Dave's Asian Travel

Flickr Searching

I am in the process of moving more and more pictures over to Flickr, primarily as the searching capability is far superior than the existing photo albums. Apart from the Obvious ability to Geotag images the ability to use consistent TAG(ging) on your photos makes my photo collection far more organized than it was before.

TAGS

When you do a search you can use boolean logic i.e

type the following into the search box :

china AND wen
china wen
"china wen"
china OR wen

you can add more than two operators(search terms) i.e.

china AND wen NOT Shanghai
china wen NOT Shanghai
"China Wen" NOT Shanghai
china OR wen NOT Shanghai

ARCHIVES

archives make it easy to search for pictures taken in a particular period

SETS

sets are collections of related photos, I've organized them geographically

Favorite Taiwanese Singer

has to be Jolin Tsai who is not only very talented but very beautiful and went to my baby's university

Gold Ecological Park

IMG_5313
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

While in Jioufen take a visit to the Gold Ecological Park, you can visit the mines , and see what the conditions where like for the miners, many who where Japanese British POW's. also you get to see the Japanese Colonial Buildings including the Emperor's House, me and wen didn’t go as far to the POW camp which is a 750m walk from the mines.

Jioufen

IMG_5398
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

IMG_5468
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

Jioufen a myriad of tight, steep alleys filled with shops selling stinky tofu to pasta. When you go to Jiofen (about 1 hour from Taipei by Train and Bus) make sure to bring an umbrella, as it's usually wet. The film City of Sadness was filmed in Jioufen and it’s historically interesting as once being known as Little Shanghai due to the gold rush in the early part of the last century

KLM St.Maarten

A 747-400 KLM at Princess Juliana Airport in St.Maarten

Anti Corruption March

IMG_5181
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

Anti Corruption (President Chen Sui-Bian) march in Taipei. Regardless of whether you support or not the aims of the march it's a credit to Taiwan that such protests are tolerated and occur peacefully.

Taiwan leader faces mass protest (BBC)

Flickr Search

on the right hand sidebar there is a flickr search box, which will search for any photos in my flickr account. It search tags, descriptions, titles of photos in flickr

Sumo Tube / Penghu

IMG_4618
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

The Sumo Tube, aargh, rather foolishly i decided to have a go on this while staying in Penghu. Anyway the idea is you put the tube on like a jacket and get dragged around by a Jetski at full speed. Sounds like fun, for a while it is, for moments feels like your flying, problem is what goes up must come down and in this case it's your face coming down on the sea at a pretty high speed.

I had to keep letting go off the rope intentionally afraid i would do damage to my brad pitt (or maybe gonzo) features, anyway it is a kind of twisted fun but once is enough for me i think.

Michael Turton's Taiwan Blog

http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/

Have a read very interesting, much more informed, serious and important than mine :)

Half of China can't Speak in Mandarin (Taipei Times)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/09/06/2003326364

Half of China can't speak in Mandarin

AP , BEIJING
Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006,Page 1

Nearly half of China's 1.3 billion people can't speak Mandarin, the country's official language, a news report said yesterday.

An Education Ministry study found that only 53 percent of the population can speak the version of Mandarin known as putonghua, or "the common language," the China Daily said.

The government has promoted putonghua since 1956 as a common language to bind together a vast country with dozens of languages and dialects.

It is used in schools, government meetings and for TV and radio broadcasts.

"Without a common language, people are unable to understand each other. This has become an obstacle to China's social and economic development," Yuan Zhongrui, director of the ministry's putonghua popularization department, was quoted as saying.

"Crikey" - Steve Irwin

Wen Sketch

wen sketch
Originally uploaded by David Renton.

quick sketch in Photoshop of Wen

Support Taiwan for UN participation

Please read up about the Issues regarding Taiwan and UN which at the moment is not allowed to be a member, just because it more profitable and easier to disallow Taiwan UN participation to appease China PRC it does'nt make it right or moral. The real people to blame for this situation is not China, but the main members of the UN, i.e US,EU and Russia. Read up and support Taiwan in the UN Taiwan Ready for UN Participation (Taiwan Goverment Information Office) Welcome Taiwan into the United Nations (Taiwan E-Goverment ) New Taiwan UN Resource China and the UN (Wikipedia) Taiwan Bid to Enter the UN (Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Penghu Videos at Google Video

i have uploaded various videos to Google Video from our trip to Penghu, most are just riding around on a scooter, but you get to see the landscape of Beautiful Penghu

Google Video Penghu Davidrenton

Picasa 2.5 Beta / Geotag to Google Earth

Google have released Picasa 2.5 Beta their free Photo Album management software

Google Picasa 2.5

The fundamental difference for me in this latest version is the ability to GeoTag photos, i.e add positional information to a photo. It does this via Google Earth.The information is added to the photos EXIF metadata which means when you import into Flickr , flickr maps will show the photos in there correct locations (you have to allow flickr to import EXIF geotag data).

The other benefit is that this information is now avalible in Google Earth and likewise Google Maps which have more coverage than Yahoo Maps which Flickr use.

Wen the Little Mermaid

79990025, originally uploaded by David Renton.

in Penghu we brought a cheap Kodak Underwater disposable camera for the Beach.The results aren't bad considering it's very hard to put your eye to the viewfinder underwater. Also this is Wen swimming underwater, not bad as she only started swimming 2 weeks ago

Flickr Map / Geotag

Flickr now allows you to Geotag your Photos, over time i will be making use of this. They use Yahoo Maps who currently do not have High Res Imagery of Taiwan.

Flickr Maps (davidrenton)

Dune Buggy Penghu

IMG_4938, originally uploaded by David Renton.

Dune Buggy's cost 600NT for 30 minutes which is quite expensive, but it's quite fun, especially seeing Wen Drive.

PengHu

Wen and me went for a short to the PengHu Islands, just off the West Coast of Taiwan. Taking a Plane from Songshan (Taipei Domestic Airport) the flight takes about 45 minutes.
Booking via ezTravel(Chinese) the Flight cost's about 1650 NT One way.
The Hotel Room (Homestay) was 1000NT a night. Scooter hire was around 350NT a Day.

To fully travel the various Islands you will need a Scooter or Hire Car , there are Buses and Taxi's but i would recommend your own transport so you can go to those hard to find spots.

PengHu County
PengHu National Scenic Area
PengHu Tour

PengHu is an archipelago to the West of Southern Taiwan, there are 64 islands, while 20 are inhabited.Makong is the main city with a population of around 50,000.
The landscape is predominately flat, with small Townships and Villages dotted across the Landscape. The roads when we went where quite empty and the main roads are modern and wide.

I would recommend you go to Linto Park for Watersports and Jibei Island, there are plenty of Beautiful beaches on Penghu many which are deserted even at the end of August and the water is beautiful and clean.

the above 2 Photos where not taken by me.Jibei Island spit

Makong is quite a Large Town/Small City with adequate Hotels/Hostels/Homestays. You won't need to bring much to Penghu that you cant find in Makong, it even has a McD's and Starbucks.

Wen and Me spent a couple of hours trying out the Various water rides (1000NT Unlimted all day/all rides/each) or pay for Individual Rides.
Wen was very Brave and did the rides and i think she enjoyed them, the bullet one i have to warn you is fun but not pleasant, unless you like the feeling of your head impact the sea at 30kph every 2 seconds.Still it worth a go

Goldbeach (Linto Park) Watersports (Chinese)

Flickr Pictures

Been Playing around with Flickr and posted some Photos there. They are from this site and can be viewed here as well , but it's convenient to put up a small selection of Photos i like and have them search-able via Flickr and it's Tagging system. Have a look here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidrenton/

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from David Renton. Make your own badge here.

City Rankings Comparisons

This is a silly vote based on 1 vote mine on the various merits of each city i have travelled to in the last year. This is totally non-scientific,non-binding and just made up. Also i have spent most of my time in London and Taipei so that will have an effect on the final scores.