Lost in Translation (doggy-style)

Oh look, cute puppy telling us to curb our dogs and pick up after them!

Oh wait, what was that they translated into English about the "Waste Cleaning Act"?

I wasn't aware shit was part of official municipal vernacular.

Here are some disturbing photos of the type of outfits the Taiwanese like to put their pets in:

The re-sightseeing of Taiwan

We arrived safely in Taiwan after a grueling 18+ hour plane ride. Our layover was in Anchorage, Alaska. Unfortunately, we arrived there in the middle of the night so we weren't able to see Russia. Maybe next time.

We basically hit the Taiwanese ground running and have been seeing (or in my case, re-seeing) the sights non-stop since we got here. I don't know about H&M, but I am exhausted. This isn't my usual leisurely eating, shopping and laying about with my relatives. We went to the folk art village again and saw a kung fu demo, wedding procession and photo op with people dressed up as gods. Then we hit up a harbor town for some lunch and visited some temples. We also had a huge dinner with relatives and went back to their place to drink some Macallan scotch and marvel at their fancy toilet with automatic rising seat cover and a control panel with more buttons than my TV remote (sorry, no photos.)



































Yesterday we came to Taipei and we went to my dad's temple to pay our respects and then up to the town of DanShui to see the shops and walk along the boardwalk. Taiwan is a country of street food and the stalls range from cuttlefish on a stick (gross) to these hot red bean filled cakes and the best of the best, the scallion pancake cart. It's the stuff dreams are made of.























Today we went to the Palace Musuem for a little culture and then to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. It is 508 meters tall and has the fastest (1010 m/s) elevators at a cost of $2.5 million per elevator. We had to admit it was quite a smooth ride up. Taipei 101 also has the world's largest passive wind damper, a 660 metric ton steel pendulum that sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Thus their big marketing ploy/mascot is the Damper Baby. In fact, they have 4 different damper baby characters, each with its own charming personality traits.

Return to the Motherland--with Guests

I'm heading to Taiwan again, this time accompanied by my friends H & M. They will be spending a few days with the family before journeying to Thailand and Cambodia while I will be heading down to Bali for my requisite Asian beach time.

It will be strange to be in Taiwan with guests. If you've read any of my previous Taiwan posts, I mainly just eat, shop and watch TV with my family when I'm there. Oh yes, and I get sick. (But we won't discuss that.) I don't think any of that will fly with two visitors who have never been to Taiwan before and only have 4 days to explore. Unfortunately, Taiwan isn't a mecca of tourism by any means. I think the main things that people go to are the Palace Museum and the night markets. And Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, at least until the Burj Dubai is completed. We'll let Taiwan have some glory for a little while longer...

Passport Crisis!

I'm going back to the Motherland in less than 3 weeks. Since I'll be accompanied by some first time visitors (more on that later), I decided to peruse the online travel guides to think of some good Taiwanese sights to see. I came across entry requirements for Taiwan. Having gone there innumerable times, I knew I didn't need a visa. However, what I do need is a passport that is valid for at least 6 months. I leave on January 10th. My passport expires exactly 4 months later.

aside: it peeves me that the expiration date is May 2009 yet I can't really use my passport since most countries require the 6 month validity.

It's a crap shoot--Taiwanese immigration might be lax and wave me through. Or they could be hard asses and make me purchase a $130 landing visa (to be paid in cash, New Taiwan Dollars) and give me a difficult time in the process. No doubt this would all occur in Chinese and I would only understand about 40% of the conversation. There would probably be tears.

My other option is to get a rush renewal of my passport here on native U.S. soil, in my first language, in currency I have. Also for $130. The thing is, the process has to be initiated within 14 days of your travel date and no earlier. I have to make an appointment with the State Department office in New York, give them my documents and money, and they will miraculously produce a new passport for me before I have to leave the country. The nice man on the State Department helpline assured me that I'd be able to 1. get the appointment and 2. get my passport in time for my departure.

I am anxiously waiting until December 27th to call and make my appointment.

Passport crisis solved!

I have to say, getting a rush renewal of a passport was totally painless. The process of scheduling an appointment via telephone, showing up, waiting for your number to be called, handing in your stuff and picking up your passport 2 days later was remarkably civilized. I even remarked to the passport lady that it was so much calmer than the DMV. She laughed and said they hear that all the time.

One last note about Vancouver (2010)

The 2010 Olympics are going to be held in Vancouver. There's no way you could avoid that fact walking through the city as Olympic merchandise is EVERYWHERE. There a big countdown clock in the middle of the city too. 500 and some days to go!

Having said that, I gave into the hype and bought some of the overpriced stuffed mascots for the kids. The mascots are a little bizarre--are they always so? I remember the '88 Seoul Olympics and they just had tigers dressed in traditional Korean clothing. No franken-mascots or anything...

From left to right:

Sumi: the "animal spirit" who lives in the mountains of British Columbia. He wears the hat of an orca whale, flies with wings of the thunderbird and runs on the legs of the black bear. Kinda weird, right? Sumi is the mascot for the 2010 Para-Olympics. This one was the least favorite of the kids.

Quatchi: He is my personal favorite. A young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Cananda. He aspires to be a hockey player (position: goalie).

Miga: A young sea bear--part killer whale, part bear (WTF?!)--who lives in the ocean with her family pod. She likes to snowboard and eat salmon.

No whales here, but how about some gigantic chocolate creams instead?

It was our last day in Vancouver and we spent most of it on bus or ferry: we decided to go on a tour to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Victoria is located on the southern tip Vancouver Island, which boasts a land mass larger than the UK. I'm not entirely sure why the province would place their seat of government on an island, but I'm sure they had a good reason other than the nice view.


We saw a few seals frolicking in the water, but unfortunately, no whales.

Our first stop was Butchart Gardens, where this wealthy cement baron's wife, Jennie Butchart, had gardens built out of an emptied stone quarry. The highlight is the Sunken Garden right in the center of the old quarry.

Victoria has a lot of beautiful mansions and the city center was very quaint. We picked up some Victoria Creams from Rogers' Chocolates--they have been making these gigantic cream-filled treats since 1885. Supposedly the Queen gets them shipped to her.






<--- Actual size of Victoria Cream (45g = almost 0.1 lb)

Canadiasians

After Toronto, Vancouver is the most multi-ethnic Canadian city. There are a lot of Asians in Vancouver, making up over 35% of the population. The Chinese alone make up about 17%.

The first Chinese came over in the mid-1800's for the gold rush, and then the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

As Jamie put it, Vancouver's Chinatown is spread out and not as crazy as New York's. I thought it was a bit desolate and we walked by a few uber-sketchy crackheads on our way over there. However, there is a very nice Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese garden which was quite well done.

Why Sun Yat-Sen, you ask? Well, apparently, the "father of modern China" spent a lot of time in Vancouver while touring the world trying to raise awareness and funding for the Chinese Nationalist Movement. British Columbia helped fund the movement's overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and Sun Yat-Sen became the first president. The garden was built in 1985 and utilizes principles of feng-shui and taoism. Good ol' yin and yang balancing each other out. My favorite part was actually this turtle stretching out his back leg in arabesque.

On our way home we were starving and stopped by this Japanese hot dog cart. In Vancouver, most of the hot dog carts are run by Asians. This one, the JAPADOG stand, was voted the best in Vancouver. Or at least that's what the guy in front of us said. They have your standard hot dog, but also some crazy toppings, including one with japanese mayo, teriyaki sauce, fried onions and nori (seaweed) strips. I got the miso-mayo dog, with special miso sauce, japanese mayo, and sprouts. I have to say, it was quite delicious!