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Location | Parammata, Australia

Today was the last day before returning to Taiwan. The morning started out by heading to the Sydney Opera House. We went on a short tour to see the inside of the largest performance hall.

Inside the Opera House

Then we headed over to a park to take some sweeping views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop.

Opera House and Harbour Bridge

We drove over to a harbour where we got on a boat and had lunch. The boat took us all around Sydney so we could see the coastline.

Sydney Coastline

Then it was off to the Harbour Bridge to take a walk across it. After the bridge we stopped at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Jumping at St. Mary's!

Then to another SCAM Duty Free. Next door we discovered a t-shirt wholesaler who was selling shirts for $5. I got 2 shirts and made friends with the lady who owned the place.

Then it was to a casino where we easily had the best meal of the whole trip. They had some amazing Indian food! I was surprised that it was so good.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel.

There was nothing truly eventful except for the photos, which I guess is the important thing. Tomorrow, it’s back to Taiwan!

Location | Parramatta, Australia

Woke up at 5am to head out to catch a flight to Sydney. Arrived and met our new tour guide, Michael and also got onto a very smelly and old bus. We drove through Sydney and got to a Chinese buffet (which was absolutely terrible). I left it early and walked half a mile to go buy 2 umbrellas (which we didn’t end up using). We then got on the bus and drove to the Sydney Olympic Stadium from 2000. Although it was interesting to be there, it was completely unimpressive. We only stopped outside the main stadium. There wasn’t much to see.

Then it was off to Blue Mountain which was an hour and a half away. After what seemed like forever, we ended up at this completely drenched mountain covered in dense fog. We could see absolutely nothing. We took this “ride” on this train that literally went down the mountain at an incredibly steep incline (Which felt like 90 degrees). Apparently it’s the Kotoomba Railroad and it’s the steepest incline in the world – that explains things.

Katoomba Rail

We took a short nature walk where Michael pointed out we could see nothing. Then up a tram, to the gift shop, back on the bus and back to Sydney.

The Forest

We got to this casino type place where we had dinner then went to our hotel…

Once inside the hotel… I went to my aunt’s room where I looked up and we counted 20+ mosquitoes on the ceiling. It was HORRIFIC. I went down and the manager came up with a can of bug spray to kill them. Then we discovered our hotel room ALSO had mosquitoes. He also came by to spray all of those. I’m just glad I don’t see any other bugs.

Location | Gold Coast, Australia

We started the day at the Mt. Nathan Winery. Yes, I did go wine tasting. Yes, I did turn bright red. Yes, I am a lush. The winery was incredibly small, I wonder where they grow the majority of their grapes, because from what I saw, they could probably make barely 1 bottle of wine. I ended up buying 2 bottles of wine – a 17-year Tawny and an Autumn White w/ Honey. I know nothing about wine, so someone is going to have to come over and drink it with me.

Winery Grapes

We left the winery and headed to Bond University to check out their campus. It really has a great campus, and apparently is considered one of the top law schools in Australia.

Our tour group at Bond University

Afterwards we went to the Duty Free Store, which turned out to be such a scam. Essentially tour groups are taken their to earn their tour guides commission. Because most tour groups don’t speak English, they are “at home” at these Duty Free Stores because they are owned by other (in this case) Chinese/Taiwanese people. S-C-A-M.

Across the street we stopped at this park to look at fruit bats. Apparently there was a very large concentration of fruit bats in the area, so I led a pack of our tour over to the trees the fruit bats were hanging from to take some shots. I think we were talking a bit too loudly because they started to wake up. I left quickly, I didn’t want to get hit with any guano.

I am Darkwing Duck!

We went to the Gold Coast beach and walked along the shore for awhile before going to have a nice cup of coffee and to a shopping mall to look at other souvenirs. Then dinner was Chinese and back to the hotel where I anticipate a VERY early morning wake up to catch a flight to Sydney.

Self Shot at the Beach

Location | Gold Coast, Australia

The day started out with a boat tour of the Gold Coast harbour. We went on this long yacht with another tour group. On the top deck, the skipper was driving the yacht and I decided to make conversation with him. We talked about Australia in general, life, adventure traveling. He’s originally from New Zealand, but has lived in Australia for the majority of his life. He’s normally an engineer, but part-time he drives boats, especially tours like the one we went on. The silliest thing on his list of things? He drives a boat that has a church on it. Apparently there are only  2 of these in the world, and to have something like that on his resume must be pretty cool.

Gold Coast Harbour

After the tour we hung out in the shopping mall next to the dock before getting fish & chips for lunch. Then we were off again to Paradise Country. Paradise Country is a theme park w/ Australian animals and promotes Australian culture. There I got to… hold a koala.

My mom and the koala

Pet a kangaroo.

This is Mr. Hoppy

See sheep getting sheared.

Mr. Sheepy

Also, a horse show and sheep herding.

Dinner was lamb chops.

Then my grandma wanted us to sign up for a glow worm trek. There’s this park called the Springbrook National Park and inside the Natural Bridge (which is a rock formation that looks like a bridge), there’s a colony of glowworms. Several groups take you on a hike through the forest to see these glow worms. Only 300 people are allowed to go a night. There’s a lot of stairs and you’re on a relatively nice hiking trail, but it’s not good for older people with bad knees (ie, my grandma). I think she had a nice time, but I’m not sure if it was worth the AUS$85 to see a bunch of blue dots on a wall for about 8 minutes before hiking back through the forest.

Um, yes, those blue dots are glowworms...

Location | Gold Coast, Australia

Last night I left Taichung to go to the airport then hopped on a plane to Brisbane. After a 9-10 hour flight, we arrived and met up with our tour guide, Danny. We headed off in our mini-bus. It was me and 20 other people. This trip is supposed to celebrate my Grandma’s 80th birthday, so it was me, my mom, my aunt and my grandma.

The first stop was Brisbane City Hall. Apparently it was once the tallest clock tower in the region. Apparently they were planning to remodel within the next month or so, and I was lucky enough to ride the elevator to the top.

Brisbane City Hall

We hopped back onto the bus and headed over to this park which was the site of the World Expo in 1988. They had a giant ferris wheel, Nepalese temple, and various other little sites and attractions.

Ferris Wheel

We went to lunch right after in the Brisbane Chinatown. We had dimsum, nothing remarkable, so no pictures. We then headed up to Mount Coot-tha  to get a great view of Brisbane from above.

My Grandma at Mt. Coot-tha

After that we headed a shopping center where we spent an hour shopping around for groceries at Woolworths before we headed to the hotel on the Gold Coast and dropped off all of our things before we headed out to a (terrible) Italian restaurant and then back to the hotel to relax and go to sleep.

Domo-kun is learning about the Gold Coast

Location | Taipei – Tony’s House

Day 2 in Taipei started with a 1-2 hour full body massage that Tony was banned from (ladies only). Phoebe and I went to this place in Zhongsan near the Shinkong Mitsukoshi there. The massage was the full shebang. It was pretty great for NT$999 (about $30US). After the massage I was wrapped up in this heating pad and left to cook for awhile. It was pretty amazing. I really should find a regular massage place in NYC.

Afterwards, Phoebe, Tony and I went to eat at a small Japanese tapas place. We ordered about 6-7 dishes. From sashimi to fried sea urchin to delicious puffer fish (but not the poisonous kind), it was really yummy.

Japanese Tapas!

Then we went to Shinkong to walk around, but didn’t find anything that I really liked. They took me to Guanghua Electronics Marketplace. It’s amazing now. So shiny and new. I didn’t get to do a lot of serious electronics shopping unfortunately. I wish I had more time to do so, but I didn’t want to drag Tony and Phoebe along with me. I could literally spend hours there.

I got myself a new 8GB SD Card and some new headphones for my iPod.

We hopped over to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi near 101 to buy some cosmetics. They were having an anniversary sale, so it was perfect timing. I got a whole bunch of stuff before we headed to Hot Mala to have Mala Hot Pot with my friend Phil. It was Phoebe, Tony, Tony’s friend and fellow Michigan alum Justin, Phil and myself. After eating ourselves into a fully almost pants-busting state, we went to a foot massage place and got ourselves a 40 minute foot massage.

Drinking tea at the foot massage parlour

The woman who massaged Tony’s feet was completely brutal but awesome. She was definitely torturing the crap out of Tony. Especially since he’s ticklish.

Oh yes, and today it was pouring rain.

Location | Taipei – Tony’s House

Woke up a little late, had some breakfast and then Zhiyan came to take me to Taipei. Got onto the High Speed Rail (which is awesome by the way) and it took only an hour to get to Taipei. I went to Yuansan to wait for Tony. We went back to his apartment where I dropped my stuff off and then we headed out to Taipei 101. We first went to Page One and I was incredibly sad to find out that they cut the store size in half. It is definitely NOT the largest bookstore in Asia anymore.

Taipei 101 from the ground

I’d never gone up to the top of Taipei 101, so Tony and I went to the top in the world’s fastest elevator. We took a lot of pictures and stared at Taipei from all angles. It’s been cloudy and crappy all day, but there were still some nice pictures. We also went outside, but since it was a very windy day, they wouldn’t let us on all sides of the building. We then went down to see their “Super Big Damper” and through all the souvenirs and back down to the bottom of 101.

View from Taipei 101

We then walked over to New York, New York where we strolled around Muji and some other stores before deciding that we’d like to try Mister Donut.

Almost everyone I know has said they like Mister Donut. So I was really excited to see how good it really was.

Tony and I got 6 donuts. We went outside to try them out.

Well…

The first one was green tea glazed. Um… gross.

Then a chocolate one… even worse…

Ok, the donuts were disgusting. We were hoping that it’d get better. Let me tell you, it doesn’t get better. We were trying to give away our Mister Donut’s Donuts by the end of the night.

Whyyyy did we buy you Mister Donut???

So we decided to walk back to the subway stop and Tony decided to point east… unfortunately the subway was west and I actually knew where we were. We went to the Sogo area to find Tony’s friend Phoebe. We found her really quickly and strolled around Sogo until she got off work. We met up with her and her cousin (Peggy) and went to a really cute tea shop. We got some sandwiches and tea/coffee. The latte was actually really good, but the tea was the cutest and best part.

Tony, me, Peggy and Phoebe at tea

Aftewards we met up with Tony’s friend Sophia and her friend, David. We went to eat Dou Hua (a type of sweet dessert made from soy beans). After eating that we went to Sophia’s to just hang out in her apartment. I really liked the set-up, as it was very loft-like.

Tony, David and I went to Shilin Night Market afterwards. We strolled through the market quite quickly because David wanted to get to this store to get A&F/AE/Hollister stuff that was incredibly cheap. We couldn’t figure out if the stuff was real or fake, but Tony and David spent about an hour to an hour and a half in the store just trying on different things.

Afterwards Tony and I took a cab to MOS Burger. For some reason we had both been craving MOS Burger. In the end I’m not sure why I was craving MOS burger…

MOS Burger

Location | Taichung

I did something completely out of character today. I got a tattoo. Four of them in fact. It’s not where you’d expect.

So, I got eyeliner tattooed on my eyes. Top and bottom. Only cost me $200. Ok, it really cost my aunt $200 (my poor Aunt is going to spend a small fortune on me this trip).  Sounds horrific right? Well it might have been the most horrific experience of my life. So I get there and it’s all nice and peachy. The cosmetologist’s office is gorgeous. I mean, marble floors, chandeliers, and pristine posh décor. I meet the nice lady (Ms. Wu) and proceed to let her line my eyes to show me what it’s going to look like. She lines one side with only top and one side with top and bottom. The bottom looked great too, so I decided to go with lining both (which was an extra $100). So I lay down and she begins by numbing the area around my eyelids… with a giant needle. Then, the most horrified part wasn’t the fact that she was using an actual tattoo pen to line my eyes, it was more the horrific sound of the tattoo pen. This horribly tinny mechanical whirring noise oddly reminiscent of a dental tool.

Whirr whirr whirr.

I can feel my eyes roll back into my head as I reminiscence that horrifying noise. So then the tattoo starts. It wasn’t very painful, more-so, it was just… tingly. The worst part was when she had to line my bottom eyelid. I had to have my eyes open as the pen was whirring toward my eyeball. I could feel my heart practically jumping out of my chest as I held my breath because I was so afraid that if I moved it’d be the last time I saw out of my eye.

The best part was all the tears I shed in the name of a) laziness (I got my eyeliner done because I was sick of lining my eyes everyday) and b) beauty (woo! My eyes look pretty freaking awesome now)

Anyway, after my eyes decided to turn puffy, red and really just kind of gross looking from the tattoo, I got to go upstairs for a facial. The facial went nice and smooth until the portion where they clean out ever pore. My God… That was incredibly painful. I thought I’d pass out from the pain. Almost as bad as the eye tattoo. I think I shed a few tears then as well.

After everything was set and done, I got a ride back to my Grandma’s where I ate some lunch then passed out for 3 hours. My aunt came to take me shopping. We went to Shinkong Mitsukoshi to stroll around, but unfortunately I didn’t get anything. Then Doris called, it was her last night in Taichung, and we both went bowling at Tiger Bowling Alley. We even played the Taiko Drum Master game and also shot some hoops.

Her boyfriend dropped me off around 11 and I went to deal with my puffy red eyes because I’m going to Taipei tomorrow!

Location | Taichung, Taiwan

So, I’m a little bit sick. I thought it was allergies, but nope, it’s a cold. Sore throat, runny nose, cough. Awesome.

Today I went to Lukang, a town in the outskirts of Taichung. There’s a big Matsu Temple there. We went for Matsu worship at the various little shrines. Matsu is the patron saint of travelers (especially those who are sea-faring). [If you are interested, I’ll wiki link it later]. We didn’t stay very long, but we also went to eat their specialty – everything oysters. We ordered oyster omelette (which sadly, sucked), fried oyster and leek pancake, oyster porridge, fried oysters and fried shrimp balls.

I wasn’t very hungry. Not much of an appetite since I’m sick.

Afterwards we walked through the historic district and bought a few random souvenir type items. Nothing really outrageous, some glass figurines anyway.

Then we headed back to Taichung where I took a 2 hour nap before going to Shinkong Mitsukoshi to do some shopping. We had Chun Shui Tang’s Kungfu Noodles (sounds awesome right?) and some bubble tea before walking around. I’ve never really liked shopping in department stores. I can never find anything I want…

So we left and I met up with Doris at a bowling alley where we bowled, played the claw games, played Taiko: Drum Master, basketball, and air hockey. I’ll definitely miss Doris, she’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, so now I’m back home and tomorrow I’m getting something special done. I’ll show pictures later. I hope the pictures aren’t weird. I just took an antihistamine so time to pass out.

Location | 4th Floor of Grandma’s Building – Taichung, Taiwan

So… I’ve been overeating. A lot. Partially because all the food is so damn good here and also because I’m completely deprived of good Taiwanese food in the states.

The morning started out at 8am. I woke up, did some work (yes, I did check work email) and then I went downstairs to find that no one was home… oh…

My grandma came back and immediately took me to get breakfast. We went and got pork buns, fried oyster and leek pancakes, wonton soup and iced black tea. When I got back, I proceeded to eat 2 pork buns, 1 fried oyster and leek pancake, the whole bowl of wonton soup, the large iced black tea and a wax apple. Time to loosen my belt.

Pork Bun Vendor

So I spent an hour listening to The Bowery Boys so I could digest. Then I went upstairs and decided to go through old photographs. I found a lot of my Grandfather’s side of the family. There were some great shots from the 1920’s up until the 1940’s. I’ll try to locate a scanner so that I can scan them all. They were mostly of my great Grandfather and various other people my grandmother wasn’t too sure about.

Drinking Friends

Then it was lunch time. My aunt brought over Peking duck, dumplings, vegetable buns, cold soy milk and bubble tea. My grandmother made steamed crab and shrimp. We also had some leftover pork buns and oyster and leek pancake. I can usually eat a whole Peking duck (I know, sick), but I could only eat 3 wraps. Hopefully I’ll save room next time.

Finishing up Lunch

My cousin also brought over his crazy dog. He was jumping around all over the place and licking everything. The poor thing got so excited we had to tie him to the staircase railing outside the apartment door. You could hear him crying from the dining table.

So we rested up after eating until 3:30ish when we went to my Aunt’s to switch cars and drive off to the mountains.

Mountains

My cousin made reservations at this really nice restaurant in the outskirts of Taichung. We went a little early to take photos. The place really was quite beautiful. Set up to look a little Japanese (even though the food isn’t Japanese), there’s a reflection pool, shiny wooden floors and tatami.

Reflection Pool

There’s an outdoor bathroom and the funny thing is, the back wall is clear glass. It’s facing the edge of the mountain, so no one should be able to get back there to see, but it was still a little unnerving to go to the bathroom…

Would you use this bathroom? (Heh I did!)

We took a lot of pictures outside.

Zhiyan is very tall compared to me...

We sat inside for a little bit before getting kicked out again because they had to set the tables.

Inside Looking Out

The meal was 7-courses. You pick what your main meat dish is and the menu is set by the chef. I’ll post each dish below in pictures.

Table Setting

First Course: Salad w/ melon wrapped in proscuitto

Second Course: Fresh Tofu

Third Course: Japanese Winter Gourd w/ Shrimp & Squid

Fourth Course: Lamb w/ zucchini, squash, potato and kiwi

Fifth Course: Chicken Soup

Sixth Course: Pasta w/ wild mushroom

Seventh Course: Sweet chestnut soup

Final: Tea

We were so full after the meal that we had to walk around before finishing the “final drink.” We took some really cute pictures outside (even if it was dark) and then we wandered back inside to take some more photos.

Outdoors Looking In

Zen

This tea is very bitter...

After finishing we drove back to the main part of Taichung. First stopping for some taro desserts and also at a clinic (to grab some cough medicine for my aunt).

What a crazy and awesome day. Can’t wait for this to continue!