Welcome to another update on the trip to Philippines. We have just returned from El Nido back to Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan province. This internet cafe is full of children playing computer games. There are diplomas on the wall, acclaiming that the local counterstrike teams is one of the most promising in the country. It's very loud and the children are rather obnoxious, running about and yelling in Tagalog. They mix a huge amount of English in their language, and it sounds really awkward to hear all the English words pop up in the middle of their incomprehensible jabbering. The good thing about this cafe is that the internet costs 15 pesos an hour (about 7 Czech crowns, or 25 Eurocents).
El Nido has truly been a wonderful experience, and I'm willing to believe the various sources that claim that the beaches and seascapes here are some of the best of the world. Thailand? Maledives? Fiji? Well, El Nido can probably still top them.
There are dozens of small islands forming the Bacuit archipelago, which surrounds El Nido. The islands are mostly towering limestone cliffs covered with lush greenery and the occasional beach, only accesible by boat. One day, we hired a boat and went to explore some of the more famous places around, including 3 lagoons. There we went snorkeling around, exploring the coral reefs, while the boatmen made a great lunch for us at the beach. Very nice service. I also met a Czech couple at one of the beaches, the first Czech people I've met here so far (although these two actually live in Australia now). The Swedish version of the Survivor show is being shot in one of the islands, and we went to explore their cottages too (the contestants weren't there at the time, so I probably won't make appearance on the Swedish TV.)
On a different day, we rented a kayak and paddled onto a nearby island to find our own private beach. This is the first time either Noora or I have been kayaking. It took a while and the sun was merciless, but it was fairly smooth otherwise. After a few hours on the beach, a dog and a half-savage men emerged from the jungle (apparently living on this wild island), ruining the image of a private beach reachable by water only. The man was pretty friendly though, and didn't attempt to chase us away with his wooden spear. Still later, a boat arrived - there were two passengers (a young couple) and three members of the crew. Why the hell did they choose our beach, I don't know. Anyways, the couple lied there in deck-chairs, while the crew set up a fancy table there on the beach, with candelabras and all, and went on to cook some equally fancy lunch. Must have been some rich people. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of them to sell to some celebrity magazine. Little upset by their invasion of our beach, we paddled to the next one and built a sandcastle there.
Previously, I said that electricity in El Nido runs 12 hours a day. That's wrong. It should, in theory. However, more often than not in our cottage, we had a "brown-out" as they call it here. All that means that there is no power, so we ended up sitting there in candlelight several nights.
We took a bus back to Puerto, to see how the locals do it. It was pretty confusing to even find it. First, there was supposed to be a bus at 7 a.m. Then they told us it's leaving at 6:30. Then they changed it to 6. As we arrived to the station, the bus wasn't there and we had to walk to a different terminal. Found the bus, which ended up leaving at 7 a.m. anyways. Bus transportation here is truly amazing. People seem to be getting on and off as the vehicle is still moving. Most luggage is carried on the roof of the bus. Not only the passenger luggage. Sometimes, the bus stops in the middle of nowhere, picks up 10 large sacks of something (grain or straw or something) and keeps going. A lady with a big pot of fish rode on the bus for a while. Unfortunately, she took the fish inside, so it stunk pretty bad. When the inside of the bus gets too crowded, passengers sit on the roof. We even saw a moving bus that had a live pig running loose on the roof.
Back in Puerto, things are fairly peaceful. Tomorrow, we are going to a big local attraction, the Underground river in Sabang. I'm pretty excited to see it. Just yesterday, we ran into a huge parade on the main boulevard of the city. There was police, military, volunteer groups, religious groups, all other kinds of groups, and at least 10 groups of majorettes (baton twirlers), accompanied by drum orchestras. What was the fuss all about? Apparently, there is a worldwide internet poll to select the "New 7 wonders of nature". The Underground river has been selected to represent the Philippines in the poll, which had to be properly celebrated. They even had fireworks in the evening. At the moment, the river is #1 in the category "Forests, National parks, Natural reserves". Yahoo. To see how the wonder of your country is doing in the poll, here's a link. For your information, Czech Republic is represented by Pravčická Brána. Taiwan by Yu Shan.
Last thing I need to say. If you ever go to the Philippines, try the banana cake. It's wonderful. Actually, forget that. Stay away from banana cake. It's addictive!
Saturday 31 January 2009
Sunday 25 January 2009
Palawan
Another quick update from the Philippines trip. Last Friday, we finally left Manila and flew to Puerto Princesa in Palawan island. Palawan is said to be the "last frontier" of the Philippines, being somewhat remote and less developed then the other parts. Even if Puerto Princesa (capital of the island) is a fairly large town at 150,000 inhabitants, it felt wonderfully peaceful. In case I haven't made it clear yet, Manila did not become my favorite place in the world - didn't really like it at all :)
Maybe it was an accident, but the first impression of PP was a "musical town". As we got of the plane at the provincial airport, there was a marching band playing, welcoming the passengers. Later we went to eat some noodles in a small local restaurant and the chefs and waitresses were all happily singing along with some radio hits. Still later in a local mall, all the shop assistants lined up and performed a dance, right there in the middle of the shop.
We spent one afternoon in the town, and left even further the island the following morning - to El Nido, a little town at the north of the island, with wonderful beaches and stunning little islands with karst cliffs and lagoons everywhere around. (Look up the pictures to see what i mean). It was about 6 hours ride by minivan, which we were apparently quite lucky to find. The other option is taking a bus for 8-9 hours. The road is mostly unpaved, passes through the jungle with occasional village or farm around. Just as we arrived here, it started raining (for the first time during the trip) and it remained that way for about 3 hours. We spent the time at a cafe reading Reflex, a Czech magazine, that some other traveler left behind. Finding accommodation was somewhat complicated. There are a lot of beachside lodges and cottage resorts, but mostly fully occupied, as this place is surprisingly popular with foreign tourists. It seems that about 50% of the people here are foreigners, very unusual for this country. We ended up finding a nice cottage a bit away from town, right at the beach - only way to get there is walking on the beach, or, during high tide, on a little muddy path (around the graveyard). Water is cold and only runs sometimes, electricity in on only about 12 hours a day, but it's all good. Maybe except for all the roosters, which wake up and make noise very very early. But really, it should come as no surprise, as roosters are everywhere in this country. In the center of Manila. At the airport. At the beach. Everywhere you go, there's at least one rooster doing the Kykyryky somewhere in the vicinity.
Tomorrow, we signed up for a boat tour of the islands, beaches and lagoons, which will surely be a great experience, as long as it doesn't rain too much.
Maybe it was an accident, but the first impression of PP was a "musical town". As we got of the plane at the provincial airport, there was a marching band playing, welcoming the passengers. Later we went to eat some noodles in a small local restaurant and the chefs and waitresses were all happily singing along with some radio hits. Still later in a local mall, all the shop assistants lined up and performed a dance, right there in the middle of the shop.
We spent one afternoon in the town, and left even further the island the following morning - to El Nido, a little town at the north of the island, with wonderful beaches and stunning little islands with karst cliffs and lagoons everywhere around. (Look up the pictures to see what i mean). It was about 6 hours ride by minivan, which we were apparently quite lucky to find. The other option is taking a bus for 8-9 hours. The road is mostly unpaved, passes through the jungle with occasional village or farm around. Just as we arrived here, it started raining (for the first time during the trip) and it remained that way for about 3 hours. We spent the time at a cafe reading Reflex, a Czech magazine, that some other traveler left behind. Finding accommodation was somewhat complicated. There are a lot of beachside lodges and cottage resorts, but mostly fully occupied, as this place is surprisingly popular with foreign tourists. It seems that about 50% of the people here are foreigners, very unusual for this country. We ended up finding a nice cottage a bit away from town, right at the beach - only way to get there is walking on the beach, or, during high tide, on a little muddy path (around the graveyard). Water is cold and only runs sometimes, electricity in on only about 12 hours a day, but it's all good. Maybe except for all the roosters, which wake up and make noise very very early. But really, it should come as no surprise, as roosters are everywhere in this country. In the center of Manila. At the airport. At the beach. Everywhere you go, there's at least one rooster doing the Kykyryky somewhere in the vicinity.
Tomorrow, we signed up for a boat tour of the islands, beaches and lagoons, which will surely be a great experience, as long as it doesn't rain too much.
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Manila
Greetings from Manila, Philippines. I don't have enough time to write about it all, but just for several impressions, Manila has been:
Surprisingly Organized - when we whisked through the airport and into the city in 1 hour, when it was supposed to take at least 3.
Completely Disorganized - in most other aspects. It's pretty much one big mess.
Hot & sticky - well, that's just as it is here.
Overcrowded - people, cars, bicycles, tricycles everywhere. With about 13 million inhabitants, it must be one of the larger cities I've been to.
Rich & poor (mostly poor) - while modern buildings and expensive cars are present, they are far outnumbered by the begging children.
Uniformed - there's a guardian at every shop and every door. They also always check our backpacks, looking for guns.
Dodgy - when some random guy tried to force us to go with him to some "District office" in the middle of the night, because of the offense we caused by drinking beer out in a public square. No worries, we know better than that.
Pathetic - seeing old foreign men, walking hand in hand with young Filippina girls everywhere. I knew this was a popular destination for sex tourists, but still, it's sad.
Shopping Obsessed - Manila is full of malls. Huge malls. I always get lost there. It seems like that's all the local people ever do. (good idea, they have air-conditioning.)
Against the Market Laws - The fact that no bookstore in Taiwan has a guidebook for Philippines is acceptable. The fact that no bookstore in the Philippines has one is a bit more strange. We found one last copy in one of them, eventually, probably because it was hidden away at a shelf away from all the other travel books.
Vocal - People yelling "Hello sir, Hello ma'am" from any direction imaginable, music blasting on the jeepneys (a wonderful thing - write about that some other time), noisy traffic everywhere, noisy ktvs and bars everywhere else.
While English is one of the official languages here and communication is therefore much easier than in Taiwan, Taipei now feels like a calm, relaxed, laid-back place, and I'm sure glad I live there and not in Manila.
Ok, that's it from me for now. Going to look at a volcano inside a lake tomorrow, then finally going to search for that perfect empty beach paradise away from this crazy city on Friday.
Nebojte, mam se tady fajn a vsechno je v poradku.
Surprisingly Organized - when we whisked through the airport and into the city in 1 hour, when it was supposed to take at least 3.
Completely Disorganized - in most other aspects. It's pretty much one big mess.
Hot & sticky - well, that's just as it is here.
Overcrowded - people, cars, bicycles, tricycles everywhere. With about 13 million inhabitants, it must be one of the larger cities I've been to.
Rich & poor (mostly poor) - while modern buildings and expensive cars are present, they are far outnumbered by the begging children.
Uniformed - there's a guardian at every shop and every door. They also always check our backpacks, looking for guns.
Dodgy - when some random guy tried to force us to go with him to some "District office" in the middle of the night, because of the offense we caused by drinking beer out in a public square. No worries, we know better than that.
Pathetic - seeing old foreign men, walking hand in hand with young Filippina girls everywhere. I knew this was a popular destination for sex tourists, but still, it's sad.
Shopping Obsessed - Manila is full of malls. Huge malls. I always get lost there. It seems like that's all the local people ever do. (good idea, they have air-conditioning.)
Against the Market Laws - The fact that no bookstore in Taiwan has a guidebook for Philippines is acceptable. The fact that no bookstore in the Philippines has one is a bit more strange. We found one last copy in one of them, eventually, probably because it was hidden away at a shelf away from all the other travel books.
Vocal - People yelling "Hello sir, Hello ma'am" from any direction imaginable, music blasting on the jeepneys (a wonderful thing - write about that some other time), noisy traffic everywhere, noisy ktvs and bars everywhere else.
While English is one of the official languages here and communication is therefore much easier than in Taiwan, Taipei now feels like a calm, relaxed, laid-back place, and I'm sure glad I live there and not in Manila.
Ok, that's it from me for now. Going to look at a volcano inside a lake tomorrow, then finally going to search for that perfect empty beach paradise away from this crazy city on Friday.
Nebojte, mam se tady fajn a vsechno je v poradku.
Sunday 18 January 2009
Prices, temples, garbage
Today's post is dedicated to the little things that i had always wanted to write about, just never actually got to it.
Garbage
Taiwan has a unique system of collecting and recycling garbage. Unlike most other places, there are no garbage bins outside houses. Every day of the week (except Wednesday and Sunday), the garbage collection cars (always 2 of them together) go around the city, following a strict route and time schedule, so that they are always in the same place at the same time. In our case, they come at 7:40 p.m. So we, as the other neighbors, wait around that time to hear the familiar tune they blast - one of the cars plays Beethoven, the other one some random tune. At around 7:35 p.m., a crowd starts forming just outside the house - all the people from the neighborhood wait with their garbage bags, because the only way to get rid of it is to chuck it directly into the garbage car, at the specific time it comes. I think this system was designed in order to encourage people to get to know their neighbors, as everyone has to come out at the same time. It doesn't seem to work too well, as the local people seem to be quite ignorant of the neighbors. It's surprising even to hear a simple Hello when we take the lift together in my building. But, back to topic: In order to encourage recycling, the Beethoven car collects recyclable stuff - different kind every day. Paper on Monday and Friday, and plastic, glass, cans and such on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. These things are collected for free. The other car accepts the general garbage. The trick is, they will only take it when it is in a special blue bag. These bags can be purchased everywhere, but they are rather expensive, so buying them also means paying for the garbage collection. This encourages people to sort out the recyclables and not put them in the general waste, as their blue bags would get full quickly, hence having to pay more money. To make things more complicated, the blue bag car also accepts biological garbage, which does not have to be in the blue bag.
Prices
Before my trip to Taiwan, I was trying hard to find out what the price level of Taiwan is, with little success. Therefore, here's a little overview of what things cost here.
As of today, the exchange rate is: 1 NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) = 0.62 Czech Crowns / 1 CZK = 1.6 NTD. 1 Euro = 44 NTD. 1 US Dollar = 33 NTD.
1 Toast bread .............................. 45 NTD
Milk - 1,5 liters .............................. 120 NTD
Twix chocolate bar .............................. 28 NTD
Bottled water - 1,5 liters .............................. 30 NTD
Yoghurt, small one .............................. 16 NTD
Beer - 0,5 liters (in a shop).............................. 45 NTD
Breakfast sandwich.............................. 12 NTD
4 bananas .............................. 35 NTD
Instant noodles .............................. 25 - 45 NTD
Beer at a club .............................. 150 - 200 NTD
Simple rice / noodle dish at a restaurant, enough for lunch ......... 60 - 100 NTD
A better dish at a better restaurant ........ 120 - 200 NTD
Big Mac Menu @ Mc'Donalds ......... 115 NTD
Grande Latte @ Starbucks ........ 115 NTD
Big Latte @ 7-11 ......... 50 NTD
Bus ticket in Taipei ......... 15 / 30 NTD (depending on distance)
MRT ticket in Taipei ......... 20 - 60 NTD (depending on distance)
Bus from the airport to the center (1 hour trip) ......... 150 NTD
Bus ticket Taipei - Kaohsiung (i.e. across the whole island, 300 km) ......... 600 NTD
Taxi from the center back home (around 7 km) .......... 250 NTD
Renting a studio apartment (~ 40 sq. m.) , outside the center .... 10000 - 15000 NTD/month
Taking a course of Chinese, 3 months, 3 hours every day .... 25000 - 30000
If anyone is particularly interested in a price of something else, let me know.
Some recent pictures follow:
The BaoAn temple, around 200 years old, is one of the oldest and nicest Taoist temples in Taipei. Visited by Japanese tour groups, but also men in suits and ties who come bow to the gods and pray for good luck.
Lanters in front of a different Taipei temple.
Hiking outside Taipei, just this Saturday.
Met a large group of children along the way. They were extremelly excited to run into foreigners. It took a while for them to overcome the shyness, giggling, pushing around and trying to figure out the perfect sentence in English to approach us. In the end, I had to talk to them first, then we had a nice chat in Chinese and occasional English. They were particularly interested to find out whether Noora and I were married.
The view.
This is where I live now.
Expect scarce or zero posting in the next few weeks, as I will be enjoying the beaches and volcanos of the Philippines.
Garbage
Taiwan has a unique system of collecting and recycling garbage. Unlike most other places, there are no garbage bins outside houses. Every day of the week (except Wednesday and Sunday), the garbage collection cars (always 2 of them together) go around the city, following a strict route and time schedule, so that they are always in the same place at the same time. In our case, they come at 7:40 p.m. So we, as the other neighbors, wait around that time to hear the familiar tune they blast - one of the cars plays Beethoven, the other one some random tune. At around 7:35 p.m., a crowd starts forming just outside the house - all the people from the neighborhood wait with their garbage bags, because the only way to get rid of it is to chuck it directly into the garbage car, at the specific time it comes. I think this system was designed in order to encourage people to get to know their neighbors, as everyone has to come out at the same time. It doesn't seem to work too well, as the local people seem to be quite ignorant of the neighbors. It's surprising even to hear a simple Hello when we take the lift together in my building. But, back to topic: In order to encourage recycling, the Beethoven car collects recyclable stuff - different kind every day. Paper on Monday and Friday, and plastic, glass, cans and such on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. These things are collected for free. The other car accepts the general garbage. The trick is, they will only take it when it is in a special blue bag. These bags can be purchased everywhere, but they are rather expensive, so buying them also means paying for the garbage collection. This encourages people to sort out the recyclables and not put them in the general waste, as their blue bags would get full quickly, hence having to pay more money. To make things more complicated, the blue bag car also accepts biological garbage, which does not have to be in the blue bag.
Prices
Before my trip to Taiwan, I was trying hard to find out what the price level of Taiwan is, with little success. Therefore, here's a little overview of what things cost here.
As of today, the exchange rate is: 1 NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) = 0.62 Czech Crowns / 1 CZK = 1.6 NTD. 1 Euro = 44 NTD. 1 US Dollar = 33 NTD.
1 Toast bread .............................. 45 NTD
Milk - 1,5 liters .............................. 120 NTD
Twix chocolate bar .............................. 28 NTD
Bottled water - 1,5 liters .............................. 30 NTD
Yoghurt, small one .............................. 16 NTD
Beer - 0,5 liters (in a shop).............................. 45 NTD
Breakfast sandwich.............................. 12 NTD
4 bananas .............................. 35 NTD
Instant noodles .............................. 25 - 45 NTD
Beer at a club .............................. 150 - 200 NTD
Simple rice / noodle dish at a restaurant, enough for lunch ......... 60 - 100 NTD
A better dish at a better restaurant ........ 120 - 200 NTD
Big Mac Menu @ Mc'Donalds ......... 115 NTD
Grande Latte @ Starbucks ........ 115 NTD
Big Latte @ 7-11 ......... 50 NTD
Bus ticket in Taipei ......... 15 / 30 NTD (depending on distance)
MRT ticket in Taipei ......... 20 - 60 NTD (depending on distance)
Bus from the airport to the center (1 hour trip) ......... 150 NTD
Bus ticket Taipei - Kaohsiung (i.e. across the whole island, 300 km) ......... 600 NTD
Taxi from the center back home (around 7 km) .......... 250 NTD
Renting a studio apartment (~ 40 sq. m.) , outside the center .... 10000 - 15000 NTD/month
Taking a course of Chinese, 3 months, 3 hours every day .... 25000 - 30000
If anyone is particularly interested in a price of something else, let me know.
Some recent pictures follow:
The BaoAn temple, around 200 years old, is one of the oldest and nicest Taoist temples in Taipei. Visited by Japanese tour groups, but also men in suits and ties who come bow to the gods and pray for good luck.
Lanters in front of a different Taipei temple.
Hiking outside Taipei, just this Saturday.
Met a large group of children along the way. They were extremelly excited to run into foreigners. It took a while for them to overcome the shyness, giggling, pushing around and trying to figure out the perfect sentence in English to approach us. In the end, I had to talk to them first, then we had a nice chat in Chinese and occasional English. They were particularly interested to find out whether Noora and I were married.
The view.
This is where I live now.
Expect scarce or zero posting in the next few weeks, as I will be enjoying the beaches and volcanos of the Philippines.
Wednesday 14 January 2009
2009 so far
It's been a while since I last posted anything here. What new developments have there been since the infamous NY party? On Tuesday I had my last class of the semester and also turned in the last paper, which means I am now officially finished with the semester, and don't have to worry about school stuff until late February. 6 weeks of holiday sounds fabulous! I am planning on making a good use of them by taking the long-announced trip to Philippines for 3 weeks, then traveling around Taiwan a bit, and studying some Chinese and Finnish in the meanwhile to prevent my brain from getting lazy.
At the moment, my biggest concern is what to do about malaria prevention. The advice I'm getting is mixed. While there is some risk of malaria in the Philippines, including the parts on the itinerary, it doesn't seem to be too serious. Malaria pills are an option, though these would only lower the impact of the disease, not protect me completely. Also, the pill that seems to be most available is the infamous Lariam. Lariam is fairly inexpensive and effective, but it has quite severe potential side effects - including depression and suicidal tendencies. However, I've already taken Lariam twice before, during my trips to South Africa and Cambodia, and the idea of jumping down the bridge never crossed my mind during those trips. So it should be quite safe.
To celebrate the end of the semester, we've had several parties here in the recent weeks. First, we've had an IMICS cooking party - all of my classmates as well as the significant others (wherever applicable) gathered at the house of one of our professors, and each person cooked a dish. It was my intention to make bramboráky. It quickly became clear that the zemiakové placky, which Lenka decided to do, are in fact the same thing, and so Czechoslovakia once again reunited, over the stove in this instance. The other party was a beer party. There is a pleasant little bar in downtown Taipei, which offers 3 hours of unlimited consumption of beer for 199 NTD. As any Czech will confirm, it is possible to drink a lot of beer in 3 hours, making this a very favorable deal.
As we were sitting there, Kai - a Canadian classmate - received a call from this Taiwanese guy. He was asked to go play in a commercial the following morning. As it turns out, the Taiwanese marketers like to cast foreigners in their commercials - perhaps they seem more trustworthy, or help the products sell better. Who knows. Thing is, there are not many foreigners in Taiwan, so the producers have to take whatever they can get. Many foreigners around the table shared their own experiences, seemed like i was the only one who hadn't done anything like that. That was about to change soon. Kai was busy on Saturday and couldn't do the commercial, so he asked around the table if anyone would be interested doing the commercial instead. Don't ask me why, but I agreed. Therefore, I found myself getting up early on Saturday morning and traveling to a video studio. There, they put a shirt, a tie and a white coat on me. I was asked to pretend to be a doctor, and to say some (likely fabricated) statements for the camera. The advertisement was for "Emu oil", basically some lotion oil. I convinced the viewers that this product contains only natural ingredients, which will never cause side effects to our skin. It has amazing effects for healing wounds from cuts, burns and bug bites. It has been around for centuries and as an expert, I can confirm its miraculous effects. Extremely unethical by Western standards and apparently, these things are quite arbitrary in Taiwan. In my "defense", they pay good money for little effort. I just hope nobody tries to beat me up when they put on the emu oil with good permeability and all the wonderful natural ingredients and it gives them a rash.
In case you were wondering, I'm not going to the Philippines alone. Joining me is Noora, a (future) student of Chinese here at Zhengda, and incidentally also the person I'm sharing the new apartment with. We've been exploring Taipei a bit better in the recent days. Few pictures follow:
The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. I think that's what it is officially called at the moment. Like with almost anything, Taiwan is very polarized on the Chiang Kai Shek issue. For most of the new Taiwan history, he was the national hero without doubt, with statues all over the place, the airport named after him, having this humongous memorial etc. However, the other political party doesn't like him too much, so every time they are in power, they change the names of every CKS monument. So this building was a "National memorial" (or something like that) for a while, but now it's probably back to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
The National Theater of Taiwan
Noora & Borek
At the moment, my biggest concern is what to do about malaria prevention. The advice I'm getting is mixed. While there is some risk of malaria in the Philippines, including the parts on the itinerary, it doesn't seem to be too serious. Malaria pills are an option, though these would only lower the impact of the disease, not protect me completely. Also, the pill that seems to be most available is the infamous Lariam. Lariam is fairly inexpensive and effective, but it has quite severe potential side effects - including depression and suicidal tendencies. However, I've already taken Lariam twice before, during my trips to South Africa and Cambodia, and the idea of jumping down the bridge never crossed my mind during those trips. So it should be quite safe.
To celebrate the end of the semester, we've had several parties here in the recent weeks. First, we've had an IMICS cooking party - all of my classmates as well as the significant others (wherever applicable) gathered at the house of one of our professors, and each person cooked a dish. It was my intention to make bramboráky. It quickly became clear that the zemiakové placky, which Lenka decided to do, are in fact the same thing, and so Czechoslovakia once again reunited, over the stove in this instance. The other party was a beer party. There is a pleasant little bar in downtown Taipei, which offers 3 hours of unlimited consumption of beer for 199 NTD. As any Czech will confirm, it is possible to drink a lot of beer in 3 hours, making this a very favorable deal.
As we were sitting there, Kai - a Canadian classmate - received a call from this Taiwanese guy. He was asked to go play in a commercial the following morning. As it turns out, the Taiwanese marketers like to cast foreigners in their commercials - perhaps they seem more trustworthy, or help the products sell better. Who knows. Thing is, there are not many foreigners in Taiwan, so the producers have to take whatever they can get. Many foreigners around the table shared their own experiences, seemed like i was the only one who hadn't done anything like that. That was about to change soon. Kai was busy on Saturday and couldn't do the commercial, so he asked around the table if anyone would be interested doing the commercial instead. Don't ask me why, but I agreed. Therefore, I found myself getting up early on Saturday morning and traveling to a video studio. There, they put a shirt, a tie and a white coat on me. I was asked to pretend to be a doctor, and to say some (likely fabricated) statements for the camera. The advertisement was for "Emu oil", basically some lotion oil. I convinced the viewers that this product contains only natural ingredients, which will never cause side effects to our skin. It has amazing effects for healing wounds from cuts, burns and bug bites. It has been around for centuries and as an expert, I can confirm its miraculous effects. Extremely unethical by Western standards and apparently, these things are quite arbitrary in Taiwan. In my "defense", they pay good money for little effort. I just hope nobody tries to beat me up when they put on the emu oil with good permeability and all the wonderful natural ingredients and it gives them a rash.
In case you were wondering, I'm not going to the Philippines alone. Joining me is Noora, a (future) student of Chinese here at Zhengda, and incidentally also the person I'm sharing the new apartment with. We've been exploring Taipei a bit better in the recent days. Few pictures follow:
The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. I think that's what it is officially called at the moment. Like with almost anything, Taiwan is very polarized on the Chiang Kai Shek issue. For most of the new Taiwan history, he was the national hero without doubt, with statues all over the place, the airport named after him, having this humongous memorial etc. However, the other political party doesn't like him too much, so every time they are in power, they change the names of every CKS monument. So this building was a "National memorial" (or something like that) for a while, but now it's probably back to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
The National Theater of Taiwan
Noora & Borek
Saturday 3 January 2009
Happy New Year! 新年快樂!
Happy New Year 2009. In recent years, i unintentionally started a collection of countries to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks in. These have been
2003 - Seattle, Washington, United States
2007 - Singapore, Singapore
2008 - Maribor, Slovenia
2009 - Taipei, Taiwan
and obviously the Czech Republic all the other years. The fireworks at the Taipei 101 were impressive, but super short (3 minutes maybe). Compare that to Singapore, where it was so long we almost got bored watching. Anyways, here's a pic.
The party was great. We gathered in a friend's apartment to celebrate along with people from: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Chile, Taiwan, United States, Salvador, Portugal, France and maybe some others. The original plan was to have a bbq on a roof, but we had to move inside due to bad weather. Had a good time there, then went to watch the fireworks and sing the Czechoslovak anthem on the roof, then keep on partying. Unfortunately i missed a part of it, when i went for a walk and for the first time here, got lost in the streets of Taipei. The home-made meruňkovice may have had something to do with that though. Thanks again to my friends who rescued me :) We even got to celebrate the New Year again, at the same time that people back home did (7 a.m. Taiwan time). The streets were surprisingly clean and lively in the morning - apparently, the Taiwanese people actually follow the "Jak na nový rok, tak po celý rok" rule and make sure not to spend the whole 1st of January nursing their hangovers.
Other than that, I'm excited that the school semester is almost over and that the break is starting soon. I also just moved from the dormitory to a new place, a great apartment on the slope of the mountain, also walking distance from the university. It will be even better when, starting from next week, there will be two of us living here. However, the moving itself was rather hard - i had no idea i have so much stuff now! Just 4 months ago i arrived here with 1 suitcase, 1 backpack and the laptop. Now, I had to go from the dorm to the apartment twice, looking like a Christmas tree with different bags and pieces of luggage attached to me in any way imaginable.
I won't share any new year's resolutions or wishes, except for the wish to add some more red bits on the following "Where I've been" map - the first addition will be Philippines in just over 2 weeks.
Yeah, I just want to show off a bit.
2003 - Seattle, Washington, United States
2007 - Singapore, Singapore
2008 - Maribor, Slovenia
2009 - Taipei, Taiwan
and obviously the Czech Republic all the other years. The fireworks at the Taipei 101 were impressive, but super short (3 minutes maybe). Compare that to Singapore, where it was so long we almost got bored watching. Anyways, here's a pic.
The party was great. We gathered in a friend's apartment to celebrate along with people from: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Chile, Taiwan, United States, Salvador, Portugal, France and maybe some others. The original plan was to have a bbq on a roof, but we had to move inside due to bad weather. Had a good time there, then went to watch the fireworks and sing the Czechoslovak anthem on the roof, then keep on partying. Unfortunately i missed a part of it, when i went for a walk and for the first time here, got lost in the streets of Taipei. The home-made meruňkovice may have had something to do with that though. Thanks again to my friends who rescued me :) We even got to celebrate the New Year again, at the same time that people back home did (7 a.m. Taiwan time). The streets were surprisingly clean and lively in the morning - apparently, the Taiwanese people actually follow the "Jak na nový rok, tak po celý rok" rule and make sure not to spend the whole 1st of January nursing their hangovers.
Other than that, I'm excited that the school semester is almost over and that the break is starting soon. I also just moved from the dormitory to a new place, a great apartment on the slope of the mountain, also walking distance from the university. It will be even better when, starting from next week, there will be two of us living here. However, the moving itself was rather hard - i had no idea i have so much stuff now! Just 4 months ago i arrived here with 1 suitcase, 1 backpack and the laptop. Now, I had to go from the dorm to the apartment twice, looking like a Christmas tree with different bags and pieces of luggage attached to me in any way imaginable.
I won't share any new year's resolutions or wishes, except for the wish to add some more red bits on the following "Where I've been" map - the first addition will be Philippines in just over 2 weeks.
Yeah, I just want to show off a bit.
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