Tag contrasts
Ever since I moved to Taiwan, my wife and I have slowly been working on visiting all of Taiwan’s outlying islands. So far we’ve been to Green Island, Penghu and Matsu, and last weekend we went to Kinmen. It is a small island just a stone’s throw (well, a rather long stone’s throw) from Mainland China. Given its location there has been a lot of military activity on the island and most of the actual fighting between China and Taiwan took place here in the 1950’s. Before it became militarized, Kinmen was home to a fair amount of merchants who … Read the rest
What's normally a small stream flowing lazily through an otherwise dry river bed has swelled with the rains of the latest typhoon to a wide, swift flowing river. Just a few meters from where I'm standing there's a kind of wier, consisting of a series of large concrete blocks, stretching across the river. Normally you'd be able to get across to the other side by jumping from block to block but today that's not possible. The entire wier has been turned into a waterfall, the concrete blocks engulfed in muddy brown water. Just below it, there's a massive standing wave, the water curling in on itself as it flows across the stones and concrete. A loud booming fills the air of this otherwise peaceful river valley. That even a relatively small typhoon can transform a river this much is a stark reminder of the truly awesome power of nature.
Near the center of Hsinchu City there is an old indoor market called Dongmen Market. It used to be a so called wet market where people would go to buy groceries, clothes and other everyday items. The place has been on the decline for a number of years with more and more of the little vendor stalls and shops closing down. Lately however, a lot of young people have been opening little restaurants, cafes and bars in the old vendor spaces. Most of these businesses are only open in the afternoons and evenings, so during the day the place is … Read the rest
Macau is most famous for its many casinos and I believe most visitors come here for a day or two to do a bit of gambling. Although the casinos are ever-present, the Cotai Strip defining Cotai island, and the Grand Lisboa looming over the old city like a benevolent golden giant, there is more to this city than just gambling.
Macau is a small country and you can check off the major tourist attractions within a day or two, so unless you plan on spending a lot of time gambling, it’s not really worth it to fly around the world … Read the rest
Today was my first full day of tourism, and I aimed for the main tourist spots of HCMC starting with the War Remnants Museum which has a small but good collection of tanks and aircraft outside and a whole lot of photos and such inside. Hollywood has produced I don’t know how many films about the Vietnam war (or the American war as they say here) and even though many of them have been anti war, they have all been from an American perspective; it’s interesting to get the Vietnamese perspective on it. I highly recommended it for anyone with … Read the rest
Down in the yard between the apartment buildings just outside my flat there is an army of people milling about. Children in brightly colored winter clothes are horsing around like children do, nothing unusual with that. What catches my attention are the grown ups who are standing around, evenly spread out among the playing children like beacons of grayness in a sea of sound and color. Each person is holding some sort of shovel, feverishly hacking away at the layer of ice and snow on the ground. They are trying to clear the snow with hand tools while nature, being … Read the rest