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Montag, August 14, 2006

Live and work in Taiwan









OK, I should try not to watch them anymore...

ah... OK... I try to look somewhere else...
....ups...













That is from the 20year aniversary of my company here, sigh...






When you see all this, you urgently need some physical workout:
EDIT: Those days in 2006, this was all part of my "Oh my God, Taiwan! I can't believe this" experience. As such a company party would have been totally impossible back home. Well, I guess the tide of time has changed in Taiwan as well, I doubt I will see such company events or a server full of such photos (these are taken by myself though) for a long time.

Nowadays I can't fail to notice the girls feel a bit uncomfortable with the scant clothing...'

Dienstag, Juni 20, 2006

Temple, Taiwan, Taipei (Longshan temple)




A large dragon temple in Taipei, to where my wife always drags me ....




yeah OK, every temple is a dragon temple here...




All generations jointly praying and gambling with the gods, by throwing special dices to see, if the old gods (and the newer ones) are on their side. No chance for Christian missonaries here!




Join the crowd after you have bought the ghost money and paper ships. Ghosts need them to cross water, that is clear, eh?

Note: This is a dragon statue in Taoyuan county, unrelated to the one in Taipei.


I was really scared when I came across this one in a park. It was getting dark and ....... jeeeeeeez. Dragons are a positive symbol in Chinese culture unlike in Christanity. But he, women are also bad bad in Christianity, so that must count for dragons as well....

Montag, Mai 29, 2006

Jesus lives! He preaches in Taiwan


Just look at this photo which I had taken in Nanto, Taiwan. Doesn't it look like in one of those Jesus movies where people are standing on hills to hear his speach, and he is preaching down in the valley? And the wheelchair is proving a miracle healing which just had happened.

But actually it is not Jesus down there, but a guy showing sheep (!) to the public. Sheep, as in pullover. They even had an imported New Zealand sheep shaver (or however this is called). He was showing the mystical animals to the astonished citizens of the Taiwan capital Taipei, who hardly ever get to see real animals in their live. Well, apart from them being in a soup bowl or so.
They also have such a wonder park for cows, with larger-than-life cow statues.

Wife was eating a goat ice. I convinced her to throw it away. And when she gave it to me for disposal ... I quickly ate it. He he he...

Larger-than-life sheep statues, not typhoon-proof

Rainbow from hotel window.


Photos: from Nanto, Taiwan. By Ludigel, all rights reserved.

Montag, Mai 22, 2006

Without (further) words

Booth uniforms for Computex fair. Grrrrrrr.......
Names changed, but mine and my wife's. Wouldn't matter anyway

Name Size ......Piece
Aaron..... L ....... 1
Ron .......XL....... 1
Noris ......L ........ 2
Lungto ...XL....... 1
Ludigel XXXL 1
Shabby ...L .........1
Chevy .....L .........2
Bruce ......L .........1

Hey, but I only have XL in Germany!

Freitag, Mai 19, 2006

Happy Christmas from 95

Happy Peppy in the year 95! Taiwan here has its own time, it is the year 95. Because in 1911 the Kuamintang party had founded the Republic of China, following the emperial China and being a state ruling large parts of the country until 1949. In 49, the commies had chased away the Kuamintang and Chiang Kai Check had altered the Republic's location and relocated it to the island Formosa.
That is a bit as if Bush would abandon the United States, relocate them to Hawaii and leave the mainland to .... dunno, are there commies in US today?

And in the company restaurant they were serving hot fruit tea today. Like everyday they had Christmas decoration, so I felt a bit like X'mas. Christmas is very popular here all year, but just a normal work day...


(image gone)

Though the food here sometimes makes me think, I will never make it into 96. Just take a look what my wife had on her plate recently in a Japanese restaurant? Eat it or bury it?

Anyway, she did just slit open the belly of that thing and subsequently ate my lamb chops. Or they were here lamb chops but she gave them to me and then took them back.

My lamp on stick was actually woold with lamb coating, so I left the japanese restaurant rather hungry.

Donnerstag, Mai 11, 2006

Nightmare under foreign sky

Strolling through a car park of a hotel on Bali, Indonesia on a restless night. Falling asleep in a hotel lobby, and just when waking up, in that tiny moment between dream and reality, there is a blurry vision of one of the night demons ....




Getting up, still dizzy form the nightmare, a wall ornament turns into heros of a long forgotten battle...



Mittwoch, Mai 10, 2006

Gods on Film

Recently I have been with wife to nearby Phuket, Thailand and did not listen to my wife but took photos of the temples. She told me I am not to do it, not to disturb the eternal beings. Well, now look what is flying on the left hand side of the photo.
Well, there were bats flying around. On the other hand, it matches the snake-like shape of one of the peaks of the temple roof, ...... scary

flying God or Ghost?


Temple in Phuket, Thailand


Dive into another culture, gulp




Freitag, Mai 05, 2006

Denmark in Taiwan





Well, a bit California maybe. What I dislike about Taiwan is the ability of people here to make the landscape and especially the cities look shabby and dirty. Take a nice valley, put in a few 4-storey houses, simple and square as if drawn by a child and paint them white. Attach metal fences, ugly ones of course. Then wait 20 years and DO NOT MAINTAIN the houses, otherwise you will never get that shabby grey dirty Taiwan look.
Do not forget to park 20 scooters on the sidewalk, if there is any, open up an eatery and discard your food waste into the sewers, which will give this nice rotten smell to the neighbourhood. Do not forget to staple all that waste in front of your house which derves to be thrown away for 20 years...


So I became quite desperate to look for a house in a nice environment... I almost gave up ... and then I found an area looking like a suburb in Denmark behind the German tourist lines.

Clean, almost sterile, police cars on patrol and most houses behind security gates. But it is clean and quiet, lots of parks, green tea fields and singing birds instead of noisy stinking scooters. I loved it.


But so far we only found one house there, small but neat, but it does not have a security guard on duty for the area. And that might be too dangerous, as the whole area will attract thieves who consequently will avoid the security guarded houses and thus come to .... us.



I will tell you where it is only if I do NOT move there. Otherwise I want my peace in this secret heaven and no sandal-wearing English teachers moving around..... (grin).
Well OK, it is Longtan area ...

Donnerstag, Mai 04, 2006

Wife sank car



Good this did not happen to me. Haha, here my wife was driving. If this had happened to me, I had to listen to the usual "what bad drivers you waiguoren are" lecture once again.
But it can happen easily, because the trench was covered in the bend and was only open AFTER the bend. A bad trap for people stopping.




It could not free itself because it only has 2WD. Car was touching surface with its exhaust, but the rubber protection below the bumper was in between. Well, one should use the rubber protection always...



A few guys from a local betlenut stand came by to help. They probably had been admiring the sales girl and there and thus had a chance to show her how strong they are...


Mittwoch, Mai 03, 2006

Why are people here?

German below, Deutsch unten!


ENGLISH: Taiwan is overpopulated, polluted and mainly consists of middle class cars made in Japan.

Then I ask myself, "why are so many foreigners here....", while I sit on a campus in Taipei waiting for my wife...




Reading a book to distract the mind does not really help, as it contains sentences like "my semen capsules are sufficiently filled to fertilize another 500 eggs". (Andreas Brandhorst, Der Zeitkrieg). But then I understand...




Hmmmm...




What lesson is it she wants to attend? Shoe kinetics?

Escaping the campus did not really help...





I finally dropped my camera when my wife, for whom I was waiting for, called my phone in that moment...



photos: Ludigel




German, Deutsch:


Taiwan ist im Westentlichen eines, nämlich verschmuddelt.
Kein Platz, aber viel Mittelklassewagen.... Taiwan

Da fragt man sich so als Waiguoren (Ausländer), was denn einen selbst und die anderen Ausländer hier in der sojabesoßten Fremde hält. Man weiß es nicht, und während ich so auf dem Campus saß und auf meine Frau wartete (mit 40 bin ich da nur Besucher, aber da ist es halt schattig und grün
), findet man auch keine Antwort darauf und vertieft sich in ein mehr oder minder gutes Buch. "Der Zeitkrieg" von Andreas Brandhorst. Und da liest man denn den Satz "Meine Samenkapsel sind noch ausreichend für die Besamung von 500 Eiern gefüllt.", aus dem Gedächtnis zitiert. Und dann dämmert es einem so langsam.


Und dann greift man auch gleich zur Kamera, denn fürs Blog tut man alles. Sogar auf dem Campus ohne Tele fremde Leute fotografieren.

So wurde der Campus einer technischen Hochschule in Taipei ein Ort seltener Erleuchtungen, warum wir "Wai-guo-ren", wir "Außen-Land-Menschen" uns hier herumtreiben und der Leser hat wieder etwas gelernt, denn das "Ren" für Mensch taucht auch manchmal in Kreuzworträtseln auf.

Montag, April 24, 2006

Taiwan, most dangerous place on Earth

According to this blog, citing from German Magazine Spiegel.de (link to the article, but charges money as in archive by now), Taiwan is the most dangerous place on the globe. Do they actually know my wife? Be it as it is, I am just about to buy a house in Taiwan. Close to the only international airport of the island in Taoyuen. Next to millitary barracks.
Which leads to the question, should I set up illuminated Chinese characters on my roof? Saying: "You do not dare to do it, you mainland bastard". "Come if you have the guts". "Dog on guard".
Those missiles of today have cameras, you know...

Sonntag, April 16, 2006

Get rid of unemployed people: force them to cook!

[Original blog entry broken and replaced with German version]

In Taipei sind die Straßen voller Garküchen, das müssen Zehntausende in der ganzen Stadt sein. Weil niemand selber kocht, denn im Supermarkt kaufen ist teurer und auf dem Markt kaufen ist genauso teuer wie an der Garküche kaufen. Weil die Garküchen von Kleinbauern kaufen, die auf Trümmergrunstücken ihr Gemüse anbauen und sich die Grundstücke mit Strassenhundgangs teilen. Hoffentlich landen die armen Viecher nicht auch mal im Topf, aber Hundetorte oder sonstiges Hundeessen ist in Taiwan verboten.

Ab 35 Taiwandollar isst man in der Garküche, oft 60 bis 100. 40 Taiwandollar sind ein Euro. Viele Leute, denen die Fabriken nach Taiwan abgewanderst sind, haben heute eine Garküche, erst einen Rollwagen, dann mit Zeltdach drüber und irgendwann ein kleines festes Lokalchen. Dann reicht es vielleicht sogar für einen BMW oder Volvo, wegen günstiger Finanzierung. Wie so ein System funktionieren kann, wo sich alle Arbeitslosen gegenseitig bekochen, verstehe ich nicht, aber es klappt.




737-Lane NeiHu, Taipei, unzählige Garküchen im Nightmarket


Ein paar Fressbuden, die ganze Strasse und alle anderen Strassen sind voll davon. Manchen schmeckt eklig, das meiste lecker. Und alles billig.


Oktopus am Spiess oder süßer Griesklos? Schnell mit der Digikamera ohne Stativ abgelichtet.

Absichtlich verwackelt*, um das Chaos einzufangen. Bei uns wäre es eine Fußgängerzone, hier drängen sich Autos durch das Fussgängergewühl, die Bürgersteige sind meist als Verkaufsflächen zugestellt


Essen in einem kleinen vietnamesichen Restaurant, 105 Taiwandollar, also 2.50 Euro. Ähnlich chinesischer Nudelsuppe, aber mit frischem Salat und interessanter Würze.



* sagt man dann hinter so

Mittwoch, April 12, 2006

I start to like it here


Damned, I am too long here, I start to find it cosy and comfy.


How scary to be out in the open.......


Good news: the freezing times without heating are over.
Bad news: now the bugs come out, and they are mouse-big and clever.



No heatings but not air-tight windows which always leave a wind passing through in winter...

Taipei NeiHu neighbourhood