Left Taiwan

An early start with a 4.30am wake up call for a 5.15am departure to the airport. GSE Chair Bill Tsai and assistant drove us and our expanded luggage to the airport.

8.00am successful departure from Taiwan by the GSE team from district 9690, and strangely for the first time it the trip, not one photo was taken of the event.

Destination Hong Kong, for two days of shopping and seeing another country.

The end is nigh one way or another

The last day began with a very quiet breakfast for the team. Brad and James had bland food to start the rebuilding process. The team caught up on all the excitement of the previous day. Bags were packed to leave the Premier hotel for the last stop.

No visits were planned to occur today except for lunch at a very nice French restaurant with a slightly strange head waiter who personally cut up every one's lunch just to make sure it was ok and cooked well. A very pleasant lunch with the Rotary club of Saccam was held with great humour shared by all.

The team then moved to their final stop on the journey back, at the first hotel the team stayed at. A fascinating, entertaining, wonderful and life changing experience has now come full circle back to the same hotel where we started. .

On arrival at the hotel we were informed of the earthquake that has created a tsunami off the coast of Japan causing massive damage. The tsunami is due to hit Taiwan at between 5.30 and 6pm. We are currently in the southwest corner of the country, with the highest risk area being in the north east and at this stage we are safe here. We are keeping a close eye on the situation. Thanks to all who have expressed their concern.

The team is looking forward to its farewell dinner tonight.

By the time dinner occurred northern Taiwan had been hit by tsunami, with quoted minimal damage although getting a specific answer was hard. We were informed that although Taiwan has earthquakes it has not experienced a tsunami.

A quiet but enjoyable night was had by all. The District Govenor, Assistant District Govenor, GSE Chair and Coordinator were all in attendance. A number of beautiful gifts were recieved and the team bid fond farewells to their new friends.

An early night ready for a big day tomorrow is planned.

Team splits to go to different hospitals

After getting ready for a 8:30am breakfast, I discovered that half the team had succumbed to food poisoning. James and Brad had very little sleep and looked mush worse for wear in the morning. After it was agreed that a doctor would attend the sick team members in the afternoon, the remaining GSE members left for the days program.

We arrived at the 'Magic School of Green Technology'. It was a building that had cost US $7 million to build and has incorporated many green technologies including a garden on the roof, solar technology, an amazing acoustic auditorium and increased ventilation to improve heating and cooling. The aim of the building apart from to show green technology is to allow school / university students to learn about these new concepts.

Karalyn suggested it was coffee time, so we were taken to a very nice coffee shop next to the university. After the hosts had contacted all Rotarian's that they had in their contact list (it had been discovered that there was not enough people booked in for lunch), we were taken to a traditional lunch were several tables had been filled. Two guests that had joined us "Allison and Jason" were a wealth of information and provided much insight during the afternoon and evening.

We left for Sin-Lau Hospital. During the hospital visit, we were taken through the hospital and shown the historic hospital equipment used. Karalyn was "greeted" by the wife of the Superintendent, an artist, who had been on GSE some years ago. She was an interesting woman, very enthusiastic. The deputy Superintendent was our host for the visit, and was very welcoming and congenial. He was very interested in our trip and our impressions of Taiwan.

We attended the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, where Allison and Jason were able to interpret the displays and the provide much knowledge and information.

We returned to the hotel as James and Brad were being whisked off to the hospital. Karalyn and I attended a Rotary Club meeting and carried the presentation for the team. After dinner and the presentation, we were taken to the hospital to see our team mates (being P21 and P22) sitting in wheel chairs with a drip attached. A comment of James previously was interesting to reflect on 'The only way I will allow any needle in me is if I am unconscious". All tests came back OK and they were released from hospital about 10pm. After being discharged from the hospital, the team headed back to the hotel for rest.

Stages of Life - Humans and Trees

The day began with a visit to a Child Care Centre and Kindergarten run by the YMCA. This is a fantastic facility, with two floors of themed rooms (20 in all), including a library, an exercise room, a room divided in to countries, a sensory deprivation room for children to experience disabilities, a pretend shopping centre, and much more. It is very well attended during the weekends, by both adults and children.

The second visit was to an Aged Care facility, also run by the YMCA. It is very new, and has very modern facilities, and a great design. Some extra care regarding trip and fall hazards may have been appropriate, but it was a pleasure to meet and speak to some of the people who lived there.

Lunch was next - this was in a house which was 135 years old, and filled with all kinds of bric-a-brac and antiques. It was a pleasant lunch, served on beautiful china.

Change of hosts - Allan (who we met early in the exchange) and Nick proved to be very obliging and interesting companions. AnPing was set as the destination for the afternoon.

The historic fort of Anping was first crated by the dutch in the 1600's. Only one original wall remains today as the rest had been removed, rebuilt, changed etc by the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese over the following 400 years. The 6 story walk up the main tower was invigorating. After a walk through the local market stalls the next stop beckoned.

From there to the tree house. An abandoned warehouse from the old port days that now has a fully grown tree growing through it. Next door was a wax museum for a quick history lesson. The journey to what was Taiwan's largest department store, for a quick look, finished the afternoon where we headed to dinner.

Dinner was at a Taiwanese restaurant, where the food was very fresh and a variety from the regional areas. One last stop on the way home was made at the Tainan night markets for a last spot of shopping as the next two nights have plans already made for us.

History, Hoses and Hospitality

Another great day in Tainan! Today we visited some historic sites of Taiwan's oldest city- Tainan. The first stop was the amazing Chihkan Tower which was built in 1653 by the Dutch during their colonisation of Taiwan.

We then stopped by the relaxing 'Eternal Golden Castle' a defensive castle built in 1874 to to safeguard the coast and to defend the island against Japanese invasions. This was a most interesting historic site and a most relaxing place to visit and wind down the pace for an hour or so.

We were then treated to a 5-star lunch which was nothing short of spectacular! A five course meal with a main including duck with caramelised blueberry sauce or angus beef with a black mushroom sauce. Dessert was so well presented that it took an effort to start eating it... but did not take long to finish it off.

After lunch we had a vocational visit to the fire station where we had a guided tour that started with the disaster control centre and eventuated to:
1. A small model demonstration of the fire emergency procedure
2. A ride in the helicopter flight simulator
3. Navigating a pitch dark smoke room... get down low and go go go!
4. Testing the typhoon simulation room... rather windy!
5. Stepping into an earth quake simulation room... rather rocky!
6. Taking the high ropes at third storey level across two apartment buildings.... rather scary!
7.  Escaping from the third floor via harness evacuation descent... rather fun!

This was both a fun and interesting visit that we all enjoyed. We then headed back to the hotel for a short break before being treated to another fine meal by our friendly hosts yet again. A traditional Taiwan style dinner, bursting with flavours, spices and variety concluded a great day of GSE.

Karalyn's Health Day - Hospitals, Coffee and Wine

Excercise bikes in the waiting room - great idea!

The day started out with breakfast at the hotel, then the team headed to National Chen Kung University Hospital.

After three unsuccessful attempts to collect the exchange student that would join us for the day, we finally arrived. We were shown the complete hospital including the in-patient and out-patient area, PET area for cancer detection (where they use glucose reactive) and what we would term in Australia as a private hospital.
We were also given information by a volunteer about the difficulties of getting organ donors in Taiwan. The situation is even more serious than in Australia, with only 200 transplants per year, and over 10,000 on the waiting list.
Rotary is a large donor to the hospital.
It was a very interesting, and well presented overview of how the hospital works, and a very effective vocational visit for Karalyn.

After leaving the hospital, we arrived at lunch. Traditional food was on the menu again with the main discussions being centred around what combination of food would be served in the banquet and how many courses would there be.

It seemed to be Karalyn's day - we visited Yu-Ting's (outbound GSE Team member) cafe. Her father is an architect and had designed the building, the unique features combined with Japanese design has created a stunning work of art. The water features, music and coffee/cake made for a very enjoyable and relaxing afternoon.

Photos do not do justice to the brilliance of this cafe!

We left the coffee shop to visit the Literacy Museum. However, it is closed Mondays! The team spotted retail shops across the roundabout and shoe shopping commenced where I purchased a new pair of shoes.

After a short break back at the hotel to get changed, the team arrived at Tainan Rotary Club. During the presentation, in order to engage the audience, I volunteered Karalyn to demonstrate a kookaburra laugh. After a panicked look, she gave an excellent demonstration. The football demonstration is getting worse - fortunately we have not yet broken anything.

After the meeting, it is traditional for Tainan Club to visit a wine shop for a few glasses and perhaps a cigar. We were included in this. After a short visit, the team arrived back at the hotel to write the blog, relax and prepare for the remaining days.

Four days to go of GSE.....Count down is on.

Team scores a home run

A day off officially, that started late with a leisurely breakfast after the excitement of conference had subsided.
For a relaxing start it was nice to go a walking tour of an open space park area, Tainan City Park. Families appeared to be enjoying BBQ’s, badminton and walking their dogs. Much fun was being had by all.

A quick tour of some of the Tainan shopping district was the next stop, specifically electrical items and toys.

After a return to the hotel Jeremy a Rotarian from Yun Lin had come down to visit and take us on a quick city tour. We started at a very large bookstore followed by lunch at Starbucks. A quick (nearly 2hr detour) occurred when Brad found a baseball batting practise area and the boys went to town. Starting with gentle looping softballs and graduating to 130km/h fastballs, to a bit of pitching and some basketball, the boy’s competitive spirit was released.

Onwards to a very large department store where dreams were made and stayed, after looking at the price tags. A quick dash (in the wrong direction to start) back to the hotel, for the standard 10mins to get dressed, look pretty and get out the door for dinner.

The lovely ladies from the Tainan Phoenix club were our gracious hosts for dinner. Another 11 courses of stunning food from chicken to seafood was served. After the obligatory photo and banner exchange the team returned to the hotel for an early night.

All are very excited about the week ahead, with only 5 days to go.

District Conference... Turtle anyone?

Before we knew it, Saturday had arrived and we attended the Rotary District 3470 Annual Conference in Tainan. This was a well attended occasion with over 1,300 attending on the day. A light lunch outside before moving inside the school hall to get proceedings underway.
Introductions of each club and their presidents initiated the conference and with 57 clubs in the district, this took some time. Various speeches were then made including the International President representatives and District Governor. Due to language differences, we are not able to inform all our followers of what we are sure were memorable speeches.

Before we knew it, it was time for GSE Team 9690 to deliver a stellar presentation to our biggest audience yet. The presentation went smoothly and was well received. The biggest challenge was the demonstration of Australian Football on stage. After doing this demonstration in various sized restaurants over the last three weeks, the space of the stage was overwhelming. Ed's wayward kick meant potential disaster, but with some great anticipation of the bounce by James, the situation was saved.

After our presentation we had dinner outside the hall and on the menu tonight was not only a full chicken with the head still on the plate, but some delicious turtle! Took the team a few minutes to give it a go, but we managed to get over our child hood memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and enjoyed this fine dish.

Dinner included some Karaoke and prize give-aways before we returned inside for the evening entertainment, which included some great violin pieces from a past GSE member. All entertainment was provided by Club members, so the standard varied tremendously.

Upon returning to the hotel, we decided to enjoy some more Taiwan Beer, so down to 7-11 we went to pick up three long necks for $165 NT Dollars... which is about $6 AUD.

Karalyn's views - just a few comments on District Conference Taiwan style. It is held in district, moving to venues in the local area of the current DG. As Brad mentioned, the conference attendance exceeds 1300, so the venue needs to be very large. It is usually a school gymnasium. The initial parade of Club banners, and Club Presidents, each being introduced individually, followed by individual introducion of all attending PDGs, and several other notables took almost 2 hours. It is very formal, the men wear business suits, and the ladies in quite formal dress, with many sequins and a few furs. The only break from introductions, and speeches from the Rotary International President's reresentative and the DG in the whole two afternoon sessions (from 1-6pm) was our team presentation and a short performance by the Exchange Students. There were to be a couple of Guest Speakers on Sunday's program.

All Clubs pay for their members to attend Conference. It was difficult to follow some of the content as it was in Chinese, but a very comprehensive program gave some insight into the sessions. Lots of noise and colour, and again the incredibly friendly people.

Moving Day, from pickles to Porsches.

8am again and the last day in Yunlin County.

First stop a cold food warehouse, where it was unfortunately either too busy or cold (-18degC) for us to see.

Then to breakfast, at another confusing restaurant of choice, where hotcakes and Mc muffins were decided on, another Taiwanese delicacy.

From there out into the country to visit a the Yunlin County area government centre for cakes and coffee and a discussion on county affairs and all things pickle. Then to the pickle museum to learn about growing them and the region's rich history.

More orchids were next on the cards and their beauty is still breath taking.

A quiet cup of tea at the orchid factory was followed by a quick spot of shopping at T Mart, for a couple of grocery items.

To lunch as the morning had finished, and steak, yes steak, sauce and noodles on the menu.

A sad farewell from Apple's house who had been a fantastic host throughout the week.

Ed and James began to drool at this stage and ran for the Porsche Panamera as their choice of car for the 1hr trip to Tainan. The speed limit was 90km/h, the traffic was moving at about 110km/h, and at one stage (or a couple) the Porsche was moving a lot quicker than that. So after a rapid trip we arrived in Tainan and the Premier Hotel.

After a very comprehensive briefing we were given till 6pm to relax.

Dinner was a at a very nice hotel for the meeting of the Rotary club of Tainan Central, followed by coffee at Wu Li which was recently awarded 11th place in the world at a coffee competition and first place in Taiwan. I am told it was very good. 10.30pm back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Students for the day

After a pleasant sleep in (8am start) we lined up for our pre-coffee / breakfast photographs (multiple cameras for this occasion are a must). We were all very tired after the 15 hours on the go the previous day.

We headed to breakfast at Huewai, with all GSE members having difficulty selecting what to eat after nearly all meals previously being selected for us. We then headed to the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (a vocational visit for TM1). After viewing all the sporting facilities (pool, volley ball courts), we were taken to the design centre. The artwork that the students had created with glass and wood was very creative.

After leaving the university at 11:30, we then headed to...guess what it was...LUNCH. We were taken to a vegetarian restaurant for early lunch.

The GSE team then proceeded to a Japanese temple. It is very confusing regarding rules at temples such as entering from the right only just being learnt by the team and now another rule of no shoes being worn in the temple being learnt today.

We were then taken to a coffee house to be the guests of honor. We were indulged with coffee, chocolates, biscuits and due to the fact that our guests felt we had not eaten enough food at breakfast or lunch, Dominos Pizzas.

After staggering to the cars (after consuming more food), we then returned to school. A high school with 3,000 adoring teenagers seeking a wave from the boys down under. Some great charity work was undertaken by the students and we have learnt lots about the value of education in Taiwan. 7:30 to 5:00 monday to friday plus every 2nd saturday. Students usually undertake private tuition from 6-9pm as well!

We were then taken to a very traditional Taiwaneese designed temple. This was a correlation from the temple yesterday with the temple being very large, in the rural area and having very few people there. We were then taken back to our accommodation for a one hour rest prior to the evenings activities.

We left for the Rotary meeting of the Rotary Club of Touliu and Rotary Club of Toulin East. The hospitality shown was very appreciated. The GSE team produced another presentation minus any audio visual equipment. Both James and Brad have been removed from the kicking duties when demonstrating AFL. James failed miserably previously and Brad managed to miss me with the ball completely tonight, with the ball collecting a set table! All hot pots and table wear survives with no breakages provided!

8am start tomorrow with the team heading back to Tainan for District Conference follwed by a week of vocational and cultural visits.

From hospital to KTV

After our 6.30am start, confirmed 4 times, we finally departed our accommodation at 7.30am to head for breakfast. After finding a car parking spot behind the excavator at the unmarked road work site our team and their hosts, which had grown to 10 at this stage, stopped at a street side kitchen, with luckily 10 seats for breakfast. A mixture of toast, sandwiches, egg and meat (no flavour provided) was enjoyed by all.

First site visit for the day was to TouLin Medical Center, Hospital. Buses deliver the sick and the elderly right to the front door where they check in hotel style for blood pressure, 45min pathology results and a treatment planned supplied. To floor two where traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture is practised. The team had a beautiful photo taken with the acupuncture mannequin as we decided where to stick needles in each other (just kidding).

To soy and imitation fish product heaven. After learning about the value of protein added soy products that can be made to look like almost any other regular product including prawns. Although the taste is NOT the same, no matter what the box says.

A quiet lunch, team count now 25pp, enjoyed a traditional 14 course banquet over a quick 2 hours.

From there to visit a fascinating gentleman who out of china and ceramics designs temple and there magnificent statues. After seeing the amazing designs and starting to understand the scenes produced in temples (over 100 new temples are made each year in Taiwan) the team headed off to see the goddess Mat Su. With about 300 of our closest and newest friends we admired a stunning temple that receives over 5 million visitors per year. We received a lecture on temple design for example the lion and the dragon represents man, the tiger and the phoenix represents the female.

Wooden products and stencils were the topic of the next visit to see native aboriginal Taiwanese art. The stencils will be beautiful at home. Back for a 10min rest, shave, shower, get dressed and head for a Rotary meeting with the two clubs we had spent a wonderful day with.

After we finally retrieved Edward from a hungry, but violent lift we successfully arrived at the meeting. Dinner and KTV (karaoke) followed with one team member demonstrating there beautiful voice. A great night was had by all for the end of another busy day.

Saviours, Sugar, Steak and Sand

Luckily Brad was up early this morning, because despite the fact that we were told the start would be at 8.30am, it was changed very late the previous evening, and the host Rotarians arrived at 7.30 instead.
Breakfast was salad rolls , coffee and blueberry pie.

Two of the exchange students joined us for the day, and Emily was our translator.

First stop was St Joseph's Hospital, a Catholic run hospital in Huwei which has about 500 beds, and a very busy emergency department. We were very warmly greeted, and given an extended tour of the Respiratory Ward and the Hospice for the Dying. Here we were shown some of the equipment that had been donated by Rotary to the hospital. This was a Vocational visit for Karalyn, and provided a lot of interesting insights into the medical system in Taiwan.
From the hospital, we walked (yes walked!!) the 3/4 km to the old Railway Station which has been developed as a tourist attraction. The line is still used by the Sugar Factory next door. Ed attempted to end it all on the railway line, but when it was pointed out that the line he was on went absolutely nowhere, he happily rejoined the team.

Next stop was indeed the Sugar Factory, where we watched the process from start to finish, tasting the final product direct from the bin.

We then visited another bridge and a park, which are also part of the tourist development in the area.

Lunch was special - we were taken to a restaurant that actually served steak, real slabs of beef with vegies and even mashed potato!! Forgotten how good it tasted....

Change of Rotary Clubs after lunch, and we joined a colourful bus for what we were promised was a trip to the "very big Pacific Ocean"....... First though, a visit to a botanical garden which specialised in coastal vegetation, including Australian Casuarinas.

We arrived at a gate, a set of steps over a sea wall, and the smell of the ocean. We had high hopes of waves and beaches, but on climbing to the top of the wall, were faced with a vista of oyster farms and a glimpse of the ocean on the far horizon. We were a little disappointed, but were assured that our next stop would be at the "beach". Again we were disappointed, another sea wall and a glimpse of the ocean. Oh well, I'm sure it is there somewhere.

Back on the bus to Huwei where we catched up on some shut eye before having dinner with Huwei Rotary Club. The club provided financial management advice to those in attendance.

Early start at 6.30am tomorrow.
Rotarians are entertaining and informative hosts, and all the Clubs in this area have embraced us and shown us the sights. Taiwan is a newly developed country which is very proud of all it's achievements.

Karalyn