Lorenzo and I had crept out for a sneaky Sunday night pint (if they served them in pint glasses) and we got the call from Markus that a Typhoon was heading for the island and that work was cancelled. Obviously, this was goood news so we continued to drink until we kind of hung out on a street corner watching things get blown around and seeing scooter drivers crashing. Things like that. Anyway, took some photos.
It’s raining, it’s pouring
I think this sums up Taiwan, Taipei and some of my experiences so far. One crazy night in Taipei.
T.H., the president of our division, deemed that he would generously give us all in the department a meal out and a night out at Ministry of Sound in recognition of the fact that we have won some IF design awards for our corporate book shelf. Very nice.
So, we went to Jogoya near Taipei 101 which is an all you can eat sushi place. On the way there I bumped into Tanja and Michael. Walking through Main Station we were marauded by a flock of school girls demanding to talk to us in Chinese for their homework. This was absolutely hilarious and it completely brightened up what was otherwise a bit of a shitty week.
All you can eat sushi; I think my standards have shifted as the sashimi ain’t really all that good, but the chocolate is exceptional, and worth it for that alone. Henry and Cesare – two designers from our department – had their standard eating face-off (ridiculous quantities of food) and all the Taiwanese got very drunk and rowdy in typical style.
The time came to head to MOS, so we piled into taxis and cars and promptly all headed in completely different directions to make sure that we all got as lost as possible. Some people arrived relatively directly and phoned us to inform us the queue was about 500m long and stretched around the block. Luckily we had planned ahead and booked a private room. Except, I think everyone believed it was like a restaurant and it would be possible to get a room with two hours notice. Yes, they phoned at 5:00pm, only to find out it was not possible. Well done. You fucked up again.
Instead, we piled into our cars again (we were still driving as we headed off in the wrong direction down the motorway, and were trailing the main crew) and went to Holiday KTV near to my place in Shilin. Luckily, we managed to get a big enough room, and the Taiwanese set about populating the play list with hundreds of Chinese songs ensuring it was impossible for us to get a look in. I find that rather strange – little sense of team work between our two groups sometimes. Anyway, between us realising that, settling in to drink and leaving two hours before our songs came up we got hammered, and it ended up with Markus and I serenading eachother with a song I can’t quite remember.
Roman, an industrial designer visiting from Munich, was clearly totally bemused, but I think it gave him a good impression of what we are up against. We want to build a world-class brand and we cannot even organise a simple visit to a night club!
Elvis has left the building
I had my first real earthquake today. I have felt a few tremors up to now, but this was the real deal. It was at lunch time and I was in the cafeteria – underground – and even then it felt like I was on a boat. Side to side but also up and down movement… somewhat akin to a boat docking with a port I suppose. Very strange and serene, more than scary.
In Taipei, it was 4.0 on the Richter scale, and 7 at its epicentre.
My second visit to HK in 3 weeks (what a jet – setter I am) was for business this time. I was over visiting some audio companies and cool human interface sensing technologies. That was okay, but I also went to two trade shows, specialising in Chinese-made tat for gullible consumers. Wood effect rice cookers, paper laminators combined with shredders, and carbon fibre effect fake leather. It exists.
The less said about that the better, so better to focus upon the good things … more of Hong Kong – a place I really like.
I did all the tourist stuff with my sis, so this time I went to some more off-beat attractions and local treasures. These include the Mong Kok computer market (read: DVD piracy centre), the flower market and the bird market (plus, of course food and drink).
A sign that appealed to my geeky side in the underground system
The Bird Market in the north of Kowloon is really nice and chilled. The old geezers bring their birds here to sing, and it has maybe a similar feeling to an allotment in the UK. They also sell birds, and food (live grasshoppers) and all the cool cages.
One of the Lau Bans (old men) tending to his shop
Pictures of the cages
Lady near the flower market
Does this sum up Hong Kong… a Chinese lantern, sponsored by Fosters?
Mogwai, Scottish rock gods, blessed the island of Taiwan with their unique blend of intense riffs and ballistic delivery. I don’t really think the island knew what to expect – we certainly didn’t.
This was no ordinary location -Wulai. Admitedly, I have now been here a rather large number of times recently, but this is because it is cool and because I like it. When Mogwai came last year they clearly though the same thing and departed a high profile Japanese tour for a low-profile Taiwanese festival in the middle of nowhere.
The only flat piece of ground in Wulai – between the mountains and the volcanic hot springs – is the local school perched on the edge of the ravine. Mogwai played the local elementary school yard, complete with running track, kids’ toilets and artwork on the walls. It was kind of like some severely mutated parent’s evening. But with rock music.
Mogwai – Scottish Rockers (they ain’t the bay city rollers)
First of the inevitible drunk self portraits (beer was a frankly ridiculous 30p a time – cue epic hangover)
The laser sword is the ultimate symbol of authority in Taiwan – with it you can get anyone to do anything. I had quite some fun bossing people around with my one.
Myself, Tanja and Michael (at the hip hop gig in the school gym…)
A well-chosen location, near the hot springs. We have no idea why they like building concrete everywhere. But still they continue, no doubt inspired by China’s 3 Gorges damn.
Ele in Taipei!
The Moon Festival is one of the biggest annual festivals in Chinese culture. It is a centre-piece of the Lunar Calendar, but mainly seems to involve the entire island making barbecues. The whole place is full of smoke (I am convinced you could see it from Hong Kong) as people cook food in the streets, on the roofs, in the parks … but it is a really nice festival where family comes together.
Full moon … on the roof with my Chinese teacher, a couple of her students, Ele, Tanja and Michael
Barbecue on the balcony
Warp Factor 10
Rebels without a cause
Life demonstrated perfect harmony on the final evening, with Jackie Chan’s instant classic New Police Story at Kowloon’s Golden Harvest cinema. Obviously, the plot mattered little but the main thing is that it was set in all the tourist sites we had seen over the past few days. The New Police Story web site is here.
And we found Jackie Chan’s hand prints on the walk of the stars too…… so that is almost like touching him, I think. Look at the grin on my face, eh!
JACKIE CHAN!
We made sure that on Monday we experienced downtown mid-week. The travelling sums it up, the world’s longest escalator (800m) takes us up the mountain – totally cool! Then a walk down and we take the trams back and forth since they were so cheap and fun. We also took in EXCELLENT Dim Sum at Maxims in the city hall. Totally Hong Kong. Totally delicious.
True ‘Urban Jungle’ in Hong Kong near the Botanic Gardens
The trams on HK island – Blackpool meets New York!
Ele and I
The best restaurant name in the world (after ‘Abrakebabra’ in Glasgow)
I had saved seeing Hong Kong Island on the first day so I could do it with Ele together. We also met up with Olivier and Jean-Marie – two of Eleanor’s distributors from CSR. Although the three new arrivals were severely jet-lagged (I had no such problems, since Taiwan is in the same time zone as HK) I had some job pushing them into running over to the Peak Tram to take in the views of Hong Kong from above. However, your man succeeded and we took the ridiculously steep service up the side of the hill. I was a bit disappointed that it has turned a bit touristy and Madame Tousaudsy, lacking that creaking “will we hurtle down the hill side when the cable snaps?” excitement, and replaced with air-con. Still, it matters little as the views were incredible.
Views from the top of the Peak Tram
After that (and I am sad to report that the tram’s cable still remained intact on the way down, avoiding the tram smashing through the back end of the station that I so badly craved) we jumped into a taxi (a concession to Jean-Marie’s need to avoid more public transport) and headed for Aberdeen. I have no real idea why they named it after that town, as the views are different to what I think of granite-themed Aberdeen, and it has a rather famous, kitsch, expensive and unfortunately not-really-that-great restaurant called Jumbo, ominously. However, I seem to remember it starring in numerous Kung Fu movies I have seen, so again I don’t care at all.
We decided to take a meandering journey back to Central and took a boat out to Lamma island – a peaceful world away from the main islands. The trip included a rather characterful Chinese man with too many teeth in his mouth guiding us across the choppy waters in his none too stable craft. Still, it was great fun and interesting to see another view. After, we took a speedy ferry back to Central, where Ele and I indulged in some rather fantastic ice cream over views of the city.
Our man Quik Silver.
The views from our… yacht.
Lamma Island
Peacefully awaiting the ferry home
Ele was set to land in the morning of Saturday. However, big delays at Heathrow meant that she had to fly via Bangkok (thus one upping me in the number of Asian countries she has visited!) and instead landed in the evening, about 9 hours late. I took the opportunity to check out Lantau Island – a logical move, since Chep Lap Kok airport is on the same island.
I took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island and immediately leapt onto the first boat for Lantau. The Star Ferry is a wonderful relic of the age of the British Empire, while the ferries for the outlying islands are more Thunderbirds. The quality of public transport in HK is both deeply impressive and characterful, mixing state-of-the-art systems (aiport express, MTR, boats) with older modes (Star Ferry, Trams).
Views from the Star Ferry
The world’s biggest outdoor, seated, bronze Budda is situated on the island (statistically ridiculous, but I didn’t really care – it was still big) and caught some nice views accross the islands. The Cantoese are much more likely to go hiking than the Taiwanese and the mountains really are very beautiful.
Details of the Buddist temple
Incense burning
Statues beneath the Budda
Owing our sanity to international text messages between our mobiles, we finally met up and it was great! Although she was almost tearful from lack of sleep we headed straight out for a drink on the dock side and then sushi. Hello Sister! A sight for sore eyes.
Ele in Hong Kong!