Taipei - Day 5/6 - Week end time :)

So let’s say you want to have a fantastic week end in a foreign country, what do you do? Well either you invite me to join, lol, either you have local friends to show you around. I spent the saturday with Winson, Wilson and Tim and it was great! They picked me up at 10am in front of my office, we took the metro to go to the sea shore… oh nice Taipei is real hot this time of year, the wind next to the sea (well actually the river going to the sea…the sea is slighty further) helped a lot. We had a nice walk, followed by a coffee, a meal, a visit of some crowded streets… This done, we went to the museum where I learned a lot on Taiwan’s history. The night caught up pretty fast, ideal time to go to the night markets… more food and crowd but a must seen in Taipei… with the illegal vendors running away after the rumor of cops coming, which spead quite fast among them… This done, I was back to my hotel by 8:30pm… with great memories and lots of fun. I can not thanks you enought boys!

As for Sunday, well I had set my alarm clock to 10am…but forget to change the “week day only” setting… meaning… well I woke up at 12:30pm… shame…

30 minutes later, so time to get up, have a shower and get dressed…I was in a cab (btw watching the olympics while driving) direction the Taipei 101. Up to now the tallest building in the world, as in 2009 the Burj Dubai should take over. What to say? humm well it is quite tall… I love the architecture, the elevator is impressive. From the 6th floor to 89th in a couple of seconds. It stands at 508m. 101 stands both for the address and the 101 floors it got. You can visit the 89 and some days (sadly not today) you can go outside on the 91st floors. You can grast the view of all Taipei from each side of this tower.

You have many companies in the building and a fantastic great mall at its base. Well it is mall like many others, with the same big brands as usual.

The latest big building I was in was last year in Toronto’s CN Tower with its 533m, but it’s just a tower not a building per say. After that back to the hotel for some rest and chill out before starting work again on Monday. Great weekend!

read comments (0)

Tapei - Day 4

Another pic in a restaurant? No… not today… may be tomorrow. I wanted to show today that I am actually working. The guys at around 1pm… after we finished our morning session. Nobody is asleep after almost 3 hours of training. We had a 10 min break obviously. So either they are enthousiastic about the class either they are relieved that it is over for the day… your call.

Anyhow, I am having a great time… they are just all great. Thanks a lot guys!

read comments (0)

Taipei - Day 3

I was about to get to bed without a new post. How rude! Not that what I am writing everyday is of a real interest for anyone… but is that really the purpose of a personal blog… Do not think so. Either you blog to get lots of people and make some $$ either you do one for yourself and do not care if it is actually read or not… what is the pleasure then? It is useless!!! Got it? no… well another time may be.

So back to business nothing impressive today, great dumplings thanks boys… and work all day. Ah yes….walking down the street I saw a three-wheeled scooter… astonishing, no? like would say one of my heros…

read comments (0)

Taipei - Day 2

Hum no! I am not spending my day in restaurant as you might be thinking. I am just not taking picture while working...

So what have we got today? Well better let the guys pic for me… I am not really sure what to get…

And I did so well…Chinese dumpling…fantastic. Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. They prepare them right in front of you.

We had 3 kinds vegetable, pork (you can see on the pic) and shrimps… that you dip in some kind of spicy sauce…Well what is the worse thing that could happen? I am not that skilled with chopstick and I drop one…in my sauce…filling up my shirt with red dots! I had a great afternoon doing training and reviews with such dirty clothes. Note for later: Keep a clean tshirt in my backpack…

read comments (0)

Taipei - Day 1

The first day went really well. 2 fellow yahoos went to pick me up from the hotel and we went all together to the office in order for me not to get lost. Now they have given me my “cheat sheet”, I can move around by myself. I have the main addresses.

After a 2 hours class this moring we went for lunch and I was able to try out different kind of food like the century egg and the traditionnal beef noodle soup, worth the try. I can tell you that I will definitly have another soup… :p

read comments (2)

Taiwan here I come…

I left France on Sunday 5pm and arrived around 3pm French time in hotel in Tapei. The hotel and the room both looks fantastics. I flied from Lyon to London, London to HongKong and HongKong to Tapei.

After filling up the forms I passed the border control. Why the guy had to stick the entrance form on my indian visa, I will never know. Like I will never know why with all the free pages available in my passport, he had to stamp next to the Bangalore one… Why should I mind? Well I am guessing next time I will be in India, I will get complains…

Anyway, once this done… I have to get my suitaces… Easy? Well do not forget you flight number.You can this on the pic that everything is in quite confusing… no latin characters for sure… Will I feel like Bill Murray in the famous "Lost in Translation" who knows!

Anyway time for bed… a hard day of work is ahead and I have to quickly adjust with the timezone.

read comments (0)

Last Thursday…the end of an era…

That’s it. Thursday 7/08 was our last day in the office we rented in Bull’s center. From monday our new offices will be up and running. We finished packing the so called "architecture office" on the 1st floor.

The end of an era as I have spent 2 and a half years in it sharing it with Rémy and Eric at first, until Eric moved to SNV and Laurent took over. From this room I will take with me  many memories. It was a famous one as people could hear both laughs and screams out of it on every day basis. We also used there an insane amont of markers on both blackboards and had fun in many occasions.

End of an era also, as Rémy that you can see on the pic will be leaving the company while I am abroad. It was the last day, at least for now (you never know) we shared office…

You know what you have, you do not know what you will get. I know the new buildings are much better but I will anyhow miss also a bit that one.

read comments (1)

Almost time to go…

I came back from Bangalore on July 27th…been over a week already and I did not post any feedback. The week over there was really busy. I had a great time with all the guys down there. They are really dedicated to what they do and fun to be around. Every night someone was available and willing to go out. I have been travelling for many years and to many places around the world and it is not like this everywhere I can tell you.

The offices are great and extremenly busy, always something is happening. One of the things that shocks you is the mix between poor and rich people. This is a pick taken from my hotel, on the left side (not available on the pic) I had a fantastic golf course and on the right people living in small wooden house with no electricity / water.

This being said I will definitly go back to India in a couple of months as I have more and more people to visit. Thank you guys for the fantastic time I had.

I left on saturday and the day before 7 bombs exploded in the city, hopefully the number of victims was not too high… I was not aware of terrorist activities in India….

read comments (0)