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Taitung

Taitung is the third largest city and the largest on the eastern shore.  The hotel that called itself a resort but was bizarrely placed adjacent to the sizeable regional jail.  We could see into the exercise area from our window. 

A local club, like a Taiwanese RSL club, gave our group a private room for dinner, we suspected to keep us out of view of the regular patrons.  But they had Italian wine at a very modest price.

 

 

The night markets were nearby and I had a shot at archery but they only had right-handed bows and from childhood I’ve used a bow or a catapult left-handed so I had to make do.

 

 

On my last two shots I hit a couple of balloons and won Wendy a toy.  Good fun.

 

 

 

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Travel

Hong Kong to Singapore 2024

 

On February 16th 2024 Wendy and I set-forth on a 20 day trip, revisiting old haunts in SE Asia.

From Hong Kong we made a brief side-trip to Shenzhen in China then embarked on a Cruise, sailing down the east coast, south, to Singapore where we spent a few days, before returning home: [Hong Kong; Ha Long Bay/Hanoi; Hoi An; Ho Chi Min City (Saigon); Bangkok; Ko Samui; Singapore]

 

Read more: Hong Kong to Singapore 2024

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Wedding Party

January 29th 2011

 

See some of it on YouTube (some websites may block this)...

Read more: The Wedding Party

Opinions and Philosophy

Australia and Empire

 

 

 

The recent Australia Day verses Invasion Day dispute made me recall yet again the late, sometimes lamented, British Empire.

Because, after all, the Empire was the genesis of Australia Day.

For a brief history of that institution I can recommend Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Scottish historian Niall Campbell Ferguson.

My choice of this book was serendipitous, unless I was subconsciously aware that Australia Day was approaching.  I was cutting through our local bookshop on my way to catch a bus and wanted something to read.  I noticed this thick tomb, a new addition to the $10 Penguin Books (actually $13). 

On the bus I began to read and very soon I was hooked when I discovered references to places I'd been and written of myself.  Several of these 'potted histories' can be found in my various travel writings on this website (follow the links): India and the Raj; Malaya; Burma (Myanmar); Hong Kong; China; Taiwan; Egypt and the Middle East; Israel; and Europe (a number).  

Over the next ten days I made time to read the remainder of the book, finishing it on the morning of Australia Day, January the 26th, with a sense that Ferguson's Empire had been more about the sub-continent than the Empire I remembered.

Read more: Australia and Empire

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