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
Last week was Africa Week here in Taipei. Africa Week is apparently a yearly event which is organized I believe by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) (if I am wrong, please correct me). This event highlights the charitable work done in Africa by multiple organizations and emphasizes the relationships Taiwan has with some of those countries. The weekend events were run at the Hua Shan Art District in Taipei. A few businesses in Taiwan that are run by South Africans and other Africans were invited to put up some stands. There were also many other charitable organizations in attendance that were highlighting the work they do in Africa including Buddhist Organizations, Churches and other charities.
One of the Taiwanese Charities in Africa
Some of the businesses that were there included Grillmasters, Frankies, and Afriwine. Grillmasters is a BBQ company that specializes in South African Braais, Frankies is a restaurant in Yonghe run by an old colleague of mine at Kojen and Afriwine is a new shop that opened and imports wine from South Africa. There was also a central stage on where a lot of Taiwanese performers were playing African drums and on which a few presentations were given. The Taiwanese government had also flown in a dance troupe from Swaziland. From what we could see, they were pretty good.
Roelf the Grill Master
Etienne & Roelf, the grill masters and Paul
Unfortunately the weather played the spoiler. It rained all weekend. According to one of the stand holders, they were very optimistic at the grand opening since Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) himself attended. The stand holders were told they could expect at least 10,000 visitors over the weekend but by Sunday afternoon when we visited they said they were lucky if 1,000 people had shown up. All the stand holders we spoke to said they were losing money being there but were hoping the marketing opportunity would help their businesses grow. Those we spoke to thought that although the weather was bad, poor organization and poor marketing were responsible for the low turnout. This may be true. I only heard of the event last week on ICRT and Queenie said she had seen nothing in the Chinese press about the event.
Nevertheless, the main hall had a host of displays highlighting different countries in Africa including Burkino Faso, South Africa, and Nigeria. There were also stands highlighting medical missions to Africa and the health issues faced by Africans including HIV and malaria which afflicts a large portion of the population. There were also presentations by Taiwanese people who had worked in Africa as well as African students in Taiwan who were learning Chinese.
Main Hall Information Booth
Highlighting HIV and Malaria
Swaziland Highlighted
Nigeria Highlighted
Traditional African Arts and Crafts
What was good for us is that we got to eat some boerewors (farmer's sausage) rolls at the grillmasters, eat some excellent chicken pies from Frankies and buy some good South African wine from Afriwine. Hopefully next year the marketing and organization is improved, the weather is better and more people attend. This has the makings of a fantastic annual event if the organization can be improved. Until next years, totsiens and sala kahle.
Paul Theroux once wrote: "Only a fool blames his bad vacation on the rain." I agree, and similarly only fool can blame a bad weekend on the rain. Last weekend it rained buckets, but we were determined to enjoy the whole weekend and do exciting and fun things. Queenie was especially determined to ensure the weekend wasn't a bust and early on Saturday morning set about planning the day. The plan she came up with was brilliant. First we would visit the Taipei Art Museum. Next we would visit the wooden library in Hsin-Beitou and then end the day with a hot spring. It was the perfect plan, considering we also had our niece Charlene and Queenie's Mother going with us. The art museum was fun (see Photo Exhibit at Taipei Fine Arts Museum) and after a quick bite we jumped on the MRT and headed off to Hsin-Beitou
Hsin-Beitou Library
The library has been there for a few years but this is the first time we have visited it. The library is an aesthetic piece of wooden architecture built in a park next to the Beitou Hot Springs Museum (北投溫泉博物館). Queenie had seen the library on the television in the morning and decided we should take the trip up there. The library is fairly close to the Hsin-Beitou MRT station and is quite a remarkable building. I was duly surprised. The bulding facade at least was all made of wood (inside and out). There were a lot of windows and hence a lot of natural light pouring into the museum. The view outside was of the garden with lots of greenery. Of course most of the desks were occupied with very hard working students who are (I suppose) preparing for their exams.
Inside the Library
Library Staircase
Students Hard at Work
As mentioned, the view outside the library was of the park and there was a lot of greenery. And what was especially great was that they had tables and chairs outside the library too where people could sit, relax and read books. I couldn't think of anything better to do on a lazy afternoon than sitting down and reading some books in that environment.
Library Outdoor Deck
View from the Library
In the basement of the library is a decent size childrens section with all manner of children's books. Charlene really had a great time down there choosing different books and changing chairs. She had a great time. One of her favorite books turned out to be a kangaroo book. Who knows why?
Charlene Reading
Charlene's Kangaroo Book
There was also a decent collection of English books. I found myself quite surprised reading a biography of Nikita Khruschev in such a place. There was also a decent collection of English Journals in the library too and they seemed fairly up to date. So it would be a good place just to sit and read the latest journals for an hour or two.
The English Journals
The Flute Player
After a couple of hours in the library we took a walk around the Hot Springs Museum and took a short rest in the shelter outside the museum. There was an old man there who was playing the flute. He told us he had been playing the flute for 50 years. He had been featured in some of the local Chinese newspapers and had produced a CD. We should have bought one but it never crossed our mind. He said playing the flute was good for his health and also helped make you think clearly. He also advised me not to argue with Queenie but to listen to her and do as she says. That gave me a good laugh. He was kind enough to play a couple of tunes for Charlene and she absolutely loved it and tried to clap along.
Playing us a couple of Tunes
He was a grand old man. He had a lot of patience and kindness for children and he enjoyed chatting with us and Queenie's mom. I hope we can get back there soon to buy his CD. It will be worth it.
Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館)
After leaving the flute player we headed down the hill back into the center of Hsin-Beitou to get a bite to eat. As we were passing the Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館) we were stopped by some aboriginal ladies who invited us in to watch a dance. We were there at the right time. It was 3:00pm and the dance was just starting. The dance we saw was a traditional dance of the A-Mei people. Being from Africa I thought the dance was really passive compared to the Zulu dances I have seen before. The Maori dances in New Zealand were also far more aggressive. I don't think these were ward dances but they were still fairly passive. Nonetheless, they were pretty good and it was fun to watch.
The Dance
Hot Spring Resort
After a quick bite to eat we headed off to the Sweetme Hot Springs Resort. The room on the 11th floor with fantastic views was only NTD2,000 for 2.5 hours. We thought it was pretty good. The hotel lobby and corridors had elegant lighting and very soothing and relaxing music being played throughout the public areas of the resort.
The Lobby
Flowers in the Corridor
The room itself was very comfortable and the view of the cloud capped mountains made it all the more relaxing. Queenie, her Mom. Charlene and Myself all had a great time and found the whole experience to be very relaxing.
View from the Room
The Room (No Charlene is not Included)
Charlene and Queenie Relax
Lu Mama and Charlene
The End of the Day
After two hours in the relaxing hot spring, it was time to leave. It was a fantastic day by all. We took a slow walk to the MRT, jumped on the train and were home an hour later. Charlene and Lu Mama headed off to their house and we got ready to go to the Brass Monkey for the Super 14 finals, which the Bulls won. Surprisingly most of the day was free. The art museum, the library, the flute player and the dancing was all free. The hot spring was a bit of money but we needed to relax and since the rest of it was free, we didn't really mind too much. It was a pretty good day considering the rain.
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.
Sacrificial Pig Festival - Sanxia (snapshot of the original)
Today, with the torrential rain battering all of Taiwan and definitely Taipei, we decided to head off to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum on Chung Shan North Road (中山北路). They had some paid exhibits but since we were there with our niece Charlene and Queenie's Mom, we decided to just enjoy the free exhibits in the basement and on the second and third floor. The second floor didn't have much as one of the exhibits was cancelled. The third floor was also fairly limited since a fairly large exhibit was still being setup so there really wasn't much to see. However, the photo exhbition on the third floor was stunning.
Photo Exhibit
The exhibit featured pictures from Shanghai in the early 1940s and a lot of pictures around Taipei and Taiwan in the early to mid 20th century. All the pictures were in black and white and the subjects, you can tell, were carefully selected. These pictures were taken before the cheap, low cost happy-snappy era of digital photography where photographers had to really think about their shots and what picture they were going to take.
What was especially special was walking through the exhibit with Queenie's mother who could relate to a lot of what was in those pictures. Many of the pictures in Taiwan were taken during her early childhood. She could relate to the images of mothers carrying children on their backs while fetching water (her mom did that with her) and to the way the kids played games with stones (their only toys). Seeing those images really brings out the stark reality of the poverty of post-War Taiwan and how Taiwan is really one of the developing world's economic miracles. When I see how Queenie's parents grew up in those pictures, and see the life their children and grandchildren now have, it is a vast, vast difference. As foreigners we hear about the Taiwan economic miracle, but this exhibit provides a template (however limited) against which we can compare modern Taiwan to its past.
Queenie's Mom Shares a Story
Although photography is strictly forbidden in the museum (and we don't normally disrespect the rule), we managed to steal a few snapshots (with the flash off) of some of the pictures to share with you. However we do recommend you go along to the museum to see the pictures for yourself. You won't be disappointed, especially since its free. And if you can, go there with someone who lived through that era on the island, it will be very enlightening for you.
Festival of Lord Dazhong in Shinjuang
These pictures were from the Festival of Lord Dazhong in Shinjuang. As per the description in the Museum: "The Festival of Lord Dazhong,, Sinjuang series, a collaboration with Chen Chi-lu from National Taiwan University, features precious images of a mixture of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs handed down by the Hakka culture in Southern Taiwan such as worshippers pleasing guilty and asking the gods' forgiveness, women wearing self-made cangues on their necks as a votive gesture, and the officials in charge of life and death, generals, carriages and instruments oof punishment in front of the Lord Dazhong." (Chien Yun-ping)
All the images below are snapshots of the orignals in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. We didn't take them.
Lord Dazhong Festival - Swordsmen
Lord Dazhong Festival - Woman with Cangue on her Neck
Lord Dazhong Festival - Dancer
Lord Dazhong Festival - Parade
Lord Dazhong Festival - Masked Man
Sacrificial Pig Festival - Sanxia
The other exhibit that just blew us away was the Sacrificial Pig Festival - Sanxia exhibit. As per the Musuem description: "In these religious and spiritual works, Chang Tsai used the panorama to photograph the devout worshippers pouring in to witness the gods touring the district. The wide-angle close-ups of the figures highlighted the inner emotions of t ordinary people attending temple festivals, suggesting a profound sense of identification and acceptance." (Chien Yun-ping). Queenie's mother added that she has seen the festival and that there is a great deal of competition between people to see who has the biggest pig. She personally thinks the festival is brutal and actually feels sorry for the pigs.
All the images below are snapshots of the orignals in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. We didn't take them.
Random Pictures
A couple of random pictures that really caught my eye are below.
All the images below are snapshots of the orignals in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. We didn't take them.
Teenage Girls in Tainan
White Egrets
Spectators Watch Sports from a Tree
There were many more wonderful pictures of old Shanghai and the aboriginal people in Taiwan. If you love photography and are interested in old pictures. Or interested in the history of Taiwan and China, we highly recommend you get down to the museum to see this exhibit. The pictures are amazing. I am not sure how much longer the exhibit will be up. You could call them to find out, but it is worth the trip, especially since its free. Its best to end this post with what one of the photographers said: "The places I taveled to over the past three years have been visited by thousands of photographers before. That is why I felt a kind of pressure when taking the pictures. In terms of social documentary and landscape photography, I tried my best to produce and capture something new. My personal concept of photography is to take straight photograps to recor what to me are new visual impressions. Ying Xin 1987-1989" (Chung Tsai).
As always, we look forward to your comments. Thanks for reading.
In February 2009 we went to Uzbekistan for Chinese New Year. It was an amazing journey. This is the fourth installment of our travelogue. Hope you enjoy and feel free to comment. Quick note, I cannot find the cd with the pics for this part of the journey, so you will have to make do with the videos.
Inside a Market in Samarkand
After Tea – A Paraplegic Taxi Driver Figures Out the Route
We finished our tea outside Khast Imam and decided to visit the History Museum. Getting there was a blast. We managed to find ourselves a polite, paraplegic taxi driver in the most beat up taxi we have ever been in. The guy spoke rudimentary English and tried to communicate with him. We told him where we wanted to go and he said he knew the place. He didn’t. Five minutes into the drive he stopped and asked some policeman for directions. They too were perplexed. He carried on driving and after five more minutes his eyes lit up, his voice boomed and he shouted “History Museum” and we were on our way. And when he found out Queenie was from Taiwan, he excitedly exclaimed "Chiang Kai Shek!" Our one regret was we only paid him SOM2,000, we should have paid him more out of generosity, love and compassion.
The History Museum - Why the Propoganda?
The museum itself wasn’t that great. It was a regular appeal to the greatness of the Uzbek nation and there was a lot of propaganda about modern Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan we found is a great country. I couldn’t understand the need for the propaganda. True, we didn’t understand the politics of the place or the history and the culture, but on the surface level the country seemed to be functioning well and many of the people we spoke to believed there was progress being made and not because of the propaganda being spread but because of the improvement in their own personal standard of living. At least that is what they said. The museum however wasn’t too bad, especially on the more ancient history side of things. There were no English subtitles which did prevent a fuller appreciation of what we were seeing. As it turned out, while we were in the museum there was a huge rainstorm outside that we completely missed, so we were fortunate in that regard.
The Area outside the museum was far more impressive. The main political buildings (which are impressive) were across the street, and there were some beautiful gardens to stroll through and to sit and relax in. While in the museum we befriended some school kids and they seemed to be going along the same path as us and they tried their best to communicate with us. Also, as we walked around many people approached us and tried to welcome us to Uzbekistan and talk with us. We did the best we could but with no Russian, Uzbek or Tajik in our linguistic arsenal, and with their limited English abilities, deeper conversations than the rudimentary “hello, where you come from” and “welcome to Uzbekistan” proved to be impossible.
We did take the time to visit the Art Museum too (mostly because we needed to use the bathroom). This in a way was better than the history museum as the works seemed to be original expressions of the artists. Some of the paintings were pretty good and other art pieces (statues etc.) weren’t too bad either. Despite this, we barreled through the museum in about 45 minutes as we were anxious to get to the first of the many markets we would visit: The Chorsu Bazaar.
The Most Incredible Subway in the World
To get to the Chorsu Bazaar, we decided to take the subway. This truly is the most incredible subway in the world. The one we walked in to had vaulted ceilings and chandeliers hanging down. The one we transferred at was done up in the elaborate style of an ancient Mosque. The trains themselves were not too frequent, but the actual décor in the stations kept us alert and not too anxious to leave. Apparently the subway is a nuclear bomb shelter so no photography of any kind is allowed inside. It is also a place where tourists are apparently shaken down by police (although nothing happened to us). When we saw policeman approaching, we just drifted off unobtrusively to another spot in the subway. We had been warned and decided to really behave. But still, the subway was an incredible experience. If you are in Tashkent, you need to take it at least once or twice, just to see the stations. Apparently all the stations are done up in this way.
Chorsu Bazaar
Chorsu Bazaar lies in the heart of the old town of Tashkent. We had read tourists are regularly invited into the private homes of the Uzbeks living there. Although this didn’t happen to us, we were still excited to get our first view of a Central Asian Bazaar. We weren’t disappointed! The bazaar was teeming with people and stalls and vendors. It was huge. Some of the vendors saw we were tourists and gave us free samples of their fruit and foods. We also brought some bread too. We were just stunned at the size of the bazaar and it took us a full hour to amble around the full circuit of the bazaar. Queenie did buy some fruit for us and negotiating with the vendors was quite a challenge in terms of language but something we discovered (again) was how sincere and honest they were. They were incredibly patient with us and always made sure the correct change was given. We were never cheated once. Not once! Which we thought was really surprising! This is not to say it doesn’t happen, it just never happened to us, and this is not to say we weren’t overcharged, it is just to say that prices were negotiated and once a deal struck, they kept to it always.
The bazaar itself was an incredible place to visit. Queenie even found a vendor who could speak Chinese. Of course all the people thought Queenie was from Korea, but soon understood she wasn’t. Once we had finished at the bazaar we walked out, passed some knife shops, tried on some Russian Hats for fun, and then drifted into the old part of Tashkent. We stumbled across a road that had roadside cafes/restaurants and once again decided to stop for a bite to eat (who needs a fancy hotel meal?).
While we were inside the bazaar a fight broke out between a couple of Uzbek men. I tried to record it on my video camera but as soon as they realized I was recording they started yelling at me. One of the bigger female vendors immediately stood in front of us to protect us and I felt that the other vendors were willing to defend us too. Of course I immediately stopped recording. The funny part of this story was that the following day while waiting for a taxi to take us to Samarkand, somone came up to us and asked us to see the video. Turns out he was one of the men in the fight and he thought it was quite funny. He kept on wanting to watch the video over and over again.
The vendors were once again very understanding and patient in taking our order. We once again ordered some meat dishes and the staff really enjoyed being filmed. Queenie went over to a different kitchen and some of the chefs even did a dance for her. Sitting on that roadside café in the middle of Tashkent, and being the only foreigners there made us realize just what we had done and were doing. All I needed was a beer, but the beers would start to flow in Samarkand. For now it was tea and some meat sandwiches of some sort, and it was delicious.
After Dinner Walk – The Stalker
The temperature had already started to drop significantly and it was starting to get dark. We still jet lagged and decided to head off to the hotel. We strolled through the old town and happened upon a Mosque during prayer time. As we approached the Mosque we noticed this young guy in a thick leather jacket following us. We decided to just carry on walking and ignore him. If anything untoward were to happen I figured I could hold my own. As we got to the Mosque courtyard, prayers had just finished and a stream of people flowed out. We started to head back down towards the main road to catch a taxi when our stalker approached us.
It turns out he was a really shy English student who was trying to think of a way to talk to us. Afterwards he escorted us down to the main road. We took some videos of Tashkent by night. The young man, as it turns out (I wonder) was going in the same direction as us and offered to take us to our hotel. So he put us on the correct bus, jumped on the bus with us and we were off. As we approached our hotel stop, he wanted to get off with us but we insisted he carry on going to his final destination assuring him we would manage to cross the street to our hotel by ourselves. To this day we couldn’t really figure it out what the guy was about. He was friendly in a strange kind of way.
We did however enjoy the Mosque. It was on a hill and very beautiful in the dying light. The business of the road below reminded us that Tashkent was a growing metropolis where many people were going to make their fortunes. Standing on the side of the road, we realized how happy we were to be there, even though it was cold. Although the view from the Mosque was beautiful, the sadness was the very poor woman and children begging for alms outside. Some children running around nearly naked with their hands out trying to get a couple of SOM is very sad. One only hopes the government would do something for these poor people. Of course one of the tenants of Islam is to be generous to the poor so it is understandable that they congregate outside the Mosque at prayer time, but it was very sad to see.
Day 1 Ends
So the day ended as it began in the foyer of the Marakizy hotel. Day 2 would see us bouncing down on four hour shared taxi drive to Samarkand, to the home of Timur the Great. Little did we know that this was only the beginning and our true adventures lay westward. There wasn’t anything to do but pack, prepare, sleep and dream Central Asian dreams.
