Taipei101

I have had my computer back for 3 days and no posts, sorry. I will put a post up every day, hopefully with new pictures. As a start, here is Taipei 101. It may not be the tallest building in the world now, but it was recently. To me it is the best looking tall building that I have been too. It has got style. I am sure we will go back to it again this weekend, but it will not be as good of weather.

River Bar Taiwan

The ex-pat bar for Jhongli is River Bar. Ok, so there are probably several, but this is "ours". You can look it up on the web. One of our co-workers last night was tonight so we went there. Kim, the owner and boss of employees and customers greeted us by name as we walked in the door. When Daryl told her it was his last day she poured two shots of Tequila. One for her and one for him. So, naturally, I told her it was my last day too. She said, "No, you have two weeks left". Impressive.

Service employees are like that here. At the hotel I ordered a taxi but, I forgot to order a non-smoking taxi. I called down a few minutes later to try to correct it and they said they had already ordered it non-smoking. I could go on with several examples of excellent customer service.

At work, I often ask that something be done a certain way. If I do not repeat it it does not happen correctly.

So why in one situation are the Taiwanese mind readers and in another the language barrier seems impossible?

I love my computer

I love my computer. Well not really, but I hate being without it. Sorry for no updates, but my computer caught a nasty virus and I had to put it in the shop for 5 days. Hopefully now I can get back to blogging....

Taiwan is very interesting. Where I am is not a big city, but not a small city. Taipei 101 is awesome. Wait for the pictures. The food around here is good. I did go to a night market and ate fried milk and grilled squid. Oh, there are lots of things I need to capture.

I hope to meet up with a friend from Dallas who is staying about 30 miles from here. Unfortunately, without a computer it will be last minute now.

Well, I really should be going to bed. Bye.

Murphy's Law

I was at work for one day when I suggested I use my laptop to transfer a file. Norton found a virus on the USB stick. Two hours later I was unable to use my computer. I have been without a computer for several days. I get mine back in two days, but now I have a loaner.

Today is my first trip to Taipei. A Taiwanese coworker is showing us around. We are about an hour's drive from Taipei.

I should be able to make a blog post tonight. So look for it in the morning.

Taiwan day 1

Observations for the day.

85C is great. It is a Starbucks but cheaper.
The work site is out of the city by Chinese standards. Still pretty built up.
I like the mountains in the background.
Weather is pretty nice, but humid. Could of sat outside all night at the work site. I needed a shower after walking around town.
Betelnut girls are interesting. A scantily clad girl selling sodas etc. Probably best seen from a moving car. Beatiful from afar... This would not happen in Malaysia.
Food looks to be promising. Breakfast will be Hotel. Lunch will be at worksite. Dinner will be out and about. There seems to be a huge number of good possible restaurants.
So, far Taxis are nicer than my car unlike Malaysia.

The desert Counter at 85C. Starbucks, but cheaper.

Teppanyaki is now a favorite on my GPS so that I can find it again. Very good, cheap and entertaining.

Small town Taiwan. The buildings are not as tall.

Kid Pix Before I left

Before I get into Taiwan, here are pictures of my wife and kiddos before I left.

Japan!

I am currently in Japan. I wish I could say it was really cool, but it is an airport. I am only here a few hours before continuing to Taiwan.
I watched 95% of Terminator Salvation before they decided to reboot the video system. I also caught The Hangover and Yes Man. That is more movies than I have seen in a while. I caught a couple hours of sleep too.
Sorry, can't think of anything terribly witty. As a matter of fact, I can't really think.

OK. Update.
I could have gone to an airport lounge, but it would have cost me money. By the time I checked out all the stores and had a beer it did not make sense. Here is my synopsis.
It was odd checking out the Japanese magazines. I kept trying to put them back backwards since the binding is on the right side.
I dont understand why all these people are up at 3AM. And why is it still light outside?
The Japanese style is all over the map. One couple is seriously trendy. The next is over the top geek.
All the white people have an Australian accent. G'day mate.

Google Maps Rocks

My favorite software application since Picasa and iTunes is Google Maps. It can be used on the computer, but it really shines on a GPS enabled phone like my crackberry.
1) It has a "by public transit" option which helped me find a two bus line options that I did not know about that can get me to the light rail. I had really tried to find these on the DART website, but they did not come up. Google knows DART better than DART.
2) I regularly use it for local traffic. Once I was late leaving for a ballet recital on the other side of town. Traffic was worse than expected. I let Google set my route. It lead me through a neighborhood on back streets that got me to the school on time. I would never have guessed that route. Thanks Google.
3) Just today I had a random half day of errands. I worked out then thought "I need to wash my car". Searched Google Maps and found a highly reviewed carwash near by. From there, I got a hair cut same way. Then I found a burger joint for lunch the same way. The burger place was near work, very good and I had never heard of it. Wow! This is great stuff.