Retro
This was the future once. \ Related Posts:Taiwanese foodTaiwanese foodTaipei Sky – Colour or B/W?Shi-Da purveyors of deep-fried goodnessTaipei 101
Taiwanese food
I may rag on Taiwan for many reasons but food isn’t one of them. Just look at this little spread and click through to flickr for the annotations. So good. Related Posts:From the inside looking out: cheeky fagCanon S90 Taipei Street NightHoutong – Cat VillageTaiwanese foodPapaya tree: resurrection
Houtong – Cat Village
At its peak, Houtong was a thriving and often fatal mining town, at its height under Japanese rule. Now, it’s silent and decrepit. BUT! It’s now a super duper tourist attraction because it has, wait for it, CATS! Yes, there’s a bunch of semi-feral cats and people now tour out to pet them. Oh the [...]
Taiwanese food
Taiwan has its ups and downs: trade huge cockroaches, typhoons and earthquakes for epic scenery, hot springs and great food. Taiwanese food draws from all regions of China, Japanese food it inherited from the occupation and many others besides. Here’s a good selection we had at a restaurant at the Sogo department store. To me, [...]
Sucker for sunsets
If we all have a dirty little secret photographic cliché, then sunsets are mine. I’ve shot them in California, Taiwan and assorted points in Europe. They are always different and always lovely. This one was shot 300m up the mountain at Maokong after a lovely tea with the local brew. And cake. On a photographic [...]
Taipei Twilight
A rare thing. A clear night and some nice twilight. Shin Kong Mistukoshi tower just lighting up. I need to get a tripod. Related Posts:No Related Posts
Disabled Robot Gymnastics
I *think* I know what this sign is trying to say, but you never know. Related Posts:No Related Posts
Papaya tree: resurrection
Most days we walk past a decrepit Japanese-era building owned by the university. There was a nice papaya tree with fruit growing right in front. Then it disappeared, lopped off about four feet off the ground. But it’s back! We’ll be watching it in our last two weeks here. Related Posts:Taiwanese foodFrom the inside looking [...]
Stunning golden waterfall, Jinguashi
Taiwan isn’t short of natural wonders: from hot springs, to alien coastline to soaring mountains. This one is a little special. This is a little down the hill from the Jinguashi disused gold mine and shows what happens when copper leeches into the water. Rather purty, no? I have more pictures of the mine, but [...]
Shi-Da purveyors of deep-fried goodness
This is a paradoxical country: everyone eats hugely and widely, yet on the whole, people remain resolutely skinny. Which I think says much about the Western diet. This stall in Sh-Da night market is our occasional stop-off for cauliflower, mushroom, tofu and chewy fishy thing, lighty battered, deep fried then powdered with salty pepper and [...]
Yeliou volcanic rock, Taiwan
On a geographic note, Yeliou is volcanic rock carved by the waves into interesting shapes. There’s a famous “queens head” formation but we didn’t make it out that far as it was too hot! Gov’t info here: www.gio.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=32397&ctNode=4056 On a photographic note, this is B/W from the D300 with the 50mm f/1.8 lens. Rather good [...]
Taipei 101
Yesterday we ticked off one of our last TODO items in Taipei: Taipei LOL. No, really, look at the sign. It’s an actual LOL-building. Anyhow. It was briefly the tallest building in the world and is still impressive considering it’s in a pretty active earthquake zone. The view? Meh. What’s to look at? The swampy [...]
The big blue room
It put in an appearance today. Which was nice, so rather than being 35C and disgustingly humid, it was 39C, breezy and relatively dry. The cloud came over and denied us a proper sunset. Good excuse to bring out the 12-24mm lens though Related Posts:Taipei Sky – Colour or B/W?Stunning golden waterfall, JinguashiCanon S90 Taipei [...]
From the inside looking out: cheeky fag
Cheeky fag outside Salty Peanuts café. Been a bit uninspired these last few days. There’s something about 40C temperatures that just drains the will to do anything. Related Posts:Taiwanese foodCanon S90 Taipei Street NightHoutong – Cat VillagePapaya tree: resurrectionFinal Call for Shi-Da night market
Japanese colonial house, Taipei
These fascinate me. These kinds of buildings, which I guess can best be described as bungalows, are dotted around Da-An, our area of Taipei. They once housed important people of the Japanese occupation era and are now generally neglected and hidden behind high walls. After the Japanese left, many of these passed into the hands [...]
Taiwan has four seasons….
Too hot, too wet, mosquitoes and earthquakes. Sometimes all at once. Related Posts:Canon S90 Taipei Street NightAfter the rainJapanese colonial house, TaipeiTaipei, Shanghai and Futai Street MansionTaipei, protest against the ECFA
After the rain
The traffic lights outside our apartment reflecting nicely on the tarmac. Looks like we’re set for a week of this with 30C heat. To be viewed listening to this. Hopefully one day the sun will come out again. Related Posts:Taiwan has four seasons….Canon S90 Taipei Street NightJapanese colonial house, TaipeiTaipei, Shanghai and Futai Street MansionTaipei, [...]
Yilan and Hualien road trip
We finally did it: rented a car and hit the East coast. A 750km round trip over 5 days took us first to Yilan then to Hualien. We ate lots of fish straight out of the pacific, saw aboriginal art, stayed in some lovely B&B’s, saw stunning landscapes, white water rafted and generally lounged around. [...]
Danshui – Taipei’s Boardwalk
Today was sunny so we took the MRT out to Danshui. Whilst not actually being on the sea, it has all the trapping of seaside-ness including arcades, fried stuff and tat shops. The nearest parallel in the UK I can think of is Southend. Still, we had a nice 5km ramble up towards the shiny [...]
Zhong-he ruined factory
The inside of the of the wonderfully rusty building that one day will be swept away for a metro station. Note the recycling woman in the darkness who chased me out shortly after this. Related Posts:Taiwanese foodTaiwanese foodTaipei Sky – Colour or B/W?Shi-Da purveyors of deep-fried goodnessTaipei 101
Wacky Races Taipei Style
There’s a weird ecosystem on the streets in Taipei, one I suspect that’s mirrored all over Asia. The rules seem to be: The cars, and especially the taxis, take it pretty easy because they have to keep their eyes open for scooters The scooters take it fairly easy because they have to keep their eyes [...]
Canon S90 Taipei Street Night
I lied about the “final call” Continuing the experiments with “out of the camera” black and white, I took the Canon S90 P&S, rather than the Nikon D300 DSLR, out tonight preset in black and white and we did a quick in and out of Shi-Da for food. Quick because of the rain. So, these [...]
Final Call for Shi-Da night market
I’m a programmer. Which means if you find a bug, you keep banging on it until you fix it. In this case, I’ve been so taken with the ISO1600, 50mm, B/W and straight from the camera effect, I did it again. OK, so our intent was to get some deep fried street food munchies, but [...]
Shi-Da night market again
We went out to Shi-Da again tonight after a typically tropical sudden torrential downpour. I’d recently discovered that the Nikon D300 has quite a useful black and white mode in contrast to the usual desaturated greyness you usually get. So tonight with old school film intent, I went out with the 50mm prime, the ISO [...]
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