Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Holiday

  • Hongmonay

    Mince Pies, mid-process.

    I had, in my thirty years, never been away from my village for Christmas, bar trips to family around the country. As adorable as that is, it was high time I flew the nest during the festive period.

    Thoughtfully, my sister agreed with this and timed delivery of a new addition to the family to coincide approximately with Chinese New Year. As a result, I instead decided to fly back for a visit in early February, leaving Christmas ominously without family. Eeek!

    There seem to be two distinct types of forriner in Taiwan; those that refuse to put any effort into celebration, and as a result sit around in a haze of depression as the Taiwanese population continues about their daily business; and those that band together to meet, cook, eat, drink and proclaim proudly how very jolly their Christmas was. I decided to jump two-feet-first into the second camp, and I am fortunate enough to have friends and flatmates that felt the same way.

    Rather than settle for your common-or-garden set of meals, we opted to go completely overboard, inviting about a dozen friends over for a Christmas Eve meal. This was to be followed up with an invite to even more friends for an evening ‘Desert Party’, no doubt washed down with some booze and Christmas cheer. And we hadn’t even got to planning Christmas Day yet.

    Planning, prep and purchasing for this set of events began about a week prior to the date. Served up with fresh Christmas decorations, a sober realisation dawned that this was not going to be as straightforward as we expected. Number one, single-handedly ferrying the food around Taipei is not easy; even with taxis. Second, while with some effort it was clear we were going to be able to get hold of American-style delicacies and comestibles, hunting down British ingredients was sadly not going to be a ‘cake-walk’.

    Exhibit-A: Mince Pies. No, they do not contain meat. Yes, apparently they used to. In the UK, complete packs of pies are sold, or the ‘mince’ is sold in jars for assembly in your own kitchen, and has been allowed to mature for a decent period of tim prior to sale. Try as I might, I could not find either; thus a resort to mince pie manufacture from ‘first principles’. This involved sourcing my own beef fat in place of suet (note to self; do not ever use a food processor to cut up beef fat – pink goo is not a pretty sight!), currents and sultanas. I decided to substitute in some cranberries and chopped-up figs, add plenty of booze and allow just under a week for maturing and soaking. While the pastry was a little hard on day one, I would proclaim these a success!


    Photo taken with my iPhone and the Tiltshift app … quite a fun way to get creative.

    Exhibit-B: Brussel Sprouts. This perennial favourite, and source of greenhouse gasses, is clearly not on the menu of the average Taipei resident. Understandable, perhaps, but a bit disappointing. Luckily, teams of British people were scouring the city, and tracked down a tray of the little gas-bombs in one of the hotel delicatessens – absurdly expensive, completely overcooked, but just the thing to add a splash of colour to the table.

    Exhibit-C: Meat. I can proudly claim that I have never once had turkey on Christmas day; our family instead tends to go for a more traditional range of birds, such as duck or goose. This was clearly not going to fly with the American contingent, so we decided that while the larger Christmas Eve event should feature turkey and a shoulder of lamb, the Christmas Day meal was centred around a pair of ducks (still sporting heads and feet, as I discovered to my mild horror). Turkey was marinaded in beer, chilli and garlic for several days and was as good as I have ever had, lamb was not half bad and a world better than our previous attempt; and the ducks were juicy and flavourful, just lacking a little in the way of crispy skin that is so loved by everyone.

    Exhibit-D: Suedes, Turnips and Parsnips. Nada. No way. Couldn’t find ’em. A shame, but we subbed-in some great mashed pumpkin. Tensions were also raised over the method of roasting potatoes … of course you peel them! Get that duck fat in there! … I have a feeling no matter what we did, without Maris Pipers or King Edward potatoes, nothing was going to work very well. Never the less, very enjoyable, and a nice project for me the next time we have a big meal.

    A small package also arrived from my mother in the weeks approaching Christmas. Christmas cake(nobody ever eats it anyway, so the bite-size portion was perfect), Christmas pudding (okay, I admit she sent it one year previously! But it keeps, right?), various nuts and a pack of decorations. Add to this the 3Kg bag of almonds from Tasha for our family tradition of toasted nuts, and iTunes access to a completely overpriced ‘Nine Lessons in Carols’ from the King College Chapel Choir, and we were set.


    Christmas Eve. 4pm. Our family members over the globe tune in to Radio 4’s broadcast of Nine Lessons in Carols, and take a moment to think of each other. Our tradition of roasting almonds is one of my favourite aspects of Christmas, and I believe it comes from my Mother’s expat roots in Spain.

    Two full days of preparation and effort from all of us paid off handsomely. We had a splendid meal with some great friends, and a lovely time meeting some new people at the desert party. Indeed, I felt I did my bit when I sent off a British Graphic Artist resident in Taipei with a pack of Mince Pies and cakes for a day when he had to work. A very satisfying Merry Christmas indeed.


    Heroic efforts from the guys made for a great time. Effort in = rewards out x 2.

    Armando does his bit.

    Devoured in seconds, each Christmas Pie took me a total of about fifteen minutes to make … all worth it!

    Checking progress …






    Mmmm.


    Dawn preps the stuffing.


    Food porn.


    Resource-allocation of ovens and hobs drew ridicule … but it worked!


    Birds of a feather.


    People arrive for the desert party.


    Chefs and cheffetes.


    Abe and Tasha, sitzing in a tree!








    Party photos. We were treated to three splendid bottles of high quality scotch Whisky; Highland Park from Orkney and both Bruichladdich (pronounced ‘Brook Laddie) Bowmore from Islay. Noel had given up drinking a few years ago, and we certainly offered a good home to them!


    Uncle Ken asleep on the couch for most of the party.


    A slightly more austere, but no less enjoyable, Christmas day.

    NYE in HK

    Phase 2 of the festive for me usually involves meeting up with good friends, and putting a fair amount of effort into traveling somewhere to celebrate it in some style. This year was no different, but for the first time in about half a decade (maybe more?) I did not reunite with Phil for the bells. Perhaps next year!

    Instead, a weekend invasion of Hong Kong was planned. This gave me the chance to meet up once again with Michael and Tanja (and new addition to the house, Moc Moc), and see Sam in his new natural environment. With more than a little pressure, I also persuaded Sam to finally complete construction of his new mountain bike, and thus the plans were set for a great weekend of wining, dining, hiking and biking in Hong Kong.


    The ubiquitous red plastic ‘lanterns’ found floating above Hong Kong’s market stalls.


    Raindrops keep falling on my head.



    Cracking up!


    Darkness & Light.


    Hard at work.


    Tramlines.


    Love Handles.


    Stolen moments.


    Gates Foundation.


    Goes like a Singer.


    Flying in formation.


    Broom broom.

    I have always been quite a fan of Hong Kong, as you may have guessed. It’s little nods to the UK, combination of high-density quasi-chaos, international atmosphere, and easy access to nature has always been a draw, and each trip I take there sees me finding a different angle through which to appreciate it. This time, I was armed with mountain bike and charged with a mission to enjoy a good new year.

    And so I did. After a clumsy session of assembling my bike on the balcony while catching up with Michael over a beer, the first port-of-call was to meet with Sam at the Bloomberg offices in Central. Michael, Tanja and I spent a happy hour wandering around the studios, prodding Sam with questions about the interior design, software systems, HR policy and protocols for filming a TV show that is beamed across the world. The level of care poured into every aspect of the business was an inspiration, and left us jealous / inspired for the return to our respective offices the following Monday.

    A happy day spent wandering the lanes of HK island, and a quick visit to Michael’s friend of
    f=”http://www.voidwatches.com/”>Void watches fame (yes I did buy one, in white) meant we were well prepared for a feeding session to see in the bells later on that evening. Hosted by a new open ‘creative space’ initiative, we were surrounded by an interesting array of people, spanning fashion design, product and print – indeed the girl running her own printing business claimed to be heading to the North Pole in the new year, greatly impressing Michael and myself, and encouraging us to resolve to do something equally adventurous (and preposterous-sounding) at the earliest opportunity. Champagne flowed, and we saw in the new year drinking our way through the remnants of the bottles on the street.


    Candlelight.


    Streetlife.


    Loitering.


    Towering above Hong Kong.


    The Late Show.

    The first day of 2010 saw a change of pace, and a mildly hazy hike up into the hills surrounding Taimo Mountain. A truckload of monkeys, an inspection of WWII fortifications and a mutual fondling of each others’ cameras and it was back to HK island to meet one of Michael’s ex-colleagues from ideo Shanghai. Great food, German beer served out of porcelain bowls, and another desert session in the street; not a bad beginning of the end for 2009.


    Monkeying around.


    View back towards the city.


    Amusing icons.


    WWII fortifications.


    Colour combinations on storm covers.

    With hours to spare, Sam got his wheels laced up, and we met at the Lamma Island ferry terminal to jump into buses for the run up to Taimo Mountain – not quite the most efficient route, but it worked. We joined Hector (Head Chef of the Marriot Hotel, no less) and the guys from the Hong Kong Mountain Bike Association for a day in the hills. Michael risked it with his old wheels from Taiwan, and we set off into the clouds. It’s no surprise that the trails were highly reminiscent of Taiwan, but still the first kilometre or so had us all sliding around in extremely slippery conditions. The trails did open up as we approached the summit, however, and we were treated to a fantastic descent down a ridge, hugging the contours – truly memorable. The rest of the ride was a decent mixed bag of trails and conditions, and I came away rather taken with the riding in Hong Kong. I aim to be back!


    Waiting for the bus.


    Awesome trails.


    Team HK.


    Preparing to jump.


    Landing zone.


    New bike. New bike.


    Quite jealous … my wallet starts quivering!

    Packing the bike up was marginally more straightforward than the arrival leg, but it was still amusing to squeeze the hilariously over-sized case into the taxi. Cathay Pacific really delivered the goods (literally), allowing me to use my 30kg weight limit to full effect in both directions with no extra charges. When I get my road bike sorted, I aim to see where else I can head to in the Asia region.

    Happy New Decade!


    …. and back to Taiwan!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Borneo



    “Borneo”

    I have always liked the name of the place, associating it with adventure and danger, with Tintin and mysterious happenings in the jungle. Right up there with Zanzibar, Madagascar, Peru and Tazmania in the adventurous naming competition.

    It comprises territories from Brunei, Indonesia and Borneo, and is wedged into the water between peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. As is often the case in Asia, my geography is a little off-centre, and the northern tip of Borneo is actually further north than that of the mainland (in more news to me, Wikipedia says it is the third-largest island in the world). Since I had a pile of Air Miles to get ride of before the end of the year, I decided to fly business-class to the capital of Sabah – Kota Kinabalu – taking a night in Kuala Lumpur on the return leg.
    View Larger Map

    Beyond the impeccable branding, I was also drawn by the news that I could bag another peak, in the form of Mount Kinabalu. It bills itself as the highest peak in South-East Asia at 4095m, and a fantastic addition to Yushan, which I climbed just recently (3952m). I was therefore a little miffed to discover, right after I booked flight tickets, several mountains in Indonesia significantly higher. Onwards and upwards, as they say.

    The other major pull to the island was Sipadan; reputedly location for some of the best Scuba diving in the world. When I learnt to dive in 2003, my Swiss instructor eulogised about the place, and I have since heard it mentioned in hushed tones by those in the know. Add jungles, food (and hell, free flights) and it was a pretty easy decision to pack my bags and go.

    Kota Kinabalu

    First leg on my little adventure was Kota Kinabalu – capital of Sabah. A pleasant, if sleepy, little town, it was a good base from which to strike out into the jungle and mountains. Bombed by the Japanese in WWII, it was far from architecturally charming, but it more than made up for it with its vibrant markets and fresh seafood.


    Holy mackerel, Batman.


    These chaps look way better under water.


    Taking a rest.


    Red hot chilli peppers


    Flying south for the winter.


    Loved the market building.


    Rows of tailors with immaculate sewing machines.


    Charming chaps.


    Fascinating to see the obviously incredibly rapid shift to cell phones. Rows of pay phones, and yet only one stool left. How long til they paint over the wear marks on the wall?


    Bright colours abound. I am positive Taiwan has invested a similar amount in the actual buildings, and yet just a splash of paint and a bit of care makes such a difference.


    I want to buy this car and cruise around in it, causing trouble.


    … and onto the next location (this time with Air Asia; such fall from grace!)

    Mt. Kinabalu


    View from the road, prior to the climb.

    So what, it’s not the highest peak in SE Asia: but after my interest was piqued by climbing Yushan in Taiwan, I felt the urge to climb me some more rocks. The overall set-up is not dissimilar to climbing Yushan; you start hiking at about 1800m, hike for 3-4 hours up to the hostel at Laban Rata (3273m), and again get up extremely early to take in the sunrise at the peak at 4095m – about 100m more than the Taiwanese peak.

    Especially after climbing Yushan with associated altitude sickness issues, I was a little more prepared, packing Diamox and Aspirin tablets. The grading was a little steeper than Yushan, with more rocks and roots to clamber up, but in some ways I found this easier than spreading the ascent over a longer incline. Combined with slightly warmer temperatures, and the fact that the hostel provided all food, water and bedding, I reached the lodge in tip-top shape and enjoyed a chilled afternoon watching the clouds float by, fed and watered with provisions that the constant stream of sherpas were bringing up.


    Watching the clouds roll on by.

    Awaking in a shroud of cloud, the ascent was still lit brightly enough by the full-moon that we barely needed head-torches. The most technical sections were laced-up with climbing ropes, but in actuality they were neither as exposed nor as technical as the ones on Yushan; the massif of granite was far more stable than the shale in Taiwan.

    Drugged-up on Diamox (note for future reference: it’s a diuretic) we maintained a pretty good pace. Such a good pace, in fact, that we arrived at the summit with forty minutes to spare until sunrise. Clouds and rain met us at the top, and we spent the remainder of the time shivering in the cold, willing the sun to rise over the horizon and return some warmth to our bones. Rise it did, burning away the cloud cover an
    d affording us fantastic views up the South China Sea and over to the forested interior of the island. Warmed up by the flurry of photographic activity, we lingered a while on the peak, but eventually gave in to the nagging from our obligatory guides to head down.


    5:10am. Cold. Wet. Tired.


    Waiting an eternity for the light to break through.


    The clouds on the horizon seemed to rise at the same rate as the sun!


    Skywalker – admiring the fabulous view.


    4095.2m = Low’s Peak


    Contour lines.


    The scale of the place was amazing – those specks on the edge of the granite shelf are people, and a sign pointing towards the top.


    The granite plateau transition made for some amazing live cloud formations – imagine these rolling by as if over an airplane wing; I could have stayed here for hours.


    Sun blind


    Moonscape


    Ships in the night.


    Life perseveres.


    My Canadian descent-buddies.


    Clouds descend, giving an ominous sign for the return leg.

    We returned to the lodge and all tucked into a hearty breakfast (infinitely better than more pot noodles on Yushan), and began the descent. Sadly, the weather did not quite hold, and we were met with rain for the entire duration, drenches and bedraggled by the time we reached the gates of the park, a long few hours later.

    Next stop … Mount Fuji?

    Garama Wetlands

    Hold your horses, son! After all that exertion, I thought a more relaxing day should be on the cards, so I signed myself up for a trip down to the estuary region of Garama, to meet some of the primates native to the island. What could be nicer?

    Clearly, large groups of elderly Asian ladies feel the same way. It was therefore with a faint sinking sensation that I boarded the bus, and was joined by permed hair from Hong Kong, Korea and Australia. Sat at the front with my iPod blaring, I had a particularly satisfying hour or two of adolescent seat kicking before we arrived and were gently inserted into position on the boats, ready to penetrate the jungle. I was really, honestly, trying my best to hate the whole experience, but they were just so amusing to watch that I could not fail to break into smile.

    After a few minutes of cruising, we came across groups of ‘Big-Nose Monkeys’ (AKA Proboscis Monkeys) that were shy but fascinating to look at, and found only in Borneo; Silver Leaf Monkeys, who are smart enough to wash their hands before they eat; and some other sort of primate that I only remember being called ‘David Beckham Monkey’, because of its fetching Mohawk haircut.

    Top it off with some synchronised fireflies (the smallest in the world, apparently), and my day shuffling along with the geriatric jet-set was far from dull.


    Silver Leaf Monkey awaits dinner.


    Abandoned river houses.


    The Proboscis Monkeys were very shy, and essentially impossible to photograph … on the other hand, groups of boats filled with Chinese people taking photos of shy monkeys is much more fun.


    Reflections.


    We seemed to be in a very great rush to get back … but nothing phased my ladies!


    In the event of an emergency…

    Sipadan & Mabul

    Sipadan is one of the finest dive-spots in the world. Ostensibly to protect the fragile marine environment, the Malaysian government has seen fit to limit access to only 110 people per day, meaning an end to the possibility of staying on this jewel (although the kidnapping of a dozen tourists in 2000 by Filipino pirates surely played a role in this decision). Instead, most visitors stay at one of a number of locations in the vicinity. I opted to stay on Mabul – only slightly less perfect, sporting a much larger bar, and itself one of the best ‘muck diving‘ sites in the world.

    Turtles, normally a special treat on any dive, virtually littered the water. We would see three coming up for air, just suiting-up, in fact, on our night dive, one almost collided with me, and made a bolt for it between my legs. Nudibranchs, sharks, shape-shifting octopi … it had the lot.

    World-class diving was for once matched with world-class company (uninterested or detached dive buddies can ruin a perfectly good dive!), hailing from The States, Spain, The Netherlands and Australia. I was also very excited to be staying next door to Les Stroud and the National Geographic film crew, who were filming a documentary on sea gypsies, who still live in the area. We amused ourselves greatly with this entry in his website;

    “Stroud continues to forge new pathways as a prolific, creative force. He single-handedl
    y created, produced, wrote, filmed, hosted, edited and composed the theme music for the first two original, one-hour pilots for what would eventually become the hit Survivorman TV series.”

    But all eyes were on Sipadan. My ‘package’ included a single-day pass into the park, and I had to keep reminding myself just how lucky I was, just to get in; imagine all the people coming from all over the world, turned away by bad weather at the last moment. It was all worth it. Diving into the mouth of turtle cavern was one of the very best diving experiences of my life. As if from the set of a particularly camp pirate movie, there is a network of caves under the island, and carcasses of lost turtles pay testament to their final journey. I have never seen such clear, still water, and looking back out of the cavern was a spell-binding moment.

    Not my video, but you get the idea:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFKy9mvk1zI]


    Stayin’ alive.


    Sipadan perfection.


    Silhouettes


    Just off the coast of Mabul – a converted oil rig that operates as a dive resort. Fun for about a day, I would imagine.


    Structures … seems to preserve valuable agricultural land, in Borneo the workers live on stilts above the water.


    Local industries.


    Devil in the details.


    Charismatic local kids.


    Messing around.


    Grins all around.


    The sun sets on some great days on Mabul and Sipadan.

    With any luck, I should be getting my hands on some actual pics of me diving soon, which I am looking forward to seeing a great deal!

    Kuala Lumpur

    The trip concluded with a rather hedonistic evening in Kuala Lumpur with photographer friend Fiona. Since it was my first trip, trotting off to check out the twin Petronas Towers was a must; and I found it more complete, both in concept and in execution, than Taipei 101. Drinks at Zouk, some good times at an impromptu ‘rave’, late-night snacks in China Town and staff rates at a suite in The Berjaya … and it looks like I’ll need to head back at some point!


    Petronas Towers (Canon Ixus 100)


    Petronas Towers (iPhone + Tiltshiftgen app) … as a result of this augmentation, my iPhone is now a more interesting creative tool than a ‘real’ camera.


    Out on the town.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Suschi

    I am feeling a little over-indulgent with my travel of late, with not so much a ‘Carbon Footprint’, as treading my big, muddy carbon boots across the carpet and into the living room. Indeed, checking my Dopplr record, I have clocked up 3200 kg of CO2 since June. Ouch.


    Cute as a button

    Anyway, I popped over to Kyoto last weekend to meet up with one my best friends from my university days in Glasgow, Robbie, and his fiancé Imke. They were there at a Neuroscience conference – flying in from Germany – where Robbie was learning about some of the recent developments in the field. It’s not exactly brain surgery, as far as I can ascertain.

    It’s my third trip to Kyoto, but it is not too much of a hardship to return. We focused on eating some good food, a wee little bit of hiking, and checking out some of the areas of the city that I had not been able to check out previously. I have a feeling that you could be there for a month and still not run out of interesting things to see.


    Luverly textures and pillars and depth of field


    Stairway to heaven


    Reflecting.


    Studying the largest bell in Kyoto. Or Japan. Probably.


    Busman’s holiday


    Hiking


    Obligatory mirror shot


    Kyoto from afar – good to get out of the city


    Stumbled upon a rather nice little village of thatched houses


    Reminds me of my local pub!


    Sunshine of my life.


    Political posters – Japan style.

    Kyoto is famous for its humid and hot summer weather, but we managed to mix in a little light rain, which cooled things down nicely. Still, the drinks vending machines took a pounding, and we had some kind of magnetic attraction to the Starbucks Frappuccinos, that seemed to line the routes of the streets. We did manage to pack in some temple action, interspersed with time spent in the Pachinko and video parlours, and some rather embarrassing results from the photo machines. One for the best man’s speech, perhaps.


    The drumming game – after two nights of waiting for people to stop using it, we finally had our time!


    Girls at play.


    Adjusting the artwork


    And a present for Nikki in Goettingen – we could not resist opening it, after one last bottle of Shochu.

    Cheers Robbie – hope to see you out this way again soon!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • 2 Days, 10,000 Buddas

    http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

    I have quite some photography and writing to catch up on, but for good reason; it’s been super busy here for the last month or so, and I have barely had time to unpack.

    In between landing from the UK, and spending time in Shanghai and Kunshan, I managed a diversion on the way to Guangzhou to stop in and say hi to Team M&T.; Always a pleasure!

    We didn’t have too much planned, so it was doubly pleasant to match my request of A. great food, and B. some hiking. The food was the easy bit, blending Thai and Indian flavours, while we managed a quick excursion up to the north of the city to check up on some delinquent Buddas, that seemed to be trying their best to escape their mounts and leg it down the hillside.


    Chunking Mansions Infrastructure

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Zamami Island


    Local girl imitating the cat statues that pepper the island – it is said that they protect the island, but mainly they look crazy and cool, scattered as they are across the roof tops and other unlikely places.

    I took advantage of the long weekend last week to jump on an airplane for the Japan and the alarmingly close Okinawa, or specifically the Kerama group of islands off the West coast. It’s funny to think, that Japan starts within viewing distance of Taiwan, and estends its way all the way up to Russia; hop, skipping and jumping along the way.

    Completing little more than the most cursory of research, I landed, stayed the night in Naha (the main city on Okinawa) and left the next morning for Zamami, which I was told was particularly chilled out. Remnants of the Jasmine Sake (excellent, by the way) did not mix too well with the heavy swell, but the salty air cooled me down by the time we reached the port, and the most chilled place I have found thus far in Japan.


    Rock pools

    Zamami, around two hours from the main island, reminded me of Green Island and the other Taiwanese sub-islands. Indeed, the food was somewhere halfway between Japan and Taiwan, featuring heavier, oilier flavours and ingredients like Bitter Melon and fried eggs. Not bad at all.

    The similarities did not stop with the food. I was lucky enough to stumble my way into surely the most charming place to stay in the islands: Akabana, which is a one hundred plus year old collection of buildings, complete with sliding screens and ghostly photos from the 1960s. Daytime was spent on the beach, riding round on a scooter, or hanging out outside the local shop watching the local elderly come to buy their supplies. I also sqeezed in a couple of dives, but my ears were not equalising quite as well as I wanted and it left me in a little bit of pain, sadly.

    Stars of the weekend were Yokohama super stars, Yumi and Satomi. They didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak Japanese. So, we spent the time conversing in a series of sound effects, song, and dance. Three marvellous days hanging out … The sound of the ‘breakfast and coffee’ song still ringing in my ears.


    Tomorrow … Forever!

    Zamami – fully recommended, and an area of the world I would not mind heading back to one bit. Just a shame that the ferry company that operated between Okinawa and Taipei has gone bankrupt. Dreams of jumping off the ferry in Japan have been with me since before I arrived in Taiwan – perhaps the government will step in some day.


    At the Copa, Copa Akabana…


    House cats


    Hot line


    Wall of the Shurijo castle in Naha – a World Heritage site … of which Japan seems to have a monopoly on.


    The cats clean up after themselves here... goodbye Zamami!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Hong Kong Sevens

    The Hong Kong Sevens – carnival of the Rugby world – landed in Hong Kong the same weekend as me, but I managed to assemble my own team to compete with anything they had to offer.

    As is customary when I visit Hong Kong, I seem to gather an improbable number of friends and family members together in one place at the same time – belying perhaps how quiet life really is these days. On this trip in question, my Mum & Dad were travelling back from New Zealand, Anke, Lars and Linnéa were en-route to/from Taiwan, Sam from England dropped by for a beer, and of course Tanja & Michael were on hand to provide the floor and great hospitality. Adding to the melée were Geoff and Kipp (designers from HK) and Kai (designer from Germany). So, that sorted dinner out then.

    We managed to squeeze one of most activities into 72 hours – hiking for those craving nature and escape, shopping and urban safari for Mum & Dad who spent the last six weeks staring at mountains and sand flies, and for myself a great window to spend some time with the team. Well, multiple teams, it seems. Intense and exhausting as ever; but brilliantly exhilirating all the same.


    Michael in the house / on the bus.

    Mum on a boat – we headed out for hiking in the really rather remarkable national park. Minutes away from Hong Kong, and you are dropped in wilderness (almost).


    Dad in wide-angle mode.


    Hellooo!


    Okay, so maybe wilderness is stretching it a bit. But we did see some Scouts.


    Tanja and Kipp chat on the beach.


    Anke, radiant.


    G’day Mum! Oh – you mean they don’t say that in New Zealand?


    First of about 500 shots of Linnéa in the sea (for the first time?). She seemed to enjoy it almost as much as us!


    Legless.


    Soaring


    Lunch in the surf shacks.

    On Sunday, we spent the day cruising the stomping grounds of Tanja & Michael: up in the north of the city near the flower, bird and fish markets. I visited there a few years ago, so it was great to go back, and indeed it’s nice to know they live in such a vibrant area. Always fun to walk around. And so we did, indluging in a bit of light retail therapy on the way (or I did at least).


    Bag o’ fish?


    Out like a trout (funnily enough, at this precise second, I am listening to Mr. Scruff’s ‘The Fish Song’)


    Geoff checks the LASER-ETCHED FISH. Yes, those are Chinese symbols on the side! I’ll try that with the cats.


    Miffies!


    Airing the house


    Shoes for a dog … or twins!


    Bird’s life


    Widescreen


    Apartments for sale


    Wherever you go in Asia (or the world?) you’ll always find groups of men doing improbable things with their spare time. Is life with their wife that hard? I supposed throwing yourself off a mountain on a bike is much the same.


    Forever amazed by the scaffolding.


    Linnéa seems as bemused as me.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Running Amok


    Rule number one for me – no internet, e-mail or mobile access. Worth it.

    So yeah, last week I came back from ten days running around Cambodia and Laos. These two countries have been lurking on my list of places I fancied visiting for the whole time I have been in Taiwan, and while I barely managed to scratch the surface, at least I have a clearer idea of where I might want to return to if I do ever darken their doorsteps again. Excluding two trips to the UK, this was also my first ‘foreign’ holiday since Bali, so I was quite looking forward to it.

    Jewel in the crown, and more or less the focus of my trip, was seeing the ruins at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Clearly, several tens of thousands of other people from around the world have also had the same idea, and we needed to be up early in the morning every day if we were to stand a chance of seeing anything without being mauled by bus loads of Korean middle-aged sightseers en-route to the next Korean restaurant.

    As I mentioned in my last mini-post, I have bought a new camera and I was lucky enough to be able to borrow some of the lenses from Abe during the time there. Pretty impressive stuff, and I was particularly amused by the wide-angle zoominesss of the 16-35. As result of that, getting up stupidly early, and hunting nice light with Abe, most of my pictures fall into three categories:

    1. Sunrise photos, poorly exposed and badly coloured.
    2. Sunset photos, sporting large numbers of Korean tourists.
    3. Stupidly wide angle shots of everything – especially the photogenic ‘pointy boats’ that ply their trade on the Mekong.

    Our original plan was to fly into Siem Reap to check the ruins, jet up into Laos, and drift back to Phnom Penh along the Mekong river. Sadly this plan was compromised by a number of factors, including Abe’s emergency departure back to Taiwan halfway through, and the fact that the guidebook I was relying on for up-to-the-minute travel information was written in 2001, clearly before the authorities had fully embraced tourism and certainly before the Japanese gorvernment had started paying for a web of paved roads across the country.


    The first half of the trip, starring Jonny Biddle and Abe Sitzer

    While it seemed all the more exciting that the road route alongside the Mekong was accompanied by threats of bandits, prone to completely washing out and policed by highly corrupt officials, the updated roads have effectively put the boats out of business, and the buses that now use the road are clearly moving too quickly for any ambushes. Drat. One thing is for sure though – the officials still stink of corruption, and we had to grease the wheels of international travel with piles of 1$ notes at every booth. Ach well.

    Anyway, some photos, in approximate chronological order.

    Cambodia


    Abe enjoys one of my jokes.


    Sunset shot #00345a


    Boatman at the floating Vietnamese village … rather a tragic ‘floating Favela’


    All the temples building blocks are literally piled up on top of each other – not great for longevity, but nice for distressed photos.


    Ta Prohm temple was totally cool, and indeed set the scene for some of Tomb Raider


    The trees looked like molten wax, descending from the heavens.


    … or maybe industrial piping. One thing is for sure, when compared to my travels to Mayan temples in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, this certainly rivals or beats them.


    Amazing faces carved into the rock.


    Faces, in fact, were everywhere.


    Abe wearing the ‘Abe-iators’ … again at sunset. Cough.


    Up on the hill with all the other bleeding tourists, by far the best sights were to be had taking photos of them instead.


    I like this photo just for that one guy looking at me in the middle of proceedings.


    Improbable post-dawn shot of Angkor Wat.


    Oh look! A dawn shot of a boat. And a pond ripple!


    Much amusement from watching the local trasport. This girl clearly has it all worked out.


    … and this one, perhaps less so. Managed to capture a 5-person scooter, but missed out on the golden 6!

    Laos


    Empire of the Sun

    Yes, I know, another pointy boat + sunset shot. But hear me out … I was a little confused by the bite taken out of the top of the sun when I took this photo. I thought it could be a cloud, but it did not seem to make any sense. I stumbled across a solar eclipse web site when I returned, checked … and so it was! A partial solar eclipse. So there.


    Pretty cool graphic, huh.


    Back to earth with a bump – and riding the local buses to my next destination was a real treat for the senses … accompanied by the faint whiff of Betelnuts and the screaming of pigs strapped to the roof.


    Pointy boat. Sunrise. Yes. But what followed was a completely fantastic few hours floating down the Mekong from Don Khong to Don Det – precisely the target for this section of the trip.


    Kids splashing on Don Det (a place that was equal parts charming and irritating – there seemed to be a backpacker tractor beam installed in the place).


    Pointy boats.

    Back to Cambodia


    When I got through the border, I realised my travel options back to Phnom Penh were limited in the time I still had left. So, I bit the bullet and jumped on a very bumpy backpacker bus in a 12+ hour trip back to the capital. Quite good fun though, since I managed to accidentally
    locate the only Taiwanese girl on the bus and we spent the next two days hanging out and only speaking Chinese.


    Cruising the markets with my ‘Thrifty Fifty’ F1.8 was super fun – just snapping away as people went about their business.


    … and catching some of the emergent night-time entertainment was quite delightful. It seemed that the Khmer Rouge banned all music and much of the evening gatherings. The nascent pop music and nightmarket scene was like seeing Taiwan in its early days, I would imagine.


    … and seeing some of the older people, it was sobering to think what they went through in their years. Visiting the Killing Fields on the final day was a particularly jarring experience, and it was uncomfortable being reminded of the feats man is capable of – one must say though, that the people of Cambodia were full of spirit and humour, and I really was rather taken with them. Hope the future is as bright as the past was dark.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Laos & Cambodia – Predux


    Getting some headspace on my ‘Data Holiday’ in Laos & Cambodia – and watching kids messing around in the Mekong River

    I just got back from ten days of exploring and generally running around Laos and Cambodia, and am feeling all the better for it. My self-imposed ban on all feeds digital, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘www’ and mobile worked pretty well, and I will be doing this activity on a more regular basis in future – it’s just too easy for me to get caught up in all the pace and excitement of a thousand trillion bits of information all vying for your attention – and most of those bits being things I set up for myself.

    I have a big pile of photos to sort out, and some architecting (if that is a word) of my images. I took the plunge and bought a new camera (‘finally!’, I hear you say) – a Canon 5D, allowing me to gain free access to the lenses and toys of my flat mate’s 5D MkII – and have been shooting in ‘digital negative’ RAW. I am quite excited about the extra options this will give me, but a little unsure of how I want the workflow to operate, since iPhoto does not really help me too much in that respect. I am messing around with Adobe Lightroom, and I suppose I will be spending the next few weeks working out how I want my data to exist. One thing is for sure – my spacious 250 Gb internal hard drive that I bought six or so months ago is now 40 Gb from becoming full up, and shooting in RAW is going to knock that space out in a jiffy.

    Anyway – I’ll aim to pump out a bunch of images in the conventional fashion using iPhoto for the time being so I can get a full blog post up, and then perhaps use Flickr more for my artsy fartsy messing around with images. All very exciting.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Mud, Glorious Mud

    Dad and I braved the incredible (almost) sub-zero temperatures to attempt to ride along the new-fangled Guided Busway route from St. Ives to Cambridge, using the old railway lines. Running was smooth for much of the way, but we hot trouble where the construction ran out, and the mud arrived in typical self-adhesive fashion, entirely locking our wheels up, and leaving Dad dragging his bike the rest of the way (to the pub, at least).

    All very amusing – this time next year we should be able to whistle up there in no time.


    Trooper.


    Suspension not working optimally, perhaps.


    This never happens in Taiwan


    Just in time – cheers!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Hong Kong Welcoming Comittee

    After a taxing week in Shanghai on business, I busted down on a whim to visit Tanja and Michael in Hong Kong, who had moved a few days earlier. A perfect blend of hanging out on boats, swigging beer, munching great food and generally catching up, I look forward to the coming months and having the guys a bit more local – I’ll be there in time for dinner!


    Yes, Taipei has a bit of scooter fume pollution – but we happily lack the haze drifting over from Chinese factories. Perhaps one happy side effect of the economic slow down is an improvement in air quality there.


    Michael strutting off.


    Would you trust this tailor?


    Matching the trends I am seeing in Taipei regarding Chinese character grafitti … calligraphy with a spray can.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…