Wow! And I always thought just smoking in bed was dangerous! Your brother likes to live life on the edge, eh?[/quote]
He did those two things on different times, sleeping 20 hrs per day, barbecuing 4 adn so on till the plane left.
[quote = Mother Teresa
If I were in Tokyo, Shanghai or Hanoi it might make sense for the parents to make the tremendous effort of visiting, as those cities are clean or beautiful or modern or exotic or something worthwhile.]
Jeez - Mother Teresa, I’ve been here for four years, too, but four years hasn’t been long enough for me to look at Tokyo, Shanghai, or Hanoi and see them as clean/beautiful/modern/exotic. (Worthwhile, yes, I agree there.) I still see Asian cities from a western perspective, ie., they’re filthy, chaotic, ugly, and formerly exotic but with all or most of the exoticness destroyed.
Mom and Sister were here back in 98…
Spent one day in Taipei, 3 in Taroko and 2 in Kenting…5 people crammed into my old Ford Telstar but was comfortable enough.
The drivers freaked my Mom out of course, but she loved the food and the beauty of the east coast…
They then went on to Hong-Kong and both regretted not staying here longer to do some more exploring!
Hopefully they’ll be back!
The first Asian city I ever saw was Bangkok. It seemed very exotic at the time with all the ornate temples, water taxis, tuk tuks, girls in short skirts sitting sideways on motorbikes, food vendors selling small birds and insects, kickboxers and traditional dance, africans in colorful outfits carrying things on their heads (that’s what I remember from my first visit there) etc.
I’ve only been to Tokyo once, but to me it seemed very modern and exotic, with all the fancy buildings, giant animated neon signs (not like the crappy, dirty signs here), fashionably-dressed people and top brand names (walk down the street past LV, Cartier, Rolex, Yves St. Laurent, etc.)
Hanoi’s not so modern, but it definitely qualifies as beautiful and exotic, with all the french colonial buildings, parks with ponds surrounded by trees, people in bamboo hats, millions of bikes and motorbikes, many of them bearing beautiful women in sunhats, long gloves and traditional ao dais dress.
Shanghai I’ve never been to, but from the photos I’ve seen it’s got lots of fancy new shiny buiildings (like Hong Kong).
Taipei, on the other hand, seems pretty drab, dreary and unexotic, but maybe that’s because I’ve been here a few years. Maybe on a westerner’s first visit to Asia, Taipei might be intriguing. I’m perfectly content here, but I just don’t see outsiders viewing Taiwan as an exciting travel destination. But for my mom I’ll try to make it just that.
[quote=“MT”]Shanghai I’ve never been to, but from the photos I’ve seen it’s got lots of fancy new shiny buiildings (like Hong Kong).
[/quote]
The difference is that Shanghai’s shiny buildings are all half empty. 
Having your mum come over here and showing her around is one thing, but would you ever consider taking your Taiwanese mother-in-law back to your home country and showing her around there?
I always tell my relatives that if they are going to spend that kind of money, they should go someplace nice.
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]Having your mum come over here and showing her around is one thing, but would you ever consider taking your Taiwanese mother-in-law back to your home country and showing her around there?[/quote]I did, and father-in-law, and brother-in-law. I’m sure others would want to, and I would want to take them too.
Good question. I’d love to do it, but it will never happen. Neither of my wife’s parents like to travel, and one won’t go anywhere far away without the other one. That pretty much rules out taking them to the States because it is almost impossible to get both of them tourist visas to go at the same time. I think my mother-in-law would enjoy going to the States, but I don’t think my father-in-law could handle it. He is quite set in his ways and can’t stand it if his simple daily routines are broken. He wouldn’t like not being allowed to smoke in most places and he gets really pissy if he doesn’t have fresh saltwater fish everyday. The only western food he’s willing to eat is fried chicken. His attitude is also a bit, how should I say it, rude. I get along with the man, but if I were a foreign service officer at a US consulate, I wouldn’t give him a visa.
The first Asian city I ever saw was Chengdu, the glorious capital of Sichuan, a province with a population of more than 100 million people, the equivalent in culture and importance of Germany and France. Christ, talk about culture shock. At lest we do have flush toilets, running water, and electricity here in Taipei - not up to the standards of my hometown, admittedly, but they exist. Unfortunately, my graphic descriptions of my first trip to Asia have evidently burned themselves into my parents’ memories, and they have so far refused to come here to see me (and I’ve been living in Asia for 8 years).
I’m pretty lucky. My dad has a supplier hence business in Kshg. So he was here in September and brought 24 kilos of food stuff for me. Plus he will be here again in May.
Haaaappy Daaays!! :bouncy: :bouncy:
Taking Taiwanese to my home country… I guided 5000 Taiwanese tourists, does that count? 
My oldest sister in law came to Danmark first in 1998 and the second time in 2000 - she stayed 3 months the second time, and we went skiing. Seemed to like it a lot.
My second sister in law came in 1998, one month before her older sister arrived, she did not come again.
The rest of the family have been to Denmark.
My younger sister visited recently and was paranoid about getting food poisoning. Also, whenever I spoke Chinese she had to point out that I’d said “gay women,” “boobie” and “nigga.” 
Ye, my mother was offended by 'ne ge" until I showed her the characters in my dictionary and told her that it just meant “that one”.