Another Asian story

In Taiwan this week for work.

Good meetings, and of course I got out for a good bike ride. Another really nice time in the mountains on the Island of Taiwan. Found a new climb and kick butt decent. Didn’t get rained on, and was able to climb really hard and count it as a fitness effort day.

But, that is not what you came here to see.

On Thursday night in Taiwan, I went out to dinner with a bunch of guys that I work with from a factory that builds bikes for us.

So a little bit of background is necessary before you look at the video. Taiwan guys LOVE to drink. They really feel it is their duty to drink way too much on a given day. In fact, they feel they are duty bound to get you to drink with them. They have contests with drinking and many rituals that go along with the drinking. Here are some of the things that I have noticed that go along with this.

– Dinner tables are always large and always boisterous. I think they make them large, because everyone is going to be drunk and yelling no matter what, so they might as well be large to justify the yelling. Plus, if they are large you can fit even more people around the table and drink even more. If there are not a ton of people, then the large table works out so that people do not spill beer all over you.

– There is a lot of random toasting that goes on. So that you almost cannot get a bite of food in because someone is trying to toast you from across the table. That is usually ok, because the food isn’t normally that great anyway. Sometimes it is, and you just want to eat…

– Within a company, it is a big deal to be the best drinker at the table. But, no one would admit to being the best and would always defer to someone else as being the best. “oh… Bob is a good drinker…me not so much!”

– There is always a server girl who keeps the glasses on the table well filled. But, no one would actually fill their own glass. It is a high honor to fill everyone else’s glass, so people are constantly jumping up trying to fill each others glass, then they yell at the server girl to get more. (yes it is always a server girl, not a server guy – it’s Asia)

– Kampei is Chinese for bottoms up. Of course the real objective of all of this is to get stupid drunk. So, just as you are about to accept a toast from someone and take a sip of your drink someone screams out “Kampei” and that is the signal that you are to drain your glass. Happens a lot.

– Taiwan guys will Kampei with whatever is in front of them. Whiskey, Beer, Red Wine… Doesn’t matter. (Yes, that does say red wine!)

Take a look at this guy from our dinner table. I started filming this halfway through dinner when I realized that this was going to be good. I know I missed at least 3-4 Kampei efforts before these.