New Zealand and Australia in 2 months

I camped in the city library to use free wifi today. The library was nice and quiet, but across street from the Taipei City Mortuary Services Office Second Funeral Parlor so I felt spooky walking by some private funeral houses on my way to the library. Cremation is performed after funeral services honoring gods and the deceased.  Well, we should all enjoy life while we can.  I had a 6-course tea dinner set at 天仁吃茶趣 with an old friend. All the tea based dishes were light yet rich in flavor, and the bobble green tea made me smile. Ten Ren is a Taiwanese brand of tea that is carried via its own tea shops in Taiwan, China, USA, and Canada.

I had lunch with my old colleges of Board of Foreign Trade, and caught up with everyone's life and health issues.  I then toured the Taipei Botanical Garden.   The 15-acre Botanical Garden includes over 1,500 plant species and provides a lot of shades from the hot sun in 32c. I found out two buildings historical structures: a Qing Dynasty era Taiwan administration building relocated into the Garden and a herbarium, in the Garden which I did not notice when painting there many time at junior high.

I had dinner with my cousin and his family at Haidilao Hot Pot (海底捞火锅) which is a chain of hot pot restaurants founded in Sichuan Province, China. Haidilao is known for their customer service  (blankets on demand for customers feel cool from AC) and  a variety of free entertainment such as board games, snacks, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and manicures for waiting customers, as well as making noodles with music, and hourly Sichuan Opera Face Change (川劇變臉). The Performer wore vividly colored masks of well known characters from the opera, which were changed from one face to another almost instantaneously with the swipe of a fan, a movement of the head, or wave of the hand. I stopped by the cousin's home before heading back to Taipei.  Last time I saw my cousin in Banqiao was when I was studying at  an elementary school, but we could still recognize each other today. Banqiao has changed a lot from an old town to a metropolitan area full of department stores and a big city pla...

I signed up the weekend Huang Di Dian (皇帝殿) or the "Emperors Palace" Meetup hike for myself and my old friend Xavier without realizing it involves a lot of rock scrambling which I resent most. I ended up only climbed the east peak while Xavier did West peak as well. My running shoes have lost most of its limited traction during my trips in New Zealand and Australia thus made the hike more challenging for me. The views from the East Peak are great but a bit scary when standing on top of the ridge and walking towards the edge.  We then visited Xavier's friend in Ping-Lin at his small farm to chat over tea. Ping-Lin 坪林 has is renowned for producing Pouchong tea. His friend kindly toured us the neighborhood and gave me a bag of organic vegetables to take home. We then visited my classmates Candice Lin and Stanley Tseng In 北投 and had dinner at the famous Kingbeef noodles 金春發 favored by the boss of Foxcoom (富士康郭台銘). Very good beef noodle and beef soup, yet a little pricy. We fo...

My college classmate lives in Singapore over 15 years not only let me stay with his family overnight, but took one day off to tour me all the highlights this morning. We started with Indian breakfast, walked via ethnic districts like Little India and Chinatown, toured the Casino and the garden/river areas, and wrapped up with a traditional Malaysian lunch at the red port house.  I enjoyed my first flight with Singapore airline with great service and food (tried my 1st Singapore Sling cocktail, and now flying into Taiwan with EVA air. It is a pity that I do not have time to tour Singapore airport.