Fulong Beach & Jiaoxi Hotspring Weekend!

Eliza's first few days have been a whirlwind!  She arrived safely (although 2 hours delayed) on Friday night.  Then it was up first thing at 7am the next morning for a road trip with our friends Damien and Raquel!

The road trip took us along the north east coast past Fulong Beach and to our destination of Jiaoxi, located in Yilan County.  Jiaoxi is known for their natural hot springs and green onions!  Enjoy the pics and captions by Eliza herself!

First stop on our road trip: Peculiar Rock

Beautiful lush landscapes

Our transportation.  Riding in style.

Super hot day!  Close to 35 C.  We used the umbrella for shade here and an hour later for rain.

We stayed on the less populated beach.  Across the water was the giant crowds.  There was some sandcastle building going on (next picture)

Damien frolicking in the water at Fulong Beach

Had lunch at a South African restaurant: Fu Bar.  Justin had the Boerewors (South African Sausage) with meile pap (corn mash thing)

Delicious Buffalo Toasted Pita Panini thing!

Justin, Eliza, Raquel & Damien  

The rain was coming.  When we were in the water it starting pouring rain. It was refreshing since it was so hot and also a first for being in the ocean while it was down pour.  There were some medium sized fish that kept flopping out of the water close to us.  They looked like sausages

Krissy's dog Luna's long lost brother

Enjoying a shaved ice treat:  We had pineapple and Damien & Raquel had Passionfruit

Cute tubby dog enjoying the beach (for Justin's mom)

The face on the egg pancake bag!

Weather was clearing up again

Invasion of the sea cockroaches

Creepy!

Fulong Beach

Raquel and Justin picking out our dinner at a restaurant just outside of Jiaoxi (we had left Fulong)

Drinks in the back courtyard of the hotel.  

Fancy Hotel Room in Jiaoxi 

Swivel TV

Had breakfast on the patio. Beautiful. There were Koi fish & Giant Prawns in the pond

Justin relaxing in the Jacuzzi 

Justin taking a pee. Who needs privacy 

Men's style in Taiwan

Heading to our private hot spring tub in Jiaoxi

Jiaoxi is famous for their sweet onions. Here they are riding a bike.

Great company!

Lunch time.  Greens with sesame sauce, bean curd roll with cilantro and bean sprouts, salad roll with prawns, ocra with chili's, and some "dragon mustache" green vegetable at the back left.

My lunch.  Taste like spaghetti noodles with bolognese sauce Asian style. Yummy!

Justin's lunch.  Beef noodle soup with shrimp dumplings

Dipping our toes in  one of the public hot springs in town

Enjoying the view of the North East Coast of Taiwan.

There were tons of these little Mud Skippers flopping on the rocks.

Stop #2 more amazing scenery 

Not quite model material 

So happy to be with my husband!

Damien blowing bubbles to start our way through the mountain.

The coastal road was at a stand still so we decided to take the scenic mountain route.  Crazy switchback road (apparently it's a famously curvy road known as the "8 turns and 18 twists road" although in reality it had a few hundred turns).  Raquel was an amazing driver

Opening my birthday gift from Niki &Ali.  Thank You!

Hotpot with Niki & Ali. What a nice way to end my first weekend in Taiwan ($6 per person)

The moment we've all been waiting for...

... or at least I have.  Eliza arrives tonight!  She left several hours ago and by this time she's probably half way across the pacific on her way to a layover in Japan.  Then she'll be touching down this evening at 8:45pm!

It's a balmy 33 degrees this morning with the sun beating down.  I hope this will be more welcoming weather in comparison to the typhoon she weathered the last time she was here.

Safe travels Liza and I will see you on my side of the planet!

Muzha Brunch at Damien and Leia's

Had a pleasant Sunday.  Damien and Leia had invited a bunch of people over for brunch.  I had originally planned on going on a hike if Qixhing Shan (mountain) but the weather was crap, and the previous Friday Raquel and Damien had convinced me that the brunch would be more fun regardless.  So I went.

Some of the brunch food.  From 12 o'clock clockwise: Cake, roast chicken, some pickled seaweed and cucumber, beans, 1000 year old egg, and brie and crackers.  Then there's a blue cheese salad on the bottom right, and home made scones and jam bottom left (oh and a mimosa!)

left to right: cordie, Debbie, May, Damien, Evan, Yihsin (Nikki), and Raquel

The weather was nice and we hung out on the balcony for part of the afternoon

Damien had a tradition of lighting up a sparkler every Friday night to count down the days until his departure in around 8 weeks.  He had bought just enough to count down the weeks.  He mentioned that it's a bitter sweet tradition for him.  A while back he was looking forward to his trip back to LA but now that the time draws nearer, he starts to realize he will miss this unique experience and all the friends he's made.

The sparkler is handed around and everyone says a little prayer to them self.

praying for Eliza's safe travels on Thursday!

this is the view from their balcony.  It's on the 24th floor.  You can see Mao Kong and the Taipei Zoo off in the distance (close to that big smoke stack that I found out is a trash incinerator.  It's a pretty big landmark and a large giraffe is painted on the side of it.  I'm still weary it's an incinerator.  I've never seen it on and it's in such a peaceful area...).

After brunch we headed down to the National ChengChi University for some chalk drawing

It had been raining on and off all day.  Luckily we'd chosen an under covered area

Another great way to spend a Sunday with friends!  Eliza get over here and meet your new friends! (Friday can't come soon enough!)

Stinky Tofu Alley

Last week I cycled up Elephant Hill for the second time with the bike group.  The previous 3 trips had been really tough so it was nice switching it up with something familiar and much easier.  Elephant Hill is located in the South East corner of Taipei.  The climb up the hill it self is very gradual and it makes for an easy ride with some gorgeous views.  Another common moniker for this ride is "The Graveyard Run" and that's because the whole hill is littered with small to medium sized tombs.  It sounds a bit creepy but it's a beautiful site as all the tombs are coloured differently and it sort of looks like a mini village sprawling over the hillside.

As I've done this route before I didn't take many pictures except that one above showing the typical Taipei 101 building.  When you're standing at the base it's difficult to see just how much taller it is than everything else around it.  This always gives it some nice perspective.  It's not common to see the top not inside the clouds.

We rode back down the other side of the hill and instead of heading back along the river path, we took a detour to Stinky Tofu Alley in the Shenkeng District.  As the name suggests, this is where you can find some of the "best" stinky tofu in the area.  There's a handful of varieties but the predominant fashion seems to be either deep fried or grilled (typically served with some sort of pickled veg).

Chandra stood in line and bought some for me as I was walking around taking picture

Wanda (local Taiwanese woman) was showing me one of the lines that had to be over 50 people long!  Apparently it was the most famous Stinky Tofu cart and it had a good reputation.  I can't imagine waiting in line for 45 minutes for Stinky Tofu, and I'm sure many of my readers can't even imagine waiting in line to get paid to eat Stinky Tofu (an acquired taste really).

yes, the circle is the restaurant and the lineup goes out of the picture...

this is what all those people are waiting in line for.  I don't get it!  But I can't knock it until I've tried it I suppose...

We took the long route back to Gonguan and I ended up biking right past my office and my house so I departed earlier than the rest of the folks.  We'd biked at least 30km that day and I was good :)  Plus, I had to get back to squeeze in some Diablo!

Jasons Market at Taipei 101

I just got back from Jason's Market at Taipei 101.  I had no plans today and instead of sitting at home all day on my computer I thought I should get out.

Damien has been telling me about this Jason's Market where they have a lot of more "western" style food and import foods (cheese, dairy, sliced meats, etc).  Taipei 101 is only a 8km ride from my house so I ventured out and got there in half an hour or so.  It was cloudy, but not too hot (yay!).

Jason's was easy to find.  The bottom floor of the Taipei 101 mall is a large underground food court and at one corner is the market.  I ventured in and was extremely happy with their selection!  Avocados (not yet at Carrefour), a whole variety of imported cheeses, yogurt, salt & vinegar chips (so happy becuase these are not available anywhere else I've seen.  Even Costco.  Unfortunately no Ketchup flavor.  Sorry Johan), an assortment of non-asian spices including chili powder (been trying to find this everywhere), and tortilla chips and shells!  The salami was pretty pricey at $7-10 per pack (probably the same pack would cost $4 back in Vancouver).  The cheese was moderately priced.  Only slightly more expensive than back home.  Yogurt was disappointingly expensive.  They had large 1 litre containers but they were about $7-10.  gaah.  I'm used to paying $4 for the luxury yogurt at home. haha.  They had some 4 packs of yogurt for $3 so I bought 2 with some granola.

Another nice thing about Jason's is that they have tons of free samples going around.  I must have circled around the cheese samples a few times enough to look suspicious.  Pair that with the wine samples at the other side of the store and I'm a happy camper.

I left after an hour of browsing and snacking with about $40 worth of food.  Definitely more expensive than usual but maybe just because I'm getting used to cheaper Taiwan prices at the Carrefour grocery store.  Before I headed back home I thought I'd grab lunch in the food court.  Slightly outside of Jasons is an Indian Food place.  A nice alternative to the usual asian food court food.  The butter chicken was $8 (expensive!) but I was feeling like I deserved it so I ordered one up.  It came with a nice milk chai tea, salad, naan, and soup.  The curry was pretty good but not as good as the stuff in Surrey (although I could see the cook in the back was Indian).

Once finished the curry I made my way back up and outside.  It was raining.  crap.  The Jason's bags were paper and I had a half hour bike through traffic to get home.  It wasn't torrential rain so I hopped onto my bike and started home.  The first 5 minutes I got pretty drenched but after that the rain eased up.  It's a pretty big rush biking in traffic here in Taipei.  Usually at a light, there's easily 30-40 scooters all in a big clump waiting for the light; with me in the middle.  When the light turns green, the roar of the scooters is deafening and I can keep up with them well enough so that I'm going the same speed.  Makes it much easier to navigate traffic when I'm able to maintain the same speed.  Oh by the way I bought a bike helmet earlier this week (thought you might like to know that mom/dad).

I arrived home and jumped straight in the shower.  Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 No.2 was playing in Jason's and I absolutely love the song so I had nice cold shower while unwinding to Chopin.

And now I think I'll indulge myself with some yogurt and granola...!

Unexpected Ride

Last night was Friday and I didn't have any particular plans for the evening.  No plans for Saturday either.  It was looking to be an uneventful start to the weekend.  Thankfully Damien txt'd me mid-day asking if I wanted to do a short notice evening bike ride.

The plan was to do a leisurely ride up to a lookout point he knew of.  I left work slightly early in order to meet up with Damien and Rachel at Treasure Hill near Gonguan (about a 20min bike ride from my work).  Treasure Hill is this really cool little artist village situated alongside the river and hugging onto a hill.  There are handfuls of tiny cement alleys winding up the hill, and along the alley's are little cafe's and artist galleries.  Littered along the paths you can sometimes find miniature scenes of people sitting or walking.  And I mean minature.  Like 4cm tall little people someone glued in random places.  Very cool.

Damien recommended this particular cafe overlooking the river.  The place was 2 floors high, but the house probably should have only been 1 story high.  Everything inside was mini.  All the door frames must have been less than 5' 8", and I could have easily bumped my head on the roof of the upper floor.  Neat little place though.  We sat down and ordered some of the set menu (tofu, chicken, pork) and I ordered a Grapefruit Green Tea while Rachel had some sort of lemon/lime slushy.  The food was pretty tasty and a reasonable price.  I plan on taking Eliza here when she arrives as it's very accessible by the river path on bikes.

We took longer than expected eating and we left back onto the trail after nightfall.  It must have been 8:30pm by this time.  From here until about midnight we snaked our way up along the winding river cutting through Taipei.  It's a beautiful ride and the path is really nicely landscaped and far away from the roads so you can bike and feel like you're not in the middle of the city.  Along the path you'll pass basketball courts and tennis courts filled with youth and seniors being active.  There are many other bikers and joggers/walkers scattered along the path and you really felt like the city had a great active lifestyle culture.

We rode up to another lookout point and coincidentally Rachel's parents were there on an evening walk.  Neither Damien or I had met them before so we had our introductions.  They were very nice.  They didn't speak very much English but I found I was able to follow along with maybe 20% of the convo and I could say a few things.  Rachel's dad was familiar with the Rocky Mountains in BC and he said lake louisé was "piao liao" (beautiful).

After saying bye we continued to ride up the coast until Damien found the spot he was looking for: Dadaocheng Warf.  At night it appeared to be a pretty casual spot for cyclists to have a seat by the water side.  It was dark but the water was quite still and the reflections of the lights made for some nice scenery while Damien poured us some Green Label with Perier and Mint.  The Green Label was from 7-11 and the mint was from a local market he'd been through earlier in the day.

The Warf ended up being a lot farther north than we'd first anticipated.  About 18km from my house.  It was near midnight and we figured we should pack it in.  We tried taking a short cut through the city but ended up back on the riverpath as the roads are a bit complicated in that spot.  We reached the Gonguan area a bit past midnight and then we split our different ways.  Rachel and Damien biked to their respective houses (east/south east) and I headed home (south).  Along the way back I noticed a sign that appeared to be a shortcut.  It took me through some slummy areas where I saw a guys house that was made entirely of doors stacked up and attached together like paneling.  I continued cycling and somehow I ended up nearly in Bitan (a few km past my house).  The only reason I knew I had gone too far was because from my apartment window, I can see this tunnel lit up along a mountain.  It's far off in the distance and while I was biking along this new route I ended up right beside the tunnel (crap!).  My phone was out of battery so I asked a local how I could get back to Xindian by using the elevated highway because I didn't want to go back and do the large loop around the creepy slum area.  Turns out getting back home was really easy and I stepped into my apartment around 1:30am.

And that's how a casual evening ride turns into a 35km+ excursion!