Borneo Reflections: Taiwan

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention was the need to bring with you most of the NT$ you need. You will find it difficult to exchange RM for NT$ when you are there. Apparently there's only 1 bank (I don't know how many branches there are) selling NT$ for RM at the exchange rate of RM1 to NT$8 at the time I was there (ie very poor rate). The exchange rate for US$ to NT$, at the time I was there, was better at US$1 to NT$29. There are other odd places that accept your RM (eg at The Museum gift shop).

I went to Taiwan last week. As this is NOT a travel blog, I will keep the photos to those reflecting the contrasts to Kota Kinabalu; Sabah; Borneo; and Malaysia.

Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa (Portuguese for "Beautiful"), is mainly the island of 13,853 sq miles (Sabah is 28,429 sq miles). The population of Taiwan is 23.2 million (Sabah is 3.1 million and Malaysia is 28.3 million). These statistics on geography and demographics served as the "root causes" for the majority of the contrasts in the photos. In essense; Taiwan is a lot of human beings in a small land area.

Hmmm ... the good stuff; must visit ...

... Mt Kinabalu in the "rear view mirror" meant leaving Sabah ...

... who said airplane meals were no good? No lah! I was pretty hungry as all the "last minute preparations" prevented me from having a good breakfast and lunch that day!

Arrival at Taipei (8.45pm). Malaysians do not need visa for a stay less than 30 days.

First contrast; our taiwanese tour guide was more interested in this bunch of arrivals. They were the current Taiwan Baseball Team. Baseball is "big" in Taiwan. I thought that was because the Taiwanese followed the american culture; but the guide told me it all started when one day the visiting Japanese World Champion team was defeated badly by a local "no-name" amateur team.

Taipei morning (14° C). The temperature varied from 10° to 19° C and was often raining. Nice and cool compared to Kota Kinabalu (note that summers are very hot; up to 37° C in the south).

The hotel was halfway between the airport and the main Taipei city center.

The Yehliu Geopark at the northern tip of the island; anything can be developed into a "tourist attraction" if the proper facilities are provided by the government ...

... even rocks! ...

... if you can claim that one resembled the island of Taiwan! ...

... even round holes in the ground! ...

... or even one that resembled a Queen's Head (never mind which queen). Don't see it? It's the one on the right! ...

... they even build a fake replica (so that if there was a very long queue at the real one; you can take your photo at the fake one!).

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the 101 Building ...

... the low clouds on the rainy day meant it was pointless to go to the observation deck.

They had very nice, very big and very sweet fruits. The "Now Eat" did not meant the fruits were free; it just meant these fruits were ripe enough for immediate consumption!!!

With such a big population on such a small island, there were enough customers for many theme parks ...

... where the entrance fee covered all the rides; which generally meant that the rides were not that very impressive ...

... those "scary" monsters in the dark didn't looked that scary when taken with flash photography!

You can still buy and chew betel nuts (pinang); but DO NOT spit your bloody betel nut juice into the toilet bowls!!!

Of course there were different plants ...

... and I assumed they paid the copyright holder.

They had pork burgers at McD (it's the menu item on the top left). Damn it! only available up to 10.30am! For a rough conversion; just reduce prices by 1 decimal point (eg NT$49 = RM4.90) ...

... the best beer in Taiwan was obviously Taiwan Beer (Gold Medal). It was actually "sepuluh tiga" in Taiwan; as three standard cans cost NT$100. These 2 cans were the extra big ones at NT$45 each.

The Sun Hot Spring Resort & Spa (if we had a big population, the Poring area can be developed just as well).

The Taiwanese are not very good at spoken english. English words are pronounced by using a similar chinese character for each syllable. Where no single chinese character fit a single syllable english word, then two chinese characters are used. So spa becomes si-pa!

You can si-pa in your own room if you are too shy for the public pools (be aware that certain sessions are nude in the public pools, but obviously separate single-sex pools).

All the instructions were in chinese (I no read lah!); so I only found out the next morning that you are not supposed to soak your whole body in the hot mineral water (only the portion below your heart).

They had a High Speed Train (HST) from Taipei to Zuoying (Kaohsiung) taking over 2 hours. The north to south train fare is about RM150 saving you some 5 hours compared to a road trip.

The lines on the platform were the queue indicators ...

... the train did stop at the correct spot ...

... the quietness and smoothness of the ride disguised the feeling of the maximum speed of 300 km per hr.

There are tens of thousands of chinese temples in Taiwan as 93% of the population are buddhists. Fo Guang Shan is the largest monastery in Taiwan ...

... with a giant buddha statue ...

... a big buddha statue ...

... and many many small ones ...

... you can "have" one if you make a donation. The place had a middle school and an old folks home also. Construction is still on-going after all these years since the beginning in 1967.

The Main Ceremonial Hall at Fo Guang Shan.

As usual in China and Taiwan, there were always many famous lakes...

... which could only be truly enjoyed in quiet contemplation; and not on a rush, rush, rush tour trip.

I must say that the colours and materials seemed of a higher standard and quality than our local temples (I can't really explain the differences, it's only a feeling, many poor quality temples seemed "cartoony").

The craft standard seemed high to my uneducated eye.

When you are faced with the Dragon and the Tiger; you always "go in through the Dragon" and "come out safely from the Tiger"!

Here's a guy whose pig's trotter was featured in a 2008 tv drama; and he's been making money from that ever since (so get your business product-placed in a tv show!!!).

There were many aquaculture ponds in the south of the island; not for prawns or fish (as in Sabah), but for soft-shelled turtles.

They had a RM1 billion National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium. What was impressive was not just the size of the tanks, or the numerous species, but rather the size of the viewing windows!!!

The annual maintenance budget must be horrendous!

The penguins were very popular ...

... because they were very curious, friendly and photogenic ...

... there was a "touching pool" for the kids ...

... a tank big enough for two whale sharks ...

... and a smiling ray.

At the southern tip of the island, there was the "Cat's Nose". You might say "Uh? where?" ...

... see it? Again a case of picking out something from something. I think we need to start naming the rocks at our Tip of Borneo!

The lighthouse at the actual southernmost tip of the island; Eluanbi Lighthouse. Can't we build a bridge across to the lighthouse at the Tip of Borneo?

I saw many many overfed obese pets in Taiwan. These dogs were waddling around. The owners should be shot.

Frog eggs as a delicacy?

Lingzhi in the soup at lunch ...

... leading to the aboriginal tribe selling it (an appointed marketing stop). The tour guide was honest enough to tell us so. He only asked that we at least "pretended" to be interested enough to stay for the whole presentation (we did not have to buy). These aborigines said that they harvested the wild lingzhi (also honey, royal jelly, and deer fetuses) from the mountains. This particular tribe was down to below 300 population.

The only other appointed marketing stop was at an Alishan Tea shop.

The Sun Moon Lake (2 separate lakes made into one by the Japanese occupiers to provide water for a hydropower plant). Development is allowed only at the Sun Lake area (leaving the Moon Lake area for the animals!). All the hotel buildings were destroyed in the 7.3 magnitude earthquake on 21 September 1999 (shortened to 921 earthquarke by the locals).

These floating platforms on the lake were for growing vegetables.

Wen Wu Temple beside The Sun Moon Lake. The stone lions (a pair) was donated (together with a large cash donation) by a businessman trying to change his luck! The first fortune-teller asked him to change his name, the second one (a more famous one) told him to do these donations!

Parts of the temple were destroyed during that 921 earthquake.

Very nice ceilings.

The 14 officially recognised aboriginal tribes in Taiwan were displayed at a theme park with a cable car that took the visitors to the far end of the park. The visitors then walked back through the tribal displays to reach all the rides!

One of the aboriginal dwelling ...

... with metal thatching on top of the plant thatching; most probably to reduce maintenance cost.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. It was a far walk to the hall from the entrance and there were 88 steps (his age at death) to reach his statue ...

... so by the power of the zoom lens, I was able to save the journey ...

... there you are.

The last night was quite cold (due to the rain and wind). I saw this at the Shilin night market ...

... activated by boiling in an electric rice cooker!

Falun Gong protesters in front of the Shilin night market, temperature was 15°C per the red display on top of the far building (I also saw the Falun Gong protesters in front of the 101 Building).

Unusual decoration in the hotel room!

Ahxi was selling odour reducing (kaki tidak bau!) insoles. I didn't know whether to be pleased or insulted with the ONLY Bahasa Malysia words I saw in Taiwan. Was Ahxi saying that we Malaysians have smelly feet?

The ONLY Halal food shop I saw.

Another "english" sign at The Les Breezy Hotel!.

One unexpectedly interesting place was The National Palace Museum in Taipei. It seemed that most of the items collected by the various emperors of China, originally kept at The Palace Museum in Beijing, were taken to Taiwan during "The Civil War" ending in 1949.

There were many, many, many pieces of artifacts (some say 350,000; some say 650,000). So all the good stuff are NOT in China at present!

Photography was NOT allowed inside the museum, so these following images were taken from the book I bought at the museum.