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?

Thank you for the Birthday Wishes!

One really cool thing about living in a super-connected social media world is that you hear from a large number of people on your birthday. While I would no doubt prefer to thank everyone individually for the well wishes I received on my birthday, I'm a little swamped with work right now and thought this would be a nice way to say thank you to everyone at once!

Being in Asia is certainly a unique experience because I've essentially had two days that I can consider my birthday. The 13 hour time difference is typically a bit of an inconvenience, but its been pretty cool the last 48 hours.

To everyone who wished me happy birthday through Facebook and email, thank you! Your thoughts and kind words are appreciated; its remarkable how something as simple as a "Happy Birthday" comment posted on Facebook can make someone feel special.

I thought I'd leave everyone with a couple of birthday-related pics before I head to work (its 6:25 AM on Thursday, August 4th here in Taipei....)

I've really cut back on caffeine and Coca-Cola in the past ten years, which is probably remarkable to those of you who hung out with me in high school and college, but I do indulge on occasion. This morning was one of those occasions; that's a super cool 125th anniversary special edition Coke bottle and my hyper-color Perrier glass (the Perrier logo turns from white to green when cold). If you look closely, that is in fact a "shake-weight" commercial on the Asian ESPN in the background. Priceless.....


This is a pic of some bacon-wrapped asparagus at the Japanese style BBQ place that my friend Ching took me last night for my birthday here in Taipei. This was just one of many tasty dishes we had at dinner; many thanks Ching!


Note the "U.S.A." that my Mom added to return address; for some reason, I got a real kick out of this. And of course, thank you Mom and Dad for the card and its contents!

Until next time, peace!

The Picture Post, Part II

Because truly, the easiest way to write a blog entry is to not write at all.

This is a rice-patty burger from Mos Burger, a Japanese fast food chain. Quite tasty, actually. The "Chinese Sauce" for the chicken nuggets is remarkably similar to McDonald's sweet and sour sauce, which is to say it sucks.

Daniel and I in Old Town in Hsinchu, south of Taipei. Yes, I am drinking a beer. Generally, when there isn't an open container law prohibiting me from having a cold one in public, I feel obliged....

Daniel and San enjoying the "cactus-flavored" Popsicles we picked up in Old Town. Damn tasty, actually.

This contraption is my all-in-one washer/dryer combo machine. When I was looking at apartments, I quickly decided that a combo machine made a lot of sense given the space constraints in a city like Taipei.

After I washed and dried my first pair of jeans, my opinion of the combo washer/dryer was decidedly less positive. If I wanted my jeans to be that small, I'd probably just roll in some navy colored chalk or something; you know, in an effort to look more like the hipsters that plague Austin and other spots across the US.

Its missing the gold Texas star I'm accustomed to, but it still tastes like the Heavy, so no complaints....

I went to a BBQ joint last week in Taipei; this was my dinner about 15 minutes before I was served. Probably the freshest shrimp I've ever had, and the taste didn't disappoint.

So, you're probably wondering what's so special about some 7-11 sushi, right? Well, take a closer look at the roll on the left. You probably can't read Mandarin, and well, neither can I, but my co-worker can. That's a "German Sausage" sushi roll. Hey, if there's a Texas roll in most Austin sushi joints, why not a "German Sausage" sushi roll in Taipei? (Well, probably because a sausage roll generally goes against everything right about sushi, namely that's its quasi-healthy....)

At some point, I'll either get tired of posting pictures of Burger King advertisements, or they'll stop amusing me so much. Luckily for you, we haven't reached that point. Forget the seafood dinner, I'm headed to the King!

This is but one example of the greatness that is Japanese BBQ restaurants in Taipei. Stay tuned for a post dedicated to this wonderful little facet of dining out here in Taiwan....

Some form of grilled flavoring on my Cheetos. Why not?

The Don, you'll like this one. Apparently I moved from Austin (a mere one hour drive from San Antonio), to Taipei (a good 15 hours by plane from Austin) so I could pick up a Spurs ATM card.

Did anyone honestly expect me to forego the High Life in Asia?

They really go out of their way in Taipei to individually wrap their fruits/vegetables. If any particular food deserves this type of royal treatment, it is the avocado, my friends. Only drawback is that a regular avocado is about $3 American here.

My bike, if not cooler than yours, is certainly more portable.....

I had always planned on picking up a bike here, but who knew I'd get something so entertaining for when I get back to Austin.

I'll leave you with the knowledge that you aren't necessarily safe from being iced in Taipei....