Travel

We’re five or so hours into our flight, five or so hours to go. We took off at about 11:00PM local time and it was easy to get to sleep on the flight after dinner. For some reason, no matter how tired I am, no matter how closely the flight’s “sleep time” matches my body … Read more

Beef Noodle Soup… it seems like such a simple dish and yet somehow it takes on almost mystic proportions. It bears a superficial resemblance to Japanese ramen soup but really seems to be wholly Chinese. It’s not quite pot roast soup with noodles, but then again, it is. On our last trip we just missed … Read more

It’s been terribly hot in the mornings the last few days. “Sweltering” would be a more accurate word. (One of the Taiwan blogs I regularly read, The View from Taiwan, summed it up beautifully: That rain last week induced seasonal affective disorder. Glad its gone and we are now in the sit-in-the-house-and-sweat season. Ah, but … Read more

It’s our last full day in Taiwan and Irene and the kids are visiting with friends. I took the opportunity to go walking and catching up on writing blog posts, which are now dangerously backed up. First order of business was a trip to MOS Burger for lunch. Ordering went smoothly and I was quite … Read more

So, as part of my Sisyphean task to photograph every Costco in the world, I needed to get to the third Costco in Taipei and the fourth and last remaining Costco for me to photograph in Taiwan. The problem, as explained in my original post, Costco – The Plan, was that none of the Costcos … Read more

Still catching up half-written posts from Taiwan With time running out, we had to make a trip to Sogo department store. Grandma had purchased some Disney clothes for Michelle and James, but Michelle’s size skirt wasn’t in stock and had to be sent it. This was the day we had to pick it up. At … Read more

Since my last visit to Taiwan a sad, sad thing happened… the tore down the under-bridge computer market on Xinsheng Rd. It was such a cool place. Dozens of rabbit-warren like shops selling computer components, MP3 players, cameras, cable bits, videos, books and Japanese pornography. It’s the only place I’ve ever been where you can … Read more

I mentioned we went to Ilan, which is much more country-like than Taipei. Apparently, they grow food there. The green onion used in the Cong You Bing I tend to go on about only comes from Ilan, because it’s special. They also sell other vegetable matter and, whenever we’ve passed through Ilan in the past, … Read more

Get out your map of Taiwan and you’ll see one of the principal hard realities of the island: It’s really rough terrain. We once went to Taipingshan, which is near the city of Ilan. I took a GPS reading and was shocked to discover were were only about 50 miles from “home” in Taipei, and … Read more

Of course, we have no fireworks back home. One firecracker could set the entire state into one huge fireball. This general prohibition cuts both ways. Because of lack of exposure, I neither have much fascination for fireworks but at the same time they are enough of a rarity that it’s somewhat of a treat when … Read more