torsdag 30 december 2010

Tedde and Lisa need more space

Continueing where I left off in the last post, we ended up at a sea front park full of driftwood sculptures, maybe not the nicest place along the way but the statues were at least creative.

Panorama 1

click for larger panorama

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Sculptures made from driftwood

From the park we drove further north until we came to a beach where we should be able to swim, none of us really felt like swimming but we did have some fun playing in the water. We also discoverd that the big building right by the beach was an unfinished hotel that had seemingly been abandoned.

DSCN1776 Our exploration of the hotel lead to the lobby…

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…which has a fantastic view as you can see

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General look of the place, inside and out

The last stop on the way north was a small park where the main attraction is a small stream, the whole point is that, due to certain circumstances the water seems to run up the hill, too bad it is impossible to show it in a picture.

Having marvelled at the gravity defying stream for a while we turned back and went to the other side of the city where we found the place that makes Taidong worth travelling to. No that Taidong is not nice, just that Hualian is very similar but so much more convenient. The place I’m talking about is the Liji Bad lands, it is basically just a dried out riverbed, an oh so cool landscape for playing around in. It might sound very childish but playing with dried mud is more fun than you might think. I could probably spend a whole day there just playing.

Panorama 2

Again, click for larger panorama

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A bright toy in the grey landscape

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This really looks surreal

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Is it a rock? Is it clay?, I honestly cannot say

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Exploring the mud and the cliffs on the riverbank

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My brother smashes some dried up clay

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A dark, brooding landscape shot to end with

After playing around in the variably dust and muddy field we all felt we needed to clean up so we drove to the next town for a dip in some hot springs which was nice as usual.

The next day was bleak and rainy and our attempt at being tourist failed rather miserably by going to an unfinished culture park and sitting around in some aborigine style houses in the rain. We decided not to visit any other places since the weather was so bad and went back to Hsinchu instead.

On Monday it was back to school and work for me and Yini and Tedde and Lisa were left to explore the city on their own some more. In the afternoon me and Tedde drove out to the abandoned park that me and Yini discovered earlier this year and had a look at the giant stone steps in the river. Tuesday was even more busy and I only had time to Join my brother in the evening. We took them to sushi express for a nice dinner then drove out to try the Taiwanese culture drug Betel nut, or Binlang as it is known here. The taste was just as horrible as always and the girl selling it was just as scantily dressed as always but it is part of the Taiwanese experience.

Anyway, that was all we had time to do during my brothers short visit but it was fun, I hope Tedde and Lisa enjoyed being here as much as me and Yini enjoyed being their hosts. Now for some final pictures:

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Stone steps in the river

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Tedde and Lisa enjoying the sun on a last tour of the city

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Sushi!!!!

The second post about Tedde and Lisa in Taiwan

As I said, on Thursday we got on a train to Hualian, our original goal was further south but that takes such a long time so we decided to stop half way. In Hualian we did what every Hualian tourist does, we went to Taroko Gorge and just like every tourist before them Tedde and Lisa marvelled at the beutiful scenery.

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Kissing the cliffs

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Holding the rock

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You need balance to walk in the river

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General landscape pictures

After Hualian we moved on to our final destination, Taidong in the very southeast. Due to rather undeveloped communications on the east coast we only got there late in the evening instead of in the afternoon as planned but that was ok. In Taidong we rented some scooters and went exploring northward along the coast. The whole east coast is generally a nice place, a random stop along the raod landed us at a nice beach.

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Tedde and Lisa during their first scooter adventure

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Random beach is also nice.

Next up was Xiaoyeliu, another park with cool rock formations, pretty similar to the real Yeliu up north and Shitiping in Hualien but still nice. I think the two visitors enjoyed it.

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Lots of holes in a rock, fancy

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Rock formations are nice

On the way to the next stop Lisa snapped this shot of my brother:

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Slightly scared Tedde

To keep this post within reasonable length I will stop here.

onsdag 29 december 2010

My brother in Taiwan

This morning, my brother left the country after being here for about ten days. The reason I havn’t written anything while he was here is that I have been busy having fun with him and his girlfriend. A short summery of what we have done is to follow.

Since they arrived on a Sunday evening me and Yini just took them to a teppanyaki restaurant for some dinner and then let them sleep after traveling for a long time. Monday we took them around in the city centre a bit then down to the beach and ended with Japanese bbq

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Me, Tedde, Lisa PC192750 PC192755

A stroll on the beach PC202761 Japanese BBQ

 

Tuesday me and Yini were both very busy so we sent them off to Taipei with some instructions for the metro and tips on what to see. They did some shopping in Ximen and, of course, saw Taipei 101. Here are a few of their photos:

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In and around Taipei 101

On Wednesday me and Yini had more time so we met up in Taipei and took the Maokong gondola up in the mountains. We had some tea up there – drinking tea is the thing to do – and looked at nature. Then we went to Shilin night market for some Taiwanese style entertainment before heading home again.

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from the gondola

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The pot holes in the river

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Have some tea!

On thursday they explored Taipei a bit more and we met up with them later that evening and got on a train for Hualian but since this post is getting big I will tell you more about that next time.

lördag 18 december 2010

Chips!!!

Igår körde jag ett litet miniprojekt. Jag hade tidigare inhandlat en stor påse chips från det lokala Costco (en matgrossistkedja) och beslutade mig för att endast livnära mig på chips en dag. Eftersom jag inte har något att göra på fredagar så fick det bli en lämplig dag. Av samma anledning så sov jag också till lunchtid ungefär så jag började dagen med att krama om min chipspåse litet innan jag tog mig en skål till brunch. P1050891 Lite konstigt att inte äta någon “riktig mat” innan men inte så fel som man kan tänka sig. Hursom, det blev en slödag framför datorn med återkommande påfyllning av chipsskålen. Märkligt nog tröttnade jag inte på smaken heller. I slutändan var det inte så märkligt som man kan tycka, inte heller så gott som jag kanske hade väntat mig.

Det enda lite märkliga är att jag hade säkert halva påsen kvar när dagen var över, kanske inte så konstigt med tanke på att den var på nära 800 gram. P1050892

Hursom, resten av påsen gick mer eller mindre åt till brunch och eftermiddagsfiak idag, nu behöver jag inte mer chips på ett tag.

onsdag 15 december 2010

Vinter?

Idag har det gått och blivit kallt på riktigt, inte bara enligt taiwanesstandard. termometern ute säger 11 grader och till råga på allt regnar det och blåser. Jag glömde handskar på väg till skolan och det blir snabbt kallt när man kör scooter. I söder är det dock acceptabelt varmt fortfarande, förhoppningsvis vänder det uppåt igen lagom tills brorsan dyker upp.

söndag 12 december 2010

You can find the most strange places in this country

One of my favourite activities in Taiwan is to go 兜風 (doufeng), 兜風 means “to catch the wind” or in clear English,  to wander around. The basic idea is that I get on my scooter and drive around more or less randomly and see if I can find something interesting. It turns out that finding interesting places in this country is rather easy. Following are a few of the ones in Hsinchu:

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A piece of unused road that ends in nothing

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A bike path under the freeway

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They like to make little camps under the highway too

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Low bridges here

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They don’t like people steeling their chairs

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Random door

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Abandoned park

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Giants stairs, in the middle of the river

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A random path under the expressway

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On this hidden away baseball field…

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..I found this odd  building…

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…that looks like this on the inside

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This beautiful park is in the middle of nowhere

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But there are holes in the water 

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Some more unused road, nice for driving

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Toilet seats in a tree…

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..and a great big grave in the woods

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We found a nice ledge to climb up on

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I decided to kick down the wall of this abandoned house

As you can see there are many strange and interesting places to be discovered, however, you do find lots of not so interesting places on the way there.