Where'd ya go?

Since some are surely wondering where I have been, might I suggest you visit my new photoblog - Arion Daily Photo. Since I travel a lot, having a location-based photoblog isn't the best for me - should I relocate again, you can follow me at the same place!

Extension of Stay Permitted Until...

Due to the typhoon, I had to go get one of these ugly stamps in my passport. Yikes.

Delayed

Due to the super typhoon, I am delayed in my departure by several days.

Of course, I found this out after I went to the airport.

Over lunch (by myself), I read a very cynical, but funny editorial from the Taipei Times.

It read:

"It is likely that the president will convene an emergency typhoon task force. For such occasions, the president and accompanying staff wear dramatically colored windbreakers and have important-looking name plates placed on their desks. This has become a bipartisan tradition as officials attempt to look as if they have matters under control.

But the reality is that prudent preparations for storms of this size — maintenance and testing of floodgates in the week before a storm hits, preliminary evacuations of senior citizens and young children from remote communities and exposed coastal and flood-prone towns — have not been taking place.

This is especially objectionable given the tendency of government officials in recent months to carpet forecasters at the weather bureau for not predicting the trajectories of storms to the nearest kilometer and rainfall to the nearest millimeter.

By and large the squat and ugly concrete structures that dominate rural architecture here serve residents well when typhoons and earthquakes strike, thus relieving the government of a degree of responsibility when things do go wrong. With luck, this will also be the case on this occasion."

Wow!

New Favourite Restaurant Name

It's "Yo, yo, yo!", or "have have have".

Blurry, because I shot this during a typhoon!

The Last Blue Truck Photo?

This very well could be my last blue truck photo for a long time, as I'm leaving Taiwan for Australia soon.

Tonight, in celebration of a recent windfall, my friend Yusheng and his S.O. Eting and I went to the bizarre Taiwan Beer Bar. It was so-so. I think that we actually ended up at the wrong place inside the factory, but maybe I have high expectations. :D

After we ate and had a few beers, we headed back out and ran into a guy vomiting in the road. We decided to go the other way.

Interestingly, they have a huge collection of empties, with a blue truck inside them.

Contrasts

The Lin Family Garden in Banqiao has no buffer zone, apparently.

Waiting for the light...

A strange combination of things I found along Shida Road today... who wears a sweater in 34°C weather? and what's up with the Palestinian Flag sticker?

Tongan Street

Mailboxes lined up.

Once, while at this intersection, I was waiting on my bicycle and some dude pulled up with a bunch of gas canisters attached to it. He saw me, grinned some evil toothy grin and did something to cause one of the canisters to go "boom!".

"Whoa!" I said, somewhat impressed, somewhat embarrased for him.

"Heheheheh" he said, and rode away.

What ?

Another tale from "Dingdong Village" 頂東里...

Postal Workers

Postal Worker mannequins at the postal museum. Taiwan is indeed, a bizarre place.

Out and about

Another strange find in Taipei.