Did Franklin's Open a Branch in Taipei?

So I'm on the way home from work tonight, getting rained on pretty good because I failed to grab my umbrella in the morning. (It wasn't raining this morning in Taipei; unlike Austin, just because its not raining in the morning doesn't mean it won't rain all afternoon.) As I approach the corner of Heping and Dun Hua near my apartment, I see an even more obnoxious crush of people at the intersection.

Turns out Burger King has a crazy cheap one-day coupon special today: 50NT (about $1.67) for a burger, fries, and drink.

My first reaction? Damn, that's a lot of people in line for Burger King.

My second reaction? I should take a picture and post something on my blog. (Because I have a streak on the line: capturing every promotion/advertisement of the local Taipei Burger King on my blog....)

After dropping off my laptop, grabbing my umbrella and my new Canon EOS 60D (yes, my trusty old point and shoot camera is somewhere in Mexico, along with my former truck, passport, garage door opener, and left running sock), I head out for some stalking of my favorite fast food establishment.

I ended up with three shots....

The "Stalker" shot taken from a safe distance across the street....

A view from the back of the line....

And, finally, a view from the front head-on....

Something tells me the 20-30 minute wait won't end in the kind of happiness that Franklin BBQ customers in Austin experience.... If you have no idea what I'm talking about in regard to Franklin's, and you live in Texas, that should change.

Game 7

Probably not how most of you Ranger and Cardinal fans are watching the game back home. This is my laptop propped up on a pillow in my bed. There's something awfully painful about playoff baseball at 8am....

For those of you watching the game in the States, have a beer for me....

What are the Odds?

I return home from Taiwan, fly into Houston, hang out in Diboll for the weekend, and drive to Austin on a Sunday. The following Monday I go to work at the Dell campus in Austin.

For those of you not familiar (and I'm assuming that's a large majority of the readership), Dell has multiple buildings in Austin and Round Rock, and they are all within close proximity of US Interstate 35, which runs north/south from the US border with Mexico to Canada.

Monday I had multiple meetings in different buildings and I drove to and from those meetings, changing parking spots each time. My last meeting of the day was at 3pm, and I parked about 150 feet from the entrance to the building.

At 5pm, I head out to the parking lot..... And there's no truck. Knowing that the Dell parking lots have a less than stellar record with vehicle security (multiple truck thefts in the past few years, including one of my colleagues), I immediately assumed my truck was stolen. But, since I was still feeling the effects of jet lag, I scratched my head a few times, walked in a couple of 20 foot circles and tried to remember if maybe I parked somewhere else in the lot.

One hour later, after the police arrived, and the parking lot was clearing out, it sunk in that my trusty Sierra was well on its way to Mexico. Good times!

Here's an amateur sketch of the general estimated whereabouts of my truck....

Followed by the official Austin Police Department incident report. I've chosen to only share the more pertinent part of the report (ie, the part where the detective hypothesizes on the nature of the crime....)

It would have been so much more entertaining if the officer chose to use the word "loot".... Oh well; here's hoping I don't have reason to see another police report involving the theft of my truck anytime soon.

Anyone got an opinion on the best crew cab truck on the market nowadays? The GMC was a no-brainer back in 2004, but Dodge and Ford both have some strong models out there these days. Let the research begin!

Extortion

So, I'm checking in to Continental.com for my flight back to Houston tomorrow. When I view my seat for the flight from Tokyo to Houston, there's an available business class seat upgrade. Given my curious nature, I click on the seat to at least see what they want for this upgrade.

Before I reveal the ask, allow me to provide some context. My round trip flight from Taipei to Houston is $1,200 American dollars.

These cats want 30,000 miles (the equivalent of ~4 Taipei to Houston round trip flights) AND $600 bucks.

Seriously? Man; I'll settle for row 42 in the aisle......

Greetings from "The Future"

Family, friends, and general consumers of the inter webs, I have been woefully inadequate in the blogging department during the month of September. In an attempt to curry favor with those of you who find my musings entertaining, I will take the easy way out and do so via pictures of my adventures the past two months....

Thailand (mid to late August)

Before we get to the pictures, let me just say that Thailand should be at the top of anyone's vacation list if they are in the SE Asia region. Scenic beaches and mountains, great food, and friendly people are just general overarching themes that were on display throughout my 7 days there.....

Kari and I spent 7 days in Thailand, beginning with the Phi Phi Islands. Pretty phenomenal trip, as these pictures will illustrate.

This is the view of our resort at high tide heading in from the ocean.

That's pineapple fried rice in a pineapple. As most of my immediate family members can attest, I've never been a big pineapple fan, but then again, I've never tried pineapple this good!

And the view from the pool. This alone was worth the price of admission...

One of about 49 rocks I took pictures of in the Indian Ocean. For reference, that is a boat in the lower right-hand corner. This picture was taken on the way to Maya Bay, where "The Beach" was filmed...
Coconut tree grove at the resort on Ko Phi Phi. Highly recommend Phi Phi Island Village Resort for anyone interested in a Thailand trip.

Not much of a transition here, but the second half of our Thailand trip was spent in Chiang Mai, the source of my last post on "trunk riding". The picture above is Wat Chedi Luang, a very impressive structure that was built back in the 14th century (that's 600+ years ago for you math majors...)

Patara Elephant farm is a gorgeous place, and the day we spent with the elephants was awesome.
My elephant, Maecome, could not have cared less about any of my voice commands or where I was interested in going. She had a one track mind, and that mind was focused on bamboo, and eating every last scrap she could get her trunk on.
Yeah, I'm 32, but that doesn't preclude me from behaving like a 14 year old. Sue me...

Speaking of childish behavior, this little guy was hell on wheels. I can't exactly remember how old he was (maybe 4-6 months), but he was the highlight of the day. Always getting into trouble and making mischief. Highly entertaining!

China

I spent two weeks in China in September for work, and was able to check out a few sites and little known places in and around Beijing and Shanghai.

This is the Oriental Pearl TV tower on The Bund in Shanghai. Really cool at night...

The above dish is jelly fish prepared in some form or fashion. I tried it; I won't be trying it again...
No trip to Beijing would be complete without a hike on the Great Wall. Several of my Dell friends and I hiked the Great Wall. We started out in a remote village outside Beijing.
You can see the Great Wall in the background. (Yes, my camera is not an SLR.)

A little bit better picture of the Wall from a higher vantage point on the hike up the mountain.

After hiking for an hour, we came to the first watch tower in an un-restored section of the wall. The name of this section is Jiankou.

After about 1.5 hours of hiking, it was time for a beer. Luckily, some locals just happened to have some cold Tsing Tao's in the second watchtower on the wall!

Cool little stairwell into a watchtower. Obviously still part of the un-restored section.

Here's a shot of the section that has been restored in just the last couple of years. Big difference, and at this point in our 5 mile hike, my legs were ready for a break.

Lunch after the hike was at a joint that had some Red Bull, Chinese edition.

The day after the hike, we explored some of the sites in Beijing. This is the Temple of Heaven.

Tienanmen Square.

Entrance to the Forbidden City. Yes, I have a big head. Completely unintentional that I covered up Chairman Mao's portrait.

Meanwhile, back in Shanghai... I took this picture at 7:30am on the way to work. The "Donut King"is closed. Seriously?!?

We had a chance to do some community service in Shanghai, and this is a picture of a 5th grade classroom at an elementary school on the outskirts of Shanghai. Very cool experience.
The day before I was to leave Shanghai, I ran into a grad school friend from Virginia, at my hotel in Shanghai! How cool/crazy/unbelievable is that? Pete and I proceeded to have quite the adventure that night. Probably blog worthy on another post....

Taiwan

The last couple weeks in Taipei have been fairly uneventful, but I did manage to hit up an incredible sushi joint with my buddy Matt.

Seared salmon belly; without a doubt the best sushi I've ever put in my mouth. Incredible...

And finally, I had the pleasure of doing some community service last week at a local orphanage and children's home.

Yes, I actually did something other than ride the seahorse at the school. The white concrete wall in the background wasn't so white before we showed up and painted it....

******************************************************************

Its obviously been a pretty eventful couple of months over here in Asia for me, and I've enjoyed every minute of my experience thus far.

I'll do my best to avoid month long stints between blog posts in the future, but sometimes creating the memories takes priority over documenting said memories.

Tomorrow I hop on a plane for my first trip back to Texas since I arrived in Taipei in May. For those of you in Austin, I'll be there Oct 3rd - 14th. Hit me up on email, the blog, or FB, and let's hang out.

Hook 'em!

Trunk Riding

This probably isn't what you envisioned, right? Unless you are just real good with context clues and the fact I was recently in Thailand.

I wish I had more video footage that showed how I ended up in this position, but oh well, still enjoyable to watch, I presume.

Costco Taiwan: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Those of you who shop at Costco in the States probably think your local store is a mad house (I know I thought this about the Austin location). But the location here in Taipei takes things to a new level. I visited the local store here my very first weekend in Taipei and posted a picture on Facebook that captured the madness. Tonight's visit was equally entertaining.

Some things just can't be explained adequately with words, so I've provided some illustrative pictures of the uniquely Taiwan "Costco Experience."

A 12 foot artificial Christmas tree; there are two main reasons that it makes no sense that I saw this particular item tonight:

1. Today is August 21st. (For the calendar challenged among you, that would be a smooth four months before Christmas.)

2. The tree is 12 feet tall; (most apartments in Taipei have 8 foot ceilings.)

Oh, and if artificial Christmas trees aren't your thing, maybe artificial poinsettias are!

Can't say that I see these two items being hot sellers in August or September.....

For those last minute shoppers out there, they had this gem.....

A fake Jack O' Lantern; get 'em while they last folks!

The seasonal holiday items on sale a good 3 months in advance is curious, but the real highlight (or low-light) of any Taipei Costco trip is illustrated below:

That's a sea of humanity folks (at 8:30pm on a Sunday night, no less!) The only other place I've experienced similar crowds is the MRT (subway) system during rush hour. Luckily, my patience has grown and my personal space requirements have shrunk in the last few months. Otherwise, this would be a recipe for disaster.

Oh, and a few of you might be asking, why in the heck would I publish a post about Costco after spending 7 days in Thailand? Well, there is no doubt a wealth of pictures and video from my experiences that will find their way onto the blog, but I'm quite frankly too lazy to write a post of that magnitude tonight. I will say this: solid progress was made on material for the scooter post!

Dear Internet Friends,

I am heading to Thailand for a week this Saturday, and I am happily leaving my work and personal laptops behind in Taiwan. No reason to bore you with a detailed itinerary, but I'll be spending time on the Phi Phi Islands** and in Chiang Mai.

Please consider this my official excuse for not publishing a post for at least another week or so. For those of you that actually read this blog regularly and enjoy it, the fact that I will be in another country for a week should excite you, because I will have my waterproof, shock-proof camera in tow.

In the meantime, I thought I'd take this opportunity to throw up a few links to other blogs authored by friends and family. Just check out the links to the right of the blog homepage.

And finally, I'll leave you with a preview of an upcoming post.......

Sometimes a little humiliation is worth it.....

Cheers,

RNP

** Pronounced "Pee Pee", and yes that makes me laugh every time I say it....

Believe It or Not: Hong Kong, Part II

No, that's not your mind playing tricks on you, I am actually going to finish my narrative (with pictures, of course) of my trip from two months ago to Hong Kong. There are at least one or two things you'll find amusing about the second half of my weekend back in early June. At the very least, you have an excuse to postpone the beginning of your workweek by a few minutes. What's not to like about that?

I believe we left off with some pictures of the harbor from the pier before Travis and I headed out on our night cruise. That's as good a place to resume as any.....

Saturday Night

Our night began with a Victoria Harbour cruise aboard a boat that can only be described as a disappointment. Not to say the boat wasn't nice, roomy, and stocked with snacks and tasty beverages; it was. However, our boat was not:

....a very pirate-like boat that I happened to spot while waiting on the pier.

Once we set out, though, my mind drifted to other things; namely, trying to get some cool pictures with my point and shoot waterproof camera and watching the "Symphony of Lights". This symphony is actually just some music played over the boat's crummy sound system, but it is synchronized with the light show on the business buildings on both sides of the harbor. I say crummy because it wasn't anywhere near as powerful (read: loud and obnoxious) as the Tokyo Thunder's sound system that terrorized Lake Austin the last two summers (when the TT's sound system was actually operational; about 60% of the time.)

Anyway, the Symphony of Lights was actually pretty cool, and the very unprofessional shot below gives you some sense of the amount of neon on display each and every night in Hong Kong.

Although they took their sweet time opening the bar (that was included with the price of admission), quite a treat awaited me when I ordered my first beer....

Blue Ice!!! Question: How do you know if the tour company you booked your cruise with is making money? Answer: When the beer you are served on the tour is Blue Ice. About the best thing that can be said about Blue Ice is that it was cold.

I did manage to take what I would consider a pretty cool pick of Hong Kong Island with my camera while we were on the boat. Don't ask what the building's name is; I have no idea.

And finally, the last image I'll leave you with from the cruise is this little oddity.

Apparently Coca-Cola celebrates their 125th anniversary a little different in every country. In Taiwan, they've got expensive bottles with fancy designs; in Hong Kong, they've got cans with some one-eyed cartoon monkey and a yellow sun. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Our cruise boat dropped us off on the Kowloon peninsula, where you can satisfy just about any type of shopping desire you can dream up. More on that later, but first things first. That refreshing Blue Ice necessitated a trip to the men's room, where I found this sign:

False advertising; that restroom reminded me of Cheers on Dirty Sixth. Namely, it most definitely didn't smell like it had been disinfected once every two hours. More like once every two months.

After a short stroll down the street, I encountered my first Bangladeshan, who called me "my friend" no less than ten times in a two minute span. Since I was curious to see just what a fake Rolex looks like, we followed this cat into a building and up the elevator to some really nondescript closet of an office. He showed us watch after watch after watch. While I certainly couldn't tell they were fake, I asked how long they would run, and this guy answers one and a half years. Seriously? You want $100 for a fake Rolex that would last less than a fifth of the time I've had my $400 Seiko. Sorry, "my friend", no deal.

After losing a friend because I didn't buy one of his fake watches, we came upon some pretty cool window displays outside the various stores on the main drag.

I assume this is an elephant tusk, and it is one of the coolest things I've seen in Asia so far. It reminds me of the elk and moose antler art that I've seen in Alaska and Wyoming. One of these days, when I have money to burn, I'll pick up something like this for my casa.

This next one is just plain creepy....

You're in charge of merchandise display at a luxury hand bag store; how do you emphasize your ostrich-skin line of goods? Apparently with an ostrich body and a couple of said bags. Weird....

After walking around aimlessly for another forty-five minutes or so, we finally hailed a cab and made it to the "Ladies Market", a really bustling section of the city with lots of street vendors, food, and various forms of entertainment. Well, true to form, we ran into a "Lady" entertainer....

The human being pictured above, ladies and gentlemen, is a man, believe it or not. Its a good thing the picture is once again a product of my not so professional photography skills; otherwise, you would get way too close a glimpse of Hong Kong's version of Leslie.

That's as good a way as any to wrap up the recap of Saturday night. We ended up eating some mediocre Japanese food, which is a shame, because Hong Kong has some fantastic Dim Sum, among other things. The truth is that we just got too hungry and didn't have much of an interest in getting lost for the third time in less than 24 hours.

Sunday

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early for a tour of the city by motor bus. In the interest of not writing a novel, I'll stick to the highlights. Before we even made our first stop, I had a conversation with a fellow UT alum named Neal. Even more remarkable than the fact I ran into a fellow Longhorn was the fact this guy spelled his name correctly!

The first stop on our tour was a local temple, where I got this shot of a bunch of burning incense. Really cool.

And another shot where you can see the burning end of the incense...

The second stop was at the Hong Kong Peak tram, where I ran into the second Longhorn of the day, who flashed the Hook'em when he saw my hat. It really is amazing how small this world can be; I go a month in Taipei without seeing a fellow alum and then see two in the span of two hours on a Sunday morning in Hong Kong.

Other than being a cool looking train, the tram was unremarkable. The view from the top of Hong Kong Peak, however, was anything but....

Also, I met this local on the top who sold me a few pictures that he took back in 1950. I couldn't resist getting my picture taken with him, and unfortunately I forgot I was wearing a name tag for the tour.

Really nice guy who obviously has a zest for life.... If I'm smiling like that when I'm 60+ because some random bald foreigner just bought a picture or two from me, I'll have lived a good life!

The next two stops were fairly unremarkable; we went to a jewelry plant where the only highlight was the Coke fountain, and then we had a ride with some boat people on something that looked like this.....

The final stop was Stanley Market, where I bought two really cool oil paintings that I promptly left on the train to the airport (son of a bitch). Outside of the market was a really cool little beach and inner bay area....

And directly across from the bay was a little pub with a Carlsberg beer umbrella.

"Probably the best beer in the world": maybe a little more conviction next time, guys.

All in all, Hong Kong was a really cool place to visit and I had a great time. Definitely considering a return trip before I return to the ATX next spring, if for no other reason than to pick up another couple oil paintings (yes, I'm really that pissed about my $20 paintings....)

I'll leave you guys with this little slice of Americana from the HK airport....

Because why wouldn't you expect a Popeye's chicken in Hong Kong?