Christmas Day

On Christmas Day, I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend's (XZ) Church Christmas function. As usual, I didn't know what to expect, but I think that adds to the enjoyment of it (without having expectations). As it happened, it was a night of acting, singing and dancing.

One of the performances that XZ was in, I actually understood what was going on (big surprise). She was dressed in white and was dancing around the stage with another man also dressed in white. The only other prop on stage was a tree with a single apple. Can you guess what this is? Anyway, XZ ate the apple and afterwards both of them went looking for the fig leaves.

Below are some of the photos of the different performances:

A choir singing Christmas carols








A bit of modern pop music








Children participation; by the way, there were adorable...









XZ doing the dance that lead her to eating the apple. The other person dancing with XZ, I think, was temptation.










I think this may have been Noah's arc but I didn't see any animals...









More dancing (yes with XZ).











And there were a few more performances but I sat and enjoyed them rather than get too many more photos - sorry.

After all that performing, there was a feast for all the hungry performers and their friends.

Oh, also during the performance, the audience was given a heart shaped card to write a Christmas message on it. Here is what I wrote, in my bad Chinese grammar:

It says, all Taiwan people, may you receive everything that you heart desires.

It is the only thing I could remember from my text books...







At the end of the evening, XZ and her friends that she bought had a group photo.


Some Christmas this year was pretty good.

Till next time, have a good one...

Trip to NanRen Lake

Last weekend, the Doctor and I travelled to NanRen Lake. You can see where it is by the red marker in the picture to the right. This is the southern area of Taiwan.

The p

ark is special because it is one of the last areas in Taiwan that hasn't been overly damaged by human occupation. In fact, the Taiwan have become so protective of it that entry permits must be issued.

The picture below gives you a bit of information about this area.

The tour guide told the bus group that the lake has grass growing around and into it. In about four years from now, they guide said that the lake would probably be gone forever.

In order to get to the lake, we had to walk about four and half kms. The return walking trip would take at least a couple of hours. We were also told that there are no toilets along the w

ay so it is important to go before starting the walk.

On the way to the lake, part of the bus tour price was lunch and a drink. The Doctor didn't want to drink his drink so I had it. Unfortunately about one and half kms

into the track, I had to turn back and return to the starting point because I think I drank too much. When I caught up with the group, the Doctor told me that the local Taiwanese girls started to giggle

when I initially turned back thinking that a foreigner cannot handle the walk. But there were a little surprised when I caught up with th

e group. The tour guide also noticed that I was gone for a while and wondered where I had gone. When I t

old him that I needed to head back for the toilet, he laughed and said I should have found a tree. So I think next time, when the tour guide says no toilets; I will presume that it means that trees are the exception.

Anyway, after walk all the extra distance, we finally arrived at the lake.

I have a few more photos, but Google Chrome and Windows is giving me a few problems. I need to switch back to Ubuntu, so I'll leave this adventure here for now.

Till next time, have a good one...

Is it a bus, or it is a boat???

Today my Chinese class had a make up lesson that was due to two classes cancelled by typhoons that past through Taiwan last month. When the typhoon comes, a warning is given that there can be no classes or work so people are not outside when 100km winds are blowing. Mind you that doesn't stop the media; but that is another story.

Anyway, rather than sit in our classroom for three hours, my teacher organised a field trip. Those who could attend, were to met at Dream Mall. There we bought our tickets and prepared to board the bus.

After a short drive through the city streets and driving along Love River, the bus suddenly took aim at the river bank. Then it drove straight into the water.

Once in the water, turning off the road engines and starting up the water engines, the Amphibious bus started to travelup Love River.

One of the classmates, who didn't expect the bus to float on the water, became very excited when he realised the bus was driving into the water. Admittedly, he was probably at a small disadvantage as he is Korean and doesn't speak much English; apart from the slang that another Australian classmate and I teach him (we should stop that as the Korean classmate tends to say the words at inappropriate moments - but is it fun). The Korean classmate's Chinese is pretty good and I thought he would have known what we were doing. Anyway, after a few moments, I think that he found better things to occupy his time with.

Do you see his pink cell phone? It has a dancing lady on it when he receives a phone call. He does have a good reason for having this cell phone. It was originally his sister's and it is a hand-me-down.

Here are some photos as I travelled up and down Love River.

After doing a circuit of Love River, our ride we to come to an end. I did wonder how well the types would grip the ramp when they have been submerged for so long. But I didn't notice any problem. They must be good wet weather tyres.

The only thing that the bus had to do was to empty the water that it had accumulated.





After all that (and one hundred and eight NT dollars later) that was the end of my Chinese make up class.

I wonder if I can talk the teacher into more lessons like this rather than studying Chinese grammar...

Till next time, haveagoodone...

How did I ever live without one of these...

Ever since I started studying Chinese just over a year ago, I have always been envious of the technology gadgets that my classmates have. One piece of technology that I have been eying up was a iPhone because it has a really nifty translator that translates English to Chinese and visa versa. It even has a function where you can draw the Chinese character on the screen and the iPhone finds it in the Chinese language, gives you the phonetics and even the English meaning. How good is that!!!

I had two tools that I had to use in my Chinese class, the first was a Chinese to English dictionary where I needed to know the phonetics (more on this in a minute), and the second being an English to Chinese dictionary.

My first dictionary, Chinese to English, is based on the Pinyin phonetics; they consist of the English characters of a, b, c, etc. However, the problem with that the Taiwanese use Zhuyin which consists of a different phonetic alphabet. It should also be noted here that most of the Taiwanese cannot read the Pinyin and only understand the Zhuyin and traditional Chinese characters. Even Michael cannot read the Pinyin. Luckily, I can do the Zhuyin to Pinyin translation on the fly and very quickly. Are you getting confused??? So this dictionary is the one that I use most often in class.

My second dictionary, English to Chinese, was originally Michael's and he used it when he studied his Masters and Doctorate in Australia. This dictionary works well when I want to use an English word and don't know the Chinese equivalent. However, this dictionary only gives me the traditional Chinese character. No phonetics so I can't pronounce the word. It usually involves me showing my teacher (or language exchange). So this dictionary has limited value for me.

Although I have wanted to buy an electronic dictionary, or better yet a smart phone, I have been told that it is better to learn the language without these electronic gadgets. To further add to the reasons for me not to buy, Michael and I have a couple of cell phones left over from New Zealand that we had imported hoping to sell on TradeMe (New Zealand's eBay equivalent). But these phones do not have the Traditional Chinese Character sets. So when I can understand the local language I cannot use the text function of these phones.

So for a year I have persevered. Until recently!!!

One of my language exchanges does not speak English that well, in fact, she is probably one of the better language exchanges I have because if forces me to use Chinese. However, recently she sent me a text message and part of it was in Chinese. So needless to say I missed out on part of the meaning. Also, I had lunch with one of my Taiwanese friends (I will call him "E" as in the letter of his first name) who works in the local department store and he showed me his new iPhone4. Oh, did I become so envious so I decided to do some investigating myself and find out what I might be able to afford.

On Tuesday evenings, I go to a Latin dance school and on the road there are many cell phone shops. So before class, I wondered along and checked out what they had on offer. My goal was to find a smart phone that could do most of what the iPhone did but at a cheaper price. I saw a few different phones and they were mainly the cheap Chinese imports.

My next goal was to convince Michael and I needed a new cell phone that could help me with my Chinese as well as communicate with my Taiwanese friends in Chinese. This I managed to do but I won't go into details.

OK, so with an idea of what I wanted and a budget to buy, I decided to ask my friend "E" to come along and help me. I gathered that "E" was quite technology savvy, had an understanding of what would be a good deal, and most important he was Taiwanese. Not that I don't trust the Taiwanese sellers, but generally a foreigner would be at a disadvantage. I asked "E" if he would help me and thankfully he did. We organised to meet on a Tuesday afternoon.

When the Tuesday came, "E" drove me down the street and I pointed out the shop that I wanted to visit. "E" gave me a strange look and said, you cannot buy from there - go to a proper shop and get something there. We went into one of the telecommunication shops and found that nothing was within my budget (not that surprising). I asked "E" to at least look at what I saw and we can work from there. Reluctantly "E" did and when he saw the phone I wanted, he said "You can't buy that - that is cheap and nasty and not worth the money". However, beside this phone was another phone from TaiwanMobile for a little more than what I had originally planned. I had a look at this phone and it had the features I wanted; Wifi, Chinese text, and the ability to download apps. I spent about thirty minutes looking at this phone asking all my questions - and I did have a lot.

After humming and ahhing, "E" and I checked out a few more shops along the street and came to the conclusion that this phone from TaiwanMobile was a good buy. When we went back and found out that the phone was second hand; but only by a week, I negotiated a price that was a little cheaper. I didn't get the full story, but I think the original buyer wanted a specific function and this phone didn't have it. So he/she returned it. Then as the phone had been used, it could not be sold as brand new and I presume the telecommunication company sold it to the second hand dealer; which was where "E" and I were.

After I made the purchase, "E" dropped me off at the train station and I think I took much more of this afternoon that he had originally planned. However, when I got home and searched the Internet for something similar, I see that a brand new phone would sell for about NT$6,990 but I got mine for about NT$4,000 despite it being only one week old as a second had.

Now, the fun starts as I have a ChungHwa Telecom SIM card but my new phone had the all the settings erased. I had to search the Internet for ChungHwa settings (which wasn't too difficult) but not all of them worked. I did initially suspect that this was why the phone was returned and sold as second hand. So I went to ChungHwa customer service centre and confirmed that my SIM had 3G and my account had all the necessary permissions to use all the phone's features. Then I went to TaiwanMobile and asked to check my phone. The helpful service lady put her SIM in my phone, entered a few settings and found that all my phone's features were working; I just needed to work them out.

After spending a couple of days searching the Internet and trying numerous settings, my phone just wouldn't work. Then just before I was due to meet one of my language exchanges, I deleted the settings and just one one up to work in when I got back. Suddenly, the phone's functions lit up. It looks like I had tried to enter too many details.

Now, I have a phone that is virtually brand new, has the features that I wanted plus more and all for a second hand price. When I told some of my other friends, I could see the envy in their eyes that I have a virtually brand new phone for two thirds of the cost. I am so grateful to "E" for helping me because it was he who suggested this phone it the second hand dealer, spoke to the sales clerk and helped negotiate the price down.

So after this very long story, he is a picture of my pride and joy...



Till next time, haveagoodone...

Finally, the stories about my trip to Bangkok...

Michael and my first stop in Thailand was Bangkok. As this was my first time in Thailand and we flew in the evening, I was a little nervous about how we would get from the airport to our hotel. Michael had read on a backpackers web that taxis from the airport can be very expensive. One suggestion Michael read was to go from the arrivals area up to the departures area and get a taxi that has just dropped someone off. We found a taxi quickly and Michael decided to tell the driver after we got in where our hotel was. However, the taxi driver didn't speak English. So we stopped on the side of the road while the taxi driver tried to understand the map that Michael had brought with us. If you have been to Bangkok, you may well know how big a city it is and to find a small lane way could be a little difficult. Anyway, after about five minutes, we were back on our way. We arrived at our hotel about forty minutes later (which I think is OK) but not before going through a dark alley with a lot of prostitutes and stopped at 7-Eleven to by a top up for his cell phone.

Our first full day in Bangkok, we went on a boat trip (I think it was more like a river taxi) up the Chao Phraya River. Our goal was to visit one of the Royal palaces. But unfortunately we didn't have long pants and would not have gotten in. A traffic policeman suggested that we could go to another temple that didn't require long pants and organised a Tuk Tuks. Apparently this temple was own by a previous King, however it was under a bit of repair. The gentleman that greeted us gave us a tour and then asked us if we wanted to donate for the repair work. A King's private temple and asking the public for donations??? Michael managed to find out which donation was for the monks, but I am not entirely convinced the monks would have received our donation.

After the temple visit and feeling the heat of the day kick in, we decided to head to one of the many discount department stores called MBK. When we arrived, it was lunch time so it was time to see how much English could be used and how much Thai we didn't know. To add more confusion to buying lunch, the food shops do not accept cash. The customers must go and buy coupons from a central point and then use the coupons. Unused coupons could be refunded, but Michael and I made sure that we choose what we wanted first and then bought the exact value of coupons needed. After lunch, we headed back to our hotel room and had an afternoon snooze waiting for the sun to set.

Very close to our hotel, there was a very large night market and had a very big eating area. Again the coupon system was used and we found this everywhere we went in Thailand. I think it is good system because the eateries do not handle cash - but it does take a bit to get use to it. Anyway, Michael ordered his meal first and then I got mine. When I got back to where Michael was sitting, I found that he was had found a new friend. When looking at this photo, you can click to see the next photo and see how big the eating area was.

The next day, we decided to head to Bangkok's zoo called Dusit Zoo. It is very big and has a large number of animals. When we were nearing the end of seeing all the animals, a very big tropical storm came through. Lots of thunder and lightening and heavy rain. It rained so heavy that it flooded a lot of the walk ways. To navigate our way out without walking through knee high water was a miracle. After the zoo, we headed to another market that was around Victory Monument. I only have two photos of the monument it was situated on a very large round about with the monument in the middle. In this photo, you can see the traffic in the foreground and sky train in the background. It is a very busy place.

That night, we went back to the night market but didn't see Michael's friend. I guess he must have found a new friend.

The following day, we went to Taling Chan Floating Market that is on the canals. The bus ride out was an adventure all by itself as it took us about fifty minutes and through some of the outer Bangkok areas. The boat ride through the canals was a mixture of temples, food stalls where they literally cook in the boats and seeing a lot of waterfront properties. At one stop, they sold some bread that was to be fed to the fish. One of the other passengers threw a chunk of bread into the water and sent the catfish into a feeding frenzy. After spending a few hours on the water, we returned to our starting point and made out way back to our hotel. That night, we flew to Chang Mai.

Chang Mai is in the northern part of Thailand and we stayed in the central part of town that is called the "Old District". The guesthouse owner was very friendly and even picked us up from the airport.

Our first day in Chang Mai, we hired a scooter and drove to the area north west. The first place we visited was the Sai Nam Phung Orchid farm. They had so many different types of Orchid and in such a large quantity. There were some South Americans also looking around the Orchid farm and they were taking photos; the girls were trying to look sultry which seemed a bit strange when comparing to the beauty of the orchids.

The next place we stopped at was the Mae Sa Water Falls. These falls consisted of ten different waterfalls along a five kilometre track. It was hot and sweaty work to see all of them, but I think it was worth it. By the end, you may notice that both Michael and I were hot and sweaty.

The next day, we went up into the mountains a bit and visited the Bhubing Palace. This was one of the palaces where we could hire long pants. Being up in the mountains as well, it was quite a bit cooler. On the day that we visited, there was a low lying cloud that make it even cooler. We only got to walk around the gardens. Visitors were not allowed inside the buildings. But the gardens were immaculately well kept. The geographical size was so big that I think it could have its own postcode. I am glad that I am not responsible for its maintenance.

On the way back from Bhubing Palace, we stopped at another temple and had very steep climb to reach it. This photo was the climb that was ahead of us. And you can see Michael taking a break half way up. This view from the top shows another angle of how steep it was.

After two days of sight seeing in Chang Mai, I become a little sun burnt. So the next couple of days was exploring the biggest shopping centre in Chang Mai. Michael found a massage place that reportedly was one of the best. So each afternoon he booked himself for a massage while I wondered around the shops. I was tempted to buy a new cell phone but didn't end up doing so. I figured that the cell phones were about the same price in Taiwan and I would check them out when I got back home.

One our last day, we visited a temple that was close to our guesthouse. We were told that the temple was over 700 years old. But when I consider that Christchurch celebrated its 150 years a few years ago, and Australia is about 222 years old, this temple shows just how young Australia and New Zealand actually are on a world stage. I even just heard on the news this morning that Hanoi in Vietnam celebrated its 1,000 year old birthday recently.

After five or so days in Chang Mai, Michael and I headed back to Bangkok for our last three days. I think at that stage, the heat has become overbearing, so we headed for the discount department stores to find bargains (one of Michael's favourite past times). The department store we went to was called the Platinum and it had (from memory) almost ten floors and each floor would take at least an hour to walk around and see all the shops. There were many bargains to had and we noticed that quite a few people had the large travel bags stuffed full of stuff. We suspect that these are the eBay sellers who visit Bangkok for the bargains and then on sell for a profit.

After ten days in Bangkok, we were ready to come home. We found that there was a train from the central city to the airport that was cheaper, cleaner, cooler and more convenient that taking a taxi. At the airport we wondered around until a plane left and that was the end of our trip to Thailand.

I would like to go back again and see a bit more of Thailand, but it would have to be in the cooler months.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Taiwan has a new visitor...

Since the massive Morakot typhoon that Taiwan had on Father's Day (8 Aug)last year, another typhoon has decided to visit Taiwan today.

On the image to the right, you will need t

o look at Taiwan's outline under the large white swirl cloud.

Sitting on in my apartment on the 14th floor, I can say that the wind sounds very strong as whistles past the exterior of my building.

When I looked out the window first thing this morning, I was surprised to see a scooter (Vespa) driving along the main along with a few taxis. I wonder if they missed the warning signs of the winds getting stronger as well as the constant coverage by all forms of the media.

However, when I look at my little weather watch icon on my computer, it shows wind speed of only 51.9 km/p. If I recall correctly, Melbourne has had winds stronger than that.

But anyway, I think today will be a good study day while I stay inside out of harms way.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

What a title to have???

Today while taking a short break from writing one of my many Master's assignments due, the Doctor and I wondered over to the department store to escape the heat.

On one of the floors, we stumbled across a competition that was about to take place. The competition seemed to have attracted a lot of attention, including that of the local media.

In addition to the local media, there were also quite a few spectators gathering around as well.



The spokesman was talking up the anticipation and excitement. After all, the was a title to be won and a crown to be placed upon someone's head.

When the spokesman saw me, and it wasn't that difficult to pick me out in a crowd of Taiwanese, he was trying to coach me into participating. Unfortunately this was not one crown that I particularly wanted, so I passed on the opportunity to play, but watched nonetheless.







As the starting time was approaching, the contestants lined up and put on the plastic gloves; as the competition was going to get messy.

You could almost cut the tension in the air. It was going to be very competitive.

The starting command was given and away the contestants went. They had to eat as much of a one kg pig knuckle within one minute.


As all the contestants stuff as much pig knuckle into their mouths as they could, the spectators are guessing who is going to be the winner. Would it be the older man, maybe the mother, or even the young child??? Who wins, nobody knows.

Then after the competitive minute and the remaining pig knuckles weighed.

We have a winner!!! He seemed a little overwhelmed, or maybe because he still has a mouth full of food?

Well for his extraordinary effort, the winner is now crowned "豬王" - "King Pig"; I kid you not.

And for his effort, the winner has also won a year's supply of pig knuckles.

I wonder if he will enter next year's competition?

Till next time, haveagoodone...

How Australia am I???

I found this article on the web to judge how Australian I am. I think I am losing my Australianess... See how many of the statements below you understand...


+ You know the meaning of 'girt'
+ You believe that stubbies can either be worn or drunk
+ You think it is normal to have a Prime Minister named Kevin
+ You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse
+ You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden in the middle of the day
+ When you hear that an American 'roots for his team' you wonder how often and with whom
+ You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black thongs' refers to footwear
+ You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'
+ You pronounce Penrith as 'Pen-riff'
+ You believe the 'L' in the word ' Australia ' is optional
+ You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas'
+ You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep
+ You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'
+ You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place
+ You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin
+ You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'
+ You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast spread
+ You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis
+ You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one says 'cobber'
+ You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionery known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with each passing year
+ You still don't get why the 'Labor' in 'Australian Labor Party' is not spelt with a 'U
+ You wear ugh boots outside the house
+ You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them
+ Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language
+ You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, while 'scuse me' is always polite
+ You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasions via your nose
+ You understand that 'you' has a plural and that it's 'youse'
+ You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle
+ You biggest family argument over the summer concerns the rules of beach cricket
+ You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'
+ You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'
+ When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in fruit
+ You believe the phrase 'smart casual' refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered
+ You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction
+ When working at a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer
+ You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second
+ You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government's new test for migrants.

The wonders of Thailand...

Many months ago, the Doctor being the great bargain hunter he is, found a promotion to fly to Thailand. The actual seat tickets were $0.00 (yes, zero dollars) and we just had to pay the surcharges such as tax, luggage and meal costs. After many months waiting, and hoping that the Red Shirts protest had settled down, all the cards fell into place and we finally went there for the last ten days.

Rather than spend too much time recalling every event, I'll post the link to the photos and you can look at your leisure. If you come across a photo that you would like to know more about, please post a comment and I'll do my best to write about it.

TaoYuan Airport Departure (August 2010)

Around Bangkok

Chao Phraya River - Bangkok (August 2010)

King's Budda Temple - Bangkok (August 2010)

Dusit Zoo - Bangkok (August 2010)

Taling Chan Floating Market - Bangkok (August 2010)

Around Chiang Mai (August 2010)

Sai Nam Phung Orchid - Chiang Mai (August 2010)

Mae Sa Water Fall - Chiang Mai (August 2010)

Bhubing Palace - Chiang Mail (August 2010)

Temple Over 700 Years Old - Chiang Mail (August 2010)

Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport (August 2010)

After I settle back into my Chinese Class and catch up on my Masters work, I'll post a few stories where I didn't take any photos.


Till next time, haveagoodone...

3D Art...

Along Kaohsiung harbour is a disused pier and warehouse that the city council has converted into an Art Space. At the moment, the current display is 3D Art (well only two pieces). I'll let the pictures tell the story below:







On a side note, the camera actually picks up the illusion better than the naked eye.

Around the area where this exhibition was there are other public displays of art that add to the atmosphere.



There is also a walking and bicycle track. The photo below also shows Kaohsiung's tallest building called "Eighty Five". Can you guess how many floors that this building may have???


Till next time, haveagoodone...

A quick post - linking to some photos

Just a quick post. The Doctor has just come back from a conference in Hanoi and took some photos. Click on this link The Doctor in Hanoi for the photos that he took.

From all accounts, Hanoi is more chaotic than Kaohsiung...

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Results of my first semester...

Sorry about the long time before updating my blog. My life has been focused on finishing my first semester and studying Chinese.

Speaking of my first semester, I have received my marks for the first three papers that I completed. I am really happy considering my background has been in Banking and not necessarily in Education. I have put a snap shot of my results to the right.

With three papers done, I am now three eights (3/8ths) completed. My next challenge is four papers this coming semester. Then my final paper will be over the new year...

As for things happening in Taiwan, they did have a dragon boat festival last month but unfortunately I did not get to go. Most of Taiwan is on Summer holidays now and the people are finding ways to escape the heat. To the left is a preview of what the temperature is like outside at the moment, and it is around 10:20 in the morning.

Anyway, time to get back to study as my results will not come by themselves.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Trip to TaiTung...

On the weekend, the Doctor and I travelled to the eastern town of Taiwan called TaiTung (literally means Taiwan East). This city faces the Pacific Ocean and is one of the least populated out of the major centres.

After organising our transportation and checking into our hotel room, we travelled out of town and came across a place where "water travels uphill". This is meant literally. How could this be possible? I really don't know. Have a look at the photo and see if you can tell? I swear that the where I took the photo was near the bottom of the small canal and the water travelled up to the people in the distance. And just in case your are wondering, there is no motor or propeller pushing the water up either... A marvel of nature...

The next place we visited was a small bridge in the mountains that was home to many small monkeys. In Kaohsiung, there mountain need the beach and it is home to many monkeys also. However, unlike their Kaohsiung cousins, the monkeys that the Doctor and visited were friendly. The monkeys that you can see in the photos seem more interested in amusing themselves than anyone who had no food to offer them.

However, when people did show up with food, it was quite a different story. One of the tourists that had stopped decided not to follow the regulations and feed the monkeys.

By judging from this photo, the monkeys did not appear that aggressive - lucky for the young lady.

When we made our way back to our scooter, another family stopped and decided to feed the monkeys all this processed food. One thing was leek cooked inside a pancake batter type thing. The monkeys quickly tore the pancake batter apart looking for the leeks but decided it wasn't that nice. The monkeys seemed more interested in the grapes or food that hasn't been processed.

After being amused by the monkeys and their tricks to find food, the Doctor and I headed back to central TaiTung. Along the way we stopped at a marine biological park. The Doctor said that wading into the water was permitted and found that there were many fish swimming around his feet. As you can see by the picture, he tried to catch a fish or two by hand but unfortunately (or maybe not for the fish) he didn't catch any.

Some other people that you can see in the background did manage to catch a fish or two. However, they had worked out a trick. Put a bit of food between their toes and the fish wouldn't swim away.

On the next day (which was Saturday), and the Doctor and I went to Dairy Farm. One of the attractions was figure cows similar to what is shown in the picture. Before I tried to jump on the cow's back, there has been a school girl try but failed. I thought I could do this and after a few attempts I managed to get up there. The Doctor had taken so many unflattering photos that I dare not post, but as you can see, I did make it successfully up there.







Apart from having many cow things to look at, they also had a live horse and carriage; however I didn't see it being used. But I think the Doctor has found another friend...

After visiting the Cow Ranch, we visited a Botanical Garden centre that had many native and interesting plants. One of the surprising plants was the Dandelion. In New Zealand and I think for Australia, this plant would be considered a weed because of fairy type flower that spreads the seeds. Funny how Taiwan think it is a plant to be kept in their Botanical Gardens.

On Saturday night, it started to rain, and rain quite heavily. The Doctor and I headed to the local convenience store for our dinner rather than drive in the rain. While we sat and ate our dinner, we saw outside someone else eating his dinner too. Outside in the rain there were many white ant flies or something of a bug type variety and many of them ended up weighed down by the water. They become easy targets for the local who lived in the greenery. I only managed to photograph one of them but he had a friend who was also hopping around too.

On the last day (that being Sunday), it pretty much rained all day. We had planned to go White Water rafting but decided against it because the rain can be heavy and come quickly in Taiwan. The last thing I wanted was to be literally washed down a raging river... So we took shelter in a book shop in central TaiTung until we caught our train back home again.

TaiTung is a beautiful town and the Doctor and I hope to travel back there soon and see more of their attractions. But until then, I'll have to settle for Kaohsiung.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

A little exercise...

I hate to admit this, but I have a Facebook account. I don't use it that much but tonight I had a look at it and found that one of my good friends in Melbourne had put this one and it seemed like a fun thing to do.

Here is goes:

Let's see how forthcoming my FB (FaceBook) friends are... Leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me using the third (3rd) letter of YOUR name... No more than one word... Then copy and paste this post on your wall... so I can leave a word about you... This should be interesting!

Blogging doesn't have a wall, so I think just ignore that part.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Chinese Class Celebration Lunch

As my Chinese Class for the Spring semester is finishing up this week and some of my class mates are heading back to their home country, we all decided to go out for lunch. Also it was quite appropriate going out to lunch because our current Chinese lesson was on ordering food at a restaurant.

The teacher found a restaurant called "New Taiwan Restaurant" that happened to be very close to where I live. The restaurant name is also a little tongue-in-cheek because the interior is decorated in all the nostalgic memorabilia of yesteryear.

One of the Taiwanese cultural habits,very similar to the Japanese, is to take a photo of almost everything in life. And this was no occasion. My Chinese Language teacher bought her camera and took many photos of us (her students) and also each plate of food that was served. However, below is a photo taken by one of my Japanese classmates and she was kind enough to print a copy for everyone in the class.

To give you a quick introduction starting from me in the bottom right corner and going clockwise:

• My Chinese teacher language teacher.
  
• A young South African guy called Johnny.
• A very smart Korean girl Xiou Xi (and she is returning to Korea soon).
• A Vietnamese lady.
• A Japanese lady who kindly gave everyone this photo.
• Another Japanese lady.
  
• A young Vietnamese guy.
• The next Two are Vietnamese girls.
• The tall looking guy is from Mexico called Fernando.
• A German girl called Nina and she is also return home to Germany at the end of this week.
• An American born Taiwanese called Alex. And finally
• Another Mexican called Yu-An.

Sorry I couldn't remember all of their names, many months we had name cards but they have long gone. Although I don't feel too bad because the two Japanese ladies have very similar names and the teacher always calls them by the other name.

Anyway, all of this is going to change in a couple of weeks when we enter our Summer semester. I am going back a class to redone the second work book as I found the pace was too fast for me so it will be good to concentrate on grammar rather than on the new characters.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Results received of my first two Masters assignments...

Regarding the International Conference that I mentioned in my previous post, thank you for your comments. It was exciting to do. Even it is was only a small conference with only ten people in the audience and conducted in a classroom. But nonetheless, it was in front of other academics.

I have also received some other news yesterday. Early last month I submitted three assignments for my Masters that I am studying for. My Masters is in the field of Professional Education and Training. What I am hoping to do with it when I finish are two things. One is that I can find a job teaching Business English in Taiwan. This will give me the same holidays as the Doctor and we can travel. Our holidays will be about two months over June and July as well as during January. Also, should we happen to move to Australia, this will allow me to find a job within the banking industry as a trainer.

Anyway, my news about my assignments is that I received results from two of the assignments. One assignment was on the topic of diversity and I received the result of Distinction (70~79%). For the other assignment on assessment, I received the result of High Distinction (80~100%). These marks were very surprising because I was only expecting between 60~70% as this is the first time I have studied Education. My forte is in Banking and International Trade. So this has provided me some motivation to keep going and complete my Masters.

Sorry, no photos today and I think I better end this posting here. I don't want to jinx myself too much for my assignments.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

What did I do today - something I have never done before...

After settling into (I am not sure of that is the right term as some days it seems to have taken over me) my studies, Chinese Language in the morning, Masters in the afternoon, Chinese homework in the evening, another month has flown by. Although I did get an afternoon off a couple of weeks ago when I met up with a friend (MaLiTa) who studied in my class for a month or so.

MaLiTai has lived in Taiwan for about 8 years but has generally only taught English. She has decided to take a break and learn to read and write after all these years. Her speaking and listening is very good, and I guess it should be after 8 years. MaLaTi is a very particular about her teacher and decided to try a few different Universities. Unfortunately she started in my class and moved on, but luckily we get to meet every month of so.

A couple of weeks ago when I finally got around to catching up with MaLiTa, we met just after my class around 12:15pm. After having lunch, going for a bit of window shopping, having afternoon tea, a walk around the Culture Centre and then having dinner we finally called it a night around 8:00pm. Boy, I didn't know that we could talk for so long. I look forward to meeting MaLiTai again in a couple of weeks time.

Anyway, on to the news of today. I did something that I haven't done before. I spoke at an International Conference for teaching English. Yes that is correct, I did speak as a presenter, well joint-presented with the Doctor. The Doctor as part of his life in the Academic Ivory tower, needs to attend and present his research work. The reason I became involved, apart from my association with the Doctor, was that my Masters is in the field of Education and I used an article in my last essay that the Doctor used as the focus of his talk today. My role, although very small, was to introduce the "Learning Strategies" that students use in learning a foreign language. I also added a small example for each of the strategies. Then the Doctor took over and went into the detailed Statistical Analysis and results.

When the Doctor first mentioned to me that he wanted to co-present with him, I was very nervous. However, going over the script and I felt a little bit more comfortable. After speaking my part, I was happy to hand it over to the expert.

As you can see below, the Doctor is going into great detail discussion his statistical analysis results.


When over and done with, I think the presentation went reasonably well and it was a good experience.

By the time that I finish my Masters, I'll need all the speaking practice in front of people to prepare me teaching in University.

An interesting thought that I just had, I remember one of my English teachers in secondary school has asked me to write about what I would be doing in ten years. That was about 27 years ago now. I think I wrote about being an Accountant in my own firm, but what I did today would never have entered my mind. How things change and life takes an unexpected path.

Anyway, till next time, haveagoodone...

Has it really been a month since I last posted???

Doesn't time fly. I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted. Well to tell you the truth, March was really went by in blur for me.

At the start of the month, I originally had hoped to fly to Christchurch to complete my citizenship process. Personally, I was not much in favour of doing this but the Doctor was keen and managed to complete his just after we left New Zealand. I figured that if he had his, I should at least keep the same as him just in case relations between New Zealand and Australia deteriorate. Anyway, I had confirmed with the citizenship office when the next ceremony was and as it was an invite only affair, I presumed that I was on it. However, as I hadn't received the invite a week before it was due, I emailed them to find out what was going on. This was went New Zealand's brilliance started to shine. I was told that I was taken off their list for one reason or another without being notified (plus they had my old address despite being advised otherwise) and that their email in January was not meant to mean I still was on their list. Anyway to cut a rather long (and really annoying) story I just travelled to Melbourne to visit Mother Blog and the Scot.

This week long trip at the start of March had put me behind in my Chinese studies as well as the Masters that I was suppose to start. Therefore, much of my home time had been reading and studying trying to catch up. For my Masters, it was also difficult because this was the first time at the new University in Melbourne (I am studying on line) and trying to find my way around the online campus and library as well as ordering my necessary books. Well this weekend, I have managed to finish two of my three assignments due in a couple of weeks so I am feeling a lot better now.

Just on a side note, and one that you may find interesting. For my assignments, after I have written them up and given them a once over, I send them to the Doctor for a final proof read. His written English is so much better than mine, and plus he has the benefit of writing a doctoral thesis. So if worst comes to worst, I know that my assignments are grammatically correct. But Mother Blog has told me on several occasion that I should be embarrassed that someone who learnt English as his third language corrects my writing.

Anyway, onto something more exciting. Last Friday, the Doctor and I finally got around to using a discount hotel coupon we bought last last year. Through numerous unexpected events, we had postponed this numerous times. Finally last Friday we got around to going.

The place that we visited was called BaoLai and you can see the distance by the two yellow highlighted squares. BaoLai is right in the mountains of Kaohsiung county and took two bus trips and about four hours to get there.

The transfer station was also in the mountains in a town called Liu Guei (六龜). Literally means six turtles. I suspect the name may have something to do with Feng Shui as a mountain may represent a turtle's supportive back (shell).

After arriving at the small town called BaoLai, we made our way up to the hotel that we had been eagerly anticipating since last year. The attraction of this hotel, according to the Doctor was that it was a hot spring/spa hotel. And when we arrived we were not disappointed.

After checking in and finding out all the relevant information such as dinner time, breakfast time, did they have vegetarian meals for us, opening and closing times of the spa, we headed to the spa to soak and relax. As you can see from this photo to the left, the Doctor has the whole pool to himself.

The water jets that you can see above the Doctor are very powerful. I stood under one on Friday evening and the next morning when I tried the same one, I felt like I was a bit of tenderised meat.

After having a soak for a hour or so, we headed over to the restaurant for our dinner. I think the restaurant manager felt a bit over worked as we were told to come back later because she was too busy. Hmm, stressed out people at a hot spring/spa hotel. Something seems a bit at odds here???

Anyway after waiting for a bit, we finally got our seats and settle down to enjoying our meal.


This type of meal is called a Hot Pot. The idea is that you are given a bowl of broth (or in our case water) along with all the ingredients such as cabbage, mushrooms, pumpkin, yam, and numerous other things. Under the metal bowl is a small container filled with flammable liquid and it is set alight. The fire heats the bowl above it and you put your food in to cook it. Not a bad idea.

In the restaurant, they had this really unusually looking item on their counter. What I found out (and I did try to use my Chinese Language skills) was this is an Ice Coffee maker. How it works is that you put ice cubes in the top container and as they melt the cold water drips down to the middle container. In the middle container it has coffee beans. The cold water that has melted from the ice runs over the coffee beans and drips to the bottom container. Apparently the ice coffee is really delicious when made this way, but unfortunately it takes more than six hours to get a cup out of it.

The restaurant manager mentioned that coffee made this way keeps the aromas locked into the water whereas with hot coffee, particularly with boiling hot water, the aromas are fused with the steam and escape from the drink. I have heard that putting boiling hot water with coffee is a no-no as it burns the coffee. But as I am not a coffee drinker I can't confirm that one.

After filling our bellies and soaking in the hot spas, we headed back to our room for a good night's sleep. The following morning, the Doctor and I had another soak in the hot spa, after all this was the point of the trip, eat breakfast and made our way back home. On the way back to the bus stop, I managed to get a reasonable photo of the BaoLai township. It really is nested in amongst the mountains. However, this also was very close to the epicentre of an earthquake that struck a month earlier. Also when the devastating typhoons hit in August last year, all round this area was hit pretty bad.

This is one house that was almost sweep away with the typhoons, how it is still standing I don't know. The cliff top that was under the house has been washed away along with half of the road. Mother Nature must have been really furious over something...

Anyway I think that is all for now. Til next time, haveagoodone...