Taiwan Trip Day 5

Taiwan Trip Day 5

After running around between the banks and the government offices all day for 2 days, I wanted to take it easy on day 5 of my trip. So I decided to take a trip back to the neighborhood where I grew up, and stop by the school I attended when I was a kid.

To my surprise, my alma mater, Fuhsing Private School, has gone through a complete transformation. My memory of my school was a big playground with basketball and dodge ball courts by the front entrance and square looking 2 stories building in the back. Today those are the things only exist only in my memories. The playground is gone, so was the old building. Today all you can see is a very modern looking high rise building that pretty much occupies the area where the playground used to be. Even though I was a little sad to see all the old buildings are ancient history, but I think the students who attend the school today are going to get the best education with all the new modern technologies and facilities.


After I took a few pictures of the school, I started walking toward my old house, which is right across the street. My father wished my sister and me to receive the best education in Taiwan by enrolling us to private schools. He also wanted us to focus and concentrate all of our time and energy on schoolwork, so he moved the entire family to an apartment right next to our school. I remembered I can actually see my classroom through my bedroom windows. Today the building stood and looked exactly the same way as the day I left. However, it has brought me with mixed emotions.

Taiwan Trip Day 4

Taiwan Trip Day 4

I spent a majority part of day 3 running around government agencies; day 4 is all about visiting the financial institutions. Due to my unique circumstances, I have to make several stops between the banks and the brokerage firms. Unfortunately, if I were going to take the bus, I am looking at least 2 transfers. Therefore, I figured I’d just walk. It really is not that big of the deal. People who live in the city do it everyday.

Actually it turned out to be a pretty good idea because I get to do a little sight seeing. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me to take a few photo shots when I see something interesting. For instance, on the way back, I noticed this building with a giant electronic TV screen in it. I immediately recognized that is the famous Taipei Arena (臺北小巨蛋 ). Originally this place used to be a baseball stadium. In year 2000 the Taipei government ordered to demolish the stadium and decided to build this multi-functional arena which seats 15,000 people. Construction started in year 2001 and it was completed in 2005.

In the evening, Ron, his girlfriend and I went to Keelung night market for some Taiwanese deli (基隆廟口小吃 ). Imagine hundreds of street vendors lined up on the street and all you have to do is walk up there and point to the food you’d like to eat. The portions are small but that’s the beauty of it. This way you get to taste 15 vendors instead of 5. I ordered a few traditional Taiwanese deli such as:

Tempura (甜不辣)

One-Bite Sausage (一口吃香腸)

Braised Eel Thick Soup (紅燒鰻羹)

Pig Intestine with Thin Noodle Soup (大腸麵線)

Dry Noodles (乾麵)

The pictures are worth a thousand words.

Taiwan Trip Day 3

Day 3

Wanted to wake up late but couldn’t. This was a very important day for me. To be perfectly honest, this trip is not entirely about fun and leisure. I had some very important personal matters that needed to be taken care of which requires my presence. On the night before, I got the directions of the places I needed to go from my sister, looked up for the bus routes and schedules on the Internet, and still didn’t manage to get out of the house until 11am.

To my surprise, things went amazingly smooth and well. I got to give the Taiwan governmental agencies two thumbs up on how efficient and effective they handle their business. Has anyone been to the DMV or post office in the states? Imagine how long you have to wait in line before those people at the counter even look at your direction? Well, none of that is happening here. The wait is about 10 minutes or less and you get to sit in the lobby with magazines and newspapers. One worker even poured me a cup of tea while I was waiting. Try to top that in the states or anywhere else in the world!
Finally, I finished all the things on my check list for the day and I was officially off the clock. I called my buddy Ron again and we all went out for dinner. I forgot the name of that restaurant but I did remember they had very tasty dumplings, pot stickers and small steamed pork bun (水餃, 鍋貼 & 小籠包).

dinner we drove around the city for sight seeing. Taipei is a very beautiful city at night with lots of places to hang out. We drove around in the area near the Taipei 101 Tower and I managed to get one shot (not a very good one, it was too dark). I was exhausted because I’ve been running errands all afternoon so we called it the night.

Taiwan Trip Day 2

Sorry, no pictures until day 3….

I woke up Sunday morning feeling great, did not feel a bit of jet let at all. I wonder if it’s because I was so looking forward to this trip, the excitement overwhelmed the fatigue. My sister suggested a Teppanyaki place where we could go for lunch and I was all for it. If my memory serves me correctly, the last time I tried it was at Benihana in Miami years ago, and it was very expensive. The place I went with my sister is located in mall, but when you walk inside it feels like a warm family type restaurant. No fancy decorations, no over-price menu. Everything tasted delicious and the price was very reasonable.

After lunch, I asked my sister where I could go and get all the things I need to buy on my “shopping list”, she suggested Kwanghua Mall (光華商場). Many of my Taiwanese friends must be very familiar with this place. Although most of the venders mainly sold used books when the mall first opened in the 70’s (see pic attached), today the mall has become best known for a place to shop for electronics such as computers and stereo systems.

The place is huge, hundred of mini-store fronts venders occupied in a 6 stories building. You can easily spend the whole day there and not feeling it. I called up my buddy Ron again and met him and his friend Paul there. I did manage to get something checked off my list but I figured I may have to come back again.

Taiwan Trip Day 1

Finally, I got the pictures of my trip organized. I think I better jog down my trip in a journal as quickly as possible before I forget. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be. I know, I know…I got older!

I don’t think I have a photo entry for each day. If I were walking down the street trying to get something for lunch, I don’t think that was photo-worthy.

And, I wanted to thank my sister for making this trip possible, where I stayed at her place for 2 weeks. Plus, my sister pretty much paid for everything…

Also thanks to Ron for spending a lot of time hanging out with me, who also treated me a lot of my meals while I was there.

Okay here goes….

Day 1

When I learned that my departing flight from L.A. will be delayed for 30 minutes, I figured I will be arriving Taipei behind schedule. I thought I was being smart by calling my sister and telling her that I am going to be late for at least 30 minutes. But guess what? The “goody too shoes” captain of China Airline wanted to make it right by trying to catch up the lost time. As the result, we actually arrived on time at 9:30pm local time! Oh boy! I called my sister immediately after I landed and she was still stuck in traffic and wouldn’t be in for another 30 min. Luckily, Taipei International Airport has Free WiFi connection and I able to go online with my iPod. That is cool! I seemed to remember while I was in LAX, they wanted to charge you an arm and a leg for the WiFi connection. Uhm…I thought US has more advaned technology and free public services.

After my sister picked me up from the airport, we dropped off my stuff at her place and headed to Watami Taiwan (www.watami.com.tw) for a late dinner. It’s a pretty nice place where they serve casual Japanese cuisines. While I was there, I called my old buddy Ron and he and his girl friend were able to join us. I have not seen Ron for quiet a few years so there were a lot to talk about. After the meal, Ron suggested we go and hang out with another friend of ours Clark at the pub near by. It’s a pretty nice pub but most of the patrons are slightly older, in other words, people in my age. So, I felt right at home! Through out my first night in Taipei, conservatively speaking, I think I might have about…3 beers!

Taiwan Trip 2010

Finally got the Taiwan trip pictures organized. Will be sending them out to you guys individually via email. Also, will post them on Facebook with my journal.

Just another typical S. FL Sunday Afternoon

Today is a nice day for riding. The weather was just perfect. High 70’s with a little overcast. I was going through my same routines every time before I take the HOG out. Take off the bike cover, give the HOG a nice wash, dry it and start it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t take it out last weekend so the battery needs a little jump. That was no problem. The battery charger would take care of that. Then, my license has expired. In the great state of Florida, if you don’t have a personalized plate, you’ll get a new one every 5 years. And luckily, this is the 6th year, therefore, I need to take the old plate out of the bike and put the new one in.

You got to give credit to the people at Harley Davidson. They have invented ways to make sure to get every dollar out of you on anything and everything you had to buy for the bike. There are 4 screws holding the license plate. The bolts were okay but the screws were very….lets say “irregular”. I have drill bits with my power tools but guess what…? NONE of them fits!!! And the screw was neither flat head nor phillips head so the screw driver doesn’t work. And allen wrench..? Don’t go there, it didn’t work! OH geese, well, okay! Maybe I can take the wrench to hold the screw on one end and try to unscrew the other end with another wrench...well, no. The screw was rusted and if I could I’d use a hammer but it sill wouldn’t solve the problem. One only way out is to cut the screw with a hacksaw…which I didn’t have. So, took a quick stop at the Home Depot (by the way, it was so slow in the store it was depressing….guess the economy is REALLY BAD!) and finally saw the dame thing off. The whole experiment only took about 2 hours but I still get it done.

The rest of the day was history. Great day, great ride! We stopped by the biker bar, ordered a burger and a bucket of Miller Lite. Ran into a few buddies and one good buddy who we haven’t seen a while (the other of the 2 buddies I mentioned on the previous blog). It was really good to see him again. He looked as good as ever! That was a load off my chest. Now I just have to make sure I keep in touch with all of them. That should be easy enough…..you would think?

Risen for Redemption

It’s been so long. Life has been taken unexpected turns. With all the craziness going around, plus the state of our economy, it’s not hard to imagine why people are feeling the blues. Yours truly included. Sometimes I though it might be a lot easier to find comfort by putting up walls around myself. I didn’t feel like seeing anyone or talk to anybody. It’s kind of weird because I am not like this at all. Until last Sunday I realized I’ve been mistaken.

Sunday morning Mrs. Harley Howie and I decided to take the little pony out for a ride. The weather was beautiful and there was no excuse not to go out and enjoy a relaxing Sunday afternoon on the Hog. We stopped at one of our favorite spot Café 27 for quick bite and maybe a bucket of beers or two to go with it. On the way to the potty before we got back on the saddle and hit home, we ran into our friend Bob.

Bob is a motorcycle enthusiast just like us and I have not seen Bob for a long time. It was great to see him but I was embarrassed running into him like this. We sat down and had a few more drinks, chatting about old times. This is where I got even more embarrassed when I listen to Bob talking about what has been happening to our old gang. One of our buddy just had a mild heart attack a few days ago and is now recovering. The other friend is battling against cancer remissoin. The more I hear about it the more I feel guilty.

Friends are supposed always be there to support each other and being here for each other. Especially when times are tough. In fact, exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship is what friendship all about. This afternoon during my lunch break, I decided to call the friend who just had a hear attack. I called and told him how ashamed I feel because I have not been in touch. He didn’t mind much of it and told me he was glad that called. He told me he has wondered how I was doing and hope that where I was I am happy. I apologized and told him I was wrong and will try to be in touch more often. I also wrote an email to the other friend since I don’t have his current phone number, and hoping that I can get in touch with him soon. And starting today, I hope whatever was eating me up will go away and I look forward to get in touch with more of my friends.

Forever our baby!

May 6th has become one of the saddest day of me and Mrs. Harley Howie’s lives. This is the day our beloved “Gui Gui” passed away. Gui Gui (Chinese meaning Good Boy), who our non-native Chinese speaker friends call him “Bob”, is our 17 years old Maltese. We don’t actually know how old Gui Gui was because Mrs. Harley Howie found him 17 years ago. As you can imagine when you have a dog for this long, Gui Gui is not just a pet, he is family. Mrs. Harley Howie really took very good care of him. I always believed that it’s because her love and tender care that Gui Gui had such a good and long life.

The phone call from Mrs. Harley Howie came Tuesday around noon. I was at work and about to take a lunch break. I usually leave my cell on vibrate because my boss hates people making cell phone calls at work. Mrs. Harley Howie knows it and rarely calls me during regular business hours. When I see the phone call I knew it was something urgent. I realized something bad must happen.

Gui Gui has not been feeling well the past weeks. Even though Gui Gui had some health problems but he always has a very good appetite. Few weeks ago he stopped eating and started having diarrhea. In my mind I knew maybe that time has come, but neither Mrs. Harley Howie nor I wanted to talk about it. We just wanted to make sure to make Gui Gui feel as comfortable as we possibly could.

(to be continued....)

Law & Order Meets CSI - Fort Lauderdale

So they picked me to be on the juror. I knew it from the start because lawyers from both sides didn’t ask me too many questions. Instead people who got the most questions were all excused. I knew my boss would not understand for me to be out of work for couple of days, but the judge offered to call my boss herself. What can I say when the judge made that offer? “Yes! Your honor. Thank you very much”. That’s abut all I can say.

The case was very interesting to say the least. I guess I can talk about it since the trial is already over. The DA charged the defendant for assault with a deadly weapon, in this case, a gun, and running away from police. But, there was no gun. The cops never found any weapons of any kind. Even the cop admitted that he didn’t see the defendant carrying a gun. He only said the defendant held something and pointed at him but he can’t be sure it was a gun. No physical evidence, not even a circumstantial evidence. The whole thing boiled over because, the defendant’s girl friend’s ‘ex husband told the police the defendant pointed a gun at his face. Uhm, do I think this eyewitness is creditable? Of course not! He had every reason to lie to the police because if the defendant goes to jail, he would get the girl all to himself. The girlfriend who was there during the alleged incident took place told the police she never saw a gun neither….