Tayih Landis Tainan

... to be a Japanese Outpost during colonial era or something like that. It was rather hot and so I'm not too sure anymore as most of it was pretty fuzzy. After that, we cut through some old houses and arrived at Fort Zeelandia, what used to be a Dutch Fort. Most of the original structure had fallen and only one part of the southern wall remained. They've rebuilt it and added a few statues of Koxinga (Zheng Cheng Gong), the guy from the Ming ...

... made its way to the Tainan Ecological Zone where we visited their Whales Studies Department. I don't know if any of you remember seeing in the news (a few years ago) that a giant whale had exploded in a busy intersection while in transit, showering commuters in a sea of sizzling intestines. That event actually happened in Tainan and the residents (strangely) have kept that whale skeleton in a museum. Katherine, Luke and I took a late train back to Taipei where I bid goodbye to them ...

We headed to the waterfront to see a statue of the goddess of the water. Apparently she looks over the sailors. We were impressed by the kites being flown. In the video, the one kite is like a spine, the other is a long string of kites. After the video the string of kites reached 130.  Then we headed ...

... a pretty magnetic bracelet/necklace. The lighthouse is actually still in use today. The gift shop was also nice, in retrospect I wish I had spent more time there. We then saw some of the island more famous rock formations, like the one that is famous because it closely resembles our former President Ric**********.. and it really does look like him. After lunch we headed to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.It is divided into three theme areas: Water of Taiwan ...

... as hot. Biking during the day is simply too exhausting, I just opt for walking or a cab if I have to be somewhere in the middle of the day. Cab are not expensive here at all, like $3 for most place that I want to go. Tipping or not tipping is another thing I had to get used to here. It is not custom here to tip at restaurants, etc, people don't do it nor do they expect it. Unlike in the U. S the waiters here make more money in their salary which is why I guess tipping isn't ...

... Jahres habe ich ganz deutlich gem**kt, wie ich dazu l**ne, zu unt**richten und mit Kind**n umzugehen. Anfangs hatte ich nur eine ganz vage Vorstellung davon, doch jetzt weiss ich mehr od** we*****, was die Kids moegen od** nicht, was man mit ihnen spielen kann und ich habe eine Vorstellung davon, wie man sie in den ganzen Kleinigkeiten des Alltags **ziehen kann und worauf es ankommt. Das alles ist zwar nicht sehr professionell und mir es passi**t mir imm** noch, dass ich ...

... heit** zur Sache. Da wird ueb** alles moegliche, ueb** die klensten Dinge, ausfuehrlich und mit gross** Gestik palav**t und laut gelacht, je mehr Leute dabei sind desto bess** und dabei sind die Leute hi** voll in ihrem Element. Roll** sind das ultimative Fortbewegungsmittel fu** jed**mann. In den vollen Staedten und auf dem Land, die Strecken sind hi** selten sehr gross und Parkplatz beschrenkt, da ist so ein Roll** genau das richtige. In Scharen rollen ...

... of $1US equals about $30TW was not easy. We eventually figured out that we needed to extract about $6000TW in order to get about $200 US, but the process was slow and painful. Luckily, just down the block from our hotel is a 7-11 convenience store. I haven't seen a 7-11 store in the US in a very long time, but they are common here. They are smaller than the ones in the US, and don't sell gasoline, but on the plus ...

... und mittl**weile haben vor allem auch viele westliche Kaffees und Back**ein einzug gehalten. Das Brot ist hi** ab** wirklich imm** suess und schlabbrig, also fu** mich nicht sehr ansprechen, die vielen Kuchenkrationen dafu** ab** wirklich einfallsreich. Ich koennte noch sehr viel darueb** b**ichten, weil es hi** einfach so unglaublich viel gibt, ab** ich denke, man muss sich auch mit Infromationen nicht ueb**fressen. Diese Vielfalt ist ausgesprochen faszini**end ...

... fair to them, is it?! They have a right to be and they were wonderful, in their time. 18.7.07 A weird little story: We went to this one club which is located in the 20th floor or something. On the way down the elevator stopped in the 12th floor. Lindsay and Sam went out, but the elevator was never meant to stop in that floor at all. When they came back they had so much fear in their faces, I have rarely seen such a look. Apparently it had been an old KTV floor ...