Travelog for: Mandy Sheep

This evening I helped my host take the garbage out and waiting for the garbage truck. My host told me she has to take garbages out almost every day at about 18:30. Though it is quite bothersome, but it's also fun to meet other neighbors at this time and have a chat with each other. However, it's quite odd that this car sings The Maiden’s Prayer. My host told me that the garbage cars in Tainan even teach people how to speach English, and sometimes pretend that he is the mayor of Tainan and promote some activities in Tainan. XD My host was not surprised with my reaction because she told me she even read a book that the author misunderstood that it is a ice cream car when he heard the garbage car sings at the first time. The author said that the ice cream car there in his country also sings songs. XD

Today my host and my host's mother taught me how to cook a typical soup here in Taiwan.
I've made a recipe as follow! Please try! I like it very much!!!!

Recipe Today

Ingredients:
1. dried mushrooms
2. chicken
3. ginger (optional) / cut into slice OR garlic (optional) / cut into several pieces
4. salt

*quantities of each ingredient is up to every one's flavor and how much do you want to eat*

IMPORTANT: The key to this soup is the choose of the ingredients!

**Choose of the chicken:
Contain less fat!!!! If there is too much fat in it...you'll find the soup full of oil and becoming greasy.

**Choose of the dried mushrooms:
Choose the dried mushrooms that really exhale the dried mushrooms smell even after cooking.
P.S. I'm not sure if there are dried mushrooms in my home town, but I think there may be some in China town...I guess.



Put them all with water in the electric rice cooker or just put them in a cooking pot and heat it until all stuff are ripe and you can smell strong fragrance of the dried mushrooms.



Before it is done, I watch TV! XD It is my host's favorite cartoon - InuYasha.



After it is done. Put salt into the soup.
That's it! Does this make you salivate?



It is easy, isn't it!!

Today we went to Taipei City for seeing the Taipei 101, the highest finished building in the world now. I saw Cassiopeia have fun there so I decide to check it out myself, too. My host told me Hsin-chu is about one hour far from Taipei City.



This is the Taipei Railroad Station! You can go anywhere by trains, high speed railroad train, and metro Taipei. All railroads come together in this station.



My host told me now we have to take the metro of Taipei. First step is to buy the tickets of course! XD



Passing throgh the entrance gate! Everybody seems to be in a hurry...



The train is coming!!!



On the way to Taipei 101. My host told me if you want to go to Taipei 101 from Taipei Railroad Station,
you must take the blue line!



Finally arrive....did we? We fisrt arrive eslite. My host told me this is the largest bookstore in Taiwan.
They even have a branch that opens for 24 hours.



Wow..so many people in this bookstore!! It seems that everybody comes here spending their weekend.



After 15~20 minutes walking, we finally arrive Taipei 101, and I can take a photo with it! XD People here say it is built as a model of bamboo. Do you think it like bamboo? It seems that I met a lot of bamboo during this trip in Taiwan.



That's the entrance of the department store in Taipei 101.



We soon go in there because the weather is hot outside. It's beautiful inside, too!



Guess what? There is a runway there inside. A lot of people seeing this fashion show there.
I'm too small that I can't see clearly...



Thus we sat nearby having some ice cream. I was lucky to meet Mr. IceCream Cup!
They are twins, and are really nice...cups!!! We talk a lot during this break.



It's a pity that we have to leave now...because we don't have that much time to see more around here. The weather became cloudy, and we were afriad it will rain soon. We met A LOT of people on the street. My host told me there is always a lot of people walking very fast in Taipei City...that's one of the reason why my host still love the atmosphere of Tainan City...the pace there is much slower!



We are now in the Bus Main Station. My host told me the fast way to go from Hsin-chu to Taipei is to taking a bus.
Time to go back to Hsin-chu...

Today I went to visit my host's aunt. She owns a little stand selling fried chicken. My host told me it is not the fried chicken I used to see in McDonalds. It is a typical snack in Taiwan. You can see it in the street sometimes or in the night market!

Here is the stand. This is my first time to see a stand like this.



I took a photo with my host's aunt. She is beating the chicken and put the powders on it.



Here is the closer view.



Now put it in the boiling oil.



Here it is! Typically they only use the chicken's breast.
Even it may look a little bit like the fried chicken in McDonalds but the taste is totally different!

 

And now I can put some peppered salt or the chili powder on it!



Amazing! There is someone ordered 12 pieces of this kind of fried chicken.
My host's aunt's son now have to deliver these to another place.
I'm going to enjoy my own one, too! XD

Finally...today I'll leave Taiwan! It's a little bit sad...but I'm also very excited that I'll visit India soon. XD

My host gave me this "ticket". She said that I'll need to show this ticket to the ground staff so that I can take the plane to my next destination-India, and there will be a postman there taking me to my next host's house.



And my host's mother also gave me a farewell present. What a surprise!



Wow..do I look good in it? My host told me that her mother made this last night.



There is even my name on it! XD I am sooo happy. Pink is one of my favorite color.



I'll remember everything happened when I was in Taiwan, and hopefully I'll arrive India very soon!

Before that, please be patient waiting for my news!

Hello Mommy...

Look!!! I have finally arrived in India at my new hosts flat....
My former host was soooo friendly to me and I had such a great time in Taiwan. Once again I want to say "Thank you very much!"....

Now I will see how india will be....

As I arrived, I met Repa and Pien, the other tvs staying at Mona & Uli's... They immediatly told me, how excited they are, that I will join them to the Taj Mahal in may! It'll be surely big fun......

For now, Mona is very happy to have another girl in the house, I think. She also loves pink, like I do!  And first thing we made together was shopping, because she needed some new sports shoes.... She starts to work out in a gym tomorrow, and the name of the gym is "PINK"... funny, isn't it?

Maybe I'll go with her, don't know yet...
Do you think, I should work out a little bit? I really got a little "lazy" with Shui and her good cooking....

Repa said, I can have the special tvs bed, because it's more girl style, he said....

So for today.....
Good night mommy,
don't worry about me anymore and give the rest of the fam-united a big kiss from me!

Lucky me, that I did not went with Mona to the gym, because she had very bad muscle pain the next day.... ha ha ha...

But of corse I joined my hosts to a very relaxing long weekend to a beach resort called The Dune near Pondicherry, which is about 160km south of Chennai.

That's seems not to be far, but it took almost 4 hours to get there, because of the traffic... And it is really far off the noise and the polution of a 7 million people's city....

We had a great time hanging out at the pool, playing beach volleyball, learn to do some pottery....

I especially loved all the bright flowers there, and the very beautifull butterflies all around...

That fast an amzing first impression of india, don't you think?!

Hello Mommy....

Oh, you would be very proud of me....

Yesterday we had a very nice evening watching TV, "American Idol".... There is a new toyvoyager in the house, his name is Weasley and he is a cool guy....

Anyway...

Little Roderich ( he is also from Germany ) jumped the Sofa up and down and felt off, so he hit his head and started bleeding...

Everybody was frozen because of the shock, but me!

I Immediatly helped with "first Aid" and stopped the bleeding.
Roderich was very happy and thankfull and he already felt much better, when the other tvs came to visit him...

Maybe, mommy, one day I' ll become a nurse?!
My host said, I've done a great job helping little Roderich...

Mommy,

I am pretty fine...

On saturday we went outside, even it is actually sooooo hot in Chennai...pfuee....

We went all together to a place called "Valluvar Kottam", which is a goverment building which a huge hall for special events. There is also a nice garden and an amazing, beautiful tower.....

I really enjoyed my time.

After lunch we also went to a nice curch for the "holly mother mary", which was very interesting. People in india really celebrate der religions and believes with a lot of passion and love.

Unfortunatly my host felt not very good during the last days. Mona had trouble with her digesting, but also was very sad, because she lost one of her best friends.
He died because of aids, back home in Germany...

But we all try to cheer her up and slowly but surely she feels better... She said, she is very thankfull to have us arround...

And now we are very buisy with planing our trip to the Taj Mahal and we are all looking forward it....

So, mommy,
sending you a big hug and lots of kisses...
Mandy

Sooo, it's getting exciting...

I helped my host planing our journey at the end of the month and we will not only visit the Taj Mahal (my dream destination), but also some other places.....

First we will fly into the north to Jaipur, also known as the "PINK CITY" at may, 24th. There will will stay for 2 nights at a very beautiful, old palace, which is now a hotel and we will have a look at the city....

After that, we'll drive by car to Agra and visit the Taj Mahal (juhuuu) and even stay one night at a nice hotel, in a room from where you can even see the Taj....

The next day we'll drive by car to Delhi, the capital of india, to go for sight seeing and SHOPPING.... yeah....
There we'll stay for 3 nights.

Then we'll fly with a very small plane to Kullu, at the state of Himachal Pradesh, in the himalaya mountains.
We booked a hotel in Manali, we'll probably go for wild water rafting, see some waterfalls and beautiful mountains....

By car we all will drive during a three days ride to Keylong, than to Sarchu and it ends at Leh, in the state of Kashmire....
We'll be very near to Tibet and surely see some buddism monastarys, we'll even camp in the mountains and we'll drive the highest motorable road of the world... wooohooo...
Near Leh we will stay at some local people's home, which is a special goverment project to save the snowleopard.

At june, 9th we'll first fly to Delhi and from there back home to Chennai...

Be sure, I will take a looooooot of pictures for you guys at home... I just can't wait to start... And I'll look out for a nice souvenier for my mommy....

Meanwhile it's got full at my host's place, there a many tvs to join us.... So we decided to travel by two.... so every tv has a partner at the journey to take care of each other and to not get lost....

My partner is Yoomi, a very friendly little horse.

My host told me, you also go on holidays very soon?
Well, than I wish you a lot of fun and a save journey.
Take good care of yourself...

lov u, mommy!

Today it was again over 40 degree, but anyway, I joined in to visit another, very famous church here in Chennai...

It's name is "St. Thomas Church" and it is the oldest one in the south of india and the legend says, that the body of St. Thomas is laying to it's feed.

And lucky us, as we went in, a very friendly couple were just got married and we all wished them good luck and all the best.

I was even allowed to make a picture o them, to show you a traditional indian wedding dress....

Finally, we all were waiting so long for it.....

Tomorrow we will start our trip into the north of India.....
jiiiipppiiihheee....

Jaipur - Agra (Taj Mahal) - Delhi - Manali - Keylong- Sarchu - Leh ..........

We will be back at the 9th of June.....

Today we all helped packing the suitcase, everyone is now in charge of something.....

Yomi and I are in charge of the tv's travelbags.....

Thanks to god, we don't have to travel in the suitcase, we have our very own, very comfortable backpack..... (as comfortable as if can be, with such a travelbunch!)

We'll surely have a lot of fun..... I will tell you everything later.....

BYE BYE.....
...we are off.....

Hey mommy,
we are back..... and it was sooo exciting!
I saw a lot of the north of india and will show you also as much as I can.....  it will take a while, I guess..... Mona and Uli alltogether took arround 900 picures just of us tvs.... pfeeew...

After we had a long journey, because one flight from Mumbai to Jaipur was canceled, we arrived in Jaipur very late.
We enjoyed the warm welcome at the beautifull Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, ate something and went straight to bed.

The next day we explored the region of Jaipur.

Near by there is the big fort-palace of Amber, a beautiful, ethereal example of Rajput architecture, rises from a rocky mountainside.

Amber was the ancient capitel of Jaipur state. Construction of the fort was begun in 1592 by Maharaja Man Singh and it was later extended by other rulers, so you can see a lot of very different buildings there.

I also saw in the city of Jaipur the famous windpalace  and the citypalace.

Monday we spent on the road....

Because there were some people called Gujjar, who demonstrated in a town near Agra and killed several others, the normal road from Jaipur to Agra was closed, so we had to take the long way over Delhi....

It took us 10 hours, so we arrived in our hotel in Agra again very late.

But it was not as boring as it sounds. We saw a lot of funny vehicles at the so called HIGHWAY....

And we took a rest next to a friendly group of cows...

THIS WAS THE DAY!!!
My dream should come true, to see the TAJ MAHAL, one of the new 7 World Wonders in Agra...

We all woke up very early and SURPRISE.... we could see the Taj even from the hotel room!
I was soooo excited!

We made as much noise as we could to also wake up our hosts, because we couldn't wait to go there....

But than it happened...
We went there and it was just sooooo sad...

The guys at the entry told us, we TVs were not allowed to go inside!!! In fact, humans are not allowed to take anything inside the gate, but a camera!

My hosts really tried everything and explaned the guys that we are totally harmless, but they were complete unfriendly and rude and sticked to there silly rules....
Even talking to their chief didn't change anything....

I could cry!

So just Mona and Uli went inside and took some pictures for us.

Did you know these facts:

The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. in 1631. The death of Mumtaz left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair is said to have turned grey overnight. Construction of the Taj began in the same year and was not completed until 1653. In total 20.000 people worked on the building. The construction bill is believed to have run to 3 Million Rupee equivalent to about 70 million US dollar today.

As the Taj was ready, Shah Jahan let cut off the right hand of every worker, who built it, because he wanted to make sure, that they were not able to built another copy of Taj for any other man.

And soon after the finishing, Shah Jahan's son became the Emperor and put his father into jail.
He said, it is a big crime to built such an expansive building, while the folks have nothing to eat and die because of hunger. He put Shah Jahan into the Agra Fort from where he could see the Taj from his window every day, untill he died.

We went to this place, and Shah must had the same view, we had as we took this picture of me and the Taj in the far.

Still today it is a shame, that the goverment earns so much money every year from the visitors of the Taj Mahal, but Agra is still such a poor city.

It is very dirty and many people have got nothing to eat.

Around the place of the Taj a lot of beggars are, and you have totally to watch out, not to be cheated by shopowner and other people on the streets.

So this was a not so nice expierience allover....

On our way to Delhi we saw therefor another beautiful building, which looks like the Taj a little bit. It is a Hindu Temple next to the road.