From 20081018_twn_taipei

  A visit to Taiwan really is not complete without seeing the night markets.  I went to pretty much everyone that I could find.  The night markets have changed since when I was a kid.  They used to be just rows of food stalls on the side of big roads or in a little plaza with venders setting up games for kids.  The night markets today are much fancier than before; many have store fronts and even neonlights on the roof covering. So here are some of the food galore found at night markets. Ridiculous amount of food lay out in front, and people pick whatever they want into their basket and they cook for you right away.

From 20081018_twn_taipei

Exotic fruits of all kinds

From 20081018_twn_taipei

Master of Chinese caligraphy… I selected these chinese texts for him and he did it on the spot perfectly!

From 20081018_twn_taipei

Pork bun, vegetable buns, pepper buns, bun buns.. oh wait.

From 20081018_twn_taipei

Hot firing pots - a Taiwanese favorite in the winter

From 20081018_twn_taipei

And meat, fish, seafood skewers deep fried. this puts any McDonald’s deep frid food to shame.

From 20081018_twn_taipei

From 20081018_twn_taipei

And then there’s the famed snake alley Night Market. It’s true. They do have snakes and they serve snake alcoholic drinks, snake soup among others. Oddly enough after trying everywhich weird food on my trip, I skipped on the snakes.

 I also had a chance to visit the national museum where no photos were allowed inside. On display were Chinese artifacts from recent, 2000, 5000 and even 8000 years old. This is a must visit if you have a chance to come to taiwan.

From 20081018_twn_taipei

Many friends whom I went to middle and high school with are now back working in Asia. I met up with my buddy Kevin, in white dress shirt, whose family is in the hotel business in Taiwan. I haven’t seen him in close to 10 years and he is still his old funny, goofy self, but now married with two kids. I can’t imagine being married with kids. What craziness!

From 20081018_twn_taipei

And I will leave with these two mystery words from Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, father of Modern China.  They are supposed to inspire you to work harder wherever you might be, even if you are taking a break from work at the office!

From 20081018_twn_taipei

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Penhu is a group of islands off the western coast of Taiwan.  Many fishing villages spread out over the islands.  I rented a moped like this one and made my way around the islands.  Mine was a measely 50cc, which was way weak, considering the strong winds on the islands.  I did manage to get it close to 70 kph.

The volcanic rocks on the coasts make up unique formations.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

The tourist season to Penghu ended in mid September and the beach was totally empty.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Many buddhist temples were in mid-construction on the islands, but they are not quite finished. Apparently, construction only restarts when people donate money.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Besides the beaches, the highlight on the island was definitely the aquarium, which had some very cool sea creatures in addition to a walk-through sea tunnel.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Believe it or not, this is a shrimp!

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Yup, there is a diver in the big tank feeding the rays, big rock fish with super suction strength, and of course sharks!

From 20081016_twn_penghu

And these funny fish look like they got stepped on.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Penghu also has a preserved traditional village. This village reminded me of my grandma’s house. Corals were used in the walls of these house!

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Food…
Sticky rice cake filled with sesame and covered with peanuts. This is ungodly good.

From 20081016_twn_penghu

Typical taiwanese breakfast - pork buns on the right, “oil sticks” similar to unsweatened donuts wrapped in crunchy sesame bread, and cup of soymilk  

From 20081016_twn_penghu

And I had this shell fish

From 20081016_twn_penghu

both as sashimi, very crunchy texture

From 20081016_twn_penghu

and sauteed

From 20081016_twn_penghu

On the way to Taroko national park in Hualien, my dad and I picked up one of his former students from over 20 years ago.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

His former student who lives in Taitung, a city on the south eastern part of the island, drove us in his big and comfy 15 years old Mercedes along the green, scenic road along the coast. Slight rain came in the early morning, but the sky cleared when we arrived at the park some 3 hours later.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

The pictures I took at Taroko most definitely don’t do justice to the majestic beauty of the canyons and the amazing size and colors of the marble stones.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

Comparing the canyons here to Colca canyon, the world’s deepest, in Arequipa, Peru, I would put them side by side and say that Taroko puts me more in awe simply because the two canyon walls are so close together and the road into Taroko threads through the bottom of the canyon. At many points along the drive, we simply had to stop and admire the awesomeness of the huge rock wall. Much like this one here.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

My dad told me that over 40 years ago, when he was just a junior in college, his classmates and him hiked a whole week here from Taichung in order to collect botanic samples. When they got to Taroko, they saw the huge marble rocks at the bottom of the canyon. They made their way down the canyon slope and slept on the warm rocks, heated the entire day by the sun.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

Look at the different shades and layers on the marble!

From 20081013_twn_taroko

On the way back to Taitung, we found one of my dad’s army buddy, who is from an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan. When he got to the army, he didn’t speak chinese and couldn’t write. With my dad’s help, he could read and write letters home by the time he left the army. Til this day, he still calls my dad his teacher. Admittedly, he’s been drinking the whole day when we arrived.

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

From 20081013_twn_taroko

At the ripe age of sixty something, he still goes hunting wild boars. Here you see a rack of boar jaws hanging on a string. He hunted all of these in one year alone! 

From 20081013_twn_taroko

Having met my dad’s army buddy and hearing him speak Mandarin, I was very proud of what my dad did.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

While some, if not most, people grow up with their family, I grew up in boarding schools since I was 12. I don’t remember much before first grade and memories of elementary school is now somewhat of a blur, so this leaves me with most of my memories being in the US. Nostalgic would not exactly describe my feelings, but I felt very warm when I saw my family at the airport. My mom’s hair has greyed a bit, but by looking at her, you probably won’t guess that she is 60 years old. My dad looks the same as he did a few months ago in Mexico. John, my older brother, has gained a bit of weight; that happens to everyone coming back to Taiwan - the food here is intoxicating in a good way.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

From 20081003_twn_taichung

He is about to be a father some time next spring. Holy crap, I am going to be an uncle. It’s a bit unnerving to think that I am getting older. I was pretty sure you only get older on your birthday. Taiwan has changed while I was away in la la land.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

My mom kept asking me if I remember this street, that building or this other family friend. Of course, I remember none of it. The last time I was here, I was still listening to cassett tapes. My mom has taken up the study of I-Ching, one of the ancient Chinese scrolls that’s supposed to tell you the secrets of the universe. Feng-Shui is a part of this study. I learned from her that as one enters the doorway of the house, “movable furnitures” such as TV and piano should be on your right and “stationary furnitures” such couches should be on your left. Don’t panic next time you enter your living room!

From 20081003_twn_taichung

  My dad has kept busy with his pineapple research; here you see him with one of the local farmer whose land he rents to grow heat, cold, disease resistent vegetations. I attended one of his lectures, my first, at school on renewable bio-fuel. I felt like I should have known first hand much more about what he does at his job, but at last now I know.
  My brother has just finished his 3 and some years of military service with the Taiwanese Defense Department; luckily for him, he was only required to do a few months of basic training after which he was sent to work at a defense department affiliated consumer electronics company.
Taiwan’s tourism industry other than Taipei and a few main attractions is not well developed nor promoted yet, but there are definitely many places worth visiting.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

From 20081003_twn_taichung

My mom and I first stopped at a garden/cafe/restaurant. On a monday afternoon, the garden was tranquil and peaceful. A small waterway speckled with rocks and pebbles surround the main building; there are even two ducks playing in the water. The garden is petite, but much attention was paid to every detail.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

From 20081003_twn_taichung

From 20081003_twn_taichung

4 leaf clover on every stem!

From 20081003_twn_taichung

As we drove around the countryside, I saw many chicken wire mixed with plastic net, covering fruit trees. They look like this.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

Apparently, this net would force the trees to grow more horizontal rather than vertical, making the harvest process easier. I don’t know if the farmers used machines to harvest, but if they didn’t, shorter trees sure would make picking fruits much easier.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

From 20081003_twn_taichung

We then stopped by a private monkey reservation area. The family who run the monkey garden grew up in the mountains where the monkeys reside too. When they were kids, they hated the monkeys, but now they have set up an area for tourists. The monkeys here are still, to a large extent, wild because the owners have taken great care to not have tourists feed them. The monkies would come hang out and play by the viewing area for the entire day and then wait for their feeding of sweet potato around 4 pm. Then around 5pm, the different group swing and hop back into the mountain.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

Two, maybe three tribes, make up almost 200 monkies who come for their daily feeding. Each tribe has a monkey king. It’s easy to pick him out of a group; he’s the biggest and most mean looking one of the bunch. Baby monkies hug and feed on mama monkey while mama monkey walk around on all fours.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

When the monkies ate, they stuff two food-holding pouches beneath and to the right and left of their jaws. A few minutes later, they would then push on these pouches to get the food out to swallow. It’s kind of like a cow regurgitating their food except the food never go into their stomaches in the first place.

Now food, no worries, no snakes or monkies.

From 20081003_twn_taichung

Gelatin balls, red bean and taro pastes over shaved ice. Delicious!

From 20081003_twn_taichung

A meat ball covered in gelatin layer topped with mildly spicy sauce

From 20081003_twn_taichung

More meat balls - this one from Fujian province

From 20081003_twn_taichung

Black Horn shaped nut

From 20081003_twn_taichung

and lots of them.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

From Washington DC, we flew north, over the arctic ocean north of Alaska, crossed over Russia and down into Tokyo. The massive airplane has 5 seats bundled together in the center isle. The first class seats reminded me of the bed buses in Peru; they looked super comfy. After watching parts of Speedracer the movie 3 times, eating United Airline brand instant ramen noodle and dozing on and off for 13 hours, we landed in Narita International Airport.
So I go to the ATM to take out some bills. And the smallest amount I could dispense was a 10000 yen bill, or roughly $100. I remember that in Quito some ATM machines won’t give out more than $100; this was going to be a price shocker of a 27 layover

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

My first stop was a pachinko parlor where businessmen still in suits and young men and women sit in front of these pinball machines and try to get the falling pinball into a center slot. Ok sounds easy.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

I tried my luck with 1000 yen; too bad every thing was in Japanese and all I had to control was a little knob and 3 buttons which did something. I will take the 250 metals balls as souvenir next time.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Next up, video arcade. As a kid growing up, my impression of Japan was that they were crazy for comic books and video games; that has not changed much. This one Japanese went berserk on the drum video game; there are about 10 columns on the screen and each column has horizontal lines that move from top to bottom. When the lines hit the bottom of the screen, he has to hit a specific drum. I am pretty sure he comes here to practice after work everyday because he was too good at that game.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

There was also this DJ video game complete with surround sound. He only needed a few gogo dancers.
Everywhere in the city, I saw “smoking zones.” Apparently, you are only supposed to smoke in these areas. That would be nice to have in the States.
At night, I went out to the nightlift district in Roppongi. On the streets many Jamaicans and Indians, with their one-line Japanese, tried hustling bypassers into clubs. Old Japanese businessman hanging one arm over his associate’s shoulder walk into and out of bars. Young professionals dressed in sharp fitted suits carried tired looks in their eyes; they had just left the office and it’s already after eleven. But it’s thursday night, so of course, they have to go out.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

This reincarnation of Budda sumo wrestler did the Souljaboy Superman dance with his other sumo buddy at a club I was at. I wonder if kids rub his belly for good luck.

At 6:30 in the morning, the club was about to empty when I saw a few westerns still drinking away, definitely wasted. What do you know? They work in finance. One of them, a French guy, trades exotic equities for an European bank; he said he is down for the year. I don’t know if he was drinking to forget his problems, but my guess would be that this is how professionals in Japan live. Party til the morning, a few hour of quick nap, lots of coffee and then start the day.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

I subwayed to the Meiji Peace Temple originally built in the early part of the 20th century to commemorate the emperor during the Meiji era. Japanese come and pray for peace, love, health, educational achievement and others; they write their wish on a wooden plank and hang it around a holy tree. I enjoyed the peacefulness of the temple situated right in the middle of Tokyo. I felt as if I was in the middle of the forest.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Next stop Tsukiji seafood market, the largest in Japan and possibly the world. Streets of Japanese restaurants surround the Tsukiji; 2 hour wait lines pile up outside two famous restaurants which are listed in guide books while the other restaurants are half empty. Most people choose the Chef’s choice where the Sushi Chef picks out what he thinks are best fish of the day; you don’t really know what you are getting but you trust that what you get is the best.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Walking into the market itself, I got lost pretty much immediately. Every stalled looked the same as the one next to it; huge variety of seafood were everywhere; enormous tuna lie in refridgerators while some other uncut ones lie covered in paper.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Check out the size of this knife used to cut Tuna.
Early morning at 5am, fish are auctioned off and then each stall cut the fish into smaller chunks and sell them to restaurants to be prepared.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Fish Eggs.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Bigger sacks of fish eggs.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

So… this is what scallops look like. Huge!

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Ikura, more fish eggs, in its natural state

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

I remember seeing these in Peru, I think they are called Lapa in Spanish, but not sure what they are called in any other language

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Jose, Luis - Remember these little river crabs we ate at that japanese restaurant on Lincoln Road?
The rest of the pictures at the market are all here

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

With only a few hours left in Japan, I swung by the Toyota model car building, hoping to see some future models.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

Trying out their control system.

At the subway terminal, I stopped at the grocery market there and found these ridiculously priced fruits. Before you look at the price tag, make a guess as to how much a strand of grape and a melon could possibly cost. Ready? Here they are.

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

60 Dollar strand of grape and…. the Grand finale

From 20081001_jap_tokyo

$100 USD melon.

Tokyo though heavily populated seemed orderly.  I think a lot of that has to do with the culture of the Japanese people.  With designated smoking zones, I hardly saw anyone smoking when they are not in the smoking zone.  At the subway  everyone followed the rules of the escalators where people standing are on one side so others in a hurry can walk pass on the other side. 

Then at the airport, I had some bottles of liquids which were slightly over 3 ounces.  They didn’t grab the bottles and toss into the garbage can without asking me.  The person there actually asked me if it would be ok to squeeze out some liquid and cut the bottle smaller down to 3 ounces.  I couldn’t believe it!  Was he actually going to do a little art project with my bottles?  Indeed.  He took out a pair of scissors and some tape, squeezed the liquid into a big jar of other liquids, cut out a second of my bottles and then taped the whole thing together.  So there is this other nice way of dealing with passengers that I am not so used to.

I was impressed with Japan even though in 27 hours I went to the ATM twice and I didn’t even pay for a hotel! 

I am in Taiwan now with my family. After 16 years in the US, I am back home.

Warren Mosler, a well-respected economists, now has a blog to express his market and public policy views.

http://www.moslereconomics.com/

If you are interested in economics and finance, this is a great place to get unique views on how to solve our current problems.

“El Mulato”

From 20080930_col_cali

On the first night getting to Cali, I went out to a place called Zaparoco, a popular place for salsa.  A german girl I met in Quito also recommended this place to me.  There I found the salsa atmosphere that I was looking for in Cuba.  There is nothing but salsa there.  Calians started trickling in around 10:30pm.  By 11 the place was packed full.  People danced on the dance floor, in the isles, by their tables.  People brought their own cow bell, baby twin conga (I don’t know the actual name for the instrument) and a whole array of instruments to the salsa bar, sang and played along with the music.  They love the music and they dance because they love the music.  Dancing to them is secondary to the music.  In the bar, you can hear live music from all around you because at every other table, someone is playing an instrument.  I felt as if I was in the middle of a live band.  Because I was.  This indeed is the salsa capital of Colombia and possibly the world.

From 20080930_col_cali

  So my first class in Cali was with Lina, one of the girls from the Swing Latino Group. We went through the basic footwork of Colombian style salsa, but basically I figured that I wouldn’t be able to dance this style when I get back to the US. So we switched the focus to strictly shines. And boy, I was in for a workout! The shines she showed me didn’t have much syncopated timing, but many of them required balancing on one foot while shining with the other foot. One of the shines is basiaclly a kick-ball-change to the front and then kick-ball-change to the side. Then repeat with the other foot to the front and to the side. This is one shine where you can basically set a metronome and speed up your footwork after doing it 5000 times. When you can do it super fast, send me a video
Her shines looked smooth, practicing 8 hours a day would do it, as she does when she trains for competition.

Carlos and I

From 20080930_col_cali

I met a couple who taught salsa in Cali, but after dancing with them and telling them that I wanted to learn shines, they recommended that I take classes from Carlos Paz, one of the well known salsa soloist from the last generation. On a sunday night, we found him in one of the “viejotec”, salsatec for old people. I didn’t see him dance there but did see a lot of incredible footwork by Colombian grandpas in shinny wing-tip shoes. My last day in Cali, I had two hours with him where he showed me one shine after another. I tried my best to repeat it on the spot after watching him do a few times and then jot down the basics.  I hope I can make out from my scribble what the shines were.  You can see one of his performance here 

I definitely took a lot away from Cali; I only wish I had more time there.

I expected only a 3 hour layover in Tokyo but as it turned out, my layover was 1 day and 3 hours.  I took the opportunity to spend the night out in Roppongi, the night life district in Tokyo and then sightseeing the next day.  Tokyo is a very foreigner friendly city.  Knowing only a few basic Japanese phrases, I easily filled my 27 hours there without getting lost.  More on it next!