Taipei PingXi Local Line – ShiFen 台北平溪ローカル線 – 十分

One of the most memorable place I went to on this trip was a small town called Shifen, 50 minutes away from Taipei, the 3rd stop on the PingXi Local Line.

The PingXi railroad was originally build to transport coal. It was then re-purposed as a tourist route in 1992. The route has 7 stops. Out of the 7, Shifen, PingXi, and Jingtong are popular to tourists.

今回の台北旅行で気になる一つの場所は十分です. 台北から50分で、平溪ローカル線第3回めのストップです。

平溪鉄道は、もともと石炭を輸送用の鉄道が、1992年に観光鉄道用になった。平溪ローカル線は7つの駅がある。 その7つ駅の中で、十分、平溪、および菁桐は人気です。

 

 

The Shifen Old Town is very interesting. It is on both sides of the railroad track.  The train comes only once per hour. In between, people walk across the train track to the other side of the town.

十分老街は鉄道の両側にある。電車は1時間に１本程度で、その間、人々は線路を渡ることができます。

 

The train has colorful appeal on the outside and an unique feature in the inside.

電車の外側ははでな、内部はユニークなデザインがある。

Most business in this town are sky lantern vendors and souvenir shops.

町のお店は、ほとんど天燈や土産物店です。

Shifen is like a tropical island, rain on and off.

十分は熱帯の島様に急に雨がふる。

 

 

Wishing Bamboo 祈り竹

Two of the most popular attractions in Shifen are releasing wishing lanterns to the sky and the waterfall.

十分人気のは天燈と滝です。

Sky Lantern 天灯

Visitors write their wishes on lanterns.

With the shopkeeper’s help, release the lanterns to the sky.

Visitors are actually standing on the railroad track to release the lanterns.

観光客が自分の天燈で願いを書く。

鉄道でランタンを空へ解放する。

 

 

About 20 minutes walk along the Old Town streets, cross the river and the bridge, will take you to the beautiful Shifen waterfall.

老街から歩いて20分のところで、台湾のナイアガラと呼ばれる十分滝がある。

 

 

 

Although small, it is the biggest waterfall in Taiwan, and it is BEAUTIFUL!

滝が小さいでも、台湾で最大の滝ですよ。とても美しくて感心しました！

 

Taiwan – Paper Panda Exhibition 台湾 – ”紙猫熊展”

During school break, my husband and I visited Taiwan.

We visited the Paper Panda Exhibition at the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. There were 1600 pandas and 200 Formosan Black Bears at display. They were made by recycle paper and were so adorable, attracted a lot of visitors.

学校お休みの間に, 台湾に行きました。

ちょうど台北の中正記念堂で”紙猫熊展”が開催されていて、私と主人は見に行きました。広場でパンダ1600 体と台湾ツキノワグマ200体が展示されていた。全部リサイクルペーパーで作りました。かわいくて観光客いっぱい見に行きました。

 

 

 

Thailand – Day 3 -Pratunam タイープラチナム

Last day in Thailand. Today we went to Sathorn Health Land for a 2 hours massage and then to Pratunam.

Health Land is a great place for massage. The facility is clean and nice. Staff are very professional. A 2 hours massage cost only 500 baht (about $17).

They also have facial and other services.

Health Land is located at 120 North Sathorn Road, 10 minutes walk from BTS Chong Nonsi.

Pratunam is a busy wholesale district filled with vendors, mostly clothing vendors. You can find great bargain here. The busiest time in this district is early morning from 4 am.

The Bayoke Sky Hotel in Pratunam is the tallest building in Bangkok.

Besides the wholesale market, Pratunam also has shopping malls and a big mall with all computer and electronic gadgets.

Kuang Heng Kaiton Pratunam has the best “khao man gai” in Pratunam. Khao Man Gai is the Chinese Hainan Chicken with rice.

Kuang Heng Kaiton Pratunam is located at the opposite side of the Palladium shopping center, on the corner of Petchburi Soi 30.

The boiled chicken costs 60 balt ($2). The boiled chicken with rice cost 40 baht (~$1.50). The stewed duck with Chinese mushroom costs 40 baht (~$1.50). The food is really good.

After a fun day in Pratunam, you  can take the water taxi to your next destination.

Thailand – Day 2 – Yaowarat (China Town) タイーヤオワラト

Yaowarat is the home of Bangkok’s Chinatown and wholesale district.

In the morning, Chinatown doesn’t have much to offer, but the wholesale district around the Chinatown area is filled with people. Offering cooking ingredients, clothes, stationery, souvenirs, electronic items …… for very reasonable price.

In the evening, when the shops closed down, the actions in Chinatown begins. Food vendors lined the long busy street with all kind of food, Chinese and Thai.

 

 

 

 

Shark Fin Soup, about $10 a small clay pot (300 baht up)

 

Bird Nest Dessert

 

Dessert – Bird Nest Dessert is about $5 to $10 per bowl (150 to 300 baht)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sauce for noodle

 

 

Fresh Squeeze Pomegranite Juice, small bottle 20 baht, big bottle 40 baht
(30 baht per $1)

 

Durian, 100 baht per 2-3 pieces. December is not the season, therefore, they didn’t taste good

 

 

Thailand – 1st day – Siam タイ− シアム

The food court operation in Bangkok is wonderful. It is convenience, clean, quick, and the food taste great.

Hanan Chicken

Roast ducks and roast pork

 

Fish ball noodle

 

 

Chinese Pastries

 

Cheun Fung

 

Eating Area

Making Plum Jam

My Santa Rosa plum tree produced a lots of plums this year. After sharing them with family, friends, and neighbors, I still have plenty left over to make plum jam.

Making plum jam is not difficult but it requires constant stirring while cooking. It takes time for the juice to condense and turn into jam.

First, the plums have to be skinned, pitted, and cut.

Then, cook in a pot with sugar and squeeze in some lemon. Cook until the liquid from the plums reached gelling point.

Skim off any foam.

It only take about an hour to make plum jam and you will have fresh, homemade jam to enjoy!

Pho Ao Sen

When I am craving for Pho, I think of Pho Ao Sen.

Pho Ao Sen is a Pho Restaurant in East Oakland. The restaurant is pretty big for a Vietnamese restaurant.

It has updated decoration, parking, quick service, and their food is nicely presented.

I like their Pho the best, but a lot of people also like their Bun Bo Hue and grilled pork chop with broken rice.

Duan Wu Festival………..端午節

Tomorrow is Duan Wu Festival (端午節). 端午節 falls on May 5th of the lunar calendar.

The festival is to pay respect to Qu Yuan (屈原), a patriotic poet of the Kingdom of Chu (楚國) who is well loved by the people of China.

On May 5th of 278BC, lunar calendar, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River upon hearing the fall of Chu’s capital city to the Qin army. To prevent his body being attack and eaten by fish and other sea creatures, people threw rice dumplings (粽子）into the river to feed the fish.

Qu Yuan has became a symbol of patriotism. Every year on May 5th, people will pray and eat rice dumplings to remember him.

My sister makes rice dumplings for the family every year.

We like her rice dumplings because she uses many kinds of fillings. Besides sticky rice, there are green bean, salty eggs that she made herself, dried scallops, dried shrimps, Chinese sausage, lotus seeds, chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms, and pork belly.

Prepared rice dumplings are to boil in a big pot for 2 hours and let sit in the pot for another 2 hours before removing them and let cool.

Cooked rice dumplings are better eaten the next day. Don’t know why, but we like to eat the rice dumplings with sugar.

Le Cheval

I had dinner with a friend at Le Cheval Restaurant.

Le Cheval is a classy Vietnames restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek, serving French-Vietnamese cuisine.

The restaurant has contemporary decor mix with Vietnamese traditional taste. Very nice!

友人と Le Cheval のレストランで夕食を食べた。

Le Cheval は　ダウンタウン 　ウォルナッツ クリーク　である　フランスーベトナム 料理レストランです。

レストランは現代的なとベトナムの伝統の装飾をミックスしています。すごくいいです！

We ordered Goi Ga, a chicken salad with sesame chips. This is a very refreshing dish for the hot summer.

ゴイガーを注文しました。ゴイガ−は　暑い夏に、非常にさわやかな料理です.

Chem Chep Nuong, broiled green mussels top with lemongrass sauce, green onion oil, and peanuts. Delicious!

Chem Chep Nuong　は　焼いた貝のうえに　レモングラス ソース、ネギ油とピーナッツをのせます。おいしかった！

The Bo Luc Lac – Shaky Beef is not as tender as I like but it tastes  good.

Bo Luc Lac の牛肉は　ちょっと固いけど美味でした。

For Ca Kho To, I like the fish soft, more caramelized, and with a more pungent flavor.

それ　Ca Kho To　には、魚の肉はもっと柔らかくて，カラメルはもうちょっと濃い目で、味はもっと濃いが好きです．

Walnut Creek……………….ウォルナッツ クリーク

Walnut Creek is 23 miles East of San Francisco. It is a quaint, chic little town that I absolutely adore.

The town has a lot of nature.  There are parks and bike paths,　walking trails, and deers too.

Downtown Walnut Creek is beautiful, everything is convenience and is in walking distance.

The city even provide trolley services, taking residents and visitors from Walnut Creek Bart Station to downtown for free.

Here is the Broadway Plaza. It is an open-air mall that has the well-known stores and restaurants such as Macy*s, Nordstrom, Banana Republic, P.F. Chang’s, etc…..

 

ウォルナッツ クリークは 、サンフランシスコの東から　23 マイルにあります。私大好きな町です。

この町は自然がいっぱい。。。。。公園、自転車パス、遊歩道があり，鹿もよく見えます．

ダウンタウンは美しくて、ショッピング　や　レストラン　すべて徒歩圏内で便利です。

ウォルナッツ クリーク Bart 駅からダウンタウンまで　無料往復サービスがあります。

 

ここは　ブロードウェイ ・ プラザ　で、オープンエアのモールです。有名な店やレストラン。。。 メイシーズ、ノードスト ローム、バナナ･リパブリック、P.F. チャンズなどがあります。

Nordstrom has a cafe that serves great sandwiches and their Spicy Shrimp Angel Hair Pasta is excellent.

ノードストロームの中でカフェがあります．あそこの サンドイッチ がおいしくて　エビ エンジェルヘア パスタが最高です。

Downtown Walnut Creek is only few blocks from the mall.

It has a lot of unique stores, restaurants and cafe, many of them have patio seating.

ダウンタウンウォルナッツ クリークはモールの近くである。

それは、多くのユニークな店、レストラン、カフェがあり，多くのレストランはパティオの席があります。

I find this restaurant complex. It has a Western name “OI-C Bowl”, written in Kanji “御膳”, but serve Chinese food.

If my friends haven’t recommended it, I don’t think I will try it. But I was happy to find that their food is traditional Chinese and taste good.

このレストランは複雑です。西洋の名前は「OI-C ボウル」、アジアの名前は 日本語で「御膳」、料理は　中華料理を提供 します。

もうし友人を推奨していない場合は、このレストランでご飯を食べないと思います。しかし、ここの食べ物は伝統的中華料理で　良い味が見つけることがうれしかった。