remains of classes. I've made a lot of good friends from all over the world and I hope I can stay in touch with them the next few years, maybe even visit a few.

This Friday I leave for Taipei, where I will stay for four days doing sightseeing. Everyone who has gone thus far said the people were the friendliest and most helpful that they had met in Asia. We'll visit Taipei 101, the world's former tallest building until it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Also going to some night markets, eating lots of local cuisine, and most likely hitting up some scenic areas.

Upon return I'll settle into finals before embarking on my monthlong expedition into mainland China. Starting in Beijing I will zigzag my way south seeing all of the major tourist sights (Great Wall, World Expo, the Bund, Terra Cotta Warriors) in the first 12 days before going off the beaten path. I am hoping at some point to find a homestay in a village. There are a couple mountains I'd like to scale as well and a ton of scenery worth seeing. And food, of course. I will be making a stop in Chongqing specifically to try their renowned hot pot.

It should be an enlightening experience and I am sure to meet some interesting people.

Meatless Mondays and Milk

If you have known me for any amount of time, you know food is really important to me. Being in Hong Kong has made me look at what I eat more than ever. What I mean when I say this is that I am now more aware of the origin of the food that I eat. For example, tropical fruits such as bananas, pineapples, and coconuts are significantly less expensive here than in the United States. Why is that? Because they are grown in this region so the transportation costs are much lower. Another example of this is the inflated prices on foods grown in the U.S. and elsewhere.

One of the implications of this is the lack of dairy in my diet now. Because approximately 90% of the Asian population is lactose intolerant, it simply isn't practical to have a strong dairy industry here. As such, cheese and milk is imported, meaning a higher cost, which in turn means I am not buying it because I enjoy saving money.

I have read many articles about how cutting dairy out of your diet can make you feel more alert and lively as it contains a considerable amount of tryptophan, but never believed that I would be able to give it up. But here I have almost entirely done just that. This isn't to say that I don't miss it, I would love to sink my teeth into a cheese pizza or some cheese enchiladas. But I certainly do notice that I have more energy and am more alert than usual. I must say, although I may not swear off dairy entirely just yet, I will be taking this dairy restricted diet back home with me.

P.S. Stumbled upon this article. Interesting idea with meatless Mondays. Obviously I think any step in that direction is a good thing. What do you think?

Cambodia and Thailand

I've now been back over a day from Thailand and Cambodia. Sort of strange to settle back into one place after being mobile for 8 days constantly. The photos above all have captions, so I'll just talk about a few things that stick out in my mind about the trip.

Cambodia:
The food was amazing, honestly some of the best that I have ever had. Amok seems to be a popular dish available at all restaurants. It's a sort of thick curry with vegetables and egg in it. The hospitality was also some of the best I have seen. Either people are genuinely friendly or they're really good at scamming. I like to think it's the former.

Phnom Penh was not at all what I was expecting in a capitol city. No tall buildings, and poverty everywhere. The ground was littered with trash wherever you went, people just threw things away on the ground when they were finished with them. It was really a stark contrast to any other cities I had seen. Siem Reap was somewhat dirty, but nothing compared to Phnom Penh. It's really hard to imagine living in such a place. Are people there happy living like that I found myself wondering? I can't imagine myself being happy living in such filth all the time.

Driving in Cambodia is also an experience. They drive on the right side of the road like in America, but there are literally no traffic laws. People commonly drive in the wrong lane. Honking is constant, and isn't used angrily as it is in the US, but rather as an alert to other drivers that you are there. The taxi ride from the border town of Poipet was my first taste of this, and my taxi was a British style one (driver on the right side) so he couldn't even see when he was passing the other drivers. Not that he cared too much, as autos frequently pass with just feet to spare before a collision would happen.

Overall though, Cambodia was worth if if only for Siem Reap, the food, and learning about the Khmer Rouge and a side of history seldom seen in the US.

Thailand:
We tended to stick to touristy areas of Thailand, though we did venture off a few times to see a bit more, and we walked around most places our last day rather than taking taxi or tuktuk. Speaking of which, the system of taxis/tuktuks is quite frankly the most corrupt thing I have ever seen. You're never sure if you're going to be scammed. Our first day we wanted to see a couple sights. We ended up getting dragged all over Bangkok going to the Tuktuk driver's sponsors so he could get free gasoline. If you are unfamiliar with what a sponsor is, it's a business that pays tuktuks to bring tourists there to try to sell them things. We went to three tailors where we were barraged by them trying to sell us custom tailored suits for 100USD. As a group we tolerated it because we had extra time anyways, the aircon felt good, and it made everything significantly cheaper (especially when combined with the fact that it was Buddhist holiday). The overall cost of the tuktuk was 20Baht, which split three ways meant that we spent 0.22USD for a whole day of driving. Not a bad deal.

Red Shirts. The media portrays them as a violent mob, but that is not at all what I saw of them in my time in Bangkok. On the contrary, they seemed to be friendly people who just wanted a more democratic system of government for Thailand. When you spoke to them they seemed happy that a foreigner wasn't afraid to speak to them considering how they have been portrayed. That being said, I cannot speak for all of them. As with any group, there are some radicals, such as those that broke into the government building. This did put things in perspective a bit, making me realize that these people are indeed pushing for a revolution, and as such can sometimes get out of hand. Nonetheless, I think that they have gotten a bad rap from the media. I am glad that I met redshirts during my time in Thailand. Not many people get to be somewhere in a time of potential revolution.

Architecturally, Bangkok was phenomenal. With Thailand being 95% Theravada Buddhist, you can see a lot of this style in the temples throughout the city. Incredibly elaborate details contrast sharply with simple floor plans. Seeing Wat Phra Kaew was a sensory overload with dozens of such buildings all gathered together.

Animal Cruelty. I'm a stickler on this, obviously. The first I saw of this was near the River Kwai with the jaguars. Later on, my group wanted to go see the Tiger Temple, which is operated by Buddhist monks. I did a bit of research and was appalled to see some of the violence displayed by monks and other caretakers towards the tigers. I had settled beforehand on not going in when it came to that part of our day tour, and my friend Bryan also decided that he would stay outside and wait. I am glad I did stay out, as some of the others who went saw the abuse firsthand.

We met a lot of interesting characters everywhere we went. One of the more interesting was a girl from Hamburg who had taken off 6 months after graduating with an English teaching degree to backpack the world. She had seen central and south America and a plethora of other places. She said she seldom stayed more than a few days in one location before feeling restless and bored. Bangkok was her last stop before returning home and she seemed curious as to how living in one place was going to be after that long on the road. Talking to her made me even more excited about this summer.

Overall I'm glad to be back in Hong Kong, where it's not obnoxiously hot, I don't get harassed all the time to buy things (except massages), and where I can trust a taxi driver not to scam me.