Five Reasons I Love Travel (from Hsinchu, Taiwan)

My high school English teacher, Mrs. Remington, always said, "It's a sad day, when you don't learn something new."

I have my own spin on that, which is, "It's a sad day when I don't see something new."

As Martin, Stephanie and I were walking through Hsinchu, we spotted this monk. He was meditating.
It's not that I hadn't seen a monk before. I've seen plenty.
It's just that I hadn't seen one in Hsinchu, and I wasn't expecting it.

Perhaps I'm easily amused, but whenever I see something I wasn't expecting, it reminds me why I travel.

• Travel helps me break familiar patterns
  
• Travel makes me aware of life's potential
• Travel induces a sort of physiological delirium that I find pleasant
• Travel introduces me to new smells, sounds, sights, and touches
• Travel forces me to see what I am, and am not

As I'm sure this monk would echo - it's the journey, not the destination, that matters.

The Multicultural Bride - Hsinchu, Taiwan

I'm back in Santa Clara, so I'll be posting some images from Hsinchu over the next few days.

As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a wedding party arrived.
This woman got out of one of the cars and smiled.

"Beautiful dress," I said.
She then gave a response that I had never heard, in my previous 13 years of Asia experience - "I know".

I almost fell over.
In Asia, modesty is king (and queen).
Typical responses would be "It's the best I could do on short notice", "All the good ones were taken", or "I wish I could do it justice".
Even "Thank you" is typically considered too bold.
I had to give her credit for her unusual boldness.

She then asked me where I'm from.
"California", I said.
"REALLY!!! Me, too".

Ahhhh, an American. That explained everything.

What Would Sherlock Holmes Say?

I'm staying at the beautiful Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu.

Before the Ambassador came to town, we played 'hotel roulette', rotating through various 2-star hotels, but the Ambassador is truly an oasis.
The staff is great, the rooms are great, and the location is great.

I have had a couple of strange things occur here, though, that haven't happened to me anywhere else.

A few months ago, Angie and I were checking into the hotel late at night.
As Angie sat on the lobby sofa, the desk clerk leaned over to me whispered, "I've got your shoes from your last visit".
I told him I didn't leave any shoes.
"Yes. They are ladies shoes. We found them when we cleaned your room. I have them here for you."
No, I explained, I was alone last time. They are not my shoes.
He seemed to understand, so we went to our room.

The next day, housekeeping came to my room, "Here are your shoes".
No, those are not my shoes.
"Yes. They were in your room when you checked out last time."
She opened the bag, revealing a pair of red, worn-out high heels.
I laughed and said that they were not mine, not my wife's', not my girlfriends', and that I didn't need or want them.
"Okay." She walked away, lugging the shoes.

Of course, now Angie wondered why a pair of red women's' shoes would be in my room from my last visit.
Fortunately, it didn't take long to convince her that even if I did have a woman in my room who wore red high-heels, she probably wouldn't have walked home barefoot.
Still, it was a strange event.

I was reminded of that event last night, as I sat on the toilet (bear with me - if the image of me on a toilet is uncomfortable to you, imagine that I was just reading).
Across from me, on the edge of the bathtub, was a green toothbrush kit from EVA Airlines.
This was interesting, because I flew economy and didn't get a toothbrush kit.
The kit wasn't in my room the previous two days, but suddenly had appeared in my room.

This forced me to ask the following question - What is happening in my room when I'm at work?
Hmmmm.....

When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left - no matter how unlikely - is the answer.

Where does Emotion Come From?

One of my favorite things about travel is that I finally get the time to read.

Today, I finished "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell.
Quite an interesting book, about how the best decisions are sometimes the ones made instantly.
Like most books I enjoy, it veers into many unexpected directions.

My favorite quote regards the surprising discovery, by a team of German psychologists, that your facial expression can influence your emotion (vs. the opposite view)

"...we take it as a given that first we experience an emotion and then we may - or may not - express that emotion on our face. We think of the face as the residue of emotion. What this research showed, though, is that the process works in the opposite direction as well. Emotion can also start on the face.
The face is not a secondary billboard for our internal feelings. It is an equal partner in the emotional process."

Which makes a pretty strong argument for the age-old warning "if you keep making that expression, your face will freeze"!

Tomorrow, I start on "The Wisdom of Crowds".

The Philosophy of Bruce Lee

I've been reading a lot of Asian quotes and proverbs recently, for a project I'm working on.

One of my favorites is this one by Bruce Lee

"True observation begins when one is devoid of set patterns."

(man, shouldn't that be the mantra of every student and teacher!)

Here's an interesting video montage of Bruce, talking about martial arts.
I didn't realize that he majored in philosophy at the University of Washington...

Headed to Taiwan

I'm off to Taiwan tomorrow.

This video gives you a taste of traditional Taiwanese music.
You've heard the song - "Return to Innocence" by Enigma - no doubt.

What you may not have realized is that the heart of the song comes from a traditional song by the Amis Tribe of Taiwan.
The story of the song is here.

And here's the video...

B.S. - A Tale from Santa Rosa

As mentioned in my last post, Angie and I were in wine country over the weekend.
At the Sunce Winery in Santa Rosa, we were tasting some very good wines, when the sommelier and I entered a discussion about one of my favorite TV shows - Penn & Teller's Showtime expose series titled "Bullshit".
If you've never seen it, Penn & Teller challenge a different piece of 'BS' each week.
Whether it's the 'science' of feng shui, the hypocrisy of PETA, or bottled water - P&T are cheerfully skeptical hosts.

To explore the 'taste' of water, P&T filled a dozen different fancy bottles with water from the nearest garden hose, then surveyed restaurant patrons on the 'difference'.
Of course, the fanciest bottles and 'French-est' names got the highest ratings.

Anyway, it turned out that our friendly pourer was a big fan of Bullshit, so we shared stories and laughs about our favorite episodes for about 10 minutes.
Then, with perfect timing, one of her coworkers walked in and announced, "This man has a tool that can age wine 1 year for every second he puts it in your glass".
We all broke into a fit of laughter at this poor gal and guy, as they had no idea what was so funny to us. (That was almost as funny as when she asked him to show us his tool....)

"This is a job for Penn and Teller", we agreed.

Well, he (in the right side of the photo above - you can see his silver 'tool' in his hands) gave us a thoroughly unimpressive display of the aging capabilities of this amazing invention.
Our sommelier (with the glass) didn't taste the difference, and neither did I.

To be fair, I probably have the least delicate palate on earth.
But, I can taste the difference between a 2003 and 2004 pinot noir, so I'm not totally numb.