Solitude

In one of the several building (or demolishing) zones near ASMAB in the Taida campus.

Waiting

Lots of scooters, in their parking lots. Forests of handlebars and mirrors. All over Taipei.

Press the button

To stop the bus in the next bus stop.

In Chinese, of course

Grips

Martian facilities in Taipei?

No, just some big balls where kids can exercise their climbing skills. The first impression I had, though, was very weird.

Parking tickets

The first time I saw one of these women, sitting with one foot on the ground and the other on her bycyle pedal, wearing some kind of uniform, the conical hat down to her ears, the mask around her mouth, and taking out of some pocket the ticket-printing machine, print out a ticket, which she would immediately put on the windshield of a car, I thouhgt she was having a field day putting fines.

Later, I saw her/them many days until somebody's explanation made me realize that I had been wrong. They do not put parking tickets as fines, they mark the time intervals during which cars are stopped in the parking zones. As in the picture I took the other day.

The car owner must then go pay what is owed—I guess before a few days— to any 7-11 or similar store. I found it quite odd, but it's not such a bad idea, because they save the cost of installing the automatic coin machines. You cannot get rid of the watchmen/women anyway.

Short walk

Weekends are very slow again, lately. For different reasons, not hard to understand. Today, though, I managed to go out and take a walk after lunch, using the short time I had before the Sun set, and I went to Yuanshan, in the northern part of Taipei. Since last Wednesday, the weather is almost as warm as during the summer and it feels really good to walk in the street. So, I took my camera and started taking pictures of more temples, with dragons and phoenix,



reddened clouds,

absurdly highly elevated freeways,

and red, of course, bridges.

Later, a quiet coffe near Shida, in a place with nice memories, putting some order in my ideas. The way things are, that is the best I can do.

Cups

I guess I have said it more than once: eating out in Taiwan is awfully cheap for people used to the prices in Europe. One must take into account the difference in wages, but in any case for about 2 euros you can have a nice dinner, and if it costs 5 or 6 it will be considered expensive by some. If we get to 10 euros, you can imagine. Of course, food in western style places, like pubs, is more expensive.

What is a little bit shocking, in comparison, is that some things are proportionately much more expensive, like imported beer or coffee, which I guess it has not been a product widely consumed in a place where people love tea. More or less, for the price of coffee, you can have dinner. Prices in places like Starbucks are more or less the same as in Europe or the US, but you can also find more affordable prices in some convenience stores.

I am not complaining, though, because there are many small cafès, european style, more or less expensive, but with a very nice ambience, particularly since smoking is not allowed anymore, relaxed and quiet —if the crowds of people with laptops are not too large— where I can stop and rest and see the flow of life, far from the usual rush of life in Taipei.


And during these days, when I am thinking how to revive this blog, and I cannot stop listening to Chris Isaak songs, where could I find a better place to pass the time?.

Bike lanes

Taipei is not (yet, maybe) a city too kind to cyclists, even if I am seeing more and more every day, risking their necks sometimes. It is true that there is a ver long bike path all along the river up to Danshui, but that's it, I have not seen any more. Until yesterday, that I discovered bike lanes in some wide downtown streets. I do not know how long they have been there, but these in Dunhua Rd seemed to be very new, with the green coloured lanes and all the signs. Maybe there is a plan to implement them in other parts of the city.

In any case, I was able to try my new camera.

Zebra and a Dog

On a mid-May early morning, I was walking back home after an observing session surrounded by a strange peace in this stressed city.

Somebody else was also enjoying the quiet moments.

Taipei 101

It has been more than two months since I went, but now that I finally remembered to do it, I am putting up some pictures I took from the top of the Taipei 101 building at the beginning of June. I went with some of the visitors that came to Taipei for the international conference. It was my first time up there and, unfortunately, the view was not extraordinary, because the visibility was poor close to the horizon. At least, I could make out the buildings where I work, see how big the Taida campus is, and contemplate Taipei from up above.



We could also enjoy a fairly diffuse sunset


Even if it is still the tallest building in the world, I think the viewpoint is not the highest I have visited. Even then, it is a privilege to be able to be outside at such a height and I am sure it has the most spectacular counterweight.

Floating away

Yesterday evening, I was in my office, where I had gone to organize my ideas a little bit and not much else, and I went up to the roof to send the worries away.

And there I found a show of an amazing calm. The sky was very clean; a warm but very pleasant wind was gently blowing around me; the place was very silent, strangely for its location; and several small clouds were passing by overhead, unravelling as they floated away, as ships disappearing in the sea.


and on top of it all a gibbous moon that shone more intensely than usual at that last moment of daylight.


We have had three beautiful days in a row —without any typhoon nearby, which is not so usual— and this looked like the final act of the show.

Well, there were other special lights shining later in the night, but that is a different story.

(Partial) Solar Eclipse

Naturally, we had a date with the solar eclipse this morning. It was a partial one in Taiwan, about 82%. If you wanted to see the total eclipse, you would not need to go too far away from here, to China, to Shanghai for instance, where a lot of people of the ASIAA and Shida went to, but I still do not know how was the weather like there. It was not my case; I did not travel this time.

So, several people got together to see the show this morning.

The sky was not completely clear, because we had the same kind of clouds as yesterday, but we did not have any problem to follow the evolution of the eclipse, be it with filters, cameras or a simple pinhole.


I could also see the sickle-shaped shadows of the tree leaves that I had seen on other occasions,

which give a fantastic flair to the place.

The clouds were good for two things: they made the waiting a little bit cooler and allowed us to make some spectacular pictures, without any filter and just holding the camera.


The rest of the day has been somewhat disappointing, of course, but I was surprised at how excited I was just remembering what I saw one year ago in China.

Innocent smiles

I think I have already talked about the little children here, which can be very funny, particularly when they look at me shyly, with a half-made smile in their mouths, because, in fact, I am different. Many are very pretty, although there is a number of them that, maybe because of the way they are dressed up or just because they are like that, are rather ugly.

Today, when I was going back home with the bus after a successful raid of one of the Ikea stores in Taipei, there was a couple sitting in the row ahead of me with a probably around one-year old baby —two teeth above, three below— very pretty, with very big eyes, that was standing all the time. Suddenly, she discovered me and, as expected, looked at me fixedly and, as soon as I smiled at her, shone a big beautiful toothless smile, almost laughing. And she repeated that several times.

As somebody who knows what he is talking about once said, you only need a smile to wash away your worries. Certainly!, and I also remembered some things I should never forget.

Hiking

When black clouds gather inside my head, a way out is to meet some friends around a table and spend some time to see if the conversation, jokes or serious stuff manage to cheer me up and I end up walking out with a lively step and flying again over my worries. Besides, if they also ask me if I want to go hiking on the following day, the best thing to do is to say yes.

So, Saturday morning, I met with some other post-docs met at the Taipei Main Station, took the MRT to Beitou, then a taxi to Zhuzihu (Bamboo Lake, even if there is no lake and few bamboo trees) to hike in the Yangmingshan National Park, north of Taipei.

As I have probably said more than once, Taipei is surrounded by mountains, around 1000 m high, and Yangmingshan is supposed to be one of the more beautiful places. I had wanted to go for months, but I only did it for the first time yesterday. It was a wonderful sunny day, as many of previous ones,

which meant that it was very hot and the Sun was bound to burn you.

After a good meal, and under the naked Sun —I could almost hear the prototypical old man complaining about the time we were setting off, but the company was like that—, we took the trail that lead to Xiaoyoukeng

made of stones and/or steps, going up, gently in some parts, steeply in others. The initial part of the trail was flanked by a thick forest of different kinds of trees, bamboo trees among them,

traversed by many different sounds, butterflies of many colors (and oh so beautiful)


colourful fireflies


and full of plants with odd leaves.


Once we were up there, the landscape had changed from the initial forest, to pine trees to a kind of tall grassland without any trees, and later we could see the fumaroles at the feet of Qixingshan, while we recovered from the walk (listening to Abba, by the way)


Some of us climbed up Qixingshan (the 7 star mountain), of 1120 m, the tallest mountain of northern Taiwan. I really enjoyed it, pushing myself up the very steep steps that took us there. We found several fumaroles more on our way up, and were subjected to the changing wind and Sun, sweating a lot.

We could see Taipei at our feet on some parts of the trail, even if the air was not so clear as we would have wished.

At the top, we had a magnificent view of the North-East coast to reward our effort —I could even see Yehliu— with a very clear sky and that great feeling that comes from reaching the summit, it does not matter how small.


We climbed down on the other side of the mountain, where there were similar or even steeper slopes, even if they were short, and we managed to catch the last bus to Taipei.

One of the postdocs asked me later, while we had dinner, what was the goal of hiking, to get tired?. I do not know, but for me, it is that mix of walking in nature, reach a beautiful place and stress my body with exercise, which on some day, and while I am still healthy, it is the best thing to do. A clean body, a clean spirit.

Botanical garden

Continuing on the pictures of plants and flowers that I put up these last few days, I went to the Botanical Gardens of Taipei last weekend. I had intended to go to take a look for weeks, but for some reason I never remembered to go (probably week-end laziness). I finally did last Sunday. I arrived a little late, but soon enough to take a walk.





It was a beautiful day, and warm. At sunset, it was very nice.



And when I said I was late, it was because some parts were closing around 5pm, or they began watering the plants

Flowers

Since I arrived to Taiwan, I can tell how the weather changes as the months go by and you can probably say that there are seasons; but the differences are not so large as in other latitudes. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that spring was here. Leaves are sprouting again on many of the trees that had lost them and there are many flowers, preferentially white, pink or a pale red on the campus gardens.

And while they last, they smell really good.

PS: The name of the flowers in the picture is dù juān: indian azalea.

Fog

The buildings fade away; the mountains?, nowhere to be found. Fog covers everything.

Can you find the Taipei 101?

I cannot. Taipei, yesterday afternoon.