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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Zen Oasis

Zen Oasis is a Chinese vegetarian buffet restaurant owned by a Taiwan businessman. It's an hour or two drive out of Sydney. Surrounding the restaurant is a large area of unoccupied land which the owner is slowly landscaping, so far there is a maze made out of stone and a man made pond. It's not a lot but one can see the efforts gone into the landscaping and certainly should be appreciated. The food itself ain't too shabby either, not a bad selection, all vegetarian, drinks dessert the whole lot. It's a nice getaway from the city areas once in a while, good to stretch your legs, recommended day tripper.

Pond.

The Restaurant.

Stone Maze.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Long Exposures

Since our apartment was so close to the waterfront, I waited for a clear night, and walked downstairs to take some long exposures of the scene.

Friday, January 4, 2013

西門町台北 Shi-men Ting Taipei 鵝肉麵

Shortly after settling in our Taipei Garden Hotel, we ventured out to Shi-men Ting. Soon after arriving in the popular shopping district, we stumbled upon this very old small shop in a dark alley selling goose meat noodles, intrigued I asked if everyone would like to try it. We eventually decided to give it a go and were we surprised at the quality of the food, it was simply excellent, it was flavoursome and the goose was cooked surprisingly well also you could have the goose with a variety of different types of noodles, the price was reasonable, we actually came back a second time before the Taipei trip ended, and that says a lot for adventurous travellers.

The place don't look much from the outside, but that was while I took notice, authentic places are usually run down looking.

The cooked gooses for the noodles.

Picked cucumber side dish.

Dried tofu side dish.

The attraction.

Monday, December 31, 2012

禮部尚書

I have no idea how to translate the name into English, but this shop specilising in Chinese suits that was made popular by Sun Yat San 孫中山. This shop doesn't cater to regular walk in customers, it mainly welcomes friends and guests of high ranking Chinese officials, they would be there to chat and have tea while choosing something they fancy within the shop whether it's a full suit, night gown or a silk scarf. The reason why we were able to visit and have tea there was because our cousin had connections with the manager of the place. Everything in the shop is a work of art with one thing in mind, to impress, and to be honest, it is really quite impressive, every detail is the result of meticulous brain storming, they even had a working brand new grammaphone in the shop, they even had a section for Chinese calligraphy if guests were in the mood.

The exterior of the shop and my cousin in the foreground.

Paper weight.

Beautiful silk dresses, this was my wife's favourtie.

Calligraphy tools.

Silk scarfs smooth to the touch.

Box for the silk scarfs.

Tea preparation.

Grammaphone.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Ancestral Home Visit

It had been years, like 20 years since I had last visited our ancestral home in China,I only carry faint memories of the place, none of us, except for my father had lived in that house, it had been abandoned for a long time and now it is considered for the Chinese government to be of historical importance so nobody can knock it down. It isn't the best kept place on earth, however through my pictures you can still see that it was a magnificant marvel in it's prime many years ago.