It's raining, it's pouring...

…but Dad and I are still trying to have fun in Fuzhou =P

This morning after breakfast, we decided to go walking around the “Little West Lake,” a smaller and less famous cousin of the one in Hangzhou. It started drizzling just a few minutes after we arrived, but luckily I came prepared with both an umbrella and my trusty blue poncho from Malaysia. The taxi dropped us off on the eastern side, and we simply walked over the causeway to the small islands in the middle, where there are umpteen pavilions, some gardens, and even a small amusement park (though none of the rides were running).

The gate where we entered the park

Willow-lined walkway (very much like Hangzhou!)

We ambled around, crossed another bridge, and found ourselves at the West Lake Academy, where Dad was pleased to find a bust of Lin Zexu (1785-1850), a Qing dynasty official who fought against the British in the Opium War. There wasn’t much left of the academy, just the central courtyard, a couple musty-smelling exhibit halls, a small garden off to the side, and a plaque marking where a Song dynasty temple had once stood. We walked around some more, occasionally stopping to take shelter in a pavilion when the rain became too heavy to see easily, then eventually found ourselves at the Fujian Museum. I had been expecting something about the province’s history, economy, geography, etc, but what we found was more of an art gallery, with an eclectic mix of pieces.

Lotus pavilion at West Lake Academy

Main courtyard of the academy

Dad in front of the Fujian Museum

Mural around the side entrance

Below: artwork from the Fujian Museum

Unfortunately, the museum was also tucked away in a quiet backstreet, so we had to splash through a couple blocks of deep puddles and pouring rain to find the nearest taxi stand, where we caught a cab back to the hotel to dry off. A quick lunch later, we were in a car on the way to the Mawei shipyards and former naval academy, where we met a Mr. Lin who took us on a tour of the historical museum. The facility is fairly large (the building was formerly used as a boatyard), but most of the archival material (e.g. photographs and drawings) is in a smaller space upstairs. The main hall downstairs has precisely 14 busts of historically important people (one for each column) opposite several sculptures of various tableaux.

Main hall of the shipbuilding museum

Bust of Zhan Tianyou, the "Father of China's Railways" and a Yale alum

One of several sculptures showing the ship-building process

It's still a functional shipyard!

Sculpture at the upstairs entrance

As impressive as this may sound/look, the reality is kind of sad. The museum is little-visited –our touching the busts left marks in the layer of dust and half the lights weren’t on upstairs – and Mr. Lin is probably the only person who is really passionate about preserving the stories of the shipyards. He was able to tell us about every single person who was represented in the line of sculptures, and he’s also written several essays/edited several books (he gave one to Dad as a gift). When he retires next year, it seems doubtful that anyone will be interested enough to take his place…

We next drove up the hill to the freshly-restored A-Ma temple overlooking the shipyards, as befits a goddess of the sea. The main courtyard was huge, even incorporating a stage for theatrical performances, and everything was beautifully detailed. According to the guide, some of the woodwork was actually Canadian maple, all carved by hand. Dad went around with a bunch of joss sticks (try lighting a match in pouring rain!) and burned paper money/firecrackers as well (they have a covered bin that you put the firecrackers in, so it’s slightly more safe).

Main courtyard

Stage on the other side

Central statue of A-Ma

Dad attempting to burn paper money in the pouring rain

Firecracker bin (those worked, clearly)

After that, it was an extra-long drive back to Fuzhou because the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. Every car and motorcycle created huge plumes of water, soaking all the poor pedestrians on the sidewalk, and the shallow gutters were not nearly enough to handle the downpour, so they simply overflowed as well. Some unfortunate police officers were at the worst intersections trying to direct traffic, but it’s kind of difficult to do so effectively when one hand is holding an umbrella. We finally made it back to Wusi Road and met Mr. Chen for a rather fancy dinner in a private room of his hotel restaurant. Sorry, no photos (that would have seemed weird/impolite), but it was quite good. From there, it was back to our hotel, where we dried off and now we’re going to sleep =P

Toothache in Taipei

Starting with the flight from Newark to Taipei, my teeth had been kind of twinge-ing all day yesterday, but a Motrin or Tylenol usually took care of the problem. However, when I woke up this morning, one particular tooth was absolutely throbbing -_- It was also super-sensitive to any pressure, so even rinsing with warm water hurt. Plan of action: (1) Call Aunt Karen to ask her to call the relatives in Taipei we were supposed to meet later to ask if they had someone they recommended, and (2) start looking up dentists in Taipei on various expat websites.

Background information: I had a filling done in the aching tooth back in August, and ever since then the whole side had been sensitive to cold foods/liquids. I had already consulted with a dentist in Macau and one at home in the US, both of whom said to brush and floss more carefully to reduce the slight gum inflammation, and the American dentist also gave me some samples of Sensodyne toothpaste.

Step 2 turned out to be unnecessary but it was a semi-reassuring process for a couple reasons. First, I knew that I would have been able to handle the situation even if I didn’t have support from family. Second, the expat guides had several suggestions of good places where the dentists understood/spoke English and had experience with all kind of stuff, including root canals. In any case, by 11 AM, Aunt Karen/Uncle Peter met me at the hostel, where we were picked up by one of the many “cousins” in Taipei. (Interestingly, this cousin is technically in my generation, but he is only a few years younger than Aunt Karen and has children who are only a few years younger than I am!)

The original plan had been to meet the rest of the family and all go out to lunch together, but we detoured to the dentist first, only a few blocks away from the cousin’s home. The dentist took an x-ray and poked around a bit, then promptly proclaimed that I should have the dying nerve removed. This sounded a bit drastic to me, so I instead opted to take some antibiotics to fight any developing infection and continue taking Motrin until I got back to Macau and saw a dentist there. That way, if I did need a root canal, I would also be able to have one dentist do the whole procedure (I would also thus avoid flying with a huge hole in my tooth).

That settled, we continued to lunch, where I met Aunt Karen’s/Dad’s cousin, his wife, and his older son (the younger son had been the one taking us around). It hurt to chew anything (even on the non-aching side because my teeth would bump together on both sides), but I managed to at least sample most of the dishes. If anything, my predicament made my relatives even more solicitous, e.g. making sure my piece of fish didn’t have bones. There were at least 10 courses ranging from “Buddhist Jumping Over the Wall” (supposedly the aroma of this savory soup caused a monk to jump over a high wall to find the source) to a massive hotpot with loads of thinly-sliced meats and large shrimp.

We worked off the huge meal with a long ramble around the neighborhoods where the Lin family used to live – almost all the buildings had changed, but Aunt Karen recognized the temple courtyard where they used to watch puppet shows and a sign for the old movie theater (now just an empty lot). We even hiked up a hill to get a better view of the area – the paths are paved now, but the cousin’s son and Aunt Karen remembered racing up and down the dirt paths and playing in some of the flatter areas.

The temple courtyard

The old movie theater sign (you can see down the alley to where it used to be)

Walking up lots and lots of stairs…

Last stop for the afternoon was National Taiwan University, aka Taida, where both Aunt Karen and Dad attended college. We just walked around the campus for a while – it actually reminded me a lot of Stanford with its brick buildings and palm tree-lined avenues. Perhaps the most amusing part was visiting the physics building, now a small museum that includes the yearbook photos of graduating physics majors from decades past…including my dad.

Entrance of the physics building, which now includes several other things like a nanotech center

“Royal Palm Road”

Everyone split up for dinner – I met up with a few Yalies for pizza at this cute little place called Maryjane’s. I had known Bonner (TD ’10) since he came to YSS 2007 to study Chinese, but I didn’t know Jeff (PC ’11) was also studying in Taipei this year, although we had crossed paths before via Lion Dance and Phoenix. I also met Bonner’s roommate Kellan – the guys split three (personal –size) pizzas to try different toppings but I opted for a salad to avoid the possibility of hard-to-chew crust. My tooth was less painful so I made it through the lettuce, chicken, and apple slices well enough, albeit slowly. We joked about missing New Haven pizza (especially the thin-crust at BAR) but this was a pretty good substitute =D

After dinner I headed back to the Cat’s Pajamas and ended up watching Ben Stiller’s The Heartbreak Kid with some other travelers in the common area. It was exactly the sort of silly movie I needed to relax and laugh before going to sleep. Good night!

Singapore part 2

Advance warning: another epic post! I got up fairly early to wash up (I ended up taking a cold water bucket-bath because other people were using the showers) and then had a lovely breakfast chatting with this British couple who are taking their two (adorable) little boys on a long holiday around Southeast Asia. They flew into Singapore, and they were planning to go around Thailand, Malaysia, and maybe Vietnam as well. To some parents, that might sound like a nightmarish trip, but the four and six-year-old boys were quite well-behaved, minus some playful snatching of Nutella-covered toast.

On our way to the Ferrer Park MRT station, we passed by this convenience store that had (not even kidding) eight cats, all happily munching on kitty kibble, climbing the shelves/postcard racks, and/or napping on top of the ice cream fridge (guess there was a warm spot there or something). Bad pun warning: Getting to play with a few of these happy felines was a purr-fect way to start day 2 in Singapore ^-^

Prrrrrow?

First stop: the Singapore Flyer, a 43-story high Ferris wheel, the largest in the world! One full rotation takes about half an hour, plenty of time to get a great view of the city (and if the day is clear, parts of Malaysia/Indonesia as well). Each capsule can hold about 20 people, and there are free audio guides (in English), so we also got to learn a bit about the history of and future plans for Singapore.

Cool collage of photos at the ride entrance

This whole eastern part is reclaimed land

The downtown/civic area - you can see the Esplanade (the "durian domes") and the seats for Singapore's floating stadium

Under construction: an "integrated resort" area, aka casinos, a second botanical garden, and other stuff

Singapore's iconic "Merlion" statue, near the Fullerton

By now we were rather hungry, so we headed down to Chinatown to find lunch. We ended up at Hong Lim Centre, which had a blindingly crimson shrine in the middle of the hawker center, as seen below:

Going to a hawker center is like going to the food carts in New Haven - when in doubt, look for the cart with the line. If people are willing to wait for the food, then it's gotta be good. This shop had a line over 10 people long, so we decided to give it a try.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

"Bee Hoon Mee" turned out to be rice noodles with chicken, potato, aged tofu chunks, and a few other things, all dunked in a orange-red coconut curry soup/sauce (although I actually knew that in advance because I could read all the Chinese characters...huzzah!) I wisely purchased some fresh-pressed sugarcane juice to go with my meal, which probably saved my taste buds from being completely chemically burned =P

So spicy, but so good...

After lunch, we walked around Chinatown for a while - the Hindu temple we wanted to visit was closed for renovations, but there were a lot of cute little souvenir shops and another massive hawker center in the "Chinatown cultural area" right next to it. We all ended up buying a few tourist-y things: t-shirts, magnets, etc., but we also got to try a lot more yummy food =D Again, it was cool to see how Singapore has mixed cultures even within a supposedly homogeneous area - Susan was delighted to find Vietnamese pho and we could have just as easily gotten naan and curry, Taiwanese BBQ, or more satay.

Walking through the bazaar

Two old ladies enjoying their ice kachang, a classic Singaporean dessert. I opted not to try it because the neon colors looked a little funky

What I got instead: shaved ice with mango, lychee, and tapioca beads (perfect for such a hot day)

Mari and Susan opted to get more GRBs, since Ah Balling had a stand conveniently right there. This time, there were even 綠 茶 湯 圓 (green tea GRBs), which were perfectly flavored without being too overwhelming (unlike the green tea Jelly Bellies I found in HK, which are like a punch of green tea flavor). The color was also pretty amusing - unlike the other GRBs, you could instantly tell what these were!

Yum.

This just proved you really can find anything in Chinatown...even a German sausage stand!

Around 4:00, we took the MRT up to Ang Mio Kio, where we were meeting up with Rayyan MC'09 and Alvin TD'09, both of whom are currently working in Singapore. We ended up having dinner at Uncle Leongs, which had been recommended for its crab dishes by an NY Times reader, but we ended up not getting crab because it was rather expensive (starting around $40 SGD, so about $30 USD) compared to everything else. I satisfied my savory urge with a seafood/vegetable soup instead, and it was just nice to catch up with my fellow Yalies - hopefully they can come visit me in Macau sometime!

I couldn't resist taking this photo of the wall decorations

Unfortunately, both Alvin and Rayyan had other plans after dinner, so they went home while Susan, Mari, and I headed for the Night Safari, the only zoo in the world expressly designed to showcase nocturnal animals, so it's only open from 7 PM to midnight. We had seen a poster in the Ang Mio Kio station for a free shuttle to the Night Safari, but then we found out the deal was that we had to buy the admission ticket ($22 SGD) and the safari tram ride ticket ($10) from that company in order to get the free shuttle ride. We originally had planned to just walk around instead of taking the tram, but the company charged the same prices as what I had seen on the zoo's website, so we hopped into the minivan, figuring it would be faster than the public bus.

Things got a bit sketchy about half an hour later, when we stopped at (what seemed like) a hut in the middle of the forest...for a few minutes, we thought we would be forced to buy an overpriced drink at the bar or something to make up for the free shuttle ride. It turns out that's where we had to actually get the safari/tram tickets, so it was actually a legitimate operation. We got back in the minivan and arrived safely at the safari a few minutes later, so it was all ok.

Entrance to the Night Safari

We opted to take the tram ride first, figuring it would provide us with a preview of the exhibits, then we could walk the trails later for a closer look at the animals. The safari had all sorts of creatures: flying squirrels, bats, small-clawed otters, fishing cats, rhinos, elephants, onyx, hyenas, Indian wolves, lions, Cape buffalo, crocodiles, capybaras, barking deer, lesser/greater mousedeer, porcupines, tapirs, and more, but it was nearly impossible to get even half-decent photos because the rule was no flash photography, which makes sense in terms of not disrupting the animals' night vision. Some of my better photos are below:

Flamingos!

Fruit bat, which scared the heck out of Mari

A gorgeous leopard, which unfortunately had a rather small enclosure

Serval cats, which turned out to be quite the camera-friendly posers =P

Giraffes, zebras, and an onyx (look carefully and you can see the baby giraffe in the back)

After walking all around the park, we tiredly caught a bus back to Little India and the Mitraa, quickly falling asleep because we had to get up early to catch our morning flight back to Macau. I would have liked more time to see things like the Bird Garden or explore Sentosa Island (apparently that could take a day by itself), but overall, Singapore was a great place to spend a long weekend =D

Yalie mini-reunion #1

Carrie Nguyen ES'09 stopped by Macau on her way from Vietnam back to the States, so Emily and I took her out to yum cha and walked around quite a lot of Macau: Grand Lisboa, Senado, etc. Even though I've been to those places before, we always find something new to gawk/laugh at.

The first time I was in the Grand Lisboa, it was at night, and I was looking for another place altogether, so I didn’t really take a good look around. When we come home at night and see it from the bus window, the sparkling lights look absolutely garish, but I still have to admire the coordination of all the bulbs, even with changing colors. I got a similar feeling inside the lobby – it was so over-the-top, but you can’t help marveling at the ostentatious displays of wealth.

A massive, glittery chandelier

A multi-ton jade sculpture

A similarly elaborate gold sculpture

Even the bathrooms were draped with crystal strings

Senado felt much more like authentic Macau, especially with the weekend Lion Dance performance at the steps of St. Paul’s Ruins. It was pretty warm out that afternoon, so it must have been boiling for the performers inside the costumes. However, they still managed to seem as if they were having fun too, going around the audience to let all the kids (and many of the adults) pet the lion heads and take photos.

Lion dancing

So soft and fuzzy!

Hi kid.

Of course, no trip to Senado is complete without stopping by Lemoncello for gelato…I tried some new flavors (grapefruit peach and kiwi), both of which were quite yummy. Outside, though, we (literally) ran into some clowns…turns out they were advertising a new snack shop or something.

No, the police were not coming to arrest them.

After that, Emily took Carrie to see Zaia at the Venetian while I ran a few errands, then we met back up for dinner at a Portuguese restaurant near MPI. Amy and Holly came along too, so we had a lot of fun critiquing the Miss Macau pageant (the restaurant was broadcasting it) over some very yummy fried rice, mussels, and other dishes. I went home while the rest of the girls went for post-dinner foot massages, but then we reunited for some walking around the casino area, namely MGM and the Wynn.

Possibly the craziest part of the night: midnight fountain show at the Wynn! I’ve watched the show at other times before, but they’re all different, with varying songs and therefore varying water patterns. This one was especially elaborate, perhaps because it’s the last one for the night:



After that, we went to one of the bars in ZAPE intending just to get a drink and hang out. Emily and Tom left earlier because they had to get up for debate in the morning, but Sam, Carrie and I stayed there talking until almost 3 AM! We briefly stopped by Cubic, but the club was charging $100 MOP cover, so we didn't feel it was worthwhile. All in all, though, it was a fun night =)