Day 10 || Food Travels

My third day does not contain much activity besides knowing more about the TN’s activities. I began to know more about the culture. Every four years once, TW will have an election – to select which party governing the whole country and one who will take charge of their society (She Qu). Differ with Indonesia where we select the government and they will arrange who will be in charge for each part.

As our Kangle community is sponsored mainly by party no 13, there is a tendency for them to vote no. 13. Our Mr Lin will be on the next election, but by then I may not be able to witness such event. I hope he win because he is a great candidate – not only he cared for the community, he is clever enough to make use of the surrounding environment to work for him.

The host family that I am staying with is probably the most hospitable peoples I have ever seen. I felt like a small children in here, they always make sure that I am taken care of. At the first day I arrived, they asked what Taiwanese food I like; I answered Pearl Milk Tea and the next day a cup of pearl milk tea sitting in front of my room. I do not know how I could repay their kindness. It is me guilty by the fact I was not able to contribute much for them.

Below are some of the places and food they took me around Hsin chu city:

- Tofu Ginger Soup -

containing : cube taro cut, green bean and tou hua

- Stinky Tofu -

- Rice Vermicelli Soup -- Rice Ball -- Nut -- Meat Ball - - Martabak alike XD - - Taiwan Bing Gan -- Bo Cai -

Day 3,4 || Weekend Trip to South Taiwan

21 November 2009 Day 1

Due to time constraint, I was not able to write down my weekend trip. It's been a crazy journey .. the eating especially. I can see myself getting 5 kg fatter by the end of the internship. BLEGH~~! How am I to lose these weights when I already bought a dress for my cousin's wedding in February eh?!! >.<

Anyway, enough of my rambling... and back to the trip.

We started the journey at 6.10 am from Kangle Community Hall. For my breakfast, we have a rice meat ball and milk tea created by one of the "A Yi-s".

My rating of the food : 3/5
Reason being the rice has little flavor and the meat is too little, but it is definitely a very fulfilling breakfast. It was a little bit strange for me as I was used to eat bread or cereals in the morning.

During the bus journey, they were having a karaoke session. Seems that Taiwanese really adore singing and dancing!

- Wind Turbines -

- Inside -

It was not until 2 hours after that we finally reached our first location - Formosan Aboriginal Theme Park. Besides the typical exciting rides, they also contain historical artifacts of the Taiwanese Aboriginals. To my surprise, they almost share the same dance, clothes, food to Indonesian's.

-Aboriginal Food -
Glutinous meat rice, steamed yam, steamed beans, taro bread-Side Dishes-
Fried yam, Kue Lapis lookalike

- Playing with sticks -
- Aboriginal outfits -
- Inside an Aboriginal House -- Aboriginal Dances -

We were given four hours in the park. Though it may seem long, it is definitely not enough for me, especially when there is two grandmothers and a 5-years old kid (Xiao Qi) following you XD
But I enjoyed the trip nevertheless.

- Xiao Qi acting -

Xiao Qi is cute bah? I felt like a big sister when I am with him. I thought that I would not be able to entertain him as I had not had any experience with kids before. One thing that make s my heart break was when hearing Xiao Qi's family story. At such young age, his parents get divorced and he has been living with his grandmother and father ever since. And yet he can still be this positive and active.

After the theme park outing, we went to a "Rose Garden" to see roses. What is so special about this garden with others then?

Hmm ...

Turns out that those roses are edible. No wonder 85 cafe in Sydney have my favourite "Rose and Cheese Bun". People may find it strange to eat roses, but that bread .... ouhh heavenly!!

We end our 1st day outing at Sun Wang Hotel and of course the infamous Karaoke session.

22 November 2009 Day 2

The morning call was set at 6.30 am and meeting time at 7.00 am. However! to my shock, all of the people already get dressed before it is even 6.00 am. I think I am the latest one to woke up ><. Differ to the typical western buffet breakfast, we had the oriental style. It has porridge, man tau, steamed vegetables and egg dishes. After the breakfast, we began our journey to Sun Moon Lake.

However, before reaching the lake,we have to cross through and climb up the mountain as it is located between two mountains. Strange eh? If only the weather is not too hot that day, it would have been really beautiful!

- Crossing the Bridge Video -
V

- Sun Moon Lake -

After Sun Moon Lake trip, we went to a Flower Exhibition. During the exhibition, the group never fails to have a Karaoke session.

- Karaoke-ing -and dancing ...

Day 2 || Gukanglang Village

Today is the first day of my real Development Traineeship. I was really scared as I walked from Mrs Liu's house to Gukanglang Village (Kangle Village)

Will it looks like the village back in my home country? All built with woods.. or by bricks?

My mind swirled with strange thoughts as I was made my way to the target location. After 10 minutes walk, I finally reached. It was not as what I had imagined, it looks more of a proper community building instead of something I had imagined earlier on.

- Kangle Community -

I was welcomed by the other elders - whom I called them as "A Yi" or "Ma Ma". All of them are around my mother's age, and some already having grand children. I began my day with preparation of the food (though I may not help much inside the kitchen since I am not much of a cooker myself ><, but this trip will definitely helps me to improve my cooking skills hopefully, thanks to my "Ma Ma-s" here). At 10.00am, a group of travelers from Taipei came to visit us with Lin Bo Zhang as the tour guide. Today was also the first time I was introduced of TN's routine activities. We started with DIY Hakka Noodle (Mi Tai Mu).

and Ta-Da, the famous Hakka Wheat Noodle

After the DIY Noodle making session, I joined in the group to move to another location such as the WWII Bullet-holed Wall, Zhuang's and Lin's Ancient Residence, 100 years-old well, Wangshifu Temple etc. To sum them all up, Kangle Village is a place with a strong ancient taste worth visiting!

The most eye-catching part was not about the house remains but that of a contribution of a great artist which depict the life of a farmer back in the past years. He constructed the whole painting using small rounded and colored glasses. Clever eh ? Now there is a way to not to waste one's time in cleaning a painted wall.
It took him 2 months to construct it.

After the short tour, we were brought to a showroom which displays all kinds of historical artifacts and architecture of the past (mainly farming tools as agriculture has been the main driver of Kangle Village for over 300 years)

The whole trip ends at 1.00 pm and we were brought back to the Kangle Gathering place to have our lunch. Remember about the food preparation I was helping in the morning? That's my lunch :)

One of the most memorable food was their "Fried Cai Bo"; they were organically grown and hand picked in-house. A must try delicacy !!

- Before frying -

- After frying -

Having my stomach filled to the rim, we were brought to the second floor where the volunteers usually do their paper works and other activities. Kangle Community often conduct activities for the elderlies; one of them was arts and craft. In the showroom, there are displays of their artworks. All of which are constructed through papers.

Can you believe that all of these are done by 60-years old and above ??

There are still much to write about my trip in Hsin Chu. Will be writing more~stay tuned :)