BBQ afternoon in Sanxia

On Saturday, forecasted weekend showers didn’t bother turning up so we went ahead with our plan to spend an afternoon in Sanxia, BBQing with my sister-in-law’s family and their friends. The place was somewhere in Sanxia outskirts, couple minutes away from AnChuGong hospital where our Susan was born. We had to navigate complex maze of narrow roads flanked with gorgeous rice paddies and occasional lotus field on either side to reach it. I had been there just a weekend before and that helped me find it without any help this time. It is an old house built with a minimalist approach and apparent lack of stuff in the house was amusing and pleasing at the same time. It has a private compound and that is where we were supposed to BBQ.

I couldn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked since my camera was pretty low on battery. My battery charger is lying somewhere in our Changhua house. I left it there on our last trip but still I am quite surprised that the battery lasted that long considering I was there couple weeks ago.

I wasn’t sure how many people were expected but it turned out to be a LOT and it meant lots of car. What seemed like a large empty space filled up in no time leaving less space for children to run around or ride bicycles.

In a flash grills were setup and everybody got down to BBQing/Grilling or whatever. My SIL’s husband runs a small tea-coffee-juice drinks store chain and hence had arranged various flavors of teas to go with BBQ. That made the humidity and heat a lot bearable.

I barely knew anyone there but by the end of it made couple friends, one of them was a former pilot.

Later in the evening I slipped out for a bit. Just wanted to loosen up and also take a look at a temple that I saw on our way. I hardly bumped into someone in one hour of walking. I didn’t quite enjoy the overcast skies, occasional banter coming from some house and lifeless roads. I was particularly wary of stray dogs and fortunately didn’t ran into any of them. Well I did ran into two of them but they were not even close to threatening me.

I walked by a workshop where couple young tattooed blokes were working on a metal ladder. Sparks of soldering and ambient light made a good sight. No one would have noticed me as long as I kept my mouth shut but I had to walk up to one of them and ask politely if I could take their photo. And that they didn’t agree so I just walked ahead feeling a little disappointed. I kept walking shooting stray cats and rusty old car on the side of road on my way.

After what seemed like eternity I realized I wasn’t even close to the temple so turned back and came back in time when everyone was singing a birthday song to celebrate someone’s birthday with a huge cake. And after that another and thankfully last round of seafood grilling commenced.

By the end of it I was sick of eating and just sat on the compound ground gazing aimlessly into dark sky above. Folks had started leaving, making there way back home slowly. We were the last one to leave, not before promising to come back again, most likely during moon festival.

Dragon boat festival vacation

Better late than never ;) Here are some pictures from dragon boat festival vacation that we spent in Changhua and Nantou county.

On Friday dragon Boat races took place at several locations across Taiwan and we had planned to witness one in Lugang. Anurag and Reena joined us in Changhua one the same morning. Unfortunately we were a bit late to catch the action. Nevertheless we then wandered on Lugang’s old street sampling foods and Lugang delicacies. We found ourselves getting in and out of every other store on our way just to escape unbearable afternoon heat.

No action. All we could see was this stationary dragon boat on display

Ja La

Cap Eyes

We had left Susan with Selina’s sister at her Changhua house and glad we did because the heat and continuous dragging around would have been very hard on her.

free green onion pancakes

Lugang Mazu temple was bustling with hordes of people and we thought we would never get in. Luckily people were lining up for the free green onion pancakes distributed by temple and the actual line to get inside the temple was pretty short. I have been to handful of temples in Taiwan but this was the first time I found cameras weren’t allowed indoors.

Feng Chia Night Market crowd – photo by Anurag

Later in the night we went to Feng Chia night market in Taichung. BIG MISTAKE. I have been to Feng Chia several times but this particular day it was crazy out there. Somewhere in the middle we got stuck in people jam and it took us good part of an hour just to get through that 100m section. At times I felt like I was moving at an inch per minute speed. At the very first opportunity we got out of the line,went through the Feng Chia University compound and bought a bowl of mala chou tofu from one of our favorite restaurant thingy just next to university gate. After all that days walking and Feng Chia mayhem, all we wanted was to get back to Susan. We missed her dearly throughout the day.

Next day we started in the direction of Xitou but on the way,not surprisingly, heard on radio that the place was packed and roads were full of cars. We turned our way to QingJing farm/Hehuan mountain but traffic on the way was terrible. It is no longer fun to get out on weekends or public holidays anymore. Reluctantly we chose to go to sun moon lake even though we had been there several times except for Reena. On our way though we saw a board of Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village which seemed like an amusement park. 30 minutes and 700 nt$ each got us inside and we found ourselves in the parking lot which was apparently a beautiful lawn opened since all other usual parking lots were full.

Lawn parking

skyline – UFO Drop ride

The first thing anyone notices in the park is the towering Skyline ride and that is what we took first which was a good thing and very bad thing. Good because otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it after experiencing any other rides and very bad because its total madness,crazy thing to do and I was very badly shaken up after taking it. We took a seat and then the tower platform raised ever so slowly to the top of the tower. It takes about 30 secs to the top and you can enjoy an awesome view of the park including European style garden while the wind blows in your face. Every sec on the way though I was continuously screaming “Why in the hell I agreed for this and that too by paying 700 nt$?” also cursing others for talking me into this. Once at the top I was wondering we might get a notice or signal but nah whats the fun in that. Without notice the platform dropped dead letting the gravity take over. It took just 2 secs or even less to get to the bottom. Not to mention I had my eyes closed all the way down. And in another moment of madness I agreed to do it again thinking this experience would help ease my nerves for the second attempt and boy I was SO wrong. This time I was desperate to keep my eyes open and I did. It truly shook me up second time around. All my sense went for a toss and I was pretty numb thereafter the whole day. Its truly throw-yourself-off-the-cliff kinda adventure.

Caribbean splash boarding

The only other ride I did after that was the Caribbean splash boarding which was relatively easy but it drained out whatever enthusiasm I had left after skyline. It may not be that scary for others in fact Anurag and Reena quite enjoyed it and even went for the third time but if you are like me who is petrified of heights then it is your worst nightmare come true stuff.

Spinning around

Nevertheless the park is quite a pleasing place, well maintained. Waiting time for the rides was close to nothing. It a very good place to hang out on a weekend especially if you have kids. There is a lot to do there. Walk in the European style garden and live folk dance shows for example. Best time to visit it seems is the Cherry Blossom Festival in February every year as you can see from Todd’s post.

View from Cable car

I love cable cars. It still freaks me out to sit high up in the air in a glass box hanging on to a rope but the silence and beauty around kinda keeps my nerves under wrap. Ours was among the last couple rounds before cable car rope way shut down at 4:30 pm.

Sun moon lake sunset

We left the place at 5 pm and again got back on our way to Sun Moon lake and spent a quiet evening on the shore. No boat ride or visit to Wenpu temple, just sat there idle, listening to plethora of voices which I wouldn’t hear on a normal day. Selina took a nap in the car since she was quite exhausted after all days driving around and crazy roller coaster rides. Later we came back Changhua and accidentally stumbled upon a total vegetarian restaurant,much to the delight of Anurag and Reena.

In the end it was very exhausting and all I wanted to do next couple days was to rest and that is what I did.
More photos in my Dragon Boat festival vacation flickr set.

Our bundle of joy, Susan

So its been a while since I wrote something here. Tons of things have happened over the past couple months, most forgettable and and duly forgotten. But then among them there is this one beautiful moment that we will remember in its entirety as long as we walk this blue planet and that is the birth of our first child, a daughter.

There she is behind the glass partition. Doctors had to put her under observation as she had swollen eyes possibly due to some infection.

Selina holding Susan couple hours after she was born.

And that is me holding her for the first time. In fact that was the first time ever I was holding a new born child. Since then we have been enjoying taking care of her, changing diapers in the middle of night, learning the ropes of parenting and whole lot of other things. Susan has been incredible so far. She seems like a tough girl. I haven’t really got around taking some nice shots of her. She is either sleeping or staying on her bed most of the. Work too has been relentless in last couple months. I can’t seem to find a way to avoid long hours at work lately. Selina has been terrific though. Taking care of a new born is hell of a job. Susan, until recently used to wake up every 3~4 hours but now she has started sleeping through the night which is a very very welcome relief.

This new addition to the family also necessitated an upgrade (sorry about that,occupational hazards) to our transportation means. We just got ourselves a tiny new Toyota Yaris.

Hope this will facilitate our travels around this not so tiny island nation. We already took her on our recent trip to Changhua and Nantou county during the Dragon Boat festival vacation.

Strawberries in Puli

strawerry farm, puli

Thursday we went to Puli for strawberry picking. A Day before that Selina’s sister had come back to Changhua with her children and Thursday her husband joined the family. Kids were tired of running around the house and needed some more entertainment so off we went.

On the way to Puli we passed by numerous flower farms;seas of yellow, pink, purple with magenta edges but mostly yellow flowers. It was tempting to get out there and take pictures but others were not much exited about it so we carried on towards Puli. After much deliberation we decided to stop by a farm surgically manufactured between two huge properties, way much smaller than the one we went to in Miaoli in the winter of 2007.




Kids quickly went about their business and started hunting delicious looking strawberries like a seasoned hunter. Surprisingly luscious, dark red strawberries were aplenty, given that many of the surrounding farms were overflowing with people. I guess this particular farm went unnoticed being the smallest around. The boxes filled up in no time and we were left with more time to kill in the afternoon.

My father-in-law works for SWCB so he took us to one of the SWCB maintained farms somewhere in Caotun hills, a very huge property spreading over several hills. Handful of dwellings look over expanse full of varied plant life. As we settled in I enjoyed couple of berries and watched kids ride bicycles around the farm.



A very loud karaoke played in one of the small houses hampered the otherwise peaceful serenity of the surroundings. After some time I walked around to familiarize myself with the farm. Couple of huge domesticated dogs barked from their hutch as I walked by them. Meanwhile in-laws helped themselves to pick fresh vegetables from the huge backyard hidden behind tall betelnut tree lines.




tree tops against blue sky

As the Sun neared hilltops, betelnut trees imbued sun rays creating a magnificent orange sky above the farmland.




Later in the evening we went to yet another restaurant near Jhongsing village circle. At this rate I guess we will soon run out of all new restaurants there and will have to start over.


my father-in-law took this photo

Please check more photos from the day in a chronological order from my flickr set.

Since friday morning

Friday morning I first woke up at 9:30 am. It felt little jaded, possibly due to the weiya hangover from previous day. We went to the same restaurant where we had Jhonson’s farewell party. I did upload pictures from that party on flickr but of course never got around writing about it here. That party was more fun though compared to this one.

Anyways then I let myself sleep again for another hour. I had put in a leave request but still needed to catch upon some work before leaving for Changhua later that night. Although all I did in the weiya was to stuff myself with as much food,beer,wine,juice and soup as I could, I still felt hungry. I finally managed to get out of bed,got dressed up and walked to the nearby breakfast store. Fortunately they were still open until 11 am. It was unpleasant cold and windy outside. I stood outside while they prepared my order. Nursery school besides the store was buzzing with all kinds of activities. It was Friday and also the last day before CNY vacation so they had gathered all little curious children and their curious parents on the small playground. As I watched those curious parents admire their children engaging in group activities I thought to myself “hey I would be doing the same stuff in couple of years”. Before I could entertain any train of thoughts, the store laoban announced that my order was ready.


I came back to my apartment and realized my CNY vacation was officially on. I had a couple of things on my mind to that I wanted to cross off but I kinda felt overwhelmed by the thought of going about them. Luckily I didn’t have to put up with that miserable feeling much long. I received a call from my office and it was decided that I would be going to office in the afternoon. Till then I flipped some pages of some random books still avoiding the fact that I hadn’t packed my bags. As I was preparing to leave for office I realized my bike was still parked at the Jhubei station. I had taken my colleague’s car to the weiya dinner previous evening. Station isn’t far from my place but I shuddered at the thought of having to walk in that blistering cold wind. Fortunately my colleagues,who were still having a normal workday, were out for lunch and they picked me up while going back to office. I picked my bike and rode it to office not before dodging some random plastic drum that was blown off the back of some truck and given a new life of its own by the tyhoon-ish winds.


Having to work on my official leave day made me acutely aware of time and so I wrapped up the work in a frenzied manner. 4 pm we were all off the work and went to a pool court nearby. I spent my time watching my colleagues play couple games of pool and also ran some errands.


Around 6 pm I was back in my apartment, surfing internet,keeping tabs on SAF Vs Aus cricket match. What a cracker of a series they are having. But the match that I longed for was at 7:30 pm. Roger sublime Federer vs Marat Safin. Federer blasted his way past Safin in first two sets. Safin did raise his game in third set but eventually Roger was too hot to handle. I like Marat minus temper Safin by the way. He is cool,handsome bloke in addition to being one of the smartest tennis player around. In the end it was Roger who was menacingly accurate, threw more than what Safin can handle. Roger looked his old prime self, at his uncanny best.


By the time the match was over I found that I hadn’t packed. Even before I started packing I had this nagging feeling that I had forgotten something. I had a rough list of things that I would need for next couple of days so packing went smooth. 30 mins later I was at the Jhubei station waiting for 9:54 pm local train to Hsinchu. I had to catch a fast train to Changhua from Hsinchu as they won’t stop at Jhubei.

Contrary to my expectation trains weren’t overflowing with people thronging Friday night trains down south. I guess many of them had considered this and instead opted to leave earlier in the day or even a day before.

Anyways I got on my 10:20 pm train comfortably and found my window seat was at the back of the train coach/car in the last row. All seats were taken and barely handful of people were standing. We left Hsinchu station and just when I thought it would be a pleasant journey, two girls, who were standing by near the door, moved in and squeezed themselves in the narrow space between the back of last row seats and the back wall of train coach. One of the girl was now right on top of my head, resting her elbow on my backrest. Completely oblivious to me or anyone for that matter she and her friend started discussing, their CNY plans I guess, rather animatedly. Afraid of getting hit by one of them I braced myself leaning forward for rest of the journey.


I read couple of pages but soon realized I wasn’t interested in reading. Had it been a day journey I would rather have enjoyed Taiwan country side view outside. It would have been mesmerizing to watch rice paddies slide by and plethora of mountainous views. Sadly though the only thing I remember noticing was the huge night market just after Fongyuan station. Somewhere between Fongyuan and Taichung friendly ticket checker came along. He looked quite handsome for his age. If trains ever had one of those safety videos that you watch in airplanes, this guy would have definitely made a great host for them.

Almost all of the train emptied at Taichung. I amused myself waching around and saw the strange seats on the platforms. Some are made of toilet seats or at least look like toilet seats. Some of them are shape of giant shoes, the kind I saw on my Yilan trip at a clog museum.


I arrived Changhua at 11:50 pm. My father-in-law came to pick me up. I went to bed as soon as we got home.


The next day I woke up at 10 am and after some brief awake moments I forced myself to sleep again. Around noon Souvik called me from India. 26th is India’s republic day so it would be a long weekend for all Indians. He said he was going to west coast to spend some peaceful time with nature and possibly painting. Later in the afternoon I watched some TV, mostly Australian Open. Watched Tsonga outplay Sela. Last year finalist Tsonga wasn’t impressive but he did manage to pull off 4 set win. In the evening Rafael Nadal blew away Tommy Hass.


Today I had Déjà vu from the previous day. Got up at noon and watched another couple matches from Aus open including the nerve wracking Federer vs Berdych. It was completely different Federer compared to the one I saw on Friday,the one that dismantled Safin. Today Federer had to battle for five difficult sets. There is nothing that I could take away as positive for Federer from this match apart from the fact that he won and now is in the last 16. Another fascinating match was between Jelena Dokic vs Alisa Kleybanova. What a battle of powerful ground strokes, sheer persistence and determination. It is unlikely we will see that level of intensity and performance in remaining matches of women singles tournament.


In the evening we had our new years eve dinner at home. Just myself, Selina and her parents. Quick, short and sweet. Having spent two full days at home watching the idiot box I kinda feel guilty now. Tomorrow we are heading to Lukang.


BTW I did remember on Saturday morning what exactly I forgot to pack. My damn toothbrush.

Happy Chinese New Year

This will be a very short post. First of all my apologies for not blogging. I have royally ignored blogging for long time. Apparently long enough to forget my own blog password. I can dish out a million excuses now but lets just do without them shall we?.
We are having CNY vacation in this part of world these days. While most of my taiwanese and expat friends would be traveling around Taiwan or abroad during this vacation, I would be spending it in Changhua. Most likely resting myself, watching Australian open and reading couple books that I saved for this particular vacation.
Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy chinese lunar new year and hope you have a great time during the vacation.Everyone else who isn’t on vacation hope you have a great week.

PS: You gotta love the new wordpress dashboard :)

A long weekend in Sanxia

Double ten is a holiday for Taiwan to celebrate its National day. Unlike last year it was Friday on 10th Oct so we had a long weekend. We had plans to watch the celebrations in Taipei but fearing the hassles of getting to the celebrations instead when the day arrived we opted going to Sanxia to see Selina’s sister and her family. Fortunately my mother in law also decided to join us for the weekend. MIL got on her first HSR ride from Taichung and we boarded the same train from Hsinchu. We arrived at Banchiao at 10 am. I found Banchiao station to be very unique. In addition to serving three different train systems;MRT, TRA and the HSR, it is also packs abundant flow of activities. Young and old alike practice all sorts of group activities in the enormous station halls. Ideally I would have liked to take some photographs but we had a train to catch for Yingge. 15 mins on local train and a short taxi ride brought us to my sister-in-law’s house in old Sanxia.


Later in the afternoon we had plans to visit the famous Qingshui Zushi temple. But before that SIL took us to a local shabu-shabu restaurant where we treated ourselves to a royal lunch that included all sorts of meat and sea food that was on the menu. After a rather heavy meal and the fact that wife and family was getting together after long time, meaning they had a lot to “discuss”, we agreed to skip the temple plan and instead rest at home.


Although I should have been pretty eager to take out my new camera for a real test, I felt rather lazy and was happy to see myself agree and retreat to the small room on the third floor to catch up on my reading.

On my way up I saw the youngest of the my SIL’s three kids looking for something in the store room. Grabbed my camera from the backpack and took couple of shots before he disappeared downstairs.

The store room presented an interesting setup.Later in the evening I strolled outside looking for interesting shots but it was rather late in the evening. Afraid of getting lost in old Sanxia I didn’t wander too far.

Old Sanxia reminds me a lot of mid size urban towns in India. Lots of photo ops but I was miserable with the camera and most of the images turned out quite terrible. The more I’m trying to get used to the XSi the more I find my self kicking myself for missing a good photograph. I will take it as a positive sign going forward as it gives me extra motivation to try harder. Low light photography is certainly one of my most desired area where I would like to see myself doing a lot better.


My SIL had arranged another place for us to spend our night. The apartment was a retro of a Japanese style, wood floored bedrooms and a separate guest room to serve tea and enjoy a relaxed conversation.


On saturday after enjoying a late breakfast we headed to the famous Zushi temple and Sanxia old street. I had read about it from david’s blog and also from andres’s recent visit to Sanxia. They have done much better job of describing the place then I could do. I highly recommend their articles for details.Here I’m just posting some of my favorite pictures that I took while I was there.

Qingshui Zushi temple

Everything in there is crafted with exquisite detail.

I’m absolutely amazed with 18-55mm kit lens when it takes these kind of shots. I think this is the second best lens after 50mm f/1.8 II lens that canon makes in terms of bang for your money.

This is the beginning of the Sanxia old street.

Looking backwards.

Shop signs.

Bicycle parked along the red brick pillars.


couple of other pictures are also there. Please check my Sanxia Flickr set.
Sunday morning we took TRA back to Hsinchu. Apart from visiting the culture rich Sanxia old street, I also spent a lot of time reflecting and reading. I had missed reading some good book for couple of weeks and didn’t want to waste a great opportunity. Luckily I had received my copy of Nothing Venture, Nothing Win just a couple of days ago. I’m half way through it and throughly enjoying it. It is a must read even if you are not into mountaineering.