johansvennung(臺灣)

Caoling historical trail

I went for a trail today...

Starting at 7-11 to buy things...as usual before a hike...

Full train...omg, i prefer thetrains with unbooked seats...

I had my chocolate from marabou, super nice...

My friend has Kopparbergs polo...thats a nice shirt...

Fulong was the destination...

The main road looks a usual...

Caoling tunnel...thats for bikes...

We had to go north, to get to the train entrance...

Some local lady wanted to sell stuff...she as helpful with the directions...

Finally tha first sign...

My local friends joined as well...

I had a beer...

This guy had 4 beers...

Nice cat house...I wonder who lives here...with all these cats, and a dog...

No collection of bamboo...

Alot of bamboo...panda paradise...

Nice facilities...a toilet on the way to the path, with vending machines...

A 5 minutes break at a park...

More signs...

A big spider...

And a nice creek...

More signs...

I think the trail starts here...

So far it was mixed roads we walked on...

I found this map on internet...from some other blog...

My friends got tired...we were not sure they will join all the way...

After some consolidation they desided to return...to fulong...

We contined...

Some rest at some old rice fields...maybe this is why it is called a "historical trail"...

Some huge rock with chinese characters...

And at the top we met some americans...it was lot of fog...

To bad. were suppose to be able to see alot of things from here...

Reminded me ot when I went to xueshan...

Anyway...time to go down hill...

After some time, the rain started...

So we got some better view...

Time for wine and cheese...

Spanish wine I bought at carrefour yesterday...

Nice djungle...

And crackers...

And more rain...

I brought an extra poncho, which came in use...

It was alot of rain by now...

Flooding down the road...

And waterfalls everywhere...

The trekking crew

It was fun to play in the rain...

Omg, finaly at Dali...

That calls for some beers...

Cool guy with silver teeth...

Heavy traffic...

More beer...

We created a temporary trash can for all the drinks...

Well at the train station in Dali a guy said that all tarins are cancelled due to flood...

Some brave guy waiting anyway...

I spent some time looking for places I wanna visit...

I heard that some company find more gold in taiwan...that must be at this place...

Gathering all the people at the train station, we called for taxi...

Since the rain wouldnt stop...we were told thathere wont be any more trains for the day...

Later in the taxi I saw many waterfalls...

And stones falling on the road...

Finally in Keelung...

Then we went on the train to taipei again...

And some buffet...

My friends favorite BBQ...

With cheese sticks...

A blue shrimp...

And ice cream...

It was nice...i hope it wont rain to much tomorrow...

Last friday in august

I went up extra early, just to visit the bank today...

Even if i was there when they opened, I had to wait...

At lunch they called me, and said they did something wrong in their paper work...I had to come back, so annoying...when they dont have internet bank in this country...

More paper work...I hope they fixed it now...

Last chinese class...

I brought Beerlao...it was nice...

I also got a copy of a hike trail that I will do tomorrow...

And got some korean cake...

Later I went to this place behing ikea at nanjing east road...to med a friend...

We went to jollys...

And we were discussing jobs, career steps and strategies in taiwan regarding visa...

I had a scotish ale...

And a weisbeer...

I also passed by carrefour which is open all the time...to buy cheese and wine...

The "never 100% country"

Last thursday in august

Today I got back a physical exam test...

I think it was ok...everything wasin chinese...

I later on went to a burgerbar...

There were alot of people there...

I had a tropical fruit beer...

And a burger...it was good...i think they made the burger by themselves...

Baibai Jonatan...

Nice evening this wednesday...

As usual...sunset at the mountains towards Taoyuan airport...

Second last chinses class. due to typhoon, I wont do any TV-shooting this friday, this I have class...

Meeting a friend was second on the list, from the taiwanse-swedish company enspyre...

We ate some shanghai dumplings...

I ate them the Stenriker way...

 And headed to Howard hotel after that...

The only man working...meeting Jonatan, he is heading back to sweden tomorrow...

I had an intersing experiecnce, with some african girl or if she was american, they refused me to enter the hotel room, lying, that they didnt know anyone inside...intersgint culture of logic...

Jonatan likes to have presentations, and making good and profesional impressions...

Some german people were also there...

 We got some taiwan beer...

Later on we headed to On-tap, before we headed back...Tomorrow Jonatan will have a presentaion about taiwan...

Last tuesday in august...

Omg, one year ago I was 105 kilo...

Now im 89...time to gain weight...

Beer´n burger...check!

Some cheese and turey sandwish with 7-up and ice cream etc...check...

Omg, alcohol...not mine...some local construction workers...check!

We went to the driver range again...

Joel likes this, but next time he wants to play real golf...he said that in taiwan they are not that picky with green card...

This time we used a driver...its a little bit harder than a normal Iron 7...

Many people were at the range...

Some had very big drivers...I wonder if they suffer from SPC...

Its a good exersice...

 Later I headed to carrefour for some juice...its confusing with the prices...still...its very random which products are connected to what shelf price label...

Later I went to Yilan beer bar...

I have some homework for tomorrows chinese class...

It was buy 2 get 1 free...I had to take that offer...

Yilan beer is the only beer I know that taste like swedish cracker...its interesting...

I did 2:5 diet for 7 years...

During my youth...I did 2:5 diet...without labelling it...

I barely ate anything 5 days a week, and once in a while, I ate alot...I think that is as healthy as 5:2 diet...and cheaper...The pic is 7 years ago...

Second last chinese class...

My class today, was my second last one...

The semester ends this week, and I will go for a trip on friday...so wednesdays class will be the last...even though I will pass by school according to plan some time later...

A visit to The Lin family Mansion and garden

I paid a visit to Banqiao today...

 Starting with some breakfast drink...

It was only 35nt for 1000cc...that was nice...

 And then into the old lin family mansion and garden, from 1778...

 An acient garden...just my view of asian gardens...

 Alot of nice walls and ruins...

 And bonzai trees...

 And souvenir ships...

  It started to rain after a while...

I was taught photo shooting etc...

And also the history of this place...

 Symmetry...

 And light...and focus...many things to think about...

 the 1/3-rule...i seldom have time to care aobut this when snaping pics for my blog...but its still useful, since I have been planning to buy a system camera for some years now...

 Fense and symmetry...

 And soue guided tour...

 Many ponds...

 It was nice...I will build myself this kind of place when I get old...

 Many puddles...my fufutre version will contain som modernities...like sloped pathes...etc...

Some tunnel...

 They also had bridges...

 More bonzai trees...

 And more ponds...

 Luckily we could walk around under roof...since it was raining...

 A peacock...

 Later we headed to jasons market at banqiao...and found kopparbergs cider...

 But we bought wine...

And brie...it was nice...

Soime local girls fooling around....

 A electrical car charger station...thats a rare view here inte taiwan...

 later I headed to this hotpot in ximen....

It was a while since i visited this one...

 All infor fruit...

 And fish...

 And more fruit...I wasnt really super hungry, but its cheap here...

A revisit to the driver range...

Yesterday I went to an all you can eat, we call it the "cheese stick BBQ",,,

Its near taipei main station and nanjing east road...but this pic is at ximen, on a hotel that was in the movie I saw last wednesday...

Omg, a lady had her scooter box opened. I told her but she ignored me...(she thinks she is to imporant for me)...

But after some agressice gestures, she understood and closed it...

This is the place we wanted to eat at...

They are open until late...and for dwarfs its extra cheap...half price...

Joel was negotiation, we didnt book, and taipei is pretty crowded on weekends for resturants...

We had to wait, and went to a 7-11 to drink something...

Omg, this beer is also sold in sweden...but it was french...

Later we got a table for the cheese stick BBQ...

Alot of meat...

 And nice ice cream...

And cheese sticks...

They played nice music in the background...

Joel was preparing some facebook photo...

 After the BBQ we went to the golf court...

The driver range is in banqiao...seems like many people here plays golf...

I had my golf outfit...

I been at the driver range a couple of times in sweden...but that was some years ago...

We borrowed a 7 and a 9...

Joel was pretty good... 

At least compare to me...

Focus....

I was bad in the beginning, but after a while...i got back in shape...

Maybe next time, we will borrow a driver...to shoot longer...

We also brought some cider...

My thumb got a blister...

We had some relax sessions...

They had the ball vending machinese open...so we could just take some extra ball if we wnated...

Many locals stayed until late night...just for chilling...

We could thus buy more beer...until 2am...

And we also got seaweed from the hosts...

And some mingeling...

Later we went to a convenien store and tried some swedish cider...

So that we could compare the different kinds...Somersby tasted like Kiviks cider...

 The police passed by some time...but never when we saw drunk locals or ppl driving without helmet...I wonder if that was a coincidence...

European working standard...

In taiwan, people are expected to work up to 12 hours per day, for no compensation...

I had a talk with a friend who moved to europe some month ago...he just told me about the normal working condtions...

what is the meaning of life? well, atleast some has time to figure out that...others are stuck at ther 12 hour per day work...

Swedish cider hunt in taipei...

As usual I had chinese class on friday evening...

 Some new student...were there...

 We got pizza in class, that was nice...

 Lster I went to ximen, and med gouping...we went to a place where they had pinacoloda... 

Atleast according to their menu...

 But after 10 minutes they told me that they did not have it anymore....

 So i had some mango coconut drink....they are using swedish somersby glasses there...

 It was at K house...

 they also had a smashed car at ximen square...

 It said, "dont touch", maybe it was in some investigation, I wonder why they left it in public...many people passed by here...

 I later on went for some cider hunt...

 I wanted to find herrljunga cider but couldnt, at a store where my firend alfred reported that he seen some...but i found this malz drink, that my friend joel treated me once...

 Hmm...no herrljunga cider yet...

 I also passed by the all you can eat that I will go to in some day...according to plan...

I also pased by the bank, to uptade my bankbook...yep in taiwan they still use bankbook, no internet bank...

 After some cheese and wine...this day came to an end...

 But note my cider hunt...I went with my neighbour for a power walk in the morning...and observed his phone had my idol Michale jackson on is...

 Nice morning at the taipei riverside...

 Some guy playing golf...pretty cool...

 Omg, the road just ended...waht a surprise...

 Omg, that road just started, another surprise....

 Hmm confusing...but normal here....

 Omg, on our way back home...we passed by some random 7-11 to check prices...and found herrljunga cider...but only for ordering online...anyway mission complete...

Thursdays pizza....

no burger this thrusday...

But we headed to my favorite pizzeria at nanjing eat road in taipei...

Nice atmosphere...

And nice pizzs with alot of cheese as default...salami one...

and some anchovies on the other one...

My new friend, the italian baker...

LAter I went by a local 7-11 to try to find some herrljunga cider...but it turned out that i did not find it...

And this was, since it was the wrong 7-11...(i found out when I asked my friend)...

Omg, I saw a scooter with a kaohsiung plate...so interesting...

I also passed by joels house later in the night...

He gave me a screwcork....screw! now i have no excuse for not buying the cork bottles...hmm...maybe the drinking begin...thanks Joel!

I also saw a snail crossing the street...it barely begun the rid...it didnt looks safe...people drive pretty careless in blocks like this...

Typhoon times...

Its typhoon times...which means no work...but many people go out for retstaurants or shopping...

Me and joel went out for a noon walk...

Some rain...

They closed the river side again...just like last typhoon...

Well this entrance wasnt closed...

But this was one...not so consistent...well, well...just as it use to be...

Walking on the pavement...in rain...

No one wants to get water ever them...but no one cares to slow down to prevent others from get water on them...at home, the driver is forced to pay the cleaning, by law...he, no one cares...

Later we went for some burger and coffee...

Ghost month is soon over...so many people put food on tables...as "donations":..and burn fake money...

Joel trying to buy coffee...

I think he is doing good...

Coffee and burger...my second typhoon day breakfast...

Later i wentto muzha for a meeting...seeing more ppl put food on table and burn toy money...

More fires...

I got a beer from a friend...

It was at the office of the production company that deals with foreingers in taiwan...

This is the boss...contract signing...it was in chiense...but i got some fiar idea abou its meaning, by some translation...

Omg, where I parked my bike they also put out a table with food...

Later in the night I was heading to the cinema...and concluded that a Tai person weights 66.66kg...

Many people here during typhoon...

My friend Joel enjoys popcorn while watching movies...

Many people at the conema, it was totally full, as usual when typhoon...

We drank some german malz drink...it almost had oney flavour...

And saw a famous taiwanese movie...

About food...but most dishes in it looked like swedish thailand dishes..very nice quality...

And fried things...

They also had Taiwan beer in the background...

and as usual the tai movie ended with some coupling...not sure why taiwan loves this endings...

Many chinese names...

Later Joel had problems, the ticket machine in tha parking house was broken...

I went to carrefour, and concluded that its hard to find normal milk...even the staff called everything "milk"...even the chocolate milk...it was confusing...since i dont want chocolate milk, nor appble milk nor yohurt milk in my mashed potato...

Which was the purpose of the purchase...

I did like the cheif at my favorite pizeria in taipei does, i drink wine while cooking...

The result...no jam, but its ok...

A quick visit to an all u can eat and drink restaurant...

My friend Patric visited taipei today...

And we went to an all u can eat and drink restaurant

It was the sushi all u can eat at Q-quare, Taipei main station...

It was 780nt...not super cheap...and since I havnt eaten much recently i didnt eat much here either...but it was nice...patric is a nice guy...

Carrefour cheats the customers

I realized long time ago that locals in taiwan love discounts, even if it means they might ned to pay over price...

I found a very expensive mango...and had to ask why it was so expensive...

It turend outt o be a "special kind".

its har to compare prices here in taiwan, party due to that kile is not always used as weight (They have their own unit some times)...and party due that that the compare price is not consitently 1 kilogram...so u hant compare without a calculator anyway...

However when i cheecked the price of the older "discounted" mango, i found out that it was more expensive than the fresh mango...they sure learned about peoples eager for discounted offers here...it might be the last time i buy fruit in carrefour...without checking 2 times about the price and weight...to bad they dont have any "konsumentlagstftning" here in asia, which helpes the customer from beeing cheated...

Sick...

"Magsjuka och nackspärr är det värsta som finns"...is a sentence I created when I was 15...
My stomach is not 100% today...
But still show up at work, I dont want to risk missing my chance to get at least 1 day unpaid vacation now, after 6 month working...

Coke is btw good in these cases...I think,,,

A sunday in august...

I went to a north italian resturant last sunday, near ximen...

It was on a small street...

And had many kind of beer...

Mostly european beer...

I had an organic chocolate stout...it was from the UK...

And a sandwish...

Old decoration...reminded me of home...

"North italy ratting coffee"...

Passing my the president palace, i saw many police officers...

Everywhere...

Probably a new demonstration...

Interesting...

But no people demonstration yet...maybe they are just stand by...

And the president is in south america...

We will see, many the news tomorrow will tell...

Some soldiers also joined up...

Oh...here is some gathering...near SYS memorial hall...

Very noisy...

Next stop is Howards hotel...near nanjing east road...

I tried to meet up my swedish friend who just arrived to taiwan...but he was out...so i headed to ikea instead...seeing this sign on the road...i think its about change of some busstaion, but first i though it was aobut the demonstration..

Hao, ikea always makes me fell closer to home...

Omg, so many kopparbergs cider...

And some knäckebröd...

Later i went for a beer with my swedish friend...

He has a watch from garmin...

He also brought his roller skis to taiwan...i wonder if these are the first roller skis in taiwan ever...

I also got some info about some camp in taiwan...my swedish friend is heading for that one...

Full schedule...

"High speel railway experience"...sounds interesting...

He is training for vasaloppet 2014...already...he really wants a good time...

Jonatan is fit for fight...

We headed to a running court near taipei 101...

On the running courts alot of people were running...

And they didnt like home skiing there...

Here he is...

Some old lady started to argue..."no why" is the classical reply, when we ask "why"...its a culture thing...

We contined to another running court. i also thought it was tricky, since ppl here often run in every direction..

It also says "no inlines" on a sign...

Heading to the next track...on rolling skis in taipei city...some locals talked to jonatan ruing red light...it cannot be common to see this here...

The other track was very dark, and after a while some ppl there also complained...i recommended him to try guting riverside park next time...since there the tracks are perfect for inlines, and bikes...

The roller ski man contines to Neo19 building on the other side of taipei 101...

And to an all you can eat resturant...

With nice icecream...

And shark meat...

And many shrimps...

Etc etc you`ve seen it before...

And a hole in the passion fruit..."didnt see that one comming"....

Jonoatan was satisfied with the food...

Noisy neighbours at the resturant...it was free beer and wine...might be the reason...

Kris birthday

My old friend Kris had a barthday event last night...

We went to a place near his house at taipei 101...

It was a typical taiwanese beer house...

We saw on TV that a new panda has been born at Taipei zoo...

It was pretty crowded at our table...

May dishes were ordered...

 Some meatballl?

I orderd all the sweet and souce dishes they had...

Ofcourse they also had a beer girl, to convince unsecure guys to buy more expensive beer brands...

But she did not seem to have many things to do...

Omg, so many dishes...

It became a little messy after a while...

The taiwanese usually finisheds the meat on the plate and throws away the rest...I preer eating it all...(some pineapple on this place)...

LAter we collected the money...omg, they counted wrong and got too much money...

I also concluded that adidas will ahve a basketball competition neat tipaei 101 soon...

We headed to marquee after a while...

But first we took a beer break at 7-11...

A guy didnt bring sleeves on his shirt, so he needed to borrow my extra shirt to be able to enter marquee...

"no shorts"...so funny...inconsitsncey...since they often let ppl in with shorts...

MY shirt fitted him...

I had a Barre beer...

My friend Mårten had some drink...its famous here that they load the glass with super much ice...maybe to save money?!

And for their tequila they used orange...it was sweet and nice...

Crowded table again...

Cool bartender wit tattoos in his face....

Second beer was Iki...a japanese one...I think...

It was pretty sweet...

I fund a friend who also is interested in wine and beer...this is his favorite beer, it was an indian pale ale...

He had been to europe, and did some trips there, to this place among others...(Rhein)...

I did some tricks...the classical tissue flower...

Omg, they had many lamps on the wall...I wonder if ithey are from ikea. since their anager is swedish...

The moon was low tonight...

Next tops Room18...

I met Ellen at the entrance...she will go home next week...if there wont be any typhoon...

We also met som eother guys who likes to mingle around...

The party crew, ready to enter Room18...

It was like 4 years ago since I was here last time...it looked a little different...

But alot of exchange students and local tai girls...

The DJ was so-so...

And this guy was interesting...

 

Some one equiped him with a smoke gun, which he used all the time...

The guard looked very irritated...

Some exchange student...and an asian girl...meat market...

I left by scooter. and some police stopped us...to check alcohol, here in taiwan, they ask you to blow in their face...as a quick test...

A sober drive...they continued hunting...

 

 

 

Allsång on saturday

I watched Swedish TV today...

I saw "allsång på skansen", a classic swedish TV program...

 

Farwell Oskar, for some days...

A new classmate showed up at chinese class today...

She was a coworker of my other classmate...from korea...

Having a Beerlao in class. it was a while since we had "happy fridays" in chiense class...

Later I went by luxy, the guards there are often very strange..

Many regulations...but nothing about the payment to the maffia...they must make so much money nowadays...500nt before 23...I remember back in teh days, when it was free before 23...and some 400-600nt after 23...

Alfred my swedish freind went home to sweden today...he gave me some freebees...(or leftovers)...

Luxy, crouwded as usual...with locals and exchange students...

Oskar had hunting week...

And Per was also there...

And the luxy boys...

A local in sight...

So professional...

The bartenders were pretty slow in attention today...

Omg, this guard lives in gongguan, near my friend Enriques hangout...

Time for luxy boys...

Or luxy girls?

Both...its fun with the entertainment...

More locals...

The DJ was so-so, many times she chnaged song, with a 10 seconds silence in between...

More entertainment...

Oskar was fixing photos...hes leaving tomorrow...things need to be documented...

Busy guy...multi tasking...

And sophia showed up as well...

Me ans oskar have a new favorite guard at Luxy...he looks so serious but not that taiwanese...

So professional...

We also tried to find the "5 minute girl" a girl who in average spends 5 minutes in luxy, before she joins a guy home...but she already left...

Talking to our favorite guard. he turned out to be from south africa...

Ok, anyway time to continue...bai oskar for this time...se u next week...

Next stop, burgerbar...

It was pretty good...didnt eat much today...

Tried to catch up oskar at luxy after the bar visit, but he already went home...100 taxis...all yellow...with 100+ ppl wannago home...its big business...

Thursday in august...

I had some "xiaochi" with friends...some omelette...

It was good...

I later on had an appointment with some ppl doing documentaries in taipei...

Waiting at a taiwan lottery...remembering when I went to Lishan this february, visiting the highest taiwan lottery stor in taiwan...

This is their logo...

This seems to be their office name...atleast it was at the front of their office...

Snow and Kinpe...2 cool guys...lets see where this thing leads...

 

Late night wine and cheese

Had some red wine and cheese last night...

Only for health reasons...only!

Another call from Blue Square Group...

I got a phone call from a guy some month ago, who wanted me to invest in a company that he climed will increase in value in an upcomming future...

Today, another guy form the same company called again...asking me to invest in the same company...

Interesting...

They really never give up, in their sales...impressive...

However I also wonder how they can think that one wants to pay money, to a investmentcompany without any reference more than a phone call...

Taiwanese working conditions

The longer I live in taiwan, the more i get amazed by taiwans working conditions...

its interesting how ppl can think that recovery doesnt have any impact on performance...

Its common that you have 1-2 weeks per year vacation here, after some years of working...

Its really confusing to talk to people at home, (where its illegal to have less than 25 (sometimes 30+) days vacation per year)...

However; its always easy to pity yourself, when you think there are better lifestyles... 

Wednesday in august

I asked for mineral water (carbonated) at a 7-11 some month ago, and the clerk told me, they didnt have it...

But my chiense teacher wanted to show me where to find it...so we went to the closest 7-11 to check it out...

A french green glass bottle was the only one they had...

Interesting...one out of 20 water bottles were carbonated...

Later on I passed by carrefour...wine is pretty cheap here...but to limit my consumption, I only buy those bottles without cork...since I have no corkscrew...

I also bought fruit...it is nice with tropical fruits once in a while...

A trip to Xindian...

I did a trip to xindian today...

Or a near by MRT station...

It has a famous old street...

WIth some mable leaf lookalike leaf...

We ended up at this place...

It was apiza nad beer palce...

They ahd many belgiuan beers and also Yilan beer...

I had a very bitter yilan beer...

mybeer.com.tw...interesting...

And pizza...

They showed some biljard and baseball on the TV...

In the bar simlar atmosphere...

Snow was a very interesting person, I think she would like sweden alot...

She lives in the south of taiwan...at the country side...she likes it better there...since there is not that much big cities...just like sweden...

She was funny, when she said by to someone in the phone, she waved her hand...so cute...

I ended with a beer...in lack of options at home...

A new girl in class...

I had marabou milk chocolate with my coffee today...

To bad that they only see the milk chocolate with strawberry flavour at ikea...i like the original one better...

I also have a new classamte in chiense class...a girl from korea...

Ica-banken sux

I had a student discount at Ica-banken until som year ago, when they told me that they dont offer that discount anymore...

I recently found out that this was a lie...

I can thus conclude that ICA-banken sux!

A sunday evening in august...

I went for a wlk in Guting riverside park yesterday...

It was pretty hot at 17...but about 18 it was perfect...

It is rare that I can see the mountains like this...

Summer...the year around...I still miss sweden...once in a while...a summer is never 100% here...no flinta steaks...no nice sauce...no dressing...no this...no that...its in the details...

However...the riverside in taipei is always nice...

After some walk it was time for sime drinks at an unkown store...

Strange brands...

Heading back with some juice...no beer yet...

It was a nice sunset for beeing in taiwan...

I remembred the sunsets home in sweden...(this is taken when I went home last summer), same same but different...

Later in the night I passed by costco...

Shit...the 130nt juice was gone...

I found some for 160nt...

I also bought cheese and wine...

When I passed by 7-11 I saw that they were still prmoting the swedish beers from the summer promotion...strange...since the promotion is over since some month ago...

Latre I saw some young boys showing their stomachs...thats a typcial old taiwan man´s style...

They are practicing for their future...maybe..

 

I joined joel later for since business in downtown...

He got an international drivers license now...

He picked up some folder at 7-11 they have alot of products on their homepage that one can order...

We later on went to a local family mart...

Chilling and drinking beer with banana flacour...

Nice seats here...

We also checked some trips in taiwan...

Maybe we will do a trip to Ruisui again..where this milk is from...

Pizza is good business

I bought a pizza today...

640NT for the pizza...(it is buy 1 get 1 free in taiwan many times)...

In hsinchu it was 400nt before...

Andall u can eat at pizza hut is half this pizza price...

I wonder how good business is doing at pizza hut...

Tzu Chi recycling meditation

I joined a recycling meditation camp this morning, 08.00...taiwan tradition? :)

 They have many of these events, I went to the nearest by in yonghe, taipei...

It was very organised...

 They started to check my blood pressure and pulse...

Then I was direted to some stols...

I was the only foreigner...

We did some warming up...it was pretty hot...maybe 3 degerees...

People were playing baskedball near by...

We also sang some songs...

And some guy held a speech...

I had to go up and talk...

And some other lady who also was here for the first time...

Then some more activites...

 Some dancing...

 And fathers day celebration (8th of august in taiwan)...

 They got some flower necklace...

Many fathers...

 And more songs...

 And the old people got some tea...

 And middle aged got tea...

 And more songs...

 Then the fun stuff began...they had different stations...this is the paper recyling station...

 HEre is the plastic bottle station...

 Many bottles...

 THe ring has to be separated from the bottel...

 Its not that you do it its how you do it...focus....it reminded me of when i was at the production unit in Vårgårda and alingsås, as a swedish student...producing and packing things...

 In the end I did it pretty fast...

 After 20 minutes i had plenty of rings...

After 1.5 hours it wa almost full...

 Omg, everything was done...maybe next time I should bring music...like in sweden...

 It is nice to do well in society...as an engineer i kep on thinking how to creat a machines doing these things...to save time...i think renova in gothenburg has a machine for it...

Done bottles....

 At 11.30 we were done...

 Then people were about to eat lunch..

Some cakes...but I went home...have some things to do...

If eople in nepal and india did meditation by recyling, the world must be a much better place...I remember how people in nepal just trow their trash in the river...no need to care about the environment...

A saturday trip in northern taipei...

I started the saturday by going to Tianmu...

For a aboriginal museum visit...

It was interesting...

MAny tribes...13 or more...

Especially on the east coast they have many tribes...

The aboriginals been here for 4000 years or more...

or 6000 years ago...in yilans museum I read about 15000 years ago...

They also ahd a 3D cinema...

Shamans, thats cool...then I visited the Amis museum in hualian, they told me that a wizzard lived near nanao, north of hualoan, I wanna meet that person...

Some handcrafts...

And colourful clothes...

Even in the taoilet that had information...but inchinese...about some tribes...

And some weapons...

This guy was the mail character in the (in taiwan) famous movies seediq bale...

He was a cool warrior...

It was not that big museum,  3 small floors...and 3-4 tribes were over represented...

The trip coninued to some mountain area...

Near the yangmingshan national park...

And this waterfall...

Some guy was fishing there...

And other just chilles on the cliffs...

Not sure why but they blocked the old path to the water fall...

It was not super big...maybe 10 meters high...

AFter this the trip continued south...

To Neihu and this burger bar...

Menu in english...so professional...

Some people were watching basketbal. Iran vs Taiwan...

I had some pepper soup...

And blue cheese salad...

And some burger..they all were the same size...but different flavours...

After this a visitto ximen was done...6 million taiwanes on a small area...half the city was chaotic when they have this annual firework...same as last year...ppl even block the stairway...

Some 20 minutes firework...

It was ok..

Dont remember why they had it...

But its nice thathtye have some events for the citizens....

Crowded...

And later chaotic in traffic...polluted...

And hours of waiting...

I wonder how many scooters taiwan has...

Next stop was ikea...

Wow so many kopparbergs cider...

Every where...

And lösgodis..so cool...but no chocolate :(

And no arabou milk chocolate..only this strawberry flavour...

On the taoliet another tai stood up on the chair... 

Nextg stop the red house...

I had a passion fruit smoothie...

Many people walking here...its like europe...

And a visit to coldstone...

Some special ice cream..it was good...

 

Friday night...

A new guy showed up at my chinese class...

He is form japan, and works with gardens...

After class I headed to taipei 101...(to the neo19 building)

Kristoffer lives nearby...we went to a hotpot with free beer and wine...

And nice desserts...

Passion fruits and cakes...

 This wine was from france...but no year on the label...

The drinks for the night...

The staff put up a new table for the dishes we ordered...

We went all in for beef and sheep...

Skål Kris!

I asked the waiter if he was aboriginal...he was not...he looked a little like it...

They had both Mövenpick and Häagen-Dazs ice cream...

A very stron waiter offered to help out, with takeing the ice cream...so nice...

The ice cream here was very nice...

 They are open 11.30 in the morning to 5 in the morning...a perfect place to go after party...

And the shrimps are the doulbe size companre to the ones I get in ximens all u can eat...

I had many shrimps...

The waitress asked us to leave after 2 hours...she wanted to clean the talbe...

I helped her a bit...

Kris also showed his wine application...

You take a picture of the label...and it identifies it, and gives you some ratings...

But this label was a little hard, since it was no year...but we still found it...

He also told me about googles translation application which is free, that is almost better than plecco...

I will download that one...

Next stop was 7-11 for a new beer...

We went to kris roof top...it was nice...

'

He lives near taipei 101, and som high ways...

But tonight Taipei 101 was dark...notsure why...

Later I passed by the night club Myst...many drunk people...

And s sports car...thats important intaiwan, if you want to impress people...that you have a car...

A call from home

My brother called me earlier today...he had some friend at his place...and he will go for another vacation next week...

Some times i feel like countries with less than 5 weeks of vacation per year is a joke...since my experience so far is that they are often more inefficient...my borther will travel next week...same as some weeks ago, when he had vacation as well...

A visit to ximens red building...

I paid a visit to ximen tonight...or "burger thursday" as my friend use to call it...

Double burger at Cosbys...nothing new...

My friend buys snus (chew tobacco) from a homepage...super cheap since its no tax...

We continued to another bar...dark erdinger...

Omg, police ppl in the dark...

And finally a strawberry milk smoothie...I never understandthose taiwanese ppl who claim that all you can drink and eat is to "expensive", this night i paid around 1000nt...thats far more...same with local taiwanese food stores...many times it ends up around 500nt per person, thats sometimes more than an all you can eat...

Omg, Somersby coasters...swedish cider...

This guy wanted to talk alot...intersting guy, and USA lover, as most taiwanese ppl...but his friend was from czech, and didnt like USA that much...

Little saturday...

Little saturday...

A new guy in class. a japanese guy, they also use chinese characters in ther language...so they are often good in chinese, if they studied even for a short while...

We also had an oral test...(open book)...thats interesting...and we will have another quiz this friday...

Wine and cheese..goat cheese...a good ending of the day...(i thought wine and cheese, or exersice...but since its so hot outside...i chosed wine and cheese)...

A Tuesday in August...

Another august day passes by, one day closer to death...

The sky is nice...I need to download some music creatin program, im thinking of fruit loops...have some good songs i need to create...some based on some aboriginal songs I heard in hualian last week...

I went to a resturant where they had oysters from Penghu, an island i visited 2 years ago west of taiwan main island...

It was a bar-BQ...pretty smokey...

Only menu in chinese...

With onien and leek...not ok from a buddhist point of viw...

Nice icelcream...

All set...lettuce wraps, salad and ice cream...

And oysters...!

It reminded me a little bit of korea, even if the lettuce in korea is much better...and the kimchi...and the meat...

Device for the oysters

A think steak...I like!...

I tried to keep it as a steak...but ofcourse they chopped it up...

More oysters...

And sticky rince...

Later on I let up with my old friend Pei, who just came back from europe...she needed some tips what europeans can work with in taiwan...I suggested a job in the home countrys trade council...english teacher is fun in the beginning, but not sure if one will get a vise form that...

We went to 7-11...and found that they had shots...thats intersting...

I also got a spicy egg form Tainan...it was nice...

Sometimes Im physically in taiwan, but my mind is at a totally different place.

Sometimes Im physically in taiwan............. but my mind is at a totally different place......

 

 

 

Monday,,,

I tried a new drink today...

It was passionfruit with some grape i think...pretty good...

I was suppose to have new classmates today in chiense class, but they never showed up...

I ended they day with some mangos...

 

Rafting in Ruisui

I went rafting in Ruisui today...more pics and story will come later...

Early sunday morgning. looking north on road no 9...

The only burgerbar is closed...

At the local 7-11 they have Ruisui milk...

The fulong lookalitke trainstation is empty...

My breakfast for the day...7-11 coffee and some european chocolate cake...au usual I wonder if they even had this in europe...

The local TV showed some canadian having a bread store in hualian...I missed that...

100km to Taidong, and 27 to Fuli, where they have a high waterfall I want to see...

A taxi helped with transportation from the train station to the rafting area east of the village...

Xiuguluan River...

The rafting is heading to the museum i visited this february...

Some days one can go further, maybe all the way to the ocean...

It is a long river (for beeing in taiwan)...

Many ppl come here for rafting....even munks...

Omg, a universal advertisement...just change the product in the girls hand...

Our group was special, hosted by aboriginals (Qimei/Amei tribes)...with local food etc..

The big tourist groups are going extra fast down hill...

First an interoduction movie...

The heading to the river...

Many boats were waiting...

So touristic...

Our group had 3 boats...

This guy is an aboriginal...

And this guy too...a leader in his tribe...

We were suppose to wear clothes...and still walkin the water...

Bettercover up, the sun is strong...

And some gray helmets...

We started a little earler...than the other groups...

Paddling, paddling...

This guy was from main land china...

The stream wasnt that stron yet...

But there were some waterfalls ahead I could hear...

And the middle range...

We had this rope in the middle, to hold on to, in case of a bumpy ride...

"Zuo hua" (left side paddle) or "You hua" (right side paddle) were things i heard fromthe guy in the back, who was incharge of the boat...

Many other boats were approaching, Ruisui was in the background...

I think out boat was the fastest...

"Hold on to the center rope!"...the ride is getting bumpy...

 Another calm area...

 We had a motor boat following us all the time...

Monkeys in the terrain...this is the same area as the "monkey bridge", which I visited last year...when I went to taidong...

The sun was strong, I had to put on more sunblock every 30 mins i think...

Tired boats...

 This guy looked like my old classmate Henry...

We got stuck on a stone, so the other boats passed by after a while...

The ride was like4-5 hours maybe...

Buffalos at the river bank...

Waterfall...

 This guy fell in the water twice...not sure why he never held on the rope...

More waterfalls...

The season for rafting is in the summer...

The assiscance boat took a break...driving up on the bank...

More buffalos...

After a while we went up on land...

The aboriginal guide wanted us to show some stones that we needed to pick...

A member of the Qimei tribe...

Tis boats guide jumped into their water to push the boat into the side...

Everyone were wet...

The stoned we were suppose to pick were volcano stones...since they survived heat, and can stand temperatures up to 500-700 degrees...

Some other assisstance boat...

Suddenly many boats passed by, and i realized how touristic this thing is...25 million taiwanese ppl, and if jus some percent wanna go rafting on this small island, these aboriginals earn alot...

This is the black stone that we needed to pick...

Yep...it passed the smash test, no cracks...this good to heat up...

More by passers...

Some people didnt find any black stones...

More boats...

They did barely pabble, their assistance boat were pushing and pulling them...

But i guess these people are not used to exersice...

Time to continue...

More sunblock on...

But this time we did some floating exersice...

A floating train...

It ws fun...and went as fast as the boat...

Pretty fun...

An aother aboriginal...so cool...

Paddle time again...

After another 30 mins of paddling, we did another stop...

This was some qimei camp...

They just adjusted the boats first...then we were suppose to se how they catched shrimps and eat fish...

A shrimp trap...

Omg, alot of shrimps...

More boats passing by...

Pulled...by a boat...i wonder if they call this rafting...?

After the shrimp trap checking, we headed up to the camp...

Muddy...but interesting, it must have been fun, living here 500 years ago...

More ppl, most probably from taipei I was told...

The hosts prepared some food...

No one saw us from here...Its prettyy cool to be in the jungle of taiwan...

The taipei people were very noisy...

The guide spoke chinese...

We got some bambo mugs...

More noisy boats pulled down the river...

By some fast motor boat...

We also got some flower juice of some kind...

The instructor told us about how the aboriginals use to do...

I later got to keep my mug, finding out after some month that it was a worm in it...eating it up from inside...

Some fresh water fish...

So professional, river tracing shoes...these guys had the right equipment alright...

Then they showed us how to catch fish the old style...

It didnt seem that hard...

But no fish in the net...

More boats comming...this is surela a big business...

Our group were more for aboriginal culture...theirs were just "going down the river"...

Many people...

Once in a while people fell down...

These guys were more combat with helmets...they were heading further down than others...in the future it will be possible to go all the way down to the ocean...they told us...

Now we coulod try to catch fish...

Another poor guy falling from the boat...

City people...

Back on our boat...

Omg, the river speeds up...

We also tried to just go with the stream...

floating by ourselves...it was fun...

especially since we were paddling, the other boats that were pulled passed by, over and over...

I just tried not to get un burned...

Yingxiao...

Some animals along the river side...

More bumby road...

Some animal again...

This was the end...

It was the same village I passed when I drove scooter aroung taiwan...i visited an aboriginal museum here...

Most boats stopped here...

Then the boats and visitors drive back to the start...and new visitors comes...

Some aboriginals helping us out...

This guy was funny...

Amis...the chinese name of their sub tribe Amei...the japanese people forced them to wear special colours of their clothes...long time ago, to separate them from the south people...

More city people who were pulled down the river...

It was a fun ride...

But I want to go all the way down to the ocean...

So many boats...every day...this is an intersting place...however, taiwan has more people than scandinavia...so i guess its not that many visitors, from a national point of view...

Everyone has to stop here...

Some organisor telling the city ppl what to do...

Qimei, is the name of the tribe in this village...

We later on took a shower...

Omg, leaking... 

My shoes and sox were wet, but in 30+ deg, they will dry pretty fast... 

Here is the museum I visited before

Binlang trees...

At the museum we had lunch...

Some nice food...

Not sure...but i guess its aboriginal food...

but it was pretty similar to normal food...atleast most of it...

But this was not...

This i tried some time before...

We also revisited the museum with a guide...

This guy is from mainland china...but studies in singapore...

This guide is aboriginal...

Somedecorations...

This is an instrument...

And some  necklaces...

The black one belongs to a shaman...they dont have a shaman here anymore...but north of hualian there lives one...

This is some other tool...

And some clothes...

And the codex of how to wear clothes...

Depeding on age...they have differnt dresses...

They are mostly very colourful...

And also some traditions...

These guys are also on the pics...

It seems to be a small society after all...

This guy is also in the tribe...

This girl is some admin, she collects money...

This pic I like...i think i took a pic of it last time i was here too...

On the way back, we could se the river again...I remembered that i went here by scooter before...

A bumby ride...

And alot of landslides...

Some cool antenna...I wonder hoe they put it up there...maybe by helicopter...

Another slowdriving tourist bus...

And the reef vally between Hualian and Taidong...

I like this place of taiwan...pretty isolated and peaceful...

And untouched, taiwanese people prefer city life...and convenience...

Kater at ruishui I found a giant store...nice...

The ticket system is in chinese...

I treid to find out how far the waterfall is, in Yuli, that I want to visit so much...or luoshan waterfall found at http://taiwanswaterfalls.com

The trainstation of Ruishui, they dont have any electrical trains here..from hualian they only go by diesel i think...but they are currently building a new railway to change that...

Nice view of the valley...

Not far on the other side is the ocean...maybe I will buy land there in the future...

I later passed by some local ice cream store in hualian...

Tomato or something and chocolate...not important, i just to supposrt local production...

It was close to the trainstation...

I also went for a walk, trying to find a burger bar...but without result...

Back on the train I saw the road up to taroko gorge and also the place where my counsin johan lives...

Its a very peaceful place, he told me that I could live there from some days if i want, and I might do it...its fun with new perspectives of life...

I also bgouth a beer, for the train...i like going by train...

And some peanutbutter M&M´s...the day is saved...

A visit to Hualian

I paid a visit to hualian ths saturday...

Early morgning train leaving 06.30...thats usually the time, to make it to the east coast in time...

Equiped with pants and shoes...

The trainstation in Hualian was full of information about things to do...its a tourist place...even if i seldom come here...

My double cousin Johan picked me up...its the first time I meet him here in taiwan, even if both of us leved here for a long time...

It was nice, we were heading to a Buddhist hospital...

IIt was the largets hospital in Hualian, sponsired by Tzu Chi Foundation...a super big foundation world wide...

They even had an intersting information section, like a museum about the foundations history...

A cool piggy bank...

They explained how they worked and their porpose...this are shoes that they sell...

They have alot of volunteers...

It was a problem, that money was such a critical factor to get medical treatment, but the foundation managed to get sponsorship by super many volunteers...here are pictures written by members who couldn not write, wo describe their names, or theor profession etc...super cute...

here is a sponosret house built in iran...with the same cooling system I had as a business idea in the hult cometition some year ago in shanghai, its a traditional technology, that is kind of rare nowadyas since many plp want AC instead...but by far more reliable...

Here is an earthquake room...a soft floor is used to simlulate an earthquake...

They had many volunteers, thats one of their strenght...

This is a modelof earthquake proof houses that they built in the south of taiwan...

And here are actovities in china...its the first organsiation that was accepted by the chiense government....

Recycling efforts in taiwan...

Recycling reults in taiwan, T-shirts made of PET bottles...

And some buddhe picutre, reminded me of a pic I saw north of Kaohsiung at the big buddha statue...

Omg, swedish activites...they have some representation in gothenburg...

This is a method that is not erthquake proof...

Tha this is an earthquake proof construction...

We continued to the hospital entrance...after the guided tour in the musem area...

Some jesus look alike painting...

Looks like anormal hospital...

Even if it was Tzu chi...

Hualien by bus...

Next stop the monastery north of hualian...

The dorm...

Johan himself...we found a lizzard on the path...

And the main building...

This was the oldest house...

We also passed through the garden...

So many plants...this munk seems to be an expert...they have ecological:ish methods...

And many kinds of vegetables...

I was offered to work here for some days, it sounds tempting...

The toilet...super intersting construction...usable in many ways...I wish we knew this on last years housing competition in Hults business school...

Many people lived here ...more than 100...

It started with this small house...

And then it grew...they had some models showing the history...

And other peices...

Johan has some nice bracelet...

It had a buddhist message on it...

Here is the research department, instand rice was invented here...pretty cool...

We continued to the shop...many books with the message of the master munk...

But i wanted to buy the instant rice...just add cold or hot water...and its done...

I said "xiexie" when I left the store...but Johan corrected me, teaching me "Gan en"...its a more polite way to say thanks...

More parts of the monestary...japanese influenced?

Even if they had many floors, it was energy efficient.with wood and deep light corridors, to minimize the need for lights...

And tha main hall...looks a little liks christ on the statue...

East pillow had a speaker near it, so that everyone could hear...

No AC; but many fans...just like i like it...energy efficient...

Later we went to eat in their dining hall...

The food was prepared by the munks...we did the dishes ourselves...I could take picture of anything, except the master munk...

I thought about what I shoud give my second cousin, since he invited me here...but I realized that it would be better to donate money to the foundation, so that it did good...

I had to fill in a form, and got a receipt for my donation...

We coninuted to the cafeteria...mostly in wooden interior design...

And some cool bonzai tree...

Peanut cookie...typical taiwanese...

And some TV show, created by the foundation, about intersting situations that happend in life...

A big bell...

Many ants...some vision the master munk had about her standing at mount everest...many supporters participated in creating this sculpture...

We continued to the garden...

Johan had to continue to work...

It was relaxing here...

Just th ekind of garden I wanted to have at home in sweden...

I was taught that one difference between a buddhist place and taoism, or any others...is that the buddhist place doesnt have dragons...for instance...

The mountains or hualian...

Many people were walking around in guided tours here...

We took the shuttle bus donwtown after the monastary visit...

The roads of hualian...

They had some ceremony at the hospital...

Buddhist Tzu-chi volunteers...

We coninuted to a local burger bar, but it was closed...

So was the toursit place...

And the beer bar...even if they was said to be open 13-01...hmm...

Yilan beer bar, in Hualian...

At the trainstaion many aboriginals were dancing and singing...pretty good...i liked their songs...

They had pretty dresses...

Probably the Amis tribe...the most friendly among the aboriginal tribes, they told me...

And some leader...

And girls...

I also went to have some local ice cream...

White and milk chocolate...

Homemade ice cream...i forget to ask how they transport the icecream to ths store...or if they live in the store...

More dancing...

This is how you decide if you are an adult in taiwan...my lenght...

Discrimination...no waiting zone for male...at night...

Ruisui was the next detination...

Omg such a big waterfall...it was listed on taiwanwaterfalls.com as one of the highest...but its some 35:ish km south of ruisui...

It was dark by now...

Not to many trains stops here...the trains going here on the east coast are driven by diesel...since they dont have and electrical wire on the rail...south of hualian or something...

The trainstation itself looked alot like ths one in fulong...

First stop a food place...since the dinner resturants in hualien were closed...

This was nice...fried something...

And meat...

And my choice...sweet and sour sauce...

Aborignal pattern in the resturant...

This was the dinner resturant...

Heineken adds. I wonder if heineken pays for this...

Also a stop was paid at the local tea bar...

The day ended with passion fruit juice...

 

Friday.

Going up eaerly tomorrow...

No all u caneat today...even if i wanted...

I did a burger after chinese class...tomorrow i will go to the east coast to meet my second cousin...its gonna b fun...and aboriginal meeting on sunday...

I ended with a beer form cambodia...

 

Thursdays event..

Summer in taiwan, humid and hot...taiwanese ppl dont like vacation...it seems, work work work...

But the sky was nice...over taoyuan...

It was also pretty windy...

I headed på McDonalds...in gongguan...

Full menu...

They also had some chocolate loocing bread...interesting...

Taipei 101 in the horizon...interesting...