kimchi

I made kimchi some two weeks ago and have forgot it there in the fridge. Kimchi is a Korean dish many times served as a cold side dish to almost everything. In Taiwan we had beef fried with kimchi, so this time the kimchi was warm. Warm kimchi was so much better in my opinion.

Remembering that really good dish, I started looking for a kimchi recipe and found one that seemed good. And it was. Today I fried some beef and added the kimchi, really spicy of course because of all the chili, but delicious. Like being back in Taipei. Well, not really, but at least a good effort.

touring sun moon lake on electric bikes

What Alli made when she was home sick and bored in her dorm room in Taiwan. It really makes me laugh! It is videos I made when we where in Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan and had rented electric bikes to go around the lake. We had so much fun.



Warm weather and some sunshine, it was three good weeks I had in Taiwan. Now I am sitting here looking out the bedroom window on a gloomy, grey, Swedish weather dreaming back to the wonderful three weeks.

too many photos from taiwan

A few days ago I started sorting out my photos from the Taiwan-Japan trip. The intention is to post some more photos here and also on Facebook. With the huge amount of photos it takes some time to sort them out. Now I am done with the sorting and have sorted out the ones I want to publish. However, taking a deeper look I realized that even sorted out it amounts to around 500 photos.

I think I need to take a second look. Take away a few. Also problematic since I want to edit several of the photos in photoshop.

I am guessing it might take a few more days until the photos will be published.

But you will get another sneak peak.

the jetlagged night owl

I am usually the night owl. Able to stay awake for hours at night. I do not get tired sitting in front the TV or computer and is not always a good thing. Many nights have I spent in front of a movie or TV series and wanting one episode after another. Tonight though, I had to force myself to stay awake to be able to see the end of the movie. I really wanted to see the end, The Color Purple was on TV and it was such a long time ago since I last saw it.

I am babbling. To get to the point, I am dead tired at 12.30 a.m. which almost never happens. Can it really be jetlag? Perhaps, but strange since I did not feel anything yesterday. I guess you never know and just have to listen to your body and let it get rest and adjusted to the new daily rhythm.

I want it back. I am the night owl.

a good night sleep

Slept 13 ½ hours last night. I went to bed at 9 p.m. dead tired, barely able to keep my eyes open. I woke up at 8.30 a.m. which felt so early but then I remembered going to bed at 9 p.m. the previous night and realized I have gotten plenty of sleep. Feeling quite good I thought about get out of bed but had to wake up first. At 10.30 a.m. I woke up the second time realizing I had falling asleep again.

I seem to have gotten into a good rhythm right away as in Taiwan. Although I did not break the record of sleeping for 15 hours as last time. I somehow doubt I ever will. Unless I go through so many days/hours of not sleeping again. Who knows.

What else do I have to say? I love the snow falling from the sky and do not at all wish I was back in Taipei with degrees above 20.

home sweet home?

22 hour of traveling and I am home in windy and cold Sweden. A really chilly wind met me when stepping out of the airport and I ran to the car and the warmth.

One degree Celsius. That is what I get when I come home.

What else did I get when I came home? Snow. SNOW?! It melted away though since it is not below zero yet. But I guess it will come for real soon.

So were should I go next for some warm weather?

one last hour

All done packing. And I actually have one hour left before I need to grab a cab. Giving myself a tap on the shoulder since I am the incurable time optimist and always do everything in the last minute.

Now I am just waiting for A who is on his way back, and we will crab one last coffee (or tea in my case) before I leave. He has been the perfect host and let me stay in his apartment and all. Now he can have his apartment back and his girlfriend can finally move back in again. Thanks for the patience.

I still do not want to leave.

don't want to...

Now I have to start packing. It is 11 a.m. and I am supposed to met up the rest for lunch in a little more than an hour. Woops. I am always so good with the time planning.

Then my flight for Hong Kong takes of at 20.20 p.m. and I will spoil myself with a taxi ride to the airport since it is so cheap, an hour long ride which costs around 20 euros.

I guess it is time to almost say goodbye. I wish I could stay forever and ever.

best road trip ever

Back from the road trip that was truly amazing. Taiwan has really wonderful nature to offer, there are to few adjectives to describe it all. Here you get a few preview pictures from the Taroko National Park in Taiwan.

Here is our car on the winding, narrow roads in the mountains. When we got back we heard from the Taiwanese that it was crazy that we went driving there. Because you don't really usually.

Do you spot us? So you get an idea how big the canyons really were. Also notice that you cannot see the top of the mountains.

We were driving above the clouds. Our guess is that we were actually as far up as 3500 meters.

road trip!

Back on Monday.

taipei 101

After Wulai today, I squeezed in another Taipei tourist attraction that cannot be missed. The Taipei 101, which is the world's tallest building, well that is a question about definitions. It is the world's tallest building that is finished, Dubai have a building that will take over the title when it is finished. Taipei 101, has 101 floors above ground and 5 beneath ground.

They do however have the fastest elevator in the world, with a speed of 60 km/hour I think it took us 37 seconds to reach the 89th floor and then we could take the stairs two more floors up.

So now I feel quite satisfied with Taipei, I have seen a lot and most of the tourist attractions and have been around to many different areas.

wulai

Today M and me went for a trip to Wulai a town south of Taipei. It was really nice and or course more beautiful scenery. Every time you go outside of the city you get amazed over and over again by the nature and mountains that the island is basically made of.

Had "a few" mosquito bites after my day in Xindian. I am sure there is 50 bites on each leg!

Wulai waterfall is 80 m high.

Statues outplaced in the city, resembling the original Taiwanese people, aborigines.

And there we have me in front of the waterfall.

Did they use Google Translate? Don't they have any people that know Chinese AND English to translate the public signs. 

We took the cable car up to a resort in the mountains.

Really cute resort which was quite big and had all different kinds of things. A pond with a huge amount of fishes!

 M and I as Taiwanese aborigines.

Gorgeous view.

tomorrow: wulai

Tomorrow M and I are heading to Wulai south of Taipei to hopefully see the nice 80 m high waterfall and more beautiful landscape. As by the pictures Wulai seems really nice. Perhaps we can even get to take a dip in a hot spring if we are lucky.

Wulai waterfall  

(pic borrowed from cheeweng on flickr)

sunshine in taipei

Today Xindian, Taipei, was on the schedule and we actually had some sunshine instead of haze. Which is the other end of the red metro line that I took to Denshui last week. A bit of walking in the mountain next to river and the city. Beautiful scenery and many great photos, that I do not really have the energy to post right now but I can offer you one for now.

Beautiful view of Xindian from the mountain.

After a whole day of walking I met up with M to go to the Shilin night market for a couple more hours of walking.

I am doing too much shopping for my own good. Perhaps I should make a pre-packing of my backpack, but I am sure it will be fine. Have bought plenty of accessories that does not take up that much space or weight.

After a whole day of walking it was perfect with a bit of massage. First I got to sit with my feet in a foot bath while getting a neck and shoulder massage. Then she gave my legs and feet a massage, so nice after that much walking. A massage of 45 minutes for only 120SEK (12 euros). I love cheap.

Great foot massage.

back from tokyo

Finally made it back home. Or 'home'. Taipei is my home for another week, going to enjoy it to a maximum.

But seriously, my flight from Stockholm to Taipei took 24 hours door to door with three flights. Tokyo to Taipei door to door took 12 hours and was a direct flight. What is wrong with this picture? Okay, the Tokyo-Taipei trip was estimated to take nine hours door to door but the flight got delayed a lovely three hours due to weather conditions.

But now I am finally at home in Taipei again, stepped into the apartment at 3 a.m. and is still awake after 50 minutes. Just wanted to check my emails after five days of no internet. Also trying to unwind and to get tired, but I might be getting there. It is a day tomorrow as well that I have to enjoy as a tourist here in Taipei.

More about Tokyo later. But it was of course totally wonderful!

next stop

M and me are soon off to.... TOKYO. The others will join tomorrow since they have some more classes today. Us two are going to stay with M's friend that I met on Friday which is really nice. Always of course nicer to stay at somebody's place (and of course cheaper).

So I should now get out of bed and hit the shower. Yeah, I need to pack as well. I have got a little less than two hours now so I better get cracking.

I will be in Japan in a few hours. What a lovely thought.

two days of taipei and danshui

Finally I decided to be a bit touristy and see some of the Taipei spots on Monday. Tuesday I headed out to the coast and saw the town Danshui. Not sure if it is actually a town on its own or a suburb of Taipei. Anyway, it is easy to get there since you can take the metro.

At the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial.

 

 

A dog at our breakfast place, so cute.

Today's breakfast, very healthy.

Took a trip to Denshui, the end station at one metro line, at the coast. The others have class so I took a day touristing by myself. 

 

A break at Starbucks with my favorite tea and a piece of New York cheesecake! Yummy!

 

A street in Danshui.

I spent quite a lot of money in Danshui. Well, at least amount of Taiwanese dollars wise, but in the end it is not much in Swedish crowns. Perhaps I spent NT2000 which is only about SEK400, so that is still quite fine at least when looking at all the things I got. Being a jewelry junkie I bought some fun stuff in all the fun stores there.

the weekend

 Here we have the weekend in some pictures.

 

At Barcode on Friday. With M's Japanese friend that we will be staying with in Tokyo.

Meeting up with classmate J from Uni and her Taiwanese friend.

Dinner comprising of two Swedes, two Danes, and one really nice Taiwanese.

White beer at the German Oktoberfest!

A bit of Helsinki exchange reunion. We went to the National Palace Museum.

And the Sunday evening with unhealthy stuff and movie watching. 

eventful weekend and not much sleep

Perhaps a little short recap of the weekend.
Friday: A nice Korean barbeque with A & A. Then we went to a place called Barcode which was kind of fancy but still a bit casual. We actually got a table so we could sit down and started drinking drinks that we got with the table. In the end it happened that we only had to pay for the drinks and not the table, perhaps they did some mistake, so that was cool.

Saturday: Met up with former JIBS classmate Jenny that lives down south in Taiwan and spent some hours with her. Went to dinner at night for another barbeque but was not so good and they were really cheap since we could not get refills of side dishes, tea, or even rice! Then we met up the other girls at the German Oktoberfest for some white beer and drunken Germans. I stuck with Jenny and her friend Katarina and tagged along to some clubbing. First a place called Pasoul with free bar, then to Room 18 for some better music and nicer atmosphere.

Sunday: After coming home and being in bed at 5 a.m I woke up at 9 a.m. to meet up with Anders for a trip around town. We were meeting up to former exchange friends from Helsinki and it was really nice to meet them again. They took us to the Museum of Contemporary Art and then to the National Palace Museum which was really nice. The latter museum had some really amazing and impressive pieces of art and history and some even from B.C. It is amazing that pieces still exists today after so many years. We finished of with a greasy dinner at Burger King which was just what I wanted after a very tiring day waking up so early. Then we bought some chips, even a chocolate cake, opened a bag of liquorice candies I brought, invited M and A, and rented a movie. Dead tired I feel asleep later and slept for 12(!) hours.

Not the shortest recap it turned out but there you have it. Pictures may appear later.

i am alive

Things have been going on this weekend although I got a bit sick. But I am slowly getting better and have started doing some tourist stuff here in Taipei and have also met new and old friends.