World Cup Week Two from Taiwan

World Cup Week Two from Taiwan

 

The second week has come to close and what a World Cup this has been so far.  Goals are flying in left, right, and centre, with goalless draws at a premium.  This week the movers and shakers have started to move and shake.  Messi has begun to move through the gears, Brazil have started to play samba, and France have played some fantastic football (and showed depth to their squad).  Some big European super powers have fallen, following their Spanish counterparts; and yes, I count England in that group.  The week did not start well for me with firstly England losing and then Italy compounding the result.  The game of week has to be France knocking five past Switzerland.  France came into the tournament and many peoples tip to flop, but they are beginning to turn me into supporter.  They have played with some great flair and scored some cracking goals.  Goal of the week was tough choice for goal of the week, there have been some stunners, but I think I’ll pick Shaqiri vs Honduras (Jones vs Portugal deserves a shout out though).  I give it to Shaqiri because it came from nowhere and the ‘keeper was completely befuddled ‘should I stay, should I go, should I wave it past the post, oh it’s a goal’.  It started so far outside the post and came back to be nearly on the postage stamp in the top corner.  Brazil started to play some good football, but still look very suspect defensively.  They also don’t appear to have got going in this tournament.  As an Englishman, I can tell them they need to get going soon or they’ll be going (the short distance) home.  It’s debatable when the last time England got going in a tournament, I’d like to say 2002, but you could even argue 1998 (last 16, but played some good games), or even as far back as 1996; it would be hard to argue it has not been longer than a decade.  Is this going to be Messi’s World Cup? Already with two late winning goals followed by performance against Nigeria which has seen him described as ‘from Jupiter’.  So far he has not done it against the best and Argentina have looked far from impressive despite three wins.  The Greeks have snuck through their group with a large assist from the referee.  I have watched a lot of that group and although they are solid defensively they were the least impressive going forward; Costa Rica will fancy their chances.  Have I forgotten anything…

 

Oh, and Suarez bit someone… again.  The man is determined not be loved during a World Cup.  In South Africa his stunning save against Ghana, who had an entire continent behind them, and now this; he does not have love affair with the World Cup to say the least.  It is a shame that someone of such calibre and undoubted talent has such a bizarre floor.  I am not sure what to make of the Uruguayan stance on the matter.  Refusing to accept it happened and blaming other media for bullying Suarez.  After the England game I was particularly disappointed by Suarez’s comments about the English press.  I will accept for the majority of his early time in the Premiership they crucified him, but has he forgotten he is the current footballers writers player of the year; a prestigious award given by the British press.  I have just seen FIFA have banned him for four months and nine international matches.  I don’t have any big problem with the length of time of the ban, but neither would I complain with a little longer.  He is surviving nearly half of ban in preseason; this is where I have a problem with the ban.  Suarez is only going to miss nine premiership games, this is not much worse than his previous ban.  He missed 10 games overall during his last ban, but that included a couple of cup ties, so essentially eight league games.  If it was four months from the beginning of the season I would be much more satisfied; making him miss sixteen premier league games and essentially the first round of the Champion’s League.  You could argue FIFA have thrown a book at him, but it is more like a short story than the bible.  I also subscribe to the opinion some form of help should handed to him, it shouldn’t be seen as punishment, but as rehabilitation.  As this is his third offence of the exact same thing, I think we can say he is a repeat offender.  In some moments, the pressure gets to him and he reacts in this manner.  It is important that as a sport you help your athletes.  Uruguay don’t seem to see the moral problem (Tim Vickery, BBC Sport), but he doesn’t play in Uruguay, so it is the responsibility of FIFA, the FA, the PFA and Liverpool (or whoever his next club may be) to help him.

 

Last week I mentioned the poor refereeing in the tournament.  I think it has been better this week, but I have created a twisted logic to say better refereeing in the England game would have prevented the biting.  I am unsure whether or not this is a debate, but I think it is clear cut that Godin should have been sent off for a second yellow card against England.  If this was to pass, I’d like to think England would have completed the task, or I’d at least like to believe England would not have lost.  This would have completely changed the dynamic of the game.  Also, Marchisio was very unlucky to be red carded for his challenge.  All this continued to ramp up the pressure on Uruguay and Suarez to score.  They had gone from underdogs to go through all the way to favourites; pressure does funny things.

 

In Taiwan people still don’t seem have noticed the World Cup too much.  Only have girl and boyfriends of the foreigners seem to want (or are forced) to watch.  I have only been out once this week, to watch the Colombia vs Ivory Coast and the England vs Uruguay game.  I went to an all you drink place in Dunhua called 85 Lounge.  I went with the aim of being responsible and not being too hung over the next day.  Unfortunately, the Yorkshireman in me took over and told me drink my monies worth.  After disappoint of the result and managed to walk the wrong way from the bar.  Fortunately, my logic of wandering to Taipei 101 helped me find a bus stop I could recognise.  I didn’t have to be at work till 4pm, but my co-workers could instantly tell what had happened to be the night before, thankfully half my class didn’t turn up so it was an easy lesson.  Other than that I have watched most of the games of Taiwanese TV and only streamed a couple.  For the final games I steaming one and watching on the TV, so I always know what is going on.  Wasn’t so useful for group D, but at least I got to see the Suarez incident.

 

Although my Nation has fallen by the way side, I am still positive about this World Cup.  I can watch all these fantastic football as neutral without the hope of something benefiting my own team.  I may well pick a team or two to route for in the knock out stages, but well wait for tonight to see who completes the last sixteen.  Being English, this may be tricky, who will be left in who I am allowed to support?

 

For now I’ll just wait for the next tournament we play to hope again.  Afterall, everyone seems to know the score. They've seen it all before. They just know.  They're so sure.  That England's going to throw it away, going to blow it away, but I know they can play.

 

I know this is football blog, but I think it would be remiss not to mention the cricket which was happening simultaneously to the football.  England and Sri Lanka played two great matches; both going down to the last over after five days.  Sri Lanka edged the series 1-0, but England showed a lot of heart in defeat and nearly pulled of the greatest of escapes.  Jimmy Anderson even had his own Gazza/Brett Lee moment, after losing the Test Match with the penultimate delivery; 2,699 balls out of 2,700, roughly.  A great advert for Test Cricket.

 

Also Wimbledon has just started.  The summer sport just keeps on rolling.  I am going to watch using a mix of streaming off BBC Sport, watching Star Sports and text updates at work.

 

Now, I’m off to stream one and watch the other.  Enjoy the action.

 

Hot Tea

World Cup Week One from Taiwan

World Cup Week One from Taiwan

 

We have come to the end of the first seven days of the World Cup and what a seven days it was been.  Three teams have already fallen with Spain being the biggest so far, we’ve seen poor refereeing, spectacular goals and head nudges (I’m loath to call them head butts) on team mates.  Although I did not have high hopes for Spain winning the tournament and I thought Chile could do well, I did not envisage Spain joining the likes of France (2002), Italy (1950 and 2010) and Brazil (1966 nudge, nudge, wink, wink) as Champions to fall at the first hurdle.  To give Spain credit they are now Champions of this feat as no team has managed to do it so quickly before; after two games.  The amount of poor to frankly ridiculous refereeing decisions have come so often, I don’t know where to begin; let’s just be thankful the vast majority of them seem to have any great effect on the final results.  Diego Costa against the Netherlands and lines man against Mexico for example.  The key exception being in the first game when the Japanese referee had a poor game; first, I’m a little confused about the Neymar yellow card, surely it is a red card for an elbow or it should be nothing.  The fact the ref gave a yellow makes me think he bottled sending off Neymar because of who he is and situation.  To be honest I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I believe the ref thought it was.  This was later followed by the felling of Fred.  This may be the English in me talking, but 6ft plus male should be falling over under a pat on the shoulder.  Do you blame Fred, do you blame the ref or do you blame both?  I think a little bit of both.  I am not a fan of going down under marginal contact and although I think it is often very hard for refs to pick it in real time, this one did not seem hard to spot.  I’m starting to think we should give the benefit of the doubt to the defender, if you look at someone funny in the box they go down like an extra from platoon.  Then you have the likes of Pepe losing the plot.  As much as I would like football to be a man’s game, in the modern game Pepe’s head nudge and Song’s elbow claw are solid gold red cards.  You shouldn’t do these things on a football pitch, but if you’re going to get sent off in World Cup at least make it worthwhile, if you are angry enough to head butt someone, give them a real head butt not a head nudge.  This may not be in the spirit of the game, but these innocuous little heads real grind my gears.  In the first week of the World Cup we have had 60 goals in 20 games; three goals a game.  This hasn’t happened since the 50’s!  I’m not going to debate why this is happening, but I’m glad it is.  Like England, maybe teams just don’t want to die wondering.

 

I have been watching all (well most) of the action unfold from Taiwan.  This causes issues when watching a mainly European and South American sport; especially with all the big audiences coming from Europe and the tournament being played in South America. The three game times in Taiwan are: 12am, 3am and 6am.  This makes for tricky viewing.  So far I have used three main methods for viewing this World Cup: the pub, streaming (video and radio) and Taiwanese TV.

 

Brazil vs Croatia

I started the week streaming the Brazil game, largely because I didn’t know it was on TV, but also because it was the first game and I wanted British commentators and pundits for the first game.  This caused major issues because the ITV stream broke just before half time and I had no back-up plan.  So I ended up listening to the rest of the game on BBC radio 5 live. This was kind of nice because it gave an extra medium to say I have used, but mainly I was feeling frustrated as it was 4/5 in the morning! I haven’t streamed too much since then, as my streams have often been poor.   I have watched quite a lot on Taiwanese TV, but as I am at home I often end falling asleep during half time of the second game.  Then when Yellow Sugar goes to work in the morning I watch the end of the 6am game; which was particularly interesting when it came to the Ghana USA game.  The reason I have not been to the pub very often is a logistical issue.  It is very hard just see one game at that time of night.  Public transport is closed between 12am and 5am, so you have to watch a minimum of two games to make it worth your while.

 

On Saturday/Sunday I went for the trifecta of three games in a row (the only gamble being whether I could make it to 8am).  This was Colombia vs Greece followed by Uruguay vs Costa Rica with England vs Italy to finish off.  The first pub was crammed full of Colombians, who were all going crazy the entire game; why can’t Englishman support a team like the South Americans?  We are so dour in comparisons.  By the time the second game came around I was started to lag a little bit; the beer and lack of sleep was starting to kick in.  Although I was quite happy with the Costa Rica, I had mixed feelings when every time Costa Rica scored I was handed tequila.  It was free, so I wasn’t complaining till the next morning.  Finally 6am came and I came face-to-face with fresh faced Italians who had not been awake all night.  To banter was enjoyable, especially when Starling didn’t score in the first minute; egg and faces were in alignment.  The game, to the last 30 minutes in particular, was a bit of blur, but I was not overly disappointed.  We weren’t out played, our final delivery was a bit underwhelming, but it was a vast improvement on the Euro 2012 quarter final two years previously.

 

The first week has taught me several things.  Firstly, Taiwanese commentary is rubbish.  Secondly, although the pub is always fun and you get to meet new people from different parts of the world, it is a big undertaking and unless you are very committed it is not something I would recommend every night, unless you live relative close.  Thirdly, if it is an important game, make sure you have the commentary you like or have a great atmosphere.  For the England we had Taiwanese commentary, but because there were so many Brits and Italians, it was a good crack.  If there are few people the commentary is needed for the atmosphere.  If you have a good stream, I would pick it over the convenience of TV, but it is nice watching a game without the danger of buffering sign popping up.  Watch in a pub with friends, foreigners and the odd local when you can.  After all what is the World Cup for if not meeting new people, socialising and having a party (or should I say Carnival)?

 



I’ll end with me two moments of the week.  Number one: Tim Cahill’s volley against the Netherlands; it was in vain, but you have to love Aussie grit.  Number two: the American reaction to Brooks’ winner.  Changing Wikipedia to read ‘the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln’ just made me laugh.

 

My favourite Wikipedia edit

Tonight I’m off to the England game, as it is at 3am I think I’ll watch Colombia vs Ivory Coast.  Hopefully I won’t be sad or hung over for work tomorrow.

 

Hot Tea

The Queen's Head Yehliu

The Queen’s Head (Yehliu)

 

Yesterday was the Queen’s summer birthday, so in her honour I’ve decided to reminisce about the visit the Queen’s head in Taiwan!

 

As a proud Brit living in Taipei, I felt it my duty to visit the Queen’s.  I don’t think the real one will visit anytime soon, and as my Nan always said waste not want not, so I decided to make the best of what I had.  The Queen’s head is located at YehLiu, in the very North of the country, where a Queen should be.

 

Yehliu is quite simple to get to.  It is an hours bus (well, coach) journey from Taipei.  I got up relatively early, not too early, I was on holiday, but early enough and got the bus from City Hall Station.  As I say, it took about an hour and was a fairly pleasant journey, did not cause much motion sickness, which is very good for a bus in Taiwan.  The bus drops you off by a small fishing village close to the National Park.  It is very pleasant stroll from the bus through this little village to the National Park.  As with many small villages around the world, it seems to have been passed by, by technology and is very scenic with small old style fishing boats in the harbour, tree covered green hills in the background, and classic Taiwanese buildings which you can’t tell are shops, homes or both.  If you like fish, it is a brilliant place to stop of lunch, I didn’t or find a place which didn’t sell fish.  Unfortunately, fish makes me nervous, actually unknown fish makes nervous and at this point in time I was even less equipped than I am now to find out what is what.  I am ashamed to say I wimped out of eating mystery fish and had a snack at the park café (and later topped up at 7-eleven; the shame!), which is not really an eating café, I think I had waffles.

 

Yehliu National Park is across a car park from the village.  Yes, the village has a boarder with a car park.  So, I crossed the great car park of Yehliu, battled through the sea of tourists, purchased a reasonably priced ticket (had my shameful snack) and headed into the National Park.  As with anything even remotely touristy in Taiwan, there were swarms of people at Yeihu and I didn’t even visit at a weekend.  When you get through the main gate you will walk through a fairly pleasant landscape garden.  In the garden you will find landscaping and monuments depicting the famous sites from Yehliu and Taiwan, along with a fair few stray dogs.  There are large amount of wild dogs in Taiwan, as they do not have dog pounds or homes for stray dogs, but they were quite a lot even for Taiwan.

 

Yehliu is a point of geological significance.  The wind and sea currents have formed the sand stone landscape to create hoodoo stones in the shapes of interesting figures and characters in the rocks.  Hoodoo stones are tall, thin rock formations that protrude from the surface upwards and made from soft rock with harder rock on the top.  They are similar to stalagmites in the sense that they rise up from the surface, but are created very differently; through erosion from wind and sea.  There is a large group of hoodoo stones which have been named based on what they look like.  Most of these stones need to be stared at from several different angles in several different lights to see what they are named after.  The most famous one of these stones is, as already mentioned, the Queen’s Head, but other noteworthy names include: Camel Rock, Dragonstone (well, it has something to with Dragon and I like my name better), Mushroom Rocks, Fairy Shoe, Ginger Rocks, the Elephant, Candles and many more.

 

 

Unlike many natural attractions in the western world you are not forced to view the formations from a viewing platform, you can walk down and get up close and personal with the rocks.  The only safety precaution to stop people going where they shouldn’t is red line painted onto the rocks; surprisingly the parameters seem to be well respected.  There are huge throngs of people that you have to fight through to see you want and whose sole purpose on this planet is ruin your photos and try and push you down ditches and crevices.  If you want to get a good view and/or photo of the Queen’s Head you will need queue up a long boardwalk and you’ll have to throw your British-ness out of the window.  Given the opportunity people will sneak in front of you and try to get they before you and try to hurry you up and make you feel awkward when it is your photo opportunity (and then take twice as long themselves); remember their photo is much more important than yours.  I had to take my photos in two separate takes because I was alone and needed help, as soon as moved from my first photo a family pushed right in without a second hesitation.  Luckily, there is a security guard there and he helped defend my honour and get my photo; he was the hero I was holding out for.  Who knows how long I could have been there without him.  After wander around in these sand stone spectacles, I moved onto to some more exploration.

 

 

 

I had seen not too far away a green mound of trees, so I decided to investigate. Upon getting to the bottom, I found there were steps I could climb to go into further up the hill.  I had not seen anyone else go up these steps, so I thought I could have a nice tranquil stroll and as I say ‘if it’s up a hill it must be good!’  So I head into the over growth.  It has the feel of a mini rainforest; with bright colours, a myriad of greens and birds and other things in the overgrown trees.  It was a particularly hot day, so I had to ration my water and not go crazy, but I was determined to make it to summit.  The only other people I saw on the walk through the jungle were photographers and some quite large salamanders.  After wandering for a while I eventually popped out of the overgrowth and back into the sun.  I went off the path up another set of stairs and found viewing platform with a table and chairs; time for a snack I thought.  After a nice rest with stunning views of the ocean, it was time to move; I had seen the highest peak I would be able to reach and that was my mission.  After another hike I made it to a deck, almost overhand hanging the ocean.  It was not a comfortable as the other viewing platform, but with 270 degree panorama of the ocean and with mini jungle in the background, who’s complaining?  While recuperating and taking in the views I stopped that there were people down below.  As it stood, I was at one of the most northerly points in Taiwan, but I could get several more metres northerly and closer to the ocean.  On the way back down to find my most northerly point, I found my trails to investigate.  Along the way I noticed a concealed crack in the rock face and clambered through it.  I found a monument to some Buddhas hidden away in this little crevis; I wasn’t sure how to pay respect, so I gave them my regards.  Finally at the bottom, back where I started, I now had to walk around the mole hill.  I had to walk over rocks right by the sea; I felt like at the beach again.  On my ramble they were locals doing some fishing; they had the largest rods I had ever seen, so I assumed they must be catching some fish to sell in town.  I saw a few fishermen fishing in small rowboats, but it was mainly people chilling on the rocks casting out huge lines.  On my way I decided to investigate a couple of caves and at the back of particularly dark cave I found a few more Buddhas hiding there.  As reached a little bridge crossing a little, not far from my final destination, I stopped a pack of dogs.  This is not uncommon in Taiwan, I had seen wild dogs many times before and many times since, so I continued on.  I am a little nervous of dogs, especially when in a pack, so I moved slowly.  As I crept forward, they crept back.  This continued for a few dozen yards.  Then, one dog charged growling and snarling and suddenly I was surrounded by a pack of six angry barking wild dogs.  I was completely alone, no other tourists had ventured this far or were close on my tail, there was a fisherman off in the distance, but no hero to save this time.  I made myself as big as possible, made sure they could see my hands, and tried to keep eye contact with as many as possible.  Each time I took my off one, it would sneak closer.  I came to conclusion I would not complete my goal today and instead would make slow and tactical retreat.  So, I walked backwards, from rock to rock, trying the best I could to fall down a gully, while eye balling each of these animals.  Slowly, but surely I made it back to the safety of the bridge and the dogs retreated back from whence they came.  With my heart thumping and adrenaline going throw the roof, I had a nice refreshing ration of water.

 

 

 

I decided I had had enough excitement for one day and it was time to head home.  I had short stroll through the field of hoodoo rocks, said good bye to the Queen and quickly tested the boundaries of paint.  I then wandered through the landscape garden, where I saw a dog that look surprising like the pack leader of my assailants, so I quickened my exit.  I purchased myself a well-earned milk tea, mooched through town and waited for my bus home.

 

Despite the large throngs of pushy people and being attacked by dogs I would recommend visiting Yehliu.  Getting up close and personal to geography is something you cannot often do and there is much beauty to be seen if you go beyond the sandstone and on to the greenery and the ocean.  Just remember, if you see pack of dogs maybe let them have their territory.  Most stray dogs in Taiwan just roam around harmlessly, but they are normally alone.

 

Happy (summer) Birthday Queen,

 

Hot Tea

Discovering Dragon Boats and a jaunt to Jiufen

 

 

Discovering Dragon Boats and a jaunt Jiufen

 

Last weekend was the Dragon Boat Festival and luckily that gave us a long weekend.  On this long weekend we decided to watch some dragon boat races and go exploring.  We looked through my stash of postcards which tell me where I need to visit in Taiwan and decided to go to Shuinandong to see the remains of the thirteen levels (Shi San Cheng Yi Zhi).  This is not far from Jiufen, so we decided to have a stop off at Jiufen; we hadn’t been for over a year and I wanted to investigate again.

 

Dragon Boat with the Grand Hotel and
fight at the festival

First, we went to see some Dragon Boats; I had been interested in Dragon Boats ever since I heard about them when I was in Leeds.  I imagined something akin to the boat parade down the Thames (the Thames river pageant), but with Dragons.  I wasn’t anticipating real, serious racing, I thought it would all just be a bit of fun.  Dragon Boat races have been taking place for over 2500 years; that’s as long as the Greek Olympiad!  On doing a little research, I was surprised to find that traditionally Dragons were to be rulers of Earth’s water; the lakes, rivers, seas etc. and dominate the rivers and lakes and such in the heavens.  Dragon Boat races originally celebrated the summer rice planting; presumably to gain favour with the rulers of the water (or maybe just because it was a good crack).  The Dragon Boat Festival traditionally takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which on Gregorian calendar is late May/early June.  Enough of my rambling history lesson, if it can be classed as that.  Upon seeing the Dragon Boats, they reminded me of what I would imagine Viking vessels looked like, but smaller, skinnier and with Dragon heads rather than some traditional Viking figurehead.  They have long thin shaped hulls, similar to beefed up Olympic racing shells, but decorated and as mentioned with a Dragon head.  They have a large drum, complete with drummer, at the front to keep time and act as a cox and a steersman at the back.  We went to watch the races at Da Jia River Park, but there are races all over the rivers of Taipei and Taiwan.  The races are more competitive than I had imagined; much less of a parade.  Although the boats are pretty enjoyable to look at, I can understand why it is not popular with many locals.  Despite being competitive it is not the most exciting of sports.  Most of the crews and boats look exactly the same so it is hard to know or support anyone and very few races are close.  You stand there and see the same thing pass you by over and over; it lacked the class and awe inspiring acts of elite sport and the fun, unpredictable, intimate nature of amateur (lower level) sport.  Although saying that, I may not watch all the races during the three day festival, I would recommend going and watching a few races for the experience.  You can get some great snaps and you need to find out what it is all about; it would be like going to Gloucester in May and not going to see Cheese rolling.  It was not what I imagined, but I learnt a great deal about it and found out a bit more about Taiwanese/Chinese culture, which is pretty cool and makes it worthwhile.

 

 

Dragon Boat Drummer!



Zong Zi

Now on to the important stuff; the food.  All Chinese festivals are accompanied by a traditional food; Moon Festival has moon cake, Lantern Festival has ‘Yuan Xiao’ (little rice balls) and the Dragon Boat Festival has ‘Zong Zi’ (rice dumpling).  (Disclaimer: my English interpretation is my own and may not be accepted by everyone, but it makes sense to me and most Taiwanese people I know).  Zong Zi is pyramid shaped dumpling made from rice and is wrapped in bamboo or read leaves.  They can have a variety of things inside such as bamboo, meat, shrimp, beans or even sweeter things.  You unwrap the dumpling and then chow down on the dumpling-y goodness; the ceremony of opening the leaf is quite satisfying; like opening a food present.  I am occasionally critical of Taiwanese food, such as things wrapped in seaweed, but this is a genuinely delicious treat and I would recommend coming to Taiwan during the Dragon Boat festival to eat one.  They are eaten to commemorate Qu-Yuan (a famous political leader) who, it is said, drowned himself in protest to corruption in China just before the first Qin Dynasty took over.  People put rice into the water to protect his spirit and so the Zong Zi was born.

 

 

The Dragon Boat race is on!



 

Jiufen Old Street

To complete our long weekend we decided to go to Jiufen.  Jiufen is easy to get to from Taipei; you get the slow train (TSR) to Ruifang for NT$49 (about 50 mins) and then get a bus (about 20 mins) to Jiufen from there.  As Jiufen is a tourist destination the trains and buses can become busy, to say the least.  On this occasion both train and bus were manic, long past the time in England where the bus driver would have slammed the door in your face without explanation to inform you the bus is full.  We were not quite sardines, but personal boundaries were no more, but as I say why leave your country if you want the same thing.  In my mind the public transport, especially buses, form part of the personality of country.  Back to Jiufen.  The first time you step into Jiufen Old Street it is like an assault on the senses.  You are bombarded from all around by a concoction of different sights, sounds, and most importantly smells.  Among the smells of Jiufen which can be particularly pungent is stinky tofu.  Stinky tofu is aptly named, why anyone would create a food that smells so offensive I will never know.  But I will say it doesn’t taste as bad as it smells.  If you come to Taiwan you have to at least try it, it’s a national delicacy, and if you like regular tofu and I would hazard to say you might just enjoy it; you just need to get past the smell.  A great place to visit is A Gan Yi Yu Yuan at the top of Jiufen where you can eat nice ice cool Yu Yuan (taro balls with ice – or hot in winter) and gaze out over the ocean; it is particularly pleasant in summer when you are likely to be melting.

 

Zingy at the remains of the thirteen levels

Fight at the remains and
peace at Yin Yang Sea

From Jiufen we jumped on the bus and headed to Shuinandong to see the remains of the thirteen levels.  It is hard to say because of absolutely no information provided, but I believe it is where they smelted the gold from the mountains.  There are gold mines next to Jiufen, which are also a good place to visit; lots of places to explore.  During World War 2, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, they would send prisoners of war to work in the mines to collect the gold.  Shuinandong was a particular disappointment.  You get off at the bus stop and you can see the picturesque remains (which did not disappoint) up the hill.  Unfortunately that is it, no information, nothing but a bus stop.  I have developed a theory that says ‘if it is up a hill it must be worthwhile’, so we decided to wander up the hill in the baking sun to see if we could get up close and personal.  We discovered that the remains are owned by the Taiwan Power Company and they don’t want to share and they have put it behind lock and key.  Although we could not get up close and personal, not all was lost.  Shuinandong is right next the ocean.  By the top entrance (locked gate) there is waterfall and great views of the ocean.  We didn’t get what we wanted, but with the view it was most definitely a worthwhile venture up the hill.  Also there is bus stop there, so we could head home for a well-earned rest.



The Crane

 Hot Tea

 





Watching the 'Ultimate Weekend' from Taiwan

Watching the ‘Ultimate Weekend’ from Taiwan

 

So, last weekend was the ‘Ultimate Weekend’ of sport in the UK (and Europe).  This included Champions League Final, Heineken Cup Final, Playoff Finals, Monaco Grand Prix, Wentworth and even cricket; am I forgetting anything?  This seems like an exhausting weekend for any sports fan, but with it being a bank holiday weekend, it might be possible.  Unfortunately I was not in the UK, I was (and still am) in Taiwan.  So, what was the sports fan in Taiwan supposed to do?  This blog is here to try and help those sports fans who want to watch what they love abroad.  This may also help those who want to watch other things and general TV addicts.

 

The FA Cup Final (skipped till the 70th minute)

 

For me the weekend started with work at 9am, one of the joys of being an English teacher in Taiwan, and the Champions League Final didn’t start until 2:45am Taiwan time.  It’s fine, you may think, you’ve got a bank holiday weekend, go crazy recover on Monday. But as I have mentioned not in Taiwan, back to work as usual in Taiwan, no May day bank holiday (and May Day are a really popular band over here).  Ok, well you can take a nap, recharge the batteries then hit the Champions league Final hard!  But, what about the Heineken Cup Final, Johnny Wilkinson’s last ever game on British soil with a British team also involved, and don’t forget the Championship Playoff Final; the most expensive match in the world.  And, let’s not forget these were preceded by the qualifying at Monaco.  I decided you only live once; you may as well waste it doing things that make you happy; let’s watch it all!  This led to a tricky decision: how do I watch the games.  First off, as much as Taipei likes to stay open late, finding a place to watch football at pushing 5am is not an easy task.  Taiwan shows a lot of English sports, I’ve even seen Cricket on in bars, but this is at reasonable hours.  Also with an American friendship base, where am I going to get someone stupid enough to spend that much time watching (European) sport in a pub!  So I decided to stay in (an evening/morning with Hot Tea and Yellow Sugar) and watch all of it in the comfort of my own home/box and have a few beers (not as many as I’m guessing many consumed back in Blighty).  This was a risk though, only the previous weekend I had much trouble getting a good stream for the FA Cup final.

 

I decided early on when I arrived in Taiwan to get a VPN (Virtual Private Network).  I don’t know all the clever details, but essentially it means you can watch British TV, or TV from a nation of your choosing, from anywhere in the world.  All I know is it masks where your internet connection is from.  This allows me to sponge off my parents from across the globe and hijack their Skyplayer and also watch BBC iPlayer (Match of the Day), 4OD and sneak onto any English website I’m not supposed to.  This, not only, comes in handy for sport as I can get a very good stream for all the major sporting events (the FA cup being an exception, but I blame ITV for that!), but is also very good for serials, even if they are on in Taiwan.  For example Game of Thrones runs almost parallel to Britain and America, but they cut out all the best bits, so I watch it using Skyplayer and get all the best bits.  So, if you are abroad and want to watch British TV I would recommend it.  I pay £5 a month and use my expat network (http://www.my-expat-network.co.uk/), it’s easy to use and you can use it on your phone/tablet if they are up-to-date (for an extra £2).  I tried and failed this during the ashes (I think my phone was too old), but with 20/20 hindsight maybe it was for the best.  You also pay using PayPal, so you are unlikely to get scammed.

 

Heineken Cup in association with Heineken

After work and a nice relax to mentally prepare myself, first up at around 7pm was the Monaco qualifying.  I decided to watch this on regular TV; I also read the text updates because it can be hard to keep up with the Taiwanese commentators (one day maybe, but not yet).  The qualifying had interesting conclusion to say the least, a good start to the festivities; I don’t know what your opinion is, but I think Nico was opportunistic more than anything.  So, now time to move onto the Playoff final and the start of an epic streaming session!  Not the most exciting of matches, but they rarely are, but many a talking point to be had; if I was in England and anyone (but me) cared about the Championship.  I’d stayed off the sauce until this point, I wasn’t really socialising and the night was building up, I didn’t want to fall asleep or pass out before the climax.  We then came to the Heineken Cup final and it was starting to get pretty late; time for some liquid refreshment, I mean it is (well, was, it isn’t anymore) the ‘Heineken’ Cup after all.  After cracking open a Heineken we continued the streaming session the rugby.  It started so well for the Brits, but I think experience won out in the end and it’s hard to be sad watching Johnny win.  Then another wait, before finally the Champions League Final; of course sponsored by Heineken, it would have been rude not to!  After the Brits losing in Wales, could a Welshman win something?  After extra time and staying up far too late, it was over, the underdog had failed, but the Welshman had won.  It was most definitely time to rest.  The stream had been excellent throughout and had the positive of commentary I could understand and relate to throughout. So day one finished four matched/events down.

 

 

Champions Lague Final with the Welsh Wizard

 

Sunday.  Feeling dazed and confused (and a little worse for wear) I didn’t watch the League 1 Playoff final, I followed it on my phone (modern technology, hey), as it seemed a lot of effort get my laptop.  So after a relaxing day catching up with things and watching the cricket, it came to 8pm and the Monaco GP.  Watching it on Taiwanese TV I feel no need to watch the build-up (maybe that’s how women feel; listening to a foreign language).  I had the Grand Prix on the TV and the cricket streaming next to me (I am so glad of my decision).  Not the most exciting race, but a good amount of talking points and the less said about the cricket the better! Let’s fast forward to the 3^rd ODI; much better!  After a relaxing Sunday came Monday and a regular (non-bank holiday) day and I thought I’ll have a quick look on the BBC Sport website to see if anything interesting had happened over night (I go to sleep in early the evening GMT) and I’m greeted with ‘McIlroy wins at Wentworth’.  With all the excitement and other events going on I had completely forgotten to follow the golf and thus missed the only real British success of the weekend!  I suppose I should say ‘you’re welcome Rory’.

 

If you want to keep up with TV and other things from your home country I would very much recommend getting a VPN; it’s not overly expensive and it’s very convenient.  For sports, bars are generally very good at showing British sport, so they can be good.  I have even Leeds United (in the Championship) in a bar in Taipei, but the start and finishing times of European sports can cause issues.  So, if you have Skyplayer available, or generally like streaming, I would most definitely recommend getting a VPN.

 

Well, on that note, I’m going to watch the latest episode of 24; it won’t be out over here for months!

 

Watch well,

 

Hot Tea