Nikki and I made a run for the city limits, and opted to test-out the newly restarted Maokong Gondola up into the hills. I had attempted twice before to use the service, but prior to the landslide that began to undermine one of the pylons the crowds were simply too big. Now? Well, no-one wants…
A local pauses to enjoy the lovely weather we are having at the moment.
I really enjoy walking the back-streets of Taipei, away slightly from the main thoroughfares that sport Starbucks and MacDonalds and the rest. In the back streets, you’ll find ‘single serving shops’, privately run and often staffed with the elder family members, seemingly set back about twenty years and invariably overstocked and focusing on one type…
It was miserable weather up in the hills today. Conditions were humid, rainy and chilly/hot in a way that only seems to happen around Taipei. As a result of the extremely slippery conditions, Mark and I opted to take a different route. We came across a derelict police firing range, and I obviously had to…
Even though China got the Olympics, I have to respect the effort that Taiwan put in to host the Deaflympics and World Games; no easy feat. However, the fact that Shanghai is hosting the World Expo does not justify to me why Taiwan has to have its own tit-for-tat Exposition, in the form of the…
Taipei tries its best at erecting buildings that have some semblance of style, even if that style is generating a neo-Gothic Greek Revivalist Bali retreat. But bless ’em, the local residents get to work modifying, adapting and extending their properties with scant regard for the outward appearance of a building. It’s something I have written…
Feeling blurry – but all the better for escaping the city. Quick escape from a sleepy, rainy Taipei, and off to Jiufen for an afternoon session of tea and Taiwanese snacks. Very satisfying. Looking over at Turtle Island. Lantern Street The wind picks up.
Chat Roulette is the latest darling of the internet community. Connecting you, via webcam, with random users from around the world, it takes all that is miserable, squalid and immoral debauched about the internet, and conveniently gathers them in one place. At the slightest hesitation or lull in conversation you or they have the power…
This is proving to be one of those ‘intense weekends’. Arrive from the USA at midnight on Friday, get up to help prepare Easter Brunch for a dozen friends (Rabbit, Lamb and Quiche, no less!), then jump on a train down south to meet Michael and Tanja in Kenting; and all with a rainy cloud…
The door was locked. The cats, beyond the door sounded like they had just knocked something over. “Silly cats.” Taking out the key and turning it in the lock, I didn’t get the usual three-stage series of weighted clicks; instead just a solitary single rotation, signifying a flatmate was home. “Hello!” No answer, I walk…