We’ve had a very uneventful week here in Taipei, Cass and I both feel a little jaded after our recent exertions and have mark timed through to the weekend, where we also had a very, very relaxed time. Our big adventure was to finally get out to the coast again after about 3 weeks of poor weather, being too busy or having no surf.

Cassy wound up her annual stint on the middle school play last weekend and as usual, it was a production bigger than Ben Hur, the “stars” receiving floral tributes bigger than themselves and everyone in a massive frenzy of self-congratulation. It is a great triumph each year and some of the performances wrought from shy and self conscious little 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are nothing short of unbelievable, but I do wonder why they have to be sooo “over the top”….must be the American influence methinks! Anyway, Cassy was most pleased with her crew of makeup girls and she had glowing reports (what else?!), so all’s well in the world of make-believe. She was able to relax a little this weekend instead of rushing off to nightly performances and matinees.

I suffered my first real bout of jet lag this week. Even though I did exactly what you’re supposed to do, and adjusted back to my current time zone and sleep patterns, I was unable to shake it. I had the day off on Thursday and sleep all night and right through until 1.30 in the afternoon! We’ve managed to avoid this common problem on any of our other trips across time zones, but not this time: I hope it’s not a sign of age! This phenomenon has very much disrupted my week, plus the enormous backlog of work I had to deal with after a week away. Dealing with emails and meetings with parents took an inordinate amount of time this week and I didn’t seem to have the time or the energy to do the 2 things I wanted to do: exercise and study Mandarin. I’ve made a vow to begin afresh tomorrow for the start of a new working week.

We enjoyed a glorious day out on the coast today and went over to the beach at about 7.30am. Carl was on his way independently and we met up at the Rocket after he reported that the break in town at Jinshan was too small. The Rocket was far too full so we went back down to one of our old favorites, the “cliff”, nestled right next to the outlet from the nuclear power plant (the water’s always warm and comfortable!!). Cass perched under a “pointy hat” high on the cliff and read her book, surveyed the scene, and took a few photos and videos of the vague attempts at surfing in the water. For a view through her lens, check pointyhat here. Carl and I managed a couple of hours in the water and I even managed to sit through most of the football this afternoon without nodding off!

I’ve included some more Aberdeen shots today: beautiful streets and parks, subtle business signage in the main street and some banners of local tribute bands. I even managed to take one shot at a plenary session at the conference: very boring, just to prove I did, indeed, attend! Right at the top however, something purely and peculiarly Taiwanese: Cassy received this as a free gift at the supermarket and yes, it is designed to give you a bigger and more prominent nose…strangely enough, I promise I won’t be trying it!!

A sparkling day of bright sunshine yet frigid temperature greeted me as I stepped off the plane onto the tarmac at Aberdeen airport, 22 hours after Daniel had whisked me away from the warm climes and familiar setting of our home in Taipei. The taxi drove me past fields of verdant green with languid, black faced sheep snug in their wooly jackets and I noticed for the first time the rows and rows, streets and streets of brilliant silver granite houses and buildings as we made our way into the city. "The Silver City" and "Granite City" tags that I'd read about now struck me up close and personal and continue to amaze me as I enter my 5th day in this beautiful Scottish city.

I'm attending the IATEFL conference in Aberdeen as a little bonus in my role coordinating ESL at the school. Previously I've resisted the urge to go anywhere and have encouraged others in my department to travel in previous years, much to their delight. I decided that it was about time that I familiarized myself with the latest and greatest in English language instruction and the changing trends and paradigms that are such a part of the teacher's life (that sounds good doesn't it?!) I was also keen to gain a European and UK perspective, as the American school seems intent in just focusing on that side of the world on the far reaches of the Atlantic. I've been pleasantly surprised at how stimulating I've found some of the talks and practical sessions I've been to although some have been fairly apalling as well. I was also pleased to discover that the model of instruction we helped to pioneer at our school is still very much in its infancy here. In fact, I went to a workshop entitled "Immersion: a new and magical approach", where all the benefits of immersion and our peculiar model of "sheltered immersion", were greeted with wide eyed amazement by many of the delegates. If only I could get motivated: I'm sure the great Gurecki and I could rock their socks off over here. Anyway, enough with the teacher talk: there have been a number of other distractions!

The Atholl Hotel, not surprisingly, is a granite building of great beauty, a former very large house now divided into 40 hotel rooms of excellent quality. One big attraction is the free broadband in every room and the school laptop I brought with me has done sterling service, allowing me to make posts on Pointyhat, check the news in Taiwan and Australia and most importantly, keep up a continuing and very verbose dialogue with my darling back in Taipei! Being away for a week, especially in a foreign country and away from anyone you know is certainly an experience I hope not to replicate too often; as Cass and I have both noted this week, we have a renewed respect and insight into the lives of our single colleagues...not the best of lives, especially when you're not used to it! The hotel has lots of other features, not the least of which is an excellent restaurant which supplies me with a pre-paid sumptuous brekky each morning. I've had my fill of sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast, Scottish tatties (kind of like pizza bread) and the infamous black pudding! I've wolfed down loads of Scottish roast beef and gravy for dinners and even tasted the equally infamous haggis the other night preceded by a very strange ceremony to honour its presentation. In fact, the breakfasts have been so large that I have only eaten 2 meals a day, but I can feel my spare tyre round the middle expanding with every meal regardless.

I have tried to offset this feeding frenzy with at least one walk to town each day and return. The walk takes about 40 minutes and the words "bracing" and "hypothermia" do spring to mind at regular intervals! The city is superbly manicured and the individual houses are works of art, so I've enjoyed the walks immensely. It has been a real treat to walk the pristine streets, down suburban roads which feature endless rows of granite houses and impeccably tended gardens and lawns. The trees and flowers are reminiscent of Japan: the cold climes encouraging fields of daffodils and streets draped with blossoming trees of white and cherry coloured flowers.

A 50 minute coach ride away are Drum and Crathes castles, both excellent examples of 16th century castles maintained to this day in nearly original condition. I caught a bus out on Saturday afternoon. It took about an hour to get there (they’re about 5km away from each other), and we were ushered out of the lesser castle, Drum, after only 15 minutes as they were closing! We had a much better tour of Crathes, a castle built in 1550 by the Burnett family. Steeped in history and with some fascinating highlights, including exquisite hand painted vaulted ceilings and beams surviving from that time, I was most intrigued by the boar’s tusk hollowed into a horn that hung above the fire in the main room. It was given to the Burnett clan in appreciation for their help by Robert the Bruce in 1300!! It was awe inspiring to wend our way through 4 floors of rooms with trick stairs, tiny slit windows and trapdoors and 7 foot thick walls all to fight off the enemy. The family actually lived in the castle right up till the mid 1950s when it was given to the National Trust. The grounds and gardens were also a credit to the maintenance crew in charge. On the way to and fro, I got a bit more of a taste of the Scottish countryside. Interlocking snakes of wee stone criss-crossed the fields of the bonnie hills of Deeside laddie (sorry, got a little carried away!) and the outer lying areas of the city were a little closer to the scenes described in Rankin novels of the poorer suburban areas of Scottish towns. In a way, it was refreshing to realize that not everyone lived in a million dollar granite showpiece!

After 22 grueling hours and missing more than ½ a day with time zone differences, I stumbled in at about 9pm Monday, Taipei time. Cass has had such a busy time with the play this weekend as well, that we’re both a bit exhausted…off to bed, may write more on reflection next week. Photos: The Atholl, granite masterpieces, nice pub and food and Crathes castle.

Chris and Val departed on Saturday morning, but not before they enjoyed a different taste of Taipei Life. As reported last week, they were able to compare and contrast much more accurately than us how the city has evolved and changed over the years. We did our east coast trip in glorious sunshine on Wednesday before Chris and Val took themselves up to Danshui for the day on Thursday. They were given a mini school tour on Friday by Cassy and ended up getting some takeaway Indian for a quiet night in before their early departure, courtesy of Daniel.

The east coast trip just worked out really well. The weather took a definite turn for the better and we were able to have a decadently late breakfast (for a school day!) before getting organized to head off. In fact, the whole day felt deliciously naughty, almost like wagging school: it really is an amazing thing to be given two “personal” days by your employers, where, guilt free, you can have a working day to yourself. The eastern then southern then eastern (again) expressways were fully utilized, this time going back the other way through the incredible system of tunnels that we’d traveled through previously. It was very easy to get out in double quick time. When we got to Toucheng, there was a possibility of a ferry ride to Turtle Island, but we declined, partly because it would take too much time and partly because for two old seas dogs like Chris and Val, it would be a bit like “Ye Olde Worlde Piss Weak World”!
We wandered over to the large produce market and sampled all sorts of weird and wonderful foods, virtually having the place to ourselves at that time on a weekday. It was a great experience for all of us: Cass and I would often give this sort of place a miss, dismissing it as touristy, but you do miss out on some great experiences doing that all the time I think.

We traveled further up the coast, stopping in at Wushi Harbour and the “Taj Mahal”, two surfing breaks of note (although not in that day’s onshore breeze) before heading further along to Dashi, the most famous of the spots. We had a brief stop there at a temple at Dog Bay, the scene of Ross and my infamous riding of some massive left handers pulling out just before the rock wall some years ago. It was all calm on the day, however, so much so that we disturbed a few scuba divers going about their business.

Further along a spectacular coast of “tofu” striated and angled granite, we came to a delightful little car park and set of trails. We went for a brief walk along the coast, but noted the kms of trails to explore another day: really quite majestic scenes were available to us from various vantage points. We thought we’d brave the adjoining fish and produce market for a bight to eat and amazingly, I was again able to make myself understood to order some prawns and sweet potato and something to drink. I even cracked my first joke in Chinese…I won’t elaborate, it was pretty weak, but cracked a couple of the old girls up!

After more sights, we pulled into another vantage point and had a beautiful cup of coffee overlooking the coast. For a few moments there, it almost felt like home: I never thought I’d say it but Formosa does indeed live up to its name of “beautiful Island” every now and then. Nearly at the tip of the coast, we called in at the Sandiao lighthouse, before stopping in briefly at Fulong, the site of Cassy’s annual camp with the eighth graders. Our last stop before we got back on an expressway for home was at the strangely shaped sandstone rock formations at Longdong and Little Yeliou, notable for the rocks, of course, but also the mountains searing towards the sky from a standing start roadside: it really is quite spectacular.

Cass and I have felt a little strange today and yesterday as we are back in our room, the girls are re-adjusting back to their room and we’re without our house companions and Cass misses her “kitchen slave”! Photos are all of the east coast trip…I’m sure you’ll be able to match the photos with the descriptions of same in this blurb.

I’m just a little frantic at the moment…I’m off to Aberdeen, Scotland on Tuesday afternoon!!!

Just a day after our return from Bangkok and all the amazing sights and sounds of that megalopolis, we turned our thoughts to another huge Asian city, our home of nearly 6 years, Taipei. The reason for this introspection was the arrival of Cassy’s parents, Chris and Val, who had just finished a two week tour of Cambodia and Vietnam and were visiting us on the end of this trip. This was to be their third visit, and we honestly wondered whether the wonders of Taipei would be evident to them this time around.

The irony is that on their last visit four years ago, they were more enamoured of the place than we were. We were a little down on the place, mainly because the very Chinese essence of the place had lost its initial luster and the lack of facilities and conveniences we were used to had started to wear us down. Four years later, Taipei has changed incredibly. Chris and Val’s arrival has really brought this home to us and a little introspection saw that the progress of the city has been one of great stealth when you live and work here. Regular readers of this blog will know that we regularly seek out, and find, different and excellent restaurants, but there is more to it than that. We now have a dedicated TV cable channel, the Australia Network, delivering shows from home to us along with ABC news. The inception of super high speed internet means that we can torrent any other audio or video material usually overnight, and we regularly stream live video (like Surfest from Merewether beach) and radio (the football talk) as well as access 24 hour delayed rugby league broadcasts.

Taipei has really come of age in the last 5 years. It has continued to strive, through lots of government campaigns to clean itself up and has succeeded, it has the very best of the world’s leading stores and leads the world in terms of access to the latest and greatest computer and audio/visual equipment. The new centre of Hsinyi is built around Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building and the vibe and energy surrounding this district is palpable every time we visit. Chris and Val have noticed the changes too: they have been surprised at the massive range of products and services available to us and are in awe of the sleek and modern transport system.

We certainly haven’t enjoyed the best weather for their visit, however! The soaking, relentless Taipei rain has been with us for a few days and looks like staying well into next week at the very least. They have been very adventurous this week as we have been back at school and set out to Takashimaya and done some shopping and picked up all sorts of bits and pieces along the way. Chris got me some oil additive at the Carrefour as he recognized the packet (all Chinese!) that he has seen at home after I was lamenting the smoke pouring from the poor old “Auburgino”, our rather dated Corona. Chris and I went down to the computer market in Bade St. just and hour or two ago and found another example of the amazing service available to us here. He ordered a part for the computer he got here last time: nothing was too much trouble and the man spoke great English.

We’ve done lots of stuff with them and thoroughly enjoyed the experience ourselves: especially our first trip to the traditional pottery village at Yingge. I think we were all expecting something fairly rustic, but the quality of the shops and the wares was just outstanding. Val got some beautiful plates to take home and I got the opportunity to use a little bit of my rudimentary Chinese. Speaking of which, our visitors have been witness to what might be a watershed in my Chinese language learning. It was the first time that I have “used it in anger” so to speak, and I have been amazed with the results…even though I can barely understand what I am trying to say, people are responding very positively, so I think I’ll persevere for a while yet!.

We’ve got the day off tomorrow (a personal day that Cass and I have requested) and we had great plans to travel to the east coast. The incessant rain might ruin those plans, but we’ll wait and see. Apologies to the couple of people actually reading this blog regularly, it is a couple of days late; due to me being otherwise engaged. Photos: train fun, pottery shops and shopping, 101 district.

Bangkok is like most other Asian cities, in that it possesses an immense population with accompanying people and traffic congestion, pollution and that sad dichotomy between rich and poor, that is always overemphasized to the extreme: the rich are wealthy beyond dreams and the poorest are desperately so. We’ve just returned from 4 days in Bangkok, where we attended the massive regional conference for East Asian international schools, held in an Asian city once every year at spring break time and got just a taste of what this gargantuan, throbbing heart of Thailand had to offer.

When we complain about the wall of heat that heats us when we get back from Australia to Taipei, it is a physical assault till we get used to it again. In Bangkok, it’s more like assault and battery, the intensity and weight of it almost takes your breath away. The heat is magnified of course by the press of humanity and the cloying, heavy pall that sits over the city day and night from vehicle engines running hard to battle the heat, air conditioners running flat out and non-stop in cars, buses and hotels and houses.

We employed a driver to take us to the north west of the city for a full day trip that we had planned and that day, even away from the city, Cassy said was the hottest outdoor temperature she had ever experienced. The official temperature was over 40, but in the dusty canyon in which we found ourselves, with no cover from the sun, it must have been 45+. But, more about this canyon later. We visited the famous Bridge over the River Kwai, obviously not the same one that was famously blown up by Allied troops and immortalized on film, but one built to replace it. We were fascinated to see that trains still go over this bridge and we had to utilize one of the platforms built jutting from the bridge to avoid one as we walked across: we thought they just viewing platforms! The nearby cemetery was a shocking and sobering reminder of the toll taken on the prisoners-of-war by the Japanese in building this supply link railway. Tens of thousands of dead are here, all nationalities, citizens outnumbering the soldiers. We spent some moments in silent acknowledgement of these amazing men: we could barely stand in the sun for 10 minutes, let alone work for months in this heat with little food, water etc.

Our next stop was an elephant park, which we were a little reticent about, seeing it as exploitative of these fine animals. To our delight, the elephants appear to be thriving and have a trusting relationship with their handlers, so we agreed to ride on one through the jungle: Cassy was unaware that part of this trip saw the elephant wade through a surging river and then go up (then later, back down!) a near vertical embankment with us and it’s handler on board…it was pretty special! After 40 minutes, our trek complete, we had a tiny insight into conditions for villagers near the river. They still live in traditional housing, raised up from the ground with thatched roofs and no running water, but everyone seemed happy, healthy and very much at peace with the world…we hope that really is the case.

Our final destination was the main purpose of the day out and one that I had planned to keep secret from Cassy, but couldn’t find a way to do it. Some years ago, on a trip back home I had seen a snippet on a travel show about the “Tiger Temple” at Kanchanaburi. I told myself to memorize the name and when I got a chance to take Cassy to Thailand, to dredge up the name and try to organize a trip there. The huge attraction is a tiger population that has been hand reared by the monks here. 8 years ago, they were given a tiger cub, whose mother had been killed by poachers. Not knowing anything about tigers, but determined to save the tiny cub, they found out as much information as they could. The cub flourished for a while, but then died from an infection. Undeterred, they perfected their techniques on a succession of similarly orphaned tiger cubs that were given to them. They now have 18, and are raising money to build a sanctuary on an island in the nearby river to better replicate natural conditions. For this they need money, so tourists are invited in. We paid an entry fee and were allowed to join the tigers in their “exercise canyon”. We were led, one by one, by the hand, to have our photo taken with various tigers sunning themselves in the blazing heat. The helpers at the temple took the photos with our camera. For a special fee, you could have a special photo: the tiger was arranged so that you could cuddle its head for a few minutes. I encouraged Cassy to do this and you can see a couple of the photos above. We were encouraged to pat the tigers and you could feel the raw power of their muscles and the sheer size and power of the animal up close is mind blowing. Their fur is surprisingly fine and soft and obviously, so beautiful in their markings. Cassy had to buy and wear some “over-pants” to go over her red pants: apparently one of the tigers goes a little mental at the sight of red, pink or orange, but I thought to myself later, aren’t tigers orange? Must be just on humans! This was a very special day, and I think particularly so for Cassy: everyone knows her love for cats, so this was just the ultimate: we’re still incredulous now….we patted real wild full grown tigers?!

Chattachuk weekend markets are at the end of the BTS train line in one direction out of the city and are megalithic. Everyone who spoke to us about them used near reverential speech in describing the size: “bigger than anything you’ve seen, or could imagine”, “you could shop for a week and not see the end of it”, “don’t get frustrated…its very busy and huge”. They were all right, and we had also been warned to avoid afternoons and evenings as they were even worse. The morning was bad enough! We walked so far I got sore legs and I estimate that we saw only about 5% of the whole place. It was one of the most incredible retail experiences I have ever had and Cassy was totally overwhelmed by it too. This place is made for some hard core shopping bargain hunters: it had just about any product you could name, at crazy low prices and still with bargaining to get a little more out of the stallholder. If any of my sisters are reading this, take note and book your tickets!

The market streets in and around the Nana area were accessed via Bangkok’s new artery, the Sky Train. Much like the MRT in Taipei or the metros in other huge cities we’ve visited like Tokyo and Paris, the train has enabled people to escape the gridlock at street level. Restaurants were thick on the ground and by the last night we had eaten so many green curries trying to savour our Thai experience, that we had to have something different, which we did in fine dining Italian style. Afterwards, we wandered the street markets and bought a few little trinkets, items of clothing etc and even briefly checked out the electric atmosphere at the Nana bar and nightclub area. This spot seems to have taken over a little from Pat Phong Rd as the number one destination for the night traveler and it certainly was cooking on a Saturday night.
A quick trip, but it felt much longer, and I haven’t said a word about the conference! We’re both very tired today and Cass is a little sick, so we’re hoping she feels better soon, partly because her parents are due in tomorrow night. Photos: Cass and Dave with tigers, on an elephant, the River Kwai bridge.