Hello From Taipei!

Hey Everyone! So yep, I definitely landed safe and sound in Taipei. We got here on Saturday at around 5:00 AM Taipei time, but since we slept on the plane, it just felt like we got up too early after a 12 hour direct flight from Vancouver. Or at least I did. Michael had problems ignoring the screaming babies in the seats behind us.

So far, Michael Kwan and me have walked most of Downtown Taipei…yes…walked…over the last couple days. As a result, we’ve got some pretty killer blisters, but we’re still having a great time. We’ve already seen all the computer malls and we’ll definitely be going back later this week after we finish up with COMPUTEX. Last year, we only took cabs mainly because John Chow is a wimp and doesn’t like to walk so it was great to actually get out and see the city. Although I did take some Mandarin Lessons last year, I would only classify it as “Survival Mandarin” and made for some interesting conversations during our exploring. We look the part, but we talk like we’re a couple of pre-schoolers.

I’ve been shooting a lot of video and can’t wait to show it to all of you. Since one of my most recent posts was about the traffic in Taipei, I thought that I would make a quick video about the massive scooter population….

If anyone needs to find me in Taipei, I finally got a phone number here. You can reach me at 0930326948. Michael also got a new number and his is 0930138171. This was probably one of our biggest Mandarin challenges yet and we survived relatively unscathed. The girl selling us the cards at Far East Tone couldn’t keep a straight face as we butchered her language.

Tonight, we’re heading to the first COMPUTEX press conference and then the GreenIT forum. Later, we’re going to meet up with webmasters around the world at the Gigabyte COMPUTEX Reunion party at the Tavern. John Chow and Ed Lau should finally be showing up today so that we can have Dot Com Pho: Taipei Edition.

Five Things I Observed About Traffic in Taipei…

Wow, I can’t believe that COMPUTEX is here again!  In less than ten days, Michael Kwan, Ed Lau and myself will be in Taipei, Taiwan for the second biggest Computer Show in the world. The biggest is CeBit in Hannover, Germany. This will be my third time going, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing all the cool toys and of course, reporting to you live about the whole booth babe situation. We’ll also be enjoying tons of free stuff and lots of parties! Since I’ve sworn off oversized free T-shirts, expect a few giveaways when I get back.

All the big websites that matter will be there like Tom’s Hardware and Anandtech including many huge overseas websites like HardwareZone etc. It will be great to run into old friends from other overeseas publications. Last year, I was so surprised when I ran into people that were just as excited to see someone from Futurelooks as I was to run into them. The last couple years, I stopped in Hong Kong, but this year, the weather here in Vancouver is starting off too nice to miss out on. I was going to head to Japan this year, but I’ll let Ed Lau scout it out this year before I head over next year. He’s heading over for a couple months after the show so I expect to hear about “Beautiful Girls direct to his Hotel”.

One of the things that Taipei is known for is the huge scooter population and the heavy traffic in the city core during rush hours…or hours…as the city is pretty much open 24/7. While in Taiwan for COMPUTEX over the last couple of years, I had a really good chance to observe the driving habits of the locals. I mean, it explains a few things when you head to Richmond and almost die. Here’s what I observed that may keep you from dying if you decide to go there and tempt fate by walking across the street…

Read the rest of this entry »