Happy Lunar New Year 2024

[DKaoshuing]

@afterspivak

@DKaoshuing

we went out to festival market

Yum yum! That looks a lot like the Atayal food (steamed millet in bamboo) found in northern Taiwan.

If you are in northern Taiwan now, I am very sorry about that given the weather here.

Guy

I the South/ Love river that was first day of the Holiday (8th) went to see the Ducks

Yesterday at Yanchengpu 鹽埕埔 area, very busy, the traditional New year Market

[afterspivak]

Do you know who sold you that bamboo millet snack?

Guy

[DKaoshuing]

@afterspivak

Do you know who sold you that bamboo millet snack?

Guy

They are native, but not sure which tribe. The best cafe in Town (KHH) for this is 巴格浪原民居酒屋 (I think you went there before?) . Best is in Taitung I troed. I will be in Pingtung Monday see fellow Formosan , visit another smaller holiday market if I see it will try with some photos.

[afterspivak]

You really know how to enjoy life. I hope you have a great time!

Guy

[DKaoshuing]

@afterspivak

You really know how to enjoy life. I hope you have a great time!

Guy

Yes, the warmer weather is nice (seems colder today though, but well Friday will be Helsinki/Talinn (EE) and hope its near 0, as it could a lot colder). Hope you also go out, seems busy everywhere out in Taiwan so cherish the busy season.

[afterspivak]

I will enjoy the quieter parts of Taipei City today, maybe with a nice coffee in Tienmu (天母) looking at the mountains all around.

Enjoy your day!

Guy

[DKaoshuing]

@afterspivak

I will enjoy the quieter parts of Taipei City today, maybe with a nice coffee in Tienmu (天母) looking at the mountains all around.

Enjoy your day!

Guy

Sounds great, post photos if you have time of the views !

[dark.horse]

@Poundsand

Not exactly a generation ago for any difference there might be - we went to Taiwan during lunar New Year in 2017, and Taipei was dead, dead, dead.

I’m sure it seemed ddd to you then but I’m talking 20 years before that. Really, you could literally bowl in the streets in those days and not be disturbed.

I’ll never forget my first CNY eve in downtown Taipei City. I went to do something in an office or store and when I emerged at dusk it was almost completely bereft of people on the street, save for an odd worker or two rushing to get home. In those days it was a rule to be inside by sundown. It was as though there had been a sudden air raid drill or something.

For the next half dozen years or so I would ride my scooter around Taipei just to see how empty it would get. It stayed that way for a while and then slowly started building up with people, noise, traffic, etc. Will never forget passing by a TGI Friday’s and seeing some families having their CNY dinner there. This would have been unthinkable in the past! I also think that maybe people are taking old traditions less seriously these days as a reason for more people about now. For example, today, the day after New Year’s Day, is traditionally designated as visit your wife’s family day. I wonder how many people don’t even think about things like this anymore.

One pleasant thing I noticed this year is far less annoying traditional CNY music in public spaces. I went into a small convenience store last night and heard that Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Ni stuff with the firecrackers and drums (shudder). But it made me realize I haven’t been hearing it as much this year. I was at a hotel the day before CNY eve and they were playing a sort of smooth jazz CNY music (for lack of a better description) and it was much better.

@afterspivak

I will enjoy the quieter parts of Taipei City today, maybe with a nice coffee in Tienmu (天母) looking at the mountains all around.

Now that sounds like a good plan! You can still get away from crowds and noise if you find the right places. Even in Taipei City last night if you strayed from the main boulevards it was significantly quieter. Main streets were full of traffic though. And the weather is starting to improve today so great for coffee and mountain gazing. Enjoy!

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Danshui is so packed there are lines to use the bathroom. And a ton of southeast Asian too, like way more than a generation ago.

[jdsmith]

Banchiao Mega Mall is pretty crowded, so we left. On the bus home now. Just passed Wang Steak restaurant and I laffed, like out loud— loudly.

[hansioux]

Happy Schall von Bell’s new year!

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

There be dragons.

[BiggusDickus]

@yinggeaussie

It was duke back in 2010.

@Duke

Chinese New Year in Taiwan is a special time when families get together and have conversations watch TV. People enjoy giving carefully selected gifts that they know the recipient will love cash in red envelopes. And watching TV.

Food plays an important part, also. The tables are set with grandma’s best lace tablecloth plastic sheeting, and the good silverware, china and crystal plastic cups, pink paper plates and disposable chopsticks are laid out on a candlelit table lit by the unsteady glare of a flickering fluorescent tube.

The roast turkey is taken out of the oven dishes of food are covered in saran wrap, nuked in the microwave, and left to cool on the table hours before dinner. Because this is CNY, while eating, people are on their best behaviour watching TV, grunting and reaching across the table to get desired morsels of food. Children under the age of 12 remember to say please and thank you are hand-fed by their over-indulgent mothers, and people take extra care to remember their table manners spit out chicken bones and shrimp shells into crystal bowls little paper boxes made of folded up junk mailers.

After dinner, the family sits in the living room and talks watches TV some more. At night, people like to go outside and go caroling, sharing the joy and beauty of the season light fireworks on the city streets, the noiser the better.

After that people go back home and watch more TV.

Please - don’t ‘like’ this post, do it on the original.

@maoman classic!

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Also smoke everyone up by burning paper money because it’s too cold, need to contribute to climate change by burning stuff.

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Do you think all the migration is happening northward now? As in people from the south comes to Taipei for Chinese new year holidays?

[marasan]

Back to the grind tomorrow. I left everything in really good shape when I left so hopefully things won’t get crazy too quickly. Another American is also joining the company on March 1st, and I’m very pleased about that.

[BiggusDickus]

@marasan

Back to the grind tomorrow. I left everything in really good shape when I left so hopefully things won’t get crazy too quickly. Another American is also joining the company on March 1st, and I’m very pleased about that.

Do you know the American in question?

[marasan]

@BiggusDickus

@marasan

Back to the grind tomorrow. I left everything in really good shape when I left so hopefully things won’t get crazy too quickly. Another American is also joining the company on March 1st, and I’m very pleased about that.

Do you know the American in question?

Yes, he’s my friend (over 10 years). I got too busy last year (broke all records) and strongly insisted that we hire another guy. I gave my boss resumes of two friends and we hired one guy.

I am confident in my abilities so all is fine. Also, our technical backgrounds don’t overlap and I have the one that fills a need a bit more. Finally, I am predicting that even the two of us won’t be enough by the end of this year. The partners are good businessmen/women. That’s for sure.

[maoman]

“Duke” was an alter ego I created because I was still married at that time and I didn’t want my CNY satire being traced back to me. He was based on Doonesbury’s Uncle Duke, replete with avatar, who in turn was based on Hunter S Thompson.