Sunset @ Danshui

Danshui (淡水) is located near the Danshui river and the easiest way to get there is to go by Metro. Just take the Red MRT Danshui line. The estimated time is about 40 mins from the Taipei Main station. We were there at around sunset so we kinda got stuck at the Danshui Old street and waterfront.

This area stretches from the Danshui MRT station to the ferry docks. There are many stores specializing in traditional handicrafts. In one of those shops, we found an interesting shop that sells postcards that can be made into 3D models. Cool right? There are also a number of eateries and imagine our surprise when we found Hao Da Da Ji Pa (豪大大雞排) there. No need to queue at Shilin. :)

It's not often that we get to see sunset so we stayed there for quite some time to witness the event. We didn't get to see the Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭) though. Oh well.

Below are some of the pictures that I've taken of the sunset. Enjoy.

Yang Ming Shan

I went to Yang Ming Shan (陽明山) while I was at Taipei as I am more of a nature person. Since this was a free & easy trip, we decided to be adventurous and take the public transport to Yang Ming Shan. With the power of the Internet and Google of course, it is quite easy to do your homework before embarking on this trip.

First of all, you will need to catch the Bus 260. This bus will bring you directly to Yang Ming Shan. I took the bus (公车) from the main Taipei Railway Station. You can find the bus stop below at the North Bus station.

A quick crash course on taking a bus in Taipei. When you get up on the bus, you should be able to see a lighted up sign at the 上 or 下 word. 上 means that you should pay your bus fare when you get up on the bus, while the other means that you should pay your bus fare when you get off the bus. Do note that it is possible that you have to pay the bus driver twice as the sign switches halfway through your journey, which will happen if you take this bus 260. If you're paying cash, then this doesn't apply. :) Do note that you will be able to pay the bus fare using the EasyCard. The journey to Yang Ming Shan should take less than an hour.

Below is the map of Yang Ming Shan.

There is an internal bus 108 that will bring you around the place. You can pay NT$60 for unlimited trips, or pay NT$15 per ride. You can use the EasyCard for payment. You can see the bus stop near the sign you see above. Do note that the map above is not deceiving to the eye. Meaning that it is quite a distance between the locations if you attempt to walk.

Our first stop is to the Yang Ming Park. Below are pictures of some of the scenery while taking a stroll to the park. There is quite a number of elderly walking there too.

Well, you could say that I heard the clock before I seen it. Apparently, the flower clock of Yang Ming Park will play a jingle at every half hour mark. The flower clock is also quite old I think. My mother-in-law mentioned that she saw this when she went there over 25 years ago. Below is a picture of the flower clock.

Below are some of the scenery pictures taken around Yang Ming Park. It's quite a nice place and I understand why there so many old folks around the area.

After that, my wife suggested going to the Zhuzi Hu (竹子湖) as she wanted to see the Calla Lilies (海宇). That was where I made my first mistake. I thought the map may have been overblown up like some tourist areas so I suggested walking there. We backtracked almost to our starting point and made our way to the Yang Ming Shan National Park Visitor Centre. According to the signage, it was 600m away near where we started walking. However, it didn't say that you have to climb many flights of steps, and you have to hike up and down slopes to reach the centre. After reaching there, even though it was quite cooling, we are already sweating. It was at this point that we took the Bus 108 located at the Visitor Centre.

The bus stop is next to the sign of the visitor centre seen below.

Do note that although bus 108 is an internal shuttle bus around Yang Ming Shan, the interval is about 15-20 mins. That was one of the reasons why I initially did not want to take this bus. The other reason is that the bus is very small and you may not be able to squeeze into the bus.

Anyway, we managed to squeeze into the bus and made our way to Zhuzi Hu. This place is quite big and only after walking around, we realised that the bus S8 and S9 do go around that area. However, the frequency is quite long though.

Anyway, after walking around for quite a bit as we were trying to figure out where to go, we managed to find some of the flowers. :) Below was the place where we found them.

Yes, the above picture is a real volcano crater. This view made the walk worthwhile. :) At the foot of Zhuzi Hu, there is a small shop where you can have your meals if you wish. They sell small buns and some dishes too.

We regretfully have to leave Yang Ming Shan after this as we need to go to other places. :( Our trip is quite short so we tried to squeeze in as many things as possible. You can refer to my other post here for the pictures of the flowers that I took around Yang Ming Shan.

Flowers around Yang Ming Shan

I have split this post away from the Yang Ming Shan (陽明山) post here as it will be too lengthy. Below are some of the photos of flowers that I have taken around Yang Ming Shan, which includes some Calla Lilies (海宇). Enjoy.

Hong Kong's Minimum Wage Effective as of 1 May 2011

Hong Kong has finally confirmed that they will set the minimum wage to HKD28 per hour as they have conveyed previously to take steps to address their income gaps. They are of course people who are for and against it. For those who are against it, they usually use the "free market principle" as the reason.

My question to them is this. Did they think of this "free market principle" during the 2008 Great Recession? Didn't the government intervention helped recover the economy?

Free market? Yeah right. If you pay your workers what they are worth, then you should have nothing to worry about. Some say that it's too little, but that should be no excuse to not implementing this law. I personally felt that HKD28 was used to allow time for the businesses to adapt to this change. That was the concession given by the Hong Kong government to the businesses as they understand that they will need time to adapt to this law.

Personally, I felt that this minimum wage law will force businesses to be more productive as they can no longer use cheap labour to drive their businesses profit margins. There will always be more productive ways that can be used. The question is whether you and your business are willing to change.

Now. Will Singapore take care of their workers? Hmm...

Taipei 101

Who will not visit Taipei 101 if you happen to visit Taiwan?

To take a look at one of the tallest building in the world, just stop at the City Hall MRT station (Situated at the Blue Line - Nangang / Banqiao). Follow the arrows in the MRT station and you'll be able to find your way there.

Below is a picture of the Taipei 101 en-route from the MRT station.

To have a view of the city from Taipei 101, you can visit the Taipei 101 Observatory. Just go up to the 5th floor and walk towards the other end. You'll be able to see a ticket booth where you can get your tickets for NT$400 per person (adult).

Below is a view of the interior of Taipei 101 from the 5th floor.

While queuing up for the express lift that will bring you to the 89th floor, you'll have the option to take a picture where they will superimposed your photo beside the Taipei 101 (with fireworks shooting out). I didn't opt for it though. :p

Why do I say express lift? Take a look at the picture below. :)

You will reach the 89th floor in 37 seconds. That's how fast the express lift is. Inside the lift, they'll try to simulate the night sky with stars on the lift ceiling, and some commentary. It reminds me of a certain tower that I visited in Hokkaido though.

Anyway, the Observation Deck on the 91st floor was closed when I was there so I could only take pictures from within the observatory on the 89th floor. With a glass in-front and considering it's night time, it was quite hard to take any shots. :(  I had 2 decent shots though.

In the observatory, there is some write-up on the construction of Taipei 101 and the famous "Damper Baby". The damper acts as a pendulum that sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts of wind. Below are 2 pictures that show some brief write-up on the damper baby.

Below are 2 photos of the baby itself. Now you understand why it acts as a pendulum?

On the 89th floor, there is a shop where you can buy cute Taipei 101 souvenirs. As we couldn't go up to the 91st floor, we proceeded down to the 88th floor using the staircase. You will walk pass a multimedia corridor. It looks something like the picture below. I guess it wishes to convey the impression that Taipei 101 is very tall and on the 88th floor, it is as if you're walking on top of the clouds.

When you walk across this corridor, the clouds will actually clear up to show the Taipei city below. It looks something like the picture below.

Anyway on the 88th floor, you'll see some sort of art gallery and I believe they sell some jade too. To get back down to the 5th floor, you'll need to go pass the shops right to the end.

As we were walking back to the City Hall MRT station, I couldn't resist taking the picture below. :p

The Tango Taipei Nanshi

I stayed at The Tango Taipei Nanshi hotel near Zhongshan MRT station during my short stay at Taipei. I stayed in the Junior King room and I was quite surprised by how well furnished it is. I believe that a number of Japanese are staying in this hotel too. The reason may be because the hotel is right beside Xin Guang San Yue (新光三越).

Below is the picture of the hotel.

It doesn't look much from the outside but the interior is quite well furnished. Below is the picture of the room. That's a Sony Bravia TV by the way.

I'm not sure if all the rooms in this hotel are the same but I always judge a hotel by its toilet. Looking at the toilet, it seems that this hotel is more for young couples. Look at the picture below and you'll understand.

Yes. That's a transparent pane of glass that you're seeing and yes, you can see through it quite well. Good view of the bathtub and the toilet bowl. :)

The room is pretty well furnished. There is a microwave oven provided and the hotel provides different types of tea and coffee sachets, 3 bottles of mineral waters, a few cans of soft drinks and 2 pineapple cakes. Get this. They are all free, at least for us when we were there.

The room is also quite high tech. Take a look at the picture below.

The interesting part is the toilet though. The toilet bowl is the Japanese type where there are a lot of buttons that you can press. It's also heated so you'll find it quite comfortable in winter. The bath tub is actually a jacuzzi and get this, you can watch TV when you're using the jacuzzi.

Neat? I think so. Plus the fact that it's very near Zhongshan MRT station and there is a food court at 新光三越 if you're hungry, I recommend staying at this hotel if you're in Taipei.

Telcos are refusing to publish the average speeds of their broadband plans

Telcos have came out in force refusing to publish the average speeds of their broadband speeds, giving excuses like the speed is affected by the cables, laptops/desktops, etc. However, someone has mentioned that IDA actually tests the actual speed of all the broadband plans by the 3 Telcos regularly and publishes it at their website here. You can take a look at the figures there.

The local speeds are closed to the advertised broadband speeds except for Starhub. However that is pretty useless as most of the content that we're looking at is most probably from outside Singapore. The speeds drop the moment it goes outside Singapore, affecting some Telcos more than others. Looking at those maximum available download throughput speeds, you can see that Singtel is the most consistent and closest to the advertised speeds. I'm quite surprised with M1's speeds though. M1 speeds look even better than Starhub's.

Would you still pay those broadband prices knowing that their maximum throughput may not even reach the advertised speeds? Note that the average speeds of the broadband plans were not even tested, which will definitely be slower that the maximum throughput. It's so easy to find the average broadband speeds in a first world country like the US.

It's amazing that a big country like US can publish the average broadband speeds but a small country like Singapore can't. I guess we're not first world yet. Eh?

Finding your way around Taoyuan International Airport

Just came back from a short trip to Taipei through Terminal 1 of Taoyuan International Airport. The interesting thing that I realised is that on arrival to Taipei, I hardly spotted any duty free shops within Terminal 1. That led me to believe that there are no shops within the arrival/departure area. However, that is incorrect.

The duty free shops seems to be only available at the "departure lounge". There are a number of duty free shops there at Terminal 1 so if you need some last minute shopping ranging from branded goods to perishables (e.g. Sun Biscuit, Pineapple cakes, etc), you'll still be able to get them at the airport. You can also take the sky train from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 and vice versa. You can even catch a last minute meal within the departing area of Terminal 1.

If you want to catch a cheap meal at Taoyuan International Airport before boarding, I believe the best bet would be the 7-11 (otherwise known as Seven in Taiwan) at Level 2, Terminal 2. They even have a microwave oven where the cashier will help you "cook" your food. I saw a number of air stewards and air stewardess there so I guess it should be quite okay. At least the sandwich I ate there was okay (35 TWD). Otherwise, there is always Burger King which you can find at both terminals.

If you're looking for a place to connect to the Internet, the good news is that there is free Wifi. However, for some reason there is no free Wifi available at Terminal 1 before going to the boarding area. Terminal 1 "departure lounge", and Terminal 2 however has free Wifi. To access the Wifi there, just connect to the Hinet SSID.

Taoyuan International Airport is about an hour's ride by Taxi from the main Taipei Railway station. The cost is about 1,100 TWD but I only tried taking the taxi from Zhongshan station to the airport. Not sure if the cost is the same the other way. If you're looking for the bus, you can find the King Bus (国光) at Terminal 1. Just turn left after leaving the customs at Terminal 1 and go straight. It's not that far. If I recall correctly, it's only about 125 TWD. If you're at Terminal 2, you should be able to find the bus station to get your tickets once you reach Terminal 1 through the Sky Train.

I will be posting again once I've managed to find time to sort my photos. :)

Seize the moment

I quote from Wayne Dyer:

You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you've lost them forever.

First class train service at ...

I have just recently came back from Taipei and one thing that struck me was that their MRT train service is first class.

First class service is not about how classy your train is or if the train is driverless. It is all about the service to the passengers. Mind you that the Taipei MRT fares are comparable, if not cheaper than Singapore.

One thing that will strike you when you arrive at the MRT station is that you will ALWAYS know when the next train is arriving. The timing is always shown to you on the screen and it won't be covered by advertisements.

Next thing that strikes you is the frequency. So far, I have only waited for 3 mins for the train at ALL times, on weekdays and weekends. The maximum length that I have waited was 5 mins and that is because we were at the end of the line. Here?? Uh-hem.

Once you're in the train, you will always know what's the previous stop that it left, the next stop that it is going to, and the stop thereafter. No fancy display. Just good old fashion single line LED screens. I have seen this in all the MRT trains that I have taken in Taipei.

First class train system in Singapore? Yeah right. Doesn't apply to the train passengers though. Oh yes. Did I mention that their trains ran 24 hours over the new year?