So now on my brief holiday to Taiwan, I was confronted with the fat dirty cousin of Hong Kong in the form it's capital city, Taipei. My first impressions of this giant urban sprawl of city were the massive volume of scooter traffic tearing through the streets in packs and surprise at actually how many people/how much luggage one could actually get on a scooter (5 people was the most I counted, 2 adults and 3 kids hanging precariously on to whatever they could).
After coming to terms with the relatively chaotic roads and negotiating the local metro system I checked into a hostel, where almost immediately I was offered an English teaching job, slightly baffled I politely declined, but later learning infact alot of people out here were looking for such employment it didn't seem quite so odd.
A trip to Shilin night market proved interesting, with a huge array crap for sale in amongst some very perculiar items. The vast majority of shops were selling hats, while food vendors provided fried testicles and other random fried bits of animals and those that a spur of the moment puppy purchase seems reasonable had plenty of choice.
After coming to terms with the relatively chaotic roads and negotiating the local metro system I checked into a hostel, where almost immediately I was offered an English teaching job, slightly baffled I politely declined, but later learning infact alot of people out here were looking for such employment it didn't seem quite so odd.
A trip to Shilin night market proved interesting, with a huge array crap for sale in amongst some very perculiar items. The vast majority of shops were selling hats, while food vendors provided fried testicles and other random fried bits of animals and those that a spur of the moment puppy purchase seems reasonable had plenty of choice.
Going to the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, with numerous records in the most mundane catergories possbile was fun, all very hi-tech and I could talk about it's science and engineering for quite a while, but I wont. Combined with the temple rounds, with plenty of gold and garish colours provided a nice contrast.
Movng down the east coast to Hualien, to go walking in the Taroko national park followed. Awoken one morning by a bin lorry playing ice cream van style music I jumped on the bus to some gorge-ous gorges hundreds of meters deep and a few wide, with old tunnels carved into the cliff faces which was delightful. The Thirty five degrees of sunshine crisping my skin however, was not quite so enjoyable.
Unfortunately alot of my time in Taiwan was blighted by some of the heaviest rain I ever did see, stranded beneath a canopy whilst rain waters crept into my shoes for 3 hours was a particular highlight. And with alot of waiting around, my time in Taiwan expired, twas time to venture into proper China...
1 comment:
Well Al
At last you have done the Taiwan bit --It looks so good and sorry about rain--it does it here as well!! I saw 4 on a scoter in Crete-a father with helmet and 3 kids without of course.
Love Mum xxx Keep it up now you have laptop!!
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