Category: The ‘why’ of FI. (Page 6 of 40)

We left Taipei today and headed into the mountains. Shifen is the only place in Taiwan where sky lanterns are allowed to be released. I wasn’t expecting much from this, but it ended up being unexpectedly moving.

I saw this sign outside a shop as we walked into town.

I was expecting the lanterns to be small, but boy, was I wrong. They’re huge! Four people paint their wishes onto the four sides of the lantern. Cindy told us on the bus ride going up the mountain to take some time to think about what we wanted to write on our lantern.
I sat there and realised that, for the moment at least, my life was almost perfect. I messaged Georgia31 to ask what she wanted to wish for herself. I was going to give the lantern-luck to her. She’s a bit stuck and could do with a bit of luck to come her way.

She asked for longevity and good health. I added a couple of extra things because why not?

In between trains, the lanterns are carried out onto the railroad tracks and set alight.

I watched it fly up, up, until it was just a speck in the sky. I hoped it was a good sign for Georgia’s wishes.
We saw one lantern catch fire and flame out two seconds after they let it go. I’m tipping their wishes aren’t looking good.

After wandering around the town for a bit, we caught the train along the Pingxi Branch Line.

Much to her delight, Blogless Sandy remembered that she still had a banana and chocolate brownie from yesterday’s lunch.

There was some beautiful scenery along the way.

The town of Zhou tong is famous for its cats, Cindy said. Apparently, people come from all over the place just to hang out with the town’s cats.

After the train, we hopped on the bus again and headed to Jiufen, which has stunning views of the East China Sea.

We had an hour and a half to walk around Old Street, which was full of interesting little shops.

Also a cute baby.

And a cool dog.

And a chic cat.

It had mysterious laneways.

Then it was back on the bus, heading down the coast. We saw rice paddies, and I remembered how last year I was holding rice seedlings by a rice paddy in Vietnam.

Now we were driving beside the Pacific Ocean. Over the horizon lies America.

Here are some fun facts that we learned on the bus:

Firecracker festivals.

In one, firecrackers are aimed at you. If they hit you, it’s good luck. People have to wear helmets and cover themselves all over to avoid getting hurt.

In another one, a volunteer rides on a cart, topless, wearing red shorts and carrying a “fan” ( a branch and leaves in reality) to knock aside the fireworks people are aiming at him. A French guy did it two years running, even though the guy always gets burned.

Housing here is expensive.

Remember when we used to measure housing in square metres? They charge 2.5 million Taiwanese dollars ($113,700 AUD) per square for the most expensive.

700,000 ($31,000 AUD / square metres) for the cheapest ones. I guess housing is expensive wherever you go.

Earthquakes happen every single day here, because they are formed by two tectonic plates. Most are micro, so no one feels them. The good thing about all of the earthquakes is that Taiwan has a lot of hot springs.

3/4 of the island is mountains.

The Portuguese named this island Formosa in the 14th century. I was excited… I have heard of Formosa but I never knew where it was.

We loved the mountains.

Our last stop for the day was the Hualien Night Market, where one clever stall holder trained her dog to help bring the punters in.

We got there right on 6 PM, so we scattered in search of an early dinner. We chose wild boar fried noodles, which were delicious, and only cost $150 NTD / $6.50 AUD.

Tomorrow? A way-famous gorge. ( I’ve never heard of it, but some people on the tour are psyched!)

Dad joke of the day:

Our first stop of the day was really interesting. It was the National Palace Museum, which houses over 60,000 Chinese antiquities that Chiangmai Kai-Shek “rescued” from the fighting that was around the Forbidden City as he fled China.

If you peer beside the magnifying glass, you can get an idea of how small the stone is, that the carvings are on. Cindy, our guide, said, “ The ancients seemed to spend a lot of time carving onto impossibly small things. They must have had a lot of time on their hands.”

The two things in the front were given to dying people to hold, in the belief that all of their money and their luck will pass to the next generation.
The same tradition is still done today, except that it is now red envelopes stuffed with money.

You pour the wine in the top, then tip it and pour it out through the droopy neck. It honestly doesn’t seem like a very efficient process to me.

These are ancient seals. I was surprised when Cindy told us that seals (she called them stamps) are still in use in Taiwan to this day. When people make big purchases, like a house or a car, they bring their personal seals to stamp onto the documents.

Another wine pouring vessel.

Loved this one. Her chubby cheeks!

This one was INSANE. The ball has 16 layers of ivory and it took 3 generations over a hundred years to complete.

Of course there were many more things that we saw. We spent an hour and a half and we barely scratched the surface. You could easily spend a whole day here.

Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010. We stopped here for lunch. Some of us decided to go to the observation deck on the 86th floor.

Remember recently, when I went to the Eureka sky deck in Melbourne with Scott for a Little Adventure? This one was far more interesting.

Taipei is ringed by mountains, so there was a lot of variety. It wasn’t just a city scape.

Plus, it’s the only building in the world that has its Tuned Mass Damper on display to the public.

This is the thing that stops skyscrapers from breaking apart during earthquakes and typhoons. It sways as a counterbalance to keep the building intact.

It is 5 stories tall and weighs 680 metric tonnes. I’m not usually drawn to hydraulics, but I found this interesting.

Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall. It’s huge.

He died in 1975, and that’s when the government decided to build it.

Finished in 1980. Both his and his son’s bodies are not here, as they wanted to be buried in China. They are mummified, like Chairman Mao and the Kim family of North Korean. The hope is that one day China will allow them to be taken back, but I think there’s fat chance of that happening any time soon.

On the 4th level, there’s an enormous statue of him.

He looks benevolent, don’t you think?

It’s part of a large area, with the state theatre and library housed in the orange-roofed buildings. Blogless Sandy and I went for a walk outside, and I was passed by 3 school groups. They must’ve been learning English, because lots of them called out, “Hello!” “Hi!” as they went past.

Then it was back in the bus, on our way to a weird little temple.

The street view was as you’d expect. But the first courtyard?

It was as if Disney workers on crack designed their version of a Taiwanese temple. The place was crammed with statues like these, all made from wire and cloth. It was bizarre.

Longshan temple looked more normal once I moved in from the outer courtyard.

As you know, I’ve been to quite a few temples in the last few years. I couldn’t help noticing something I’ve never seen before.

Many people were tossing two red wooden chips on the ground, then picking them up and throwing them down again. Some people would only do it once or twice, but others would do it for a while. Then, they’d suddenly put the chips in a container, grab a long stick from a bin, stare at it, put it back and then race away.

I asked Cindy what was going on.
“Oh, we believe that

HOLY SHIT… I’m on the 6th floor and we just had a mini earthquake!!! My room was swaying and I could see the water level in Wanda moving.
WOW.

Anyway, what was I saying?

Cindy said, “ We believe that when we ask the god a question, we then toss the chips. If they both land the same way, then the answer is yes. But if you really want to be sure that the answer is correct, you throw them again. If they land the same again, then you can be sure it is certain. If they land differently than the first time, you have to ask the question again, but in a slightly different way.”

She laughed. “Sometimes I have been there for an hour!”

Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was a culinary one. Apparently, pineapple cakes are one of Taiwan’s way famous foods. We were going to make some for ourselves.

It wasn’t all that challenging. Basically, you wrap a biscuit dough around a pineapple and melon purée. Then they set us loose in the gift shop while our cakes were baked.

The packaging they chose to present them in was a little unfortunate, but the cakes were nice.

Blogless Sandy and I went back to the night market for dinner. This time, we had steamed pork dumplings and they were fabulous. We were served 10 for less than $5.

On the way home, we stopped at a shop across the road from the hotel and Blogless Sandy tried Bubble Tea. She liked it. ( I won’t try it because I can’t stand milk in my tea or coffee. )

Tomorrow, we leave the city and head out on our trek to circumnavigate the island.

Dad joke of the day:

Despite leaving from the same city and being on the same tour, Sandy and I had different flights from Hong Kong to Taipei. We were both looking at the board to see which gate we had to go to, when Sandy saw her flight and said, “It’s gate 27,” and off we went.

I did think it was strange that she was looking further to the left than the 9:30 AM flights, but hey. She saw the gate, so after stopping her from taking an escalator down to the train line, we went to gate 27. It was miles away.

They were finalising boarding as we got there at 8:30. She was ushered straight on board, while my boarding pass wasn’t being accepted.

Of course not. It was for a different flight, leaving shortly on the other side of the airport. I set off at a run and made it, but Sandy was on her plane, not knowing what had happened to me. I knew she’d be freaking out.

Here I am, waiting for boarding, looking at the seat where she should have been sitting in.

We’ve checked the flights for the way home. Both are the same, though we only have an hour and 5 minutes between flights at Hong Kong airport. We’re worried that even with only having carryon, it might be cutting it too fine…

But all’s well that ends well, and we’re now in Taipei!

We were dropped off at the hotel at 1, which was a couple of hours before being able to check-in , so after finding an ATM to get some Taiwanese dollars, we decided to explore the streets around the hotel.

Taipei is reminding me of a cross between Japan and China, with the amount of motorcycles throwing in a hint of Vietnam for good measure.

My hotel room has a Japanese bidet! I’m so happy.

We stopped for coffee and carrot cake at a funky little café across the road from the hotel. An Americano was $70 Taiwanese. I nearly had a heart attack until I used the currency converter on my phone and realised that it was $3 AUD.

James from Ireland messaged me as we were walking, so I sent him this as proof that I was here. Nothing says Taiwan more than Homer Simpson, that’s what I always say.

There was a little park, with many sculptures.

We were walking to see where the night market was. Maybe we’ll go there for dinner.

Sandy wanted to check out the 7-11 stores, to see if they were similar to those that are in Japan. To my great satisfaction, they sell sushi and salads, so lunches on the run are sorted.

Coriander gin, anyone?

This manhole cover has fish and trees.

As you can see, Wanda the water bottle is still with me. She and I have been to seven continents together.

Sometimes when you travel, you see little things that suddenly remind you that life is different in other places in the world.

Remember last year, when I was taking photos of the beautiful doors in Stone Town, Zanzibar?

We were walking to see one of the oldest shopping streets in Taipei.

You’ve never seen so many dried foods in your life. Heaps of shops were selling bags of huge dried mushrooms that were bigger than my suitcase.

We browsed in a gorgeous pottery store.

I liked this old decoration around a very high-up window. It looks like parsnips.

It was a beautiful afternoon and we were having fun.

On the way back to our hotel, this little building nestled at the end of the street caught our eyes.

How funny! We couldn’t find the night market’s location earlier in the day, even though Google Maps was telling us we were there. But when we came back at 6pm, the answer was obvious. The street had closed down and there were stalls set up on the road.

That’s the back of Sandy’s head as we wandered around seeing what the options were for dinner. Somehow, I didn’t fancy the boneless chicken feet or the small intestines inside large intestines. We ended up choosing fried rice.

Tomorrow I might get these.

Pretty.

Sandy found herself drawn back to a stall that was selling peanut butter ice cream.

This is a massive chunk of peanuts and toffee. The guy grates along the top…

… lays out a thin crêpe, puts the peanut shavings on it with two scoops of ice cream and a little fresh coriander (not pictured), then wraps it all up like a burrito.

Look how happy she is!

Tomorrow we have an 8 AM start. Let’s see how punctual this group is.

Dad joke of the day:

The good thing about having friends with different interests to you is that they expose you to experiences that you wouldn’t normally see for yourself.

Liga is a foodie, and on my last day in Latvia, she booked us a table at her friend’s Green Michelin Starred restaurant. There were 4 of us at the table. James was flying back to Ireland after this, and Liga, from the Ligas’ Crazy Road Trip last year, was joining us too.

This is something that I’d never do on my own, but it was definitely a highlight of my trip. The food was amazing.

They really are beautiful birds, aren’t they?

As we were driving towards the lovely little village where the restaurant is, Liga remembered that there was a huge Pagan festival scheduled for that night. Bonfires, dancing, it was all going to happen. Shame that we had to get James to the airport…

We parked the car and walked over a little bridge over a stream. There was Liga, waiting for us in the garden. I realised when we were driving home that we didn’t take any photos of people – it was all about the food!
Oops.

There was a kitchen garden to wander around in. The restaurant takes great pride in sourcing locally grown ingredients.
This didn’t include the wines. They came from France, Portugal and Italy.

Remember the Michelin star pho restaurant I went to in Hanoi? There were decor here is a lot classier!

We went for the full experience – paired wines with each course and extra caviar and wagyu beef. Why not?

A little snack for starters, which wasn’t on the menu.

Unlike Australia, Latvia is very dog-friendly. I wasn’t sure about a dog being in such an expensive place, but of course, it’s a Cavalier. That’s perfectly ok. She was underneath the table next to us and she was a good girl.

Fish, with the extra fresh caviar.

Some bread with a mushroom spread that was so tasty.

You don’t want to overcook the wagyu.

This was absolutely delicious.

Duck. The beetroot was fabulous.

And finally, dessert. Again, so flavoursome. This meal was definitely a treat.

We dropped James off, then came back for a chilled last night. This is the silk carpet Liga brought home from Afghanistan. It’s stunning.

I’m hastily writing this on the first leg of my trip home, on the plane from Riga to Helsinki. WHAT a trip this has been! I’ve been so lucky.

But now my nose is pointing towards home. It’s going to be a long two days’ travel.

Dad joke of the day:

Liga’s cat has finally warmed up to me, along with her daughter. Today was a curriculum day for Alise, so she came with us to have a plane ride.

Isn’t this gorgeous? It’s the cafe that Liga’s friend Ernest runs, along with a small hotel and a charter lane business.

He worked in Europe for a few years, flying planes, then he said that he realised that if he wanted to own a place by a lake, Latvia was the only place where he could afford to do it.

Liga was telling me that there’s a groundswell of young people moving out of the big cities like Riga and moving back to the little villages that they originally came from. They open cafes, small businesses, bed and breakfasts, and the countryside is being renewed.

Ernest and his wife have been here for a few years, slowly renovating the old mill house.

This is a man made lake, apparently, but it’s been here for a few hundred years, I think.

It’s definitely a good place to put down roots.

We had a brief tour of the place, then we set off for the airport.

Here is our Cessna. I can fit under the wing!

Alise did her own thing while we were waiting for the plane. She slept for the entirety of the two hour drive, so she was raring to go.

Liga was happy to give her spot to Alise. She isn’t great with heights.

This was my view.

Here’s the runway…

This was only a portion of the solar panel farm. It covered a lot of ground.

Alise was loving it. She was taking photos and sending them to her parents and friends.

“You could pick up the buildings and put them in your hands,” she said.

We flew over the widest waterfall in Europe- Ventas Rumba. It’s a whopping 2 metres high, but hey! It’s the widest!

Latvia clearly has a thing for renewables.

James isn’t all that fond of heights. It was an educational experience for Alise, learning some new English swear words.

Actually, it was good that James was scared. It gave Alise something to focus on, and while we were laughing at James, she forgot to be nervous and she just had fun.

Over the Baltic Sea.

Alise took this photo for me as we were coming in to land. But first, we buzzed Liga, standing on the ground.

Once we were back at the airport, Ernest took us for a quick tour of the planes. There was a Soviet MIG plane outs, as well as this one.

“ It doesn’t matter if it’s a Soviet plane, tank or car,” said Ernest. “ The measure of thumb is one kilometre per litre of fuel!”

Gliders.

Ernest gave us free booze and some coffee beans. James’ beer was a live beer. It turned out to taste really good, so they said.

I stuck to the best apple cider I’ve ever had.

Yum. I wish we could get this back in Australia.

Home again, home again.

James was really keen to hit the gay bars of Riga, so Alise was dropped off at her aunt’s place, and the three of us went out.

The gay bar was pretty dull, so after an hour or so we grabbed another Bolt and went into the city to a bar.

Liga translated some of the designer beer names.

6.Tapeworm killer

9. Beer from the swamp

I’m not drinking beer. They were hopping into it.

Beer is a big thing in Latvian culture. James accidentally put his foot in it when he looked at the board, and asked for a LITHUANIAN beer.

The barmaid stared unblinkingly at him and said, “Try again.”

He didn’t realise what he’d said, so the scene was repeated.

Oof. He finally got it right.

The three of us, just before we hit the nightclub.

Of course, if there’s a space to dance, I’m going to take it!

One girl asked how old I was, and when I told her, she said, “I hope I’m still doing things like this when I’m 62!”

“You will if you want to,” I said. “ It’s just a decision.”

Shots at 3AM. Why not?

This was an interesting conversation. This boy is of Russian descent, and has a huge disconnect in his life between his family and their political sympathies, along with his own inclinations.

“In Russia, they kill people like me,” he said. “I don’t want anything to do with Russia and the war, but my parents…”

The Russians have been here for at least a couple of generations, up to a couple of hundred years. People are heavily invested here. It’s not an easy thing to resolve.

Dad joke of the day:

Today was a road trip. We drove through Latvia, stopping off at a palace owned by a very wealthy Duke back in the day, before driving into Lithuania and having a little look around.

Rundale Palace was owned by a couple of generations of Dukes, before the Russians swept through and hung onto it for the next couple of centuries. I was excited to see that it still has a moat around it.

It would have been a simply stunning building back in the day. The bones were all still there, but it’s taken a monumental restoration job to get it back to where it is today.

It wasn’t just the Russians. Napoleon’s troops used this place as a hospital and that’s also never good news for beautiful old homes.

This room was the Gold Room. Masses of gilt decorations in a quasi throne room.

The room leading off from the Gold Room used to be used as a dining room. They could only seat 60 of their closest friends though.

I loved the ballroom. It was all plaster, which was left unpainted. It looked fantastic.

The stork’s nest in the middle of the ceiling was actual sticks and moss, just covered with plaster.

It had a small room where someone with a passion for vases exhibited their collection.

The Rose Room. This was one of my favourites.

There was a plaque on the wall of the Roman emperor Vespasian. LOOK AT HiS NOSE!!!!

omg

The western side of the palace was pretty much empty, so they used it for an exhibition of 17th century fashion.

This tiny little sculpture outside the cafe was exquisite. The fabric was handled so beautifully.

Liga out in the gardens.

The gardens around the palace were beautiful. They were very formally laid out.

Obviously this rose was named for Liga. There were hundreds of roses, all named.

What are the odds that I’d see a rose called this, on the very day the Dad joke was scheduled? Life is very funny sometimes.

We pinched some grapes from this vine. They were super sweet and juicy.

Then we were off to cross the border into Lithuania. James had mentioned something called the Hill of Crosses, so we thought we’d check it out.

Yeah, it looked pretty much the way it sounded. A hill of crosses. James in his red hat is clearly having a spiritual moment.

People started putting crosses on this hill for whatever reason, and eventually the Pope heard about it and came to visit. He donated a huge white cross “as a gift from God.”

There are thousands of crosses and rosary beads here. There’s a gift shop as you come in, which makes it easy for people to buy a cross and take it up there.

It was a strange place. Now, as you know, I don’t have a religious bone in my body, but I can respect the faith of ordinary people who want to contribute to a collective art installation.

But I can’t respond to this in a positive way. It’s just firewood thrown every which way. Big areas of the hill looked like this, which was a shame.

But there were gems among the rubbish.

After we visited the gift shop on the way out… I bought another Christmas Tree decoration… we headed into the nearest town to buy a traditional Lithuanian meal.

Here was our restaurant, chosen for us by Google. It had jolly German music playing, and it was full of macrame.

Liga was adamant that we had to try the potato dumplings. James, being Irish, needed no convincing, though we both drew the line at the pig lungs. We ordered a plate of two dumplings each, his filled with meat and mine with cheese.

The pictures in the menu were deceptive. Each dumpling was as big as my head.

I could only finish one.

Look at us in Lithuania!

I tried to take some photos of Lithuania as we drove back to Riga.

I’m sorry. I like this one.

These countries have so much timber. Forests are everywhere.

Tomorrow, Liga is planning an adventure for James and I.

Dad joke of the day: