So next week I am planning to start to circumnavigate Taiwan on my bicycle. Today I spend an obscene amount of money on getting accessories for my bike as well as getting the bike serviced. One of the accessories is the Garmin Edge 800 bicycle computer. Truly amazing little device but it is a pity the Taiwan maps on the device itself only come in Chinese. Anyway, the route above is the first ride I actually did with the device. I rode from the Giant Store in Neihu back to my apartment. Its cool that the event can be embedded in my blog so when (and if) I eventually do do any blogs on the trip, I can connect to the events on the Garmin page. Anyway, this is just a random testing post. I am sure you will see many more rides from my Garmin Edge up here.
Queenie and I were chatting the other day about where to go next year on our annual trip. I suggested the crazy idea of going to Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. However, a trip there seems to be extremely difficult and the marginal benefits of going to an island that can be covered in a day by car might make it not worth it at this point of our lives.
(Picture by Nicolas de Camaret)
Just thinking about the route, there are two (maybe three options). The first is to fly from Taipei to Taihiti, and then from Taihiti to Easter Island (I hear you say why not just stay in Taihiti). The second option is to fly either to Lima (Peru) or Santiago (Chile) and then take a flight from there to Easter Island (and here again I hear you - why not just stay in Peru/Chile). The problem with the South American options I believe is that we would need to still fly to the Western seaboard of the United States and then from there head to Lima or Santiago. And from Santiago to Easter Island the flight is apparently something in the region of six hours. We would really have to spend a lot of time in the air to get there and back. Not sure how long but certainly more than 30 hours.
The main reason to go to Easter Island are of course to see the Moai statues carved out by the original Polynesian settlers on the island. The second reason to go would be to experience the remoteness of the island and see a part of the pacific at its wildest and most remote. Below I have linked to a five part play list of Richard Attenborough's documentary: The Lost God's of Easter Island. Its pretty interesting
The Lost God's of Easter Island - Richard Attenborough
I recently became interested in Easter Island again after reading Jared Diamond's Collapse where he uses Easter Island as an apocalyptic parable warning against the inconsidered and unhindered use of both renewable and unrenewable natural resources arguing that the Easter Islanders completely used their resources which led to a ccatastrophic collapse in their society. Diamond argues that they (stuck on a remote island with no contact with anybody else) like us (stuck on a single planet with no contact with any other intelligence) were all alone and completely self sufficient. They got it wrong and the consequences were tragic in the extreme. Will we get it wrong, or right?
Anyway to get there seems to be quite a challenge and would need to be coupled with a week in Santiago or some other place in Chile. The distance is too far to go without staying for a longer period of time. I can also imagine that the cost of the airline tickets would be pretty high and not sure what the hotels would cost. Anyway, we are thinking about it but still not sure.
If anybody has any suggestions or ideas, let me know. Hopefully we will make up our mind soon.
Our niece Rochelle is growing into a wonderful artist and she has been selected for a special art class after school. She is really and enthusiastic about the class. The other day we visited and she painted our portrait. I thought I would share it here.
Its a great picture I am sure you would agree.
Queenie and I are huge fans of New Zealand and rugby. I have been watching rugby for as long as I can remember and Queenie really enjoys watching the games with me. I played before but recently not so much. We are fans of rugby but I suppor the South African team and Queenie is a huge All Blacks supporter. Anyway, a friend shared this wonderful video with us on facebook. I decided to share it here.
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| New Zealand 2004 |
Queenie and I visited New Zealand in 2004 (seems a long time ago) and we loved the country so much. It is truly beautiful and the people are incredibly friendly. In fact, all over the world, wherever we meet Kiwis, they seem to be the nicest people we know. So I was happy to find this video that looks at rugby in New Zealand and what it means to the New Zealand people and how everyone seems to be involved in rugby from the youngest to the oldest. The video is Embedded below.
I hope you enjoyed.
Earlier this summer we revisited Pinglin (坪林) (see A Riverside Walk in Pinglin (坪林)) with my mom, Sister and nephew. As we were walking down the trail we heard this terrible screeching noise. We looked on the tree and saw this Cicada being eaten by a lizard. The picture is below.
Cicada Trapped in Lizard's Saliva
It may seem cruel but this is nature and the cycle of life and happens everyday in every wilderness in the world. It was a fascinating sight and I was lucky enough to get the picture. As we got closer, the lizard got more nervous and nearly dropped its prey. As you can see in the picture above, the cicada is stuck in the lizard's saliva and hanging suspended in space.
Springbok Supporters
Well the first game of the Springbok's international was on today. A few of us trooped off to the Taipei Brass Monkey to watch the game. We also ran into some old friends and had a thoroughly good time. We also had some dinner there (the chicken pies are always good) and one or two beers.
The game was a good one. Wales went ahead 16-3 in the first 20 minutes. The boks managed to pull it back and get to 31-19 with 12 minutes to play. The Welsh then ran in a try to push the score to 31-24. The boks managed to put over a penalty to push it up to 34-24 and then a bad mistakes by the Boks allowed the Welsh to run in another try to make it 34-31 with three minutes to go. It was a good game. We are glad the Boks won but kudos to the Welsh for keeping the game alive. Anyway, some of the pictures below of those who pitched up.
Doug and Queenie
Hector, Queenie, Andy and Paul
Doug, Queenie, Paul and Thomas
The Crowd
Queenie and Paul
Paul and Mark
Hector and Andy
Hector 
Hector and Queenie
Hector, Queenie, Andy
Mark
We had a great time with everyone. Thanks all for coming out to watch and support the Boks and the Welsh. We had fun. Next week, France! Oh, and by the way, The Brass Monkey is a good place to watch live sports. Two chicken pies and four beers only cost NTD1,038. Not bad for a night out.
Highlights of the game are below. Thanks RugbyDump.
Tonight we had dinner in the The Red Kitchen. I chose to have the rib-eye steak, well done of course. It was really delicious.
Rib Eye Steak
Queenie chose just to have the salad bar which included chicken pieces, savory biscuits with liver pate, lots of fresh salad, boiled eggs and lots of fruit.
Some of the Salad
The meal, as always, was delicious. We still highly recommend the food their. You can find them at:
No. 1, Alley 2, Lane 118
Hoping East Road, Section 2
Tel.: (02) 2377-6186
Saturday saw us heading out to Hsin-Beitou to visit the library and the hot springs after our tour of the Art Museum (see Photo Exhibit at Taipei Fine Arts Museum). As in all cities, there are always some strange and amusing sights. I remember once I was riding my bike in Taipei and saw a kid on a chair on a motorcyle with a neck protector (see Motorcycle Safety in Taiwan). Well this Saturday we saw a couple of other odd things.
Dogs in Taipei
Some people treat their dogs really strangely, and I am sure this happens all over the world. The classic was this poor little dog being carried in a shoulder bag on the MRT. Pictures below. I carry our in-laws dog sometimes as he is getting on in years and gets very tired, but we generally let him walk around (I don't think pets are allowed on the MRT hence the bag) but the poor little mutt was probably carried around like this all day. Ah well, each to their own. At least the dog is well fed and has a caring and loving home.
Look Carefully in the Black Bag
Dog in the Bag
Afternoon Nap
The second sight was this guy completely passed out on an outdoor chair outside McDonalds. He had his Mandatory cigarette box and can of Heineken. Mind you, is there a much better way to spend a day out in the cool air than this? Ah well, I hope he had a good rest.
Just a Catnap
Really Tired
At Peace with the World.
Thanks for reading and comment is free.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park
Hey everyone its been a while since we posted. Couple of months to be precise. Since then a lot of things have happened. We have been looking for a house (so far unsuccessfully) been back to South Africa, celebrated our 8-year anniversary and been fairly busy in our jobs. Added to the fact that we are always tied up behind computers everyday which reduces the appeal of blogging when we get home. Anyway, we will start blogging with more regularity in the future.
We still need to do some updates on our trip to Uzbekistan last year (wow time really flies), the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and South Africa. It was all great and we really look forward to providing updates in the next few days, weeks, months and years.
This post is just to check in and say hi. The picture above was taken at the Hilltop Hotel in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in South Africa earlier this year. We had a great day driving around the reserve and a wonderful time in St Lucia and in South Africa. We will update more soon.
Anyway take care and please do feel free to comment. Until the next post in the not too distant future, ciao.
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| Queenie's Flower |
Queenie bought this flower as a bud in the market. A few days later it had bloomed into this beautiful flower.
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| Us...Just Us |
13 April 2002, seven years ago, we got married. We took our wedding pictures on the beaches on the North East Coast of Taiwan. It was a cold and windy day. Our friend Vivian took these pictures of us as she tagged along. Since then we have had an amazing time. Its had its ups, its downs, but we have mostly had a blast and loved it..
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| On our knees |
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| Bliss.... |
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| The Flamenco |
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| Run baby Run |
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| On the beach... |
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| Wild Coast |
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| What were we doing? |
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| Love is... |
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| Hush little baby, don't say a word... |
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| Here we come.. |
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| CEO Pose... |
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| Sophistication |
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| Out of Africa |
Happy anniversary Queenie, I love you.
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year |
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and we would like to wish you all the best for 2009. May all your hopes and dreams come true.
As long as I live in Taiwan I will never quite appreciate how parents can carry their kids on motorcycles without helmets etc. Anyway, most times the kids are standing on the motorcycle platform, holding the handlebars, or are being carried by a second adult at the back of the motorcycle. A couple of months ago I was riding my bicycle in the Wenhua district of Taipei and saw the latest in motorcycle saftey for children.
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Baby on a motorcylce... |
Notice the neck cushion put on the baby's neck backward, this might help with whiplash I guess! Hey, what do I know about motorcycle safety?
Here is a picture of us on the Island of Koh Samuii, Thailand in 2002. We spent a week there with Simon and Helen, our friends from New Zealand. The picture was taken at the Golden Temple on the south side of the island. We spent a wonderful time on the beach, snorkelling, kayaking on motorcycles and driving around the island. In fact it was our honeymoon. We had to delay our honeymoon six months because of work issues.
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| Koh Samui, 2002 (From General Pictures) |
By the way I have no idea why I am not smiling! Queenie looks happy though.
