Wednesday, October 26, 2011

One last day in Taipei



This thing was on the side of the toilets in Dave and Yvonne's apartment. We've seen them in other places too. They appear to be butt spritzers of some sort ... streams,  showers, etc. Good for diarrahea I guess.



We did some walking around Taipei and find a store named .... fcuk. 



And a store called Yvonne - which sold dog cushions.



If you are ever in a foreign country take a stroll through a grocery store! We found Brian Poison!

Not really sure what "Heatiness" is .... Dave explained it, but I didn't get it.






 How about some Shrimp with your oatmeal? I think that's shrimp. Maybe not .... ???

There's a space here in my blog. I don't know why. I'll have another beer anyway.

Jenn in front of a memorial to some famous guy. It was a Sunday night and the memorial was open, but there were very few visitors ... except for 40 kids on the memorial ground practicing group dances.


Next to the memorial we found a Chinese garden, and across the pond I managed to finagle the camera to get a night shot of Taipei 101 with the reflection.


We sat in this pagoda and chilled for a while. It was a very nice evening.


And finally ... on our layover in Japan we had to have Sushi.

And that was our trip! Hope you enjoyed the blog!

I'm getting another beer.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Inflatable pink rubber .....

... canoes. What were YOU thinking?


Next stop was an "Amazing Canoeing" trip into an island. Our speedboat took us to an anchored boat with lots of pink rubber canoes. We got, with guides, and they took to an island.


This island had all sorts of interesting wave-eroded features.


One of those features was a tunnel!


The tunnel brought us to an inner lagoon. Full of Russian tourists.


And here we are going back out. And then we raced back to Phuket.


In Phuket, our driver was waiting with his little girl. She was in her school uniform, drawing, and communicating with Jennifer. No seatbelt and lots of crazy driving.

Once back at our resort we had a quiet final night before our dark-thirty ride to the airport back to Taiwan.

Oh, and we got a bunch of mosquito bites. Yay for malaria medicine!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Lames Bond Island


We continued our tour. Next stop was a tourist trap where a muslim community made food for us. Everything was good, except the salad, which I didn't try because such uncooked and unpeelable things are rinsed in the local water which contains bacteria my system isn't used to.

There must have been fifty tables here.


These were found on the feet of some Japanese girl ... !


We got the Australian lesbians to take a photo of us, and we returned the favor.

We asked why they picked Thailand, and they said because it is super cheap. They paid the equivalent of $1100 USD each for a week in Thailand ... that includes airfare!


The is that tourist trap. You can see the karsts in the background. The dining area and docks are all floating. Here we're looking at a trapped tuna, about two feet long.


Besides food, the local community of muslims (note the headscarf) sells jewelry, t-shirts, local crafts, etc. It is standard for tours to go to such places, because they get kickbacks. I experienced this in Mexico and Indonesia as well. While it provides an outlet and employment for the artisans and sellers, I usually wonder if it distorts the economy and prevents them from seeking higher education in more skilled work. Or if the mafia (or other organized crime or labor) is keeping them as indentured servants.

Anyway ... the girls being sold to were on our boat and they were from Siberia on their honeymoon. Our boat guide tour guy was Russian, and after he said stuff in English he repeated it (and more) in Russian.


There's Paul and Cresta hiding under a towel as we motor through a storm.



And finally we made it to Lames Bond Island. I bet you're thinking "I know the new James Bond movies are lame compared to an of the old ones with Sean Connery, but why can't Christian just call it James Bond?" The answer is simple. Our brochure said it was "Lames Bond Island". That's why!

Anyway .. in the photo above you can see our speedboat on the right.



And finally ... the geographicaly feature everyone here takes photos of. This is from "The Man with the Golden Gun". I guess the first and last ten minutes were filmed on this little island. Back then all the vendors weren't on the island (which I didn't bother to get a photo of). Nor the crowds, or loud-ass boats with rusty car-motors perched on the back with 20-foot propeller-shafts. This was also when we noticed that our Russian tour guide was carrying a handgun in the back of his shorts. Makes me wonder if he had some enemies on this island.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Misc photos from Taiwan

I came across some more photos from Dave and Yvonne's camera - figured I'd show them here. These are from Taipei.

Molestation on subways?


No ... this was a sign on the subway which indicated that it was not tolerated. Interesting that they felt the need to put one up ...


Shilin Night Market. The stalls along the edges are legit. The ones with their wares on the ground are NOT legit. At one point they packed up and zoomed out of there within 15 seconds!


After the illegit vendors packed up, this monk was left. She was the only reason I could see for the vendors rushing away ... I guess Karma only counts if a monk sees it?


Lots of Angry Birds stuff here.


Another street of the night market.


A dork outside his regular habitat.


At the Gondola station we found this sign which we found amusing ;-)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Phi Phi Islands


One day we decided to take a tour of the islands east of Phuket. We were picked up from the hotel and drove 20 miles to the other side of Phuket and got on a speedboat with 20 other passengers and a russian tour guide. The took us to some of the karsts in the Andaman sea.


The rocks stand straight up, and there are some beaches.


We stopped at a national park and puzzled at the muddled engrish.


Pee Pee Island.  Seriously. the "ph" is pronounced like "pee". So it is either Pooket and Pee Pee or Fooket and Fee Fee.

We stopped on one of the islands and did a little snorkeling. It wasn't that great - no coral reefs or interesting stuff to look at. But it was nice to get into the salt water and float and look at the colorful fish. I even saw a shark! Granted, it was only two feet long but looked like a great white.


And of course ... we had to get through some rain on the way to the next stop. Luckily the speedboat, with two 225hp Honda outboards, got us there in a jiffy.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Poolside


We took a couple days lounging by the pool. The weather was excellent, but the high waves kept us out of the Indian Ocean.




And here we have a bar in the pool. We ate and drank there. At some point (it's sort of a blur) we got hour-long massages on the beach for $32, for both of us.

That was before I got a funny sunburn. After the sunburn there was no way I was going to get rubbed down again so I didn't get another one.

Appropos sunburn ... I held the spray too close to my skin and got funny patterns ... don't think I have any photos though.


And swam here.

Right behind there were a couple from South Africa currently living in Forest Lake, MN. A quick chat established that they hate it in Minnesota and of all the places in the world they have lived, Minnesota drivers are the worst - oblivious and mean-spirited. But we did agree that it was nice to not have as many homeless (actual or pretenders) on all the highway ramps.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Phuket Town


After a day lounging we took off to see the rest of the island. We already showed you the bungie-jumping photos. After that we took the cab to Phuket Town for an afternoon.


Overpasses like these were all over the place. Many depicted the royal family, which the Thai's revere.


These scooters with tops and sidecars were everywhere.



Electrical regulations? We don't need no stinkin' rules.


This kind of wiring is EVERYWHERE!


Our cab driver dropped us off in Old Town where we walked around a bit. Here's a pharmacy.


And some Norwegian dork waltzing around.


Um ... how do we order from a menu like that?

Just kidding .. they had menus in english too. This is when we discovered just how expensive the resort was ... Pad thai in Phuket Town was about $3 / plate. At the resort, $15 / plate.