Our Life in Taiwan

Picture Round-up

2007-06-30T21:11:00.001+08:00

Here are some pictures from the last 2 months:

Anting has found a new hobby that she really loves--soap making. This particular soap is made
through a marbling process. Every bar has a different and surprising pattern.

This toy is the first thing that ever scared Ryan, and boy did it ever scare him. He was calmly having a nice bath when it was introduced to him. He screamed, had such a scared look on his face, and nearly jumped right out of the tub. It might have been the noise it made after pulling the string. He continued to hate it for several weeks, but now has gotten used to it.

May 10, 2005

In May Ryan was able to start sucking his toes. He even likes his toes better than his thumb.

Mother's Day - May 12, 2007

May 19, 2007

May 21, 2007
Ryan rolls around a lot in his sleep now and can wind up in some interesting positions.

May 23, 2007
He likes to take pictures of himself now.

June 7, 2007
Ryan is able to now sit up unassisted

June 9, 2007

June 9, 2007
Jeff and Jean's Ivan. Three baldies (1 shaved)

June 10, 2007
Ryan's Auntie had some fun with stickers

June 10, 2007

Here's some genetic modificaion for you. 2 for one Bananas.

June 14, 2007

June 18, 2007
While Ryan can sit up, he does fall down sometimes so Anting made a towel helmet for him.

June 18, 2007
Ryan really loves his "a-ma"

June 18, 2007

June 27, 2007

The Podcast - Episode 10 - Taiwan Wedding

2007-06-18T06:47:00.000+08:00

The Podcast is now in High Definition and widescreen!

In this episode we attend a Traditional Hakka style wedding.

For the best quality, you should download Quicktime (if you do not already have it). If you are having difficulties watching or downloading, please click on the link under "Podcast Episodes" on the right or write a comment.

Click To Play

For a smaller file, faster download, and worse quality use this player:

Click To Play

Mother's Day Adventures

2007-06-04T22:37:00.000+08:00

The Day before Mother's day everything was set. We had a nice restaurant to go to, we knew where it was, and we knew who was going. Then, on Mother's day, it all changed. Ted, the favourite son, did not want to go all the way into Taipei to celebrate his mother's day. So, like on every other day besides mother's day, his mom had to accommodate his wishes. Since Mother's day is celebrated here, most of the restaurants were booked, but Anting's mom was able to make a reservation at a Thai restaurant she remembered going to a few months ago.

We all piled into two cars heading in the direction of where Anting's mom thought the Thai restaurant was. She forgot, however, to bring along any information about the proposed restaurant. She also forgot the name of the restaurant. After driving around for three quarters of an hour hoping divine intervention might allow Anting's mom to find the restaurant, we decided it might be best to call directory assistance. Of course directory assistance works much better when one has a name, or an address, or even a phone number.

Here was the original conversation with directory assistance in the morning:

Mom: Can I get the number of a Thai restaurant?

411: What's the name?
Mom: I don't know, but I think its on Zhuang Jin Road?
411: I'm sorry, there's no Thai restaurants on that road. Do you know the name?
Mom: I think its Golden something.
411: Is it Golden Coast?
Mom: Yeah, that's it.
411: Please hold for the number.

As we were driving around Anting's mom again called directory assistance:

Mom: Can I get the number of the Thai restaurant on Zhuang Jin Road?
411: There is no Thai restaurant on Zhuang Jin Road
Mom: But I called there this morning and the other lady gave me a number. Can I get that number?

After some more time on the phone explaining that directory assistance gets more than two calls a day, we finally got the number of the restaurant we thought we had a reservation for. Although we were now almost an hour late, we called and got the address. Upon arrival, Anting's mom realized that this was not the restaurant she went to those months ago. Plus, it was definitely not a Thai restaurant.

Plan B was to call Anting's dad who was the one other person who went to the Thai restaurant, but he was flying back to China that day. Fortunately, he was in the Hong Kong airport, had his phone on, and remembered the restaurant.

Now with address in hand, or at least rudimentary directions on how to get there, we were able to find the fabled Thai restaurant with little difficulty. But, we were told we'd have to wait an hour and a half for a table. Even though we were all frazzled and hungry, we decided to wait it out.

Luckily we waited as the food was very good, probably the best Thai food I've had in Taiwan. In addition, it was a very nice place for a photo shoot with all the moms and the newest son:

Click To Play

The Podcast - Episode 9 - On the Road

2007-05-19T22:13:00.000+08:00

In this episode Anting takes my dad out for a scooter ride through the mean streets of Taoyuan

Click To Play

Ryanpalooza

2007-05-12T23:19:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since I posted some pictures of Ryan, so here are some recent ones. He is doing very well now and is getting more and more interactive with us. He loves to smile and laugh. He now has a few new tricks. He can roll over onto his tummy, he can suck on his toes, and he is now onto some solid (or mushy) food.

March 22, 2007

March 22, 2007

March 24, 2007

April 1, 2007

April 14, 2007

April 21, 2007

April 22, 2007

April 24, 2007

April 30, 2007

The Podcast - Episode 8 - Grand Hotel

2007-05-12T14:22:00.000+08:00

In this latest video installment, we visit Taipei's Grand Hotel and discuss some of its surprising history.

Click To Play

Episode 7 - OOT and ABOOT

2007-04-30T22:34:00.000+08:00

Reposting our trip to Yangming Shan as I am having problems getting it to iTunes.

The Podcast - Episode 7 - OOT and ABOOT

2007-04-30T12:40:00.000+08:00

Our trip to Yang Ming Shan to say bon voyage to Josie.

Click To Play

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan - Part 9

2007-04-29T11:00:00.000+08:00

Sing Home Styrofoam Factory

It has been more than 3 months since my parents left, but here is the final installment of their trip here. Christmas was a Monday and is no longer a holiday in Taiwan. I therefore had to take the day off work. That meant from boxing day to the 28th, before my parents went on their 2 week trip to New Zealand, Anting was their tour guide. They took a break on Boxing day and loafed around, but on the 27th, went with Anting to her dad's Styrofoam factory.

Inside the Factory

National Palace Museum

After visiting the Factory, the next stop was to Visit Taiwan's most famous museum-The National Palace Museum. When Chiang Kai Shek left the Mainland and annexed Taiwan, he took with him many of China's national treasures. The collection is so large that only a small percentage of the works are on display at any given time. The building is quite large too so it requires several visits to see even the small percentage of displayed art. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside. I was very jealous since I had to work and I had never been to the museum before. Fortunately, I have since been and it is well worth seeing, but probably needs several visits to truly appreciate it.

National Palace Museum

Tepanyaki

After the museum, and after my work, we all met for a Japanese style tepanyaki dinner in Taipei. This restaurant is quite expensive, but in most malls they have little tepanyaki places that serve very good and freshly cooked meals.

It is nice to have the food cooked fresh right in front of you.

The Grand Hotel

December 28th - With their first leg of the trip winding to a close, My parents and Anting just went and visited the Grand Hotel in Taipei. The Grand Hotel is quite the beautiful landmark in Taipei as you can see from the pictures below. They had a buffet lunch there and then picked me up after work and we all went to the airport to see them off on their next leg of the journey--New Zealand.

Scooting About Town

January 11, 2007 - After spending a few weeks touring New Zealand, my parents were back in Taiwan to refresh for 2 days before heading back to Vancouver. Fortunately, there is not much of a time difference so not too much jet lag, but they needed to have a rest before returning. This morning, since my dad has been obsessed with the scooters zipping in and out of traffic, Anting gave him a ride around Taoyuan and up our local mountain to the temple.

That evening we returned to Taoyuan's best barbecue with some friends.

Checking out Taiwan's most convenient form of transportation

Taoyuan's Confucius Temple

It's Just Like Camping!

High Speed Rail

I took the day off for my parents' last day in Taiwan. They were scheduled on an evening flight and we decided to test out Taiwan's brand new high speed rail. The high speed rail had already been delayed 14 months when it finally opened for testing in January. There were many news reports about the massive bird slaughter that the train was causing, but it turns out the reports were somewhat exaggerated.

During the testing period the fares were half price. We were only able to get return tickets from Taoyuan to the next stop near Taipei, but it was a fun ride and it was nice to see the high speed rail in action. Even though the different components of the HSR system were built by different countries, it appeared and felt like everything fit together naturally. The ride was smooth and fast, the cars were clean and bright, and the stations were architectural wonders. The stations at Banqiao and Taipei connect with the regular train and the MRT, making it even more convenient.

After our high speed adventure, it was off to the airport to say goodbye again. It was really great having my parents here, not only so that they could see Ryan, but we got to experience plenty of Taiwan's greatest attractions. I hope we have more visitors.

Too much excitement

Last meal at the airport before flying home

Saying bye to little Ryan

The Podcast - Episode 6 - Chinese New Year

2007-03-26T18:56:00.000+08:00

The latest video podcast. The title speaks for itself.

Click To Play

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan - Part 8

2007-03-21T15:44:00.000+08:00

T'was the Morning of the Night before Christmas

In the morning of the night before Christmas we woke up with a fright. I was changing Ryan's diaper and he was just looking at me. Now, normally it would be quite pleasant to have your son looking quite adoringly directly into your eyes, but on on this occasion I knew something was wrong. Every other morning when I change his diaper, he gets cranky. He kicks and screams, jerks his arms around, and alternates between changing red and light purple. I called Anting over to the crib to get her expert opinion. Although we had just been on the road with my parents for a few days, there had been no major incidents and no one had been sick. Anting came over and performed the "lift up arm and drop it test". Ryan failed miserably; his arm flopped onto the crib like a warm sausage link. We both knew something was wrong at that point, but decided that maybe he was just tired and needed to wake up a bit. We also took his temperature and found him to be cooler than normal. We waited 5 minutes. His situation did not improve so we started packing for a hospital visit.

It was early in the morning and we were looking forward to heading back to sleep for a few hours after feeding Ryan. Going to the hospital was going to put a damper on that. We were very tired, worried, and now feeling immeasurable pains of guilt. Prior to heading off with my parents for our short trip around Taiwan, every Taiwanese person who knew of our plans told us not to go. If we were to go, we shouldn't take the baby. Chief among our advisers was Anting's mom, who is a wonderful source of "information" on how to raise a baby. In addition to worrying about Ryan's well-being, I had to face the prospect that the person who says you can't whistle lest evil spirits will be attracted, who tells me I shouldn't drink ice water, even when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside, and who maintains that babies can't be outside when its dark, or they'll get possessed, was right.

We arrived at the hospital tired, worried, and feeling guilty. Fortunately, we walked right in and Ryan was examined and had blood test right away. The emergency ward was quite busy so we had to wait for Ryan's test results. The weather was a little cold (and there are no indoor heating systems) so we wrapped him in a blanket and began the long wait for results. Ryan lay limply on my shoulder the whole time and had not even reacted when he was stuck with a needle for the blood test.

Finally the tests came back and it was determined that he had a urinary tract infection. He had to be admitted to the hospital for further tests and to treat the infection. Ryan was admitted to the newborn's ward and hooked up to an IV. For the next week he was in hospital and we visited during the posted hours. It was quite sad to have him back in the hospital as he had already spent more time than normal in the hospital after his birth and then was re-admitted after his first weekend out. It also meant that he missed his first Christmas at home. Fortunately they found that his UTI was not of the chronic type and cleared up after a few days of medicine.

Not being the types to let a loved-one's hospitalization get in the way of our celebrations, we carried on as normal, as you can see below:

Oh Christmas Tree

Opening Presents

The Buffet at The Grand Formosa Regent
(Cheaper on Christmas Day!)

Group Shot

In Front of the Giant Tree Outside the Restaurant

Group Shot

Having More Fun with our Little Buddy

2007-03-06T23:03:00.000+08:00

For the folks back at home, here are some recent pictures of our cute little buddy. Ryan is learning some good new tricks like grabbing things, trying to talk, and crying for an hour at the top of his lungs when we want to go to sleep. While he is having some health issues, he seems to be developing normally and is a happy baby. The doctors have finally figured out why he had jaundice for so long--he has hypothyroidism and is now on medication. The medication should also ensure that he develops normally. There are still several tests to perform, but ever since he's been on the meds, his colour and energy levels have improved. We hope March is the start of the end of extended hospital stays.

Feb 1, 2007

Feb 4, 2007

Crying Cousins - Feb 5, 2007

Feb 7, 2007

Feb 8, 2007

Feb 16, 2007

Feb 21, 2007

Mar 1, 2007

Mar 2, 2007

Mar 3, 2007

Mar 4, 2007

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan - Part 7

2007-03-05T10:33:00.000+08:00

Day 7 - December 23, 2006

Taroko Gorge

Welcome back to our series documenting my parents' trip to Taiwan. No, they have not been here all this time, but are safely back in Gibsons--it has just taken me this long to get these things posted. A few more parts to post and then I will consolidate the whole trip into a giant post. Please also note that more pictures of our adventure can be seen on our flickr site.

We spent the night in Hualian after our mountain highway driving adventure. In the morning we had another hotel buffet breakfast and then made our way to Taroko Gorge. I had never been there before and was looking forward to seeing it. It sure did not disappoint. The area is probably one of the most beautiful areas in Taiwan. Running along a stretch of about 16 Kilometers, the mountain views, clean air, and luxurious resort was somewhat reminiscent of Banff. We spent several hours looking around, taking pictures, and eating at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel. If you ever come to Taiwan, this has to be on the top of the list for must see places.

After spending most of the afternoon at the Gorge, we were finally at the end of our road trip and started making our way back to Taoyuan. The government had just recently finished building a massive series of tunnels that cut about 2 hours off the drive time from Ilan to Taipei. We got to experience driving for about 30 minutes through a mountain.

When we arrived home, we went to one of our favourite restaurants in Taoyuan and barbecued our own delicious meals.

View from the Hotel in Hualian

Small Town on the way to the Gorge

Christmas at the Formosa Regent

Outside the Hotel Resort

Entrance way to Mountain Temple

Enjoying the View on Taiwan's East Coast

Driving through the new Tunnel

Enjoying some Barbeque

The Podcast - Episode 5 - New Year's Boat Cruise

2007-02-17T13:34:00.000+08:00

Just in time for Chinese New Year, here is a podcast about the other New Year. We went with some friends to Danshui, hopped on a boat, had a barbeque, and sailed to a point where we could watch the fireworks on Taipei 101 at midnight.

Fortunately for all involved, no narration.

Click To Play

Smile of the Day

2007-02-08T01:18:00.001+08:00

Click To Play

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 6

2007-02-06T21:13:00.000+08:00

Day 6 - December 22, 2007

Meinong

We had stayed the night in an Evergreen Hotel and woke up to a very nice all you could eat buffet breakfast. All you can eat breakfast is not very appetizing if it is Taiwan style, but if it is American Style, it is quite good. Fortunately for all concerned, our's was a combo. The best of both worlds: Anting could have her intestine and seaweed congee and we could have some eggs and toast.

Our plan was to drive to Meinong, the famous place for hand-made paper umbrellas. Although the umbrellas there are made from wood and paper, they have a thick lacquer on them and they can actually be used. So,not only are they decorative, but also useful. After an hour or so drive, we arrived at Meinong, but could not see any umbrella makers. We did, however, find a nice lake with a pagoda, where Ryan had his lunch and we enjoyed the scenery. After Ryan's lunch we followed some tourist signs to a Hakka people centre, where Ryan managed to have the biggest puke we have seen to date. The Hakka Centre was also pretty boring so we left it quite quickly on our quest to find some umbrella makers. After driving through town back and forth, we got hungry and had some lunch. Finally, down the road we found the most famous umbrella shop and stopped in. It was quite nice, but perhaps not worth coming all the way down south for.

Moonscape on the Way to Meinong

So tell us how you like the food?

Stopping for Ryan's Lunch

The Lake Pagoda

Scenes around the Pagoda

BillBoard in Meinong

Making an Umbrella

The Umbrella Store

Mountain Highway

We had a decision to make. We were in the lower middle part of Taiwan, but on the west side. Our next major destination was in the North East. How to get there? If we drove south down to the nearly the southern tip, we could then drive north along the East side, but this would take quite a bit of time. Our other option was to go straight (on a winding road) through the mountains, but this involved some risk. We did not know if the road was very good and had heard that it was closed in the winter. In the spirit of living dangerously, we chose the latter and headed off towards the east coast. Three hours later, after driving about 80 kms we started regretting our decision. The road wound its way through the mountains. In many places it was only one lane and in many other places it was under construction, leaving an open cliff only a few feet away from our tires. Things got more interesting when we lost visibility due to a very thick mountain fog. Then it got dark and foggy. We pressed on and finally started seeing the mileage signs for the town at the end of the mountain road. Another couple of hours and we finally made it out the other end, but then had another 2 hours of driving to get to Hualian, our destination for the night. As such, we found a restaurant nearby, had some dinner, and then continued on our journey. We were all happy to arrive in Hualian in one piece.

Interesting foothills

Mountain Highway

Temple on the Mountain

Above the Clouds

After that drive, we'll eat anything!

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 5

2007-01-21T16:29:00.000+08:00

Day 5 - December 21, 2006

Sun Moon Lake

We woke up this morning and decided to go on the boat cruise around the Lake. The first stop was a floating Island. Due to a dam upstream, the floating island is quite a bit smaller than it was before. Most of it is now floating on a man made dock-like structure. There is one very small non-floating part. The next stop was the other side of the island where there is a tourist trap street where one can get some shopping done.

Morning Lake view from the Hotel

Sun Moon Lake Blues

Waiting for our Cruise to Begin

Christmas Scenes Around Sun Moon Lake

On the Floating Island

After the boat cruise, which really was only for an hour and a half, including the two stops, we drove up to the Tsen Pagoda, that overlooks the lake. The pagoda was built by Chiang Kai Shek, or at least at his request, for his wife. To get there one must first hike up steps for 600 metres and then seven flights of stairs to get to the top of the Pagoda. At the top the view is quite nice and you can ring the bell.

Tsen Pagoda

Mom, Anting, and Ryan outside the Pagoda

Scenes from the Top

Where's the Elevator?

Too Much Exercise

Inside a Chinese painting

Climbing Back Down the Mountain

Sun Moon Lake

After Hanging out at Sun Moon Lake for most of the day, we hit the road again, heading further south to Tainan. There, after driving around for a while, we found a hotel run by Eva Airlines.

We Interrupt this Regularly Scheduled Program for Some Ryan Photos

2007-01-16T10:40:00.000+08:00

"Go Long!"

Mom and Christmas Baby

Trying on New Clothes

"More Milk Dammit!"

" Who's That Watching Me Burp?"

Grandparents Looking On

More Fun with Signs

2007-01-14T13:41:00.000+08:00

I think they meant "Booty"

Ass; Telling it like it is since 1978. Come down for a piece.

Well I guess... if you like your ipod that much. But, any damage is
not covered under the warranty.

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 4

2007-01-13T20:05:00.000+08:00

Day 4 - December 20, 2006

Road Trip

In the morning of December 20th we started out on our road trip down south. Our planned destination was Sun Moon Lake. Anting and I had been in there in the summer and it was quite beautiful, so we decided to take Mom and Dad there to see what it's like in the winter. Driving on the Highways in Taiwan is quite the joy. Several lanes of very well maintained roadway, usually elevated, help you get from North to South with no problems.

My Dad likes to take pictures while traveling 100km/h. Surprisingly some turn out OK

Our first stop was at the rest stop. Taiwan takes the idea of the highway rest stop to a whole new level. At this rest stop, built as an overpass, several stores, restaurants, and arcades all do quite a good business.

Outside the rest stop

Some scenes from inside the rest stop

Mom and I try out one of Taiwan's national pastimes

I tried to prepare Mom and Dad with the fact that as we went south the Western - style restaurants would become fewer and fewer. Unfortunately I was proven wrong; We stayed at the Hotel Del Lago at Sun Moon Lake and had a nice steak dinner.

At the Hotel Restaurant

Impressed with the facilities

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 3

2006-12-31T11:38:00.000+08:00

Day 3 December 19, 2006

Danshui

We started the day with some Christmas errands, namely having a picture of Gibsons framed for Anting's parents. We were originally heading for Danshui, or at least the part of Danshui where we thought we were supposed to go for touristy things, but followed the signs to fisherman's wharf. That took us to a different, but worthwhile place. Unfortunately, it was very windy and spraying rain, so not ideal for touristy things. In warmer and dryer weather, it seems like a very nice place to hang out.

At the bridge at fisherman's Wharf

Weathering the storm

Around the Harbour

Dad's Lighthouse Shot

Another good shot on Dad's 3 mega pixel on "Auto"

Fort San Domingo

There is an old fort near Danshui, which is on the north west corner of Taiwan, that was originally built by the Dutch. It was inhabited by the Dutch, the Spanish, the English, and most recently has been given back to the government and made into a tourist spot. It is very nice to see some European style architecture where old buildings look pretty good.

Not only was looking around the fort pretty good, the lunch was excellent and reasonably priced, and the restaurant had a beautiful view.

Wooden Shoes in the Background sponsored by ING

Baby out for a sling

Ryan

It is very comfortable in here

Our View from the Restaurant

Happy to see some Western food

After our late lunch we finally made it to the Danshui part we know and love. Unfortunately it was quite cold and rainy. After a quick walk down the street and along the dock, we headed back to Taipei for some good old fashioned rush hour traffic in the rain.

Some scenes from the Danshui seaside walk and night market.

Costco

What better thing to do in the rain than check out what Costco is like in Taiwan. Also good for some last minute Christmas shopping. After Costco, we went to one of our favourite restaurants - Kiki, where they serve excellent Szechuan Chinese Food. Unfortunately no pictures, but it was delicious as always.

What's a vacation without Costco?

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 2

2006-12-31T00:24:00.000+08:00

Day 2 - December 18, 2006

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

We had to take Ryan into the hospital for some tests this morning. Since we did not really have an appointment, the wait was going to be a few hours. Anting graciously offered to see the Doctor with Ryan while I took Mom and Dad to the CKS memorial.

Looking towards the Main gate from the Memorial

Changing of the Guard

Proof they went somewhere other than Hooters

Riding the Big Escalator in on the Metro

More Metro Shots

Taipei 101

We met Anting and Ryan at the TGI Friday's near the Hospital and had some lunch before heading to Taipei 101, the world's tallest Building (for now). The elevator is also pretty fast, getting us up to the top in about 30 seconds. Not only is it worth it to go up to the top and look at Taipei from above, but there is also very nice shopping on the lower floors and nice to have a coffee and lounge in the giant atrium on the 5th floor.

Taipei 101

Scenes from the Top

Din Tai Feng

After spending several hours in 101, we drove over to the world famous Din Tai Feng, where we had their xiao long bao (soup and meat filled dumplings), kong xin cai (fried green vegetable), chao fan (fried rice), and for dessert some red bean and some sesame dumplings.

Making the world famous dumplings

How "Big Nose" eats Chinese Food

Grandma pitching in

Making Grandma Laugh

Mom and Dad's Trip to Taiwan Part 1

2006-12-30T17:18:00.000+08:00

Day 1 - December 17, 2006

Taoyuan

My Parents arrived at the Taoyuan-Taiwan Airport at about 6:45 am and Anting, Ryan and I were there to pick them up. Of course the first order of business was to check out their new grandson.

Happy Grandma

Happy Grandpa

Since the best way to avoid jet lag is to quickly adapt to the local time, I thought a nice brisk walk through Taoyuan's traffic would be just the thing to keep them awake in the afternoon. While the exhaust fumes might have slowed them down a bit, dodging the scooters, taxi drivers, and stinky tofu vendors, kept them on their toes.

Sunny Winter Walk

Street outside the Train Station - Taoyuan

Uncontrolled intersections are the best

Tasty

We let Mom and Dad have a shower and a nap in the afternoon and then we had a nice meal at the Tasty Restaurant, just down the street from our house and a few steps away from their hotel.

View from Hotel Room

Anting's Aunt and Uncle and my Mom and Dad
enjoy the ambiance of Tasty

Traveling to Taiwan

2006-12-29T23:52:00.000+08:00

My parents came to Taiwan and I took them to all the main cultural places.

Seasons Greetings

2006-12-25T00:51:00.000+08:00

Click To Play

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our friends and Family. We hope you are all enjoying a special holiday season. Best wishes for the New Year.

The Podcast - Episode 4 - Introduction to Taiwan

2006-12-15T01:10:00.000+08:00

Introduction to Taiwan - Part I - The Particulars

In this episode, I provide a brief introduction to the geography, the people, and the languages of Taiwan. My parents are coming to Taiwan and I wanted to give them some info before they came.

If you would like to listen press below:

LISTEN HERE

Ryan's Chinese Name

2006-12-10T23:42:00.000+08:00

After much consultation with Chinese name books, dictionaries, and family, Ryan finally has a Chinese name. I have provided the pinyin so you can pronounce it. For those of you who are not familiar with Mandarin Chinese, let me give you a brief introduction. First, as far as names go, the family name comes first. 柏 (bo2) is the Chinese equivalent of Bow. It does not mean bow, but sounds pretty close (when you say it in Chinese it sounds more like "bwoh"). The number represents the tone. In Mandarin there are 4 tones. Tone #1 is a high tone that neither rises nor falls. Tone #2 is a rising tone, like when you say a word at the end of a question. Tone #3 is falling and then rising, and sometimes changes to a second tone when in front of another 3rd tone. Tone #4 is a falling tone, like if you were to say a command like "don't!"

柏 (bo2) means cypress tree, 彥 (yan4) means talented or worthy and 輔 (fu3) means to assist. I wanted to call him 柏拉圖 (bo2 la1 tu2) as that is the Chinese name for Plato, but no one else seemed to think that was a very wise idea.

After this lesson, you should now be able to say:

柏彥輔, 你好!
bo2 yan4 fu3, ni3 hao3!
Hello Ryan Bow (Hello talented tree assistant!)

Check out Our Flickr Pictures

2006-12-10T02:09:00.000+08:00

I have added a bunch of new Photos and some old ones to the Flickr Site. Press on one of the links on the right to get you there.

Sunday Close-ups

2006-12-03T18:07:00.000+08:00

The Podcast - Episode 3 - Special Feature

2006-11-29T02:07:00.000+08:00

In this episiode, we present a short video documenting Ryan's birth day.

Click To Play

If you would like to skip directly to the video, go here:

Click To Play

Happy American Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T19:54:00.000+08:00

Thanks for the new Clothes Grandma!

I got cute clothes, so what?

Superman!

Father and Son

Pictures for the Day

2006-11-23T00:19:00.000+08:00

More Ryan Pictures

2006-11-19T21:33:00.000+08:00

Due to popular demand (or at least our imagined popular demand) here are some more pictures.

We have enjoyed a weekend all together at home and have to say that it has been quite wonderful.

We have been blessed with a baby who really loves to sleep (serious wood knocking now). And, when he is awake, he does not like to cry much (more knocking).

He has been eating quite well and loves to take a bath (OK sore knuckles now).

It is still a lot of work, but Ryan has certainly made things easy for us. Now we have to wait for the other shoe to drop as perhaps this is just the calm before the storm.

Enough cliches? OK on to the pictures...

Put Your Hand in Mine

好舒服! (How Comfortable!)

The Happy Parents

Lay off the Ears Mommy (or I'm calling Zenith 1234)

Thanks for the Outfit Auntie Hsin Mei!

More Fun with Signs

2006-11-19T21:29:00.000+08:00

It's not wrong, but it made me laugh

Homecoming Part II - Electric Boogaloo

2006-11-17T16:02:00.000+08:00

Hooray! Ryan is home again. We hope it will last longer this time. I will post more this weekend.

Homecoming Pictures and Video

2006-11-15T10:27:00.000+08:00

Ryan is still in the Hospital and we are visiting once per day. His jaundice level has gone way down now and he probably can come back home tomorrow. Here are some Photos and videos from his short trip home. He is starting to look more like a caucasian, blue eyed, male version of his mom.

There's Something about Mali

2006-11-15T00:44:00.000+08:00

I don't know what a "Keriting Rambut" is, but it sounds like they're fixing the wrong end.

Only $150NT for the Cameron Diaz special!

Homecomings and Goings

2006-11-13T11:39:00.001+08:00

After being in the hospital for 2 weeks, Ryan was cleared to leave the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Since we were also staying in the hospital, it meant we could all go home.

We decided this week not to stay at the "month stay" hospice as Anting wanted to get on with looking after Ryan and we had learned most of what we needed to learn in the hospital.

While Ryan was able to leave the hospital, his jaundice was still being monitored. The doctors discovered that he is missing an enzyme and so he is "G6pd positive". While this appears to be nothing to worry about, he has to avoid certain medications and certain beans. I guess he wont be uttering this phrase: "The last time a census taker came to my door, I had his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti". It also means, his jaundice issues may be extended. We were told to bring him back to the hospital if he was getting more yellow.

Most of our conversations this weekend have been:

"Does he look more yellow?"
"I don't know, he was pretty yellow when he left".
"I think he's more yellow, What should we do?"

"Now, he looks less yellow"

"I think he's more yellow"...

Being jaundiced means the doctor thinks Ryan should not have breast milk. Unfortunately, this means not only do we have to prepare the formula and feed him, Anting has to keep pumping to keep her milk production up.

Our first night with Ryan home was a sleepless one, not because he was crying a lot, but because of the feeding and pumping sessions. When we did have a chance to rest, we were both intently listening to him sleep. His gurgling or groaning sounds would keep us up, and when he was really quiet, we worried he wasn't breathing.

Sunday night was quite a bit better. After worrying that he was not eating enough, we went out and bought some new nipples for his bottle and he chugged down a whole meal in 15 minutes. We were quite impressed and relieved. Of course now, he may have some difficulty going back to the breast after seeing how easy it is to get formula.

Monday morning he had to be checked for his jaundice level so we had our first outing, bringing along all his supplies.

Anting has just called me and said Ryan has to go back to the hospital for at least 3 days because his jaundice has increased again.

We have not decided what we are going to do, perhaps stay in a hotel in the neighbourhood, but I will keep you all posted as to our comings and goings.

More Bootlegged Footage

2006-11-05T00:19:00.000+08:00

We were caught this time and scolded for taking pictures of our own baby, but it was worth it to get some shots of Ryan with his eyes open. Plus, here's some quick video footage of him crying like a baby.

So this is what Mom and Dad look like.

Sitting up makes me stop crying

Hello World!

Stolen Picture

2006-11-04T12:06:00.000+08:00

He Loves to Sleep

We were able to sneak a picture today.

The Podcast - Episode 2 - Ryan Update

2006-11-04T02:51:00.000+08:00

In this episode, I update what's happening with Ryan as of Friday evening, November 3, 2006. We also made some silly audio files on my new cell phone (before and after interviews) that I downloaded onto the computer and mixed in. Sorry for the quality of those audio bits, but it is just the cell phone note taking function, not meant to be included in a professional, high quality podcast such as this.

If you would like to listen, press on LISTEN HERE below.

I have also discovered that you can search and find the podcast in itunes. Search for "Our life in Taiwan" and you shall find it. You can subscribe there or click on the RSS symbol on the right to be hooked up.

Thanks for listening and I promise to provide some more Taiwan centred podcasts in the future, but for now you'll just have to suffer through the baby talk.

LISTEN HERE

Who Wants Gmail?

2006-10-31T10:29:00.000+08:00

I was one of the fortunate few to have finally received some gmail invitations yesterday. If you do not know about gmail, let me tell you it is an excellent e-mail program.

Not only is it an e-mail program, but from inside you can chat with other gmail users. You never have to delete e-mails for space restrictions, or to organize. It has a built in google search function to help you find important information in e-mails that are archived. For those who are currently hotmail users, gmail automatically saves your sent messages and never deletes them. It also saves your chats. And, its free.

If you would like to be invited, please e-mail me as I have 50 invitations and would like to spread the joy of this service.

Latest Update

2006-10-30T14:12:00.000+08:00

Ryan is doing much better now and has moved out of the ICU. While he is still under the lights for his jaundice, everything seems to have stabilized.

Anting is also doing very well and has been eating for a few days now.

We look forward with great anticipation to our 1/2 hour visits 3 times a day.

We are still not able to take pictures, but everyone says he looks like me (too bad for him).

We are expecting to go on to the next stage - the baby care centre - on Friday.

Thank you all again for your e-mails. It has been great hearing from you all.

Ryan Watch

2006-10-27T23:20:00.000+08:00

Ryan is doing fairly well, but is living in the ICU for the next few days. His breathing is not up to scratch and when I just went down there a few minutes ago he was catching some rays. He had some cool sunglasses on and was sunning himself under a fake and bake machine. This apparently is normal as he is a bit jaundiced.

The other problem is that his blood sugar is low.

Last night, he was turning blue and had to be given some extra oxygen. The good news is that there are no heart problems, but his breathing and blood sugar are causing a little bit of concern.

Because of his troubles, he is not allowed to breast feed, so Anting is trying her best to pump some out for him.

We are encountering some difficulties on this front too as Anting has not been able to eat or drink yet, going on 48 hours now. While she is on an IV, I think she may produce some more milk if she could eat or drink.

We know babies are very resilient and we are still very happy and excited to be parents. We are just looking forward to being able to hold him and spend some more time than the 1/2 hour visits allow.

We have received many e-mails from friends and family and we thank you all for thinking of us and all of your best wishes. It surely helps us through this anxious time.

Unfortunately we can't take pictures while he is in ICU, but here is one from when he was just born.

Welcome Ryan Alexander Bow

2006-10-26T20:00:00.000+08:00

We are happy to announce the arrival of Ryan Alexander Bow, Born October 26, 2006 at approximately 4:30 pm, 7.4 lbs, 52 cm long.

When he arrived everything looked fine, but he is taking after his dad and not crying or moving much. As such, he is in intensive care and being monitored.

While we are worried, we are hoping everything will be OK. We should have some more news in the morning.

Anting is fine after the Cesarean, but, while she is now starting to feel pain in the incision, she can't yet feel her legs.

I am now going to go visit my son and give him some encouragement. I think he is just happy to get out of his cramped environment and is now getting a good sleep.

I will keep you all posted.

The Podcast Episode 1 (Pilot) - The Experiment

2006-10-25T23:55:00.000+08:00

This is my first experiment with podcasting. I thought it would be fun to have a podcast actually show up in itunes. Of course if you are really bored, you can listen here. If you really have nothing to do, you can go to itunes and subscribe. This function should be working in a few days.

I hope this works and I have some time to provide some more soothing, sleep inducing (please do not listen when driving), Bob "Its a happy tree" the painter, type podcasts.

I also hope, now that I have almost mastered the technology (fingers crossed), to provide some video casts.

Stay tuned for more.

Baby Watch

2006-10-23T15:31:00.000+08:00

For all of those waiting for baby news stay tuned:

Taiwan, Thursday October 26, 3:00 pm-5:00 pm
Vancouver, Thursday October 26, Midnight to 2:00 am
Scotland, Thursday October 26, 7:00 am to 9:00 am

I Can Drive - July 2006

2006-10-23T13:21:00.000+08:00

Since arriving in Taiwan, I have been driving occasionally. Most of this driving has been permitted due to my international driver's licence that I picked up before we arrived here. Unfortunately that only lasted a year and, since Canada does not recognize Taiwan driver's licences and Taiwan reciprocates that notion, I was forced to go through the driving test process.

I probably could have lived (literally and figuratively) without a driver's licence, but with all my bitter complaining about the state of driving in this country, I decided it best to do my own research and have my own experiences to support my rants. Of course, it would also be better if I could drive in an emergency and it would not hurt to tell my future employer that I could legally drive here.

Anting and I did some research and found some example exams for the written portion of the test. Fortunately, the test can be taken in English, so there were a few English sample exams on-line. The test is comprised of a multiple choice section, a true or false section, and a traffic sign identifying section. One of the problems with the materials I was reviewing was that the English was so terrible, it made it quite difficult to tell what the answer meant. Another difficulty, that I found out later, was that the on-line materials were location specific and if I had the materials from Taoyuan and I took the test in Taipei, my materials may not cover some of the questions from Taipei.

I did my best to plow through the materials and try to memorize the rules, though some of the questions had the lawyer in me wondering "what the...". For example: "You must be well dressed when driving (True or False)". I was thinking, "So, is there a law that says you must be well dressed when driving? I would think not; Should be 'false'. Then again, maybe it's not well dressed, but there is a certain minimum, like you have to wear underwear or shoes, and it's the translation that must be bad; Could be 'True'".

Like most things in Taiwan, taking the test is pretty convenient. There is no appointment needed and you just show up at the MV office with your application form and pictures and start lining up. The process goes pretty fast. You get your height and weight measured, they do a quick physical (you squat down and stand up), and then you get your eyes checked. Once those matters have been completed, it's on to the written test. Again line up and then get assigned to a computer terminal where the test is administered.

It was all quite straight forward and only took about an hour and a half from start to finish. Unfortunately, I made the day shorter than anticipated by failing the written test. Had I passed the test, I could move on to the driving test, but I got a score of 83 out of the 85 needed. I would like to blame the poor English on the exam for my failure, and there was one really bad question, but I rushed myself and did not re-read my answers. Had I done so, I would have corrected an obvious error and passed. Anyway, there are no bad consequences for failing, except I had to wait another week before I could re-write.

The following week, we again took a trip to the MV office. This time things were quicker as I had already done all the physical examinations. I took my time and was able to score a 96.

Passing the written test meant that I now moved onto the driving test. The motor vehicle office in Taipei is situated north of the city complete with a Disney style driving course. Instead of taking you out on a "real world" test, you drive around their back lot. After the excitement of having passed the written portion of the test died down a little, Anting and I asked if we could go look at the driving course before I took the test. During the lunch break we were permitted to go and look at the course. It appeared to be a fairly large oval track, with cross walks, train crossings, and traffic lights at various places around the track.

Inside the track, there were three other types of driving skill mini courses, "Backing into a narrow garage", "parallel parking" and "The 'S' curve". All of these mini challenges had tire sensors on the ground, marking the out of bounds (or lose 16 points) locations. Once your tire touched the sensor, an air raid siren and all sorts of flashing lights would make your error immediately known.

After walking the course, Anting and I headed off for lunch and I visualized how I was going to tackle the test. After lunch, I proceeded to take the test. One can only lose 30 points, before he or she must pack it in and drive back to the entrance. Each sensor hit is a loss of 16 points, so 2 strikes and you're out.

I got in the car and drove with the examiner to the mini skills course. My first challenge was to, in one attempt, back the car into a narrow pretend garage. As I backed up, I knew I had not turned soon enough and my back tire was about to hit the sensor. I stopped the car, knowing that I had failed this attempt. For some reason the examiner wanted to hear the siren and see the lights flashing so he urged me to continue. After hitting the sensor, he then had me attempt it again. This time I completed it successfully, but it meant the rest of the test was "sudden death" as the next sensor I hit would mean failing the test.

The next obstacle was parallel parking which was no problem, but following that was the dreaded s-curve. From what we had heard, this was the most difficult part of the test. It was, as aptly named, an s-curve. The examinee has to drive up the s-curve and over the line at the end and then reverse back down it, all without hitting the sensors on either side of the narrow lane. The driving gods were with me that day and I managed to get through the s-curve without a problem.

The remainder of the course was a piece of cake and just included stopping on a hill, stopping at a crosswalk, stopping at a railway crossing, driving in a straight line, and stopping at a traffic light.

We waited 20 minutes and then I was licenced to drive. It is now several months later and my curse word vocabulary has increased tremendously.

The Convenience of Taiwan

2006-10-15T22:57:00.000+08:00

There are some things about Taiwan, that simply cannot compare with life in Vancouver. One of the most glaring differences is the convenience. This is simply one of the most convenient places I have ever been to.

If you would like to have something to eat, you simply have to get out of your place and get onto the street. You don't even have to go to a restaurant, although you can find several on every block, you can just find a vendor on the side of the road selling something tasty. When you do go to a restaurant, the service is fast and, except for the newer and bigger restaurants, you don't have to tip.

Last year when my computer broke down, at 8pm on a Thursday, we picked it up and walked 2 blocks to the computer store, where they actually opened it up and started fixing it right then and there. Within 2 days I had the computer back and ready to go. Almost every business and restaurant is open until 10pm every day.

Anything that you could want is also found at the convenience stores, that are in no short supply all over Taiwan. A convenience store of one kind or another can be found on every single block of Taiwan urban space. There, not only can you get your newspaper, magazine, or snack, you can also get videos and video games, alcoholic beverages, and dinner. They are all open 24 hours.

If you like the night life, the discos bars, and Karaoke boxes are all open 24/7.

The transportation system in Taiwan is also quite convenient, especially for me, as I can choose to take a train into Taipei or walk half a block to the Bus stop where the bus takes me there.

While I think the traffic situation is quite awful, the Taiwanese have adapted a driving style that is quite convenient. They don't bother to stop when turning right and always manage to turn left in front of you first. Real convenience, however, is having a scooter. A family of 4 can get onto a scooter with no problem and snake through the gridlocked traffic. It is also great for delivering pizza.

Of course, there is a price to be paid for all of this convenience. People have to work long hours and get paid very little. People are not as aware of environmental issues or food safety issues. The streets are crowded with vendors and the resulting garbage. And, as we experienced, a disco can open up in your building, keeping you up all night.

Overall, however, it is sort of refreshing to observe a society that is not so concerned with rules, but getting the job done or providing a service where one is needed.

Typical Street Scene in Taoyuan

Food Truck and Scooters waiting at a Traffic Light

Typical Building with Residence Upstairs and Family Business Downstairs

A Family can fit on one Scooter

Typical Street Food Vendor

Golfing in Taiwan

2006-10-09T00:10:00.000+08:00

Waiting on the First Hole

One of the things we miss about Vancouver is being able to golf regularly. If you live in Canada and like to golf, you should be thankful that there are so many nice golf courses that are relatively inexpensive. In Taiwan, it seems that all of the golf courses are private and quite expensive. Not only do you have to pay for the green fees, but it is mandatory to rent a cart and hire a caddy.

Since coming to Taiwan, Anting and I have been to the driving range in our neighbourhood a couple of times, but have not, until now, had the opportunity to go golfing. Of course with Anting pregnant, she has not been able to go to the driving range or golfing.

I was fortunate to land a job that has a golfing team. Not only do they go out once a month, but the firm pays for half of the expense. This makes it amount to about $60-80 CDN that I have to pay and makes it worthwhile to go. Not only do they pay for half of the expenses, they pay for a nice dinner and give out prizes at the end of the round.

I went for my first round last weekend at the Chang Gong course that is fairly close to where we live. The course was very well maintained and quite beautiful. The weather was excellent, with it not being too hot, and my game, as per usual, was not very good.

There was about 20 of us altogether, 7 or 8 from the firm and the rest spouses and clients. I managed to straighten out my driver and had some really good drives, but my usually solid short game failed me. It was somewhat weird being driven around by a caddy and having her select my clubs and clean them after taking each shot, but I soon got used to it.

While it was just like any other golf course, there were a few differences. For example, a few of the hazards on the first hole were graves. I shot out of bounds into an elaborate one and had to take a stroke. There was also a temple on the 7th hole to get your last minute praying in. Finally, much to my chagrin, there were no hot dogs.

Overall it was a great experience and I hope I can participate in next month's round, but might be a little busy with our new baby arriving.

What? The second par 5 and its only the second hole!

No Hot dogs after the 9th Hole?

Need to pray before your shot?

Sand Trap and water hazzard

Gravesite near Tee

I Got a Job ! (and Other News)

2006-09-10T18:25:00.000+08:00

First, I am pleased to announce that I have found a job and have been working for the last week. I am working for a firm called Formosa Transnational Attorneys. They do plenty of international work and now have 3 foreign lawyers on the payroll. So far, the work I have been doing is pretty interesting, but there has not been enough to keep me completely busy. Of course this situation will no doubt change in the near future. Since we are still living in Taoyuan, I am going back to my daily commute of 3 hours per day, but I have found a bus that leaves from outside our place to the MRT line. It takes a bit longer, but there are always seats available. No more standing on the train for 40 minutes! We also may be moving to Taipei after the baby is born and after my job probation period is done. Then, I may miss my reading and ipod time.

Second, We have a Flickr account and have been loading pictures into the account. For more pictures, with better quality check it out: www.flickr.com/photos/ourlifeintaiwan/. For a quick link to it, click on the link on your right called "Our Flickr Pictures". I will be updating it at different times than the blog, and perhaps with different content - so check in often.

Third, I am going to start posting some of our activities that we have done over the last year, but have not had time to post. After each post has been up for a week or so, I am going to change the post date so it corresponds with the actual time the event occurred. This will result in the post moving into the middle of the list. For example I edited the post date of our Mid Taiwan Trip to July when it actually occurred. It originally was under the August posts, but now is under the July posts. Therefore, if you think you may have missed something, scroll down the blog or check out the "Past Posts" section.

I hope everything is going well with you all and I would love it if you wrote me an e-mail to update us on how you are doing and what is new in your life(lives).

Baby's got Front!

2006-08-11T10:48:00.000+08:00

Anting ,"Yo Bian" and Me Outside the Cheng Kai Shek Memorial

We are very excited to announce that Anting is pregnant. We are expecting our son on November 12, 2006.

Tomorrow Anting will be 27 weeks pregnant. While this may be late in the pregnancy to make such an announcement, for the reasons below, we have mostly kept this news to ourselves.

We started trying to have a family last August when we were in Australia. Anting actually was pregnant at that time, but unfortunately had a miscarriage in October at 8 weeks. We also found out that Anting has a heart shaped uterus and this may cause complications for future pregnancies, especially since one side, the right side, is quite a bit smaller than the left.

In the beginning of March we started testing to see if Anting was pregnant again and after several days of the "red line" going from "that is so faint, I can't tell if it's a line or not" to "Okay, that's a line for sure", we went to the doctor and had the test confirmed.

A few weeks later we had our first ultrasound and saw that the baby was on the right side of Anting's uterus. We immediately named him "Yo Bian" (right side in Chinese) and started worrying that there may not be enough room for him to grow on the right side. We saw several doctors and some said there should be no problem as the uterus expands to be the size of a basketball and even bigger, and some who said the baby may come early because of lack of room.

If these worries were not enough, at about 6 weeks, Anting started having complications. We were immediately reminded of our terrible experience last year with the same problem. This time, however, we immediately checked into the hospital in Taipei and Anting was put on strict bed rest and Progesterone injections. We were there for 3 weeks and finally were allowed to go home, but on restricted activities.

Since then, Anting has been off the Progesterone, but then started having contractions, so she was on an anti-contraction medication for a while. Currently she is medication free and able to do most activities.

We have had all the tests and ultrasounds and everything looks normal. At 17 weeks we had an ultrasound and while we were all watching the monitor, suddenly there was a weird silence in the room as we all saw the same thing. I looked over at Anting and asked "Was that what I think it was?". The doctor then asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, but at that point we already knew as it had been pretty obvious on the screen.

Now we have passed the critical points and if the baby comes early, has a very good chance of survival. We are however, trying to keep him inside as long as possible to give him the best chance of health. We have stopped worrying so much and are now looking forward, with great anticipation, excitement and fear, to starting a family.

I will keep you posted.

Is it a line? Lets test again..and again...and again..Okay its a line!

9 weeks.................11 weeks

13 weeks.................17 weeks

17 weeks.................21 weeks

Mid-Taiwan Trip

2006-07-10T16:53:00.000+08:00

In June I stopped going to school and started to look for a job. Since that seemed to be a bit less work than going to School, Anting and I decided to check out some more of Taiwan. When we were in Taiwan in 2004, we drove down the East Coast and arrived on the Southern tip. This time we decided to check out the Middle of Taiwan. We packed the car, picked up some friends and prepared for the long drive. Much to our surprise, however, it really did not take long to get where we were going. Just a couple of hours to the first stop. Below is a photographic record of where we went and some of what we saw:

First Stop - Rest Stop. About 100 Urinals (They were numbered)

More Scenes around the Rest Stop

Rainy Day Pictures

Outside Restaurant at Sun Moon Lake

Floating Island in the Middle of Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake Scenes

Pagoda Overlooking Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake from Top of Pagoda

Daoist Temple near Sun Moon Lake

Inside the Temple

Scenes inside the Temple

Ching Jing Farm Country

Scenes Around the Farm

House destroyed in Earthquake (or flood)

Ceiling inside Giant Buddhist Temple

Please do not pick your nose in the Temple

Happy Canada Day

2006-07-01T17:13:00.000+08:00

The Closest thing I could find to a Maple Leaf

We spent Canada Day with Jeff, Jean, Iris and Ivan. First we drove to a mountainside restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal with Jean's family. After that we drove to Taipei and enjoyed some live outdoor Canadian Music, put on by the Canada Society in Taiwan.

Jean's Family

Eating Outside

The Feast

MMMM...Chicken Head

Hey There is Golfing here in Taiwan!

Apart from us, looks like there's only 2 Canadians in Taiwan

OK here's a few more

Driving in Taiwan

2006-05-15T12:01:00.000+08:00

Something Fishy

"You know, I think I've come to accept driving in Taiwan" I said one day. "It's really just like being a fish in the ocean" I continued, getting more excited about what I thought was an extremely apt analogy. "The fish have no traffic rules, no swimming lessons, no highway patrol. They swim here they swim there. If they want to pass they pass. I doesn't matter what lane they're in. They don't care if someone makes a left turn in front of them and, except being eaten by other fish, there are no collisions and certainly no road rage. They just keep swimming, swimming swimming". By this time my hands were "swimming" around in the air and I started moving on to my next analogy. "It's just like a choreographed ballet..."

"Put your hands back on the wheel" Anting said.

"Sorry". I put my hands back on the wheel and remembered that, hey, I really was in the most dangerous driving locale I had ever experienced. Just then a scooter pulled out of the lane on my right without stopping (or looking) I had to slam on the brakes to avoid her. "Shit! Why do they do that? Why do they never look. One day I'm not going to be able to stop, and run one of them over".

"They don't look because if they look, then for sure there'll be an accident"

"What? What kind of logic is that?"

Road Rage

I guess haven't quite yet adjusted to driving in Taiwan. Sometimes, I can rationalize that people drive like lunatics here because this is a small island with a huge population and you have to drive aggressively to make any progress whatsoever. Most times, however, my frustration and rage grows with each infraction I witness (and let me tell you, they are plentiful). It just goes against every grain in my being to witness and be subject to these common occurrences:

turning right from the left lane;

turning left from the right lane;

passing a left turning car on the left;

passing a right turning car on the right;

scooters snaking through traffic on both sides of your car;

driving the wrong way down one way roads;

driving in the oncoming lane;

going through really stale red lights;

u-turns at anytime and anyplace;

cutting into long lines at the highway entrance right at the on-ramp.

double and triple parking; and my personal favourite

oncoming left turners always turning in front of us going straight drivers.

What I can't understand, however, is how there can be, with so many traffic infractions, so few incidents of road rage. Everyone seems to just calmly keep driving as if nothing happened even though their fellow driver just cut them off, did a u-turn in front of them, or just missed them after going through a red light. If any of these things happened in Canada wouldn't a chase ensue followed by an actual accident, yelling match or even physical violence? Haven't people been shot in Los Angeles for less? "Why is there so little road rage in Taiwan anyway?" I asked.

Culture Shock

"Because they know they do the same thing. At one time or another they'll want to do something crazy so they don't care" Anting answered, but still did not comfort this feeling of incongruity I was having.

"But most people are so polite, never wanting to offend anyone, never wanting to be selfish and ask for what they want. How come when driving, or lining up for the train or bus, or walking around they can be so rude and selfish?"

"Don't ask why".

But, here in Taiwan the concepts of personal space or first come first serve do not seem to be ingrained in the population. I guess when you have 25 million people living in a place the size of Vancouver Island these concepts seem luxurious. Part of adapting to living here has been getting used to the driving techniques, being constantly pushed or "cut off" when lining up for the train, and generally having people inside my personal space. It is quite hard, if not impossible, to get used to, and I constantly have to resist the urge to elbow some old lady who just pushed me out of the way (At the MRT stations they actually have painted lines on the floor to train people how to line up). It is a fact in Taiwan, however, that one must come to terms with. If you are from "the West" you will likely feel irritated by people in your "space", whether it be driving or walking.

The Accidents

You have to have a certain measure of skill to drive here as anything can happen at any time. You must be extra vigilant to avoid cars and scooters coming at you from every direction. Nobody seems to care what is beside them or behind them. Just look out the front, find the opening and seize the opportunity.

One thing you cannot do is try to enforce your rights. If I were to not stop for people cutting into my lane, turning left in front of me or these hundreds of scooters buzzing around me, I would have a kill at every block. Believe me, I have to fight every natural impulse I have to avoid "enforcing my rights", but instead I really try to get into a more zen-like forgiveness state. It hardly ever works however, and I usually drive around cursing and yelling "WHY?WHY?WHY?"

Even though everyone drives like a maniac, along with not many road rage incidents, there also does not seem to be a proportionately high amount of accidents. Having said that, however, we have witnessed a few. The seemingly most typical accident I witnessed involved a car coming out of an alley, not stopping and running into a scooter driving down the wrong side of the road. luckily no one was hurt, but both parties seemed to receive their just desserts for their idiotic driving.

On another occasion we were driving home late after a day long session of Majiang. Anting was driving in the left lane. As we approached our home a silver Accord passed us on the left (in the oncoming lane) at an unbelievable speed. I didn't think much of it until it seemed to be taking a fast left hand turn a few blocks ahead of us. What happened is that the guy swerved around a car stopped at a red light and then lost control. He first swerved right around the parked car, lost control, banked left into the oncoming traffic, and smashed head on into a van. It was quite frightening to see, especially considering the speed the Accord was traveling. We arrived on the scene seconds after the collision and the police a few minutes later. Fortunately the only one hurt was the driver of the Accord--again some justice.

The police

With the exception of not being able to turn right on a red light, the traffic rules are essentially the same as in BC. I often wonder why the police do not enforce the laws here. Admittedly, they would all get carpal tunnel syndrome writing tickets in the first few years while everyone got used to the enforcement, but it certainly would be a cash cow for the government. Unfortunately the police do not enforce traffic rules in the city and only occasionally on the highway. Perhaps this is because if everybody started following the traffic rules the entire island would be in gridlock. Who knows?

This does remind me however, of my daily laugh when I approach the intersection at the train station on my way to school. Before reaching this intersection, there is a driveway into the parking lot of the mall. Employed there is a parking attendant who takes his job very seriously. He will blow on his whistle, wave his neon wand, stop, and direct traffic with complete diligence. There is absolute order at this parking lot entrance.

Arriving at this intersection at the train station, however is a different story. There are absolutely no traffic control devices, no traffic lights, no traffic signs and no painting on the roadway. There is no 4 way stop rule at this intersection, nor is it first come first serve. You basically have to close your eyes, go through at a steady speed, and hope the others will stop.

Every day I see the same police officer standing on the corner. But he doesn't do what you would expect a police officer would do confronted with such complete chaos--direct traffic. Instead, he just stands there, like he's observing an experiment, doing absolutely nothing. It is just so funny to first come across the parking attendant, at his relatively tame parking lot entrance, directing traffic like an air traffic controller, half a block away from this police officer standing on the side of this dangerous, uncontrolled and chaotic intersection doing absolutely nothing.

Well, I guess I have ranted (and rambled) on enough. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest (It may save a few lives).

It is safe to say that driving in Taiwan can sometimes be dangerous and very often frustrating for a westerner, but, at the same time, provides an excellent method to hone those defensive driving skills.

Our New Place

2006-03-01T15:53:00.000+08:00

Commercialism runs rampant in Taiwan. You walk down the street and are constantly bombarded with advertisements, business signs, people handing out leaflets, and businesses. Here it is very difficult to distinguish between residential areas and business areas. This is especially so in our city of Taoyuan. In Taipei, it is a little bit easier to distinguish between residential and commercial areas in the newer sections. In Taoyuan, however, where you live is likely where you work. Most buildings are three or four stories. The top floors are where you live and the bottom floor (the garage) is where you run your business. Your business could be anything from a restaurant to a car repair shop or from a pet store to a travel agency. Whatever the market will bear seems to be the rule. When walking down the street, you also have to maneuver through the other businesses that occupy the sidewalk. These more mobile businesses sell clothes, jewelry, and any kind of food imaginable. If you imagine 15-20 hotdog stands per block, you will have an idea. And, this is practically everywhere, not just in some certain areas.

With this kind of "commerce friendly" atmosphere, I guess we should not have been surprised that a disco opened up in our apartment building. But there we were, very surprised when it happened. We lived on the 15th floor and this dance club opened on the 9th floor. We had heard that a disco had been in that building before, but was not very successful and only lasted for six months. I guess this one survived by turning up the music and by being open from 10pm to 10am.

We tried to weather the storm for a few weeks, but the music was really loud. We called the police a few times, but once they came the music would be turned down for a few minutes and then back at full volume, or even louder. We were not getting enough sleep and getting grumpy so we moved into Anting's mom's place and then eventually into her brother's place. Fortunately her brother (Leo) is working in China and his wife Mikiko and two kids are living with Anting's mom so we have the place all to ourselves. Actually we really enjoy the place as it is much bigger than our first place and has a kitchen. The only downside is that it adds another 20 minutes to my commute to Taipei every day.

Here are a few pictures of the new place that we moved into in the beginning of January. We even have an extra bedroom for you to come stay. So, if you are ever in Taiwan and need a place to stay, you are more than welcome to stay with us!

The kichen and Dining Area

The Living Room

Lantern Festival

2006-02-12T22:29:00.000+08:00

Today, we decided to join a couple of my classmates, head into the mountains and enjoy the yearly Lantern Festival. We left early, as we live quite a ways south of our ultimate destination--Shi Fen (十分). We originally planned to leave in the afternoon, but after learning that several million other Taiwanese usually head to the same festival, we decided to leave a touch earlier to beat the crowds. Of course we forgot to return from Shi Fen early enough to beat the crowds on the way back, but more on that later.

The Lantern Festival occurs after Chinese New Year and while completely environmentally insensitive (everyone launches a wire and paper lantern levitated by a kerosene soaked and burning waxy paper into the air), it is quite a beautiful site. One buys a few lanterns, writes their wishes on the lanterns, and then, when the moment strikes, lights the lantern and launches it into the air. Of course it is quite important to have someone experienced assist with the first launch or so, as quite a few important operating instructions are often missed, resulting in less than ideal results. First, one has to remember that the lantern is made of paper and the engine soaked in kerosene. Before the lantern is inflated the engine has to be lit. Without proper care, the whole lantern can go up in flames before it even gets off the ground. Second, fill the lantern with hot air before releasing it. If there is not enough lift, the lantern quickly floats away from you, horizontally, dripping burning rocket fuel on the heads of the million other lantern aviators, causing much consternation. Third, and also very important, one must always look up before finding the ideal launching pad as there are buildings, trees and especially power lines that seem to be attracted to these lovely floating fireballs (see below).

We took our first train from Taoyuan to Taipei and met up with my classmates, Cassie and Jenny, at the Taipei main train station. From there we took a train to a small town and then transferred onto an MRT type train that went up to and through a string of five small towns in the mountains where we were heading. The train would head towards the end of the line, stop for a few minutes and then head back on the same rails. Our first destination was the end of the line, where we had a snack of red bean soup, bought some blank bamboo wishing stalks, wrote a few of our wishes thereon, and hung it on the fence (see above first picture). We stayed in the town and had some lunch, not realizing that the train would only come every two and a half hours. As a result, we had a leisurely lunch and then walked to the next town after missing one of the trains while we were eating.

At the next town and while it was daylight we attempted our first lantern. Fortunately, we had some assistance and learned the very important tips as listed above. These would be quite helpful for our night-time attempts. Our Lantern, missed the building, trees and powelines and floated off into the distance quite nicely.

Because of the massive crowds and because we wanted to go down the line on the train we devised a plan to take the train back up the line and then return with it down to Shi Fen where the nighttime festivities were going to take place. The plan worked and we were fortunate to find seats on the train back to Shi Fen. By the time we arrived, the sky was darkening and already thousands of floating lanterns filled the sky. Most of which were floating in formation off into the distance and over the distant hill out of sight and out of mind. We heard on the news the next day that some errant lanterns made their way to the Taipei Airport and caused a grass fire next to the runway (I am sure we were too far away for that to be one of our lanterns).

At Shi Fen we found a place to eat out on the balcony of a restaurant, ordered food and contemplated what we would wish for on our own lanterns. Anting came up with the idea that she was going to add a new more dangerous and extreme element to the lantern -- a string of fireworks. My protests fell on deaf ears as everyone in the group seemed to be unaware of any possible problem with lighting this already extremely flammable lantern and adding explosives to the equation, not to mention that this time around we had no supervision, oven mitts or protective headwear.

As we ate our dinner we watched several people successfully launch their lanterns and a few who tragically forgot to look before they launched. Some also, we observed, who chased around their lacking lift lanterns, frantically attempting to catch their fireball and then figure out how to extinguish it without themselves combusting--Dinner and a Show.

There was a steady stream of Lanterns in the air , but every so often there was a huge amount of them in the air at once. We found out that this was because at the stadium nearby they were releasing thousands of them at once.

The time came to launch our night time lanterns. The first three all went off without a hitch. We were very careful to ensure we applied all our lantern tips. Now came the moment of truth--the firecracker lantern. We decided it would be best to attach the firecracker to the middle of the bottom of the lantern so as to ensure balance on the take off. We also decided to light the firecracker fuse just seconds before launch in order to ensure that it would start exploding after it got quite high in the sky. Everything was going fine. The engine was lit. We waited the 20 seconds while the lantern filled with hot air. We could feel the lantern struggling to lift off against our resistance. We lifted it so that Anting could light the fuse and then...There was no fuse. The firecracker just immediately started exploding. The lantern barely had enough lift to pass over my head, singe my eyebrows and emit this deafening crackle that seemed to last an embarrassingly long time. (see the picture below for the moment of ignition). Fortunately the lantern gathered speed, managed to clear the parked cars, people, bridge and sail off into clear night.
As I mentioned earlier we had some trouble getting home. We had to fight through massive crowds of people and waited an hour an a half until we could get on the train back. It was incredible how packed the train was and people had to be shoe horned into the train cars. We arrived back in Taoyuan at about midnight after having previously deciding to go home at 7:30. After a definitely worthwhile experience we went straight to bed, me dreading the next school day, having not prepared my homework and Anting imagining some poor farmer picking up all those lanterns off his land the next morning.

2005-07-16T17:19:00.000+08:00

At the Warner Village Movie Theatre complex in Taipei

2005-07-16T17:08:00.000+08:00

101 at night

2005-07-16T17:05:00.000+08:00

Taipei 101, the world's tallest office building. Notice the clear weather. This is quite rare, unless a typhoon is coming...

Health Care in Taiwan

2005-07-16T14:14:00.000+08:00

In Class this week I started feeling like I was coming down with something. Indeed by Tuesday, I was feeling the effects of a full blown cold. After I got home from school I started my destined climb towards "the Climax" (You know those one or two days where you feel like a bag of piss (without the bag)). That night I cheered myself up with a national geographic special about an Avionca Flight that ran out of gas over New Jersey (I did learn the one good thing about running out of gas in a 727-- the plane does not explode on impact!).

The bad thing about being sick in Taiwan is that there is absolutely nothing on TV that I can understand or am interested in during the day. I thought since National Geographic seemed to be in "Air Crash Bonanza Week", that I could at least enjoy an hour of sheer terror. I really hate to fly, but for some reason I am facinated by these air disaster shows. Perhaps I just want to know what to look for in the moments before a crash so I can tell if my plane is about to crash. Unfortunately they had some documentary about the African Elephant, the movie channel was playing the Wedding Singer for the 15th time this month, and the other english channel was teaching basic english to the Taiwanese.

In any event, while I couldn't find anything to watch, I was also gaining a temperature. The Mandarin word for fever is "Fa Shao" and it sounds exactly like Goldmember talking about his dad. Therefore, I normally get a kick out of saying fever in Mandarin, but on Wednesday night, I was not feeling the humour of the situation. To top it off, I had to spend the whole day alone in our tiny appartment because Anting was in Taipei for a job interview and then had to go to a wedding in the evening. She also had no battery power in her cell phone.

Anting's Mom called me and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I was able to communicate that we would wait until Anting came home (she was expected at 10pm) and then go. She could at least ask the doctor at my request: "Is it SARS?"

Anting finally arrived at about 11:30, but at her mom's house. She still had to come home and see if I needed the hospital. She did arrive and we decided to go to the hospital. I was worried about SARS and the Avian Flu and feeling terrible. I was also expecting a 3 hour emergency room wait.

We arrived at the emergency a few minutes after midnight. The place was packed. There were about 20 beds in the ER all full of moaning and groaning patients. There were several people wandering in and out with IV's attached to them. Their family member would hold the IV drip bag, or they would hold it themselves. Anting left me in a seat at the entrance where I causually read a sign posted across from me that was in Chinese except for some numbers (that I assumed were steps to follow) and the dreaded acronym--SARS.

I was calmed down somewhat when this kindly fellow in a green lab coat came up to me and smiled. I knew being a foreigner was useful for something. I was going to get some special treatment! The bubble burst when he walked by and swept up a cigarette butt on the floor beside me.

Anting finally came back and before we did anything, I demanded that she tell me what the SARS notice said. She said "Oh it's nothing, just that you will be arrested if you refuse to take a SARS test"

"OK", I thought "I'll take the test. I don't want to be arrested." I then settled in expecting a long wait. Surprisingly, a few moments later my name was called and was examined by the nurse. Very shortly after that, the Doctor appeared! He took my history, with Anting's assistance and he typed everything into a computer terminal. Moments later I was having an injection to reduce the fever and then sent across the hall to the payment window and the pharmacy window next to it. We paid $40 CDN for the visit and the medication, went to the pharmacy and the drugs were all ready to be picked up.

By Thursday night I was having some solid snot (the sure sign I was getting better) and started preparing my homework. I was back in school on Friday and went out for dinner with Anting and a couple of her friends that night.

I feel much better now and also am impressed with the Taiwan health system. Canada's health officials should come over here and take some notes.

2005-07-02T21:00:00.000+08:00

Anting and Mei at the beach house Bar-b-que

2005-07-02T19:30:00.000+08:00

Sunset at the beach in Fulong.

2005-07-02T12:30:00.000+08:00

Lunch in Fulong with Mei, and her Co-workers

2005-06-15T17:30:00.000+08:00

The View from our Appartment on the 15th Floor

2005-06-15T17:22:00.000+08:00

The East Wing of our Appartment

2005-06-15T17:20:00.000+08:00

The West wing of our Appartment

Well Here We Are!

2005-06-12T20:11:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Taipei at 5 am and stood outside the airport, waiting for Anting's mom to come pick us up. I don't think I ever thought about how hot and muggy it could be at 5 in the morning, but there it was, the heat and the humidity. Of course Anting had warned me it would be hot in Taiwan. She further added: "It will only get hotter in the summer!". After living many years where it was very cold for many months of the year, I just thought it would be nice to be hot.

'Bring it on', I also thought, not fully appreciating the extent of my nearsightedness.

I wondered to myself (since wondering outloud in the first minutes of our arrival could be hazzardous to my health and our marriage) if we made the right decision. If it was this hot at 5 am, what the hell was it going to be like at noon? After carting the luggage (with a cart) to the curb where we were going to be picked up, I was already half drenched in sweat.

"So is it hot enough for you?" Anting asked?

"It's great. I don't feel the heat at all" I said, "Why, are you hot?", I asked. I had hoped she would fall for it and not think I was being a smart-ass, but I believe the sweat dripping off my forehead and down my arms gave it away.

Looking around at the buildings by the airport and at the smoggy sky I again started wondering if everything was going to be OK. I had given up my job at a good law firm in a beautiful city to come to Taiwan. I had already stunk up my shirt and it was before 6 in the morning, the buldings looked dirty and the sky was polluted. Neither of us had jobs or any way to support ourselves. All of these thoughts started rushing into my brain and swirling around. What I needed was breathe in some fresh cool air. Fat chance of that here, I thought and became more anxious.

"There she is," Anting said, interrupting my near panic attack. Her mom pulled up in a beigeToyota Wish (which is kind of like a big Matrix). I loaded our luggage into the car, taking my mind of our impending doom, and was told to sit in the front seat. Once there, I discovered the response to all my concerns, the answer to all my questions, my saviour--Air Conditioning.

Now that I was in a beautifully climatized environment, I could turn my mind to more pressing matters, like what's for breakfast? As we pulled out of the airport, I caught a glimpse of blue sky poking through the smog. Sunlight hit our car and cast a shadow. As we drove towards our new home, I felt much better about things and decided to just see how things turn out. This is, after all, an adventure.

I hope you enjoy.