Leefoo Village Theme Park

Taipei - We woke up early to spend a day at Taiwan's theme park - Leefoo Village Theme Park.   We took a bus @ Jing-An station.   This e-go bus goes directly to Leefoo Village Theme Park and we bought the package which is cheaper and includes the entrance fees to the theme park.

Leefoo village is the first fantastic theme park combining wildlife zoo and amusement park in Asia.  This 100-hectare park is divided into four themed villages.  It is home to the island's only wildlife park - African Safari, the Wild West, The South Pacific and Arabian Kingdom.

We left @ around closing time which is 5pm and took around 1hr to get back to Jing-An Station and then to our Hotel.   We freshen up and took a taxi directly to the airport.

Back to Taipei

Taipei - The last time I was in Taipei was 3 years ago.   I have  a regular driver, Mr Chang that will meet me at the airport but sadly I was told by his wife that he passed away.   He was a good man....

Upon arrval, took the airport taxi to the The Westin Hotel.  

Located @ 133 Nanking East Road, Section 3 Taipei 104 Taiwan

In the evening, I went with Chung-Li to a stylish Italian restaurant on the 88th floor of the Taipei 101.   It was a beautiful view from the top of Taipei 101.   Taipei 101 also has the world's fastest elevators. These can transport passengers to the 89th-floor observatory in a mere 39 seconds.  To prevent the building from swaying during typhoons or earthquakes, an 800-ton, US$4 million, ball-shaped damper is used to dissipate lateral vibration to a spring system underneath.

http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/index_en.htm

Meeting friends overseas

TAIPEI - As a regional traveller, we spend more time on the plane and in foreign countries than at home and sometimes it is great to meet your Singaporean comrades in these foreign lands. We seldom meet because of our busy travelling schedules and so if we meet in a foreign land is like a roll of a dice chance.

I met David at Taipei and we had been colleagues and now business friends for many years so it was good to catch up with one another. I hired him as my engineer in my previous company but now he is the chief honcho for the Greater China territory based out of Singapore working for another company. He has indeed honed his sales and inter-personally skills over the years.

Selling is an important skill that sadly enough is not taught in school - it is used by everyone that you meet. Taxi driver, Politican, even a doctor and even your child. I have met many taxi drivers - but only few catches my attention and it's because of the X factor, their sales skill - met one in Singapore who wears a cowboy hat (he claims to be the ONLY Singapore cowboy), one had a personality that you immediately want to take his name card. What differentiates one from another? and that is where the X factor comes in.

This can be trained and honed over the years but patience and humility is a requisite in this field.

Made in Taiwan

Taipei - It has been one year since I am back to here. Upon arrival my usual limo driver was there to pick me up. He has prospered tremendously from many introductions to use his service - and now he has a huge database of customers that he needs to sub-out to his limo driver friends to help.

The hotel for my stay was The Westin Taipei @ 133 Nanking East Road. Previously, stayed here before. There is a in-house cinema and was curious and so I went to check it out. This might be the only hotel that has a cinema on its premises. Located at B2 - they charge the public NT$400 (S$20) and for room guests NT$320 (S$16). It is quite expensive compared to Singapore.

For my hotel stay, I had complimentary pressing for 2 shirts and would like the hotel to just iron it for me to be ready for my meeting tomorrow but the reply was it will be return by tomorrow 7pm. The laundry staff was so inflexible and insist that I had to pay an express price unlike other hotels where guest interest is most important. Quite disappointed with their service - I had to do my own ironing....

The traffic in Taipei is ok, about the same like in Singapore - mostly are scooters. There are so many of them but these scooters do not take so much space and pollute as compared to a car. The only other country that has that many scooters is Vietnam.

Made in Taiwan - To many people, Taiwan companies are unknown and kept a very low profile but in fact they are very huge corporations. Taiwan in terms contract manufacturing are a Juggernaut in this industry.

Therefore it is no surprise to hear the story of Acer founder Stan Shih recalling how Singapore companies acted when he tried to sell them his MicroProcessor I, the first computer Acer launched under its own brand in 1981. He was told "We are not interested. Taiwan is not known for making computers." Today, Acer is a name known around the globe.

Take for example, Hon Hai (also called Foxconn) - may be the biggest company you never heard of and is one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers. It manufactures computer, consumer electronics, and communications products, including connectors, cable assemblies, enclosures, flat-panel displays, game consoles, motherboards, and servers. By keeping a low profile they are able to produce for Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and Apple - these are all keen competitors in their own industry but uses the same contract manufacturer.

Yue Yuen is a large Taiwanese manufacturer that manufacture shoes for Adidas, Puma and Nike. Quanta-which has makes notebooks for Dell Computer, Gateway and Apple Computer and Inventec - makes notebooks for Compaq. And the list goes on and on...

There is also Asustek and HTC who have been churning out component parts or made to order products for big brands of the West. They are the hands behind the hottest gadgets from Apple's iPhote to Dell's laptops and the upcoming Goggle Phone.

Taiwan is the world's largest producer of more than 13 types of IT and communication productss, including motherboards, notebooks, PDA phones, LCD monitors. It is amazing to note that Taiwanese manufacturers accounted for 49 percent of the world's notebooks and majority are exported out. According to IDC, Taiwan is the No. 1 manufacturer, most of US brands are made by contract manufacturers. Contract manufacturing in Taiwan goes way back before the China economic boom. Now, with China now on the rise - most of these Taiwanese manufacturers have shifted their manufacturing plants to China to be even more competitive - leaving Taiwan an empty shell. I have been told that there are at least 1 million Taiwanese living in China - no one single nationality has that many people living in China.

At around 7pm, met up with my friend David for dinner @ a Teppanyaki restaurant at Ming Shen Bei Road # 103 (Tel: 02-2742-2428). It is really value for money - the food is fresh and the price is right. I have tried other Teppanyaki restaurant in Taipei but they all very expensive around US$50-60 per person.