About Taipei, we did not do a tour because we were on this ship six years ago, and I will today get into what we saw in 2019, plus bring you up to date on what is happening today. I thus start with some nostalgia, as  on 4December2019 I posted on our Diamond Princess stop in Taipei . To begin, I went back to a 20November2008 posting reporting on a project I had in 1988 working with the Taiwanese government. One final anecdote is that  PICHTR , exactly 20 years ago, worked with  ITRI  to produce an $80 million multiple product  OTEC  study for Taiwan, led by Paul Yuen and my engineering team (same group as mentioned above). In our small way, then, we like to think we stimulated some interest in what could someday be the most important renewable energy resource for Hawaii and World. Maybe The  Blue Revolution  (see Chapter 4 of  SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth)  has  finally started. Plus, I made visits to their second largest city,...

Today I continue my  nostalgic  Pearl's Ashes  series , focusing on  Bangkok .  But there will be a few informational detours, leading to a nightmarish journey to my hotel in Tokyo, and finishing with a hint of what will be my posting next Tuesday. I flew first class, and left Honolulu on 1March2011, 24 hours later arriving at my favorite hotel in Bangkok, the Sheraton Grande Sukhamvit. My philosophy when flying is, "if free, every drink not drunk is money wasted."  I'm not sure my body, and liver in particular, would agree, but it makes for an enjoyable flight. Go to my posting that day for the details , but I had 16 different alcoholic drinks getting from Honolulu to Bangkok. I selected the  Grand Palace for Pearl's Ashes #15 . Here is a  short video of this attraction . Official residence of the Kings of Siam, now Thailand, since 1782, until 1925. Over 8 million visitors/year. One of Pearl's very favorite spots on Earth is the   Grand Pala...