My Taiwan Adventure

It's Monday morning and back to class time. I'm wearing a "brand new" outfit. Rather, I'm wearing something nobody at the school has seen before. My weekend trip to ChangHua enabled me to pick up the rest of my clothes and I am very happy to have some variety back in my wardrobe. New clothes also give me more laundry to do. Maybe I'll give the laundry service a go this week.

I haven't bought much here in Taiwan for clothes as the colours are either too much for my eye and brain to take or the clothes simply don't fit my frame. (The curse of being a westerner in Asian society.) Again I can not tell you what it has done to my ego to go from a medium to an extra-large overnight. Top that off with adding a couple of pounds and the result isn't pleasant.

The weekend was an enjoyable break from Taipei. Jeremy and I hopped on his scooter on Saturday afternoon and went for a jaunt into Nantou County. There I saw my very first pineapple field. It was pretty neat to see a visible reminder that I'm living in a tropical climate. Nantou is in the south western highlands of Taiwan and sits mostly above the smog, noise and general pollution of city life. It was so nice to get off the scooter and hear only bugs and birds instead of people and cars.

Jeremy also took me to the farm where he gets his milk. The farm itself is kind of funny in comparison to Alberta standards. There were maybe 25 cows and a handful of calves tethered in the shade. They had a booth that was decorated in Taiwan Tourist, which means lots of tacky cow print. It's sad to say but most kids here in Taipei have probably not even been to see a live cow outside the city.

The trip itself was an event. My last experience with the bus was so inconvenient that I thought the train must be better. Turns out unless you make reservations in advance for the weekend trains you end up standing. So, like a stubborn fool I ended up standing on the train for 2.5 hours. In a bid to make reservations for coming back on Sunday to prevent the same problem I stood in a second line for advance tickets. When I reached the head of the line they wouldn't allow me to purchase an advance ticket to come back to Taipei and told me I had to do that when I reached my southern destination. Ummmmm Okay?

For Sunday's return journey I planned to go to the railway station at the time where there were 3 trains departing to Taipei in a 20 minute span. I was at the station 30 minutes early. On the 3 trains that were going to Taipei, you guessed it, there were no seats. With a characteristic Westerner "huff" I marched out of the train station with my luggage straight across the street to a bus station. I not only got on the next bus (10 minute wait) I also got a seat, a place that was easy to store my luggage and saved 100NT. The ride only took me 30 minutes more by bus than by train and I saved myself all kinds of hassle. Remind me why do people line up to take the train again?

That's my weekend in a nutshell. Not overly exciting reading and there's no pictures to go with it as I'm still struggling with the media here for my camera. Jeremy helped me find new CDs so I'll give it a go later this week when I have time. For now enjoy the pictures of Taroko Gorge greenery.

With appreciation of your readership.
T. Destiny in Taipei

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