Sunday, October 28, 2007

Bali, Indonesia, 18-23 Apr 2007: Island Escape
South To North & Back Again


Had to give a lecture in Nusa Dua, a tourist development of 5-star hotels at the southern tip of Bali, about 20 minutes from Denpasar airport. Stayed at Nusa Dua Beach Hotel, which offered dual advantages of beautifully-decorated grounds and close proximity to the conference venue. Spent the first night finishing up the presentation. The talk went off reasonably well the next morning, no difficult questions (relief). Had dinner of traditional Balinese fare in Kuta. After that, it was to Hard Rock Cafe for drinks and then the Bounty disco. (Dinesh, Bali veteran, led the way.)

Next afternoon, joined a tour to Pura Taman Ayun (a temple complex in Mengwi) and Tanah Lot. Memorable dinner in Tanah Lot, at a restaurant on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. To Kuta again in the evening.

Ubud beckoned. Checked out of hotel. Took a USD 30 1-hour plus cab ride there. Heavy rain in Ubud, cleared shortly after I arrived. Searched for losmen along Jalan Kajeng, where budget lodgings congregate. Found one with the help of driver, Rojas: USD 7 per night in a hut with fan and attached shower (no hot water) and toilet, including breakfast! Brief unpacking. Lunch of barbecued suckling pig in a roadside restaurant nearby. Rented a bicycle, and cycled around the town. Saw Ubud Market, the Art Zoo (on the road to Campuhan), Monkey Forest, etc.

Hired a car and driver (USD 35) for the next day. First to Yeh Panas, a hot spring, along the way to Gunung Batukau. The latter is a sacred mountain whose domed top resembles an inverted coconut half from far. There were several worshippers performing cremation ceremony at Pura Luhur Batukau: it was a propitious day for cremation. After Gunung Batukau, it was a circuitous drive along small winding dirt roads to Jatiluwih. Had lunch at Cafe Jatiluwih, surrounded by incomparable views of rice terraces in subtly shifting shades of emerald. (The volcanic soil in Bali being so fertile, rice is harvested continually throughout the year.) After lunch, it was off to Pacung, then Bedugul.

Bedugul is Muslim country in the north of predominantly Hindu Bali. Temperature dips a few degrees here. Serene Lake Bratan and Pura Ulun Danu Bratan offered a cool and refreshing respite. Before making way back south, stopped at Gitgit Multi-tier Waterfall. Swam.

Stopped at Campuhan just before Ubud. Pura Gunung Lebah. Got back to Jalan Kajeng losmen around 5pm. Showered. Searched for restaurant. Got lucky: sublime dinner of nasi, fish pepes, Balinese salad and sauces (USD 3.50) at a restaurant along Monkey Forest Road. Back to the losmen, my last night in Bali. The owners were preparing offerings for the next morning. A reassuring permanence in a changing world.

Gitgit Multi-tier Waterfall

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Taipei, Taiwan, 10 -13 Oct 2007: Now & Then
Present & Past Perfect


Four Days In Taipei
Touchdown, Taonan Airport, 10.30pm, 10th October. Took a 30-minute taxi ride to Grand Hyatt Hotel. Haunted, I heard one fellow traveler spook another at immigrations. The hotel is next to Taipei 101, which was brightly lit up for the Taiwanese Independence Day ("Shuang Shi ++" or "Double Ten"). My room was gloomy, the bed-lights did not work. (I was to find out: other people in my group also had lights that did not work. Strange. Very.)

Changed quickly and walked to nearby Linjiang Night Market. Busy pedestrian street with many hawker fare. Ate, sated, strolled back.

The next day's workshop was scheduled for the afternoon. Went with Wanshan to the National Palace Museum, or "Gu Gong". Train stopped at Shilin Station. Continued on a cab for NT100. Gu Gong has an awesome Chinese collection stretching back 8000 years: jades, bronzes, porcelain, court paintings. Favourites: animal-mask bronzes (4,000 to 1,000 BC), Sung porcelain, Ming bowls, Qing jades (treasures from individual rooms in the Forbidden City). The free guided tour was very informative. Pity, photography was not allowed.

Attended meeting in the afternoon. After that, our group gathered at the hotel lobby. Siok Luan and Kiam Wee pointed out the talisman scrolls that were displayed on both sides of the service entrance to the lobby, as well as the heavy wind chimes at the main entrance. These were put up purportedly to ward off ghostly spirits. The hotel was built on burial/execution grounds. Somewhat shaken, we went out for dinner at Ximending, of mostly street fare. And returned with some trepidation to our rooms at the end of the long day.

Whole-day meeting the next day. Evening programme: Lungshan Temple, Ximending again. Returned to hotel, then went for group dinner at Kiki Restaurant, Guangfu Road. Hearty Sichuan food. Strolled back to hotel in light drizzle. Another long day ended.

Saturday 13th, flight was not until 6.25pm. After breakfast, took train to Beitou, a spa town during the Japanese Occupation. Small Hot Springs Museum (where you must remove shoes at the door and wear the slippers that were provided) was good for a 20-minute visit. There were a public bath and some hot spring inns, but I did not stay to try them out.

Took a bus (230, one every 30 min) to Yang Ming Shan National Park. Met Vivian and husband on the bus. They were staying with a friend until Monday. Reached YMS bus terminus at noon. Vivian was going to visit a restaurant-bathhouse. I did not join her, but walked towards the park instead. Saw Datun (Ta Tuen) Falls, climbed a small hill in Datun Recreation Area, and Guan Jing Ting (Scenic View Pavilion).

Stopped at Sun Yat Sen Memorial on the way back. Paid respects to the Man. Hurried back to hotel. To airport. Touchdown, Singapore, 11pm, 13th Oct.

23 Years Ago ...
Lived for a few weeks with a host family in Kaohsiung as an exchange student. Our group of junior college students was brought on a whirwind tour of the island: Taipei, Hualien, Alishan, farm stay in Changhua. I now only have scattered memories of that long-ago visit:

  • Faded faces of my host family;

  • Ou Zhenhan, my host, who pedaled me on a bicycle part of the way to school daily;

  • Going to school where all the boys sported crew cuts and military-like discipline prevailed (every school had a military trainer);

  • Bringing "Bian Dang" (lunchbox) to school, this was steamed and brought to me by duty classmates during lunch recess;

  • Losing my "Bian Dang" in a freak accident one morning (it slipped from my bag and fell through a gap in the closing bus door as the bus was leaving a stop), and having it returned to me in time for lunch (some girl students at the bus stop were able to identify my school from my uniform and their school managed to call my school to arrange for the return!);

  • Cooking lessons at school where we prepared and ate delicious "Yao Jiu Ji" (herbal wine chicken [ingredients: 1 chicken chopped, herbs, lots of sesame oil, more than 1 kg of ginger root, 4 bottles of rice wine!) and "Suan La Tang" (hot-and-sour Sichuan soup);

  • Learning to cycle in the school yard and knocking into parked scooters;

  • Eating stir-fried mutton (the best I ever ate), snake soup (over-rated, many small sharp bones) and Mongolian-style "Huo Guo" (steamboat) dinner on a wintry night;

  • Trips with Zhenhan's friends to the Night Market for supper;

  • Waking up at 3am, and buying breakfast of hot onion pancakes and coffee from an enterprising peddlar, to hike to the mountain top to see the sunrise in Alishan;

  • Mountain hike with friends;

  • Lishan, where orchards of pear trees covered the entire hill;

  • Harrowing bus rides along the North-South highway (the edge of the narrow road dropped precipitatously down steep cliff walls to the roaring Pacific Ocean) and spiraling up and down the mountains and gorges in Hualian (the driver admonished us not to stand up in the bus, in case it toppled over the side);

  • Friends visiting my host family in Changhua, queueing up to use the family's flush toilet, one of the few in the village, where spider-infested outhouses over manure holes did the job with equally devastating effectiveness.

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    Sunday, October 14, 2007

    Taipei, Taiwan, 10 -13 Oct 2007: Taiwanese Street Food
    "Pai Hang Bang" - The Hit Chart


    Street Fare Countdown
    No. 10: Fried oyster omelette, Shi Lin Market, NT40
    No. 9: Stir-fried mutton, Linjiang Night Market, NT90
    No. 8: Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle, Ximending, NT55
    No. 7: Shaved ice dessert, Linjiang Night Market, NT35
    No. 6: Onion pancakes, Shi Lin Station, NT25
    No. 5: Beef noodles, Ximending, NT90
    No. 4: Fried chicken chop, Shi Lin Market, NT45
    No. 3: Cold beancurd dessert, Shi Lin Market, NT25
    No. 2: Intestines stuffed with glutinous rice, Ximending, NT20
    No. 1: Sweet potato soup, Hill-top Canteen, Datun Recreation Area, Yang Ming Shan, NT25

    How to Get There
    Shi Lin Market: across the road from Jiantan (not Shilin) train station, open in the day-time but best at night. Linjiang Night Market: 10 minutes' walk southwest of Grand Hyatt Hotel or Taipei 101. Shi Lin Train Station: hole-in-the-wall shop to the left of the station entrance.
    Ximending: an impossibly crazy place, but you'll not miss the rice noodle stall - look for the long queues in front of the shop. Many illegal street hawkers roam about in a cat-and-mouse game with the police. Datun Recreation Area: wander along the paths in Yang Ming Shan Garden to Datun (Ta Tuen) Falls, go up the winding stairs on the right to the narrow bridge in front of the waterfall. Then climb 356 breath-sapping steps to the top of the hill, where you will be rewarded with ginger-spiced hot sweet potato soup. Simply the best.

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    Saturday, October 06, 2007

    Bordeaux, France, 25 Oct 2006: Bacchanalia Burdigala
    A Day Of Wine & Roses


    Burdigala is the ancient Roman name for Bordeaux, famous for her climate, soil (perfect for growing grapes) and blended vintage wines. A total stranger to oenology, I went on a organized wine tour of three vineyards in the Médoc region: Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and Château Lynch-Bages in Pauillac, and Château d'Arsac in Margaux.

    The wine-growing regions are divided by a strict classification system into appellations, each comprising adjoining vineyards that share similar microclimatic conditions, soil, grapes and wine-making art that impart unique identity and personality to the wine. So important is the impact of the terroir on wine quality, that each vineyard, or château, is rigorously ranked into first, second, third growths, etc in descending order of prestige based on this.

    Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande produces fine second growth vintages. The female owner injects her personal touch and love of beautiful things into the château: rose bushes lining the borders of the vine fields, painted wine barrels, extensive art collection exhibited on the premises, a handsome private residence. From the patio of the château, the famous tower of the premier cru Château Latour beckons alluringly from the distance while we sipped the proffered red.

    After lunch, we made our way to the fifth-growth Château Lynch-Bages, also in Pauillac. More libation rouge. It also boasts a museum of antique wine-making equipment. Our last wine tasting of the day, Château d'Arsac, sits on two different appellations separated by a foot path: Margaux and Haut-Médoc. Previously fallen on hard times, the vineyards and wine production have since been painstakingly restored by new owners, with the château grounds reinvented as an open-air modern art museum.

    Wine tasting, Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

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    These are the 30 countries that I have ever set foot on. Airport stopovers don't count!