Mystery box has arrived

Late in the morning yesterday, Frances, who takes care of almost anything from administration to hiring new people to arranging meetings/outings to business travels in our company,appeared at my desk with a US postals brown box addressed to me. It took me several seconds to realize that I had received a shipment because I don’t get a mail a great deal here. In fact the only bundle I ever received in Taiwan before contained my papers that I needed to file for work visa.

I didn’t bother to read the postal receipt stuck on top of the box and took out the tapes. There I found three hardback books, gleaming and almost shouting out “Surprise !!!”.

Couple of weeks ago I happened to read about Mystery Box Charity from 800ceoread blog and the idea struck a chord with me. I instantly registered and checked out an order for one mystery box.

800CEORead recently held their first ever Best Business Book Awards for several categories.Apparently 800ceoread had received loads of business books from eager authors and publishers all over the globe and still continues to I believe. They had this noble thought to bundle up 3 random books submitted for the awards in a mystery box and sale for a humble prise of 20$ and chip in all money brought forth from this activity for a great cause room to read .

What is room to read? Here is the “about us” from them

John Wood, Founder and CEO, launched Room to Read after a trek through Nepal. He visited several local schools and was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages to build sustainable solutions to their educational challenges.

Room to Read began working with rural communities in Nepal in 2000 to build schools and establish libraries. The organization’s geographic reach expanded rapidly as significant needs and opportunities were identified in Vietnam (2001), Cambodia (2002) and India (2003). The Asian Tsunami in December 2004 provided a catalyst for entry into Sri Lanka followed shortly by Laos. In 2006, we expanded to our second continent by launching Room to Read in South Africa.

I got copies of Negotiation Genius , The Coming China Wars (Where they will be fought & How they can we won) & The Oil and the Glory each costing over 20$ each now wasn’t that a sweet deal :D
Out of these 3 books only Negotiation Genius seems can be classed under “business book” category. I had already decided to to gift one book from this mystery box to my boss and its ridiculously simple to guess now it will be a copy of “Negotiation Genius”.

The Coming China Wars title looks catchy but after going through some of the search results, amazon reviews and especially a review titled “China bashing for dummies” I guess I’m not so sure if i want to spend time on it. It might be heading straight to a used book store or a public library.

The Oil and The Glory tackles history of international politics in oil business, a subject I am least interested in but after running through some pages of it I have decided I will give it a try. If it doesn’t hold my interest for more than 5 pages it will follow the “china bashing” book.

So this might have left me with nothing to read but there was one more little surprise in that little box. 8CR team had also packed a free copy of their first ever magazine “In the Books”. Lots of snap reviews of business books of 2007 and some great articles such as the introductory “Why we love business books more than ever” by Erika Andersen. Did you know that the first classic business book of the western world was Il Principe written by Machiavelli.He offered advice he thought would be most valuable to them in consolidating their power and creating thriving and profitable governments. Its another thing that now it is mostly read as a cautionary tale an example of how NOT to lead LOL

Well on the final note I would like to say a BIG thank you to 8CR team for providing an interesting opportunity to contribute in a great cause and also congratulate them on Mystery Box Success.

PS: If you like Business books take a peek at a vote for Best Business Book of ALL time

Back in Taiwan

I wish I could say ‘Back with a Bang’ but on the contrary I was banged by Taiwan’s bone chilling cold weather on my return.

I had been inventing reasons not blog for over a month. Last post wasn’t a real post anyways so actually it has been 2 months without any real “tumble in taiwan” LOL. Truth to be told I was tumbling in India for a change during Chinese New Year vacation.

January 2008 came and went as good as any other month before. Most part of January I was mulling over my plans to spend a small much awaited and needed vacation. Finally I took a call in late January and booked my tickets to India.

Came 2nd Feb I found myself in Pune, my home in India. Not before my 200 mtr hurdle race at Mumbai airport which was/is being renovated(?) and a wild taxi ride,initially estimated to take 3.5 hrs instead cruising to Pune in less than 2 hrs 15 mins.

The same evening me and my friends were off to Goa, a popular tourist destination in western part on India. We spent 2 very long days and a long night there which also included a visit to my sister’s place. She is living there with her family now, wow how cool is that ;) BTW a big thanks to Pankaj and Hrishikesh for showing us around in Goa. It was very kind of you to take out some time on a working day and help us plan out our Goa excursion.

Honestly I would have loved to catch some breath there and spend some quite time but as we usually do, we ended up grabbing too much sand in our hands than we could actually hold. Nevertheless it was awesome to be with my friends among whom I didn’t have to watch my tongue and care about what I or anybody said, shell out mindless nonsense and still laugh like we were watching a nice Robin Williams fun movie. It amazes me to infinity, in FNC, Friday Night Club as what we call our group, each one of us is so much different with enormous variety of taste for things but still being able to share incredible joy and passion for companionship. Well 3 GB won’t be enough if I keep writing about FNC. Lets save it for another time.

We drank cheapest liquor [Goa is famous for being closest to coveted Duty-free mark], smoke, wore cowboy hats, rode huge bikes, breathed fresh air, watched foreigners hop on elephant and getting photographed themselves, shopped~bargained and shopped again. Goa has innumerable beaches, white sand beach,water sports beach,family beach,rocky beach n so on. Most of them are safe but believe me some of them are not. Goan people are quite comfortable in English. Even we Indians had to resort to English while ordering some small stuff over the counter in a small shop. No wonder I felt like a foreigner in my own country where there were equal number of foreigners as compared to Goan, Indian people and everybody was speaking English. I wasn’t really in a photography mood in India but I did click some snaps to capture some special moments in Goa.

FNC at SOSA’s shop where Dil Chahata Hai title song was shot

Do not Drink and Swim LOL

Hello moto

Indian Cowboy version … riding a local made Cruiser bike with a pillion LOL … on our way to Ozran Beach

Ozran beach … just another beach in Goa

Sunset @ Ozran beach

Final stop in Goa … Finding repose in the midst of the crowd @ Dona Paula, Panji Goa
L to R - manish,manoj,ashish and souvik

Hindi: Jo dar gaya samjho mar gaya [English:Scared???if yes consider yourself a dead meat LOL... actually this is what it becomes when literally translated ... the real closest meaing could be "not for the faint hearted"]

After 2 days of playfulness in Goa, I came back to Pune with a broken leg. Ok technically only my ankle was twisted but “a broken leg” sounds more dramatic ;) I got this huge foolish urge to beat Souvik in a race down to 1st floor while both of us were impatiently waiting for elevator on 5th floor where my sister’s apartment was. Both of us were in a warring mood so we were skipping 2~3 steps at a time while also fighting like those crazy roadrash game characters. And it happened, a wrong foot set down at the wrong moment and a breaking sound of a small woody branch of a tree was heard. A sudden swell on my ankle felt like I was staring into a fog, trying to find that missed turn or road sign which will lead me back home. Sweat puddle started to form on my forehead. 2 mins later I gathered all my courage and tried to stand on my feet. I felt this huge pain in my right ankle but at the same time Souvik’s words “its not a fracture for sure. Had it been one then you wouldn’t have been able to even stand on your feet” gave me a lot of relief. thankfully my sense of security of continuing my trip without any further break was restored as I increasingly found it easy to walk.

My parents were already in Pune to see me. No words are enough to describe the comfort and sense of security parents give us. I was delighted to see my parents and spend some quality time with them. From there onwards I went through several cycles of following pattern. Traveling in state transport of Maharashtra–>catching up with childhood friends and close family relatives–> stuffed myself with my favorite Maharashtrian food, pushed to limits by relentless insistence of my loving relatives who innocently thought I didn’t have any food to eat in Taiwan–>back to traveling again. Oh ya how can I forget the Big Sleep. Slept a lot and I mean really a lot. But its weird that now I don’t feel much refreshed. I guess its the cold.

Now when I think about it, visit to mother country didn’t quite well as I would have liked it to. I was running like a pig for most part of my vacation and found myself juggling too many balls at the same time. Although I met most of my friends, I missed out meeting some of the big guns most notably thoughtworker sachin, buddy since my elementary school days Sachin Tayade and great friend and mentor Vikram. What can I say? I am a bum. Lets hope I can make it next time folks.

I reached Taiwan only to find its freaking cold weather and my body, tired from all the buzz and travel in India, immediately gave in. I am down with cold and severe cough ever since. Just managed to see a Doc this afternoon, poor fellow, saw him step back a little when I walked into his room. Won’t blame him, I have this strange effect on people given my appearance. He dismissed me in less than a minute with a bunch of Tablets. I was happy to be escaped without a needle stuck up my ass. I am not huge fan of that stuff.

Well it looks like I missed a great deal of happening in Taiwan English Blogosphere. My google reader is stuffed with unread posts. I gotta find some nice and quite time on the weekend and dig into my rss reader to see some of the spectacular photos taken and well written posts over last couple of weeks.

On the final note I must mention “Its better in Goa ;) “

This was taken early morning … as if the hangover from the earlier night wasn’t enough i was sipping a breezer [I know thats lame but i'm really not high on heavy drinks] and wore this 30 rs use-n-throw t-shirt with those words LOL well as you can guess we proved the theorem first then defined it … another important thing to note is that it took me a lot of courage to put that picture online and indirectly admit i’m no more that young lanky fello from yesteryears … on the contrary I am officially a heavy weight champion in FNC now <:-P

who needs a hosted domain

Yesterday, wordpress announced that blogs hosted at wordpress.com will get 60x boost.  Meaning blogs like this one will have 3 GB storage space for FREE. That makes a wordpress blog three times bigger than a Blogger blog and well for typepad you need to empty your pockets for space that big.

Blogger being a Google baby can always  stretch this free space competition to the limits but I was wondering how many bloggers out there really need that much space. Couple of weeks ago I was pondering over moving to my own domain. Its not like I was thinking of hosting a focussed blog and generating some killer content to generate loads of money. At the moment and in the near future I don’t see myself blogging very seriously. Move to new domain is for the sake of having fun with all interesting things that I can learn about hosting a website, tweaking blog design and playing with blog gadgets. For me blogging is for fun. I may appear to be more excited from the announcement but I am not. I certainly do not need 3 GB space for my blog given that most of my pictures are on Flickr and Videos on youtube. I don’t know why but it does give me a sense of security.

Hiking on Fei Feng Mountain

Yesterday I went hiking on Fei Feng Mountain in Hsinchu. What an incredible time I had especially given last two weeks were as treacherous as it could get. I was working at customer site to implement our system and resolve any issues that occurred. I really needed to unwind and take my mind from off the otherwise mundane things that I do in my daily life.

Feifengshan as known here is situated east of Hsinchu county near Cyonglin. Take Jhudong exit on freeway number 3 and head for Cyonglin. Many signs like below will guide you to Fei Feng mountain. This peak earned its name because of its shape, a phoenix with its wings down, as on descent.

It was a warm and sunny winter Sunday morning when we started our climb albeit a little late at 8:45 AM.

Hiking enthusiasts were checking out mountain gears at a local vendor.

Trail had an interesting start with a stairs manufactured using expended tires.

Soon it started to get steep.

I came across a lot of old people taking a walk in the woods. These ropes attached to trees along the trail assisted them to pass some tricky phases. In fact I helped myself with them number of times. I guess another sign for me that I am getting older. Not a bad time to make a resolution to get fitter as this is a start of new year.

The trail is literally covered with trees. Hardly any sun rays could ever reach to the ground.
I took a lot of pictures of the trail. Please check my flickr set for full coverage.

One of those rare moments when I could peak through the green and see something at farther distance.

Roughly after reaching half of the mountain height I saw adjoining mountain ranges.

Simply breathtaking. Multitude of folds as long as my eye sight could reach. Made me remember my Himalaya trip in my younger years. Stunning.

While I was revelling on those mountains far away, somebody pointed me out these cute little Orange fruit trees on the edge just few meters from me. As I walked further I learned there were indeed a large number of Orange farms in the surround area. Absolutely beautiful. I had never seen one actually before. Little trees with cute little orange fruits.

This one shows two most beautiful things you can see on FeiFengshan. Orange laden tree farm in the background and Phoenix flowers.

Beautiful Phoenix flowers blossoms. FeiFengshan is also known for white Plum blossom but I couldn’t locate any or I should say I didn’t try any harder as I was too busy savoring what I was seeing already.

I don’t know why but I just love these shots. It brings so much peace to my mind when I see those trees dancing to the tunes that wind has to play and clear blue sky with small thin white clods thrown in the background.

It was a wonderful sunny winter day with beautiful blue sky.

The only eating place I found on the trail, was offering green tea and fresh oranges, probably from their backyard and looking over a stunning and picturesque landscape. Worth for every cent you spend there.

I continued my journey on this scenic trail, making not so difficult decision about which way I should take as each one of them were guaranteed to treat me to the beast that nature has to offer. There are benches every several hundred feet to rest your tired keens and ankles.

Finally the trail culminated at a sitting post built for hikers to sit and enjoy the wide view of surrounding hills.

Before coming to FeiFengShan and even during the climb people told us that on a clear day one can see Taipei 101 from the top. The haze all along prevented us from verifying the fact. To add that we had no idea which direction to look into for 101 was another thing LOL.

Finally I convinced myself to be photographed.

On the way down we took another way which was leading to some temple. Way back down was more pleasant as pople taking care of this trail had built a nice path.

On my way down I saw this lady reading a book. She was so focussed while reading. She didn’t even lift her head even once in those 15 minutes that I was there and why should she. That particular sections of the trail was so quite and tranquil, how I wished I had enough time to sit there and just be in the moment.

Not just wooden benches, there were also these meticulously cut rocks for people to sit down whenever they want.

Even young legs were enjoying little mountain climbing exercise …

… and more fun.

I duly picked up my bag full of fresh oranges from this vendor and they were as fabulous as you could get.

Way back down ended at the backyard of a temple. Trees all lined up created an amazing background for the temple.

This wonderful temple is situated at the top of a small hill overlooking a ridge on FeiFengshan.

Check out those orange trees, I started to feel sweet citrus taste each time I saw them.

People were enjoying quite time with nature on a Sunday afternoon.

After the hike we went to Beipu Old Street. More on this in my next post. So stay tuned.I had amazing time, felt exhausted but it felt wonderful. After long time it was my body which felt tired and not mind for a change.

I had to get back to my office to pick some of my stuff and I came upon this beautiful sunset right at my office building doorsteps. And a thought came into my mind, if only I could leave my office at this time everyday wouldn’t it be awesome.

This being my first post in 2008, I want to take this opportunity to wish anyone reading this blog, a very Happy New Year. May this year bring a lot of happiness and peace in your life.

Visit to Mt. Bagua Scenic Area in Changhua

Last weekend I went to Changhua, a modest town in south of Taiwan. Changhua is home to a huge statue of Buddha situated at the top of a hill known as Mt. Bagua. One can probably see Bagaushan from anywhere in Changhua.

I took an afternoon train to Chnaghua from Jhongli. It takes around 2 hours to get there.

Changhua Train Station. Changhua seems to be a major station with a maintenance train waiting on the other track, ready to go.

There it was. Guide to Mt. Bagua Scenic Area and other major attractions in and around Changhua.

At Exit door saw this board. “Fan Shape Garage” ? Got to see this next time I come here. It better be something else rather than a big circular structure lol.

[UPDATE: Craig recently made a visit to Fan-shape garage and posted some spectacular shots. Thanks for showing what I missed Craig.]

Before heading to Mt. Bagua I decided to go around Changhua city. Not that I haven’t seen it before but I didn’t have any pictures of visiting Changhua.

Thats Changhua Train Station on the outside. Taken from my taxi ride hence the scrappy image. It was rather pleasant there contrary to the temperature scale on display at station.

Nicely lined up houses. Couldn’t find many taller buildings in Chnaghua.

This one was rather interesting.

Cute house with smallest possible entrance.

It was time to head for Mt. Bagua.

Ride to the Baguashan top was smooth. Although it was Sunday, I didn’t see many people flocking there. Lot of bicycle enthusiastic having a good time though.

Entrance to the place where Buddha statue is and the temple.

Right across to the entrance gate I could see a commercial complex where handful of vendors have setup their shops and “Pakuashan Buddha Scenery Travel Service Center” office. I was wondering what “Travel Service Center” could possibly be.

Below is a video showing a 360 degree view that I took while standing right in front of the gate.

Walkway to the Buddha statue is lined with trees and small statues of characters from Chinese mythology. Each statue is exquisitely carved and unique.

Statues are also well lit up once the light fades in the evening.

At the end of walkway you can see stairs to the Buddha statue on the right side flanked by coconut trees.

To the left there is a circular observation deck built for visitors to enjoy Changhua city view from Baguashan mountaintop and also look over the great Buddha statue. There is also a musical water fountain at the center. Plenty of photography opportunities.

Love those wooden walkway.

Plenty of flowers to beautify the place.

Information display board describing important landmarks in Changhua city as seen from the observation deck. The weather was rather gloomy otherwise it certainly would have made a great view.

I took another 360 degree view video from there. Check it out. It starts first showing the statue of Buddha then Changhua city view and finally the water fountain and observation deck itself.

Finally I present you great view of huge statue of Buddha. One can see the enormity of statue by comparing it with the height of those trees.

A closer view of the statue.

and even more closer … Just incredible. One can just stand their in awe of this enormous statue and still be at peace with the surrounding.

There are two of these on either side of the Buddha statue almost like guarding it.

There are two of these again on either side. One hosts a huge bell and other one hosts a huge drum. Somebody scared the hell out of me when he rang that bell while I was concentrating on taking a picture. That thing is not just huge but also makes a ear shattering noise … gosh.

To my surprise I found out that the statue is actually hollow and it hosts 3 floors inside. On the first floor [btw we call it ground floor but here it is known as first floor] there is a temple and other two floors have various depictions of stories of Buddha and his teachings.

There is one more temple right behind the statue. This picture was actually taken from a small window on 3rd floor at the back of Buddha statue. One can see the small Buddha statue on the third floor of temple in the picture.

Apparently there is enough space up there to unwind yourself and enjoy some peaceful time.

After spending most of my evening I wanted to check out other places in the surrounding. Plenty of walkways along the mountain.

I saw a C-119 Flying Boxcar stationed and snapped some pictures of it. More of these C-119s can be seen at PingTung and Jiji town also.

This young pilot was trying to fly out of Changhua using this ride by pulling every available lever on the inside of cockpit only to find out later that it was fixed to the ground.

Finally it was time to get back home. Changhua looked quite spectacular at night from Baguashan. check out my Flickr Set for more pictures from the trip.

Last but not least my thoughts on the pictures taken. I feel the images are quite scrappy given that my camera is a Casio point and shoot type. I guess its high time to upgrade it to one with exposure control functions, optical stabilization and other functions that comes with DSLR. Only thing I don’t want to do is to carry a huge DSLR around each time I want to travel. I really don’t want to loose my freedom to move around easily with a decent camera which I can keep in my pocket. How does a Canon Powershot G9 sound?