Author: bt

Awaiting my 0815 Shanghai airlines flight to Beijing this morning at the Hongqiao airport. Which reminds me, I’ve not been here since the move to Pudong around 2001ish. Even then, never had the chance to fly domestic in China (Hong Kong is not really included for me). As expected, its decidedly chinese, people do talk louder here, and there are hot water stations everywhere to fill up the quintessential tea flask. Surprisingly its a no smoking zone. At the front entrance theres a heavy air filled with cigarrette smoke as everyone takes a last pull before going into the torture chamber. Time to get from home to airport? The usual 20mins and another 20mins later I’m inside the waiting lounge. If all airport was this painless. I’m also guessing that the fact that its not even 7am now and its a domestic terminal has to do with the apparent efficiency. Anyhow, got to plan for my half day assault on the forbidden city, weather permitting.

One day after dropping my nokia into the sink wet, and spending a whole day drying it by leaving the battery out, spending 15mins under the hair dryer, this phone is alive again! It was wet enough to have water spraying out once shaken. Nice. Water was seeping in through the keypads and all and it survived. At least for now…

I’m currently at Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport on the way back to Shanghai today with 6 hours in Hong Kong. Been some time since my last time in HK and nice to be back there again. The itinerary today will be 2hrs in Tsimtsatsui and Mongkok to grab some 5.11 gears before going back to the airport for the 7pm flight. Will hope to grab a bowl of wontan noodles on the way. Goody goody.

…while washing my hands in the wash basin. Just happened sometime ago. First thing to do: turn it off (which was difficult as it was locked and takes a couple of key presses), remove battery, use dry towel. Looks like I wont have a use for my Nokia E61 for a couple of days while waiting for it to dry. There’s no hand dryer anywhere in this office in Taipei, and so I will need to wait till I get back to the hotel tonight to do that.
In the meantime no one will be able to get me on the phone!

Woke up a while this morning with a little trembling. Felt the pictures on the wall move a bit, and 10 seconds later it was back to normal. Didn’t think too much of it. Did a search on the quake this morning and this is what I got!
Magnitude 6.5
* Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 17:51:27 UTC
* Friday, September 07, 2007 at 01:51:27 AM at epicenter
Location 24.334°N, 122.324°E
Depth 62.9 km (39.1 miles)
Region TAIWAN REGION
Distances 55 km (35 miles) ESE of Su-ao, Taiwan
85 km (55 miles) ENE of Hua-lien, Taiwan
115 km (70 miles) SE of T’AI-PEI, Taiwan
145 km (90 miles) ESE of Hsin-chu, Taiwan

As in, 6.5 on the richter scale! Local time is 1:51am Friday, since this is probably american time since it came from USGS site. Location seems to be in the ocean to the east of Taiwan as in the map below:

Quake Epicenter

Anyway, it was not as big as the last one I felt some time back. This one lasted really quickly.

Am currently zipping 100kmph along the airport highway in Taoyuan county after having touched down in Taipei at 4pm after leaving home in Shanghai at 7am. Flight to Hong Kong was delayed, and had to take a later connecting flight. Which is not really that bad as I got to refill my stomach with a bowl of wonton noodles and the mind with Wired and Outside magazines, which is almost impossible to find in Shanghai. The noodles at the airport does not taste as good as the last time I had it 1-2 years ago. Looks like on the return leg I have to go look for another one in Hong Kong Island. Still, better than nothing.