The Wandering Wisconsinite

Category: Asia

  • Malaysia: Batu Caves and Kuala Lumpur

    Malaysia: Batu Caves and Kuala Lumpur

    Long pause sorry, while this trip has been great, I’d be remiss if I were to pretend it’s been all sunshine. I’ve been hit with a wall of sadness and exhaustion lately, I’ve never been more tired in my life. I think the past year has finally caught up to me, when I no longer have busy work to keep me from thinking about it all. I’m mourning and I don’t know how to process it. I’ve cried most days between amazing meals and excursions, made awkward eye contact with drivers in the mirror as I fought back tears, and full cried while staring out the plane windows. I don’t know how long this will last or what will finally snap me out of it, but hopefully soon it will plateau. My anxiety in some ways has also started to return, I think there’s an impending doom of what waits for me. The spring ended with me feeling an overwhelming sense of underappreciation and that I no longer belong where I am, in many ways, so I think I’m starting to dread the return, worried that the feeling was right. But that’s for another day, until then I’ll be catching up on this trip. I’ll be covering our first days in Malaysia today, then finish Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and South Korea in a few posts. I hope to get them all scheduled out over the next few days, as I return next Wednesday to the US and won’t have time to write for a bit once back. After that though stay tuned, I have some plans for what comes next.

    Starting the trip with relaxation

    And now back to the trip, our original plan was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur in the evening, but when we had to reschedule our flights due to the typhoon, our only option was a redeye from Taipei that arrived at 5am.

    Since we couldn’t get into the hotel, we ended up finding a day spa to kill time at, which ended up being an excellent way to spend our first day. We went to Billion Onsen, about ten minutes from our hotel. It was a much needed relaxing day. I went to the sauna, got a massage, and snacked on many many mini donburi bowls. Every table and seat had a QR code you scanned and then they brought everything to wherever you were. I think this is where the wall of exhaustion really started to emerge, as after my fifth donburi bowl snack, I curled up on a recliner in the relaxation room, where I slept curled up in a ball for four hours. I only woke up because I was hungry for another snack.

    After the spa day, we went back and checked into our hotel, before getting a light dinner and calling it an early night.

    Batu Caves

    The following day, my former colleague from Queen Mary’s Malaysia office came to pick us up at our hotel. She took a few days off to spend time. One thing I have been grateful for one this trip, is how many work friends I’ve been able to meet up with and make new non-work related memories, having gotten to meet other friends earlier in the trip in Belfast, London, and Taipei.

    My friend first took us to Batu Caves, where we had a light breakfast and then ascended the 272 steps up to the Subramanian Swamy temple. It’s the location where the Hindu festival of Thaipusam is celebrated annually. A procession starts at a temple in Kuala Lumpur and they then walk out to the caves.

    I visited here in 2014, since then they’ve painted the stairs differently. I was also able to visit the Dark Cave, which hosts bats and one of the rarest spiders in the world. It’s been closed since the pandemic apparently.

    Chinatown and Central Market

    After the caves, we drove back into Kuala Lumpur, where we went to Chinatown for lunch at Old China Cafe. The setup of these restaurants typically had the owners home upstairs. My friend said they now sell antique furniture upstairs at this one.

    After lunch we walked around and saw the murals in Kwai Chai Hong, which focus on how the neighborhood used to be and the people who once called it home.

    BookXcess was our next stop, a bookstore chain with unique layouts. The one we visited used to be an old cinema, you climbed up and down labyrinths of stairs and steps finding new crevices everywhere. I found a lot of new reads for my list as well as had fun just climbing around on what was essentially an adult playground.

    Finally, we ended our day at the Central Market, originally a wet market built in the 1800s, it was transformed into a hub for galleries and stores focusing on Malaysian culture, arts, and crafts. We walked around for a while taking in artwork and visiting grocery shops where I bought way too many spices.

    It was a good end to the day and afterwards my friend dropped us off for the evening.

    Come back soon to hear about our daytrip to Malacca the following day and more of our time in KL.

  • Day Trips from Taipei – Part 2

    Day Trips from Taipei – Part 2

    Beitou

    Taiwan has a lot of wonderful wellness options which is another thing I wish I had taken advantage of more when living here the first time. I’m trying to get better this trip about not beating up the old version of myself though, and to stop writing “I wish” sentences here. I heard something the other day, and unfortunately I didn’t catch the source, but it was about how the past no longer exists, and to lament and beat up the old version of you, is to punish someone who is no longer here. Which it’s true, so much of my life I’ve held myself back based on old beliefs and a version of me that disappeared years ago.

    Anyways the point of all this is wellness and self care, something I’ve slowly been getting better at thanks to the encouragement of friends.

    Throughout the week we were in Taipei, we went a few times to get massages, there were about 35 late night reflexology places within a two block radius of our hotel, so we had plenty of options between feet only or full body. The average cost depending on what we chose was 300-1200 NTD (about $9-$37.) Years of stress and tightness have slowly been leaving my body, but we’ve got a long way to go.

    Wednesday we took advantage of another big thing in Taiwan, hot springs. There’s a wide variety in Taiwan, public pools, semi private hotel pools, hot springs where you just hang out in the river, and the more private option we went with this time, a hotel.

    I bought us a package on Klook, at a hotel in Beitou, which was about $26 a person and included 3 hours in a private room, with a tub, and an afternoon tea afterwards in their cafe. Beitou is known for its high concentration of sulfur hot springs and it’s only a 20 minute subway ride from Taipei. If you visit, check out the hot spring museum, which goes into local history.

    We spent the afternoon soaking in the tub, napping hard in the bed, and then enjoying our cake and some ice cream before heading back to Taipei. That nap was the hardest sleep I’ve taken in a long time, so I will be repeating this experience the next time I’m back.

    Maokong

    On Thursday, we met my old coworker from when I taught English at the Maokong Gondola. We took it up to the top of the mountain for a meal full of San Bei (three cup) squid, pork buns, shrimp, and many more dishes. San Bei dishes are one of my favorites, they’re cooked using one cup each of soy sauce, sesame oil, and cooking wine. They usually include basil and ginger as well.

    After lunch, we walked around the area for a bit and then got shaved ice, which had brown sugar and your choice of toppings. You could get unlimited ice if you needed a top up as you ate.

    We had planned to do more that day, but the heat was pretty bad so the three of us took the gondola back down and called it a day.

    Wrapping up the trip

    Our trip got altered a little, as we were supposed to fly to Singapore on Saturday, but a typhoon cancelled our flight and extended our time in Taiwan by a few days. Some of it was spent just staying dry in our hotel as the typhoon rained down, but towards the end we got out and walked around Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

    The time here went way too fast overall, but I hope to be back again soon. In some ways this trip was really positive, I felt so proud of how far I’ve come since living here. But in other ways I miss the naive hope the old me had. The past year, it’s felt like every time I’ve started to feel hopeful about anything and have my old excitement come back, things changed abruptly and it was all gone in a flash. I’m trying to not let all the loss and hurt that came from this year shape me, but some days I worry I’m descending into a cynicism from which I won’t return. This trip has been pulling me out of that in a lot of ways though, reminding me of the beauty in the world. I’ve also spoken to so many people on this trip, who have brought timely insight to my life and shaped what I’ll be focusing more on this coming fall when I’m home.

    I’m so glad I made it back here in the midst of a very reflective year.

    Next, we spend a few days in Kuala Lumpur with an old friend of mine!

  • Day Trips from Taipei – Part 1

    Day Trips from Taipei – Part 1

    When I taught in Taiwan, I worked six days a week, so I always had to go to popular daytrips on Saturday afternoons or Sundays. I was always jealous of my friends who were studying and had more freetime to enjoy the beauty of these areas without the crowds.

    This time around, things are different though, so I get to experience a different pace walking through some of my favorite places.

    Jiufen

    About 50 minutes from Taipei by bus, Jiufen is an old gold-mining town, turned tourist destination. It was at it’s height during the Japanese annexation, so many of the hotels here are still the original Japanese style. When I visited before, I never got to really take in the old-street alley vendors as well as I would have liked, as the narrow passage was packed on the weekends. This time we went on a Monday morning, when many shops were just starting to open. We had breakfast at a restaurant overlooking the sea, slowly eating our dumplings, pastries, tea, and more. It was a lovely slow start to the day, with absolutely beautiful weather too!

    Houtong Cat Village

    After Jiufen, we took a short bus ride to Ruifang station and brief train transfer to Houtong.

    Once another mining town, this one for coal, the area declined in the 1990s.

    Around 2008, a cat lover started a project to rescue abandoned cats in the area. Since then it’s become a center for cat lovers with art projects popping up.

    Come back tomorrow to see our other day trips from Taipei!

  • Settling in to Taiwan

    Long pause before getting into the Taiwan details sorry! Needed time to settle in to where I’m currently staying, a cat treehouse, but that’s for another post.

    Our first few days in Taiwan were spent settling into a routine and getting over jet lag. Mornings we’d wake up get breakfast, do a light activity, then settle in for afternoon naps or work sessions to avoid the heat. In the evenings we’d take meetings or head out for long walks and dinner.

    There is a lot I miss about summers in Taiwan, the humidity not being one of them. But I miss the rhythm, the social evenings walking around when the sun has set. In general too, I miss being able to walk around by myself at 1 or 2 in the morning when I can’t sleep, without fear. Just being able to walk with my thoughts, stop by 7-11 for a snack, see the morning market vendors setting up their stalls, watch the sunrise. There’s something magical in how the light bathes the buildings early in the morning, deep reds, I can’t describe it properly. There was a lot I wish I had appreciated more when I was here before, but that I’m taking stock of now.

    A few highlights from our first couple sleepy days:

    Hot Pot

    One of my favorite meals is going to all you can eat hot pot. Somehow time slows down, as you focus on the act of throwing ingredients in the pot, mixing sauces, having long catch ups with friends.

    Taipei 101

    I love coming here for the great views of my old neighborhood in Xinyi, but it’s a pretty impressive building architecturally as well.

    Once the world’s tallest building from 2004-2009, Taipei 101 also was offered the record for tallest and largest green building in 2011 for its energy efficiency and environmental design.

    The building was designed to be flexible in earthquakes and typhoon winds. It has a tuned mass damper that is suspended on the 88th-92nd floors. It swings on a pendulum to counteract the buildings movements in the wind. The damper is the largest in the world, and is so popular Sanrio was contracted to make the mascot “Damper Baby” which is pictured below in front of the damper.

    My old neighborhood was about a 10 minute walk from Taipei 101. A lots changed in the area since I moved, some good, but a lot bittersweet to see. The building pictured below is now directly across the street from Taipei 101. When I lived in the area, it was a massive community garden. I always thought it was so cool, that something like that existed right across from one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. But alas, when the Tamsui-Xinyi MRT line expanded with a Taipei 101 station, this area began to grow.

    Daan Park

    Daan Park is home to egrets, ducks, turtles, and more. There’s also public facilities for skating, exercise, and public performances. When I came back in 2019, I’d often go for long walks here on my way home from classes. I had a new found appreciation for nature at that point and loved animal watching by the ponds.

    The land pre-park has a pretty intricate history spanning from the Japanese annexation of Taiwan through the gentrification projects of the 90s. I definitely wouldn’t be able to do it justice, but if you have an interest in history or city planning would recommend looking into it.

    Din Tai Fung

    Our final stop of the sleepy weekend was dinner at Din Tai Fung. They were originally founded as a cooking oil retailer in the 50s, before pivoting into xiaolongbao and opening locations globally. The original location in Xinyi is now only takeout only, so we weren’t able to visit. We ended up going to their new Xinsheng branch nearby.

    It was a good start easing into things here. A weekend filled with nostalgia, good food, and pretty views. Oh how I missed it here though.

    Next up, we’ll go on day trip for pretty views and cats.

  • The Re(re(re(return) to Taiwan

    Hell of a title I know, but I think it’s important to stress how many times I’ve come and gone from this place.

    If you had told me growing up that Taiwan would feature heavily in my life, my answer would have been….where? As a small town Wisconsin kid, I didn’t really think about the world outside my doorstep, mostly for lack of the time to do so.

    But somehow this island has seen me at so many turning points in my life and it seemed only fitting that I ended up here again this year, for the first time since 2019. So now here are all the versions that Taiwan has seen of me and I’ll be honest, this post gets pretty personal (and long), so if you’re here for the more happy travel related posts, come back tomorrow, and no absolutely no hard feelings if you don’t read this.

    High School Karmen

    For those of you that don’t know, I went to a Lutheran boarding school. While most of my time there was not my best memories, it did bring me here. My assigned roommate, who’s from Taiwan, ended up being one of my closest friends. The summer between our freshman and sophomore years, she invited me home for a few weeks to visit.

    It was the first time I had been outside of North America, up to that point I had only done a few family trips to Florida or around the east coast. It was also the first time I’d travel without my family.

    In a lot of ways, I wish I had taken more of an advantage of this trip. That I had learned more before I went and spent my time better. I was a dumb teenager still, spending a lot of the time at the movies or Starbucks. But, we can only work with what we have at the time and I think you all would find it hard to believe, but back in Elementary and High School, I barely spoke in certain areas of my life. My anxiety made it so that unless you were a close friend, I worried so much about making mistakes and upsetting those around me, that I just spent most of my day micromanaging my actions. After this trip, things slowly started to change for me. I started reading more about the world when I could, I made studying abroad a goal of mine for college, I wanted more than what was at my doorstep in Wisconsin. And for that I am grateful.

    Not many photos of the first trip survived over the years, but here’s one where I’m pointing at a bunch of scooters outside a Yoshinoya for some reason.

    The Post-College Finding Herself Karmen

    The next time I returned to Taiwan, was after college and in a lot of ways, it was probably the worst time in one’s life to move countries, or maybe the best, who’s really to say. I was struggling to find work in my field, I had been through one of the worst experiences in my life months earlier, I was drowning in a lot of ways. The first months there were rough. I’ll admit I worked way too hard, I partied even harder, I cried a lot. I felt guilty all the time that I was doing the wrong thing with my life.

    Things started to change little by little though. I met my crowd, took Mandarin classes, I traveled around Taiwan, and took weekend trips to other countries. I was still working way too much most days, back then I was always driven by the feeling that I wasn’t doing enough to deserve being happy. I’d love to say that’s gone away completely, but sadly it hasn’t.

    I still question whether I should have stayed longer, but part of me was ready for something else. All I know is that the version of me that left was made better by my time working here. I still am friends with most of the people I met back then though we’ve all spread out location wise over the years. And from my memories and the friends I made, I felt like for the first time in my life, it was okay to want something different then what we’re told to want.

    Here is me, being me, I am painfully unable to take “normal” photos when left to my own devices.

    The Biding Her Time Karmen

    After finishing my taught classes in grad school, I had a few months until my practicum would begin, so I returned to Taipei for 3 months, enrolling in a Mandarin summer course at NTU. I was exhausted when I arrived. My ADHD was still not diagnosed and looking back I struggled more than I admitted when it came to my coursework in Monterey. I used to joke about how I never needed sleep, spending my nights instead at the 24-hour Denny’s typing up papers over bottomless coffee and Moon-over-my-Hammys.

    But it was good to be back, I had missed it so much. The hot summer days were spent taking my classes. And the evenings, I spent catching up with friends, walking around parks and nightmarkets. I did one weekend in Seoul meeting up with some grad school friends. It was nice to be out traveling again, but at the end it was time to come back to the US, start my career, and live a “real life.”

    Me enjoying two of my hobbies, eating and pointing at things for no reason.

    The East Coast Professional Karmen

    Four years later, I would return this time on a recruitment trip. I had wrapped up my time in Friday Harbor, Washington and moved into the higher ed sector at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. I was so excited to be back in Taiwan, but at the same time, I was so stressed the entire trip as I was barely sleeping, trying to keep up on inboxes and deal with student issues with a 12 hour time difference. The trip went so fast, it was bittersweet and nostalgic. I remember feeling so torn at the airport, resenting the fact that I was focusing so much on my career. But I was the Assistant Director of a department, wasn’t that what I was supposed to want?

    Look at that stressed out professional thinking she “made it”.

    2026 Karmen – Official Title TBD

    Since 2019, I feel like nothing is the same.

    The pandemic shut down my department about 7 months after the recruitment trip to Taiwan. I got furloughed and came back to Wisconsin for the summer, only to get laid off completely when the fall came. I felt like such a failure, having worked so hard, only to be thrown out the door.

    The past few years since have been one loss after another. I realize coming back to Wisconsin, while not my plan, was needed. I was able to spend time with a few people and pets before they passed away, I’ve been able to reconnect and strengthen some friendships, plus I’ve been able to mend some parts of me that needed it.

    I know I’ll move eventually, but in these past few years, I’ve come to understand just how fragile everything is. I’ve sat with multiple people in hospice, hearing their regrets. They wished they’d traveled more, they wished they had taken more chances, cared less about their careers, told people how they really felt. And it’s gotten me thinking so much about my own trajectory.

    For the longest time, it didn’t matter how much I did with my life, how cool of the adventure I went on, how hard I worked, how much I learned. I’ve continued to label myself the same – lazy, too silly, too much, unorganized, unloveable, and any other version of “not good enough.” But something broke in me the past few months and it feels like the last ounce of me that cared in that way, is gone.

    Walking around Taiwan this time around, there was an odd sense of clarity for the first time in my life. I was speaking Mandarin without over thinking, I haven’t felt my usual anxiety or had a panic attack since June. I think for the first time in my life, I’m just sick of keeping my personality small, of worrying about fitting in, of fearing that I’m “too much.” Because the truth is, I’ve never fit in…and maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe instead of making myself small for the world, it’s about time the world catches up.

    There’s a lot to think about still and where I’ll go from here, but I think coming back this time around, I realized, it’s time I stop worrying about what I “should” be doing and start focusing on what I want, because life is too short.

  • The Journey Begins – 16 hours in Beijing

    The Journey Begins – 16 hours in Beijing

    I’m coming in down to the wire on my “one a day” goal in this time zone, but made it! After finishing up a week in London, where the majority of my meetings and events were sadly cancelled due to the heat advisory, we headed off to Taipei, with a 16 hour layover in Beijing.

    I was excited as this was my first time to Beijing and my second time to China, having done the 5-day visa for Shenzhen a few years ago when I was visiting a friend in Hong Kong.

    Entering and getting around China

    We were able to enter without a visa, as China has a 240-hour visa free program currently running for certain ports of entry. You have to have a ticket to a third country, so our layover to Taipei was eligible.

    Since China has gone mostly cash free, I set up both WeChat and Alipay with my AMEX card, but only ended up using Alipay. I found it really simple as you just scanned your QR at stores and restaurants. We were also able to order rides through Didi, the major ride-share company through the app. Vending machines around the city had a QR code that you scanned, which took you to a webpage where you selected the items you wanted.

    Speed run of the sites

    Unfortunately our flight got in later in the afternoon, so we weren’t able to get tickets to the Forbidden City or some of the other main sites. We ended up deciding to hire a guide on Viator who picked us up in a minivan.

    Tea Ceremony

    Our guide first took us to a tea shop, where we had a tasting of several Oolong, Jasmine, and other teas. They went through traditional ways of brewing and tasting the tea, as well as how best to store and reuse leaves.

    The Olympic Grounds

    After the tea shop, we were driven over to where the 2008 summer Olympics were held. We didn’t spend much time there, only walked around the outside of a few buildings. Some of the arenas were repurposed for the 2022 Winter Olympics and some like the aquatic center are open for public use. The outdoor plazas get used often by tai chi classes, dance practices, and more.

    Hutongs

    Our guide took us to the Hutongs near Houhai. These are alleyway neighborhoods built during the dynastic period. The name is Mongolian origin meaning “well water.” The homes in these neighborhoods focus around a shared courtyard and as well as a shared bathroom. Many of these neighborhoods were demolished in the 1980s-2010s, but the one we visited is historically protected today. We randomly got pulled into a game of hacky sack in the courtyard near the bell tower on the way out.

    Houhai （后海）

    Literally meaning back or rear lake in Mandarin, this is part of Shichahai, three lakes in northern Beijing. On the quieter side of the lake there’s a mix of people swimming, boating, cooking out on small BBQs. On the more rambunctious side there’s karaoke bars, food stalls, and a lot of nightlife.

    Qianmen

    From Houhai they took us on a drive past the Forbidden City and Tiananmen, with the traffic and it being evening, I unfortunately didn’t get any good photos of either. Then we made our last stop in Qianmen, a residential street full of restaurants and shopping, as well as a few cultural venues like the Chinese opera house in the first picture. We ended our tour with Zhangjianmian, noodles served with a fermented soybean sauce. Then it was back to our hotel and bed, for a short sleep before heading back to the airport.

    Next up, Taiwan! Be prepared though the next post will be a personal reflection – after which I’ll get into the activities we did!