19 entries found with tag Taiwan.

Ang Lee

Taiwanese director Ang Lee was on the radio today promoting his new film "Lust, Caution". It was a good interview, at least, it sounds like it went a lot better than one he had with Stewart Lee, soon after "The Hulk" came out...

Tags: Taiwan, Ang Lee, video

Buying Wii in Taiwan

The Nintendo Wii is only just coming out in the land of my birth, Taiwan, and they're going crazy over them judging by what I've been hearing. Over on this side of the world they're still pretty hard to get hold of, but Amazon UK did have them for a relatively long time this evening. If you missed out, sign ups are still available for my UK and US in-stock notification services...

Related: Wii, Taiwan

Double Tenth Day

Chinese communities around the world are celebrating Double Tenth day today, which (for those interested in a bit of Chinese history) marks the start of the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911, that led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty.

Mahjongg

Mahjongg's a new game I learnt whilst in Taiwan. When I say Mahjongg I mean the 4-player version which is also a kind of Chinese rite of passage, not the solitaire kind. I'd hinted to my mum in the past that I wanted to learn how to play but had assumed that this had fallen on deaf ears. I was wrong. A trip last month to my aunt's place was, unbeknownst to me, all about an opportunity to teach David this essential life skill.

It was a pretty surreal experience. As soon as I'd got in my aunt's door, out came the mahjongg table and the chairs, the tiles were whipped out and I found myself sat down with granny on my left, my mum opposite and my aunt to my right, all three of them fully absorbed in counting their money ~~and no doubt psyching themselves up~~.

After a while I overcame the intensely combative atmosphere and with a healthy dollop of beginner's luck actually won a few rounds. I kept winning money off granny which was the best if not most wicked part. Money talks especially when you don't share a common language. It should be noted that unfortunately the money was fake. Anyway, it's a good game and was a lot of fun to play. Here's a site where you can play online, along with classic games like Stratego.

Why did SClub7 split up?

While I was on my jolly to Taiwan nimisis crashed. And since then I've noticed that a "david butler" search on google no longer yields nimisis in, well, probably the first million hits. I'm quite disappointed by this result. Before I used to get a fair few cyber questers seeking "David Butler" or "download hives" or "stag night na*ed photos". I'd like to stress the latter two for no logical reason that I'm aware of. The only thing that seems to get a reasonable number of hits is my webcam page, even though that's not on most of the time... (clearly this does wonders for my ego). Looking at my logs, it says here that one bright spark found nimisis by querying "Why did SClub7 split up"? Well, in case both disillusioned SClub7 fans end up coming here searching for answers, I do have one. They probably split up because their talent loan from the singing bank went very very bad and when their busking expenses plunged them deep into a red that was redder than the stained mouth of a betel nut chewing Taiwanese dellboy they had to call it a day... but that's only a theory.

Tags: Taiwan

[comments 1]

Have pretty much recovered from jetlag now. Got back home after 3 weeks in Taiwan early on Thurs. Was all ready for two full days of work before an epic sleep, but was not quite prepared for the cold front...! I was working on my tan when I left Taiwan! But it's good to be back. I seem to have spent most of this year away from home so far...

Taipei is my hood after all, and naturally, since I was chillin' with me homies, I tried some new things (and wimped out of others).

New things I tried:

Pearl Tea (see pics)
The Lantern Festival
Shabu Shabu (like Chinese Hotpot)
ShihLin nightmarket
Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world, see pics)
Mahjongg (money, money, money)
Taking the Taipei MRT (tube) wearing a paddy field hat.
Kirin beer.

Things I passed on:

Coagulated pig's blood... bloody!
Pig's ears... yucky!
Pig's trotters... muddy!
Fish heads... fishy!
Chicken feet... smelly!
Betel nuts... chewy!
Hot springs in WuLai... just plain dirty!

Anyone tried these?

Related: Taiwan, jetlag, pearl tea

[remarks]

I've got to go see this exploded whale when I'm in Taiwan next week...

See also: Taiwan, whale

[have your say 1]

Two and a half months since my last post... but I'm back. I've been very busy - have been to Paris, Taiwan, Woking and Oldham (clearly the last two were the highlights), moved house to Surbiton and had a birthday. The new place is quite nice! If you're interested in a virtual tour, you can watch a little one minute video I've taken of it. It's a big file though - 9.2MB so please right click here and "Save Target As..." (whatever you want).

Tags: Taiwan

[comments 2]

Got back to Heathrow from Taiwan last night. Didn't get DVT, didn't get SARS and didn't get much NAP! This was perhaps partly because I did actually have a bit of a cough and agitating my nervous neighbours with spluttering fits was quite amusing. But I'm shattered now. I see this whole SARS business has finally made the news over here. Loads of people were wearing face masks on my flight with good ol' Eva Air. Well, I just thought Phuket. You see, I made an observation that Phuket Airlines as far as I could tell didn't have any people in their lounges with face masks. Actually I think they're too small an airline to afford lounges... passengers are probably just bussed on board. But I mean, I share their point of view, those face masks probably don't help to prevent SARS at all. And they definitely would cause people's glasses to fog up. Walking into walls is a bit dangerous isn't it?

I like the Phuket world view. I could almost create an advertising campaign for them (if they could be bothered to have one). No pretty pictures, just text. Even though I can't write those squiggly lines, in English it'd be something like this -

Go from A to B with Phuket Airlines!

All of us here are followers of the "Phuk Way".

Phuk check-in - No need to check-in! And don't worry about Phuket-ting the tickets. Buy for cash at the cabin door!

Phuk safety - We pick someone with good hand-eye-coordination from you lucky lot to be pilot for the trip! And cabin attendants are chosen by a quick popularity contest whilst taking off!

Phuk luxury and style - Share floorspace and chitchat with the 799 other Phuket passengers strapped in with you! No chairs nor toilets means more Phuket friends!

Phuk food - The Phuk experience is such that you won't even have an appetite! Every Baht not spent on sickbags is a Baht off your Phuk boarding stamp! Who would want scolding hot coffee spilt all over you anyway?

Phuk films - Every trip is a drama of its own!

Phuket!

Related: Taiwan, DVT, Sars

[remarks]

Here are some nice photos of Kenting on the south coast of Taiwan. Go if you ever get the chance!

Silver Golden?

Imagine being married for 85 years! These guys don't have to. Only in Taiwan.

Tags: Taiwan

Just to prove my point about the earthquake the other day and the big deal people were making about it, look here - Taiwan has one at least that size literally almost every day! (Click on "earthquakes")

Related: earthquake, Taiwan

[remarks]

Apple Sidra Vender Please?

This is the most beautiful drink in the world... and it appears that you can only get it in Taiwan! Argh. I was practically drowning in the stuff for the 2 weeks I was out there. Does anyone know where I can find Apple Sidra in London? Some chinese supermarket maybe?

Dave's Villagers

Hello, I'm back. Had a really good two weeks in Taiwan. Very hot two weeks though, I've got pretty bad sunburn but I think it was worth it. Taiwan's cool, go if you can.

It's still nice to be home though. I see that the football season is upon us already, so I challenge all of you to a game of fantasy football courtesy of BBC Sport. Choose your team, sign up and give me your PIN (but not password of course) and I'll add you to our league, a league of mentlemen, the "How Very Village" league.

Here's my team, "Dave's Villagers"

fantasy football team

Tags: Taiwan

China Invades Taiwan

BBC News - "...China's most credible and immediate threat lies in its increasing battery of conventional short-range ballistic missiles.

These could be used as part of a more limited coercive strategy to produce a rapid collapse of Taiwan's 'national will'.

Worryingly, Chinese military doctrine emphasises the force-multiplying effect of surprise, so such coercive strikes might come out of the blue..."

This is not even vaguely amusing.

Related: China, Taiwan

Off to Taiwan

So excited - off to Taiwan tomorrow for 2 weeks to visit the parents. Not used to staying with my parents any more. Incriminati is a stupid little game but is also showing me a few handy tips.