More on Green Island

Here's my riding pillion with a view of Green Island.


The rest of my summer holiday videos : http://uk.youtube.com/user/fcheng07

The rest of my summer holiday pix : http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157605680372576/

Summer Holiday

My 1st visit down South Taiwan.

1s stop - Dive Green Island.
Went with Eddie from Green Island Adventures. He's a nice jolly guy, met me at Taichong's HSR station, jump into his van and he starts to drive for Taitung. Some 8 hours later, we jump onto a ferry and then we're on Green Island and the diving starts!

The dive gang consists of 1 dive instructor - Curtis from Canada. 2 women Canadians who were there to relax by the beach; Isau, a Japanese avid diver (who dives a lot with Eddie); Marko, an Estonian who's new to Taiwan (2 weeks old here!) and Nancy who's Taiwanese but grew up in California.

Highlights of the dive - banded coral snakes. I saw 3 over 5 dives in 2 days. Handfeeding a school of batfish, and in particular the different types of corals made the dives different. Water vis was really good and the blue skies and the lack of any other divers made it nice. I really liked our 2nd day local Dive Master,
Vero Chiang. If I go back, definitely dive with her.

2nd stop - chilling in Kenting
Eddie was nice enough to drop us off at Fangliao where we jumped onto a bus and headed straight into Kenting. We had chosen a local homestay which was pretty nice and reasonably priced. But they were grumpy and not very helpful. I would recommend staying at either the Howard Hotel or the Ok Hill Lodge rather - not very much pricier but more accessible to the main Kenting stretch so you can walk or scooter easily.

As it turns out, the weather was a blazing 35degrees C. And we'd already spent 2 days in the sun at Green Island. CY as it turns out, doesn't do very well in the heat - he's an AC guy. We scootered about for 1 day and the man wanted AC bad. So we headed for the city, Gaoshiong.

Walking down to the tip of Taiwan - Erluanbi in Kenting



Day 4 - GaoShiong City
We picked this out of the guidebook as we hadn't planned on Gaoshiong - Sanduo Hotel. Fortunately it was nice and clean and right in the heart of the city. Back to civilisation and taxis. We explored a little - the old British Consulate at Takao, on top of a hill. Front facing into the Taiwan straits and the back faces into the harbour - ah the Brits certainly knew to pick their locations. There's an old Northern gates still standing at the bottom of the Takao Hill. We visited the Love River area, viewed the tallest building 85 Sky Tower there, walked about. Very nice - very much more liveable than Taipei. Nicer, quieter, greener, breezier. Ate a very nice western meal. Checked out the nearby Holy Rosary Cathedral. Drank coffee at cafes... it was nice.

Back to Taipei
Back in Taipei, we drank coffee in cafes, visited the Grand Palace museum at leisure, ate more good food, had some excellent massages. Then CY returned home and I returned to some 300+ backlog emails.

aut Caesar aut nihil!

My attitude to life has always been aut Caesar aut nihil (latin for Caesar or nothing, ie all or nothing).

Of late, this has pissed some people off - hmmm...time to tone down.

Catholic Church Mass Times in Taipei - Sunday

Catholic Church in Taipei, Taiwan - English Masses and Mass Times

Da-An Area
Holy Family Church 新生南路二段50號 50 Hsingsheng S.Rd. Sec 2, Taipei
Tel 02-2321-2444
English Mass - 9.45am

Minsheng Area
St. John Bosco Parish 民生東路3段123號 123 Minsheng E. Rd. Sec3 Taipei
Tel 2719-6469
English Mass - 10.30am

Tienmu Area
St. Christopher's Church 中山北路三段51號51 Chungshan N. Rd ,Sec 3, Taipei
Tel 02-2594-7914
English Mass - Sat 6pm, Sun 10.30am, 12noon, 6pm

Tienmu Area
Mother of God Church 中山北路7段171號 171 Chungshan N.Rd Sec 7. Taipei
Tel 02-2871-5168
English Mass - Sat 7pm, Sun 12.15pm, 7pm

From my earlier notes when I first moved here to Taipei. For those of you searching for Catholic Churches English mass times in Taipei, I hope this helps.

I started out going to the Holy Family church - which has the largest English congregation church here in Taipei. But of late, I have found myself going to St John Bosco church instead - simple, mass is later, 10.30am :( still not a morning person.

Distance wise, it takes roughly the same cost via taxi (and hence distance) to get from where i live to either church.

Footnote - i measure all distance by taxi fare - my preferred mode of transport here in Taipei. Garin told me he travels by BMW these days - bus, mrt and walk. HA! The biggest consolation in having to give up driving is knowing crude is now $140 per barrel - ouch!

I am thinking of moving...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 off Reuters

Astronomers find three 'super-Earths'

WASHINGTON -- European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.
They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common.

"Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many?" asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory. "We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it," Mayor said in a statement.

The trio of planets orbit a star slightly less massive than our Sun, 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year at a speed of 186,000 miles (300,000 km) a second, or about 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

The planets are bigger than Earth -- one is 4.2 times the mass, one is 6.7 times and the third is 9.4 times.

They orbit their star at extremely rapid speeds -- one whizzing around in just four days, compared with Earth's 365 days, one taking 10 days and the slowest taking 20 days.
Mayor and colleagues used the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS, a telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, to find the planets.

More than 270 so-called exo-planets have been found. Most are giants, resembling Jupiter or Saturn. Smaller planets closer to the size of Earth are far more difficult to spot.
None can be imaged directly at such distances but can be spotted indirectly using radio waves or, in the case of HARPS, spectrographic measurements. As a planet orbits, it makes the star wobble very slightly and this can be measured.

"With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph ... we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass," said Stephane Udry, who also worked on the study.

hmm.. more food?

Hmm.. what did I do this weekend? I set off with lofty goals, climb this mountain behind Shilin... but then, it rained so hard. Took Vinny to this 10ft gun range (air guns shooting pallets - yeah, the same one that Garin and I had so many laughs at). The difference with Vinny - he was intense, he was being Vinny the hitman. So serious, no talking, no laughing, no breaks, just shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot, reload...

And then... did we pig out. We topped ourselves. Our lunch/tea meal cost us 1400NT (about 70SGP) per person! Whew! But Bistro le Jadin - we picked it out of the Vogue magazine I was browsing

Address :
02) 2877-1178170, ZhongCheng Rd, Sec 2 (in Tien Mu next to the baseball stadium)
Hours: 7:30 am-10:30 pm

Our verdict? Very good food, dessert so-so, ambience good, pricey... And Vincent discovered the day AFTER we ate (when it was mostly digested) that showing them a weblink, we could've copped a few glass of wine each! Dang!

On Sunday we went out to ZhongLi to race go-karting. Garin was a speed demon, I don't know what happened to the conservative father, family man I thought he was. He came in 3rd and passed me on the circuit like 3 times. I hate him. Vinny the hitman clocked very decent times. I was slow but on my 2nd race, I caught up so much that I broke the car. Literally. Cool eh? (my Canadian accent showing?)

Weekend Binges

Guess what I did this weekend? Yeah right after that little walk up Elephant Mountain? What happens on weekends when you hang out with a big foodie - literally big as well ;)

VVG Bistro 好樣
Address: 20, Alley 40, Lane 181, Zhongxiao East Road Sec. 4, Taipei (台北市忠孝東路四段181巷40弄20號)
Telephone: 02.8773.3533

It's western meals cooked with spices and herbs. So more natural tasting. But what I really like about the place is their quaint style. From decor to their serving plates - Vincent's 5 grain rice was served in a miniature Tatung brand rice cooker (very Taiwanese). And his coffee came in a bowl with a spoon - yeah the man ladled down his cappucino.

Only thing bad about this place - it's hard to find thru the backlanes. Between Zhongxiao and Shimin, just 1 lane before Shimin.

And it's pricey too. I find western food restaurants in Taipei really pricey vs Chinese cuisine.

I climbed my 1st mountain in Taiwan!

Elephant Mountain

Part of the Song shan mountain range just beyond my house. I've been wanting to walk up this trail forever, well, ever since I moved to Taiwan.

I didn't realise how we're totally surrounded by mountains very close by until last week while at Computex's private meetings at the Hyatt Hotel, I saw up from the 14 storey a bird's eye view of the 101 and surrounding area.

Glad Vincent was game to try hiking this trail.

The views of the 101 presents itself almost immediately after you start the initial ascent - which is mostly steep steps. It levels off after a while and as you continue to walk up, the air turns cooler, it gets quieter as you leave the roar of traffic behind.. until you eventually don't hear anything but birds and insects chirping.

We saw a squirrel/chipmunk (how do you identify one from the other?), played with us for a bit before it jumped into the bush.

More pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157605517070220/

So nice to retreat to nature during weekends. Keeps one sane. All your Singaporeans living in your garden city - you don't know what you have til you don't have it. Sigh.

To get to the trail head of Elephant Mountain, nearest MRT station Yongchun, exit 4. Walk towards Songshan Road. Turn right and walk to the end of Songshan Road. There'll be signs guiding you to the steps that start the trail. Another alternative is from Xinyi Road, Zhongqiang Park.

Cool concepts coming real

This is an idea I've had for the last 2 years. Where all you need for a presentation wherever u are, is a blank white wall.

Asus - a Taiwanese company pulled it off.
http://www.pclaunches.com/notebooks/asus_notebook_with_builtin_projector.php

Now if someone can do halogram projections, I'm in heaven!

I'm pretty disappointed with HP. I had hoped that the consumer NB team where I am now working with, are more cutting edge. Oh they are cutting people alright, just too busy waging war on one another instead of focusing on their jobs.

I wonder if I should explore working for a Taiwanese technology company. What they lack in marketing finesse, they make up for with an ability to pull off new ideas.

Friendship

Just what is a friend? I've been struggling with this for many years now. Then it was friends who leave you when you're down. Now it's Kuansie who promises then pulls out on you last minute or she'll nit picks and puts down all your suggestions - ie a veritable cold blanket.

Isn't friendship supposed to contain elements of support and reciprocity? Or am I misguided?

Ok, so I know the one true friend in life is Jesus, but yet, if friendship are such undependable associations why do we bother?

Yoo hoo, Francis?

It seems only like yesterday when Francis helped me buy stuff and prepare for my move to Taiwan.

11 months on, the man hasn't even visited!

Comeon, buy a ticket already!

Weight - a serious problem and growing...

Eating my way thru Taipei, Vincent found this restaurant called Chef Showtime. Yes yes, I know the perchant for stupid sounding names in Taiwan often creates false impressions (bad ones)...

But this time, Vincent picked a winner. I knew it was going to be good when the waitress (I suspect the owner herself) suggested we picked 3 appetizers and they can make a combo out of it, so we gain variety.

The appetizers were to die for.

The main meals were pretty awesome too.

Make an appointment, the restaurant really closes at 9.30pm.

Chef Show Time
台北市敦化南路二段81巷20號
Tel - 02-2702-5277、2702-5276
http://chefshowtime.myweb.hinet.net/