tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239074172024-03-13T09:30:39.872+08:00BundaegiBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.comBlogger230125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-37203099179371187582011-03-08T23:13:00.003+08:002011-03-08T23:18:31.134+08:00Balancing FrogsSince I seem unable to update this blog with any sort of frequency, I've decided I'm just going to switch over to <a href="http://balancingfrogs.blogspot.com/">balancingfrogs.blogspot.com</a>, where I've been posting quick write-ups of books and TED.com talks and the like.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-16837473223055202232011-02-09T12:44:00.001+08:002011-02-09T14:07:23.803+08:00Cultural Difference: Political Cartooning<div style="text-align: left; ">When I went to Kaohsiung last summer, I saw cartoon avatar pictures of Kaohsiung mayor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Chu">Chen Chu</a> everywhere I went.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIVVk3l-qI/AAAAAAAACQs/gB7KM_v4yT8/s400/IMG_0637.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571539149429013154" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div>I assumed it was all politicking for the upcoming mayoral elections (which Chen won easily). But I returned to Kaohsiung this month, over Chinese New Year, and Chen's avatars were if anything even more ubiquitous.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIaKmqpZZI/AAAAAAAACRU/22purquMDf0/s400/IMG_0175.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571544458491159954" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div>These posters are all over Kaohsiung. To celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, Chen appears to be wearing a rabbit head as a hat.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWcJsiSdI/AAAAAAAACRE/lOkp97Cfm6A/s1600/IMG_0120.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWcJsiSdI/AAAAAAAACRE/lOkp97Cfm6A/s400/IMG_0120.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571540361905588690" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWcCSKkiI/AAAAAAAACQ8/MQPzYpcujQQ/s1600/IMG_0127.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWcCSKkiI/AAAAAAAACQ8/MQPzYpcujQQ/s400/IMG_0127.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571540359915934242" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWb4XiD1I/AAAAAAAACQ0/rJ1qmD8m8wM/s1600/IMG_0570.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIWb4XiD1I/AAAAAAAACQ0/rJ1qmD8m8wM/s400/IMG_0570.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571540357254090578" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Portraying people as cartoon avatars is more common in East Asia than in the West, and it's not uncommon to see little cartoon figures of other prominent politicians on official city merchandise elsewhere in Taiwan. But I haven't seen any politician portrayed in cartoon form quite as much as Chen.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIXAk3ynDI/AAAAAAAACRM/eG2ygH_-4_Y/s1600/IMG_0134.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TVIXAk3ynDI/AAAAAAAACRM/eG2ygH_-4_Y/s400/IMG_0134.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571540987675843634" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>You can buy Chen merchandise in Formosa Boulevard MRT.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not offended by any of this, or think it is improper. But I do think it illustrates a cultural difference between East and West. <i>This would never fly in the United States.</i> Sure, there are lots of souvenir shops in Washington DC where you can buy Barack Obama bobblehead dolls. But that's just the market filling a demand; it's not as if the White House is actively producing and promoting them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Chen Chu's official title is Mayor. But Greater Kaohsiung includes a huge hinterland and is not part of any larger administrative unit, so Chen's position is really equivalent to a state governor in the United States. I'm trying to imagine the reaction if American state governments started distributing official signs, leaflets and brochures with adorable cartoon depictions of Andrew Cuomo or Rick Perry or Chris Christie or Deval Patrick.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm guessing the reactions would include quite a bit of mockery.</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-67470609614488338752011-02-09T11:56:00.002+08:002011-02-09T12:01:29.348+08:00We're on Offbeat Bride!<a href="http://offbeatbride.com/2011/02/new-york-multi-cultural-wedding">Our wedding has been featured on Offbeat Bride!</a> With a lovely write-up by my wife Jenna, who was quite active in the OB community before the wedding (and after).<div><br /></div><div>I read the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Offbeat-Bride-Creative-Alternatives-Independent/dp/1580053157/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297224028&sr=8-1">Offbeat Brides book</a> on the plane ride home for the wedding. It's awesome and fantastic to see us on the site.</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-88682849494305041422010-12-04T16:16:00.002+08:002010-12-04T16:22:09.670+08:00紐約時報<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TPn49fyuhgI/AAAAAAAACQM/byWHsKITn9M/s1600/IMG_0085.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TPn49fyuhgI/AAAAAAAACQM/byWHsKITn9M/s400/IMG_0085.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546738151473448450" /></a><br /><div>So now that we're seeing iPad ads all over, my question is this.</div><div><br /></div><div>What's up with the iPads in local advertisements showing the New York Times? I understand that reading American newspapers is a big selling point back in the United States, but this is Taiwan. Why not <i>localize</i> a bit?</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-71024133891586406062010-12-01T15:22:00.002+08:002010-12-04T16:15:45.175+08:00The Dust Has Cleared<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TPn4p4TMXfI/AAAAAAAACP8/cJOhP97eS-0/s1600/IMG_0080.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TPn4p4TMXfI/AAAAAAAACP8/cJOhP97eS-0/s400/IMG_0080.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546737814454689266" /></a><br />So what actually happened in those Taiwan municipal elections?<div><br /></div><div>BEFORE THE ELECTION, I believed Su Tseng-chang had a real shot of knocking off Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin, and in any event the race would be close.</div><div><br /></div><div>WRONG. Hau demolished Su by 12 percentage points. There are rumors that Su's unexpectedly large loss has ended any realistic shot he may have at winning the DPP presidential nomination in 2012, though I think it's a bit too early to tell.</div><div><br /></div><div>BEFORE THE ELECTION, I thought the KMT would achieve a better performance in Sinbei than in Taipei. I thought Tsai Ing-wen could only hope to win election if she rode a nationwide DPP wave.</div><div><br /></div><div>MOSTLY WRONG. Tsai lost, but she made it close, winning a greater percentage of the vote than Su.</div><div><br /></div><div>BEFORE THE ELECTION, I thought the Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung mayoral races would not even be close, with the KMT winning easily in Taichung and the DPP taking the other two.</div><div><br /></div><div>PARTLY WRONG. Tainan and Kaohsiung voted pretty much the way everyone expected them to, but Taichung mayor Jason Hu got a real scare on Election Day when his opponent, Su Jia-chyuan, came very close to unseating him. Now Su's getting a lot of praise in the DPP and people are talking about him as a real 2012 presidential contender.</div><div><br /></div><div>The day before the election, people told me they expected something surprising to happen on Election Eve. Sure enough, that evening a prominent KMT politician (not a candidate for anything, but a famous face), Sean Lien, was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in Yonghe, not far as the crow flies from our apartment. Lots of famous and non-famous people have theorized that the KMT got a good deal of sympathy vote as a result, which may well have denied Tsai Ing-wen and Su Jia-chyuan victories in their respective cities.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a result, of course, we're already hearing the conspiracy theories.</div><div><br /></div><div>The sad thing is, unsuccessful attempts to assassinate politicians the day before elections, causing people to argue over whether it skewed the results, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-19_shooting_incident">is something of a tradition in Taiwan</a>. Hopefully it won't happen in 2012. </div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-57540503951167813122010-11-24T10:27:00.015+08:002010-11-24T12:47:29.478+08:00Taiwan Elections 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyH1XeKHDI/AAAAAAAACP0/eHgf0g2lRK8/s1600/IMG_0048.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyH1XeKHDI/AAAAAAAACP0/eHgf0g2lRK8/s400/IMG_0048.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542954592289561650" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx56dnnNFI/AAAAAAAACOs/PZ0C_iQ0cO4/s1600/IMG_0016.JPG"></a>Has it really been 2 months and I've neglected to update this blog with our trips to Honduras and Guatemala? Wow, it really has.<div><br /></div><div>Well, that's going to have to wait, because I have <i>Taiwan Election 2010 Pictures!</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx56dnnNFI/AAAAAAAACOs/PZ0C_iQ0cO4/s1600/IMG_0016.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx56dnnNFI/AAAAAAAACOs/PZ0C_iQ0cO4/s400/IMG_0016.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542939286676386898" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx56EPY2OI/AAAAAAAACOk/KPwahEFV_2o/s1600/IMG_0028.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx56EPY2OI/AAAAAAAACOk/KPwahEFV_2o/s400/IMG_0028.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542939279863896290" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx55uR0I0I/AAAAAAAACOc/atkogOhwfcY/s1600/IMG_0027.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx55uR0I0I/AAAAAAAACOc/atkogOhwfcY/s400/IMG_0027.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542939273968493378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Also see Jenna's election coverage <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-taipei-election-posters.html">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Elections are Saturday, November 27 for the mayorships of Taiwan's five biggest municipalities, as well as a host of lesser offices. Taipei is now absolutely covered with signs for various candidates, and the streets are full of campaign workers distributing flyers to passers-by as if to say, "Here, <i>you</i> throw this away".</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx69AmK1OI/AAAAAAAACO0/9QrySmRx2Q8/s400/IMG_0049.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542940429936940258" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 339px; height: 288px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>Little cartoon avatars of the candidate are pretty common, as you can see with Popeye here. If it's common in Taipei it seems to be even more common in Kaohsiung, which is full of cute little Chen Chu cartoons.<div><br /></div><div>In Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Taichung the mayoral races are not expected to be especially close. DPP candidates are generally expected to win election in Kaohsiung and Tainan, and the KMT mayor is expected to be re-elected in Taichung.</div><div><br /></div><div>That leaves Taipei and Sinbei, the latter of which is not, properly speaking, a "city", but rather the suburbs of Taipei packaged together and newly incorporated to form the new largest municipality in Taiwan.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx86T-jEfI/AAAAAAAACO8/wcFdhKZr9ww/s400/IMG_0022.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542942582623113714" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div>The incumbent mayor of Taipei is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hau_Lung-pin">Hau Long-bin</a>, seen here in improbable clothing on the side of a Taipei City bus (if I'm reading the Chinese correctly, it's about Hau's tireless efforts to prevent flooding).<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx-iyOD09I/AAAAAAAACPE/zy05F1-kM5k/s400/IMG_0058.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542944377447633874" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div>Here's Hau with a local City Council candidate. It's common on election posters for local, lesser-known candidates to pose with a much more prominent member of the same party.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx_SqO_EkI/AAAAAAAACPU/mZMH9WJ6bGc/s1600/IMG_0055.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx_SqO_EkI/AAAAAAAACPU/mZMH9WJ6bGc/s400/IMG_0055.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542945199937753666" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx_SQ9eolI/AAAAAAAACPM/SoYTcnenIYk/s1600/IMG_0053.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOx_SQ9eolI/AAAAAAAACPM/SoYTcnenIYk/s400/IMG_0053.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542945193153438290" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Hau's opponent is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Tseng-chang">Su Tseng-chang</a> of the DPP. It's universally believed that Su's real goal is to be elected president (he unsuccessfully campaigned for the DPP's presidential nomination in 2008), and many go so far as to say he entered the Taipei mayoral race expecting to lose, hoping the publicity and campaign organization would give him a stronger platform from which to challenge Ma in 2012.</div><div><br /></div><div>If that's so, it looks likely to backfire for him. A year ago, nobody thought Hau's numbers would be as weak as they are now. Su looks very likely to actually topple Hau, which will put him in the position of either having to scuttle his 2012 ambitions or going back on his promise to serve out his term if elected. (I'm not certain, but I believe he'd be legally obligated to resign as mayor if he ran for president.)</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyCSTzub2I/AAAAAAAACPc/Xitv74-NNxo/s400/IMG_0031.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542948492452720482" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div>Local candidate Zhou Ni-an's truck there has lots of political imagery. That's not only Su Tseng-chang in the right background, but former president <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Teng-Hui">Lee Teng-hui</a> on the left. He's the former KMT president who has since turned his back on his former party and actively campaigns against it every time election season rolls around. On the right there's a pun, which is pretty common on election posters; it says something like "Wishing you well," which sounds like Zhou's name.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't live in the not-yet-existing Sinbei City, but as it comprises most of Taipei's suburbs, plenty of Taipei city buses whose routes are partly in Sinbei are festooned with Sinbei campaign advertising.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyEmy92yoI/AAAAAAAACPk/PhIzn44UOIY/s400/IMG_0037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542951043437349506" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div>On the left is Sinbei mayoral candidate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Chu">Chu Li-luan</a>; on the right is a local candidate for, I believe, city councilor. They're trying so hard to convince us that they're cool, with their "MiB" getup.<div><br /></div><div>Chu, universally referred to in the English-language media by his Anglo name Eric, is considered <i>the</i> KMT young handsome rising star right now. If you asked Taiwanese people to predict the likely KMT presidential nominee in 2016, you'd hear Chu's name more than any other.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyGSqzIo4I/AAAAAAAACPs/yO6JuMGZp68/s1600/IMG_0050.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TOyGSqzIo4I/AAAAAAAACPs/yO6JuMGZp68/s400/IMG_0050.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542952896670770050" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsai_Ing-wen">Tsai Ing-wen</a> is the chairwoman of the DPP and Chu's opponent for mayor of Sinbei. She's also generally thought to be planning to challenge Ma in the 2012 election, which means the DPP will be in an interesting position if Tsai and Su both win their respective elections.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll probably make another election-themed post in a couple of days once we know more of the fate of Mr. Hau, Mr. Su, Mr. Chu, and Ms. Tsai.</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-24889811271706197152010-09-29T07:43:00.003+08:002010-10-01T08:47:08.105+08:00Granada & Masaya<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TKUu-9GNlXI/AAAAAAAACOM/emFe4mthYOY/s1600/DSCN2778.JPG"><br /></a><br />Sorry, no pictures yet because this computer has no working USB port (and three non-working ones!)<br /><br />Ever-popular with foreign tourists and with good reason, Granada is a city where you can take pictures of the beautiful architecture almost without effort. Casco Viejo in Panama City was being restored to its former glory when we were there, but in Granada the process has been completed.<br /><br />Tourism is clearly a huge moneymaker in Granada, with backpacker hostels and tour companies all over the place, as well as many touts and independent vendors clearly targeting the tourist market. But this is not to say Granada is in any sense not "the real Nicaragua". There are bustling markets catering primarily to locals, and all over the place one sees political banners and graffiti pertaining to next year´s Presidential election.<br /><br />Granada´s got a reputation as a historic center of right-wing politics (nemesis of lefty Leon) but the political signs and slogans we´ve seen have been overwhelmingly pro-Sandanista. Same in Ometepe, come to think of it; maybe the Sandanistas are just more prone to decorate walls and buildings?<br /><br />We spent a day and a half exploring the city, taking pictures of its old buildings (which I hope to have on the blog soon). We saw several churches, and heard much on the history of the city, much more about William Walker than the Contras/Sandanistas. Walker was an American warlord (he´s usually called a "filibuster" or "adventurer", but "warlord" sure seems like the best term from our perspective) who tried to conquer all of Central America in the 1850s with Granada as his capital before he burned much of the city to the ground.<br /><br />The next day was a day trip to Masaya. Lonely Planet describes Masaya as having a touristy handicrafts market which is a good place to shop for local handicrafts, and a local market where all the, well, locals shop. We got off the bus in the pouring rain (Tropical Storm Matthew´s advance scouts) and made for the local market, which turned out to be HUGE, partially covered, and in parts very touristy. We bought umbrellas (at which point the rain abated) and sat down for lunch at a very non-pretentious counter. I was amused that, while we both ordered pollo asado, what we got was chicken cooked in very different ways; she got warm roast chicken, while I got room temperature fried chicken, possibly from the day before.<br /><br />With the rain stopped, the two of us walked across town to the touristy market. It turned out to be very touristy indeed; the only people we saw who appeared to be locals were working there, and the stalls mostly all sold the same sorts of merchandise, much of it rather generic Nicaraguan souvenirs (including tacky cups shaped like women´s breasts featuring Nicaraguan slogans, which were being sold by vendors across the market). But it wasn´t all bad, and we bought a table runner, and we relaxed for coffee and tres leches in the cafe. (The waiter initially said they didn´t have tres leches; then he reconsidered and said they did. After a wait, we received two servings of tres leches, in cheap plastic cups. We think he ran out to the neighborhood panaderia to procure them for us. They were pretty good, at any rate.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TKUu-9GNlXI/AAAAAAAACOM/emFe4mthYOY/s1600/DSCN2778.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TKUu-9GNlXI/AAAAAAAACOM/emFe4mthYOY/s400/DSCN2778.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522872177127167346" border="0" /></a>Then we went over to check out the baby spider monkey that someone had brought to the cafe. He took quite a liking to Jenna. She wouldn´t have been able to pry him off her neck without his keepers´assistance.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-23815085093246159222010-09-26T08:50:00.009+08:002010-09-26T09:24:00.097+08:00Ometepe<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6gFPpwzxI/AAAAAAAACOE/QQfnKa1CheA/s1600/DSCN2633.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521026205164293906" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6gFPpwzxI/AAAAAAAACOE/QQfnKa1CheA/s400/DSCN2633.JPG" /></a><br />Ometepe is rural. It`s rural enough that on the island`s main highway it`s common to see pigs crossing to get to their preferred foraging spots. Buses have to honk so that horses (roaming freely) will get out of their way. Traffic is regularly brought to a standstill because some cowboy is taking too long to get his herd of cattle across the road.<br /><div><div><br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6fOsPLZUI/AAAAAAAACNs/4HAKd7CgGmQ/s1600/DSCN2644.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521025267944613186" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6fOsPLZUI/AAAAAAAACNs/4HAKd7CgGmQ/s400/DSCN2644.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6fkcA94LI/AAAAAAAACN8/iE2paZlyz1E/s1600/DSCN2646.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521025641547161778" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6fkcA94LI/AAAAAAAACN8/iE2paZlyz1E/s400/DSCN2646.JPG" /></a><br /><div align="left">Ometepe is an island where cars that aren`t 4-wheel-drive will have their movement severely curtailed, and for many sorts of journey the easiest and most practical mode of travel may be on horseback. </div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6d0wtd9wI/AAAAAAAACNc/6kKAV2jsZRM/s1600/DSCN2642.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521023722957174530" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6d0wtd9wI/AAAAAAAACNc/6kKAV2jsZRM/s400/DSCN2642.JPG" /></a><em> A pole painted by the local Sandinistas, and some dogs. Political posters, murals and graffiti was everywhere we went in Nicaragua, and it was almost entirely pro-Sandinista.</em><br /><br /><div align="left">Ometepe`s located on Lake Nicaragua, an inland body of water so vast that it could pass for an ocean depending on where you`re looking out from. A lake so big it`s got sharks, though not as many as there used to be.<br /></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6b34jsdiI/AAAAAAAACM8/fMGzkl-IXoA/s1600/DSCN2677.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521021577580017186" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6b34jsdiI/AAAAAAAACM8/fMGzkl-IXoA/s400/DSCN2677.JPG" /></a><br /><div align="left">We went for a hike halfway up Maderas, the shorter of the two volcanoes. Although not an inherently difficult path, our hike was made more tortuous by the fact that the trail was so muddy and slippery. (I`m not convinced that there are times in the wet season when the trail is <em>not</em> muddy and slippery.)<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c97S0qOI/AAAAAAAACNU/sYmuCs3AHYc/s1600/DSCN2680.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521022780905400546" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c97S0qOI/AAAAAAAACNU/sYmuCs3AHYc/s400/DSCN2680.JPG" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c83VGKLI/AAAAAAAACNM/yefZGvXCfxk/s1600/DSCN2681.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521022762661324978" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c83VGKLI/AAAAAAAACNM/yefZGvXCfxk/s400/DSCN2681.JPG" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c8uan-GI/AAAAAAAACNE/ZnO_fDn7P04/s1600/DSCN2682.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521022760268593250" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6c8uan-GI/AAAAAAAACNE/ZnO_fDn7P04/s400/DSCN2682.JPG" /></a><br /><div align="left">But we saw many beautiful insects - including several huge owl butterflies that I had little hope of taking decent pictures of - and a couple of howler monkeys. The views from Maderas´halfway point were spectacular.<br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6bE60i21I/AAAAAAAACM0/_0Ujwfixkio/s1600/DSCN2689.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521020702014233426" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ6bE60i21I/AAAAAAAACM0/_0Ujwfixkio/s400/DSCN2689.JPG" /></a><em> The taller of the two volcanoes, Conception, from Maderas. This picture does not do justice to the view.</em> </div></div></div></div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-32585963486460017842010-09-26T08:45:00.003+08:002010-09-28T23:31:49.722+08:00LiberiaAfter our flight from Osa to San Juan - in the smallest airplane I have ever flown in - we took a bus up to Liberia. Liberia is a handsome little city in northwestern Costa Rica, an hour and a half from the Nicaraguan border. We only spent one night there on our way north, but we liked it a lot. The area around the central square reminded me of popular images of old-timey American small towns. There was even a brass band giving a free concert in the evening.<br /><br />Outside of the city center, though, Liberia`s got its share of chain stores, including the first Cinnabon we`ve seen in Central America. Or outside of the United States.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-66306941978316068152010-09-24T08:30:00.008+08:002010-10-01T08:50:23.402+08:00Osa<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ0-aNrg0zI/AAAAAAAACMU/jF-tYusRpKQ/s1600/DSCN2572.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520637338295784242" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ0-aNrg0zI/AAAAAAAACMU/jF-tYusRpKQ/s400/DSCN2572.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Costa Rica is the most touristy country in Central America. Seeking to avoid the crowded tourist spots and the associated pickpockets and shady individuals, we made immediately for the Peninsula de Osa, sparsely populated and home to a huge variety of animal species.<br /><br />We stayed at the Iguana Lodge near Puerto Jimenez, home to friendly staff and several cats and dogs.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ07lXxYBuI/AAAAAAAACME/vzNtoKhrHyw/s1600/DSCN2624.JPG"></a><img style="text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520635696092068354" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ086n_ougI/AAAAAAAACMM/8ART5_lxIbM/s400/DSCN2624.JPG" border="0" /><br />That`s Spike on the left. The day after we arrived Spike decided we were his humans, and for the rest of our time there he followed us around, even napping in our room and sitting by our feet as we ate. When any of the much larger dogs at Iguana Lodge tried to nose in on our affection, he would get angry and drive them off. The exception was the cat, whom Spike was clearly wary of.<br /><br />Sometimes a group of squirrel monkeys passes through the lodge, fascinating to watch and maddenly difficult to photograph. I suspect a similar gang of macaques or baboons or other Old World monkeys passing through would make the humans lock their doors for fear that the monkeys would leave a trail of stolen food and modest destruction in their wake. But squirrel monkeys are tiny and harmless - their name is apt, as they look like squirrels with monkey forepaws and heads. They aren't the least bit intimidating.<br /><br />Our first morning we went kayaking, which Jenna hadn´t done in years and I had never done before. Sharing a two-person kayak, our guide Adriana took us up a river through a mangrove swamp. We saw baby crocodiles and capuchin monkeys, and got a physical upper-body workout of the sort I don´t often receive.<br /><br />On our second morning, we went on a hike, accompanied by an excellent naturalist guide, Sidnar. With his help we spotted all 4 species of monkey native to Osa: the small squirrel and capuchin monkeys, and the large spider and howler monkeys, the latter of which (as their name implies) are more commonly heard than seen. We also saw some beautiful macaws and parrots with Sidnar´s help. Sidnar has an excellent eye for these things. He saw a distant lump on a tree, one that Jenna and I would just walk past without really looking, and he set up his telescope and invited us to look through it. And it turned out the lump was a sloth, sleeping with his limbs wrapped around the treetrunk.<br /><br />I didn`t take many pictures in Osa, but Jenna`s got some great wildlife pictures <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2010/09/wildlife-of-costa-rica.html">here</a>.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-78499949580625526362010-09-23T07:11:00.007+08:002010-09-25T08:37:49.752+08:00Boquete<div align="left">Boquete is a small town in the western Panamanian highlands, an hour´s drive north of David. It´s a relatively wealthy town due to the coffee plantations and the large number of rich retirees setting up estates. There are many long- and short-term foreign residents. Habla Ya! is a well-known Spanish language school in town and on our second day Jenna and I took a 2-hour refresher course to improve our basic linguistic ability.<br /><br />Local coffee producer Cafe Ruiz let us start off our day with a coffee tasting, in which we were encouraged to pay attention to the tastes and smells of their coffee. (I had a cold so I´m not sure how many fine distinctions I was able to make.) Then we went on a tour of the plantation itself. </div><div align="center"><br /></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520639764468292882" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ1Anb4HXRI/AAAAAAAACMc/ZxrsnL6hb-I/s400/DSCN2530.JPG" /><br /><p align="center"><em>Young Geisha coffee plants. They are going to be mighty expensive one day.</em><br /></p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqR_aJNXBI/AAAAAAAACL0/7XJnIhR-aJ8/s1600/DSCN2525.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519884811831696402" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqR_aJNXBI/AAAAAAAACL0/7XJnIhR-aJ8/s400/DSCN2525.JPG" /></a><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Coffee beans. When they turn red they´re ripe for picking.</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqSsrcWYQI/AAAAAAAACL8/w-lgc8K7Zjg/s1600/DSCN2533.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519885589569495298" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqSsrcWYQI/AAAAAAAACL8/w-lgc8K7Zjg/s400/DSCN2533.JPG" /></a><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">What you get when you break open a a ripe berry.</span><br /></div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ1DGgIJbLI/AAAAAAAACMs/zNJgwrNt43E/s1600/DSCN2544.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520642497208478898" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ1DGgIJbLI/AAAAAAAACMs/zNJgwrNt43E/s400/DSCN2544.JPG" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Bean washing and drying facility at the plantation.</em><br /><br /></p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ1CLaYHbFI/AAAAAAAACMk/TEMgi4Znxu4/s1600/DSCN2554.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520641482052562002" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJ1CLaYHbFI/AAAAAAAACMk/TEMgi4Znxu4/s400/DSCN2554.JPG" /><br /><p align="center"></a></p><p align="center"><em>The interior of the roasting plant back in Boquete.</em><br /><br /></p><div align="left">They´re proud of their coffee at Cafe Ruiz. Panama is the only Central American country where coffee is grown by totally independent growers, as opposed to places where growers are forced to belong to and sell through a cooperative.<br /><br />On our second day we went on a zipline tour. (All of these outdoor activities are scheduled for the morning. That´s because you can usually count on it raining in the afternoon.) It looked intimidating enough at first, as our guides talked us through the safety protocols, to be followed exactly lest disaster ensue! But one of the guides had his six-year-old son accompanying us so we figured it couldn´t be that bad. It was much more fun and less intimidating once we were actually doing it.<br /><br />I had one bad habit I had to overcome. I consistently broke too soon, forcing me to haul myself the final short distance to the platform with my hands. Subconsciously I figured, better brake too soon than too late. My subconscious didn´t care about the automatic brake and safety precautions that would have kept me from slamming into the tree at full speed. </div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-5557258343385573582010-09-12T06:55:00.008+08:002010-09-23T07:10:13.865+08:00Panama City<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2MzXp5hXI/AAAAAAAACKg/KByHAqykwrc/s1600/DSCN2481.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2MzXp5hXI/AAAAAAAACKg/KByHAqykwrc/s400/DSCN2481.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516219932749694322" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2MzXp5hXI/AAAAAAAACKg/KByHAqykwrc/s1600/DSCN2481.JPG"><br /></a>We began the Panama portion of our trip with 2 full days in Panama City, based in the neighborhood of Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo is the old city -- but not the very old city, which was sacked and burned by pirates in 1671. Afterwards the city leaders decided to rebuild in a more easily defendable spot, so they picked this peninsula which juts into Panama Bay.<br /><div><br />When Panama became independent, Panama City was still limited to the Casco Viejo area. As the city grew, Casco Viejo went into decline, becoming a neglected slum. Recently the government began a concerted effort to improve the neighborhood.<br /><br />Now, as you walk around the neighborhood, there are decaying buildings everywhere, and streets and sidewalks that are full of holes. But there is reconstruction work going on too. Several old buildings were in the process of being repaired when we were there, and much of Casco Viejo is beautiful now.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKjKBwNQI/AAAAAAAACKI/kuqG38ucM7o/s1600/DSCN2447.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515795242725422338" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKjKBwNQI/AAAAAAAACKI/kuqG38ucM7o/s400/DSCN2447.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKk6bI_3I/AAAAAAAACKY/nwVT3X0ixvg/s1600/DSCN2457.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515795272896675698" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKk6bI_3I/AAAAAAAACKY/nwVT3X0ixvg/s400/DSCN2457.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKkAADJPI/AAAAAAAACKQ/8sbmr-rdkT8/s1600/DSCN2455.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515795257213789426" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 300px; height: 400px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKkAADJPI/AAAAAAAACKQ/8sbmr-rdkT8/s400/DSCN2455.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKiZy71QI/AAAAAAAACKA/jx2CYaRSDjU/s1600/DSCN2458.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515795229778367746" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 300px; height: 400px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TIwKiZy71QI/AAAAAAAACKA/jx2CYaRSDjU/s400/DSCN2458.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Plaza de la Independencia in Casco Viejo. Top picture is of the National Cathedral. The third picture is looking towards the glitzy new section of Panama, one of whose towers is visible.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2Ng2CkMKI/AAAAAAAACKo/MdCI8Q93ub4/s1600/DSCN2467.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2Ng2CkMKI/AAAAAAAACKo/MdCI8Q93ub4/s400/DSCN2467.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516220714000330914" border="0" /></a><br />That´s the President´s house in Casco Viejo on the left. This is as close as we could get.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2OXMSReMI/AAAAAAAACKw/gw5Hvp_PIeA/s1600/DSCN2487.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TI2OXMSReMI/AAAAAAAACKw/gw5Hvp_PIeA/s400/DSCN2487.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516221647684729026" border="0" /></a><br />Looking towards glitzy modern Panama City.<br /><br />Our second day we went to the Canal. The Panama Canal´s visior´s center at Miraflores is very touristy, so of course we went there. What other obvious place is there to pick up a Panama Canal shot glass? We then checked out the museum on the history, ecology and workings of the Canal. It´s a very well-done, modern exhibit, with everything bilingual in English and Spanish.<br /><br />Then we went up to the observation deck where, with the hot sun beating down on us, we watched as a huge container ship passed through the locks on its way to the Pacific.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqLx232vgI/AAAAAAAACLc/XIYSGq5ibmo/s1600/DSCN2506.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqLx232vgI/AAAAAAAACLc/XIYSGq5ibmo/s400/DSCN2506.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519877981955603970" border="0" /></a><br />The ship enters the locks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqMG0rZ9gI/AAAAAAAACLk/keTVfoyvOIU/s1600/DSCN2512.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqMG0rZ9gI/AAAAAAAACLk/keTVfoyvOIU/s400/DSCN2512.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519878342143768066" border="0" /></a><br />The water level has been made equal.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqMjojVNCI/AAAAAAAACLs/u3SOMxFdIG8/s1600/DSCN2514.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TJqMjojVNCI/AAAAAAAACLs/u3SOMxFdIG8/s400/DSCN2514.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519878837104882722" border="0" /></a><br />And the ship goes on through.<br /><div></div></div></div></div></div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-71407153802617470022010-07-17T12:22:00.014+08:002010-07-17T13:59:22.244+08:00Kaohsiung and Kenting<div style="text-align: left;">This past weekend was my latest jaunt around southern Taiwan, including days spent in Kaohsiung (where I'd been before) and Kenting (where I'd never been).</div><div><div><br /></div><div>On Friday afternoon Emily and I took the HSR down to Kaohsiung and quickly located Kaohsiung 202, a neat little backpackery hostel near the Love River. Kaohsiung 202 was great, the first backpacker's hostel I've stayed at in Taiwan. Our room, although extremely basic, was also clean and extremely cheap. The shared bathrooms were sufficiently clean. And there was free Internet. The hostel is marketed entirely to foreigners, and the women who run it didn't seem Taiwanese (we think they were Filipina).</div><div><br /></div><div>Although it's a bit of a walk from the MRT, the hostel is centrally located. We headed to the Kaohsiung municipal film archive, just a short walk away, which has excellent exhibits on the history of Taiwanese moviemaking with an emphasis on southern Taiwan. We got dinner at Liuhe Night Market - often reviled as excessively touristy, but you can count on it for a fine meal - and returned to the Love River for drinking Taiwan Beer at a riverside cafe.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEEzwCIpqXI/AAAAAAAACHo/RhLtlclH6bM/s400/DSCN2135.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494729920668608882" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>There's the view from the roof of the hotel. The Love River is visible beyond the parking lot.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The Love River used to be known as a dirty polluted mess. Now that it's cleaned up and the riverside area is developed, it's a center of Kaohsiung civic pride. </div><div><br /></div><div>There's an election coming up in November, and like Taipei, Kaohsiung is covered with political posters. Beyond the obvious political differences with northern Taiwan, the other thing I noticed was that almost all the politicians running for office here have little South Park-esque cartoon avatars of themselves in their ads. Chen Chu, the mayor of Kaohsiung and easily the most visible political figure in all of southern Taiwan, is the most obvious example, but even the old male KMT candidates for office have their cartoon avatars.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE1xj8fr5I/AAAAAAAACHw/KKsi665O1XM/s400/DSCN2154.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494732145947553682" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Chen Chu's cartoon self spreading the word about a municipal hotline. Chen's adorable avatar is seen on all manner of information billboards and signage that have nothing to do with politics or the upcoming election.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">On Saturday we met up with Emily's former housemate Robin, a Kaohsiung native, and went off exploring the British Consulate and Cijin areas. The old British Consulate is now a museum and a cafe (Jenna and I visited the cafe when we were there in 2008); at the moment the consulate's home to an exhibit on the Beatles and the city of Liverpool, and how Liverpool compares to Kaohsiung. I assumed they were sister cities, but Wikipedia says I was mistaken. So why Liverpool then? I don't know.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE30w0kSfI/AAAAAAAACH4/_TW2Hcj5eW0/s400/DSCN2137.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494734399966824946" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Flags and visitors at the very touristy British Consulate.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Cijin is an island in the harbor best approached by ferry. We'd had substantial Japanese noodles for lunch so we were not yet in a mood to appreciate Cijin's seafood offerings. Instead, we took a look at the historic lighthouse (closed) and the ruined fort.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE6dX8x8qI/AAAAAAAACII/kjbfIN4tX0c/s1600/DSCN2151.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE6dX8x8qI/AAAAAAAACII/kjbfIN4tX0c/s400/DSCN2151.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494737296688280226" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE6cvJlHDI/AAAAAAAACIA/2ZvIEbvhAgE/s1600/DSCN2150.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE6cvJlHDI/AAAAAAAACIA/2ZvIEbvhAgE/s400/DSCN2150.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494737285736111154" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE6dqOA5VI/AAAAAAAACIQ/gZIDFw59Bj0/s400/DSCN2152.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494737301592401234" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The fort, and Kaohsiung beyond it. The fire in that last picture looked pretty serious, but I never found out what it was from.</i></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">That evening Jenna arrived via HSR after working all day, and we rented a car and headed south. (We headed south <i>eventually</i>. Thank to our unfamiliarity with the city's road network, it took us longer than it should have for us to be definitely going in the right direction.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We stopped for dinner at Donggang, a coastal city south of Kaohsiung that's become quite wealthy as a center of bluefin tuna fishing. Jenna and I visited Donggang on two consecutive weekends last year to see the King Boat festival, which climaxed with the burning of a huge boat on the beach in the early hours of the morning. Central Donggang has several well-known seafood restaurants, but if you want the best food in town you do what we did: go to the harbor and eat at one of the outdoor restaurants there. We got there after ten in the evening, and there were still several places open and doing good business. We didn't have tuna, but we had oysters and crab legs and clams and non-tuna varieties of fish and it was all quite excellent.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We reached Kenting, a town of bars and restaurants designed to separate tourists from their money, after one in the morning. Driving right through it, we located a campground off the road south of Kenting. We paid, set up our tents, and realized our rented car had suffered a flat tire for some reason.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We fixed it in the morning, after a very hot and muggy night (the guy who'd set up a large fan to blow through his tent had the right idea). The car came with a spare tire, tools to change it, but no jack. The guy who ran the campground had a jack. Emily, being the most mechanically competent among us, was able to change the tire. Problem solved. We washed up (the shower facilities were extremely basic, but I was amazed they had hot water) and went off to explore the southernmost parts of the island of Taiwan.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEE_IG-EneI/AAAAAAAACIY/yxKWtpPDrGY/s400/DSCN2156.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494742428911181282" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The big stone marker at Taiwan's southernmost point.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAHlYWHnI/AAAAAAAACI4/1mMqdHJf2mc/s1600/DSCN2158.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAHlYWHnI/AAAAAAAACI4/1mMqdHJf2mc/s400/DSCN2158.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494743519406202482" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAHHNZQUI/AAAAAAAACIw/uKza68Ehapo/s1600/DSCN2165.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAHHNZQUI/AAAAAAAACIw/uKza68Ehapo/s400/DSCN2165.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494743511307206978" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAGwBDajI/AAAAAAAACIo/ftFRvD7wf74/s1600/DSCN2166.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAGwBDajI/AAAAAAAACIo/ftFRvD7wf74/s400/DSCN2166.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494743505081428530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAGfzh3oI/AAAAAAAACIg/Z3tVwFn4NbA/s1600/DSCN2162.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFAGfzh3oI/AAAAAAAACIg/Z3tVwFn4NbA/s400/DSCN2162.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494743500729736834" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The seaside at Kenting.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was enough to make me regret not bringing snorkeling gear. I'd assumed there wouldn't be enough time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFA7PgpSII/AAAAAAAACJA/hL70eVNtdoc/s400/DSCN2173.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494744406888630402" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Emily with coconut. They're available everywhere in Kenting.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Later on we turned inland, driving through Kenting National Park.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFCKF868BI/AAAAAAAACJQ/eq5VjSTgSCM/s1600/DSCN2180.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFCKF868BI/AAAAAAAACJQ/eq5VjSTgSCM/s400/DSCN2180.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494745761532538898" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFCJmYd0KI/AAAAAAAACJI/t73eFMfuZYU/s1600/DSCN2179.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFCJmYd0KI/AAAAAAAACJI/t73eFMfuZYU/s400/DSCN2179.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494745753058136226" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>To tell the truth I think Jenna took these pictures; her camera was unavailable so she used mine.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hengchun is one of the largest, if not <i>the</i> largest, town in the Kenting area. The oldest part was lies within the well-preserved old city walls.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFD31hRhRI/AAAAAAAACJg/rsFT81JjncM/s1600/DSCN2182.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFD31hRhRI/AAAAAAAACJg/rsFT81JjncM/s400/DSCN2182.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494747646907221266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFD3oLpChI/AAAAAAAACJY/T4lN6Ba-LLM/s1600/DSCN2184.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFD3oLpChI/AAAAAAAACJY/T4lN6Ba-LLM/s400/DSCN2184.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494747643326827026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>That's the old North Gate, as the barely-visible Chinese characters say. Jenna's pictures.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/TEFER7CFPiI/AAAAAAAACJo/pU1QLFx17Bk/s400/DSCN2187.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494748095063604770" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Emily atop an old tank by the North Gate. There's nothing to say you can't climb up on it, and after Emily got off some kids got on. Again, Jenna's picture.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">On the way back we stopped in Donggang again, this time at a decent restaurant near Donglong temple. Then we hustled back to Kaohsiung before the deadline passed before returning the car -- it was a relief when we saw giant billboards with photos (not cartoons) of Chen Chu, meaning that we were getting close to our goal. We got back to the HSR station with some time to spare, and they didn't charge us for the flat tire (good thing, too; we would have protested if they had). Hooray!</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-45898387825245093512010-04-12T09:40:00.003+08:002010-04-12T09:50:49.229+08:00Capital flowsFrom the Taipei Times a while back: <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2010/04/03/2003469628">Gifts for ghosts changing from cash to flash goods</a>.<br /><blockquote>It seems that fake paper money is no longer good enough for the dead of Taiwan, where relatives traditionally burn make-believe cash to help ease the passage of their deceased loved ones through the byways of the netherworld.<br /><br />Instead, many people now opt to provide ancestral ghosts with more elaborate paper gifts — models of everything from Ferraris to iPhones and even villas.</blockquote><p>This article is a wonderful source of food for thought. I like the straightforward statement that the afterlife is a place where "buying opportunities have never been convincingly documented".</p><p>There's also the bit about burning paper replicas of guns for dead gangster relatives, so that they may continue their lifestyles as ghosts. </p><p>I must admit I'm very curious: if a gangster ghost uses lethal force against a rival gangster ghost... what happens, exactly?</p><p>I'd like to read more socioeconomic studies of what goes on in the afterlife. A while back, PodCastle ran Maureen McHugh's story <a href="http://podcastle.org/2008/12/10/pc036-ancestor-money/">"Ancestor Money"</a>, which was a good start.</p>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-26799778641276013842010-04-11T13:27:00.009+08:002010-04-12T00:30:37.817+08:00Down the East CoastMonday, April 5 was a holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day, the day that the Taiwanese traditionally travel to their ancestors' graves to honor them. What it meant for us was a 3-day weekend. Jenna and Emily and I rented a Toyota Camry and drove down and up the East Coast.<div><br /></div><div>I'm not a confident driver in big cities and I've never driven so much as a motorbike in Taiwan. Also, neither I nor Jenna have an international driving license. So it was Emily who took on all of the driving duties, for which I am thankful.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8HzYY7pJEI/AAAAAAAACGQ/behFz5Xbfao/s1600/DSCN1999.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8HzYY7pJEI/AAAAAAAACGQ/behFz5Xbfao/s400/DSCN1999.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458911823684772930" /></a><br /></div><div>We set off for Hualien on Saturday, driving along the narrow North Cross-Island Highway, through Fusing and Baling, eating a delicious lunch at a very modest restaurant in a very modest town. We stopped frequently to take pictures, hitting Suao as dusk was approaching and Hualien as night was falling.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sunday morning, we drove down the coast on Highway 11. We stopped at Cow Mountain Beach, a lovely little beach (where swimming is not permitted) with very, very hot sand that made us regret our decision to leave our shoes and walk down barefoot.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8Hz_5JiQxI/AAAAAAAACGg/wyGkavueorw/s1600/DSCN2003.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8Hz_5JiQxI/AAAAAAAACGg/wyGkavueorw/s400/DSCN2003.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458912502347875090" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8Hz_QGBlUI/AAAAAAAACGY/ZAz_LWrGaPQ/s1600/DSCN2008.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8Hz_QGBlUI/AAAAAAAACGY/ZAz_LWrGaPQ/s400/DSCN2008.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458912491327296834" /></a><br /></div><div>We stopped at Shihtiping, a section of rocky coast popular with tourists (a Chinese tour group was leaving as we were arriving). I was most interested in checking out the many tide pools, particularly the contrast between the ones that were green and disgusting, and the ones with clear water, brimming with fish and crabs and other life.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H0gH_smwI/AAAAAAAACGo/eeXyVjp9uHM/s1600/DSCN2013.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H0gH_smwI/AAAAAAAACGo/eeXyVjp9uHM/s400/DSCN2013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458913056088955650" /></a><br /></div><div>We stopped at a seafood restaurant in one of the small coastal towns, where we had a good meal, watched over by the restaurant's very fat dog, Mimi.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H1ICCpbwI/AAAAAAAACGw/Sv6Mp97YDJY/s1600/DSCN2010.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H1ICCpbwI/AAAAAAAACGw/Sv6Mp97YDJY/s400/DSCN2010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458913741685485314" /></a><br /></div><div>At Highway 64, just north of the Tropic of Cancer, we turned inland towards the East Rift Valley. Highway 11 continues past interesting and beautiful areas south of the Tropic of Cancer, but Jenna and I had already visited Basiandong and Sansiantai on a previous trip. </div><div><br /></div><div>We turned south on Highway 9, stopping at the Tropic of Cancer Monument and twin ancient Saoba Megaliths. <i>Rough Guide</i> claims that local legend says the megaliths are the remains of incestuous twins who were turned to stone. None of the ample bilingual signage around the megaliths actually makes reference to this story, though.</div><div><br /></div><div>I liked the East Rift Valley quite a bit. It is very different from urban Taiwan. Its humid, tropical ruralness reminded me of the Philippines or Sumatra. We stopped to eat at Cifadahan Cafe, an Ami restaurant in Mataian that Lonely Planet recommended. Many of the cafe's specialties were out of season, but the salad made from local raw vegetables was excellent.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that was it for Sunday, as we returned to Hualien that night. The following morning we packed up and left Hualien, heading to Taroko National Park. We'd all been there before, but not with our own transportation.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H34UBfBRI/AAAAAAAACHQ/ZNR8QmID5X0/s1600/DSCN2037.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H34UBfBRI/AAAAAAAACHQ/ZNR8QmID5X0/s400/DSCN2037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458916770169423122" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H339xTAcI/AAAAAAAACHI/XesPMIZOMmI/s1600/DSCN2048.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H339xTAcI/AAAAAAAACHI/XesPMIZOMmI/s400/DSCN2048.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458916764195946946" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H33n76vOI/AAAAAAAACHA/iGWHuGLwhxo/s1600/DSCN2043.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H33n76vOI/AAAAAAAACHA/iGWHuGLwhxo/s400/DSCN2043.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458916758334913762" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H33BcFM_I/AAAAAAAACG4/gw3ej8Wa9Xg/s1600/DSCN2046.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H33BcFM_I/AAAAAAAACG4/gw3ej8Wa9Xg/s400/DSCN2046.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458916748000834546" /></a><br /></div><div>The weather did not really cooperate; rain came and went, and we took pictures of beautiful scenery partially obscured by fog. That said, we had a good time, and to make it a proper road trip we bought some unhealthy snack food (Pringles!) in a cafe at Taroko.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H4qk46rWI/AAAAAAAACHY/6JEUmb8mUwI/s1600/DSCN2077.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S8H4qk46rWI/AAAAAAAACHY/6JEUmb8mUwI/s400/DSCN2077.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458917633690348898" /></a><br /></div><div>We made it back to Taipei that evening, after dealing with traffic both in Luodong (where traffic was allowed on the highway very slowly) and at the toll booths for the Xueshan Tunnel, but once we were in the tunnel traffic moved smoothly.</div><br />Jenna documented the trip <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2010/04/sweepin-toombz.html">here</a> and <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-more-east-coast-photos.html">here</a>.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-74031393472326265432010-02-23T20:32:00.012+08:002010-02-26T18:25:49.172+08:00Our Chinese New Year's Trip<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eg6yRUmAI/AAAAAAAACGI/aIHvsizTecM/s1600-h/DSCN1939.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eg6yRUmAI/AAAAAAAACGI/aIHvsizTecM/s400/DSCN1939.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442495606487816194" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eg6IXZq-I/AAAAAAAACGA/sSAFgJRML-I/s1600-h/DSCN1936.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: left;">Our plan for Lunar New Year <i>had</i> been to go hiking and camping in the mountains of central Taiwan. We would enjoy some spectacular views and get some much-needed exercise in. And most importantly, we would get ourselves out of Taipei City during the week-long break when Taipei empties out and the city becomes a dull, boring place.</div><div><br /></div><div>The plan once we realized the weather would be rotten was to spend the night in Taichung, then head up through Puli into the Cingjing Farm area. Cingjing's got some beautiful scenery, and we found a campground where we could pitch our tents. Then it would be a bus ride to Lishan, a little town near the Central Cross-Island Highway with beautiful views across the valleys of Taiwan's central mountain range.</div><div><br /></div><div>As it happened, the weather turned really sour. Cingjing Farm's views were obscured by fog, and the rain was near-incessant. Good news #1: our tent was waterproof. (Joseph and Emily's tent was somewhat less than waterproof, we heard.) Good news #2: Cingjing Farm contains not only a Starbucks (good for passing a couple of hours when the rain is nonstop outside), but also several decent places for food, particularly a non-pretentious place where we got excellent mutton hotpot.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eaex6lGXI/AAAAAAAACFA/Df20eswRgEw/s400/DSCN1916.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442488528286325106" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>This is more or less what I picture the English countryside as looking like in parts, but it's a sheep-filled meadow near Cingjing, draped in fog.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we spent much of the time in the campsite lodge playing cards. On the bright side, my first real sleeping-in-a-tent experience was one with nonstop rain, so my next one will almost certainly be pleasant by comparison.</div><div><br /></div><div>We nixed the idea of traveling on to Lishan when we called ahead and confirmed that the weather wasn't terribly different from the weather in Cingjing. In addition, the bus wasn't running because of snow on the route; we had the option of getting a ride from someone who drove to Lishan every day anyway, but in the end we decided to go back to Puli, where at least the fog wouldn't be as bad. In a way it's too bad; I've never seen snow in Taiwan, and this would have been my chance.</div><div><br /></div><div>Puli is a small city down in the Taiwanese lowlands, with a couple of interesting sights. The four of us got rooms at a hostel and explored the town. Puli's sights include the Shaohsing wine brewery, which includes a museum and a sizable market where one can browse several wine-based products, including candies and soap. The signature alcohol itself is a bit strange-tasting if you're not used to savory beverages, but several varieties of wine and liquor are available.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next morning we started out at the Kuanhsing paper factory, where we took a guided tour showing us the art of making paper by hand. Of course, there is a sizable gift shop; there's also an area (popular with schoolkids) where visitors can put designs onto handmade paper. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4edZwSjLXI/AAAAAAAACFg/YE3XCyr-PdQ/s400/DSCN1927.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442491740485528946" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>It's kind of fun for people who haven't tried arts and crafts since elementary school.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4ebdrlYPkI/AAAAAAAACFI/PTrJYI77IdI/s400/DSCN1919.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442489608918548034" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Near the paper museum/shop we found some vendors selling fresh honey, with their bees right on the premises.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eb3nGWiTI/AAAAAAAACFQ/DTTgiBFkG2A/s400/DSCN1921.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442490054391269682" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>I'd never been so close to such swarms of bees, but I felt remarkably safe. The bees didn't care about human interlopers at all.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4ecSbjM0bI/AAAAAAAACFY/c41W_AB7934/s1600-h/DSCN1924.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4ecSbjM0bI/AAAAAAAACFY/c41W_AB7934/s400/DSCN1924.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442490515147510194" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /></div><div>For whatever reason, they also had some cute little bunny rabbits on the premises, one month old, which we were assured were being raised as pets, not meat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Puli also has a lacquerware museum and shop, where you can buy high-quality lacquer cups, bowls, and chopsticks.</div><div><br /></div><div>When we were finished with Puli, we hired a taxi (rather than a bus, because of our heavy packs) to take us to the town of Caotun, an otherwise unremarkable town, not even mentioned in Rough Guide, that we visited for its Tzude Temple, as described <a href="http://www.taiwanese-secrets.com/caotun.html">here</a> and <a href="http://thedailybubbletea.com/2009/08/23/tzude-temple/">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4efL0kLEhI/AAAAAAAACFo/8mDIAVmWiSM/s400/DSCN1930.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442493700138275346" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>Apparently the temple is based on a dream that the builder had. As the result shows, it's incredibly ostentatious and looks nothing like any other temple in Taiwan.<div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4egN4LRDoI/AAAAAAAACF4/dvdIT22Tddk/s1600-h/DSCN1937.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4egN4LRDoI/AAAAAAAACF4/dvdIT22Tddk/s400/DSCN1937.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442494834978918018" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4egNZCs5MI/AAAAAAAACFw/n44mv1heV_k/s1600-h/DSCN1940.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4egNZCs5MI/AAAAAAAACFw/n44mv1heV_k/s400/DSCN1940.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442494826621494466" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /></div><div>There's a garden of little religious statuettes behind the temple.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eg6IXZq-I/AAAAAAAACGA/sSAFgJRML-I/s1600-h/DSCN1936.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S4eg6IXZq-I/AAAAAAAACGA/sSAFgJRML-I/s400/DSCN1936.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442495595239025634" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, our last day of travel and the decent weather we had on that day improved our spirits considerably. Read Jenna's account of the trip and the excellent pictures she took <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2010/02/chinese-new-year-extrava-freakin-ganza.html">here.</a></div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-28954945094696973352009-12-26T08:29:00.013+08:002009-12-27T22:50:41.359+08:00Nikko 1As a stopover on the way back to the States for Christmas, we stopped in Japan for the weekend. It was my second substantial visit to Japan and the Tokyo area, so we took the train up to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikk%C5%8D,_Tochigi">Nikko</a> for an overnight stay.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzVcEG11PlI/AAAAAAAACC8/BmudzWV5_1w/s1600-h/DSCN1818.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzVcEG11PlI/AAAAAAAACC8/BmudzWV5_1w/s400/DSCN1818.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419338952235892306" border="0" /></a><br />You can't tell in that picture but there was snow on the ground. <span style="font-style: italic;">There was snow on the ground! </span>Today I'm in Maine, there's snow everywhere and it's nothing special, but I was very happy to get to Nikko last weekend and have snow on the ground there after a Taiwanese December. We stowed our luggage at the train station and got day bus passes to head to the temple and shrine area.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDMOMyH0I/AAAAAAAACDM/08O1P4voWkg/s1600-h/DSCN1670.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDMOMyH0I/AAAAAAAACDM/08O1P4voWkg/s400/DSCN1670.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419663447580352322" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDLlWsnKI/AAAAAAAACDE/doi-6iLk1SE/s1600-h/DSCN1668.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDLlWsnKI/AAAAAAAACDE/doi-6iLk1SE/s400/DSCN1668.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419663436616080546" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDMbu_FzI/AAAAAAAACDU/W2CQC0_4YzI/s1600-h/DSCN1669.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzaDMbu_FzI/AAAAAAAACDU/W2CQC0_4YzI/s400/DSCN1669.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419663451213469490" border="0" /></a><br />That last picture shows the bus (foreground) that rolled backwards while the driver was attempting to put chains on its tires, causing it to smash into our bus (background, just barely visible) thus forcing all us passengers to get off and mill about outside. No one was hurt, and we just walked the rest of our way to the temple complex.<br /><br />Our first day was at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D-g%C5%AB">Tosho-gu</a> shrine, where one half of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Ieyasu" title="Tokugawa Ieyasu">Tokugawa Ieyasu</a> is enshrined.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUzZKH9TI/AAAAAAAACD0/MoWRjrQ_mi8/s1600-h/DSCN1684.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUzZKH9TI/AAAAAAAACD0/MoWRjrQ_mi8/s400/DSCN1684.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419893918467093810" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUy4aTJFI/AAAAAAAACDs/59htUA-CBpE/s1600-h/DSCN1683.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUy4aTJFI/AAAAAAAACDs/59htUA-CBpE/s400/DSCN1683.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419893909676565586" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUys7mTLI/AAAAAAAACDk/9iAv9QTMazs/s1600-h/DSCN1679.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUys7mTLI/AAAAAAAACDk/9iAv9QTMazs/s400/DSCN1679.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419893906595007666" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUyebwUII/AAAAAAAACDc/sGdzkoZNE_M/s1600-h/DSCN1673.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdUyebwUII/AAAAAAAACDc/sGdzkoZNE_M/s400/DSCN1673.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419893902703349890" border="0" /></a><br />Toshu-gu in the snow.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXVfCza4I/AAAAAAAACEU/I-R_yS1f--0/s1600-h/DSCN1696.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXVfCza4I/AAAAAAAACEU/I-R_yS1f--0/s400/DSCN1696.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419896703185808258" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUy8jpyI/AAAAAAAACEM/1y-QgzaHLGY/s1600-h/DSCN1697.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUy8jpyI/AAAAAAAACEM/1y-QgzaHLGY/s400/DSCN1697.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419896691348449058" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUqeg4JI/AAAAAAAACEE/iguoRq2RAW8/s1600-h/DSCN1700.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUqeg4JI/AAAAAAAACEE/iguoRq2RAW8/s400/DSCN1700.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419896689074954386" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUY636mI/AAAAAAAACD8/YYdq-FivD_0/s1600-h/DSCN1706.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdXUY636mI/AAAAAAAACD8/YYdq-FivD_0/s400/DSCN1706.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419896684362066530" border="0" /></a><br />The snow made the ground slippery, Jenna had to be careful because of her busted ankle (she'd torn a ligament a few days earlier), and I enjoyed the feeling of moisture soaking through my not-entirely-waterproof shoes. But the snow was beautiful.<br /><br />Dinner that night was excellent yakitori - my first real Japanese-style yakitori - and then a train ride to the rural bit of Nikko where our hotel was located. Our train let us off in a middle-of-nowhere station with no employees, as rural an area as I've ever seen in Japan. You could see stars. I spotted Orion for the first time in weeks, perhaps months. Fortunately the hotel was across the street from the train station. We were shown to our cabin, a tasteful Japanese house with paper screens and fancy electronics, including a small TV built into the wall, an iPod, and fast wireless Internet.<br /><br />The following morning, we set out to explore this semi-rural area of Nikko.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSxhAdNI/AAAAAAAACEs/bVhT7hX8Drs/s1600-h/DSCN1710.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSxhAdNI/AAAAAAAACEs/bVhT7hX8Drs/s400/DSCN1710.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419925243907044562" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSqfGJ7I/AAAAAAAACEk/62AKtgIS1pM/s1600-h/DSCN1711.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSqfGJ7I/AAAAAAAACEk/62AKtgIS1pM/s400/DSCN1711.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419925242019981234" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSNX0V3I/AAAAAAAACEc/1Co5PcxzQBk/s1600-h/DSCN1713.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdxSNX0V3I/AAAAAAAACEc/1Co5PcxzQBk/s400/DSCN1713.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419925234204825458" border="0" /></a><br />Looks oddly like parts of the eastern United States, in terms of population density and the mountains in the background.<br /><br />We visited a well-known pickle store where we all stocked up on high-quality Japanese pickles, and we went to a tempura&noodle restaurant for some good tempura and noodles.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdyXBIeC1I/AAAAAAAACE0/N2f6aGS5-QQ/s1600-h/DSCN1757.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SzdyXBIeC1I/AAAAAAAACE0/N2f6aGS5-QQ/s400/DSCN1757.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419926416330197842" border="0" /></a><br />This friendly cat lives at the hotel and decided Jenna's backpack would be a comfortable place to sit for a couple of minutes.<br /><br />After that, it was back to the temples for another day of sightseeing - to be continued!Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-82180801062932245542009-09-22T17:36:00.007+08:002009-09-23T13:09:23.463+08:00Xiao Wulai<div style="text-align: left;">This Sunday six of us went out to Xiao Wulai. Xiao Wulai is another well-known bit of Taiwan's natural beauty; in the vicinity of Daxi and Fuxing, it's a waterfall and forest park that gets a fair number of day-tripping hikers.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SricGXOySmI/AAAAAAAACCQ/uP_5VlyNOdk/s400/DSCN1338.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384224987650607714" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>Rural Taiwan, near the falls.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric2r2gUxI/AAAAAAAACCo/fjy6AicMMJA/s1600-h/DSCN1349.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric2r2gUxI/AAAAAAAACCo/fjy6AicMMJA/s400/DSCN1349.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384225817819632402" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric2GyjevI/AAAAAAAACCg/99oTmvT2xbc/s1600-h/DSCN1323.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric2GyjevI/AAAAAAAACCg/99oTmvT2xbc/s400/DSCN1323.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384225807870950130" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric1pSl6JI/AAAAAAAACCY/OvdSBb_og54/s1600-h/DSCN1322.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sric1pSl6JI/AAAAAAAACCY/OvdSBb_og54/s400/DSCN1322.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384225799952263314" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The valleys near Fuxing village.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SridnbJj4bI/AAAAAAAACCw/gQYcOgtv5gA/s400/DSCN1334.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384226655149744562" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>And this is the waterfall proper. You can't get to that pavilion on the right; the way's been blocked by park authorities. Same for a multi-story pavilion out of the camera frame that's presumably been deemed unsafe. But it's quite a nice view, don't you think?<br /><br />My pictures are few in number and unprocessed. Jenna took many more pictures and did some processing to make them look nice, her pics and commentary <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2009/09/xiao-wulai.html">can be found here</a>.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-72604075730049507042009-09-22T16:35:00.007+08:002009-09-22T17:29:19.036+08:00Tainan Day<div style="text-align: left;">Two Sundays ago we went down to Tainan for the day. Jenna got had a seminar scheduled for Monday in Tainan, so work paid for her to go down. I had the day free, so we went down together and spent the day wandering around central Tainan before I took the high-speed train back in the evening.</div><div><br /></div><div>I like Tainan. It's quite a sizable city and so it would probably be an interesting place to live long-term. (Pity the public transport isn't better.) And yet there's a huge amount of historic Tainan that's been preserved, although much of it can be hidden behind new development. This was my fourth trip to Tainan and there's always something new to discover.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOT_aQG_I/AAAAAAAACBg/nlrBUuv1CzY/s1600-h/DSCN1250.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOT_aQG_I/AAAAAAAACBg/nlrBUuv1CzY/s400/DSCN1250.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384209828611628018" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOTE_KB6I/AAAAAAAACBY/gG1hPzP_Z_U/s1600-h/DSCN1245.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOTE_KB6I/AAAAAAAACBY/gG1hPzP_Z_U/s400/DSCN1245.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384209812928726946" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOSrc3JwI/AAAAAAAACBQ/Qqn6P13PMxA/s1600-h/DSCN1243.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriOSrc3JwI/AAAAAAAACBQ/Qqn6P13PMxA/s400/DSCN1243.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384209806073997058" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Confucius Temple. You don't have to pay unless you want to visit the inner part of the temple; roaming the grounds is free and makes for a fine public park for Tainan.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriPhi0c38I/AAAAAAAACBw/Jta_ABsJECM/s1600-h/DSCN1247.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriPhi0c38I/AAAAAAAACBw/Jta_ABsJECM/s400/DSCN1247.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384211160966684610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriPhMly-0I/AAAAAAAACBo/3vLzA1-bAUE/s1600-h/DSCN1248.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriPhMly-0I/AAAAAAAACBo/3vLzA1-bAUE/s400/DSCN1248.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384211154999638850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Phoenix and dragon, outside the Confucius Temple.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriQDpTLKpI/AAAAAAAACB4/DsPs7N_63sQ/s1600-h/DSCN1265.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriQDpTLKpI/AAAAAAAACB4/DsPs7N_63sQ/s400/DSCN1265.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384211746821712530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Nanmen, the old South Gate and one of the few remaining bits of the old city wall.</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriPhi0c38I/AAAAAAAACBw/Jta_ABsJECM/s1600-h/DSCN1247.JPG"></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriQWAvJstI/AAAAAAAACCA/qal4cSURScM/s400/DSCN1266.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384212062350717650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>The city view from atop Nanmen.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SriTRk58zNI/AAAAAAAACCI/gPqZscOZyHg/s400/DSCN1274.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384215284695223506" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /><br /></span><div></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"></span></div>The Wufei Temple, in commemoration of the five concubines of King Ning Jin, who killed themselves when their king was defeated and overthrown in 1683.</div><div><br /></div><div>After a day of wandering around in the hot, humid September air and snacking when we felt like it, we ended up in the Chikan Towers neighborhood, where they were giving a benefit concert to help Typhoon Morakot victims. From there, we took a taxi to the high-speed rail station, located inconveniently far from the city center (we couldn't be bothered with the bus) and I headed back to Taipei. Jenna stayed in Tainan for another day, working for decent money.</div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-7521343671850445422009-06-05T11:30:00.007+08:002010-05-20T12:01:42.623+08:00Hong Kong and Macau<div style="text-align: left;">We just had the Dragon Boat holiday here in Taiwan. To take advantage, we spent four nights in Hong Kong, just to explore the city in more depth than we'd ever been able to before. It was Jenna's fourth trip to HK, my second, and for the first time we had good weather and plenty of time.</div><br />On Thursday, we disembarked at the airport having already filled out our health questionnaires to make sure we did not have H1N1 and hadn't come into contact with it. These questionnaires were collected by personnel at the airport who gave them more scrutiny than our arrival cards got.<br /><br />We stayed at the Wesley Hotel in Wan Chai. The staff at the hotel reception desk measured our temperatures with little electronic devices. We passed.<blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Central and inexpensive but with very few facilities, virtually nonexistent service and bare, stuffy rooms.<br /><br /></span>-- Lonely Planet</blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br />Now<span style="font-style: italic;">, </span>I suppose that's true, but what we cared about mostly was the "central and inexpensive" part. Granted, our hotel room was tiny, but that's what you get when you stay in the densest part of Hong Kong Island and you don't want to pay extravagantly for your room. What amused me most was, while practically every other cable TV-equipped hotel room I've stayed at in Asia has provided either CNN International or BBC News (or both), our choices for English-language TV news were CCTV (the Chinese government mouthpiece) or FOX News. The same FOX News that you get in the States.<br /><br />Once settled in at the hotel, our first priority was to get the heck off Hong Kong Island and over onto the Kowloon side. We took the MTR to Central, where we spent a decent amount of time wandering around like clueless tourists looking for the Star Ferry terminal. (This was particularly pathetic considering that we'd both <span style="font-style: italic;">been</span> to the terminal on previous Hong Kong visits.) <div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRa4xlcThI/AAAAAAAAB98/kpi1TfKpA4w/s400/DSCN1087.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346998589025177106" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div>At ground level, Central resembles a hideously overgrown Rosslyn, Virginia, and has about as much charm. It's got some of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_China_Tower,_Hong_Kong">the best-known</a> <a style="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_International_Finance_Centre">skyscrapers in</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Center">East Asia</a>, but these are best appreciated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VictoriaHarbour.jpg">at a distance</a>.<br /><br />We finally found the Star Ferry terminal and traveled across the harbor to Kowloon. We wandered along the promenade for a while, and took in the views of the Hong Kong Island skyline. </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRbfhHC6xI/AAAAAAAAB-M/0Eb1LWQbMi8/s1600-h/DSCN1113.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRbfhHC6xI/AAAAAAAAB-M/0Eb1LWQbMi8/s400/DSCN1113.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346999254617615122" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRbfoZs-PI/AAAAAAAAB-E/WH1QrkDO7hc/s1600-h/DSCN1088.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRbfoZs-PI/AAAAAAAAB-E/WH1QrkDO7hc/s400/DSCN1088.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346999256574916850" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div>(My camera is not all that great at nighttime pictures, as you can see.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Then we headed to the Temple St. market for food. We filled up on some excellent seafood and looked through the oddities of the night market before taking the MTR back to Wan Chai.<br /><br />On Day 2, we'd originally planned to go hiking on either Lantau or Lamma Island. Cool, drizzly weather scuttled that idea, so instead we explored some of the neighborhoods on the north side of HK Island. We ate dim sum for lunch in a shopping center in Causeway Bay - I'd never eaten dim sum in HK before, and since it's the style of food most associated with the city I figured I'd better try eating it in its hometown.<br /><br />Once we had our fill of Causeway Bay, we took the MTR all the way to the northwest part of the island and Sheung Wan.<br /><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRcZpMV3PI/AAAAAAAAB-U/lsAMJ1U9OIM/s1600-h/DSCN1119.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRcZpMV3PI/AAAAAAAAB-U/lsAMJ1U9OIM/s400/DSCN1119.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347000253219724530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure exactly what it means, but: many streets in Sheung Wan made me feel like I was in Chinatown in a Western city. I think it was all the Chinese medicinal goods out and on sale, like giant mushrooms and dried lizards.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRc7CmKKpI/AAAAAAAAB-k/t0O8gzXvkWU/s1600-h/DSCN1122.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRc7CmKKpI/AAAAAAAAB-k/t0O8gzXvkWU/s400/DSCN1122.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347000826974579346" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRc6lJD0ZI/AAAAAAAAB-c/6ixUqFKLYqc/s1600-h/DSCN1121.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRc6lJD0ZI/AAAAAAAAB-c/6ixUqFKLYqc/s400/DSCN1121.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347000819067900306" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div>A lovely little park off of Hollywood Rd. in Sheung Wan. Note the apartment blocks rising in the background.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRdzprz77I/AAAAAAAAB-s/eyOk9s69QxI/s400/DSCN1127.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347001799539945394" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div>Stone statues outside the Man Mo temple in Sheung Wan.</div><div><br />Eventually we met up with some friends who live in HK for dinner in Central, followed by relaxation at a bar where THE MUSIC IS SO LOUD YOU CAN'T HEAR THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU. I'm sure that appeals to some people, but I'm not one of them. Fortunately we were able to leave for a more relatively quiet alternative soon after.<br /><br />On Saturday, we went to Lantau Island. We'd planned to take the ferry to Tung Chung to maximize our sightseeing enjoyment, but when we determined that would require a horribly circuitous route, we took the MTR there instead.<br /><br />From the ultramodern densely populated new town of Tung Chung, you can catch a cable car up the mountain to Ngong Ping. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjReYZjAuMI/AAAAAAAAB-0/rYMJOQS8iJU/s400/DSCN1138.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347002430863227074" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div>The cable car was lots of fun. Every bit the equal of the currently-nonfunctioning Maokong Gondola in Taipei, the views from the cable car are quite impressive (except when it's the smog-shrouded airport you're looking at).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfWXW7GcI/AAAAAAAAB_M/WHK0dUls4yU/s1600-h/DSCN1143.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfWXW7GcI/AAAAAAAAB_M/WHK0dUls4yU/s400/DSCN1143.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347003495427545538" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfWMWP09I/AAAAAAAAB_E/rtzydtRagd4/s1600-h/DSCN1146.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfWMWP09I/AAAAAAAAB_E/rtzydtRagd4/s400/DSCN1146.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347003492471919570" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfV8uzWhI/AAAAAAAAB-8/XsVLxieOIhc/s1600-h/DSCN1140.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRfV8uzWhI/AAAAAAAAB-8/XsVLxieOIhc/s400/DSCN1140.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347003488279943698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div>At the top, you can walk through a touristy strip of stops and then you reach the stairs to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha">Tian Tan Buddha</a>.<br /><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRf1cl-H7I/AAAAAAAAB_U/H0qjqcG54eM/s400/DSCN1159.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347004029408780210" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRggU9PUUI/AAAAAAAAB_c/L1Xn2kaEVSg/s1600-h/DSCN1161.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRggU9PUUI/AAAAAAAAB_c/L1Xn2kaEVSg/s400/DSCN1161.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347004766093267266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>The Tian Tan Buddha is relatively new as Buddhas go - completed in 1993 - but it's quite well-known and a major tourist attraction.<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-7mE1TI/AAAAAAAAB_0/_mHbSY4z2t8/s1600-h/DSCN1170.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-7mE1TI/AAAAAAAAB_0/_mHbSY4z2t8/s400/DSCN1170.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347005291861169458" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-jqECGI/AAAAAAAAB_s/Vr5_ETh0rLk/s1600-h/DSCN1168.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-jqECGI/AAAAAAAAB_s/Vr5_ETh0rLk/s400/DSCN1168.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347005285435443298" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-fTx7FI/AAAAAAAAB_k/cOlMq8yby2k/s1600-h/DSCN1165.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRg-fTx7FI/AAAAAAAAB_k/cOlMq8yby2k/s400/DSCN1165.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347005284268239954" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div>We descended by cable car and took a bus to Mui Wo, a port town on Lantau, and boarded a ferry for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheung_Chau">Cheung Chau</a>, a small island off of Lantau's coast.</div><div><br /><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRiXcwc9EI/AAAAAAAACAU/oQOuUUOZH9w/s400/DSCN1178.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347006812591551554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0TF2ChI/AAAAAAAACAE/AVfaRXdlhmM/s1600-h/DSCN1188.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0TF2ChI/AAAAAAAACAE/AVfaRXdlhmM/s400/DSCN1188.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347006208701499922" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0HaHOvI/AAAAAAAAB_8/n38v3ZWREVI/s1600-h/DSCN1181.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0HaHOvI/AAAAAAAAB_8/n38v3ZWREVI/s400/DSCN1181.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347006205565287154" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br />The town on Cheung Chau, more than any other place in Hong Kong, reminded me of Taiwan. I can be more specific. It reminded me of the back streets of cities in southern Taiwan. I felt like I was wandering through an old section of Tainan or Kaohsiung. Except the language was different. And there were more Westeners about than I would expect. And there were people in little village greens playing croquet.<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0nsKNmI/AAAAAAAACAM/0OcBJfiphs8/s1600-h/DSCN1191.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRh0nsKNmI/AAAAAAAACAM/0OcBJfiphs8/s400/DSCN1191.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347006214230914658" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>A sign in a little store in the Cheung Chau back alleys.</div><div><br />We ate dinner - seafood, of course - at a harborfront restuarant (despite an intriguing name and a mention in Lonely Planet, we gave Morocco Indian Food a pass) and took the ferry directly back to Central, giving us some stunning glimpses of the nighttime skyline along the way.<br /><br />On Sunday: Macau.<br /><br />Neither of us had been there, and a ferry from HK is relatively cheap and gets you there in under 90 minutes. For the purpose of traveling it's like crossing a national border, so we each collected a total of 4 new passport stamps in one day (and had to fill out 2 H1N1 flu questionnaires each).<br /><br />Macau is best known for gambling, which neither of us is particularly interested in. I probably don't have enough self-control for gambling, and wouldn't know when to stop. With disastrous results. So we steered clear of the casinos and headed for historical touristy Macau.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRjdg5BYPI/AAAAAAAACAc/8EY0zZarh64/s1600-h/DSCN1206.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRjdg5BYPI/AAAAAAAACAc/8EY0zZarh64/s400/DSCN1206.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347008016292077810" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /></div><div>You can still see some Portuguese, although I think maybe I heard people speaking it only once.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRkoXoDtZI/AAAAAAAACA0/DR65MEurpOU/s1600-h/DSCN1209.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRkoXoDtZI/AAAAAAAACA0/DR65MEurpOU/s400/DSCN1209.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347009302295197074" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRkoEXz8nI/AAAAAAAACAs/NfWspGA-d0s/s1600-h/DSCN1212.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRkoEXz8nI/AAAAAAAACAs/NfWspGA-d0s/s400/DSCN1212.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347009297126781554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRj2FizULI/AAAAAAAACAk/vVFn4gj5LWI/s1600-h/DSCN1225.JPG"></a></div><div>The most important old tourist sight is, of course, the ruins of St. Paul's. There is a nonstop crowd of tourists with cameras in the plaza in front.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRj2FizULI/AAAAAAAACAk/vVFn4gj5LWI/s1600-h/DSCN1225.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRj2FizULI/AAAAAAAACAk/vVFn4gj5LWI/s400/DSCN1225.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347008438447853746" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRjdg5BYPI/AAAAAAAACAc/8EY0zZarh64/s1600-h/DSCN1206.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: left;">The old town is beautiful. It feels like how I imagine an old city in southern Europe probably feels to wander through (not that I'd know). Of course, there's plenty of new development along roads that get a lot of tourists, and depending on where you point your camera, you might get <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Lisboa">this gigantic monstrosity</a> towering above the old-timey cityscape.</div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SjRlB3ru14I/AAAAAAAACA8/_I-mBmmByUE/s400/DSCN1224.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347009740397270914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span>But the food is wonderful, including the ubiquitous little almond cookies sold in a thousand little shops. Also, the egg tarts are the best in the world. And I'm comparing them to the ones in Hong Kong.<br /><br />Macau may be small (however big you think Macau is, it's smaller) but I think I could probably enjoy another visit there. We never left the old city to explore the regions further south. Lonely Planet implies the best food in all of Macau is to be found there.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S_S0BQuZEGI/AAAAAAAACHg/XjdTHmQxKUs/s1600/DSCN1127.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/S_S0BQuZEGI/AAAAAAAACHg/XjdTHmQxKUs/s400/DSCN1127.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473197380924412002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 151px; height: 164px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div>Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-30393201047840996102009-03-14T14:12:00.013+08:002009-03-14T17:48:32.656+08:00India 7: MumbaiWe finished our stay in Kerala and boarded a train for our 26-hour ride to Mumbai. The Indian trains we rode were pleasant enough, despite the presence of bugs and rats, and we had enough reading material on us that the time passed pretty quickly.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNCGk6lUI/AAAAAAAAB8w/OTbgR_JN0s0/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+482.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNCGk6lUI/AAAAAAAAB8w/OTbgR_JN0s0/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+482.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312924883934156098" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNBv6Z8OI/AAAAAAAAB8o/LtVvI50quKE/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+485.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNBv6Z8OI/AAAAAAAAB8o/LtVvI50quKE/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+485.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312924877850276066" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNBUJQLZI/AAAAAAAAB8g/vbPm7LGgriQ/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+486.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtNBUJQLZI/AAAAAAAAB8g/vbPm7LGgriQ/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+486.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312924870396358034" border="0" /></a>These are pictures I took of train platforms in Kerala.<br /><br />It was my last night on an Indian train. I went to bed in northern Kerala and slept through Karnataka and Goa. I woke up in Maharashtra. The language written on signs outside the train was different, and the landscape had changed from Kerala's wet tropics to arid scenery with distant plateaus and rock formations.<br /><br />As our train approached the city of Mumbai, I saw something out the train window that I hadn't seen yet in my two and a half weeks in India: slums.<br /><br />Oh, I'd never lost sight of the fact that India was a developing country. In my time traveling in Karnataka and Kerala, infrastructure had not been that great and Internet connections were spotty. Run-down, decaying buildings had been numerous. And despite inflation, price levels in India are still quite low - which is a sign that most Indians, by global standards, still make little money.<br /><br />But I'd never felt like I was surrounded by dire poverty, certainly not the sort of poverty that I'd read about and had prepared myself mentally for. I never felt like a rich man tresspassing in the land of the poor. There were plenty of signs of affluence - satellite dishes, ubiquitous cell phones. In large cities there had been beggars - but they had been individual cases. I hadn't been asked for money nonstop.<br /><br />Approaching Mumbai, I saw my first real poverty. I saw residents picking through the garbage lying by the railroad tracks, in front of the shantytown where they lived. And Mumbai is the financial and business center of India, home to the country's richest and trendiest people.<br /><br />It reminded me of the first time I flew into Manila, and from the airplane I could see a neighborhood full of huge, opulent homes located <span style="font-style: italic;">literally right next to</span> a depressing slum.<br /><br />We arrived at the train station, hired a taxi to take us to our hotel (surprisingly, he charged <span style="font-style: italic;">less</span> than Rough Guide had predicted), and got settled. For Jenna's description of check-in at the Hotel New Bengal, see <a href="http://laorencha.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-road.html">here</a> (the "city hotel").<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUP0xY21I/AAAAAAAAB9I/VxUzpmlz284/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+487.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUP0xY21I/AAAAAAAAB9I/VxUzpmlz284/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+487.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312932816254196562" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUPpBHGoI/AAAAAAAAB9A/ic7xgcOljtU/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+490.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUPpBHGoI/AAAAAAAAB9A/ic7xgcOljtU/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+490.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312932813098916482" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUPmvZK7I/AAAAAAAAB84/R754KJuiU7I/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+488.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtUPmvZK7I/AAAAAAAAB84/R754KJuiU7I/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+488.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312932812487732146" border="0" /></a>Mumbai is huge and confusing. Even if you stay in the city center and you have a map. It's full of interesting stuff to see, do, and eat. But - particularly if you look like a foreigner with money to burn and you hang out downtown - you have to adopt an attitude of not trusting anybody. It's not just a matter of being approached by touts who want to set you up at their brother's restaurant or offer you a guided tour of Colaba. That sort of thing is common enough in South Asia and can be easily brushed aside if you've adopted the right mindset.<br /><br />But in Mumbai, for the first time, I was approached by people who mimic the way Indians strike up conversations with foreigners when they're being genuinely friendly. And then these people ask for money. We had two girls come up to us in Colaba who did a good job imitating the way Indians will start talking to foreigners when they want to be friendly or practice speaking English. And they said, when we seemed on guard, that "We don't want to ask for money". And then they asked that we buy them lunch in a nearby restaurant.<br /><br />Aggressive selling is nothing new in India, and both Hampi and Cochin have many, many people who make good livelihoods seperating tourists from their money. And frankly, I figure that's OK. But those tourist-centric businesspeople and touts in Hampi and Cochin seemed to be following a code of honor that was routinely being broken in Mumbai. They might be enticing foreign tourists into their art shop to try to sell them Chinese imports at ten times their actual value, but they weren't fundamentally pretending the transaction was something other than what it was. In Mumbai, I felt like I was being trained to be automatically distrustful of every stranger on the street. (As it turned out, it was good training for Egypt.)<br /><br />We only had one day in Mumbai, so after seeing the Colaba sights (generally meaning the buildings that terrorists targeted last November) we took a ferry to Elephanta Island, where Hindu temples were carved into caves hundreds of years ago.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtayXv9YjI/AAAAAAAAB9Y/boaKsbs3q9E/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+506.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtayXv9YjI/AAAAAAAAB9Y/boaKsbs3q9E/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+506.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312940006828761650" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtayZHsriI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/qBUfO7OjW_k/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+509.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtayZHsriI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/qBUfO7OjW_k/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+509.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312940007196765730" border="0" /></a><br />The island is very touristy and full of various India kitsch vendors, but still seems a friendlier place than the Colaba streets.<br /><br />Elephanta Island is full of dogs and monkeys. I saw one monkey steal an orange soda right out of one tourist's hand, then drink its contents on the spot in front of the tourist.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtblsSv5FI/AAAAAAAAB9g/G7CRYGJrDPg/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+499.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtblsSv5FI/AAAAAAAAB9g/G7CRYGJrDPg/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+499.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312940888516715602" border="0" /></a>Here's a dog begging for food from a monkey. I was highly amused. I just don't see a monkey having the same interspecies compassion as a human.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtcszFqjAI/AAAAAAAAB9o/xGKUoB8qhoQ/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+501.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SbtcszFqjAI/AAAAAAAAB9o/xGKUoB8qhoQ/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+501.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312942110111599618" border="0" /></a>After a few minutes the dog gave up and wandered off. So a different dog started begging.<br /><br />(Here's a thought: What if dogs see humans and monkeys as merely two different varieties of the same basic type of creature?)<br /><br />After returning from the island, we settled down in a restaurant for something I hadn't eaten yet in India: north Indian food.<br /><br />Most generic Indian restaurants outside of India serve north Indian food. Tandoori and naan and rich creamy curries are, to me, what epitomizes north Indian restaurant food. That sort of cooking is available in restaurants throughout the South, but it's not the greatest examples of the cuisine you'll ever find. Why eat subpar Northern food when excellent Southern food is available for far less money?<br /><br />But we were in Mumbai, and Mumbai is in South India in much the same sense Baltimore is in the southern United States: it sorta is, but not really. So we went to a place in Colaba that had a comprehensive menu, and I got my first and so far only north Indian food in India.<br /><br />It was a mutton curry and a vegetable curry with naan, and... it tasted pretty much like Indian curries taste in restaurants in other countries. Except the mutton was still on the bone. (I've heard that most mutton in India is actually goat meat, but I can't tell the difference when it's cooked in a spicy curry.)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sbtil2VjmFI/AAAAAAAAB9w/8snpCK8zdSo/s1600-h/BrendanTripPhotos+518.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/Sbtil2VjmFI/AAAAAAAAB9w/8snpCK8zdSo/s400/BrendanTripPhotos+518.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312948587794241618" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The iconic view of Mumbai. You may remember seeing this scene<br />on the news last November under far less peaceful circumstances.<br /></span></span></div><br />And that was it for downtown Mumbai. We traveled by taxi to the edge of Mumbai to meet and chat with a friend of Jenna's; then it was off to the airport for our flight to Egypt. At one point we drove through an affluent suburb of Mumbai that seemingly was in a whole different universe from the slums I'd seen from the train window the previous day.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-39279958089173326942009-02-18T23:19:00.014+08:002009-03-04T13:03:06.202+08:00India 6: CochinFrom Calicut, we took yet another too-early-morning train down the Malabar coast to Cochin, tourist capital of Kerala.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwny0RRvbI/AAAAAAAAB6o/D_90wS00eZY/s1600-h/DSCN0486.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwny0RRvbI/AAAAAAAAB6o/D_90wS00eZY/s400/DSCN0486.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304158215113653682" border="0" /></a><br />Fort Cochin is the old city It's a very walkable area full of old European buildings. The chaos of urban India is minimized . The whole place is extremely touristy and packed with Westerners; most businesses here cater to foreign tourists.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwoZrG9q8I/AAAAAAAAB6w/YIGB69iDvLo/s1600-h/DSCN0491.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwoZrG9q8I/AAAAAAAAB6w/YIGB69iDvLo/s400/DSCN0491.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304158882669374402" border="0" /></a><br />Across the harbor lies Ernakulam, the true modern heart of the city. Ernakulam is far more Indian than Fort Cochin (which at times seems almost a foreigners' sanctuary).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwp2fSZ_sI/AAAAAAAAB64/HbKpq_EXDdw/s1600-h/DSCN0484.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwp2fSZ_sI/AAAAAAAAB64/HbKpq_EXDdw/s400/DSCN0484.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304160477223976642" border="0" /></a><br />Beautiful old church in Fort Cochin. A visit inside reveals the diversity of European influences Cochin has received; the church was built by the Portuguese, but the inscriptions on many graves are in Dutch, and of course control of Cochin eventually passed to the British.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqw0YYK5I/AAAAAAAAB7A/G0854AmjQsE/s1600-h/DSCN0531.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqw0YYK5I/AAAAAAAAB7A/G0854AmjQsE/s400/DSCN0531.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304161479318580114" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqxH45fpI/AAAAAAAAB7I/X4vDbfCTpNU/s1600-h/DSCN0538.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqxH45fpI/AAAAAAAAB7I/X4vDbfCTpNU/s400/DSCN0538.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304161484555255442" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqxVxbrUI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/O9dOWobdxho/s1600-h/DSCN0541.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZwqxVxbrUI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/O9dOWobdxho/s400/DSCN0541.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304161488282037570" border="0" /></a><br />The Jain temple, and scenes from the daily pigeon feeding. Jains believe it's sinful to harm any living thing (this is why their religion does not permit them to become farmers) and helping animals is a way to accumulate merit. In Mumbai there's a Jain animal sanctuary that we didn't get to, but our guide book makes it sound almost like a petting zoo, with very well-cared-for animals.<br /><br />I'm almost ashamed to say that barely a week later, in Cairo, I tried pigeon meat for the first time. The Jains would not have approved. (But they also would have disapproved of the fish I ate in Cochin, and of the mutton I ate in Mumbai.)<br /><br />Cochin is near the geographical heart of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathakali">Kathakali</a> dance, and it is extremely easy for tourists to find local performances. A proper Kathakali performance is an all-night affair; most newbies perfer to see abridged performances that tend to run about 90 minutes. I saw one such performance at Northern Virginia Community College in the States a few years ago, and I saw my second in Fort Cochin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZws55i1wxI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/X-uOLrvNLiw/s1600-h/DSCN0504.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZws55i1wxI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/X-uOLrvNLiw/s400/DSCN0504.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304163834346717970" border="0" /></a><br />Before the performance, the actors spend an hour applying their intricate makeup in full view of the audience. Then we had a local expert give us a short talk on the ways and customs of kathakali, and had one of the actors demonstrate the subtle facial expressions and sign language used. The actors do not speak out loud - they communicate through sign language while guys off to the side sing their lines.<br /><br />I didn't take any still pictures of the performance because of the ban on flash photography (which many of my fellow audience members brazenly ignored), but I made a minute-long video:, which I would upload but apparently uploading a 100-megabyte video on blogger takes approximately forever.<br /><br />Another attraction of the Cochin area is the substantial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_backwaters">backwaters</a>. Peaceful yet touristy, motorboats and rowboats ply the lakes and canals.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbET9HpZI/AAAAAAAAB7w/peovXAoGRic/s1600-h/DSCN0563.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbET9HpZI/AAAAAAAAB7w/peovXAoGRic/s400/DSCN0563.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304214590769833362" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbECDG01I/AAAAAAAAB7o/tS7nBxn3qoM/s1600-h/DSCN0566.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbECDG01I/AAAAAAAAB7o/tS7nBxn3qoM/s400/DSCN0566.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304214585963107154" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbDy1iViI/AAAAAAAAB7g/qcdscy1n294/s1600-h/DSCN0569.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbDy1iViI/AAAAAAAAB7g/qcdscy1n294/s400/DSCN0569.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304214581879658018" border="0" /></a><br />We signed up for a two-part tour. In the morning, we took a motorboat around a vast lake, at one point stopping to visit a factory where toddy is made from palm coconuts. (Although we had the option of buying some juice, there was no aggressive selling - this was a legit and on-the-level tour.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbj4sTcWI/AAAAAAAAB74/pF6U2vF76vE/s1600-h/DSCN0595.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxbj4sTcWI/AAAAAAAAB74/pF6U2vF76vE/s400/DSCN0595.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304215133207359842" border="0" /></a><br />We got a decent thali lunch on the motorboat, then switched to hand-rowed boats for the afternoon, when we traveled through rural canals and saw rope-making and coconut harvesting.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxb4C0dGnI/AAAAAAAAB8A/OpAJRuHzW7Y/s1600-h/DSCN0597.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxb4C0dGnI/AAAAAAAAB8A/OpAJRuHzW7Y/s400/DSCN0597.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304215479523285618" border="0" /></a><br />On our last evening in Cochin we went to the Shiva temple in Ernakulam to witness some temple festivities.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwWlMufI/AAAAAAAAB8Y/z-0xq28bJik/s1600-h/DSCN0603.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwWlMufI/AAAAAAAAB8Y/z-0xq28bJik/s400/DSCN0603.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304217546412308978" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwP9qY7I/AAAAAAAAB8Q/Ep9lmkT8byA/s1600-h/DSCN0604.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwP9qY7I/AAAAAAAAB8Q/Ep9lmkT8byA/s400/DSCN0604.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304217544635868082" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwDOCeqI/AAAAAAAAB8I/eZII1UGR06g/s1600-h/DSCN0607.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZxdwDOCeqI/AAAAAAAAB8I/eZII1UGR06g/s400/DSCN0607.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304217541214894754" border="0" /></a><br />There were crowds, music, and elephant processionals. If we'd wanted to stay into the evening we could have seen a full performance of kathakali, but neither of us really felt up to it.<br /><br />The next day we departed on our 26-hour train ride to Mumbai...Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-67452813818828303192009-02-17T22:30:00.012+08:002009-02-18T04:04:56.311+08:00India 5: Calicut aka KozhikodeFrom Wayanad, we took the bus to Calicut, which is more properly spelled <span style="font-style: italic;">Kozhikode</span>. You have the rules of Malayalam romanization to thank for that - I understand the <span style="font-style: italic;">zh</span> is pronounced somewhat like an English <span style="font-style: italic;">r</span>, for example.<br /><br />On our way there our bus passed a demonstration of some kind in a Keralan city:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaU9qWXI/AAAAAAAAB54/gax3EV4xpXs/s1600-h/DSCN0471.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaU9qWXI/AAAAAAAAB54/gax3EV4xpXs/s400/DSCN0471.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303775164346554738" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaCgf-gI/AAAAAAAAB5w/26JqTUZUbdc/s1600-h/DSCN0469.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaCgf-gI/AAAAAAAAB5w/26JqTUZUbdc/s400/DSCN0469.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303775159392401922" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaPGq-GI/AAAAAAAAB5o/s9MkJojcfYI/s1600-h/DSCN0467.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrLaPGq-GI/AAAAAAAAB5o/s9MkJojcfYI/s400/DSCN0467.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303775162773731426" border="0" /></a><br />I still don't know what that was all about, but massive demonstrations are nothing unusual in Kerala. The state is heavily politicized. Demographically, Kerala is much more Christian than India at large. Kerala is also much more Muslim than India at large. And Kerala has a long tradition of far left-wing politics, including outright Communism.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrNBkqgS4I/AAAAAAAAB6I/UB544E5QrE0/s1600-h/DSCN0464.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrNBkqgS4I/AAAAAAAAB6I/UB544E5QrE0/s400/DSCN0464.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303776938087697282" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrNBfMdTrI/AAAAAAAAB6A/C12IgMT935o/s1600-h/DSCN0476.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrNBfMdTrI/AAAAAAAAB6A/C12IgMT935o/s400/DSCN0476.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303776936619495090" border="0" /></a><br />Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Che, Mao - all their faces are common sights on political posters in Kerala. The hammer & sickle logo is stenciled on walls and sidewalks in the cities.<br /><br />One time I saw a political poster from a bus window that appeared to show Saddam Hussein (as he looked at his trial, after he was overthrown). At first I was highly confused, but then I convinced myself that it wasn't Saddam at all, but rather just a local politician who happened to resemble Saddam.<br /><br />A couple of days later I read in a local paper that some Communist posters in Kerala really had appropriated Saddam's image, using the logic that because he opposed the U.S., he was a friend of the Communists. (This is, of course, silly. Saddam was not at all supportive of the Communist Party in Iraq, and during the later years of the Cold War he was cozier with the U.S. than he was with the Soviets.) So that really was Saddam's picture I saw; at least plenty of Indians were just as puzzled by his presence as I was.<br /><br />Calicut turned out to be a pleasant little city that I wish we'd scheduled more time for.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrYKmAyklI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/PumLIi6cdD4/s1600-h/DSCN0479.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrYKmAyklI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/PumLIi6cdD4/s400/DSCN0479.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303789187696333394" border="0" /></a><br />We explored the old Muslim neighborhood, which contains several nice old mosques. As a non-Muslim woman, Jenna wasn't permitted to enter these mosques and I didn't particularly feel like leaving her behind, so we just admired them from the outside.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrY7azIRwI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/gu3vQVbLexg/s1600-h/DSCN0481.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrY7azIRwI/AAAAAAAAB6Y/gu3vQVbLexg/s400/DSCN0481.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303790026499835650" border="0" /></a>This extended family invited us into their sprawling home for a chat and some Tang.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrZk8tpeII/AAAAAAAAB6g/JkGGinNRjag/s1600-h/DSCN0483.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZrZk8tpeII/AAAAAAAAB6g/JkGGinNRjag/s400/DSCN0483.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303790739978287234" border="0" /></a>The large market in central Calicut, which sells all kinds of goods, particularly textiles and other clothing.<br /><br />As I've said, Calicut is one city I feel we could have scheduled more time for, although most of my regrets are food-related. Calicut's got close economic and cultural ties with the Gulf states and apparently there is a tasty fusion-type cuisine you can get here. Calicut's also known for its locally made <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva">halwa</a>, which is one of many Indian sweets I never got around to trying in India.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-18825040053026293792009-02-17T07:51:00.008+08:002009-02-17T08:51:48.178+08:00India 4: Kannur and WayanadWe had great fun waking up at two in the morning in Udupi to catch our three o'clock train to Kannur. It was even greater fun when we arrived at the train station only to find out that the train had been delayed to four o'clock. Then five o'clock.<br /><br />We boarded the train shortly after 5, took a nap, and arrived at Kannur's train station at around 10 to meet the guy who'd been dispatched from the homestay to meet us. He took us to <a href="http://www.costamalabari.com/beachholidays.htm">Costa Malabari</a>, an excellent beachfront homestay a short drive outside of Kannur that we strongly recommend.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZn-PZIwpWI/AAAAAAAAB4g/GVbLI_fQ6Fg/s1600-h/DSCN0411.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZn-PZIwpWI/AAAAAAAAB4g/GVbLI_fQ6Fg/s400/DSCN0411.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303549576604591458" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZn-Ow4zH2I/AAAAAAAAB4Y/6Hubgm3gT88/s1600-h/DSCN0413.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZn-Ow4zH2I/AAAAAAAAB4Y/6Hubgm3gT88/s400/DSCN0413.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303549565800226658" border="0" /></a><br />The beach is wonderful, guests are given huge portions of Keralan food, and the owner is knowledgeable about the local religious dance form known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theyyam">theyyam</a>.<br /><br />Theyyam is an all-night affair, consisting of a heavily made-up dancer (distinct from kathakali dance, but still rather reminiscent of it) who gets possessed by spirits and dances himself into a frenzy. Our host kept himself informed on the local theyyam scene, and let us know that we'd be able to see one local theyyam performance reach its apex if we took a rickshaw to the place just before dawn.<br /><br />So we woke up early, a rickshaw was summoned, and we traveled to a temple where a sizable crowd had already gathered. Amid drums, a dancer jumped about and got up on stilts. Another dancer in awe-inspiring makeup had torches - real, flaming torches - stuck in his chestpiece, and he rushed about, bringing his torches alarmingly close to the spectators, who cheerfully reached out their hands to feel the flames.<br /><br />And then the sun was up. All in all, a worthwhile experience.<br /><br />That day we left the Malabar coast for Wayanad, a highland inland area of Kerala.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDWT8O4lI/AAAAAAAAB44/lVy-4dFrUz4/s1600-h/DSCN0426.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDWT8O4lI/AAAAAAAAB44/lVy-4dFrUz4/s400/DSCN0426.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303555193027093074" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDWDxnofI/AAAAAAAAB4w/RspNQTSMfio/s1600-h/DSCN0425.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDWDxnofI/AAAAAAAAB4w/RspNQTSMfio/s400/DSCN0425.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303555188687610354" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDV2qUr2I/AAAAAAAAB4o/Z5mKGzi5_N8/s1600-h/DSCN0421.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoDV2qUr2I/AAAAAAAAB4o/Z5mKGzi5_N8/s400/DSCN0421.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303555185167347554" border="0" /></a><br />I snapped a couple of pictures from our bus. This is what urban Kerala looks like, everyone.<br /><br />In Wayanad we stayed at <a href="http://www.varnamhomestay.com/">Varnam Homestay</a>, another homestay I highly recommend. Friendly management, good food, and a friendly dog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoEVj27igI/AAAAAAAAB5A/CGPJpkdCI2k/s1600-h/DSCN0450.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoEVj27igI/AAAAAAAAB5A/CGPJpkdCI2k/s400/DSCN0450.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303556279631579650" border="0" /></a><br />His name is Jimmy and he is very very very very very happy when guests are friendly to him. And at night he helpfully barks when wild boars are passing through.<br /><br />From Varnam we went on a morning tour of Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary's main attraction is its elephants. We saw three - one on the way to the sanctuary, and two within it. I did not get a good picture of any of them (you ever try to get close to a wild elephant? You better be able to run fast) but I did get some decent monkey shots.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoFY1nsFFI/AAAAAAAAB5I/ZD7jbtR_JKo/s1600-h/DSCN0445.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoFY1nsFFI/AAAAAAAAB5I/ZD7jbtR_JKo/s400/DSCN0445.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303557435450725458" border="0" /></a><br />These monkeys are langurs - a different species from the macaques who are so common in Indian towns and villages. Other wildlife in the sanctuary include peacocks, deer, and tigers - we didn't see any of the last, but our guide pointed out footprints.<br /><br />After our successful little safari outing, we wandered through the rural fields near our homestay.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoIvfJKteI/AAAAAAAAB5g/vHhiEa61GzM/s1600-h/DSCN0453.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoIvfJKteI/AAAAAAAAB5g/vHhiEa61GzM/s400/DSCN0453.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561123089004002" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoIbSFPBiI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/_5xE_BDad1U/s1600-h/DSCN0457.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZoIbSFPBiI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/_5xE_BDad1U/s400/DSCN0457.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560775985464866" border="0" /></a><br />A little group of village children on their way home from school stopped on a path to try out their English on us. These are elementary-school children who live in a farming village in a developing country, far away from any major city. And do you know what I noticed, and remembered?<br /><br />At least one of them had a cell phone. Maybe they all did.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23907417.post-3966754135023491332009-02-15T22:05:00.006+08:002009-02-15T23:04:37.140+08:00India 3: Udupi & MangaloreFrom Hampi, we took another sleeper train back to Bangalore, then transferred to a long-distance bus that took us to Mangalore. The bus was the most comfortable that we ever took in India (good thing, too, as we were on it for a very long time) and we stopped twice at roadside food joints that served remarkably good vada, dosa, and coffee. In Mangalore we transferred to a rather less luxurious bus to travel up the coast to Udupi.<br /><br />We found bus terminals in India to be surprisingly confusing and difficult. There's astonishingly little English signage for a country where it's the national language (and there wasn't much Hindi, either - how exactly do Indians from other parts of the country cope?) and, particularly at Bangalore, it was never quite clear where we were suppposed to be waiting. Asking locals for help, even ones in official-looking uniforms, yielded confusing and contradictory responses. We always ended up on the right bus in the end, but only after much worry and confusion. When we caught a bus from Cairo to Aswan in Egypt, the terminal was a model of clarity by comparison.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgmIaeQlcI/AAAAAAAAB34/8IbCG1xdd5g/s1600-h/DSCN0390.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgmIaeQlcI/AAAAAAAAB34/8IbCG1xdd5g/s400/DSCN0390.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303030487215805890" border="0" /></a><br />In Udupi, we set ourselves up at the first hotel we saw after getting off the bus. That's the view from our window above.<br /><br />Udupi is a very pleasant little city. It's best known for its temple, which is internationally famous; we saw a number of foreign-looking worshippers on our tour. It's also well-known for the local cuisine; the masala dosa is said to have been invented by local inkeepers to feed hungry pilgrims visiting the temple.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgnck0A1cI/AAAAAAAAB4A/u3sGsPQzEW8/s1600-h/DSCN0407.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgnck0A1cI/AAAAAAAAB4A/u3sGsPQzEW8/s400/DSCN0407.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303031933100414402" border="0" /></a><br />We arrived in time to see a temple festival, when a decked-out ceremonial chariot was pushed and pulled around the ring road that circles the temple. There were fireworks and drums, and the best explanation we heard was that the festival was held to honor a generous local donor.<br /><br />After a full day in Udupi we took a day trip back down to Mangalore to give the city a more thorough investigation.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgqFME_QeI/AAAAAAAAB4I/y2QAQd9pip4/s1600-h/DSCN0394.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgqFME_QeI/AAAAAAAAB4I/y2QAQd9pip4/s400/DSCN0394.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303034829858619874" border="0" /></a><br />This is Milagres Church, which is said to date from 1680, although frankly its facade doesn't look nearly that old. I don't know if that means it's extremely well-maintained, or if it's been recently redone.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgq8awy-KI/AAAAAAAAB4Q/_LU8N8U_zWY/s1600-h/DSCN0400.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ou-93KLvncM/SZgq8awy-KI/AAAAAAAAB4Q/_LU8N8U_zWY/s400/DSCN0400.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303035778693265570" border="0" /></a><br />The chapel at St. Aloysius College. The interior is decorated with beautiful 19th-century religious painting. I believe the Portuguese are to thank for the heavy Catholic presence along this section of the west coast.<br /><br />There's quite a mix of cultures in this part of India that I wish I'd been more cognizant of when I was there. The Udupi-Mangalore area has its own language, Tulu, which despite being closely related to Kannada is still quite distinct. There is a distinct local form of spirit worship called Bhuta Kola, which I didn't know anything about until after I'd left the region.<br /><br />And in more modern cultural-clash news, a major domestic scandal broke in Mangalore the day before we explored the city. A local gang of fundamentalist Hindu thugs heard there was nude dancing and other immoral behavior going on in a bar, so they comandeered the place and physically roughed up several women drinking there. In the following days the local media was full of outrage at the incident, with many Indians decrying the rise of "Talibanization" in the country. <br /><br />Right-wing Hindu groups are nothing new in India (they're quite active in Mumbai politics) but physical intimidation of innocent people is obviously not the way to generate good publicity.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00847368266562961223noreply@blogger.com0