Dave finally got round to sending me the Taipei pictures. Can't blame him for taking so long really, as his computer at his house is a relic and the computer at school is all in Korean, making it hard to understand how to do anything.
Anyway, at long last here are some more pics of different things in Taipei and much better quality than my camera, which is a relic by now as far as digital cameras go.
The first one is of a side street right off the main street. Believe it or not, people actually live there. It looked like a demolished alley with derelict houses, but it wasn't!
It took a walk down there to see what condition the houses where in. They were a mess and looked like something that had just been put together to stop the wind from coming in. It was quite an eye opener for me.
Off of the main street, the other houses looked okay, but this place was also kitty corner to a temple that was stuck right in between a set of shacks and a store.
This one is a good shot of a main street in Taipei. You can see all the tropical trees. Like I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, Taiwan has done a good job of putting lots of trees everywhere to mask the industrial look of the country or should I say the western look of the place. You can see in the picture there are lots of boulevards that create one way streets to drive on and gets you off the main glut of traffic. These are all usually full of scooters too.
There is a story behind this picture here and here is how it goes. Usually in Korea, side dishes like these ones in the picture are complimentary. You can also order as many refills of them as you want and they don't cost you a red cent.
Anyway, Dave and I decided to go to a traditional Taiwanese restaurant and this one looked like it fitted the bill. We waited for a table and this one came up. We sat down and we looked at the menu. We started to pick at these side dishes, which were no big shit, by the way. A little bit of nothing, is how I would describe them. Anyway, we were nibbling away at them, while we waited for our order to come. We had ordered quite a range of things, some of them turned out to be okay, but some were shite and way too fishy for us.... even for Dave who is a fish lover.
We got the bill and the stupid side dishes cost as much as two of the things that we had ordered on the main menu!!!!!! They charged us for them and really we did not enjoy them!
The bill ended up being around 45 dollars, which is highway robbery, by Taiwanese standards and not what we were looking for at all.
We wanted to try some of the food, but at a reasonable price and this was nowhere near a good deal for the food that we had and the quality and quantity. Anyway, at least we had some authentic Taiwanese food. Doesn't come close to rivaling Korean food though.
This is a picture of Kyle who we met through Billy who is in the picture below. Kyle just ended his contract at a school as he was not happy with the way things were going, so he gave them his 6 weeks notice and now has gone on a trek of Vietnam or Cambodia or one of those places for about a month.
He is coming back and then going to get a job at another school. He is a good guy, very young as you can see from the picture! He is big into photography, just like Billy and also has his own blog. I am going to put his link onto my blog, if I ever get around to remembering.
This is a picture of Billy, myself and Dave at Dublin's. I don't know if you can see from the picture, but I look like an Albino!!!!
Here is what happened: I dyed my hair about a day before we left for Korea and decided to dye my goatee and sideburns as well as my eyebrows!!! Didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I looked like one of those psychos from a movie. It really was weird how my eyebrows looked.
I don't have many pictures from Taiwan, but if I did, I probably wouldn't post them as I looked like a real tit in them and spooky to boot. If you look closely at the picture, you can see what I mean.
I am staying home tonight and watching the Liverpool game on my computer, in English I hope! Dave is going out with a Korean friend of his who he met at the gym. We thought we were going to go out all together, but Dave called him and the Korean fella said, "Friend no, no, you and a girl, me and a girl, " or something like that.
Dave felt bad that I was not coming along, but I told him that I would prefer to stay at home anyway. I don't ever want to be the third wheel or the fifth wheel or whatever it is. I hope Dave has a good time and I am sure he will tell me all about it.
Dave and I met up with Billy last night and had a few drinks outside the Family Mart by Dave and Billy's house. Billy seems okay, but of course a little sad and not looking forward to the trip back home. He does however have first class seats there and back, so that will be a little bit of comfort for him to travel with. It is something that he has to do and has resigned himself to that fact; not an easy thing for any human being to go through.
Billy even got someone to cover for him while he is gone. How awesome is that for a guy to do when he is going through something as tragic as what he is. The school should realize what a good guy he is and give him his just rewards when he gets back; appreciate him more and realize that he is a great teacher and human being.
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