Hong Kong - Day 2

Another very full, very sweaty day. 

Today we took a ferry from Hong Kong to Cheung Chau which is an outlying island. There are no personal motorized vehicles on the island, just a few little truck type things for ambulances and moving heavy objects used by workers. 

 It was a very, very hot day but we still wanted to hike all over. We quickly ditched the crowds and worked our way higher up some of the hills towards the center of the island. We were immediately rewarded with some beautiful views. 

As soon as we started to climb we left all the crowds behind which was very nice. The big draw was some beaches that we stopped at later but were not our main goal. The roads on the island were paved or stoned very nicely and it made for easy walking even with the hills. Before we knew it we came upon a long section of road that was bordered by cemeteries. 

Many of the graves had pictures of the deceased. It was difficult to tell the years but it seemed that some of them had been there for quite a long time!

We finally got to a very private beach with beautiful coarse sand that gave you a nice massage when you walked across it. We passed this little fellow on the way. He is actually about 6 inches in diameter. 

He was scary! 

Our beach was in a nice little cove and it was very refreshing to walk in the water for a while. 

After the beach we hiked up again and came to the Reclining Rock. At least we think this is what the signs were talking about. On top of the rock we had a nice view of the South China Sea and the little bay where we had just been. We saw many many huge ships. This is one of the largest shipping corridors in the world.  

After resting for a while and enjoying the cool ocean breeze we were on our way. The next part of our hike brought us through this little joy. 

Just through this channel and to the right we went up some really steep stairs curving through a huge boulder. Being the tall (and somewhat clumsy) person I am I smashed my head into the rock overhang. Thankfully, because it was dark, I had my sunglasses on my head and they took the majority of the blow. One lens has a huge scratch in it but better that than a huge scratch in my head, eh? 

Immediately after this photo is when the head crashing happened. None the less it was a very cool part of the hike. 

We saw very few people as we hiked but we did encounter this group of ladies who were picking up trash. It was hot. Very hot. The kind where sweat is running off of you when you aren't even moving. So naturally their outfits are totally understandable...

Could you have MORE clothes on?!  Also, that is no small hill they are walking up. I was a sweaty mess. As such

Yuck!! 

We finally came down out of the hills and were awash in groups of Asian teenagers learning how to ride bikes for the first time. Scary!!! Brakes seemed to be a concept they were not interested in exploring. 

We also saw this fellow. 

Quite the look. 

After walking around and looking in many shops we finally decided to head to the beach. I gave in and bought a much needed hat for $8. 

That stand behind me is the lifeguard tower. I have no idea how he was going to get down to the water and rescue someone in a timely fashion. He is a good 30 yards away from the actual water and his tower opened away from it. I'm glad I wasn't in need of saving. 

We spent a couple of hours laying on the beach amidst the screeches of children and floating in the salt water. I even caught a little cat nap which was really nice. Then we packed up and got on the ferry back to Hong Kong. While we sat waiting for the ferry I developed an admirer. 

He was incredibly interested in me and was very blatantly staring. I don't think his interest was anything inappropriate. He probably just hadn't seen a person quite as white as me before. 

That is my "Hey this guy is scaring me!" look. After a few minutes we boarded the ferry and guess who shows up in the seat directly in front of me? Yup. That guy. He spent the majority of the 30 minute trip alternating between snoozing and turning around and looking at me awkwardly through the gap in the seats. Finally just as we were about to get off I decided that I needed to try and catch a photo of him peering between the seats. I readied my phone, pretended like I was typing, my opportunity came and I took it. However, my flash was on. Guy got a flash to the eye ball and I was totally exposed in my plan. Thankfully we had just docked and I rushed out of there like a bat out of hell and I escaped his curious glances for good. Or so I hope. 

This is the resulting photo which is very blurry because of my reaction to the flash but you can get the idea of his peeping nature. 

It was a very fun but warm and sweaty day mixed with some salt water, so after some much needed showers we headed out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It is a Taiwanese chain but has excellent food and I thought it would hit some of my cravings. After having my share of yummy greens, soup dumplings, and egg rolls (all with copious amounts of chili oil of course), we meandered a few malls and called it a night. 

Tomorrow we should get our Chinese visas and then be onto Guilin, China. If everything goes according to plan. However the plan is incredibly complicated and has a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong, so we will see. 

That's all for today folks. It is well after midnight here and I'm a tired little girl. For those of you just picking up my journeys, welcome!! Please, as a reminder to everyone, feel free to comment or ask questions and pass the blog along if you know anyone else who might like what I have to say. 

I will leave you with this photo of Hong Kong from Kowloon that I took today just as it started to cloud over. 

Hong Kong - Day 1

Wow. What a day! Jam packed. 

We slept in a little and then got all of our duckies in a row. 

Yesterday we spent two hours at an agency preparing, repairing, re repairing, and submitting our applications for Chinese visas. There was much white out involved.  They will reject your visa if you use two different color inks...... Sigh. Hopefully those will come through for us on Thursday and we can be on our way to Guilin. 

Today we decided to head to Lantou which is the island just west of Hong Kong. It is very mountainous but has some low lying flat spots perfect for building mini metropolises like this one. 

I took this beauty from the Ngong Ping cable car which goes up, up, wayyyy up over a mountain and down the other side to the village of Ngong Ping. Those are all apartment buildings. This is just a small town here. (Think like Waukesha, WI in comparison to Chicago).  In Ngong Ping we saw this guy:

He is the world's largest Buddha - officially the Tian Tan Buddha . He is pretty darn big but much thinner than most Buddhas I've seen. No ubiquitous Buddha belly here. 

 

You have to walk up many, many steps (200 some) to get to the Buddha. There were lots of people off to the side huffing and puffing but we champed it and went straight to the top. 

There he is. Way up there. Being all big and Buddha-y.  

We also visited a monastery. It was interesting to me that the vast majority of people were there for tourist reasons. Very few people seemed to be there for religious/spiritual reasons. There were a few people praying. More were lighting incense. It was very reminiscent of 12th-16th century European churches with alcoves along the sides owned by wealthy families. It was (and still is) very monetized. Those with the most money can worship their god better. Many idols. Many candles. Many rituals. And always things that smell. Why are there always things that smell?  

While waiting in line for the cable car we saw this guy. 

Check out that mullet!!  With the perm on the top and everything. Good entertainment for a few minutes. 

After Ngong Ping we took a 50 minute bus ride to a small fishing village called Tai O. The bus ride was...insane. Picture a big greyhound bus going down switchback mountain roads sometimes only wide enough for one direction of traffic at probably 60 mph.  I caught myself stomping on my imaginary brake pedal a few times. A number of times the driver would stomp on the brakes hard and we would all fly forward in our seats because he was about to go around a corner when another bus was coming in the other direction. It certainly kept us on our toes. (Miraculously, I somehow did not get sick)

Tai O is a very small village right on the edge of a bay. It seems to be from a different age. We saw very few signs of improvement or technology from the last 40 years. It is called the Chinese Venice because the "roads" are really only about 5 ft wide and eventually there are no more roads and instead plank ways. Half of the village is built up on stilts over the water. We walked all through the village and saw a lot of dried fish. Fish heads, fish skin, fish fins, pretty much anything. It all looked like rawhide to me. One of the shops had a bunch of plastic tubs on the ground with water and  different kinds of fish. As we walked past an Indian family stopped to admire the bucket of eels. We watched them watch their 8 year old (estimate) son take the grate off the top of the tub and stick his hand in, grab an eel and pull it out. The grandma running the shop nearly keeled over she was shouting so loud. Apparently eels can bite. (Who knew? Right?) The dad just murmured a "sorry" and they moved along. Perhaps they were just hoping to get a photo.  

Many of the buildings in the village, both on land and stilts, were very dilapidated but would be right next to newish nice buildings. 

Case and point. To be fair the house on the left was probably the nicest house in the whole village and the one on the right was one of the worst. But it shows you the spectrum. 

This was more of a typical house. 

It is impossible for you to see but there was an old woman sitting at a table just to the right of the ladder eating some dinner. Think they pay more taxes for having water front property?  I snagged all of these photos from a little boat excursion we went on that took us through the village and then out into another bay. In that bay we saw some pink dolphins jumping. Pink? Yup. Pink. Like someone dumped a couple tons of red kool aid powder into the bay and they swam around in it for a couple of weeks. Obviously that didn't happen but they were quite pink. I tried to get a photo but they were fast little buggers. 

After we were sufficiently sunned out and tired we took a 60 minute bus (still hair raising but not as much of a knuckle biter) back to the Tung Chung Station where we would pick up our subway a little later on. First we had to do some shopping at the outlet malls and get some more food. There was a fantastic bakery that we had stopped at on our trip out to Ngong Ping which we hit up again for treats. Chocolate bun anyone? 

How about some happy cheese cake? Maybe the colors don't come through but this cakes was bright pink, orange, and green. I think each was a different flavor. 

We also stopped for tempenyaki, which is a food preparation style where the chef will cook your meal on a flat grill right in front of you. 

I know. Not the best photo but I was more interested in eating than photo-ing. You can see my greens, sprouts and garlic shrimp in the background. Soooo yummy. 

At the outlet mall I bought a daypack. I had been using a very basic Nike drawstring bag and it works okay but it is certainly not good for my posture and leaves most of my things to the hazard of commingling due to single compartment syndrome. FYI: camera + water bottle + humid (condensation conducive) weather = eeeeekk.  I got a great deal on it and it is a pretty green color. I'm happy. 

On the subway ride home we sat next to a mixed family of a (by our best educated guesses) Swiss  dad and Hong Konger mom (yes that is the demonym), it was interesting to see them interact with their kids. Everyone seemed to be fluent in both Swiss German and Cantonese. Swiss German is hard enough to understand as it is but throw a Cantonese accent into the mix and I was really struggling. We also saw this little man. He was a full grown guy, not a little person, and I know the photo isn't very good but if you can tell he actually would fit under my armpit. 

His arm was fully outstretched to reach the handles that my head kept banging into. Wow. 

Once we had ridden the subway for 30 minutes we were back to Kowloon and had a short underground walk to go to reach our hostel. The subway system in Hong Kong is extensive. And there are many underground passageways connecting many stations. We walked through a lot of this and found a little mall. In the mall was a sweet shop where they hand make little rolled hard candies with messages or pictures inside. Of course I forgot to take a picture of a completed candy but we stood and watched them laboriously pulling the sugar and then molding and layering it to make the perfect shape. They were making smiley faces when we watched. 

We also had to do some shoe shopping. None were purchased but they might be before I leave ;-) (I'll be taking donations if anyone would like to support the Bess Needs Comfortable Sandals fund) 

Now we are back at the hostel, enjoying the air conditioning, and discussing plans for tomorrow. 

This little fellow is waiting to be eaten for breakfast 

Flatbread with cheese, bacon and black olives. **stomach grumbles**

Sleep for now. Because I will have so much to write I will discontinue Q&A Fridays. Instead just leave any questions you have in the comments and I will do my best to address them in the next post or respond directly in the comments. 

Thanks!

 

The Little Things

Sometimes it is the little things to make your day better. 

I was feeling pretty down this morning. I wasn't too excited to say good bye to Zac for another 4-5 months. I had a painfully long and jerky taxi ride to the airport and I got searched by security (again, I'm 4/6 on this trip with that), but as I boarded my Boeing 747 this morning I became aware that I had been upgraded and didn't even know it. So although my flight to Taipei is only 75 minutes long I can relax in my lie flat seat, eat some tasty snacks and have much more leg room than most Asian airlines afford my Anglo-Saxon legs. 

Then when I touch down I will be slightly more prepared to deal with the hustle and bustle that is extremely likely to ensue in my very short transition in Taipei. If all goes well I will be wheels down in Hong Kong this afternoon and have everything in order. 

Now if only I can get upgraded on my flight to Hong Kong.......did I just jinx it? 

Japan

The draught is over!!

At least for a little while. The last couple of weeks have been insanely busy and very stressful. I am very thankful to have them behind me. 

I prefer the blue serenity of the skies ahead. (Cheesy. I know.)

That was the view to the south as I landed at Naha. The sun was just setting as I took off from Taoyuan and was really really pretty but it was during that nasty NO PHONES time after take off and so I couldn't document it. 

I am currently in Okinawa, Japan visiting my boyfriend, Zac.  He is deployed here with the US Marine Corps and it seemed silly not to swing by when I had the chance. It has been really great to see a familiar face and to explore a new country (you know me, I'm always up for that!)  

This is the view from the room. Not so bad, eh?

Tomorrow I leave Japan, go back to Taiwan for two hours, then fly to Hong Kong where I will meet up with my Aunt. She will be my travel buddy for the remainder of my time in Asia. 

One of the first things I noticed in Japan is that there is a lot more English here than in Taiwan. Maybe it is because the island of Okinawa has a huge Air Force base and a number of Marine camps, so the local population has just adapted to the western influence. Of course, in such adaptations a few things get lost. For example at breakfast this morning I was perusing my drink options. Here are two: 

To the left was "Hibiscus tea" and to the right was "orange juice" but in the middle my options were "cat's whiskers" and "fishy-smell herb."  I didn't have the courage to smell any to see if they were, in fact, labeled correctly.  Not really sure what translation they were going for but I don't think they got it right. 

In the hotel room itself, there were a number of beauty products. Next to the sink were four bottles:

 The foaming wash I get. I also get the make up remover but.... Moist water? Moist milk?  No clue. Can you get water dry? 

In the mirror you can see my new iPad in its pretty blue case. This is what I will be traveling with for the remainder of my trip and therefor what I will be blogging with. The blogger app is not as in depth as the actual site and so there are a lot of functions that I will not be able to mess with. For example, the preset font size is too small and I usually (when I remember or someone reminds me) make the font bigger. However, I can't change it from the iPad. I will keep working on the settings but you all just might have to use the zoom option on your computers for the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately. 

I'm going off to enjoy my last 20 hours in Okinawa then I'm on the road again. Regular posting should resume in the nest couple of days! 

World Adventures!

This is my last week of teaching here in Taichung.  After Friday, I'm done.  It is bittersweet.  I very much love my students and I have fallen in love with Taiwan, but after program is done, I'm moving on.  

To what, you ask?  

Um... everything? 

Friday I kick out of here to Japan for the weekend.  

Sunday, I'm back on Taiwanese soil but Monday I'm turning around and leaving for Hong Kong where I will meet up with my Aunt.  She and I are going to tour through China, Korea, and then back to Taiwan over the next couple of weeks.  It is going to be a humdinger of a good time (sorry, I've been reading Roald Dahl's The BFG with some of my little ones, it sticks after a while.), but all of that travel and wrapping up of loose ends and the like takes a lot of time!  

While I hope that you all tune in for my whirlwind adventures in Asia, because sightseeing and travel makes for a lot better blog fodder than teaching the same group of students in the same classroom every day, I am here to tell you that you probably won't hear from me for the rest of the week.  There is laundry to be done, an apartment to clean, a classroom to clean, things to return, baggage to be packed and sent away, a backpack (meant to sustain me for three weeks) to be packed and only about 1 million other things to do. 

Not to mention, I have to plan my trips.  I haven't booked a flight to Japan yet, I have a very rough idea of where I'm going in China (naturally there are no flight or train tickets purchased yet,) and there is still all of Korea to think about.  Oh boy, I better stop thinking about this now and just start doing. 

I'll get back to you all in a few days.  I should be back in Wisconsin in late August, for all of you there who care.  While I'm on the road I will probably post daily or every other day, depending on the availability of internet.  

Open Market

Last week before the typhoon I took a little trip to the market in the village.  It is a short distance away but can be a little intimidating.  Around 5:30-6:00pm it is PACKED.  The butchers and grocers bring out all of their products at about 4:30 and everyone flocks in.  

People come in from the surrounding "countryside" (I put quotes around that because you would never consider it countryside, but the Taiwanese do.), and this is where they do all of their shopping.  Because the crowd is made up of "rural" people, I am even more of a novelty when I go to the market than I am just around town.  At this market is probably where I have felt like an outsider the most.  Through all of the hustle and bustle I am always keenly aware of people stopping their shopping to stare at me.  I can hear their thoughts, "What's the white girl doing here?"  

The last time I went, I tried to covertly snag a few photos for you.  The quality is not great, but when you are the center of attention the last thing you want to do is overtly take a picture of a butcher.  It is a great way to piss a few people off.  This market is far different from what you would see in the states and sometimes I still cringe at the state of cleanliness.  

This stand was pretty cool.  You would tell the man which fish you wanted and then the woman would scale and filet it for you.  The mobile thing above his head whirls around and keeps the flies away.  No, the fish are not on ice.  Those suckers were probably swimming in the ocean 2 hours before I took this photo though. 

At this stand you can get your chicken, goose, or other fowl.  Freshly defeathered too.  Nothing like getting a fluff of down feathers in your mouth when you're shopping for meat.  

I failed to take a photo of the actual butcher's stand.  I would have loved to have purchased some meat but there was one problem.  I haven't learned enough Chinese to ask, "When you killed this animal a couple of hours ago, what sound did it make?  Moo moo, cluck cluck, oink oink?"  Yes I can tell chicken from beef when I see it raw but it is difficult to decipher the cuts of meat.  Pork belly is a really big deal here, they LOVE it, but it is unlike any pork belly I've seen before.  I think some of it had bones in it.  Also, what do I do with an entire pork belly?  I don't know how to say, "I'd like one eighth of that."  So I chickened out.  My adventurous side kept telling me to just give it a try but the market was bustling and I didn't need tiny Taiwanese grandmas shouting at me for taking too long.  

The market doesn't just sell fresh meat.  They also sell... well I am not really sure how it is prepared.  Hmm.  I'll show you. 

I apologize for the blur.

These are smoked (??) whole fish  You can buy them by the plate.  On the far right you can see some pork belly that has been also smoked, maybe.  

This woman serves a whole bunch of boiled, roasted, and otherwise prepared meats and produce?  She is serving up some pigs ears at the moment of this photo.  I know it is hard to see, but just the right of the pole there are a bunch of ears.  Down the row a little are hooves.  To which animal they belonged, I'm not sure. 

As children, my siblings and I would often nag our mother to tell us what was for dinner.  When we reached a critical point of annoyingness she would respond with "Pig's feet and goat ears."  This puts a whole new perspective on that saying....

In this bunch are also some cuttlefish (no, I have no idea what it is), bamboo, snails, tofu, and a bunch of other unidentifiable options.  I think they are all the exact same color because I think they are all cooked in some combination of soy sauce and super concentrated tea.  I could be wrong though.  

Here is more of the same.  It may seem that you have no idea what any of this is by looking at it.  I didn't have any idea what it was when I saw it in person.  I see some seaweed.  And tofu  And.... I'm not sure.  

There are also big stands of fruits and vegetables.  I have purchased from these before because usually you can just buy one melon, communicated by pointing and saying "ee ga," or when it comes to vegetables you usually bag up how much you want and take it to a lady to weigh.  When it comes to paying I often have them repeat the amount 15-18 times, or I just hold up money and look at clerk questioningly and they take what out what I owe them.  It has worked well so far.  

The only downside to the market is the stand right in the front that sells Stinky Tofu.  I'm not a big fan of tofu to begin with but when it smells like horse manure, my brother's tennis shoes after a full day of matches, and burning flesh all in one... well I try to avoid it.  There are varying levels of pungency to stinky tofu.  The origin of stinky tofu is widely disputed.  In modern times it is made by fermenting tofu in a brine made from fermented milk, vegetables, and meat.  Sometimes they put in dried shrimp, bamboo shoots, various greens, and Chinese herbs.  Industrially produced stinky tofu is only fermented for a few days, while homemade and "high quality" stinky tofu can be fermented for months.  It is often served deep fried.  Eek.  

Stinky tofu isn't the only highly pungent food here.  Have you heard of durian?  It is an innocent looking melon type fruit with a hard shell.  Inside it is orange and sticky and gooey... and smells like rotting human flesh.  I'll let you think about that for a while. 

1000 year old eggs are also a Chinese delicacy that is quite interesting.  They are called pidan here and it is essentially an egg (duck, chicken or quail) that has been preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls.  They hang out in this mixture for up to a year  The yolk turns dark green or gray and smells like sulphur and the white turns into a dark brown, kind of tasteless jelly. 

1000 year old egg. 

And I think I will leave you with that.  :)

Post Soulik

Hey all,

I'm sorry my post as been delayed.  I wanted to let you all know I was A-Okay right away but the internet was sketchy for quite a while after Soulik.  Since then I have just been really busy with work!

I am A-Okay!!

The storm was pretty low key.  It got pretty bad at around 3 am on Saturday.  We destroyed a few umbrellas.  :)  

In the meantime my dear neighbors are fostering an adorable 2 1/2 week old little girl.  I get baby time whenever I want.  

My amazon hand is in there just for size comparison.  She is TINY.  Like just over 5 lbs tiny.  She does the amazing thing where she grabs onto one of my fingers and never lets go.  

Who wants to do work when you can cuddle with a baby?  Not me! 

Typhoon Soulik - Update 4

Hey Everybody, 

Just in case you've been watching closely I wanted to let you all know that I am doing just fine over here.  The winds and rain started to be something noticeable about 1 1/2 hours ago.  So far it hasn't been much worse than a moderately bad summer thunderstorm in Wisconsin.  The power went out for about 15 minutes around 12:00 am.  It came back on quickly no problem.  The internet has been a little groggy and so it has taken me a while to get a post up.  I apologize.  

If you've been watching the radar at all it is clear how much the mountains affect the storm.  Pretty much everything breaks up and dissipates before it even reaches us.  Truly, Taichung is the safest place to be on this island in a typhoon.  

The core of the storm is supposed to hit in the next 5-8 hours so I will know more by then.  

In my down time tonight I baked a flourless chocolate cake with vanilla bean creme anglaise sauce.  Then I ate it.  It was delicious. 

Believe it or not that is actually a piece of cake.  It is just so coated in anglaise that it is hard to tell.  Be jealous.  Very jealous. 

I've set alarms so I don't sleep there the core of the storm.  I hope to have an update up around 8 am my time (7pm CST), internet permitting.  

Good night! 

Typhoon Soulik - Update 3

Nothing yet.  

Soulik is on a confident path for Northern Taiwan.  He will come ashore sometime tomorrow evening as a Cat. III Super Typhoon.  Taichung will get hit with the closest thing to a direct hit without actually experiencing the eye.  Soulik is HUGE at 950km across with a 40 km eye (currently loosely formed and in a rebuilding phase).  As expected the storm has weakened over the last 12 hours but is expected to grow in strength again before landfall in Taiwan.  As it strengthens, it is slowing down considerably - hence the change from Friday morning landfall to Friday evening.   I'll save all the scientific mumbo jumbo for right now.  

On the brighter side I've been preparing.  And having fun doing it! 

Allow me to introduce you to Bess' Culinary Typhoon Preparation Kit.  From now on referred to as BCTPK which might be one of the worst acronyms ever to be penned (or in this case keyed.)

For ease I've included only the absolute necessities.  Please feel free to improvise and add whatever other culinary investments you'd like to make. 

#1: BAKED GOODS.  If you haven't already, check out this post about my favorite new bakery in Taichung.  I have a few oldies and a few newbies.  The French bread and garlic bread are now staples so of course I needed both for this weekend.  The weird crescent shaped thing just above the number 1 is Ruth's favorite - slightly smooshed.  It is a rolled bread with ham and turkey and bacon and cheese.  She is a big, big fan.  The chocolate ball there in the bottom right corner is new.  I haven't broken into it yet but I am thinking it is a chocolate bun with a filling covered in cocoa powder and slivered almonds.  I'll get back to you on that one. 
Usage:  Social emergency situations.  These often arise when too many people are stuck in the same small space while typhoon winds rage outside.  Deployment: 1) Identify the crabby, cooped up culprit 2) Kindly suggest they eat a sweet, delicious treat.  3) If step 2 fails, force feed the culprit some tasty treats until their mood improves. 

#2: SNACKS/JUNK FOOD.  You might recognize the Synders pretzel bites.  They are a nice reminder of home and have a delicious cheesy flavor to them.  The HaiTai crackeres are like the most buttery, salty delicious Club Crackers ever.  They make a ginormous mess but are totally worth it.  Pringles and peanuts are pretty much self-explanatory. 
Usage: For use in continual mushy food situations.  Identifiable when suspect's mouth tends to go slack from not having to chew and simply just mushing overcooked ramen between one's teeth for the last three days.  Deployment: 1) Produce crunchy, salt snacks.  2) No one has ever needed a step 2 before.  If you get this far you are doing something wrong. 

#3: WATER.  Um, duh?  Not pictured here:  Lemon Black Tea.  I forgot to add it to the photo but it is just as much of a staple as water is.  My students have figured this out.  Earlier this week I forgot my tea one day and they were very quick to suggest I try to order some for delivery.  It worked out well in the end.

#4:  DRANK.  Um, duh?  Naw, just kidding.  The presence of kid juice and adult juice is crucial to typhoon survival.  How else can you be expected to get through such a long time in the house with the same people?!  This particular kid juice is cranberry juice, though it is far too sweet for my taste.  The bottle is an Italian Moscato.  I've been saving it for something and a typhoon seemed like a good something. 
Usage: Extreme annoyance.  Deployment: 1) Identify the early stages of annoyance among inhabitants.  The indicating signs are: eye rolling, sighing, social and physical distancing, and verbal attacks.  2) If the annoyed inhabitant is not yourself, produce kid juice.  Force feed if necessary.  3)  If the annoyed inhabitant is yourself, pop Moscato.  Drink 1-2 glasses every 2 hours.  Repeat as necessary. 

#5: CANDY.  Here we have a few of my favorites.  Chocolate covered almonds.  Snickers bars.  Maple Pies.  I'm not sure why they are called pies but they are little puff pastries with a maple syrup flavor and caramelized sugar on top.  Delicious. 
Usage: See component #1.  Deployment:  See component #1

There you go.  Now you know how to be prepared for a Super Typhoon Bess style! 

I'll post in the morning as things start to change. 

Bakery

Onslaught of blogging.  RAWR!

Funny how a little change of location can really get you in the mood to blog. 

I found a bakery.  Mmmhmm. 

It's called Champs Elysees.  Creative, eh?  :-p 

Everyday at 5:30 pm they put out fresh everything.  And everything is good.  And everything is cheap.  I've never spent more than USD$6 at a time and I've got a ton of stuff! 

Examples. 

Day 1: 

The French Bread.  Oh my goodness the French Bread.  Listen to me.  This is the best french bread I've ever had and I've. Been. To. FRANCE!!! Warm from the oven.  A crisp crust with the softest center imaginable.  The slightest hint of tang.  The whole baguette is quite large, this is just 2 pieces of 7.  My mouth is watering.... 

Garlic.  I believe this is the same French recipe but as it is hot out of the oven they cut it open and put an amazing collection of butter and spices all over it.  These loaves are much smaller.  Small enough to only feel mildly bad when you eat an entire loaf... in one sitting... before it completely cools.... Judge me all you want.  I'm happy.

Cheese.  This was a mild disappointment but it was still amazing.  I'm not a huge fan of the cheese they use most here.  It is a very creamy cheese and I prefer my cheeses to have a kick!

Chocolate.  This is a chocolate bun.  Have you ever had the fresh buns from Sam's Club?  In my family we use them for ham and cheese sandwiches, and shredded beef, and a bazillion other things.  This is a sweet chocolate version of that.  FILLED WITH CHOCOLATE MOUSSE!!!!!  My mind was blown.  As was my diet. 

If that wasn't enough.  The next day I went back. 

Day 2:

Almond.  I'm a huge fan of Bear Claws.  I love me some almond.  This was really intriguing.  The ends were quite crisp and airy.  The center was softer and a little more dense.  Over all the flavor won me over!

Sugar.  For some reason when you haven't had the opportunity to have a plain old sugar donut for months... sugar donuts are AMAZING!  This one has a slight caramely flavor and the sugar is coarser than we are used to.  Winner!

Cheese.  I actually wasn't a huge fan of this one either.  Again the cheese is far to creamy and this was mixed with some kind of mayonnaise and then broiled.  Not for me.  I bequeathed it to Ruth and two minutes it was gone so I'm going to guess she thought it was good. 

Chocolate and Peanut.  A sweet white bread filled with pure dark chocolate and covered with peanuts.  Do I need to say more?

The chocolate bun made a second appearance because I had to get it again for a second time.  Did I mention that they come in bags of three?

Hungry yet?

Typhoon Soulik - Update 2

While I slept Soulk wept.  

Teehee.  

Soulik encountered some cold water and has de-intensified a little.  He is still packing some pretty strong winds but they have him making landfall as a Cat II now. I still think there is a period for some re-intensification before landfall but we will see.  

Current conditions:  It feels a touch cooler out today and it is a bit more windy than usual but perhaps I just notice it more because I'm expecting it to be there.  

That's all for now. 

Typhoon Soulik - Update 1

I will try to update as regularly as I have new information.  

I have new information.  And some old information that you all might just want to know.  

In case you were wondering.  I live in Taichung right now.  Which is in North-Central Taiwan.  

I'm really proud of how accurate that pin is.  Like EXACTLY where I live.  Doing this for Taiwan is hard because the English spelling of Chinese words (pinyon) is hardly standardized. 

Time for a little geography lesson.  Taiwan is an island formed from a mountain range deep on the ocean floor.  What that means is that the entire center (spine) of Taiwan is all mountains.  Pretty high mountains for the region too.  

What do you remember from 4th grade?  The blue part is obviously land.  (AD shout out!)

Mountains and typhoons have an interesting relationship.  Interestingly enough Taichung is probably the safest city on this island in the case of a typhoon.  We are very well protected by the mountains and are significantly more inland than many of the other cities. 

Additionally, typhoons are a part of everyday life here.  Think about how the US would be reacting if a Cat IV hurricane was heading for NYC.  The collective freakout would probably register on the Richter Scale.  Here?  Not a word.  Ruth and I were chatting with the woman who was doing our facials tonight and she was not in the last bit worried.  Taiwan and Typhoons.  They are practically synonymous.  This small island nation has to be built to withstand gale force winds and torrential rain.  There are channels cut into the ground to guide run off from the mountains.  All of the rivers have overflow basins.  Flooding procedures along the coasts are standard.  They've done this before and they will do it again.  It is nothing new.  

Now for news of Soulik himself.  Tracking has, surprise surprise, changed.  

Let me break this image down a little bit for you since I think a lot of the time people misread these things.  The color of the typhoon symbol indicates its wind speed. Soulik is still teetering on the edge of being a supertyphoon but I'm not going to go into that now.  He's clocking winds of up to 155 mph.  Land masses have a tendency to cool oceanic waters down and so as Soulik draws nearer to Taiwan and further into the East China Sea, the water feeding the typhoon will be considerably colder.  This tends to weaken hurricanes and typhoons.  As a typhoon weakens it is carrying around less moisture and mass and tends to speed up its movement as a whole (not the wind speed.)  Right now Soulik is a slow moving storm, he has been this whole time, averaging around 12 knots.  As we look at the distance between the typhoon symbols in 12 hour increments, we see that the three purple dots and the one red one are about the same distance apart (the typhoon is maintaining a steady speed.)  However, after landfall in Taiwan the green symbol is quite a bit further away.  Our typhoon is going to weaken.  This is all very typical.  The yellow circles around each typhoon symbol is an estimated range of where the eye of the storm may be.  Because computer predicting models are only so good the further out in time you try to predict the less accurate the model will be.  

But why the sudden drop from a Cat III storm to a TS in the span of less than 200 miles?  

If you've ever lived in a mountainous area with an otherwise predictable weather pattern (like Denver) then you are familiar with the fact that mountains do crazy things to weather.  They sometimes act like literal speed bumps for huge storms.  In this case, it would seem that Soulik is going to rage into Taiwan with 130 mph winds and then have the life squeezed out of him between the upper layers of the atmosphere where typhoons don't thrive and the jagged tops of Yushan and the like.  All of the moisture being sucked up into this beast is going to rain down on Taiwan in a fury of gales and lashing branches.  While over land, typhoons don't usually grow stronger as sources for warm water are not prevalent.  So once the life is sucked out of Soulik over Taiwan he will float on his merry way and enter China as a Tropical Storm, soon to be a Tropical Depression and then just a band of slow moving, barely menacing thunderstorms sprinkling on Korea after the storm hooks back out over the Yellow Sea.  

Soulik looks like he might weaken a bit in the next 6-8  hours because of some cold water pockets, but there is definitely a window for re-intensification in the 12 hours after that.  

"Wonderful!" you say.  "That's all fine and dandy, Bess.  But what about you!?"  

Me?  I'm fine.  I live on the 2nd floor of a recently renovated home with sturdy walls.  Ruth and I stocked up on junk food, ice cream, baked treats the essentials tonight.  Tomorrow we will grab a couple extra gallons of water, find the flashlights, etc.  We have hours and hours of movies to watch, board games to play, and girl talk to have.  We are soooooooo fine.  

I will continue to update the blog as things change.  There is plenty of time for this storm to morph into a million other things.  He could fizzle out over a trough of cold water before even reaching Taiwan.  He also could benefit from a decidedly warm wind coming up from the Philippines and strengthen into a true supertyphoon.  I will not be counting my chicks before they are hatched.  

Blog updates will go on as scheduled.  I have a rivetingly delicious one that is set to go up at 8am Thursday morning CST.  In the event that the power goes out I will have limited means to update the blog but I will do my best to be in contact with my family who will then post news as they feel appropriate.  

I want this one.  Ruth is rooting for classes to be cancelled on Friday.  Send safe thoughts and prayers my way but don't wish the storm to disappear.  I want the experience and I love the excitement.  I'll see if I can snap a few photos too.  :)  

Last post until the morning! 

B

Typhoon Soulik

The last couple of days the weather weirdo in me has been clambering and prying its way out. 

TYPHOON!

This little gem has popped up over the Pacific and is making its way towards the South China Sea as we speak. 

Look at that circulation. The support bands.  The clusters of thunderstorms.  :D

Soulik is clocking in maximum sustained winds at around 130 kt and gusts up to 160 kt.  For those non-nautical/aviation folks, we're looking at a storm that has sustained winds in the range of 150 to 160 mph.  Soulik's eye is estimated to be about 25 nm across (just shy of 30 miles) and is incredibly well formed.  He's a Category IV for the time being.  So far, what makes this storm impressive is its height.  It seems to be extremely tall and is therefore capable of dumping absurdly huge amounts of rain.  There are very well formed thunderstorms that are supporting the typhoon which were photographed from a NASA satellite that flew over the area early this morning.  Favorable winds and water conditions will continue to fuel this storm as a Cat IV until it is just nearly directly south of Japan when it will encounter a subtropical steering ridge and turn towards the north.  At least, that is what the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor, HI is saying.  Soulik is right on the edge of being a supertyphoon right now and as it continues to build strength over warmer waters that classification should stand.

For a long time the NWS was showing the track of this storm much farther to the north.  They finally came around and admitted it is headed straight for Taiwan. 

The tracking for this storm has been wobbly at best.  I'm not used to following storms in the Pacific like this so I'm unfamiliar with their tendencies and also the tendencies of the reporting authorities.  As best as I can tell this storm is going to hit northern Taiwan with significant force if not the brunt of the storm.  The rocky geography of the island will take its toll and Soulik will be downgraded to a CAT I or TS before it reaches mainland China.  The diameter of the storm is out to about 200 nm right now and might contract as its strength grows.  No matter where the eye of the storm passes, I will be affected.


AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!  


Excuse me while I go hoard water and non-perishable foods.  I'll keep you updated as the storm progresses.  For now we have blue skies and big white puffy clouds.  I expect the wind to pick up tonight.