Canada 2015 - Clan Reunion

September 2015

The event that brought everyone together...

Xe&J Tie the Knot!

And here's the fam, doing our thing

Canada 2015

Bali! - Chinese New Year 2015

Though most people who read this blog have already seen our Bali photos, I thought a short write-up on what all we experienced was in order.

Looking back on it a month later, the trip feels a bit surreal. I find this true for all travel, because it plucks you out of everyday routine, which allows for more wiggle room in terms of who you are and how you are in the world. Of course, the exotic locale (an obvious change in climate/scenery/food/language, etc.) only added to the surreal feeling. Same for my head cold, which had really bloomed into full-blown status by the time we finally got out of our taxi after an hour of intense traffic along Bali’s congested highway from the airport. Still, I was determined to make the most of our holiday (and I hope didn’t whine too much about being sick ;)

Bali really is a dream – the nature is just so vibrant and lush. Ubud has a palpable sense of art interwoven with spirit and we ate and lived like kings, because it’s so affordable – much higher quality for your money compared to Taiwan. The food was fresh, mostly local, often organic and always delicious. We stayed at Swasti Eco Cottages (highly recommend) in a bungalow and then moved to a gorgeous Javanese house (actually deconstructed in Java, transported to Bali, restored and rebuilt there by our super-nice Air BnB host and artist Made).

Because the climate is tropical year-round, dwellings just need to provide shelter and our first one didn’t have any glass in the windows – just shutters for light and privacy. Nature really comes to you – both of our places were visited by some small animals (cats? lizards?) who apparently wanted to leave us the gift of their poop. Ha. Nothing too gross and certainly better than finding big spiders.

We saw lots of monkeys, which was always entertaining. The Monkey Forest in the middle of Ubud is their sanctuary and handlers/caretakers casually stroll around, some egging on tourists to get a monkey to climb on them by offering a bit of food. They do seem insatiably voracious and mischievous. One was gnawing on a business card that a young Chinese couple somehow lost to its grip. Another grabbed someone’s water bottle and was dousing passers-by from a high perch. Another was grabbing and chewing on a guy’s T-shirt. Our favorite was the monkey that climbed on a girl’s head to get a banana she was holding and then just sprawled on its belly, still on top of the girl’s head, to munch the fruit like it was the most natural thing in the world. I should have taken more photos.

 

It’s the end of the wet season and we got poured on big-time on several days. Again, it’s warm, so not that big of a deal, but we waited it out a few times, watching the torrents literally engulf the downhill roads in a foot or so of water. We also bought a double-person raincoat for riding the scooter. It’s our romantic souvenir – two hoods on a single poncho. <3 o:p="">

All in all, I can see why everyone falls in love with Bali. I’m glad we were in Ubud at the end of the low season, as it must be a zoo during the tourist rush. I hope we get to go back with more time on our hands to explore the rest of Bali and I wish everyone the same. Thank you again to my sweet love Rich for this fantabulous 10-year-anniversary gift. What a sweetie, that guy!

Here is the full photo album:

Bali!! CNY 2015

P.S. – amusement is in the details –

Our flight back was with Philippines Air and I just wanted to share some strange, (archaic-colonial?) use of English from the crew announcements and airport signs:

“Please accomplish your landing cards.” à fill out

“Passengers may avail themselves of the free shuttle to Terminal 2.”

“You must divest yourself of electronics prior to going through the security check.”

Our trip to Kenting for the NYE break

Rich and I spent January 1-4, 2015 in the south of Taiwan. It was really windy-blowy the first few days, but in the 20s and our last day we spent lounging around on the beach, even hiding out from the sun under an umbrella.

Here is a small collection of our photos. Excuse the low quality of our mobile phones.

Kenting Jan 2015

We only took one video - me being silly as I tried to battle the wind to stand up straight for a photo. Little did I know that Rich was filming the whole time. Ha.

Estonia: Tartu: Kids, Architecture and AHHAA! moments

Some years ago I remember reading that Estonia had really come into its own since gaining its independence from the former USSR in 1991. A visitor to the country had written how impressed he was that this underpopulated (1.3 million) little country had proven itself on the mobile technology stage and long before the smart phones generation, it was already common practice to park and pay with a simple cellphone text. Another fact I discovered during my stay is that the ubiquitous cyberspace phone application Skype, is in fact an Estonian invention. Cool!


I spent nearly a week with my brother's family in Tartu, Estonia's second biggest city. Summer vacation had just started, so all was pretty quiet, since it's largely known as a university town. It was perfect for wandering the streets admiring old architecture and soaking in some family time with my two little nieces whom I finally met for the first time. We went to AHHAA (could there be a better name for a science center?), the Tartu branch of Estonian National Museum (small, so-so), second-hand clothing shops (frequent and a life-saver since it was freezing at 10C), the Old Town, Botanical Gardens and my sister-in-law Mari-Liis' parents' home outside of the city, where they live year-round, grow lots of vegetables and even hosted us for a barbecue on my last night in town.

Just another family outing...

All in all, Tartu was a fab relaxing start to my five week tour of family in various countries on two continents. Thanks for being such awesome hosts: Mari, Des, Nik and Olivia! ^_^

Estonian National Museum: no reason to drink out of wee mugs when there's beer to be had

Just love this house!

More cool old buildings around Tartu: I really loved Jaani Church, seen here on bottom left and top right corners

Grafitti.

At the Science Center AHHAA: fun with mirrors and a vertical drop

Nothing gets past Detective Desiree

Breakfast at Werner's, probably the oldest cafe in town, founded in 1895

Old Town Square: art installation

Old Town Square: I'm on the cover of my own issue of National Geographic!

Even more photos from Tartu

Xebe's visit to Taiwan, winter 2013

Ana's sister Xenia made the long and harrowing journey from N. America to Taiwan. Yay!  Here are two weeks of fun and silliness:

Xebe in Taiwan

First Year of Uni Wrap-Up

A few weeks away from starting my second year of the Chinese Language and Culture degree, I found this video of one of my last semester's final presentations -- and post it here because who doesn't like to watch home movies in languages they don't understand? ; )

Actually, I felt pretty critical watching it, like I could suddenly hear a glaring accent and all these other could-be-better things... I mean of course I don't sound like a native speaker yet. Maybe the fact that I'm picking up my substandard nuances means I'm improving.

In case you haven't seen them yet, some shots from the end of my school year, or first half of 2011.

first year uni wrap-up

I really can't believe it's the end of August 2011. That's less than a year and a half 'till the end of the world! I better make sure I'm enjoying the finest chocolate money can buy as often as possible.

Another typhoon on the way in... If it's not raining cats and dogs when we wake up, we're supposed to go on a hike out to some waterfalls with a bunch of fellow adventurers. Island weather - anything could happen! I hope clear skies are in the cards.

Vicarious Photography

At least someone's not being lazy about publishing their photos...

I'm in 新竹 (Hsinchu/Xinzhu depending on whether you use the arcane yet still official romanisation or the modern pinyin that makes sense). Tomorrow is the last day of summer camp at a junior high, where the students have needed various levels of cajoling to get them to participate, their personalities ranging from pure brattiness to painfully shy to just couldn't be bothered... Anyway, it's been a pretty good experience, the company running the camp as well as all my co-teachers are fab.

I get back to Taipei tomorrow night and just over 48 hours later hop on a (direct! yea!) flight to Vancouver, where I haven't been in nearly 3 years. Then onto Tarana (Toronto... but who actually says it that way?) to see my family who are all gathering and making time for the occasion and even helping me finance this dream summer vacation trip into reality. Best family ever! : ) It'll be strange being back, I'm sure! Strange and fun. Who are you, when you haven't been defined by that reality of geography, culture and social interactions for so long?

Anyway, I'm here in Xinzhu perusing Flickriver and running across gems like this one, that I was moved to share. I think in some way it must make up for my lack of uploading pictures, or at least divert everyone's attention away from the fact... hey, look, a WAAAAY better photographer!

Source: Philipp Klinger

Happy summer everyone, stay cool and I might be in your neighborhood before long!

Picture Fun (with Flickr)

My sister (thanks, Xe!) recently sent me this great link:

Flickr Color Selector

See that square of color gradation from light to dark, and the sliding bit on the color spectrum beside it (top left on the page)? Change to any color and shade, give your Internet connection a few seconds, and - voila! Feeling emerald green? Fire engine red? Deep sea turquoise? Choose your own color photo-browsing adventure!

Then, for even more exciting random browsing fun, from the Flickr home page type anything you might be interested in into the search box, hit enter and... go anywhere in the world in seconds!

Here are a few of my explorations:

sky lanterns Taiwan

Easter Island

mountain top

origami

totem poles or

Mediterranean

If you find some good ones, send them my way!

Happy exploring!