Taiwan-Typhoon

Things started to get a little dicey.
This guy probably should have stayed in.

The wind whipped things up pretty well.
After the storm, still soggy.
World's tallest building, or.....
....stack of Chinese take out containers?
Enter the Dragon.

Mmmm, a stone that looks like meat.
The famous jadeite cabbage. Everyone should have one.

Nothing like a little typhoon to shake things up.

Last week I was in Taipei for business and Sophia joined me for the weekend. Little did we know that Taipei was on the path of the very powerful typhoon Krosa. (http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2052727.htm) While it cramped our style a little it was still a pretty decent trip.

On Thursday I was to attend a lunch meeting with some high level Taiwan government officials and a delegation of multi-national companies. The issue was trade with China. I walked into the meeting room in very dull 50s era office building. In the room was a huge table with places for about 30 people. 20 of the places were marked with Chinese name plates and on the table were nice boxed lunches with noodles, chicken, veggies and chopsticks as well as a cup of tea. At the other 10 places were McDonald's bags and a large McDonald's Coke! I wonder where I was supposed to sit?

On Friday we visited the Taiwan Palace Museum. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2052727.htm Rated as one of the top 5 museums in the world. Built on a hillside to look like a Buddhist Monastery the buildings were quite impressive. Lot's of wonderful artifacts form Asia dating back 5000 years. Most of the treasure come from mainland China. Of course there is beautiful bronze work, exotic paintings on long scrolls, intricate carvings from the collections of Emperors and bold calligraphy. two of the most well known items on display were the jadeite cabbage and the pork meat stone. Both pieces were fascinating. We had to fight the crowds and tours. We find in Asia people are pretty aggressive at getting to where they want to be. One minute I might be looking at the cabbage and the next minute a tour group walks in and basically muscles their way in front of me pushing me to the back of the room. They take a quick look, hear a few words from their guide and then quickly move on to the next item on the tour.

Saturday was typhoon day. The reports kept coming in and the typhoon kept heading our way. We had to take a taxi to a drugstore to pick up a few things. The wind was really blowing, rain was falling, trees were bent over and parked motor scooters kept toppling over. We made it back safely and watched the brunt of the storm hit from the lobby or the Club Room on the 22nd floor of the Hyatt. It was funny to see the few bold doormen in front of the hotel in their bellhop uniforms along with motorcycle helmets.

That night we sipped champagne, listened to the wind and watched a movie. I guess if you have to be stuck in a typhoon, a suite on the Club level of the Hyatt isn't the worst place to be.......