Categories
in taiwan

the toilet bidet

the airbnb we’re staying at here in taipei has a toilet seat that doubles as a bidet! i had never actually seen one before — and it is so subtle i wouldn’t have noticed it if the boy hadn’t pointed it out. it looks like any other toilet seat, but there’s also a knob on the site, a tube that brings the water in, and two “antennas” on the back that pop out when it’s cleaning time. the knob is super discreet, and has positions for boys and girls. twist it back or forth according to the desired position and intensity, and the antenna will come out to spray you. here’s a clumsy video (it’s hard to film these things without spraying the whole bathroom):

the feeling is a bit unexpected, but not bad at all! it’s definitely refreshing to feel like you showered down there every time you go to the bathroom – definitely cleaner! i always imagined these things to be super complicated with dryers and heated seats… but this version is actually really nice without requiring electricity or adding too much complexity to the system. now i’m considering getting one for home! :) 

Categories
in taiwan

taiwan postal museum

any postal museum is an obligatory visit for us, and this one had been on my list for ages. we decided to visit it just at the right time, it seems — they were having some activities ahead of children’s day (which is a holiday in taiwan) and entry was free! :D we were also given a card at the entrance, so we could answer a question at every floor and collect stamps to exchange for a prize at the end. 

so off we went to explore all the floors! some were dedicated to postal history and the first stamps, others to thematic philatelic collections…

…and one was just for children which was quite cool as it was particularly interactive. 

they also had quite a few different mailboxes on display, which were available as postcards! i do love it when a museum has nicely made postcards, so i had to grab a few to write later. :)

our gift at the end turned out to be two-fold: first, we were given the chance to pick a stamp from a pile to make a badge on the spot. i chose a dalek-themed stamp, and paulo spotted another uk stamp featuring sir rowland hill at the last minute (the inventor of the penny black), so of course we had to pick that one. 

and because we bought some postcards, we were also offered a couple of cool stamp-themed tote bags… wow! we might be a little spoiled for other museums now…  

Categories
one second everyday

march 2023 — one second everyday

a month of friends visiting, cow-spotting, countryside brunches, the boy’s birthday, catching up with family up north… and then finally, taiwan! :D

Categories
in taiwan

the tuned mass damper

usually when we visit a place, there’s one thing people say you “must” do — and in taipei, that is probably climbing the taipei 101 and seeing the city from high above. more than the views though, the big skyscraper has one interesting feature that i really wanted to see: the tuned mass damper! brady from practical engineering explains how it works, on this funny old video:

the thing is just a huge, super heavy pendulum that absorbs the building’s movements to counter the oscillation from winds or the ground motion. there’s plenty of movies on youtube of it swinging during typhoons or earthquakes — including during the 2008 sichuan earthquake we felt in shanghai. 

i think it’s brilliant that they gave it a spotlight and turned into a feature that everyone can visit — hurray for making engineering visible! i often think of how many things like this exist, and how we’re not even aware of them, and of all the work and science that is involved in big and small things. 

oh, and i guess the views from up there are not bad either! :D

Categories
birdwatching in taiwan

taiwan barbet

walking around the da’an forest park here in taipei, we saw a lot of people with their big cameras pointed at a little hole in a tree…

so i gathered up my courage and asked a grandpa standing there whether they were all birdwatching. he said “we’re waiting for the five color bird!”, and at my confusion, he picked up his phone and showed me pictures of the taiwan barbet… wow! 😍 we had heard its call before (a loud frog-like noise coming from the trees in the park), but the bird itself remained elusive. with some patience though, we were able to find it… and it is stunning!

most of the body is green and blends with the foliage, but the head and neck feature some really bright stripes of color, including 2 red dots just above the beak. and that call!

we haven’t even left the city and we’ve already seen a few other new birds… i had forgotten how exciting islands can be for birdwatching — even sparrows are a little different here! :)