Saturday, April 5, 2008

Taipei II


After a very interesting conference, we had our own presentation on the fourth and last day, Friday. This went quite ok, of course, and we saw that the second and fourth day were the days with the highest quality. Nonetheless, we got stuck in our own paradox conclusion of this conference, that there is a whole world of other people not listening to openmindedness. But ok, let's just talk about the beautiful country here. I have honestly never felt so safe and never seen such friendly people abroad. Taiwan hardly has any police, because it doesn't need it. Today was a feasting day, so really really crowded, but we could have taken the metro with our eyes closed and of our bags open! And so we did. Enjoy the photos!

To prove that we actually did something, here is Marcel photoshopped in someone else's presentation.

Especially for all people named 'Daan' (Daan, pay attention here!).
We decided to go on a hike trail up to the tea mountains. Steep stairs, but really worth it!

On our way up, we had some great views. This is just one of them.

This is another great view at the tea-house

...where we had tea for several hours. The ritual is great and relaxing.

Marcel enjoys(?) his Taiwanese potatoe that was served with the tea

This day was a day of honouring deceased family. So everyone lit incense in this dragon, served food at graves and visited the temples in the mountains.


Just another great picture of a big city

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Taipei I

Hello,

My colleague Marcel and I are in Taiwan for a conference on geotechnical and geophysical site characterization. So far, we haven't been out of the city Taipei. It's a bit of a weird city: clean but smelly, green but full of skyscrapers, cloudy but warm. As it is the first time for me in a country where they speak Chinese (actually Mandarin) we get a bit of a 'Lost In Translation' feeling. Especially because the hotel is so luxuruous.

View from the 101 Tower, the highest tower in the world, has it's flaws: you're in the clouds...

The 101 tower as seen in the city, between other skyscrapers

And they're still building....

These photo's (above and under) are from an amazing scene: a herb garden ('moestuin' in Dutch) in the middle of the city!! Would you eat it?