10 10 10

十全十美!

Trips

So in the last couple of weeks in Taiwan during August, we planned several trips mostly to the central mountains. We went on a one day trip to Alishan with my dad's friend, and the next day we went to Sun Moon Lake (been there every summer since 2008) to stay at a fairly luxurious hotel for a night.

Alishan's trip was supposed to contain 特富野古道, which is a trail used during the Japanese occupation periods to transport Hinoki logs (檜木). Unfortunately it was under renovation until November... so photos of the entrance counts right?... yea I'll definitely go back there next time!

Sun Moon Lake trip was very fun. We reserved a room in the hotel that faces the lake. Go out on the porch and you see the water beneath you! And the best part is that we saw fish, hundreds, in the clear water in the morning. Anyways The hotel package included a boat tour of the lake ticket to the new Sun Moon Lake Ropeway (gondola) traveling to Formosa Aboriginal Culture Resort (九族文化村), and tickets to that resort. And this year also marked my third time in a row taking a boat tour of the lake...did that previous two summers too.

What a wonderful feeling it was sitting on the porch watching the calm lake in the morning...

Well all thanks to dad for planning and driving, and mom for...allowing it to happen haha. I mean, I was leaving Taiwan again, so we got to do something! And since the beaches was too hot...

Majestic

中秋 2010

I realized that I stopped posting after August 1. I still need to catch up posting about several trips in Taiwan. I'll do that later. Anyways it's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and the moon is bright and round as ever. Mom and dad called to wish me happy moon festival. They had white wine and mooncake, and a clear night sky for viewing. 享受~~

Moved into my graduate housing. It's a new fully furnished studio room (including flatscreen TV, desk, bed, tables, and others) in UCLA's Hilgard Houses and I'm apparently the inaugural resident here. For all four years in undergrad I have at least one roommate. And now I am finally living by myself! Here's testing if I'm up to the standards of my parents in terms of household chores... and cooking!


Photos of the full moon with backdrops at my apartment.

中秋節快樂!

新竹二日遊

南園人文休閒客棧

This resort located in the outskirts of 新竹 has everything designed in traditional Chiness style from buildings to gates to ponds and bridges. It used to be a retreat for 聯合報. But after it ran out of business, the garden was enlarged and a residential building was added to accomodate tourists.

The residential building has only 20 rooms of various sizes. The rooms are very comfortable with a mix of modern and retro design. The staff and service made us feel exclusive and special, like the whole resort was serving the dozen of customers. But it also means that it is expensive! About 13,000NTD for a night! 3pm was the room check-in time. At 4pm we went on a tour of the garden. 6pm was dinner and there were only about twenty people eating and staying for the night there. After dinner there was another night tour of the garden which I went with my dad, but it was the same garden so nothing more interesting other than changed lighting.

I think if you like to see traditional buildings designed according to 風水, that's a place for you. I like how small-scale the lodging is, and that we could just relax outside without getting bitten by mosquitos. It was surprising that I didn't see any mosquitos there.

六星集Spa新竹會館

The next day we went to a foot-massage place next to Hsinchu science park. The place has a Bali style design. I asked for a male massagist and I think he made the loudest noise hitting my legs. Every punch he took at my thigh was pretty loud, but with a tempo too! It was also my first time to this kind of place.

Both of these places are hidden in mountain roads or small alleyways that, if you're not a local, you wouldn't know about them. But they're more interesting than the average tourist attraction spots!

庫肯花園

Ok I went to this place (庫肯花園) about two weeks ago (7/14) with several friends from NCKU BME lab. It is tucked in a alley on 大學路, but the exterior looks very lovely. We sat on the second floor which unfortunately didn't have much interior decoration. The first floor was much prettier. Food was pretty good. Actually I loved the soup. It was a pumpkin soup and I could actually taste some chunks still hadn't been scrambled. We all got spaghetti, so next time I have to try the steaks.

But the main focus is of course meeting friends which I haven't seen in a year. Sure I've talked to them online but when actually talking in person, they bring back this familiarity that one cannot forge just by cross-distance chats. One year may seem short (some friends from elementary school I haven't seen in 10 years!), but still enough time has passed so that we have something interesting to reveal.

下雨天

下雨天, 早上跟Dee坐在大學路Starbucks二樓聊天, 聽著外面的雨聲, 一杯Starbucks的香草密斯朵, 配一塊西點麵包. 中午時晶片中心辦主任歡送會, 吃喝玩樂沒上到什麼班. 晚上衝去波哥(Bog)品嘗茶飲小點, 之後上二樓的誠品書店逛逛, 看了許多攝影書, 瞄了一些小說, 還研究了一本墾丁旅遊書, 準備八月中去墾丁玩!! 逛完後突然決定看電影, 選了特務間諜(Salt). 蠻緊張刺激的動作片, 可是結局讓大家很傻眼@@

豐富的一天, 謝謝Dee騎車載我! (喔對Luke也是, 麻煩他們倆啦!)

豆花

Here's an interesting story...

Tonight I was at a restaurant reading some magazines and came across a column about 豆花妹 (蔡黃汝), a newcomer celebrity who just became famous this past year. I saw some of the shows she hosted like "電玩快打," and apparently she'll have a new song album out... So one of the sentence was like "她2008年7月時在台灣故事館打工賣豆花, 之後受很多網友熱愛, 應此一路紅到今." Wait...台灣故事館(Taiwan Storyland)...I've been there two times and the first time was in 2008.

Flash back to August 3, 2008. I was at Taiwan Storyland with a few of my friends from Taiwan Tech Trek summer internship. I distintively remembered that I saw a cute girl selling 豆花 at a food court. After buying a bowl from her, I took a pic of the stand with her in it.

So after reading that bit in the magazine, I went back home, took out the external hard drive, and searched in my pile of photos from TTT 2008. I found the pic, connected the two and mystery solved! Funny how a seemingly insignificant photo would finish the puzzle haha.


(Left: August 3, 2008 from my camera, the focus wasn't that great but oh well. Right: 2010 from eh...facebook)

Also, I think it's amazing how some could become well-known in less than a year or so. But if they are not humble about it or don't put the effort keeping up, their several years of fame could very well be the average "5 minutes of fame." I guess this means that we can still make piles of money if we start working in small vendors...just kidding, best persevere at our own work and we'll eventually find 0ur moment!