09/09/06

What has been happening while you've been away?

Here is a potted monthly history from the Website or other locations, over the past year.

• Easter Sunday in Kaohsiung - We had a day down in Kaohsiung on Easter Sunday - the afternoon spent at the National Science and Technology Museum, then onto the Easter Service and finished off with dinner at a nice Latin / Spanish / South American restaurant. The Science Museum is well worth a visit by any foreigner here in Taiwan - a pleasant layout and modern facility with the various floors sectioned on Themes. There are a number of temporary visiting exhibitions on the go at any time and children love the hands on displays. The section with the Earthquake Shaking display was the most popular, running a 'sit down and feel it' experience of the last major earthquake here in Taiwan in 2001.
• A Long Haul back to Taiwan - 6 flights and 5 capital cities before arriving in Tainan - Makes you wonder about the joys of modern travelling, when we set out at 5am from Mojacar and arrive around 48 hours later to our home in Tainan. Our journey started with an early alarm call from the trusty PDA, final packing and check of the Apartment, then into the car for the run down to Almeria airport - no problem at this time in the morning. The flight upto Madrid was easy going - lots of snow remaining on the hills but Madrid was clear and sunny. A long walk through Madrid's Terminal stretched our legs and a tasty Spanish breakfast in the Departure area set us on or way. The Thai Airways flight went via Rome, so an hour or so stop at this useless Airport filled with over-expensive goods went by quickly, before the long haul over to Bangkok. Arrival at 7am next day and we had been promised a stopover room due to our next flight leaving at 4pm or so. No problem for the Thai Airways staff and we had time for a shower and snooze in a fairly comfortable room at the Airport. Always busy, busy is Bangkok airport - the new airport should be ready in another year - but still a nice walkaround and comfortable departure areas. Our booking took us onto Hong Kong, again a stop and get off at the airport for an hour or so. From Hong Kong it was over to Taipei with a landing time around 9.30pm. With no late night flight down to Tainan, we hopped on the bus into Taipei and an overnight stay at the customary San Wan hotel. Up for breakfast next morning, check out and a taxi to the local domestic airport for our morning flight down to Tainan, arriving at home around lunchtime. So there went a full weekend on travel, passing through 5 capital cities, with the usual lack of sleep and poor digestion from the airplane meals / dehydration, etc, never mind the disrupted sleep pattern for the next week or so. For Ian, it was back to work immediately, for Felicia it was back to another 'holiday' here in sunny Tainan - ha ha. 
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• Pic of the Month was;

A memory of our trip to Athens -up at the Acropolis

• A quick visit to Scotland during our European Break - We boarded the Thomson Flight from Alicante, loaded with old grannies and granpa's from Glesga (Glasgow) returning from their Spanish winter holiday, and headed back over to Scotland for our first visit in around 18 months. All the Family were fine, managed to see everyone, and had a cooling trip upto Perth to see Christine and Ronnie's new Santa Hut - for photos - click here.  We met up with our Taiwanese friend, Phyllis, who is studying for her MBA at Glasgow's famous Strathclyde University MBA Campus.
• Over to Mojacar, Spain, to spend 3 weeks in our Apartment - After Athens, we continued our tour onto Spain. Leaving Glyfada around 7am, we killed an hour or so at the new Athens airport, before boarding a 'junky' Olympic Airways flight to Madrid. Arriving in Madrid Airport, we transferred to the local flight down to Almeria, picked up our hire car and drove upto Mojacar in about 1 hour to unload our bags and take in the sunny Mediterranean view from our Apartment sundeck. Wonderful weather for the first ten days or so, the highlight being a terrific trip upto the Sierra Nevada mountain range to see the snow and ski-slopes - click here for photos. After our first week, we decided to book a short trip over to Glasgow to see the Macfarlane Family crew and headed off to Scotland for 5 days. On return, we seemed to have brought the cold, rainy weather from Scotland, with about 4 of the remaining 6 days in Mojacar being spoiled by the cold wet conditions. Our planned trip to Granada to see the Alhambra had to be cancelled due to Granada being snowbound. Never mind, there will be another time. However, we had a wonderful time here in Mojacar, our Apartment was well cared for by our long-term tenant, Lucia, in our absence for the past year. It is still a wonderful place to visit and sitting out on the terrace on a winter's morning, with the warm sun on your face, having a breakfast of strawberries and croissants, the wide Mediterranean coastal view, golfer's bashing around the golf course below - all makes it a wonderful relaxing, peaceful holiday.
• Our European Tour kicks off with a week in Athens - We had a week's stopover in Athens during our Chinese New Year holiday out of Taiwan in February 2005. A wonderful trip to take in many of the ancient Greek sites around Athens and to sample the Greek hospitality. We stayed in the seaside resort of Glyfada, outside of Athens and now connected by a new light rail tram system directly into Athens centre, so transport was a breeze. The main sites in Athens we visited were;
  • The Agora
  • The Acropolis and Parthenon
  • Temple of Zues an Hadrian's Gate
  • Hadrian's Library
  • The Roman Forum
  • Lycabettus Hill
  • The old Olympic Stadium of 1896
  • The Athens Archeological Museum
  • Other photos from around Athens
• Chinese New Year - We will miss the Celebrations - Traveling to Europe. Chinese New Year is upon us again from 8th to 14th February, although we have a longer holiday for about 2 weeks as everything shuts down in the Construction side. This is the time we tend to go off on our annual vacation and this year we will head over to Europe for a week in Athens and a further 3 weeks taking time in our Apartment in Mojacar, in southern Spain. The Chinese New Year in Taiwan is not celebrated to the same extent and glamour as in Malaysia, where special street decorations and festival activities are everywhere. The Taiwanese still haven't cleared out the Christmas decorations and trees they put up, as they consider them more decorative - never mind knowing anything about Christmas and why they should have been removed already. In Taiwan, there is very little sign of Chinese New Year decorations, apart from the usual red lanterns, and the plan for most people is to stay at home and visit family. We prefer to miss out on this 'non-event' here.

• Asian Earthquake and Tsunami - The scale of the Asian Tsunami Disaster of 26 December 2004 was only realized in early January, with a death toll eventually exceeding 250,000. We take pause to remember those affected by this tragic event, as we are also familiar with some of the areas affected, having visited in the past. We hope that the lives of those affected, particularly the children, can be comforted and gradually improved by the International Relief Agencies.

• Christmas and New Year in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. We took a holiday break from Taiwan and headed over to Sabah, part of East Malaysia, with quick and easy flight connections from Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Our stay at the Tanjung Aru Resort, operated by Shangri La Hotels, was one of the best hotel stays we have had - well recommended to any of our visitors. With special evening dinner / cultural events put on over the Xmas and New Year period, we were always entertained at the Resort - see the Sabah Photos for evidence!!. The traditional cultural dance show with Malay band and singers was certainly a highlight, along with the Pirate New Year Eve Theme dinner. A 4-day hire car arrangement also got us travelling around the countryside, with day trips up North to visit a country market and longhouse lifestyle; a trip over the mountains and to the South with terrific scenery, a close-up visit to see one of the world's largest flowers (the Rafflesia) and some work in the Padi fields with the locals; a visit to the Kadazan tribe Cultural Centre and a day upto the Kota Kinabalu National Park to go walkies in the jungle. Just too much to take in and other activities will need to wait for another chance to visit Sabah.

• A weekend picnic at the Tainan County Country Park. Having discovered a very nice Country Park on the outskirts of Tainan last October, we went back one weekend in January to spend a day out walking and to have a picnic lunch as the weather was pleasant and sunny. The park has a large lake as it's centre-piece, with rowing and pedalo boats available for getting out on the water. Lots of picnic areas are available, including gas and charcoal barbecue sets. Walking paths take you around and through the park with other facilities available to rest and have a drink or snack. Outside the park are several bicycle hire shops, including tandems and other strange wheeled contraptions. We stuck to our two legs this time and later took a pedalo boat out on the lake, after our picnic lunch. Everything at the park is in Chinese, and it is not publicized in any of the Tainan tourist brochures / websites we know of - something the Taiwanese definitely lack if they wish to generate interest for foreign tourists or residents. A few photos are posted in Gallery 1.

• Taiwan tests Japanese bullet train

  Thursday, January 27, 2005 Posted: 6:30 AM EST (1130 GMT)

  Taiwan's multi-billion dollar bullet train has completed its first test run in preparation for an October launch, after a lengthy construction period marred by contractual disputes and financial problems.

  Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation publicly tested its high-speed train yesterday in Tainan in an attempt to prove that its operations will be launched on schedule in October this year.

  In preparation for yesterday's test run, engineers from Taiwan and Japan spent more than six hours on Wednesday testing various functions of the high-speed train to ensure that it would operate properly and safely.

  However, THSRC Chairwoman Nita Ing who had formerly expressed confidence in delivering on her promise that the High Speed Rail will be in service on schedule this year, told the press yesterday that in spite of some delays, her company will do its best to meet the deadline.

   

• Pic of the Month was;

A real life Santa selling Strawberries in Tainan - December 2005.

• Christmas Photo Scenes and Other latest photos from Tainan - click here.  Not much of a Christmas Spirit here in Tainan, compared to previous years in Taipei. However, the local Chinese have created a little atmosphere with Christmas lighting, trees, etc - even though they don't know much about the real Christmas event - they tend to follow American ideals and possibly treat it simply as a fun thing like Halloween.

• Felicia achieves top Grade in her University Mandarin Course - A hectic first few weeks of December had Felicia burning some midnight oil preparing for the end of course examination. However, her good work during the 3-month course had already given her confidence to do well. The results came out after the Christmas break and gave her a pass in the top grade - well done for a first course at University. Her Chinese skills are well praised when we get out and about and with the local residents where we stay - something Ian needs to improve on.

   

• Pic of the Month was;

This was taken at the Chaing Mai paper umbrella factory in Thailand

• Felicia and her friend Elley win the University Language Quiz - Representing their small group class, Felicia and Elley were thrown in at the deep end to compete with 4 other classes, with around 40 students, for a Chinese language skills quiz. Both of them pulled out all the stops and after a cliffhanger dead-heat with one class, they surpassed themselves to trounce them in the final round. For their efforts they were awarded a prize certificate and book tokens for all the class-mates.

   

• Felicia's Birthday Bash at University - Felicia had a surprise birthday bash at her University class - where her fellow students presented her with a birthday cake and sang happy birthday in 4 different languages. The photo below shows her class-mates and also with Senji, a 18-year old Japanese student who brought the cake.

   

• Felicia's younger brother passes away in Kuala Lumpur - bad news from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning 30th October let Felicia know that her younger brother Nick, passed away suddenly overnight. Flights were hastily arranged through the nearby travel agent and we both traveled down to KL the following morning, spending 4 days with her family. Unfortunately as Nick had converted to the Muslim faith, his remains were buried Saturday afternoon. Nick was only 32 years old and left a wife and 3 year old son as dependents. His passing was a shock to all the family and all who knew him. 

    

• Typhoon Nock-ten batters Taiwan - At least four die as storm hits - 26 October.

• News Flash - Strong Earthquake hits Taiwan - Friday 15 Oct - Richter 7.0 - Further earthquakes rattle Taiwan mid-November. However, we are fairly safe here in Tainan as the location tends to limit the major effects.

• Pic of the Month was;

  

      This is at Tainan's Chih-kan Tower - the famous vase door.

• Macfarlane-Web re-launched in new format. Time to redo the website and after a few weeks getting a new format, copying old items and adding new issues, it was time to find a new Webhost to publish into the WWW. A notable change from the original website is the photo album section, where photos have been framed and standardised, with lots of new ones added from our life in Taiwan. Many items still on the to-do task list and updating will hopefully be more frequent.

• Strong quake rocks Taiwan Fri 15 October, 2004 09:46

  TAIPEI (Reuters) - A strong earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off Taiwan has rocked the island's northeast, damaging buildings and injuring several people, officials say.

  The tremor, the strongest since an earthquake in 1999 that killed thousands, lasted for nearly one minute, shaking skyscrapers in the capital, Taipei, during the lunch-hour rush.

  Friday's tremor, which measured 7.0 on the opened-ended Richter scale, had its epicentre at about 110 km (68 miles) east of Ilan on the northeastern coast, at a depth of 59 km (37 miles), the Central Weather Bureau said.

• Felicia takes up Chinese at the local University

  Felicia enrolled in a 3-month Mandarin Chinese course at Tainan's Cheng Kung University. This establishment is one of the island's top universities and attracts hundreds of overseas students wishing to learn Mandarin. She hopes to pass with flying colours in December, with sufficient skills in reading, writing and speach to conduct daily conversation. This will keep her fairly busy for 3 months, being a daily 2-hour class. As a supplement to the course, she has also enrolled in after-class studies for calligraphy and chinese painting.

• Mid-Autumn Harvest Moon Festival Holiday - The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on September 28 in the year 2004. What is the Moon festival? Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qui jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival. Our Apartment complex arranged a free Moon Festival function for all residents.

• Pic of the Month was;

  this little beauty was taken at the height of SARS in Taiwan in 2003.

   

• Chinese New Year in Mojacar - Spain. We took our extended Chinese New Year Holiday to travel over to Almeria Province in Spain to pick up the keys to our new apartment, spend the time furnishing and decorating, and in between trying to have a little bit of a holiday. Dad and Margaret managed to take a week away from Glasgow to come and help out and to see the area of Mojacar. Our flights went from Kaohsiung via Bangkok, a quick stop at Rome airport and onto Madrid where it was freezing cold when we arrived early in the morning. Getting out at Madrid, we had to transfer for a local flight down to Almeria - a crazy race through the Terminal after being given bum info by Iberia staff found that the weather had fortunately delayed our flight - blood pressure dropped dramatically. At least we know now how to transfer.

An almost empty flight down to Almeria meant we almost had an executive jet to ourselves and a quick walk through Almeria airport to pick up out hire car - no hassle at all. The weather was terrific, slightly cold but clear blue skies and that was how it was during our two week stay. We had arranged a rented apartment for one week as we thought we could have everything ready in our own apartment to move in for the 2nd week - but Espana Manana with various utility connections, particularly the electricity, meant we stayed the two weeks in the rented apartment - which turned out to be the best thing anyway.

 

We had various final legal and banking issues to deal with, but our local agent, Gavin, was as always a great help. Extensive travelling around the local area searching for furniture, electrical goods and all the hundreds of little household living needs meant we had an extremely busy (and spending) time. The Spanish folk down in Mojacar are very friendly and went out their way (as store owners) to find everything we needed. A late decision also to add some colour to the apartment interior used up our time (and Dad's professional assistance), but certainly worth it. All in all, the apartment fit-out came in under budget and just on time. We even managed to have at least one night stay just before we went back home.

 

Apart from the house chores, we also had a terrific time exploring the local restaurants, making a few trips out and generally chilling out in the glorious weather - something that first attracted us to Mojacar.

 

So if anyone wishes to see more of the apartment - click here for photos.

• Our big move down to Tainan City - A new apartment, new office and new lifestyle. Having arrived back from our Xmas break in Kuala Lumpur, it was down to the nitty gritty of finalizing our household packing to prepare for the big move to Tainan on 10 January. The packing company had left lots of box cardboard which we utilised and did most of the packing ourselves, based on our previous shipments and experience of being Nomads. As nothing was left that we could use on the night prior to moving, it was off to the San Wan hotel for one night and up early next morning to supervise the Packing Company. They arrived on time, wrapped and packed the items we left for them, which they finished off in a couple of hours and had it all loaded up by 10.30am. We said our goodbyes to our neighbour, the new tenant came along to have a look, handed the keys to the agent and jumped in a taxi to the airport. By 1.30pm we were at our new Apartment in Tainan, waiting on our shipment travelling down by road from Taipei. It arrived no problem a few hours later and unpacking of the essentials had us up and running before nightfall. A few weeks of 'where did we put that' or 'which box had that in', or even leaving boxes unopened, and we were settled in again. Ian started work at his new office the following Monday morning, up on the 18th floor of an almost brand new office tower just 5 minutes walk or so from home. Felicia made herself busy getting to know a few of the locals and neighbours, as there wasn't much in the way of foreign friends down here. The lifestyle in Tainan is more relaxed and friendly than Taipei, but also 'small city' style, with the locals being more of a 'countryside' nature - particularly the betel nut chewing male population! Tainan, does have many plus points - with enough facilities, activities and things to do to keep us occupied socially.  

• Happy New Year - Fireworks at Taipei 101. A special New Year celebration in Taipei, we joined up with our friends Alan and Sandra Cox to have a meal in the world's tallest building, then watch the firework display set off on the Taipei 101 building. Further fireworks displays around the Hsinyi area kept us busy amongst the city revellers for a few hours after the bells.