Geologic Field Trip to Taiwan

Field Work Around Taitung and the Last Days of the Trip

2010-02-02T23:52:00.002+08:00

Mapping was interesting as it was mainly done by using the tilt of flat surfaces (river terraces) and the fault scarps to come up with a hypothesis. Step by step we uncovered the different faults and fold systems and got an idea about the area
(23° 00' 00"/121° 00' 00"; 22° 45' 00"/121° 15'00") as well as of the rates of uplift and the ages of the different terraces. The evenings were spent with digital mapping, chatting, and some efforts of learning Chinese or English/German respectively.

Luckily we could spend an hour at the coast where warm water and nice waves were teasing us in. We also visited a hot-spring nearby our home stay.

On the way back to Taipei we had an overnight stop in Hualien (again with awesome accommodation). The next day we went into the Taroko National Park
before we returned to Taipei. In Taipei the remaining time was spent in different groups enjoying the two nights and visiting various attractions (e.g. Yangminshan National Park).

On Sun 31 we had to start our way back to Germany which we reached the next day around 1400.
It was a extremely interesting field-trip with much to learn, but the exchange with our Malaysian/Taiwanese hosts/friends alone would have been enough to take the journey.

Tuesday and Wednesday

2010-01-20T23:32:00.000+08:00

We went from Taipei to Tainan and visited a canyon featuring a nice fold as well as the earthquake museum near Taichung. Here we could see the effects of the 1999 ChiChi-earthquake. There was also a 3D-movie and a seismic shock experience room. We spent the night in the "Les Hotel Tainan" which featured unexpected luxury. We left early for Taitung where we got via the South of Taiwan. We had a stop for a mud volcano on the way. Again we enjoyed great food for lunch and dinner. At last we discussed the next day's schedule for each group.

Saturday to Monday

2010-01-18T18:55:00.000+08:00

We had an easy flight to Taipei, where Petra was already waiting for us at the airport as she arrived just about 2 hours earlier. We then went on to the NTU where we also met Bruce and Robert. On the drive there the nice melody of the waste collection vehicle triggered laughter and memories (: This evening we either idled out (Florian and Lukas) or had dinner somewhere around 101 (Robert and Rainer).
Saturday we spent most of the day with organization/planning, setting up the teams, and import the data into ArcGIS on our Laptops. We had breakfast at a in-campus bakery and a 7-eleven respectively, lunch together with the Taiwanese participants and later had dinner in a Tofu restaurant. Lukas and Florian went home then while Robert and Rainer went night-sightseeing (some city park and the palace museum).
Today we finished the digital mapping preparations and held short talks about our plans for the field work.
For lunch we had Taiwanese burgers (I= Rainer had some beef with rice and closely dodged a barley enriched soup ^^). Before dinner Robert and Lukas left for catching the dusk at the 101.
We (Florian and Rainer) will leave for dinner soon. Tomorrow morning we all leave for Tainan where we'll spend one night before we continue to Taitung.

New feature!!! Some of the best remarks so far:
"It's so cold. Only penguin can live there." (KL taxi driver relating to Germany)
"doppelt so wenige"
"Fuer Schlange braucht man keinen Hunger. Fuer Schlange braucht man Appetit."
"The last thing you would expect on a tropical island is an earthquake, right?" (Blunt ignorance provided kindly by L. K.)

Friday

2010-01-16T01:05:00.003+08:00

Again we had breakfast at the Indian restaurant nearby. We visited the Menara KL then somehow made it to the Universiti Station via Monorail and Kelan Jaya Line (we had serious fights with the ticket vending machines). There we got picked up again by our Malaysian hosts. After a tour through the campus and the various labs (we also bought some books and maps and encountered a monkey gang) we went to a pasar malam and had some food and drinks as well as our first taste of Durian. We then drove back to the campus and relaxed at a small lake having some more fruits (and Durian) and some chicken. Finally we drove to a view point (ampang) and had dinner there. We got driven to the hotel and said goodbye to our fantastic hosts.

Tuesday to Thursday

2010-01-15T12:24:00.001+08:00

Flights were all on time or with just a little delay so we had no problems and even all of the luggage made it through (:
On Wed we arrived shortly after midnight (so actually the 14th already) in our hotel. The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at a small nearby Indian restaurant (Estana curry) having roti canai (Flo and Lukas) and nasi goreng ayam. Afterwards we got picked up by Mahathir, Munirah, Wha (spelling?), and Patrick, and were driven to the place of Munirah's aunt and uncle. There we took a trip into the jungle (with shorts and flip-flops) and only got some nasty mosquito bites as well as decent leeches. Being hot and sweaty we took a splash in the chalet's pool. For lunch we had Satay - yummy! We then went to the KLCC aquarium and afterwards we took some photos of the Petronas Twin Towers. At last we enjoyed the diverse Malaysian cuisine in Madam Kwan's restaurant in the Suria shopping centre. We the were dropped at our hotel again and soon went to bed. Great day!

Team and Itinerary

2010-01-11T07:41:00.002+08:00

Team
Robert, Florian, Lukas, Petra (instructor), and Rainer are participating in this joint operation field trip (LMU Munich and NTU Taipei) to Taiwan.

Itinerary
We (Florian, Lukas, and me=Rainer) will depart in Munich on Tue Jan 12 (evening). After a stop in Dubai we'll go on to Kuala Lumpur, where we will arrive Wed Jan 13 (night). After three nights there we'll leave for Taipei on Sat Jan 16 (afternoon) and arrive there about 2300. The next day we meet with the rest of the team as well as with the Taiwanese instructor (Bruce) and students. After a couple of days we will head for Taitung. We will spend one more night in Taipei again before we return to Munich on the same route.