Blog, Interrupted

Interrupted for good reason. You see, I'm leaving Taipei tonight. The city is crying and I'm a little reluctant to leave. This has been the longest I've ever stayed in Taipei since I moved to Canada when I was seven. It's been such a wonderful trip back and exceeded all my expectations. The best part has been reconnecting with my relatives and with my native country. I still regard myself as Taiwanese after all these years even though I said earlier that I had trouble fitting in with the culture. That is still true to a degree, but I'm sure if I lived here for a year or two, I'd feel a bit more at home. But, "real life" for me is still in North America and I have to head back to live that life. I know have the choice to move back to Taiwan to be with my family, but I know that that option is not the best choice for myself.

我今晚就要離開台北了. 台北正在為我哭而我也有點捨不得. 至重到Canada, 這一次回來是所有最長地. 這一次回來真的有感受到家人的團圓而且也再次認識. 雖然我以經跟台灣現代文化有點落差, 我還是台灣人. 如果再住了一兩年就可以容入台灣的社會. 可是, 我的"真實"生活還是在Canada而我必要回去面對現實.

So thank you Taiwan...the last three months have been memorable and eye-opening. There are still so many places I still need to visit in this tiny island of Formosa (and much more to eat). See you...soon.

謝啦, 台灣. 我會努力的每一年回來的!

Where on earth is Kota Kinabalu?

Many of you may not have heard of Kota Kinabalu (from now on referred to as KK) before. I never heard of this place until we were doing our trip research. Kota Kinabalu is in Borneo Malaysia, in the state of Sabah. Here is a context map of Borneo:

So now you have your geography lesson of the day. It was quite interesting because when you enter Sabah from Peninsular Malaysia, you still have to go through customs and get stamped. We thought we were in the wrong line at first haha. We arrived at KK pretty late at night and didn't spend time exploring the area at 11 PM. Our stay in KK was by far the shortest in total. We pretty much had one full day in KK since we arrived so late and departed early in the morning.

Thanks to our trusty Lonely Planet guide and its maps, we already decided on where we wanted to visit on our full day excursion - to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, where there is supposed to be pretty decent snorkeling. We devoured a filling breakfast at a nearby kopi tiam in our Asia City Complex, and walked for about 30 minutes to the ferry terminal where we got our boat tickets and paid our marine park entrance fee. There are quite a few islands in the Marine Park, and we chose Manukan for its snorkeling availability and the fact that its not so deserted that we feel stranded. In the end, we did see some nice fishies and got our tan on a bit. However, it's pretty evident that tourism has played its part in both preserving and destroying the coral. We saw a lot of dead, bleached coral and the areas that were still alive had relatively small colonies. That's the thing about tourism - the concept of preservation will still have negative effects from the masses of tourists that flock to this area. However, without the Marine Park designation, the coral reefs may also be destroyed by pollution, overfishing, and the like. 

We left the island around 2PM due to a change in weather. We went back for a nice shower to wash off all the salt, and fell asleep to National Geographic...I guess we were a bit worn out and the beds were just so comfy... We finally got ourselves up and headed out for some kopi tiam food and a walk around the city centre. KK is not known for its urban attractions. Many visitors head up to Mount Kinabalu or to the jungles nearby to see orangutans and the world's largest flower. But since we arrived so late in KK and didn't want to spend a lot of time traveling to other destinations, we opted for a more relaxing snorkel. Anyhow, KK really isn't too interesting to go around at night. Like many Asian cities, the main attractions are food and shopping, which we did. 

Dinner in KK. it was a bit strange. Delicious lemon tea on the left. 

One of the main streets in the city centre. a lot of cars.

grilled seafood (slightly overpriced in my opinion)...I was too full from dinner to have any though

I left KK (en route to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei) feeling a bit empty to be honest. I think it was because we were there for so little time. I think it would be worthwhile to check out the orangutans and Mount Kinabalu with more time and more money to spare on tours. Several airlines fly to KK's international airport (which is surprisingly quite updated) from many countries. I really wish I had more time in Malay Borneo. Kuching is supposed to be worthwhile checking out too. 

Next stop: Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB (give yourselves a pat on the back if you thought of the Backstreet Boys) in Brunei Darussalum, the land of oil and the Sultan! 

Why do the food vendors close so early in Penang?

Penang by far was my favourite part of the Malaysia leg. I stayed in the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural centre of Georgetown. Although a small historical/colonial centre, Penang is known for hot weather and thus my walking speed was greatly reduced. Georgetown really is an interesting place. Its colonial history along with the groups of immigrants from all over S.E. Asia has created a diverse cultural location. It's essentially a melting pot of the former immigrants and they all seem to get along so well.

One of the many mansions built by wealthy Chinese merchants

One major qualm I had, was the fact that so many of little eateries serving good Penang food closes at 2 PM! Yes they have night hawker stalls, but they're not the same thing! Nonetheless, food was pretty decent in Penang. I've never really been a fan of curries and the same goes for the laksa. I think it's the smell of the fish sauce that I find unappealing. However, I did have a whole lot of other, very cheap food that suited my tastes very well - especially this duck rice we had for lunch. Yum.

DUCK RICE <3 

Penang has the largest (I think percentage-wise) Chinese population in all of Malaysia. Thus, it was quite easy to get around using Mandarin. It was nice being able to identify with Chinese cultures that exist elsewhere as there were similarities as well as differences (especially in dialect). On our last day in Penang, we visited Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Penang-based house. The curator there was pretty excited about my Taiwanese heritage and spoke to great detail about his life and his accomplishments that I never knew much about (I really don't know too much about Taiwan's history).

Other Malay, Islamic, and Hindu cultures are integrated but their identities seemed to be kept separate as well. In Canada, the cultures and especially the offspring seem to integrate too much into western society and cultural identity is lost. Cultural districts are also extremely apparent in western culture. In Penang, so many places of worship are in such close proximity to one another (quite easy for sightseeing) despite there being cultural districts as well.

Our four day stay in Penang (and one day trip to Langkawi) was a great introduction into Malay culture(s). We met a lot of friendly people in the tourism service industry around town. We also had a pretty fun time shopping in Penang as Denise bought a pair of shorts for 10 RM (just a bit over 3 CAD) and I bought a pair of nice sandals for 22 RM (less than 8 CAD).

Langkawi

Beautiful Pantai Tanjung Rhu

I'll speak briefly about our day trip to Langkawi as well. We initially wanted to visit the Cameron Highlands (inland, hilly, and known for their tea growing fields). However, due to the lack of timely and affordable transport to and from Cameron Highlands, this tour operator at a travel agency suggested we visit Langkawi via the 3 hour ferry. We hired a tour guide/driver to take us around Langkawi in four hours.

Langkawi was reaaaaaaaally pretty. I know there are a lot of other beautiful beaches in Thailand as well but I really enjoyed the scenic karst/limestone landscape of Langkawi. The beaches were so clean and the little island was so cute and quite well maintained. I also got a bit of a sunburn in Langkawi too... It was obvious much of the recent development on the island was due to tourism influences but there were still some local agriculture and cattle in the interior of the island. I wasn't on the island long enough to get a holistic feel of the island so I would love to go back there someday. Did I mention the island is also duty free?

I highly recommend Penang (and Langkawi) as destinations in Malaysia. I noticed a lot of travellers stop in Penang, take the ferry to Langkawi, and then move on to Thailand from Langkawi via several ferry services. Just a warning, Penang is quite hot (but thank god it wasn't humid).

The night hawker stalls by Gurney Drive

Why are things so pricey in Bintan?

Ok I'm getting off my procrastinating arse and writing about the places I visited!
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To be honest, there's not too much to say about Bintan, Indonesia. I have never been to Indonesia before, and Bintan would not be my first choice place to visit in Indonesia. However, to keep my parents from worrying, I decided on a resort-y locale just a short ferry ride from Singapore. Bintan was definitely a place to relax by the pool and read a book. It was unfortunate that costs in Bintan have been driven up by the Singapore visitors. The food was extremely expensive, as were the activities. Not wanting to spend too much at the beginning of our trip, my friend and I were thrifty and just went on one excursion to a mangrove area. Bintan is also known for their beaches. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and too windy to venture into the ocean. The beaches also weren't very clean when I was there, so I was quite disappointed.

From the rather pleasant mangrove tour. 

As for the food, I had the spiciest meal of my life at the Indonesian restaurant.

I literally could not feel my tongue after this meal. This dish is pretty much a fish dish cooked with this pepper sambal sauce. The rice and shrimp chips were all gone at the end of this meal, as was the Strawberry Fanta (kinda gross) and two glasses of water.

My short time in Bintan (barely 3 days) gave me a small insight into Indonesian culture. The people there are all quite friendly and spoke decent English. Our driver who picked us up to go to the mangroves was very chatty but kept stressing how poor Indonesia is. The same goes for our guide for the mangrove tour. An outsider might feel, well I'm paying quite a bit of money here in Bintan...so how can you be poor? I think as a collective, the nation of Indonesia is poor. In Bintan where tourism thrives from Singapore, the tourism dollars don't seem to have too much local benefits. Sure it provides jobs at hotels and tours, but they aren't highly paid at all.

I wouldn't recommend Bintan as a place to visit unless you lived in Singapore or Malaysia. It was relaxing but I was also slightly bored and irked at the high price of food. The island was a lot larger than I thought and costs of hiring a car and exploring the island is also not suitable for more frugal travelers. My goal of the trip was not really to stay at a resort but to explore and experience the local culture. Definitely did not do too much of that in Bintan.