放天灯 (Sky Lantern)

During our trip to Taipei, Rachel and I travelled to Ping Hsi (平溪) to release a sky lantern. According to the tourist pamphlets, the Shih Fen (十分) area used to be coal mines and are tucked in remote mountainous area not easily accessible by transportation. In order to let their family members know they have safely arrived at the coal mines, the miners will release these sky lanterns.

Over time, the releasing of these sky lanterns became a custom to seek for blessings and well-wishes from above.

Here are the photos documenting our journey to experience this tradition.

When we got off the train at Ping Hsi, the area was pitch dark although it was only slightly past 8pm. Most of the shops were closed and the lights in the residential dwellings were mostly switched off too.

Here’s what the place looks like in general:

There’s also a large creepy mural painting depicting various scenes of how to be a good citizen sprawling a full five metres wall.

Rachel and I were very hungry at this point as we have not eat anything since around 12 noon and the cold wind, coupled with light drizzling rain does not make it better for us. Hence when we saw a sole desert shop still open, we dashed in.

A kindly granny greeted us and serve us with sweet potatoes and yam balls. They were damn delicious! It’s probably because we were starving. I am not sure, but for that moment, those simple balls tasted like the best cuisine in the world for us.

Granny’s store also sell fruits. They look good too, but we have to rush off as we have to catch the last train back at 9pm and we have yet to achieve our objective of releasing a sky lantern.

Along the way, we encountered a few provision stores like the one below, offering sky lanterns for sale.

For some inexplicable reason, we settled for this hardware store below:

We were presented with a large red sky lantern by a stout looking shopkeeper. He passed us a brush and a bottle of ink for us to write and draw blessing messages onto the lantern.

To make things simple, we chose the chinese characters - 平安, 幸福, 快乐 and 大吉 (safety, bliss, happiness and prosperity) and Rachel wrote them onto the four sides of our sky lantern.

The shopkeeper then fixed the solid fuel into the sky lantern. The lantern is now almost good to go.

A final inspection was done. A small hole was discovered on the surface of the lantern and the shopkeeper promptly fixed it by just sticking a few layers of scotch tapes on the hole.

We are finally ready. With lantern in toil, we marched with the shopkeeper to a nearby bridge to release our lantern. Countdown…

3…

2…

1…

and up in the air it soared!

We watched as the lantern flew higher and higher into the air…

Higher and higher till it was just a tiny flicker of light in the dark sky…

And it was gone.

Technorati Tags: sky lantern, ping hsi, shih feng, taipei, tian deng, coal mines, coal miners, alvinology, rachel chan, yam balls, sweet potato balls, 放天灯, 平溪, 十分

Mister Donut in Taiwan

The ads are so kawaii!

We seldom see such cute ads in Singapore do we? Taiwanese are culturally similar to Japanese in their penchant for over-the-top cutesy stuff.

Oh, and the donuts are delicious too! I am sure Mister Donut will be a hit if it’s available in Singapore. You can find out more of their products at their official Taiwanese website or the original Japanese one.

Technorati Tags: mister donut, donut, singapore, taiwan donut, japanese donut, sheep donut, lion donut

Through the Looking Glass

I like to take photos of mirror reflections. These can be referred to as “images of images”. They are especially handy when you need to take group photos with the photographer included in the image and when you are intrigued by mirror image distortions (as demonstrated below).

This picture was taken along the streets of Dan Shui (淡水) in Taipei. The mirror is convex-shaped, as are all corner mirrors and gives a good, wide-angle wide of the street behind us.

This second one was taken in a large departmental store near to the Taipei 101 building. The mirror is bent at some angles and result in some of our faces looking really weird

Technorati Tags: looking glass, mirror images, alvinology, rachel chan, hua meiyen, mark tan, singapore, taipei, dan shui, taipei 101, photography, mirror images, reflection

What I bought in Taipei

I spent quite a bit during my 6 days 5 nights stay in Taipei. Most of the expenses went to food, lodging and travel, but I did buy quite a fair bit of stuff too.

The most damage was due to these two items:

A pair of jeans from Lee Cooper’s Big Train series and a pair of hi-cut basketball sneakers from Onitsuka Tiger (Asics).

The jeans cost NT2680, approximately S$125. I like the look of the Japanese themed motif on the back pocket and the small details on the button and pockets.

The sneakers cost NT3100, approximately S$144. I like the fleece lining at the top edges and the extra cushion paddings on top of the soles.

I also bought a lot of books from eslite (誠品). This pile in the picture cost around S$150 in total.

I also bought some small toys. These are the cheapest items at around S$5 in total for the two items below - a Kakashi figurine and a set of cat figurines.

Spending money feels great, haha. Now, it’s back to work to earn more money for my next holiday!

Technorati Tags: onitsuka tiger, asics, big train jeans, big train, lee cooper, taipei, ximen, eslite, kakashi, cats, shopping

Fonejacker: Professional Prank Caller

Here’s my April’s Fool Day recommendation - Fonejacker! Fonejacker is a British comedy programme featuring a series of prank calls.

The show features a masked prank caller (Kayvan Novak) who speaks to unsuspecting members of the public under various guises, in an attempt to confuse or wind-up the call recipient.

The prank calls are really top-notch and made me laugh till I almost cry. I especially like the one with “DOOVDE”. If you are feeling bored now, maybe you can watch some of the fonejacker’s videos and then try out the prank calls on your unwitting friends on this special day.

Enjoy!

First up, the DOOVDE episode - where fonejacker tried to pronounced DVD, VCD, TV, HD and LCD as words instead of acronyms:

Call to cinema operator, requesting for permission to make pirated video:

Bumble Bum Ber Ber Bu Ber… episode:

Selling broadband service to a poor student:

Free money episode:

Funny right? If you can’t get enough of fonejacker, you can find more information about this programme at their official website.

Happy April’s Fool!

Technorati Tags: prank calls, fonejacker, phone jacker, april fool day, april fool joke, funny videos, doovde, kayvan novak

Who is Edison Chen?

Edison Chen Kwoon-Hei is a Hong Kong celebrity, famous both for acting and singing. He is also the founder of CLOT Inc., and the CEO of Clot Media Division Limited.

Edison has been in the news a lot lately - all over China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore entertainment news. This is due to a series of leaked Hong Kong female celebrities nude pictures, said to be retrieved from Edison’s hard disk when he sent it for repair. I will blog more about the photos tomorrow. Let’s focus on Edison for now.

You can read more about him on Wikipedia.

I best remember him for his role in Infernal Affairs 1 and 2, playing the role of young Andy Lau. He’s very good-looking by the way - nothing like the photo you see above. The photo was taken from an apology video he recently released in response to the sex scandal. Given the widespread public backlash from the incident against Edison, I think he was trying very best to look as pitiful as possible to gain sympathy.

Here’s the video in full:

Said Edison in the video:

“I’ve decided to break my silence today and make this statement to the media and to all people involved in this strange ordeal. Recent documents being posted online have been intentionally hurtful and malicious not only to the victims but to our whole community.

“I have already handed matters over to the police and have been assisting them with this case from the first day onwards. Due to ongoing investigations, I am unable to comment any further upon this case.

“The lives of many innocent people have been affected by this malicious and criminal conduct, and in this regard I am filled with pain, hurt and frustration.

“I hereby use this opportunity to apologize to anyone who has been affected by this strange, strange ordeal.

“I now call upon everyone to help and assist the victims of this case. If you have ever downloaded any of these images, please do not forward them to anyone. Please do not send them to anyone. If you are still in possession of these images, I urge you to please destroy them immediately. Let’s help the wounded heal their wounds. I urge you to help the victims and not make anything worse.”

I detect the work of spin doctors here.

Edison did not deny the authencity of the obscene photos - to me, that’s an admission of guilt. The photos are real, and Edison probably was the one who took them. Instead, he chose to harp on the “malicious” crime committed by those responsible for circulating the photos.

Very clever indeed.

It’s the best way to win an argument in a gone-case scenario - you don’t have to prove you are right, you just have to prove OTHERS are WRONG (I learn this from the movie, Thank you for Smoking from the tobacco lobbyists).

Precisely what Edison is trying to do here. Don’t be tricked.

Have you tried stir-fried Wikipedia?

Apparently, quite a few people in China have the dubious honour of trying out this exquisite dish.

There’s a restaurant in Beijing that serves this. Check out the menu below:

The image below is what the actual dish looks like. It appears to be the very ordinary 宫保鸡丁 (kung pow chicken) most Chinese folks will be familiar with.

All pictures taken from Evolving Web

Hmm… I wonder if there will be pan-fried Google and FaceBook sandwiches soon?

Technorati Tags: stir-fried wikipedia, wikipedia, google, facebook, beijing, evolving web, exquisite cuisine, chinese food, kung pow chicken, 宫保鸡丁

Flying off to Bangkok in less than 24 hours

Photo taken during my last trip in 2005

Still feeling a bit sick… hope I feel better when I land in Bangkok tomorrow. I will be back next Monday afternoon. Do try to miss me while I am away.

Technorati Tags: alvinology, vacation, jetstar asia, singapore, bangkok, sightseeing, holiday

Singapore’s Eight Wonders

Following the announcement of the new Seven Wonders of the World, local newspaper, Straits Times did a straw poll with 300 Singaporeans to find out what they think Singapore’s Seven Wonders should be.

Here’s the result:

1. Esplanade

2. Changi Airport

3. Sentosa

4. Merlion

5. Singapore River

6. Food

7. Mount Faber and MM Lee (tie)

Wait a minute… shouldn’t the Wonders all be iconic OBJECTS???? How come got MM Lee one???? Imagine George W. Bush or even JFK being listed by Americans as one of the Seven Wonders of America - doesn’t it sound ridiculous?

It never fail to astonish me how Singaporeans like to associate anything to do with Singapore with MM Lee.

Year in year out, whenever any polls remotely related to Singapore are conducted, MM Lee will always be in the top favourites.

True, MM Lee has done a lot of our nation. However, isn’t it time to move on?

MM Lee is not going to be here forever. Despite the great things he have done, he is still mortal. That means he will die one day. What happens after that? Singapore collapses? Society runs amok?

We have to learn to be independent lah. Cannot everything also MM this MM that… We should cut MM Lee some slack.

Tio bo?

Technorati Tags: singapore, mm lee, lee kuan yew, lky, mount faber, singapore food, singapore river, merlion, sentosa, changi airport, esplanade, uniquely singapore, singapore tourist attractions, singapore seven wonders, singapore icons, alvinology

The New SEVEN WONDERS

Click to access

The worldwide online poll to crown the new Seven Wonders of the World has ended. Click on the image above to view the result or scroll down.

The list may come in useful when you are planning your next travel destination.

Here’s the chosen seven (in no particular order of merit):

The Great Wall, China
Petra, Jordan
Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Machu Picchu, Peru
Chichén Itzá, Mexico
The Roman Colosseum, Italy
The Taj Mahal, India

Technorati Tags: travel destinations, Singapore, tourist attraction, alvinology, new seven wonders, Roman Colosseum Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, Christ Redeemer, Petra, Great Wall, Chichén Itzá