You are currently browsing posts tagged with Taiwan

A Visit to Xian Feng Ling Sun Moon Cave

§ February 1st, 2012 § Filed under Afghanistan § Tagged , , , § No Comments

For tourists traveling to Taiwan the man made Xian Feng Ling Sun Moon Cave could be an interesting place to visit for adventurous souls. The 52m long cave is noted for its complicated web of chambers, dead end side turnings and shortcuts. The cave was carved into a small rock on the side of Mt. Wandou overlooking the tiny hamlet of Taziwan in the southwestern corner of Nantou County in central Taiwan by a retired local Chen Ching Chuan over a period of ten years between 1969 and 1979. This place is a claustrophobic’s nightmare! You have to bend to get through the entry arch and though there are places in the tunnel, where you can stand erectly on your feet but for a larger part of the path, you need to crawl. After entering the cave, you step into the ‘Living Room’ on the left. This is one of the larger chambers with rough chairs and a table hewn out of the rock. The narrow passages connecting the various fanciful chambers are narrow, low enclosed spaces. An arch to the right leads to the largest chamber the ‘Conference Room’. Further, inside traveling through the narrow tunnels you will come to the ‘Cave of the Sun’ and the ‘Cave of the Moon’. You could be greeted by bats and standing rainwater in these grandiosely christened chambers. The son of the creator of this wonder lives in a solitary house next to the cave, is willing to take any visitor on a guided tour of the cave. If you happen to visit Taiwan include the Xiang Feng Ling Sun Moon Cave in your itinerary, you will definitely enjoy it.

Weird Dining: Diners gnaw away rodent dishes in Taiwan!

§ January 27th, 2012 § Filed under Afghanistan § Tagged , , , , , , , § No Comments

I remember my dad dangling fried snacks in the rat-trap every night and showing off his prized catch to excited kids before throwing them on the roadside for the crows to savor them. Had he known that rodent dishes were in demand, he would have made a fortune by now! If you have a taste for weird and exotic food and are bored with the regular meaty fare you get in the eateries, then you must try the exotic rat dishes served in one of the two Taiwan village restaurants. The Ho-la diner and Jiashing restaurant together dish out about 18 kg of rat fare every day. While Ho-la serves ten varieties of rat platters including rat soup and battered, black pepper-dipped, deep-fried rat, Jiashing serves 12 rat platters, focusing on one similar to the more common kung-pao chicken. Rat meat became popular among people who could not afford poultry or meat way back in 1940’s and the flavor seems to have caught on with fervor. Wait, don’t smell a rat yet; the rats that are hunted grow up on crops from the surrounding fields and are not from the sewerage and drains. So, you can safely conclude that were hale and hearty before they reached your platter! The place is so much in demand at the meal times that you have to book table hours in advance if you don’t want to wait. Looks like humans want to gnaw everything that creeps, crawls or walks!