M&M Eastern Adventures

We arrived just after 7pm in Yilan. We wanted everything to be over with as soon as possible, seeing that if we were going to take the car we would have to drive back to Kaohsiung, which is about a 6 hour drive. We met the people, took a look at the car and almost immediately decided to take it. When we started looking for a car we had a specific things we wanted. Cheap but reliable as it would be something we would only use for longer trips or if we wanted to go surfing or cycling on one of the many bike routes around Taiwan. So it had to be big enough so that we could fit absolutely anything, but also something we wouldn't feel guilty about leaving in the sun and rain. We narrowed our options down to either the Toyota Zace of Surf or the Mitsubishi Freeca. The Toyota Surf is the newer model to the Zace and turned out to be a little more than what we wanted to spend. On the other hand the Mitsubishi Freecas we looked at were either in such bad shape we didn't want to even s...

We had a few hours to kill in Taipei before we took our bus to Yilan, where we were going to have a look at the car we were interested in. We met Beth, one of Marilette's friends from back in the day when she was in Taiwan for the first time, for an early lunch. Arriving in Taipei you have to keep your head, as everything from the railway station, high speed rail and bus stations are underground. You'd probably be able to go almost anywhere in the city without going to the surface. With Taipei also known for it's rainy weather, the first thing that comes to mind is, what an awesome city it would be for vampires, lol! We went for lunch at a little place known for it's dumplings in the SOGO department store. Unfortunately I can't remember the name but what a treat. Being as popular as they are we had to wait in line for a little while, but it was definitely worth the wait. After lunch we headed to the Taipei 101. We couldn't have asked for a better day...

I can understand why so many people don’t have cars in Taiwan. Everything is just so easily accessible with the use of public transport. But lately we’ve been considering buying a car. We decided that we should really make use of the opportunity of living in another country and not to just get stuck back into the routine of daily life. And with Taiwan being small enough that you’d basically be able to go anywhere within a day, we really want to experience everything it has to offer. So the quest to find a cheap, reliable car started. The most important requirements of the car had to be reliability and enough space to load our bikes and surfboards so that we could take them with us on any trip. After a lot of driving around and checking the websites for something that would meet our needs, we finally saw something we thought would be perfect. A Toyota Zace, and according to everyone in Taiwan, it was the car to go for. The only thing was that it was all the way on the other side o...

I've always loved sport, watching, supporting and competing. But the one thing I've never been good at is putting in the training, especially when i comes to running. I've done my fare share of races, anything from the 5km fun run to the occasional ultra marathon. But it's always been a last minute decision. Take my first marathon as an example... Before then I didn't do anything over 21km, but as things turned out a local radio station wanted people to run in the Soweto Marathon on their behalf. So i though why not and gave up my name. Leaving me with two weeks to the big day. Let's just say it was one of the most memorable and most painful experiences of my life. I went past 30km in just under 3 hours and I thought to myself a sub 4 hour marathon was on the cards. How I would have loved that. At 32km something happened - all systems shutdown. Let's just say the last 10km took me about the same time to complete as the first 20. I finally finished in j...

So, I thought it's about time I blogged again seeing that it's been a while since I posted something... Last week has been one of rain, rain and more rain. We were even sent home one afternoon due to strong winds and heavy rain. The result of typhoon Guchol that's making it's way to Japan, and according to reports should hit later today, round about the same time typhoon Talim hits Taiwan. The weekend has been one of hot and sunny weather. But with the start of the new week the rain set in again and we received the news that typhoon Talim is heading straight for Taiwan. Since Monday there's been the possibility of a 'typhoon day'. And about an hour ago we received confirmation that there's no work today. With winds at around 80km/h and heavy rainfall, I have to say I'm pretty happy to just stay home. Fortunately we stocked up on a few things yesterday, just in case we were stuck at home the whole day.

With winter definitely being something of the past, it's seriously staring to get hot. The other night we were walking around near the peer, around midnight and it might as well have been a sunny day. The one thing that obviously comes with summer is the rainy season. The last couple of days have been particularly unpredictable, one moment it would be hot and sunny, the next it would be pouring down. It seems like the yellow raincoat look is one I'd be showing off quite a bit this summer. At least there's baby blue and pink if I'd like to mix things up a little bit.

Driving around the other night we got a little glimpse of home.

Yesterday saw me taking part in my first race in Taiwan… The Chi Shan Duathlon. As per usual it was something that I decided to do on short notice, so even though it was a relatively short race it definitely made me realize in what bad shape I actually am. Apart from playing a little squash since we’ve been in Taiwan, we haven’t really been doing anything else when it comes to exercise. The race consisted of a 5.5km run, 20km cycle and another 5.5km run. Starting out the legs felt a little numb but after a kilometre or so I they started loosening up a bit and I thought to myself “Hey, this might not be so bad”. The 5.5km run was broken up into 2 laps of about 2.5km each with the rest being made up by the run to the transition area. Even though the first kilometre consisted of one big hill that we would end up doing 4 times, I came in feeling pretty good and considering my fitness level, thought my time looked pretty good. So on to the cycling leg… This is where...

So now that I've finally gotten my blog started, I guess I should start blogging... Wednesday, April 4th was a public holiday here in Taiwan. Tomb sweeping and Children's day. Yes, what a combination. We decided to make the most of the day and go to Kenting. The day started out a bit windy but by the time we decided to go to the beach it was the perfect day. Our friends Louis and Christel took us to a little spot just outside Kenting where it almost feels like you could take a step off the huge cliff and just fly away. The wind comes in off the ocean and rushes up the cliff at such a force it truly creates the feeling that flight might just be possible. After some further exploration and lunch we headed to the beach to relax a little and to soak up the sun - that at this time made an appearance. It's amazing what a difference white sand makes to how you experience the beach. Around Kaohsiung where we stay all the beaches have black sand, it just doesn't f...

It's now been almost three months since my wife Mari and I decided to move to Taiwan. If you know me, you'd know that I've never really been big on the reading writing thing, but I thought it would be a good idea to try and keep some record of our experiences. I started out by creating a mailing list of friends and family that wanted to be updated on our adventures. Unfortunately when i do take the time to sit down and write something so much has happened that i tend to leave out quite a bit. A friend, thanx Liani, mentioned that i should consider blogging. The idea being that I post shorter but more regular updates on our adventures and experiences. So here we go...