I got these cell phone pictures from someone I had "Ice Monster" with while over in Taiwan last week.

Ice Monster is REALLY good.  It's not ice cream, it's not sorbet... it's a little of both, with fresh fruit on top.  Definitely something to try when you go over to Taiwan.

No, I did not eat all four bowls.  There was four of us there.  ;)

Here I am in the 1st Floor lobby of the Grand Hotel.

Above is a view from the 1st floor lobby towards the front doors.

We ate at the Golden Dragon restaurant.  Even though Chinese food in China is typically nothing like the Chinese food we get back in the U.S., the Golden Dragon's food was very much like the Chinese Food we get back home.

Above is a picture of the Golden Dragon fountain outside of the restaurant.

Here's more pictures of the 1st floor lobby.

Finally, here's a view of the Grand Hotel from the front gate.

A parting shot of Chicago as I take off for Taiwan.

My first sign of Engrish was at Taiwan's airport.

Here I am with the BFG Phobos chassis on display at YCC's booth at Computex, Taiwan.

Above is a picture of the inside of the Shilin Night Market in Taipei.  Just take the Red Line north from Taipei 101, the Grand Hyatt, etc. to Jiantan Station. 

Above is near the intersection of Wunlin Rd. and Dadong Rd. (the road that becomes the outdoor part of the night market) facing East.

It's like a secret password or something.

The ever under-estimated comprehensive sandwich.

A trip to Taipei isn't complete without a trip to Taipei 101.

First, some pictures from the 89th floor...

Zoomed in a little too far on that last one.  Damn digital zoom.  I wish I had a real camera.  :(

Here's some more pictures of the damper... 

My pictures of the damper always look the same because it's so huge, you can only back up so far to take the picture, and they have this weird mood lighting going on in the room where you can take pictures.

What's new this year is the whole "Damper Baby" concept they've got going on...

Maybe my daughter would get a kick out of that.  I just thought it was weird.

Another thing that's new is the 88th floor.  I took the below picture for two reasons....

First, the whole "We Are Damper Babies" statement.  The other thing is the "New Open".  I think they meant "Now Open".  Not sure.  Anyhoo... The 88th floor just gets you down to the base of the damper.

I was just in Taiwan two months ago for Computex and now I'm back for some more business in the name of BFG.  Last time, I managed to take ZERO photos because I was doing back to back to back meetings.  Hopefully this go around I'll get a chance to see something more than the outside of a hotel room or conference room.

A few pics for now....

When I got off the plane I was greeted by the security beagle.....

We stayed at the Howard this time (two months ago, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency, but I like the Howard) and unlike two years ago when I stayed at the Howard, this time I got a room on an outside wall.  Here's a few pictures from my window....

Here's the same intersection a few hours later....

There was an interesting sign hanging from the building across from me....

I think this is the source of the sign:  Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

My plane leaves in a little bit, so I decided to wander around town and snap some shots before I left.  I found this Skoda dealer....

Above is an Octavia TDI and below is the Fabia.

Skoda is a Czech brand of car that's now a subsidiary of Volkswagen.  Of course, we don't have these cars in the U.S., but I'm a bit of a VW fan so I think these cars are cool.

AMD supposedly launched AM2 a couple weeks ago and although Anand could get his hands on some hardware, I couldn't find it in stock anywhere. I need to help Ultra design an AM2 bracket for one of their fans, but before I can do that.  I have to have the hardware!  Fortunately, here in Taipei, I have an entire city block full of computer stores to look for a motherboard and CPU....

So we walk into one of the stores where there's A LOT of motherboards....

And A LOT of power supplies.....

And we pick up a motherboard and AM2 3000+ processor...

They'll actually benchtest the combo right there at the cash register to make sure you don't come back claiming it doesn't work.

Now that I have that out of the way... I can shop for something for my wife.....

I took some pictures of some World Cup fan activities just outside of Taipei 101.  The World Cup kicks off next week and the Taiwanese seem to be some real soccer fans.

Below is a picture of two people inside a pair of giant soccer balls.  The object is to get to the goal on the other side of the "field"....

This is the back of the giant ramp the people got to roll their super-sized soccer balls down.....

Initially I thought "Impossible is Nothing" was a bit of Engrish, but it's actually the slogan for Adidas's new ad campaign. 

Soccer fan or not, you've got to dig the giant soccer ball in the middle of the courtyard that looks like I crashed in from outerspace.

....For 7-11!

Almost all of the usual suspects are here.  Lays potato chips, Big Gulps, beer... along side the Big Bites though there's a crock pot of dumplings you can dive into.  I hear they're "safe" but not as tasty as the street vendors'.

Today ended up being a busy day.  I was at the Ultra Products Taiwan office for a good part of the day.  When I left, the person I had left with took me towards this temple across the street from the office.

Sort of weird to see a temple like this amongst city skyscrapers.  What else was weird was I had no idea WHY we were walking towards this temple.  But I decided to whip out the camera and snap a few shots while I blindly followed the man with the car keys in his hand....

It turns out there was underground parking underneath the temple. Once inside, we took an elevator down and hopped into a car and drove away. Wild.