Sweet Tooth

There are two sweet treats that I am looking forward to trying on my travels to Taipei and Macau. The first is called a mango ice. Friends tell me that this puts American style shaved ice or snow cones to shame. The store that serves this decadent concoction is called Ice Monster. Check out the guy in this picture. He had to have two spoons just to get it to his face!

The other item is a baked good that is made on the southern tip of Macau. The bakery is called Lord Stowe's Bakery and they are famous for Portuguese Egg Tarts, which you can enjoy fresh out of the oven if you arrive at the right time. I plan to.

(The mango ice picture is by ZackWang and the egg tart photo is by chocolate monster mel on flickr.com)

Taiwan High-Speed Rail and Sun Moon Lake

So, I have some early plans for my trip and thought I would add them here. Then later, I will update them as I get to actually experience them and include my photos as I take them.

One of the first excursions will be to take this train from Taipei to Taichung. This speed demon travels at around 186 miles per hour. So, about three times as fast as the average U.S. freeway driver travels. This is a great argument for mass transit, especially for commuters. The trip from Taipei to Taichung should take about 30 minutes. I can't wait. The g-force should be intense.

In Taichung, one of the big attractions I hope to see is Sun Moon Lake. This is the largest natural lake in Taiwan with many things to see and trails to hike. A few of the sites here are a peacock garden and Butterfly Museum, Tzuen Ta Pagoda, Wunwu Temple and more.

More soon...

Luggage

So I had to do some shopping. Along with not having a passport yet, I did not have any grown up luggage. It is times like these when second run stores like Ross and TJ Maxx can come in handy for the student on a budget. Needless to say, I was able to pick up a nice bag (pictured here) for about $100 less than I would have spent anywhere else. Now I can roll through the airport in style. I must say that I much prefer rolling to lugging. Who was it that invented the wheel again? Oh yeah, Samsonite.

Learning the language

So I am hoping that I can pick up a few words of Mandarin before I travel. Unfortunately, Mandarin immersion is not readily available to me in the U.S. So books and software are the next best thing. Software is so expensive that I am turning to my local library to hook me up. Shi shi (thanks) tax dollars!

Preparations are under way

I am very happy to announce that the flight tickets have been purchased and my new passport has arrived!!! Oh yes. This pretty much confirms the trip. I had the passport expedited and the passport lady thought it would arrive in about three weeks, but it was much faster than that (about half that time). I had to go get a new birth certificate printed and pay twenty bucks to make that happen, what a pain in the pooper. Oh well, I guess when you wait as long as I did in life to get your first passport you haven't gotten out of the country much, so I shouldn't complain. More soon...