San Francisco - Third Day

I decided to explore the Golden Gate Bridge on my own that day. It wasn't that easy to find the right "bus stop" in SF. I walked around for almost half an hour using google map on my iphone but then decided to go back to hotel and ask the staff. One staff told me to walk to geary st and take number 38 express. Then change bus at park presidio to number 28. 

I was able to get to geary st easily since i have been walking a lot these past 2 days around union square. I got in to bus No. 38, and took out my 2 dollars bill for the fare. However, the machine wasn't working, so, the driver just asked me to sit down. In US, a single trip bus fare will allow us to travel for 2 hours, meaning that after we paid 2 bucks, the bus driver will issue us a transfer slip so that we can use it to travel or transfer to another bus within the time frame. I paid and got my transfer slip when I hopped on bus number 28. When I saw the slip, it allowed me to travel until 4 pm. Not sure why, it was for 4 hours, instead of 2 hours for that day. 

Anyway, Yeayyy... 
Here are some pictures that I took from Golden Gate Vista point. 

The sky was clear. It's just beautiful. I am glad that i made a trip there. Eventhough I was on my own, I met a lot of nice people who always offer to take a picture of me. I remember one lady from switzerland, after knowing that I am indonesian, she started saying "apa kabar", which means how are you. She worked in yogyakarta before. Haha...

I spent 30-45 minutes there taking picture. Then I took bus back. Thinking that the bus number 28 will bring me back to the same place. But , i think i was wrong. Luckily, i have google map on my phone. I stopped at Lombard street. I then took bus number 30. Then on my way, i see the street name "north point", that street name seems familiar, then i checked if the bus will bring me to pier 39. Yes, "north point" reminded me about pier 39. Coincidentally, it will stop at one stop which is quite close to pier 39 (about 10-15 mins walk). Yeayyyy, i should make my trip worth. I stopped and then walked to pier 39. Of course with the help of google map in hand. 

On my way to pier 39, i passed by fisherman wharft. I covered almost all places that I want to go that day.

It was 2 plus in the afternoon when I reached pier 39, and this was what I saw. Yes, Ben and Jerry! I know I definitely have to get one. I was super hungry at that time. 

My next stop was Pier Market Seafood restaurant. Clam chowder soup in sourdough bowl bread is a must try when you are at Pier 39. It's very filling. I like the soup, but I didn't finish the bread though. 

I walked around pier 39 then decided to go back to hotel. It was 3:50 pm when I saw a bus that I planned to take passed by. I missed it! The next bus came at 4:05 pm, and my bus ticket expired at 4 pm, so, eventually I paid another 2 bucks for that single trip. I spent a total of 4 dollars for my transport on that day. If I compared to the fare that I was planning to pay (USD34.99) for the one day trip of hop-on hop-off bus fare, I saved about 30 bucks. Haha...

On the way back, I stopped by 7-eleven to pick up stuff that I have bought online from amazon. It's very interesting and convenient that they have few amazon lockers around, so that when we travel, we can actually ship the item to the locker, and they will send us a password to open up the locker.     

I rushed back to my hotel, and took a rest for a bit, then got ready for a dinner meeting with my ex boss. She was my academic professor during my graduate school in Iowa. It was really nice catching up with her. After dinner, we went to a reception held by Iowa state University. I met few professors and a lot of old friends there. I haven't seen them for more than 4 years since I graduated.  

Multinational (left to right): American, Taiwanese, Korean, Indonesian, Srilankan.

Turmeric Fried Chicken - Ayam Goreng Kuning

A Ingredients:

4 cloves of shallot

3 cloves of garlic

4 cm turmeric 

1 cm ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

B Ingredients:

3 slices of lime leaves

2 slices of daun salam (Bay leaves)

500 ml water

2 pieces of chicken thigh 

2 pieces of chicken wing

Procedure:

1. Blend "A ingredients" using an electric blender. You may add one tablespoon of water to make it easier to blend.

2. Stir fry the blended ingredient, then put in the chicken, add water until it's enough to cover the chicken. Boil the chicken. I didn't boil it for long enough, and ended up that the taste didn't go in to the chicken. I will try again. 

3. Heat up oil, then fry the chicken. 

San Francisco - Second Day

My meeting wouldn't start until 3 pm on that day. So, I decided to walk around and explore San Francisco eventhough I have been there in 2006 for the same conference. I started my morning with a cup of soy hot chocolate. My stomach has difficulty to digest lactose in milk, so, soy milk would be safer for me. Do you see the size of their donuts? Probably, it's hard to judge from the picture, but, It's huge. Of course I would not eat such high sugar food to ruin my healthy diet.

I thought of taking a public transport to Chinatown. While I was struggling to find out whether any bus will go to chinatown from union square, a lady came to me, and told me that I should walk further down for a bus to chinatown. After telling me the way, she asked for money. I should have probably given her a dollar, but I didn't. I was being very careful since I was travelling alone at such a big city where a lot of homeless people are around. I said sorry, and then walked away.

Then, I checked my google map. It seemed that chinatown is just about 15 minutes walking distance from union square. I decided to walk then.    

If I am not mistaken I only bought fortune cookies there. I remember that my dad likes it. In the states, if we go to any chinese restaurant, they will always give fortune cookies at the end of our meal. Somehow, we can only find this chinese culture in the US. Haha...    

From chinatown, I walked back to union square and walked around Westfield mall. There is a ghirardelli cafe. They serve coffee, hot chocolate, and ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try their ice cream. But, of course I won't miss their hot chocolate. It was delicious!

In the afternoon, I was at the meeting, looking at poster presentations held on that day, and I met one of my ex colleagues/ex classmates from Iowa State University. We still recognize each other. She is a Srilankan girl, called Umai, and she looks great with her long hair. She said I looked younger now, hahaha, what a nice compliment. Or I guess it's because of the pressure that all graduate students may have, therefore we looked more stressful at that time.

I was planning to visit pier 39 in the evening after my meeting. But, it was really a coincident that I met a good friend (also used to be my colleague at ISU). I never expect that I could see here there. She is a taiwanese girl (Janine) who is now working at Germany. We hardly contact each other after I graduated. Then, she told me that she is meeting another friend of us, Manuela. We ended up having a Japanese food nearby. 

It's a "surprise day" for me!

San Francisco - First Day

I arrived at SF airport at 11:45 am, earlier than the scheduled time. Queue was pretty long at the immigration. I think it took me about 1.5 -2 hours to get out from the airport.

I decided to get a sim card from the airport. It costs me 69 USD plus tax for an 8 day lycamobile. It's good for 3G and 500 minutes local call. 

Then I proceeded to level 3 for shared van trip to my hotel. I reserved a super shuttle, which costs 16 usd pertrip. 

Arrived at Parc 55 hotel at union square around 2 plus. The checked in procedure went really well. I met a nice receptionist who offered me a big corner room after having a short conversation. Her friendliness reminded me about life and culture in the states. Their service is unquestionable, and I simply respect their straight forward culture. 

In the room, I saw a note saying that day-light saving will be over the next day, meaning that on sunday of Nov 3rd, we will have 25 hours. What a lucky day for me, after such a long flight, I have one more hour to rest. Haha...

After did some stretching exercise, I took a nice shower, then went to the conference venue to get my meeting pass @ Hilton hotel where is located just less than 5 minutes walk from Parc 55. Then, I walked around the SF downtown. 

I had a cup of godiva hot dark chocolate. The price is not cheap (USD5), but, it was really good.  

P.S. Please stay tune for my next post!   

Health Benefits of Turmeric

People who have had gastric/heartburn before, would probably know that, gastric will usually hit us if we have stress or irregular eating time. About 2 months ago, I was hit with pretty bad heartburn. It was so bad that I had to give up eating hot/chili sauce. Red chili padi  happens to be my main dish for my lunch, and of course I have to stop eating it. Even my colleagues were surprised about it. Sometimes, they will tease me and ask whether I want some chili. Sure..., I can have some now! Haha...

The reason why I am writing now is to share with you a home remedy which has helped me with my gastric.  That's turmeric boiled in water. I got the information from my mom. Then, coincidentally, a colleague told me that her Indonesian maid likes to make the similar drink if any of her kids are sick. Her maid said that the drink can be used as antibiotic. This information really makes me curious about the real fact about turmeric. Of course, I won't simply believe what I have heard. So, I did some literature search about turmeric. Surprisingly, it is true that not only turmeric has a powerful antibiotic property, but also it has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties which would be helpful in several medical conditions. You may find more information about it from this website. Now, I see the connection between what I have heard from my mom and also from my colleague.

Here is the recipe:
a thumb size of turmeric root
7 cloves
2-3 cups of water

Procedure:
Peel the skin of turmeric root, then either cut into small pieces or smash it, then boil with water and cloves for about 10-15 minutes.

The turmeric boiled water is ready for you to consume. Just drink the water!
I had it for about 1 week, it eased my heartburn. Then I stopped, but, I guess it takes some times to cure my weak digestive system. After having a meal with chili, it came back again. So, I got another packet of turmeric roots from supermarket, and prepared similar drink. I had it for another week. It seems that it's getting so much better now. I start having chili again, and as far as for now, it's pretty ok.

By the way, besides the turmeric drink, I went to see a Chinese doctor at Ma Kuang Clementi branch. I believe the chinese medicine has helped me as well. But, I can tell you that, everytime after the turmeric drink, I could feel a direct relief for my heartburn.

P.S. If you have gastric/heartburn, please try to avoid chili, pepper, milk, glutinous rice, and all other kind of food that is hard to digest.

2013 Taiwan Trip Video - Updated

My version

Usman's Version

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindness there is at last one which makes the heart run over. ”Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Sixth Day in Taiwan (1/5)

Our flight was at 3:25 pm that day. That morning, after a quick breakfast from 7-eleven, we all did last minute shopping. Most of us bought pineapple cake from li yi cake shop (李仪饼店) at taipei main station. I bought their pineapple cake (Feng Li Shu 鳳梨酥) and Taro cake (Yu Tou su芋頭酥). I bought their tai yang bing for my colleague because her sons love it. But, when I tried, I think I prefer the one that we bought in nantou. Oh yeah, I met one sales lady at the store who wasn't so friendly. I guess she probably had a bad day, haha...

We booked 2 cars to go to the airport, since we had a lot of stuff. We engaged the same transport company that we used for our Jiufen trip. It was a last minute decision though. I called them early in the morning and luckily, we managed to get cars. The boss charged us NT$2000 for one 9-person car and one small car.

That was pretty much what we did in Taiwan. It was fun! I hope you enjoy reading my blog.

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post...

Fifth Day in Taiwan (30/4)

On the day, we set a meeting time of 9 am. Since it was a bit later, so, I thought that I could quickly go and buy something that my mom asked me to get. It's Ba Xian Guo. It is like lozenges, and it helps to ease our throat if we have sore throat or cough.

I came back just in time to meet up with the gang. We planned to have our breakfast at Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿). It's famous with its soy milk (both sweet and salty versions). I wanted to try it when I was in Taiwan few months back, but unfortunately, they were closed. 

We took train there. As we arrived, we saw a long line from outside the building up to the stairs to second floor. The store is located at the second floor. We were hungry, but, of course we have to be on the queue. Haha... If I am not mistaken it took us about 30 minutes to reach the counter. I was worried that if we want to add some more food later, then we have to join the queue again. So, we ordered quite a lot of food: 7 bowls of sweet soy milk, 1 bowl of rice milk, 3 hou shao bing dan you tiao (厚燒餅蛋油条) /thick flatbread with you tiao and egg, 1 bao shao bing dan you tiao (薄燒餅蛋油条)/flatbread with you tiao and egg, 2 small 燒餅 with scallion filling, 2 small 燒餅 with vegetable, 2 sweet 燒餅 (tasted like pong pia), 3 bowls of salted soy milk. 

For eight of us, were they too much food? I really didn't realize that I have ordered so much. Hahaha... Even the Auntie looked at me with a surprised expression, then she told me that I could actually add more if I would like to later on (no need to queue). :D

Salty Soy Milk, Xian Dou Jiang (鹹豆漿)

Not everybody likes this one, but I like it. It tasted like porridge.

Rice Milk, Mi Jiang (米漿)

This was good. Suryana ordered this one. I tried, and love it. So, before we left, I got one to go.

Sweet Soy Milk

It was nice. Just that, I was not too sure whether there was any difference with one sold in other shop. 

hou shao bing dan you tiao (厚燒餅蛋油条)

I didn't dare to eat fried stuff, knowing that I get sore throat easily. So, I didn't have it when we were in the shop. But, everybody else love this one. We had one left over, and packed it for our snack. I tried it, and it was good even though it wasn't hot anymore. 

燒餅 with scallion filling

This one is pretty nice. There was another type, with sweet fillings (like phong pia). 

After breakfast, we made a move to Yang Ming Shan (陽明山) national park. The bus ride was close to an hour from Taipei Main station. 


There was a bus (#108) that goes around YMS from one stop to another. 

Our first stop

Nothing special here, but, we took a lot of pictures. Below you'll see few nice pictures of us.

Ideas came from Rika

Pictures were taken with Heinz's camera

I really like these pictures, just that, it's quite unfortunate, most pictures were blurry. Oh well, they are still nice though. Haha...

Second stop was Xiao You Keng (小油坑). It's a place with strong sulfur smell. The scenery was nice.

小油坑

It was really windy there, and we spent close to 2 hours waiting for bus. It was so chilly that almost all of us were shivering. As the bus arrived, we decided to just go back to the YMS bus station. We all were hungry, but luckily we still had our left over food from Fu Hang Dou Jiang.

From Yang Ming Shan, we then took bus to Shilin station, then took train to Dan Shui (淡水). We then proceeded to Dan Shui Lao Jie (Old street).

Ah Gei (阿給)

 This is another "Must Try". It's fried tofu stuffed with glass noodle. The sauce was so good.

Besides, Ah Gei, we ordered their meat pumpkin skin dumpling as well. It's pretty good. That was our lunch plus tea time. We then walked along the old street, and bought whole lot of brown sugar cubes again.

Our next destination was Shilin night market. The guys offered to bring back our heavy stuff to hotel first. It was really nice of them. 

At shilin, most of us walked on our own. I didn't feel well that night. I guess It's due to the chilled wind at Yang Ming Shan. My feet were sore because of the long walked and high heel boots. Then, suddenly I got a message from Suryana, saying that she found a reflexology place. I  quickly joined her. Eventually, everybody ended up there. 

After the foot massage, we walked around the night market again. It started to rain quite heavily that night. I was looking for a t-shirt for my brother, but, I couldn't find it at first. On our way to the train station, we passed by a shop selling a lot of different kind of t-shirts. Even though it was late (I think 11:30 pm), but, I thought maybe I should stop by for a bit. Guess what? We bought more than 20 t-shirts from the shop. Luckily, we managed to get on the last train that night. We reached our hotel at around 1 am. 

Oh yeah, we got our tai yang bing (太陽餅) delivered at the hotel that day! 

Fourth Day in Taiwan (29/4)

We were getting ready to go back to Taipei on that day. Our hotel in Taichung provided complimentary breakfast. So, we had a decent breakfast that morning. As usual, the guys were way ahead of the ladies. They took these pictures while the ladies were still busy getting ready.   

The breakfast was pretty good. A mixture of asian and western food was provided. There were porridge, salad, soy milk, dessert, coffee, tea, bread, mushroom etc.

After breakfast, we took taxi to the train station. Our train was scheduled at 9 am, and we reached Taipei close to 10 am. Our plan was supposed to be going to Yang Ming Shan for the day. Nevertheless, the weather was pretty hot and most of us needed to change NTD. After a short discussion, we decided to change our itinerary. The good thing was, everybody in the group was pretty flexible. Nobody made any noise due to the change of plan. Bravo!!!  

So, we treated the day as "free and easy". We first went to a bank (Mega Bank) nearby our hotel to get our money changed. In Taiwan, it's not so easy to find a money changer, and even there is one, the rate could be worse than the rate that is offered by a Bank. 

After that, we planned to have our lunch at the Modern Toilet restaurant. Our booking was for the next day, but luckily we could get the booking changed to that day. Yeah... yeah..., everybody was excited about this restaurant. It's not that easy to find the restaurant though. So, it's good that we had the direction written on our itinerary.

There, we had a combo meal, which comes with main course, drink (either ice lemon tea or green tea), and ice cream. The drink can be changed to other kind, but need to top up some money.  

Rye Bread+Pumpkin Soup

Won't you think it's disgusting to have a bread with that shape? Haha... I had it. The bread wasn't good. The texture was a bit tough and dry. The soup was ok. If I am not mistaken, it's pumpkin soup. I love pumpkin. :D

Thai Chicken

Seafood Hotpot

This is their specialty. I tried a little bit, it tasted pretty good, but not too great.

Pan Fried Chicken Steak

The chicken was very oily and tasteless. 

Ice cream

Again, it doesn't taste bad, but, it's not good either.

Entertainment for the day

Edited by Rika

Overall, the experience of having food there was good, but their food was just ordinary. Personally, I probably won't go back again. 

After the interesting lunch, we walked around Xi Men Ding. Most of us did some shopping. Then, for our tea time, we tried Ah Chung Mian Xian (阿宗面线). The mian xian (misua) and sauce was really nice, however they also added pig intestines which I didn't appreciate it that much. I don't like the chewy texture of it. Next time, I should probably request for one without any pig intestines.

阿宗面线

 

Supermodel, Suryana in actions (Walking on the street at Xi Men Ding)

Pictures were taken by Usman

These pictures look like one paparazzi (Usman in this case) who secretly took pictures of a famous Model (Suryana) who was shopping around Xi Men Ding area.:D

From Xi Men Ding, we headed to Taipei 101. Unfortunately, it was cloudy on the day, so, we decided not to go to the observation deck. Instead, we just stayed outside the shopping mall and took a lot of pictures.

Gwiyomi Style

Pictures were taken with Heinz's camera, edited by Usman.

Then, we walked further away from the shopping mall, to get a spot where we could take a nice snapshot of Taipei 101. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures in different styles. I remember a lot of people passed by, and some of them even stopped to see us.  

Taipei 101

From there, our next destination was Raohe night market.

When we were at Xi Men Ding, Usman has been looking for Mu Gua Niu Nai (Papaya Milkshake). I told them that it's a "Must Drink" if you visit Taiwan. But, I probably won't try though, since my digestion system has difficulty in digesting milk. Surprisingly, we saw one Juice Bar stall near the entrance where we stopped at Raohe night market, and they sell Mu Gua niu nai. While I was waiting for them, I saw one board that stated about health benefits of Pumpkin. Pumpkin is a good source of dietary fiber, and contains Vitamin A, C, E, and K. It also has high antioxidant content and may regulate cholesterol level. That made my mind to try their pumpkin juice. It's probably sounds weird. Pumpkin Juice??? But, I did order one without milk. Guess what? It was so tasty that I couldn't resist. The pumpkin taste and the sweetness was so perfect. Welly ordered another one with milk. I believe Suryana ordered Papaya Milk. Rika and Vina ordered Avocado milkshake, and it tasted great as well. Usman claimed his papaya milkshake to be awesome. But, I think my pumpkin juice was still the Best! Hahahaha.... Slurp....

Juice Bar

Pork Pepper Bun Stall

It's located at another end (near to a temple) of Raohe night market. Even though it's on our "Must try" food list, but we didn't really look for it since all of us were busy doing our own shopping. It was a coincident that I saw  this stall. We were looking for a restroom which was located inside a temple. Then, we saw a lot of people queuing in front of this stall. 

Pork Pepper Bun

The interesting thing about it was that the buns were baked with charcoal.

This is how it looks like after I took a bite of it. The bun crust was crispy, and the inside was soft. That's how the texture of a baked bun should be. One word to describe it, "Delicious!" 

Pork Ribs Soup

This is another one on my list. The soup was really nice, however, some of the meat were quite tough.

Few of us ordered Lu rou fan at the pork ribs soup stall. I didn't try it, so, I was not sure how it tasted like. After that, we planned to go back to hotel. On our way back, we stopped by the juice bar stall again. I just couldn't resist to have another cup of pumpkin juice. The rest were also tempted to get another cup of their fruit juice. I was still full, but I know that I could have one for my breakfast the next day.

Satisfactory face after having the papaya milkshake.

Raohe night market ended our itinerary for the day. 

P.S. Wait for my next post for our last day of adventurous trip in Taiwan. It was the day before we left the country.