Last night, Nick and I went out with a group of friends to a "fun center" called Tiger. I guess Tiger's main feature is a small bowling alley, but they also have a nice array of arcade games, batting cages, and other fun things to do.
We had a great time there bowling and playing arcade games...
And just before heading up to the batting cages, we spotted this little gem:
It's the Fun Song Bar - Karaoke in a Box!!!
The box is split into two little sound-proof rooms and for a small fee of $20NT (less than $1 US) per song you can sing your heart out.
Of course, this was something I wanted to try - I LOVE karaoke and I'm determined to do it in every possible setting - but we had couldn't do it right away. We had to wait for our turn, of course! This is a popular attraction - notice that both of these little rooms were full when I took this picture!
But it was worth the wait! We chose to sing Madonna's Like a Virgin - a karaoke classic!
Four people in that little box was a bit tight - and HOT - but it was the best $20 NT I've ever spent!
This weekend was our friend Eric's birthday, so a small group of us got together to celebrate!
And just how to do you celebrate a birthday in Taiwan, you ask... at the KTV, of course!
Any time we hang out with Eric we are guaranteed to have a good time, especially when there is dancing involved... he's awesome! Check out his dance to Britney Spears' Oops I Did It Again!
After a couple hours of singing and games
we turned in for somewhat of an early night, to store up our energy for Saturday. Eric spent the night in our spare bed room and then we all went up to Taipei early Saturday morning to spend a jam-packed day together.
Our first stop in Taipei (after lunch) was at the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). Although the museum is in Taipei, they managed to build it in an area that is completely surrounded by lush green mountains. The scenery was beautiful, the air (seemed) clean, and the sky was BLUE! It was a gorgeous day.
Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside of the museum, but it was definitely neat. They actually have artifacts from China dating back to 8,000 years ago!!!
I have to admit, I felt a bit rushed through the museum (we had a full day planned) so I would definitely like to go back again another day, just the two of us, to spend more time reading about the history and checking everything out.
After the museum, it was off to Danshuei 淡水 to see the sunset. The Danshuei River runs through northern Taiwan and feeds into the Taiwan Strait about a 45 minute MRT ride from Taipei.
Like any tourist attraction in Taiwan, the board-walk area was crowded and full of street vendors. Even so, it is a really nice little area. It was so nice to be out of the city and actually near the ocean that neither one of us actually minded the crowds.
By the time we arrived in Danshuei, the sunset was already drawing near, so we headed to the Pier to buy a ticket for a sunset boat ride.
Unfortunately, our timing was a little off. So, we ended up (not) watching the sunset from a long line on boardwalk (with a completely obstructed view of the sunset) instead of out on the water!
Fortunately, our friends were gracious enough to hold our place in line so we could get a view of the sunset.
I must say, it was refreshing to see the sun actually set for the first time in months.
Just as the sun set, we boarded our boat to Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭).
Fisherman's Wharf was much less crowded and had a really nice feel to it. There really wasn't much to do there except walk around and take in the view, but it was really enjoyable. The restaurant right on the pier had a great female singer who that added to the whole atmosphere... it was very relaxing.
The main attraction of Danshuei's Fisherman's Wharf is a little bridge that reminded me of Boston's Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge
From the bridge, we had a great view of the pier, the ocean, and the sky
For the casual tourist in Taiwan, I don't know if I would label Danshuei as a must-see attraction... it's a pretty typical wharf-area you can find pretty much anywhere, but for someone living in Taiwan, it's a great way to "get out of the city" without actually leaving the city.
Both at the museum and at the wharf, there were large crowds to navigate, but we did go out on a Saturday, so this is inevitable. Fortunately, it wasn't so much that it stopped us from enjoying the day.
It's pretty rare for us to see a blue sky here and even rarer still to catch a view of the sunset, and spending the time with good friends made it even better!
A couple of weeks ago, FengChia University's language center (逢甲大學語言中心) held a Chinese language karaoke contest for all of the foreign students.
Students of all levels, from Chinese 001 (Survival Chinese) to Chinese 901, entered and we all sang songs in Chinese. I'm currently in Chinese 201, I've been studying for about 6 months, so my Chinese ability was on the lower end of the spectrum, but by far, not the lowest.
My singing ability..... now that's another story. Although I am a bit of a karaoke junkie, I am fully aware that I am completely devoid of any talent for singing whatsoever. I don't think I could sing an entire song in key if my life depended on it!
That being the case, it would NEVER even cross my mind to sign up for a singing contest back in the US; however, as I've said before, the minimum level of talent required for a public performance here in Taiwan is significantly lower than back at home, so I figured... why not!? I signed up to sing Tian Mi Me (甜密密) the first Chinese KTV song I learned here in Taiwan. It's not exactly the most hip song (I think it's from the 70's), but I've sung it about 1,000 times, so I figured better to stick with the tried and true, than to switch to a new song that I don't know as well.
When signing up for the contest, everyone drew straws for their position in the line-up and I was the lucky person to draw the first slot of the competition, but I wasn't too nervous about it... I just figured 'what's another karaoke performance?'
THEN I show up at this little venue on campus where I discovered that I'm wasn't the first performer... I was the first contestant, but just before me they had a special performance scheduled: A Taiwanese voice student - someone who not only speaks Chinese as their first language, but also SINGS WELL!
Needless to say, it was a tough act to follow! As he sang, my nerves mounted and I began seriously begrudging the fact that I had to sing first, but as they say, the show must go on.... and so there I went!
I did make a few mistakes, so I was feeling a bit bummed out about my performance; that is, until I heard the other students sing.
I WISH I had had the opportunity to sing after one of the actual language center students because... well, some of the performances were pretty bad!
Actually, the Chinese teachers were all judging the students based on both our singing ability and our proficiency in Chinese and at the first break (after about 6 singers) I was in first place!!! (shortly thereafter I was knocked down by a bunch of really good students from Indonesia)
Never in my life would I have imagined that I would not only enter a singing competition (in Chinese!) but also be COMPETITIVE!
Nick and I awoke on Saturday morning to our roommates telling us that we had just 10 minutes before the bus left! Oops - So much for our bike ride.
Unfortunately, a typhoon was in the area, and the water was too choppy to go out on a boat, so our whale watching activity was cancelled for the day - on the bright side, this did delay our departure just long enough to give us a chance to eat breakfast!
After breakfast, we headed to a pretty cool out-door museum and spent the morning checking things out. Due to the inclement weather, and the fact that we had only two umbrellas in our group of 6 people, our movement throughout the park was restricted, so we didn't see as much as we would have liked.
Below is a picture of the house of the first national scholar who came from this area. We spent about an hour in the house (partly because we were waiting for a break in the rain!) and learned a lot about the tradition of education in Taiwan and in China. It's really a interesting history which dates back over 2,000 years - I will surely touch upon this in another post.... one day!
I would actually really like to go back to this museum to catch all the stuff that we missed, especially the famous Taiwanese puppet shows that can only be seen two places in the whole country.
After the museum, it was off to lunch at the harbour where we were supposed to go whale watching. Fortunately, right next door, was a huge black-sand beach - complete with volleyball nets, a stage, a shaded concession area, and some other fun surprises.
The beach was clean and beautiful. On one side was the ocean and on the other mountains.
At lunch we were told that we had three hours to spend at the beach; due to the typhoon, no one was allowed to swim in the ocean, but we just happened to be at a beach with a kiddie pool / shower-mister contraption.
Yes... a kiddie pool - at the beach!! A large square pool was actually dug into the sand just a stones throw from the ocean! For those who aren't comfortable with swimming in the dangerous sea.
(I just kept thinking that my father, who thinks a trip to the ocean is the ideal vacation, would get a kick out of this! I could just hear him laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all. "What the hell do you need a pool for ON the beach! The ocean is RIGHT there! Isn't the ocean enough!!!" - no... the answer is the beach, by itself, is just not enough)
After taking a break in the shade, we wandered over to the stage area to check out what was going on. Apparently a dance competition was taking place and it was priceless.
Take a look at two of my favorite performances:
It seems to me that the minimum level of talent required for a public performance - be it singing, dancing, or anything else - is much lower here than in the US. I guess lacking considerable talent is no reason to miss out on all the fun - more power to them!
Just as we began to wander away from the crowd, we received a phone call from our friends.
Apparently the tour group decided to cut our time at the beach short - by one whole hour! And the four of us were the only people who hadn't returned to the bus!
Now, I know that the Taiwanese people have a somewhat apprehensive relationship with the ocean, and they certainly don't enjoy sun bathing, but this beach was chock-full of things to keep you occupied, including a nice place in the shade with food and misters to keep you cool (not to mention that riveting dance performance!)
It was absolutely beyond me why they would want to cut short what to me was the best part of the trip - but we didn't have a vote in the matter!
My theory was that everyone would rather be singing karaoke on an air conditioned bus than beingscorched by the sun on the sweltering beach.... but that's just my theory!
Regardless of the reason, we headed back to the bus to begin our journey home to Taichung!
This past weekend, Nick and I went with some friends on a trip to Yilan, on the east coast of Taiwan.
In typical Taiwanese fashion, we went with a tour group of three bus loads of people.
As always, there was KTV on the bus. Our fellow travelers were particularly welcoming to me, their 美國朋友 (American friend),so they clapped along with me and applauded encouragingly throughout my karaoke performances.
The bus ride to Yilan took us through the mountains of Taiwan, up past Taipei and then down the eastern side of the island. It was an absolutely beautiful bus ride. It was one of the clearest days we've had here in Taiwan and the mountains were breathtaking.
(even from this truck stop!)
After a stop for lunch and another for souvenir shopping, we arrived at a water-fun park. This park had a couple areas for kids with shallow pools equipped with a wide array of shower-like water fun attractions. Based on the suggestion of our friend, we decided to skip over these crowded areas and head for the more natural river area.
We had a little less than 3 hours to hang out by the river, so we hurriedly changed into our swimsuits and jumped in. The river was dammed in several places to create a handful of separate and distinct wading pools. The water was calm, warm, about thigh-deep, and refreshing. The afternoon was reminiscent of one of my favorite summer activities back home: driving up to Fort Collins, CO to go tubing down the Poudre River. It certainly wasn't the same as floating freely down the pristine Poudre,
but, it certainly was refreshing to be out of the city and surrounded on all sides by beautiful, lush green mountains, and, as our friend said, this was much safer.
My favorite feature of the park was the water slide located at the top of the river:
It doesn't look very steep, but it was fast! Thankfully, the park provided helmets: Just in case you're worried about the safety of this ride, you can grab a foam helmet when you pick up your tube!
There actually weren't too many people wearing these things, but some people certainly were!
The thing that struck me as the most peculiar was that the people that I saw wearing these things weren't small children whose mothers had instructed them to do so... they were actually older teenage boys! Seriously! ooh some things I will just never understand!
Towards the end of our time at the park, it started to rain... a typhoon was coming! So we headed back to the bus and continued on our way to the hotel.
I'll tell you what, these tour groups sure like to pack in the activities! Once we arrived at the hotel we had 1/2 hour to get situated before dinner, which was promptly at 6:00pm. At 7:00 most people went to the near-by park to watch a drum show (which we missed). Evening activities also included a trip to the spa and some friendly gambling.
Saturday morning our wake up call was at 6:30am, as we were planning for an early morning bike ride through the park. Breakfast was to be at 8, departure at 9, whale watching for the morning, lunch, a trip to an outdoor museum in the afternoon, followed the long drive back to Taichung.
Whew, I'm winded just thinking about it! But I'll save day 2 for another post!
Every time I write a KTV post, I think it will be the last one... but inevitably I continue to find KTV popping up in the least expected (and most delightful) places.
Last week, I was in the check-out line at Carrefour, Taiwan's equivalent of Walmart, when I began staring off into space. After a brief moment of day dreaming, I snapped out of it and realized that my eyes hand landed upon an old man singing karaoke all by himself at the front of the store.
In an apparently successful attempt to market the Nintendo Wii to their Taiwanese customers, the store had a game station set up to play Wii Karaoke. (Brilliant marketing, if I do say so myself!)
He looked like he was having a grand ole time, and didn't seem to mind one bit that he was all alone.
I just got back from a great trip to Kending and there is so much that I want to tell you all about!
On the first full day of our 3-day trip we were on our way to the Kending National Forest when we stumbled upon a Zorbing Place! Zorbing is an activity where you basically get inside a huge bouncy ball and roll down a hill.
I had been Zorbing once before in Rotorua, New Zealand (pictured above and posted here) so when I first surveyed the Kending sight - with a noticeably smaller and less developed Zorbing hill - I thought 'eh, been there, done that.'
My friends, however, were very keen to try it out, so I decided to go along for the ride... and I definitely wasn't disappointed.
Being that it has been 6 years since my last Zorbing experience, I had forgotten how much fun it is to do something as ridiculous as roll down a hill inside a huge rubber ball! But let me tell you, it's definitely worth the $200NT fee!
As with anything that has been imported to the island, our Zorbing experience had it's own little Taiwanese twist - can you guess what it is???
If you guessed KTV, you're right!
ok, ok, there isn't exactly KTV inside the Zorb, but... kind of! There was actually a microphone affixed to the inside of the Zorb so that everyone watching from the top of the hill can hear all of the fun that you're having inside the Zorb. How awesome is that!?
My friend Claire took two videos of Nick and I Zorbing. The first is us getting climbing inside (with a shot of the microphone!) and the second is a video of us going down the hill - thanks to the microphone inside the Zorb, everyone can hear just how much fun we're having!
It's a great way for those watching or waiting their turn to get involved in every one's individual Zorbing experience (not to mention a great sales tool!)
I'm constantly amazed and delighted at the Taiwanese people's insatiable appetite for KTV and microphones! I love it!
Just when I think I've seen it all, I'm surprised again.
Since living in Taiwan I have been going regularly to the World Gym here in Taichung. They have some great spinning classes and I usually go a couple times a week in the morning. Last week, however, my schedule was moved around a bit and I ended up attending a spinning class on a Friday night.
At first glance, this was a class just like any other class I'd been to before. The instructor had a little microphone on and would occasionally sing along with his music track, but over the last couple of months I've gotten used to the instructors serenading us during the class - it always puts a smile on my face.
It wasn't until about 15 minutes into the class when the instructor played a remix of "We will rock you" when I realized that this class was special. During the song, all of the class participants join in the chorus - so the song says 'we will we will' and then everyone says "ROCK YOU!"
The first time I was in the class, I assumed that this would be an isolated incident, but I turned out to be wrong. (as I typically am). There was lots more singing to come!
Of course the participants weren't singing continuously during the spinning class (due to the fact that we were all vigorously exercising), there were small parts of many songs that everyone would burst out singing in unison throughout the evening. It was awesome.
Last night I revisited the class with my digital camera so that I could capture the awesome-ness! Check it out:
One of the things that I love about the class is that the instructor chose a lot of songs that are popular karaoke (KTV) songs here in Taiwan to play during the work-out. So, even though at some parts the whole class can't sing together, the instructor has his own private audience for indulging himself in a KTV sing-a-long.
(in this video the instructor is singing the parts the class isn't!)
What a wonderful country Taiwan is for those of us who love Karaoke and sing-a-longs!
Today was my last day of Chinese 101 before finals begin next week. (I am taking a university Chinese class at Feng Chia University (逢甲大學), so what did we do?? We learned a Chinese Karaoke song of course!!!
My teacher handed out the words in English and pinyin and bopomofo, so that we could read the Chinese, read the English, and read the romanization of the Chinese. She went over the song with us and then we played the Karaoke video and sang a long a couple of times.
I've been practicing this afternoon and can't wait to bust out my new Chinese singing skills next time I go to a KTV with my friends! The song, Tian Mi Mi, is by a very famous Taiwanese singer, Teresa Teng.
When I eventually do sing it, I'll try to get a video to share with you all, but for now you can watch the video of Teresa Teng singing it and just imagine that it's me!
Friday night after work, I went over to Angel's friend's house for our weekly dinner / language exchange.
As usual, a good time was had by all.
During our visit, I spied an interesting little contraption in the corner of the room that I had to investigate further:
It's a tiny mechanical bull, complete with stirrups!
This little home exercise machine for working out your abs and I have to tell you, I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up! You can adjust the speed and the angle of the saddle to work out different parts of your abdomen at varying intensities and after only a couple of minutes on the thing, I felt it working!
(Here is an unflattering video of me riding the bull!)
What a fun way to work out your abs while watching the TV. This is on my list of random crap that I'd like to own one day!
That's right folks.... I am NOT making this up! This weekend, I was actually in a taxi cab that had KARAOKE!!! (or KTV as the Taiwanese call it)
My friends and I were riding in a cab this weekend when we noticed that the TV in the front dash of the car was playing music videos with the words to the songs on them... just like KTV videos.
So, I asked the driver: Ni yo may yo mai ke feng? (你有沒有麥克風?) - Do you have a microphone?
And sure enough, he pulls out a full sized microphone! The thing was wired into the cab's speaker system! HAHA!!!
During our trip to Xitou this weekend, we learned something interesting about Taiwanese culture: It is customary for people on chartered bus trips (not public transportation) to sing karaoke... for the entire trip!
Over the last couple of months, Nick and I have noticed how much more tolerant the Taiwanese people are of noise pollution than Americans are. This was just another shining example of the culture not only tolerating noise, but embracing it whole-heartily.
The karaoke system was actually pretty advanced - exactly what you'd find in any karaoke bar in the US - a big book of songs and 5 microphones - two of which were cordless - which were shared by all of the passengers. When someone picked a song, the sound system played the music and the words were shown on small TV's throughout the bus.
There was even one little microphone up in the very front of the bus so the bus driver could get into the action!
For anyone who knows me personally, you don't even have to ask... yes I did sing one song: Country Roads by John Denver (it was a duet with my classmate Christine).
The Taiwanese version of Karaoke (or KTV) is really quite interesting to me. For most Americans, karaoke is something that we do only after a couple of beers in a poorly lit room full of strangers who aren't really listening to you, to offer maximum anonymity. Additionally, American karaoke is an only occasional indulgence and usually occurs at a dive bar that has karaoke one night a week, typically on a week-night.
The Taiwanese experience, on the other hand, is quite the opposite of this. On this little island, just about every neighborhood has it's own karaoke establishment. These places are called KTVs (short for Karaoke TV) and they're basically open all day and all night every day.
An import from Japan, Taiwanese KTV buildings are divided into a bunch of living-room style rooms, each with a projector screen (for the words to the songs and 1980's music videos), some couches, a coffee table, maybe some random art on the walls.... basically just like any living room. So, Taiwanese karaoke is done in a much more intimate setting than in the US - usually just friends and family in these small rooms (or on a BUS!), where people have little choice but to listen to you.
One of the most shocking things to me about Taiwanese KTV is that alcohol is absolutely not a necessity! I can hardly imagine an American listening to or singing karaoke without a cold beer in their hand, can you?
From my experience, Americans typically partake in Karaoke as an excuse to drink some beers and revel in the embarrassment of ourselves and others. The Taiwanese, on the other hand, seem to simply do it for the pure enjoyment of singing. No matter what your singing ability, you are expected to sing proudly and everyone else is expected to listen and enjoy you shamelessly butchering the song.
At this point, you may be thinking to yourselves, maybe the Taiwanese people are simply great singers.... but let me tell you, this is definitely not the case!
The first couple of times I was invited to partake in Taiwanese karaoke, I found myself declining the invitation for fear of feeling very uncomfortable at being so exposed - singing to such a small group of intent listeners without any liquid courage. However, my insecurity is waning and with each invitation I am feeling more free to join in on the fun.
Today is Angel's birthday, but since today is a holiday (Tomb Sweeping day) we got together last night for her birthday celebration!
Angel invited 6 friends, including Nick and me, to go out to a local KTV (which stands for Karaoke TV); it was a blast!
At 6:30pm Angel picked Nick and I up at our place and took us over to the KTV. She brought a huge spread of food for everyone including noodles, oil rice, salmon, tiny octopus (which I have to admit, I wasn't brave enough to try), tofu, and beef. She also brought two bottles of wine which she proceeded to cork and pour into a pitcher full of ice.... I must say, I thought this was quite a peculiar way to serve red wine... but to each his own.
Two things really got the party started: 1) Eric arrived and he is a FUN guy and fantastic dancer and 2) Angel's friend Daniel brought a bottle of good whisky that got us nice and loose for Karaoke.
My first number for the night was Hit Me Baby One More Time by Brittney Spears, and boy was it a crowd pleaser! haha. Everyone was up and dancing, even Nick. It was great! A little later in the night, Nick managed to get a video of my rendition of Like a Virgin (it's a bit dark, but you can still manage to see me dancing with Eric a bit):
The night passed on with lots of singing, dancing, eating, and drinking and around 10:00 we sang happy birthday to Angel. Right before we sang, there was some joke in Chinese about chicken wings... I'm not sure what it was, but I managed to get this cute picture of Angel with the chicken wings:
At the suggestion of a friend of ours from work, Nick and I bought a tiramisu cake for the party and it was DELICIOUS! (There is a very popular tiramisu bakery on Wuchuan Road near it's intersection with Meicun Road)
Most of the night Nick manned the tambourine (he's not really into karaoke) But, toward the end of the night we even got Nick to sing a couple of songs; one of them was a duet with me of the song "Time of My Life" the theme song from Dirty Dancing. It was awesome. He's actually a pretty good singer. Here's a nice shot of us serenading each other, haha!
Eric also taught us a new drinking game. It's basically rock - paper - scissor with a little twist. To play you do rock/paper/scissor and then whoever wins has to do this little Chinese chant while both people have their hands flat on the table. At the end of the chant, you each lift up one finger and if you lift up the same finger, the person who lost rock/paper/scissor has to drink. It's very simple, but pretty fun. Nick and Eric had a grand old time playing:
All in all, I think Angel had a great birthday! We were at the KTV for about 5 1/2 hours and were definitely feeling a bit slow this morning as a result!
I would I could in a Box! 
(I just kept thinking that my father, who thinks a trip to the ocean is the ideal vacation, would get a kick out of this! I could just hear him laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all. "What the hell do you need a pool for ON the beach! The ocean is RIGHT there! Isn't the ocean enough!!!" - no... the answer is the beach, by itself, is just not enough)
The afternoon was reminiscent of one of my favorite summer activities back home: driving up to Fort Collins, CO to go tubing down the Poudre River. It certainly wasn't the same as floating freely down the pristine Poudre,
I had been Zorbing once before in Rotorua, New Zealand (pictured above and 
Most of the night Nick manned the tambourine (he's not really into karaoke) 
