A day in the life...

Toroko Gorge

Two days ago was Confucious's birthday. The Taiwanese governement designates this day as Teachers' Day.  It's pretty cool that they do that. I decided to goto the Taipei Confcuious Temple, a 150,000 sq ft complex in the center of town. The day before that, a few of us went to Danshui to eat some street foods, then off to JinShan to go swimming and surfing. The day before that was a hang in the Daan Forest Park. The day after that was a gondola ride up to the Maokong Tea Plantations in the hills south of Taipei to drink local teas on the mountainside overlooking the city basin. Two days before that was a trip to the top of Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings on Earth & home to the fastest elevator in the world. The 101 offers a pretty remarkable look-see. Tomorrow appears as if a soak in the Beitou hotsprings is in order. The day after that will be a journey south to Hualien on the east coast for a hike through the Taroko Gorge, a pseudo-natural wonder. It's tough being on holiday like this but it's worth it.

Taipei: A couple thumbs up!

Taipei, Taiwan

I must say that Taipei is a good place to know about.  The city is safe and clean, the weather warm, the foods delicious and affordable.  Plentiful backalleys run rampant. The city sits in a basin that was once filled with water while the surrounding mountains are chock full of tea houses, hiking trails and hot springs.  Taipei's been reborn with the birth of the MRT system mid 1990's.  They say it was a nightmare before that.  The people talk okay English though everything is written in Chinese and spoken in Mandarin. It's all loaded up with parks, museums and temples.  And street fairs.  It's also the last Taoist place on earth.  I find it more interesting than Fair Lawn, NJ.  It's a city the white man forgot about because there aren't any here.  The haole is 1 in 10,000.  Lots of motorbikes, chinese girls, palm trees & surf.  I give Taipei a couple of thumbs up.

Safe arrival; The other side of the pond

Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan

33 hours of transit time.  Hassled by Newark's lovely semi-marginal and hardly employable courtesy desk.  Treated like a criminal by our boys in blue.  Grunted on by the UAL flight attendant staff as they persuade me to purchase a snackbox of Oreo cookies and Peperidge Farm Goldfish for breakfast. Fed like a champ and treated like a king by the JAL flight girls as I depart the nation on United's dime.  Gosh I love their level of professionalism.  Ya know, it's true, asian women are like country music tunes- they're all similar and once you learn to like one, you tend to like them all!  I intend to spend as much time as humanly possible completely and utterly surrounded by them to see how that feels. So far, so yummy.  I may die a happy man.

The Yankees Win, the Yankees Win! 9/14/2010

Curtis Granderson lays out something fierce, deep center field, bottom of the eighth, to make the catch, Holy Cow! Jorge Posada hits a monster bomb, the longest of his career, to break the tie, top of the ninth. Right fielder Nick Swisher makes a Paul O'Neil style rocket throw to nip the runner at third with a bang bang tag by A-Rod to double up the Rays, take the win & hold onto first. This is my last game at home. "The Yankees win!  Thhheeee Yankees win!"