Banking Overseas

When you are overseas, how to bring money and exchange currencies is always a problem. The solution that has worked out for me is to have a bank card with a bank that has overseas branches. For me in Taiwan, that has been the HSBC bank. I have a US account and a bank card that works all HSBC cash machines, in particular those in Taiwan. Of course, the currency dispensed in Taiwan is the NT(The New Taiwan Dollar), this way the bank(HSBC) does the conversion of the home currency into the local currency.

When using a credit card overseas the Credit Card Company does the conversion and we have been burned by bad exchange rates in the past. But with the bank, you are one of their customers and they have treated us well. In particular, I went to the Bank of Taiwan with crisp $100 US bills and got NT dollars at a rate of 29.11 NT per US dollar. I used the HSBC cash machine and got a rate of 29.15.

Hardly a difference, except that the bank card transaction was much more secure in that I wasn't carrying around cash from the US.(Although in Taiwan, credit cards and checks haven't really caught on, lots of Taiwanese are carry wads that could choke a herd of horses.)

I feel the bank card transaction is more secure for several reasons:

1. There is one plastic card
2. There is a security code to enter into the cash machine
3. The cash machine eats the card if 3 security codes are wrong(This has happened to me)
4. There is a daily limit on how much cash can be withdrawn.


Compared with carrying around a lot of cash in either currency, the bank card is more secure. Also with internet access you have a record of withdrawals, activity, ...

So last time I was in Taiwan, it worked well and I went to my old HSBC cash machine and this is what I found:

I had come outside of banking hours to I came back the next day between 9 and 3:30 but the bank branch was totally shut down.

 
I went to the internet and found the new location in Tainan. This new branch was bigger, better and had 2! cash machines.

Now I'm in business.

Cold weather in Taiwan

Taiwan is cut by the Tropic of Cancer and is a little lower in latitude than Florida, so you might think it is warm all the time. But I guess hot and cold are relative terms.

It has been colder than when I was here last year at this time. I bought a blanket recently and don't think I could have slept with out it. Most houses in Taiwan don't have central heating and at most they might have a space heater. My dorm has neither, usually the problem is that it is too hot(i.e. air conditioning) rather than too cold. It's been so cold lately that I bought a thermometer just to see what is going on.

It's a pretty "old school" thermometer but it has both the Centigrade and Fahrenheit scales so for me it's a learning tool. (Being the only developed country using the Fahrenheit scale is part of the doctrine of "American Exceptionalism" ).
I bet the Tea Party is against the metric system.

Here are the average temperatures in Taipei(North) and Tainan(South) from Wikipedia for January(Centigrade/Fahrenheit):

                           Taipei              Tainan
High                   18.9/66             23.0/73.4
Mean                  15.8/60.4          17.4/63.3
Low                    13.3/55.9          13.6/56.5

In contrast the forecast for January 1st in these two cities is:

High                    13/55.4                18/64.4
Low                       5/41                     9/48.2

For someone from Seattle or Minneapolis these are great temperatures. And in Tainan we have had sunny days since I arrived(I doubt Seattle has had one sunny day.)

Part of the problem in Taiwan is that so many people use motorcycles they add a wind chill factor to how cold it feels. Some of the motorcycle riders wear such heavy coats that I think they could handle Minnesota.

 

I did hear that some women in Taiwan like the cold weather because it means they can wear a different selection from their wardrobe.

Shot from Guns

When I was a child, there was this breakfast cereal called "Puffed Rice". Its marketing line was: "Shot from Guns". Of course, anything that had to do with guns was popular with small boys(and still is). But it was a miserable cereal with no flavor until you dumped a lot of sugar on it.

Taiwan still has something similar used as a sugar delivery vehicle. The Chinese name translates into something like Exploded Rice Fragrance. Here's the shop sign:

This is one of the many street vendors selling their speicalties and setting up each day, maybe moving from location to location.

Here is the equipment for exploding the rice, a cast iron canon is rotated over a gas burner but an airtight lid pressurizes the raw rice kernels inside. Then at a specific time the lid is wacked off with a hammer. The sudden reduction in pressure expands the kernels to their "puffed" state. It is very exciting to watch, looks very dangerous. In the picture below the cannon is being loaded.

Once the puffed rice is out, it mixed with a sugary syrup, usually the syrup has a flavoring like peanuts, sesame, ...

Then the sticky mess is flattened and cut into squares about the size of candy bars(industrial size rolling pin).

Before the lid is knocked off the canoneer yells out the equivalent of "Fire in the Hole"

 

I'm sure the cereal of old was made similarly but not in such small batches.

Off to Tainan, again

I had such a good time in Tainan last year so I'm doing it again. I'm again at National Cheng Kung University Chinese Language Institute.

I left the U.S. on the day after Christmas and took the 12 hour direct flight with EVA airways. The ticket cost about $1200 US but that includes a return trip in June. The flight was  about half fulled so sleeping was possible, traveling on off- days(like Christmas) has somethings going for it.

From the Taoyuan airport in Tainan I went to the area signed "Express Bus" there they have all the major bus lines. I went to UBus because I have had good experiences with them in the past. They always take care of this foreigner that all way looks lost. At the UBus counter I bought a 40NT ticket to the ZhongLi station and then a 260NT ticket from ZhongLi to Tainan. I arrived in Taiwan about 6AM and was in Tainan by noon. The rate of exchange is about 30NT to $1 US so the bus rides took about $10 US altogether. (1NT is about 3.33 cents, the New Taiwan Dollar(NT) is appreciating in value and is now at its highest in 13 years). For the rest of this blog let's just it is 30 to 1.

From the UBus station in Tainan I took a taxi to my dormitory the ride was 110NT and did the unforgivable in Taiwan and gave him a 10NT tip. He was so shocked that he kept saying my Chinese was excellent! (Which it is definitely not!)

Below is a picture of my luggage. EVA Airways allows 2 bags of 23Kg each(23Kg is approximately 50 lb). I like one roller bag with a duffel bag that can be strapped onto the roller bag. Both bags were about 40 lb and there are times went they have to be carried because of steps, poor sidewalks, into taxi trunks, ...
About 1/4th of the volume was gifts. Taiwan has almost everything, it's easier buying things in Taiwan, than carrying them from the US.

The Dorm I'm staying at is the same Dorm as last time, again because I felt treated well they won my repeat business. The rate is 180NT per day so that is $6 US per day. For that amount I have my own room, with a shower, toilet and sink. Also included is a small fridge, free internet and cable TV. All for $6 a day! (Electricity is billed monthly.)

Before I left, my family had Christmas holidays in Seattle. We took our own family pictures. Here is the best:(no Cloud Computing necessary):

Well this is a good start, I'll be adding more as I can. This time I will try to answer questions better that what I did in the past. But you can always contact me at:

mike_ess@yahoo.com

I always eventually reply to email. One of these days I'll figure out how to use facebook but for now it's just not a priority.