Category: Taipei

Just wanted to drop a note. I’ve really enjoyed the recent writings the past couple of weeks. Sorry I haven’t been able to join in.

Thing have been quite busy with work. I’ve had to travel to Hsinchu, Taichung and just all around craziness with MIS support issues at local Taipei branches. Meanwhile, things have been heating up with setting up a local business here. Ramping up with the formalities and also doing a lot of business development Taiwanese style.

A lot of business is still done old-style in Taiwan. That means entertainment, food, drinking and lots of face to face discussions over tea or coffee. We usually meet at a “friendly” restaurant or eatery to discuss. What does “friendly” mean? It depends on whether one is affiliated with the KMT (Blue party), Kuomingtang Party, or the DDP (Green party), Democratic Progressive Party. So we’ll go to one of “their” places to chat. That doesn’t mean that Blue and Green members don’t do business together but there is a definitive line that isn’t crossed unless lots of money is involved. Nevertheless, there is a serious split in the country and it’s paralyzing the country.

As a result, my schedule is that I’ve got a day job and an evening job which makes for 16-18 hour days. It’s fun though, I’m really looking forward to the opportunities here and being more and more comfortable with life in Taiwan. This country is quite beautiful. Very lush and green. It is very tropical and many many things to do outdoors if one can take the heat and humidity. The people are quite friendly but underlying the friendliness is a strong pride in “Taiwanese-ness”. This has a lot of political implications which I won’t bore people with here but I can see the country down the road as Malaysia 15-20 years ago.

Anyways, keep on posting and bringing a bit of NYC to me out here :-). I feel more and more removed from the City which has never happened to me since I left in 1999. That doesn’t sound like a long time ago but it sure feels a long time :|.

Cheers,

=YC

On the second day of the Hsinchu trip, we went to Leo Foo village. It’s a small Taiwanese version of Disney. We were getting the tail-end of typhoon Mindulle so there was heavy winds and rains. Ended up taking the bus back to Taipei.

That night we went out to have Taiwan steamboat, half spicy (ma-la) and half regular with herbs. Walked around the Zhongxiao Dunhua and Fuxing area. Picked up a papaya drink from Taiwan Milk King, a chain that sells specialty fruit drinks. Taiwan the land that gave us Bubble Tea has a lot of different kinds of drink products.

I also picked up a cold but have recovered.

=YC

One of the neat features of working here currently is that the company sponsors a yearly outing for individual branches. It just so happens that B- is here with me for a couple of weeks and just in time to join me.

The branch where I’m stationed decided to go to Hsinchu (新竹). This weekend also happened to be the passing of Typhoon Mindulle which passed to the south of us. We in the North and Northeast was pretty lucky and was unscathed. The typhoon warnings didn’t deter the group and we set out via train (Taiwan Railway Administration FYI). The express took 1 hr and we headed over to the Howard Plaza Hotel Hsinchu. Hotel is nice, comparable to a Westin or Marriott – a 5 star business class hotel for Taiwan. Free broadband in the rooms. All and all, very nice accomodations.

Once we checked in we headed to Neiwan, another hour by train. It’s this remote village in the middle of the hills which is just a tourist place. Almost seems it was just created for that because it is so remote. Walked around, sampled the local eats, like sausages, stinky tofu, bubble tea, watermelon slushy and wrapped sticky rice. The weather was cool thanks to the typhoon. Came back and headed straight for buffet dinner.

B- and I are having a great time, it’s nice to see colleagues in a different light. Helping gain acceptance of me as a new person to the company and also as a overseas chinese. Good practicing my spoken Mandarin and starting to become more fluent conversationally. Not to bad for this dude who hated learning Mandarin as a kid and who didn’t speak it for many years as a form of rebellion against the folks.

Tomorrow, another breakfast buffet, visit to another place and then back to Taipei.

Happy Independence Day peeps.

=YC