The University scooter parking lot. The Taiwanese don't say 'finding a needle in a haystack' rather the saying goes something like,"it's like trying to find your scooter in a Uni scooter parking lot". And I have "lost" my scooter a couple of times in this parking lot. Think you have problems remembering which floor you've parked you car on in the Oracle car park....think again!

And here she is...Scooter Number 2. It's a 125cc Yamaha and optimistically has the word 'speed' written on the front and side. Good news...I paid a little more this time, and this has resulted in my new scooter benefiting from a rear shock absorber and front brakes. Nice! The green sticker is my pass to be able to park the scooter in the "exclusive" covered parking at Uni (like I am some posh or important dude). Truth be told, I never could find my scooter amongst the myriads of scooters parked in the main scooter park (I will post some photos on my next blog entry so you can seem what I mean).

My new favouritest place for lunch time food, after a hard mornings slog at Uni. The food is cooked just outside the small seating area, so you can either sit down and eat, or as prefer to do walk home with my takeaway. Stir fired rice and pork, or beef. Very tasty, in fact I am a bit addicted to this grub. And of course I hear you asking "how much?". NTD$55 which is roughly £1.20. And it comes with the added bonus of a small Chinese lesson from the lady as she babbles away in Chinese at warp factor 7...gotta love Taiwan!

A couple of photos of what Xingxin Road looks like as the afternoon sun starts to set behind the buildings. I walk this road every day to catch the bus to Uni, and in the evening I  wander down to the night market to buy sweet potato chips, kiwi fruit smoothies, chocolate waffles and dragon fruit.

A view up and over the hill to Shalu (where my Uni is located).

This is the left turn into Xingxin Road. This leads to the night market area, and for the next mile is a mass of people, scooters, cars, people, more scooters, yellow taxis and the occasional number 106 bus. This is early in the morning, in the evening it is truly mental! I think the rules of the road are directly related to your size...therefore pedestrians rank lowest, I have been 'bumped' into by scooters on more than one occasion.

And the view towards down-town Taichung.

Moon Festival (a couple of weekends ago) is often celebrated by having a BBQ. But, as this is Taiwan, things are a bit different to the UK. A visit to a local restaurant where you have your BBQ indoors!! The BBQ is set up on your table. So I guess this wouldn't work in the UK, the Health & Safety brigade would close this place down before you could yell "fire!" And as with any good BBQ, there was plenty of meat, fish, shrimps and more meat. 

What goes....whirr whirr whirr BANG!?...The answer, my scooter. If you are at all mechanically minded then you can have a good laugh at these photos of what is left of the scooters piston and cylinder. Said scooter was scrapped yesterday. 

The third photo is what I would like to ride around Taichung on....yeah...in my dreams.

Keep taking the tablets! Well a trip to the doctors is (as I have now come to expect) nothing like doing the same thing in the UK. Yesterday morning I wandered up to the nearest one, which is ten minutes walk from home. No appointment, I just walked in. I register, and then go in and see the doctor. No nasty receptionist (well if she was I didn't understand her) no waiting, no hassle. I get diagnosed, and then I'm given my prescription. Which gets filled out at the pharmacy across the street. And the tablets come in little sachets for each dose. And I couldn't be more pleased, I seem to have all varieties, green, blue, yellow and white, plus a triangular one. Wait! No red one....I need the red ones!!!

On the main road into down-town Taichung is the local government building. An impressive glass building with a huge TV screen often showing life in Taichung. But the other day, I noticed that someone was having a problem with their computer. And if you think your computer problems are annoying, at least your woes are not on show for the good people of Taichung.

What to do while I'm doing my weeks washing in the launderette? Answer, sit in the air-conditioned 7-Eleven, drink iced coffee and eat a local delicacy called a "Twix". At the same time as trying to do some reading, but finding ones attention drifting to the busy crossroads outside. Ah, Taiwan.

Day trip from Taichung to Kaohsiung (in the South) on the HSR, Taiwans high speed train that runs from the North to the South. Very impressed, smart clean stations, easy ticket purchase and the train zips along at nearly 300kmh. The bottom photo shows an indicated speed of 290kmh (hope you can see that...the photo was taken on my HTC phone).

 Sun Moon Lake situated atop the central mountains of Taiwan was our destination today. And what a brilliant day out. A beautiful place, green, cool (compared with the city) and very touristy! So an hours bus ride up to the mountains and then we toured around the lake on a boat. So with hunger pangs gnawing at us what to eat, BBQ'd 'squashed' bird (we couldn't tell if it was a small chicken or large sparrow) or dried squid...hmmm...how about a Chocolate Sundae and a Strawberry Sundae? So that was that, we didn't need to eat for the rest of the day. 

Special activity afternoon at Uni...it's like Play Dough (for those of a certain age) but with something that was made of rice. We were given tuition by an expert. The results from R - L: Dolphin (including waves) Lucky Carrot and Hamburger. Then we were given time to come up with our own creations, I 'created' the red, yellow and green things....they are birds...and I wonder if anyone else has come up with them.

"Ta-daa!" I am come out of my home this morning to scooter off to Uni and behold, the road is re-surfaced. I think they must have been working past 9pm last night. (And a possible point of minor interest, my car/scooter garage and house is the one with the green traffic cone outside)

Ok, that's enough about food for now. As I was composing that last blog I heard the noise of workmen outside. So with camera in hand I stepped outside. Now please remember it is 8pm and these guys started working on the roads nearby at 8am! I am constantly impressed at how hard the Taiwanese work! They can strip 500 metres of it's top layer and have it resurfaced in a few hours. In fact my options to get home this afternoon were to either play 'chicken' with the heavy machinery or to walk over recently laid tarmac (in flip flops!). I chose the later option, it was, shall we say, a 'warming' experience.

 One of my favourite meals. Beef and Rice. Served with spicy black pepper sauce, onions and a fried egg. In fact it comes out of the kitchen sizzling and the egg cooks as you eat, the cast iron plate is that hot. Tea is also included, and all for the price of just £1.90. 

 And this is how the little restaurants are often set out. Plastic chairs and tables. Plus a TV, playing a continual loop of the days news.

Two of my favourite places. The steak & rice restaurant on the right. And to it's left is a fancy bread and cake shop (I hope you can read it's sign!). Both less than five minutes walk from home. 

Lots of fancy cakes in the fancy bakery shops. They look very tasty, and yet somehow the Taiwanese manage to extract a lot of the sweetness as they make them. Having said that, this strawberry and chocolate little thing was very nice. 

(Note: There must be a retired British Health & Safety "expert" living nearby, as you can see from the reverse of the 'Happy Time' sign)

Sad to say that there is no Greggs in Taiwan...sigh...but they do have plenty of bread & cake shops and here are a few snacks, that in the interest of research, I had to try.

A sausage roll, Taiwan style. Very tasty and the sweet glazing adds a certain "je ne sais quoi".

 One ring donut, which was ok. But never as good as a Greggs Belgian Bun!

And here is the odd one. A simple sponge cake you would think. But I had my suspicions the moment the sales assistant told me it was a Taiwanese speciality. The stuff sprinkled on top and making up the filing is not fine brown sugar, rather it is called "rou" which translates as "meat". And that is meat, not 'meat like appearance' or 'brown like meat' but 'meat because it is meat!' The smell was all wrong, but the taste truly horrible. This is the first thing that I have not been able to eat since I arrived.

The mountains of Taiwan are beautifully green; and such a refreshing change from the cities. I stumbled across this place, a family run restaurant where they serve their own organically grown products. The pork just melted in my mouth, and went perfectly with the rice, bamboo (yes bamboo...and so tender) and pumpkin (there is a pumpkin growing in the second picture).