Bed of Flowers from Taiwan

I have lot of stuff from this visit of Taiwan. Huge flower show of the season. Here are some wonderful piece of arts from the nature.

Formosan Aboriginal village, Sun Moon lake rope way

If you visit Taiwan, visit this place. It has lot of lush greens. Lot of information on history and heritage of Taiwan. Water park, cable car and models of Taiwanese tribal origins. Many more - roller coaster, Gyro  jump....

I liked the large green patch, culture village and the cable car ride.

View of European Garden palace

Beautiful sculpture

Cable car - sun moon lake breathtaking view

Colorful native wrist bands

Colorful native wrist bands

Tribal Tradition

Fish Pond. Thousands of colorful ones

European Palace restaurant

Temple in Taiwan

This is continuation of my last one, from Taiwan. I visited some temples too. Taiwan has people with Taoism, Christianity and few other faiths. The temple I visited belonged to Taoism. I am given to understand that like Hindu faith, Taoism too has many gods, demigods and rituals. I tried to capture some. Again, even with so many people around, no garbage, no rubbish. They even burst the crackers during a temple ritual, but no litter, believe me.  I show you how they do it.

Entrance of a temple

Similar to Hindu temple and practices.

Beautiful Agarbatti stand. 

A enclosed dabba to burst the crackers. No littering. 

Beautiful carving.

Quite a colorful and decoration

Charioteer 

Embellished Agarbatti stand 

Jaya - Vijaya

Taichung - in Taiwan

I was in Taiwan on business trip last week. I had a weekend to spend. I was with my colleagues from India and Malaysia. We went around in local market, one two local temples, cable car and a huge flower show. 

The city we visited was Taichung. Two hours from Taipei. 

The city is  a neat, clean, disciplined traffic. Number of vehicles are no less. No one jumped the traffic. No visible police on the street. No vehicle stopped on pedestrian mark. No vehicle crossed over the road divider the yellow line. I really wondered. City is not known to be well developed city. I changed my opinion though. 

Look at the way we are in Delhi or most of our cities. Ok agreed - we have more vehicles on the road and just not vehicles - the buffalo, the rikshaw, bicycle, cats and dogs and men, women and children. 

                                     

But i feel quite strongly that if we simply follow the traffic rules we can be better, a lot better. 

We went to a local market, traditional local, a narrow lane, small shops, eating places on the side. Kind of chandni chowk or palika bazar of Delhi. But the place was neat clean, no rubbish on the street. Except cigarette butts. A disciplined responsible citizens make it all happen. One more thing - it was Election time there. There were bill boards in many places but not out of sync of the cities aesthetics nor looked ugly. 

City is known for glass industry. A local craftsman blowing the glass in a traditional way to make beautiful articles. 

People like to eat outside and lot of seafood and meat. Take a glance at the Octopus here.

Swachh Bharat - when ?

Things have improved.........Driving License

Things are getting changed rather improved. I had a pleasant surprise today  at local RTO at Gurgaon.

What I now narrate is not today's experience. Today's story will come later at the end. This is my experience of last (and lost) attempt to get my licence. It was nevertheless changed already, hence the previous story starts first. Bear with me. 

My Driving licence was getting expired. I had obtained it while I was in Punjab few years ago. 

I was concerned - imagining the hurdles rather "process"  i need to go through  to get my new license. Why new license - you might wonder. Renewing the licence is all the more trouble some. You have to break your head at two places. One at the place you had taken the license another at the place where you want to renew. To get NOC from previous place and apply at new place. 

Better to break head at one place - I decided.

I wanted to do kejriwal. I said come what may, I would do kejriwal and no "furjy" license.

So the process started, i started inquiring about the RTO office route, location,application form. Curiosity took over - I also inquired if furjy license is possible - no not really to get it that way. I would do kejriwal. But just curiosity. Then came the answer to my surprise - furjy is not possible ( or extremely difficult) in Gurgaon.  

I became more curious and wanted to pursue my commitment to go kejeriwal way. I had to skip two working days, since RTO does not work on Saturday and Sunday. 

So my journey started, went to RTO in the morning. I saw counters and people all over. It took some time in fact two separate days, for me to figure out the counters and new procedures. 

I filled the forms, pasted my photographs, pasted all the ID proof, lease agreement etc etc. By then I had my Aadhaar too. I was told to submit the form in one counter after paying Rs.150/- fee. He entered some thing in the computer and gave back the form and said get the medical test. I said oh god - i now have to find a govt. doctor. 

A bystander showed me next cabin and said - doctor comes here any time now. WOW, A lady doctor appeared on the scene. Many were in the room waiting for doctor. Doctor looked at the files, one by one, called up one by one. She asked us to read through a color blind check chart. I passed it at ease. She signed the form and gave back in few minutes. I again asked someone "what is the next procedure ?" I was told there is an online test center where you have to pass a test. That place was 10 km away. I again felt dejected. Next day I went to the said place. There was a formal - one and half hour video class on road safety and driving rules and info on road signage. There was on line 30 minutes test. Vola ! I passed the test. With that pass certificate I came back to first office and submitted the form. I was given a slip and sent back saying, "through post aa jayega." 

Promptly I received my learner license through post !. It is not over yet. Now I had to give practical driving test with in 180 days.

This is where i slipped. I kept on postponing the driving test till the last minute. Finally last day I went for a test and I passed the test!. Next day was holiday. I went to RTO office after the holiday and proudly presented my file. The guy at the counter took it and looked at his computer and looked down at me. He said, date bar ho gaya. 180 din ke under submit karna hota hi. 180 days tak appne kya karte rahe ? I was drained. He did not listen to my different kinds of requests and refused to accept my file. I had to come back with empty handed. I cursed myslef for my mistake of ignoring my license. I was fed up and actually  tried to push it through back door. No way, it could not be done. I some how had a good feeling that i did not fail to become a good citizen. 

I now have to undergo entire process all over again. 

I motivated myself, gathered courage to restart all over again. I collected the form once again including the medical form, enclosed all the documents, pasted photographs, went to the same counter again today. I paid the fee, got the medical test done. Counter guy took my photograph and asked me to complete the on line test. I was thinking to go that 10 KM away test center. I had a pleasant surprise. The on line test center was in the same building, same floor. I passed it in minutes. I submitted the form again in the counter. The counter guy gave me my learner license (temporary) and told, you will receive it by post. It took less than two hours to get my learners license today. Now I will get my paper by post and have to give my driving test. This time I will not miss and lose time.

What a change towards better. I wrote bit too long, but it is all about a good change, very much needed. I had decided and i follow - that I do not violate traffic rules. I wait at red light even if the road is empty.