måndag 27 februari 2012

Day 11: Photos

Alishan mountains in Chiayi Count

Cypress Forest in Alishan

The Alishan Forest Railway

Alishan mountains in Chiayi Count

Day 10:Photos

Aborigan performers

Turtle - dragon

Temple

National park

Grill

National park

Rice in bamboo

National park

Aborigan performers

Ice cream

Day 10 and 11: To the mountains and back again

We started our two day field trip explore Taiwanese native culture by going to the mountains covered in sub-tropical forest and mist. Goran and Markus felt good enough to join the team. We were accompanied by our Friend Mr. Tank who twisted his leg during one of his acting masterpieces that he performs to make us more happy and his son MoMo, as well as members of a new hosting club. After the lunch in the mountains (Traditional Aboriginal meal as our hosts call it, turned out to be a Round Table only with a view towards mountains this time…).

We would like to mention that Round Table is a shape of a table that is very common here, and convinient too – every time more than 10 different dishes are served, and guests are invited to try everything. The taste of all food is typically Asian. Vegetables, rices, noodels, meat, seafood – everything is served in local souces and spices, and is far from Western taste experience. Taiwanese are very proud about it and they invite us to beat it twice a day. So, up till now we have had up to 20 Round Tables, and it seems that we will have 20-40 more…

So, we wached 2 shows with Aborigan performers from Zhou tribe – both with a mix of traditional and contemporary songs and dances. One was special involving a stage setting in the field where artists performed dancing scenes based on traditional ancient activities – harvesting, haunting, fighting etc. Both performances included artists inviting audience for the last common dance.

We stayed in mountains in small houses with no heating (it was around +14 in the night), but we had our first party, where boys were taught to make a rice cake, and people played tambourines wearing national hats. The party ended in our house and the sleep was short.

Sunday started at 7.a.m. when we headed to the National Park with impressive giant cypress trees, Buddhist temple and fresh air. After a long bus ride back to the city Sunday ends with dinner. We are very tired.

lördag 25 februari 2012

Day 9: Photos

Chiayi county in morning

Turtle of steel

Wishlists in top of tower

Chiayi Sun-shooting Tower

GSE team in HACK cosmetics factory

Markus - chopsticks Bat

Tee No.1 in company " Number 2 "

Tee master

Mask on the wall

Paper bag

Local hero

Bridge at night

Night market

Day 8: Photos

Police Station

New Year's Eve leftovers

With local Mayer

In City Hall

Taiwanese Embroidment

Guys get serious about it.

Can you recognize?

We wanted to have a bike ride, but chose wet walking...

4 Latvians (Aleksander is found in Taiwan :)

Old Taiwanese district

Palm broom making

The last is Traditional Chinese Pharmacy

Day 9: Chiayi County

Although we are all extremely tired, this was one of our best days as far. Best because of the care of our host Johnny - a son of the president of our hosting club for today. Johnny is 24 and he is taking care of international students and visitors in Taipei. So, we started our trip in good hands with a Chiayi Sun-shooting Tower tour, where we had a chilling coffee time, sightseeing and girls reading fashion magazines.

We continued with a visit at HACK Biotechnology Research Co., Ltd, where we were introduced with one of the highest quality cosmetic ingridents production. Hack sells ingredients for companies as Lancome etc., and we got to see the backstage of this process.

The next stop was a Tea production house of a company called Number 2 (a cool name for world's probably number one). One of the most impressive visit as far - the small simple house turned to be one of world's number one quality tea production companies. It's owner dressed very simply but having a golden Rolex on his hand silently presented us different tea's in a way they serve them at the world's competitions. Some of tea they sell for 250 Euros for 600 g, but it is sold 10 times more expensive in Canada for example. This was a never forgetting tea taste experience even for our team's passionate coffee lovers.

Later we visited Beigang city again, but this time it was full of people gathering for celebrating the birthday of Mayou - a local sea Goddess. The day was free of traditional food until the official evening dinner (thank you Johnny!), we enjoyed veggie restaurant and sweet degustation.

After the dinner that was refrreshed by our friend's Tank's never ending jokes, Johnny lead us to the night market where boys enjoyed different games, and Anna got a soft toy as a present from Taiwanese guy.

Tomorrow we are heading to mountain area. We do not know if we will have Internet access there.

fredag 24 februari 2012

Day 8: Cultural excursions

The day starts with a perfect breakfast – juice, salads and toasts in our new hotel. The air is very wet here (yesterday evening it was +23 C and humidity was 93%). The hotel has a system of dehydration, and it gets much more easy for us to sleep.

The new hosts brought us to the mayor of Po-Tzu Town the first thing in the morning. When we entered the city hall the employes applaud us, very honouring. From city hall we moved on to Po-Tzu Cultural center. At the center they showed traditional textiles and embroidery and, what was even better, allowed us to try embrodier on our own. Janis turned out to be the best in the team. Now we all have our own small bags with teddy bear, flower or train motifs

In the afternoon the cultural excursion continued. We visited a traditional taiwanesee neighbourhood, with Japanese inspired buildings from the early twentieth century. Unfortunetly there sems too be to little resources in Taiwan to take care of historical buildings in the way they deserve.

As many other days we meet a bunch of very friendly Taiwanese people. Thanks to all of you!