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I lived in Wenshan, Taipei, from October 2013 until April 2014 when I moved south to Tainan. In those six months I captured a great many photographs from in around the area, the finest of which were previously shared on this blog in a post about the urban landscape of Wenshan. It was my intention with that post to portray southern Taipei from the vantage point of mountaintops, hillsides, river banks, and pedestrian overpasses, with only a couple of shots from street level. This time around I would like to zoom in and share scenes from everyday life in Wenshan.

I am just about to zip off to Chiang Mai for the second time and I realized—I still haven’t shared any photos from the first time I went! The reason for this is simple: I was sick every day I was there in early 2012. I made the mistake of visiting during burning season and could hardly breathe the entire time I was there. I didn’t even know what was going on at the time, a consequence of my inexperience with extreme air pollution and the lack of a cell phone (on which I would have certainly read about it in the news as I did after returning to Bangkok) a few days later. “National Haze Crisis Declared”, the headlines read.

Beigang is a historic town on the riverside border between Yunlin and Chiayi in southern Taiwan. I made a brief, unplanned stopover in Beigang while riding north to Changhua in the summer of 2014. I was only vaguely aware of Beigang’s existence, having at some point read something about Cháotiān Temple (朝天宫), one of Taiwan’s most famous Mazu temples, but I had a hunch that there might be more to see—and I was right! If you enjoy visiting traditional towns with a lot of history then Beigang should definitely be on your list.

I moved to Changhua City in November 2014 to see what it’s like living in a traditional town in central Taiwan. I had an interesting time staying in Tainan for three months earlier that year so I figured why not give Changhua a shot for the wintertime? Changhua is nowhere near as lively and interesting as Taiwan’s old southern capital but it is not without charm. Here I have gathered up some of the more representative images I captured during my first two months of residency, mostly of the area immediately to the east of the railway station, which also happens to be the oldest part of town. Explanations are given in the caption of each photo, where available.

Date Captured

October 31st, 2014 at 16:35 UTC

Camera

NIKON D3100

Lens

AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II

Aperture

ƒ / 3.5

Shutter Speed

1/60 sec

Focal Length

18.0 mm

ISO

1400

Exposure Value

9.5 EV

Download

1800 × 1200

This was the last image I captured in Toronto prior to boarding a long haul flight to Taiwan little more than a week ago. Pictured here is Tilted Spheres, a massive steel sculpture by Richard Serra, installed 2002–2004, prior to the opening of Pier F at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2007. The building was actually constructed around this imposing monument to the ritual disorientation of international air travel.

Last year, near the end of 2013, I had the good fortune to move to Wenshan, the southernmost part of Taipei. In late September I was nearing the end of my first round-the-island bicycle tour and put a call out on Facebook asking if anyone knew of a place I could stay for a month or so. That call was answered—and I ended up staying with a couple of cool European guys for six months before heading south to Tainan in April 2014.

Download

900 × 482

GeoGuessr is a web game based on Google Maps. Each round deposits you into some random location leaving you to puzzle out where you are by clicking around and examining what you find in the area. When it’s time to make a guess you pick a point on a map and you’re scored for distance. It’s a lot of fun for geography geeks like myself.

One of their games is Taiwan, which is how I initially found out about it. After playing a round I glanced at the thumbnail and thought, hmm, that looks awfully familiar. Sure enough, it’s one of my photos from Tainan! Not bad, though I can’t help but notice they failed to credit me in any way, which means I have an email to write… after the next game. High score: 23,744!

Date Captured

August 4th, 2014 at 08:59 UTC

Camera

NIKON D3100

Lens

AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II

Aperture

ƒ / 10

Shutter Speed

1/250 sec

Focal Length

45.0 mm

ISO

100

Exposure Value

14.6 EV

Download

1800 × 1200

Yesterday I went out riding near where I grew up, something I haven’t really done before. I moved away from home as soon as I could and never really turned my attention outward to the countryside. Whenever I did go riding as a teenager I went inward to the big city. Nothing about long rides on rural roads appealed to me then. After a year of exploring Taiwan, typically on two wheels, I was curious to find out what might happen if I took the same unscripted approach. In Taiwan it was my habit to set out on rides with only a vague idea of where I was going. I opened myself to the possibilities and discovered many things of great interest to me that I might not otherwise have seen.

These photographs were captured on a short two day, three night visit to Singapore in February 2013. I was unable to do more than scratch the surface of this intriguing island city-state on such a brief trip, but I did manage to take a few interesting shots while I was there. Most of my time was spent in Singapore’s historic Chinatown, known in Chinese as Niúchēshuǐ (牛車水), but I also ventured into Little India and the Downtown Core.

Note: this post still receives a fair amount of traffic but it is very out of date. It was only current back in 2014, when it was published. Keep that in mind when considering these recommendations, many of which have closed down!

What follows is a short list of serviceable working cafés in and around downtown Tainan. What do I mean by a “working café”? I mean a café where students, freelancers, and remote workers will find the things they need to dig in for an extended period of time and get some work done. My criteria for a good working café: decent coffee, the availability of snacks or light meals, comfortable seating, wireless connectivity, unobtrusive music, reasonable prices, long opening hours, welcoming staff, and an ambiance conducive to creative work, especially programming. Of course, it helps if a café looks nice too!