Hong Kong 26.06-28.06.09

This weekend I went to Hong kong in order to extend my visa ( I can only stay 60 days per entry). We (Carolyn, a canadian girl I met in Taiwan) met at TPE City Hall MRT STation but we couldnt find the bus. So we finally got a cab but it was already getting late. The traffic was horrible and a thunderstorm had started... but we called Cathay and they told us we d still be able to catch the last flight at 8:20 PM. We did and got to HK at 10:00 PM. We took a bus to the hostel and I checked in (i had booked a single room so we had to sneak carolyn in). We walked around for a little bit but it was raining so after eating dim sum and getting a juice we went to the hostel and dropped into bed.

The next morning we got up early (we only had a weekend to see everything). Since we couldnt find a Dim Sum place for breakfast we went for a normal western (kind of) breakfast. I forgot that u could use a knife to cut stuff but oh well. Then we walked around the area (TST) a little bit and experienced the HK- bargaining style (people will actually try to hold on to u) for the first time.
Then it started raining a little more so we headed towards Elements Mall to find Zara, and a pair of jeans for me ( I bleached my favorite pair in TW the first week)and found a pair thats VERY long (paradise). Well too many details.This is Elements Mall and a few more buildings....

The money: Hong kong Dollars. The ten dollar bill is made of plastic..cant break it

We tried Dim Sum..but it wasnt as good as we had expected..but ok ..and I guess we didnt go to the right places..

She looks a little sceptic...but the steamed milk with lotus sprouts- or red bean was good..and the spoons were really nice..so they went with us :)

The area aroud ladies market...we went SHOPPING (this is what HK is famous for...so we had to)

Ladies market (copy handbags, copy watches...) and very touristy but interesting since we dont have that in TPE. But again the bargaining was a little too much at times...

We went up the peak but it was too foggy to get good pictures so we took a fake one in front of a picture...

After that we went down to the Avenue of stars to see the lightshow of the skyscrapers...really nice...a little cheesy (the music and announcements)

We took the cable car (threesixty) up a mountain...

There were lots of good bakeries in HK,...our favorite thing were the coconut tarts...

After a little afternoon shoppong I left EARLY for the airport.. and went HOME to Taiwan :)

Bye bye Julia / Hong kong ich komme

English summarized version below...

Gestern abend (25.06) war ich nochmal mit Julia auf dem Night market in Shida. Essenstechnisch haben wir uns fuer Sushi entschieden, dass leider nicht so lecker war.
Dafuer war das Einkaufen erfolgreicher, ein Kleid fuer Julia und einen Laden mit jede Menge amerikanischen Marken fuer mich (natuerlich guenstiger, aber scheinen Originale zu sein..wo die wohl vom Laster gefallen sind). Ausserdem haben wir uns in meinem absoluten Lieblingsladen, einem Schreibwaren und alles sonstige Laden mal komplett von oben nach unten gearbeitet...Es gibt definitiv nichts was es nicht mit Hello Kitty Motiv gibt. Danach haben wir noch in einem anderen Laden deutsche (wirklich) Gummibaerchen gefunden (Haribo).
Dann war der Abend auch schon wieder vorbei ..nur noch schnell gepackt und dann schlafen.

Nach einem Abschiedessen im Thai Restaurant heute (26.06) (ich hab das Coconut Zeichen erkannt war mir dann aber nicht mehr sicher/ habe Coconut Chicken gegessen) geht es morgen fuer Julia ab nach Hause...traurig. Aber Deutschland ist ja nicht so gross und Paderborn nicht aus der Welt.

Ich kann leider beim AbschiedsBBQ nicht dabei sein. Mein Visum ist ein Multiple Entry Visa, dass jedoch nur fuer bis zu 60 Tage gilt. Da diese 60 tage naechste Woche rum sind muss ich vorher Taiwan verlassen und neu einreisen.
Die naechste Moeglichkeit Taiwan zu verlassen ist ein Flug nach Hong kong. Deswegen geht es heute um 19:20 nach Hong kong zusammen mit Carolyn, einer Kanaderien die ich uebers Hostel kenne. Ausserdem ist auch Romina, die Deutsche die ich ebenfalls aus dem Hostel kenne in Hong kong so dass wir sie vielleicht treffen koennen.
Leider ist fuer heute Nacht um 12 ein Taifun angesagt (Eintreffen um diese Uhrzeit in Hong kong , bzw. leicht oberhalb von Hong kong). Aber ich hoffe mal das wir wenigstens etwas sehen koennen. Generell scheint Hong kong nicht die typische Stadt fuer Sightseeing sondern eher fuer Lifestyle/Essen/Shoppen zu sein. Ich bin gespannt.

Sorry not all my posts are in english..here the summary:

I went to Shida Nightmarket with Julia yesterday and we did some shopping there.
Also today was Julias last day and we went to the Thai restaurant and the juice bar one last time.
Also at 7:20 PM today, my flight for Hong kong will leave. I have to go there in order to renew my visa. There is a typhoone heading towards Hong kong so I m not quite sure how the weather will be. ...
more when I return to Taiwan...

Making dumplings

On Wednesday, June 24th we met up at Julias to make dumplings. Julia got a power point map/ list of ingredients and went to a chinese market to get everything. I joined her after work and we went to Carrefour to get the missing things...
We met Shuwei (who scared us in the middle of Carrefour) and then went to Julias appartement to make the dumplings. We started out with the dough. You need to put flour into a bowl. Then add water (with a little bit of salt) in the middle and then slowly mix with your fingers so it becomes dough (kind of like pizza dough). Then we started chopping all the vegetables into tiny pieces. We had cabbage, spring onion, garlic, ginger and some kind of mushroom. Everything was chopped and then Shuwei pressed the water out of the cabbage (used a towel).
After that we mixed everything with a little soy sauce and salt (also pork and shrimps were put in). At this point I was already starving..which made it a little hard to focus.

We made one try out dumpling..and after that added more salt and soy sauce. Then Shuweis sister who had been making little dumpling skins out of the dumpling dough showed us how to form the dumpling. I made a video which I will try to upload soon.
After that we put all the more or less perfectly looking dumplings into the water (everyone made several ones, also Simon and Julias roommate Jerome had joined). They took really long but in the end they were very good and gone in a few minutes.

After that we discussed about de-oiling sheets (those are used by taiwanese girls to make their skin less shiny) and ate some Kinder chocolate...
Evening over...and I was tired, like I always am..

PICS WILL FOLLOW

Weekend Alishan and more (19.06-21.06.09)

Ok finally another post..sorry I don t have time anymore..I am always out doing things which doesnt leave time to write about them. On Friday June 19th we went to Alishan. It got kind of late until we left Taipei. Shuwei was driving and we picked up Simon on the way. We all in all means Julia, Shuwei, Simon and me :) We drove until two and made it close to Alishan, found a way to put up the tent.. The sky was full of bright blinking stars and we could hear al kinds of birds and frogs around us. The next morning, thanks to Julia (and Shuwei) started really early and with brushing our teeth..




Then we had a nice breakfast at 7ELEVEN...( I LOVE 7 ELEVEN)..and after that drove to Alishan..the day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the mountains were bright green...and music with that in the car..PERFECT DAY

Surfing Taiwan...

Sunday, June 14th I went surfing with Julia, Shuwei and Simon. We left from Guting (my MRT Station) early in the morning. I had a thousand (at least it felt like that) mosquito bites...
We drove around an hour and after waiting around in the Surfshop a little we finally went down to the water.
Shuwei ( He is taiwanese, but is teaching himself German) first explained everything to me before we went into the water. Then it still sounded easy, just paddeling and jumping up...

But its not that easy when you actually have to do it in the water. I got a shirt to wear, which I did thanks to Julias recommendations that I might loose my bikini.
Then we went into the water. In the beginning it was hard to stay on the board because I wasnt used to it and you really need to lay in the middle.
Shuwei helped me at first by pushing the board whenever there was a wave because it is really hard to get the necessary speed through paddeling. Most of the times I wasnt fast enough but at least I managed to stand on the board for around 1 sec :) several times.

We stayed in the water but sometimes we were just laying there paddeling and going back when the current had put us to the other part of the beach.
For lunch we had lunchboxes with rice, vegetable and meat / egg (which was traded some ..;)

After that we went back into the water..since the wind was kind of cold it was better to stay in the water cause it was warmer. But I didnt really manage to catch many waves after that (you always lay close to the beach on your board waiting for the waves to come, when u see one you start paddeling but you need to get some speed, then when you feel the wave you need to stand up..but it only works if you were fast enough) because I was too slow :(

But in any case surfing was a lot of fun..until we started meeting a lot of JELLY FISH...we really didnt like that. Julia caught the first one and then we all followed...I tried to set a record on how many jellyfish can sting you and Shuweis sister got the worst. This was when we stopped.

After that we went back to the Surfshop to shower, chill out and afterwards went out to eat Japanese style food... ( Simon set a Wasabi record with his Sashimi and Julia was too tired to eat. And there was a taiwanese girl..she was able to eat much more than me SURPRISED that someone like that exists ;)

It was a fun sunday...and surfing is a really cool sport ...also I didnt enjoy the jelly fish and my soared muscles afterwards as much...;)

pictures will follow...

Eine woche in Taipei..

viel yu viel passiert...kurz..montag: kurz nightmarket mit amerikanerin morgan.., dienstag zuhause..aber postkarten noch nicht fertig sorry, mittwoch raohe tourist night market mit julia und shuwei ( taiwanese) und danach kury am riesenrad, donnerstag sashimi und shushi essen bei john (julias kollege) mit julia, andreas (julias kollege) und freundin, total lustiger abend, freitag peking ente essen mit julia, shuwei, simon (dt.), danach chillen vorm grand hotel und schluesselchaos..sonstiger plan fuers wochenende..morgen mach ich pfannkuchen fuer alle bei julia und dann wollen wir wandern fahren..und am sonntag wahrscheindlich surfen.. ich geniesse das viel yu tun haben bin aber ziemlich k.o und komme yu nichts. Aber ich werde taiwan vermissen...es gibt soviele tolle sachen. bin frischer saft abhaengig..kann jetyt auch meine lieblingssaefte alle allein bestellen...weiter allerdigns noch nicht. meine siemens kollegen sind im stress deswegen mach ich mit denen immoment nichts... so das wars sonst alles ok

Weekend in Taipei/ Turtle island

so kurze zusammenfassung... Freitag: Kino (...girlfriends past..), shopping in ximen (gegend mir ganz vielen jungen leuten..sehr lebendig..)ESSEN: mittags thai, abends gemuesedumplings, mcflurry oreo, frische ananas und popcorn SAmstag: konfuzius temple und noch ein temple, dann National Palast museum (ranked top ten world museum angeblich), ganz viel ueber die chinesische klultur, przellan, kalligrafie),dann nochmal Ximen (rucksack gekauft), dann nach Wufenpu (grosshaendler klamotten gegend wo man aber auch als privatperson kaufen kann), ESSEN: gebaeck mit roter bohnenpaste, luftiges kuchenaehnl teil, potatoe mit cheddar cheese, coldstone ice cream, dann noch mango yakult getraenk (kann die chin. zeichen dafuer lesen :) juhu) Sonntag: Mit kollegen erst nach yilan 1 std von taipei, erst wasserfaelle, dann ans meer auf ein boot, whale/dolpin watching, turtle island (sieht aus wie ne schildkroete), hab ne schlangehaut gefunden (und mitgenommen..gruselig) dann zurueck ESSEN: Lunchbox mit reis gemuese ente schwein, eis was wie eisbonbon schmeckt, eis traditional (geschmack taro(aehnl wie suesskartoffel), ananas, sticky rice..sehr lecker), spaeter noch cheese dumplings.. heute mittag hab ich meinen saft mango/passionfruit selbst bestellt heute abend war ich dann noch mit einer amerikanerin auf dem nightmarket...und ich habe mango7yakult und banane/yakult auf CHINESISCH bestellt JUHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!auch die zahlen werden langsam besser..