I was waiting at a red light on the Long Haul Trucker and after glancing off to the side, cut through the rumble of idling engines with muffled hysterics.

700-CUM. It sounds like a dodgy phone number you’d give out at a bar or something.

I know I’m the most mature of people at the best of times… but I’d like to think if I was ever handed down a license plate with the words CUM on it, that I’d be handing it back to get another one quick smart.

Of course naturally the word means nothing to non-English speaking people so you can’t really judge people I guess.

Still… CUM… heehee.

Definitely not a plate I could see myself riding around on. Ditto the ‘GAY’ ones too… and I’ve seen more than a few of them around!

If you head down to south Taipei around the Zhonghe area and look towards the mountain range that marks the south boundary of Zhonghe District, it’s hard to miss the giant state of Fude sitting atop the temple there. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Wulai Waterfall is great to spend a bit of time looking at but unless you’re keen to hit the local tourist shops, there’s not all that much do to in the immediate area of the Waterfall Shopping Street.

Aside from venturing out into the greater area surrounding Wulai Township to hit some hiking trails or perhaps taking the cablecar further up into the mountains, pretty much the only other thing to do is head up the Moss Steps towards the Waterfall Park. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Less than a month ago I couldn’t believe my luck when I happened across a taxi driver paying for some cigarettes with a $200 TWD banknote.

Rushing back to my bicycle to pull out my wallet, I was ecstatic when the 7-11 clerk had no problems giving me the note in exchange for two $100 notes.

Adding it to the $2000 TWD banknote we already had, I lamented on the fact that the only currency I hadn’t thus far seen was a $20 TWD coin.

Well… not anymore! [Read the rest of this entry...]

When I think working holiday, apart from money there has to be opportunity and some degree of functionality.

Picking mushrooms and working the orchards might not be the most tantalizing work… but at least it pays well. And if you don’t like the outdoors there’s always the hospitality industry, tourism and if your English and resume are up to scratch you could even aim to climb a bit higher on the employment ladder during your holiday.

At least that’s the situation in Australia. Here in Taiwan it’s an entirely different matter. [Read the rest of this entry...]

A few months ago I was hiking around the base of Mt Shamao when I happened across the visually appalling scene of what was literally a mountainside of rubbish overflowing onto the hiking path.

Curious as to the source, I followed a sidepath up to the top of the mountainside rubbish dump only to find that the source appeared to be a residential house.

Beckoning disbelief, despite being surrounded by natural beauty the locals of the area were literally using the mountainside of Mt Shamao as their own personal rubbish bin.

Snapping a few photos at the time, I eventually got around to writing about this experience last week. In response to the article a few readers suggest I report the site to the EPA but upon investigating this matter I realised that I didn’t have enough exact information to make a report.

Yesterday me and the girlfriend saddled up the bicycles and made the trek back out to Mt Shamao to gather more evidence to give to the EPA when we make a formal complaint.

Here’s what we found. [Read the rest of this entry...]

We’d just exited the from the Tian Mu Waterpipe hiking trail and were wondering with a few hours of sunlight still left, were contemplating whether to continue climbing Mt Shamao, or to head back down the mountain.

With no apparent trail continue to lead up (or down) from the exit point of the Waterpipe trail, we walked down a road for a bit until we came to what appeared to be the next trail leading up to Mt Shamao.

The unasked question that now presented itself to us was ‘do we continue up, or give up and try to find an alternative scenic route down. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Most of the Old Streets that dot Taiwan tend to get pretty depressing at night. Unless there’s a cultural festival on, nearly all the shops start to wind down around 7pm and by 9pm usually the only things that are open are ice-cream stands and the odd juice vendor.

After a nice hot spa we found ourselves starving and luckily for us, ‘Stone Board Food’ (石板小吃) along the Old Street in Wulai was still open.

Being a mountainous area, most of the dishes on Stone Board Food’s menu were pork related. We opted for four dishes in total: [Read the rest of this entry...]

I didn’t catch wind of this story till last night or I probably would have run with it yesterday. It headlined the Taiwanese local news but didn’t make an appearance in English until the late hours of the evening.

Usually my girlfriend sends me stories like this (in Chinese) as she knows I’ve got a particular fascination with them. When I asked her about this one slipped through the cracks she said she knew about it, but because I hadn’t replied to some comment she’d made on MSN earlier in the day (can’t remember what now), that she’d decided to ignore me the rest of the day unless I wrote something first.

This was supposed to punish and teach me a lesson, you see.

Thankfully this about the extent of Taiwanese Princess syndrome I have to deal with these days and to be honest… it’s somewhat of a relief. Ultimately no harm, no foul.

Some other guys? Not so lucky. These guys have to deal with their Taiwanese girlfriends committing suicide…

…on their birthday…

…on Facebook. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I’m by no means an environmentalist but I do try to do my bit for the environment.

Saving plastic bags for re-use, riding my bike around instead of the scooter, fixing things instead of just throwing them out, turning down bags when every vendor in Taiwan seems to want to give me one, use a fan sparingly in Summer instead of the aircon… it’s not hardcore but I like to think it makes some difference.

One of the more challenging aspects of living in Taiwan for me has been a common disregard for the environment. People use scooters for even the shortest of trips, have air conditioners blaring 24/7 in summer, toss cigarettes and all sort of other rubbish into drains (which lead into rivers and then the ocean), use plastic (bags, containers, wrappers) like it’s candy etc.

I’m not here to preach, but overall the level of waste management in Taiwan leaves a lot to be desired. If half the island’s population of old people weren’t running around trying to make ends meet by collection discarded rubbish – I think within a few days we’d all be swimming in it.

The government failing to provide bins for use in the vast majority of the island doesn’t help either.

That said, it’s always nice to escape out in the mountains and enjoy Taiwanese nature. Half jungle, half forest… you soon forget about LCD screen runoff polluted rivers and plastic tainted food.

Well, at least that’s how it should be. After hiking up the Tian Mu Waterpipe trail, we decided to take an alternative route down along the foothills of Mt. Shamao.

Along the way we came across a house presumably owned by a local. The environmental devastation surrounding the house left me near heartbroken. [Read the rest of this entry...]