Pyramid's Dirty Little Secret

Taichung's Pyramid

Pyramid? The triangular-shaped structure located in Giza, Egypt? 不對! The pyramid that I meant is the one located in Taichung, Taiwan. Eh? Is there any PYRAMID in Taiwan? Yes, there is. Well, it's not the real-sturdy 'construction' as the real pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world, though. Nevertheless, let's just consider them as a twinning. So, what's the creepy story behind this well-known Taichung landmark?


As we all know that there are more than 160.000 (to date) Indonesian migrant workers who are tempting fate in Taiwan. Some of them are working in the central part of Taiwan, -Hsinchu-Changhua-Taichung-. Every Sunday, if they are lucky enough to get a permission from their boss (老闆; lǎobǎn), they will hanging out and mingling in the downtown with their friends. This what so-called Pyramid is their 'meeting point'. Before heading to the shopping centers or Indonesian stores, a swirl mass of them can be seen at Pyramid. 


Last week was definitely not my first time to go to Taichung, to be exact to Pyramid. But it was without doubt one of the most spine-chilling moments, yet. Albeit you are a taekwondoin, you'll still goosebumping if you're facing this kind of situation I'm going to tell. 

The swarm remnants : alcoholic beverages, food packagings, plastics, etc

As the time went by, the swarm of people in front of me were getting bigger. FYI, it wasn't an ordinary people's swarm. It was a drunk-gambling-babbling swarms. Why didn't I move to another place? Well, the answer is because I need to stay on that specific place since I was 'guarding' zakat booth. So well, yeah. The tipsy guys kept walking back and forth. And every time they passed me by, I got goosebumps. Oh my...I really felt as if I was in the lion's den and ready to get munched Y-Y. Imagine you're facing the same situation. Finally, when the sun almost set and one of the drunk guy fainted, the swarms were thinned out. Whew...alhamdulillah~~~


That's it? Well, not exactly. When I got ready to wrap up my 'work', one of migrant workers approached me and said "Kok berani-beraninya sih ke sini, Mbak. Di sini ini sangat berbahaya. Pekerja2 Thailand, Indonesia dan Vietnam itu sering berantem dan terkadang tusuk-tusukan di sini". WHATTTTT???!!! #almost fainted. Ya Allah...thank you for protecting me >,< ~~~

冬瓜茶砖

Source : http://tinyurl.com/3wvk742

Dōngguā cházhuān***. Winter melon rock sugar. And...what the heck is that :D? It's a mixed-simmered-molded-refrigerated winter melon (*beligo, in Bahasa Indonesia) plus brown sugar and black sugar. At first, this brown-blackish block-shaped stuff didn't attract my eyes. But then, one of my friends made a glass of drink out of that stuff. And this picky girl LOVED it :D! If you like to buy drinks at Taiwan's tea stores, you'll almost always find this what so-called dōngguā chá (冬瓜茶). It has a distinctive aroma which definitely can indulge your nose buds. Give it a try or you might want to consider this 冬瓜茶砖 as a gift for your loving ones at home :D

***冬瓜茶砖 in the nearby store. A block costs only NTD35

Halal Card for Muslims in Taiwan

Copy-paste this article below, save it as a document on your smartphone/tablet or simply print it out and you'll survive while living in Taiwan. Trust me :D.

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Halal Card from
NCTU's Prayer Room

你好，我是穆斯林（回教徒），因為我的宗教信印，所以

Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì mùsīlín (huí jiàotú), yīnwèi wǒ de zōngjiào xìn yìn, suǒyǐ :

Hello! I'm a Muslim. Because of my religion :

◆ 我不吃豬肉及任何豬製品，如培根、火腿及含豬油食物，也不吃含血的食物，如豬血糕。

   Wǒ bù chī zhū ròu jí rènhé zhū zhìpǐn, rú péigēn, huǒtuǐ jí hán zhū yóu shíwù, yě bù chī hán xuè de shíwù, rú zhū xiě gāo.

I cannot eat pork and any kind of food ingredients with pork, for example bacon, ham and pork oil.  Besides that, I cannot eat blood-based foods such as pig’s blood cake.

.

◆    我不能吃含酒精的食物及飲料。

     Wǒ bùnéng chī hán jiǔjīng de shíwù jí yǐnliào.

I cannot eat any kind of foods or drinks that contain alcohol.

◆    如果您必須用炒過豬肉的鍋子來炒我的食物，麻煩請您將鍋子清洗乾淨後再炒。

    Rúguǒ nín bìxū yòng chǎoguò zhū ròu de guōzi lái chǎo wǒ de shíwù, máfan qǐng nín jiāng guōzi qīngxǐ gānjìng hòu zài chǎo.

If you have to use the pan that has been used to cook pork, please help me to clean up the pan before cooking (my order).

◆    我不能吃任何非伊斯蘭教屠宰方式的雞、鴨、鵝、牛、羊肉。

     Wǒ bùnéng chī rènhé fēi yīsīlán jiào túzǎi fāngshì de jī, yā, é, niú, yángròu.

I cannot eat any kind of animals' meats (chicken, duck, goose, beef, and mutton) which (animals) have been slaughtered with non-Islamic methods.


credits : Tina Chang for Chinese-English translation

TR-Pass, A Dirt-Poor Student's Savior in Taiwan

I forgot (to be exact) how many times I've been using TR-Pass in a habitual manner, this past few years. Too many times, I supposed XD~~~. Yes, this insanely cheap train ticket "destined" for students under age of 30 in Taiwan has always been my savior. Imagine you must continuously traveling in between cities, -not for leisure activities-, during a specific period of time. Well, it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg, though. But still, it's a pocket drainer. Hence, TR-Pass is such a win win solution for a dirt-poor student who doesn't mind spending hours of hours of their time in a local train, just like me :D. 

As I've ever posted before, Taiwan offers a tantalizing traveling options for students. The what so-called Youth Travel Card can always be a hocuspocus warrant to save your money. However, before can be categorized as an eligible TR-Pass buyer, you must register yourself at the "Information Visitor Center" (IVC) which can be spotted at some major train stations in Taiwan. After filling a form at IVC, you'll get a YTC (in a form of a key chain). Show your YTC, passport and student ID card to the ticket officer (in every train station here) and you'll be able to buy international students edition of TR-Pass (*shown on the image below, first row/above). Too lazy to bring passport and YTC ? Then, just buy a local students edition of TR-Pass (*shown on the image below, second row/below) by merely revealing your student ID card. Don't forget to tell the officer about which type of TR-Pass you want to buy; the 5-day, the 7-day, or the 10-day tickets. They cost NT$599, NT$799, and NT$1099, respectively. Trust me, the price is EXTREMELY CHEAP and REASONABLE. Okay, let me make an avouch comparison. A local train ticket price from Chiayi to Taipei is NT$390-something, thus, return ticket price will be nearly NT$800. Bus ticket is approx. NT$100 cheaper, but I hate to travel by bus. So, well...yeah...it's a personal preference. I usually go in between cities from Chiayi to Zhong Li and then Taipei, sometimes to Hualien and then head back to Taichung or directly to Chiayi, or sometimes to Tainan or Kaohsiung. Just count how much money I must spend if I don't buy TR-Pass @_@~~~. Counting money always makes me dizzy =)).

All in all, with your personally selected TR-Pass, you can travel all around Taiwan by three types of designated trains (*local train, local express train, and chu kuang train [see here for "trains in Taiwan"]) for unlimited times during the validity period of time (5, 7 or 10 days) of your TR-Pass. You can choose direct route by get on until get off on the same train or manipulate your route by changing trains. The second one is undeniably a lot more challenging and less boring. I usually choose this mode :D. So, for example, I want to go to Taipei. I'll get on from Chiayi train station and get off at Taichung train station, continue my journey to Miaoli, then Zhong Li and finally get off in Taipei. Fun isn't it^^? Ergo, have an earthy way of traveling in Taiwan ^^!

Moved

I'm moved. Touched. Seeing my dearest brother standing like that while cheering up his students in one of the school's events, still looks MAGICAL to me *blowing nose. Life is definitely full of mystery. We will never know what will happen in the future. As for my brother's life, it is indeed full of surprise. Graduated, married, worked in one of the syari'a banks and ended up teaching in the nearby SDIT. Who would have ever thought that he will be a father at the age of 23? Who would have ever thought that he will turn out to be a teacher? Three things I MUST learn from him are a DECENT, REALISTIC and FULL OF DEDICATION's figure he's constantly shown. I'm so proud of you, dearest brother...I always do^^.

Finally, I would like to wait and see things await me in the future, as Allah already planned. I would like to stay khusnudzon to Allah for those things :D.

Affectionate

Source : http://www.tychb.gov.tw

B : Papa, selamat hari ayah^^. Love you, Dad*** :*
P : Subhanallah...ternyata orang Taiwan menghargai ayah. Terima kasih, anakku.

^^My father is definitely doesn't know that there's a father's day in Indonesia celebrated every November 12 XD~~~

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Yesterday was father's day in Taiwan. Unlike many other countries that celebrate this day on the third Sunday of June, Taiwan government proclaimed August 8 as the day to honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Why it has to be August 8? Because "father" in Chinese language (爸爸) pronounced as "bàba" which happens to have the same pronunciation as "eight" (八; bā). Hence, every "八八" or "day 8, month 8" (= August 8) people in Taiwan celebrate father's day.

Nonetheless, yesterday, I was kind of "tempted" to text my father and expressed my longing for him :D. Honestly, I become "cheesy"*** (*better be read : "affectionate") after I'm getting closer to Astri. Previously, saying or texting three words as in "I love you" or "I miss you" to my parents, -two most important persons on earth-, still sounds ticklish to my ears. I used to think that it's a very tacky (*norak) way to express my feelings. I'd rather "act" than "selling words". It's always been my nature. There are a lot of times that I couldn't express my feelings through words too. So well, yeah...it just happened to be like that^^. Despite the fact that I was being affectionately raised by my parents, I'm growing up as a girl with unnecessary amount of dignity XD. All in all, I'm getting realized that those kind of "cheesiness" is somehow NECESSARY when it comes to CHERISHING precious people around us. Superfluous dignity must be thrown away. Yeah...alrite then. Let's be more affectionate^^!