A Fond Farewell

I’ve really enjoyed my time as a blogger here at Wanderlust and Lipstick.

But alas, the time has come for me to move on.  I returned home to the Chicagoland area from Asia one year ago and have been busy with my new job as a staff writer, managing my travel blog network, and frankly—life itself.   It’s amazing how fast time tends to fly by these days and I feel I must focus my energies on goals here at home.

Taking on new adventures such as learning how to ski!

While I do hope to get back overseas one day soon, the Taiwan chapter of my life has come to an end.  By no means is it forgotten.

I would like to return for a visit in the near future as well as maybe write a book about the two years I spent in the country.  I’m sad to be leaving Bamboo Boulevard behind but I hope the information I’ve shared about Taiwan proves valuable to someone out there.

I want to say thank you to Beth, Lauren, and everyone else at Wanderlust and Lipstick for the chance to get to know and write with so many interesting people. It’s been an honor working with everyone and sharing our love of travel.

I wish everyone the best of luck in their global journeys—present and future.

If you’d like to check out what I’m up to, you can find me blogging at Midwestern Adventures, The Travel Pixie, and Bizarre Foods of the World.

If you want to see what I do for my day job, you can check out The Woodstock Independent.

I’ll sign off with these two great travel quotes:

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou

“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson

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Some of you may already be aware of Travel Supermarket’s Capture the Colour photography contest.  I was recently nominated by fellow travel blogger and friend Matt Gibson over at Matt-Gibson.org.  Thank you, Mr. Gibson!

Here’s how it works.  After you’re nominated, submit a blog post that includes photos for the colors blue, red, white, green, and yellow.  The color should be prominently featured in each image and should include an explanation of where the photo was taken and other information people might want to know.

After this, nominate 5 other bloggers and finish following the contest instructions.

My photos:

White

In Taiwan, it’s traditional for engaged couples to take a ton of wedding photos before the actual wedding day, with the brides-to-be wearing a variety of different dresses. This photo was taken on a hillside of  Cingjing Farm, near Puli, Taiwan, where the happy couple strolled among sheep before settling into different poses for their wedding shots.

Blue

Tao Expeditions, Philippines, hosts amazing island-hopping trips from Palawan to Coron, and vice versa. I had the pleasure of participating in one of their 5 day trips and caught this image while hanging out on the front of our boat with the wonderful sea dog Annie-Mouse (who actually loves to jump into the ocean and swim to the nearest island—she has no fear!).

Green

I came upon this shiny, green, jewel-like creature while walking down a street in Sanxia, Taiwan. During certain times of the year, these large emerald beetles can be found in abundance all over the country.

Red

Though lanterns of this sort are quite common in Taiwan, they’re especially spotted during events such as the Taipei Lantern Festival.  Locals tie prayer cards to the lanterns in hopes their dreams will come true.

Yellow

In Woodstock, Illinois, Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple recently moved into a building that formerly housed a Christian church. Instead of removing the stained glass windows depicting Jesus, the head monk told me he wanted to keep them because of their beauty.

And without further ado, here are my nominations:

Harrison Jones—The Chicagoland Food Blog

Harrison is a personal friend of mine as well as an internet marketing professional and culinary enthusiast. He likes eating strange delicacies such as chicken feet.

Christina Fields—Connecting Coordinates

Christina is a writer and traveler who recently decided to make a brave move to Tennessee.  She writes about meaningful travel and life experiences that connect people.

Justen Tabert—Justentabert.com

Justen is a photographer who has enjoyed exploring places such as Central and South America, India, and South East Asia.  He strives to learn  about the people of each country he visits, capturing the experiences through writing and photography.

Chana Lesser—The Orange Backpack

Chana is a writer and English teacher based in South Korea.  We met while she was living and teaching in Taiwan.  She believes, as do I, that traveling makes a person really come alive.

Keely Herrick—Weekend Duchess

I became a fan of fellow Wanderluster Keely Herrick when she wrote this post on solo travel.  I like her writing style and sense of adventure.

Best of luck to all!

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Over the weekend my friend Harrison (President of The Chicagoland Food Blog) and I ventured on over to the 2012 Chinatown Summer Fair. An annual event, this year’s fair was extra special because it marked the 100th anniversary of Chinatown in Chicago.

The massive crowd, sights, sounds, and smells reminded me of Asia and I was in my glory. Except for one small factor. Good bao was nowhere to be found. I love, love, love baozi and I’ve written about these hot little buns a few places on the web. One would think, in a community full of immigrants from Asia—primarily China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—it wouldn’t be hard to find the tasty little steamed rolls that are practically dietary staples on that side of the planet. But our quest proved exceedingly difficult.

Because of our bao hunt (and pigging out on tea egg, dim sum and bubble tea treasures along the way), we missed the dragon dancers and parade. However, we got to experience the joys of eating dumplings that tasted like dirty socks and Harrison had his first experience with chicken feet. He did not seem to like them but I reminded him his first experience could have been much worse.

We explored bakeries and restaurants and in the midst of the confusing Cantonese and other indecipherable dialects, I heard bits and pieces of Mandarin which got me very excited and sidetracked. I was able to have a few brief spontaneous language exchange sessions.

Note to everyone: Attempting to speak Mandarin in a Mandarin-speaking business in Chicago’s Chinatown will result in one of two things: People will either answer you in English and look at you funny because they don’t understand why a white person with blonde hair is attempting to speak Chinese, or they will become super excited and talk rapidly for like five minutes, wherein if your Chinese skills are basic like mine, you will only be able to understand a small percentage while nodding your head and pretending otherwise.

After all this indulging, still, no bao. Heaps of food and a bottle of plum wine later (with our stomachs near to busting), we stumbled into a place called Lao Shanghai and lo’ and behold we found our sought after treasure on the menu in vegetarian form. Apparently I was a little too excited.

It was a lovely way to top off a day of eating. Before we left, I made sure to buy a bamboo steamer so I could attempt to make my own bao at home and never again have to struggle to find them.

Heading over to Chinatown Chicago?
Be sure to check out these great restaurants:

Saint’s Alp Teahouse (Taiwanese and Hong Kong Style)

Lao Shanghai (Szechuan style)

And of course, be sure to stop in the numerous bakeries and tea shops for some tasty treats.

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