1. Transportation to and from the embarkation/disembarkation port: We flew from San Francisco to London, than to Copenhagen, a total of 20 hours with a few hours delay. We got to Copenhagen at 10:30 and got to the hotel at 11:20 (we need to take atrain at the airport to central station than walk about 10 minutes to the hotel), we wanted to see Copenhagen a little bit before going on to the cruise. Our checkin time at the cruise was from 1:00pm to 4:00pm the next day, since the hotel check out time was 11:00, so we checked out the hotel and rented lockers to store our luggages and then went on to tour the city. Pick up our luggages at the hotel, rode the train to the station closest to the port and walked 25 minutes to the pier where the cruise was - this was another experience since it rained during our walk to the pier, you can imagine us hauling our luggages and walking in heavy rain trying to find the cruise, but we maganed to get there in one piece :-)
Coming back is pretty much the same route except we land at Washington D.C. instead, this was the worst since there were so many people waiting to go through custom, it took 45 minutes to pass immigration, going to our connecting flight was even worse, the gate was about 30 minutes walk from the immigration check point, we had to stop half way to rest before continuing. We only checked in one luggage but it is the one that's missing when we arrived at San Francisco airport, it turned out to be misplaced/delayed due to unspecified reason but was promised to be sent to us in 24 hours. We did get the luggage the next day at home, it has been opened with cutter and stuff inside were all messed up - not sure if this the act of Homeland Security checking suspicious luggages (if this is the case then they are doing a lousy job as the zipper pulls instead of the lock were cut, although in useable form, it is totally disformed - bad act) or people in Washington D.C. airport trying to steal from it.
2. The cruise ship and its services: Emerald Princess is one of the largest cruise ships in the world, it can carry 3100 passengers and 1300 crews, 15 decks, and started service in 2007, so it's a fairly modern and complete cruise ship. There are over 10 cafes/restaurants, a casino, several bars, a theater (house 1500 people), an art gallery, a gym, a spa, 3 pools,... There are 7 different types of cabins - Interior, double, obstructed view double, double with view, double with balcony, mini-suite with balcony, suite with balcony, and family suite with view, each with difference price tag. We originally book the obstructed view double (the window is partially obstructed by a life boat) but the one we have has additional traffic as it is close to a stair, so we changed to interior double which is $100 cheaper, but we did not get cabin assigned until the day before we are to leave San Jose, turned out they overbooked and had to upgrade us to obstructed view double, so we actually pay less but got a better obstructed view double (this particular one is not close to any stair). the view turned out to be ok as we can view the outside fairly well through the top half of the window. There are two buffet cafes where had most of our meals, we did have several meals in two of the sit down restaurants but they do not necessarily provide better food than the buffet, 3 of the other resuaurants charges additional fee (between $20 to @30) to dine there, also we need to pay for bottle water, soft drink, beer, wine, and liquor. They also charge Internet access, almost $1 per minute, the thing is that charging starts right after you login to the system regardless if you are accessing the Internet or not, since it was slow (satellite based) and most of time it is waiting, I tried to check-in our return flight the night before and spent 8 minutes without sucess and was charged $14, was very unhappy about that but could do nothing. There were various onboard entertainments, from musicals, dance, movie, work shops, to art exhibition, there were also programs designed for kids so the parents can enjoy without them around, it is possible that you don't have to leave the ship at all and still have a lot to do or not to do - pure relax.
Our cabin was about 170 sq ft with toilet, sink, shower, queen bed, a couple of chairs, a small table, closet, safe, and writing table - pretty much like a small motel room.
3. Land excursion: Aside from the entertainments provided on the ship, most people will take land excursion once docked at port of call. There are three approaches to touring on land: (1) Book through the cruise ship - The cruise ship advertise before and during the cruise, this is usually more expensive but they do provide some advantages, you get to board the tour bus right at the port of call, no need to take other transportation to get to the tour bus, you get priority when getting off the ship, the down side is that it is more expensive. (2) Through local independent service - this is usually booked at the time of travel arrangement, it is usually less expensive but you need to do some home work (to see which service is more reliable,...) and (3) Self-guided tour - most tour services rush through vista points(barely enough time to take photos, you won't have time to really enjoy it if you like it the place) and take you shopping (weather you want it or not) where they get commissions (this seems to be true for all travel agencies), so a self-guided tour will usually give you more flexibility, you only visit the places you want and stay as long as you like, this, however, means you need to do a lot of research before and during the trip, walking, taking bus, train, metro, ferry are all part of the self-guided tour, probably not good if traveling with the very old or the very young. We self guided all our tours except the one in St. Petersburg, Russia is the only country in our tour requires visa, it is very inconvenient (and probably unsafe) to travel there on your own. We got to see more, experience more, and enjoy more on self-guided tours - sometimes more adventurous.
Anita and I both agree that this will likely be our one and only cruise trip (we think because we can only go on shore where the cruise dock, and this greatly restricted how much time you can spend on shore and being able to tour, for instance, during our port of call at Warnemunde Germany, the excursion to Berlin is 3 hours train ride one way, 4 hours Berlin city tour and another 3 hour train ride back) unless we run into another good deal. The cruise cost is $1100 per person for us, excluding excursion ($380 per person for St. Petersburg excursion) and airfare($1200 airfare per person).
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Passport Usage
Leaving USA and entering Taiwan:
1. Fill out passport information(online or at the counter) - Enter ROC passport(USA passport info may also be needed depending on carriers) info at Airline used(i.e. China Airlines, Eva Airlines), this information is necessary when entering Taiwan with ROC passport to gain citizen status and unlimited length of stay as well.
2. Present USA passport at ticket counter to check in
3. Pass through US security check point with USA passport and boarding pass
4. Board plane with USA passport, if necessary, and boarding pass
4. Enter custom check point in Taiwan with ROC passport
Leaving Taiwan and entering USA:
1. Present ROC passport at the ticket counter to check in, USA passport may be needed to show USA entrance eligibility
1. Present ROC AND USA passports at the custom check point (to leave Taiwan as well as to get exit stamp on the USA passport)
2. Go to the special counter to get entrance stamp for the USA passport
3. Enter US custom with USA passport
1. Fill out passport information(online or at the counter) - Enter ROC passport(USA passport info may also be needed depending on carriers) info at Airline used(i.e. China Airlines, Eva Airlines), this information is necessary when entering Taiwan with ROC passport to gain citizen status and unlimited length of stay as well.
2. Present USA passport at ticket counter to check in
3. Pass through US security check point with USA passport and boarding pass
4. Board plane with USA passport, if necessary, and boarding pass
4. Enter custom check point in Taiwan with ROC passport
Leaving Taiwan and entering USA:
1. Present ROC passport at the ticket counter to check in, USA passport may be needed to show USA entrance eligibility
1. Present ROC AND USA passports at the custom check point (to leave Taiwan as well as to get exit stamp on the USA passport)
2. Go to the special counter to get entrance stamp for the USA passport
3. Enter US custom with USA passport
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
餃子餡做法
Visited 誠品書局東湖店 this afternoon. Took bus 284, the path instruction advise to get off at 明湖國小 but after getting off and walked around I discovered that the 康寧路三段 stop is right in front of the bookstore, oh well, next time. Found a book about preparing all kinds of 餡, but the one that is more fundamental and crucial to all 餡 is the basic 餡 preparation - you can say it's the mother of all 餡, I was going to buy the book but after flipping through it I decided I on;y need the first few pages so I attempted memorizing them as much as possible, this is what I remembered:
1. All 餡 has 絞豬肉, usually 600克(~1.2 pound)
2. Chop 絞豬肉 a few more times
3. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 絞豬肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
4. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
5. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
<白菜, 韭菜, 韭黃>
1. Cut to small pieces
2. Sprinkle salt and mix them in a bowl
3. Let it sit for one hour
4. Squeeze and remove water
5. Let it sit for one hour in the refrigerator
<高麗菜>
1. Cut to mid size
2. Broil water
3. 燙高麗菜至半熟
4. Soak in cold water
5. Let dry
6. Chop to small pieces
7. Squeeze to remove water
<雞肉餡>
1. Fine chop 600克(~1.2 pound) 雞肉
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
<蝦肉餡> needs editing
1. Prepare peeled shrimp - ????????
1. Cut 16 mid-size 蝦 each to 4 or 5 pieces
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
1. All 餡 has 絞豬肉, usually 600克(~1.2 pound)
2. Chop 絞豬肉 a few more times
3. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 絞豬肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
4. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
5. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
<白菜, 韭菜, 韭黃>
1. Cut to small pieces
2. Sprinkle salt and mix them in a bowl
3. Let it sit for one hour
4. Squeeze and remove water
5. Let it sit for one hour in the refrigerator
<高麗菜>
1. Cut to mid size
2. Broil water
3. 燙高麗菜至半熟
4. Soak in cold water
5. Let dry
6. Chop to small pieces
7. Squeeze to remove water
<雞肉餡>
1. Fine chop 600克(~1.2 pound) 雞肉
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
<蝦肉餡> needs editing
1. Prepare peeled shrimp - ????????
1. Cut 16 mid-size 蝦 each to 4 or 5 pieces
2. Add some water, sesame oil, cooking oil(amount is inverse proportion to the fat content of the 雞肉), salt, white pepper, soy sauce.
3. Put the above ingredients in a bowl and circularly stir them until pasty
4. Leave it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
First local health care visit
Got up at 6:00 this morning, didn't sleep much through the night though - possibly the thought of going to have my heart examined kept me awake :-)
Got on Bus 617 - this one is supposed to go into 三總 campus and stop at the door, or at least I had this impression that it would - it reached 三總 outer station after about 11 stops, but before it turned into its campus, it moved on and left the area, I hurriedly got off at the next stop(Neihu District Administration Building) and , it took me a while to figure out which bus(across the street) to take me back to the previous stop, by then it was 7:45(15 minutes later), and my registration number had ran up to 96(it would have been below 50 if made it the first time), but luckily I was able to line up for the morning session although my turn (#57) appeared to be close to the end of the session. the session won't start until 9:00 am so I went back home to have a light breakfast, in order not to miss my turn, I went back to the hospital around 9:30. I checked the number that is currently being serviced and decided to take a walk (in fact, I took at least half dozen such walk later on) to kill some time. To my surprise, the hospital was full of people/patients no matter which section of the hospital I strolled by, maybe this is normal in Taiwan but the easiness for people to see a doctor may not be a good thing because people would stop taking care of themselves seriously thinking doctors/hospitals are readily available whenever needed/or not. Seeing so many people on crutches, walking canes, walkers, and wheelchairs made me think about my own fate - I'd rather live a short but healthy life than long and miserable one.
The morning session doctor had 80 patients registered, he has to finish all within 3 hours (maybe 30 extension), you can see the amount of attention he can provide to each patient is very limited.
I went to a electrocardiogram before seeing the doctor, I told the doctor about my irregular heartbeat and rapid heartbeat encounters but he brushed it off and saying it is not abnormal and he couldn't do anything for me - no prescription, no additional tests,... and simply let me go, well it is for better and for worse - I can simply stop worrying about problems with my heart but still need to take care of it by myself. This will likely be my last stop here.
Got on Bus 617 - this one is supposed to go into 三總 campus and stop at the door, or at least I had this impression that it would - it reached 三總 outer station after about 11 stops, but before it turned into its campus, it moved on and left the area, I hurriedly got off at the next stop(Neihu District Administration Building) and , it took me a while to figure out which bus(across the street) to take me back to the previous stop, by then it was 7:45(15 minutes later), and my registration number had ran up to 96(it would have been below 50 if made it the first time), but luckily I was able to line up for the morning session although my turn (#57) appeared to be close to the end of the session. the session won't start until 9:00 am so I went back home to have a light breakfast, in order not to miss my turn, I went back to the hospital around 9:30. I checked the number that is currently being serviced and decided to take a walk (in fact, I took at least half dozen such walk later on) to kill some time. To my surprise, the hospital was full of people/patients no matter which section of the hospital I strolled by, maybe this is normal in Taiwan but the easiness for people to see a doctor may not be a good thing because people would stop taking care of themselves seriously thinking doctors/hospitals are readily available whenever needed/or not. Seeing so many people on crutches, walking canes, walkers, and wheelchairs made me think about my own fate - I'd rather live a short but healthy life than long and miserable one.
The morning session doctor had 80 patients registered, he has to finish all within 3 hours (maybe 30 extension), you can see the amount of attention he can provide to each patient is very limited.
I went to a electrocardiogram before seeing the doctor, I told the doctor about my irregular heartbeat and rapid heartbeat encounters but he brushed it off and saying it is not abnormal and he couldn't do anything for me - no prescription, no additional tests,... and simply let me go, well it is for better and for worse - I can simply stop worrying about problems with my heart but still need to take care of it by myself. This will likely be my last stop here.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
National Health Insurance Application
After nearly 10 days of agonizing, I finally got my Health Insurance IC card - I can see a doctor without paying full price now. Here are the stuff I went through:
- Arriving Taiwan at 10:00 pm 5/8/2009
- Went to Neihu District Administration office to submit health insurance addition application. It on;y took 2 minutes wait for bus(630) and 5 minutes ride to get to Neihu administration building, was called right after I got the number. getting a copy of the household registration paper took a while but the process completed in 10 minute, but they said because they are in "停檔" period from 5/12 to 5/20, my information won't be entered into the system until the 20th, meaning I am not officially qualified to see a doctor under the National Health Insurance policy - I need to personally go to the Health Insurance Bureau on the 20th to get the IC card to be qualified,.. sigh.....
- Called the Administration office to confirm that the Health Insurance Bureau have my information. Took the 630 bus and got off at 仁愛中山路口 and walked 10 minutes to National Health Insurance Bureau Taipei office, took only 2 minutes to process the application, but took 15 minutes to get the IC card - but it is well worth the waiting - time was 10:30 am. Walked to 228 Memorial Park, found out that the National Taiwan Museum is open free to the public the whole month of May, on exhibition were "Deep Sea Wonders", "Native Taiwainese tribes", and a few regulars. Spent one and half hour there - could have been loger but the air conditioning was too cold for me, had to get out before I cought a cold. Walked around the blocks for a while and had lunch at Burger Kings - Warper meal as usual, cost NT $139. Browsed at "天龍 bookstore" but didn't buy anything. Took MRT at "臺大醫院站" and got off at "圓山站", took Bus 21 instead of Bus Red 2 to come back - 21 appeared to be faster probably due to fewer customers - the driver had to asked me where I was getting off because I was the only person left after driving into Neihu.
- Arriving Taiwan at 10:00 pm 5/8/2009
- Went to Neihu District Administration office to submit health insurance addition application. It on;y took 2 minutes wait for bus(630) and 5 minutes ride to get to Neihu administration building, was called right after I got the number. getting a copy of the household registration paper took a while but the process completed in 10 minute, but they said because they are in "停檔" period from 5/12 to 5/20, my information won't be entered into the system until the 20th, meaning I am not officially qualified to see a doctor under the National Health Insurance policy - I need to personally go to the Health Insurance Bureau on the 20th to get the IC card to be qualified,.. sigh.....
- Called the Administration office to confirm that the Health Insurance Bureau have my information. Took the 630 bus and got off at 仁愛中山路口 and walked 10 minutes to National Health Insurance Bureau Taipei office, took only 2 minutes to process the application, but took 15 minutes to get the IC card - but it is well worth the waiting - time was 10:30 am. Walked to 228 Memorial Park, found out that the National Taiwan Museum is open free to the public the whole month of May, on exhibition were "Deep Sea Wonders", "Native Taiwainese tribes", and a few regulars. Spent one and half hour there - could have been loger but the air conditioning was too cold for me, had to get out before I cought a cold. Walked around the blocks for a while and had lunch at Burger Kings - Warper meal as usual, cost NT $139. Browsed at "天龍 bookstore" but didn't buy anything. Took MRT at "臺大醫院站" and got off at "圓山站", took Bus 21 instead of Bus Red 2 to come back - 21 appeared to be faster probably due to fewer customers - the driver had to asked me where I was getting off because I was the only person left after driving into Neihu.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)