Hongludi hiking trail
I went for a hike recently in the southern parts of taipei
Omg...a roof elephant...
There are many trails in the southern part of taipei...acctually trails eveywhere in taiwan...just hard to know how ot find them, since not much are in english, nor do many tais like to hike (in comparison to the huge population)...
...another elephant...
First city view...it was very hot this day...
Some small path..but not our path..
The hike had allot of stairs...
And it was a "temple trail" so we passed by many temples...some were selling things...
Thuis cute munk had problems counting, so the customers had to help her to calcualte the final price...
Most locals didnt eat or drink the things anyway...they donated it to the gods...
omg...a door as in the hobbit town...
A trail map...
"Yuantong Temple Hongludi Hiking Trail Guide Map"
...also many cats were walking around...
Once in a while there were some signs...
...we also passed by some graveyards...they also had elephants....
It was a peaceful landscape...
Once in a while it reminded me of the Sanxia trails, or Shidong trails, with allot of clifs and wires...
Many squirrels ere jumping around in the trees too...
After some hour we arroved to the peak...if it was sunny, we would see the whole taipei from here...
302m above sea level...
Not far to the city...
However...warning signs for slippery surface near the temples...
Another temple view over the cloudy city...
And some cute cat scupture...
...and some japanese house...like in jiufen area...
...omg, a person with a Saab, treating it very special...
After another 5-10 minutes I was back in civilsation and the hectic taiwan traffic...
And some random night market...2017 continues...
Another day in brunei
Another day in brunei...
A saturday...so things are open today...
"Nasi lemak"...a traditional dish...
A normal restaurant: Pic of the sultan...
...i also had some local drink...green..
...and some food that tasted like indonesian food...
I also went to look for a geocache...
...it was an area with hiking capabilites...
Interesting view over parts of the city...
...some locals also enjoyed the hike (and yes, i found the cache)...
...intersting...is this a G or a 6?...hard to know at the first...
...since "ground floor" is a "G"...
I later found that the G looked differently...
A brunei person weights 68kilos...
Omg..they ask for "single" ladies for sales business...
Some view of the venice of asia...
And a mosque...near the city...
Arabic and indinesian...
And the sultan...his pis is everywhere..like in buthan, where the king is on a pic, beside buddha...
After a while a boat was borrowed...
This guy offered a cheap ride...just in the near city area...
They had many bridges in the city...
Far away I could see the sultans palace, and once again i was reminded about when my sister told me at age 10 that he just got a new roof made of gold...the richest man on earth...at that time...
...another mosque...
And some other bridge...
And venice...
This house seems to have some special function...
Far away...I could spot another mosque....
Omg...an old house...not much left...it also deminded me of inle lake in myanmar...
"Jeti" might mean bridge...each had a unique number...
And people living here had houses, stores etc nearby...
Some famous bridge...where the pelar top looked like a mosque..or minaret...
This was the school for people living here...and the son of the boat driver went here...
And those houses looked more modern...
And some other important house...
The trip was heading to an end...I took a quick look at the sultans palace once again...
Omg...seems like most stores had day of at fruday lunch...
...even burger king...
I was also looming for Amboyat...and kind of asked every person I found...the burger king people told me that this place might have...
They even gave me a note...but no...they didnt have it...
Burger king had a trash can...no recycling...
They had many Daniel Wellington watches...
I also asked them for amboyat...and they gave me a new location...
Seems like most watches were fake...
Rain was heading in the direction of the city...some people said, around 16 every day it started rain...but im not sure if it was that precise...
I had a mosque walk after this...
It was strange...paying with card...the customer had to follow the staff to a special location in a mall...
...omg...HSBC...my cousin use to work at that bank...cool tha they have a brunei branch...
it wasalittlebit like taiwan...not as extreme with buddles though...but still many...
Watch your step...
...or even some areas were covered in water...
Some mosque had some nice boat outside...as a decoration or something...
A lonely snail crossing the mosque garden...
It was a pretty nice and relaxing place...but many rules here...
Toilet for women...
Is the symbol for femal toilet a lady with a jihab?
...taxi is spelled teksi in the local language...sounds almost like indian...
Some seenic sights...the pic the the most right is a jungle where they have orangutan...that would b fun to see...
A slow walk along the harbor in the city again...many boats asking to give you a ride...
Even on this small river...like water tuktuk
A brunei bus stop...no time table...pretty confusing...
Second time i see the mosque pelar bridge...its towards the ocean...
Omg...police...in a country where alcohol is illegal, i wonder if they have a busy trafic police squad...
The crossing man looks like this...almost like in taiwan
Most signs has arabic and indonesian...or maybe malay...language
...even burger king...
The bus staion close at 18...
...omg, the street pattern looks like taiwan aboriginal pattern...
...nice evening pic of a central mosque...
A symmetric pic of the same mosque...
And night pic of the same moqsue...
Seems like some festival is upcoming...many tents on the empty streets...
Since there are no bars etc...very few people walk around after 18...
I made an attempt to ask for Amboyat at another restaurant, and was recommended to head more north...
I asked some locals when arrived here to this rural market place...and they told me to walk to the other corner of the market...
OMG! "AMBOYAT"...I found it...the slimey thing that was "local"...
I was reading my map of the city...while wiaint for them to prepare the sauce...this city is not made for pedestriants...
I didnt have enough money to buy the fish et to eat it with..so I only got slime and some red sauce...
Other people were having parties here...eating allot of seafood
They had some ope fire...it reminded me of both taiwan and myanmar...
I finally opened the slime box....and the red sauce...
...it was very slimy...from the fluor of a flower...or something...
I put some red sauce at the corner...and ate some with chop sticks...I guess this is not how it suppose to be eaten...but it was more the flavour of the sauce i was interested in...since it was the thing that was unique with this dish...2017 continues...
A visit to Brunei
I made a visit to brunei recently
Leaving in evening
Its a muslim country...they even put muslim rules in the law...such as its illegal fo work on fridays at lunch...due to praying
I wanted local dishes...I had some sweet drinks...that they told me were local
...and some other local dish...
But most things were closed due to praying...or...everything was closed...
Ecept some bus lines...
I met a chinese guy, who knew about the infrastrucutre in brunei..it kind of sux...buses are very random, and doesnt go to late...he tried to make money of tourist...else he was smuggeling alcohol into the country...
he drove for kind of an expensve fee to a hotel, that was "said to be famous"...
"Empire hotel"
as most things, it was built by the sultan...
...but most things were closed...due to praying
some nice view...
...it was some kind of peninsula...
and some oil plat form out there..which makes the sultan richer...he has like 170 königsegg and several hundred ferrarris...
some random island...
and a beach...
The shore seemed pretty artificiall...
praying hour..the life guard was sleeping...
Far away i could see the fire from the oil platform...
...nice toilet in this "fancy hotel"...
And some nice painting of how it looked like when the first europeans came...not sure if they really were "first"...
...but some 500 years ago...
omg...some very cheap shuttle bus was waiting behind the chinese driver who ripped us off....
its ok...they are everywhere in asia...just need to be aware of it....
some other building..
Sultan owned...according to the chinese...
And some mosque...blue one...like in istanbul...
no information...seems like i could enter...
however, they there were no signs of shoe deposit from the entrance..only from this place...hard to understand the rules...some muslims asked me to leave
It was a nice looking mosque...
next stop some "famous" night market...
pretty empty so far
And heavy rain was approaching
And very colourful drinks....
fortunettely they had fans..but still very smokey of all BBQ...
The chinese gave me 3 suggestions for "ocal food"...i manage to find "nasi lemak":..
rice and sause..and chicken...
more fire...making it even more smokey and foggy in this market...
...some other "local food"...reminded me of indonesian food...
...the sultan makes it easy to buy cars...but its very hard to walk around...
some new zeeland guy picked us up in the rain...and suggested some rain forrest walk...to see orangutang..which would be nice..he also suggested "Amboyat" as a local dish...i need to find that locla dish!
Since its a muslim country...pretty strict...there arent any alcohol to find...just some malt drinks...
Snacks day 1, peanuts, coconut milk, random snax and some malt drink...
A visit to a hongkong restaurant in taipei
I visited a hongkong restaurant in taipei recently
It was near taipei main station, however it was no all you can eat...at this time of the day...
instead I passed by le ble dor in q-square
...and had a honey draft...
...and some cheese sticks..but no ketchup...
...and some other platter...
...later on I passed by the hongkong place again...
...it was said to be fancy...
...it was ok...they had a few dishes...that one could order as much as you wanted...
...the mango soup to the left was nice...
...and spring rolls...
...and baozi...but i think 7-11 baozi is better...not sure why...maybe more "common taste"...to bad they didnt have any sweet n sour sauce...or kalopps which I had in hongkong before...
Wine and tea testing, and some taipei mingling
I went to some tea and wine testing recently
Actually it was tea and rice wine testing...
They had plenty of flavors...
And they explained the differences between some kinds
It was interesting
Later on we got to taste
First some teas...
And then some bartender made some tea drink
It seemed complicated...many ingredients
Many people took pics...
This is the drink recipe
More drinking
This is some company that makes "famous" wine...
Omg...they presented swedish "absolue vodka" as russian...
Then we had more flavoured rice wine...
And more flavours
Shot affter shot
Later on we headed to some football game...we came a littlebit late..it it was ok..
It was where most DJ concerts are in northern taipei....
...and ended at AK12 hamburger in ximen...
A trip to jiufen
I went to jiufen recently
This is a nice part of taiwan...
Watching keelung from distance
They were selling aboriginal keyholders, or alteast holders with aborignals on them...
The most crowded street in jiufen...
And some sea view...
Omg...I wonder what this sign means....
This place was famous I wan told
Many people working here and a long queue...
It was green and contained some vegetable...
More queues..and some scooters driving in the crowd...
And a famous stair...where many people took pics..
And some cave...
This place looks almost like in the anime movie spirited away...
Some dumplings were eaten here...
Later on some noodled were eaten...
And tofu...2017 continues...
Tired of all this religious mumbo jumbo
Locals here often "try" to keep their pavements clean (even if they most often use them as scooter parking)...
I just experienced some local guard who doesnt want bikes to be parked on the pavement...but as long as it comes to religous stuff, such as "burning paper" ovens...they are allowed to block everwhere...so funny logic...
Its often no use to questionise the logic in this XD
2 all you can eat with kristoffer
I have a swedish friend from finland on a visit...
He will go back to sweden next week...so we went to some places that they dont have in sweden...all you can eat and drink restaurants...
With both beer, wine, sashimi and ice cream...
A presentation about china
I visited a presentation that was about china recently
They had pizza and beer at the place...
Mr Olsson och Mr Ek was preparing it...
This guy is currently working as a journalist and have published a couple of books about china...It
The topic was as says on the slides...
Many people from many different countries showed up...
Afterwards there were some mingeling..it was fun...
More mingeling in taipei
I went to xien with some friends from Taoyuan recently...
And had a nice strawberry drink...
...later on we passed by this hooka place...we entered byt never bought anything
Next stop was Huashan culture park in central taipei
I also passed by a puyuma singer...
She was signing her new record...her name is Jiajia
Interesting...maybe I should have asked for an autograph...
Next stop a resturant with local beer...
Taihu beer...
It was ok...tasted pretty similar to other local beer in taiwan...
I also got some snacks...
Later on I had a trappist beer...
Before I went to another hotpot...
With many kind of ice cream...
And drinks...
And other kind of dessert...
It was ok...
Many hoptop are the same...still they manage to make money...i guess cus locals in taiwan dont cook in the same extent as home...
Some evening out on the street in taipei
I had some nice noodles recently...
"what did johan eat today"?
...and sweet and sour sauce....
I also got some cheese skewers...
Later on I also visited an italian restaurant in central taipei
This was the name...most restaurants i visit i upload a comment on google maps...pretty usefull...
A night out with Shen Ci Daniel
a friend form sweden came visiting taipei recently...he is from taiwan originally
We went to yiland beer bar...
No 1 beer...
...then mods animal...
Omg Abba...epic...2017 continues...ShenCi Daniel is a very funny guy btw...
A revisit to Tainan (part 2)
I saw a guy in Tainan who looked like my friend Milo..but it wasnt him...
But I just saw him 4-5 meters from his right...
They use some red flower for the addresss on the street signs here in Tainan...its taken near a famous food street in Tainan...
This place was famous...had some special food
Based on locals advice from some previous night...at this place...or area
...an oyster omelette or something
Next stop this place...
Famous for this food
A long queue
Nest place...some tea bar..or juice bar...same street...
A crowded street...allot of scooters driving around
...next place...this ice cream store...
Very popular...or maybe just "famous"...
This is the address...
Number 135...but have to wait almost 50 numbers...a sign says if one misses their unmber, they have to queue again...
Allot of decoration at this street...
This might have been the name of the ice crea place...
Some queuing regulations
And the ice cream...some burned sugar...
...and green tea ice cream...
Omg...another nice "no idling" sign....how cocme taipei dont have this...? so strange...
Next stop was an aborginal park...but it was rather empty...just some cool images...
Group photo...
...geographical explanation
...some local promotion of event...
...some cool picture with aboringal things...
...aboriginal bench...
...more event info...
...after some pics at the aboringal park...this restaurant was visited...
...famous for this dish...
...Next stop...near the tainan old town...
...they even had AC...
...famous for this dish...like pure mached meat in salty water...or something
At the address on the green sign...
Next stop: An american boat
It was used during the vietnam war...
And has been here some some decade...
...many things can not be taken on board...
It was equiped for doing many things
...abd hade a cafeteria...it cost money to enter...people on board didnt seem to wanna buy things for the moment...
They also had some flag alphabet...as the military often use...
The tainan trip was ended with some sweet n sour sauce dish back in taipei...
A revisit to Tainan (part 1)
I made a viit to Tainan recently
"Good used books"...sounds like a nice store to buy books at...
First stop was a tample...near some dike...
I visited here 2008 with some friends...its a verey touristic spot...
Long queue to get on a boat, which brings you back and forth on some small pond...covered by trees...
And after som queing, another long queue...
I know that tainan is one of the oldest cities in taiwan...according to literature...here is some map from some dutch people
And some route some dutch people took...
We needed to use some life jacket
And we could use some chiense rice hat...or atleast a hat that is often used at the rice fields...
...and once in a while other boats approached us...
...apparently they had many crabs here...
And many people took pics of the gree tunnel that was created by all the bushes...
...far away was the end
It was some other dyke...
And back we went...
At the tample again i saw some bird that locals played with...i thin they cut its wings...so it could not escape...
And next stop was some museum, looking like in europe...
Tainan metropolitian museum park
It was famous for its international style...
Many locals ere here to take pics...
They also had smoe greek god statues...
And birds running around on the grass..
It seemed like the museum itself was closed...
More people taking pics...
And some other pic..
...more pics...
,,,school classes...
A statue of Serenity...
Next stop a "famous hotpot"
But then there was a waiting time for 30-60 minutes...
Some cow statue at the entrance...interesting...
Menu only in chinese...
It was pretty crowded in there...
And people left some things on our table...it felt like siting in a kitche...
Tainan is famos for having taiwanese cows...so the meat here is not imported...
Omg...later on a saw a sign that almost made me fall in tears..."no idling"...i wish this sign were spread out all over taiwan...or maybe also in china...where people often idle everywhere...
Some night pic of the museum..
Next stop...somce other oyster restaurant...
They had many kinds of dishes...
...friend oyster...
oyster in egg...and red sauce...
fried oyster...
grilled oyster...
Next place to visit was at Tainan harbour...a coffee shop called windmill...
...maybe due to a windmill in their garden...
Th
They had some interesting things that spinn in the wind...
Manu in chinese..
And some different locations...however they didnt sell taiwanese coffee...
But they had windmill models...
And a fancy car outside...
I had some caramel latte...
Omg, somce painted micro windmill...
I ended the night by visiting a geocache...
It was a nice road that was some old city wall...
With some chinese characters at the entrance...
Some other geocaching was made here...
Later a visit to this Amis resturant was made...
"happy ending" was the name in local language...
And an image of their traditional dance
...and the aboriginal boat...
I aksed for some local beer, but they suggested xiaomijiu...some sweet wine...like millet wine...
Omg...some images on the wall from seediq bale..
Some local dish...
And banana leaf wrapped rice...I have t in Danline once in a while...
Some table nearby had some party...
They had a famous singer at their table..
After some while drinking I was invited by local people...to theri table...
And got to take a fan pic with the local singer...
More dancing and performance...2017 continues...
Some random noodles and sweet n sour sauce in taipei
I had some noodles and sweet n sour sauce in taipei recently...
It was pretty thick noodles...
"What did johan eat today"?
Taizhong visit in April (part 2)
Day 2 of my Taizhong trip i visited Gaimei wetlands to start with...
Situated at the port of taizhong, it is alot of mud here near the ocean side
Most info is in chiense...
And there was a briudge here which no one could enter...
Thre were also a bunch of windpower plants near the coast line
And some signs about the plants..in both english and chiense...
The water is higher in the morning...some local people said the level with be lower later...
Omg...rice fields...so strucutred...
And a cool bridge...
it had a strange curve in the middle...
but not bikes were allowed to enter...
...a map with scenic site in the taizhong port area...
Weird bridge...i wonder how it acts in a typhoon...luckily its on the west coast...
Gaomei wetland it is...
...omg near road 10...there are may "blue sheild" roads in taiwan...
"Shent"...thats an interesting spelling..."sheng it is in pinyin...
Next stop was a teppanyaki...
...pretty exclusive...
with many dishes...such as salad...
"what did johan eat today"?....soup...
...egg with kaviar...
...and then the teppanyaki...
...some bacon...
...i had allot of this pickles...
and some peices of meat...
...omg they had a huge crab in a pool nearby..
The dessert was some cake and fruits...
Next stop Lins family mansion...but it was pretty strict...only every 30 minutes people could enter...
Since i missed the entrance with some seconds...I just went in to some side room...for snaping pics...
Pretty large area...
I might build some garden like this in sweden in the future...
omg...a small island
and some japanese style house...
Next stop.was some miniature world....
Seemed like some homeless guy spent 3 years making some villiage out of small stones and metallic net...
Many gardens...
I remember when I was yong i made some house like this in my parents garden...they didnt like it...
This is the foundation
Garden after garden...pretty huge village....
Many details as well
Might do a new attempt when i get back to sweden to build a new village...
Nesxt stop is a famous artist who is visiting taizhong...
I think he would fit at österlen in sweden...allitle bit like gunilla manns art...or some american guy i use to check out...
Here is the guy, he might have exhibitions at other places too...
Many people were taking pics...
I think he even were selling some art...
Some colour were like the mountian in USA filmed in the film "into the wild"...
Many selfies taken...
I was often thinking...."i can do this myself" when walking around around the painted walls...
Some nice place to paint at might be needed...and some branding...or just "to be famous" can be enough...
Next stop: famous icecream
Nice pics...any famous place?
This place had allot of chocolate flavours..some fruit sorbet...(called icecream) and some tea flavours
Pretty proffesional...
They had some strange flavours as well...i think they were all made at the ice cream store...
Somce topping were included in the price...
My master peice....chocolate, coconut and honey...or something...
I also passed by some other dessert store...with interesting interiors...
This place had cheese cake..I had a try...
Before leaving the town it was tie to return the scooter
Taizhong visit in April (part 1)
I made a visit ti Taizhong recently
Tricky with a time table all in chinese...i wonder why it has english text on the top...
This was apparetnly one of the buses to downtown
Interesting sign...
Some other common east asian sign...
Some first stop in tazhong...Hungry Jacob
They had some burger quotes
english menu...
with localon of each dish..on a map
it took long time before the food came...snacks came first....
and later on the burger
Later on this beer bar was visited
At this address
They had mostly international beer
But some few taiwanese kinds
This one were made in taizhong
I eventually took what they recommended...some german dark beer...
They had somem books about beer...i read the hops book, saying that hops are mostly growing in the dark area on this map...
Next stop was this beer bar...
The beer was from taiwan as welll
They had 3 kinds...
I tried all 3
And some snacks...
Many foreigner were here...
Next stop was this nice cafeteria...
It was out door, on a hill in the central area of taizhong
They mostly had coffee...
And a view reminding of "the top" in taipei...
They recommended some waffles...
Taizhong night skyline...
Many people enjoying the view...
They had interesting interiors and decoration....
And this anime character were painted at many places...
A visit to a taiwanese restaurant in zhonghe
I passed by a taiwanese resturant in zhonghe recenrlt
What did johan eat today? this nice noodles...
Some fried cabbage...
Sweet n sour sauce...
A trip to Cueifong lake
I made a trip to Suifeng? Cueifong lake recently
Taking a scooter on road 9....apparently 2 people died on this road the same day i went here...jsut before and after I passed by...
Many bikes...
And many people taking pics of the bikes...
Passing by pingling...the vilalge of tea...
And some view spot...
Far away is the ocea...anbd turle island...we just reached the city of yilan...
Some lonely acvite volcano...turle island...looks pretty cool out in the ocean...
Heading on road 9....it is the longest road in taiwan i think...
Some famous chicken resturant (in yilan and jiaoxi they have many "famous chicken stores"...this is one where the locals go to...
They had allot of taiwanese food...
And some noodles...and the chicken...
I like the atmosphere in yilan and jiaoxi...flat and moutain in the horizon...its an old delta i think...like many cites in taiwan...
After road 9, road 7 was entered...
Many rice field here...
we also passed by Jim and dads...their brewery...as well as kavaln distillery...which is on the same road...
Late on we headed up the mountains on road 7...
Another huge river...
And some aboriginal village...
They also have some huge carport shaped baskedball arena...like many aboriginal villages...
The landscape is mountaines and rivers...
After a while we left road 7 and headed to Taipingshan...
...it was another national forest recreation area...pretty far away form civilsation
They charged people to enter as usual...
And then the road went up up up...for about 30-50km...
Left and right...up up up
Taipingshan national forest recreation area has several scenic sights...
There are allot of pine trees here...
After some hours of scooter driving we reached our destination
The Cueifong lake...
With some information signs in english
and a trail that are 3km...we arrived pretty late..not sure if the sun will be up for us to walk around the lake...
But some kilometer was doable...
This lake was one that is larger in rainy season...probably in autumn...
Some foggy lake pic
And some flowers...
Seme signs...the one to the bottom left asks people not to bring their own fish...which might kill the local ecosystem...
Later on we headed to the other side of the lake
From here the lake was larger
Omg...a drone...
many people taking pics
It was the largest forest lake in taiwan...which has no river entering it...
And i saw some strange floating thing in the middle...not sure what that was...
No fish in this lake...
...but many animals...
Some reference to a movie...
It is 1840 meters above sea level...and taiwanes "largest alpine lake"...
No butterfly catching...or carving..
...still allot of pine trees...
And some toilet...
the forest was soo green..andn the sky was soo blue...
...it felt like i was not in taiwan for a while...
Back to the long road back to civilisation
We also passed by a tree that was very old...
Very high up I bet there are many old trees...
...tjhis one were about 2500 years old...
We also passed by many aborignal villages on the way back...
And some atayal museum..which just closed...pretty disapointing...
Very cool statues...
I which I knew people from this area of taiwan...
...omg...another accident....
And many queues...
I returned to yilan and bought some IPAs...
...at Jim and dads...expensive...but a little exclusive...
We also passed by a "famous" bread store in jiaoxi...
They had awesome bread...for being taiwan...
I bought 5-6 kinds...
And had some on the way back to taipei...thinking about some latest research...
Then the road 9 was waiting again...with the night view of yilan...
...And somewhere out there...also turtle island...
Next stop was Xindian...they had some water activity with lights...
It was some special show...
And today was the last day...
Many locals came here to watch...
Also a walk at the night market was done...
This was the name of the light show...
Xindians lake Bitan is a nice place to chill at....
Their toilet is made from the brand Falcon...same name as a swedish beer company...such a nice match...
A visit to Badasan Aboriginal Restaurant
I passed by an aboriginal restaurant recently...
It was in the northern parts of taipei
I wasnt sure which tribe...but maybe Atayal-Seediq something
They had some traditional boats hanging from the ceiling
The waiter I asked wasnt an aboriginal
I had some interesting xiaomijiu with milk and coffee...it tasted just like white russian...
I also had some rice in bamboo stick...
...and some binlang flower stew...
other things were pretty normal...such as meat in soy sauce
The staff had some cool fire show later on...
...as I got more food...some unidentified vegetable...
They also had some dance session...
And more entertainment on the stage...
It was interesting...
Some stick that showed text and characters when someone was spining it....
They were also selling some aboriginal souvenirs...
The visit was ended with an ikea visit...
