thursday 5 october 2000

awoke at 4am for the 1 hour drive to boston, followed by the 6.5 hour flight to vancouver and the 12+ hour flight to taipei. there is not much to be said about this trip except it was long and boring.

the intrepid travelers.
taken at: 8:31 AM, thursday 5 october 2000

canadian rockies.
taken at: 2:06 PM, thursday 5 october 2000

stuff which i don't know what it is.
taken at: 2:09 PM, thursday 5 october 2000

vancouver in the distance as we land.
taken at: 2:15 PM, thursday 5 october 2000

zzzZZZZZzzzzzz...
taken at: 6:10 PM, thursday 5 october 2000

friday 6 october

we arrived in taipei mid afternoon. novey's parents met us at the airport, and we took a taxi back to their apartment in the southern suburbs of taipei. the urban landscape very similar to what i have seen in japan and hong kong: very crowded and overdeveloped, lots of old scummy looking buildings (especially apartment buildings). it has the same kind of greenery (it just looks greener than anything else i have seen in the world). the weather was overcast, warm and humid, as expected, even though october is apparently the best time to travel in taiwan, weather wise. the summers here must be unbearable. we settled into our hotel room, cleaned up, napped, and 2 hours later we went to novey's parent's place for dinner.

the roads are very busy at all times of the day and night. there is a lot of traffic, especially small scooters. cars and scooters dominate the road, pedestrians don't get a chance. the roads are narrow, there are few sidewalks, and there are lots of opportunities to get squished.

for dinner: an extremely yummy fish, rice and vegetables thing with garlic based spicy sauce. novey's mother used to be a professional embassy cook, and has cooked for demanding diplomatic types all over the world. i had bought a CAD$50 bottle of champagne as a gift, but not being too wise to the ways of champagne i just left it sitting on the table instead of in the fridge. before we sat down to eat it exploded (kaboom!), the cork went flying and half the contents ended up on the floor. whoops.

after dinner, we looked at old pictures of novey and her family. i talked for a bit with her dad. his english is just good enough to tell me stories of being a fighter aircraft high-frequency equipment maintenance guy in taiwan and libya. his knowledge of electronics is from the the vacuum tube era - he talked about how he doesn't understand the new digital electronics because there are too many ICs, it's hard to find out how they all work, it's too complex etc. this is common sentiment for people raised on tubes and transistors - which i would have understood in any language.

i talked with novey's mum about the politics of taiwan, which is a favorite subject of conversation with any taiwanese. top topics include the original taiwanese president chiang kai shek, his son who was a lot kinder as president and also good for the economy, the guy after him who was not so kind, and the new president who has yet to prove himself, and how the old KMT (a political party) was like the mafia so taiwan is better off without them.

then we watched TV. there are lots of channels. we watched a popular soap set in olden-times china, about the rich and powerful people and their hangers on. it had kind of a daytime soap feel to it: cheaply built and over-bright sets of medieval chinese palaces, overwrought dialogue, and the woman who had been beaten up and thrown in jail still had a perfect hairdo, eye-liner and lipstick, with blusher added to suggest the bruises to her face.

the language `taiwanese' is not the same as mandarin, the official language of the mainland. taiwanese is similar to the dialect of fujian province, which was the main language spoken by the original chinese settlers of taiwan. mandarin was spoken by the chinese who came here at the end of the chinese civil war when the KMT retreated to taiwan. taiwanese is spoken mainly in the south, and by older people. mandarin is spoken a bit more widely, and virtually all young people know it. both are represented about equally on TV.

our hotel.
taken at: 8:46 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

novey's mum lent us some "black person" toothpaste (this is the literal translation of the brand name). the idea is that your teeth are supposed to come out as white as a black person's. taken at: 8:19 PM, friday 6 october 2000

the view outside novey's parent's apartment.
taken at: 8:25 PM, friday 6 october 2000

saturday 7 october

we went to novey's parent's for breakfast, then into taipei to look around. the shopping centers not open until 11am, so we went up to the shin kong observatory building. from the top the view is great, but the city is very hazy. they were playing a ricky martin tune on the glockenspiel over the PA, which i thought was very strange until i remembered that ricky martin has a concert in taipei very soon.

i found a book showing the results of a photography competition to find the best architecture in taipei. the winner was a long distance photo of the city from the mountains, in which no architecture is visible at all. the other entries are not that inspiring so i guess taipei doesn't have much in the way of good looking buildings. in fact there's not much to distinguish the different parts of taipei, it mostly looks like the same toxic waste dump, except for a few nice buildings and all the traditional chinese architecture.

back down to street level. looked around the snack shops. the chinese (and japanese too) make the best snacks. one package contained nothing but the honeyed sesame-seeded spines of sardine fish.

there are a few western faces around, but not many. the city is still hot, humid and crowded.

we visit the CKS memorial (for chiang-kai-shek, the first KMT president of taiwan back in the 50's). the subway stations are extremely nice, clean and efficient. the subway system is pretty new, and apparently came at horrendous cost to the local taxpayers. for some reason the station at the CKS memorial has a corridor lined with pictures of mothers breast feeding little babies.

in the evening we watched south park dubbed into mandarin. it's hilarious. kenny still speaks in a muffled voice, but he has subtitles, so you can presumably understand every word he is saying - that's just not right! for some reason Mr Hat speaks in taiwanese. apparently the translation is a lot more sexually crude than the original. south park is big here, there's lots of SP stuff to buy.

the view down the street from novey's parent's place.
taken at: 8:52 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

typical suburban street.
taken at: 10:04 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

scooter people.
taken at: 10:15 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

best ``architecture'' in taipei (this is taipei city).
taken at: 10:38 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

typical scooter parking.
taken at: 10:46 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

taken at: 10:55 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

taipei from the shin kong observatory.
taken at: 11:18 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

taipei from the shin kong observatory.
taken at: 11:19 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

taipei from the shin kong observatory.
taken at: 11:21 AM, saturday 7 october 2000

water thingy.
taken at: 1:43 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

garden of the 2-28 memorial, near the CKS memorial.
taken at: 1:25 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

garden of the 2-28 memorial, near the CKS memorial.
taken at: 1:33 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

in the large open square near the CKS memorial.
taken at: 2:18 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

the CKS memorial
taken at: 2:18 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

cool name, but it's just your basic electrolyte drink.
taken at: 2:29 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

the gate opposite the CKS memorial. taken at: 2:31 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

taken at: 2:34 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

taken at: 2:38 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

the CKS memorial is just like the lincoln memorial in washington. this is the man himself.
taken at: 2:39 PM, saturday 7 october 2000

sunday 8 october 2000

in the morning all four of us went to dim-sum at the sogo mall in the center of the city. malls are the same the world over - totally homogeneous and culturally sterile. btw, dim sum = yum yum.

then we all went to part of the wu-lai scenic area, just south of taipei. it's at the end of a subway line. not a whole to do there - there's a suspension bridge, a river, food sellers, and typical taipei noise and crowds. novey and i pedal a little pedal boat around the river for half an hour (very hot work).

in the afternoon, novey and i went to the CKS memorial for a better look. there's a crafts market set up in the public square. i considered getting a seal (stamp) made for my name but they're pretty expensive (~50-75 USD). we looked more around the memorial building itself. there are actually two guys to know about: chiang-kai-shek, the first KMT leader in taiwan, who has the big statue, and sun-yat-sen, the KMT founder. both are folk heros (at least in the official histories). here's how you tell the difference between the two: SYS is normally depicted (in paintings, on the banknotes etc) as a grim-faced guy in deep thought. CKS is normally depicted as a smiley-faced guy. this is ironic because he was actually a bit of a dictator.

as we sit down to rest on the edge of the public square, at 5pm, they lowered the taiwan flag (two white-uniformed guys do this with flag lowering music playing in the background). as soon as this happens, everyone walking in the square stops and faces the flag, and everyone who was sitting stands up. except us. we don't even realize what is happening until half way through - and novey, a taiwanese citizen, is, like, "oh shit!". we sat all the way though.

as the sun set we headed out to one of the night markets. this is a very bright-lights area, and similar to what i saw in japan. we bought pastries and ate them.

we saw a spider walking down the street the size of your hand. a passing local said that they came from africa.

it took some time (after we got off the subway) to find the market proper. the streets are very narrow, there are many many stalls and food places. the crowds are incredible, and is made worse by the number of scooters zooming through the crowded narrow streets. it's hot, stuffy and dirty.

going back to the hotel was a bit of a nightmare. it was 11 subway stops and a half hour walk from the last subway stop, along busy roads with no sidewalks through nasty traffic. in this city no thought at all is given to pedestrians. people who live and work there use sidewalks as a bit of extra storage space (parking etc). there are scooters everywhere, and they go where they like and don't seem to follow many rules. getting almost run over is common. there are lots of stray dogs as well.

there are two kind of vehicle on taipei roads: scooters and other things. the other things (cars, trucks etc) drive as though the scooters weren't there, and the scooters drive as though the other vehicles were stationary irrelevant obstacles. the scooters drive in swarms, and their density and disregard for any kind of road rules is just incredible. people of all ages drive scooters. i saw a young family piled onto one: mum, dad and a small baby being carried in the mother's arms - all without helmets, and driving at video game speed though tiny gaps between other cars.

there seem to be quite a few hookers based in the area around our hotel. or as least that's what i assume the young skimpily dressed women hanging around the street corners were. our hotel seems to be a favorite place for them to take their clients. sometimes people who want to stay there are told that it's full - but that it might not be in a couple of hours because many people just `rest' there.

between the crazy scooters, the hookers, the african spiders and the stray dogs there's lots of wild-life in this city!

novey's parent
taken at: 1:26 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

near wu-lai.
taken at: 1:36 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

wu-lai: river and pedal boats.
taken at: 1:40 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

taken at: 1:44 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

wu-lai.
taken at: 2:08 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

pedal boat.
taken at: 2:17 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

suspension bridge.
taken at: 2:30 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

at the CKS memorial: how to grind rice.
taken at: 3:54 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

reconstruction of CKS's office, inside the memorial.
taken at: 4:43 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

near, but not actually in, one of the night markets.
taken at: 7:05 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

out hotel room - pretty good for US$50/night.
taken at: 9:22 PM, sunday 8 october 2000

monday 9 october 2000

did nothing all day.

tuesday 10 october 2000

checked out of the hotel and took the bus to tai-chung, to visit the family of novey's mum's youngest sister, and spend the night there. they picked us up at the bus station and we went to a bamboo-themed restaurant. they had lots of bamboo related dishes on the menu. i ordered fried bamboo worms - despite looking rather disturbingly worm like, they tasted exactly like potato chips.

the `lucky dog' bus we took had the ultimate in luxury seats - huge and soft, with lots of room.

comfy seats on the bus.
taken at: 1:15 PM, tuesday 10 october 2000

rural landscape.
taken at: 1:24 PM, tuesday 10 october 2000

rural landscape.
taken at: 1:26 PM, tuesday 10 october 2000

rural landscape.
taken at: 1:52 PM, tuesday 10 october 2000

wednesday 11 october 2000

took the bus from tai-chung to kan-ding, at the southern tip of the island. it was about 4-5 hours away.

the chinese (especially the rural chinese) are apparently a superstitious lot, and one of the many no-nos is to give a clock as a gift - i guess it implies that your time in this life is ticking away. anyway, before we left them, novey's uncle gave me a surprise gift - a small desk clock. i guess not everyone shares those superstitions - mental note: don't believe everything that lonely planet says.

the bus ride was mostly uneventful, except for when our bus crashed into the back of a truck! this happened a couple of hours out of tai-chung. it was one of those shipping container trucks. either the truck swerved into our path, or our driver just failed to notice it braking - either way, there was a squeal of tires and then we smacked into the back of it. the very front of the bus was crushed and all the windows shattered. novey was sitting in the very front seat at the top (it was a two level bus), and she received some minor cuts from the flying glass. most of the other people on the bus were okay. i was sitting in the middle of the bus and i was completely okay. the woman who was sitting behind me was sleeping, and when it hit she pitched forward into my seat, receiving a black eye and a bloody nose.

i have a bone to pick with the bus company. the window glass was not safety glass. when it shattered it turned into a million razor sharp fragments that sprayed the inside of the cabin. i am so glad that novey happened to be wearing her seat belt, she could have been in much worse trouble otherwise because she was sitting very close to the front window. our bags were also at the front and we were picking glass fragments out of them for the next several days.

anyway, the ambulance came for the injured woman, the police came to take pictures, a tow truck came to tow us to the side of the road, and eventually another bus came and we continued on our journey.

we ended up in kan-ding, a touristy resort place. we checked into the hotel then went to the beach, then hung around an "amusement mall".

view fro aunt and uncle's place.
taken at: 7:04 AM, wednesday 11 october 2000

this is where novey was sitting when the bus crashed.
taken at: 10:34 AM, wednesday 11 october 2000

front of the bus.
taken at: 8:33 PM, wednesday 11 october 2000

a smashed bus.
taken at: 11:13 AM, wednesday 11 october 2000

there were a lot of these pools on the road from tai-chung to kan-ding, each with a little motorized paddle wheel. i found out later that they were probably shrimp farms.
taken at: 8:40 PM, wednesday 11 october 2000

taken at: 8:44 PM, wednesday 11 october 2000

thursday 12 october 2000

out hotel in kan-ding doesn't have a fire exit (it was on the 3rd floor), instead it has this device...
taken at: 7:39 AM, thursday 12 october 2000

...and here is how it's supposed to be used.
taken at: 8:14 AM, thursday 12 october 2000

we checked out of that hotel, and checked into this one, which is a beach resort. novey's aunt gave her a gift certificate for this place which let us stay one night for free. it was a really nice place, but waaay too expensive for what it was if we had actually been paying for it ourselves.
taken at: 12:32 PM, thursday 12 october 2000

view of the `beach' from the beach resort. actually more rocks than sand.
taken at: 12:32 PM, thursday 12 october 2000

the resort.
taken at: 12:58 PM, thursday 12 october 2000

friday 13 october 2000

in the morning we rented bikes and saw the costal areas around the resort. we got motorized bicycles powered by big heavy batteries - the ultimate lazy transportation, but you would be screwed if those batteries ran out of juice.

in the afternoon we traveled back to taipei. unfortunately we didn't get the right bus - we ended up going through every little small town in taiwan, picking up and dropping off people the whole way, until people and luggage were packed into the aisles. not fun.

chinese breakfast.
taken at: 7:42 AM, friday 13 october 2000

taken at: 10:16 AM, friday 13 october 2000

taken at: 9:24 AM, friday 13 october 2000

sunday 15 october 2000

attended a wedding banquet for novey's cousin. the banquet itself was only a couple of hours, but the venue was two hours south of taipei, so it ended up taking the entire day. if you want to know how a taiwanese wedding banquet goes, rent the movie ``the wedding banquet'' by Ang Lee. one tradition is that throughout the banquet, the bride changes costume several times - in this case from a white wedding dress to a red dress to a green dress. novey had the opportunity to talk to many relatives, close and distant, who she hadn't seen for years.