Taiwan Week One 4th-11th January 2011

The flight to Taipei from Chennai was easy enough. My seat was at the front of the aisle so had extra leg room, however the Indian guy sat next to me was so fat he took up 1.5 seats…(the .5 was part of my seat!!!) ….felt sorry for him at first as he was given a seat belt extension to buckle in……however after 3 hours all sympathy had evaporated…I knew first hand how Steve Martin felt on various occasions in “trains planes and automobiles“. Luckily the flight was only 3.5 hours into Kuala Lumpur, where I would catch n onward flight to Taipei, so all in all the extra leg room made the seat invasion bearable…

KL airport was modern and clean and quiet ….a breath of fresh air after the bustle of Chennai . Had to wait 3 hours or so for my flight but the free wi-fi made it fly by. Got a couple of hours sleep on the next flight and before I knew it we had landed in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital and biggest city. The weather was cold and overcast , very British. Got through immigration quickly, got some New Tai Dollars from the atm and jumped on an hour bus ride to the city centre…..

Apart from the Chinese signs and the odd mountain temple on the way in, the city seemed very western. It was a relief to see that everyone was driving in the correct motorway lanes at a reasonable speed!! I got off at the main railway station and then got a tube (MRT) to an area of the city where I would meet a friend of my friend Rob ( who I would be staying with for the next 5 weeks) called Steph who would put me up for a few hours until Rob finished work.

On the way over I caught a glimpse of myself in the MRT window and realized how much weight I had lost recently was easily the skinniest person in the cabin decided I would spend the next week gorging on meat based products.

I met up with Steph was from the UK and was offered a nice cup of tea in her flat and a good chat about her experiences in Taiwan and festival experiences in the UK. Later we met up with Rob ( my oldest friend of 28years) who was living and teaching in the city. Had a good meal in a local eatery and then I went back to Rob’s place where I had a room for the next month. The apartment wasn’t the Ritz( had a real student vibe,) but was much nicer than the places I had been staying in India + the quiet and privacy of my room was an enjoyable change….

Spent the next couple days recovering from India (mentally), being very jet lagged ( had got 2 hours sleep in 40 during the journey from India), eating fatty foods, and exploring the city. The weather hadn’t improved much, still overcast cold and raining. ( I had come during the coldest part of the year ). The city itself was really impressive, modern , clean, efficient transport and lots of cool shops selling gadgets. Saw some interesting temples and Chinese style buildings….checked out Taipei 101 ( see photo) although haven’t been up yet and found some great ( although expensive) English title bookshops. Also there are no end of good cheaply priced restaurants in the city, although a 24 hour stomach bug I picked up on the third day meant I wasn’t eating much for a while. ( seem to be paying for my good health over the summer at the end of the year )

On the whole the people in Taipei are good natured, friendly and helpful but not intrusive….a definite contrast from India, was going to be harder to pick up the local culture. A public festival I ran into did give a good insight though, after listening to a terrible Chinese yodel band for 3 minutes saw some amazing traditional drumming and then a good martial arts display from local students ( see photo). This was a totally novel experience to me and felt like I had really arrived in the far east……

One of my missions for the first few days in Taipei was to find a new travel guitar ( was going into withdrawal symptoms after having no real musical outlet in India) The first few days involved getting ropey instructions on how to get to music shops off the internet and then walking around in the cold and rain for ages trying to find them. The first 6 I went to were either overpriced, poor quality or both, began to curse myself for not picking up a cheap mini electric in Mumbai when I had the chance. When I had just about given up on the idea found a great little half sized semi acoustic in one shop and managed to get a fantastic price after some sub continental style bartering .( about £88 pounds) was well happy after…somehow life always seems easier when I have a guitar strapped round my shoulder

So week one was basically spent easing my way into the city and culture, catching up with old friends and making new ones while recovering from India…..Some highlights were:

* A trip to the City Palace Museum that housed a great collections of dynastic artefacts from China past, (see photo ) The museum was moved from Beijing before the Communist Government took over in China.

* Eating in a restaurant where you cooked you own meat, Basically the middle of the table was a small grill with extractor fan…when you ordered food you were brought raw meat that you cooked to your own preference.

*A visit to the art museum where interesting local art installations were displayed alongside a Gauguin exhibit,

* ( for the Cardiff guys) Catching the above opportunists photo in a Chinese bookshop not sure who the unsuspecting victim was or why the English language travel literature was contained in the “Mook” section….

and generally relaxing, eating good meat and coming home to my own room with a decent internet connection, good books and new music I had acquired….have really been enjoying my small pleasures in life this week. Basically living a student lifestyle again at the moment but without the added minor guilt of sleeping through lectures.

The first week here has been a crazy contrast from India in terms of culture, infrastructure and weather conditions….feels a bit like I have been transported to a totally different planet. Apart from the weather being constantly bad, really enjoying the simple routine of my days at the moment, and nice to come back to own space at end of every day and relax without worrying about check out times or bus journeys the day after .
Week 2 promises to be more active, possible work on the horizon and am determined to check out the local music scene and get back into doing some recording while finding out more about the local culture. …..so far so good in Taiwan…………