MORE FROM HSINCHU, TAIWAN

 

 One night Steve and I went out to dinner with the Formica people from the plant in Hsinchu.  Jimmy Liu is the plant manager.  He's the one talking in the middle.  Jimmy is a good friend of mine.  I first met him in China back in August when I first moved to Thailand.  He is super friendly.  Then he came to a meeting in Bangkok.  And now, here I am in his home country.  When I met his secretary, Candy, she said that Jimmy told her that I was a "shinning light".  Sweet!  The man sitting next to Steve on the left is Ignathio, he's from Spain, but he will tell you he is from the Basque country!!  Very proud of that!

 Some more guys from the plant.  I can't remember their names, except the guy on the left.  His name is Michael.  He is from the Formica plant in mainland China.  He is a very aggressive and loud talker.  Much different from the Taiwanese at the table.  They seemed much more reserved and polite. 

This is Candy, Jimmy's secretary.  She was really sweet.  On the last day in town she took me to the lantern festival which I will show you in pictures.  I asked how she got her name.  She said that when she was first studying English, her teacher said that she seemed very sweet, so he named her Candy, and that when she got older she could always change her name to Candace.  She never did. 

During dinner Jimmy asked if we liked the Taiwanese beer.  We said that we did.  He told us that the first 2 Chinese characters say Taiwan.  There was a pause in the conversation.  So I piped up and said, "Oh, and Jimmy, I think those last 2 characters say 'Beer', right?"  He said, "Yes!, how did you know?"  Everyone laughed when we showed him the bottle where it said the English words right under the Chinese lettering.  I felt very smart though!!!

 

This sign was across the street from our restaurant.  If you didn't know it, you might think you were in Reno!  I know I have seen this cowboy there before!!

This is the Lantern Festival that Candy took me to.  She said that it just happened to be in Hsinchu this year.  They have the festival in different counties every year so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy it. 

 

Here is Candy in front of the lantern that represents Thailand and Peace.  It was so beautiful I just had to take a picture of it.

 

 

 I wish I could have gotten this more in focus.  I was trying to discretely take pictures of small Taiwanese children, but they were so quick that each time I was ready to take their picture, they moved, like this one.  But she's still cute!

That's all from Hsinchu.  Tomorrow's blog will be about Taipei. 
 
                                         Sawadii Kaa!!

                                  Linda

MY FIRST TRIP TO TAIWAN

Steve and I arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, February 24th.  This was the first visit to this country for each of us.  The reason we went was that Steve had a technical meeting in Hsinchu for a couple of days, and of course, my reason was purely touristy. 

 

We stayed here - the Ambassador hotel.  It was really nice, very international.  I heard a lot of different languages spoken around me, including quite a lot of American accents, which is always nice to hear!

 

 

The first day while Steve was in his meeting, I went for a walk to the Hsinchu Zoo which was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.  In the same complex as the zoo is also an artist glass works and shops to sell the glass.  I spent most of the day in these two areas.  It was quite fun!  I got a lot of looks from the locals, but most people smiled at me and were very nice.

 

Here is some of the glass art I passed on my way to the zoo.  There were so many beautiful ones.  I wish I could have taken pictures of them all!

 

 

Here is what I thought was the entrance to the zoo.  It has lions and elephants and a gate - it looks like an entrance, right?  Well, I tried the gate, but then I noticed on top it said Exit.  When I turned around an older man and his wife were standing there and he asked me if I needed help.  I asked him if he knew where the entrance was.  He didn't know, but he asked another guy walking by.  That guy knew, and we all walked together to the entrance.  Then we all paid like one big happy family together.  On the way the man asked me where I was from and translated for his wife and the other man. 

 

As we went through the gate, I thanked them in Chinese "Shi Shi" and then again in English.  The other guy said "No problem", and then we all laughed!  They were all so nice.  Later I saw the older man in the zoo and snapped this photo of him. 

This was a cute monkey I saw.  I thought the colors were pretty behind him so I took his picture.  He didn't seem to mind!

One of the stranger exhibits they had at this zoo was a room full of stuffed animals.  Now, this is a small zoo, so I understand that they can't afford to own all of the animals in the world. And I understand the point of stuffing those that you don't have.  But these stuffed animals were SO OLD and the stuffing was SO BAD, well, you'll just have to take a look at my example to see what I'm talking about.

Sad, isn't it?  You should have seen the boa and the baby bengal tiger.  Wow!  Bad stuffing!!!  Anyway, on with the zoo. 

 I came across this guy sunning himself - quite a mouth on him!



As I turned a corner I found this antelope type animal standing close to this fence.  It let me scratch it on the nose and neck.  Over and over.  And each time I would start to walk away, it would look at me like it wanted me to stay.  Finally I told it I had to look at some other animals. 

As I walked away, it followed me all around it's pen.  I think I made a friend that day!

 

On my walk back to the hotel, I made two very important discoveries about Taiwan.  I would like to share them with you.  If you look at the next picture you will see a bunch of people on motorcycles.  What are they all wearing?  Yes!  Helmets!!  It is the law in Taiwan (they have the same law in Thailand - but it's ignored).  I did not see one person riding a motorcycle in Hsinchu or in Taipei without a helmet.  That included small children.  I was very impressed with that. 

 

The next thing I discovered was - well, I heard what I thought was an ice cream truck coming up behind me.  I turned around to see what an ice cream truck would look like in Taiwan - but I didn't see one.  The music got louder, and louder, and LOUDER.  Then, I realized that the music was coming from - of all things - a garbage truck!!!  WoW!  
 

So then I began wondering - did it run over the ice cream truck??  Nope, it wasn't dragging anything behind it.  So I kept walking.  A little later, I heard the same sound coming up behind me. So I stopped to take a picture and watch.  That's when I figured out what was going on.  The truck stopped, the music kept playing, and the people brought  their garbage out!  It was a warning signal to the people that the truck is coming SO BRING OUT YOUR GARBAGE!!



I asked some Taiwanese people later if different town's garbage trucks play different songs, but they all play the same song!   I think if I was a Taiwanese garbage man and had to listen to that same song ALL DAY and EVERY DAY I might go postal!!

That's it for now.  I'll write more tomorrow about Taipei.

                                    Sawadii Ka
                             Linda

COFFEE, COOKIES AND CATS !!!

    

 I had the best day today!  I talked Steve into to going to the newest Cat Cafe in town.  For those of you in the States, you might not know what a cat cafe is, so I will try to explain it to you.  I believe they started in Korea where people live in high rise buildings and aren't allowed to have pets.  So someone came up with the brilliant idea to combine food, drink and cats to calm people after a long day of work and stress.  It was a success which soon spread to Japan.  Now we have them here in Bangkok!  Since I am not allowed to have a pet in my apartment at the moment and I long to pet a cat - this is the perfect place for me!

     I first discovered a cat cafe called Chico's Cat Cafe with my daughter Haley.  That cafe is actually just down the street from this new one.  At Chico's they have rescued cats roaming in and out of the cafe.  But, this new cafe is much more upscale, let me explain . . .

Here is the sign out front:  "THE PURR CAT CAFE CLUB"   If it was in a different part of town, you might be afraid to go in!!  ha ha

 

Before you are allowed to go in you must leave your shoes outside.  It is the Thai custom.

 

This picture is to prove, that yes, I was able to drag Steve to see cats, but I did have to sweeten the deal by telling him that he would get cookies and coffee too!

When you enter the building the lady asks you to put on slippers, then wash you hands.  All of the cats are healthy and well taken care of.  They don't want any diseases coming in to them.  It was kind of nice actually.

This is the main room where you take your coffee, tea and snacks, and also play with the cats.  It is a totally cat friendly room.  They have built this stairway and walkways for all the cats to get away from each other and the people if it gets too much for them.  It was a beautiful room!

 We sat on the floor to play and eat.  You could get up and walk around and play with other cats and take pictures too.  They only asked that you didn't use flash. 

 

Here is the menu.  It had beautiful artwork in it with pictures of the cats built into the pictures of the food. 

 

 This showed a picture of the cat cookies and chocolate dipping sauce that Steve and I ordered and below is how it came to us.

Here is a picture of the cats using the wall to see each other and to get away from other cats.  It was a very clever design.  To the left of this wall was another wall with cut-outs with picture frames around the cut-outs so that if the cats sat there it would look like they were in a picture.  I loved it!




Here was one of just a few little cat fights.  Nothing too big.  It would happen, and just as quickly die down and one cat would run up the grand staircase away from the other.  No one seemed to care.  Just part of the entertainment. 

The management didn't care if you picked up the cats as long as you knew what you were doing and didn't hurt the cats.  I have had MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE so I felt I was qualified to pick up a cat!

 Here is one hiding high up by the ceiling.  She is on the look-out for her dreaded adversary!

 

 These wall hangings were just outside of where the cats are.  I would have them in our house, but I am afraid Steve would have a fit!

After we left the beautiful cat cafe, we had to walk back to the sky train.  Along the way we saw this sign posted on a fence.  I had to take a picture of it, because I thought "Wait a minute.  For one thing, how can a dog read this sign, and for another, if they can read, the dogs are Thai dogs and they wouldn't be able to read a sign in English!!!"      It just didn't make any sense to me.  I took a few more steps and my theory proved true.  Take a look at the last picture!

 

                             Sawadee Ka!!!
                                     Linda

 

 

                                          My daughter Haley who helped me discover my first cat cafe!  Thanks Haley!

CRUISE ON THE CHAO PHRAYA RIVER

 

One evening when Mom and Denise were here we decided to go on a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River.  Not just any touristy cruise, which Steve and I had already been on twice (yuck!), but a really nice one.  Above you can see the converted old rice barge that is our dinner boat.  We lucked into have the best seats in the house.  Our table was at the very front tip of the boat so we had the front view of the river and the city lights.  It was beautiful! 

 

 

Denise and I waiting to board the boat.  It was a hot and sticky night. 

 

Ahh, it looks like the wait was worth it.  A glass of wine and some flowers!  Just what any girl would want on a river cruise. 

 

 

The food was absolutely beautiful and was wonderfully presented.  We took many pictures of it, but for some reason now I can't find them!  Take my word for it, there was more food than we could eat, it just kept coming and coming and coming!!!

 

 

 

 

 

This was the best river cruise we have been on here, so if you are planning to visit us, you will definitely get this treat too! 

 

Sawadee Ka !

 

Linda