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Back in Thailand heading to four days of sun in Phuket. Cambodia was a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend it as a must see. Food was incredibly cheap. An entree was at MOST 3.50 US. Beer was 0.70.
Got to see the sunrise over Ankor Wat and the sunset in a floating village. Both very awesome. Quite a mindblowing experience! The people were very nice. Especially the little kids. (no wonder Angelina Jolie adopted one) Even though it was a poor country, there werent that many people begging for money like in Bangkok.
The other thing was we had an incredible tour guide. He gave us a lot of history and local views. He showed us back entrances to temples to avoid the crowds. In addition, he was only $25 per person per day. From 5 am to 8 or 9pn. This included our own private driver. When I get back, I'll post his info. He was talking about starting up his website soon.
Anyways, off to Phuket.
Johnie!----------------------------Sent from my iPhone

In Thailand. Spent yesterday in Bangkok. Heading to Cambodia now and then going to Phuket in 2 days. Hopefully I can post some pictures then.
Went to dinner at condom and cabbages last night. Good Thai food.Johnie!----------------------------Sent from my iPhone

Cheng Ching Lake
Cheng Ching Lake is the largest lake in Kaohsiung.  It also serves as a water reservoir for the city.  One of the most famous southern Taiwan sites is the 9 Corners Bridge.  In addition, there are a number of pagodas on the grounds and is the site of President Chiang Kai-shek's house.  My aunts and uncles used to take me here a lot when I was little.  Just as a side note, they used to take me to a lot of places, like Love River and Sunset Beach.  It was later that I found out that when they would take me out, it was usually on a date with their significant others.  They were using my 4 year old cuteness to pick up girls!

Nightlife
The other night my uncle and I decided to hit up a bar.  The bar looks like a typical American bar with a live band.  When we walked in, they sat us down and handed us a warm towel to wipe our hands with.  Warm towels are great, especially in 90 degree heat + humidity.  The band was Rita's Super Band.  She sang a good mix of English songs and Chinese songs.  The best was Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know" as a love ballad. 

We ordered a pitcher of Taiwan Beer and some appetizers.  When they brought the pitcher of beer, they also plopped down a bucket of ice.  I ask my uncle, what's the ice for?  He goes, it's for the beer.  Some people like their beers lighter so they just throw some ice in there.  Nice, Taiwanese Lite Beer!  (This reminded me of the Belikin Light Beer that I had in Belize.  Belikin Light is the same beer as Belikin except it comes in a smaller bottle).  Interested, I asked what's a unique drink of Taiwan.  He tells me that some people put tomato juice (ie V-8) into their beers.  I've never tried it, but it just sounds absolutely grotesque.  (I am interested in trying it though.  Do you think the bartenders in NY would look at me strange if I ordered Bud Light with Tomato Juice?)

The other form of nightlife is the street markets.  The Taiwanese are big into street markets.  There, you can get food, shop for anything you want, and play carnival games.  This is probably why I'm such a huge fan of the street fairs in NYC.  I love being able to walk from stall to stall tasting different foods.  The first picture below is one of the carnival games that they have.  They give you a plastic circle with tissue paper inside.  Whatever fish you can catch with it until the tissue paper rips, you keep.  The second one is a kids game where you fish for balls with a fishing pole with a magnet.  You win some prize if you get certain balls.  Last one is of a form of bingo.

First Impression
So I woke up this morning at around 6:45AM.  The sun was already up and brightly lit.  I decided to just go for a walk around the neighborhood and explore the area.  The last time I spent any major time in Kaohsiung was 3 years ago when I came to visit for a week on my other Asia trek.  Before that was probably when I was 6 years old.  Quite a bit has changed in that time.  One thing I've definitely noticed is the city has tried to clean itself up. 

Kaohsiung has had a pretty seedy past.  Being the 6th largest cargo ship ports in the world, quite a number of cargo ships pass through here.  (Chances are a good majority of those "Made in Taiwan" products passed through here.)  With all these ships bring sailors and pollution and all the problems that go along with that.  In addition, Kaohsiung was the site of many military bases and R&R sites throughout history (from the Dutch to the Chinese to the Japanese).  In recent years, the mayor of Kaosiung has tried to clean up this image. 

Incidentally, on my 2 hour walk around the area, I got propositioned by 3 different people offering to take me to the best girls in Taiwan.  Mind you, this is at 7AM in the morning.  I mean, did it really look like I needed a good lay so early in the morning? [j/k]  I also did clearly stick out like an thumb though walking around with my backpack and camera in my hand.

Temples are everywhere in Kaohsiung.  They are quite elaborately designed with innumerous amount of details.  The next two pictures are of Love River (Ai River).  In the past, it was the pride and joy of Kaohsiung with beautifully paved sections on both banks and was the center of numerous water activities including swimming, fishing, and boating.  Over the years, it got quite polluted and actually smelled terrible.  Currently, there is a movement to revitalize it to what it used to be.  Last time I came to visit, they were still working on it.  Now there are sidewalk cafes lining up both banks, locations for fishing, docks to launch sail boats and kayaks, and tour boats.  At night, it is lit up quite beautifully.  This movement is very similar to the attempt to reclaim East River and Hudson River in NYC.

The last picture is one of the elementary school that I attended when I lived here.  I actually don't remember much about it.

Mopeds Everywhere
Mopeds are everywhere in Taiwan.  I would go as far as to say the percentage of people that own mopeds is the same percentage as those that own cell phones in the States.  I don't think I would be able to even begin to describe how rampant they are.  They are on the streets, they are on the sidewalks, they are inside buildings, and they are inside markets.  And the rules for the road for mopeds is that there are no rules.  You can ride them in the moped lane.  You can ride them in the car lane.  You can ride them in on coming traffic.  You can ride them on the sidewalks.  You can ride them with a helmet.  You can ride one without a helmet.  You can hold your one year old baby in your arms and/or have your 4 year old stand on the foot rest in front.  And if you really feel like it, you can ride them through an indoor market (story below).  If that's not freedom, I don't know what is :)

Left Turns
One of the things I noticed was how to make a left turn on a moped (that is, if you don't feel like riding half weaving in and out of oncoming traffic -- which is perfectly ok).  So to make a left turn, you do not wait in the middle of an intersection until it is safe to make a turn.  What you do is you make a right turn, make a U-Turn, and then wait inside of the moped box until the light turns green.  For all those people from NJ, does this remind you of something?  Yes, it's the implementation of NJ's "U-and-Left Turn."  For all of you non-NJ people (ie Liz), this is an absolutely great system!

Coveralls
Secondly, although people are out on mopeds quite a bit, one of the things that Taiwanese people don't like is getting a suntan.  When I came to Taiwan, my mom's like .. "Did you bring a long sleeve button up shirt?"  I was like, "no, why would I."  She's like, "Here, take this one.. you want to cover up your arms so that you don't get a tan."  I go, "Mom, I've been sitting at Liz's pool and at the beach for the past two weeks to get a tan!  Plus, I'm going to be sitting on the beach in Phuket/Ko Samui next week."  So anyway, before most people ride the moped, they would at least don a shirt (worn as a smock).  Chances are, they'll also cover their face with a face mask.  But that still leaves your hands exposed to the sun.  So what you'll find are what looks like oven mitts over the handle bars of the moped (see pict 3 below).  At this point, you are totally covered from the sun and ready to go.  Mind you, it's over 95 degrees and humid, but at least you won't get a tan.

Shopping on Moped
So, back to this morning.  I'm walking down the street in Kaohsiung and all of a sudden I hear someone yelling at me.  I couldn't quite make it out and I figured it was another pimp trying to proposition me.  So I kept moving.  Then the voice sounded distinctly like it was saying "Johnia!  Johnia!"  At this point, I'm totally confused as why someone would know my name.  Was it on my bag somewhere?  I looked around and see my dad on a moped across the street from me.  It turned out that he had been riding up and down every street looking for me.  We went to breakfast/brunch/we just eat whenever we feel like it.  I scarfed down two bowls of beef noodle soup (one of my absolute favorites, but that's not the point of this story) and he said he would give me a ride back on the moped.  I strap on a helmet and hop on the back and held on tight.  We go a little bit down the road and then he turns into a building.  I was like "WTF is going on!"  We proceed to ride the moped through the building, me hanging off the back of it, as we passed through the kitchens of these food stand/restaurants.  The cooks weren't even paying attention to us as they were cooking their fares while we speed through the building going maybe 10-15 mph.  We passed by refridgerators, cooks making stir fries, and patrons eating their breakfast.  Remember those movies where there is a chase scene going through a mall and people don't even pay attention to it?  That was this.  The building then connects to an indoor market and my dad goes, "I need to do a little shopping for lunch."  I figured we'd get off and walk around.  Nope, we just rode right in and pulled up to each stand that we wanted groceries from.  (Last picture is my dad buying bamboo shoots.)  Ironically, the people there were giving me weird looks for taking pictures inside the indoor market.  I mean, two guys riding a moped through the market == normal.  Kid taking pictures of the market == strange.  [I really regret not taking a video of this.]

Hey, who wants to go on a roadtrip with me when I get back?  I'll drive and put all the stuff I learn to good use.  "Officer, what do you mean I can't cut through Macy's to get to Murray Hill?"

Museum of Kaohsiung History, Old British Consulate, Sunset Lane
The afternoon was spent doing some sightseeing.  First set is Museum of Kaohsiung History.  Nothing too exciting, but it's a great way to beat the heat in airconditioning inside.

In my research of Kaohsiung, I stumbled across the Holy Rosary Cathedral (or St. Mary's Cathedral).  According to that site, it's "One of the three holiest Catholic churches in Asia."  Whatever that means.  It sits on the bank of Lower Love River.

 

Sunset Lane
This lane, on the incoming bay of the Port of Kaohsiung, is an amazing place to watch the sunset.  Each day at around sunset, hundreds of people line up along the water to watch the fading sunlight.  The concret barricade is said to be formed so that a couple can sit side by side with each other.  At many of the gaps, you can find young couples from the local college enjoying the sunset in each other's arms.

  

[GAH!!!  It's 5AM and I'm heading over to this lake.. sorry to cut this one short.]

Day -1
So this story starts at Day -1, the day before the trip.  After running around trying to finalize everything, cleaning my room for Steff (who's subletting from me), packing my bag, I finally finished around 7:30pm.  I decided to enjoy my last night in the States meeting up with people at NY Philharmonics in Central Park.  For some reason, I felt the incredible urge to get ridiculously trashed.  Maybe it's because I've been scrambling for the past couple of days or maybe I just felt like it.  I picked up two bottles of wine, some sushi, and some candy by the pound.  Yes, I know: Great dinner.  And met up with Todd, Dave, Jon, et.al. at the park.  I think the following pictures will better describe the evening than I can say in words.  Let me just say that after the first picture, I don't remember any part of the evening nor do I remember even taking the next two pictures.

As you can clearly see, it went downhill fast leading to beer pong.  Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the bathroom of my apartment at 2:30 puking up a nice solid mixture of red wine, white wine, sushi, blue gummi bears, and beer.  I would have to say it is very patriotic with the red, white, and blue.  Definitely not a pretty picture, although it definitely had art potential.  Woke up the next morning at 7AM not a happy camper and definitely not in the mood for an 18 hour flight.

Day 0
So the morning of my flight, it was downpouring like crazy.  Took a cab to Penn Station and got on the last LIRR train to Jamaica.  They cancelled the train lines for the trains after mine because of flooding on the track.  At least I lucked out there.  It was my first time taking the LIRR to JFK and I would definitely do it again.  Much better than the subways and only $3 more.  It got me there in 20 mins, unlike the subways which takes about an hour and a half.  For future reference, this is probably the way to go.

Anyways, as you can see from my prior posts from the iPhone, the flight was delayed 4 hours.  It was 4 hours of staring at this tiny plane blocking our exit onto the runway.  He just sat there the entire time.  Middle picture is the first class seats on AA 777.  They have the lie flat seats.  I tried to smooze my way into getting an upgrade, but it was a no go.  At least the plane wasn't crowded and I had an entire row to myself.

I got to Japan at 5:30, 45 mins before my flight to Kaohsiung.  The flight was delayed again.  As Sandeep mentioned, everyone in Japan is so polite.  I noticed it the last time I was there.  Throughout the airport, there were people there welcoming you and ushering you to your next connection.  At the security checkpoint, I had to take out my laptop and the lady security officer helped me zip up my bags.  I would never imagine that happening at JFK.  Then at the boarding gate, the attendants made an announcement that the flight was going to be delayed and apologized.  When they did that, all three of them behind the counter came out in front of the counter, lined up and bowed. 

While waiting for my flight, I decided to get a drink at the shop nearby and I found these gum and mints at the counter.  I had to get them.  BlackBlack has in fine prints "Hi-technical, excellent taste and flavor."  I surely hope so.

So anyways, the rest of the flight was uneventful.  On the flight, they had a news story on TV about the explosion in NYC.  I was concerned, but I couldn't get much detail from it since it was in Japanese.  They interviewed some guy and he mentioned something about terrorism.  Glad to hear that it was only a steam pipe.

My uncle picked me up from the airport and drove me to my grandmother's house.  As we walked up, this Asian lady started talking to me.  I was like..hmm..is it an aunt I don't remember.  My uncle then goes, Come on Johnie, let's go inside.  I then realized that she was a prostitute.  Fun. 

Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan.  I was born here and spent the first 6 years of my life at my grandmother's house.  There are quite a number of memories everytime I come back here.  Being that it's a pretty urban city, there are a lot of seedy parts.  My last trip here 2 years ago, I found out there was a brothel a block and a half away from my grandmother's house.  My grandmother's quite an interesting character.  My uncle was telling me about how when she couldn't sleep, she would just walk outside and chat up with the prostitutes working around the corner.  Just finding out how business is going and what's new in their life.  Hey, prostitutes are people too! :)

My uncle knows one of my absolute favorite chinese dish is oyster pancake.  It is quite delectable.  On the drive from the airport, he was saying that tomorrow he wanted to take me to this place that serves oyster gonads.  Since my understanding of Chinese is at a third grade level, he tried to explain it to me as "oyster's dad."  I was like... wait, isn't an oyster's dad an oyster..wait.. OOhhhh...  Yum!

Anyways, that's it for tonight!