Taiwan: Taipei 15-19 Mar 12

I flew to Taipei with my new life fixture Air Asia, and again they did what they said on the tin. We flew over the Philippine islands and it was a perfectly clear day. There are so many of them! As soon as one island finished another one started, a massive island belt all the way to Taiwan. It was really still so I got myself into my half awake half asleep flight coma listening to some music, when BOOM. The plane was hit with what felt like a gale force wind of boulders. It was over in a second but was the strongest force of turbulence I've ever felt, and my hands were sweating and my heart thumping until we landed smoothly in Taipei. It was so misty we didn't see the runway until the last second before touch down, and I looked out the window to see a plane taking off into the mist and it disappeared within a second, very eerie. 

I was going to Taipei en route to Thailand to meet up with some old buddies from back home. I met Wes when I was around 11 or 12 years old and we hung out in our little gang who are still all really good friends, unusually for friends from that age but great for us because they are awesome kiddies all round! He’d been living in Taiwan for a good few years, as had his brother Kent. Wes lives with his very cute Russian girlfriend Alina, and Kent was literally a couple of days away from moving to the Philippines so very lucky for me I caught him just in time.

Taipei is a world away from Malaysia and Borneo where I flew in from so I was expecting a culture shock. It’s a massive great big city on a packed little island of 23m people. The airport was big and glistening and bustling, and everything was in Chinese! Luckily they had English signs though too. Everything was covered in marble, which to reiterate is THE slipperiest substance known to mankind and should never be used as a flooring option, but here everyone seems to be taught how to avoid broken necks from the cradle. If not I don’t know how they all walk on this if ever slightly wet. Luckily Kent came to pick me up otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue which bus to find or how to get to their house. He speaks Chinese, as do most of the westerners I met in the country. I just don’t think you could really get by for long without learning it.

Kent

It was around 5.30pm when we left the airport but it was already almost dark and pretty cold. I had it in my head that everywhere on my trip would be sweltering but Taiwan was still trying to break out into spring time, still holding on to winter’s coat tails. It was very foggy and misty outside and everything was covered in cold white. I tried to look out the window at the city as we rode in on the bus, but I could only see some lights, grey and mist, and I could just make out the new Sky Train they were building to the airport, towering above the motorway and looking very big and concrete. As we got into the city everything was built up and bright lights and hundreds of bright signs and shop fronts. 

Wes, Alina, Kent

The metro is really easy to use here, self explanatory with most signs in Mandarin and English. We hopped on one to where they lived where I dropped my bags off and we went to get some dumplings. This is where speaking the language is pretty crucial, ordering food and just doing day to day stuff as the locals don’t speak English much. Wes’ girlfriend Alina speaks fluent Chinese, so I'm lucky to have her show me around and make the exchanges! I have no idea how I’m going to get through China for three weeks. The dumplings were great, made right there in the shop, hot and steamed with ginger and chilli and soya dip. They also made their own soya milk there, which we drank hot with sugar out of a bowl.

Local dumpling house

I was in Taipei for four days and while I wanted to see a little bit of the city, it was just so nice to get my head together, relax and be with good friends. Alina took me to see some temples which were really beautiful, although none of them very old, Taipei is a new city. Some people were doing some funny exercises in the square of the temple, like old ladies walking backwards. 

Taipei 101 in the background

Poodle parlour

There is a good mix of western and eastern food and culture and so at times it feels as if you’re just in any other city, but then you turn a corner and find a side street market with everything as Eastern and as foreign as can be. The breakfast places are true testament to this. On offer are bacon and eggs with cheese but in a pancake eaten with chopsticks and soya sauce, drank with black tea. A treat of a breakfast nom nom.

Breakfast pancake

We went to a night market which was pretty nuts. Super busy with food, clothes, juices, trinkets and colours and lights enough to make your head spin. I wanted to buy some funky Taiwan clothes so got some t-shirts, the prices were only slightly cheaper than somewhere like Camden market though. The best thing about the night market was the food and drinks, man Taipei knows how to do drinks. Everywhere you turn there is a juice stall with any fruit juice you can imagine. Papaya, mango, avocado (although those weren't in season, argh). Green tea shakes, jasmine milk shakes, warm ginger shakes, drinks with little soft balls of jelly, any kind of tea and milkshake and juice shake you can imagine, a rainbow colours and tastes and textures. I had died and gone to shake heaven, honestly you could never live long enough to try all the variety of drinks. Some they make so sweet your head spins, but if you ask for less sugar they are amazing. We had some chicken bits fried in some dry spices at the market too, although that didn't make my tum feel amazing. We stopped at a temple in the market to eat, Wes has some good pics on his camera I’ll show you when I can. Red lanterns, great statues and lights everywhere, a great backdrop to drink those psychedelic cups of joy.

Another night we all walked down to the river in the wee hours of the morning, and it was great to hear the city so quiet because in the day its an onslaught of road works, building works and cars swooshing by and hooting. We walked along the river which had some outdoor exercise equipment which Alina and I tested out, and came to the conclusion that they were for little Taiwanese grannies. The river had some frogs and fish in it, with some birds gathering and flying around and it was pretty, but I could still feel the pollution of the city in my pores which made me think that I could never live in a city like this, where it feels like real fresh air never really blows through.

Night market

One of the best and most fun things about my Taipei trip was having some great little jam sessions with Wes, Kent, Alina and some of their buddies. Wes and Kent are both musicians, photographers and artists and belong to the band Reigndear, seriously check out their stuff. Wes has made some awesome videos from footage he’s taken and edited himself of some underwater dives, and Kent has made some funky products like clothes such as some Reigndear tights which I was lucky enough to get my hands. He has also written some books of poetry, and some beautiful photography. I’m sure I’ve left some stuff out as it seems there is nothing these boys don’t do! Wes had bought a guzheng (here is a video of one being played) which is the most amazing instrument, like the eastern version of the harp but played horizontally. Wes and Kent busted out the guitars while I had my little ukulele, Alina had a mouth organ and there was a keyboard piano, man it was fun! There is nothing so fun as a night spent jamming some tunes with some buddies over a few beers.

Alina and Wes playing the Guzheng

Jamming in the house of fun

Kent was making his way to the Phillipines so we were able to get a taxi together to the airport. The driving here is nuts so you just have to close your eyes and clench your butt cheeks... an apt way to leave this high energy city. I had to sleep in the airport as Kent’s flight was at 1am and mine at 8am. I went to terminal 1 which was basically just a building site with some cold marble floors and every shop closed, so different to terminal 2 with three floors of marble and shops and comfy seats, so I made my way over there on the deserted Skytrain and found myself on a comfy sofa in the arrivals area, where I put in my headphones and actually managed to sleep. I woke up with a raisin’d faced lady prodding me with a hoover at about 5am.

Was so nice to catch up with you Wes and Kent! And so nice to meet the cutie pie Alina. Thanks for a much needed four days of old friends, music and chillage.

Here are the pics.

To Thailand baby!