Day at night

FOOD. One thing that's easy to notice in Tawan is how much people love food here. You turn on the television and 3 out of 5 channels are either showng food from local resturants or interviewing chefs about their cuisine. We might have the food network out in the states bu it pales in comparison to how food is placed here in society. Ryan even tells me he can over hear peoples phone conversation and much of the time it's about food. I'm not complaining though, I love it!

We started the day with a real good beef noodle soup. The broth was rich and heavy and the noodles fresh. The beef cuts were lean and not too fatty. That along with some flavord tofu sealed the deal for me.

We walked around Zhongli for a bit until Ryan had to go to work. There's a cool park by his place where a bar sits in the middle of it. A bell and a buddha statue also stood in various places at the park. 

 For some reason I had a strong urge to watch MIB 3 and there is a movie theater right by Ryan's apartment so I thought I'd watch it until he got out. Watching an american movie with Chinese subtitles in a theater was a bit new to me. The movie was pretty good and it anaged to submerg enough into American culture to the point where I was surprised that I was in Taiwan after the movie was over. It's like a traveled back to America for a bit and got sucked right back into Taiwan again. 

That night we met up with some new found friends and just exchnaged some stories in a chill manner. I ended up going to Taipei the next day tto wander around. It's not too easy to navigate through and many of the attractions are spread out so I mainly just got to check out Ximending; a shopping district in the city. The lights are so bright and numerous that it drowns out the darkness.

The next day after that entailed a trip out to Tainan where some of Ryan's friends live.

Hakka Food and Rooftop Gringo party

Arriving in Taiwan I made sure I hade Ryan's address written down in mandarin so the taxi driver could take me straight over there. The cab driver spoke no english so I was hopeless in asking him random questions about Taiwan that sparked my interest...especially after spending a night in mainland China. He dropped me off in what I thought Zhongli, especially since the address that I jotted down was what it said on the door of the building. The door to this building lead to hair salon where I showed the people the address and they told me the taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong town...

i went out to walk and see about a hotel Ryan mentioned but saw none. After two more interactions with the locals I was able to get to Ryan's apartment 5 minutes before his 10 minute break...just in time for me to get the keys from him before he went back to work. The locals were all really helpful and it was really comforting. Ryan went back to work so I had a good bit of time to walk around and explore before he got back. I walked outnand felt the change immediately. I was no longer in Taiwan, but more specifically I wasn't in Chanthaburi anymore. The lights on the streets from all the signs were almost overwhelming...especially since I couldn't read them. The hustle and bustle of the pedestrian traffic and the scooters set the pace for what was to come. 

I just spent my time walking around and than had dinner with Ryan and some of his friends close by. We had traditional Hakka cuisine and boy was it GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! So far the best food I've had since being here in Asia. we ordered a good bit of small bowl dieshes to share and went at it. Some of it was the regular kung pao chicken while some of the other dishes had their own spin on it. Mynfavorite was the unseasoned boiled pork/beef cuts that you dipped in a garlic/vinegar/salt juice. Totally failed and didn't bring my camera though.

Hakka Food Google Image Search Results

After that we proceeded to thenlocal watering hole where we were greeted by the friendly local bartenders. One bartender had carrot top orange hair and was very eccentric with the few english words that she knew. After some drinks and some darts we migrated to a friends rooftop to continue the festivities with other ex pats that are teaching english in Zhongli. The company was great and it was a pleasant first night in Taiwan that ended with a bit too much fried street food.

Mainland China detour featuring censored internet and rip-off prices

From Thailand my next layover flight was to Ghuangzhou China. I had a total of 16 hours before my next flight...

Before going to immigration one of the ChinaSouthern airlines personell told me they would put me up in a hotel formthe night since my flight was basically the next day. I was perfectly content waiting at the airport but the thoguht of having a nice bed to sleep in before my next flight seemed really appealing. I took the offer and ended sharing a room with another person fromthe states. His name was Ramon and he's originally from the Philippines. After 24 years of being in the Navy he was now enjoying a retirement vacation throughout Asia and was in Japan before landing in China. The hotel they placed us in was nice but there was nothing nearby to go check out so we just had some tsing tao beers in the hotel lobby which was really nice. While using the internet I realized i couldn't use facebook, youtube, or even update my blog. It really felt a bit unjust to limit the freedom pf information. That's what the internet's for; why try to control of filter it!?!? Even in the states steps are being taken to have the feds have a certain amount of control over the internet (CISPA and SOPA) I'm not too worried though because if it does get bad people will find a different way to share information and a new kind of internet will be invented in a different format.

While at the airport I was pretty turned off at how the proces were determined for food/souvenirs. Considering China is oretty cheap by most standards their prices at the airport were insane! A canned beer cost me 7 US dollars! The beer I had at the hotel in Guangzhou cost me 1.25 US dollars and it was twice the size! I know airports in general are more expensive but this was ridiculuous! I also had perhaps the most greasiest noodle soup ever for the equivalent of 12 US dollars. 

The flight from China to Taiwan was not bad. I was oddly one of few people on the plane and definitely the only westerner.

Landing in Taiwan I was now ready to see what this country had in store me. 

Pig heads and funny english shirts

Breakfast the morning after the jungle mountain hike consisted of a Thai porridge-like dish. It's what people eat when they're sick so it seemed appropriate for the wicked hangover I was suffering from. There was a nice little shrine by our table in addition  to a poster of the king who drove the burmese and the current king of Thailand.

After the breakfast it was back to Chanthaburi to spend the last day visiting some temples and checking out the market one last time. One buddhist temple we visited had another monument of King Taksin along with various statues of the buddha.

The temple that housed the monument for King taksin was in the shape of his hat/helmet that he was known for. His sword was HUGE and his shoes Pointed upward sharply like the shoes of an elf. Along with the usual offerings inside his temple there were two flattened pig heads. I wonder if the pig heads had any additional significance when compared to the traditional offerings.

In one of the temples they had a hindu statue as well with many heads representing it's many reincarnations. 

From there we visited the market where we were greeted with funny shirts in english that many of the locals will wear without knowing the meaning. you can correlate this with how sometimes people in the states get tattoos in chinese characters thinking it means one thing but instead something totally different.

Of course my personal favorite is one that i've found myself saying after certain debaucherous nights.

That was that for Thailand. I had a great time there but now its off to Taiwan to visit my friend Ryan who lives in Zhong Li. He also teaches English there and I haven't seen him in about three years ao it should be fun. Farewell Thailand!!!

Boat restaurant in the jungle mountains

I'm not going to lie being in a nice well air conditioned room felt soooo good after the long jungle hike. they had a nice little outside lounge with nice bark furniture where me and rick enjoyed some chang and singha.

we did some more walking around and went up to a tower that over looks the resort area. Got a nice shot of the terrain from up there.

We met up with our friend Holley from England and decided to go eat at the local boat restaurant.

There was confusion at the restaurant when we had Rick order what they would order. We wanted something trully local that the typical thai person from this part of town would eat. The funny thing is that not only were they really confused and hesitant to pick something, but they proceeded to yell at each other and bicker in the kitchen. We ended up getting a whole fried fish that was well done and egg battered shrimp alongside the typical pork and vegetables. Everything was good except for the shrimp; the egginess didn't go well with the shrimp. 

The restaurant and the area around it looked nice all lit up at night by the time we were done eating. 

Ghostly trees by the waterfalls

The day started early at 8am for the mountains. I was incredibly hungry so we stopped by a street food spot which served some wicked pork concoction with rice.  The rice dish and two small servings of the local soup for only 30 baht (1 dollarish) I love it!

Once arriving at the resort by the mountains we booked a room and ran into a random english person that is teaching english close by. Our driver took us to the start of the jungle mountain trail where the army trains and runs the nature reserve there. The wildlife started at the bathroom when I turned around and was introduced to a decently sized spider.

The trail we started leads all the way up to a mountain that's lined with waterfalls along the way. During the hike we ran into a good bit of trees with ribbons around them. In thailand whenever you see a tree with ribbons around it it means at one point or another a ghost/spirit was seen occupying the tree. It's very common to see random trees in Thailand with ribbons around them almost anywhere scattered about.

The biggest tree we ran into had some ribbons on it.

One tree we ran into had such a spiritual energy to it that a temple was even placed on it. This happens when the ghost/spirit has been observed multiple time by different people and the presence is strong.

The rest of the hike was spent eating chinese food while hopping along the many water falls that lined the mountain. The water was amazing cold and refreshing considering the heat was blisteringly scorching. Almost every water fall we dove into felt so good leaving didn't seem like a concept.

Before we left Rick decided to stack some rocks for the next visitors. I forgot where the tradition/ideaology of the rocks came from but it looks interesting to see such a coordinated structure out in the wilderness. 

After the trail we hitched a ride with some locals back to the hotel to get ready for the rest of the day.

the day i almost became a pirate

arrrrrrrrrrrrr...

The day started with an hour car ride to the pier off Rayong. On the highways in Thailand people sell good luck charms to hang in your car before you embark on a trip. Our driver bought a new one and hung it up in the beginning of our journey.

We managed to grab some food before getting on our speed boat to the beach island we were destined for. It was great and only cost the equivalent of one american dollar. Of course I had to lay it on hard with the local hot sauce. It this point I've become immune to the side-effects so I douse on.

koh samet island. Only about about an hour west of Chanthaburi. The speed boat only took about 12 minutes and we met and American who frequently visited Atlanta (Where I currently reside). 

This Island is great for couples and drunken muy-thai debauchery. most of the road along the beach isn't paved and it gives the place a certain charm.

We did the usual beach bumming and walking around. There was a statue of a local legend who would play his flute and his love would appear in the form of a mermaid.

Once the night kicked in we had dinner on the beach with a hookah and all was well until the monsoon came in. My stay here in Thailand coincides with the beginning of monsoon season so this rain that poured in lasted for about an hour and it came down strong. We couldn't wait around any longer so we proceeded to walk towards the reggae bar, pictured below.

The walk to the bar alone was an alien experience due to the side-effects of the monsoon rain. The rain awakened on onslaught of frogs. the puddles that formed in the road were riddled with frogs. The song that was created as we walked through the road was almost hypnotizing and surreal. Thousands of frogs just all around you with their puffed up cheeks croaking the same sound was almost too much. I'm glad we weren't about to go to bed because I'm sure the siunds would not allow for a good nights' rest. We stopped at a muy-thai bar on the way to the reggae pub for shots and drinks. There was actually supposed to be a match between two local muy-thai fighters but the rain canceled the showing. Sometimes the   muy-thai fighters will ask the foreigners to come in and fight after they are done with a match. This is usually not the best idea considering by that time most people are full of the "liquid courage" and their judegement might not be in the best place.

The reggae bar had a cover band playing Pink Floyd, Metallica, and the usual Bob Marley hit. The shirtless lead singer must have been atleast 60 something years old but went about his way like a 25 year old partier. After some drinks and Jamaician treats we proceeded to the one dance club on the island. By this time the club was packed with mostly thai people so we stuck out like sore thumbs. I managed to take a tequila shot with a local tattoo artist that was going do my next tattoo. I could tell he doesn't drink tequila much because the shot nearly floored him, jaja. Me and Rick headed off to the dance floor at that point to loosen the body. After some glancing around I noticed the abundance of guys grinding on each other. Koh Samet Island happens to be a big spot for gay travellers. 

We decided to have some drinks on the beach next to the club but by this point my legs weren't on their best behavior and decided to have me fall face first into a table at the club. The corner of the table hit my eye as I fell (luckily in slow motion so no real harm was dealt; no eye patch for me) After that fall the drink on the beach felt rejuvenating. Rick went off with Naan while a headed back to the hotel shortly after. Finding my room in the maze of huts was not the most pleasant hunt but I managed to collapse on the bed. 

Now to refresh the body with some much needed mineral water.