Company that I work for is in its early years and couple of months ago someone realized we haven’t been out as a group hence it was decided we would head out on May 1st for an outing. Since it was Thurday and we had to work the next day, we opted out of Hiking and instead went for a leisurely late morning walk followed by a lunch late afternoon.
Our company is based in Jhubei, Hsinchu county and since most of the people live nearby we decided to head north instead and planned a day trip to Yilan.
First we visited “Luodong Sports Park” in Yilan township just as everybody else does. Its a huge park and I mean real huge.47 hectors to be specific. It is meant for people of all ages. Young legs can enjoy knocking tennis balls on couple of courts or sweat on basketball courts or have a relaxing time swimming in the pool. One can also rent bicycle and ride inside the park. There is a small artificial lake in the middle. Older people can enjoy a peaceful walk or else sit in the wooden posts nearby the lake or spend time feeding fish and/or ducks in the lake.
A fascinating building lurks behind the park
Only tennis court that was not occupied
Riding bicycle inside the park seems to be a favorite with visiting people
squirrel noshing on orange
Nice spot to spend quite hours
Park lake
Freaking hot weather made us take several breaks during our walk around the park. Just nearby the lake there is a small shop that sells drinks and cakes in addition to renting bicycles. Couple of people brought their families along with them. We spent couple of hours in the park as everybody seemed to enjoy the peaceful environment away from the daily grind. The park also houses an awesome star grazing dune. Since the park is huge and there ain’t many lights one should be able enjoy a beautiful starry night in late evening there.
Around 12:30 we left the park and headed out to Sanshing which is famous for Green Onions. We stopped by a small restaurant somewhere in Sanshing. Loads of people made a stop there to nosh on hot and tasty “Zhong yo bing” (Green Onion Pancakes) and something called “Po roh” or “Pu rho” (spare the romanization of Chinese words).
Green Onion Pancakes. Personally I prefer “Zhong zhua Bing” though,
“Po Ro” it looks pretty similar to favorite Indian snack known as Bhajiya or Pakoda. Big difference between them is of pork filing used in “Po Ro”
The restaurant seemed one of its kind and it was interesting to see so many people flocking the place, waiting 30 to 60 mins for the tables to clear up. We also did wait for 30 mins. I usually do not like to wait for food but there was plenty of photo ops nearby so I didn’t mind.
Green onion fields in Sanshing
Stuffed with food next I was looking forward to see pacific ocean but the food was too good I guess as it got better of the other people and they decided to opt out of any physical activity. This in fact turned out to be great decision as instead of sea shore we went to a wood clog museum .
When I first heard about it the first thought that came to my mind was “How in the world someone can walk using some freaking wood shoes?”. Naturally I was pretty curious to see it. The attentive staff at the museum walked us to the second floor where they showed us a video that talked about the long history of wood clogs and Baimi Community in Suao and it made me realize the significance of their tradition and the overall clogging industry. It was a fascinating experience to say the least. Today I dug in for more information and found these two amazing piece of work done to highlight wood clog museum. I will strongly suggest to go ahead and check both the articles in taipei times and my favorite magazine in Taiwan, taiwan review magzine for more information.
wood clog museum
hand painted wooden soles
Clogs on display
The museum also has some huge wooden clogs on display.
well you could either slip into your shoes or sleep on your shoes ;)
Apart from artwork clogs there are apparently a huge selection of clogs especially designed to massage ones feet
Wood clog museum is located at a gorgeous location only problem being the huge stone quarries behind the museum dumping fine sand on it on daily basis. Well there are regulations for that kind of things but it still has some noticeable effect on the surroundings.
On final note I would say it was an excellent outing considering it was long due and everyone seemed to have a great time visiting park and the museum not to forget the amazing lunch we had in Sanshing.
For more photos check out my Yilan Day Trip Flickr set
Well Jiufen is known for many things. It is a popular weekend getaway for Taipei residents and a tourist attraction. One can enjoy a magnificent vista of surrounding mountains and their foothills merging into sea or hike on Mt. Jilong for a beautiful seascape or visit Jinguashi for another handful of tourist attractions. I and Selina decided to spend a relaxing afternoon there. Our plan was to step through the alleys of Jiufen old street, visit one of the many teahouses on Jinshan street for an afternoon tea and possibly in the late evening have a good look at the well talked about night-view from Jiufen and then head back to Taipei.
Jiufen being a very popular destinations is quite easy to reach. You can catch an hour long bus ride from Zongxiao Fuxing MRT station or as we did, from Taipei take a 45 min train ride to Reifang and get on a 15 min bus ride to Jiufen from there.
We arrived Jiufen at around noon and quickly got into the business of exploring old street shops. We were starving so first up were food shops. Apart from some regulars like meatball noodles and vegetable soups we feasted on some possibly Jiufen specials like peitou meatball and mixed-vegetable rools with a scoop of ice cream.
Peitou meatball
Mixed vegetable Rolls with peanut powder and two ice cream scoops
[Diclaimer: The two food pictures ain't mine. I copied them from a Chinese websites selling these products. The url is generated on search so I can not link them here.]
Its amusing to see how they made peanut powder for the rolls.
Jiufen Old Street
Old street is known for its stepped alleyways illuminated by Chinese red lanterns hung all the way on both sides. Apart from food stalls it boasts exceptional number of exquisite artwork shops [I came across a crazy mask store that had a ghost like ambiance], stores selling leather products and several tea shops. There are also quite a few stores that sells Indian stylized cloths. Like many other Taiwan market places its unbelievable how they house so many shops in such a small place. As we made our way up to the Jiufen elementary school we had already spent three hours navigating through the crowds, getting in and out of numerous shops, queuing up to buy food. There is a great store that sells Yu Yuen [yam or taro balls I guess] at the far end of old street. We bought some, sat on the steps of school and enjoyed the magnificent evening view of Jiufen still bustling with flocks of people. Our plan for an afternoon tea on Jinshan street was long forgotten.
Mt. Jilong on our right looked inviting so we decided to spend exploring Jiufen at night and take a hike up on Mt. Jilong early next morning. That meant next we had to look for a nice hotel to spend our night. Finding a accommodation for a night in Jiufen looked pretty easy as lots of locals provide their private house rooms for accommodation but we went for a B&B hotel run by a Taiwanese and his Vietnamese wife. As most Taiwanese tend to be, this friendly & courteous couple managed a lovely little cozy hotel up on the hill of Jiufen. Surprisingly the night view room cost us a meagre 1700 NT$ as compared to ones near/on old streets costing well over 3600 NT$ per night.
After an hour or two of resting our tired knees we went back to old street for some shopping. It was late evening and street had receded as most of the day tourist left the scene. The shops were still open and it had become hell lot easier to get in to have a look at stuff without bumping into others.It was hard not to be bitten by a shopping bug. I picked up a nice wallet for myself and as the “Mothers Day” is nearing, it was fitting to get something for my mother. I bought a brown leather handbag for her, which I must admit was chosen by Selina. I am quite pathetic when it comes to choose anything that concerns fashion or style.
We came back to the hotel only to find that It shared a wall with a graveyard. I guess that solves the mystery of low fares as compared with the other places LOL. I don’t believe in good or bad spirits or ghosts for that matter but I guess majority of Taiwanese do so Selina was pretty uncomfortable with this fact. At least our rooms were on the opposite side facing Jiufen town. A spectacular night panorama of Jiufen helped calm her nerves. I haven’t had time for reading lately so I spent my rest of the evening reading notes written by Che on his motorcycle ride he took with his friend across south america and also peeking through my window once in a while to see ships coming in and out of Keelung bay and circling around Keelung Islet [Peace Island].
It was the glare coming from window that finally poked me and brought me back from my dreamless slumber at 8 am next morning. I stuck my head out of the window to breathe fresh air. Sun was well up on the hill behind our hotel and showered left half of Jiufen on steep mountainside with morning sunshine. I felt it was uncomfortably hot at that hour. The heat in addition to the fact I will be heading to Yilan coming thursday for a small outdoor trip with my colleagues made me drop the plan of climbing up Mt. Jilong. So instead we decided to grab the free breakfast at the hotel and head for Jishan street for early afternoon tea as we had decided initially.
Its weird now when I think about it that 2 years of living in Taiwan has had made me kinda mild and how I was feeling 30 plus temperature an awful lot hotter than it really was considering I come from a small town in India which boasts 40 plus average temperatures during summer.
Since it was pretty hot when we stepped outside and we were still craving for Yu Yuen from the earlier evening we made our way back to the store at the end of old street again. On our way we came across a group of old people taking their photography lessons. Jiufen alleyways provides perfect photo ops. Unfortunately at this point I realized my camera had started playing antics on me. For auto settings the pictures were coming as if the lens were staring right into a bright white light. I was determined to take some nice pictures from this trip so I spent lot of time figuring out what went wrong and how can I fix that. Finally it turned out that I could no longer take pictures with auto setting and auto focus. If only I zoom in on the subject I could take a decent picture. This too was of erratic nature and some times I had to retake many shots. Nevertheless I still managed to take some decent pictures.
My lousy attempt at art photography
I couldn’t find any coffee shop nearby.
On the way to our hotel.
After feasting on yet another Yu Yuen we took a small path along the sidewalls of school to Wufankeng Park. We were not interested to actually visit the park. We found the path finally merged into Jishan street and that is where we chose a small cafe & tea house to spend our afternoon. It was too early to order for afternoon tea so coffee was first on the menu. Coffee was terrible but the place was quite nice. Unlike other retro teahouses on Jishan street this one had a modern look with red glossy walls, simple but classy curtains and lanterns and Bose speakers were playing impressive collection of smooth jazz tunes.
Our Coffee table with a spectacular backdrop of Keelung bay.
Coffee table for smokers.
Natural light added a great flavor to the ambience of cafe shop.
I went up to see the the tables on the open terrace. It was too windy out there so we decided to sit indoor.
The cafe shop is situated at a perfect location, right in the middle of the mountain range that appears to embrace Jiufen village. With my camera that limiting me to take wide angle shot which was exactly what required to capture the scene out of the cafe window, least I could do was to take a video. I took it from the balcony for more clarity as glass from the window was reflecting the cafe shop lights.
The video first shows Mt. Jilong on the right and numerous other sea facing teahouses. It then moves across to left panning on Keelung bay and surroundings lower parts of the mountain merging into the sea. The turtle shaped island in the distance is known as Keelung Islet or Peace Island.
Finally it was time for our much awaited afternoon tea :D
Afternoon tea set for 280 NT$ included a fruit tea pot, a small smoked chiken pizza and a milk pudding for desserts.
Reluctantly or so we left the shop at around 5 pm and walked along the Jishan street. The decision to choose the cafe shop at the far end of Jishan street turned out to be an excellent one as we saw increasing number of people crowded in the teahouses which were at the start of Jishan street.
Obligatory picture of the steps flanked with teahouses on both sides
It was a fantastic getaway and nice weekend albeit a little expensive one I guess I won’t mind to get back there in near future again.
[Just a quick note before you read the post. I haven't posted for a while as things had got real hectic after coming back from India. Now it seems like the tide has moved back a little bit giving me some space to breathe. Hopefully I will be able to write more consistently to improve on my writing and also keep you guys informed that I'm still here]
Long before I started my blog, I had made my way to Yangmingshan for the first time. Unfortunately it started raining as if rain Gods had kept it on hold and the moment I got off the bus they let it go. I had nothing on me, well of course except my cloths. As I stood there, stupefied, the kind bus driver took pity on me and gave me an umbrella, light brown and white flowers painted on the top, apparently left behind by someone. I paced couple of yards out of the bus station in my desperation to find some shelter. Moments later strong winds sent the umbrella whirling down into the thickets crowded on the roadside slope. I turned around to ascertain if I had caught eye of the bus driver who gave it to me. Luckily I hadn’t. As others scurried to get under some shed to save themselves from the pouring water, I ran across the street and into the Starbucks. As expected I found it packed to the rafters as numerous people took refuge there. I ordered a latte and spent couple of hours running dry there. It looked like rain wouldn’t let up so I had no choice but to make a dash for the return bus to get back into Taipei.
Several months later I decided to see Yangmingshan again. This time I started at 1 pm from Jhongli on a Sunday afternoon, a big mistake. Loads of people decided to hop on the train for Taipei that afternoon. I had to let go of one train and wait another 25 minutes for the next one simply because I couldn’t get through the crowd before the familiar whistle for departure rang. In those next 25 minutes more people got on the platform than those who boarded the first one. But I fought my way through the crowd with success this time. It was almost 5:30 pm when I reached Yangmingshan after a rather long ride on the blue local train and a 30 minute wait for the bus at Jiantan. Already low on energy, thanks to the long hours I spent at work and the commute, I felt totally exhausted and had no mood to explore the trails. I just walked around in the thick maze in and around the bus station for 20 minutes and decided to call it a day. I still have no idea why I did that. I went there to see Yangmingshan and Taipei at night but moments after I set foot on the yellow mountain I wanted to get back to my cozy little place and cuddle up in my bed. Besides that the haze was so thick that I couldn’t see Taipei city lights. So I gave in to my lazy self and went back to Jiantan MRT station. Much to my surprise I saw a Shilin-JungLi Bus pulling into the small bus stop in front of Shilin Night market. I took my chance to get on the bus presuming “Jungli” would be JhongliI. A correct call as it turned out to be Jhongli, my home in Taiwan, in the end.
Last to last Saturday, determined to put my Yangmingshan fiascoes behind me once for all, Me along with Selina made third attempt to see beauty of Yangminshan which I had only known through pictures, I got on a MRT at Dapinglin where I was staying overnight. 13 stations later we were standing at Jiantan station. While we waited for Anurag and his wife Reena, I found this little piece of paper on “information for visitors” counter that read “Turn left at exit 1 and take red 5 bus”.
We stepped outside the station and turned left to look for Red 5 bus as advised. I saw bunch of people getting on a red bus at the bus stop. We had to make a quick dash to get in and we made it in time.
Our first stop on Yangmingshan was the same Startbucks that I took cover in on my first visit. It was almost 10:30 in the morning and I was starving. A hot Latte and a ham-cheese-puff later we were off to the next stop. We hoped on to a smaller bus this time to Zhuzihu.
There we came across a small plot of ground that housed numerous Calla Lily flowerpots. Lots of people made a stop there to snap a picture or two with the flowers.
After spending couple of minutes there we were clueless about the next stop so we just walked along the road. Couple of yards down the road an old lady cajoled us to visit her Calla lily flower farm. She led us through a narrow alleyway coated with black tar along a school building compound and then onto a back street at the end of which we came upon her farm.
School playground as seen from the back street
I comforted myself with the mild breeze and walked along a narrow strip that cut through the farm midway, watching the beauty of Calla lilies as they seemed to quiver and swayed to and fro in the wind.
Other farms seemed to attract more people than the one we were at. For 100 NT$ one could wear the giant rubber boots, get all muddy in the farm land and gather 7 flowers to take home. As we didn’t want to carry any package with us we were just happy to watch other people enjoy taking pictures on the farm and get their bunch of flowers.
45 minutes later we were on another mini bus to Cingtiangang Visitor Center. On reaching there I occupied myself with my point and shoot camera while Anurag tried to decipher the map mounted besides the bus stop. I took some lousy pictures of less imposing edifices covered with mist.
After much contemplation over several trails Anurag decided to hike along Jianboli Trail which later turned out to be an excellent decision. As what we gathered from the map, the trail was said to be about 3 KM descent from Cingtiangang visitor center to somewhere down the yellow mountain on to another bus stop. Along the trail we were supposed to come upon Jyansih Waterfall and Cingtiangang grassland. Before setting off ourselves on the trail we dutifully stuffed our backpacks with loads of chips and water.
We sauntered along a thin path occasionally covered with small puddles through an all green world. It had rained earlier in the morning but through out the walk we didn’t hit a single drop of water except some shot from the tree tops by the wind. First several hundred meters traversed on an even surface with couple of turns at random angles.
Silence on this less crowded path enthralled me. I realized noises of the daily grind such as the microwave buzzer, rings of office IP phones and the indecipherable conversations that follow them, “door closing/opening” messages on the elevator, occasional printer cry for “Out of paper”, buzz from the coffee brewer were left far behind me. We walked in this somewhat sombre environment mostly due to the heavy mist that brooded over the trail, content, in small passages without uttering a word for several minutes at times.
Soon we hit Jyansih waterfall. It wasn’t a great sight but nonetheless the sound of water rumbling and rustling through an uneven surface and finally crashing on the feet of a giant greenish steep rock amused us. Anurag apparently tired from the walk jumped at the opportunity to cool off his feet. He quickly took off his shoes and got into the water. Anurag amused himself with the streaming water running through the corners between the bed rocks formed at random angles and later coaxed me into getting in the rocky bed. I took off my shoes and carefully put my feet into the water. At first freaking cold water sent shivers up to my spine but then it was all fun. While wondering what it could have hidden underneath I picked my spot on a small neat rock that I expected to hold my weight which I guess it did
While sitting on the waterfall’s uneven surface I could see this small stony bridge with rugged looking wooden railings. Lack of light and usual limitations of my camera made it difficult to capture waterfall scenes. After a brief stop at the waterfall we resumed our journey to the next destination, Cingtiangang Grassland. Before grassland plateau which is actually off the course of main trail by 400 meters, we came upon a magnificent field. It looked like a ranch reserved for buffaloes enclosed by high wooden rails. Since the buffaloes were nowhere near the ranch we spent time taking some more pictures.
Selina catching her breath
Anurag and Reena
I have put up a small video to let you better understand the beauty of that spot.
Grassland plateau disappointed us as we found the mud brought over by the overnight rain blanketed it hiding all grass underneath it. That crushed my mid afternoon lie-down-and-live-in-the-moment fantasy. Nevertheless that 800 meter diversion was all worth.
Soon the mist took over the grassland forcing us to flee the place and rejoin the main trail. On rejoining we found the trail became a steep descent. Among several others one thing that I like about hiking most is it makes me forget all the good/bad/ugly things in the life and just focus on getting onto that next spot without crashing and tumbling down the hill. It feels like a kind of Zen meditation to me. Rest of the walk back down the mountain went in peaceful retrospection. Towards the end out of nowhere we directly came upon a civilized road, right besides a restaurant. Evidently there we saw a bus stop with a small crowd waiting for a bus. We waited for a while and then took a bus back to Jiantan MRT station.
For more pictures please check my Yangmingshan Flickr set
Inspired by guest post at unclutterer.com from Leo of zenhabits.net fame :D In reality this procrastination of clearing my desk was thrust upon me by my somewhat busy schedule but this afternoon when some gentlemen took a visit to our office I realized how uncluttered and gross my desk had become. I felt embarrassed. Didn’t take me a great deal of time to clear my desk as I just dumped everything that was on the desk into a carton :P
Late in the morning yesterday, Frances, who takes care of almost anything from administration to hiring new people to arranging meetings/outings to business travels in our company,appeared at my desk with a US postals brown box addressed to me. It took me several seconds to realize that I had received a shipment because I don’t get a mail a great deal here. In fact the only bundle I ever received in Taiwan before contained my papers that I needed to file for work visa.
I didn’t bother to read the postal receipt stuck on top of the box and took out the tapes. There I found three hardback books, gleaming and almost shouting out “Surprise !!!”.
Couple of weeks ago I happened to read about Mystery Box Charity from 800ceoread blog and the idea struck a chord with me. I instantly registered and checked out an order for one mystery box.
800CEORead recently held their first ever Best Business Book Awards for several categories.Apparently 800ceoread had received loads of business books from eager authors and publishers all over the globe and still continues to I believe. They had this noble thought to bundle up 3 random books submitted for the awards in a mystery box and sale for a humble prise of 20$ and chip in all money brought forth from this activity for a great cause room to read .
What is room to read? Here is the “about us” from them
John Wood, Founder and CEO, launched Room to Read after a trek through Nepal. He visited several local schools and was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages to build sustainable solutions to their educational challenges.
Room to Read began working with rural communities in Nepal in 2000 to build schools and establish libraries. The organization’s geographic reach expanded rapidly as significant needs and opportunities were identified in Vietnam (2001), Cambodia (2002) and India (2003). The Asian Tsunami in December 2004 provided a catalyst for entry into Sri Lanka followed shortly by Laos. In 2006, we expanded to our second continent by launching Room to Read in South Africa.
I got copies of Negotiation Genius , The Coming China Wars (Where they will be fought & How they can we won) & The Oil and the Glory each costing over 20$ each now wasn’t that a sweet deal :D
Out of these 3 books only Negotiation Genius seems can be classed under “business book” category. I had already decided to to gift one book from this mystery box to my boss and its ridiculously simple to guess now it will be a copy of “Negotiation Genius”.
The Coming China Wars title looks catchy but after going through some of the search results, amazon reviews and especially a review titled “China bashing for dummies” I guess I’m not so sure if i want to spend time on it. It might be heading straight to a used book store or a public library.
The Oil and The Glory tackles history of international politics in oil business, a subject I am least interested in but after running through some pages of it I have decided I will give it a try. If it doesn’t hold my interest for more than 5 pages it will follow the “china bashing” book.
So this might have left me with nothing to read but there was one more little surprise in that little box. 8CR team had also packed a free copy of their first ever magazine “In the Books”. Lots of snap reviews of business books of 2007 and some great articles such as the introductory “Why we love business books more than ever” by Erika Andersen. Did you know that the first classic business book of the western world was Il Principe written by Machiavelli.He offered advice he thought would be most valuable to them in consolidating their power and creating thriving and profitable governments. Its another thing that now it is mostly read as a cautionary tale an example of how NOT to lead LOL
Well on the final note I would like to say a BIG thank you to 8CR team for providing an interesting opportunity to contribute in a great cause and also congratulate them on Mystery Box Success.
