My Penang tour, 2007

See Penang through my eyes

Penang! Oh glorious Penang! The beautiful tropical island of exceptional food, yummy girls, friendly people, pristine beaches and the eternally hot and humid climate. Penang will greet you with a warm kiss in the morning and pour a hot shower over you in the evening. But don't worry, you will be dry... and wet again in no time. This will be the last post of my 2007 Penang adventures. I definitely need to return one day and go on a foodventure. During that time I have tried a lot of awesome food, but I forgot to take photos. Well, I wasn't a blogger yet and taking pics of food was not something I would regularly do. But after being with a passionate Taiwanese blogger such as this cutie, I'm totally into food and blogging and food blogging. In the past, I usually went on long walks and took photos of the things I saw along the way. That's what I did in March 2007, when I decided to walk around Penang, from Gurney to Komtar. Let me show you my best photos:

The muddy waters along Gurney drive. On the other side is Peninsular Malaysia.

Penang is a mix of old houses and new high rise condos.

A colonial house. There are many on the island.

Penang is not really pedestrian friendly, the roads are much better for cars.

The water looked so good that day.

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel. Charlie Chaplin and Sun Yat-sen stayed here.

Not sure, what this building is, but it looks a bit like Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

This is the Penang Museum and Art Gallery (homepage).

Penang is sometimes spelled as Pinang.

This is Penang Town Hall, a beautiful building.

Another part of the Town hall. Read more about it on this blog.

Old streets in central George Town, which is the biggest city in Penang, the state.

New and old together side by side.

A big roundabout. And in the middle is...

The Jubilee Clock Tower, one of Penang's famous buildings.

The clock tower as seen from afar.

A food stall and locals enjoying their lunch break.

Malaysian construction site safety measures are not so strict.

Penang Customs Department Building or Wisma Kastam is a beautiful building.

I like the clock tower.

Bangunan U.A.B nearby. Not sure, what this is, but looks good.

And then I came to Little India.

The area is really nicely done. I wish I had someone with me to eat something yummy.

A nice Chinese temple close to the Indian Mahamariamman temple.

The Kapitan Keling Mosque, Komtar and another mosque at Acheen Street.

The majestic Kapitan mosque is really breathtaking.

Another smaller Chinese temple in the area. Penang is full of them.

This is only a small part of Penang. The state, the island, the city have so much more to offer. I wish I had a better camera last time, but on the other hand I'm happy I could at least take some decent photos for my own personal memory. I really had a great time in Penag, because I had just graduated and this trip was like a reward for me. Penang is full of precious memory for me and I cherish them. I know I will revisit one day, but as a different and older person. I had my 27th birthday in Penang, how cool is that? Anyway, it was tons of fun. Penang is amazing, visit, if you have the chance.

[My MALAYSIA page][My PENANG page][All photos by MKL, 2007]

Are we »too Asian«?

A great video that plays with stereotypes

This cool video made by students of the University of British Columbia (UBC) is a reply to an article, that stirred up a controversy in Canada by talking about certain universities being “too Asian”. Some quotes from the article: “I look Asian but I’m white in all other respects”... “completely whitewashed”... a “banana”... “yet another Asian student who wants to major in math and science and who plays the violin”. Read the article>>

Then on the other hand, there's no major outrage over this... Interesting, isn't it?

What do you think about the video? What do you think about the stereotypes about Caucasians and East Asians mentioned in the video? What do you think about the articles?

Thanks to Bekah, who linked the video on Facebook.

I'm closer to Taiwan

The departure date is set

Today I finally managed to get the air ticket and now I have all documents verified and all forms filled out, I just need to mail them to the embassy and hope that they process them fast. I'm worried a little, because Chinese new year is around the corner and people at the embassy may go on holidays for few days. But I still hope my papers will be done before that and mailed back to me. Another thing is my flight, which is at 11 am and I need between 4 to 5 hours to reach the airport from my home, taking various trains and buses. I have to figure out, if it's better for me to sleep over in Vienna a day before departure or leave home very early and hope to get there in time. That's gonna be something to think about in the upcoming weeks before I leave Europe. I still have some time to go. Unfortunately, I won't be able to spend Chinese New Year with my girlfriend the way we hoped before, but well, things went slower than anticipated. I think a smooth transition is more important than one Chinese new year celebrations. If we make this right, we will spend many Chinese new years together and this one won't matter anymore.

Taiwan, get ready. I will see you soon.

[My LIFE in Taiwan][Photo by LilyChen, 2010]

Popular Taiwanese blogger HoneyQueen exposed

Blogging is huge in Taiwan! As I wrote already in one of my previous posts, almost every young Taiwanese has a blog or a Wretch account, where they post photos (and usually a lot of photos). So a nation of bloggers naturally produces few very popular bloggers, so called "blogger celebrities". Currently the most popular blogger in Taiwan is Benshee (aka flowermonkey 花猴), a twenty-something girl that writes about her life, makeup, clothes, travel and restaurants and has around 100.000 visitors a day! Yes! That's right: Hundred thousand a day. At this point I'd need about 6 months to reach that number and some bloggers would need years to have such traffic. And in Taiwan there's an unofficial rule, that a blogger earns the same amount of money per post as the number of their daily hits. For example, it's rumored that Benshee would currently get 100.000 NTD per post, if a company asked her to promote a product on her blog. That's around 2500 Euro per post (or around 3400USD). Imagine, she writes 5 posts and she can buy a new car with cash. This shows that blogging can be a big business in Taiwan and few are making some big bucks just by becoming popular.

But this post is not meant to write about Benshee, I want to tell you what has recently happened to one of her friends, who is also a popular blogger. Her nickname is HoneyQueen (林哈妮) and her blog has around 30.000 hits a day. That's of course a lot of traffic as well and gives her the chance to advertise various products by reviewing them and recommending them. And as the unwritten rule goes, she could well charge up to 30.000 NTD (which is around 750 Euro or 1000 USD) for a post. From what I heard, the things she recommended on her blog really sold well and some of her readers are (or were) real fans of her and would flood the shop or store she would write about on her blog. So it was a win-win situation for her and the company. But then something happened. She wrote a product review about a skin care product that supposedly removes pimples and she posted before and after photos. But one of her readers found out that she used a makeup foundation in her after photo to cover the pimple for the (nonexistent) effect.

The person who found that out, made an anonymous blog just to expose her and highlighted all the mistakes she made, you can see that here. For example: HoneyQueen claimed the before and after photos were 4 days apart, but the data proves that she first put make up on and took a photo and later used it as the after photo. Then she gradually removed the make up from the pimple and took more photos, which she used for the before photos. All photos were taken within few minutes, if the data is accurate. Also on both photos she's wearing the same clothes, her eyes look similarly red and her eye lashes also look the same way (if you zoom in the photos). After this was leaked, people started to check her older reviews and found out that she's done similar things in the past: Her credibility was instantly tarnished. Not only that, the Taiwanese mass media started to report the incident which lead to HoneyQueen's apology on her blog. However she only apologized for this latest incident and not for all the reviews she has faked in the past. From what I've heard, she's going on a hiatus until further notice. So far, no companies have claimed their money back, but at this point nobody is willing to promote their product on her blog, which is of course not surprising. What will happen with her blog in the future, we don't know, but these days, her traffic and popularity is constantly in decline (here's a Taiwanese blog rank). For now she's definitely lost her face and hopes that the media will quickly divert their attention to someone else.

And here's an irony: HoneyQueen herself once exposed a blogger, who did exactly the same thing by faking the effect of some diet medicine. I guess what goes around comes around.

What do you think about all this? Did you ever notice a blogger faked or exaggerated the effect of a product? How do you review products?

Update: Now even Benshee a.k.a. FlowerMonkey has apologized for not clearly explaining a photo of a product's effect and vowed to abide by much higher standards, when it comes to advertizing products on her blog. (We can only hope that will be the case...)

[A TV report on the incident][Photo: Source]

My blog's traffic for 2010

My blog's traffic for 2010

I've noticed that some bloggers published their annual blog stats, which gave me the idea to publish mine. Actually my title should be "My blogs' traffic", as most of you know, I have 3 blogs (with 3 feeds), but they're all from one Blogger account and have the same name. That's my concept and it's really going well for me.

1 My stats for December 2010

I had 21,640 unique visits (and 60,132 page views), which is 698 visits per day.

2 My stats for the whole 2010

I had 212,182 unique visits (and 476,091 page views), which is 581 visits a day.

3 Subscriber stats

My main blog (this one) has 171 subscribers in Google reader, my Quick-post blog has 37 and my photo blog has 5, because it's relatively new. There are of course more feed aggregators, but I haven't checked any other than the one from Google. I've also noticed that there must be at least 20 regular visitors, who bookmarked my blog and about 30 who come irregularly, but also bookmarked one of my blogs or posts.

4 Most popular posts

Believe it or not, my most popular posts are usually the one about women. They bring me the most traffic from Google and that's why I like to write them. They increase my blog's searchability and many people are browsing my other stuff, too, when they come here looking for a post about a certain model or singer. My best day was August 25, when I had 7747 visitors on my blog in one single day and they were all reading my most popular post of 2010: Visit Taipei in traditional Chinese (22235 views in the whole year). The runner-up post was about Elly Tran Ha (18990 views in the whole year) and third was about Yao Yao (15862 views in the whole year). It's funny that these two posts became so popular, because they're so simple and boring. But for some reason they always show up close to the top of Google's search results, even though there are thousands of posts about these two (former) internet sensations.

5 Plans for 2011

I doubt that I can top 2010's traffic, but if I come close to it, I'll already consider it a huge success. I'm just a simple blogspot blog, who writes about so many different things, so I think my traffic is not bad. Sure, I hope I could have around 1000 daily views and double my subscribers, but that's hard to predict. I'll continue to write personal, funny, trivial and encyclopedic posts, mixed with my travelogues and foodventures. A lot will be about Taiwan, because that's where I will soon relocate, but I try to make it general and interesting also to those, who don't care about the country so much. I can't wait to go around Taipei with my girlfriend's DSLR and visit all the night markets, temples and famous spots. I do aspire to be the number 1 blog on Taipei and one of the best resources on Taiwan in general. Besides, my girlfriend and I plan to visit Japan, not sure, if we can make it, though. If we do make it, be sure I'll blog about it for a month. Regarding my layout, I'm never really satisfied. The buttons I use on my sidebars are all made with Photoshop and are in jpg. format. I'm thinking about making a CSS styled vertical navigation bar. And also I think I'm gonna make all my 3 blogs same color, so it'll really look like one.

What do you think about these ideas regarding the layout?
What was your traffic for 2010 and which posts and topics were most popular?

De-lurk: Tell me what brings you here

Dear silent reader,

I would be happy, if you comment below and tell me what brings you to my blog regularly. You can comment anonymously or not, whatever you choose, it's fine to me. Just tell me what is it that makes you return here either daily or occasionally, I'm just curious about it. I've noticed that I have some regular daily visitors coming to my blog from Taiwan, USA, Canada, Russia, Malaysia, Germany and Slovenia. Of course there are many occasional visitors from countries like Singapore, Philippines, France, UK, Australia, Mauritius and Japan. And I'm sure also from elsewhere, I just can't track everybody, because I have on average about 500 visits a day, sometimes even more.

I'm very happy about everybody, who loves to frequent here, that's something that keeps me going. I'm sorry that lately I'm not very productive on this blog, but that's because I'm busy with many things. But wait till I come to Taiwan, I'll have a lot to blog about for sure. Hopefully you won't get tired of me.

So, once again, I ask you: What brings you here regularly? What do you like to read? Is it because of me or is it my content? Whatever you write or reveal about yourself and your reasons, I'll be happy to read, because I'm very curious. And remember: You can comment anonymously, if you want, you can comment in German, Slovenian, Chinese, I'm fine with it.

I'll work hard to provide good posts in the future,

all the best in 2011 to all of us.

Your MKL

Another day lost

But I have to keep going...

Today I made a mistake and couldn't get a document. I lost a day, some money and I was home late, but most of all I was almost losing my nerves, I was holding back tears. When I came home, I was so beat up, I just fell into bed and had to take a nap. I couldn't chat with my girlfriend. I felt terribly sorry. It's always hard for me to miss a chat session with her, because I miss her every day. I missed her a lot today, but I was so weak. Tomorrow I need to try my luck again. Guess I will be very busy this month, but I can't help it. I underestimated the time and cost of this dance with the bureaucracy. Frankly, I'm a bit scared now, because almost every week I get some new information or someone tells me I have to come another day or go to a different office. It sucks. But I'm focused on her, I want to be with her as soon as possible. I'm looking forward to Friday, they say we'll have sunny 11 degrees. And another busy week will be over, I can finally sleep longer and get some rest. Wish me luck.

My Kafkaesque experience with the bureaucracy

Moving to another continent is not easy

These days I'm very busy. I'm totally focused on getting my documents translated and verified, so I can move to Taiwan and tie the knot with my sweet girlfriend. Although I had the feeling, that things won't be so easy, I'm surprised how complicated it is to get 4 documents translated and verified. I keep getting different information everywhere I go and every time I come to a new office they say I've done something wrong. The only good thing is, that it gets fixed that way. It's a very slow progress and at this point I still don't know when I can step off the plane and set foot on Taiwanese soil. I'm now somewhat half way through, but the expense is bigger than I expected and it's more time consuming, because I have to do 3 times more things than I was told initially. And most of them can only be done in the capital city, which is over 2h away by train. Once I have all my Slovenian documents translated to English and verified by our courts and ministries, I need to submit them to the Taiwan Trade Office in Vienna (equivalent of an embassy) and when it gets verified there, I can apply for visa. After I get that, I can finally travel to Taiwan and tie the knot with my cute girlfriend. Of course it doesn't stop here. Once in Taiwan, I need to translate everything to Chinese and verify again (and pray that they don't say something's wrong with my documents). Then and only then I will be able to marry my Lily and live in Taiwan with her. I do feel stressed sometimes, not only because I feel like Joseph K., but because it's a long and cold winter and a lot of time has passed, since I've been together with Lily. I miss her more and more by the day. It's about time we meet in Taoyuan, don't you think? So please, my Kafkaesque bureaucrats, work faster, I have a plane to catch and a woman to marry.

House Hunters International are looking for expats in Taiwan for a TV show

Do you want to be part of a show?

Sometimes I get emails from various people and companies asking me to write about their product or let them guest post here. I usually decline. But yesterday a TV producer from America got in touch with me by sending me the following email, which I agreed to publish here, because I won't participate in the show, but I'd like to help her (see the video above to get an impression of the show). If any of you would like to join, read through the email and check the details I provided at the end:

Dear MKL,

I found your details on your blog, I hope you might be able to help me with my strange request!

I am a Producer working on a television show called House Hunters International which follows English speaking expats in their quest to purchase a house abroad. I am hoping to find English speaking expats to profile who are living in Taiwan. I wonder if you or any of your expat contacts might be interested in getting involved?! Please find a little blurb about the show below:

House Hunters International is a half-hour program currently airing on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV). The program is a spin-off of the popular House Hunters and has spent the last several seasons exploring the idiosyncrasies of buying real estate in other countries. HHI is about a personal journey of discovery and the making of life-long dreams.

The series is designed to de-mystify the international home-buying process by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where buyers and their real estate agents tour 3 homes. At its core, House Hunters International is a travel show concentrating on the idiosyncrasies of the locales and what makes them special and different. A great deal of effort will be made to capture rich visuals and to provide sequences where viewers will be exposed to local vistas, traditions, lifestyles and architecture.

Please get in touch if you have any more questions about the show. I look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes and many thanks,

Michelle

So if you're an English speaking expat in Taiwan and looking for a house, get in touch with Michelle. Her email is: MichelleJames[at]leopardfilms.com. Good luck :)

Would you participate in such show?

Mark Zuckerberg spent New Year in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan!

OMG! Mark Zuckerberg wants to be like me, part 2!

Some of you might remember a post I wrote a while ago, about how Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, wants to be like me? Remember when I said he's white, blonde, has a thing for Asian women, is dating a Chinese girl by the name 陳, which is exactly my girlfriend's family name? If you haven't read that post, check it here. Many of you were skeptics at that time, among them nobody less than the most famous Malaysian travel blogger FuFu:

I wasn't even shocked, when he became Time Magazine's man of the year (I on the other hand became Jong Magazine's Man of The year). That was of course an easy guess, since both of us have transformed internet this year, so duh. But something else seriously baffled me today! You won't believe it, when I tell you where Mark Zuckerberg spent this New Year. He spent it in Taipei! Of all the places he could fly to with his private jet, from the Caymans to Mauritius, he went to Taiwan with his girlfriend (I would not be surprised, if she was Taiwanese, too) and was seen on various famous spots around Taipei. One of them was the Huaxi Street Night Market with the famous Snake Alley (See the snakes getting killed). Look at this photo and my photo on the right:

This photo is circulating around the net in Taiwan.

I was there! And suddenly he was there, too!? Do you think this is merely a coincidence? Are you really that naive? Of course he's reading my blog and thinks I'm cool, there's no other explanation for this. I'm sure he saw my Best Taiwan Blog 2010 Award, checked all my Taiwan posts and said to himself: »Wow, Taiwan is so cool. And he had so much fun in Taipei. That's awesome. I have to go there for new year!« And then he probably called his girlfriend Priscilla to show her my blog and said: »Babe, look! This guy is so awesome. Check his Taiwan posts. How about we go to Taipei for New Year?« She checked my blog a little and then most likely said: »Hon, we gotta see Taipei. It's uh-maiz-ing! OMG!«

I have to say I feel honored not only that he's trying to be like me, but also that he's reading my blog and using it as a resource for traveling. Mark, have you tried the snake soup or snake blood? I havn't... so I guess you haven't, too. How about frog? I have. I'll be soon in Taiwan, so when you come next time, we can go to some smaller night markets, where all the paparazzi would never expect you. I'll treat you some tasty bubble tea. Deal? ;-)

Btw, I even heard that he's trying to learn Mandarin (just like me!)... Are you even slightly shocked now? I think, if you follow my blog, you're not. If you're new here, pick up your jaw, it dropped on the floor. Now I have solid proof that Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook wants to be like me. Frankly, I am a bit puzzled about all this, I mean he is a tad bigger celeb than me. I feel very honored, though ;-)

Photos of Mark Z. circulating on the web (by Taiwanese): Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3
Articles about Mark Z. in Taipei (in Chinese): Liberty Times, Yahoo! Tw News, UDN.com

Related: [VISIT TAIPEI!][My TAIWAN page]