Taipei Taiwan - The beginning of another weekend.

21 January 2011 – Taipei Taiwan

Left Shanghai early this afternoon, and headed to Taipei Taiwan.  Upon arriving I was glad to see that my luggage streak hadn’t been broken yet.  You see, each time I’ve arrived in a new city, and have gone to retrieve my luggage, I am inevitably close to being the last man standing waiting for my bags.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I was incapable of leaving Chicago for a 3.5 week trip to Asia with less than two pieces of checked luggage.  In total, I’m traveling with 4 bags.  One large suitcase, one good size gym/duffel bag, my laptop backpack, and a smallish camera bag where I’m carrying my Nikon and the Flip Video camera I brought with me.  So, I have to check bags, which means I have to retrieve bags, and for some reason, all of the airlines I’ve flown on so far feel compelled to hold my luggage until everyone else gets theirs.

My current accommodations in Taipei are probably the oldest hotel I’ve stayed in so far.  The furniture looks like something that came out of the 60s, and there’s even a full size deep TV in the sleeping area.  The sitting area of the room does have a flat screen on the wall, but even that looks first generation.  I’m really not complaining. The room is clean, there doesn’t seem to be anything foreign crawling along the baseboards, and the bed looks comfortable.  What else can a guy ask for?

So… My host and IT Colleague in Shanghai, Brant Li, was kind enough to take time last night away from his family, and took me out to dinner, and some night time sightseeing.  It’s important to note that in Shanghai last night, the temp was just below freezing.  I of course didn’t pack clothes for freezing weather, since I was under the impression that the coldest temps I would see might be in the low 40s. (Silly me)  But I digress… So Brant took me to an area that was the location of an old Tao Temple.  The entire area around that looked like it came out of the movie, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”.  The architecture was absolutely beautiful.

After looking around the temple area, Brant and I had dinner together.  He took me to a restaurant in the same area as the temple, and made a point of ordering food that was very Shanghai centric.  Brant had met me, and accompanied me since I arrived in Guangzhou from Hong Kong.  We had been going to lunch and dinner together for a couple of days, and were always with other folks from different regions. Consequently we ordered various regional type foods. This was Brant’s opportunity to educate me in Shanghai culture, architecture, and cuisine.  All are extremely interesting, and as to the food, very good.   

After dinner, we walked over the river front to an area of town called The Bund.   

Words can’t do justice to the grandeur of the night time view of The Bund.  The buildings are all strategically lit up to make them all look spectacular.  Of course, me being me, I took lots of pictures and you can view them here. (Warning; this is an accumulation of my entire trip, so it starts with pictures from Hong Kong, and works its way to Shanghai.  If you just want to see the Shanghai photos, I would suggest viewing the gallery from the end and move backwards.)

I am now trying to prepare to start a weekend in Taipei.  Not sure yet what I’m going to go see, but according to a pamphlet I picked up at the front desk, there is apparently plenty to go see.  I’ll report after the weekend, and tell you folks what I wound up seeing.

Namaste…

Chicken Feet and Other Delicacies...

So, it's 5:30 in the morning, and I've been trying to force myself to sleep since about 2:30 this morning.  My alarm is set for 6:00, but for some reason (jet lag) I can't seem to stay asleep that long.

Yesterday was Day One in the office for me, and while I was pretty apprehensive about it going into the day, by the end of the day most of my fears were put aside, and I finished the day feeling pretty good about the whole experience. 

My fellow IT Associates were positively gracious and generous with their time, and patience.  (Being the non-Chinese speaking visitor, I had plenty of questions.)  By the end of the day, I came away with some new found respect for my Asian colleagues.

All of the people in the office make it to work by around 9:00 AM.  Since Hong Kong is so very crowded, public transportation is the primary means of getting around.  There's a very substantial Shuttle Bus service that seems to transport people around at the right time to all the right places.  I had a Shuttle Bus from my hotel to the office I'm working in.  There's a Shuttle Bus that comes around at lunch to take people to the nearby shopping area where eating establishments are plentiful.  And then at the end of the day, starting at 5:00 PM, there's a shuttle bus that takes you from the office to the Sha Tin train station which is just block or so from my hotel.  It's interesting to note that the evening shuttle runs from 5 till 8 PM, and most of the IT folks wind up working till around 7, and sometimes even later.

So, for lunch, my colleagues took me to a very local eating establishment where English was not even a choice.  Menus were in Chinese, and there weren't any pictures to make my choices from, so I relied solely on my colleagues to order our food.  We had a Dim Sum lunch, which is not unlike ordering Tapas from a Spanish Restaurant.  Small plates of food, and lots of them, give the diner plenty of options to choose from.  There were lots of steamed, meat and vegetable filled dumplings that were all quite tasty.  Along with that we had the Chinese version of sticky rice (not my favorite), and a couple of different soft, fluffy, dough filled items that were really good.  One was filled with meat and veggies, while another was reminiscent of an egg.  White fluffy dough outside, with a bright yellow liquid center that was absolutely marvelous tasting. It was sweet, and most likely a desert type dish.  The highlight of the meal, (to the unsuspecting American guy) was the barbecued chicken feet.  It was obvious to me that this was going to be the good natured entertainment for the afternoon, so I obliged by giving the feet dish a taste.

While I found the chicken feet to be tasty, I also found it to be extremely fatty.  Under the skin of the feet, there's a layer of fat, that surrounds the bone and knuckle type parts. This fatty part is what wound up not sitting well with me.  Although the effects weren't immediate, but rather more of a time bomb effect.   I spent last night in my room, passing on dinner, and sort of regretting my culinary bravado.

So, it's off to day two of work... I'm looking forward to it.