Night Markets.

Taipei, as I suspect many an Asian city, is full of colorful night markets. These can be from what we would think of as a block party-sized thing, to one of a whole new neighborhood and city, built up each night for the good residents of Taipei. I got to go to two of them while in town, one of which was probably the biggest and most well know, the other a smaller, single block affair. Both were fun, had similiar items, and often held surprises.

If you don't like crowds, this is NOT the place to visit. Wall to wall people, and I was the minority for a change. Only a few people pointed, stared, or laughed though.

Visit the temple located smack dab in the middle, and then gorge yourself and shop til you drop.

Most of Asia has great colorful neon signs. I can't read them, but I am always drawn to the colors and lights. Here's a few samples.

If they look like they were taken from an open cab window, that would be correct.

Odd & End.

In the course of being in Taiwan for the week, you can’t help but stumble upon things that just don’t seem the same as in the good ole US of A (both good and bad). An example of this that I’ve already talked about would be the butcher stall in the market - kind of weird, but not really bad, just different. I’d like to talk about a few more examples of this here in Taiwan, and lucky for all of us, it’ll mostly be through pictures. Let’s get started:

Ditches-
I don’t think any of us know what the real word is for these little bad boys, but it’s pretty clear when you walk into an older building’s bathroom, or even here at the brand new tradeshow hall that this is not your normal commode. They are found all over Asia and are used by both men and women. I also believe they are known as being healthier than sit-down toilets.

Signage-
Though I believe it’s not anyone's fault, the limits of the Taiwanese/Mandarin to English translations often leave something to be desired, but add humorous extras in the process. Observe:

Sure.

Maybe not the best global brand name?

Always look out for rouge trousers on the subway, they've been known to steal things.

And finally, one of my favorites:

These are on the fences of construction areas. It does make its point in the end.

Baggage-
The first bit of baggage is a little disconcerting. This is a typical Taiwanese truck. You can see both trash bags and plastic bags of food. I’m not sure how the health dept in America would react to someone doing this back home. And in Taiwan’s defense, I have not (knock on wood) ever had any ill-effects (other than taste) from the food here. I enjoy trying new items and don’t think much even about eating street vendor food.

The second item is one of my favorites of the whole trip. This is innocuous looking enough, but boy does it hold a surpise. It’s blue, about 14” square, and seems to be made out of the material from disposable kitchen sink cloths or kind of like the Swiffer material.

Once something is placed inside, it converts into a bag for carrying. It was used here in the hall for food transport and I couldn’t believe how cool and simple it was. They all lay flat until you use it to carry, very cool.

I’ll be doing one more flight to home post and the results from the poll soon enough.

"Snooty?... Snotty?

It’s now the time on the posts to talk about some rather difficult subject matter for some of you – foreign foods. However, I promise to only have a couple of things that could even be considered gross, mostly just interesting stuff.

We’ll start with the potential gross, found on the day I got to walk around. We were with one of our coworkers who’s actually spent some time in Taiwan before and even speaks fluent Mandarin (not too common for white folks). He took us down some smaller side streets into a local neighborhood’s market. There were all sorts of foods, but the most interesting for us Americanos was the butcher stall.

It might look bad from the pic, but honestly, everything looked really clean and the meat very fresh (of course it was, it was chopped up right there!).

The next interesting Asian food is something I only know as “honey lemon”. This was sitting in the fridge at our tradeshow booth on the first day. Not having had lunch, I needed something, so I grabbed it.

Now, the first thing you need to know is that a lot of drinks come in small containers with foil lids. You simply punch into the lid with a CapriSun-like straw and have at it (for me, this is always funny to see when grown men drink out of these). I punched this drink twice, once for an air hole and once to drink through. As I punched the first hole and retracted the straw, a small gooey glob came up, almost in slow-motion, with the straw. I didn’t think much of it at the time, maybe it was just really cold? Well, as soon as I got to drinking, I knew why it was gloopey; the drink was basically a thin version of Jell-O. However, the taste was quite agreeable and once I had a few mouthfuls, it was no big deal… almost surreal to be sucking down honey-lemon Jell-O in the middle of Taiwan. It was so much fun in fact, I had one of my old SRAM coworkers give one a go when he stopped by the booth. We soon dubbed the drink “snot-tea” or a “loogie in a cup”.

Even water comes in the dinky foil-topped cups. No "Big Gulps" here.

Next up is something a little more on the gross side, it’s known as the “Century Egg”. Here it is up close and personal:

It doesn’t taste nearly as bad as it looks. It seems as though the white of the egg has taken on an almost translucent appearance, and that lavely green hue. The yolk has turned equally as tempting, but in a much darker color. Again, unless it’s a dare (which it was not for me), I wouldn’t pick this egg as an appetizer; I’d probably choose a creamed or pickled herring instead. The taste is pretty egg like, but with a weird aftertaste that I would say American palettes are not used to.

The final installment on the food front is another interesting pick known in Asia as “dragon fruit”. Here is a picture of the opened fruit, with the skin still on:

Looks pretty exotic, huh? It has a bright, waxy pink and green skin and is about the size of an egg-shaped orange/grapefruit. Strangely enough, I had seen it only a week or so before on one of those travel food TV shows. At the time I thought, “Ooh, that would be cool to find while I’m in Taipei.” Little did I know it would be served everyday at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. The little black seeds seem to be akin to the ones found in Kiwi fruit. In fact, it tastes a bit like it as well, but I have to say, after having both side-by-side each day, I like Kiwi better.

The only thing I did not try, but def could have is called "stinky tofu". If I understand it correctly, it's something like a stinky cheese. It's left to mold, usually has a fuzz on top, and smells to high heaven (esp when walking in the "night market"... more on that later). I'm told it actually tastes good, prob like the good flavors from stinky cheeses.

And not for nothing, but does anyone recognize the admittedly vague quote in the subject line?

Super Big Wind Damper

I wanted to spend some time on the architecture and buildings of Taipei. For those that don’t know (incl me), Taipei is home to about 3 million people. They share a history with the country of China and technically are part of China to this day. Their Olympic teams are known as “China-Taipei” and they also use an official designation of R.O.C., which stands for Republic of China.

I was very lucky on the first full day on the island to get to do some sightseeing. We had a beautiful sunny (is that what the sun looks like?), warm, humid day to work with, and did we ever.

We started here,

it’s a memorial to one of the founding fathers of modern day Taiwan, Sun Yat-Sen. He’s got a great big memorial museum and garden and is liked by both traditional Chinese people (mainland) and the people of Taiwan. They do a “changing of the guards”, which was interesting to witness. Plus, they had a bunch of school kids hanging around, most in their matching school uniforms. I think for me, being white, it’s funny to see large groups of little Asians all dressed alike.

We then decided to spend some time walking over to and checking out the building known (the world over) as ‘Taipei 101’. It’s so named b/c of the number of floors it has, you guessed it, 101. It currently holds at least a few of the building height records in the world. The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur seems to be in most of the conversations about height, but it’s mostly spire on top, not livable/usable space or floors.

The entrance we found (among its roughly 2 square city blocks) was the entry first and foremost to a very high end mall. Honestly, it was more high-end than Michigan Ave. and Madison Ave. IWC (a watch brand) has its own store here, among almost any other high-end brand you could name.

This is a shot from the inside observation deck on the 89th floor. They also allow people to go outside onto the 91st floor (below). While it was a very nice day outside, up here it was howling wind and noisy around all the fence supports.

Finally, they have something that I learned no other large building allows anyone to see, and in typical Taiwan-English, they have translated it as the “Super Big Wind Damper”. Basically, to combat any effects of the wind on the building, it has 3 large balls of steel within the building to counteract the forces of the wind. The largest of the three is on the 87th floor and totally visible. It’s about 20 feet in diameter and very impressive. There wasn’t much, if any, movement when we were staring at it… but still really cool.

They also have a lot of other funny old, and unique/modern new buildings all about town. Within 15-20 minutes of walking, you could go from a traditional neighborhood right into the most modern mall or building you’d see in any city in the world.

MKE > DTW > KIX > CKI

As I flew the 18+ hours from Milwaukee to Taipei (those are the airport codes in the subject), I thought to myself, "Self, would you recommend that anyone take a trip this far and long?" The answer that I came to as I was on the flight was a quick "No." Having had some time to think about it and talk with fellow travelers, I would now say "maybe". If you like new food, architecture, people, etc and have the ability to plan a two week trip, then a trip to Asia could work well. I will be posting a few posts over the next week or so showing some of the above aspects of Taiwan and maybe convincing all of us that this type of long plane trip is recommended.


Above is the DTW airport tram. Evidently moving walkways (which they also have) are not fast or big enough for this airport, so they added a big tram that runs the length, all day, everyday.

And this is also in the DTW airport (did I have a lay-over there?). It’s one of those interesting shooting fountains. Jets of solid water shoot from spot to spot, in a wonderful, timed fashion. It provides hours of entertainment for the people stuck there… and the little birds in the airport also liked it for its inherent bird-bath qualities.

I also found it quite funny (though it could have been from all the flying) that the Osaka Japan airport code (you did know that all airports are known by a single 3 letter code, right? ORD ring a bell?) is simply KIX. I couldn’t stop thinking about the slogan… “Kid Tested, Mom Approved”. I’m not sure moms would approve this airport - fine and all, but decorated like an industrial cafeteria. And I would have given some hard-earned bucks to eat some Kix & cold milk right about then too.

New look, New poll.

Wanted to spruce up the place with a new, cleaner, easier to read look. If anyone hates it, save it. There's also a new poll up, which should dovetail with a post this week, as long as I can swing it from Taiwan (leaving tomorrow). Finally, if any late votes come in about the guns, I can adjust the results... just getting a head start today.

Do you know the Muffin Man?

Does any else remember that song from childhood? I think my Mom used to sing it to us (I'm sure Laughs&Tears will let us all know if I'm wrong). In any case, it came to mind, albeit briefly, when I saw this car in front of me the other day.

[no, it's not safe to take pics while driving, but it is fun]

I will admit that I've yet had the chance to fill out the DMV form for my very own vanity license (what, with only getting a car late last year). However, I'm pretty sure my first choice would not be "MUFFIN1". This plate should not have even gotten as far as the USPS to send in the form. They should have stopped it before it ever reached the post office. Barring that injustice, they should have, for sure, snagged it while a convict was stamping it out in the joint (yes, I believe convicts still make license plates). There's no way he/she could have gone back to their cell feeling good about stamping out a plate that read "MUFFIN1". He probably went back to his cell after burning that plate into his memory with the idea of finding this auto-owner and jackin her up upon his release, on principle alone.

Well, the plate did get out and onto a car. The woman driving this little compact was a pretty bad driver, but I wouldn't have even paid attention to her driving were it not for the "MUFFIN1" plate starring me in the face. I couldn't help but think "What would make someone get this?". Does she just really like muffins a lot? Does she have her own "muffin top"? Is she trying to ward off bad drivers, flat tires, and pot holes with an extra dose of cuteness?

I firmly believe that all vanity plates should go through a very strict approval process for humor and quality. Plates like "MUFFIN1" should not be allowed unless you are a baker or in the baked goods industry AND drive a large delivery vehicle that wafts off cinnamon and sugar smells all through the neighborhood. Another plate I saw the other day would be a step up - "LVNLIFE" - kinda tricky, has some thought in it. And one of my all-time favorites (esp in the bike racing world) is "H8LUZN", yeah, who doesn't hate losing? Finally, this mind-bender is almost too good "TIH5 HO". (hint, "reflect" on this for a little bit)

If this is the muffin man's car, I don't want to know him.