Saturday, October 14, 2006
first a PHOTO NOTE: i have a new gallery on fotopic - travellinginto2006.fotopic.net this will be where my new photos will go - as yet it has songpan oct 2005 and chritmas 2005 in japan and wig night! but i will get 'summer with linda 2006' and 'taiwan oct 2006' on there soon !
i do still have tessa140.fotopic.net which is travels with tess but this is older photos (bry please change your link on your blog - thanks x)
so TAIWAN
lovely holiday - lots of holidaying not so much backpacking, which means i relaxed rather alot instead of rushing around and seeing all the MUST SEEs of Taiwan. i did ask tom and his mates where and what they would recommend first though and their recommendations were spot on. so i spent my time scootering around, only getting off to lie in hot springs, snorkel or scuba dive!!
I went to Taiwan because a very good friend of mine from Chengdu: Tom went back there with his new wife Claire to live in her home country. Tom, Dave and another Dave all used to live and work in Taiwan and so its been talked about quite alot but none of the rest of us has ever been. anyway, tom and claire moved back there this summer and so i went out to visit them and the country this october break.
i spent a couple of days with tom and claire which was really nice - being shown round the city, good food and meeting their friends. then i headed off in a cirle around the southern part of the island
the best thing for me was learning to ride a scooter !! ever since cambodia where i spent 3 weeks sitting on the back of one i've wanted to be able to ride them myself, and finally i got the chance to learn. piece of piss and SO MUCH FUN!!!!
i never wanted to get off the scooters so i didn't stop and see alot and took most of my photos from the scooter.
spent my first night away from tom & claire in a hot springs resort - that had a cool pool, super hot pool, hot pool and then this great area with loads of stone seats and stone beds that had little buttons for you to press and then they sent out jets of water to massage you. really good fun!
then i went right down south to their brighton equivilent, lots of sunshine and beaches, where i rode around hopping inand out of the see and doing a little snorkeling. then i went diving it was great !!! diving always is but we did two dives - one which was FULL of fish. i've never had a dive like it. the fish didn't move out of the way and so you had to swim through them. i kept getting fish 6inchs in front of my mask staring me down -REALLY great !! one fish followed us around for the whole dive. the second dive was just as majical because we spent the time in a hard and soft coral bed. soft coral is amazing, its spellbinding to see what look like solid structures, gently swaying in the current. felt surrounded by life, by living breathing structures - very moving
that weekend was taiwans major holiday weekend and all the hotels were full but my dive guide let me stay my last night at his place - he had a whole bunch of diving mates coming down for the weekend so while they went on a night dive we went and ate GREAT seafood and then we went back and hung out with them. great bunch of guys and a really fun last night.
thats, all folks !!
work here is manic - i'm 7 weeks in but it hasn't calmed down, but i am enjoying it so thats good !!
it was great to get away and good to be back
now deciding where to go for thanksgiving break ! will keep you posted xx
i do still have tessa140.fotopic.net which is travels with tess but this is older photos (bry please change your link on your blog - thanks x)
so TAIWAN
lovely holiday - lots of holidaying not so much backpacking, which means i relaxed rather alot instead of rushing around and seeing all the MUST SEEs of Taiwan. i did ask tom and his mates where and what they would recommend first though and their recommendations were spot on. so i spent my time scootering around, only getting off to lie in hot springs, snorkel or scuba dive!!
I went to Taiwan because a very good friend of mine from Chengdu: Tom went back there with his new wife Claire to live in her home country. Tom, Dave and another Dave all used to live and work in Taiwan and so its been talked about quite alot but none of the rest of us has ever been. anyway, tom and claire moved back there this summer and so i went out to visit them and the country this october break.
i spent a couple of days with tom and claire which was really nice - being shown round the city, good food and meeting their friends. then i headed off in a cirle around the southern part of the island
the best thing for me was learning to ride a scooter !! ever since cambodia where i spent 3 weeks sitting on the back of one i've wanted to be able to ride them myself, and finally i got the chance to learn. piece of piss and SO MUCH FUN!!!!
i never wanted to get off the scooters so i didn't stop and see alot and took most of my photos from the scooter.
spent my first night away from tom & claire in a hot springs resort - that had a cool pool, super hot pool, hot pool and then this great area with loads of stone seats and stone beds that had little buttons for you to press and then they sent out jets of water to massage you. really good fun!
then i went right down south to their brighton equivilent, lots of sunshine and beaches, where i rode around hopping inand out of the see and doing a little snorkeling. then i went diving it was great !!! diving always is but we did two dives - one which was FULL of fish. i've never had a dive like it. the fish didn't move out of the way and so you had to swim through them. i kept getting fish 6inchs in front of my mask staring me down -REALLY great !! one fish followed us around for the whole dive. the second dive was just as majical because we spent the time in a hard and soft coral bed. soft coral is amazing, its spellbinding to see what look like solid structures, gently swaying in the current. felt surrounded by life, by living breathing structures - very moving
that weekend was taiwans major holiday weekend and all the hotels were full but my dive guide let me stay my last night at his place - he had a whole bunch of diving mates coming down for the weekend so while they went on a night dive we went and ate GREAT seafood and then we went back and hung out with them. great bunch of guys and a really fun last night.
thats, all folks !!
work here is manic - i'm 7 weeks in but it hasn't calmed down, but i am enjoying it so thats good !!
it was great to get away and good to be back
now deciding where to go for thanksgiving break ! will keep you posted xx
Monday, October 02, 2006
Coming here for the first time,
i recognise everthing.
the streets of Japan, the smell of Thailand, the people of China
where is Taiwan ?
Do we describe all countries, all things, all experiences by contrasting them with the known?
If so, then how do we find the unknown?
how do we identify it?
Do we try to classify it, assimilate it, relate to it,
and only when we have done all this and failed,
call it the unknown -
making it the now known, the newly known,
another image and experience to catalogue away
for next time.
If we recognise all,
can we still feel new?
In relating places to the familiar,
can they still be unique?
The answer must be yes!
or we would stop, rest and be content in the knowledge that all experiences are familiar and all places are known to us,
even before we reach them.
Yet still we travel, we explore, we step outside our sphere.
because only after you have identified the familiar,
can the contrasts appear.
Japan does not smell of Thailand,
the faces of the Thais are not chinese
Chinese people do not behave this way.
It is the combination of the known,
that gives Taiwan its uniqueness.
Through finding aspects i can relate to,
i truely value it as an individual experience-
new and exciting!
Often it is the slight differences
that we enjoy, in a familar situation.
i recognise everthing.
the streets of Japan, the smell of Thailand, the people of China
where is Taiwan ?
Do we describe all countries, all things, all experiences by contrasting them with the known?
If so, then how do we find the unknown?
how do we identify it?
Do we try to classify it, assimilate it, relate to it,
and only when we have done all this and failed,
call it the unknown -
making it the now known, the newly known,
another image and experience to catalogue away
for next time.
If we recognise all,
can we still feel new?
In relating places to the familiar,
can they still be unique?
The answer must be yes!
or we would stop, rest and be content in the knowledge that all experiences are familiar and all places are known to us,
even before we reach them.
Yet still we travel, we explore, we step outside our sphere.
because only after you have identified the familiar,
can the contrasts appear.
Japan does not smell of Thailand,
the faces of the Thais are not chinese
Chinese people do not behave this way.
It is the combination of the known,
that gives Taiwan its uniqueness.
Through finding aspects i can relate to,
i truely value it as an individual experience-
new and exciting!
Often it is the slight differences
that we enjoy, in a familar situation.
