You have to say we have the luck of a Suicide Bomber with a faulty trigger. All we've heard about since landing is that the Typhoon which raged between midnight (while I went out for a rather wet walk) and around six o'clock this morning, was going to dump about a metre of water on the city. If it did as the news broadcasts are telling us … Brisbane needs to learn a thing or two about drainage. Other than wet roads and the occasional gail force wind, all the drains are flowing well and there’s barely a puddle to be seen on their roads between the myriad of scooters.
Due to the fact that we had 150klm/hr winds and there was just a little rain about, we had a slow start to the day in our room, getting the BLOG set-up and attending to photo filing systems before heading out to one of the only shopping centres that was still open on Saturday. Unfortunately, neither Dad, nor I was really interested in purchasing a new handbag or pair of stilettos’ so after some serious communicating with some of the cutest help desk girls in Taipei, we found a delightful young lady who pointed out that there was another shopping centre just across the road and it was open too.
I decided to tuck myself under Dad’s Poncho (Keep it clean) for what seemed like the crossing of the Jordan River and subsequently managed to grab an extra shower on the journey across the street. I wasn’t planning on doing this fully clothed, but hey … I never knock back an opportunity to freshen up before going shopping. We are both SO GLAD we bought those AWESOME WATERPROOF “Timberland” Hiking boots. That was a good call and we can’t recommend them highly enough. These “Timberland” boots are more comfortable than any sneaker I’ve ever worn and allowed us to have one dry body part … our feet. My jeans and shirt were absolutely soaked, crossing the street.
This next shopping centre was more like the Aspley Hypermarket with everything from Mobile Phones and Ladies Underwear, (No I didn’t buy any) to wait for it … a lovely bottle of Johnnie Walker Green Label for about AUD$34.00! Nothing new or latest technology here though. For a mid afternoon lunch, we decided to try a local bowl of noodles and managed to find a Taiwan Chef by the name of Steven, without Taiwan citizenship, because he was born in L.A. Needless to say, he spoke like a yank which made communicating far more pleasant than trying to pass the 5Kg’s of food they fed us on the flight here.
Due to the fact that we had 150klm/hr winds and there was just a little rain about, we had a slow start to the day in our room, getting the BLOG set-up and attending to photo filing systems before heading out to one of the only shopping centres that was still open on Saturday. Unfortunately, neither Dad, nor I was really interested in purchasing a new handbag or pair of stilettos’ so after some serious communicating with some of the cutest help desk girls in Taipei, we found a delightful young lady who pointed out that there was another shopping centre just across the road and it was open too.
I decided to tuck myself under Dad’s Poncho (Keep it clean) for what seemed like the crossing of the Jordan River and subsequently managed to grab an extra shower on the journey across the street. I wasn’t planning on doing this fully clothed, but hey … I never knock back an opportunity to freshen up before going shopping. We are both SO GLAD we bought those AWESOME WATERPROOF “Timberland” Hiking boots. That was a good call and we can’t recommend them highly enough. These “Timberland” boots are more comfortable than any sneaker I’ve ever worn and allowed us to have one dry body part … our feet. My jeans and shirt were absolutely soaked, crossing the street.
This next shopping centre was more like the Aspley Hypermarket with everything from Mobile Phones and Ladies Underwear, (No I didn’t buy any) to wait for it … a lovely bottle of Johnnie Walker Green Label for about AUD$34.00! Nothing new or latest technology here though. For a mid afternoon lunch, we decided to try a local bowl of noodles and managed to find a Taiwan Chef by the name of Steven, without Taiwan citizenship, because he was born in L.A. Needless to say, he spoke like a yank which made communicating far more pleasant than trying to pass the 5Kg’s of food they fed us on the flight here.
He wrote down an address of a street where the Uni Students buy their gear which turned out to be a gem for purchasing the additional couple of Laptop Hard Drives we wanted. We bought a couple of Transcend 320Gb USB Drives for AUD$124.00ea … not bad for a brand name even I recognise. They had about 40 shops jammed next to each other full of laptops and every kind of computer part you can think of. Did I mention this is the place to buy laptops? There must have been literally thousands on display in this one street.Back to the hotel with Peter Brock the Taiwanese Race Car … I mean Taxi Driver, we relaxed in the room and ordered a “Chicken Cordon Blue Sandwich” from room service. It didn’t look BLUE to me but hey … it tasted great and who am I to get picky on colours anyway? Dad crashed and I went out for a walk “Smoke” and after trying five convenience stores, finally managed to find Dad a can of Deodorant. What, don’t Taiwanese people stink or sweat in 30+ temperatures and high humidity?
After a great night’s sleep on a nice firm bed … no really … it was, we had yet another 5kg breakfast in the hotel and wandered outside to snap a couple of locals riding on some of the forty million scooters that seem to be transporting entire families and in some cases, the contents of their home, business and next door neighbour’s furniture on the back of these tiny buzz boxes.
Apparently, the later flights like ours at 11:40pm to Vancouver are running on schedule, so at least for now, it looks like we’ll be leaving Taipei for Vancouver as planned on Sunday night.MORE PHOTOS ADDED TODAY
If you would like to see some more photo's of what we've seen so far, please visit our PICASA Web Albums page!
Go To: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/styleid/Safari2008Album01#
Keep smiling ...
Typhoon Darren & Keith Gardiner
Thanks for photographing the JWG and JWB ~ AND the exchange rate! ... blown away as ever by your attention to details ... but not always for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteLove the preliminary 'nature shots' ... and the flora and fauna stills ain't half bad either ... ; )
GuesswhoMatt