NAGESWARAN'S TAIWAN VISIT REPORT

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,
My wife and the U/S visited Taiwan during the year 2001 when my son N.Karthik was working in an export company at Taiwan.
As usual, reports about my visits to various places in Taiwan and my general observations about Taiwan were used to be sent by the U/S periodically to my close friends in India by E-Mail [including our coolji].
More reports , photos and video clips will be uploaded shortly.

There was an interesting article in the Taiwanese news paper.
During 1960s, Sri Rajaji was active in politics and the Swathantra party was formed by him. He was a strong critic of the congress party and opposing many of the policies of the congress then.

He wanted to liberate India " from the license raj" [term coined by him] and advocating opening up of free market policy and allowing the foreign countries to invest in the development projects in India.
But congress was not interested in opening free market policy.
The article in the Taiwanese paper refers to the same period of 1960s.

The USA was involved in the Vietnam war and the servicing of the damaged war planes and war equipments were done in Taiwan and the relaxations of the war battered soldiers [ I hope every Rasika may understand the relaxations are usually expected by the soldiers].

USA established many manufacturing units in Taiwan since the labour costs were cheap in Taiwan.
Taiwan allowed 100% free investments to the foreign countries and USA made use of this best opportunity. The Taiwanese youth were enterprising to earn more money.
The Taiwanese youth were sent to the USA for 6 months training in the big manufacturing companies and came back to Taiwan and worked in the manufacturing companies in Taiwan.
As usual the Government bureaucrats were greedy and USA corrupted the officials to the advantage of USA.
Due credit must be given to the USA for their huge investments for the infrastructure.
The infrastructure projects were on par with that of all the developed countries.
It is a pity that the politicians in India were late by four decades in allowing FD in India.
Drop box links; Taiwan tour;
1. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pwxfrsk1egdm ... ITb3a?dl=0

2. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/14dppe27ndap ... tW8Ra?dl=0

End of part 1
To be continued in part 2

S.NAGESWARAN.
21.09.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

The year of my Taiwan visit was in 2002 and not 2001.
The error is regretted.

S.NAGESWARAN.
21.09.2014.

[venkatakailasam]

Nageswaran..

you are an all rounder
Music collector..
Lover of nature..
collector of rare photographs,
Horticulturist,
Electronic Technician,
Tourist..
Event Organizer..
A good friend

And, More of a humane with multiple tastes..

Best wishes for being away from ll health...

[Nick H]

Please add music lover, archiver, and musicologist

[uday_shankar]

A wonderful, progressive, modern, open-minded person for sure. More power to Shri Nageshwaran!

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,
The general impressions about Taiwan were communicated by E-Mails to my friends in 2002.
The scanned images are being given in the drop box links. I hope that all rasikas will be able to read them.
Apart from this, Taiwan is one of the few countries wherein it is very difficult in getting vegetarian food.
In Taiwan, the only vegetarian snacks called dimble is available. This is similar in shape to our kozhukattai.
Inside the dimble, cooked vegetables is stuffed.
There is a particular area in Taipei where in all the shops snakes will be sold. The various
snakes [ live and striped] will be displayed in all shops like snake gourds hung in hooks.
The drop box links of some of the videos and photos will be given shortly.
End of part 2.
Part 3 will be continued.
S.NAGESWARAN.
26.09.2014.

[harimau]

Apart from this, Taiwan is one of the few countries wherein it is very difficult in getting vegetarian food.
In Taiwan, the only vegetarian snacks called dimble is available. This is similar in shape to our kozhukattai.
Inside the dimble, cooked vegetables is stuffed.

I went to Taiwan 15 years before you did. I stayed at the Ambassador Hotel which at that time had a Pizza Hut located directly across the street. After navigating across 6 lanes of murderous traffic, my friends and I could order a nice vegetarian pizza.

You also need to have some good Taiwanese friend who can take you around the city. Our friend took us to several Chinese Buddhist restaurants which are strictly vegetarian. . You will get a whole fish, complete with eyes and tail, but the whole thing is made of texturized vegetable protein. So, if you are not squeamish about how the dish looks, you can dig into fish, beef, chicken and pork dishes without losing your vegetarian credentials.

So next time you are in SE Asia or the Orient, look for Chinese vegetarian restaurants.

PS. I was wondering how difficult it would be to learn Mandarin. My Taiwanese friend suggested the total immersion technique: stay in Taipei with a Chinese girlfriend who speaks no English and you will learn the language within six months!

Hey, I have good friends, what can you say? )

[arasi]

Harimau,
You haven't reached the age (s) of some of us here who have 'golden years' cards for membership.
I wondered though about ways in which one can learn mandarin.

Yet, don't be surprised if one of us say that he/she is learning kurdish at the moment

[Rsachi]

Nageswaran sir,
I went to Taiwan a few times. I fully agree with you about the difficulties in getting vegetarian food. I had discovered a good Punjabi Indian restaurant in Taipei and used to eat one meal there every day. I have also eaten salads and veg pizzas in Pizza Hut lots of times line Harimau.
I am really proud of having been a vegetarian all my life even after much international travel over three decades and more. I think Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Spain are very difficult places but I managed. But that hasn't helped keep my weight down

[S.NAGESWARAN]

harimau and RSachi,

Vegetarian foods may be available in star hotels and I do know that the Chinese people have rice items in their meals.
I stayed with my son in Taipei and there was no vegetarian items available in the area near my son's home.

I am giving my impressions of my visit to Taiwan.

S.Nageswaran.
29.09.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,
The people in the East Asian countries believe that a bunch of tender live bamboo stick bundle is auspicious item to be kept at their home.
The bundled bamboo bunch is kept in a shallow glass plate with a small quantity of water so that the plants will always remain live.
There are also tender bamboos made in the shape of decorated peacock or ship.
These decorative items are presented to friends and relatives during important functions.

The images of the same are uploaded in the tinypic.com site and their links are given below.
1. http://i60.tinypic.com/2n8ysn.jpg DIRECT LINKS FOR LAYOUT bamboo BUNDLE
2. http://i60.tinypic.com/rsu5w4.jpg DIRECT LINKS FOR LAYOUT bamboo peacock
3. http://i57.tinypic.com/1zgfhhx.jpg DIRECT LINKS FOR LAYOUT bamboo ship OK
S.NAGESWARAN.
29.09.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,

Most of the Rasikas are living in various countries around the world and are now accustomed to the high life style, and seen the best infrastructures.
They are too accustomed to these and are not inspiring to them now.
I was able to visit one or two countries and naturally impressed by many things in those countries.
I am only sharing my impressions with of our members who may not had the chance to visit the foreign countries.
Kindly bear with me.

S.NAGESWARAN.
01.10.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

During my stay at Taiwan in 2002, there was a Audio and Video exhibition in Taipei.

All the big names world over of Sony, Philips, Samsung etc had their stalls in the world trade center building at Taipei.

I wanted to visit the exhibition. When I informed my son, he mentioned that the exhibition area is very far away.
Also, to commute to that place, we had to travel by metro train and change over to another train
and reach the place by bus and taxi in the last.
Because of his tight office works, he could not avail any leave to take me the trade center.
Since I was insisting in attending the exhibition, he brought a metro train route map [free of cost] from the nearby metro station and
gave me the instructions to reach the trade center. I had to catch the nearest metro station and buy a
consolidated ticket up to the final destination including the metro train ticket and the ticket for the bus.
After alighting from the bus, I had to take a taxi to reach the trade center.
I had noted down the complete details and started my journey. The first hop in the metro is from
the house is up to the central railway station.
The central railway station is the meeting point of all the metros from south, north, east, west
and also the main station for the journey to outstations in Taiwan.
The central railway station had six levels for the metros and for outstation train services.
As usual, I was awe struck on seeing the facilities[malls, stalls, and spick and clean toilets
with automatic flushing facilities etc].
I went up another level to catch the next metro rail. After embarking, I caught the bus[stationed in the metro station itself]
to reach the next area. From here, I took the taxi to the trade center.
Only a few taxi drivers speak English and if we approach a taxi driver try to speak to him in English.
If the taxi driver doesn't know English, he introduces a taxi driver who speaks in English and our journey is made easy.

To be continued.

S.NAGESWARAN.
01.10.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

The tinypic.com links of the E Mails sent by the U/S to friends is given below.

Taiwan trip E Mail Tiny pic links 1.10.14.

1.http://tinypic.com/r/2znyico/8
2. http://tinypic.com/r/161yex3/8
3. http://tinypic.com/r/s5zd5j/8
4. http://tinypic.com/r/30bcv8x/8
5. http://tinypic.com/r/2n6tg0w/8
6. http://tinypic.com/r/2nvtjx1/8
7.http://tinypic.com/r/210g5rk/8 Metro Train Route map.

S.NAGESWARAN.
01.10.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,

The send space download links of many items seen in Taiwan are given below.

TAIWAN TRIP SEND SPACE VIDEO CLIP LINKS 02.10.14.

1.https://www.sendspace.com/file/896te1 PLANT SHOP
2.https://www.sendspace.com/file/qmmd2s FLOWER SHOW
3. https://www.sendspace.com/file/lv9rll2. AIR PORT TRIP
4. https://www.sendspace.com/file/ad1bkh AT THE PARK
5. https://www.sendspace.com/file/z13syu MRTS TRIP

See the Video clips and enjoy.

S.NAGESWARAN.
02.10.2014.

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Dear Rasikas,
The drop box links of the photos and video clips of my visit to Taiwan are given below.
TAIWAN PHOTOS DROP BOX LINKS 13.10.14
PHOTO LINKS
1.https://www.dropbox.com/s/859f7hxqvryz9 ... S.jpg?dl=0
2.https://www.dropbox.com/s/u6utuvt8jgynf ... P.jpg?dl=0
3.https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzj6rowgukhkh ... K.jpg?dl=0
4.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7jhin83dkdtm ... ZHOva?dl=0 TAIWAN MUSEUM PHOTOS
5.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cnyix67bjmrq ... YDpba?dl=0 TAIWAN ZOO 1
6.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/021xsuxi1rbl ... ruqoa?dl=0 SN & NS AT TAIWAN
7.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y7b14omnfb1q ... qIx0a?dl=0 TAIWAN ZOO 2
VIDEO LINKS
1.https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5wbkrbxhzzha ... fzVPa?dl=0 TAIWAN ILAN TRIP
2.https://www.dropbox.com/s/feamtpea6nda6 ... .divx?dl=0 FLOWER SHOW TAIPEI
3.https://www.dropbox.com/s/1aijl1u1jsiau ... .divx?dl=0 AIR PORT TRIP TAIWAN
4.https://www.dropbox.com/s/ovbo6o47sahdg ... .divx?dl=0 AT THE PARK
5.https://www.dropbox.com/s/obn1ychdgn53q ... .divx?dl=0 MRTS TRIP
6.https://www.dropbox.com/s/gphtjp7au818f ... .divx?dl=0 PARK WALK TAIWAN
7.https://www.dropbox.com/s/114fblat0o65a ... .divx?dl=0 PLANT SHOP TAIWAN
8.https://www.dropbox.com/s/im7ec7sezwp27 ... .divx?dl=0
TRIP TO FLOWER SHOW PLACE
There may be repetitions of the links from send space also. Kindly bear with me.
I have verified that the drop box links are OK and all the Rasikas will be able to download the photos and video clips and enjoy.

S.NAGESWARAN.
14.10.2014.