Tag: Transport

  • Get on the Bus


    Uh Oh, 100 buses in Taipei…

    Know that I got some very strange looks when I was taking these photos!


    Advertising in Banciao – BIG (see me below) – I had to talk my way into the top floor. The security guard said ‘no’ but then I showed him a poster of me behind him and he had to say yes! Authority?

  • Kyoto Jazz Massive

    Kyoto is now officially one of my favourite places on the planet. The weather has been nigh on perfect for my time here and it has been truly splendid seeing the city.

    The highlight of the trip – just perhaps one of the highlights of all my travelling – was renting a bike and riding around in the winter sunshine on a rented bike with my Cambridge University scarf waving behind me. I had a smile on my face for the entire day, popping from temple to temple, putting my head round the door of a few UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and cutting up taxis riding just like a student so late for their morning lecture there is simply no point rushing any more.

    It would be very easy to overdo the temple thing here. They form the city’s major industry and have done for the last thousand years. I think I have done a reasonable job mixing it up though, making sure I also include some gardens, pagodas, food and stopping to ponder the immense complexity of this society – at once immediately accessible and frustratingly impenetrable; espacially here in Kyoto.

    I suppose the feeling I have of this place is of awe, but in a similar way to the secretive halls and passages of Cambridge University, even if I was Japanese I would have difficulty breaking more than the most superficial of surfaces – let alone understanding the place.

    I’ll have one more day to soak, then I will have to the even more historical capital of Nara and then on to Tokyo for a weekend of eating, shopping and drinking with Kaoru. Should be a blast, and a nice contrast to the hostel + ‘cultcha’ of this place.

    Ridiculously beautiful and endlessly layered, this place is beguiling.


    Sanjusangen-do. This temple had 1001 human-sized standing buddas standing inside. Each budda sported 40 arms. Each of those arms are able to protect 25 universes from evil. In turn, each can save 25. So, this insurance policy – an insurance policy that took 100 years to build – can protect a total of 30,033 worlds from destruction, and save mankind. Seems… a touch… excessive.


    Kiyomizu-Dera – UNESCO World Heritage Site


    The weather was simply perfect


    Pagodas in the mist


    What more to say? I played for a while with B&W;


    Views over Kyoto


    Happy Budda at the love temple – I would be too, surrounded by such beauty


    Hon-do – rather an arresting site in the gorge


    Even lamps in the cafe got my pulse racing!


    Everything – everything – seems to be considered and nicely executed, with little design solutions everywhere you turn


    Yeah, so my new camera has depth of field – you guys have guessed. Again, not Sakura!


    Port hole


    The roofs just blew me away every time


    3G monk!


    Heian-Jingu is a rather large and gaudy temple – or shrine, I always get them mixed up – in a very Chinese style


    Fortunes tied to trees


    Ginkaku-Ji, or the Silver Pavilion, is another UNESCO site. Very nice, but with a pretty ugly Zen garden (in my opinion) and rather too many chattering tourists


    Make a wish


    Tools of the trade on show at Ryoan-Ji. But he messed up all the raking!


    Hi Contrast


    Layer cake


    Icy cold sunshine


    Is this just the nicest row of buckets you have ever seen?!


    A very pleasant lunch while looking out across an immaculately manicured garden


    Hello … or rather Konichiwa


    At the Imperial Palace … much more well preserved than the other places. But with an organised tour, lots of camera toting tourists and a slightly hygienic feel, I think other locations were better


    Yeah sorry! Sakura? No.


    A lovely garden… but I have begun to realise that while Japanese gardens seem to be made for looking at, Western gardens are for sitting in. If I sat down I am sure a necromancer or irate gardener would shoo me away!


    Too cool!


    The English chap I hung around with for a couple of days; a hip hopper from Oxford

  • German Cars

    The Taiwanese do love their German cars – never have I seen so many BMW 7-Series in one location. Indeed, before I came here I saw the 7-Series as a bloated, ugly barge; it was only when I arrived here and realised that presence and status were the commodities sought that I understood the Bavarians’ vision. The 7 was not for Europe, but for Asia.

    And what can be better than a BMW? A BMW with a German number plate still intact!


    We believe you – it is a German product

  • Back to London

    On my way back to London …


    Top deck


    Reflections of the underground

  • Duck : Be Pure

    I haven’t put a post up in a little while, so i think it is worth getting it running again with a classic ‘Scooter English’ post. I should also point out that there is a large collection of other ones at the link here.


    Duck – Be Pure – 125 SP – To resist drugs and violence


    And while I am at it – it is essential to show this image from a recent trip to a waterfall in Wulai with Rich. In(s)ane.

  • Tokyo Drift

    Some bikes … just for you.

  • Spotted

    I need to kick start my blogging again so the best way to do this is to simply upload some photos. So, here are some amusing things that I have seen on my travels of late.


    A labrador seen near Danshui – shaved clean of any dignity


    Dad bought this in Hong Kong … amazing


    On the way home, I snatched this photo of a guy who could hardly turn he had so much foam loaded onto his scooter


    One of the local tradesmen specialises in brooms and hats and taps and bowls. As you begin to tune into Chinese you begin to hear the sounds of ‘buo li’ (glass) and other household items blairing (is that a new verb?) out of pre-recorded loud-hailers


    Taiwanese people like food. Taiwanese people like weapons. Taiwanese people like food shaped like weapons. (stretching the truth for the benefit of the blog)

  • Green Island

    I am definitely getting slower at writing the blog at the moment – much of the reason for this is because I have a new distraction in my life, in the form of an Apple MacBook. I have spent many happy and unhappy hours fiddling, fettling and making things work in the way I want. Finally, I have backed up the whole web site, and things are returning to normal, somewhat.

    So, these words a touch old but I hope they are still okay.

    Mum & Dad’s second visit to the island was a welcome break from the ups and downs of life in Taiwan. I really needed it, though I did not realise just how much until I saw them face to face in their hotel room. The benefits of Skype, especially, have meant that we are in very close contact much of the time, even if I really should call home more often.

    Veterans of Taiwan, we decided to head away from the smog of Taipei and away to the tropical south of the island. However, as you will see we managed to choose the ‘tropical storm’ variety of the term to accompany us on our way down south.

    The first aeroplane delayed, then cancelled. After a two hour wait we finally boarded and were on our way. It was about half way through the flight that el capitain informed us that weather conditions were difficult on the final approach, ie: they could not find the runway through the clouds. The second aeroplane made it to Taidong, and then returns to Taipei.

    These delays were already quite enough for me, so I cannot really imagine how dispiriting it was the folks as their bodies were still navigating jet lag. So it was with this that the final aeroplane of the day boarded, minutes before we were considering renting a car or staying in and watching Television. Aeroplane three lands in Taidong!


    Rather a slap in the face!

    I remained in fairly close communication with Erin and she made sure that the local travel agent in the south knew to pick us up, and he gleefully drove us down to the dock side, all the while chewing betelnuts and spitting the bloody expectorant into a cup on the dash board. Arriving at the dock side, it was clear he and his wife shared the same past time – she also looks as if she had wrestled an impala to death on the planes of Africa.

    A short wait, some food and finally we board our boat for Green Island.

    It was pretty clear from the get-go that many of the people on board had never been on a boat before. The crossing is notoriously choppy, so we nabbed our seats near the back, away from the bow and the inevitible lurching. As we breached the main harbour wall screams of joy erupted from the front as people enjoyed being chucked around by the waves. Screams were replaced by silence, and silence by the sounds of fifty Taipei land lubbers on their first (and surely last) boat trip. Indeed, I personally felt pretty uncomfortable by the end and was glad to be on land again.


    Before the waves

    The traditonal thing to do on Green Island is to rent scooters and buzz off around the island chasing a stream of people doing exactly the same thing. We were not completely sold on the idea, but upon seeing the weather reports we thought it would be better than braving wind and wet up in the hills. And it was really, really worth it.

    We snatched a quick ride after renting the scooters in the evening and headed out as far as we risked taking the fuel tanks (thoughtfully siphoned off, bottled and resold by the friendly locals). I had my girl on the back (Mum) and Dad had a steely look in his eye that I am pretty sure I only ever saw once before. Dennis Hopper I think. Certainly he had some sort of sound track that I would have loved to have been in!


    Easy Rider(s)

    The next morning brought more grey weather, rain and wind. But it didn’t really matter as it can only get so cold in the south of Taiwan. The island is certainly beautiful, baron and even more battered by nature than the rest of the island. Passing the occasional army camp slowly sliding into obscurity and rot it was clear that this place was probably not highest on the list of places the young men were enlisted to.


    Gotcha


    Waves smash into the rocks


    Dad tastes the salt spray


    Stand still!


    Dad made me do it – Mum enjoys her camera


    Not quite the same as a Norton … but still the thrill of the open road claims this survivor of the 60s


    Looking towards the southern tip of the island


    Dad tests another ‘tai wan pi jiu’


    There is no escape from 7-11 – students seem to fill many of the nooks and crannies of the island, as they came to celebrate their graduations


    Lampah

    We were also lucky enough to be on the island for the first England game of the world cup … thus initiating the frustration and pain of the coming weeks, and all in glorious Japanese mono. For those that are interested, here is a quick introduction to some terms in Japanese:

    Corner Kick = “koh nah ki kuh”
    Crouch = “krow chu”
    Shoot! + “shu tu!”
    Lampard = “lan pah du” (also directly translated as ‘cock’ in Taiwanese)

    The fun of the journey to the island was neatly mirrored on the way back to Taipei. The boat trip was marginally smoother and the betelnut-crazed tourist guide picked us up again. It was pretty clear straight away that we were in for more fun and games, and this was confirmed as we slowly saw the colours on the schedule change from green, to orange and finally red (bad news).


    Time for catching up on Chinese homework

    In the wait, we managed to squeeze in a trip to see the balmy delights of downtown Taidong. It didn’t take long. A Japanese-style Western-style steak restaurant, a pile of magazines and some quick coffees and we were on our way back to the airport. Nerves were marginally frayed after we heard the news that the east coast train line had been knocked out, but within minutes they finally announced the golden tickets and allowed us to board one of their fleet of grounded aircraft.


    “Can we PLEASE go back to Taipei?”


    Almost…


    …nearly…


    WE LANDED AGAIN! – to glorious sunshine though?

    Ironically, within half an hour of taking off we were flying in wonderfully clear and calm conditions and I was able to pick out our route home out of the window. I was more than a little alarmed when I realised we were heading way further east than I expected, making a heading direct for Taoyuan and the international airport. Not again! The last time I came back from Kending we ditched there (that time we were struck by lightening, of course), but it turned out it was simply a holding pattern, and we began our final descent into Taipei. At last.

    I swear, the weather system in Taiwan is broken.

  • Radio Controlled Kid

    Spot Dad with the remote

  • YingGe

    Erin and I had a day trip to the pottery town of YingGe to the south of Taipei. The town was pleasant and worthy of a day trip, but much better were these two photos that made me smile!


    It’s a GOLD scooter! – a 35th Anniversary model, apparently


    Waiting at the platform for the train back to Taipei, it was tempting to try transcending. Luckily, this sign warned me not to!