Travel

Welcome to San Francisco

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Location | Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, CA

It began on the BART. Finding my way to one of the last trains to the city, I made it to Powell Street. There I found the streetcar. I held $5 in my hand, but they did not ask for anything. I got off at the last stop 20 minutes later near Fisherman’s Wharf. I asked the man for some directions, and he pointed me in the right direction and I made my way to the hotel.

There I met up with Ngoc’s brother, Truc. I waited for Ngoc and James to get back. They came back and since we were all exhausted, we just slept.

In the morning we had to decide what we wanted to do. Ngoc and James’ friends, Audrey and Erik were picking us up to go eat $1 oysters. Despite this, we headed to Mama’s and had brunch. The place was interesting, you walk in and order from a counter before sitting down and being served. Between the 4 of us, we ordered 3 dishes.

Eggs Benedict at Mama's

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel to wait for Ngoc and James’ friends – Audrey and Erik. They planned on taking us to Hog Island Oyster Company and then to Berkeley.

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped to take some photos before continuing on to the north bay.

Me and Ngoc at the Golden Gate Bridge

We drove for a long time along Highway 1. I fell asleep (of course), but we arrived at the Hog Island Oyster Company an hour later. It was such a beautiful place for an oyster farm. A huge bay, picnic area and oysters for $1.

View at Hog Island Oyster Company

We had 5 people, so we got 50 oysters. I wish I wasn’t so full from breakfast, so I could’ve eaten more! Audrey and Erik also brought guacamole, fruit and other snacks. It was such a fun day to sit out there eating.

Oyster Cheers!

After the oysters, we took a drive to Berkeley. The campus was really great. It really made me want to go to school there. I’m considering business school there in 2011. We’ll see where that takes me.

We had some tri-tip sandwiches before we headed into campus. We walked around, bought some things, but mainly, we headed to campus to check it out. The campus is really nice. Some parts are a little weird – ie: the architecture building was not pretty. The sciences building on campus was really nice.

We also chatting with some squirrels, looked at the protesters, watched students walk by… it was a nice college visit. After Berkeley, we went to get Cheese Board Pizza. We sat in the median in the street and ate the pizza. After that we headed to get some gelato. Overall it was an AMAZING food day.

Cheese Board pizza

Philadelphia (For Amy’s Birthday!)

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Location | New York City

Headed to Philly for a beautiful Sunday to see the lovely Amy because her birthday was last week and I didn’t get a chance to see her!. Took the Chinatown Bus with Jiye who was heading back home.

Here’s the big problem: I took one whole picture while there. Ok,  three. Two of which were on my cell phone.

Sign at Reading Terminal Market

So, here it is, the one grand photo I took. I’ll go back to Philly soon, so no worries, much better photos in the future!

Highlights from the trip:

  • Mussels & Duck Sandwich from Monk’s Cafe
  • Chocolate Banana & Mango Champagne Gelato from Capogiro
  • Sushi (unmemorable, so I don’t remember the name)

Of course I have no photos. Of course. Anyway, more postings soon and maybe an exciting update if I find the time to do it!

The “Horrifying” Side of Philadelphia

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Location | New York, NY

This past Sunday, I went to Philadelphia to meet up with my cousin, Jessie. Billy, Jessie’s brother, drove us there. We left around 9 and arrived around 11. We met up with Jessie and her research assistant Yi-zhen. The first stop was South Street. We headed to Ishkabibble’s Eatery to have some Philly Cheesesteaks. I noticed that the line for Jim’s Steaks, the typical tourist stop, was already out the door and down the block. Ishkabibble is rated highly on Yelp, which tends to be my bible for finding delicious places.

Although I wasn’t elated about the quality of food, I wasn’t quite disappointed either. Between the four of us, we ordered 3 South Philly Cheesesteaks (red pepper, spinach, provolone and beef), 1 South Philly Chicken Cheesesteak (same, but with chicken), a large order of fries, 2 Gremlins (half grape juice, half lemonade), 1 Diet Coke, 1 Apple Juice.

The inside of Ishkabibble’s is tiny, but we found a space for the 4 of us at the counter. There we chowed down, but I was only able to get through half of mine, but I also ate half of the large fries (oh man!) and also downed the Gremlin, which was amaaaaazing.

Making Philly Cheesesteaks!

Making Philly Cheesesteaks!

After Ishkabibble’s, Jessie needed to get back to the conference center (she was there to give a speech on public health), so we dropped her off and took Yi-zhen to the Eastern State Penitentiary. I called up Danny (my friend from college) to come chill with us as well.

The outside of the Eastern State Penitentiary looks like a castle. It looks completely out of place in the outskirts of Philly. Due to Halloween, the haunted house decorations were still up. $8 for a student ticket, and $12 for regular adult. With every entrance ticket you get an audio set to take you on your own tour. There’s also free tours with guides if you go at the right time.

Creepy Hallway

Creepy Hallway

Walking in, you just go between a thick wall and you see the old buildings to your left. When you enter for the first time, you realize that it’s cold. Not just cold temperature wise, but just like that eerie cold you get when you feel like you’re all alone. It was actually a nice day outside (where jackets were not needed), but I was practically shivering inside the building.

Who is this prisoner!?

Who is this prisoner!?

Walking hallway through hallway, I knew that I would never want to experience prison or jail. Even if it is supposedly “nicer” these days (whatever that means).

We walked down the different cells peeking in doors (if possible) and just feeling the eeriness of the prison. We went past death row, the greenhouse, outdoor area, and completely dilapidated cells. It was a great and surreal experience.

We walked by Al Capone’s old cell (which was “beautifully” furnished). Over all it was highly recommended.

After the penitentiary, we headed back to find my cousin. We went to Capogiro Artisan Gelato and had some truly divine gelato. Pera, heirloom apple and bacio (chocolate w/ hazelnut). Not only those 3 flavours, but also a huge dollop of homemade whipped cream! YUM!

Delicious gelato! YUM!

Delicious gelato! YUM!

We walked a mile or so to a small store that sold some Japanese goodies, but otherwise, we didn’t do much besides drop off my cousin and her assistant back at the hotel and then my cousin and I headed back to NY.

Last Days of Taiwan

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Location | Taichung, Taiwan

Wow, this trip went by incredibly fast. I’m going to miss Taiwan a lot. Now that I’m older, I have more money, I can appreciate Taiwan a lot more than I used to. Even though my best time in Taiwan was still the summer of 2005 (I miss you TTT-ers!), this time was just as great hanging out with family and old friends.

We got back from Sydney around 6pm and back to Taichung around 8. My cousin and his girlfriend stopped by with bubble tea and their dog Manto. It wasn’t very eventful except the unpacking.

Friday started out early. First I woke up early to go get my eyeliner tattoo redone on the left eye. The under-eye line was faded. After another horrific 20 or so minutes, we were off to go do some shopping. We went to Mei Hwa Tai, Sogo and Net. At Net I spent US$400 on a new wardrobe… heh. I’m a big spender.

We had lunch at Chun Shui Tang. I got the Kung Fu Noodles, turnip cake and bubble tea. We spent the afternoon chatting at my Grandma’s before my aunt took me home with her to use the internet. I hung out with her, my cousin, Jack, and their dog Manto until it was time to go back to my Grandma’s so I could quickly change and we could go to teppenyaki!

This is Manto. He says "hello!"

This is Manto. He says "hello!"

Teppenyaki was easily the coolest part of the night. We went to this fancy-looking place where they have impeccable service and really delicious food. It was French-style teppenyaki. Here are the things we ate in order:

Amuse Bouche

Amuse Bouche

Fish Soup

Fish Soup

Nicoise Salad

Nicoise Salad

Duck Breast!

Duck Breast!

Vegetables!

Vegetables!

Sakura Fried Rice

Sakura Fried Rice

Ice cream covered in a shell of chocolate

Ice cream covered in a shell of chocolate

Milk Tea w/ Grass Jelly

Milk Tea w/ Grass Jelly

It was a really satisfying and filling meal. Looking at the pictures makes me really hungry. I’d really love to eat some more of the Sakura fried rice. It was really amazing, but I couldn’t enjoy it that much because I was completely STUFFED.

Oh yeah, the chefs and waiters are all extremely attractive. Apparently it’s part of the way they choose employees. You have to fit a certain standard of good looks. I didn’t think our chefs were that good looking, but not bad.

Our Chefs

Our Chefs

After dinner I got dropped back off at my grandma’s and my aunt took me and my mom to go see my aunt on my dad’s side. On the way there I learned that the uncle of the youngest aunt (my dad has 5 sisters) was (or still is!?) in the Taiwanese mafia… and apparently he’s on the lam after doing some jail time? Interesting…

Anyway, my aunts (the oldest and the 4th oldest) run a food stand on a small street. There they sell fried leek pancakes, oyster pancakes, noodles, fried leek, fried tofu, etc. I took a few shots while I was there.

Giant Fryer

Giant Fryer

Fried Foods

Fried Foods

Later that night we headed of Fong-Chia Night Market. My cousin, Jack, his gf, Zhiyan, me and my cousin, Jessie just roamed around. Jack and Jessie ended up eating stinky tofu while Zhiyan and I walked around searching for accessories. In the end we ended up in this store with an absurd amount of stuffed animals. Here’s me with a giant pig.

Giant Pig!

Giant Pig!

Now I’m back in the states scheming about when I’ll go back to Taiwan next!!

Final Day in Sydney

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Location | Parammata, Australia

Today was the last day before returning to Taiwan. The morning started out by heading to the Sydney Opera House. We went on a short tour to see the inside of the largest performance hall.

Inside the Opera House

Inside the Opera House

Then we headed over to a park to take some sweeping views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop.

Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Opera House and Harbour Bridge

We drove over to a harbour where we got on a boat and had lunch. The boat took us all around Sydney so we could see the coastline.

Sydney Coastline

Sydney Coastline

Then it was off to the Harbour Bridge to take a walk across it. After the bridge we stopped at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Jumping at St. Mary's!

Jumping at St. Mary's!

Then to another SCAM Duty Free. Next door we discovered a t-shirt wholesaler who was selling shirts for $5. I got 2 shirts and made friends with the lady who owned the place.

Then it was to a casino where we easily had the best meal of the whole trip. They had some amazing Indian food! I was surprised that it was so good.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel.

There was nothing truly eventful except for the photos, which I guess is the important thing. Tomorrow, it’s back to Taiwan!

Blue Mountain

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Location | Parramatta, Australia

Woke up at 5am to head out to catch a flight to Sydney. Arrived and met our new tour guide, Michael and also got onto a very smelly and old bus. We drove through Sydney and got to a Chinese buffet (which was absolutely terrible). I left it early and walked half a mile to go buy 2 umbrellas (which we didn’t end up using). We then got on the bus and drove to the Sydney Olympic Stadium from 2000. Although it was interesting to be there, it was completely unimpressive. We only stopped outside the main stadium. There wasn’t much to see.

Then it was off to Blue Mountain which was an hour and a half away. After what seemed like forever, we ended up at this completely drenched mountain covered in dense fog. We could see absolutely nothing. We took this “ride” on this train that literally went down the mountain at an incredibly steep incline (Which felt like 90 degrees). Apparently it’s the Kotoomba Railroad and it’s the steepest incline in the world – that explains things.

Katoomba Rail

Katoomba Rail

We took a short nature walk where Michael pointed out we could see nothing. Then up a tram, to the gift shop, back on the bus and back to Sydney.

The Forest

The Forest

We got to this casino type place where we had dinner then went to our hotel…

Once inside the hotel… I went to my aunt’s room where I looked up and we counted 20+ mosquitoes on the ceiling. It was HORRIFIC. I went down and the manager came up with a can of bug spray to kill them. Then we discovered our hotel room ALSO had mosquitoes. He also came by to spray all of those. I’m just glad I don’t see any other bugs.

Being a Lush in Australia

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Location | Gold Coast, Australia

We started the day at the Mt. Nathan Winery. Yes, I did go wine tasting. Yes, I did turn bright red. Yes, I am a lush. The winery was incredibly small, I wonder where they grow the majority of their grapes, because from what I saw, they could probably make barely 1 bottle of wine. I ended up buying 2 bottles of wine – a 17-year Tawny and an Autumn White w/ Honey. I know nothing about wine, so someone is going to have to come over and drink it with me.

Winery Grapes

Winery Grapes

We left the winery and headed to Bond University to check out their campus. It really has a great campus, and apparently is considered one of the top law schools in Australia.

Our tour group at Bond University

Our tour group at Bond University

Afterwards we went to the Duty Free Store, which turned out to be such a scam. Essentially tour groups are taken their to earn their tour guides commission. Because most tour groups don’t speak English, they are “at home” at these Duty Free Stores because they are owned by other (in this case) Chinese/Taiwanese people. S-C-A-M.

Across the street we stopped at this park to look at fruit bats. Apparently there was a very large concentration of fruit bats in the area, so I led a pack of our tour over to the trees the fruit bats were hanging from to take some shots. I think we were talking a bit too loudly because they started to wake up. I left quickly, I didn’t want to get hit with any guano.

I am Darkwing Duck!

I am Darkwing Duck!

We went to the Gold Coast beach and walked along the shore for awhile before going to have a nice cup of coffee and to a shopping mall to look at other souvenirs. Then dinner was Chinese and back to the hotel where I anticipate a VERY early morning wake up to catch a flight to Sydney.

Self Shot at the Beach

Self Shot at the Beach

Koala Huggin’

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Location | Gold Coast, Australia

The day started out with a boat tour of the Gold Coast harbour. We went on this long yacht with another tour group. On the top deck, the skipper was driving the yacht and I decided to make conversation with him. We talked about Australia in general, life, adventure traveling. He’s originally from New Zealand, but has lived in Australia for the majority of his life. He’s normally an engineer, but part-time he drives boats, especially tours like the one we went on. The silliest thing on his list of things? He drives a boat that has a church on it. Apparently there are only  2 of these in the world, and to have something like that on his resume must be pretty cool.

Gold Coast Harbour

Gold Coast Harbour

After the tour we hung out in the shopping mall next to the dock before getting fish & chips for lunch. Then we were off again to Paradise Country. Paradise Country is a theme park w/ Australian animals and promotes Australian culture. There I got to… hold a koala.

My mom and the koala

My mom and the koala

Pet a kangaroo.

This is Mr. Hoppy

This is Mr. Hoppy

See sheep getting sheared.

Mr. Sheepy

Mr. Sheepy

Also, a horse show and sheep herding.

Dinner was lamb chops.

Then my grandma wanted us to sign up for a glow worm trek. There’s this park called the Springbrook National Park and inside the Natural Bridge (which is a rock formation that looks like a bridge), there’s a colony of glowworms. Several groups take you on a hike through the forest to see these glow worms. Only 300 people are allowed to go a night. There’s a lot of stairs and you’re on a relatively nice hiking trail, but it’s not good for older people with bad knees (ie, my grandma). I think she had a nice time, but I’m not sure if it was worth the AUS$85 to see a bunch of blue dots on a wall for about 8 minutes before hiking back through the forest.

Um, yes, those blue dots are glowworms...

Um, yes, those blue dots are glowworms...

Arrival in Brisbane, Australia

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Location | Gold Coast, Australia

Last night I left Taichung to go to the airport then hopped on a plane to Brisbane. After a 9-10 hour flight, we arrived and met up with our tour guide, Danny. We headed off in our mini-bus. It was me and 20 other people. This trip is supposed to celebrate my Grandma’s 80th birthday, so it was me, my mom, my aunt and my grandma.

The first stop was Brisbane City Hall. Apparently it was once the tallest clock tower in the region. Apparently they were planning to remodel within the next month or so, and I was lucky enough to ride the elevator to the top.

Brisbane City Hall

Brisbane City Hall

We hopped back onto the bus and headed over to this park which was the site of the World Expo in 1988. They had a giant ferris wheel, Nepalese temple, and various other little sites and attractions.

Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel

We went to lunch right after in the Brisbane Chinatown. We had dimsum, nothing remarkable, so no pictures. We then headed up to Mount Coot-tha  to get a great view of Brisbane from above.

My Grandma at Mt. Coot-tha

My Grandma at Mt. Coot-tha

After that we headed a shopping center where we spent an hour shopping around for groceries at Woolworths before we headed to the hotel on the Gold Coast and dropped off all of our things before we headed out to a (terrible) Italian restaurant and then back to the hotel to relax and go to sleep.

Domo-kun is learning about the Gold Coast

Domo-kun is learning about the Gold Coast

A Day Sandwiched With Massages

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Location | Taipei – Tony’s House

Day 2 in Taipei started with a 1-2 hour full body massage that Tony was banned from (ladies only). Phoebe and I went to this place in Zhongsan near the Shinkong Mitsukoshi there. The massage was the full shebang. It was pretty great for NT$999 (about $30US). After the massage I was wrapped up in this heating pad and left to cook for awhile. It was pretty amazing. I really should find a regular massage place in NYC.

Afterwards, Phoebe, Tony and I went to eat at a small Japanese tapas place. We ordered about 6-7 dishes. From sashimi to fried sea urchin to delicious puffer fish (but not the poisonous kind), it was really yummy.

Japanese Tapas!

Japanese Tapas!

Then we went to Shinkong to walk around, but didn’t find anything that I really liked. They took me to Guanghua Electronics Marketplace. It’s amazing now. So shiny and new. I didn’t get to do a lot of serious electronics shopping unfortunately. I wish I had more time to do so, but I didn’t want to drag Tony and Phoebe along with me. I could literally spend hours there.

I got myself a new 8GB SD Card and some new headphones for my iPod.

We hopped over to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi near 101 to buy some cosmetics. They were having an anniversary sale, so it was perfect timing. I got a whole bunch of stuff before we headed to Hot Mala to have Mala Hot Pot with my friend Phil. It was Phoebe, Tony, Tony’s friend and fellow Michigan alum Justin, Phil and myself. After eating ourselves into a fully almost pants-busting state, we went to a foot massage place and got ourselves a 40 minute foot massage.

Drinking tea at the foot massage parlour

Drinking tea at the foot massage parlour

The woman who massaged Tony’s feet was completely brutal but awesome. She was definitely torturing the crap out of Tony. Especially since he’s ticklish.

Oh yes, and today it was pouring rain.