Vacation in Taiwan

However, some people find reasons to visit the Computex computer fair in Taipei.

Even back home in Germany I saw an ad about making vacation in Taiwan. "Taiwan will touch your heart". As I said before, the doctor in Taiwan once warned me about that when I had a bit of a circulation breakdown because of smog and humidity in combination after coming to Taiwan in 2004. "Mind your heart if this continues" he said. So, with dirty beaches with chopped-off palm trees and roads practically at the seaside without much of a gap towards the beach, beautiful mountain hotels with giggling staff (if you don't speak Mandarin Chinese), scenic mountain towns with insane traffic almost killing you on the only road in town when you want to reach the supermarket (no traffic light, no pedestrian bridge), I guess "vacation in Taiwan" is something like...

10. Going to the dentist because having your mouse rinsed and spitting out blood is fun.

09. Finally kissing your childhood movie idol on the mouth in 2010. Who was 40 when you were 8.

08. Touching a door handle and wondering why it has fur on it [well you can do that in Taiwan]. Well, the fur is ... biological.

07. Finding out it really was smell from the sewers and not a "stinky Tofu" booth this time when you finally took a deep breath to overcome your "stinky Tofu" fear [OK, Taiwan again]

06. Wondering why that aggressive mouse-sized bug is going directly for your big toe [ah wait, Taiwan again]

05. Finding grandma Lee's lost needle in Lee's "Mandarin King" restaurant while eating soft pork balls.

04. Finding out this is not a giant toy spider

03. Wondering if that 50 km/h scooter on the small side walk with slippery tiles can still stop within the 5 meters distance you have when leaving your house [ah wait, Taiwan....]

[to be continued]


Similar article [I can't stop nagging about this]: http://bobhonest.blogspot.com/2010/02/where-else-but-taiwan.html

Where else but Taiwan...

What did you say? Tourists? Here?***

Taiwan advertises itself for tourism in Britain: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/t-business/2010/02/08/244132/Taiwan-launches.htm. The slogan goes "where else but Taiwan". However, Taiwan is no tourism country. I have seen hotels here with an Elvis imitator singing 8 hours the same 5 songs at insane noise levels, beaches with litter and dirt and a fence locked the whole beach off. People in beautiful mountain resorts did not speak any English but rather gave me a wide-mouthed grin "hihihihi look at that foreigner, hihihi". So I hope nobody really pays attention to the ads, they are the usual Taiwan bogus of starting something without really thinking things through. Better buy a Notebook instead or a PC, for example from Taiwan's big brands Acer, Asus oder MSI (or even from other brands) those are (usually) designed in Taiwan and made in China and you are much better off spending your money on that.

Ludigel's home town 20 min from the "beach" in Taiwan. Enough as a tourist attraction? Come on, we can add "sur mer" to the town's name...

At night our village high street gets a bit of sub tropical charm. Cough.

Food in the food stalls is good, and you do have a little Mandarin Chinese ready to order, right? I like cruising the high street with my wife's Chinese "order" on a piece of paper and buying the food from the stalls, quite nice actually. Somehow this place has become some kind of home. Sort of.

*** a dog from our stray-dog rescue stray-dogs.org, the "executive arm" of this blog. He is already re-homed in Canada now.

Taiwan, the hell hole?

German below, Deutsch unten

English:
A web page wants to assess how livable countries are, see here: http://www.il-ireland.com/il/qofl2009/.
Now, USA ranks No.3 in the table, so that must be Shangri-La combined with free massage parlors and no crime whatsoever. It is just behind France and Switzerland (I always do think the waiters on Champs Elysees in France are a bit scary though. Never mind.
My home country Germany is number 8, right below Italy. That might sound like a fair assessment, bella Italia surely has its benefits over my country.

Wait, there are parks in Taipei, Taiwan. This one even has political freedom (Falun Gong practitioners or however they are called)
EDIT: well it's religious freedom, only the PRC makes it seem political

But now where is Taiwan, called "Republic of China" by its formal name, wait a minute. Ah there, No. 58 or something, directly above South Africa and a bit above Ukraine. And below Mexico.

But now let's play a game. Let's say you are a stupid tourist family, driving with your big rented Sedan which has a big HERTZ or whatever sticker on it through the country in question, cameras clicking, wearing a shirt saying "I've got money" in the local language. Now say, we do that in South Africa. I guess the family has a good chance to be raped, mugged and decomposed down to their gold teeth in Mexico, South Africa and Ukraine, if they drive through the wrong parts. But all they would get in Taiwan are a few friendly "hello"s, even from betlenut chewing tattooed big guys.

OK, the table is about living, not tourism. But what if they family moves into the respective country because dad has a job a local branch of his home company and they buy a big and shiny sedan and take a trip through the country... same situation like tourism.

However, if dad was so naive to move into one of the crowded middle class areas, like I did in 2004, he might get respiratory problems, circulation problems and thrombosis, if the country is Taiwan. Just as I had before I moved into the countryside.

So I guess the evaluation depends on your personal perspective. I'd prefer Taiwan to Mexico, Taiwan is one of the safest countries on earth.

P.S: Also see here: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2010/01/14/2003463481: Freedom House still evaluates Taiwan as free, but sees defendant's rights in decline in penal cases.


German, Deutsch:

Die Webseite http://www.il-ireland.com/il/qofl2009/ versucht die Lebenqualität von Ländern zu bewerten, Frankreich ist die Nummer 1, die Schweiz die Nummer 2 und die USA die Nummer 3. Italien ist Nummer 7 und Deutschland Nummero 8. Unser kleines Taiwan findet sich an Position 58 oder so, ganz weit unten jedenfalls, gleich über Südafrika. Mir kam der Gedanke, wie wenig solch eine Liste so pauschaliert aussagt, gerade weil die wenigen Kriterien wenig aussagekräftig sind. Sinnvoller wäre es sicherlich, alle Länder etwa so einzuordnen (habe das Mal am Beispiel von Deutschland und Taiwan versucht, 0-100%, mehr ist besser, alles "pi mal Daumen"):

Umwelt: Deutschland 80%, Taiwan 30%
Wirtschaft (i.A.): D: 60%, T 70%)
Sicherheit vor Kriminalität i.A.: D 45%, T 75%
Sicherheit von Ausländern: D 55%, T 90%
Nichtelektronische Infrastruktur inkl. Verkehr: D 85%, T 70%
Elektronische und Telekommunikationsinfrastruktur: D 75%, T 75%
Tierschutz: D 60%, T 10%
Sicherheit vor Naturkatastrophen: D 90%, T 35%
Sicherheit vor Terrorismus, Krieg: D 70%, T 35%

etc. etc.

Da müsste man richtige Kriterien und Bewertungsmaßstäbe aufstellen....

Edit: Nachdem ich gestern abend wieder in meinem Haus bei 10 Grad Plus ohne Heizung gefroren habe, nur mit einem Heizdrahtding versehen, das mich hinten gekocht hat, während ich vorne eiskalt war, sage ich: Lasst uns dies verdammte Taiwan auf Position 99 der Liste setzen! Grrr..... Zähneklapper