Taiwan research trip June 2013

If you are a tea lover, you will know that Taiwan is also famous for its tea. There are very expensive tea   for sale in speciality shops. And there is also Taiwan Bubble Tea! I love Taiwan bubble tea - and here, you will find at least one shop selling bubble tea in every block! There are so many varieties - tea with milk, tea with milk with jelly, green tea, etc. If you can think of any combination, they can make it up!

Cost is around NZD 2 - NZD 3.75 (NT 40 - NT 65) per large cup

Mango, green tea with aloe vera

Milk tea with bubble and red beans

Dinner -
Stinking tofu steamboat
Rice, assorted seafood (mussels, prawn, fish cake etc.), tofu, duck blood, pig blood, vegetables, rice noodles
NZD 5 (NT 100)

They even have a facebook page!
Third mom's stinking tofu steamboat

Stinking tofu steamboat

Taiwan research trip June 2013 - Weekend off

Had the weekend off. With strong recommendations from Taiwan colleagues, I decided to avoid the heat (it's 34 deg C today!), and went shopping in the Taipei MRT Station Underground Mall. It is a huge 2/ 3 -level underground mall that spans about 2 MRT stations (about 4 blocks). Bought some gifts for Hannah, and some other friends and colleagues back in NZ. Unfortunately, it is meant to be a surprise, thus, I cannot reveal what I bought! :) I will post another pic of the presents when I am back in NZ.

Lunch -
Formosa Chang set lunch
Rice, pork chop, vegetables, picked vegetables, egg
Cost NZD 3.75 (NT 75)

Formosa Chang set lunch

Scenes in the underground mall -
people watching people dancing to a video game

Ever on-going underground mall

 Dinner -
BBQ beef noodle soup
Cost NZD 4.75 (NT 95)
I am trying to pluck up enough courage to eat the duck blood rice/ noodle! Smells weird!

BBQ beef noodle soup

Mystery gifts! :)

Taiwan research trip June 2013 - RNA failure!

It had been a frustrating three days in the lab! I was trying to extract the RNA from the coral tissue since I was back in Taipei. However, every time I tested the integrity of the sample RNA (after a whole day's work on extraction!), it failed. The results were that the RNA had degraded! After three long, frustrating days to troubleshoot what went wrong, we came to the conclusion - it was the method which we used to remove the coral tissue that degraded the RNA! As a result, all the samples which I had done in Kenting (which I used the same coral tissue removal method) could not be used to analyse the heat shock protein (hsp) in the coral RNA... Well.. that sucks!

I was worried that this might happen, thus, I had decided that I need another physiological marker for coral stress indicator - the photosynthetic yield from the DivingPAM. The data from the DivingPAM looked fine (keeping fingers crossed) so far (I only finished half the data analyses). However, in terms of Experiment 1, the failure to be able to run qPCR on the coral RNA hsp meant that I would not have any molecular bioindicator for coral stress :(

Not the end of the World (keep telling myself that). I still have results. Now, just have to move on to do other stuffs - microbe DNA extraction, HPLC etc. Next, I will have to ask around to find a sure-proof way of coral tissue removal in the field to ensure the integrity of RNA.

I guess that's what experiments are about!... RNA!  >=(

I splurged on dinner to make myself feel better...
Dinner -
Beef noodle soup, side-dishes (no idea what they were!...recommendation from the shop)
Cost NZD 6 (NT 120)

Beef noodle soup

Side dishes

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Had dinner with Shan-Hua. We had a great talk about our research, school, politics, family etc. I bought her dinner for all the help she gave me all these time.

Dinner
Rice, chicken, vegetables, egg, sausgaes, tofu, vegetables etc
Cost NZD 12.35 (NT 247)

Dinner with Shan-Hua

Taiwan research trip June 2013 - Back in Taipei

Arrived safety in Taipei with the liquid nitrogen :) I had lunch on the train and it was a bit expensive, but I was hungry from all the carrying!

Lunch -
Train lunch box
Rice, tomato sauce chicken, carrot, tofu, vegetables
Cost NZD 6 (NT 120)

Train lunch box

Had dinner with one of my colleagues (Yi-Lung) in one of the noodle store near the lab.

Dinner -
Thick sauce noodle
Cost NZD 3 (NT 60)

Thick sauce noodle

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Finished my experiment in NMMBA, and will be heading back to Taipei lab to start the molecular work tomorrow. I was busy packing up the tanks and instruments yesterday, and did not have time to post. I went to this restaurant for lunch yesterday. It must be a tourist spot, because the beef noodle (cheapest on the menu) cost NT125 a bowl! And there is a picture of the famous movie director, Ang Lee with the owner of the restaurant on the wall.The restaurant was opened by 4 sisters - and it became a sensation in Taiwan. The way they served beef noodles makes you feel like you are in a restaurant which is a combination of McDonalds and Subway. There is a counter you order your food, picked the side-dishes, give them a table number, and you will be served your beef noodles shortly. Not cheap, and according to the locals, not very nice as well (compared to the other beef noodles around the place). Well, I need to try it at least once.

The name of the restaurant directly translated from Mandarin is called "Taiwan Cow". However, the name of this place is called "Taiwan New", which is really clever because the word "New" has the same pronunciation as "Cow" in Mandarin.  

Lunch -

BBQ beef noodle soup

Cost NZD 6.25 (NT 125)

BBQ beef noodle soup

As for lunch today, went to the school canteen with my colleagues. Simple, cheap and nice lunch.

Lunch -
Rice with stirred fried mutton
Rice, mutton fried in satay sauce, vegetables, bean sprout
Cost NZD 3 (NT 60)

Rice with stirred fired mutton

Also it came with pig's blood soup...

Pig's blood soup

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Lunch -

Fried noodles

Noodles, tofu, liver, mussels, beef and vegetables

Cost NZD 3 (NT 60)

Fried noodles

Dinner -
Packed dinner box
Rice, pork chop, sausage, egg, bamboo shoot, vegetables
Cost NZD 2.75 (NT 55)

Packed dinner box

Short note on the experiment - it seemed that maybe my experiment (which originally was intended for 9 days) may just end tomorrow! The coral nubbins in the treatment tanks were all completely bleached, and some of them were already dead. I think most of the corals would be dead by tomorrow! And I might just do the last bit of molecular work on the last few alive ones.

One of the "victims"

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Today was a slightly busy day, not for the experiments, but for other matters - went diving again at the inflow of the nuclear plant, had lunch meeting with Dr. Fan, and went for a brief tour of the aquarium.

I went diving again at the nuclear plant inflow point. The lab's research assistants were there to secure the underwater monitoring cameras, and I was just there to look for more coral colony samples. The plan was to go to the outflow point after this. However, the weather wasn't cooperating, and I had to rush to get a couple of heaters for my experiment because two of them broke.

Maxima clam

Nudibranch

Wall full of sun coral (Tubastrea sp.)

Back from diving, and off to lunch meeting with Dr. Fan. We talked a bit about everything - personal life, research, future collaboration etc. After lunch, Dr. Fan spoke to the in-charge, and seek permission for me to take a brief tour of the aquarium. The highlight of the aquarium is a baby whale shark, and two begula whales.

Lunch
Beef noodle soup
Cost Free

Beef noodle soup

Did not bring the SONY alpha 55 with me on this trip. Therefore, most of the photos for the aquarium turned out either out of focus or too bright... sorry.

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Breakfast -

Chinese/ Taiwanese omelette

Cost NZD 2 (NT 40)

Chinese omelette

Lunch -
Chicken noodle soup
Thin rice noodle, meat balls, egg, vegetables, rice cake, chicken, pork
Cost NZD 2.50 (NT 50)

Chicken noodle soup

Dinner -
Ham fried rice
Cost NZD 2.5 (NT 50)

Ham fried rice

While I was travelling (on my bicycle) to buy dinner, I came across a lilac color VW van... It was in good condition too! I stopped by the side of the road, and took a quick snap (for Hannah!). She always love VW vans.

Today in the aquarium, there are people running up and down while I was conducting my experiment. After asking one of them, I realised they were excited because the squid eggs are hatching!

You can see the newly hatched squid!

Mommy squid

Taiwan research trip June 2013

I went out with couple of NMMBA colleagues for lunch today. They decided that we should drive to another village (Heng Village) since I couldn't go there on my bicycle. We went to a place which is famous for their dumplings. It wasn't really like a restaurant, but more like a shipping container! They put a few fans, portable a/c, couple of tables and chairs, kitchen at one corner, and wham - you have a restaurant!

Lunch -
Dumpling and pork soup
Cost NZD 6.25 (NT 125)

Dumpling

Pork soup

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Lunch -
Coconut toast with raisins
Cost FREE! Leftovers from previous tenants. I was lazy to go get lunch, and save some money too :)

Toast

Dinner -

Braised chicken rice

Rice, vegetables, bamboo,ham, tofu and braised chicken drunstick

Cost NZD 2.75 (NT 55)

Braised chicken rice

And just in case, if you are thinking that my research trip is ALL fun, diving and eating, here is what I do in the lab everyday. Here is about half a day's work - extracting all the coral mucus, tissue, water samples. And stored them in liquid nitrogen to be further processed when I am back in Taipei. Every evening, I would go back to the lab to read the photosynthetic yield of the coral samples using the Diving PAM. All in a day's work  :)

Taiwan research trip June 2013 - location scouting

Today, I went diving at the nuclear plant water intake point with the research assistants from NMMBA. The purpose of this dive is to determine if it is a good field location for my experiment end of this year. According to the research scientists from NMMBA, the water flow here is higher than any place around the bay because the nuclear plant is siphoning the water into the plant for cooling purposes. Thus, it creates an artificial high flow environment! The underwater environment is supposedly to be the best around the bay as well because the public are not allowed in here! It is only restricted to certain researchers (in which one of the researchers happen to be my collaborator!).

The only thing I need to worry about - AVOID being pulled into the water intake of the nuclear plant!

Water temperature - 29deg C
Visibility - 20m
Depth - 5 to 10m

Nudibranch

Potential "victim" for experiment! 

Healthy corals

Nice

Nice

Not glowing green yet! Behind me is the nuclear plant

Clown fish and anemone

Taiwan research trip June 2013

Breakfast -

Onion, egg Chinese pancake (I think!?... there is really no translation!)

Cost NZD 2 (NT 40)

Chinese pancake

Lunch -
Packed lunch from 7-Eleven
Rice, eel, taiwan sausage, sweet corn, vegetable, glass noodle
Cost NZD 2.75 (NT 55)

Packed lunch from 7-Eleven

Dinner -
Instant mince beef noodle bowl
Found it from the numerous things ex-tenants left behind!
Cost - Free...although it doesn't taste too nice...packaging looks pretty old fashioned as well.

Instant mince beef noodle