九份 Jioufen

This weekend I headed with some friends too Jioufen, I have been there before in November 2007 but that was before I was blogging. When I was there last it was blissfully cold then compared to the stifling heat we had today.

Jioufen is located just outside of Taipei it's about an hour and half drive from the city centre, depending on traffic. The are buses which you can take as well, and it's definitely worth a visit as you have amazing views overlooking Taipei city and you can try out all the different tea restaurants, so it's really worth to spend some time going around the town ship.
















Across the bay.

Jioufen is really busy on the weekend what ever the weather so it's worth to try and visit mid week if you can.

















Snowy.

I also found a museum which I missed on my first visit. The artist who ran the mini museum make sculptures in clay of faces he had seen in his dreams or at least that was his story. I thought his are work was slightly odd and not my cup of tea, but it was only 50NT and gave a few good laughs.






















Faces.





















Pulling faces.

It was a long Sunday because afterwards we then drove on too Gongliao I think. Where we went too have some absolutely delouses sea food. By the time I got home I was completely shattered.

Cool rock formation waterfall, which you can see as you're leaving Jioufen, it's not that well displayed in the photo from my mobile but it's is worth a visit.




















I must remember to take my digital camera with me on these outings.

Laguna Rewind

Laguna beach town is kind of similar to those coastal town you get in Cornwall minus the palm trees. I have attached some photos have do have a look.

















I like the British phone box hiding behind the tree.










View from restaurant balcony.

If you click on the photo below it should in large notice the guy under the palm tree playing bagpipes to the left, quite surreal and odd!










Laguna beach straight ahead.

















Quite similar to Bembridge with a wash of Mercs and Bentley parked on every corner.

Don't think I'll be going out this weekend to explore as have a rather heavy work load and tight deadline which is a shame, but I still have next week.

Laguna Beach

Laguna is a bit like Kensington on Sea, by that I mean it’s quite bling with lots of Mercs and BMW everywhere and 50 years olds having mid life crises in drop top sports cars!

View of Laguna beach, photo should in large if you click on it.

Other than that the beach is about a 25 minuet drive from where I'm staying, it’s quite family oriented so it’s not fall of American beach babes, but Laguna is one of the nicest beaches I have been too. The sand is very white and clean no cigarette ends or bits of rubbish unlike the Taiwanese beaches.

Blending in with the locals!

Other than that the beach is about a 25 minuet drive from where I'm staying, it’s quite family oriented so it’s not fall of American beach babes, but Laguna is one of the nicest beaches I have been too. The sand is very white and clean no cigarette ends or bits of rubbish unlike the Taiwanese beaches.

Near the top of Laguna Beach.

I suppose the first 500 yards of coast line is very crowed only because I don’t think Americans like to walk far, just a 5 minuet stroll down the beach and you will quite happily find and empty stretch.

Near the bottom of Laguna beach.

I got to admit I had a very relaxing time and finished off eating at a great restaurant called Opah where I had a fantastically good fresh Swords fish dinner.

On the rocks.

Ok, I Know, I am obviously starting to become Taiwanese by photographing the food! Ah but it was good.

Yummy!

Beaching Danshui

Ah it's been a great weekend visiting the beach on Friday, Hiking Saturday and then the beach again on Sunday, simply great, then I'm jetting of to California for a few weeks.











I was amazed that they had life guards even though none of them were actually face the sea while chatting away with each other.

Yesterday Matt had told us about a beach just a 10 minuet drive from Danshui, so we went too find it this morning.
















I could see two kids trying to making a sandcastle near the shoreline, so I thought I would have a go at a contemporary one.

Iron Horse

Today I gave Ash a call, to see if he was up for heading to the beach, he was so I traveled up to Hongshulin and we hit the road on the Iron Horse.
















On the way to the beach.

I've having been thinking about getting a motor bike but I realised that the roads are not great out here but the main reason is I don't think that the Taiwanese are the most visually aware drivers.
















Great little bar in Danshui that we ended up having a drink at.





















Traditional motor fishing boat, but not sure!

View over the Danshui harbour.

Retrieval

Yesterday I went up to Guting to collect my bike, when I arrived to unlock my lock I was amazed it worked and it clicked open quite happily. When I got on the tires were a bit soft and the brakes still were uselessly hopeless, seat and handle bars also wobbly, that's made in China for you!

My bike complete with milk carton on the back, what was more intriguing was basket at the front had all sort of rubbish including an old sock!

I did have a looked at Google maps to see the route I need to take to get home, I just had to cross over the bridge into Jhonghur. I think I cycled too far because when I went right I end up going over the red bridge which is a little bit further from the one I wanted. I think it had taken me about 45 minuets to reach here.

One of the bridges into Jhonghur.

After crossing I was in Jhonhur/Youghe city it's a pretty big place. I asked for directions and this is when I got disorientated and ended up cycling all over the place.

I kept asking for directions too No. 4 park which is near too where I live. I spoke in Chinese that bit was fine the only problem was when they talked back to me I couldn't really understand what they were saying. Nice problem to have!

After about two and half hours of cycling up every lane trying to find land marks I finally came across the park and got home. It was quite an adventure around town and ended it a well deserved ice cream.

Photo below should in large!

Betel Nut Girl 檳榔西施

This was actually when I went down to visit the Queens Head Rock 野柳 I've only just got the photos back from my friend. My house mate Rocco insisted that I order four bottles of water from one of the many betel nut girls scantily dressed, lining the road on the way out of Taipei.

The betel nut and the betel nut girl is quite a unique part of Taiwan culture especially for the manual labor class who like to chew the betel nut as it gives them a fix of energy to work longer and harder.

Is that Hello Kitty pepper spray she has in her right hand?

Normally these girls sit in transparent porter cabins wearing not much more than a bikini, theoretically the less clothes the girl wears the more customers she should get.

Skimpy pink today!

They are not allowed to work naked or operate as a brothel, as the police are keen to crack down on that but these enterprises are generally run by organized criminal gangs.

Getting our order.

More Photos

Some great photos taken by my friends digital SLR from over the weekend, check out the BBQ shrimp, yum!

Throwing the net.

Up close.

Evening sunset across the farm.

Cooking away.

Yum!

The farm house at night.

Early morning catch for the market.

Welcome to Mingde 明德外役監

This weekend’s road trip started with us traveling down to Tainan 台南 to visit Mingde 明德外役監 which is a prison where we were going for lunch and then on too Ping Tung 屏東 to have a BBQ and see some of Rita’s friends.

We were up early to catch the fast train from Taipei Main Station to Hsinchu 新竹 where friends of Rita’s were going to collect us and drive us to the prison Mingde 明德外役監 for lunch which was going to be cooked by the prisoners!

This is us actually leaving, but I got to admit we were allowed to drive in with our own cars which was really cool, unlike the rest of the visitors who had to take the bus to see their locked up relatives.

The prison visit was really cool and I had half been expecting to be confronted by a high maximum security prison with guard dogs and men running around with guns and stuff, but actually it was all quite down to earth.

The prison was a minimum security with about 350 inmates mainly doing time for white collar crimes etc. bank fraud or steeling company assets.

All aboard.

The forecourt.

From the side.

I think I am probably only a handful of tourist who have visit a Taiwanese prison just for fun without having to do time. I was lucky enough to have this trip as one our friends use to work at Mingde as a human resources officer (She’s the one far left at the lunch table).

Just about to start lunch.

The vice warden was there to meet us and was a very nice chap. He was the main guy in charge that day we went and had tea in his office and he explained what they did here and he was really keen for us to see how the prison worked and the facility they had so we got a full tour.

In the front with the boss on tour.

Let me explain, the prison is a 500 acre farm, with a 350 personal work force that works from Monday to Friday with a 10 dollar salary per day for manual work on the farm, that’s just over 1p perday. They mainly specialise in farming free ranged Chickens and growing Mango fruit which tasted seriously good by the way.

Prison scenery.

The flower garden.

There produced which is produced on the farm is for the high-end food market and they exports mainly to Japan and Korea where each Mango sells for 500 dollars per one that’s about £8.30p per fruit so Mingde 明德外役監 has a seriously high income! It did kind of remind me of the Shawshank Redemption without the violence.

Homemade working out kit.

Nice old motorbike.

But as this place goes the location is very beautiful and as a prisoner you have to be selected to go there form another prison for example good behavior.

The rehabilitation rate is extremely high with all inmates leaving with a manually skilled job so it easy for them to get employed when their back in society.

Team prision.

Me and the warden.

Police bus, just cool. Most of the images should in large if you click on them.

Juming Museum 朱銘美術館

Over the weekend on our road trip we also went to visit the Juming Museum 朱銘美術館 which is set in a very beautiful location up in the hills the gallery site was about 25 acres so quite large for just the one artist Ju Ming who’s gallery it is.

Massive Bronzes sculpture.

The where only two to three pieces on show which I found interesting to look at among a lot of other stuff! I really like the parachute from these sculptures they looked very beautiful glittering in the sun light.

Very reflective, but not in these two photos.

I can only describe the art work as very Art Space if they went into mass production mode. I've added some photos below to give you an idea of the rest of the work on display.

With art work like this in the lobby entrance you know you’re in for a treat.

This was the artist Olympic collection, above.

There was quite a strong Military theme in his work, not really my thing, but quite popular with the Taiwanese fan base.

I think his Bronze sculptures sell for around 25-30K. Quite a lot, but if it’s your thing why not!

Salute.

The museum had also built a work shop for children to come on school trips and learn to paint and have fun which was a really nice idea. They also had a wall which you could paint on, slightly stuck for ideas I did a rather scary skill and cross bones.

Painitng away.

The team.

Chi.

The museum was definitely worth a visit as it’s in a very nice location up in the hills and you can get a lovely walk in with some great views of the surrounding valley too. But have lunch before you go as there is only one restaurant and it’s not very good.