Trip to Hsinchu: From the City God Temple to City Hall

Part two of my short trip to Hsinchu, 2010

Continuing from part 1, here are more photos of our Hsinchu trip 2010. We went to try some local food and then slowly walk back home. It was a short, but refreshing trip. Let me share our images of Hsinchu with you:

A nice little temple on the way to the City God temple.

Streets in Hsinchu are straight, long and mostly clean.

The City God Temple Night Market (城隍廟夜市). Read about it here>>

Looks like the Singaporean Merlion, but it's not. It's a fishlion or something.

The Fishlion close-up. Read about the real Merlion here>>

The famous Chenghuang temple or City God temple.

After we tried the yummy food, we were walking around a bit, but didn't go far.

Looks like an old house from the Japanese times.

Another old building in Hsinchu.

Hsinchu City Hall or the City government building.

The crossing near the government building. We made a turn and headed back.

A shuttle bus to a famous shopping mall, seen here quite often.

A lovely building on the way back to the train station.

And then we were back to the historic moat, which is one of the most beautiful spots of the city. It's very peaceful. People feed the fish or just sit and take a break. I really like this part the most.

All in all, Hsinchu is worth a day trip, but more than a day would certainly be a bit hard to fill with sightseeing, because it's not a classical tourist destination like some other Taiwanese towns, such as Wulai or Jiufen. But that's just me, maybe for you Hsinchu is so amazing, you want to spend a week there. I'd certainly be happy for you and would look forward to read about it. Read also part 1 of my trip, if you haven't.

[My TAIWAN page][My HSINCHU page][Info: Source][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Burn, bloggy, burn!

My blog hit 10.000 monthly hits for the first time

About my bloggy. Seems like finally some of my efforts paid off. You can see on the screen cap on the left, that people recently google all kinds of stuff and come to my blog, especially things related to Taiwan, Seoul and Macau. But some of my older posts about women are still popular. Then you add my and my girlfriend's Taiwanese friends, who sometimes retweet and plurk my posts or post on some Taiwanese forums and you get 10000 hits a month easily. Oh, and I even got featured on Bloggers in Taiwan, which is very cool.

About thanking. First of all I wanna thank all of you, who still come regularly on my Taiwanesque blog. I know that many things may be not very interesting to you. I suppose you must be thinking like: "OMG, another Taiwan post?" But that's what I like to write about. I cherish every day here, I cherish every small trip I make or every new dish I try, but most of all every second I spend with my dearest girl. It's really an amazing time for me and I'm sure you guys can feel it. I want to enjoy to the fullest, you never know when it ends. Somehow I became less private here, but that suits me well now. I just don't feel like sharing all my daily problems, but that doesn't mean that I won't share some things one day. I'm planning a big Taiwan post about all my challenges and rewards here. But that will need to wait.

About Google. As you can see, my titles are always a bit plain and informational. But I'm writing for SEO, which means I hope to get more traffic through search engines, especially Google. I think that some of my posts are good and give people good info and finally search engines started to redirect many people to my blog. I'm very happy about it. I know 10000 hits in one month is peanuts compared to some other blogs, who have so many hits in one day. But hey, I'm someone who was happy about the 1000th hit on my blog last year. And now I'm slowly approaching 100000. Yay!

About why does it matter. So why do hits matter? Hmm, they don't really, but they do indicate that people read my stuff or find it useful and not only you guys, who became my friends, also random "googlers". I mean, last year I used to measure my "success" with the comments I got, but this year I measure my success by the quality of my posts, be it the photos I show, the info I provide or the text I write. I'm happy when I write something that will be still interesting to read in 10 years, like about the Palaces in Seoul, the Restaurant on top of Taipei 101 or my photos of Senado Square in Macau. I don't know, of course, if that will be the case, but I know I would gladly reread them and remember the awesome time I had in 2010.

About my Kafkaesque life. Each blogging year is different and I know that I won't be always blogging about Taiwan or travel. My life will change and my blog with it. My life is Kafkaesque in a sense, that I don't see a clear path. Sometimes I feel I'm in a corridor of a big building and walking from one door to another, trying to find the right way for me. Will I find it? Hmm, maybe. Possibly. Who knows... for now, it's ok how it is. And if my blog becomes more popular, that can only benefit me in good ways, right?

About how I blog. Anyway, if you wonder how come I can blog so much and post so many photos, let me tell you, that I'm using my girlfriend's amazing Pentax DSLR, which makes great photos. And then I'm uploading my photos on her professional Flickr account, which not only makes my photos look great and clear, it also gives me the ability to upload as many as I wish, since a pro account has unlimited bandwidth and storage (hope Flickr won't change his terms and conditions because of me, hehe). Oh, and another thing is time: Some days I have a lot of time. My girlfriend's working a lot and when I don't work, I sort out the photos, watermark them, upload them on Flickr and then embed them here and write my post. I became well-versed in this, so I'm quite fast. And when I publish, I go out, buy some bubble (or milk) tea and a Taiwanese crepe and enjoy reading your comments, hehe.

About what's coming up. This weekend I'm going to southern Taiwan, to the awesome cities Kaohsiung and Tainan and to the seaside resort Kenting, which is located on the most southern tip of Taiwan. So I'm gonna blog about that in the next days and weeks. Before that I will post about Hsinchu and Keelung, two awesome Taiwanese cities as well. And there's much more coming up, I have a lot to share. Lucky for you, it won't be about some crazy food, hehe. That chapter is closed.

About some funny googlers. Ok, let me finish my long ramblings with something funny. Do you ever check your trackers to see what people google that brings them on your website? Well, I check my trackers every day and my favorite one is Feedjit (the photo above is from there), which shows you (in pink), what people googled, before they came to my blog. Some of the things are hilarious and I've been collecting them for a while now. Let me share them here for you. Let's try to answer those googlers' questions, I hope you can help, too:

Q: how to find beautiful and kind hearted singaporeans

A: That's nearly impossible :-P Kidding. There are few among my readers :-)

Q: chinese ar language lor

A: Ya lor! On my blog lor. So good lah!

Q: which asian country singapore has the most good-looking guys

A: Is Singapore Asian? I thought they were Western :-P

Q: why do singapore girls like foreign men?

A: Foreign men are sweet talkers, Singaporean men eat sweets while talking.

Q: malaysian muscle guys

A: You can find one here!

Q: slovenian guys and asian women

A: Imagine someone from Laos googled this? Why? O.o

Q: What is the most random entry on google

A: I'd definitely think it's this one. What a crap I have produced (facepalm).

Q: i hate my asian eyes

A: Why? Why? +_+ As long as your sight is ok, you should be fine.

Q: i hate whites

A: Oh! Who was that Mauritian, who googled that??

Q: why aren't asians touchy-feely

A: And that asked by a Korean? Are you kidding me? :-P

Q: what do i do with my girlfriend in the last day when she's traveling?

A: When she's traveling? And where are you at that time? O-o

Q: Why does my nose bleed when i see a pretty lady

A: Because you've read too many Japanese mangas.

Q: why do chinese have nose bleeds when seing women

A: Because there are too many hot Chinese women! ;-)

Q: How to please a Korean woman at the table

A: Take chopsticks, grab kimchi and feed her. So simple. :-P

Q: life of a korean woman

A: Cook, serve man, be obedient, bow, diet. Lol. Kidding of course!

Q: what special dress do korean women wear after they get married

A: That one is called "thong" or in Korean "donggu". ;-)

Q: What to say to a Korean woman to get her attention WITHOUT even speaking her language

A: Ok, if you want to say something to her WITHOUT speaking her language, which obviously you mean Korean, then you better use a quote from Borat, I suggest this one: "Yaksemash, my name ah Borat, I like eh you, I like sex, is nice!" That'll give you enough attention.

Snake alley, Huaxi Street, Taipei

I wanted to try the snake soup, but ended up getting goose bumps

Following my new year's resolution, I've been nagging my girlfriend for a while to bring me to a snake restaurant in Taiwan. I said I wanted to try the snake soup. I thought it would be a fun adventure and a great topic to blog about. I was so wrong. I mean, it's interesting to blog about, but the dish itself didn't tempt me. Dear readers, I'm sorry that I torture your guts with poop and frogs, but I can't help but share the famous snake alley with you. It's a small night market in the old part of Taipei, that attracts a lot of tourists. I try not to ramble too much, so let's get to the point.

SNAKES AS SNACKS? If you want to try the snake soup in Taipei, you can go to a famous night market called Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (華西街觀光夜市), located near the Longshan Temple. You can see the main entrance of the market above. This one is meant for the tourists, not the locals, so you'll see quite many foreigners there. It's also known as Taipei's Snake Alley, because there are numerous restaurants that sell snake blood and snake soup. So we went to check that out.

The main alley of the Huaxi night market. Not as many people as at the Guangzhou.

A snake restaurant like many others.

WHAT DO YOU SEE: A snake hanging on the left, while people at the back are eating snake soups. In the middle is an uncle with the microphone talking, while few young people, who want to try the snake blood, wait to get their sip. On the right are people gathering to see the "show". I've seen at least four of these snake restaurants here. Usually there's an uncle talking and promoting his restaurant, trying to attract people. I have no idea what exactly he was saying, but he was talking a lot. It's interesting that all the snake shops ask you not to take photos. So when I first came to this one, I haven't noticed the warning and initially took a lot of photos, but then the uncle saw me and asked me to stop. I followed his request and just observed. So was everyone else. But I'm glad I made few pics. Soon there was a crowd of like 10 people gathering around the uncle and watching his "performance".

At the right side of the shop's entrance: snakes.

And more snakes... I think those are only displayed but not eaten.

ABOUT KILLING SNAKES: As you know, I was all eager to try the snake soup. But then when I saw how the snake got killed and I changed my mind. Yep. I don't judge anyone who kills snakes and sells their meat. For me snakes are not pets, same as frogs, chicken, pigs, cows, lambs, ostriches and who knows what other wild or less wild animals eaten by humans. Sure, they can be pets, but they're not pets per se. That's how I see it. So yeah, I guess I'm weird in this regard. Truth is: Had I not seen the snake killed in front of me and seen the blood freshly dripping out and served as a drink to some people, I most likely would've tried the snake soup.

HOW IT GETS KILLED: The uncle took the snake by the head and slammed it against the desk few times, so it lost conscience. And then he took a knife, cut it open and hung it on a small string (as seen below). The blood slowly dripped out, while the snake was still twitching a little. That's the part that gave me goose bumps and made me reconsider my decision. I felt very uneasy. So if you go there, please be sure you're ok seeing this, it's not for the faint hearted.

Bleeding snake on the string, click here to see a close-up photo>> [Think well, it's gross!]

SNAKE BLOOD: After that the uncle took a small glass and filled it up with fresh snake blood. That was a bit of a surreal experience. But well, I thought to myself: I'm seeing something in real what I usually see on Discovery. Slowly my right leg changed from goose bumps to numbness. That's the part where I said: "Ok, thank you very much, that's it, the show is over for me... bye bye." Of course the eventual drink is mixed with alcohol, to make the blood thinner and kill all the bacteria.

Uncle pouring the fresh snake blood drink. I would never try it. Thanks but no thanks.

Snake blood looks like strawberry juice here.

Youngsters drinking the blood. Respect!

These young most likely local Taiwanese really drunk the snake blood - a whole small glass in one long sip. I was just like: "Wow." Kudos to them, brave men (and a woman). It's said that snake blood increases your sexual power. Do you believe that? :-P I guess it was a kind of a dare for the guys, they must have set some bets before they came to this place. Anyway, I won't eat snake meat or drink snake blood any time soon (probably never), how about you? Besides, I heard the meat is chewy and there are a lot of small bones in the soup. You can see a photo here.

Snake blood, pro or contra?

Related: [Huaxi St.Night Market][Guangzhou St. Night Market][Longshan Temple]

[My TAIPEI page][My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

I had "frog soup" at Guangzhou Street Night Market

Or how I'm getting Taiwaneser day by day

I ate a frog! Yep! I did it! And I still feel a bit grossed out uneasy seeing these photos. Let me tell you, how the foodventure started. I asked my girlfriend to bring me to a famous night market located near the Longshan temple called Huaxi Street Night Market (華西街夜市), which is famous for the snake soup and the snake wine. I wanted to try the snake, but when I saw how the snake was killed and fresh blood extracted, I changed my mind. And walked around the area and ended up in another night market nearby on Guangzhou Street.

So when we were leaving the famous Huaxi Street, we ended up in the nearby Guangzhou Street Night Market (廣州街夜市). It's not as neat and clean as Huaxi Street, but that's because it's not advertised as a tourist spot and therefore polished up. It's just meant for the locals, but some tourists also walk around there. Well, tourists like me. After few minutes of walking, my girlfriend saw the hawker that sells frogs. She asked me, if I wanted to try frog soup. I said "Yes, why not. How does it taste?" I asked. She said it's like chicken, so I said: "Cool let's give it a try!" I didn't intend to eat frogs that day, it was a very spontaneous decision.

I wish you a frogasmic stay! Have a look:

The frogs are displayed together with fish and some vegetables.

When we got the soup served, my girlfriend was a bit shocked surprised: "Oh, the frog is whole!" :o She tried frog soup before, but that one had the meat already cut into small pieces. But not this one, my friends, not this one.

Oh yeah, it was whole and very real. Only the head was chopped off. The grossest part were the little hands, haha. But guess what? It looks worse on photos than it real.

It really tastes like chicken! Really. The meat is soft, but not plenty.

The taste of the frog is not really strong. I remember eating horse or even mutton, that's a flavor I still remember. But not frog. The soup was good, though. There was a lot of basil in it, the flavor seemed a bit minty. And I didn't make any funny faces, you can ask my girl. I just grabbed it and ate it. Sure I posed for some photos, hahaha. Wanna gross out my friends from back in Europe. Ps: I'm not French ;-)

If you eat frog soup, you'll need to be ready for many small bones.

So did my photos gross you out? Not yet? How about some chicken feet?

Some days before I ate frog, I treated myself some chicken feet in Keelung.

I ate them at home, they're boneless and crunchy a little, but yummy. They go well together with the Taiwanese beer. Now tell me, ain't I becoming a real Taiwanese? ;-)

Would you try frog soup?

And a bonus video for you. Kym from herrohachi shared an interesting video with me. Those who know her, know how awesome she is, so I don't need to repeat that here, just enjoy it:

Dancing Frog Leg Trick - Watch more Funny Videos
Please vote on my little poll. Thank you.

If the poll doesn't work, please click here>>

[My TAIPEI page][FOOD in TAIWAN][All photos by MKL, 2010]

[My MAP of TAIPEI'S NIGHT MARKETS]

Modern Toilet in Ximending, Taipei

Or what me and my girlfriend call the shit restaurant*, hehe...

The Modern Toilet (Chinese: 便所主题餐厅) is a famous bathroom-themed restaurant in Taiwan, Taipei. I've written about theme restaurants in Taipei before and I've been in the Modern Toilet before, too. But that one was located near the Shilin Night Market and my girlfriend and I only shared one ice cream. This time we went for a full meal and we were accompanied by the awesome blogger Shingo, his wife and his wife's parents, who came all the way from Singapore to see all the beautiful spots of Taiwan and try some of the unique (and sometimes crazy) food you can find here.

We went to the bigger restaurant located in Ximending, which is the biggest pedestrian area in Taipei. Now you wonder where exactly is Modern Toilet located? Well, if you check their homepage moderntoilet.com.tw you'll find an address and a map, but that probably won't help you a lot. Let me show you how to find Modern Toilet in Ximending:

We went out at Ximen Station Exit 6 (see here) and then walked into the lane on the right (click on my map to enlarge and save it). We were lucky, because my girlfriend, who is a local, brought us to that place, but you can ask some people for directions, if you're not sure. Ximending is full of young people, I'm sure there's plenty of them who speak a little bit English and will help you. Just remember to turn left when you see a 7/11 and Starbucks building.

The first photo above is the restaurant's main entrance. We had to go the upper floors and were directed to our bath tub table.

That's how it looks inside. Pretty crowded, right?

Our neighboring table: The toilet-shaped chairs, we sat on the same ones.

Another photo of the Modern Toilet's interior. Not bad, huh? :)

Shingo's dish came in a mini toilet bowl. That "brown dung pie" is actually just a plastic cover for a small salad.

Shingo's father-in-law had in my opinion the coolest dish: A green toilet bowl with curry, that was still sizzling. That really looked cool in real, because of the color, hehe.

Our dish was also great, albeit less "toilety", hehe. And the drinks came in urinals (尿壺).

The tea inside really looked a little like...... :-P

And you the worst best thing is, you can keep the urinal :-P

In the end, we had dung ice cream, vanilla flavor. It was yummy.

All and all it was a great experience. The food was yummy and all of us had to chuckle few times. I'm happy that I could enjoy that food with Shingo and his dear ones. We had a great time and I'd definitely visit Modern Toilet again. So I definitely recommend you this place.

And to unravel the mystery behind Shingo in my previous post: None of the guys in the photo is Shingo. I think few of you guess it right, kudos to you all. You know me well, hehe. But I took the photo, just a random pic of the Ximending crowd. But regarding Shingo, I think it's better that the mystery behind his identity lives on :-P

Would you go to the restaurant and try the food?

Related: [Sweet Dynasty with Shingo][Wiki][My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

*hey, even on their hompage they ask "Shit or food?"

Sweet Dynasty 糖朝 restaurant, Taipei

Another foodventure with uncle Shingo

When my girlfriend and I met up with uncle Shingo, his wife and his lovely in-laws (read about it here), he suggested to go to a Hong Kong style restaurant at the Zhongxiao Dunhua road in Taipei city, one of the most famous roads here. It's known as Taipei's fashion street, with great restaurants, bars and shops. We weren't sure about the restaurant's name, but my girlfriend somehow found out the name of the restaurant and she immediately knew where it was. The place is called Sweet Dynasty or 糖朝 (or Tang Chao) and it's famous for delicious food and especially delicious Chinese or particularly Hong Kong desserts. Let me introduce you the restaurant and the yummy desserts we had.

The Sweet Dynasty from the inside: The traditional Hong Kong style is predominant.

There's many main dishes, but we came to try their famous desserts.

Our dish was Sago soup with fresh fruits: Mmm, simply delicious!

I think this one on the left is Tofu pudding with fresh mango. Looks yummy.

Tofu Pudding with red beans close-up.

After we finished the individual deserts, we ordered Tofu pudding in cask.

It says it's for 5 persons. We were 6 and couldn't finish it. It was very yummy, though.

Hong Kong styled tofu pudding: Even my girlfriend said it's the best she ever had.

The Sweet Dynasty is really a great restaurant. I can only pass my judgement on the two desserts I tried. They were very tasty. And Shingo and his dear ones also said they liked the desserts and they came all the way from Singapore to try them. That speaks volumes and also says a lot about the place, since Singaporean's are renown to be great food critics :-) Thanks again for the good company, Shingo and another time thanks for treating my girlfriend and I. You're truly a generous man.

[Modern Toilet with Shingo][Sweet Dynasty hp][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Famous bloggers finally meet in Taiwan: Shingo rocks Taipei with MKL

I met Shingo T! I saw him! Woohoo!

Everyone reads Shingo's blog, right? And Shingo reads everyone's blog, right? ^_^ That's the impression I have, when I browse your blogs. A while ago, Shingo contacted me and asked me, if I was open to meeting up during his trip to Taiwan. And of course I said yes! Who wouldn't want to meet the mysterious Shingo T and unravel the mystery behind his identity? Manju, do you remember, when we chatted on MSN few months ago and wondered, how Shingo might look like? How old is "uncle" Shingo really? Is he really so handsome? Well, I'm one of the few lucky humans, who had the chance to get all the answers of these questions answered in a single afternoon. I feel so honored :-)

If you read his blogger profile, he says:

"A very handsome chick magnet with irresistable charm. Also known to be thick skinned, self-obsessed and living in his own world."

You know, we've met in Taipei's trendy district Ximending and I can tell you, the girls really looked at him a lot. And there were at least 2 girls trailing him all the time. It was amazing. He does have charm, that's really true. I haven't hung out with him so much as to test the thickness of his skin and check, if he's so self-obsessed as he claims. All I can say is, Shingo is really really nice, he always smiles and it's very interested in many things. And he's very generous, he treated me twice, so I want to say thank you again here. Shingo, you are a very nice man. And I must add, that I also met Shingo's lovely wife, who's also extremely friend and his in-laws, who followed us to every spot and tried every food. They were very friendly and in-laws like them are a dream of every man. Shingo is truly lucky ^_^

Ok, for those who are so curious, I took a photo in Ximending and I give you 5 answers to choose. And my question is: Which one is Shingo T?

1 Is Shingo T a Nike fan, who carries the bag awesomely like that?

2 Is Shingo T a fast-paced casual traveler, who loves to wear red?

3 Is Shingo T a hunky muscular young man with a crew cut?

4 Is Shingo T a guy, who rolls up his pants' sleeves, but prefers his tees sleeveless?

5 Is Shingo T none of the above and a totally different guy?

The right answer will be revealed in my next post. :-P And that one will be about the Taipei's awesome theme restaurant Modern Toilet. I will post some photos and write my review and you'll be able to read more about Shingo and the good time we had. So stay tuned for my next post. Here's a sneak peek of what follows...

We had delicious curry from a toilet bowl

Another thing I want to add: A special thanks to my lovely girlfriend, who helped me to guide Shingo around Taipei in that afternoon we spent together. She's really such a great guide and knows so many places. It reminded me of the first days when I came to Taipei, when she showed me around this awesome place. Thanks a lot again. You're great. :-)

So, is uncle Shingo, a lesser or a bigger mystery for you now?