Skating with Andrew Chang in Taichung

Skating with one of my favorite skaters in Taiwan, Andrew Chang. I use to skate with him almost every week when I lived in Taichung, Taiwan between 2011 and 2012. Since coming back to Taiwan, when we go skate together, we spend half our time skating and the other half just talking to each other about our passions, families, careers, etc.

(below video edited by Andrew)

The Last 10 Days I was in Taiwan

Its been a long time since I lived in Taiwan. Because of complications with my computer and hard drive space among other things, I haven't been able to upload any of these photos. I finally went through the last pictures I had of Taiwan and uploaded them. I haven't done this much stuff in this short of time in a long time. I miss it very much and the cultural experience among many other things that Taiwan has to offer.


Rainbow Village and Taichung Overlook
2012/11/03 - 10 Days Left

Taichung Docks
2012/11/04 - 9 Days Left



Burning Clothes
2012/11/06 - 7 Days Left

Night Skate Session and Overlook of Taichung at Night
2012/11/07 - 6 Days Left


Hitch Hiking
2012/11/09 - 4 Days Left

Burning Clothes Part 2
2012/11/11 - 2 Days Left

JiJi
2012/11/12 - 1 Day Left

Cat Tea
2012/11/13 - The day I left Taiwan

Taichung Panorama - 台中, 台灣

This is the longest panorama I've ever made and one of the hardest to process. You can view it in full detail by clicking on the photo, it will take you to my flickr.

This photo has so many forgotten memories spanning it. Just the process of finding this place is a story in itself. I love looking down at the buildings and trying to recognize different places (which is actually pretty hard because of the similarity in the buildings). This was taken in 2012-11-03 and I never touched it until today, 2014-05-12.

Crowded Streets

Its been two months since I've been in Taiwan. And I'm beginning to miss it more and more. I miss the crowded streets, the tall buildings, fireworks in the morning, the friends, adventures, and the ministry there. Many times I have dreams about being there again but then I wake up. I don't know what the future has for me, but I would love to someday go back to Asia to stay.

China/Taiwan Pollution

This video is about China, but in Taiwan it was a similar circumstance. The moment I arrived in Taichung, Taiwan, I notice that my vision distance was significantly reduced. Almost everyday that you look up to see the sky, all you would see is a grey smog, clouds don't exist there. Rarely when that was a good wind that is blown through the sky would clear up forming shapes of clouds. You would notice mountain ranges that you couldn't see before because the pollution was limiting your vision. I have never seen dust collect so quickly before, you constantly have to clean everything. When you wash your clothes if you let them hang dry to long they will be dirty from the dust and pollution. Rarely did I feel like washing my clothes made them much cleaner. This is one of the reason they wear the masks to protect themselves from breathing in all the pollution.

Last Day in Taiwan

Today is my last day in Taiwan. I  currently have 8 hours left to enjoy this place. I am sorry for my lack of blogging and other updates, due to busyness with school and having fun with a some laziness mixed in. It is a confusing feeling right now. I'm not sure what to think. It is hard to believe that I will be placing my feet on American soil tomorrow morning. It all seems so unreal.  Spending 2 years in a country changes a lot about you. It gives you feelings you can never feel without leaving your home country for so long. You experience a culture on a deeper level then hanging out with an Asian in America. For the past 2 years I have eaten rice almost everyday, 2 meals a day. My life changed greatly to come here and now it is going to have to change to go back.

My first Car...umm I mean Scooter

Jake and I were given a couple of scooters from Marc Heckman, for only $3USD each. The name transferring cost were a little more. They have changed my whole world in Taiwan. I have been able to expand the world before me. It takes me only 15-30min to get to a place that use to take me 1 hour to get to by bus. This makes me really want a motorcycle in the states except the driving here is way more effective on a scooter. You can't just weave in and out of cars in the states.

Guy Mariano and Justin Eldridge in Taiwan

I got to meet and skate with two very famous pro skaters from the company known as Girl Skateboards.

Idol's on the Drive

Sometimes the idols just get a little too dusty in those old creepy temples. The best way to fix this is to put that idol on the back of your car and drive until its looking spic and span again. In Taiwan as part of their worship to their gods they drive them around on tours through the city.

Taiwanese Family Bonding

Typhoon Saola Damage

Typhoon Taiwan

We have a Typhoon today. That means the rest of Taiwan is shut down except for SYME. I arrived to work this morning soaked. I live in the mid-west coast. We mostly have high winds and lots of lots of rain. There hasn't been much damage besides a couple of flower pots knocked over and one tree that smashed a car.

Bike Trip Part 3 (Day 2)

We slept that night for 4 hours waking up early the next morning around 5:30 am. To ride! The sun and heat didn't really give me the option to sleep longer.

We rode for hours and hours, just peddling none stop except for the occasional 7-11 stop. At one point we didn't see a civilized town for a long time. Our water bottles got low as our skin boiled in the heat. Eventually, we stopped and asked these kind elderly people sitting on their porch for water. We ended up sitting there for 1-2 hours, being served tea, hot water and watermelon. Jake fell asleep while I stumbled over my Chinese trying to get directions. Before we left they gave us a little ice cream, fruit and hot tea to go.

These photos aren't of abandoned buildings but of actually people's homes. This is a very normal site to see houses and buildings in the country or city to be so full of junk even in some store fronts.

Fellow Bicycle-lists

We rode mostly near the west coast. Some villages had piles of clams lined up all through the town.

All day we rode using the Sun as our compass. But as it faded we continued to ride. As it became dark we ran into another young gentlemen on a bicycle. He rode past us, an hour later to be we passed by as he walked his bike along the road. The next time we saw him he caught back up to us. He began speaking English to us. We then rode along the road with him too the city of Puzi. 

 After looking at Jacob's bike he decided we needed to take Jake's bike to a bike shop. His uncle happened to own one. As they worked on our bikes more and more people began to show up. It was about 9pm, and we realized all these people came to see the Americans. Before we left there was about 15 people or more that showed to see us. They took our picture and sent us off without a bill.

After riding into Tainan we needed a little help knowing how to get to the train station. I knew if we got there we could find a hotel. After asking a 7-11 employee, one of the costumers offered to help and drive his car as we followed by bikes to get us to the road we needed.

At night everything in Taiwan looks pretty sketchy even though its not. So it is really hard to judge the unsafe areas verses the safe. We saw a sign for this hotel across the street from what seemed to be a big party area. After walking down the dark ally (picture above), and being greeted rudely by the employee of the hotel, we really didn't know what to expect. The hotel turned out to be nice and clean but very small.

We rode 150km that day to arrive in Tainan (台南) totaling about 200km for the trip.

Taiwan Night Market - Yi Zhong Night Market (一中街)

It is habitual for the Taiwanese to head to the night markets every weekend. If you go on vacation they will tell you about the famous night market in that city (having such a small country you eventually realize that everything is kinda famous).  The streets fill up with crowds of mostly college and high school students.

The night market food and atmosphere is one very similar to a carnival. They have corn dogs, candied; strawberries, tomatoes, and Taiwanese plums, many different kinds of teas, and lots of clothing stores.

Sleeping on the Job

Some people don't consider the fact of the crowds of people when trying to drive a car or scooter down the streets. For everyone else they take the next road to avoid the crowd.

What makes the night market so special is the strange smells. I would describe it but my description might offend those reading this. The stinky tofu stand is the easiest thing to find, as to the smell that helps you find its location. The Taiwanese love to share their strange foods with you and feel like your the one missing out if you don't try it. Here are some first timers trying out the stinky tofu.

Skating the Taichung Canal

Antonio Chen - Casper Flip

Me - Kickflip