Ambassador Hotel Taipei

... ta 3 ge wen ti. (Ask him three questions?)” she replied.

“Shir ma wen ti? (What questions?)” It wasn’t all Simon’s fault, his mother and the education system hadn’t exactly worked on growing his initiative.

“Don’t speak Chinese please…Simon, ask me a question?” I pushed. One minute of awkward silence later and with energy levels dissipated to zero, I gave up.

“Okay, How old are you?” I asked.
Taipei, T'ai-pei, Taiwan danchapman

... Naturally, I needed to use plan B. My grand plan was to go to the kids table, take some photos, pretend that my camera had run out of batteries, hand the camera to Sarah's sister so she could take video get down on one knee to pull the battery out of my pocket and pull out the ring instead. Of course this didn't work, the restaurant was too noisy, and everyone was too interested in the food. The next ...

After a week of diving in Sabang, two months of Australia and a morning in Tung Chung Hong Kong, I arrived in Taipei. Perhaps the reader wonders what I was up to. About scuba diving I usually find very little to write. Unless attacked by undersea creatures, the experience is beautiful to undergo, but doesn't lend itself to being related. In Australia, there is some problem of censorship. It's not the blocking of internet sites, like in PDR ...

... else had similar things; mike commented on how great the western food was in taiwan. i agreed and said that i'm going to try to only eat non-taiwanese food during my whole trip.

after breakfast, we decided to see the sites of taipei. nick has been here for 3 mths now but he hasn't done any traveling yet. so he was really excited. he heard about this beautiful mystical mountain that's supposed to be one of the ...

... so they can reach the flag first. Even if your boat in behind another but you have a tall flag catcher who gets the flag first, you win! The pot was 2 million NT which is roughly...$600,000, I think. Don't quote me on it. It kinda reminded me of a swim meet. It takes a long time to set up each race. The Bazaar thing was kinda crowded and the "traditional food and games" turned into corn dogs and shoot the balloon. But it was very interesting to see and Ryan got interviewed for TV.

... in Taiwan. Taiwanese are very respectful people. They will wait in line and will not cut off a queue. Quite a contrast with their cousins across the China Sea !!! In Mainland China the nation's interest is always put first and individual rights are next to non existent. Even when discussing with the local people in China I could feel that they had no real conception of what individual rights are, especially in the country side. The fact that Taiwan ...

... And then there's weird things like the Pringles I just picked up to try Gourmet Pringles: Thai Sweet Chilli & Lemongrass flavour.. which isn't half bad. Or going into the McDonald's to discover the clerk can't understand what I wanted to order (#5 didn't translate, but when I drew out the Chinese character for 5 she got it... then had to bring over her manager to figure out Coke... go figure.) The coolest traditional thing as when thy took me out one ...

... in the operating room or clinic with the plastic surgery attendings. This is a picture of Dr. Wei operating with the residents, visiting fellows, and students eagerly observing and listening to his instruction. Our night time plans would usually be made during the day in the library. On our last night, as suggested by Alexandra, we went dancing at a club in Taipei, Lava.

... days. Often these doctors receive grants for their medical studies and are therewith obliged to practice in the countryside for a defined number of years. ] The daughter goes to her room and begins to play the piano - sitting in a garden listening to piano music. Can it get better? Yes it can! They invite me to have dinner with them ( father , mother, daugther ) in the garden under a big tree: Organic cabbage, mountain pig hunted yesterday by a ...

... minutes away on the train. It's more open - Taoyuan is just high rise after high rise after high rise, I missed the sky. Here the buildings are a lot lower, and I live in an actual house (that's insanely rare in Taiwan) with two nice people from South Africa. The next town over is much nicer than Taoyuan - there's a couple of universities, so there' s cool places to hang out, and some interesting shops to mooch around. My life during the week isn't too exciting ...