Dumpings (and other things) in Taipei

Taiwan is a pretty fun island. I should be careful saying that, as I have only visited a small portion of the island, the northern coastal region. Right now, Alrica and I are in Taipei. We have had several fun days here, with several beautiful sights and interesting museums and wow, so so many dumplings. (And other dumplingesque victuals.)

The Lungshan Temple

We arrived in the afternoon. Our first day was mainly spent in getting to the hotel from the airport and then wandering a bit in our neighborhood. We had to find dinner, and just a couple blocks from the hotel we stopped and got an order of pork dumplings and also xiaolongbao. Xiaolongbao are a must have in Taiwan. They are also dumplings, specifically soup dumplings. In addition to the meat filling of the dumplings, there is also broth inside, really flavorful broth. We've now eaten xiaolongbao several times, and there is a method. So, as a complete expert after four days, I am going to give you the lay of the land, or the lay of the bao.

Step 1: Use your chopsticks (you don't get forks here) to pick up the xiaolongbao from the top. You don't want to break the outside dumpling dough that holds the inner goodness.

Step 2: Set the bottom of the xiaolongbao in your dumpling sauce.

Step 3: Now lift your xiaolongbao and set it in the spoon. You are generally given one of those wide flat-bottomed spoons that you see at Chinese restaurants used for soup.

Step 4: Poke a hole in the dumpling dough so that some of the broth within comes out into your spoon.

Step 5: Sip the yummy broth.

Step 6: Lose patience and just eat the xiaolongbao already!

Moving on from dumplings and soup dumplings, on our second day, we took a tour. We met our guide and the rest of our tour group at the Taipei Main Station. From there we took a bus. The first stop was a village called Shifen. In Shifen, there is a lantern festival. The big business there is selling these gigantic lanterns, probably about three feet tall. And you light some fuel source in an iron ring, your lantern fills with hot air, and then it floats up and away taking your hopes and dreams to the gods. This is somewhat literal, though I'm sure they don't make it all the way to the gods. But you do write on the outside of the lantern, well, actually paint. But you are painting letters. So maybe you're writing and painting all at once.

We wrote 52 (our 52nd country), "happiness" in Chinese, and Euler's solution to the Basel Problem.

We wrote hopes for ourselves, hopes for our kids, the Chinese characters for happiness, and I wrote a math equation for good measure. Then up and away went the lantern.

Alrica at the Jing An Bridge and if you look closely, a lantern in the sky behind her

We also walked across the Jing An Bridge, had some peanut ice cream rolls (which are exactly what they sound like), and admired the Taiwanese version of a total tourist town. My usual rule for tourist towns is you know you're in one when there is a fudge shop. Well, I have to account for the fact that fudge isn't the thing here. But if it were, there would have been at least one fudge shop.

The Shifen Waterfall

From the village of Shifen we went to the Shifen Waterfall, just a bit outside the village. Here we crossed a suspension bridge to get to it. There were lovely views, but it isn't running very fast or with that much water. It has been very dry of late in Taiwan. Our guide showed us a video of the falls the day after a typhoon passed. I mean, it's not Niagara Falls, but it was a much more violent flow than what we were seeing the day we were there. Still, violent or calm, it was beautiful.

View from Jiufen when the sun was still out

View from Jiufen after the sun had set

After the falls we headed into the mountains to a city called Jiufen. Jiufen is a steep city on the side of the mountain. You walk up 400 steps to get to the top. Here we saw views of the ocean from up high, we enjoyed the architecture and the sunset, and we wandered the narrow streets full of lanterns and shops.

Jiufen streets lit by lanterns (and Alrica's smile)

After that we returned to Taipei, a bit overheated, a bit overtired, but it was a great trip.

Vending machines are everywhere here. And entire shops full of "the claw". You know, that arcade game where you try to get a claw to grab a toy. Entire shop with just those "the claw" machines.

The next day we visited the National Taiwan Museum. It had a lot of exhibits, but its general theme was that of natural history. We learned about the formation of Taiwan from plate tectonics. We learned that during the last ice age, it is believed that the Taiwan Strait was not water, but rather a land bridge connecting Taiwan to mainland China. During this time, many animals used that land for hunting. But when the waters rose again, some went west to China and some went east and ended up on Taiwan. The trouble for those on Taiwan was its size. There wasn't enough food and space for them and they died. So there are fossils found in Taiwan of rhinoceroses, Asian tigers, and more. Many of these species had died in Taiwan well before any humans moved in.

The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

Today we visited Liberty Square. This is a large plaza with an impressive archway gate. Then inside there is the National Concert Hall on one side and the National Theater on the other. In between is an open square, currently being decorated. But when it is not being decorated, it is a space for public dissent and demonstrations. Beyond the square is a long stretch called Democracy Boulevard. And at the end of it is the impressive Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.

The National Theater

The size and grandeur of these buildings is staggering. And at the base of the Chiang Kai Shek Momorial, every hour, there is a demonstration by the Taiwanese military that involves a lot of twirling and throwing of rifles with bayonets. The soldiers involved in the performance wear stark white uniforms with stark white helmets. (Is any color other than white ever referred to as stark?)

Look at those uniforms. Stark, am I right?

Tonight we went to the Lungshan Temple which is a Buddhist and Taoist mixed temple. The architecture is breathtaking and it is very beautiful at night. From there we headed to the Guangzhou Street Nightmarket. Here we ate sausage in sticky rice (which is crazy, the sticky rice is shaped like a sausage, but then they cut it open and it is used as a bun), taro balls, sweet potato balls, and, you guessed it, dumplings.

That is not a typo. They are honestly selling phallic cakes. On the street!

Tomorrow we leave this lovely place. But we might have to come back one day. We'll miss it here. Especially the dumplings.

Over seven thousand islands but only 18 days

With 7,641 islands in the Philippines, and a strong dislike for travel days, planning country number 51 was especially challenging. It seemed like a good time to test AI travel recommendations so I asked it where we should spend two weeks in the Philippines and drilled down from there. After getting specific ideas of places, hotels, and activities, I consulted some friends who had been recently and read all I had time for on Facebook and I was ready to book. Our decision was to spend 2.5 weeks in the Philippines at three different locations:

 

El Nido, Palawan. This was our beach week. We stayed at a small inn on the Caalan Beach access road which had a very local feel. The road isn't wide enough for a full-size car so tricycles are the way to get around and when it rains, the road is muddy up to your ankles and the locals typically walk around barefoot, a reasonable accommodation to the weather. Internet was crazy strong for a backwater place like this at around 200 mbps but the power went out frequently and the water often went with it. El Nido City is run entirely by the tourism industry. Off the main drag, we could get meals at a closer-to-local price of about 130 Pesos (US$2.25) but inside the city (a 15 minute walk), those exact same meals would run closer to 400 Pesos (US$6.91). We loved the silogs and banana shakes! 

As you walk the streets, there are tour operators on every block and people everywhere trying to sell you things. The big thing here is island hopping tours labeled A-D. We did Tour C which went to five different islands and focused on snorkeling. It was amazing! Since it was off-season, we got a 10 percent discount on the tour putting it at 1600 pesos (27.48 each) plus another 100 pesos each for the rental of the snorkel gear and water shoes. Over the next 7 hours (rain or shine) we visited five islands with different characteristics each. Water shoes were essential and kayaking was an option that we skipped. This was by far our best day!

The beach right at El Nido was rocky and not swimmable but a short tricycle ride put us at soft sandy beaches that were worthy of a day of relaxation. Each of the main tourist beaches were well equipped with restaurants but didn't have working showers.  

Cebu City. An hour long flight away is this lovely city of less than a million people that pays homage to its Spanish colonial roots as it grows to meet the needs of its expanding population. While it is possible to do day trips to swim with whale sharks and turtles, those tours leave at 3 AM and return around 10 PM and we just didn't have that energy. Instead, we dug into the history and cultures that was so unique to the region. We visited the site of Magellan's cross which was built to memorialize the visit of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and wandered past the Basilica and the Cathedral (pants are required dress code here!) before spending an hour exploring Fort San Pedro, built as a Spanish defense in the 1700s.

 

Now hungry, we made our way to the Carbon Market. This is a local market that sells fruits and vegetables along with handmade goods and all sorts of grocery items. We saw more mango here than all the people in the city! Making our way upstairs, we stumbled upon a variety of food stalls selling assorted dishes for under 100 pesos ($1.72). We tried several different options before deciding that we had had enough of the heat and were ready to return to our air conditioned hotel. Since the streets near the market would not be navigable by a grab car, we headed for a more major street and found a tourist focused food hall which lead to our first taste of the Lechon dish that Cebu is known for. 

 

With an early morning start to beat the heat, we took a Grab to the Cebu Taoist Temple. The temple is on the top of a beautiful hill overlooking the city in a gated community. Dressed appropriately in long pants and following the requested silence mandate, we explored the grounds and learned a bit about the Tao beliefs. 

 

Closer to our hotel near IT Park, we took full advantage of the night markets and street vendors, even buying rolls from a guy that cooked them in an oven attached to his motor bike. And we got to enjoy the mango smoothies that became a staple of our diet here. 

Manila. With only a couple days left in the islands, we met up with a US friend who has an office here to explore the capital. We learned the story of Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero from the Spanish Colonial era, visited San Sebastian Church, and immersed ourselves in the National Museum of Anthropology (they speak over 175 languages here!), before heading to Makati for our Night Street Food tour. We tried all sorts of new foods (some good and some not great) and enjoyed live music as our guide shared his life experiences. 

 

 

Finally, for our last full day in the Philippines, and with a few final pesos to spend, we headed over to the Singing Cooks and Waiters restaurant where Erich joined in on the fun! 

This is definitely a place we will need to return to! Each stop had its own feel and culture and foods and yet there were some commonalities. First the facts: everyplace we stayed used electrical outlets that would fit US plugs, cars drive on the right side of the road but I wouldn't rent a car given how bad the traffic and roads are (and Grab ride-shares or tricyles are cheap), lots of places don't have toilet paper in the bathrooms and don't allow you to flush so bring your own or get used to the sprayers. 

But the fun stuff: We discovered that Filipinos love to sing! In every grocery store or restaurant, music would be playing and the staff would be singing along, often loudly. We learned that the heat is pretty oppressive here so staying hydrated is important. Obviously they believe so too because all over the country, you will find filtered water dispensers. You grab a plastic bag and plug in a single peso and you get a bag of water!

Finally, Filipinos are proud of their beautiful islands and love to share all that they like about them. Hope you enjoyed us sharing this!

Not My Idea of Paradise

In movies, when people visualize paradise, it is usually presented as somewhere tropical where they lie on the beach, in the shade of a palm tree, drinking Mai Tais and leaning back in a low lounging chair. They might be wearing swimsuits or sunglasses or straw hats, but the locale is always this tropical beach idea. Often these are criminals imagining what they are going to do with their loot and have the further requirement of a place with no extradition agreements. But let's set that aside for the moment.

I am currently in such a place. We are in El Nido, on the island of Palawan, in the western portion of The Philippines. I have no idea what the extradition sitch is, but as I am not, so far, being sought out by the long arm of the law, I don't need to fret such details. Also, I've not yet seen anyone drinking Mai Tais on the beach here. If I see people drinking anything, it's usually beer. And they don't have low lounging chairs, instead they sunbathe on towels, sometimes topless (the women. Well, the men too, but for whatever reason that isn't worthy of remark.) Nonetheless, this is, as Flynn Rider describes in his post-life-of-crime dream, "somewhere warm and sunny." Arguably, El Nido is paradise.

But not to me.

You cannot argue with a sunset like that. Or can you?

Maybe I'm just different than the criminal classes and other dreamers in movies. Maybe I wouldn't make a good fictional character in a movie. Maybe that's why no one has yet made a movie about me. (Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason.) Whatever the reason, a tropical island with sandy beaches just isn't paradisiacal to my way of thinking.

To give credit where it is due, El Nido is beautiful. I only have a few pictures (I will come to that in a bit.) But when it is sunny out and you walk along the beach and look into the water, it's majestic. In the shallows you see the light earth tones of the sand just centimeters below the surface. In the slightly deeper areas, the water appears vivid light green. And where it really drops off, the sea is like liquid emeralds, or maybe just one large liquid emerald. What's even better is that here and there, popping up out of the water like Godzilla rising from the depths (which is more of a Japan thing, but I don't know if The Philippines has a Godzilla equivalent,) are these huge mounds. They are islands made of limestone which was made by coral that died a gazillion years ago. (How's the word "gazillion" for intense mathematical precision?) Then tectonic activity thrust them up and the limestone eroded in rain and seawater. What's left is nearly vertical cliffs with lots of exposed limestone, but also lots of lush green plant life.

It's called a karst landscape

Palawan Island itself is atop this same long deceased coral, and you see those jutting mountains limestone heaps not just in the water, but in the land. It is fascinating to see and makes me wish I had a firmer command of geology.

There's that liquid emerald

The people here are super friendly. English is spoken by most everyone. While there are people trying to sell you trinkets on the beach, like unearthed American coins from 1804 found in shipwrecks or necklaces with real shark teeth, they aren't too pushy. They're actually friendly, even after you say no. The weather is a mixed bag. When it rains, wow does it rain. A lot of water falls fast, though it isn't usually with much wind, so it falls straight down. When it is sunny, it is so very sunny. It's also hot and humid and you feel a five degree (or more) difference between being in the sun and being in the shade.

The limestone mounds rising up over the land as well

Yet, after all of that beauty, I don't like it here. I don't hate it, but I don't like it. I've never been a beach bum, a beach enthusiast, or a beachcomber. The point: beaches don't entertain me that much. A few days ago, we did visit a beautiful one called Vanilla Beach, and I played in the water for a couple hours. And that was enough for me. On Saturday, we are taking a tour to like four or five breathtaking beaches. We can snorkel at them. And I suspect that will be about three or four more breathtaking beaches than I need. But hey, it's paradise, right?

We are in El Nido for a total of eight days. Eight freakin' days! Why? Because the oil, which should have lasted only one day, miraculously lasted for eight! (No, I think I'm confusing that with another eight day stretch.) Really it was about good prices on flights with little to no thought about "is there enough to do in this place to keep anyone entertained for eight days?" For me, that answer is no. I had my fill after day two, now I'm in the middle of day five, and looking ahead to the three I have remaining, it's like that camera effect where everything stretches and gets further and further away. There's just nothing much I want to do here.

Ironically, the good news is that I do have work to get done. (Work is the good news, Erich? Yes, Erich. That's what I meant by "ironically".) I'm designing some new courses and taking over another course in the Spring semester. So I have lots of development work to accomplish. I try to do that when the forecast calls for rain and do walks when it is supposed to be sunny. But that doesn't always go as planned. For example, as I write this it is sunny and beautiful out. But the forecast says it will be raining now. And why don't I go walk right now instead of typing this blog? Because I only recently returned from a huge walk, got rained on near the end, and then arrived back to the hotel room drenched in sweat. I took a shower to cool off and clean up. Incidentally, water pressure in El Nido is minimal. The hotel even provides a huge bucket filled with water and a smaller bucket to dump with in case you don't have enough pressure to flush the toilet. As you might imagine, I don't want to go back out and start the sweat process over again.

What's more, I'm alone most of the time. Alrica has work too, and she doesn't feel the compulsion to save it for the rainy times. So most of my walks are all by myself. That's not new. Everywhere we go, I do a lot of walks by myself, no big deal. Frequently, I listen to audiobooks while I walk and/or have a destination in mind. Here I have neither.

Why no audiobooks? This gets back to why I have fewer pictures to share. I broke my phone. I don't have a camera to take more pictures, nor a device to play audiobooks while I walk. And El Nido is not a major metropolis where I can get it repaired nor buy a new one. Nor will I be posting a link to this blog post on Facebook. You see, Facebook thinks I do belong to those criminal classes mentioned earlier and won't let me log in without authenticating. That's another thing one needs a phone for! (I rarely log into Facebook except to post blog links, so honestly, that's no big loss for me.)

In fairness, I can't blame El Nido for the broken phone. I could blame gravity, but gravity got a huge assist from me and my graceful and almost balletic ability to fumble an object in my hands which really should not be fumbled. Yaaaay Erich!

As for destinations, well, I do walk on the beach and I can walk along the streets of El Nido where drivers of the vehicles they call tricycles ask me if I want to get a ride to somewhere. But there aren't a lot of great destinations I could walk to without walking along the main highway. Honestly, I could do that. It's not like an interstate. But it doesn't have any sidewalks. And I would be going up over some mountains to get anywhere interesting.

Except, I would love to go to the karst formations themselves. I would love to walk right up to one of them and touch the limestone and examine it more closely. But the land right at the base of these sheer cliffs seems to be private land. What's more, it seems to be unattractive private land, as I would guess some of Palawan's least affluent people live there. My evidence is the prevalence of corrugated aluminum as part of the building material of their homes. So I can't say that for sure. Maybe corrugated aluminum was all the rage in the days when those homes were built. Maybe you paid extra for the corrugation! Doubtful, but maybe.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and make the best of it. One of my father's three maxims, his third, is "attitude is everything." (Though my brother might say my father's third maxim is "Don't get caught with your pants down." That's a family joke, so just shrug it off.) Plus, I know I won't improve my happiness by being miserable. Still, at times it feels good to rant. So lucky you, dear reader, I'm ranting in your direction. Soak it in!

I'll take more walks in the coming days. Probably not on the day we go snorkeling, which does sound super fun. At least at the first location. I don't know if it will continue to be as fun each time thereafter or if habituation will kick in. But I suppose I might see different fish. (I mean fish species. I am sure I won't be seeing the same individual fish since a motorboat will take us from one location to another. Maybe the fish can outrun the boat, but why would they want to? And even if I did see the same individual fish, would I really recognize them? "Oh hey, Natalie Fish is back!")

Well, thanks for letting me rant and complain for a bit. Do I feel less lonely? Maybe a little. Do I feel less bored? Definitely while I am still writing this I do. Do I feel less hot and sticky? Of course, I'm sitting in an air conditioned hotel room. Let's face facts, I don't have too much to complain about. My life, even in El Nido, isn't that hard.

But I wouldn't say it's paradise.

To the Doctor

In this life of travel, we don't have a regular doctor we can visit. That does need to happen from time to time. So this week, here in Kuala Lumpur, we dealt with doctor visits. Malaysia is one of the countries in the world with a big medical tourism industry. So you can get all kinds of tests and procedures done with doctors who speak English. And it is so affordable compared to the USA.

On Tuesday, we visited the eye doctor. I need new glasses and Alrica wanted to have her eyes checked to see if she needed glasses. My prescription changed, as expected. Alrica's vision isn't quite as good as it was, but no need for glasses yet. The doctor recommended she consider driving glasses, but since we almost never drive, that didn't seem like a major concern.

It's not 20/20 vision, it's 6/6 because they measure in meters!

For both of us to see the eye doctor and for me to get glasses was $379. That might seem higher than expected, but understand, my vision is pretty bad. In the USA, I spend well over $400 on the glasses alone, and that's in addition to the doctor's visit.

I don't have the new glasses yet, but they should come in some time this week. And then we will go back to pick them up. The eye doctor is only about a 17 minute walk from where we live.

On Friday, we went to the whole body doctor. What we really did was visit Tung Shin Hospital where we had a battery of tests performed in addition to seeing a doctor. Everyone spoke English, though often with accents. That's not a problem, but here is what's surprising. I never realized how much I depend on seeing someone's face to interpret them, especially if they have a thick accent. But at the hospital, when all the personnel wear masks, my reliance on seeing lips move was apparent.

It was an amazing process, moving us from one department to another. I had a physical assessment from the doctor, blood drawn (I don't have the results yet), an EKG (all is good), a chest x-ray (all is good), an abdominal ultrasound (all is good), and I gave a urine sample (no results yet.) There was very little waiting, well, until I was all done. Alrica had all the tests I had and more. The comprehensive female package involves several tests that men don't get including mammogram, pap smear, and bone density test. So my only waiting was at the end, because I was done before Alrica.

We were able to log in and see our results from the ultrasound and x-rays that afternoon. We have to wait for the blood and urine tests, probably about a week. Though today and tomorrow are national holidays in Malaysia. Today is Merdeka, that's their Independence Day. So it may take slighly more than a week. When the results are back, we return to the hospital and discuss them with a doctor, again, in English.

Are you ready for the amazing part? Then entire costs of all of this, for both of us put together, was $350. In the USA, I would pay more than $350 just to hold the cup that would eventually contain my urine sample.

And get this: They also gave us a meal voucher. We had to fast, of course, and then after it was all over, we got a voucher to go eat at their cafeteria. We had an interesting experience there too. We were sharing a table with an elderly Malaysian man, and he had so many fascinating things to share. He worked in the cable industry, not cable TV, but actually making cables. He explained that in the poorer countries they use aluminum cables, because that's cheaper. But in richer countries, they use copper cables because you can get the same strength with a much smaller diameter.

He also told us that there is a big parade and celebration for Merdeka in Putrajaya, but if you try to go in person it is very crowded and you can barely see the parade. If you really want to see the parade, you should watch it on TV. He had opinions on a lot of things. Don't bother going to the cities of Japan, they aren't worth it. If you want to go to Hong Kong, sure, but like for a day, maybe two, and then you've done anything worth doing. But Kuala Lumpur, well, that's an amazing city you could spend lots of time in. (I think there might have been a bias.)

He did warn us that for Merdeka, all the restaurants and shops would be closed. So Alrica and I spent Saturday preparing for that. We visited a different part of town where we had lunch and tried a new dessert (new to us) called cendol. It looks a like a bowl of white soup with green noodles. But the white soup is sweetened coconut milk, the green noodles are made of pandan which is an aromatic plant. There is palm sugar in it and shaved ice. Ours also had red beans. It was delicious.

The grocery store we visited sells meat by the block

We bought a lot of new foods and some old ones. But we have a variety of fruits that you don't get in the USA. For example, here is longan.

Longan sold on the branches

Those brown spheres on the branches hold the fruit inside. But the brown part is a shell which you have to break off and peel. Inside is a white fruit that is slightly transparent. In the middle of the white fruit is a large black inedible seed. Longans are good, but an appreciable amount of work for not a lot of fruit.

Emas Bananas

Here we have a variety of banana called Emas. The bananas in the USA are Cavendish. You can get Cavendish bananas here too, but also several other varieties. We decided to try the Emas variety. It's good, they are much smaller than a Cavendish banana, but they have a richer flavor.

Snake Fruit (Salak)

This last one is called salak, or in English it is called snake fruit. That's because that outer brown skin looks like the scales of a snake. Much like with a longan, you have to break off this outer peel. Inside is a white fruit, but opaque, not translucent. It also has a large seed, but there is a lot more fruit in each one, so you get more edible part for your effort than with a longan. The fruit is sweet. Alrica said is reminds her slightly of ginger.

I wonder if in Malaysia they have a saying, "A snake fruit a day keeps the doctor away."? Probably not, and besides, we went out looking for the doctor. So it wouldn't be very fair to keep her away.

Straws, Tears, and Jet Lag

The struggle is real! At least the struggle with jet lag sure is. Today, I am writing this at around 4:30 PM in Malaysia, but if you ever notice that I'm posting anything around 4:30 AM in an American time zone, then it probably means I am still not adjusted to the time change.

We arrived on Friday at around 10 AM (Malaysia Time). We couldn't check into our apartment until 3 PM. No worries, we killed some time, but it was time we had to stay awake. By the time we were settled into the apartment, my brain was convinced it was day time (which it was.) So I did a quick run out to a grocery store (called Wmart. And no, it is definitely not Walmart. And it's pork free!) Why did I go? Well, because I was sure that either Alrica or I would be awake in the middle of the night when everything was closed and we'd be starving. That was a good call.

Note that the label says burger bun. I don't think they have the same idea of burgers as I do.

By about 5:30 PM, I was exhausted, as was Alrica. But we couldn't just go to sleep for the night. Both of us had work meetings that were on Friday morning in the USA, but that meant late Friday night in Malaysia. My first meeting was 10 PM and my second at 11 PM. Alrica's meeting was also 11 PM.

So we took a nap from about 5:30 to 8:30 PM. And let me tell you, I was so dead to the world during that three hours. When the alarm went off, I couldn't figure out what the sound was, where I was, and I was perhaps a bit confused about who I was.

I had all kinds of computer troubles, because you know, why not give troubles when I'm exhausted. So I was up until about 3 AM trying to deal with those after my meetings ended. So I ended up in bed after 3 AM and I didn't wake until 10 AM. That's pretty good though, right? Because maybe I can adjust now.

Not so much, on Saturday, I was so tired by 5 PM. But I pushed through and didn't go to sleep until 9:30 PM. That way, I would start to get on the right schedule. Except it didn't work. I was up at 2:17 AM this morning, which is Sunday. I did get back to sleep around 5 AM and woke again at 8 AM. We'll see how tonight goes.

Even with these odd patches of wakefulness and sleep, we've been keeping active. Well, during the wakeful parts.

Petaling Street Arch at the north end of the market

On Saturday, we headed to Petaling Street, or Jalan Petaling in Malay. Petaling Street runs right through the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown. There are a lot of Chinese descendants and immigrants here. On Petaling Street, there is a huge market, like a souk in Morocco. It is open air, lots of stalls that are outside buildings, some shops that are inside buildings, selling most anything you could need, like home goods, clothing, souvenirs, and food. We ate lunch in one of the courts where there are tons of tables in the middle and lots of mobile food stands around them. We had Mongolian Chicken. I'm not sure what makes it Mongolian, but it was like a crunchy fried chicken in a sauce, served with rice. I got pineapple juice to drink with it, which came with a straw (as you might expect) and a spoon. Why a spoon? I don't know.

Mongolian Chicken

About straws. You always seem to get a straw here when you get a drink. Alrica bought ground sugar cane drink in a bottle. As we were walking away, the vendor alled Alrica back to tell her that she forgot her straw. I bought Coke in a can at a restaurant. And it came with a straw. It seems that drinking from a bottle or can isn't done here, unless through a straw.

The Painted Terrapin from the front

Near the Petaling Market is the Central Market. This market has crafts and art, though it does also have a fancy grocery store and several food establishments. Outside we saw a sculpture called The Painted Terrapin. I'll be honest, if it hadn't told me it was a terrapin by putting it in the name, I might have thought it was a cockroach. I admit, it doesn't have six legs. But it also doesn't have a tail. Maybe it does, but it is sitting on it in such a way that I can't see it.

The Painted Terrapin including shell, still not convinced

Today, Sunday, we walked about 30 minutes to a mall. We don't yet have SIM cards for our phones. We were trying to get a particular SIM package from a particular cellular company and we have to go to one of their stores to do it. The closest such store was in the mall. Incidentally, they don't have that package, even though the company's website says that they do. But it was not a wasted trip.

This mall, the Sunway Velocity Mall, is fascinating. In the main atrium, they were having the finals for children's badminton from 22 August through 24 August (today.) We saw a girl's U12 Badminton Finals match and later in the day a boy's U15 Badminton Finals match. That was different, a sporting competition in a mall. But probably a lot nicer in an air-conditioned mall than in the humid open air of Kuala Lumpur.

We got lunch at the mall. There were so many food choices it was a bit overwhelming. But we decided to get traditional Malaysian food. I got Curry Laksa, which includes meat, bean sprouts, half a hard-boiled egg, and rice noodles in a red broth. Alrica got Nasi Lemak Rendang. This has a piece of chicken in a red ginger sauce served with rice and peanuts and the other half of the hard-boiled egg and some beans in another sauce.

Several Traditional Malaysian dishes available

Traditional Malaysian food is spicy! I really enjoyed my Laksa, but it was so spicy that my eyes were watering like artisan springs. My nose was running like a faucet that needs the services of a plumber. Tears were streaming down my face. I'm being honest, the flavors were amazing. But it was also a level of spice beyond that of Mexico or Tunisia. I'm talking tongue and lips burning, eyes and nose running, and ears, well, my ears were unaffected.

Alrica is not very fond of chili pepper. I must say, she is the bravest culinary adventurer though. Even knowing she doesn't do well with spice, she wanted to try traditional Malaysian food. And she got through half of it. And around half of my drink. So I ended up with a lunch and a half and she ended up with a drink and a half. I should note, Alrica also found the flavors were magnificent. But the spice was too much for her to finish the entire meal.

In many parts of the world, it is super common for malls to have grocery stores in them. This mall is no exception. So we did a fuller grocery run while we were there. There are some very interesting products in the grocery stores of Malaysia.

Monster chips and seasoning packets

Check out these Monster chips. They are not potato chips. They are actually fried Ramen noodles. And they come with a seasoning packet (not spicy) which you pour on the chips, then crush the chips in the bag, shake the bag, and then eat them. There are even instructions with the monster showing you how to do it. The monster looks like some relative of Grover from Sesame Street. Remember Super Grover? Well, this is like Growth Hormone Grover.

Growth Hormone Grover showing me how to prepare my chips

We also found a new trio of ice cream flavors. It's not Neopolitan. It's Tripolitan: Sweet Corn, Yam, and Potato. We did buy it, but I haven't tried it yet. I'm curious. If you're thinking, ew, consider this: What do people in other countries think about putting chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry together in one container? Honestly, I don't know the answer. I could do a survey! I doubt I'm going to. But I do suspect I will enjoy the ice cream.

Is the yellow the sweet corn and the orange the mango? Or is the orange the sweet corn and the yellow the mango? I'm pretty okay with purple being the yam.

We are only two days in. Would I say Kuala Lumpur is worth the tears and jet lag? Oh yes! So far, I really like it here.

When Today is Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Alrica and I are leaving Puebla. And then we are going to do something we've never done before. We're going to cross the International Date Line. It's true, we've been to East Asia before and to Australia. But when we did that in our travels with the kids, we traveled east to get there. (We left Sofia, Bulgaria and flew into Osaka, Japan. Though along the way we had a big layover in Doha, Qatar and another layover in Tokyo, Japan. You can read about that and about my big feet in a post from June 2016 linked here.)

But here's my confusing question. Are we crossing the International Date Line tomorrow? Or are we crossing it the day after tomorrow? There is one reason that I don't know enough to answer this and another reason that even if I knew enough, my answer could, in a sense, be wrong no matter what answer I gave.

That was about as confusing a paragraph as I could have written. So let me clarify.

The first point is this: I don't know when we will cross the International Date Line. We have a very long layover in Los Angeles. We won't fly out of LAX until just a few minutes before midnight. So from the point of view of California, there is no way we will reach the International Date Line on Wednesday.

But, keep in mind, we will be flying west. That means we are flying back in time. (On the clock, not time travel.) We're going against the spin of the Earth, moving into time zones that will be, when we take off, even further from midnight, earlier. Now, if you think of the plane traveling in a straight line southwest across the Pacific (it is heading to Singapore) then it seems clear that we won't reach the International Date Line before midnight, whatever the local time is. The plane can't possibly fly faster than the rotation of the Earth, right?

But I have another "keep in mind" for you: A straight line on a flat map is not the path a plane takes. The shortest distance between any two points on a globe is an arc of a great circle. This means the plane will take some path that would look like a curve on a flat map. I looked it up, and it is a curve on the flat map, which looks like it goes northwest first and then southwest. But it does not go over the west coast of the USA, nor does it go over Alaska. It doesn't even go over Japan, but it will go right over the Philippines. But the point is that as you go closer to either the North Pole or the South Pole, time zones are a lot narrower east to west. So it would be possible for a plane to go faster than that bit of the Earth was rotating.

In this particular case, I don't think we go that far north. So I suspect that from the local time on the clock point of view, it will already be early morning Thursday when we cross the International Date Line.

This brings up the second question. Should I say we cross it on Thursday? Or should I say we cross it on Friday? If you were in a boat just east of the International Date Line and you saw the plane go overhead, you would say that happened on Thursday. But if you were in a different boat (I don't know how you are in two boats at once) just west of the International Date Line and saw the plane pass overhead just a few minutes after the first boat, you would say that happened on Friday.

Normally, when you cross a time zone line, your clock jumps ahead or back by one hour. But in this instance, the clock is going to jump ahead 23 hours! So I suppose there is a chance, albeit small, that we could be crossing on Thursday on both sides! If it were between midnight and 12:59 AM Thursday from the point of view of the first boat which is east of the International Date Line, then it would be between 11:00 PM and 11:59 PM Thursday from the point of view of the second boat which is west of the International Date Line. (Oof, my head already hurts from thinking about this.)

Most likely, there is going to be a discrepancy between what the captains of the two boats would say when asked which day the plane passed overhead. So which answer is the right answer? i guess both.

I acknowledge that the International Date Line is one of those lines made up by humans. If you look at it on a map, you see it isn't even straight. Fortunately, the Pacific is vast and doesn't have a lot of large landmasses in it. But there are some, and so the line was drawn with zigzags to accommodate this. For example, the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, stretch into the Eastern Hemisphere. But no one wants part of Alaska to be on a completely different day that the rest of Alaska, so the date line stretches around the Aleutian Islands.

This Aleutian Island fact, by the way, is a bit of a sore point for me. I was in a trivia competition with my coworkers. The question asked which U.S. State was furthest north? Which was furthest south? Which was furthest east? And which was furthest west? Our team answered Alaska, Hawaii, Alaska, and Alaska. And the person running the contest counted us wrong saying the answer was Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska. You don't get to argue with the trivia master, but he was WRONG! (For example, if you look up the longitude of Amchitka Island, Alaska, it is 179.0409 degrees EAST! That's way way way further east than anything in Maine. That's way further east than anything in China too.)

Okay, rant over. Back to the essence, the invention of time zones, which was a brilliant idea, necessitates that there be somewhere that two different days come together. There has to be one line which, when crossed, changes your clock by 23 hours. So the International Date Line is all tied into how we keep track of time. (Which is also invented by humans. I mean, the 24 hour solar day is a real astronomical phenomenon, but that we broke that into 24 pieces, well, that was a human idea.)

When we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in Namibia, I got a picture of the kids and I at the sign. (And wrote a blog post about it.)

Adorable children at an exciting location

When we visited the Equator in Ecuador, I got a picture of Alrica and I at the line. (I wrote a blog post about that too.)

Ripped apart by the Coriolis effect?

Clearly, I am not going to be able to get a picture of myself at the International Date Line. Because, I will be on a plane, yes, but also, it's water there. And I doubt there's a sign or a painted line. Those wouldn't hold up well in seawater.

I know people say "Pics or it didn't happen." But this time, it is going to happen. And for some irrational reason, I'm excited to be able to say I crossed the International Date Line.

Ways to Make a Living

I'm takin' what they're givin' cause I'm working for a livin'! Yeah, that's a song lyric from Huey Lewis, and I have to be honest, in my life, they aren't really giving anything so bad. But one thing I love about travel is seeing differences. Here in Puebla, I've seen a few ways of making a living that aren't like those I've seen before. Here are two examples.

The Bus Counter and Change Giver

At one of the bus stops not too far from where we live, there sits a woman in a plastic chair. She must bring the chair herself. This isn't a bus station, just a stop on the side of the road. But it is near the Walmart parking lot, so it is a major stop that lots of the different buses stop at. As far as I can tell, this woman is doing two things: She seems to be keeping track of the buses. You know at a baseball game, some enthusiasts keep a notebook and write in codes for each pitch and hit, the outcome of each play? She seems to do something similar, though she isn't recording strikes swinging or how many are left on bases. She seems to be recording which buses stop. I don't think she is counting how many people get on the bus or get off the bus. If she is, she has great visual acuity.

Her other job is making change. She has lots and lots of coins. When a bus driver has been paid in bills too often, he starts to run low on coins and high on bills. So he stops at this particular stop, calls out to the woman, and she steps on the bus. He gives her some bills and she gives him an equal value in coins. Eventually, she would have to run out of coins, or so I would think. I don't know what happens then. Maybe that's when it's quitting time.

There doesn't seem to be just one bus company here. There is one that is run by the city, but there are many, many other bus companies. They all pretty much agree on prices, but they all have various routes, even if they end up in similar places. So I am not sure who pays this woman to do this job. Is it the city of Puebla? Is it a conglomerate of the bus companies? That I don't know, but she is making her living with her notebook and plastic chair and a whole lot of coins.

The Traveling Knife Sharpener

One day, Alrica and I stopped by a taqueria that we like. Parked on the sidewalk just outside was a motorcycle. And on the back of that motorcycle was a machine that grinds and sharpens knives. There is a man who comes to a restaurant on his motorcycle, talks to the chef or owner, and then takes a few knives at a time and sharpens them. Not the table knives (which you don't tend to need at a taqueria.) I mean the knives that the chef uses.

Sharpening on the sidewalk

Throughout our meal we could hear the grind grind. Then the sharpening man would come back in with the knives he had just done. If the chef wasn't satisfied, he would take the knife back and do it again. When he was finished with a few knives, the chef would take those and give the sharpener man another few knives to work on.

This continued through several rounds of knives until the chef was happy. All the knives were done. The chef got out some cash, paid the sharpener man. And then the sharpener man climbed back on his motorcycle and rode away, presumably to another restaurant whose knives had gotten a tad dull. I don't know how he finds the places. I don't know if they call him. But isn't a relief to know that he's out there, somewhere, keeping knives in proper condition?

To paraphrase another lyric, this time Dolly Parton: Working knife to knife, what a way to make a living!

Abundant Prickly Pear (on Rocks)

In the 1300s, a tribal group from present day Northern Mexico migrated south. They were told, in prophecy, to build a city where they found a bird eating a snake while standing on a cactus. They found such a bird eating such a snake on such a cactus, and it happened to be on an island in the middle of a lake. So they did as their gods had commanded them and built that city on that island in that lake.

The best full scale view of the Municipal Cathedral I could get

This is the mythical origin of Tenochtitlan, which means the place where abundant prickly pears grown on rock. The tribe which build Tenochtitlan became the Aztecs. For around 200 years, the Aztecs ruled the city and much of the area around them. They were terrible neighbors, very militaristic. And sometimes they fought wars not to conquer land or people, but just to spill blood. They believed that the universe had to be nurtured and fed the blood of battle.

More translation: Piedra is stone, Tuna is prickly pear, and you can figure out abundancia

In the 1500s, the Aztecs were replaced by another people from the north. And the east. They were the Spanish. The Spanish, with a much smaller force, defeated the mighty Aztec, but not so much with their better technology. Mostly it was their germs. The Aztecs had never been exposed to smallpox, measles, and the flus that were common in Europe. They had no immunity to these new pathogens. So microscopic organisms were the biggest ally of Cortez and his Spanish troops.

What was Tenochtitlan became Cuidad de México, or in English we say Mexico City. But the Spanish drained most of the lake or built over it and now it is a gigantic city.

Alrica and I spent two days in Mexico City, and that is not long enough to see even a tiny fraction of what it has to offer. There are so many amazing sites in the city, it would take months to see them all. But I can give you an idea of the smattering we did get to see.

Statues honor great musicians in Garibaldi Plaza

We stayed in Garibaldi Plaza. This is a neat area and it is full of music. There are mariachi bands playing almost all the time. Literally, they are still playing at 5 or 6 AM. While we liked our hotel, it isn't exactly the quietest part of town to sleep in.

Monument of the Revolution

We came by bus from Puebla, a ride of about two and a half hours. After we arrived on the first day, we visited the Monument of the Revolution, which commemorates the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910. I wrote about that after we visited the Regional Museum of the Revolution in Puebla. The monument is impressively big. My picture of it doesn't really give you a sense of the scale. So Alrica stood against the side to get a better impression of just how large it is.

You can barely make her out there on the left

Church of Santo Domingo

We visited the Plaza of Santo Domingo. Here you can see the church of Santo Domingo.

It is hard with perspective to see the lean, but it leans!

But I also want to show the Convent of Santo Domingo, also in the plaza. Can you tell that it is leaning? Mexico City has a big problem. It is sinking at a rate of about 15 inches per year. That's a lot! It is not uncommon to see buildings in the capital that are tilted for this reason. And the government doesn't really have a plan about what to do. I don't have any good suggestions either. But like other places in the world, Mexico City has this problem because they have removed so much water from the permeable rock on which the city sits that it is compressing under the weight of the city. It doesn't take long to drain an aquifer, but it takes a long, long time to refill one.

Some of the Templo Mayor

We did a walking tour with an excellent guide and got to see many sites over a period of two hours. We visited the Templo Mayor. This is an archaelogical find right across from the Metropolitan Cathedral. (More on the cathedral in a bit.) It was a major Aztec temple, said to have been built exactly on the site where they first saw the eagle eating the snake atop a cactus. After the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they tore it apart and used some of the stones to build their cathedral (the Municipal Cathedral which still stands today.) Then it got buried and there were buildings over it. But in 1978 some electrical workers stumbled upon a piece of the temple in their work. The government decided to demolish the colonial era buildings which were on top of this site and turn it over to archaelogists. Today, you can see many of the remaining features.

That winged serpent is Quetzalcoatl

We visited a governmental building where the public education department is housed. Why? Well, in the 1920s, the government hired painters involved in the muralism movement to paint beautiful murals all over the walls in the interior courtyard and along the staircases. These were major works of art by many famous artists. There are over 120 murals by Diego Rivera and many more by other artists. Eventually it was decided that it was silly to have these beautiful artworks and only allow the government workers who happened to work in public education to see them. So they opened the doors to the public. It is still the department of public education, but visitors can walk through the courtyards and appreciate all the murals.

This mural depicts the Day of the Dead

We came back near where we met for our tour to see the Municipal Cathedral. it is the largest cathedral in all of North America. And it is large, with so many entrances. I tried to get some pictures of various details, but it isn't easy to get it all.

One of the entrances

Another entrance

A better view of the towers

We cross the historic center of Mexico City and visited Casa de los Azulejos. This means the House of Tiles.

It is an impressive number of tiles.

The story of its creation, which may or may not be true, is that there was that it was built by the son of a rich man. The son was a playboy, not taking anything seriously. His father told him to straighten out his act or he would "never build a palace of tiles." Tiles were very expensive at the time and a sign of great wealth. So the son, in a bout of filial spite, did exactly that. He built a mansion covered in tiles. I'll show you, Dad!

The Palace of Fine Arts

The tour ended at the expansive and beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes or the Palace of Fine Arts. My pictures can't do justice to the majesty of the architecture.

Yep, looks like an entrance to Chinatown.

When the tour ended, we traveled to Barrio Chino, or Chinatown. It's just south of the Palace of the Fine Arts. Here we had a delicious lunch of Chinese food, but we also got steamed buns.

We ate one before we thought to take a picture

Steamed buns are a thing in East Asia. They are a white bun that is cooked by steaming and there is a filling. Sometimes the filling is savory, like marinated pork, and sometimes it is sweet, like a red bean paste. Well, the steamed buns of Mexico City have taken that idea but also fused them with Mexican flare. The buns are multicolored and come in all kinds of flavors like cherry chocolate, key lime pie, cajeta (which is a caramel made from goat's milk), and gummy. (We got a gummy, but I'm not sure I could tell you what that flavor actually is.)

Mexico City is definitely one we need to come back to. And we will need to give it a lot more time. I'm sure it will be worth our while.