This Taiwan rice is tastier than the Uncle Ben’s

The Japanese held a contest on the best quality rice competition in which 2000 some entries were submitted from the USA, South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan, and 25 prizes were awarded. Of the near 50 entries from Taiwan’s farmers, 4 Taiwanese farmers had won some prizes, of which two were Taiwan’s Amis tribe indigenous farmers, and of these two, one won a GOLD medal, congratulations to Mr. Wang Guo-quan (王國權)!

The TITV (Taiwan Indigenous TV) had a video about these two award-winning rice growing farmers.

And I hope the government of Taiwan will not dump nuclear waste on a mostly indigenous inhabited village of Da-jen (達仁) in Tai-tung county, not only because the location was said by experts to be geologically unfit, but also because we should always think of ways to improve the lives of less privileged people by introducing some sustainable economic but environmental friendly activities that would help them pull out of poverty but still enable them to live at their place, activities such as farming, or aboriginal arts and handicrafts for tourists, etc.

Enticing them with some money to turn their place into a dump site is simply not an ethical solution!

Happy XXX day! and getting around Athens city by taxi

Happy Canada Day! across the Atlantic Ocean.

Happy No-Smoking-in-Public-Place Day starts today in Greece.

See my previous post about how Greeks disobey existing laws, and how the government does not enforce existing laws.

See you in court, European court if necessary:

In September, I am going to take to court any school bus drivers that smoke while on duty, so the school had better enforce its employer’s authority when signing contracts with the school bus drivers.

As a result of the new no smoking in public place law, some people hope that one factor of the possible causes for the forest fires in Greece is removed. Sometimes the fire starts from the un-extinguished cigarette end. But I hope (but doubt) it will help.

Getting around Athens by taxi

And some old but informative news from early May this year about the current taxi-fares in Athens

Taxi fare charges are now 48 cents (from 36 cents) per kilometer. The next increase will be in November, when the rate will rise to 60 cents, and the final hike is due in May 2010, when it will reach 72 cents. The minimum charge for a cab ride, 3.80 euros.

But don’t complain because Athens taxi is among the cheapest I have seen in many cities in the world. And when I do take a taxi in Athens, I always pay the taxi driver 1 Euro more than they ask (a small tips) because they are usually up from very early in the morning like 5 am, it’s a hard job for them and the city’s streets are among the most complicated in the world, the traffic and the air quality are all among the worst in the world. So, I don't want to be stingy.

Occasionally I have to go downtown to get things done, so I have to either take the public transit or take the taxi because if I drive, where am I going to park?

If you call taxi to come to your hotel or come to pick you up at a certain location, the charge is more expensive though. But sometimes you do need to call in advance and pay extra because if you wait until the time you are travelling to call for a taxi, you may find no taxi in your area, and they will tell you to call in the next 10 minutes to check again if there is any taxi available. You willl end up on the phone every 10 to 15 minutes trying to find a taxi, a waste of time and telephone charges!

You can read all about the taxi-related info (once you are on the site, choose topic on the left and click it) but the list of fares are not up to date.

Also nice to know is that a government initiative that also came into effect in May offers half-price tickets on the metro, bus, trolley bus and tram for under-18s and over-65s as well as foreign students visiting from abroad.So your passports should be able to prove your age.

Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden - a trip in the past

I just found some old pictures of my visit to the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh (a site with rich resource for teachers). I remembered that there were a lot to see there and had seen some groups of kids visiting the garden. I took enough pictures and paid a fee to enter a photo competition (the only time I ever tried a photo competition in my life), but after a while I didn’t hear anything from the RBGE organization, so I believe my photo was not good enough to be selected as a winning shot. Nevertheless, here (a slide show) are some of that day’s trip.

The organization has many on-going joint projects with countries in southeast Asia, so maybe some Taiwanese botany professors will be interested to cooperate with them.

I also visited the Edinburgh Castle, a castle built on an extinct volcanic rock that dominates the scenery of the city, if I find some pictures from my castle visit, I will load it some time later.

Visiting the New Acropolis Museum? tickets hard to get!

If you missed the live broadcast of the opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum, you could watch the slide show by the New York Times, and a youtube video explaining what’s inside this museum.

Visiting Details

Hours:

The Museum is open 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. daily, except for Mondays. Last admission is at 7.30 p.m. Please note that galleries are cleared fifteen minutes before closing.

Public Holidays:

The Museum is closed on the following dates: 1 January, 6 January, 25 March, Orthodox Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Whit Monday, 15 August, 28 October, 25 December & 26 December.

Ticketing:

The Acropolis Museum will open to the public, on a restricted basis, on Sunday 21 June 2009. On Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2009 visitors can only enter the museum with an e-ticket – a ticket pre-purchased through the Museum’s website.

On Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2009, other than e-ticketing, there will be no other tickets available for entry. No tickets will be sold at the Museum.

From Wednesday 24 June 2009, visitors will be able to gain admission to the Museum with the purchase of a ticket at the Museum, or the pre purchase of a ticket on the Museum website. (I was told by some people that the e-ticket site is hard to connect to, and sells tickets that are probably a few weeks from now, no tickets are available for the CURRENT visit; and as for the tickets sold on the spot, I suspect there is a huge line-up?). As of Wednesday 24 June 2009, there will be free admission for YPPO cardholders.

From 21 June 2009 to 31 December 2009, the cost of entry for all visitors is 1 euro.

The New Acropolis Museum’s official site does not explain to you what’s the YPPO card holders!

A search of the internet reveals that the YPPO is the Greek Ministry of Culture (Υπουργείου Πολιτισμού http://www.yppo.gr/0/gindex.jsp), and there is no English text on this ministry’s site, but I assume this YPPO card must be an annual membership card, or a sponsors & donors privilege card.

According to the ministry’s website, the minister, Antonis Samaras, studied economics at Amherst College (BA, 1974) and Business Administration at Harvard University (MBA, 1976), perhaps this is why the website has no English due to economic cost-cutting measures? Mr. Samaras speaks English, French and Italian, so he will be able to translate instantly into any of the 3 languages for you upon enquiries? Or, maybe the ministry of culture’s site deals mainly with internal administrative matters, so we outsiders don’t need to know what’s going on! Yes, I think I have found the reason why there is no English on its website now!

Related website: http://www.culture.gr/war/index_en.jsp

The opening ceremony of Athen's New Acropolis Museum

The New Acropolis Museum is scheduled to open at 20:00 Athens time today (in about 30 minutes from now), you can view it live on-line from this ERT’s (Greek national channel) link

http://news.ert.gr/en/23819-neo-mouseio-akropoleos-i-istoria-sto-spiti-tis.htm

after you connect with this site, just scroll down a little bit until you see a TV box.

or http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/default.php?pname=Live_broadcasting&la=2

Good luck with your connection!

Joint Greece - Taiwan Bird Photo Exhibition

This is my own bird photo attempt at a Kavala’s beach last month, I haven't reached the level of an exhibitor yet.

I went to a bird photo exhibition (a slide show of my visit) last night at Antonis Tritsis Park.

The photo exhibition was made possible through the joint cooperation of the Hellenic Ornithological Society (Ελληνική Ορνιθολογική Εταιρέια www.ornithologiki.gr) and the Taipei Representative Office in Greece.

The exhibition will run until 2009 06 28.

While still available, visitors can pick-up a free metal bird bookmarker, and some DVD and magazines about tourism in Taiwan on top of all the other information about bird watching in Greece.

To get there, you will exit from Attiki Odos at exit number 7, the road is called Odos Dimocratias, as soon as getting off the highway, at the light make a left turn, then following on the Odos Dimocratias for quite some time a Kotsovolos store is visible on your left hand side, but you will make a right turn there where the Kotsovolos is located, and this street is called Spyrou Moustakli, follow this street until the end of it, then park your car and walk inside the park for some distance until you pass a cafeteria, the building is about another 500? meters after the cafeteria, but just pay attention to the signs that direct you to the exhibition building.

I got slightly lost at a near-by street while driving, but I asked to find my way there, so don’t hesitate to explore!

Related info:

Birding in Taiwan http://www.birdingintaiwan.com/index.htm

The photographer Mr. K.K. Kuo’s gallery http://www.birdingintaiwan.org/gallery/Kuo%20K.K/index.htm

Some tropical fruits and their nutrients

Tropical fruits slide show: http://www.medicinenet.com/tropical_fruit_pictures_slideshow/article.htm

In the link above, click the “next” sign under the text to the right side of the page to see the explanations and to change image to the next fruit.

Some of these fruits are not found in the supermarkets here, but it is still nice to learn what they are.

The star fruits that I find occasionally at the mega AB Vasilopoulos supermarket are often too ripe, looked yellowish and soft instead of greenish and crunchy (the way it should look before consumption). They should be consumed before turning yellowish. I guess people don’t know the fruit and are not so eager to try new things, so it usually becomes a “decoration” item in the supermarket’s fruit shelf and turns yellow. A pure loss for the retailers who try to introduce the fruit. Watch out for the caution that said people with kidney stone problem should stay away from this fruit.

When I was little, I was living in a company-owned house with a mango tree (among many other fruit trees we had, like banana and grapefruit trees etc.), I remember our mango tree is quite tall about 2 floors high. The mango variety I used to eat in Taiwan looks slimmer, smaller, and with green colored skin, but tastier than the ones I find here. It is not yet so popular for the Greeks to eat mangos, so the supermarkets don’t buy them in large quantities. Nevertheless, it is more well-known than the star fruit.

The mangos here are either imported from Africa or South America but never from Taiwan (although TW has mangos too! and more than just mangos…with fruit names and the TW Ag Exporter info you may need).

The mangos available in supermarket here are often nice looking on the surface, but the fruit fiber and the “meat” inside have already turned partially black. I really don’t know why it is so, maybe there is preservative?

Aside from the above slide show to learn the tropic fruit names and nutrients, I always wonder why the bananas sold here are so expensive!?

1.40 Euro to 1.99 Euro per Kg! (experts in marketing & int’l trade are welcome to leave their comments, is it the transportation cost? the middle men? or the tariff?)

When I was little my backyard was full of banana trees, and people used to come to collect them before the typhoon would hit us. I would eat my bananas only if I would get some favor afterwards. Now I have to buy them expensive and from only this choice or that (although once in a while I find local bananas but they are kind of small).

This is my dream: one day I am going to try growing my own banana again and be self-sufficient and sell the rest really really cheap to my little community.

I miss my own banana tree! And I miss my childhood home. I’d like to visit it again, but only when Taiwan stays as Taiwan.

Other interesting links:

The encyclopedia of spices http://www.theepicentre.com/index.html

How to make sticky rice (Zong-zi) step by step with the Travels with Sandy (was discovered accidentally):

http://travelswithsandy.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/recipe-how-to-make-zongzi-part-1/

http://travelswithsandy.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/recipe-how-to-make-zongzi-part-2/

Norway’s T & T

The first T is talent, yes!

He is such a rybak!  Don’t stop here, read on to see what I mean.

A late but very sincere congratulations to Norway, a country that is not a member of the EU (so you know a bit of the geopolitics), who is also this year’s undisputable winner of the Eurovision.  Everybody likes the Fairytale (listen to the winning performance), and this young fellow, Alexander Rybak (see his brief biography) has got talent!

The lyrics of the winning song:

Years ago when I was younger
I kinda’ liked a girl I knew.
She was mine, and we were sweethearts,
That was then, but then it’s true

I’m in love with a fairytale
Even though it hurts.
‘Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind;
I’m already cursed

Every day we started fighting,
Every night we fell in love.
No one else could make me sadder,
But no one else could lift me high above

I don’t know what I was doing
But suddenly we fell apart.
Nowadays I cannot find her.
But when I do we’ll get a brand new start

I’m in love with a fairytale
Even though it hurts.
Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind;
I’m already cursed

She’s a fairytale
Yeah
Even though it hurts.
Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind;
I’m already cursed

The second T is traitor, oh no!

Born 99 years earlier than Rybak is a Norwegian called Quisling, and he is a traitor whose name became a word in the dictionary equivalent to a traitor.  You can enter yourself the word “quisling” on the Cambridge dictionary and the Urban dictionary to see the definitions.

A word Norwegians are not very proud of having given to the world: it derives from Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), a Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. He established his name as a synonym for "traitor", someone who collaborates with the invaders of his country, especially by serving in a puppet government.   It is, arguably, the worst and most grave insult a Norwegian can throw at another.  That guy, he is such a quisling! 

So, maybe soon, “he is such a rybak!” will mean “he is such a guy with music talent!” 

And maybe soon too, “Ma-yon-gi-ou (馬傭求) will be the synonym for “Taiwanese traitor” or “Chinese kiss ass” in the dictionary.

By the way, you must know Taiwanese pronunciation of the Chinese phrases “附傭” and “懇求” to understand the joke above.  It's a joke, but it's a SERIOUS warning!

Related reading in Chinese: 

台灣好多奎斯林 

◎ 李濠仲 

一九四○年四月十五日，英國泰晤士報以「到處都是奎斯林」（Quislings everywhere）作社論標題。日後字典對Quisling的解釋是「如傀儡一般，協助敵人占領自己國家的叛徒」，簡稱賣國賊。 

二戰期間，德國納粹在挪威扶植傀儡政府，奎斯林正是主動臣服其下的挪威政客，他的名字Quisling因此成為英文裡「賣國賊」的通稱，不僅自己遺臭萬年，也成為挪威人心中的痛。

continue to read the entire article in Chinese on the Libertytimes.

European Parliamentary Election coming up this weekend

Read this news and get to know the EU election this weekend, for Greece it is on the 7th.

Taiwan Explorers Wanted and a chance to win 1 million TWD

Taiwan Tourism Bureau Contest is from June 1 to 30, 2009.

Just check it out here for a brief description, and detailed rules followed.

Curious about the TWD (New Taiwan Dollar’s) conversion?

Just check it out on the right-side of this blog, select all currencies and scroll down to “T” to click Taiwan.

The exchange rate is approximately:

1 TWD = 0.0219163 EUR, or 1 EUR = 45.6282 TWD.