Cranky Hotel Guest and Relief

A happy Labor day to you all.  Hope the BBQ fires were stoked with friends and fine food.  It is coming up on Moon Festival time and Taiwanese love to BBQ-there's a lot more on the grill than franks and burger though.  A bit more on that later.  Ok, I've been a bit on the "wrong side of the bed" lately.  We have been making strides into getting our own place, sorry no photos on the places but I promise to take the camera to all future possibilities.  Unfortunately my drooges, your dear author was almost all set with hearth and home, when the rug was pulled out from under us; a great, I mean GREAT by Taiwanese standards, apartment was in our grasp when the owner decided to mention to us it was on the market and we would have to be prepared to let people walk through whenever she needed.  NO GO!  Anyway we are still staying in a hotel.  Getting a bit old, here's why.

This is the shower, and through that door to the right is the loo.  After you shower the whole bathroom floor is wet for hours.  We don't have a mop and bucket yet.

Right after you shower comes the shave.

This is the major draw back for me.  In fact THE thing that many a stinky apartment has been crossed off my list.  Hopefully soon.  However, there are some funky little things about the hotel, like all of Taiwan, that just catches my eye.  The lighting in the hall has an odd art deco kind of feel, gives is a kind of Blade-Runner type feel to the place-this country makes me think of that film a lot.

Pardon the low light grain of the shot, I need to get a tripod.

Wild light, huh?  Those are actually glass.

And right across the street from us in a parking lot is one of the four night markets in the town.

Off the balcony, look to the left behind the trees is the market.

My next blah blah blah will be a series of shots from one of the other more interesting night markets.  For now though we are getting ready to go to our first day of Chinese lessons, Hao, which means anything from good to great.  We are still applying for all the paperwork as well to get licenses, working papers, etc.

Just before our chest x-rays, guess they don't want any TB in Taiwan.  Although they have dengi fever.  Glad to hear my lungs are all clear.  Nice shmocks huh?  Yeah, that is a label on my hand, us expats get labeled all the time.

Things are truckin along.  We have taken a couple days to ourselves, here's a quick blink of how we shot out of town only to come across, to our sheer joy, a restaurant that offered western food that was actually great-risotto and napoleon pasta.

Yay!

This place rocks, it is nestled on a curvy mountain road in a hot springs village.  Any visitor will get the opportunity to try the fare overlooking the gorgeous valley.

I've got to get on the go, jump in my shower room and scrub.

Yes all social networks now have a whole new meaning-they speak English, and get idioms.

We are well and all will be better soon.  Photos of night markets, a series on riding a "motorcycle", what the Taiwanese call scooters, and more single short shots about running in the city of Chiayi (remember Ja-yeey), on an island that has earthquakes, typhoons and I hope to experience, great surfing waves.  I'll leave you with this little shot just to put you in one of those "this means what..." moments.  Till next time...

What happened to Mickey?  Chinese Mob?  This was all that was left, and right behind us was a beautiful Daoist Temple.