David's Journal

Now that I have your attention, I'm in Munich, land of sausages, bread and naked sunbathing. I've been here for a couple of days so far and its nice. Just not an hour ago I partook of an authentic Bavarian feast - at least I think it was, the menu was all in German. I ordered what I took to be sausages and a large beer. When it came it was more sausagey that I could have dared to hope. Seven different types on a bed of sauerkraut with potatoes. Tell you what, the Germans sure know how to make sausages. The beer was very nice as well, I'll have to try some more though, just to be sure.

My day started with a visit to the Deutches Museum, a museum of science, engineering, technology and sore feet. It is the largest and most comprehensive museum of any kind I have ever been to. I wandered pretty much aimlessly for about five hours and hardly came across a bit I had seen before. Much of it is pretty interesting - if you happen to be a huge nerd - so I had a good time. Then I went and cooled my feet in the chilly waters of the Isar river, at which there was at least once case of naked sunbathing by an aging but swarthy european man. Apparently they account for 95% of all the naked sunbathing. Ah well, lucky I didn't come just for that.

If anyone can shed light upon the possible meaning of the title, please feel free. You can add comments you know. We encountered the phrase at Alishan (Ali mountain) written on a sign stating what we would get fined for. I tried my best not to reconstract or extent any and tunnels while I was there, and we didn’t get fined so I can only assume that I was successful.

Alishan is a beautiful place, as you drive higher and higher you are treated to majestic views of hills covered with betelnut and other tropical looking trees. Grant did well driving, particularly as his girlfriend Rebecca was in the passenger seat saying “Overtake, overtake” the moment we were stuck behind anyone. This demonstrates the Taiwanese mindset about driving, as we noticed from the cars that overtook us with little to no regard for their personal safety. Any stretch of road that is currently unoccupied by solid matter is fair game to drive on, regardless of the fact that it very well might soon be. The Taiwanese road code (I imagine there is one) does not have the terms “blind corner”, “safe overtaking distance”, “passing lane”, or “rugby field”. Although, I guess it’s fair enough they wouldn’t have that last one.

As is typical of the weather here at the moment, the first half of the day was beautiful and sunny and then it started to rain. Hard. So we got wet, which was kind of fun too. Then we took the train down through the rainy misty forest. It was a good day.

It started out as most days do: I woke up, dragged myself out of bed and turned on the computer to check my emails. That reminds me - send me more emails. Since the temperature and humidity here (and its just spring) are bordering on the ridiculous, I switched the air conditioner on and enjoyed a lovely morning afternoon email checking (no new emails).

Now when the air conditioner is on, it also sucks humidity out of the air, converting it to liquid and depositing it down a hose that inexplicably ends in the corridor outside the room. So a bucket is required to put the hose into to catch the water. This bucket fills up every couple of days and requires human intervention in the form of emptying it.

This job fell to me today which initially seemed harmless enough. I took the bucket, relieved it of its contents then went to place it back in its position only to find that it had been obscuring a SPIDER THE SIZE OF MY HEAD. I categorically deny that at this point I screamed like a little girl. No that came later when I carefully replaced the bucket and it ran with blistering speed from behind the bucket and into the best possible position for jumping onto my neck and paralysing me with a quick bite before wrapping me in silk and hanging me in its subterranean lair. Fortunately it camped itself in this position and waited there, possibly it considered me unworthy prey and wanted to wait until Grant came home and there was two of us to provide more of a challenge.

When Grant came home we took some ropes and set about trying to simultaneously lasso its forelegs. After a titanic struggle and much crashing and banging we finally managed to subdue it and put it in a large plastic container with holes in the lid. The next day Grant took it to school to scare small children with it and then released it into the wild to resume controlling Taiwan’s stray dog population. I kind of miss it.