Betel Nuts

There are these little curbside stands all over the place here where they sell something called betel nuts. Betel nuts are something like snuff, in that people chew them for a while and then spit them out. They are addictive, and also contain some chemicals that act as a stimulant, hence they are very popular with laborers and truck drivers.

The stands are usually staffed by scantily clad ladies, as you can see by the picture on the right :-) That was taken from one of the stands across the street from KYEC. There are literally one or two stands on every block of the city.

Taxis and Mopeds

Mopeds are everywhere here. I would estimate that they outnumber cars by at least 100 to 1, if not more. For most people in Taiwan this is their primary mode of transportation. In fact I have seen entire families of four (2 adults, 2 children) on one moped. I also saw a girl riding a moped with a Golden Retriever (I wish I had gotten a picture of that).

The problem with the mopeds is the riders have little to no regard for any rules of the road, plus they park them wherever they feel like, usually on the sidewalks. In fact many sidewalks have these bars about 6 inches high going across to discourage people from riding on them.

Taxis present a similar problem. Taxi drivers here consider lanes, stop lights, etc to be suggestions only, not actual rules. The other day I was in a cab that came to a stop light behind three other cars. The cab driver veers into oncoming traffic in order to pull up to the front of the line waiting for the light to change.

You would think that putting these two together would result in disaster, but somehow it all works. Even more surprising, nobody gets angry, yells, honks, or shoots the finger at other motorists. The cab drivers will blip the horn when passing a moped to let them know they are being passed, but that is about the extent of any horn blowing.

Such an architecture will touch your heart and become meaningful in your mind

The title of this post is actually printed on big signs around an apartment complex that is being constructed. You see this absolutely everywhere. I think they just take the Chinese text, feed it into Babelfish, and the publish the literal translation without any thought to if the words actually make sense.

There's tons of this stuff, most of it really funny. I'll try to jot down some of them while I'm out and put them up here.

BTW, there's a department store that has a slogan that for some reason reminds me of my sister Sarah. The name of the store is Sogo, and their slogan is "So Happy, Go Shopping". Catchy eh?

Mmmmmm, Chicken Feet...

Yep, Chicken Feet. People actually eat chicken feet. My guide, Albert Wong, loves chicken feet, but I can't bring myself to try them. In fact, there is a lot of food here that I can't bring myself to try. The worst are the street vendors. Raw meat hanging out on carts waiting to be cooked, etc. Not very appetizing.

Of course the nice thing is that food is really cheap here. I like to stick to meals that cost more than $3, since that usually means they are pretty high quality and sanitary.

In fact, I have found a few really good places to eat. One is a dumpling place (think pot stickers), and there are several excellent tepanyaki (Shogun's) places that are great. Of course you'll drop a whopping $20 on a full meal including steak, shrimp, beer, etc. but it's worth it :)

Happy Birthday to Me

We took the train into the capital of Taipei yesterday for some sightseeing and shopping. Here are some pictures I took with my cheesy phone camera.


This is the view from my balcony

More view from the balcony

The National Taiwan Museum. There was a pretty cool exhibit on the maritime history of the island.
Some interesting looking structure in a park near the museum. There's a fountain in the middle of it. Kind of looks like an Escher drawing to me.

More Pictures from Taipei

This was on a sign in a park. It reminds me of Jake.

This is from a huge political protest rally that was going on about a half mile from the presidential palace. They are trying to depose the president for embezzling. It was very cool :-)



The main entry into a national memorial area. The Chang Kai Shek monument is located in here along with gardens, etc.

Neat looking building in the park area.


The Chang Kai Shek memorial. Shek was the first president of Taiwan I believe. This monument dwarfs anything in Washington DC. The scale was very impressive.

View back onto the park from the top of the monument. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there was some sort of concert that they were getting ready for.

Getting There is Half the Fun

Whatever. The total travel time from when I left the house at 5:00am Thurday to when I got to the hotel at 9:30pm on Saturday was 27.5 hours, mostly on a plane (in business class thank God). The trip was pretty uneventful, no delays, etc. I only managed to sleep for about three hours, and I polished off two books on the way here, which is pretty impressive since it usually takes me a month to read one.

I am staying in the city of Hsin-Chu which is about an hour drive from the capitol of Taipei. There is some good background information about Taiwan here.

OOH, A Blog

I thought the best way to share my experiences in Taiwan would be to write about them in a Blog. I know, it's kind of cheesy, but this seems to work well for showing pictures, etc. Anyway, I'll try to post here regularly.