More Pictures From Taiwan

Here are some pictures from Taipei 101!!

Above: Taken on the 16/10. We hadn't had the time to get into the 101 building yet. It looks very impressive from afar though.

Above: We had finally arrived at the front door of Taipei 101!!! It's the tallest building in the whole wide world!!

Above: We got up to the 89th floor!! Peeking down, doesn't the view make you feel a bit vertigo? The square orange building is "National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館)"

Above: You can see the "Taipei Little Giant Stadium (台北小巨蛋)"

Above: You can see the pair of The Mac Arthur Bridges (麥帥一, 二橋). :D

Above: Taipei Rainway Factory (台北鐵道工廠). I think it looks like an evil pineapple. :D

Above: Can you spot the Marimar Ferris Wheel (美麗華摩天輪)? Mr. MonkeyMan and I had rode on it the first night we landed in Taiwan! It was most fun and romantic!

Above: Can you see the blue lego shaped buildings? :D

Above: A corner decoration outside the Taipei 101 building.

Above: The National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (台灣民主紀念館 - 前名 '中正紀念堂')

Above: Taipei Station!! We had visited it many times during this trip because our hotel is right next to it. :)

Above: Can you see the "Grand Hotel (圓山飯店)?

Above: This is the world's biggest wind damper! :) Unfortunately, it wasn't very windy at the time of our visit. :D So, we didn't get to see it move around! :D

Above: The 4 Damper Babies! :D I like the red one the most! :D

Above: The 2 graphic illustrations of night and day of Taipei at the entrance of the observation deck entrance hall.

Above: It's the 5h anniversary of the building just 16 days ago. :)

Above: One last look at this amazing building before we say goodbye to Taiwan.

Some Pictures From Taiwan :)

Hotspring is so good!! :D

Wow!! :D We have just returned from the Beitou hot spring area and also the Dangshui area!  It was so much fun :D

Hot Springs is highly recommanded! :D Made our skin so smooth :D

Tomorrow, I think we are just gonna chill out. :D Maybe will go to 西門丁 in the afternoon. :)

For now, we are both beat! :D need to relax some more. :D

Hotsprings here we come!!

Taipei's weather is just perfect right now. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect for a hotspring trip. :D

So that's where we are gonna go today. :D

Due to technical difficulties, I apologize for no photos during this period :D hehe  But once I get back to HKG, I assure you pictures will be plenty. :D

So far already managed 500+ :D with a 13 minutes long movie about us on the ferris wheel! It's most fun and romantic!!:D

Before I forget, we also visited the Jumbo Floating Palace in HK!! That experience is memoriable!! We rode the sampan for an hour touring the south waters of HK islands also.

FUN FUN FUN!! :D

Live from Taiwan, it's Tuesday night live!!

Taiwan!!

Ate! :D

Walked around!

Ferris Wheel! :D

Freaking tired!!!

If you wanna reach me, please do so in email. :D

So Freaking Tired!!

So freaking tired!! We just came back from the city after the hearty peking duck / begger's chicken feast! :D

My knees are weak, my calves are melting! :D

The massage I promised Mr. MonkeyMan must be delayed until we both rested. :D

Chao. :D

Dream Chronicle VII: Internet and D. Trump!

I had a vivid dream this morning once again!! I find it usful when you tell somebody once you wake up!

Mr. MonkeyMan and I were on a sight seeing tour. I don't know where it was we were going, but it's a modern city with lots of colorful lights and tall buildings.

I had done all the researches before we went but somehow, there are some details I have missed.  We went to this "Star Trek" themed "Internet game site". I guess it means you have to go into their building before you can play the game.

Since I love Star Trek, I begged Mike to go with me. And since he like it too, he went too.  Upon arrival, we were told that we had to get through the tunnel first.  You'd think what's the big deal about going through a tunnel??

Well, the tunnel is a competition ground!! A bunch of us gamers are waiting outside for the 'entrance game', which is about linking up with each other.  The game guard with say, "GO!" then all of us would try to find someone to link with, or else we'd be kicked out of the tunnel!!!

Somehow, I got 'delinked!!', but MonkeyMan still stayed in!! :D Since I was kicked out, I was mad at him for letting me just go by myself!! :D

I went wander around the city alone and saw a comic store. It's not an ordinary comic book store, once you went in, it's like you'd become a character in the comic instead of just being a reader.   I saw it was produced in USA so I got bored and left.

After I left, I saw Donald Trump! :D hehe His signature hairstyle is memoriable. :D Anyways, we seems to be good friends from long ago, so I asked him, 'why the hack are you not in your limo??'.  As he was just wandering just like I did.

He told me, "My driver told me that I was fired!" hahaha What irony! :D

Anyways, so I walked along with him a bit until we saw a Hong Kong Tram and he seems to be fasinated by it because Mr. Tump has never rode on a tram before.  I became his personal tour guide and we took the tram home.

That's when I woke up and punched Mr. MonkeyMan lightly on his shoulder about leaving me along in the dream. :D hahahah

Dinner was so good!!

For only HK$350! We get to eat shrimps, clams, steamed scallops, spicy crabs, steamed fish and baked fish intestines in eggs and veggies.... :D

We too tired now. Will post some pictures up tomorrow. :D

人在長洲

Cheung Chau is so kewl!!! :D It's a quiet yet vibrant island!!!

We had some big prawns and roasted pigeons for lunch!! :d

Later tonight, we'll be meeting up my parents for a seafood dinner too!! :D

Foods at work! :D

My boss has a habit of calling people's name with some kind of food because of the closeness of the sound in Chinese... :D I think it's interesting. :D 

Gary = 咖哩　(curry)
Jerry = ｏ者喱  (Jelly)
Frankie = 蕃茄　(tomato, we call it "fan Ke")
Frances = 蕃薯　(Yam, we call it "Fan shu")
Marvin = 馬糞　(Horse shit, we call it "Ma Fun" - well this is not food in peaceful days.. but in desperate time, it might come in handy! :D)

I have officially won!!! :D

In August, I had the opportunity to participate in the most prestigious competition in the call center customer service field in Hong Kong.

Surprising, I have won the Gold Award for the Inbound Agent category!! :D  The news was announced through my bank officially today although I had known about it for 2 weeks or so now. :)

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the dinner due to my trip to Taiwan. :D Nonetheless, it's a very memoriable page of my life. :D

Cute Panda

I was watching a Panda documentary on National Geographic Channel and realized I had visited Ocean Park back in 2005 and saw An An's feeding session there. :D

Pandas are such cute animals. :D

3 more days!! :D

3 more days before my holiday!!! Yay!!

Can't wait to spend some quiet, relaxing time with Mr. MonkeyMan! :D

For some reason, I am kinda excited about going to Cheung Chau. It's an island I haven't been to for a long time, or possibly never in my entire live! Mind you I am born and raised in Hong Kong!! :D hahaha

LaBean's Library (Travel Books Section)

I always like to do research about the place before I fly there. :)  That's why I have so many travel books. :-)

Ever since Mr. MonkeyMan and I are together, we have gone to quite a few places together... :)


Let me think...
Las Vegas, Beijing, Macao, Hawaii, Monterey, San Francisco, San Jose, and Hong Kong. :D hehe


Why I list San Francisco & Hong Kong?  Well, although we live in these places, in fact, we didn't have time to do sight seeing around our home towns.  Since we are together, we've been doing exploring of our home towns together. :)

Soon, we'll be traveling to Taiwan, I am sure it's gonna be exciting.

It's so much fun when you can travel with someone you love. :)

Wow! A New Record!!

Never once in my computer's entire life had been so stable before!! :D It's been up for 16 days straight without a single disconnection or crash!!!

Such a miracle!! :D I think its last hospitalization really did a good job on this old machine! :D

All it needed was a new power supply and a new case with more space. :D

I just want to share my excitement with you all is all. :D

LaBean's Library (Mr. MonkeyMan's Comics)

After a short break, let's continue with my unfinished library tour. :)

Today I am going to introuduce you to some of Mr. MonkeyMan and his friend, Motoko's work. :)  I think they belong to some sort of arts club. :D

Below are two of the club's publications. :)  One of them had MonkeyMan & Motoko's work. :)

Here's the actual work from them. :)

 

 

  

  

 

死! Death!

經過呢一役, 我雖然戰勝咗死神, 但係都係有D o籐o籐震嘅感覺. After this battle of Bronchitis, I think I have defeated Death. :D In order to face death bravely, I will dedicate this post to "Death".

所以, 我呢個 post 係會 dedicate to Death.

原來我都識得幾多'死'嘅講法... There are actually lots of ways to say Death in Chinese.

中國人對死畢竟係有忌諱, 所以通常都吾會就咁話 "佢死咗"嘅.. However, we Chinese feel that it's taboo to talk about Death directly, so usually we would have some other indirect way to say it.

我地可以講:

• 仙遊 (sight seeing in heaven)
  
• 過身 (exiting human body)
  
• 逝世 (exiting life)
  
• 去世 (exiting life)
• 走咗 (go away)
  
• 入土為安 (rest in piece under the earth)
  
• 歸天 (return to heaven)
  
• 瓜咗 (this is more of a slang, I think it means "turned into a melon" as in melon are grown from earth and you are buried underneath it)
  
• 掛了 (this is what I learned from watching Taiwanese talk show lately. :D It means "hanged, hanged up")
  
• 打包 (wrapped in body bag)
  
• 熄燈 (最近呢個説法係從無線電劇-家好月圓而興起嘅) (turned off the light (this is a recent saying from a HK TV show)
  

而係英語方面, 原來我都識得吾少... These are the English way of saying Death I know from top of my head

• deceased
• expired
  
• passed away
• crossed over
• pushing daisies
• bite the big one
• checked out
• in heaven
• RIP
  

而我在internet 打滾咗咁多年, 識咗吾同國家的朋友仔, 都學識咗幾個不同國家的'死'字.. Lurking around the internet for so many years, I have met people from different countries, they had taught me these.. :D

• muerte (Spanish)
• tod (German)
  
• morte (Italian)

死死聲,真係吾好聽.. :D 都係好好保養身體, 健康為上... :D 善哉 善哉! :>
Death, no matter what country you are in, I think it's still not a fun activity people enjoy. :D Amen. :D

My Best Friend in Comics :D

A month or so ago, I bought a comic book by a local artist called Maggie Ma. Her works are hilarious! :D

I enjoyed her "My Idiotic Wedding" so much I ended up buying a box set of her comics. :D

The reasons I enjoyed her comics were:

1. her stories were ultra local
2. her stories were ultra hilarious
   
3. her stories represent my generation of goofy people
4. one of my best friends is a character in the books
5. her stories made me grin like an idiot on the bus :P

Vivi: Loves to earn money and save it up. Good in socializing, usually, she is the contact and liaison person among the buddies.

Vivi is a Tea-lover. She would bring her private teabags to everywhere. :D

Suddenly I thought of a term: 茶姑 :D (Tea Lady)

This is one of the strips that made me laughed out loud. :D It's about poop found in toilet at her work place. :D Funny! :D

Dream Chronicle VI: Dancing with the sharks

I had yet another vivid dream last night. As the matter of fact, I had 2. I could only remember one though.

I went to a tour in a foreign country. The travel guide was an old man. He took me to the ocean to swim with the dolphins.

In the beginning, we couldn't find any dolphins to swim with. :D It's like the ocean was empty. As we were about to leave, finally, there's a dolphin swim by.

So the old man was instructing the dolphin to do all kinds of tricks. However, when the old man told the dolphin to follow me around, it turned into a shark!!!!

It followed me around for awhile, but suddenly it turned aggressive!

I yelled for the old man to come help me, but he just refused. Later, I made the shark bit my finger and thinking blood would attract more sharks. Maybe then the old man would come. :D

Of course, more shark came, but old man vanished.

I woke up. :D

Bun! :D

近來天氣仲係幾熱, 我平時多把頭髮扎起. 真想不到小小的蝴蝶夾子可以夾得出一個實實的髻來. :)

這次用了四個小夾, 但現在只用兩個也可以成功地夾個髻囉 :)

My New Cousin! :D

Introducing my newest cousin!! :D 肥嘟嘟, 蠻可愛呢! :)

Pomegranate! Don't eat it!

Last week I saw some fresh pomegranates at the market. Since I had never tasted a real one before, I figured, even though it's about hk$15 for 2, which is compariatively expensive, I still bought 2 to try.

My boyfriend once told me, Pomegranate is the only fruit he absolutely loathe to eat. I didn't know why then, but now I understand! :D

Once I opened the fruit, it's full of little pulps of seeds. Unless you swallow the whole seeds, otherwise, you just suck the juice out and spit the pits out! :D It's quite annoying.

Also, because I didn't know how to pick them, I picked 2 very raw ones. They are so awesomely sour when they are not ripe! :D hahha
When I shared this with my dad that night, it's so sour that his facial features were all contorted! :D

In the end, I neglected the other unopened pomegranate for a week.

Since I was sick during that time, my taste buds are all so raw I needed some juice to quench it. So, instead of making the mistake of eating it, I squeezed it into a glass of juice.

Ohhh.. it's very good when it's just in juice form and when it's ripe! :)

I can't say I will buy pomegranate in fruit form again though.

Dream Chronicle V: Socialite's Mansion

I had a weird dream the night before last night. I bet it's those Chinese medicine made my brain dreamt weird stuffs. :D

The dream went like this..

I was visiting my alma mater which is located on the Mount Davis Road (摩星嶺) in Hong Kong Island. :D Other than my high school, Mount Davis Road has lots of interesting places such as a haunted fort, a political jail house (some say a concentration camp), a youth hostel, and a "Gold Villa" which is owned by a famous socialite couple, Mr. & Mrs. Bon Bon Chau" :D

The dream happened in this Gold Villa. Somehow I was invited by Bon Bon to visit his mansion. Although from the outside, the mansion was just a regular rich man's home, once I was inside, it's another story (別有洞天). Once I got pass the front gate, there's a long outdoor corridor which lead to a huge garden.

Inside the garden, I saw a huge bronze statue of an angel with a broken arm riding on a cloud. Beyond this angel, you see a huge tree. The tree was so big it's like it's a 60 story high skyscraper!

As I was approaching the tree, I saw another castle / mansion behind the tree. There were lots of other big plants I have never seen in my life hanging around the building.

The tragic thing was I that somehow forgot to bring my camera with me that day so I couldn't record all these down in pictures!

The mansion itself was like a museum. It stored lots of different historic artifacts in alphabetical orders. It's the strangest sight I have imagined.

After all the sightseeing with Bon Bon and his wife, I needed to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was gigantic with countless stalls.  The sad thing was, every stall was made of gold, yet it's dirty as a public toilet!  I ended up couldn't get to do my business and left.

Bon Bon's wife asked me to stay for dinner, but I politely asked for a rain check. I said, "sorry, Mrs Chow, I didn't have my camera with me and I need to take pictures of what I eat!! Maybe we can do this some other time?"

That's when everything changed!!! As I was leaving, the mansion behind me dissolved and I couldn't find it ever again.

I think I woke up at that point thinking to myself: "Dang!! Why didn't I have my camera with me!?!!?!"

It's a good dream though. :D

Salty Cumquat!

After sleeping all day yesterday and today, I finally feel a little bit better. Western medicine really knocks me out good. :D

Other than the Chinese herbal medicine, there's also another ancient street remedy that should be good for coughs and sore throats. We called this 咸柑桔 (salty Cumquat).

Old people see this as gold. :D The above jar of salty Cumquat is my dad's treasure. He made this himself and it has been with us for > 5 years. :D That's why the Cumquat looks like shit :P

To make this, you only need fresh Cumquat (people usually start making this during the Chinese new year because that's when we can get our hands on Cumquat in mass), and large grain sea salts.

To prepare it, you wash the Cumquat clean first. Then pat dry it, so no more water linger on the peel.

Put a thin layer of salt on the bottom of the jar, then drop a layer of Cumquat in. Cover the 1st layer of Cumquat with salt.

Repeat above layering technique until the jar is full. Cover the final layer with more salt. Shake the bottle to condense the content. If you can find more space, either put more salt or Cumquat in.

The key is to stuff the jar full so to push out as much air as possible. Also Cumquat must be covered by salt.

Seal the jar with a plastic bag on the opening and cover it with the lid. Hide it in a dark place. The Cumquat would be so scared that it will shrivel up and wet itself. :D That's why even though we didn't put any water in the jar to begin with, it still turns out juicy.

After a few years, you will see the above finished product.

It looks quite gross, but it taste a little tangy and not too salty.

For a fresher look of the making process, please go to this guy's blog post. :D

trackback: originally i spelled it "Kam Quat". But thanks to Chris, I now know the correct spelling as Cumquat. :D Thanks again! :)

Chinese Medicine

I've been eating western medicine for > 2 weeks and my coughs still not going away. Yesterday, my doctor even said my old friend, "Mr. Bronchitis" had visited again. :D

My parents and bosses all say if Western Medicine is not working to cure me, maybe I should seek some alternatives.

So my mom chaperoned me to a Chinese medicine healer, (I don't call them a doctor, coz i think that's reserved for people having a MD or PhD :D)

Here's her business card. It seems everybody can practice Chinese medicine. According to her card, she has a Master degree of Chinese Law from the University of Beijing, and a holder of diploma of Chinese medicine of University of Tianjin (Hong Kong branch). :D Well.. She has a law degree, so I hope at least she's smart. :D

The medicine packaging is simple. The healer wrote up a sheet of herbs that suppose to be good for you and the medicine cabinet owner would help measure and collect the appropriate herbs for you. The herbs are then wrapped in this kind of paper packaging with 2 rubber bands to tie it up. :D

These are the stuffs that supposed to cure me.... :D Don't ask me what they are... I think they are some tree trunks and leaves and seeds and flowers. :D Good thing this time it has no dead animals or insects in it.

This is a traditional medicine pot. :D You have to boil the herbs from 4 bowls of water down to 1 bowl. :D It's bitter as hell! :P But old people say "Bitter medicine makes you feel better". :D

I don't quite agree. :D




This is the final product and I drank it after dinner time.