The Taiwanese little green man is famous, because he is tirelessly walking and walking, sometimes for nearly 100 seconds at once. I am truly impressed by how much strength and perseverance they show every day. But when I see these little green men every day when I cross the road, I see myself and other Taiwanese reflected in them. They are like a symbol of Taiwan, they keep walking and working, they never complain about anything, they're just doing their job every day over and over again. I'm now a little green man, too. It's scary how fast you become one.
This video was shot at one of the plenty shrimp farms 釣蝦場 (pronounced diào xiā cháng) in Taiwan and became very popular on YouTube. The sexy girl is dancing like she's at a night club and all the men seem to be amazed how direct she is. The best part of the video is at 3.02, when she grabs a young guy's head and gives him a... well, you better see it for yourself! :-P I have to say I heard about this for the first time today and although it was new to me, I somehow wasn't shocked. You see a lot of crazy things in Taiwan and this one is one of the harmless ones.
What are shrimp farms?
These farms allow you to fish shrimps from their pools and the ones you catch, you can either bring home or barbecue them there and eat them right away. You only pay a certain hourly fishing fee. The prices vary, but they usually start at 150NTD per hour (that's around 3.5 Eur). Some farms differentiate the price by the gender of the shrimp, fishing at the pool of male shrimps is more expensive (not sure, if that's sexism or because the male shrimp is bigger). Some farms, like in the video above, hire hot girls to dance in order to entertain the men and attract more of them in the future. I have to say the marketing strategy is very simple, but highly effective.
Here are some photos from few years ago. My wife and her friend went to a shrimp farm:
My wife's friend caught a shrimp, yay.
And then they barbecued it right there at the farm.
That's how a shrimp looks like after it's done. It looks delicious.
My wife told me that a lousy fisher may only catch 1 shrimp in two hours, but there are people who catch over 30 in one hour. I'm not really that crazy about shrimps, so I probably won't be seen at some of these farms, but who knows. Maybe I'll go to see a hot performance.
This cool video made by students of the University of British Columbia (UBC) is a reply to an article, that stirred up a controversy in Canada by talking about certain universities being “too Asian”. Some quotes from the article: “I look Asian but I’m white in all other respects”... “completely whitewashed”... a “banana”... “yet another Asian student who wants to major in math and science and who plays the violin”. Read the article>>
Then on the other hand, there's no major outrage over this... Interesting, isn't it?
What do you think about the video? What do you think about the stereotypes about Caucasians and East Asians mentioned in the video? What do you think about the articles?
Thanks to Bekah, who linked the video on Facebook.
Sometimes I get emails from various people and companies asking me to write about their product or let them guest post here. I usually decline. But yesterday a TV producer from America got in touch with me by sending me the following email, which I agreed to publish here, because I won't participate in the show, but I'd like to help her (see the video above to get an impression of the show). If any of you would like to join, read through the email and check the details I provided at the end:
Dear MKL,
I found your details on your blog, I hope you might be able to help me with my strange request!
I am a Producer working on a television show called House Hunters International which follows English speaking expats in their quest to purchase a house abroad. I am hoping to find English speaking expats to profile who are living in Taiwan. I wonder if you or any of your expat contacts might be interested in getting involved?! Please find a little blurb about the show below:
House Hunters International is a half-hour program currently airing on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV). The program is a spin-off of the popular House Hunters and has spent the last several seasons exploring the idiosyncrasies of buying real estate in other countries. HHI is about a personal journey of discovery and the making of life-long dreams.
The series is designed to de-mystify the international home-buying process by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where buyers and their real estate agents tour 3 homes. At its core, House Hunters International is a travel show concentrating on the idiosyncrasies of the locales and what makes them special and different. A great deal of effort will be made to capture rich visuals and to provide sequences where viewers will be exposed to local vistas, traditions, lifestyles and architecture.
Please get in touch if you have any more questions about the show. I look forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes and many thanks,
Michelle
So if you're an English speaking expat in Taiwan and looking for a house, get in touch with Michelle. Her email is: MichelleJames[at]leopardfilms.com. Good luck :)
Do you remember the hot Taiwanese singer Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕) I introduced a little while ago? Check this shocking video of her live performance and tell me what do you think by voting on the poll:
Today is 10.10.10, which means happy birthday Republic of China, which is commonly known as Taiwan. So let's just say happy birthday, Taiwan then! Today's day is also named Double ten day. 99 years ago, on October 10 1911, an uprising led to the end of the last Chinese dynasty and the beginning of the first Chinese republic. Taiwan (since 1949) is the continuation of that first Republic and still holds its official name today.
To commemorate this day, I thought of sharing an exceptional Taiwanese man. This man has become an internet sensation in Taiwan and after you see him and his skills, you will not only be mesmorized by him, you will love him. His name is Master Zhuang Yuan 莊圓大師! And what's so special about him? Well, he loves to dance and...
He thinks he is Buddha or that Buddha was reborn in him.
He also thinks that the handsomest Buddha was reborn in him and that his actions are the actions of Buddha and that they show how Buddha would behave and especially how he would express himself in dance. Master Zhuang has a website and a Youtube channel Buddhacome, where he posts his amazing dance videos. Have a look of one of his famous videos:
Young Taiwanese, famous for being big jokers, found his videos and started to make parodies of him. If you're somehow sensitive to this kind of jokes, I suggest you don't look at the videos, although I feel they're pretty innocent. Here are some of the videos, that recreated Master Zhuang's famous dance moves:
Japanese para-para version:
Star Wars version
Video game version
The best is still Master Zhuang himself, though. Enjoy :-)
How do you like Master Zhuang Yuan and his dance moves?
This video has over 3 million views at this moment and I'm sure it'll become even more popular in no time. JennaMarbles, the creator of the video, is really hilarious and although she's very funny, she does make serious points. Her point is: These days almost every girl can look hot, if she has good make up skills and fashion sense.
What do you think on the issue? Most of you would probably say you prefer a natural look. But then again, natural could also mean naked or with a leaf in front of your private parts ;-) I think once mankind started to take daily baths, combing and/or cutting hair and wearing clothes, we bassically said Eff you, nature.
Chinese blogger 妮妮 is a great example of extreme makeover (source).
I don't really feel turned off by fake eye lashes, dyed hair and a lot of make up. It all comes down to how it's done. And of course I still need to like the girl, when she removes everything. When it comes to my girlfriend, she looks good with heavy, light or no make-up, because she's naturally cute. But if the difference was as big like in the case of a Taiwanese blogger or the Chinese girl on the photo above, then I'd say "thanks but no thanks." :-) How about you?
I found this short video on YouTube of a bunch of young Americans (or were they Canadians?) taking the subway in Japan (most probably in Tokyo) and being noisy, pestering people around them and talking nonsense. Sorry to say to my American friends, but your reputation in East Asia is not good, especially in South Korea and parts of Japan (due to heavy military presence), China (political issues) and Taiwan (young expatriates). And Canadians are slowly catching up, because of some people who come to work as English teachers and get drunk one too many times or even get involved in fights or generally disrespect the local culture and women. And behavior like seen in the video doesn't help to improve the bad image, does it? Even, if you're just a visitor, a tourist, it doesn't give you the right to behave the way you do at home. But I guess some people just don't care. And then things like this happen and I'm not surprised at all.
Of course on the other side, there's also a lot of nationalism or racism in East Asian countries as well. Sometimes all foreigners from the West are lumped together and seen as "bad, arrogant, aloof, criminals, having no morals, disregarding the local culture etc." And it's not only driven by common people, but mostly by the media. It's a vicious circle and that's certainly not good for both sides. Europeans are still lucky, but that's because we're less known. We weren't really engaged in East Asia a lot in the past 50 years, be it militarily or as expatriate language teachers, like the current flock of young people, who most often come from USA, Canada and Australia. And believe me, we have some pretty obnoxious people in Europe, too.
With all that said, let me stress, that I do not believe (or try to imply here) that the majority of Americans and Canadians, who go to Asia, behave in a bad way (or that Europeans are better than them). I'm just talking about the stereotypes. Those who behave bad are in a big minority. And of course the media will rather drive (or blow up) the the story of a drunk foreign English teacher involved in a brawl rather than tell the stories of hundreds of polite foreigners, who respect the locals, speak their language and blend in perfectly. The media in the Far East, especially in South Korea, is constantly implying "that foreigners were going out there with the intent to make trouble..." (Metropolitician, 2008, Tips To Avoid Being Assaulted in Korea). Media making up or distorting a story about foreigners in East Asia is not a new thing and we (the foreigners) need to be very careful not to give them unneccessary material. And another thing I need to add: The White Westerners have it much easier in the Far East than those foreigners of African descent. I'm fully aware of that while writing this, but that's a whole 'nother topic. You can read more about that here.
When I'm in Asia, I try my best to represent my culture and my country well. I usually say I'm Slovenian or European (or both), depends on the situation. Sometimes I'm too tired to explain where Slovenia is, so I just say I'm from Europe. It's funny how people almost by default assume I was American. And if you read the paragraphs above, being seen as American in Asia is not always good. On the other hand, my girlfriend says I totally look "European" on the outside (whatever "looking European" is), and dress and behave like one (?). I wonder, what makes us Europeans so different from North Americans on the outside. Any ideas?
I must say, it's not only the bad reputation of Canadians and Americans in East Asia, that makes me stress my Slovenian and European heritage, but it's the pride of being who I am and where I come from and the fact, that we're still different, even though we're all Westerners. Even Americans and Canadians are different and don't want to be seen as same (even though they many times are seen as same). In the end, I hope people would be seen as the individuals they are and without prejudice or stereotypes, that are attached to the group they belong. Of course, that's wishful thinking, because foreigners face prejudice everywhere, in East Asia, in North America and also in Europe. That's why the struggle goes on. We'll need decades to really get to know each other well. But will we really get along and respect each other? I'm positive and I'll say eventually we will.
What do you think about the people in the video?
What are your thoughts on all the issues I pointed out?
Dining exquisite food on top of Taipei 101 with a gorgeous lady
How to put such amazing experience into words? It's impossible. And I don't want to talk too much, let the photos do the talking. But I need to mention how it all started. I just turned 30. And few days ago, before my birthday, my wonderful girlfriend Lily told me, that she plans a big surprise on my birthday. I only knew, that we'll be going somewhere, but I had no clue where. I try to ask many times, but she won't tell or she'd make up something else to confuse me. Today she came to me around midday and we spent the afternoon together, anticipating the evening. She looked stunning, when I saw her. All dolled up in a wonderful dress and high-heels. She was always beautiful to me in so many ways, but today she topped all that and looked more gorgeous than ever.
We took the subway to Taipei City hall station around 5pm and walked around a little. I started to guess all kinds of silly things, like: Are we going to a night club? Will there be naked girls dancing for me? I became nervous. She just wouldn't tell, although I had a strong suspicion, that we'll go somewhere near Taipei 101. And then the clock turned 6 and she told me: We're going on top of Taipei 101, on the 85th floor. I was like: Wow! Amazing! And I started to look up on top of the building. It was a humbling moment. The photo above was taken around 6pm.
We went to the 85th floor of Taipei 101, which is located somewhere in the middle of the last 8th segment of the building (see arrow) very close to the roof. The height is around 370m, the highest I've ever been. The restaurant's name is Diamond Tony's 101 Observatory Restaurant, which serves Italian food. There are two more restaurants on top of Taipei 101: Another one also on the 85th floor, offers Taiwanese food and it's named Shin Yeh 101 欣葉. And above these two, occupying the whole 86th floor, is a Japanese restaurant named XEX. I'm perfectly happy with the restaurant Lily chose, because the food was the best I've ever eaten. More about that later.
How to come here: Go to the MRT Taipei City Hall station and walk south. You'll see Taipei 101 from afar easily, because it's so tall. You have to enter from the Xin Yi road.
Off to the elevators, the fastest in the world!
In the fastest ascending elevator in the world. It was a great experience.
We were taken to 65th floor, which took us about 30 seconds. Then we were directed to another elevator, that took us to the 85th floor, which took another 10 seconds. And then we were there, at the Diamond Tony's 101 Observatory Restaurant or 隨意鳥地方 101 高空觀景餐廳 in Chinese. Because the restaurant has to be booked, Lily's name was checked and then we were let inside.
The entrance of Diamond Tony's on top of Taipei 101.
The bar on 370m.
We were brought to our table for two, the one on the left was ours.
This was our neighboring table. If you get this one, you have a magnificent view.
This one is set for a group of people. Do you see the table setting? Perfect, isn't it?
The first thing we did was taking a look down. I felt like I'm on a plane.
The view of Taipei below was amazing! Don't you agree?
A view to the other side: The restaurant. It was full around 7pm, because of dinner time.
The waiters and waitresses were extremely polite and did a great job. We were given the menu soon after being seated and a glass of water was poured for us. We didn't wait long for the first starter.
1 First starter: Bread and tuna dip is served to every guest as the first starter
2 Second starter:Left is my salad with raw salmon, right is Lily's salad with beef: Delicious!
3 Soup:Left is my creamy mushroom soup, right is Lily's tomato soup (I think). Yummy!
4 Third starter:I thought this was the duck, the main dish I ordered, but it was chicken (I guess). It was very soft and tasty. I loved it.
Lily ordered a prawn with dumplings, that had a prawn inside. It tasted great.
5 Main dish:Finally, my duck. It was really soooooooo yummy, one of the best meals I've ever eaten. The duck was so soft, the sauce was great. And there was a piece of pork and a beef steak in contrast of the soft duck. The steak was raw inside, but yummy. Really an amazing dish.
Lily ordered prawn again. She regretted ordering it twice, but it was yummy nevertheless.
~.~
Then came my surprise: The waitress brought a chocolate muffin for my birthday and of course that was organized by Lily, who had a naughty smirk on her face, when she saw my surprise. She said I had three wishes free, but I should not reveal them. I quickly came up with three things I really wish would happen to me and to give you a hint: One is related to a woman, one is related to a country and another is related to... Can't tell ya! ;-)
I quickly noticed that an "h" is missing. Oh oh, what is that? Engrish on my birthday? Haha. Another reason, why Taiwan needs more English teachers, hehe :-P That was the only 'flaw' of the evening.
~.~
6 Dessert: Both had the same dessert and it was small, simple, but yummy.
On top of that, we also ordered coffee for me and tea for Lily, plus two glasses of excellent Chardonnay to say cheers to my 30th birthday. Food and drink wise it was the best dinner of my life. And of course the I enjoyed the best view and had the best and most beautiful lady by my side. It just couldn't be less than perfect. Sorry for the gourmets among you, I'm not so good with the names of the dishes, I just eat them, hehe.
After the last bite and sip, we took tons of photos like most of the visitors did. There was even a live band playing all kinds of music, from jazzy stuff to some modern hits like Lady Gaga's "Just Dance". It was funny, when I heard Gaga's song, because we have birthday on the same day. I was wondering, how she's celebrating. Does she have more fun than me? Who knows...
A short video to give you an idea of the ambiance in Diamond Tony's 101
The video is not of good quality, but it will give you a little idea of the restaurant.
There's really nothing to criticize in this restaurant. The waiting staff is polite and works fast and they all speak English. The food is top notch. A small inconvenience are the long dining, which make it hard for two people to talk. But maybe it was because of the music, I don't know. We still had a great time, the food was so delicious, we had no time to chit chat.
Some more photos for you to enjoy:
The great view from the window behind Lily's chair.
Lily taking photos. She used a saucer to bring the camera in a better position. Smart.
One of the best photos of Taipei at night.
Taipei, city of lights.
The table next to us. People enjoying themselves.
The live band with the delightful female singer.
The way to the toilet, that comes with a marvelous view. But I have no pics.
When leaving 101, we were greeted by a full moon.
All in all, it was really a great day, a day I will never forget. I celebrated my 30th birthday on top of the famous Taipei 101, former highest building of the world and current second. Guess what, it was also a first time for Lily to be on top of the building, although she's from Taipei (actually Yingge), but she had to wait all these years for me to finally make it on top of Taipei 101. That's why it was a special occasion for both of us. It was really a day both of us won't ever forget.
Thank you so much, Lily, for giving me the best experience of my life. You made it so special for me, I was really touched. And thank you for the card, for organizing everything and for the big surprise. And thanks for treating me. You're simply amazing and I love you.
Do you want to dine in a hospital, a classroom or in an airplane? Come to Taipei!
A video about theme restaurants in Taipei was linked to me on Twitter via a Taiwanese friend. And since it's quite rare for CNN and other international media to mention Taiwan in relation to something cool, I thought of posting it here for you. And it's not about some scandalous theme restaurants from the past like The Jail (惡魔島), which caused an uproar some years ago, because they depicted Nazi camps with gas chamber signs. No, the ones in the recent years are funny and cool. And they're totally in. If you come to Taipei, you gotta visit one.
CNN's video introduces several theme restaurants in Taipei. They mention the Airplane theme restaurant (A380 In-Flight Kitchen 空中廚房), the Hospital theme restaurant, the Classroom theme restaurant and a specially designed restaurant, where everything's made of paper. There's even one, where you play with hand puppets. Crazy. Yep, Taiwanese are totally into wacky stuff.
My best experience with a theme restaurant in Taipei so far was dining at the Modern Toilet, a restroom themed restaurant and probably the most famous restaurants of this kind in the world. And it's a totally Taiwanese invention. If you ever come to Taipei and want to have a wacky dining experience, let Modern Toilet be your first choice. Later you can try some crazier stuff like the Hospital themed restaurant. As far as I am concerned, I plan to visit all the famous theme restaurants in Taipei. I will list them here for you. Hopefully the list will become long through time. And I hope I can help you finding these places and showing you how they look like. The rest is up to you. Enjoy!
Just kidding! Actually it was a dog and he was too tired to walk, let alone bite
I was just making a short clip of the crazy traffic in one of Taipei's older districts, when a stray wolf dog slipped past me. He looked a bit dangerous from far, but when he came close and snuck around my legs, he seemed rather dog-tired. I asked him Wazzup dawg? but he ignored me. Guess he had to rush home to his wife and was late again. When he finally crossed the road in that crazy traffic, I was totally baffled: How can he cross so quickly and easily, while I sometimes stand for 5 mins and watch the motorbikes pass by like there's no tomorrow? As I was contemplating on the best strategies to cross that road, he was long lost in the concrete jungle.
Lesson of the day: Humans can also learn from dogs, not only vice versa :-)
And what could you do while waiting for that reunion dinner
1 You could sing Chinese new year songs
2 You could play football with a lovely Chinese girl
3 You could ask Malaysians about the meaning of life
4 You could make Chinese new year cards
But be careful, if you have a dog, he may not be amused, if you spend too much time with your cat: . . . . .
Happy Chinese new year, my lovely Chinese friends from all over the globe!
新年快乐! 恭喜发财!
Ok, the pics above were obviously meant as a joke. Do you really want to know how Malaysian Chinese celebrate new year? If yes, then please check the photos I made last year:
said fellow blogger Chris Lim. And he couldn't be more right!
I found this video via Chris's blog and decided to post it here. After you have watched it, you can be sure that your life, as you've knew it before, has changed forever. But... you'll find out, who you really can trust. [*Video is in Swedish and it may load slowly, but it's definitely worth to wait]
I made this short clip for you to see how snowy it is here today, actually it's like this throughout the whole winter. You can hear me speaking English a little bit. ^_~ What do you think?
ps: For now, I will remain behind the cam. I may be in front some day, but not too soon ;-)
I found this cute little video made by a fellow [at that time 16 years old] Slovenian girl, who talks about the differences between the two countries Slovenia and Slovakia. It's very common for people to mistake these two countries, because the names are similar. But she's funny and does a great job explaining it for you [in Eng]. Enjoy this 2:41 long video and learn a bit more about my country.
Have a lovely weekend. ;-)
This is just a filler, because I'm on a creative break, hehe. :-)
Do you know the difference between Slovenia and Slovakia now?
My fellow Malaysian blogger Netster a.k.a. Jong Fui Fa, accidentally tweeted a link to an old post of his, and since I'm a busy body, I followed that link and found a video of a beautiful song he sang. The song was originally recorded by an Indonesian pop rock band Nidji [more info here] and it's called Arti Sahabat["The meaning of a best friend"]. I loved that song instantly. And I thought it'd be a great way to promote my dear friend's blog and also give you the pleasure to enjoy some awesome music from Indonesia, wut wut! Check the two videos below, first one is the cover version from Netster:
Here's the original Arti Sahabat by Nidji:
Music connects people! High five! Enjoy my friends' art.
No more drama! It was all a misunderstanding. The post Carina wrote was meant sarcastic, but I took it literally. I'm so sorry for my reaction, Carina. I made a mistake, I just didn't get it. I'm really sorry and embarrassed. So no more drama, we talked about it and let's move on. It was a nontroversy.
After such a stressful day today, I need some relief. I didn't feel so good the whole day, I need some rest. Let's just enjoy this video and be positive.
It's funny to see the Pope an Putin as evil, haha. But I really have no clue what this is about, I just know it's silly and that Japan is very good in stuff like this. Don't you agree?
*Disclaimer: I wrote this post in a cynical and sarcastic way, inspired by Seinfeld's nihilism and seasoned with my recent bitterness. Keep that in mind.
I recently added many old schoolmates on my Facebook. There were so many requesting to be my 'friend', I just couldn't continue ignoring them. So I created another account just for them. First of all, why do so many people I was never close with, want to follow my daily life, rummage thru my photos, be my 'friends'? Didn't they get the hunch by me virtually ignoring them in real life for almost a decade? I'm not gonna update anything on my second account but just upload photos from my travels and let them wonder. Yes, that's how I roll, hehe. I still have my old (main) account where I only add people who I feel comfortable with. And guess what, most of them are from all over the world. Yes, in this phase of my life, I only befriend like-minded people and not those who just happen to live in the same town like me. And some people from here, who happen to be my friends, don't use Facebook (weird). But thanks to the internet, I can have 2 identities and nobody can do anything about it. Yes, I am very selective.
Well, what actually made me write this post, was the fact that so many of my old schoolmates have babies and they post pics of them on Facebook. I mean, why would they do this? Why? First of all, I would never put a photo of my (future) baby online. I mean, what will these 'babies' say in 20 years? Do we have to document someone's life online since their birth? What happened to the old classic phot album? They are humans and not objects and since they're incapable to tell wheather they want to be exposed online or not, I would never put their photos online. Secondly, every baby looks the same. So what's the point to let others see a baby? Can't you just write 'I have a baby, it's healthy and it looks like any other baby' on your wall and get on with your life? Wouldn't that be enough?
I mean, where is the time when people, if they really wanted to see your baby, came to your home? Is this so 20th century? [*Am I too sentimental?]
I mean something like that on the clip below, from Seinfeld:
I feel like some people post the pics of their babies like trophies, like Look at me, I am not yet 30 and I have a baby! I accomplished something! I am mainstream. Are you? Well, I am not. I could be easily, but since I was always a skilled master of *cough... I mean, I was always careful, so I just happen not to be. Which can be an accomplishment far bigger than the opposite. Then again, what is mainstream these days anyway? Men in twenties 'having babies' seem to become rare recently. So maybe I am mainstream.
I really don't know... maybe I'm bitter now, but once I have a baby myself, I will be like them: An overly excited parent-freshman, who will post hunderds of photos of his newborn and prouldy tweet: My baby made his first poop. #proudparent #baby #random and then soon after post another tweet: Please follow @littleMKL #FF. Hehe, who knows. We'll see in few years ;-)
Now, what do you think? Baby photos online, pro or contra and why? Not being a parent in the twenties, pro or contra and why?
Or should I say Swedish nightclubs vs. English nightclubs? Check the slideshow below and you will see why. The first part is really awsome, but the second part is what you were really waiting for!
Where do I want to go tonight?
Sweden, Sweden, Sweden!!!
Ok, let's face it: This slide show is not objective, but there is some truth in it. Sweden has some of the most gorgeous women, while England is not very famous to be a hottie-paradise. In fact, in my country, there's a common cliché, that English women are ugly. I don't like these kind of generalizations, they're baseless and shallow. I'm sure England has many beautiful women. But when it comes to looks, I prefer Swedish ladies over English, because I think naturally blonde women are über hot. How about you? What do you prefer, English babes or Swedish beauties? :)
