johansvennung(臺灣)

Thursday in Hsinchu...

 I spent last night in Hsinchu...

I went to a new restaurant...all you can eat BBQ and free beer...

It was hot...

I asked for extra thick peices of meat...

The waitress did her best to get what we ordered...

They had super good mashed potato with cheese...I ordered everything they had left of it...

They also had banana ice cream...it was good...

Not sure I have seen this brand of ice cream before...

8 flavours...

I also met up some old friends later at the north gate and was thereafter spontaneous invited to Spirit...where some other swedes went...

I brought my Clark Kent outfit...the greedy staff charged me for entrance...but let other ppl who entered some time after me in for free...I should insist next time...for the same deal...

There was a swede from shanghai at the club who was there for a short visit...

The bartenders are always nice and fun at spirit...

It was not that many people until 2 am...when they let ppl in for free...

The swedes were the only ppl on the dancefloor more or less...

Afterwards we were chilling with the staff at the entrance...

They had some things with two balls connected...it made noises...

And there were some problems with the lockers...when we were about to leave...but the staff helped us to solve it...

What is this?!?!

I bought a pineapple and apple juice yesterday...at NTHU...

I had like 50% foam...after one or two sips the juice was gone...

Free coffee at Carrefour...

I went to carrefour some days ago...

And tried some coffee...

And chocolate...

And I found this beer...that I think I never tried before...it was ok...I alwyas think its a risk buying beer here...since tits many times very bitter...

Receipt lottery...

I just checked the reciepts for june and july...

1 receipt with 3 correct numbers and 2 with 4 correct...lets just hope they are in the right sequence...

A visit to a japanese!? restaurant...

Another farwell dinner...

At Hsinchu downtown...

We had to mash our sesame...and later on mix with the sauce...

Some barBQ sauce...

Everyone got their food...but not me....?!?!

It was a curry restaurant...reminded me of one at Qinghua nightmarket...

The drinks are often served in the end here...

So professional...the price was separeted on the bill...so we knew what to pay each...they had a survey we had to fill in before leaveing as well...i guess they like feedback...and perhaps actually use the feedback as well...which is unique here...

This is the name of the place...its near where old Plur use to be...

Training in summer weather...

I try to go traning once per day here...

But its very humid and hot here...to bad that I only had beer in the lab to drink when I was done...Taiwanese beer...my new (or old) favorite...

KTV with the belgians...

End of summer...thus, the summer students are leaving campus...

We went to Holiday KTV at Hsinchu downtown...KTV is a taiwanese was of party...its a culture thing...

And there were mostly taiwanese people here...

They were lab mates with the belgians...

As usual the Taiwanese started singing in chinese...which is one reason why i dont like KTV that much, since its boring for many foreigners to go...since they can only sing along in a few songs...

But I enjoyed the food instead...

And we went to buy some beers...and in the end we managed to combine english and chinese songs...for the english speakers who enjoys singing...

A day at the zoo...

I went to an "All you can eat" pizza place in central taipei yesterday...

They had many kinds...the waiter just walked around with pizzas and pasta...and the people at the tables just picked...

Also drinks and salads were free...

I prefered Hawaii as usual...

Some kids had an orientation at the same place...

They had kind of hard ice cream...vanilla and strawberry...but it was "all you can eat"...so im not complaining...

The next stop was at Taipei zoo...it was 3-4 years since I was here last time...

There monkeys reminded me of the ones I saw in indonesia...

Wow...the panda cage was crowded as usual...

I wanted to see th epandas walk outside...but they were kept inside...

They had a guy, whos only job was to ask people to walk faster...

Everyone wanted to see the pandas...(my goal of the day was to see the pandas an the gorilla)

We passed by the dark house...for a while to watch night animals...such as owls...

And some orangutans...

and tapirs...

Kids were playing with cupper hippos...

Not far to the gorilla now...

Omg...the turtles were wrestling...

The Rhinos seemed sad...

Hmm...and the gorilla seemed super sad...he didnt even show up...

I had to accept just see a pic of it...there was some note in chinese that he was sick...

Omg, the maffia is also visiting the park...

An alligator taking a rest in the pond...

And at the exti, it was super toursitic, they were selling pets...

I could also see the top of Taipei 101...

A visit to ikea was paid after the zoo...they are still selling Glögg...heavily discounted...

I bought Herrljunga cider...

And were chilling at the entrance for a while...it was relaxing...

A night in taipei...

A day in taipei was followed by a night in taipei...I tried to catch up a classmate...but he wanted to go home and sleep...or something...

Heading to a ferris wheel...not sure if it is the highest in taiwan...maybe the one in Kaohsiung is bigger...

It was on the top of a mall..

They also had nice fontains...

And the german bar with taiwanese produced beer also was here...

They also offered entertainment...

Le blé d´or...I wonder if the tai´s even know what it means...(its the brand of the beer...)...

a carousel for the kids...so cute...

My camera was not adapted to the lights here...so sometimes the pics are a little blur...

A long queue...for the wheel...

It was a very slow wheel...and only one lap per person...while seated...

I tried my elk beer...

it was AC in the hut...

They also had this german beer in the area...same as another restaurant in Hsinchu...

But not as good as this one...

I waited for my classmate at Shilin nightmarket...but later he told me he was to tired, and thus never showed up...

Instead I went to Ximen...to watch hookers...

Tai people often chose to reject the fact that they have prostitutes...

They just dont know their country well enough...some are even legal...

They walk around in this area...and waiting for some rich person to pick them up...

It is near the snake alley...

Its surprising how much "Money talks" in this country..."are you rich?, do u have a car?"...they u are all set to succeed in taiwan...

A day in taipei...

I went to carrefour last saturday...

They say they have fresh fish everyday...but I dont see that many people buy it...do they really throw everything away ever night?

I spent some time at ikea thinking about this paradox...and found that they have 2 new kind of beer...

And my favorite chokolate bar is back...

 

Ghost month in taiwan...

It is ghost month in taiwan...

So many people sacrifice things to the ghost...it means that u either burn it, like fake money...

Or put it on a table, and have some incense nearby...after some minutes u can take the things u sacrificed...and eat it yourself...

Tirolean Taiwan beer at Costco...

I went to costco last  week...

They now seel the beer that they sell in the german restaurant in Taipei...its produced in Taipei as well...

Later on I went for a trip...

Visiting an old street...at Dà xī lǎo jiē

And a big dam, outside taipei...

It was a little scary to walk there in the dark...

Since I assume it was super big and deep...maybe a place for the taiwanese maffia to hide bodies...

Taiwan has alot of maffia...everywhere...

And a turbine was also installed...at the water reservoir..

Nice view...

It was also populair to cycle here...

I made a new best friend with Mingyou...he just approached me and wanted to talk...maybe there are not that many foreigners out here...

Pizza in da lab 2

I made a small pizza for lunch...

Extra cheese...

And alot of herbs...

I had some friends joining me for lunch...we also had some whiskey...it was fun...

An AC remote in Jacques locker...

The AC remote was gone some half a year ago...

Eventually we found the old remote at that time...but now we found another remote in Jacques (a 1st year GMBA so far) locker...he doesnt open his locker that often I can tell...

PIzza in da lab 1

I made a new batch of pizza in the lab...

I made some interesting pizza...with tomato ketchup and alot of butter...

And goat cheese on the top...

I also added some old ham...maybe not a good choice...

I had alot of garlic aswell, so it smelled in the whole lab...

Chatrpol was in the lab...I offered him to see "Eating out"...later we ended up watching 7 years in tibet...

Typhoon times

There are two typhoons approaching taiwan...

So people eat food from the convenient stores...

This is the entrance of the Family mart at NCTU campus...they are redesigning the food court, using this sporadic entrance during the summer...

Its heavy rain...I like it...went to see the expendables 2, it was ok... a little stupid sometimes, making if feel like a comedy more than an action movie...but anyway...

A meeting with the Swedish Trade council

The swedish trade council honored us yesterday with their attendance at school...

NCTU was presented...and their departments etc...

They also paid a visit to the Chalmers office...

Taiwanese exchange students were there as well...

I met the trade council before...they laid low for a while some years ago...but it seems like they are getting back to business...

A quick visit to the immigration office

I picked up my new ARC today...

Nowadays they are very efficient here...

Wow...they have brochures in different languages...I almost feel like home in Sweden...

Many people apparently were expecting their ARC...they guy had a pile of about 100 cards, to look among, to find my card...

I got some extra weeks to stay...I heard from a friend later...that its easy to get extension one year...they seldom check all data...and one friend accidentally got one year extra...

I like this place better that the immigration office in Guangzhou...there they were soo rude...

Helping pablo to graduate...

Lets make things complicated...

The graduation process is not easy...

I had to fill in a evaluation form...

Its some english, but as usual nothing is 100% here in taiwan...so te answers are all in chinese...(I wonder why they even bathered having some headlines in english...)

I used a stochastic algoritm to fill it in...and the new secretary wondered if i was sure about the answers...how could I know...maybe next year, for international students, they could offer an evaluation form in english...

Pablo needed some papers to get signed by our advisor in order to graduate...but no one knew where to find these papers...since the girl who gave them to me, went traveling in USA...so we had to copy paste a little bit...

And rewrite some chinese characters...

Then, fortunately, our advisor was at his office...

We passed by the printing room in our building to print some copies of pablos thesis...

We talked to some other NCTU student who was copying some books...

Back to the secretary...to interpret some chinese characters...and there after getting stamps from different departments...

After getting some tea...

As usual some tai ppl gave us, misinformation...but we managed to figure out where to go...

Some did not want to give us a stamp, but we insisted...

After 7-8 stamp we got the last one at the international service center...now we only need to go back to the GMBA office...congrats pablo!

No water in the dorm...

Without saying anything...the water was shut down in my dorm...its a culture thing...

Thus...I used my swimming pants

Some one said at 17 the water should b back...hurray...andother rumor buth nothing said from the dorm management...

I went to the gym to take a shower...I had some administrative meetings to attend...

A trip to Yushan (3952m)

I went to Yushan yesterday...its the highest mountain in Taiwan...

Pablo met up in the lab...we rented a car...and by some reason my classmate cory wanted to leave Hsinchu at 2am...for the 5 hour drive to the national park where the mountain is...

Last expedition i brought some drink from Buthan...this time i had some risewine-ish drink that I bought when I went to Shanghai last time...

Cory planned to drive by nantou...even if the most common road is by Jiayi...we used GPS to get there...

They had alot of problems with the address...

We made a quick stop at a road house...they had cellphone charger for many brands..cory thought that they might not have any convenient stores on the road to the mountain...which would make that road unique...since every mountain road I have been to so far, has had many...

OMG...we crossed road number 1...the road i cycled on some month ago...

The road near Jiayi was broken...so we had to take another road...

After another hour driving we were getting close...

I drive to sleep but it was really a winding road...

With a great view...

U always think its a great view when you are driving on these roads..but still u havnt seen the top view...

Cory was fine driving the whole way...

We also saw alot of binglang plantations...

And the GPS was still with us...

Nice view from the road...

It was also close to Alishan...a very famous tourist spot...

Pablo was sleeping...or trying to...

Some tea fields on the mountain...

A high-life store...we found it on road 18, a bigger mountian road than the small one we had to take due to the broken road...

The sign said this direction...still Cory was wondering if we should not go in the other direction...for some strange reason...

More mountains could be seen...

Wow...a bridge during construction...

Its interesting to see how they build it...

Another great view...

Monkeys were also walking on the road...

One jumped up on the car...I wanted to see black bears...but they are more common on the eastern parts of tawan...

Wow...finally at the destination...

Some hours later than expected...we arrived...

Still nice view...

Here in the middle of taiwan...where people don use helmets either...just like the east coast...

It was a typhoon coming, so the weather was nice...

They had alot of facilities at the park entrance...

We were fixing the luggage before start walking...

I was confident in drinking the tap water...but pablo used the water machines with filtered water...

The ranger office were informing us about the typhoon...

We said we will walk anyway...I think i could climb the mountain in 4 hours...using the same speed I climbed xueshan with...

Some info about the mountain...

Usually ppl take bus the first bit, until the gravel path...but it was cancelled today...

It was a 30 mins walk or something...same as xueshan...a distance to separate the parking lots from the place where the mountian climbing begins...

If i want to live somewhere in taiwan it is in the mountains...its cold and nice...

Wow, somce local workers..maybe aboriginals...

Im about 100kg now...a fat Johan at the begining of the path to the highest point of taiwan...

Cory and his girl came a little bit later...

The most popular mountain to climb in taiwan...a very empty place, jet so many of my friends walked here...

It was at some times a dangerous path...

Far down there i saw another road...

It is the same landscape as home...with alot of pine trees etc...

Omg, I saw alot of trash in the bushes...

And some nice flowers...

Another path...on another mountain...

We all kept different speed when walking...its nice to take a rest once in a while...it was kind of warm partwise...

A beer bottle down there...sometimes I felt like picking up the trash, but I stoped since I know it will just be more trash there tomorrow...

A nice high altitude toilet...

These plants looks almost like wild strawberries...

Hi Cory!

It was really a cosy path...

But very steep...

5.8K to the first cabin...that is closed...but a ranger working there is still checking the permits again...(as at the park entrance)

Just like the other mountains...there are info signs...telling about the environemnt and history of the place...

Clouds were hunting us...

The park management used helicopters to set up bridges to walk on...so that the "climbing" turned to "walking"...

It was really a walk in the park...

But without loosing focus, u might fall...here one had to hold the chains...hope not to fall down the vertical mountain ridge...

Some tai ppl i spoke to said the "sherpas" were carrying everything...I really doubted that...due to the path condition...and the ragners later told me that they used helicopters for transporting everthing...

It was very convenient with the prepared road...

I used my broken running shoes and swimming pants again...once in a while i got a stone in my shoe... 

A slippery path...lucky it was not raining yet...

They also put some white thing on the bridge to increase the friction...

And now the clouds catched up on us...

Another bridge....making the way easy...I wonder how they climbed the mountain long time ago...

 Yellow flowers...and white...

...and blue...

...land slides...so common in this country...

Another high altitude toilet...which even had electricity...

and a trash can that was frequently emptied...

...and urinal...

Low energy lamps...

Later on I came to a nice resting area...

Iron beam...super heavy...Im amazed about how they managed to assemble everything here...

Local bamboo...

The path here made me think about the lord of the rings...

Omg...many people used to climb this mountain...in the old days...

1 km left to the cabin...

Wow...so nice stairs...big difference from xueshan...its almost 1000ppl who applies to climb every day, the government really mistrust people...so its hard to get a permit...they encourrag foeingers to apply, but everything is in chinese...and a tai person must be on the team when applying, due to my experience...but once u can prove that u climbed a peak higher than 3000 meter you can apply for a day permit...maybe i will do that next time...meaning u go up and down in one day...its not that hard here in taiwan where the car road often is about 10km from the peak...

Some one wrote their name on the cliff...

More clouds...

Wow...the first cabin...it was not until 7 km from the start...

The rangers house was in a posistion that they could not see the path...so i think i could sneak up to the top without anyone noticing...

This cabin has capacity for 60 people...or more...but its closed...

Its not far from the peak...

Its snow her in the winters...maybe i will bring skies here...and enjoy myself...

Equipment waiting to helicopter...

I met some old air force pilots...they liked swedish air force...they were only here for the day...

The ranger did not speak english...but the pilots did...

I got a taiwanese flag from one of them...

I gave him a swedish flag in return...

Later pablo showed up...he got some water...

The ranger cabin had an address...

This it the rangers office...

It has everything...

Even TV...but he listened to radio...

He was happy when speaking to chinese ppl...but didnt want to deal with foreingers...it seemed like...we insisted to wait in the cabin for our friends...since it started raining...

Cory came later...

We got a spot near the rangers cabin to cook some food...

Haha...cory...sometimes he can make things complicted...so funny...

Me and pablo was joking around...

High altitude...makes things blow up...

This old bunker was a water supply, the ranger said i could drink this...which i did...the others prefered boiling it first...but it took a long time...

a small excavator...

It was raining a bit...I was runing back and forth brining water...I was very warm so i did not mind the rain...

Nice food...

We shared the food...this is some rice thing...just like in the militairy...

Anamometer...at the cabin...

The tai girl in our company became friends with the ranger...we planned to live in tents at the first...but many ppl never showed up after booking the cabin...so we got some bed space,,,it was some kilometers from this cabin...

The webpage for the company that dealt with this cabin...

Here on can see the old bridge...under the new one...

Ok, here we are...we are taking right...it felt like we could reach the peak eaisly from her...maybe 30 minutes walk...but the plan was to go to he cabin first...

THey really put alot of efforts in making this path nice...

The clouds were comming and going...

I brought some honey nut loops...cory insited us to not take to many things (like my cerials)...he felt like a scout teacher dealing with kids...haha...I brought many unnecessary things up to the top...just to tease him...

The clouds passed by very fast up here...

There were many lose rocks up here...

Land slides created these...

Cory and pablo at the other side of the valley...

And the cabin far away...

No reception on the cellphone...exept at some places...where they had these antennas...

Another lord of the ring...look-alike pic...

This area had alot of plants that are used to snow...like xueshan...its very steap here...but doesnt look like it on the pic...

Later on the path was marked by sticks...to be visibile when its snow...

The tent area...or also maybe for helicopters...

This is our cabin...for the night...

When I came here, some tai ppl already settled down...

They offered me food...

and soup...

Im on a diet...but still..its nice to eat...

Its nice..and cold...I like alot...

I had to wait for the others again..and spent some time wrigint my name with stones...

We mingled a little...

And i was treating ppl with my rise wine...but only me and Pablo drank...

He was tired...poor guy...i told him to go to sleep...its aroun 6pm now...and the sun sets near 7...

We started to boild some water...

Nice view from here...

Far away down in the vally...we could see civilization...

The clouds passed the ridge very fasted...it looked cool...

People thought it was cold here...

Yet they wanted to enjoy the view...

And take pic...

It was ok...I saw some wild anomald like fox and birds...

I think this cabin fits 36 people...

we were about 10 ppl...

I brought some hotel stuff...like tooth brush...

People started to go to bed when it turned dark at 7...and other people kept dropping un until 10 or 11 pm...at 1 or 2 people started to get up...

Many tai ppl always wanna go up early when moutain climbing here in taiwan...I never understood why...even cory put his alarm on 2 am...I but mine on 3.30...surprisingly, at 4 am cory was still at the cabin...not sure what those guys were doing...I think they surreded from somethings in sweden that we call "fältkoma" meaning u r tired so u do nothing...and thus time flies...they also emplied my bag...so i had to spent 10 mintes collecting my stuff outside where they tried to make breakfast...

here someone dupmed my stuff...haha..so amateur...

When leaving the cabin...by some reason I had more things to carry than before...I know the girl gave her equipment to us that other day..but whos bag was this?

Cory wanted us to walk togetter...not sure why...since he said it was ok the day before that I walked alone...

I just did as he said...

It felst dangerous walking in the dark...I prefered walking in light...since I know that it was super steap where we walked...

 

 

it was dark...but after a while one could see Jiayi and the ocean on distance...(some 100km away)...

Slowly the morning was coming...

My camers is not made for night photos...

Cory desided when it was OK to split up again...so that I could walk in my own speed...

The sun was almost visible when we dumbed some luggage near the path and started the last km up to the top...

Compare to many other mountains, this is a very commercial mountain...they have arranged everything for u...even some reflectors near the path...

And chains...to hold on to...

And stairs when it gets to slippery...

Cory speeded up in the end...trying to catch up...

Where it south...?...the sun raises in east...so now i guess im looking south...

Im in Kaohsiung ountry...but far away is Taidong county...where the mountianin the horizon is...it has the second highest lake in taiwan...I planned to go there long time ago...

I had not reached the top yet...stil some way to walk on this well prepared tourist path...

Omg...the north peaks cabin is super large...looks almost like a hotel from here...

Hao3...here it is...less that 10 square meters...the highest point of taiwan...

Here it the shaddow of Yushan...(Jade mountain)

Cory is also heagin up...i try to encourage him to hurry up...

This it the north...far away we have Hehuanshan (which i climbed 2010 and Xueshan that i did earlier this year)...

And down there there is a mountain village...so cool...maybe they have snow in winter...

 Here is a green rigde...with alot of pine bushes...

They probably used helicopted to cary up there stones as well...

I brought my frodo cape...

Enjoyed my honey nut loops while waiting for the others...

Cory was very excited when he arrived...

I wanna go to that pyramid shaped moutain over there...i saw a similar moutain when i climbed hehuanshan...

Pose 1, with frodo cape

Pose 2, with frodo cape

Cory pose 1

Cory pose 2

Cory pose 3

Cory pose 4

Cory pose 5

A bird eating honey nut loops at almost 4000meters above sea level...

Cory forgot the view...and focused on the birds...

He wanted a pic of them...

I found a tent area near the peak...

Pablo was cold when he came up...and tired...

The bird feeder in action...

"Johan...look at the birds, they are eating from my hand"...

"johan look..." Johan thinks: "eh...ye, i also mind that I can see moutain peaks that are more than 200km away from here..."

"But the birds johan, see the small cute birds"...

Some taiwanese ppl also arrived...they always inves in expensive moutain climbing equipment...i never understand why...

Alishan is at the other side of the valley...

I was there 4 years ago...looking at this peak, thinking its almost at the same altitude...but from here it looked far lower...

Some other peak 500 meters away...with loose stones...

I lended pablo my poncho to sit on...the stones were kind of cold...

Wow...cellphone reception...

And some ancient wooden house or platform...

These two iron rods might have been the old sign of the mountain peak...

I spent maybe 30-40 minutes on the peak...

Taiwanese ppl are very friendly up here...

Another nice view..but the clouds are approaching...

Last group member arriving...

We ate and drank...

And some ppl feeded birds...

Far away we could see the path...

I like to stay at the peak for a long time...since you spend so many hours reaching it...it just feels strange being there for some few minutes...

Heavy wind...and sunshine...

Group photo...

Groups photo 2...

And number 3...

Now...heading down...

Some people taking a break further down...

Land slides...making patterns on the green environment...

Trash hidden in the tree...

The place where we were hiding the backpacks...

We left our tents in the first cabin...so we headed there fo repack our stuff...

So here...we made a short break...tha ranged wanted everyone down before 2am...or something due to an approaching typhoon...poor the rangers...many of them dont speak english...and there were atleat 10 foreingers on the moutain this day...

I tied some stuff on the outside of my bag...

Im always amazed how far we walked up, when i walk on the way down...

Pablo was listening to music...

I often see many old people climbing...

Adjust the backpack...

Cory was filming alot...

Wow...a hole in the tree...so spooky...

And some tar look-alike thin on the tree...

I guess some ranger left this tank here for pick-up later...in the middle of the path...

Pablos walking style reminded me of a hobbit....

A green environment...

Cory wanted to reach the car before 2, "else they might refuse us to leave", he said...

LAndslides creating these interesting strokes on the mountains...

2 professional ranger were looking for some foreigners...

One of them spoke very good english...

Pablo made a quick visit to the high altitude toilet that does not even have a window...such a waste...

We spkoe to many people on the way down...one kid was italian...i mentioned some pizzas for him...like "quattro stagioni" and "capricciosa"...

Wow...not far to the end...cory called a bus pick-up...to the ranger station...

Some alternative road headin east...I wonder what that was for...no traffic was allowed...

Some other hikers were already waiting the bus...

Down here it was super warm...taiwan temperature...

I felt i had to drink alot of water...

We quickly packed the car and headed downhill...

Cory wanted to take the road north...its a mountain road back to Hsinchu...I didnt mind...i love the mountains in taiwan...

They have some permanende road barrier on montains roads here...

And alot of construction working...

It was very good quality of the road...

More barriers...

We were worried about our car...it was rented...and the road was bad...stones scratched it underneath...

And nice view...

Probably every 20 minutes we saw construction workers...

I wonder how many people are using this road...maybe its for military purpose... no traffic but good quality road...(where its not construcion workers)

Nice view almost all the time (its Road 21)...

I wonder if its possible to buy land here...

More construction...

When the view was super good...there was a parking site..

Hmm...why use tired on the top of the tunnel?

A try river...a common site in taiwan...

And a cool bridge crossing it...

It was shaped as a sinus curve...

Nantou...the only county in taiwan thats not connected to the ocean...

We were discussion where to eat...

And ended up here...they said their burgers are super big...

They didnt have a complete english menu...

The walls were decirated in american an american style...

They had 2 different menues...so pablo got the wrong dish...

And they didnt have any beef...and eahc burger had many meats...

My pork burger had boiled pork...it was not like a real burger...

We took the freeway back to Hsinchu...it was a nice trip...next time...I will insist of climbing moutains on 1 day...since its more convenient...

Song of the day...its kind of old...but has a name similari to a place near Yushan...Tacata

 

Another night in taipei...

I went to taipei last night...

I got a computer bag from  a classmate...so convenient...

Went to a mongolian hotpot...similair to the one in Hsinchu I went to last year...

They all taste more or less the same for me...

Alot of desserts...I like...

And ice cream...

It was good as a starter...

I took 2 times...and drank alot of coke...it was not freee beer here tonight...but sometimes they have that offer...

The next stop was some fireworks...alot of ppl went there my scooter...totally chaos and polluted...

...Especially with trafic lights every 300-400 meters...

And then queuing to get to a river...

It was very limited path, so many scooters went here...

Its a big city...no wonder it gets crowded when everyone wants to go to the same place...

The fireworks lasted for 10-20 minutes I think...not many people know why there were fireworks...

In fact...no one me or my friends asked knew why there were...haha, maybe a result of the cutlre, not to ask questions...just do as they are told..

It was over a river...so it was nice reflection...

With different colours...

and once in a while...a high rocket was launched...

It was super warm last night...like 30-40 degress...

When the fireworks was over...everyone went back on the same small path...

It wold probablyo tkae 30-60 minutes to go 200 meters...

super slow...probably due to a near by traffic light...

We found a tunnel a little further away...maybe savedsome minutes...

Heavy scooter traffic again...

It was at Ximen...and there was also some basketball entertainment...

Not that interested in this...but the taiwanese loves it...

I went to Cafe Dalida thereafter for a birthday party...but it was held by a latino...(who usually tried to come in time...since he knows that some northern europeans use to attend his event)...but he was stuck in a taxi...

So I waited 40-60 minutes, it was a very populari cafe...and many custoemrs were rejected place...

They played Robyn at the place...

Its not far from my favorite burgerbar...

After a while the staff removed some chairs, to other customers...

Finally people arrived...

LAtonis and taiwanese in general...

My friend turned 15...or something...

People were prepared to go party afterwards...

Many photeos were taken...

I planted a orange tree, since I had a core on a fruit that I got in my drink...

People went a little drunk...it was fun...

Omg...the second swedish song..Avicii...I didnt hear it, but recognized "Kjell Bergström"

LAter on I went for another beer...never tried this before...it was very bitter...

People went to "la boca" a bar near Taipei 101...

And there after to club "Jump"...

Never been here before..

Omg, maffia racing in the Taipei nights...

I also found a new seat design in the bus later on when I went to Hsinchu...

Moron ticket counter...

I was about to buy a but ticket to taipei...

The counter siad, that they had no tickets to taipei, that I had to walk to Qingda night market...10 minutes downtown...

So i started to walk.., 2 minutes later the bus came and picked up some passengers anyway...

I went to qingda night market, quite disappointed with the bad customer service, that they rather say "we dont have" then "i dont understand"...so that I can ask someone for translation...

The bus I took at Qingda night market also stopped at the place there I first went...next time I will ask for translation directly...

Thai restaurant with a Thai guy...

I went to a thai resturant with a thai guy last night...

I took the bus downtown...that is rare...I usually prefer taking my bike...

This is the nightmarket where the restaurant is at...

Not sure why, but many people say its very good thai food here...

For me it tated like the semi-manufactured food you can buy in the swedish supermarket...

It was all kind of spicy...

My thai friend orderes many dishes...

This noodle thing was good...

We ended the night by watching a movie in the lab...

Bacteria free females...

Maybe its a littlebit "old news"...

But i cannot let it go...

The tai logic...

So many girls are using dresses at the swiming pool...

The tai logic in that this not creating bacteria on girls, while surfer shorts on guys, made of the same material are creating it...that grown up people never question this...is for me super strange...and it is very unfair...

There are many strange things here...that I will never understand, but the lack on questioning is the most dangerous thing...

Printed thesis...

This bureaucratic thesis process...

My building has a copy center...where I printed some new copies of my thesis...since my program told me I had to...

Its a messy room on the fifth floor...I never knew existed...

It was a mess...since they told me one thing and my program told me one thing...I often need to call people and let them talk to the staff that argues here...

Some famous person in Taipei

I was at Taipei main station...

Alot of people with cameras were there...maybe some famous person was in the area...

Some sign...very blur on this pic was showed...I had to leave, not time to enjoy the taiwanese celeb...

Ticket purchase failure...

What is the point of having Visa/master card...when they often are uselss for internet use...

Hmm...it often feels like a lottery, whether the cards will work or not...

I tried different cards...all failed...useless...

The Cardigans in Taipei...

I went to see The Cardigans in Taipei last night...

But first I went to Xida nightmarket to cash out a free hamburger...

It was at KDG, we were so many people last time, so we got a free salad and free burger voucher...the free salad was taken by a guy who left taiwan the week after...i dont know how he was reasoning...what a waste of free food...

They also needed staff here...maybe I can get some experience...(even though I dont think I will learn that much)...about having a restaurant...before I open my own ones...

A guy parked a fixed-gear bike outside the burger bar...kind of cool...

I got my burger on "take-away"...

I ordered their biggest one...I think its the same as last time...

Even if im  on a diet...I went to another burger store after KGB´s...called Anjoy Kitchen...

They had a BLue cheese burger for the same price as a normal cheese burger...so I ordered that one...

It was ok...tasted like they made the burger them selves...

After the burgers were finished I went to Taida...where alot of people were...

It was The Cardigans that performed...I found a loophole in their ticket chekcking system...meaning, many people could enter, on 2 tickets...

It was nice colours they used when playing...

People sat down on seats initially...

They changed colours after each song...

 

After a whle the singer asked people to stand up in front, if they wanted...and suddenly everyone left theri seats and stood up...

They were wearing alot of clothes...

Even the singer...

So they were sweating alot...

Many people seemed to know their songs...

After a while people sat down...especially the older part of the audience...

They left the stage a couple of times...

They seemed to be very professional...I guess they should be, since they played music sine 1992...I remember going to the alps as a kid, and my cousin listened to their new album...it was like...almost 20 years ago...

After 1-1.5 hours playing the show was over...

I like them...the big guy to the right was very funny...

People went home...I wonder where The cardigans will party tonight...

Wow...an Italian Piaggio in taiwan...so cool!

 

Thai guy hang out...

I hanged with my old roommate yesterday...

He was chilling with someother Thai guy when i met him...

I didnt eat...or only tasting his lunch...Im over 100kg now...before breakfast I was 99.2kg, we went to a professional weight, at the medical clinic at NCTU...the Thai guy was 66kg...

Then I finally got to see his lab...

He had his own desk...(kind of like me....but this was given to him...)

Apple cake in the lab...

I made an Apple and cinnamon cake in the lab...

I had a couple of apples in the fridge...

I prepared them with butter and cinnamon and sugar in the oven for a while...

And whipped the dough with chopsticks...asian style...

It was ok...kind of creamy...

And then add the apples...

I had alot of cinnamon in is...and butter...I have to make it cool down before I can judge the result...

Thesis business

I spent some time on uploading my thesis to the library today...

It was not easy...

The program secretary tried to help...but still no progress...

I later on went to the library, where they managed to upload my thesis...which is a requirement for graduate...

My dear friend Connor, had a scooter in campus, and gave me a ride...so convenient...

I also needed signatures from my advisor...he was luckily at his office...

Then I needed to print some copies of my thesis...but I did not have all papers with me...so it will b a mission for tomorrow...

Later in the afternoon I went downtown with some people from my program and their friend...

We went to Big City..the new big mall...and to a japanese restaurant...

The waitress had fake glasses, but contacts...

Since its valentines day soon, they had some valentines offer...I tried it...kind of expensive restaurant...same price as an "all you can eat"...

It was alot of fish...

And dessert with red beans... :S

Free refill of some salad...I just refilled once...

All you can eat, in taipei

Last night I was introduced to a new All you can eat restaurant in Taipei main station...even their General manager attended the table...

Many people were heading to the movie at the same floor, including some classmate or mine...

This is the restaurant...they have 9 off these in Taiwan...

It was a little like "Stena lines" buffet in sweden...alot of things...

I started with dessert...

I could pick the fish by myself...thats very rare nowadays in taiwan...but highly appreciated...

Also many other kinds of food...they change the food assortment every second month...keeping the most popular things...

And the crabs here are better than at other places...since they actuallt contain meat...

And nice cheese browns etc...

It was free beer...4 different kinds...

And some special dishes that had to be ordered from the kitchen...

I ate alot of ice cream here...

And finished the meal with some japanese beer...

Lets do things complicated

"Lets do things complicated"...one can think their objective was...

NCTU still has serious problems to adapt to international standards...many websites are still in chinese...(even the english version)...and they still have an asian way to deal with feedback (thank for it, but do nothing)...

Spent to much time on trying to upload my thesis...not I wont leave the GMBA secretarys office until I got satisfying help...

Monday at campus...

I had a lazy tuesday this week...

Vera helped me buy lunch, some spicy specialty...

Many people were at the food court 1, since the other courts are closed for the moment...

Later on I went to Wasabi, all you can eat and all you can drink restaurant...

As usual we had to ring alot of beer glasses, since they are so small...

And I ate alot of crabs...

The party continued at the lab...where we saw a couple of movies...

Then my friends went to smoke...and we started to hang with some other people...

Near the lake...

And treated some taiwanese girls swedish snus...

I never tried myself...they got a little dissy after a while...

Travelling in northern Taiwan...

I went to travel in northern taiwan...

And visited the steak house, which owner I met at Chubbys burger in Jhubei some weeks ago...

Franks texas BBQ...ppl said it is famous...

They had many different things on the menu...

And the staff was wearing some nice cowboy looking shirts...

I got a coffee with free refill...

And I bought a burger ofcourse...it didnt tasts that much...

They also had the texas flag...

After the steak house visit the next stop was Yuhlui Geopark...I wanted to go here many times...but its kind of isolated...

A village is built mainly for this goelogical area...

And some cliff formation...this version is a fake one...

I can see some island out in the ocean...it is not turtle island...but looks almost the same...

There were many people from mainland china here...

And the thin mushroom shaped ston in the background is what makes this place famous...

It is a long queue to take a picture with it...so interesting...

It was very strict that one only can walk on the path in one direction...but if walking off the path, there was no rule...kind os strange...

Some stones looked like this..so interesting...like ths moon, or something...

A guard is chesking so that people are behaving...

People took pictures from both sides of this stone...its talled "the queens head"...

And here are people queuing for taking a picture...

Soo many people...

It kind of looks like a head...

Other stones also looks like things...but they are not announced...so people dont care...

I even saw some stones...looking like the queens head...

It was a path along the coastline...where tourist could walk...

The queue to the queens head became longer and longer...

Here are some other mushrooms...

This one was interesting...like a hole in it...

The next stop was the Makong gondola in Taipei...where one could use the student ID to enter...so convenient...

It was kind of dark outside...

They had many stations until the top...

One was Taipei zoo...

It was anice skyline...even though my camera hd hard time capturing it all...

And the pics became blur due to the lond exposure time...

Taipei 101 could also be seen...from the cable car...

They had alot of tea stores at the top...

Some of them were said to be famous...

I can imagine many tapiei people cominghere during weekends...

This is the view of taipei...

Still Taipei 101 was visible...

It was nice...

The station was a part of the MRT system...

The car on the way back had glass floor, so during daytime, it is possible to see straight down...

Taipei 101 from nearby...

After the gondola...the trip went to Chilis restaurant in Neo19 building at Taipei City hall...

After that some eye contacts was purchased...

Many different eye colours to chose among...

I got some liquids to...and a crash course in how to put them on and take them off...but it was not that good...

I asked some friends later...and they told me a differnt way...that seemed better...

House warming party in Taipei

I went to a house warming party in taipei...

Buying stuff at costco...

Wow, so american...

There was alot of beer at the party...

and other Costco food...

It was nice...I like cheese alot...and with buffalo wings...its even better...

I also drank the beer that I isproduced in Brisbane, Australia...I went to their factory there this february...

This beer was super bitter...

This cheese was good...dutch...

I brought this 5 liter barrel...

People enjoyed it...

While I tried different kinds of beer...

Mmm...Hawaii pizza with extra cheese from Pissa Hut...

The party faded out after a while...I was bored and did some pedicure...batman motive on my toe...

 

Far east movement @ Luxy...

I went to see Far east movement @ luxy last week...

Alot of traffic in taipei as usual...

A short visit to costco before leaving to the club district...

I went to meet a schoolmate at this bar in downtown, but he was not there when I passed by...

Not that long queues at midnight...

To this band, that is inspiried from Beastie boys, and orignates fomr USA...

Alot of people...but not as crowded as Snoop dog or LMFAO...

They played some random music until 1...

Yep...kind of precisely...

It was hot inside...but not as hot as when previous DJs performed...

They used alot of smoke etc...

And one of them were jumping around alot...

They didnt have that many hits to play...I only knew 2 when I came...

And some really young boys were there...probably Maffia kids...

I found a guy who (compare to taiwanese ppl) looked a little like me...

Could have been the same look-alike as outside Beer factory...but I didnt really see that guy so clearly...

More jumping around on the stage...

And alot of queues when leaving as usual...

@1 was the bar I went to afterwards...

I wanted an austrian beer, but they didnt have it...

So I went for a Japanese...All malt beer...

I was encouraged to go an d ask for a song...

But the asshole DJ just rejected me, and played some lame music insteaad...no sense of customer orientation...

Some table covers, sponsored by Absolute...

There after a visit to the burger bar Swensen´s wasmade...I have never been there...

No camera...I wonder why?!?!

I got soup...it was good...

And burger...still not better than Cosby´s...

And for dessert I have both Beanut butter cup chocolate and blueberry cheese cake Ice cream...

Chatrpol in the lab...

My old roommate came to visit me in the lab...

So sweet...but also very funny and interesting...

Thursday night...

I planned to go to drink beer with my program secretary on thursday...

We went to borrow some DVDs first...and met Lucy in the library...

She had a car and drove us aorund campus...

We paid a visit to the secretary...

And saw a movie in the lab...

Before we went to a beer bar...

We were many people...drinking the same beer as usual...

They ordered many side dishes...

Its often expensive if u wanna get full at this place...

We also played some games...

More people dropped in as time when by...

It was fun...however many people had to work the day after....

I went to Spirit afterwards so celebrate with the swedes...

They had a table...

We drank with Rony, who does not work at spirit any longer...

And I met many foreingers...like htese japanaese boys...

They were super funny...

 

Roberto is back in town...after a visit to Guatemala...

They had a very big tap here...

Many people were drunk this night...so interesting...

And many people got some blue tequila fomr the bottle...I had like 3-4 mouths...many half a liter...

They also had entertainment shortly...

And some indonesian guys passed by...

Only girls were welcome on the stage this night...

Some girls seemed to have a pre wedding party...

I found that they use strange drinks here...almost the same taste as in Micasa...not that good...

Hampus had his Malaysian girl at the place...

After the visit we went to Mcdonalds...

I helped some drunk girl home as well...but got a phone call when i was at my dorm...she needed escort all the way to her room...

Blackout in the lab...

There is a black out in the lab since some days ago...

Th freezer stoped working...so I had to move it...where the were a socket that had electricity...

Getting an old bike back...

My malaysian friend gave me a bike some years ago...

I went downtown to pick it up...

I ran there...in the heat...making a quick stop at a juice store, well deserved...

My classmate slept in the lab...

My class mate was in Hsinchu some day ago...

And slept in the lab over the night...not sure how good sleep he had...

I also offered him toothbrush...from my hotel collection...

Pablo´s in town...

Pabo came to Hsinchu this lunch...

First make a compulsory visit at Vanessas office...and talk to the chinese language center about the chinese limit...I think our program already asked them to pass another batch of students...since their chinese level is to low, to pass in theordinary way (meaning actually perform in a satisfying way to pass the course, not the developing country-corruption style...ask the teacher to pass u, since u wont be able to graduate else)

We also went to the pool...

Look, a girl with a skirt...lucky that she is a girl...in asian logic...the dress will develop alot of bacteria if it was worn by a guy...just like surfer shorts...

Two other girls with dress...totally bacteria free...

I also met one of the "nice professors" we had in our opposition for our oral defense...she is super nice...

I ordered an Oral milk tea...a classmate´s recommendation...

And paid a short visit to my lab neighbours,...a tai woman said they treated us alcohol...but it was not true...

After fixing a bike for my friend at my old roommates new room we went to Harry an old indian friend...

He wanted to treat us some snax...

I was asked to frie it myself...

 It was fun, I failed in the beginning but later it was easy...

It looked like pasta first...but became some corn puffs after it touches hot oil... 

So professional, I should import that to sweden, with other things like henna tattoo paste...

Harry there after prepares Hooka (indian verion of water pipe)...

 We is so professional in these matters...

He had alot of cool things to prepare it...

Then he started to smoke...this one was without nicotine...

Pablo also had experience in smoking this...

We brought alot of beer...due to that it was birthday times...

And shoted alot of whisky...

Then we went to buy something to eat...

And Pablo joked with Eric, our taiwanese friend...

Spontaneous told him that we should take of our shirt...so funny...

I bought a beer, with a name similar to Hooka...I had to try it...

Pranay, our indian friends roommate...was also surprised when guys in underwear were drinking and smoking in his appartment...

Harry bought some cake...for the birthday celebration...

The shoted more whisky...

And more...

Eric fell asleep...

Pablo treated him icecube...

More shots...

Another shot...

Eric wrote a heart on his stomach...

Ifried the last of the "fries" as its called in india...I should add garlic next time...it will taste more...we put some spices at this occasion...

I was playing the music...during the night...sometimes the indians played some indian song...I often responded with a swedish song sounding the same...

At around 3 we headed home...it was a fun night...we might do it again next week...who knows...

Do they even clean the white board...

2008 or 2009 I went to the chinese...and made a small spot on their whiteboard...

I also 2010 did another spot...I also last year even last year wrote the date...to ensure that irt really worked

Today i did they same...I wonder if they ever will erase it...

Sleepy roommates...

It is far over 13-14...

And dark in the room...Alvin is sleeping...

Interesting Teppanyaki at downtown...

I went to an interesting Teppanyaki at downtown...

 

It was a mix between buffet and teppanyaki...

Not sure how they counted the price...but they seemed to have some kind of system...

And an interesting picture...that was moving...

DVD times...

I borrowed many DVDs recently...

Last night I saw the english patient...

Hang out with the swedes

Movie in the lab...

I borrowed some movies today in the library...

We saw "babel"...a brad pitt movie...I also borrowed Legends of the fall, and tried to find Seven years in tibet...I think I like brad pitt movies...tomorrow I will try to find the English patient...IMDB.com recommends that movie...for people who likes legends of the fall...

All you can eat with san miguel...

 I went to an All you can eat restaurant today...

It was the same place we tried to go to last week, but then it was full, today we booked a table...

Starting with ice cream as usual...very good chocolate ice cream...

And then alot of fish and corn sticks...but also alot of meat today...

Stain hider...

I had some stain on my shorts since some days ago...

I used my old 7-11 stickers...since the dorm washing machines has problems removing them...

A classmate rendez-vous at campus...

I met my classmates on campus today...its nice that still some are nearby...

They might go out to drink tonight...tomorrow some of them will start their new job...

New bike...

My wheels are matching the frame...

A little more reder than before...and more stable cycling...

Esther is in the lab...

Im not sure why I stay in lab so much...

But I often meet my sweet classmates here...who pays a visit...I showed Esther some magic trick...she bought it...atleast the first time...then later on...it was more humiiating.she asked me to practice more...

A trip to downtown...

I just made a trip to downtown...running with my bike...

I was pretty warm, after running 4-5km, in 35 deg Celsius...

They guy at the counter recognized me, he asked where my Gianat Advanced 3 was, I pointed outside, at my broken bike...he was very sweet...

Then after another 4-5km, I had to stop at a binglang store, to buy milk tea...some one has to promote the legal part of taiwanese maffia...

Confuzing, the door to the giant store was super hard to open, I thought it wasclosed even if some people were inside...many people stood at the entrance trying to get in...

They just had a make-over of the store...

I was recommended to buy these..the best tires they had...with nice red colour matching my bike...they told me i will get discout but they never gave me...

They also had this Giant souvenir shelf...kind of fun...

This is a bad image of my tire...super broken...

They are always nice nowadays at the giant store...and encourrage me to come back more often to oil the chain...for fre...however, i alwaysbuy something when I pass by...

Vera´s working for Vanessa

My classmate is working for the secretary of the GMBA.

It is fun, some one to talk with, and joke with during the day time...

A weekend in Kaohsiung...

I was invited to visit my friend Allens family in Kaohsiung in south of taiwan...I took the cab to MRT...we were still on Daxue road and the taximeter showed 105...it was alot of traffic...

Rush hour everyday, alot of scooters and cars...

Running around, trying to find Allen, we passed by each other, but met up at Taizhong...

I bought some honey cake for Allens family, it is their favorite...

Entertainment at the MRT station in Kaohsiung...

And a nice waterfall...

Near a place called Beer garden they had alot of entertainment, this guy sang Adele s, "fire to the rain", super good...

We continued to check out Barcode...similar to the one in Taipei...

Not that many people though...

And some MC gang showing their vehicles...

This is a nice restaurant place in Kaohsiung, with many fancy names...

We went to this burger bar not far from the city center...

I tried this cider...

They showed the Olympics...

I had a cheese burger with extra cheese...it was good...

We were picked up by Allens mom after the bar visit...

And went to their blocks...in south of kaohsiung...

Were we drak more beer and ate super good cheese...

I got an appartment by myself...it was fun...

With alot of wooden furnitures...

Some things that the old owners didnt want to keep...

This is allen as a kid, super cute...

We watched the olympics....at allens place...

And drank this Czech beer...probabl one of my new favorites...

Allen also showed my some military photos...

And I got some equpiment, which made it feel like i lived in a hotel...

Breakfast...same nice cheese and some tomato...

And ice tea...

This is their car...a Nissan...

Driving in Kaohsiung makes it feel like u are in a tropicla climate (whish it is) with palm trees etc...

Is it green or red? sometimes driving in taiwan can be confusing...

We went south of Kaohsiung to a local fish market...

And to take the ferry...

...to this island...

...called Xiao luiqui...

There was alot of water in the river, due to typhoon...Kaohsiung city can be seen in the horizon...

We saw some "famous" fish stand...with pics from when famous people passed by...

And we god Haomapai...(number cards)...for the ferry...

A small ferry...alot of waves on the ocean...

We could see the swedish female football team meetingthe french team...

French was in the lead...when someone changed channel...

Some statues were taken by boat to the island...

Seems like a symbol of taiwan...I have seen them many times before...

There were many people on the boat...

Some aboriginal was singing on the TV...

They were famous I was told...

This is the first sight of the island...

The ferry leaves about 2 times per hour or something...

Its kind of touristic, even though they dont promot the island so much...I guess most people here are from Kaohsiung...we were recommended to rent a scooter...

We thought about rentingbikes, but it was super warm...so we decided to be lasy...

Just like the east coast, no one wears helmet here...we were not even offered helmet...

Its rare to see cars...mostly scooters...like green island...

They had many siteson the island...that was smaller than green island...it might have taken 0.5-1 hour to drive around...

1 or 2 7-11 were spotted...

And scooters everywhere...

We went to eat local food...which means seafood...

This seemed to be some pork though...

But the rest was Tuna and prawns etc...

It was super good...

And we went to drink...and I had local mango smoothie...

Tourist groups were everywhere...just like on Green island, it is common that one gets a guide and some trips included in the hotel...

This Vase rock is one of the most famous things from this island...

It had a history...and many other cliffs had funny names, just like on green island...

Now one could walk to the rock..but some times if is surrounded by water...

Alot of people were diving around it...

We also went to some caves...where it said that we could drink the water...

Given that people never washed their feet in it...etc...it looked kind of dirty...

Most cliffs here were corals...

And they had alot of cliffs...

And also miltary bunkers...

And many places called "ecological zones"...due to its unique fauna...

And over 80 temples...(maybe 84)...which makes it the most temple dense place in taiwan, or on earth...they pray alot for good weather...

We saw even more mushroom shaped cliffs...

I had my new flipflops, so I could easily walk in the water...

Allen walked barefeet....

...and made a jump...

...while I was climbing the cliffs...

We saw this interesting fella, with its house...

And cool pattern in the rocks...

Then we continied with the scooter...feeling like we were on a medeterainian island...

And we bought this ticket, to see the sites on the island...

The sunset is said to be super nice from here...

One of the 2 light houses on the island...but hard to see the view from the mountain where it was situated...due to the forrest...

And we also saw a puppet show...

And one of the most famous beaches on the island...

Many divers were here...

They are promoting electrical scooters...that makes me happy...

At the ferry they were selling puke from swallows...kind of wierd...they mix it with sugar and water and drink it...

I bought this crackers...it was with seaweed...

On the way back, we saw Korea vs Denmark on badminton...

And the fish market had expanded...to the street...

Alot of big fishes...so nice...

Later we went to Kaohsiung downtown...I saw this ferriswheel...near ikea...

We went to a sky skraper which had many restaruatns, it was the one I saw the night before...

45 floors...and we were heading to the top...

To this nice steak house...

And a fantastic view...

and a super nice salad buffet...

This is a blur image of kaohsiund downtown...

I had a filet mignon...

And alot of desserts...

This is Allens mother...super nice lady...and his Aunt to the right...also a favorite...

Here is the view from Allens house...towards the Kaohsung international airport...

The day after we were heading north...

This old building use to be the highest building in Kaohsung...

Fumes from a car...people say that if i had in this picture to the police I can get money ( I assume i need the registration sign as well...atleast this workds for scooters...)

Still feeling like driving in a jungle...

This was the destination of the day...

Some munk from Shanghai, starte a fund to raise money...

...to build this...

A high budha ona stutue...some one said its the highest in asia...jsut like the thai ppl said in bangkok, and the buthan people in Thimphu...

Alot of cars were here...it was hard to find somewhere to park...

They finaly removedsome cones so that we could leave the car...

This are listsof donators...super many...and this place has alot of money I was told due to the donators...

Chen...something...same name as allens mother...but its not her...

Here is some swedish funding...

Here is the chnese munk...who raised the fund...

With different people, posing...

This is the whole area...super big...reminded me of an american cementary in europe...

They also had nice stores...

And the compulsory starbucks and 7-11...

EAch building has some kind of activity inside...as including the pyramid at the end...

I donated 1 NT, maybe my name will be listed some time, on those stone walls...

They had alot of rooms and places for the munk who started to build this place...

A lego miniature of the temple...

It was super hot to walk here...it was good that they had AC inside...

In here they had a white jade stature of Buddha, and Buddhas tooth...there are only 3 in theworld, one tooth is in china, one on Sri lanka, and one here...we asked how they could guarantee that it really was budhas...they jsut said, that some people recorded its position...since it wa taken from tibet to here...

I also bought  a fortune cookie...more like a "kinder surprise", with this message from the Shanghai munk...

And we went to some kind of museum inside the pyramid...

My flipflop made alot of noise, when walking...

It said that LUmbini was in india...but its in Nepal..atleast according to the map I saw in Kathmandu last year..and what they nepalese people told me...

This is how the buddhism spread around in asia...

This is some necklace...I also got from asia...

And here are places that was supported by the fund...mostly earthquake...but also the 9-11 attack in use...by some reason...I wonder why they didnt support africa more than USA...that atleast are in bigger need for money..maybe it is due to political reasons...

Here is the nice view of the temple...reminded me of Shen kai shek memorial hall in taipei...

It seems like on ecan go up in the Buddha statue...but im not sure...

Some last pose before heading back...

So cool..Wu Bai cellphone case...(a famous Taiwanese singer...)

Many tourist groups were walking around here...

Her one can see the 85 floor building, that use to be the highest in taiwan...

When we came back, we were served Taiwanese food...super nice...

They had a watch that always went to fast...it was an old wedding gift...

Allens mom in the kitchen...

We took HSR back again...it took about 90 minutes...

Then i took the light rail back to campus...

The same system as the local trains in taiwan...

Kind of new...i think about 6 month old train system...

The green line is the light rail...

I should bo by this train more often...it was fun...

New flipflops...

Going to Kaohsiung soon...

They did not have my size this time at NTHU...but I bought some similair size...

I also found that they had Oreo drinks at the tea store just beside the flipflop sotre...thats very rare...

After a short visit to NCTU alumni association I went back to the lab...

Cash out money...

I went to the post office...

The cashier was kind of wierd...bu tI got my 600NT from the lottery...

100,000 of polluting scooters...

Asians are not famous for caring about the environment...

It really hurts in my heart, when I know so many people are driving every day, without catalyzer, just caring about today :S smelling fumes everywhere...

Last visit at my advisers office...

I went to my advisor for the last time...I think...

They are not only the slowest elevators at campus...today they were broken...i feel sorry for the ppl working on the 12th floor...(or 13th)...I had to walk to the 7ths...

It was a fast visit, "I trust that u have done the changes", he signed...and then "baibai"...

Me and my classmate went to Burger king, later on...waiting for the "Pinkbus" that is a free shuttle bus, for 15 minutes...when we left we could see it coming..and thus missed it...and took a walk to the place...

Specal offer...2 whopper junoir sets for 125 NT...not bad...

A night in taipei...

I went to taipei last night...

It was a last second decision...and the weather was typhoon like...I like this weather alot, its very entertaining...

It felt like sitting in a boat, while taking the bus...

Everything covered in water...

And heavy wind...

I need to have my thesis adjusted by tomorrow...it was perfect to fix this on the bus...

The Hsinchu river was actually a river today...

Some random school girls wanted to sell me pens for their school funding...I didnt need a pen, but offered them cash, but they didnt want...

The first stop was a All you can eat and all you can drink restaurant...it was awesome...

Alos of sushi...

Nice desserts...

Fish...

Free wine (french and spanish...)...and steaks...

And taiwan beer...

Sea food gratin...

Rare meat...

Ice cream...

Chocolate fontain...

We stayed for a long time...not that many people left when we were done...

This it the name of the place...

Rainy day in Ximen...

But got free tickets for a movie...

Nice deluxe seats...I wonder if they have massage...

I saw the new Batman....it was ok...

 

Typhoon times...thousand years of experience, still creates disasters....

Typhoon times...thousand years of experience, still creates disasters....its amazing...

Hard to walk on the street...i rather swim...a typhoon is crossing the island, and another one is coming...

Receipt lottery...

Got a bag of receipts from a friend...

Not that many though...

Still managed to win 600NT or something...better than last time...

Typhoon times...

It is Typhoon times...

People think its scary...I think its funny...but easy to get hurt...some planks flying around...outside family mart...

many branches on the path...

The entrance door to my dorm, totaly wasted...and the window is broken...

And all the trees the has been falling down during the night...some action in a campus that feels like a ghost town...

Movie in the lab...

Its typhoon outside...

But its cinema inside...in the lab...starting out with Hangover 2...

...followed by king speech...

and Seediq Bale...

And ended by X-men first class...

...all in the GMBA lab...this asian facilites never disapoints...the water puddle kept growning as the rain enhanced outside....

Making garlic steak and hash brown in the lab...

I made some nice food yesterday in the lab...

I had alot of garlic as usual...

And had both red wine, and beer with gravy with the steak...yummy

Nice corridor...

My corridor is very nice...thats why i like living in a dorm...

When I want to borrow or have some randon stuff, I just knock on a random door...and get what I want...the indians are very friendly...and very many...

Emerson is in town...

I met Emerson yesterday...he has some business in town, and decided to visit the GMBA office...

He wont be albe to gratuate...since he did not pass the TOP2 chinese test (or never tried), nor lick some teachers ass to help him pass in other ways...poor him...I will go party with him later though...it will b fun.

A night at Grazie...

Many people showed up some days ago at Grazie...

Super many people showed up...

I ordered some sandwishes...

And soup...it was nice...but everyone got theor food very discountinously...when some ppl got their dessert, others got theor predish...its very taiwanese to just serve food, without thinking about that people might want to eat their main course togetter, and finish the meal togetter...

A hawaii pizza never disapoints...

And brownie with icecream...

Later we wnated to set the bill...

But one note said 4000NT, one 299 NT etc...not structure...

Luck that my classmate was there, figureing everything out...it took more than 1 hour to pay...for me, 20 minutes to eat...