Kyrgyzstan national day!

31-august, independence day of Kyrgyzstan! Wish all my best for my young country, and I believe that it will have a better days in the future!


p.s: Happy national day for Malaysia too!

Nigerian Advance Fee

Most of us probably have received emails like the one below;

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CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT

Dear Aibek,

I am MR JOHN ANTHONY, the chief auditor of NED BANK South Africa.I got your contact address from your country?s Trade Journal. Your impressive and managerial records made me to solicit for your partnership in these regards. You are the only person that I have ntacted in this business with the believe that you will not let me down. After going through some old files in the records department,

I discovered that there is an account opened in this bank in 1982 and since 1992, no body has operated on this account. The owner of this account is late Mr. Dirk N Henze, a foreigner and a miner at the Anglo Gold Platinum Mining Company in Mafikeng, as a geologist by profession and he died since 1992. Up till now, no other person knows about this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that this company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved is US$ 32 Million (Thirty Two Million United ) I want to first transfer US$12 Million (Twelve Million United States Dollars) from the money into a safe foreign account abroad before the rest, but I?ve not gotten a trusted foreigner.
I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local bank here, but can be approved to any foreign account because the money is in US dollars and the former owner of the account Mr. DIRK was a foreigner and because of the need to involve a foreign account, I need your full co-peration to make this work smoothly because the management is ready to approve this payment to
whoever that has correct information to this account. Of which I will give to you later, if you are able to handle such amount in strict onfidence and trust according to my instruction and advice for our mutual benefits because this opportunity will never come again in my life.I need your strong assurance, trust and reliability. With my position now in the office, I can transfer this money to any reliable account, which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing. I will destroy all documents of transaction immediately we receive this money, leaving no trace of any.You can also come to discuss
with me face-to-face then the remittance will be made in the presence of both of us. Then we will fly to your country at least two days ahead before money gets into your account.
I have the tendency to invest my own share of the money in your country in expectation to soundmanagement and good capital returns according to your advice. Be assured that you stand no risk of any kind as the fund belongs to us now. Therefore, after the eventual stage of the transfer of this fund, I am offering you 30% of the total fund, 65% will be for me while 5% will be set aside for expenses that might
in curduring the course of this transaction OR you can call me to discuss on the percentage if this did not go well with you. I strongly believe that ssociating with you to embark on this fund, other business ventures will derive a huge success thereafter. I will use my position to influence to effect approvals for onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance forms from the ministries and foreign exchange department. I am counting on your sense of confidentiality, as it is my desire to keep this to yourself.

Looking forward to your urgent response.
Best regards,

MR JOHN ANTHONY,
THANK YOU.
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Well, these are what they call as Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud (coz it first started in Nigeria) or Nigerian Money Scam. Basicly someone trying to pull you into very-profitable buisness with realistic offers, phone replies and "official" documents. But what is behind? Easy money? :))) Usually happens unexpected and then you will be asked for some transaction fees, etc. in few thousand dollars (which is a tiny amuont comparing to what you are promised to get!). Of course, most of us don't believe to these letters and do the right thing to delete it away (Or any of you really believed it and tried to contact them? :)) Here what US Secret Service advises. Another article in Turkish from one of my instructors at the university in Turkey.

Destination this weekend

Starting from Suao-Hualien highway with astonishing view to Taroko Gorge and after that to Taitung to take a boat to Green Island!

online TV channels

- wide list of russian tv channels/radio stations; here
- popular channels like HBO, ESPN, etc.; here (you will need to install their P2P software to access)

"international" banks in South East Asia

Just from my recent experience; I have a DBS bank account. I opened it in Singapore. And as I was told it is an international bank. Now being in Taipei, I wanted to use this account, but it appears that Singapore DBS customers has nothing to do Taiwan DBS customers, and even DBS Taiwan charges more for deposit/withdraw/transfer to my DBS account than other banks here. Just for your information, when they tell you that the bank is "international" in S.E.Asia, you'd better ask how much "international" it is.

good place to spend a night

After work we had company buffet-dinner in the japanese sea food restaurant, choice and quality of food was top class there. Anyone can be spoilt by the variety of japanese and chinese food. (For those who is interested, it is in Taipei city Hall, inside Neo-19 shopping mall near Warner Village, cost is about 800 NTD (~25 USD), yeah it is expensive but worth it) After spending 3 full hours there, I returned back home. Unfortunately, I forgot my keys, and noone was at home. Here goes another waiting-in-front-of-door-for-flatmates session. I waited till midnight, MRT stopped. The next thing was to watch the road for approaching taxis with someone in to open this door for me. As I felt tired and there was no bench to sit, I sat on our neighbour's scooter. Struggling with sleep, tiredness and the mosquitos, I waited till 2 am. Finally I accepted that I will spend the night outside, so started to look for hotels. Not many around my place, I walked a while till I got one. Price is 1550 NTD (~50 USD), no way! I just needed a place to spend till morning and definitely I wouldn't pay his money for the hotel. Almost similar prices in the next 2 hotels. Finally I came back to my neighbourhood. Options for places to sleep were; 1- Park, 2- ATM booth, 3- Train station (was closed), 4- 24-hour open convenient stores, 5- office (too far), etc. I was thirsty, so I bought a juice. As I was enjoying the cold juice, it suddenly hit my brain; Eslite!!! excellent place to spend a night, besides I always wanted to spend night there. So I took a cab... Taipei is full of life at night too, traffic is big in central areas. There were still many people in Eslite. Well, Eslite is a huge 24-hour open bookstore. Many people go there to sit and read books or magazines, buying is not compulsory. How couldn't I think about it earlier?! Moral of the story; drink more juice!

Привет народ

Вот решил иногда добавлять посты на русском, для тех кто мало понимает на английском и кому было бы интересно почитать. ну и может быть кто-то из домашних заглянеть сюда. Так что, посещайте, милые вы мои ;)

Happy "Chinese Valentine's Day"!

Another "chinese" holiday, or just another commercial event. Chinese people have sooooo many holidays; most of global holidays like New Year, Valentine's Day have also their chinese versions. I am wondering if there are also Chinese Father's Day, Chinese Christmas, Chinese Ramadan, etc. :))). Plus you can add typhoon holidays for this.
Anyways, for my dear Chinese, Taiwanese friends; happy valentine's day! Be good boys n girls. ;)

Here comes the story behind this event (thanks to Vega);
Long time ago, a poor boy worked very hard with an old ox. People called him Cowherd. After only a couple of years he owned a small farm and house. One day the ox suddenly opened its mouth and talked, telling the Cowherd that the heavenly Weaving Maid and her sisters were going to bathe in the river and he should go there and steal the clothes of the Weaving Maid while she was in the water. Then she would become his wife. The cowherd followed the ox's words and hid himself at the river bank waiting for the girls to bathe. When the girls were taking bath, the Cowherd rushed out and grabbed he Weaving Maid's clothes. After taking bath, other girls returned to the Heaven expect Weaving Maid. The cowherd told her that if she was willing to be his wife, he would return the clothes to her. Finally, Weaving Maid agreed, and they had a happy marriage. When Jade Emperor knew this, he was very angry and separated hem. He forced Weaving Maid to move to Star Vega and Cowherd to Star Altair. Magpies were moved by their true love and many of them formed a bridge for the couple to meet in the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, the day that the Emperor allowed them to meet once a year. They said that it's hard to find a magpie on Chinese Valentine's Day, because all magpies fly to make the bridge for the Weaving Maid and Cowherd. The one thing to prove that is the features on the head of the magpies are much lesser after the Chinese Valentine's Day. If the night Chinese Valentine's Day rains, the rain are the tears of the Weaving Maid and Cowherd.

Sorry, today it is not raining ;).

Sunglasses from Oakley Inc. that play music and work with cell phones. But for me it doesn't look so practical; single earphone(?), unbalanced, not that easy to control buttons. I'd rather prefer these sunglasses with earphones for both ears.

Sishou Shan - Four Animals Mountain

Last weekend, I finally decided to counquer Sishou Shan mountain near to our home. It is not that high, mountain with a forest and temples. I only knew the entrance to the trail, so backed up with basic equipments n umbrella, I started with Tiger Mountain. I didn't know that it was popular hiking place. There are no detailed maps or guidebooks in English with much info about this mountain. And as I couldn't understand maps in chinese I kept walking trusting to my own intuition of reaching the top. The trail was built nicely at the beginning, easy to walk. I saw many "hidden" temples around, it looked more like a spiritual place. As I was heading straigt to the top of the mountain looking for a closest path, I took any trails/paths which were heading towards there. Paths got smaller and more inclined, sound of city and people turned into a sound of nature, and it looked like I am in deep forest on a mountain. On certain point, there were cliffs in front of me with ropes, what started as a hiking pleasure turned into tiring climbing in a forest without knowing your way, and was about to turn into cliff-hanging. The ropes didn't seem reliable, but I didn't want to return back after 2-3 hour way inside forest...
As i reached the top of the cliff, it was almost the top of the mountain. I was thinking that not many people can take this challenge and come all the way up here. But to my big surprise(!), I saw some aunties walking on the top of the mountain with umbrellas and kids running around(!!!). So there was another way?! There were several ways, nd much more easier. View of Taipei was amazing, you could see almost whole Taipei from Xindian to Danshui, and from Xinpu to Xizhi. On the way back I took the trail others take, it was easy and was a connection between temples. My legs were sooo tired, and it was nice weekend workout. The only negative thing is that my Converse shoes suffered a bit :). Below are some shots taken from that day;








 

weekday mornings

Bus and traffic system in Xizhi (outside Taipei) sucks. Even 60-70 minutes may not be enough to reach office in the morning (normally it takes just 30 mins), and many companies have system to deduct 30-minute work hour payment from your salary even if you are 1 minute late. My work place is actually a big buisness center with hundreds of offices and thousands of employees. But reaching to that place is full of adventures;
There is only 1 bus BL-15 from last MRT station to my work place, and this single bus is supposed to arrive every 10-15 minutes, but sometimes and especially in the mornings it may just come after 20-25 minutes with 2 or 3 BL-15 buses in a row. Then comes waiting for 5-10 minutes in front of the railway for the train to pass (usually you are caught in busy morning traffic). Next is the series of traffic lights which are placed almost in every 100 meters (due to many intersections of roads), and assuming the huge traffic flow to Xizhi, you can imagine how slow the bus moves. Then comes "the cream on top"; the entrance to Far East World Plaza (buisness center where I work) carpark is facing the road and on the opposite site of the road(!), so it locks the whole traffic on both roads which creates a long traffic jam in the morning... At least, I found a small solution; to read a book (if lucky enough to get a seat in this crowded bus). In November we will move to new office which is near to my house ;).

Taiwan youth travel - selected for free tour!

In order to promote tourism for young backpackers, Taiwanese authorities came up with the project Taiwan Youth Travel - Trial Tour. Only foreigners can apply for it, and some would be selected. Travel expenses are provided, what is requested from candidates is to blog about the trips after coming back. So I was one of the lucky bunch of people. Time to explore beauties of Taiwan, babe! Well, I think Taiwan is not that boring place at the end ;) (studying basic chinese words these days, just in case...)!