Category General stuff
In October last year I set off on my three month journey through south east Asia. When I first came up with the idea for that trip many years ago, I had this vague notion that I should write a lot of Frozen Moments during the trip, perhaps even forgoing a camera altogether and just document what I saw using words. My idea was that I would gather all of these texts together and try to get them published as a book, a sort of photo album if you will. In the end I did bring a camera, and … Read the rest
Whenever I’ve been out at the north-east coast of Taiwan, I’ve thought that the road along the coast is really nice for riding a motorbike. However, the times I’ve been there have always coincided with the time that plenty of other people have been there as well, that is, traffic has been too heavy for me to really enjoy the road. I figured the best remedy for this problem would be to go there in the early morning, probably around sunrise or so.
Now, I do enjoy going out together with my wife, and taking a ride through some beautiful … Read the rest
A couple of weeks ago I was studying the map and found a route just outside Hsinchu that looked like it would be fun to ride on the motorbike. Renegade wife and I attempted to do it that weekend but got caught in some heavy rain and had to turn back. This weekend we decided to try again. For those interested, the rout consists of a series of small roads that connect two of the main mountain roads near Hsinchu, you can can see the map below for details.
The ride out of the city is rather boring but once … Read the rest
In my last post I wrote about going swimming at Long Dong. I mentioned that people also go there for climbing, and since I like climbing I’ve been thinking of going back there for a while. This month, the authorities have decided that Renegade Wife can’t leave the city, that is she has to go to work on Saturday. Not wanting to stayed cooped up at home every weekend, I decided to go by myself.
I took off right after work on Friday afternoon, steering my trusty motorbike towards the north-east. The road out to the coast is pretty mountainous … Read the rest
Today we spent most of the day out at the coast at Long Dong. Long Dong is pretty popular, every parking space along the little street leading off the main road down to the beach was already taken when we got there a little after 10 am. That wasn’t a problem for us though since we could squeeze the bike in easily enough. Down on the beach there were plenty of people and the amount increased as the day went by, but it was never so full that it felt crowded.
Here in the north east there are very few … Read the rest
Always on the lookout for places to go and things to do my wife recently used her googling skills to find a hiking trail and waterfall in the nearby mountain area that we hadn’t been to yet (good work Honey). It seemed like a fun trail, so today we decided to go there. We took the motorbike up to the mountains and parked at the trail head; from there it was only a few hundred meters to the waterfall. Since it was a pretty hot day, the pool of clear, turquoise water at one the steps of the fall looked … Read the rest
At the end of the Chinese New Year the Taiwanese celebrate the lantern festival. Colorful lanterns in all shapes and sizes are put on display on some suitable piece of land for about a week. People come from all over the country come to admire the creative designs, watch the light show and try some tasty snacks at the night market. It moves to a new city each year, but me and the wife were there a few years ago when it took place here in Hsinchu. This year it takes place in Taoyuan, close to where I work, so … Read the rest
I should have written this last week but I kind of forgot about it for a few days and after that I’ve been too lazy. Anyway, here goes.
When we woke up on Saturday morning it was freezing cold, it must have been some kind of record for Hsinchu city. We went out for lunch and as we were waiting for our food to arrive the restaurant owner started shouting “It’s snowing, it’s snowing” so we went outside to check it out. It turned out it was indeed snowing, although it melted as soon as it hit the ground. Of … Read the rest
Today we went on a small roadtrip up into the mountains. The goal was a newly opened section of road that is supposedly similar to the central belt road, which is the road that snakes across the central mountain range from west to east. We went by various smaller country roads rather than the highway and around two in the afternoon we turned up into the mountains. The road we followed was narrow and bumpy and we wound our way upwards and then, as we came around a bend, a large sloping field of white, blossoming plum trees opened up … Read the rest
Useful knowledge for living in Taiwan
I’ve been living in Taiwan for several years now. I’ve gained a fair bit of knowledge through some sort of cultural osmosis, and by now I have a pretty good feel for the country and its culture. I’d like to share some of that knowledge with my readers (all three of them). Back when I first wrote this I thought a single post would be enough but since then I have written three more that you can find here, here and here.
1.: The counting system
In Chinese, numbers and counting works more or less the same way … Read the rest