Scooter trip - Day 1 - Taipei to Jiaoxi

Someone at Air China stole my fathers medicine. Needless to say this caused him some problems.

I took him to the doctor and then we made it for the road.

Just before leaving Taipei we filled up the tank. 2 liters.

Up in the mountains we saw some tea plantations. 

My dad looking at the tea plantation. 

 

After some more time on the scooter we took some time for FIKA. (Swedish word)

I made a friend.

And dad did too.

Many kilometers later...

We made it to Jiaoxi.

Found a place to stay.

And then we let fish eat all the dry and stinky old skin that we had on our feet.

They seemed to like it.

Then some food. 

My dad is learning how to use chopsticks.

And some praying.

Jiaoxi by night.

This is what they drive in Jiaoxi.

Lantern.

What???

Time for bed.

The first day of our scooter trip was great. 

More days to come.

Stay awake. 

Love Ove.

My dad is in town.

Hello again. 

I have been away for some time. The reason is a nice one. My dad came down to visit. He is 65 years old and hasn't really done allot of traveling by himself the last couple of years. BUT he came down to Taipei. 

I picked him up at the airport and the first day we didn't do much because its a long trip from Åmål to Taipei. 

Car from the apartment to the train station

Train from Åmål to Gothenburg

Bus from the train station to the airport. 

Flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm

Flight from Stockholm to Beijing 

(he followed the whole trip on the in flight GPS)

Flight from Beijing to Taipei

Bus from the airport to a park nearby where I live

10 min walk

Arrived

Day 2

Here we are about to start typical day for a tourist in Taipei

First we made it to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.
Sun Yat-Sen is the founding father of the Republic of China 

(Nowadays Taiwan but all of China in the beginning)

Just as we arrived there was a change of guards.

Taipei 101 was once the tallest building in the world. Now it is the fifth highest building with its 508 meters.

The view from up top wasn't that great due to weather and pollution.

Once back down on the ground we ran into the Spiderman. He was nice to us. 

After Taipei 101 we made it for Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial hall. 

He was the second leader of R.O.C. and was the one who took the government to Taiwan when Mao Tse Tung took over the power in China and proclaimed the Peoples republic of China. 

Here my father is standing outside the main memorial hall. 

Sitting on the stairs and talking about life in general we met Annie. She was a girl who loved languages and she was amazing at pronouncing Swedish sounds and words. 

Well That was all that we managed to do that day in Taipei.

Stay awake 

Love Ove

Scooter Ride in the North of Taiwan - Part 1

Today was Tomb Sweeping Day in Taiwan. Jason was with his family and I was at home. 

I decided to do something creative instead of just hanging around at home.

I took Jason's scooter and started driving along the coast.

I passed a fish market. Kind of weird building though.

I went to a lighthouse. I saw this flower on my walk out to it.

I also saw this dead washed up Parrot fish. 

And in the end I also saw the Lighthouse. 

The lighthouse was next to an army base.

Well.. I had taken the photos I needed of the lighthouse and so it was time for me to continue on my journey.

And here is the hero in the scooter.

 To be Continued....

I want to give you a followup on the last post. 

My petition didn't do that good. I thought my Taiwanese friends would get their Taiwanese friends to sign and repost and so on since this is still a very much alive topic here. The students are still demonstration and the treaty is still a very big threat to Taiwan's future. 

However... This didn't happen. I have thought allot of why. I even wrote a message to the Sunflower Revolution Facebook page to get them to tell their supporters to sign it. It is after all in their interest that as many as possible sign this. 

The result.... They didn't even answer my message.

I have to accept that even though I did have the attention to make a difference here in Taiwan I just didn't this time. 

Well... Stay awake 

Love Ove

I wrote a petition and I want to hand it over to the President of Taiwan.

Today I will write about something a little bit different.

At the moment I am living in Taiwan and I have done so off and on for the last 2 years. I have come to love this place.

Its nature.

Its culture

and its people

BUT...

At the moment all that is at risk because of the Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou. 

The last 6 years he has been making agreements with the Chinese government. Just under the radar of ordinary people saying that its only about making improvements for the economy. 

The real reason is in fact to reunite Taiwan and China and I think all of us understands who the winner in such a reunion is. Its not the people of Taiwan.

The students of Taiwan have since the president signed this agreement occupied the Legislative Yuan. This because this is the place where it will be signed into action. 

The response of the government has VIOLENCE. 

I will post what I wrote in the petition here.

I hope that this petition will get allot of signatures and it can if YOU help me. 

Sign it and repost it on your Facebook or your Twitter or your Blog. 

As I write this the Students of Taiwan is fighting for their democracy. 

Please put your name down and show them that they are not alone. 

______________________________________________

Why this is important

According to Taipei times people living in Taiwan with regards to identity 78 percent of those answering a poll identified themselves as Taiwanese, while 13 percent saw themselves as Chinese. The poll also found that most people feels independence is to prefer when asked to choose between independence or unification with China (PRC), with 71 percent supporting independence and only 18 percent supporting unification with China. 

PRESIDENT MA DOESN´T LISTEN TO HIS PEOPLE. 

Against the wishes of his people President Ma has signed more than 18 agreements with PRC during the last 6 years according to the University of Nottingham. They continue by saying that this is his way of slowly incorporating Taiwan into PRC under the radar of of his people.

Taiwanese students have finally had enough and because of this they have started "The sunflower Revolution". They have demonstrated against the last signed treaty but have been met by brute force from the police. The students doesn´t stand alone though as most of Taiwan's people are on their side as well as the opposition. But they need our help as well.

WHY NOW

Right now students are occupying the legislative yuan where the last agreement that President Ma made will be signed.

Together we can tell President Ma that Taiwan belongs to its people and that he needs to start to listen to them. Together we can make sure that Taiwan stays a democracy and that its people once again get their human rights back. 

Below are the resources for my statements and also some videos demonstrating the actions done by the police on behalf of President Ma.

Sources

Taipei Times - Background Info.

University Of Nottingham - Background Info.

Videos

TV report about the situation.

More Violence

Why the violence??

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

How am I supposed to deliver the petition IF I get the signatures.... 

I have no idea... 

Maybe through Media... 

I´ll figure it out. 

Stay awake

Love Ove. 

Daxi on the eastcoast with David and Amelie.

Some weeks ago I went to Daxi with David and Amelie. There are a couple of places in Taiwan that is called Daxi. I had been to one Daxi and thought that that's where we were going. It turned out to be another one. 

When we left Taipei it was raining. This changed though and when we arrived the sun was shining. So sunny in fact that Amelie and David bought hats to be on the safe side.

Amelie in her new hat.

The first thing we did was to have some food. We found a place in the shade on the back of a school.

The place we ate at was next to a running track.

And there can not be a running track without a race.

Who do you think wins? 

For the ones who knows me it comes as no surprise that since there was water here I had a swim. 

David made it into the water as well. I don't remember if Amelie tried the water as well. 

We meant to Daxi to hike over the mountain in the background. 

There was a warning sign warning us from some fierce wasps. I talked to one guy who once was stung by one. Said it was the worst pain he had ever experienced.

Amelie forgot her hat in a store so she had to get back to get it.

They are a cute couple in their hats.

There was an old woman who cooked food under a bridge. 

And so we started hiking up the mountain. Stairs and more stairs. This is often the case in Taiwan. I was soon tired and rain started falling. We thought that we could make it anyway but then the locals informed us about the time it gets dark around here. We realized then that there would be no hike over that mountain this time. We decided to eat our food and to get back down and catch a train back to Taipei.

I brought my own bread and some other things and they brought an amazing cheese.

We went down the mountain as fast as we could and even though we didn't make it in time to catch the fast train we did catch a slower one. 

Thanks Amelie and David.

I had a great time. 

Thought I would write a line or two about whats up in my life at the moment. 

Jason and I are waiting for the Swedish board of Immigration to give us their decision on our application for Jason to be allowed to move to Sweden with me. As long as there is no decision I will stay with Jason here in Taiwan. When we were at the Swedish embassy in Hong Kong they told us to get ready to move sometime around February or march. In February I called the Swedish board of Immigration to ask them about our application and all they told us was that if we were unlucky it could take until October before we heard anything from them. So.... we are waiting and waiting... 

Well... Stay awake 

Love Ove

Random photos from Taiwan.

One day I went with my friend Jenna to a "learn how to make dumplings" event.

We did get to wrap dumplings up    but me being a "do it all by myself" kind of guy   I had hoped to get to see the whole process from making the dough to eating it.

However... I did have a good time. 

We also got to watch this Master write his 

"Chinese New Year" posters. 

One is still on my door. 

And I will bring it to Sweden as well.

Here is the Chinese new years dinner that I had at Jason's fathers place.

Some of it was cooked by his grandmother and some was bought from restaurants. 

The fish was really good.

The food in the white pot highest up in the photo is called

"Buddha jumps over the wall"

I have no idea why it is called that.

You see these ...... things... all over the place. 

I want one.

And a photo of ME.

And one of Jason. 

And one photo of Jake.

And some flowers..... Its always nice with some flowers.

And a bird in the top of a pine tree.

OK... that's all folks... 

Stay awake. 

Love Ove.