Hanoi traffic

Hanoi is completely different from Taipei. They both have lots of traffic, including tons of scooters and motorcycles, but while Tawan drivers follow most of the rules of the road, the rule in Hanoi is: There are no rules. Hanoi roads don't have lanes, there are very few stoplights, and it's perfectly normal to make a right turn from the left lane or to go the wrong way down a one-way street. When crossing the street, scooters will generally weave around you, cars will flash their lights at you and probably slow down, but buses just keep right on going. Before we got here, people told us that the traffic never stops. I wondered how vehicles made it through the intersection. Well, they just sort of muscle their way through. The saving grace is that they rarely get above 15-20 mph. From a distance, it really does look like a swarm of insects moving in all directions!

Here are two shots of the traffic in the old section of

Hanoi. Our biggest accomplishment so far has been

crossing the street!!

 

Scooters carry everything from flowers to small refrigerators

to crates of eggs. In this case, the bottle didn't survive

a crash. Amazingly enough, we've seen very few accidents.

Women and men both use this traditional

way of carrying vegetables, etc. These

hats are also very common, but are only

worn by women.

One last photo from Taipei

Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world until a new one was built in the Middle East. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we went up to the observation tower over the Columbus Day weekend, on one of the really good days we had while we were in Taipei. As you can see, it was an uplifting experince!

More from Taipei

I'm in Hanoi now, but I wanted to post some more photos from Taipei.

The food in Taipei is wonderful! My favorite restaurant was

a dim sum place called Din Tai Fung. The food was absolutely

fantastic. In 3 1/2 weeks, I ate there about 6 times. The good

news is that they have several restaurants in the U.S., including

one -- I think -- in San Francisco. The place was spotless --

even the glass wall behind which the cooks worked didn't have

a spot on it.

One night we went to Snake Alley,

which is one of the night markets that

are all over Taipei. This is one of the

artisans who works there. He makes

scrolls and is also a teacher of scroll-making.

We spent quite a while watching him

work -- he was amazing!

Here he is showing off one the

scrolls he made while we watched.

It's so simple, and yet so beautiful!

One weekend we walked from th office through the weekend

flower and jade market. The markets take over about

3 or 4 parking garages and are absolutely jammed with vendors

and customers. The number and variety of flowers and plants is

amazing. Several vendors were selling cacti, which I can't even

find in DC!

I'm not sure what game these 2 men are playing, but they

seem to be having fun while waiting for customers in the

jade market.



Someone painted all of the

columns with blue skies and

flowers. In this case, the

orchids in front of the column

are real.

Taipei from the Sky

Well, not exactly from the sky, but from the Taipei 101 building. It was a beautiful day today, so we went to the observatory on the 89th and 91st floors. The elevator takes 37 seconds to go from the 5th to the 89th floor, which I found amazing. The 89th floor is the indoor observatory, while the 91st floor is outdoors. Luckily, it also has a big fence around it, so it wasn't too terribly scary. You can see what they call the "Super Big Wind Damper" on the 88th floor. It's the world's largest wind dampler, and is what keeps the building from swaying like crazy. (They've also made it into a marketing ploy, by having 4 little creatures called Baby Dampers that they sell in the gift shops. Think Teletubbies, but not quite as annoying.) The building was designed to withstand the strongest earthquakes of the last 2,500 years. Hopefully, they won't be testing it anytime soon!

Heres the circular walkway next to my hotel. The

hotel is to the right of the walkway.

Taipei from the 89th floor of 101.

Another shot from 101.



The top of this buildings has "Welcome" cut into the grass.

Because today was Taiwan's national day, they

had a military fly-over of the city. This group

of jets is trailing red, white and blue smoke. The

photo was taken from the 91st floor, and is a

little hazy because of the telephoto lens I was using.

Some people posing in front of the wind damper.

They're standing next to the silver Baby Damper.

Taipei in the Rain, Part 2

Here are some more photos from today's walk around Taipei and our visit to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.





Monday, Oct. 10 (10-10) is the 100th anniversary

of the founding ot Taiwan. This drawing is from an

exhibit of chidren's art at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial

Hall.



This is another drawing from another display at SYS

Memorial Hall.

These birds semmed to be enjoying their perch.

There was a beautiful little lake at the memorial, which

included some (very large) koi and a couple of turtles.

Despite the sign below, I think people were feeding

the fish.



Yet another photo of Taipei 101,
this one from the lake at SYS
Memorial Hall. It does seem
to dominate the skyline...

Taipei in the Rain

It was raining like crazy today, but a couple of us decided to take a walk anyway. We went to the Sun Yat-sen memorial, arriving just in time to watch some singers/dancers rehearsing for tomorrow's national day. As soon as we went inside, a group of Republic of China (Taiwan) veterans came in to lay a wreath in front of the statue of Sun Yat-sen. We then saw the changing of the guard, which was very impressive. WIth all the special steps,salutes and gun twirling, it took about 20 minutes! We had pizza for lunch -- I had white truffle pizza with mushrooms, which was delicious! The rain is slowing down, so hopefully tomorrow will be sunny again.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. 

Rehearing in the rain.

ROC veterans posing in front of the

statue of Sun Yat-sen, who is considered

the founder of Taiwan.

After the wreath laying by the ROC veterans.

This gives some idea of how large this statue is.

Night Market

Last night we went to a nearby night market. It wasn't anything special, unfortunately. I described it as a Wal-Mart without walls, and with lots of little food stalls. I understand there are others that are more interesting. Hopefully we'll get to one of those before we leave Taipei.

One of several entrances to the night market.

Some of the sweets and other foods

for sale at the market.

Trying to decide what to buy

a the vegetable market.

People in Taiwan seem to love English words, even

if they are not spelled exactly right. But if we tried

spelling Chinese words, I have a hunch we'd make

even more mistakes!

The Taipei 101 building

again, this time with

more lights. The expo

building below had flashing

neon as well, as did a

number of other buildings

in the area. Neon is very

popular here!

Signs and street markets

The shops here are fascinating. They sell everything you can think of on the street. And they have some wonderful signs!

These cows are advertising what I think is an ice

cream shop.

After all the walking we did, I could have used

something like this!

No matter where you go, there's a Starbucks!

This is one of the biggest shoes I've ever seen.

A fruit stand.

Believe it or not,

this is a display

of socks.

And a display of baby shoes.

I have no idea what Laurel and Hardy are selling here.

Trip to the suburbs, part 2

Here are some more photos from today's trip.

This seems to be the wedding season
here.

We never figured out what this statue is all about.

Someone told us they thought it was in honor of the Dutch

who colonized this area.

7 Eleven stores are all over the place here.

There's at least one on every block.

Not only do they sell snacks, sandwiches

and coffee, but you can buy subway passes

and pay utility bills at them.

More scooters, this time parked in front of wall covered

in posters.

I have no idea how this tree manages to stay alive.

Trip to the Taipei suburbs

Today we went out to Danshui, on the outskirts of Taipe and at the end of the metro line. The weather was very nice -- a little humid but not too hot, but it was hazy. We had a nice walk along the boardwalk, which had a number of arcades and lots of food stalls. We ate at a great restaurant and then walked down what's called Danshui Old Street, which was full of little shops and, of course, tons of scooters. Twenty years ago everyone probably got around on bicycles. Today they all use scooters!

This is the view from the boardwalk, across the Danshuei River.

Fort San Domingo overlooks the harbor.

The tide was coming in when I shot this photo.

Two of the many food stands along the boardwalk.

I'm not sure where the owners were, though.

These are parade floats that had yet to be finished.

They may be for the 10-10 celebration Monday -- Taiwan's

national day.

There are scooters everywhere in Taiwan!