Taipei, Thirty-Six Hours In (and a Few Hours Before)

I made it! In a nutshell, that's all the new news from me. Don't know if you want to know any more or not, but that's it. So, if that's all that you care to read, stop reading. For all others who are living vicariously through my adventures, keep reading!

Where should I start? My flights I guess. Flew from Edmonton to Los Angeles, via Seattle with Alaska Airlines -- we didn't crash, so I guess that means the flights were a success. Seattle smelled good; I'm learning to like the smell of sea-air. Of course the airport was jam-packed with coffee shops and the like, but I did my best to get as far from the airport as possible. Not an easy thing to do on foot. Quite difficult in fact -- I felt like I was playing Frogger as I darted across about 20 lanes of highway traffic (carrying 2 bags, with a camera in my pocket.) Little did I know that this was merely basic training for Taiwan! Off to LA afterwards, and into an even bigger airport. I found it more difficult to leave the grounds, it didn't smell quite as nice, but all in all, not bad. The airport is basically right on the Pacific; flying into LA at night was amazing ... an incredibly huge city! Apparently you can only see 1/2 of the city, as the rest is hidden behind some mountains (or so I was told by a local expert, but more on this later). I found it to be quite warm (around 20 degrees), which was a big change from the -15 and snow I left in Edmonton (sorry Edmontoners ...)

As I was wandering around the grounds of LAX, trying to fill some of the four hours of my layover, I stumbled across what appeared to be an interesting parkade. I walked in about 5 feet, but quickly realised that there is no such thing as an interesting parkade, and turned around. Seconds later, the somewhat stealth LAX Police Squad was onto me. Officer Bill questioned me about how I appeared out of nowhere on his TV screen. I was as baffled as he was; using my quick wits, knowing it would confuse him, I told him I was from Canada ... the rest was a blur! Officer Bill thought that he'd be a good tour-guide for me. He talked all about the renovations to the airport, the beauty of Southern Calif, and so on. He obviously is happy with the state of his middle-aged life. Then things got interesting ... a 50+ woman driving a Mercedes plowed into the back of another car. Big crash, plastic all over the place! Aren't cars made out of metal any more? As Officer Bill stood around, waiting for another on-duty officer to handle this mess, he managed to expose a number of glaring personal deficiencies, prejudices (racial and otherwise), and offer such sound financial advice as "The most important thing you can do in life is buy a house as soon as possible ... earning as much money as possible as soon as you can will make you the happiest." Thanks Bill.

All of this excitement, and I hadn't even left the continent yet!! The Malaysia Airlines 747 was quite a piece of work -- 63 rows of mayhem and confusion! The seats and aisles are designed for 5'0" tall people, and no taller. I shared a row of three seats with another Canadian about my size, and an American larger than both of us ... can you say sardines? If one wanted to shift his weight, all three of us had to move. If one of the people ahead of us moved ... we all felt it! Fortunately, the food was good and the onboard entertainment even better. Every seat (this is in economy class keep in mind) had a full colour TV screen, with ten or so movies to choose from, the standard assortment of radio stations, news, weather, sports, video games (Nintendo classics from 80s) and more! I played Nintendo all across the Pacific! What a blast ... made the 13 hours just slide right by! Well sort of ... All in all, I'd say its the best 13 hour flight of my life! Hint to anybody flying Malaysia Airlines in the future -- request Row 38, seats I or J, as they offer about 10 feet of leg room, and bathroom-side convenience. As for the free alcohol thing I was told about, I'm not so sure that Malaysia Airlines goes with this theory. I was served a tiny glass of wine with one meal, but other than that, nothing but juice and water. Probably just as well as I was terribly dehydrated by the time we landed ... still recovering from that.

Okay, so I'm now in Asia ... doesn't really look that different. My first impression was that it wasn't really much different - it was dark (it was night), most of the ads are in both Chinese and English, and many are the same ads as in Canada. Glide through immigration and customs without hesitation. I had 4 bags and a bike box ... they never blinked an eye at me. Welcome to Taiwan!! Roland (a friend from Edmonton) met me at the airport, and we took the hour long bus-ride into Taipei -- still very easy. Got into the hostel no problem, and stayed up and chatted for a bit -- everything was still good, except for dehydration and a screwed-up sleep schedule. However, 2 L of water and about 14 hours of sleep later, all is good.

The biggest challenge so far has been eating enough food. The food here is good, and readily available, and fairly cheap -- I just seem extremely hungry -- not entirely sure why. Jet lag and small servings likely have something to do with it.

A quick summary of the things I've learned during my first 36 hours in Taiwan:

• it isn't really that different here
• everything is different here
• the places that we park our cars and store our garbage and homeless people in Canada are the places in Taipei where the best and cheapest food is served, and many businesses thrive
• everybody drives scooters over here
• apparently placing a cloth over your mouth and nose protects you from all pollutants in the air
• Lonely Planet isn't always right
• most, but not all Asians are short
• I haven't (yet) caught "Yellow Fever" (the affinity that many males have been known to develop towards Asian women)
• if you try really hard, you can pack 6 million people into a fairly small area
• 7/11, Burger King, McDonalds, are more popular here than at home
• I like it here so far!

As much help as everybody offered, and any advice that I sought before coming, I've now realised was all pretty much useless. You need to see it with your own eyes, and walk it with your own feet before it makes any sense. I can't wait to get out of the city and see the rest of the Island. I hope to leave Taipei on Monday, though it is much better than I expected here. In a strange way, this has to be one of the most beautiful places that I've seen. Even among the vast urban/concrete sprawl that dominates here, they have many amazing parks. The tropical climate is very good for growing lush green things .. plants, trees, etc. However, with the combination of pollution and natural haze, it is virtually impossible to see the mountains which are no more than 5 or 10 km away. Once I get out into the country, the Internet access will likely be quite scarce (or so I'm told ... by people who haven't yet ventured out into the country!)

The hostel is interesting. About 20 or so people from all over the world. All speak English -- 95% are here teaching English. The pay is great here -- will likely be less in the country, but the cost of living is lower too. One could easily get by working about 3 or 4 hours a week. Things generally cost about the same here as in Canada -- some cheaper (bike parts, some foods, some tech stuff, clothes), some more expensive (rent could be, some food) but most is about the same. The difference is that you get paid very well. The lowest pay I've heard of for teaching is $25 / hr --- $30 to $40 is common. Saving money, living well, and enjoying life here should be quite easy.

I'm running out of things to say ... nothing spectacular has happened to me ... nothing bad has happened to me either. I haven't been sick, I haven't felt too bad due to the time changes, etc., so I really can't complain. There is a HUGE festival here that starts tonight -- the expect 2 million people to be at a central square tomorrow night for "Lantern Festival" -- the Chinese New Year happened 2 weeks ago (when there is no moon) -- now that there is a full moon, they light millions of lamps -- surely this scares away bad spirits or attracts good ones, or something to that effect. Seems to be the basis for all things Chinese! Should be interesting!