My son John is attending Kaohsiung American and as a parent we were invited to attend AmCham’s (American Chamber of Commerce) first Christmas party in the southern part of the island, Kaohsiung. The site of the gala affair was to be at the Crowne Plaza, Kaohsiung, E Da World, a new hotel boasting a location across from a new luxurious outlet mall, and an amusement park complete with a giant Ferris wheel. The hotel features a pool, of course with a water slide, indoor hot tub with jets, bubbles and the whole nine yards. There is an exercise room with lots of equipment, and a game room for the kids with ping-pong, pool tables and air hockey as well as video games and basketball games.
As a special deal for the evening, rooms were available for those attending the dinner for only NT$3,800/night and included a champagne brunch on Sunday morning. (US$1 = NT$30.6) While it is within commuting distance of our home I convinced my wife that it would be fun and in the Christmas spirit to stay and enjoy the 5 star accommodations.
We arrived early even though we knew that we couldn’t check in until 3 pm. We parked in the parking garage, checked our luggage and hit the pool. The locker room was nice with keyed lockers although no benches to sit on while we got into our suits. The showers and toilets were great, although for a hotel celebrating their grand opening there seemed to already be mold along the lower parts of the wall in the dressing room area. Not to worry. The first thing we were told was that the hot water system was not working. The hot water spas were luke-warm but the pool was only cool. Not to worry it was a sunny day. The spas could have been a little warmer to be comfortable, but not to worry, it was not unbearable.
After the pool we checked out the game room. Johnny challenged me to air hockey which I usually win. In 15 minutes I was trounced 22 to 8. Later when he was playing his mother we found out why: every time
His mother scored they both got a point and every time he scored, he got a point and his mother lost one. Not to worry, we hadn’t bet any money.
Time to check in found us discovering that the price was not $3,800 but was $4,200, and there was no champagne brunch, only a breakfast. Now we are starting to worry. We found our room on the sixth floor facing on the outside, the mall across the street and a beautiful view of the giant Ferris wheel. On the inside was an atrium like area seven stories high. While architecturally interesting, it was only large enough to echo and amplify all the sounds in the hallway. Supposedly this was normally an $11,000/night room.
The room had two large king sized beds, a TV, refrigerator, bathtub and separate shower. There was even a small balcony we could access though it wasn’t big enough for a chair. Internet access was available but for a price: $80 for an hour, $300 for a day, and another option. It is strange that I have stayed in $700/night rooms with free hook-ups.
We dressed for dinner, billed as a black tie affair, with black tie optional. Lucky for me since after being here almost fifteen years I had never even worn my suits so had taken them back to the States. All I could find was a beige sport coat. Yes, I know it is not summer, but as it turned out I was somewhere in the middle of the attire gradient. We got our picture taken as a part of the accommodations and given a picture in a key chain. This was a come-on to buy additional pictures which they produced with varying backgrounds like the Ferris wheel or fireworks, etc.
The dinner was on the eighth floor. We exited the elevator at the doorway to the hall but had to take a circuitous route, outside, to get to another entry door. We found our table at the back of the room and sat with the parents of one of Johnny’s classmates. Also sitting with us for awhile was Carlo and his wife and their son who is in third grade at KAS. Carlo flies 737s for China Airline and we had a great conversation until they switched tables to accommodate a party of six, all teachers.
The dinner itself was pretty plain. While on costing NT$750 it was pretty plain. It was all Chinese food, of course, but according to the Taiwanese at our table, including my wife, it must have been made by a foreign chef because it did not have a true Chinese flavor. The teachers at our table were from Hawaii, Colorado, Oklahoma, I didn’t hear where else, so we had some good conversations. Two had ordered vegetarian meals that they wouldn’t eat. The mushrooms might have been the best part of the meal except the doctor has me off mushrooms at the moment. Personally I thought the pumpkin pie was the highlight of the meal.
After dinner we went back to our room and after a little TV decided to go to sleep. Our neighbors had a different idea. Thus began the night from hell. We turned out the lights at about 11:00 and the neighboring room partied on. We could hear them clearly, talking about the travel agent among other things, and laughing very loudly. To say the walls were paper thin would be an understatement. They were more like sounding boards amplifying the sound. At 12:30 there was no sign of abatement so we Hsien-Ling called the front desk to complain. They said they would take care of it. At 1 am, I called. Again they said they would take care of it. At 1:30 I called and asked to talk to the manager. I told him that if he didn’t take care of it we were checking out. By 1:45 the noise abated. Then we got a call from the manager asking if all was quiet. All but the phone ringing, this could probably be heard by all 8 of the adjoining rooms… I don’t know what time I finally got to sleep but it wasn’t right away.
In the morning we got up. Collected out pictures and went to breakfast. The free breakfast was at the Heat and Chill restaurant and the wait was about one hour. After about 20 minutes they suggested we go upstairs to another restaurant. We did and were in within 5 minutes. Breakfast buffet was mostly Chinese and good enough for anyone to find something they liked.
After breakfast Johnny and I went exploring. We went through the mall to the amusement park. Since it cost $700 per person and we had to check out by noon we decided to come back another day. We later found out that many of the rides were not working yet, a good choice on our part.
On checking out we negotiated with the staff and the manager (the same one who had responded to our complaint at midnight) to no avail. Would we stay there again? Not in this lifetime. Would we recommend it to others? Certainly not to anyone we didn’t hate.
The hotel itself looks beautiful. It is however, similar to a Hollywood set: beautiful on its face with nothing behind it to back it up. Systems didn’t work, meals were merely adequate, services were lacking. Taiwanese seem to be able to copy well what they see, but they only see very superficially. They don’t see what is inside: insulation inside the walls, service that goes with the room, quality of the food they put on the table. If this is an indication of the quality of the finest hotels in Taiwan it will be a long time before they attract high dollar tourists from first world countries.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Cycling in the tropics
There are some advantages to cycling in the tropics versus other places: there is no snow here and it rarely gets cold, never too cold to ride……… I can’t think of any others.
The humidity is usually up in the upper half of the scale and this has differing effects. I have a Brooks leather saddle and had Brooks leather bar tape. Those “in the know” say to never get the leather seat wet. If it is going to rain, use a plastic seat cover or plastic bag to keep the seat dry. Personally, in the tropics I sweat like a pig. Do pigs really sweat a lot? So if I am riding at all, my seat is wet. This has caused some cracking of the leather in a line in front of the rivets. So far, there has been no mold build-up in the seat in the months the bike is idle while I am out of the country in the summer. This is not the case with the handlebar tape. When I returned in August after being gone for only 6 weeks, the bar tape showed a thin coating of a whitish mold that was easily cleaned off with some no-name leather cream. This got rid of the look, but soon enough after I started riding again the tape started to disintegrate. It came apart like an old rotten cloth. It has since been replaced with a plastic tape.
Another problem with the tape is unrelated to the climate. I have drop bars on my bike and they came with a cork wrap that is spongier and softer than the straight plastic tape or even the leather bar tape. I added to that by putting the leather tape on top of the cork tape. It was much more comfortable this way but had a few problems. Because the bar was already wrapped with cork, it had a larger diameter necessitating more of the leather tape to cover the same linear distance. It would have been nice if the tape had been about a foot or two longer. Also, before we had bar-end shifters, we started wrapping the tape near the stem and finished by rolling it out past the end of the bar and tucking it inthen capping the bar-end. With bar-end shifters and leather tape that is thicker, that process is not available. Now the wrap is started at the bar end and wrapped toward stem. The problem comes when you end the wrap. Since the tape itself only has a small strip of double stick tape on the back, the end needs to have another piece of tape wrap around the end to keep it from unraveling. This is something that we would have considered unacceptable in the past. This is also not bullet-proof and works better if some other accessory like a GPS, Phone holder, or bell is also clamped around it.
Another problem of the tropics depends on what your bike is made of. I have never heard of carbon fiber rusting like CroMoly steel does, but aluminum will oxidize also. Any scratch harming the integrity of the paint seal subjects the frame to the possibility of rust. My Surly LHT is only two and a half years old yet has a few spots that would take years in another environment. There are a few different applications for rust proofing the inside of a bike. The need of this practice is debated in many forums, but seeing how quickly the outside of my bike started to rust makes me think that were I to remain here I would definitely do it to mine. In Arizona where I live my other life, the air is dry and exposed steel takes a long time to get the rust we get here in southern Taiwan overnight.
Lights are not affected by the humidity as much as by the rain that can happen in any environment. My tail light/turn indicator will sometimes change modes in the rain as well as render itself unable to be turned off.
One advantage to rain in the tropics is that usually the temperature stays warm. Wearing rain gear won’t keep you dry as your sweat will equal the rain. The only time I would wear a raincoat in the rain is as a windbreaker or in a typhoon. I just finished a tem day tour of Taiwan during which I saw zero rain. I even slipped in to my home city the only dry afternoon in a week before and a week after, including a typhoon. We were praying for a little relief rain but only got humidity.
New Parts
Last spring I bought a Pletscher two legged kickstand from someone on the Surly bike forum. I installed it late this summer on my return to Taiwan. There was a lot of discussion for and against this model and kickstands in general. Some complain that there should be a kickstand plate built into the bike, some say it should never have a kickstand and every degree in between. Mine, I believe, came with an extra adapter that helped avoid crushing the chain stays when clamping on the stand. I put it on and had no problems other than it was too long. While visiting my friend the Giant Bike Shop owner, we took it off and cut it to a more manageable length and now it works great. Oh, I did have to change one more thing: When I clamped it I managed to clamp the rear derailleur cable as well. It doesn’t shift as well that way….. I fixed that and now it’s fine. On my ten day trip I used it probably 95% of the time I parked it. Front wheel flop needs to be addressed, but it is easier to find something to control that than to find something to lean the bike against. It also makes a fairly good repair stand for working on the back wheel. The only problem is that the left peddle hits the stand on the way around. It will go past, but it still hits it harder than I would like. Maybe an adjustment would fix it.
The humidity is usually up in the upper half of the scale and this has differing effects. I have a Brooks leather saddle and had Brooks leather bar tape. Those “in the know” say to never get the leather seat wet. If it is going to rain, use a plastic seat cover or plastic bag to keep the seat dry. Personally, in the tropics I sweat like a pig. Do pigs really sweat a lot? So if I am riding at all, my seat is wet. This has caused some cracking of the leather in a line in front of the rivets. So far, there has been no mold build-up in the seat in the months the bike is idle while I am out of the country in the summer. This is not the case with the handlebar tape. When I returned in August after being gone for only 6 weeks, the bar tape showed a thin coating of a whitish mold that was easily cleaned off with some no-name leather cream. This got rid of the look, but soon enough after I started riding again the tape started to disintegrate. It came apart like an old rotten cloth. It has since been replaced with a plastic tape.
Another problem with the tape is unrelated to the climate. I have drop bars on my bike and they came with a cork wrap that is spongier and softer than the straight plastic tape or even the leather bar tape. I added to that by putting the leather tape on top of the cork tape. It was much more comfortable this way but had a few problems. Because the bar was already wrapped with cork, it had a larger diameter necessitating more of the leather tape to cover the same linear distance. It would have been nice if the tape had been about a foot or two longer. Also, before we had bar-end shifters, we started wrapping the tape near the stem and finished by rolling it out past the end of the bar and tucking it inthen capping the bar-end. With bar-end shifters and leather tape that is thicker, that process is not available. Now the wrap is started at the bar end and wrapped toward stem. The problem comes when you end the wrap. Since the tape itself only has a small strip of double stick tape on the back, the end needs to have another piece of tape wrap around the end to keep it from unraveling. This is something that we would have considered unacceptable in the past. This is also not bullet-proof and works better if some other accessory like a GPS, Phone holder, or bell is also clamped around it.
Another problem of the tropics depends on what your bike is made of. I have never heard of carbon fiber rusting like CroMoly steel does, but aluminum will oxidize also. Any scratch harming the integrity of the paint seal subjects the frame to the possibility of rust. My Surly LHT is only two and a half years old yet has a few spots that would take years in another environment. There are a few different applications for rust proofing the inside of a bike. The need of this practice is debated in many forums, but seeing how quickly the outside of my bike started to rust makes me think that were I to remain here I would definitely do it to mine. In Arizona where I live my other life, the air is dry and exposed steel takes a long time to get the rust we get here in southern Taiwan overnight.
Lights are not affected by the humidity as much as by the rain that can happen in any environment. My tail light/turn indicator will sometimes change modes in the rain as well as render itself unable to be turned off.
One advantage to rain in the tropics is that usually the temperature stays warm. Wearing rain gear won’t keep you dry as your sweat will equal the rain. The only time I would wear a raincoat in the rain is as a windbreaker or in a typhoon. I just finished a tem day tour of Taiwan during which I saw zero rain. I even slipped in to my home city the only dry afternoon in a week before and a week after, including a typhoon. We were praying for a little relief rain but only got humidity.
New Parts
Last spring I bought a Pletscher two legged kickstand from someone on the Surly bike forum. I installed it late this summer on my return to Taiwan. There was a lot of discussion for and against this model and kickstands in general. Some complain that there should be a kickstand plate built into the bike, some say it should never have a kickstand and every degree in between. Mine, I believe, came with an extra adapter that helped avoid crushing the chain stays when clamping on the stand. I put it on and had no problems other than it was too long. While visiting my friend the Giant Bike Shop owner, we took it off and cut it to a more manageable length and now it works great. Oh, I did have to change one more thing: When I clamped it I managed to clamp the rear derailleur cable as well. It doesn’t shift as well that way….. I fixed that and now it’s fine. On my ten day trip I used it probably 95% of the time I parked it. Front wheel flop needs to be addressed, but it is easier to find something to control that than to find something to lean the bike against. It also makes a fairly good repair stand for working on the back wheel. The only problem is that the left peddle hits the stand on the way around. It will go past, but it still hits it harder than I would like. Maybe an adjustment would fix it.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
John's future Bed and Breakfast
I was introduced to John and Shelly Lamorie by David LaBolle after we cycled out to their house in LeeGang on Tuesday. John has a cram school in LeeGang but has a house on a good sized plot in the country near-by. David and I helped him set up a horse-shoe pit in preparation for a tour group to come on Thursday.
John has built everything on the property, from a lake with a couple of piers, to a schoolhouse with a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. They are in the process of building a Gazebo type structure that will have a kitchen for making pizza. Eventually he will have cabins for overnight stays.
David took me out on a convoluted route that I would have no chance of remembering, but he also gave me the route on Google maps and showed me how to make my own. I took the details of where I was going and where my house is and made my own route. Next time I will take it a step farther and print it out. I rode out again on Thursday to help out with the tour, and it took me an hour and a half to go 25K to get there. Don’t ever stop at a Police Station to ask directions. In YenPu I couldn’t find the street where I was supposed to turn so rode around awhile before stopping to ask directions. They sent me in the opposite direction, told me to go 300 meters, turn right; go 600 meters and the elementary school would be on my left where I should turn right again. When I got to the Elementary school, it was on my right and there was no place to turn right. Remembering that I had been on the road before, I went back to the Police Department and turned left (opposite the way they sent me) and rode off in the correct direction. My memory of where to make my next right turn was a bit off, and I made a few early turns, taking the “scenic route” before I finally found my way to where I was going.
I arrived too late for French toast, but before the tour arrived. When they did arrive,
they had a brief orientation
and then broke into groups to see what was going on. The buildings are built with a brick and plaster system made of cement, water and newspaper. It is strong and very very light.
One group went to watch the making of bricks, one went fishing,
one went on raft rides,
and one group learned how to play horse-shoes. I was at the horse-shoe pit. Everyone had a try with four tosses and all realized two things: horse-shoes are heavier than they look, and getting a ringer, or even a point, is harder than it looks. But it seemed that they all had fun.
After they left John made omelets that were just delicious, maybe more so since I had missed the French toast. When lunch was over I headed back with a little help on the initial route back to YenPu. It took me 40 minutes and 15K to get home, amazing what you can do when you know where you are going. I pushed it little, and on Friday my legs suffered for it. No pain no gain some say, preferably I like no pain no pain.
John has built everything on the property, from a lake with a couple of piers, to a schoolhouse with a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. They are in the process of building a Gazebo type structure that will have a kitchen for making pizza. Eventually he will have cabins for overnight stays.
David took me out on a convoluted route that I would have no chance of remembering, but he also gave me the route on Google maps and showed me how to make my own. I took the details of where I was going and where my house is and made my own route. Next time I will take it a step farther and print it out. I rode out again on Thursday to help out with the tour, and it took me an hour and a half to go 25K to get there. Don’t ever stop at a Police Station to ask directions. In YenPu I couldn’t find the street where I was supposed to turn so rode around awhile before stopping to ask directions. They sent me in the opposite direction, told me to go 300 meters, turn right; go 600 meters and the elementary school would be on my left where I should turn right again. When I got to the Elementary school, it was on my right and there was no place to turn right. Remembering that I had been on the road before, I went back to the Police Department and turned left (opposite the way they sent me) and rode off in the correct direction. My memory of where to make my next right turn was a bit off, and I made a few early turns, taking the “scenic route” before I finally found my way to where I was going.
I arrived too late for French toast, but before the tour arrived. When they did arrive,
they had a brief orientation
and then broke into groups to see what was going on. The buildings are built with a brick and plaster system made of cement, water and newspaper. It is strong and very very light.
One group went to watch the making of bricks, one went fishing,
one went on raft rides,
and one group learned how to play horse-shoes. I was at the horse-shoe pit. Everyone had a try with four tosses and all realized two things: horse-shoes are heavier than they look, and getting a ringer, or even a point, is harder than it looks. But it seemed that they all had fun.
After they left John made omelets that were just delicious, maybe more so since I had missed the French toast. When lunch was over I headed back with a little help on the initial route back to YenPu. It took me 40 minutes and 15K to get home, amazing what you can do when you know where you are going. I pushed it little, and on Friday my legs suffered for it. No pain no gain some say, preferably I like no pain no pain.
Taipei Bike Show
Taipei hosted the annual bike show last week and this year I attended. Like a kid in a candy store, not so much for the bikes, there are just so many and one can only ride a few. So many choices, so little money.
But the accessories, now, one can never can have enough. Along with the bikes there was everything imaginable one could put on the bike as well: racks, bags, lights, mirrors, better brakes, better cranks, better everything. Twenty or more ways to change every aspect of your bike. Gosh, what to buy?
I went first to the Surly display, being a Surly rider and all, met Tom Krueger, and got to see most of what Surly had to offer. They had the Long Haul Trucker (my ride), Salsa Pistola and La Cruz, Pugsley, Steamroller, Crosscheck, Pacer, and I will have to look at my pictures to see what else, I have slept since then. But no Big Dummy (not me, the bike).
There were a million different kinds of wheels hubs and spokes making at least a trillion different combinations, especially when you add on the different tire choices. I wanted a Son 28 Dynohub, they retail for over US$200, but didn’t find the company there. I did find a Sanyo hub and found that it wholesaled for about US$25, but talked the rep into selling me one for NT$500, the equivalent of about US$15. So as much as I wanted a Son, guess which one I am going to use. It even came with a light so now I can put off buying the other two I wanted.
I did pick up a tail light with wireless control turn signals. I already had a brake light….. I also met the owner of Cool Stop brake pads, Gene Smith, and picked up a set of pads. It turns out we lived in near-by cities in California, both in northern and in southern California. Small world it is. I saw several different double legged kickstands, which would be good while touring with a load but didn’t see Pletscher’s and the others were nothing to get excited about.
But then, as much as I like Surlys, I may be convinced to buy a Fuji, I would first have to make sure they are accessorized…….
But the accessories, now, one can never can have enough. Along with the bikes there was everything imaginable one could put on the bike as well: racks, bags, lights, mirrors, better brakes, better cranks, better everything. Twenty or more ways to change every aspect of your bike. Gosh, what to buy?
I went first to the Surly display, being a Surly rider and all, met Tom Krueger, and got to see most of what Surly had to offer. They had the Long Haul Trucker (my ride), Salsa Pistola and La Cruz, Pugsley, Steamroller, Crosscheck, Pacer, and I will have to look at my pictures to see what else, I have slept since then. But no Big Dummy (not me, the bike).
There were a million different kinds of wheels hubs and spokes making at least a trillion different combinations, especially when you add on the different tire choices. I wanted a Son 28 Dynohub, they retail for over US$200, but didn’t find the company there. I did find a Sanyo hub and found that it wholesaled for about US$25, but talked the rep into selling me one for NT$500, the equivalent of about US$15. So as much as I wanted a Son, guess which one I am going to use. It even came with a light so now I can put off buying the other two I wanted.
I did pick up a tail light with wireless control turn signals. I already had a brake light….. I also met the owner of Cool Stop brake pads, Gene Smith, and picked up a set of pads. It turns out we lived in near-by cities in California, both in northern and in southern California. Small world it is. I saw several different double legged kickstands, which would be good while touring with a load but didn’t see Pletscher’s and the others were nothing to get excited about.
But then, as much as I like Surlys, I may be convinced to buy a Fuji, I would first have to make sure they are accessorized…….
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