Nanzhuang 南庄

Hello Taiwan, I am back! Since my first trip here back in 2009, I have been wanting to make a return visit and this year, I finally had a chance to visit the island again. This time, I came with my parents.

I did not choose to join a Malaysian tour agency this time, unlike my previous trip. Instead, I found roundTAIWANround during one of my Google searches and chose to use their services due to three things:

1) My communication with them was entirely in English (well, you know, my Chinese is pretty limited)

2) They went along with my choices of accommodation and places to visit (I do not like how some other local Taiwanese tour groups insist on their choice of accommodation)

3) They were super accommodating and helpful in suggesting places that my parents and I may enjoy, and were very prompt in their replies

If you are like me (a partial or total banana), I totally recommend them so that you could enjoy your holiday in a language that you would understand. They may be a tad pricier than other tour agencies but I would rather pay to stay at places that I want to stay at and visit places that I want to visit.

My parents and I were greeted at the airport by our guide, Allie (阿立), a really friendly and chatty fella with an easy-going personality. Poor guy, our flight had a delayed landing due to the heavy traffic at the airport (we were flying in circles for quite a while), so he had to wait for a bit and was apologetic when informing us that our itinerary may have be be slightly rushed due to the time lost. He did not need apologise though, it was not his fault the airport had too many planes!

First place we stopped at was a place called Nanzhuang (南庄), a township situated in the county of Miaoli (苗栗). After about 1.5 hours of driving, Allie parked the car under a bridge, next to a stone river where locals were seen fishing.

The main reason I asked to make a stop here was because I wanted to try a local dessert called the iced sweet dumpling with osmanthus malt (桂花酿冰镇汤圆) I found out about a few years ago. Fingers crossed, I hoped we were not too late in arriving at Osmanthus Alley (桂花巷).

I saw the first two stalls open and thought, yes, we are in luck!

But once I walked up that little slope, I saw that most of the stalls had their shutters down. Oh no... we were too late.

But we can't come and not try any of their osmanthus produce, can we? I mean, we have come all the way! And so, the one stall that was still open very enthusiastically gave us samples of almost every product on display.

We did not dare buy too many, as it was after all, our first stop. After that, we checked out the place and was introduced to a historical public wash trough still in use today. According to Allie, the water flows in from a local spring.

We passed a temple...

... and the local post office (so adorable!).

We found the town to be peaceful and very much like Bentong, as it is also flanked by mountains and has a river flowing through.

Before making our way to our accommodation, we had dinner at a local restaurant called 客家庄小吃. We wanted to see the difference between the Hakka food here and the Hakka food we have back home.

It took me a while to order because of well, my limited reading ability and so I passed the job to Mum. We ordered the following and found the first three dishes very familiar to us. What we found new were the last two dishes, both which were recommended by Allie:

Braised beancurd 红烧豆腐

Stir-fry Areca flower 炒槟榔花

Hakka Stir Fry 客家小炒

Fried Hakka Ban Tiao 炒客家粄条

Hakka Glutinous Rice Balls 客家汤圆

The ban tiao (粄条) is like a wet char kway teow version of our ban meen. The glutinous rice balls left an impression because unlike the sweet ones that we are used to, these are savoury ones, which were like wow, I can have the entire bowl!

We left satisfied and feeling positive about the rest of our holiday. First meal in Taiwan - thumbs up!

Study trip: Welcome to Shenzhen

I've not slept for so few hours in a long time. I think the last time I did not have any sleep was when I was doing my Honours thesis. I left the house at 4:14am so take a wild guess as to what time I woke up.

The plus side of a flight at that hour would be the empty seats on board. I went all the way to the back to be by myself. Er, ok, nearly by myself, as the air steward stationed at the back spent half the flight talking to me. He was helpful and friendly, sharing his flying experiences with me:

AK80 touched down at Shenzhen International Airport 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

We were delighted but the health officers came aboard to take our body temperatures and that took a long time. They were very stringent, even prohibiting passengers from taking photographs of procedures.

One member of our tour group had to be quarantined because she had a slightly higher than normal body temperature and had prescribed medication for flu and cough. So, I took the chance to meet the other members of our tour group while waiting for her. We also warmed up to our local guide, Mr. Chan.

We had lunch at the restaurant below when our group member was released.

Then, it was off to Splendid China and China Folk Culture Village. These two places are connected to each other and is set up like an amusement park. It reminded me of Formosa in Taiwan but a much bigger version. Here's a picture of Miss Liew, my roommate and myself in front of one of the many stages in the park:

I toured the place along with the two teachers from Seremban - Miss Chong and Miss Sik. I enjoyed my long conversation with them, exchanging our experiences and backgrounds. I finally understood why Mum said that I will learn lots just by getting to know the people in the group. Here are more snapshots of the place:

One portion of the park showcased the lifestyle of the many tribes of China. Some of the different architecture and agricultural activities were also presented such as drying corn...

... and cultivating tobacco plants (which we embaressingly thought were gigantic vegetable leaves)...

There were also dance performances. One resembled the Taiwanese aborigines very much.

They were actually from the south, bordering Vietnam, explaining their dark complexion. Curious with the skulls hanging from trees, I had my queries answered when they explained that the skulls of the buffaloes signify the status of a family.

After dinner, which was literally just next door, we re-entered the park to watch two musicals.

One word - breathtaking! Gosh, the costumes, colours, the stage and choreography were out of this world! Particularly noteworthy was the design of the stage. I was imagining the amount of money they poured into the place. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed so I had to rely on memory to recount the details.

Chang An Hotel was where we checked-in for the night.

After a quick shower, we headed out to scout for food and phone cards. We found out that it was not worth the money to purchase a phone card, as with RMB85 you'd only get RMB30 worth of calls. We stopped at a chee cheong fun cafe to have char siu chee cheong fun, porridge and ramen. We nearly went the wrong way when returning to the hotel. Haha, funny but dangerous.

After such a long day, we slept soundly in Room 804, opposite Mr. Chan and the van driver.