Catching up - Stuff before SA Holiday

As you know, me and Tim got tired of updating the blog, so we haven't sent our adventures for a long time, so this blog contains events of April 2010 news. The blog doesn't like the videos, so you will have to follow the links below to You tube. Enjoy.

We took a trip down to Kenting (the southern most tip of Taiwan) in April during a long weekend, and Steph joined us for the trip. There are some great beaches and stuff down there.

Unfortunately, we unknowingly chose the busiest weekend of the year to go, and so we had to struggle with the crowds and traffic on the small roads, but at least it provided atmosphere with street parades, and lots of night stalls.

The other problem with the area, being so full, was the lack of accomodation and rental scooters, so we had to search for a room, and could only get one scooter for the three of us! See the video on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lwDzGd9iwc

We visited a magnificent Aquarium there, with lots of interesting underwater swimmers. One of the best tanks was this big boy below, that you walk through the actual tank inside a glass passage.

Our friend Robyn, had told us about the one crazy toy in the gift shop there. It was a toy shark wearing a Natal Sharks rugby jersey, but the crazy part, was that when you press his hand, he plays and dances to a very ironic song: The Blue Bulls rugby song "Ek bly n bul" by Steve Hofmeyer! See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glNcK2T91zw

Tim had quick photo with a giraffe on the beach in Kenting. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVfwJtLaUVg

On the 1st May, I organised a big "flour fight" just to have some crazy fun at a random event. FB did a good job of spreading the word about the event, and in the end about 100 people participated in the craziness.

The above photo contains Tim, Steph, Ryno, and Cliff. Unfortanely Steph went to work in Japan, a month ago, so she won't be making anymore appearances in our new adventures. Tom is looking very epic in the photo below.

Watch the video for the Flour Fight at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=say7i8ZT0QI

Me and a group of people did a 10km run in Taipei in April.

George (third from the right) invited us to go surfing on the north coast. It was the first time me and Tim have ever tried surfing (I think?), so a bit ironic that we did it in Taiwan. It was pretty difficult, and we both only got up for split seconds. Tim didn't get the "Island style hand-gesture memo" for this photo, so he is giving the "rock and roll hand gesture".

See a video from the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq6GxNz004o

Thanks for reading

Cliff and Tim

Hey All!

It has been way over due and a long time coming - but the time has come to get the blog up and running again! There have been a few things happening since I last wrote on the blog, but today I'll chip away at the old block and tell you folks about the most amazing 3 weeks in South Africa!

There are many photos in this entry! I am sorry. But its more pics that words, so don't be put off!

Cliff and I took time off work (problematic and complicated to do in a very work work orientated Taiwan environment) and planned our trip to coincide with the first stage of the Soccer World Cup.

Brad Zan Cliff and I, applied for tickets for 4 games in the pool stages when the ticketing system first opened. We were successful on all four applications:

Germany vs Australia in Durban.

We stayed a few nights in the Drakensberg mountains before we headed down to Durban - and I was totally amped to get inside the stadium and start experiencing the whole thing first hand. It was a strange feeling to be in a brand new stadium complex, a stadium with such a unique design. Something that we would expect to see in other more wealthy developed countries - but not South Africa!

This was definitely the first time I've rooted for Australia (turning a corner?!) and as you can see...we really got into the regalia...

Aussie for today! And ONLY today! he he he

Of all our World Cup Games, Durban was probably the least congested and time consuming getting into and out of the stadium. Although we did arrive super early and leave after everyone else, but even then we stood in lines at the beginning and mingled with the friendly folks before the game.

Argentina vs South Korea, Soccer City Jhb.

I was spoiled and lucky enough to get in an extra game with some other good friends: Jono and Christine organised tickets for this game for the three of us. The Argentines are great because they get super passionate and emotional about the whole thing, making for some interesting confrontations.

I wouldn't take the South Koreans for a big sporting nation - but they did whip out these massive flags and pulled over the whole crowd!

Jono and Christines sunglasses Fifa sunglasses were very sophisticated, having a good uv rating in spite of there total lack of lenses and presence of horizontal slats. I donned a flag and was spoken to in Spanish but my countrymen - that sure hasn't happened in a while and my few remaining strands of Spanish didn't get too far...

WOW! Look at that beauty!

WOW! Look at those beauties!

Bafana vs Uruguay, Loftus Pretoria

Probably the most 'important' or meaningful game for us and the saddest too.

Going for glory! Cold as a bitterly cold castle beer. Cliff donning his animal skin, Tim the hulk and Zan the multinational orange you glad to be here!

Tell me whats your flavour!

Brazil vs Ivory Coast, Soccer City!

Yes Sir, that IS the Ivory Coast flag. Worried, happy and impartial.

Here we are loving the atmosphere and Soccer City in general. Mom and Dad were higher up in the stands, but we were right behind the goals. The same goal that that Brazilian scored after touching the ball three times with no bounce (there might have been a hand in there too...)

We caught the train from Park Station right up to the stadium. Mom and Dad were also going to this game, so here we are white middle class folks catching the train from the middle of Jhb at night! There is a smell of change on the wind I tell ya!

The Brazillian supports got a huge kick out of Zans giddup, so she scored numerous interviews on Braillian TV crews and many photo shots (sometimes they even ran after her - no exaggeration!)

North Korea vs Ivory Coast, Nelspruit.

Aaaarph! Aaaarph! Aaaarph!

Both of the teams in this match were destined to be eliminated (unless something truly mad happened). Never the less we were right behind Ivory Coast and the crowd was fully into it. You might have thought it was a very important match!

The match had a more African feel to it than some of the other matches, with people sitting in the wrong seats and coming and going late and generally a little bit more rowdy. Which made it all the more interesting.

Thanks for reading folks! Bye from Tim.

Pingxi Sky lanterns

Hey smooth operator, it has been too long...

The weekend after our scooter drip, we attended the sky lantern festival in Pingxi (Taipei county). It was a really awesome festival. Both Tim and Cliff's favorite festival thus far.

We caught a bus from Taipei zoo to Pingxi in the mountains, which took about an hour to get there. The main objective of the festival is to send your wish to the God/Gods. This diety doesn't use the old skool postal system, or the middle skool fax system, or the new skool twitter system, so the Taiwanese invented this lantern system to get there message across.

Don't wait for those eyelashes to fall out, or those shooting stars to shoot, and forget rubbing dog's tummies! Come to Taiwan and take these 5 easy steps to make a real wish:

1. Buy a hand-made paper lantern (about the size of 2 black bags).

2. Write your wish on the side.

3. Add the "ghost money" (soaked in paraffin) to the bottom of the lantern).

4. Light the ghost money, and let the lantern fill with hot air.

5. Send upwards into the night sky, so that it gets closer to God and he can read your request.

Note: Add some bling to your lantern (for extra attention) by attaching a firework, just before you set it off. Tricky but worth it.

Wish granted.

Yeah, we were lame and didn't set off a lantern, because it was so crowded and chaotic. But it was just beautiful and hypnotizing watching thousands of miniature hot-air balloons swirl into the black void.

In one area, they set off a whole bunch of lanterns in go, and play epic music as they set off. See the video above, or watch it in better quality on Youtube at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdKlg8b9uf0

This was a massive lantern that they set off. The president even made an appearance (or at least, I think it was him), and write his wish on a Lantern.

It was all dandy and dreamy, until we went to catch the buses back to Taipei. It became negative and nightmarish as we saw the thousands of people waiting in the queue for buses, and realized that we were never going to make it back to Taipei in time to catch the last train back to Hsinchu.

We decided that it was pointless waiting in the queue, so we started walking the 20km walk back to Taipei, hoping that we could hitch a lift, or catch a taxi, or join a bus. There were a whole lot of other people trying the same thing, without any luck. It was a Sunday night and Tim was working the next morning at 10am, so we started to stress.

I wished that by some crazy way we could magically get back to Taipei, for last train...and that wish came true! (even without the use of a lantern!). We randomly stopped at this temple, and somebody that stayed there gave 7 of us a speedy lift back to Taipei on an alternative route, and then we sprinted to catch the metro (underground), and galloped to catch one of the last trains, as we breathed a big sigh of relief.

On the morning of the sky lanterns, we stopped by the Chang Kai Shek Memorial hall, and went to see the Fine Arts museum in Taipei (below).

They were doing some construction work at the museum, so we got in free. There were some beautiful large prints from five Taiwanese artists, and some random knitted things creeping out of tents and bent doors. Tim is hoping to go back in the next couple of weeks, because there is an exhibition on for Richard Rogers Architects.

The construction workers weren't shy about using the brand new pink chairs for a midday nap, while the valuable art sat on the floor next to them.

A quick wrap of the last two weekends:

We went to see lots of kites at the harbor nearest to Hsinchu, We watched some movies, We went to Neiwan for a coffee, little walk, and hot springs with Tom and the Cornell Crew.

Spring is here, buds are growing on the trees, and its mostly enjoyable weather.

Keep operating smoothly! Cliff and Tim

Scooter trip day 9

Today we travelled from from Lishan to Hsinchu. 180km on windy roads, but the weather was the best day of the whole trip, so we had great views for the journey home.

There was a very little bit of ice rain, as we started riding our steads at 7am, so it was fresh but there beautiful of the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

A quick stop for the loo in the bamboo (but no number two).

We stopped at this little waterfall on the side of the road, and had some delicious fried chicken from a local vendor. While we there, some Taiwanese people also stopped for a photo and some padkos. Just as they were leaving, they gave us a whole bunch of luxury tea and coffee sachets. Friendly people, these Taiwanese.

It's amazing how the vegetation changes, driving from the mountains to the coast: Alpine plants, to Pine forests, to Tea Tree farms, to bamboo forests, to thick tropical vegetation, to rice paddies...

This was actually the corner that we wiped out on during Day 1, but it was drier and safer today. Tim retrieved the piece of Whoopi that got knocked off. It was quite emotional being back there (Not!).

Check out the videos of our scooter trip at these links:

Scooter trip part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s_qu4IVEC0

If you cannot view the above video, because of copyright reasons, then watch it without music at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRlyZuqJJw

Scooter trip part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C7ba3O1xqc

or without music at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRlyZuqJJw

The infamous green island ferry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiysDqGDJEo

The end (of the scooter trip).

Scooter Trip - Day 8

Day 8 Hualien - Toroko Gorge - Lishan

As we were leaving the Hostel in Hualien and packing our scoots for the day, we met a Russian fella who was doing the same thing (packing the scooter) and was heading to the same place ( Sun Moon Lake ), along the same road. So we combined forces and set out on this epic day. We had all been to Toroko before, but it is a hard place to just "drive through" so we stopped many times to snap the pics and gape at the landscape. The weather was fairly decent and it had been raining for several days before, so the river was flowing quite furiously.

Here we have Vetelli, giving the sign of peace and good tidings.He was a friendly sorta guy, who spoke excellent Chinese so he was really hand to have around. He also sported a purple rain coat, which added some interest to his look.

In the back round is a landslide which collapsed a concrete road protection structure(thing), so the road was diverted just in front of the landslide. Even as we were there some small rocks were tumbling off the slope onto the side of the road.

At this stage, we had gone up through the Toroko Gorge, and we continuing up the road which itself was going up into the clouds. Was not a comfortable drive, getting colder and damper as we went. Also at this stage it was very scenic and peaceful, but soon we would be in the clouds...

Cliff was just checking to see if there was anything in his teeth. He is very consciousness with his oral Hygiene. Vetelli and I were having a scooter show down. The Russians...

Some time later....and we had emerged from the clouds! I was wearing a dashing vest to reduce my chances of being squashed in the cloudy darkness. It was all worth it though, as it was warmer above the clouds and very bright and sunny. And....there was snow!

This was a big highlight of the trip, and it was a very fortunate thing that we had our Chinese speaking travel companion with us as he managed to talk our way through a police road block. There were requiring people to have snow chains, or winter tyres on their cars to go any further up the road. We had neither, but we convinced the Policeman to allow us through "just to look at the snow" and them come back again. Our intention was to keeping on going over the mountain along the road to the Sun Moon Lake. The ONLY road to the Sun Moon Lake!

Vetelli was way more excited about the snow than we were. And we were excited about it. He kept on stopping to take photos and when we asked him why he was so excited (and we mentioned that we were under the impression there was quite a lot of snow in Russia ) he explained that he had not seen snow in TWO YEARS! And for this reason he was very very happy.

Cliff in the snow, not making a very good snow angel.

Here are the two steeds, up in uncharted territory, pushing the boundaries and living on the cutting edge of high performance scootering.

What happened next was unfortunate. We went as far as we could (and it was really beautiful) when we met yet another road block, which we were stopped at. We came across a guy also on a scooter, who had a snow chain for his back wheel, and he told us it was impossible to go any further! This was due to the fact that the snow came up to his waste, and scooters are not quite built for pushing snow around. So we were in quite a pickle, not having a place to stay and large distance to get back to Hsinchu. We decided to go north, on a road in a valley between the mountains and hope to find a place to stay. The travel guide did not say there was much there, except for some small towns.

Fortunately we found a strange sort of place to stay with Vetelli, and we parted our ways the next morning. He was going to try the road to Sun Moon Lake again the following day. Quite an up and down day (in moods and topography).

Day 9 awaits!