Trip - Part 2

After leaving the CKS house, we headed over to our hotel to check in for the evening. The hotel was nice enough, and had a killer view of this fascinating park across the way (more on this later).

Following dinner, some of us headed over to the night market, which is a Taiwanese phenomenon that everybody should experience at least once in their lives. Sooner or later, Melanie and I plan to head down and document a visit with photos for a blog post. While it is possible to express some of the experience in words, and perhaps still more in pictures, without the diverse smells, the dichotomy of delightful and alarming tastes, and the general sense of claustrophobia that go along with it, nothing short of a visit really captures the adventure.

We wandered around a bit, filling our already distended bellies well beyond their capacity, and still we pressed on. We found some stores with interesting merchandise that probably wouldn't go over so well in Western countries (no - that's not the actual buddhist symbol - white power!). We ended up playing one of those basket shooting games, where you're supposed to get as many buckets as possible in a preset amount of time. Glenn's brother challenged me to a match, and naturally beat me soundly. Afterward, we stepped back and let some of the local kids take their turn. Talk about embarassing - these kids made more basket in the first 30 seconds then either one of us made in our two games combined. I wish I had caught a video of this demonstration of mastery of a game - they just never missed!

Following our humbling, we moved on to a section where we played some carnival games, such as the ring toss, balloon shooting, etc.; Melanie won us all prizes with her deadeye accuracy (remind me to never piss this woman off - at least when she's armed). Pictured here are (left to right) Melanie, Vanessa (Glenn's girlfriend) Glenn, Glenn's brother's girlfriend, and Glenn's brother.

Truly, a good time was had by all.

Taiwan Company Trip - Part 1

This was a really fun trip. It is apparently common within Taiwan for companies to take their employees on a company outing once a year - usually towards the end of the summer - and the Synaptics Taiwan branch office is no exception.

This year's trip was to the northern area of the east coast of Taiwan (see picture on the right). Synaptics chartered a tour bus for this trip, and they did a really nice job of taking us down the scenic coastal route and stopping every hour or two along the way.

There were some spectacular views from the bus of the East coast. Pictured to the right is one of the ones we snapped from the bus that gives a nice typical view - here, you can see the very mountainous coastline with dramatic rocks jutting out of the water and gorgeous green peaks all around. Most of the drive looked this way, which made it really hard to sleep despite the fact that Melanie and I combined for a total 4 hours of sleep the night before we left - cest la vie.

After a couple hours of driving down the coast, we started ducking into the valleys to the West of the coast. We stopped for lunch at a place called 牛鬥鱒魚大餐午餐, where we had a nice lunch at a pastoral stop that had a alarmingly well stocked Koi pond. Here are a couple photos.

After lunch, we continued to drive into the valley and came across a pretty neat sight. Pictured here is a river bed the likes of which I have never seen before (which really isn't saying a whole lot). As you can see, this is an INCREDIBLY broad channel cut by the water even though the flow shown in this picture (far left) is scarcely more than a trickle. The reason for this disparity is an excellent illustration of the power of the typhoons that come through here - this mild-mannered stream becomes a raging river whenever one of nature's monster storms comes blowing through.

...But back to the tour...

We then proceeded to an area called "棲蘭森林遊樂區~蔣公行館, 森林浴, 觀景涼亭"...I don't know what this means either, but it sure is a pretty place. This used to be the area surrounding one of Chiang Kai Shek's country homes. Most of this part of the tour was in Chinese, and I am pretty much illiterate (sigh) so I don't know all of the details; however, this place apparently has some sort of historical significance in the recent history of Taiwan.




Personally, I thought the most interesting part of this portion of the tour had to do with the backyard. There is a gorgeous trail that winds its way through the mountain behind the house. It takes about 45-60 minutes to hike the whole thing, mainly because there are some pretty steep steps to climb. Here you can see a few photos of the scenery.





Here is a nice little bridge where we rested for a little while, as well as a rock that hopefully doesn't say anything bad about Melanie. In the photo on the left are seated (from left to right) Vincent, Kevin, Melanie, Vivian, and David.




We also caught a nice shot of Melanie here in the little garden in front of the house. We took this picture after the hike and a nice cup of tea at the cafe near the house. This was right at sunset, and although the weather was a bit overcast, it still capped off a very pleasant day.


To the left is a picture with what could possibly be the world's cutest baby - Yang Yang. I'll go out on a limb on this one and say that Melanie's clock started going off like a klaxon when we met this little guy. I must admit that he was pretty darn cute, but there must be 100 little devils for a baby like Yang Yang, so pragmatism wins out (for now).

Exact location of the flat

For those of you that use some sort of mapping service, here are the coordinates of our flat here in Taipei:

Latitude: 25º 04’ 12.26” N
Longitude: 121º 36’ 30.61” E
Elevation: 74 ft

Lay's International chip flavors

Hawaii Red Pepper and Texas Grilled BBQ
...normal so far...

American Classic and Swiss Cheese
...still pretty ordinary...

Hokkaido Grilled Crab and Kyushu Seaweed
Don't know about the seaweed yet, but the crab is actually pretty good

Food fun

Chocolate cheese

For cleaner emissions

Not really food, but...
The English on the back claims this is "Darlie Toothpaste", but I remember back when I was a child, this product was called "Darkie" and Sambo had a gleaming mouthful of pearly whites. Besides, the two Chinese words above the distinguished gentleman still read "Black Man".
I'm going to start checking to see if they have Negro Mouthwash or Kill Whitey Dental Floss.
...oh, and for the record, this is Whitening toothpaste...

Read it backwards.

That's good enough for me

No shame at all

Saw this ad down in the MRT (Taipei subway)

Taxis in Taipei

First, a quick haiku...

Taxi drivers ask me
Why do you speak my language?
I often tell lies

We don't have a car here in Taiwan, so I often take a taxi to and from the office. In order to ensure that the taxi driver takes me on the most direct route to minimize the fare, I often try to bust out with my best Mandarin so that they suspect that I might just perhaps be a local. This is truly a double-edged sword because my Mandarin is good enough to make them wonder how the hell I learned it so well. When Melanie and I lived here for a few months back in 2000, I took taxis to work far more often and as a result was subjected to nearly daily questions as to how I picked it up.

At first, I would tell the story of how my mother is Chinese and my grandmother (who doesn't speak a word of English) came to live with us for a few years when I was a teenager, forcing me to speak more often - thereby giving me the authentic mainland Chinese accent I have today. Usually, this story leads to more questions about my family, my language skills, how long I've lived in Taiwan, whether or not I've been to the mainland, etc., which is all fine and dandy when I'm in a chatty mood, but just plain invasive when I'm in a pissy one.

One day, during the World Cup back in 2000, a taxi driver asked me if I was an athlete. I'm not quite sure what possessed me at that moment, but I decided to roll with it and told him that I was indeed an athlete. I figured that being a relatively tall, apparently black man in Taiwan gave me a distinct advantage in pulling this little lie off. I went on to tell him that I played for the US National team, but due to a freak training accident, I was relegated to scouting duties in Asia. He bought it hook, line, and sinker and I think he might have even been tempted to ask me for my autograph (I admit I was a little disappointed that he didn't).

After that, I developed a taste for telling outlandish lies and seeing what the cabbies would believe. At first, I stuck to claiming to be an athlete for various sports - MLS fullback, NBA point guard and even NHL goalie, but then even those stories started to get boring so I switched to juicier fare. I was a banker, a hip-hop artist, a rock star, an architect and all sorts of other occupations, although I'm proudest of the time when I convinced a guy that I was an Australian spy sent to keep tabs on the cross-straits relations between China and Taiwan.

Eventually, I left Taiwan with a proud sense of accomplishment, both professionally as well as in the role of improvisational storyteller. I really didn't have much use for telling my little fibs at that point and ultimately fell out of practice...mostly...

That brings us to the present. I've taken taxis quite a few times since arriving in Taipei, and I have thus far invariably told the truth behind my Chinese skills. Today, on the ride back home, I was suddenly given reason to once again consider going back to my prevaricating ways.

I got into the cab this evening expecting an uneventful ride home. I was a little skittish about the taxi driver striking up a conversation with me since I was in slightly foul spirits, but I wanted to get home quickly so I took the plunge and gave him my destination with a good accent. My fears were immediately realized when he started asking me why I spoke Mandarin. I gave him the shortest possible story I could (half-Chinese...nuff said) in the hopes he'd let it drop...but he wouldn't....

As we drove the 20 minutes to the flat, he started to surreptitiously draw me into a conversation. First, he asked if I was in high-tech...then asked if I came with my wife...then he asked if my parents were still in the US...then he asked how long I'd been living in Taiwan...all the usual questions. At that point, he felt he had enough information to start drawing conclusions, and made a comment on how our household here in Taiwan had so many continents represented - Asia, Europe, Africa...

...wait a second...

I'm an American.

Sure, but where's your dad from?

Mississippi.

Isn't his family from Africa?

No - they're also from Mississippi.

Really? You're a bit dark.

Yeah. I know. But my dad's family has lived in the US for countless generations.

Oh. I get it. So your wife is from Germany, your mother is from Taiwan, and you're from the US with African ancestors.

Not exactly. Like I said - it's been hundreds of years. It doesn't really count any more. We have no idea where our family is from in Africa, but we do know they've lived in Mississippi for quite a while. We're Americans.

Have you ever been to Africa?

No.

I wish I could say that this was where the conversation ended, but we came back around this way one more time before we got to the house.


Ever wanted to go to Africa?

Yep. Turn left here...


I think it's time to start telling lies again...

Found this great seafood restaurant near our house

You pick the seafood you want and the style you want it cooked, and they bring it out to you a few minutes later. There's really no good way to describe this in words, so you'll just have to come visit us to find out why we think this is so tasty.

This is a passion fruit

These are SOOOOOO good

Sign observed in business section of Hong Kong

Would never have occurred to either of us to try...

Big Ole Bowl O' Noodles

We went and had dinner at the 101 food court - Lonely Planet called this the best that they'd ever seen. Here's a nighttime picture taken on the way back to our hotel.

The food court is located in the lower basement level of the mall, which shares a foundation with the main tower. There are probably hundreds of restaurants and shops down there serving all varieties of food, from authentic asian to middle eastern to US fast food. We wandered around a bit and ended up going with a Hong Kong specialty - "A Kuan" milk noodles. The broth is made with real milk - a bonus for those of us that are lactose intolerant - and while highly surreal, is also very tasty.

View from Agora hotel in Taipei

Arrived in Taiwan on 10/22/05 and moved into the Agora Garden Hotel in Taipei - VERY nice digs. One of the best parts of staying here was the fantastic location. We were fortunate enough to be just a few (admittedly large) blocks away from the Taipei 101. Here are some shots of the hotel:

Picture from the "Pegasus Garden" in the back

Front of the hotel

Not really sure what I was thinking...probably something between Colossus of Rhodes and constipation

Pegasus Gardens

Visit to Niu Niu's place

We went over and visited Niu Niu (AKA Megan) and Jen Hsun (AKA Alexander) at their place in Neihu. Through some bizarre coincidence, we managed, without even really trying, to find a place that is about 0.5km away from theirs. Even odder is the fact that they just opened up their new office about 3 blocks away from our place. We went over one night to visit and get a tour of their house, which is pretty darn snazzy.

Pictured here are Fred and Niu Niu (cousin from 2nd aunt) and the three dogs hanging out on the couch.

Dinner with Henry

Henry Chiu, one of our Directors of Sales, came to Taiwan and invited the whole team out for a nice dinner. This was taken at an upscale Japanese restaurant, and the food was fan-freaking-tastic.

From left to right, we have Howard, Henry, Vincent, Kelly, Andy, Glenn, Vanessa, Melanie, and Fred.

Dinner with Grandfather

We had a nice dinner in Shi Men Ding with Grandpa Ai before he left for the US. He gave Melanie a really nice 18 year old commemorative coin.