American Airlines Seating Rip-Off

American Airlines (and other carriers?) have no scruples.  Now when you buy a ticket, there are very few seats to choose from. That's because they want you to spend more money to buy your seats. The fine print says that once you've bought them, you cannot get a refund if cheaper or free seats become available later on. The "x"ed out ones are not filled, just temporarily "reserved" (for “elite” customers supposedly). And very few if any at all are seats that would have previously required extra money. Any way to make more money at the expense of your customers! Since our flight is 11 hours long, we don’t want to risk having really bad seats or not being able to sit together.

This has been going on for a while, but I haven’t flown internationally for almost 2 years. After all, airlines are businesses that want to turn profits. For more information, see the following links:

http://consumerist.com/2012/12/18/is-american-airlines-misleading-passengers-into-paying-extra-for-seats/

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=9341165

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k5602694-American_Airlines_trying_to_make_people_buy_Preferred_Seats-Air_Travel.html

Hiking Tainan’s DaDong Mountain

Years ago when I lived in Taichung City, it was  nearly an hour’s scooter ride just to get to DaKeng mountain. After factoring in 4-6 hours of actual hiking time, that made for a fairly full day. Likewise, when I lived in Western Yunlin it took an hour and a half just to drive to the nearest mountain in Chiayi. So, scheduling wise, I really appreciate the fact that I now live a mere five minute car/scooter ride  from the base of the trail to DaDong Mountain here in Guanziling, Tainan (關仔嶺大凍山). Though certainly not the reason why we live here, DaDong  just happens to be the most popular place to hike in all of Tainan! Here's a helpful google map someone put together of the trail.

For the second straight Saturday, I enjoyed an exhilarating afternoon/early evening hike up DaDong. Last week I brought our two dogs with me but one of them ran away and we didn’t find her for 4 days! So today I ventured out by myself (I’ll give the dogs a chance on a shorter trail on Monday).

I need to measure the distance myself to confirm, but I think from the temple parking lot at the base of the trail  (altitude 418 meters) to the top (1241 meters) is between 5 and 6 km. According to the recreation website, the trail's level of difficulty is a mere 2 out of 5, but that’s more than enough of a workout for me on most days.  

Last Saturday my legs felt like lead  since I had done two leg  weight-lifting/cardio workouts the previous day and earlier that same morning prior to my hike. Today, however, I felt much better. It took me two hours to make it to the top (a little shorter than the 180-15 = 165 minutes this recreational hiking website recommends, but right on for what this blogger says (see also the good pics—I’m really impressed the mountain biker rode up nearly to the top!).

I took three short kindle reading breaks at the top and on the way down but still managed to get back to my scooter just as dark was setting in at just 85 minutes.

If you stay out past dusk, you can typically see fireflies in the spring (while not a big deal for Americans who may be accustomed to seeing them in our backyards, fireflies are a very big deal to Taiwanese). I didn’t see any tonight, but I didn’t want to risk being out too far without a flashlight.

Also, as is the case at Taichung’s DaKeng mountain and other places, the curious foreigner can see monkeys here at DaDong as well (I did each of the last two weeks and on many former hikes). Enjoy this hike if you ever have the chance!

Air Pollution and Allergies

The last two days in Putzi and BaiHe have been very bad ones for me allergy-wise, the worst since I had year-before-last in Iowa and Nebraska during corn harvest. At first I assumed the problems yesterday and today may have been due to spring-related allergens, which may in fact be the case. However, with the sky so dark all day today, air pollution once again seems to be the more likely culprit (see this link and that link for updated information):

I heard from my barber this morning that the air in Chiayi, a small city near where I live and work, is widely considered to be the worst in all of Taiwan. This is not because of locally-generated pollution. Rather, it is all due to moralistically-challenged (沒有公德心) businessmen lacking civic-spirit who live in mainland China. Their legacy floats over here.

Wear a face mask before you go out to exercise, everyone!

Introducing Places My Family Lived Growing Up

I’ll share this short video I finished today with some of my English class students next semester. 我下個學期可能會用到今天才做好的短片向學生介紹我們家在美國長大的過程和環境。

Waking Up A Bamboo Viper

A few years ago this blog was mostly about cultural topics of interest to me in the countryside of south-central Taiwan’s western coastal plain. Since moving up to the relative isolation of the mountains, there has been less to observe on the cultural front. Instead, my recent blog entries seem to be more about terrors of nature!

For example, yesterday a customer at the restaurant next door commented that they saw a snake sleeping in a cubby hole above them. Low and behold --- a few minutes later family members caught a bamboo viper (青竹絲 Trimeresurus Stejnegeri) which had been hibernating just a few feet away. It quickly awoke from its hibernation and went berserk!

My photographs of the snake inside its jar tonight were quite fuzzy due to my hesitance to open the jar and wipe the inside clean. I was very careful when releasing it  a few minutes ago as well! That’s because this wiki entry says the following about the venom:

It has a potent hemotoxin. The wound usually feels extremely painful, as if it had been branded with a hot iron, and the pain does not subside until about 24 hours after being bitten. Within a few minutes of being bitten, the surrounding flesh dies and turns black, highlighting the puncture wounds. The wound site quickly swells, and the skin and muscle become black due to necrosis. The size of the necrotic area depends on the amount of venom injected and the depth of the bite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a clearer picture of the same kind of snake photographed by someone in this same mountain village:

On a related note, just a month or so ago someone found another kind of (mildly poisonous) snake inside the main fuse box a few feet away (whose switches we flip regularly without really checking to see if anything might be lurking inside). Luckily, I have yet to touch or step onto anything when putting on my shoes outside, etc.