Bird Nest Farming

What is this crazy, ugly looking building you may ask?!

Well, it's a life size bird house. It's a three-story concrete house to attract Swiftlet birds. The house is bare on the inside but does have a sound system hooked up. There are speakers located all over the place on the inside, attached to the walls and ceilings. The speakers emit a loud piercing sound of the Swiftlet bird's own calling. The noise attracts the Swiftlets in the area. The birds fly into the house (there's an opening at the back) and they build their nests on or near a speaker inside. Once their nest is built they lay their eggs and raise their baby birds until the babies are old enough to fly away, then they abandon the nest.

Once the nest has been abandoned, people (like my dad or workers) go into the bird house with a flashlight, a ladder, a mirror, and a bucket. You need to look for a nest, then look to see if there is still a baby bird in the nest (hence the use of a mirror), and if there isn't one you take the nest down and collect it. It seems so strange to me but apparently it's a pretty big business in Asia.

Once you've collected your nests (the nests are white in colour) you need to clean them. Once the nests are cleaned you package them together and weigh them (they're sold by weight). A buyer will pay a hefty amount for good quality nests, most of these get shipped to China where restaurants use them to make bird's nest soup.

Matthew and I helped my dad collect some nests that day and I must say that I don't think you could pay me money to eat that soup. I don't care how many Chinese doctors or scientists tell me that it is very "healthy". I've seen these nests before they get cleaned and some of them have literal bird shit in them. But hey, what do I know? I know that I don't make thousands of dollars each month from selling birds nests to China. If you're ever in China and bird's nest soup is on the menu, let me know how it tastes because I couldn't bring myself to have any in Malaysia.

Genting Highlands

While in Malaysia, my mother told me that I just had to visit Genting Highlands, as did some other locals. So, my dad, brother (Cory), Matthew and I decided to go one weekend; it's a couple hours drive from my dad's place. Genting Highlands is a big shopping centre with tons of entertainment and a big casino all located on top of a mountain. You can drive all the way to the top, or you can take a cable car (Skyway) from the base of the mountain. If you decide to drive it will probably take more than an hour from the base, but the cable car takes only 11 minutes one-way and the views are well worth it (plus, you can spend all that saved energy and gas money gambling at the casino instead)!

We spent the whole afternoon at Genting Highlands. Matthew and I checked out the casino; it's not really impressive and it's quite small compared to every other casino I've been to. Although, they have an adoration with electronic games, even roulette is a digital image - maybe I'm just old and like the sound the real ball makes as it bounces around. We also played a few games of bowling and I am so terrible but it was a lot of fun. There is a stage inside the mall where performance artists put on shows. That day, we watched an American girl do a hulahoop show, with fire, too! I was shocked to learn that the artists who use to stage have to rent it and that they don't get paid by the mall, so if no one donates money to that artist, he/she didn't make any money for that performance. Maybe it's just a Malaysia thing...

We took the cable car back down and hopped in our cars to drive home. There was still quite a lot of twisting and turning roads on the way home and I can tell you that it was getting to me. If you looked in the back seat you would have seen me holding on for dear life looking like I was about to throw up at any moment. I don't do well in the back seats of cars nor on twisting roads. I made it home all right but the windows had to stay down the whole way. We didn't go back to Genting Highlands again for the rest of my trip.

River Waterfall

The first weekend here in Malaysia, Amy (my stepmother) decided to show us a nearby waterfall that she used to visit and swim in with her siblings as children. She used to bicycle to this place and relax in the cold water on hot days. The water is so cool because it runs down from the peak of the mountain; it's a very popular place on a hot weekend.

It's too bad I didn't know people went swimming in there or I would have brought my swimsuit and joined them.


After dipping my feet in the refreshing waters and taking some photos, we walked over to the small suspension bridge that crosses the river.

Here is a view from the suspension bridge of people swimming in the river. Some families even made a little fire and cooked food while soaking their feet/legs in the river.

It is an interesting cultural difference to see muslim women in the water with all their clothing on. It's very common over here as there are many muslims in Malaysia, but it isn't such a common sight back home. Actually, when someone goes to the beach wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt and never changes into a swimsuit, that person will generally get a lot of stares as the viewers think "is that person crazy?! It's so hot!" I was mostly curious if it was actually comfortable to be in the water with all those layers on.

We crossed back over the suspension bridge and relaxed in the sun with a cold drink, then we later headed home before all those cars tried to rush out of the park.

Goodbye Taiwan, Hello Malaysia

On the last Saturday before I left Taiwan, I decided to knit some random pouches for each of my co-workers, as well as bake them some chocolate chip cookies. There are always last minute things that need to get done before leaving a place. Finally, once all those errands were done and the packing was done - the apartment was empty, I was ready to leave.






My flight's departure was super early in the morning, so I figured I could get my butt to the airport the night before and perhaps get a good nights sleep in a hotel. I headed to the Erlin bus station and I have never seen it so busy the whole year I was there, so instead, I took a taxi to the Taichung HSR station which is about a 1.5 hour drive by car (the taxi only cost $30 CAD) I walked inside and it was packed like never before. All trains were sold out except for business class on the last two trains of the night. So, I bought a business class ticket for the 10:30pm train, which meant I had to wait the whole day as I arrived at the station before noon. I have no idea why it was so busy that Sunday, as it was just a regular Sunday, not a holiday, and I have travelled on Sundays before and it had never been that crazy. By the time I got to the station in Taoyuan (where the airport is), I was afraid there wouldn't be any transportation to the airport, but luckily there was. I got to the airport at about midnight, so I no longer wished to pay for a hotel for a few hours of sleep, since my check-in time was at 4 a.m., so I tried to sleep on a bench. It was freezing there and as you can imagine I didn't sleep much.

Finally, it was time to board the airplane and say goodbye to Taiwan.












I can't remember much of the flight as I fell asleep as soon as I had buckled myself in. I woke up while they were serving the meal, and fell asleep again once I was done eating. I think the flight was about 5 hours but I mostly remember having a great sleep, so the flight didn't feel that long to me. Malaysia was hot and humid - quite the opposite from Taiwan, but I can tell you it was a nice change as I had been seriously missing the heat. My lovely Matthew was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) waiting for me with a car and driver to take us back to my dad's place, just north in a small city called Bentong.