Getting Ready to Learn Mandarin | Eps. Life Begin at Taiwan

Well, continue from last post, Eps. Best Timing to Learn lets talk about what to prepare when you come to Taiwan for study. That's the best decision ever in my life to choose Taiwan, and believe me you'll love this place so much. Let's start!

Convenient transportation here! In Taiwan only 2 cities have MRT, Taipei & Kaoshiung. If you stay in Taipei, literally nothing to worry about transportation, buses everywhere, MRT station everywhere. What you need is purchase an Easy Card 悠遊卡. This is your transportation card for MRT, bus, even to pay in 7-11. You can purchase it in any MRT station or 7-11, or if you are a student basically the student ID card is include Easy Card so you can use that function.

綠二公車

As I remember the price is NTD 100 and you can top up in MRT station or any convenience store. If you are student you can registered your ID card to student ID card so you get special price for every trip. In Taiwan special price is available for elder & student, love this so much.

For example, for 1 bus trip is NTD 15 as regular price but NTD 12 for student and NTD 8 for elder.

Okay, how to use Easy Card? 
For MRT 捷運 tap it when you enter & exit the station. Price is calculate based on how far your trip is. Remember, tap it only when you want to enter the station and leave station, for any interchange no need to tap.

MRT Wanfang Hospital exit, feels home everytime here :')

Anyway, for MRT if you forget your Easy Card, you can purchase one time token at the station. It looks like picture below.

For bus 公車, they don't calculate based on station but based on trip. Basically they separate their journey into 2, so you can found the plat above driver write it 上 or 下. When you take the bus is 上 and you take off also in the same you only need to pay 1 times. 上 means you pay when you get on, and 下 means you pay when you get off.

For your information, bus in Taiwan will not stop at the station if you don't raise up your hand, and at the same time if you want to get off you need to press the button before that station, that's called 下車鈴 as picture below.

Be careful don't pressed the sexual harassment bell as picture below, hehehehe

Don't forget to download the app so you know when the bus will arrived, many app for this feature. And actually most of the station have digital board for this feature. The thing I love the most.

SIM Card 電話卡 for your phone. Same as the other country there are prepaid card or monthly paid. I suggest you to get prepaid card and top up for the balance you need also for internet access. Why? Because you'll not use as much as monthly paid package have and you still need to paid, but in the same time some provider will offer you to get the phone in beautiful price once you contract for monthly paid.

It's very easy to find some provider service store everywhere. Bring your passport & ARC.

Okay, I forgot to tell you about your resident permit. So, you'll enter Taiwan in the beginning by single entry visa then before the visa expired you need to apply ARC Alien Resident Card 居留證. This ARC will be use as your permit to stay in Taiwan. Where to apply? Immigration centre based on where you live.

Taiwan is a country that talk about recycle everywhere, so you can see mostly people bring their water bottle with them even when order a coffee in cafe they using their own bottle. It's also can safe your money cause drinking fountain is everywhere even in MRT station. So you only need to prepare your bottle anytime anywhere.

And also your spoon, chopstick, or even the stainless straw. Cause basically canteen in school not prepare dinner set for you.

Also, you need to bring umbrella, as a UV protection when summer and rain protect when the season is change. Since Taiwan weather is hard to predict.

As I said before, Taiwan is a country that talk recycle everywhere, so to litter your household waste, you need to buy the required plastic bag for your trash, it's different from city to city. Because you need to pay for that plastic bag, so doing recycle can help you to reduce this expenses. Cause recycle item no need to use this plastic.

But make sure you need to wash your recycle item before through it out.

In each community area, the rubbish truck will come in its time.

Also, one thing you need to remember is to have your recycle shopping bag everytime in your bag, cause single use plastic bag is need to pay.

Well, this is something you need to know in the beginning when you arrived at Taiwan. If you still have question and not really sure about my explanation, kindly leave comment down below :)

World of 奶茶 | Eps. Milk Tea from Around The World

Hi all, wish you stay safe & be wise during this quarantine period. 

On my previous post I write about what is Corona or Covid-19, if you haven't read it or you still not sure the history or knowledge about this virus, go check it out through this link. And if you have some knowledge or story about it, kindly share also in comment section on that post, maybe you give help to others :) 

Anyway on this 2020 that already passed almost 3 months, I still don't have any trip, yes you're right I not yet start any trip this year, hopefully the situation is getting better and we can explore again. 

But, we still can day-dream about traveling, yeay! 

This time I would like to write about 奶茶 nai cha from around the world! Yes, I am a tea lover, especially milk tea. Nai cha or milk tea or teh susu or teh tarik, what ever you called it, I know you understand what I mean.

Did you know the founder of nai cha is Taiwan? Yes, you hear it right, nai cha is found in Taiwan. The drink that nowadays booming around the world. 

I love tea instead of coffee, and I think I start to love nai cha more when I'm in Taiwan. Cause you literally can found it anywhere in Taiwan with different kind and type of nai cha. In Taiwan there are 2 type of nai cha :

• 奶茶 - milk tea or teh tarik which mix of tea, creamer, and sugar 
• 鮮奶茶 - fresh milk tea which mix of tea, fresh milk, and sugar 

The biggest different is about the ingredients, creamer or fresh milk, which make the taste different. Creamer will make it more soft & silky while fresh milk is more light. Personally I choose fresh milk tea due to healthy concern but somehow when I want it to be more legit & sweet I will choose milk tea. 

Well, this time I will share about nai cha from around the world I've ever tried. And for Taiwan part, cause too many kind of nai cha I tried, so in this post I only write I love the most and maybe we can have 1 post about Taiwan nai cha, deal? Leave your comment about it. 

I will give score for each nai cha, score is based on : 

• Taste - how it taste good or not 
• Sweetness - usually I request half sugar, I prefer not too sweet, so I will measure based on how it sweetness suit with customer request
• Fresh - how that glass of nai cha ingredients is fresh or not  
• Price - worth with the price or not 

Full score of each is 5, let's start!

春水堂 - 珍珠奶茶

The first nai cha brand in Taiwan is 春水堂, you should try it when you are in Taiwan. Their bubble milk tea is come with big size and you can request for sweetness & ice level. Bubble milk tea is their No.1 so you should try it first before the other menu. 

I lost my picture so get it from google

Taste : 4 - not a fan of boba so for me the boba is too much 

Sweetness : 5 - fit with customer request 

Fresh : 5 

Price : 3 - NTD 160 for 1 big cold cup, little bit expensive, otherwise they have beautiful place to sit in 

早餐店 - 大冰奶

Literally you can order this in every breakfast restaurant in Taiwan, they all have 大冰奶 which is stands for 大杯冰奶茶 big cup of cold milk tea. I always in love with this. It was my weekend breakfast must order, why only weekend cause it's not healthy, I keep remind my self :( But it's good! 

Took it from google, so it's what I talk about, that bottle is liquid creamer and you will get your na cha in the cup as show beside the bottle 

Taste : 5 - silky and creamy

Sweetness : 3 - usually their tea already added sugar so you can't choose 

Fresh : 3 - of course not, cause they use liquid creamer that have preservative and not healthy 

Price : 5 - NTD 20 for big cup 

Move to outside the nai cha founder island. 

Kuching - Teh C 

Teh C or three layer tea can be found in Kuching, Malaysia anywhere in local restaurant. On the photo is my breakfast during my trip and ordering noodle with Teh C. So Teh C is mix of tea, evaporate milk, and palm sugar. 

 

Taste : 5 - silky and creamy

Sweetness : 4 - cause the sweetness come from palm sugar so if you ask them not to sweet they will reduce the palm sugar but for normal one I can accept the sweetness, not too sweet 

Fresh : 3 - evaporate milk inside

Price : 5 - RM 2

Singapore - Teh 

If you are in Singapore and order for tea, they will give you tea with condensed milk, which is milk tea. So if you want only tea, you can order tea O. Make sure you know this before goes to Singapore. Teh is my must order breakfast in Singapore, love it so much, its mix of tea, sugar, and condensed milk. 

Teh with kaya toast is perfect always

Taste : 5 - silky 

Sweetness : 3 - not all resto can be choose non sugar, sometimes too sweet 

Fresh : 3 - condensed milk inside

Price : 5 - not too expensive but I forgot how much is this 

Hongkong - Yuan Yang Milk Tea 鴛鴦奶茶

As I said in the beginning I'm not a coffee lover, but I can accept this yuan yang nai cha. Mix of coffee, tea, creamer, sugar. 

Again, I take pic from google

Taste : 5 - light

Sweetness : 4

Fresh : 4 

Price : 5 

Mongolian - Milk Tea 

Different with other milk tea, Mongolian traditional milk tea come with salty taste. So in Mongolia milk is richer than water and this is the mix of tea, fresh milk, and salt. 

Mongolia salt milk tea with their topping

Personally I can't accept it, but I like the sweet version one which use sugar than salt. And if you like it you can buy this package when in Mongolia. 

It has salt & sweet version

Give the score for sweet one ya.

Taste : 5 - light

Sweetness : 5 - perfect, not too sweet

Fresh : 3 - due it's sachet one, I think not fresh lah ya 

Price : 5 - not too expensive but I forgot how much is this 

For Indonesia part, now my favorite is Old Chang Kee brown sugar milk tea which taste like 大冰奶 and Onezo assam milk tea which the only milk tea in Indonesia that taste like Taiwan milk tea. 

Ok, I think, I need to have review about milk tea consistently, how do you think? Or next post we share about milk tea sachet unboxing? Or milk tea in Indonesia?

Tell me what your favorite you want to share to us to be try? :) 

What we need to know about Corona - COVID 19

2020, rainy, flood, corona

Tiba - tiba kemarin aku realize ini 2020 udah jalan bulan ke-3 dan aku belum travelling kemana - mana sama sekali. 2020 aku di awali dengan kebanjiran, kalo kalian baca di postingan sebelumnya, aku ada cerita sekilas gimana aku memulai 2020, kalau belum bisa klik disini, hehehehe, anyway aku cuman mo share tentang 2020 yang lagi gak "kondusif" ini, ya at least sampai detik ini kita masih belum bisa bebas kemana - mana karena lagi wabah Corona gitu kan.

Ngomong - ngomong Corona, aku tuh lumayan rajin pantengin berita ini, ya mungkin karena aku suka baca berita Taiwan juga, dan Taiwan itu bersebelahan dengan China which is pertama kali membludaknya wabah Corona.

Dimana pertama kali virus Corona muncul?
Katanya di 華南海鮮市場 yaitu pasar yang menjual berbagai jenis seafood dan binatang - binatang yang dibeli untuk dimasak atau apa kali ya yang ada di Wu Han 武漢. Konon disana dijual dari kelelawar sampai burung merak 孔雀 yang harga selangit, beritanya bisa dibaca di link ini. Well, selang beberapa saat ternyata ada berita lagi kalau asal muasal yang nemuin Corona bukan org China, tapi bule mana gitu dan virus awalnya di daerah barat bukan di Wuhan, yang ini aku lupa link beritanya yang mana.

Siapa yang membuka virus Corona pertama?
Beberapa saat setelah Corona ramai di berita, nama 李文亮 muncul. Konon katanya dia adalah dokter pertama yang nge-share tentang virus ini, tapi waktu itu dia sempet mau di tangkap polisi karena katanya nyebarin hoax, dan eh ternyata beneran virus yang dia bilang itu, dia sendiri kena Corona dan meninggal di usia 34 tahun. Berita lengkapnya boleh baca di link ini.

Apa sebenarnya Corona itu?
Mungkin kalo denger mandarinnya akan lebih paham 武漢肺炎 jadi dia itu virus yang menyerang paru - paru bisa ditularkan kalo virus itu masuk ke tubuh kita. Nah masuknya gimana ke tubuh kita bisa lewat "lobang" di badan kita. Kayak lewat mata, lewat hidung, kena ludah penderita. Intinya dimana ada celah tuh virus bisa masuk ke tubuh kita ya kita bisa jadi terserang.

Gimana ciri - ciri penderita Corona?
Jadi karena ini virus masih baru banget awalnya sempet simpang siur kan ya ciri - ciri penderita gimana. Nah aku ada nonton berita yang jelasin gimana caranya para tenaga medis bisa check kita tuh terinfeksi Corona apa gak. Jadi belum ada alat canggih yang otomatis bisa dipakai untuk check virus ini, tapiiii dia itu di check bisanya dari sel - sel apalah yang kecil banget sekecil kayak sel DNA, habis dipecah sel itu sekecil yang diperlukan nanti akan dilakukan test dan keluar sejumlah data, dari data itu baru ditentukan kena Corona apa gak. Nentuin dari data --> positive Corona apa gak, masih manual tenaga manusia karena belum ada alatnya, makanya kenapa di awal - awal pas di Wuhan banyak yang missed karena tenaga medisnya jumlah segitu aja, tapi pasien yang nge-test membludak makanya human error-nya mencapai 70%.

Di Indo aman Corona?

Waktu awal - awal Corona heboh, di Indo masih gak ada case Corona. Tapi aku ada baca berita juga kenapa di Indo bisa gak ada case Corona sama sekali, konon katanya awal - awalnya banyak negara yang belum mampu men-detect Corona, kayak yang aku jelasin di atas kalau untuk test Corona tuh gak semudah itu dan waktu itu Indo ada diminta untuk kirimin sample ke negara lain yang udah ada alatnya dan Indo kirim 60 sampel saja. Huuuu. Jadi apakah bener di Indo beneran 0 case, gak tau juga, karena masalahnya belum bisa ke detect saat itu. Sama kasusnya kayak di Filipina katanya. 

Nah sekarang udah ada beberapa case Corona di Indo dan katanya WHO udah menyediakan alat test Corona bagi negara member WHO termasuk Indo. 

Perlu pakai masker?

Jadi sebenarnya masker itu dipakai untuk yang sakit aja kalau sehat gak usah. Dan maskernya itu dipakai yang medical grade yang warna ijo muda dan beneran grade medical ya. Kenapa? Karena biar ada efek saring udaranya kalo gak ya sama aja. 

Untung banget pas sebelum kasus Corona aku tuh baru beli masker 2 dus walaupun yang 1 yang charcoal tapi masih ada 1 dus yang bisa kepake karena kemarin aku sempet gak fit juga. 

Nah kalo kalian ga ada masker dan butuh, di Indo kayaknya udah dibuka beli di Kimia Farma & ACE Hardware tapi dibatasin per orang cuman bisa beli 2 kalo gak salah. 

Jangan ngeluh dulu, sistem penjualan gini kerja sama sama pemerintah juga, di luar negeri juga udah diberlakukan kayak gini, bahkan di Taiwan ada jadwal beli nya sesuai nomor KTP. Nah loh.

Emang mindset tentang kesehatan di Indo masih harus ditingkatkan, gak kebayang kalo di Indo Corona udah meluas bisa lost control. Karena kalo di luar negeri masyarakatnya udah ada sense of health itu sendiri, bisa di atur dengan himbauan dan mereka self-service sendiri tapi kalo di Indo belum ada, masih minim pengetahuan masyarakat tentang hal - hal kesehatan seperti makan gak boleh bareng - bareng, pakai obat mata bareng - bareng. 

Di Korut aku baca ada mentri yang baru balik dari luar negeri dan lagi di karantina 14 hari eh dia kabur ke pemandian, langsung tembak mati. 

Area yang di blockir dimana aja?

Wuhan yang pasti, arena China dan sekitarnya, Korea Selatan juga udah di zona merah, hari ini aku baca Itali, Iran. 

Gimana cara mencegah?

Yang pasti kalau fit lebih gak gampang terinfeksi. Jadi jaga kondisi tubuh dengan vitamin, makan yang bergizi dan istirahat cukup. 

Anyway ada yang kalian harus tau yaitu Super Corona. Gak tau pernah denger apa gak, tapi ada istilah ini. Jadi ini istilah buat orang yang terinfeksi Corona tapi gak ada gejalanya karena imun dia kuat. Orang yang kena Super Corona, gak akan sakit atau nunjukin gejala Corona tapi bisa sekaligus menyebarkan Corona yang ada di tubuhnya ke 10 orang. WAW! 

Ada 1 case di Taiwan, jadi si ibu - ibu terinfeksi corona lalu ditelusuri, tapi dia gak pernah ke luar negeri gak berhubungan sama orang - orang luar juga, eh ternyata dia ketuleran suaminya, jadi suaminya itu kena Corona tapi karena sehat jadi Corona-nya gak ada gejala dan pas di test di dalam tubuhnya Corona-nya udah mati. Even dia gak tau dia kena dan dia udah sembuh.

Sampai saat ini ada 69 case Corona di Indonesia, so tetep jaga kesehatan, minum vitamin dan kalo gak penting - penting amat stop dulu traveling or ke tempat keramaian, stay safe, gengs!

Kemarin aku dapat kiriman ini dari WVI semoga bisa berguna dan jadi informasi juga buat yang butuh. :)