国以民为本，民以食为乐

我的游记可能要改称食记。近几天没有什么特别的游程，不过吃吃逛逛而已。倒是吃地快乐，逛的开心。

本来因今天气不错，想去中山陵走走。但是在太懒了，打算还是买2斤乒乓葡萄和2只水蜜桃回旅店享受。很久没吃乒乓葡萄了，前几天吃了一些，虽然质量一般，但是很有怀旧的感觉。今天和 Rosanne 用完面餐（还是那一家，我炒刀削面，她汤面），逛了下大卖场，回程上没忍住大乒乓葡萄的诱惑。

说到吃，回顾一下昨天的吃程：

午餐和老网友毛兄第一次餐聚：鸭血粉丝汤，在狮子桥。说实在的我更钟意在高雄吃过的下水汤（也是鸭汤），清许多。

下午懒在床上看 Desperate Housewives，直到 R 下班。因她很是想念前天的梅花糕（上次误述成桂花糕），我们去了马台街夜市回顾一下。好奇的我也要了一个。所谓梅花糕指得是它的五花雪糕铜形状，并无其花，而以糯米和红豆沙为本，上面一层白糖和一些干提干枣而制成。味道不错，门口排队。

本来想去狮子桥吃东北炖的，但既然到了夜市，也就很难不撑着肚子离开了。我们在这里吃了个饱：

徐州张记烤羊肉，对我来说非常好吃，近3两肉没几口就被我干了，但去过乌鲁木齐出差一月的女友却评“新疆的普通水平”。算我老土了。

凉皮，好像没什么特别。

酸梅汤，绿豆汤。很好，但上海亲戚们做的一点不差。

臭豆腐，一般，没绍兴的臭。

离开夜市前看到有趣的罐罐面，不过为了留些胃口给鸡汤包，我们没尝试。来到狮子桥的伊氏汤包，这里虽然有门有面但是卫生环境不太好，但是那小笼包的堂兄鸡汤包确是值得强力推荐之物，确实觉得比那南翔小笼好吃，大概是因为我从小在上海把小笼给吃腻了。其实做法而言两兄弟除了哥哥多有鸡汤为馅，以及光皮无皱之外，没什么区别。介绍不洁癖的朋友来这里享受。

回想一下无意中偷着乐，两人这一餐的消费好像不够在东京买一笼小笼包。

葡萄和桃泡得差不多了，Desperate Housewives 第二季也在等我。

拉面。马台街夜市。

来了南京三天,和 Rosanne 一起用过三次晚餐，自己一个人三次中午外出寻食，三次吃的都是拉面。第一次是夫子庙的凉拌面，太油了，咳，旅游景点的东西。第二次是鼓楼公园附近的兰州红烧牛肉拉面，第三次是 Rosanne 这次工作的中信银行楼下的，也是兰州人开的，是红烧凉拌面。

第二三次的又好吃又不油腻，尤其是红烧凉拌面，又肉又凉菜，近来好的汤面吃过不少，但很久没吃过这么好吃的凉拌面了。不过倒是比我预想中的贵一些。大概才不到3年前，上海浦东的街坊兰州面才3块2两，4块3两（再之前是2.3元和3元）。我在南京吃的这2-3两面要5元。不过，自从几乎所有在上海的兰州拉面铺入盟后，价钱涨到6-8元（need double check)，而口味却不如从前。当然其中好处非无，上海滩这类店面确实干净体面了许多。

但是我却更喜欢以前的感觉，也就是南京拉面业现在这样。口味正宗，不干不净，吃了没病的街坊面铺。是否有什么特殊力量使得不能两全其美？希望没有。

南京似乎在改造成市容貌，主干路中山路在脱胎换骨中。昨天玄武区湖南路闲游时经过一个展示城市规划的大楼，有意卖10元门票入内参观，但门卫却告诉我展览到5pm，但前门4pm就绝客，一看时间，4:03pm。也罢，凡是都要先硬件后软件。

。。。

晚上。

带女友再次拜访街坊拉面，好吃，好吃。

然后去湖南路逛，发现了马台街，一个巨大的夜市，大概有2个通化街那么大。不过据说这个夜市不够“夜”，好像11pm出头就打烊了。相信跟着城市的富裕，有更多的夜间消费者会把这个 curfew 推向通化街的2pm。

2人在在马台街从头到尾晃荡了一个多小时，看到几个以前没见过的工艺品和小吃，比如当地特色的冰激凌筒形的桂花糕（一块五，Rosanne说好吃）；椰雕（即用椰子）。有长见识。

王爷牌纯香槟榔。充实的一天。

在南京新街口附近报摊买的。
2元1包，5粒装。
配料：海南槟榔果，槟榔用卤水，甜蜜素，糖精钠，脱氢乙酸，食用香精香料。
厂址：湘潭市车站路119号

今天过得够充实：

看了2集 Desperate Housewives （绝望的主妇）。

帮做电线的好友阿群查了一下，学到什么是电线制造中的 lay ratio。

2pm,快饿荒。赶去夫子庙吃凉面，然后在那里逛了3个小时。这里应该大过上海的城隍庙和襄阳路，容易讲价，买了个10元包包。再补上昨天没看到的江南贡院（即举考处）。古人的考场如同监狱，每人给1.5方米的小茅房还要在里面9天8夜，还没有 SONY PSP 玩。惨！

然后公车加步行先后去了总统府和明故宫。有点失望：前者我到时已经关了，后者名存实亡，早已经变成打羽毛球和太极拳的市内休闲小公园，一元门票买闹中取静。不过里面埋了些昔日不可一世的人物（没心留意谁）。

7点赶回旅店和 Rosanne rendez-vous，去新街口的“锅比盆大”吃火锅，对她一日在商场加官场的辛苦工作做了协调。味道好，服务好，不过不便宜，150块有酒有肉。

散步回旅店途中看到海南长的槟榔，吃法以及味道和台湾完全不同，一粒一粒的独立真空包装，加了上述调料，把一周的保存期延到60天，没了新鲜味多了甜味。不过也只有这样才能有如此“报摊式”的 distribution network。台湾的奇迹成了大陆的蜜饯。

再看会儿 Desperate Housewives (very legally obtained DVD, 1 disc for each season) 就是不错的一天。

南京。粉泡芋圆。

出国十几年，回过上海十几次，这次第一次丢失东西（即手机）。今天早上小心翼翼地作了三个半小时的火车来到南京“投奔”女友。她在这里公干三周。

Rosanne 已经期待多时。到了中山路的旅馆，放下背囊，就去向不远的新街口。这里是南京最热闹的地方，在附近大娘水饺用了餐后，Rosanne 建议到“雨花台风景区”悠哉游哉。

雨花台乃普通公园。树木秀丽，但并不非凡。这里倒是建立了许多墓碑，纪念碑。其最显著是纪念南京1949年4月23日的解放。爬上雨花阁，能看到南京城全景。从风景区的植物看来，这里是一个风水不错的地方，但经过千年的沧桑和摧残，南京城不免逊色于近年来新开发的一些城市。

离开雨花台，接下来是夫子庙。我们有点惫，所以只是走马观花的兜游了一些商店便走了。但在明代，夫子庙作为国子监科举的考场。在这从从商店的某个角落，应该可以通往考场景点。待下次去参观。

这一天接触的南京人，给我的印象不错，感觉比上海的友好。好像人在不太穷也不太富的地方生活心态比较容易平衡。

晚上用餐后逛新街口地下商场发现了台商开的冰店，叫 okpie，有卖芋圆，还有地瓜圆，和“胡萝卜圆”；卖法是衬红豆刨冰，和热狗一起上餐牌。但种种提示告诉我这里的芋圆是次品，明显是粉泡出的，和台北通化街夜市里左边摆摊的做法一样。而我酷爱的冰店，“爱玉之梦游仙草”，则应它的功夫芋圆（当然还有爱玉和仙草）在若干年前畅销火爆而脱夜市而出，在通化街的优质地段有了自己的店面。

这位来古都找钱的台商，能找到吗？

仙草出现在乳山路

上海浦东的乳山路，爷爷家楼下，童年住处。

有2家。一家用的是“汤师傅”的包装仙草粉，安徽人；卖法是小块杯装，加桃汁，冰/热水，和其他东东（白沙糖，白木耳，草莓jelly，其他jelly，苟几，等）。味道一般，仙草块过硬，全是桃汁味。2元。

第2家据说是自己做的，用老家四川种的仙草，大块较嫩，小甜，和台湾的有7分相似。老板娘还卖龟磷膏，西瓜味jelly，还有一个忘了。除了仙草3元一小碗，其他均2元。我都试了，味道不错。

生意如何？2位企业家摆的推车摊大概5pm开盘，到9:15我尝试时当日的货基本卖完。

乳山路靠地铁有夜市倾向。

Shanghai. Cell phone, in it the rest of my photos

Gone, about 1 hour after getting off Shanghai Train Station. Photos of last few days in Taiwan, and of the weekend trip to Singapore with Haidong are gone.

A big challenge facing travelling in China is protecting one's belongings, and life.

Just bought a new one, of identical model. Will guard it well this time.

Apparently the Chinese government forbids access to username.blogspot.com, but allows www.blogger.com ... So I can still post sans fuss.

My favourite photographer

Amature, but great.

http://community.webshots.com/user/rosanney

And, one of my favourite pictures.


This is what the real thing looks like ... Food before all thoughts.
欲仙欲死，令人不可自拔之物。When will I see you again ... ?

Trip to Kenting 垦丁

Cancelled due to heavy rainfall. This was disappointing as I had high expectation for this place. I'm tagging Kenting for the next visit (maybe next month) .

Now back in Taipei living the life of a city rat, schedule for return to HK on Wed, June 14th.

There will be many additional photos in the coming day or 2.

Green Island, Tai-Tung. 绿岛，台东县。

Green Island is about a 50 min boat right east of Tai-Tung (台东). First impression: It is a double edged sword. One side is candy; the other is gukkk.

What do I mean? Biggest mistake since a long time:

This morning I had goat milk, gyoza (fried dumplings Japanese style) in Ping Dong. Vicky drove me then to the train station. I got myself to Tai Tung and tried their famous Ikeue Bento (池上便当) with some yogurt.

A super friendly lady at the Tourist Information Centre at Tai Tung Traing Station explained to me the logistics of Green Island, then personally drove me to the docks where boats leave for the island!!! She happen to be going off-duty and heading that way ... but still, I didn't get this kind of treatment since days in Canada.

So I made a super deal with one of the service providers there whereby I pay 1500NT for a 2-way boat ride, accomodation (not fancy but decent), a scooter, and breakfast. I was very happy given the 2-way tix cost 800 by itself. I help myself to some watermelon juice and bought 2 pills for motion sickness (this was a rip off: 20NT a piece). The guy told me they don't sell this on the island so that's why I bought 2. Well, they do sell it on the island.

Anyways, I get on this jet boat with some students in high spirits. For the first 15 minutes they enjoy themselves outside being splashed by waves ....

Ok. Cut to the chase. There's a young sailor on the boat, and his primary task on this particular trip seemed to be collecting vomit from us and replenishing fresh vomit bags. Well, this gentleman got real busy about 25 minutes into the ride. From me, he got 2 loads.

Holy cow I hadn't thrown up this much in recent memory. -- Sorry for taking so long to make my point.

Advice: Don't eat that much before taking this ride to green Island. These "Pacific" waves ain't pacific at all!!!

On the island I take the locals' good advice of sleeping the pain off until 5pm, before which I better fill my scooter with gas or else the gas station closes (turns out there are shops that sell gas around the clock). Here I had a problem.

I kind of know how to ride a scooter, thanks to my ex-boss in Japan, who lent me his for a week during his vacation. (Thanks Ken!) The problem was for the life of me I couldn't remember how to start one.... Daan! I was pushing close to 5pm. Passer-bys are all on scooters going pretty quick so I couldn't stop one to ask. I didn't want to ask the hotel because that puts them in a difficult position, given one is supposed to have a license to drive this thing (Well, the emporor is far away -- 天高皇帝远). So asked this hotel cleaning lady. This nice looking local girl showed by how to start and run a scooter ...

Green island is awesome. The feature attraction is an "underwater" hotspring. Supposely one of only 3 in the world. The other 2 are in Hokkaido, Japan, and Italy. So called "underwater" because I guess the spring comes from an underwater volcano? I know from this mornings ride with that nice lady that this part of Taiwan lies on 2 different tectonic plates. One connecting to the Phillippines and the other the rest of Taiwan.

I didn't bring my camera with me because I heard there weren't storate facilities at the beaches. So, in my swimmers and a shirt I happily jolt off in my old sticky (with salt water) scooter and headed of to the hot spring. Along the way I take mental note of landmarks and restaurant menus. It took a good half hour before getting to the site. Of couse I had no helmet so was only riding at 1/3 the speed of what would actually turn me on =) , and, along the way I stoped by Guang Yin Dong (a buddist "cave", 观音洞) and prayed for my existence. I'm finding that this give me faith in what I'm doing and makes me feel a bit safer venturing on.

I get to the springs. The only scooters parked there belonged to people climbing to the top of some hill -- nobody soaking the spring water. Well, nobody except me. It wasn't the greatest hotspring - more salt than sulphur, and enclosure was cheap cement, the one I went to in Dong Pu was much better. But the surroundings made me feel like taking a bath in the ocean. Overall score: Pretty good feeling.

Feeling a bit lonely and weird after awhile, I also climbed that hill before dark, and started to head back before the moon takes over completely. The night ride was a happy one, just like the day ride. It feels so free. I Yahooed and Woohaaed my way back to where the restaurants were and tried some local stuff -- BBQ dear, more "ice". But I mostly filled myself with porridge due to the unfortunate puking that fragiled my stomach. Then I bought some nice gifts for friends and headed back to hotel to unstick myself.

Guess you know what happened next.... Given I'm writing this story in Green Island. Yes, Cybercafe.

It's almost midnight. Tomorrow I'm waking up at 5 to catch the sunrise, while bathing in "underwater" hotspring. I'll try to take some nice photos then. Ciao!

Next Morning

Woke up late at 8:30. Oh well, it was heavy overcast with some raindrops -- wouldn't hv seen any sunrise anyway. I took my scooter and made another tour of the island. I have to say this scootering around part has been the most fun part of my visit to Taiwan so far. The view here is short of spectacular but very natural and scenic -- Pacific Ocean, volcanic rocks, nice forest. Best part is I got to cruise around in it, kind of like Tarzan, but faster and no tree-climbing.

The setup on this island is perfect; it's developed to just the right extent. People get off the boat, get a room, the scooter around, then hotspring and BBQ their way to blissful oblivion, all on budget. This ain't Bali nor Phuket, but great for students and families looking for good fun in the ocean.

This was my overnight experience on Green Island. I would recommend it to people who speak Mandarin, and not afraid of getting salty.

Living in a Kindergarden 幼稚园

I spend the last 3 days (and the next day) living in a kindergarden -- literally inside one. My friend Vicky (also a Canadian) and her family live in a nice cozy house in the suburb town of Wan Dan (万丹), nearby Ping Dong City (屏东市), in Ping Dong County (屏东县). They are the mastermind behind these seriously playful grounds, home to some hundreds of pre-school kids and their midget play things, as well as a sizeable farm area where kids are taught to grow vegies and fruits (corns, mango, etc). Rabbits, frogs, geckos, also have their homes here.

I had eaten so much here! Look at all these dishes! Vicky's family sure treats their guest well! Taiwanese vegetables are incredibly tasty. In fact I never knew Bambooo shoots (竹笋) and baby asparagus can taste like that. Especially those bamboo shoots -- the texture is more like very soft radish, but slightly sweet and with a touch of bamboo taste. Only in Taiwan have I tasted bamboo this tender.

So these days at Vicky's house my life resembles that of a pig -- eat-sleep-repeat -- except I also blog, get massages, watch movies. After work each day Vicky drives me arount to try local delicacies. Like this local version of (1 of 1 million versions of) Taiwanese "Ice". A so called "Cold-Hot-Ice", where ice crubs cover an inside core of hot soft, round thingies -- Taiwanese are especially good at making things of this shape and texture!

One particularly interesting experience is Vicky's taking me to her grandparents Bing Lang (槟榔) farm. We went there to take all the left over food (too much food due to my presence) to feed their dogs.

Ok what is Bing Lang (槟榔)? I suspect it doesn't grow in many places, if any, outside Taiwan. It's a tiny little fruit/seed like thing (likes of a lotus sead) with green enclosing, and green leaves. The way they prepare it is spread some magic white spread (supposely slightly alcoholic) on the leaf, fold the leaf, then wrap the "fruit". How does one consume such a thing? Well, interestingly enough, you bite of the head then chew it. Yes, like chewing gum. The locals often explain it as Taiwanese chewing gum. Don't forget to spit out the first mouthful of juices 'cause that has some strong "effects".

This Bing Lang is known as one of the "miracles" of Taiwan. Truckers and construction workers who work the mountains especially love it: It's very light in weight; stimulates saliva (thereby relieving thirst); it's a stimulant; and, of course, somewhat addictive.

What I like most about Bing Lang is the very interesting fact that the juice from the "fruit" mixes with human saliva and creates a red substance. So in case you see a Taiwanese local spitting blood, chances are they're chewing "gum".

Chewing Bing Lang will make you feel warm. Kind of like alcohol. People tell me in the winter this is an awesome sensation, especially before jumping on you scooter in the moist coolness of January.

So anyways, Vicky grandpa and uncles grow this stuff -- lots of it. They even have big machines to sort and process them. Vicky tells Uncle that I'm curious about Bing Lang, and Uncle teaches me the know-hows. Ok... Then I pretend to be a vampire and took this photo.

Afterward I had a good chat with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma tells me to be careful wondering around like this ... I bid them farewell in a short while, leaving Uncle and the dogs to guard the crops from thieves overnight.

I want to thank Vicky and her family for a wonderful 4 days in the country side with the kids, especially with her 5-year-old little brother, who is so hyper even (actually, especially) after mid night, and always begs me to play with him. What does he want to play? It's usually either, "Let's fight!", or "Race to the kitchen" or, "Wrap me up in a blanket and move me somewhere else". Haha... Chi-An: I'll be back to play with you more soon.

And Vicky, thank you!!!

And, Happy Birthday!!!

And, let me show you around HK, Macau, and Mainland.

Heading off tomorrow morning to Taitung (台东), then journeying on to Green Island (绿岛)!

Taipei Walker

Today has been a full day of walking around in Taipei. And we found new treasures on "Treasure Island", a common praise for Taiwan.

Around 1-2am, right after Rosanne and I had left a fancy netcafe at 忠孝复兴 station, we were at an unusual place in the very centre of Taipei -- Cheng Pin Bookstore (诚品书店). This incredible bookstore, where a line of taxi wait outside even at 3 o'clock in the morning, welcomes the intellictually curious Taiwanese 24 hours a day. What I like most about it is that it has a grand collection of titles by Taiwanese authors in a full spectrum of topics.

After some browsing I found that I could learn about very "Chinese" subjects such as buddism, or Chinese philosophy in a much less painful way than the one force upon Mainlanders in the old school way of education. Taiwan styled literature is probably more modern, more scientific; but I don't know for sure.

Another thing I liked about this bookstore is the great number of books and magazines (especially magazines) either in Japanese, or about Japan. I bought a book explaining elementary Japanese grammar in a pictoral setting -- The book I used to use (标准日本语) doesn't agree with me after many years of education in Canadian school, where our textbooks had more margin space and pictures than words. Not to my surprise, the best selling and feature titles were about how to make money in China as a Taiwanese businessman.

Rosanne loves this bookstore and had to visit it before leaving Taipei
At 3:30am we walked back to Tonghua St. (通化街) to get some food. Here's a picture of 通化街 at 3:30am -- Incredible! This particular restaurant is full of people! Neighbouring ones were doing pretty good, too!

I had a 排骨庚面 (Rib-noodle soup) with 猪耳 (pig ears) as appetizer.

台湾的街头小吃极其厉害。来台之后我几乎没去过所谓“正规”饭店，而且小吃的分量小，我很少一餐把自己喂饱，唯恐到时候看到更好吃的没了食欲。其后果是，我每天都要很多餐。堕落。

... I was just saying the street food in Taiwan is so great I've been to actual restaurants only a couple of times.

Ok. Full now after those pig ears. Next, slept to 2pm -- Today was another day where I missed lunch.

We woke up to Rosanne's craving for some 仙草 (Xiancao - Heavenly Grass). We went and got some. I got 爱玉 (Aiyu - Love Jade). Topping? Of course 芋圆 and 地瓜圆, the purple stuff and the yellow stuff. This thing is so good I use a "medium" sized picture to honour it -- on the left is Love Jade, and right Heavenly Grass. This reminds me of a verse I wrote recently:

问世间何谓仙草，
真教人欲仙欲死！

Next we went to a famous Xiao Long Bao place called Ding Tai Feng (鼎泰丰) near 忠孝敦化口. Since I had had as much of these buns as a typical western kid had eaten cereals and pancakes, I didn't find any extraordinary new sensation in their version of the Xiao Long Bao -- but it was still good.

Journeying on, Rosanne wanted to get some bakery at au bon pain near 101. I gasped, "Really!". Hadn't had that stuff in ages! Bakeries in Asia are short of muffins, bagels, bagette, and the likes.

Well, we taxied to 101. Cab driver did some non-kosher maneuvers en route and told us there were no police on the streets of Taipei that day because of a big protest urging Chen Shui Bian to step down as leader of Taiwan.

We didn't find that au bon pain but did buy some trifflings for our new home a Taiwanese version of one of my favourite stores, Muji. The Taiwanese store is called 生活工场. I think the 生活工场 is a good deal for the price, about 1/2 of Muji. Qualitywise, Muji still wins. Creativity, getting there.

After seeing Rosanne off on the Airport limosine, I revisited Taipei 101 and its neighbour "New York New York". I didn't do it justice the first time I reviewed as that visit tainted by too much rain. Well, NYNY was great! A motley assortment of trendy and strong branded franchises make up this modern shopping complex. Along the walks are many patios filled with happy, relaxed shoppers and cafe-goers.

Here's a shot of the scooter lot near by. For every 3 Taiwanese, there is 1 scooter.

Rosanne tells me there is au bon pain at the airport. Good place for business travellers.

I'm planning to go to Ping Dong (屏东) to visit Vicky tomorrow. I haven't seen her in years. More Japanese horror movies on 5 star bus rides ...

If anyone wonders why I'm writing more than before it's because I can no longer find that channel that broadcasts Starcraft games exclusively. I'm now watching mostly Warcraft and Counterstrike -- less of a fan there.

花莲 -- 江山多娇，人多情。Hua-lien

优美的名字，形容峻丽的山水。说山水，其实今朝去的“太鲁阁”山多过水。不过是很美的山 -- 山在虚无缥缈中。

花莲人的心情异常良好，从下车到上车，感觉到这里居民心态平静坦然。昨天与女友两人在台北车站的地下商场走马观花了许久，夜里乘火车达花莲市。旅游服务中心的大姐语言很酷，不啰嗦，但态度很是好，给了各方各面的指点，并亲自打电话帮我们找到车站附近又便宜又舒适的住宿。

谢过这位热心人，我们用一杯茶的时间到了旅店的房间。麻雀虽小，五脏俱全，房间简单，但清洁，透风。我们问柜台老伯要了个蚊香，放下行李。便往花莲市的另一方，南滨公园里的夜市走去。

一路走一路吃和逛，过了一个多小时才到那南滨公园。其实那夜市比起在台北和台南见识过的小许多。我二人可是见过大世面的，在此逗留不久。那步行后半段其实了无人烟，除了卖水果和槟榔的，就少数街头饭店外加 KTV 而已。

不过那路途的花莲市主干路中山路亦是热闹。我们吃了当地有名的“扁食”，即上海的“大馄饨”，和“肉糟饭”，与鲁肉饭相似的小吃。味道还可以，那扁食做的够嫩够结实，皮也不烂，但那汤不够上海的馄饨鲜美，原因没放虾米，榨菜，紫菜，和蛋皮。肉糟饭不如鲁肉饭 -- 那花莲是以风景为名。吃，不如他处。

但是！花莲的麻署非常好吃！女友说比香港的糯米糍好吃。皮入口即化，馅清香而不太甜，多吃不腻。我也觉得比起上海吃过的类似东东略胜一筹。其实，次日我们在太鲁阁的“天祥”景点又发现了麻署名店《曾记麻署》，很是欢喜，吃了许多个。我喜欢芝麻口味，她则钟情紫米味。

这里特地说明：此推荐非同小可，可是我那吃尽天下甜品无敌手的女友 Rosanne 所喜爱之物。再又她承认香港本土对手的糯米糍甘拜下风。敬请朋友们来台湾观光时勿忘验试一下花莲出产的麻署。

Of course, after this we went to a cybercafe (yes, again) and I caught up on my blog and watched more Starcraft games. Darn, because of GTV I'm always behind my writing.

Next day was a rainy one. We took a 9:30 bus to Tianxiang (天祥), which is an important waypoint in Taroko National Park, where there are restaurants, a fancy resort, some shops, post office, and youth hostel. It took just over an hour. After grabbing lunch it was still pouring, so we decided to abandon the original plan suggested by tourist information centre to follow the bus route down the mountain (supposedly we could have done this and hitch hiked any returning bus back to town). It was the right decision as that suggested route was rather trecherous, not to mention very very long.

Tianxiang was not just a way point. It beholds an incredible view of the mountains, creaks, clouds, along with a tower and a buddist temple. After trekking to and fro the temple, where I briefly prayed for safe and fruitful adventures in the coming years, we decided to take a more venturous route called 白杨步道. To test faith, it takes a brisk walk up along a road to get to the start of this trail.

We got there in no time, only to find a "No Entry" sign due to recent prevalent landslides. This didn't stop us. We began the walk in a dark, wet tunnel, where I used my Sony Erisson K750i's flashlight to guide the way. The other end of the tunnel was a close up view of the creek, the rocks, and those making a livelihood here. And that is the reason why we stopped our hike on 白杨步道 a few minutes after passing the 100m dark tunnel -- a sign reads "Beware of Poisonous Bees". Looking up does reveal some behives high up in the trees...

Hmm... I wonder if there was any reward for anyone who venture beyond this point. I'm no hiking expert, but does this park expect visitors to wear "bee-friendly" equipment? Oh well, at least we got to walk that dark tunnel twice...

It was still raining. We were content enough with the good air and excellent view, and decided to head back -- head back to Taipei. On the way back to Hualien we took a closer look at the incredible landscape for which we weren't able to stop and admire. Taroko is definitely worth another visit, in a better ride than Hualien county bus.

仙草？豆花，脚底按摩。Beancurd and Foot-massage

神仙吃草
-- 婪牛做事厂

问世间何谓仙草，
真教人欲仙欲死！

These are two traditional Chinese arts which glorious pasts, and present. It's interesting to explore different flavours thereof in different parts of Greater China.

豆花，是豆系列的美食之一：豆浆，豆花，豆腐，豆干，臭豆腐，香豆腐，等。其基本原材料是黄豆和石膏粉，其后者多之则制成豆腐，少则成豆花。

台湾的豆花特别嫩滑，但不会碎，据说其原因是加了“米苔目”。和“仙草”，“爱玉”，和众多有趣可口的食品一样，米苔目是台湾的发明。而米苔目，这个老台东的发明，是一个制作过程复杂的东东，只用到台湾当地上好的米。

这次来台，吃过不少豆花以及豆腐。觉得口感极好。希望有朝一日米苔目能发扬光大，前迁至神州各地。与此同时，可以研究一下如何在口感好的前提下，增加黄豆的原味。

脚底按摩，又名“足底反射治疗”，是在中国各大小城市铺天盖地的服务项目。居说其来源是江苏扬州。而扬州附近最大的城市是上海。上海开业的师傅们以及其徒弟们，则是把这样传统艺术传之世界各地的主角。

台湾不列外。与大陆不同的是：在台湾，这一行大概没有泛滥，保持着一丝不苟的质量。有一次，和我一起做脚底的华侨太太论到，大陆做脚的质量不如台湾。我不由自主地辩护，说中国做这行得太多了，的确许多泛泛之辈玷污了祖先的传统，下次去做好叫朋友推荐一个好的。

Open communication -- very important.

Photos up!

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