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-   -   Business with Pleasure in the Land of Silicon and Electronic Gadgets - Taiwan (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/85181-business-pleasure-land-silicon-electronic-gadgets-taiwan-3.html)

35 Kms in one hour? Hmmm, isn't that just OK? What was the speed limit on express way? Tolls, if any? The traffic looks congested, but I hope overall it was much better than here isn't it?

@ aargee : Actually we stopped on way to buy some water, juices etc at a seven-eleven shop for about 10-15 minutes


Taiwanese culture has always been late-night oriented. After a hard day of work, a Taiwanese host would like to get himself and his guests entertained through a very lavish meal full of sea food.

026 sea food delicacy


027 take a closer look


This would be followed by a "gumbe" session where people drink bottoms up for a drop of hat reason, most of the time the "the boss" challenging the "junior colleague" or the "customer" challenging his "supplier" to match him. The wise people let the boss win after the couple of bouts. Still wiser people like me excuse themselves quietly to watch the better scenery.

028 the view of the sea from the balcony was beautiful


029 but my camera was not doing the justice, hence i borrowed one from my colleague


Gumbe session is followed by a visit to fun centers designed around the marvelous oriental invention called karaoke. Like many other East Asians, the Taiwanese love to take turns at the microphone, crooning their favorite pop songs. A posher version of the karaoke is the piano bar, where instead of the recorded music, you get a back-up from a real baby grand.

In Taiwan, karaoke's latest incarnation is the KTV, which offers private rooms for groups of friends, and big-screen television sets for the full music video effect. At many KTVs, you can sing-along until the crack of dawn.

030 a typical karoake session in progress.


Origin of Karaoke was in Japan, it soon migrated to Korea, Taiwan, China. Philippines, Vietnam also have several KTV locations.

India is also not far behind. Magic Sing Karaoke mics are getting popular.
There are Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi songs available in the Karaoke form through memory chip concept. typically a MIC comes preloaded with ~1000 songs, but it can be expanded using additional memory chips.

We returned to our room well past midnight.

031 ready to hit the bed.


While we were getting ready to hit the bed, we found that movie Commando was being shown on movie channel. so both of us being fan of the muscle man, watched the movie till the end.

by the time we slept it seems to be well past 2 AM. It was indeed a long day..

@MX6. it appears i am feeling sleepy. yesterday i was watching the soccer finals, so i am unable to differentiate between PM or AM. so better hit the bed now., BTW thanks for pointing out the error in time. I corrected the same above.

Wow. I'd love to work in such companies where one gets to sleep in the afternoon itself calling it a long day! :D
Just rubbing it in Star. :D

Oh!!! ok, then, the speed is pretty good.

@Star - Would like to what you'd to sing in Karoke?

@star,
nice travelogue with some really good pics.

One silly question,
why there is no mustache to Taiwanese male? :D[read chinese origin]

And add to that - have you ever seen a bald Chinese?

Aravind, its a pleasure to read your log, I never knew you had a nack for travelogues. Will search and read your other threads as well. Infact I was waiting for your PM after you asked me about the tripod & heads. I was keeping the money ready for the Tokina too !!:)

I have. And I've seen Bald chinese women as well. Guess stress is catching up everywhere!

i am not a singer, at best i can be called "hum" - mer
most of the songs sung in karaoke are taiwanese / chinese or english

god has given us 2 years, 2 eyes and one mouth, which means we are designed to see and hear twice the number of times and speak only once which only 20% of the instances.

i practice this behavior especially when i am in strange, not used to situations.

I think keeping mustache is a personal choice. historically chinese male used to sport long mustache and beard. but the younger generation is more western oriented. Clean look is in. More over the western as well as eastern world is moving toward unisex behavior especially in the business and public life, which means both ladies and gents want to be seen as "Clean, friendly, smart and feminine (=soft)", Dressing is also moving towards that. Most of the time mustache is associated with the rough and tough personality.

regarding baldness, i think it is natural consequence of one's heredity, food and living habits, hygiene aspects, abuse and stress one goes through.
These days being bald and shining (along with being fit and suitably dressed) is viewed as being in position of power as well.

Thanks Shaju for the appreciation, actually i visited the market on sunday evening. i was to return to the market on thursday, but the Taipei 101 kept me occupied till about 9:30 PM, then i missed going to the market.

other days were fully occupied, hence could not plan to go to the market.
I will let you know prior to my next visit.

Thats some nice delicious food. Yumm...! But I believe you are veg. Is it?

That Karaoke thing sounds interesting.

Interesting? Thats an understatement @TB! Its almost like a ceremony!
(Like the tea drinking one!!!) Great stuff @Star as usual.

I am not a vegetable, i am a lively human being. i would be a non-Vegetarian food item for any animal, i remember the advertisement of the recruitment portal running currently on TV. :D

Yes, i am a vegetarian, i do not know how tasty the sea food was. but all the guys around me were simply loving it.

Yes, what does a celebration mean ?

Celebration is an occasion when all the family or friends meet, share the success story and happiness, share a great meal, enjoy songs/dances together, have fun. Life is as simple as that be it a rich country/community/society or a emerging/poor community/society/country

moving further with the story...

Date: 6th July 2010

Sun rises in Taiwan pretty early. Sunrise was early morning about 5 AM. It was pre-agreed that some of us would go for a morning jog or walk. so eventually we were out by 5:30 AM.

While few people went for a jog, some of the lazy bones like me just strolled around. One of the reason was also the footwear i was carrying with me. One thing i learn is people, even the ones who had come from Europe as well had carried their running shoes with them. They were ready for the opportunity where as i was not. better luck next time.

During this walk, my mobile phone+camera was left in the room for charging, hence i do not have any photographs. Still i will give you some views of the things we saw since morning.

Please click on the link below, you will be directed to the website of the hotel. you will see some white square window with "loading..." allow several seconds for loading to get over, wait for few more seconds for the 720 degree video to start playing.

View of the Room facilities, the essential ones during the morning.
映象休旅會館-360,720度全景虛擬實境

Ocean Vista: 720 degree view from the lobby
映象休旅會館-360,720度全景虛擬實境

The nearby beachfront
映象休旅會館-360,720度全景虛擬實境

in case of any issues while viewing the above links, please refresh the link in the browser

This one is definitely male beach..Rocky beach
映象休旅會館-360,720度全景虛擬實境

We returned to hotel back at 8 AM, for our breakfast and getting ready to go to the beach. we quickly completed the shower followed by some English breakfast.

We were ready in the lobby by 9 AM to go to the beach. Coming up activities on the sandy beach..

9 am everyone was down in the lobby in their beachwear, ready to hit the beach

033 a view of the beach, that is where we will be going


034 the beach resort


035 the entrance to the beach


036 one needs to apply sunscream to avoid tanning


037 some of the charli's angels carry the umbrella too


038 the view on the left side


039 the view on the right side


040 the view behind us


041 beach volly ball courts


042 playing volly ball being in water


043 interesting thing .. jeep on the beach


044 taking a closer look...water rafting facility


045 an auto enthusiast having a look at the jeep


046 taking a closer look


047 sand scooters


048 some of us had the ride on the scooter


049 some of us tried the water rafting


050 some glimpses of the beach


051 some shades in the hot sun


052 some more shades


053 swimming pool


054 take a closer look at the pool


055 some chapel on the beach...for beach wedding


056 some angel doing the job


057 attraction for the kids


058 a disco on the beach


059 taking a closer look at the windmill


060 relax in the shade once the sun is up


We left the beach in 2 hours and reached the hotel by 11.15 AM.

Coordinator announced that we need to take shower, be ready, check out and board the bus by 12 noon
we were going for a sea food restaurant for the meal of the day. So everyone quickly finished the chores and boarded the bus.

I was very hungry, but not hoping for even a decent meal.

@Star: as always, nice account. interesting read with lots of new facets coming in.

Beach looks beautiful & wondering what all can be done from disco, area for children, sports, shades, windmill & even a chapel besides swimming pool, windmill/light house; I'm really sad recalling our good old Marina, which is the second largest beach in the world & its pathetic condition.