Kung Pao Chicken
Sorry for the delay… but without further adieu GOLDEN WEEK!
It was Golden Week last week, which is a weird spring to summer transitional week where everyone in Japan gets three holidays and with strategic vacation days can turn the three-day holiday into a 10-day week. So anyway some buddies and I went to…. TAIWAN! Why Taiwan you might ask? Well why not? Actually the real reason is because it was a popular week to go traveling and originally we wanted to go to Saipan but the tickets were all booked and the only available (cheap) place was Taiwan.
It was an AWESOME trip. It started out with me and two other guys but after a few days we were joined by the Frat boy Konopka and two FU-ers. (Fu meaning JET program participants that are placed in Kyoto-Fu (the countryside of Kyoto). The first three days we stayed in Taipei, one of two big cities in Taiwan. My reactions? It was humid, stinky, and expensive. It sounds pretty negative but that was what made the trip memorable. The first day we got there it was super humid. It reminded me of home but being in Japan, and their cold ass winters and 65 degree spring days, the Taiwanese 85 degree weather with 80% humidity was very uncomfortable. Nevertheless the trip started out great. We arrived in Taipei around 6 looking for a hostel or cheap hotel. We were starting to get worried when we spotted the YMCA. YMCA having a Christian ambience and the name of a disco gay anthem we were reluctant to go but the humidity was getting to us and we needed to drop our baggage. We signed up for a room and to our surprise it was really nice. It came with two single beds and a couch that rolls out to be a bed, a TV with cable, and our own personal bathroom. (One of my secret fears of the hostel was sharing a bathroom with foreigners you don’t know) Anyway it was nice. And for the three of us we paid about 500 Taiwanese dollars, which is 1500 yen, which is 15 dollars US for two nights.
After we got settled we went to explore the nightlife of Taipei. We hopped into a cab and through gestures asked the cab driver to take us to a place where we can get good food and drinks. With no fail the cab earned his fare and we were sitting in a Chinese restaurant enjoying Taiwanese beer and cuisine. * Side note: on my travels to Taiwan I was able to perfect my own style of Chinese-lingo. I traveled to Taiwan with Kevin from Atlanta and Dan from South Carolina. These two guys were not very Asian looking. So everywhere we went I was the Asian representative that knew of no Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese or Taiwanese). Everywhere we went I was approached being the Asian representative and rapped at in Chinese only to answer them with “I don’t speak Chinese.” Ok anyway back to the trip. In Taipei we got to go to the Taiwan National Palace Museum (I think that’s the name) to view beautiful Chinese artifacts and paintings. The headline piece at the museum is the famous Jade Cabbage. A huge piece of jade that was constructed to look like Chinese cabbage. I ALSO don’t find the interesting point of this headline. Anyway it was a cool cultural thing to do. We also got to go to the Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world for a few years until just recently a building in Sri Lanka took the title. Nevertheless it was huge and the first 6 floors of it was a giant mall. A mall that we MEN did not go shopping but DID take advantage of the huge food court. We got to go to numerous bars and eateries as well as a few clubs.
Walking around the city the three us came to the conclusion that there are no HOT WOMEN in Taiwan. The Taiwanese women were very un-Japanese in figure and fashion sense. We labeled them as being “unglamorous.” But to our surprise the HOT WOMEN don’t walk around in the day, in the hot sun, sweating. No, no, no they come out at night to get their FREAK ON at the clubs. At the club we were surprised that the Taiwanese clubbers knew a lot of American pop songs. They sang along to all of them, but the thing was that the songs were all kind of old as in hits from two years ago. Which was perfect for us since we’ve been in Japan and have no idea who the latest pop sensations are. Anyway we befriended a bunch of punk rocker guys that loved head banging to Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, and etc. Being slightly intoxicated and wearing an Aloha shirt I became friends with the whole group of them. One guy who I have no idea what his name was but had the best shirt in the world, “Bitches & Sake”. We took this as our anthem for the evening and partied hard.
The next day we were off to Kenting, a beach town at the southern most tip of Taiwan. The train ride was about 3 and half hours but was smooth and very easy going. We took a train form Taipei to Kaoshung. And then from there we had to catch a bus to Kenting. This was the real crappy part of the trip since bus drivers DO NOT know how to drive smoothly. Half of our traveling party was carsick and one even blew chunks. The bus ride was 3 hours and the only entertainment we had was the movie Flight of the Phoenix with no sound. But we endured and good things come to those who wait. We finally got to Kenting and found a really good deal on a place and went to check out the strip.
Kenting is really small and it has only one road with shops on either side of the street. The street was no longer than going from Hamilton Library to Sinclair Library @ UH. But every inch of the road was covered with shops and street vendors. Because it was a beach town the main money source came from tourists so there were many Italian, Mexican, and Thai food restaurants. We spent five days in Kenting and we must have had Mexican at least 3 times.
Kenting was all about the beach. Each day was devoted to exploring a new beach, going, snorkeling, and scuba diving. I didn’t go scuba diving but went into the water almost everyday. My travel mates were confused to why I was enthusiastic to go to the beach being from Hawaii but I guess even I took it for granted and really missed the beach. I even learned how to shotgun a beer. Finishing a can of beer in less than three seconds is pretty awesome. On the scuba day Kevin and I didn’t want to go so we went on a scooter expedition around the southern tip of Taiwan. We rented scooters and went all over. We saw beautiful coastlines, mountains, and coastal forests. The scooter adventure is up there in the “Top 5” of best things I’ve done in Taiwan. I know that in Hawaii we make fun of the tourists on mopeds and scooters going around Waikiki, Diamond Head, and Makapu’u but the being on vacation it’s the most fun!
After 5 days at the beach we had to leave so it was another bus trip back to the nearest city and then DISASTER! They sold out of tickets to Taipei (where our airport was) for the train. We had to take another bus, which was 6 more hours on the road. The second bus trip wasn’t as bad since the seats were a lot more comfortable and more “Greyhound-esque.” Our last night in Taipei was not as action packed since we were broke, tired, hung over, and dreading the end of our awesome vacation. All we had time for was some Kung Pao chicken, Chaw-fan, and Taiwanese beer. The next day was completely devoted to traveling back to Japan and back to reality.
I would have to say, I had lots of fun. I went to Taiwan being excited but not expecting much. It turned out to be a lot of fun and something I will remember forever. Being able to count how many non-alcoholic drinks and estimating how big a pool you could fill with how much alcohol you drank means that the vacation was just that, a VACATION. Would I go again? As long as there’s bitches & sake, hot women, and beach what more could you ask for…HELL YEAH!
Broke down....
It was Golden Week last week, which is a weird spring to summer transitional week where everyone in Japan gets three holidays and with strategic vacation days can turn the three-day holiday into a 10-day week. So anyway some buddies and I went to…. TAIWAN! Why Taiwan you might ask? Well why not? Actually the real reason is because it was a popular week to go traveling and originally we wanted to go to Saipan but the tickets were all booked and the only available (cheap) place was Taiwan.
It was an AWESOME trip. It started out with me and two other guys but after a few days we were joined by the Frat boy Konopka and two FU-ers. (Fu meaning JET program participants that are placed in Kyoto-Fu (the countryside of Kyoto). The first three days we stayed in Taipei, one of two big cities in Taiwan. My reactions? It was humid, stinky, and expensive. It sounds pretty negative but that was what made the trip memorable. The first day we got there it was super humid. It reminded me of home but being in Japan, and their cold ass winters and 65 degree spring days, the Taiwanese 85 degree weather with 80% humidity was very uncomfortable. Nevertheless the trip started out great. We arrived in Taipei around 6 looking for a hostel or cheap hotel. We were starting to get worried when we spotted the YMCA. YMCA having a Christian ambience and the name of a disco gay anthem we were reluctant to go but the humidity was getting to us and we needed to drop our baggage. We signed up for a room and to our surprise it was really nice. It came with two single beds and a couch that rolls out to be a bed, a TV with cable, and our own personal bathroom. (One of my secret fears of the hostel was sharing a bathroom with foreigners you don’t know) Anyway it was nice. And for the three of us we paid about 500 Taiwanese dollars, which is 1500 yen, which is 15 dollars US for two nights.
After we got settled we went to explore the nightlife of Taipei. We hopped into a cab and through gestures asked the cab driver to take us to a place where we can get good food and drinks. With no fail the cab earned his fare and we were sitting in a Chinese restaurant enjoying Taiwanese beer and cuisine. * Side note: on my travels to Taiwan I was able to perfect my own style of Chinese-lingo. I traveled to Taiwan with Kevin from Atlanta and Dan from South Carolina. These two guys were not very Asian looking. So everywhere we went I was the Asian representative that knew of no Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese or Taiwanese). Everywhere we went I was approached being the Asian representative and rapped at in Chinese only to answer them with “I don’t speak Chinese.” Ok anyway back to the trip. In Taipei we got to go to the Taiwan National Palace Museum (I think that’s the name) to view beautiful Chinese artifacts and paintings. The headline piece at the museum is the famous Jade Cabbage. A huge piece of jade that was constructed to look like Chinese cabbage. I ALSO don’t find the interesting point of this headline. Anyway it was a cool cultural thing to do. We also got to go to the Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world for a few years until just recently a building in Sri Lanka took the title. Nevertheless it was huge and the first 6 floors of it was a giant mall. A mall that we MEN did not go shopping but DID take advantage of the huge food court. We got to go to numerous bars and eateries as well as a few clubs.
Walking around the city the three us came to the conclusion that there are no HOT WOMEN in Taiwan. The Taiwanese women were very un-Japanese in figure and fashion sense. We labeled them as being “unglamorous.” But to our surprise the HOT WOMEN don’t walk around in the day, in the hot sun, sweating. No, no, no they come out at night to get their FREAK ON at the clubs. At the club we were surprised that the Taiwanese clubbers knew a lot of American pop songs. They sang along to all of them, but the thing was that the songs were all kind of old as in hits from two years ago. Which was perfect for us since we’ve been in Japan and have no idea who the latest pop sensations are. Anyway we befriended a bunch of punk rocker guys that loved head banging to Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, and etc. Being slightly intoxicated and wearing an Aloha shirt I became friends with the whole group of them. One guy who I have no idea what his name was but had the best shirt in the world, “Bitches & Sake”. We took this as our anthem for the evening and partied hard.
The next day we were off to Kenting, a beach town at the southern most tip of Taiwan. The train ride was about 3 and half hours but was smooth and very easy going. We took a train form Taipei to Kaoshung. And then from there we had to catch a bus to Kenting. This was the real crappy part of the trip since bus drivers DO NOT know how to drive smoothly. Half of our traveling party was carsick and one even blew chunks. The bus ride was 3 hours and the only entertainment we had was the movie Flight of the Phoenix with no sound. But we endured and good things come to those who wait. We finally got to Kenting and found a really good deal on a place and went to check out the strip.
Kenting is really small and it has only one road with shops on either side of the street. The street was no longer than going from Hamilton Library to Sinclair Library @ UH. But every inch of the road was covered with shops and street vendors. Because it was a beach town the main money source came from tourists so there were many Italian, Mexican, and Thai food restaurants. We spent five days in Kenting and we must have had Mexican at least 3 times.
Kenting was all about the beach. Each day was devoted to exploring a new beach, going, snorkeling, and scuba diving. I didn’t go scuba diving but went into the water almost everyday. My travel mates were confused to why I was enthusiastic to go to the beach being from Hawaii but I guess even I took it for granted and really missed the beach. I even learned how to shotgun a beer. Finishing a can of beer in less than three seconds is pretty awesome. On the scuba day Kevin and I didn’t want to go so we went on a scooter expedition around the southern tip of Taiwan. We rented scooters and went all over. We saw beautiful coastlines, mountains, and coastal forests. The scooter adventure is up there in the “Top 5” of best things I’ve done in Taiwan. I know that in Hawaii we make fun of the tourists on mopeds and scooters going around Waikiki, Diamond Head, and Makapu’u but the being on vacation it’s the most fun!
After 5 days at the beach we had to leave so it was another bus trip back to the nearest city and then DISASTER! They sold out of tickets to Taipei (where our airport was) for the train. We had to take another bus, which was 6 more hours on the road. The second bus trip wasn’t as bad since the seats were a lot more comfortable and more “Greyhound-esque.” Our last night in Taipei was not as action packed since we were broke, tired, hung over, and dreading the end of our awesome vacation. All we had time for was some Kung Pao chicken, Chaw-fan, and Taiwanese beer. The next day was completely devoted to traveling back to Japan and back to reality.
I would have to say, I had lots of fun. I went to Taiwan being excited but not expecting much. It turned out to be a lot of fun and something I will remember forever. Being able to count how many non-alcoholic drinks and estimating how big a pool you could fill with how much alcohol you drank means that the vacation was just that, a VACATION. Would I go again? As long as there’s bitches & sake, hot women, and beach what more could you ask for…HELL YEAH!
Broke down....
posted by Chris at 12:15 AM
1 Comments:
hahaha your blog is part of my routine now :P hope you don't mind. bored at work can do that to yah. Sounds like a great time playing tourist in taiwan. man i envy you in japan and traveling...sigh
i have just started that blog [the one you found] and will be writing for my friends food blog reviewing resturants and stuff. anywho, have you been to the aichi expo? We are planning on going in july. hopefully if the airfare gods are in our favor.[crosses fingers]
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