Back in Taiwan, this is one of the funniest mis-translations of the Chinese language, I have ever seen. Enjoy! (Click on the picture to bring up a larger version)

OK, last one not of Taiwan. At least it's Asia this time. On the way from Johannesburg to Kuala Lumpur for my connecting flight home. How can you not love flying (turbulance aside) when this is the view from the window?

"That is not Taiwan, Roger!" I know, I know, but I can't resist an opportunity to promote my beautiful home country, South Africa. Taken at Kenton On Sea, Eastern Cape province.

Strictly speaking I shouldn't be posting this photo, because it wasn't taken in Taiwan at all and photographically it's not great either. In fact, it was taken off the coast of Madagascar from the window seat of a 747 I was flying in on my way back to South Africa for holiday. A few hours before we landed, I witnessed the most spectaculat lightning display I have ever seen. The entire sky was lit up by hundreds of simultaneous flashes of lightning from a bunch of huge clouds. That's got to be one of the most amazing natural things one can ever witness.

Those avid followers of this blog (do such strange creatures exist, I wonder?) will recall photos from a trip mates and I took to Sun Moon Lake, a natural (I think) reservoir about an hour south of Taichung. Well, I visited it again, and this time it was really beautiful, with low lying clouds decorating the surrounding mountains. Here's a panorama. Sorry it's only 1024 pixels wide, but that's all that 'Hello' allows.

Here's a stack of 'ghost money' that is burned by a large number of Taiwanese folk in the hope that it will financially provide for ancestors in the afterlife.

I'm not quite sure what these people were doing, but it had something to do with the incence holder. If you know, please leave a comment :)

A lot of pride, time, effort and skill goes into constructing and decorating your average Taiwanese temple. As an example, look at this beautiful stone carving, just a small section of an extensive amount of decoration on one of the older temples in Lu Gan.

I visited a town called Lu Gun with a few friends recently and visited some temples there. This is one of my favourite recent photos - a door to one of the older temples.

This is one cool looking Japanese transformer robot. I wish I was a kid again, because this beats He-Man by a mile.

Most large Taiwanese companies have an annual banquet to thank employees, eat food and generally to throw around a bunch of money and look good. My company's banquet was no different, complete with all the hype and fanfare that accompanies Taiwanese events. The food was good, if unusual, but the best part was the huge amount of cash that was casually given away by management.

Pine trees, mist and mountains are the order of the day at Shi Tou. It's a really beautiful spot.

It's been a long time since I added anything!!! Sorry to all you folks who actually visit. Well, this photo was taken by my good friend Rob Sparrow when a bunch of us visited Shi Tou forest recreation area. I think it's a great pic and I'm kind of jealous of him for taking it ;)

Taiwanese guys (and some girls, I'm sure) love to have the fastest best computer around. Here's a water coolant system designed to remove heat from microchips that are driven harder than the manufacturer recommends. It also runs about 5x more quietly than the usual series of fans. This was taken at the entrance to a shop that sells nothing but computer cases and collant systems. You know you're in Taiwan when you're in a shop like that. 

And here is the 'trigrid' solution. Sorry to post stuff like this on this blog (I know it's not relevant at all), but this is the only way I could add my sixpence to a problem that I'm sure has baffled a lot of people. 

This was a problem a mate of mine sent me. I couldn't figure it out until I fiddled with it in GIMP (great amateur Photoshop equivalent, get it at www.gimp.org). Trust me, you will never see it with the naked eye. 

Gee, thanks guys. 

I went to the doctor for a health examination (in order to renew my contract for a year) and saw this beaut while I was waiting. 

This was taken on Thursday last week before the previous 4 photos (sorry about the chronology here). To celebrate the impending Chinese new year, one of the school branches I teach at had a 'hot pot' for lunch which all the foreign teachers were invited to. In the foreground are 2 Tawainese foods, the very non-Kosher pigsblood and rice (which I don't like), and a type of spinich, found in many dishes (which I do like). In the background are Irene and Amy, two of the friendly Taiwanese ladies who work with us foreigners. 

I was messing around with the menu when I discovered that this set-up is quite an interesting composition. My friend, Dave S is illuminated by my camerea's powerful flash, bursting through my misplaced finger (hence the red color)! It was lucky that the pictures in the glossy menu were arranged so nicely. 

Speaking of tea-houses/restaurants, I just came back from a tasty meal of stirr fried beef had to celebrate a friend's birthday. Here's a picture of one of my friends in attendance there, DA (because I honestly cant spell her name!). Nothing remarkable here, but I thought the light looked good. 

Come get some tasty sanks from this great teahouse. It's weird how a restaurant will spend literally millions of dollars on decor and architecture, but when it comes to written English in the menus, on the walls etc, no-one seems to give a rip whether or not it's even remotely correct! My sense of humour for these kind of mistakes is waning... I'm starting to get the impression that English isn't very highly regarded in Taiwan. That's a shame when you're an English teacher :( 

I was thinking of doing a 'colourful Taiwan' theme series. Not sure If I will, but anyway here's colourful Taiwan #1. This was a patchwork of fabric covers over some empty ground. Presumably this ground will be the site of ANOTHER apartment building in the future, but the reason for the covers escapes me! Please cpmment if you think you can enlighten me! This pic was auto corrected in the new Picassa 2, which, by the way is an incredible piece of software, probably the best there is for organising digital photos. Get it free from www.picasa.com 

This is a Chinese Temple I visited a few days ago. Like most temples, it's very ornate. 

Now here's a funny pic. This is my good friend Rob Sparrow and my other good friend Irene Hsu. Well, to be correct, it's Irene's hair, on Rob's head. 

Friends and I visited the world's second largest internet cafe the other night. It has over 600 computers and costs a mere 70NT for 3 hours. An added bonus is that one gets free drinks. 

This is a wall poster of the 35 symbols of the Mandarin phonetic system. The first four sound like "buh puh muh fuh".

The annual Hess Speech and Writing Competition, held in Taipei last weekend was quite a grand affair (and that was only the semi-finals!) 

It's nearly Chinese New Year, which means the red lanterns are out in full force. 

Lost in translation... I hope. Really, there needs to be more attention paid to the quality of printed English in Taiwan! The original is 'Duke' of course.