Did it seem like I wasn’t blown away by Tokyo? Cuz, yeah, I wasn’t… I wrote a rant about it, but I think it might be a little harsh, so I’m debating whether I should post it here. I mean if I post it, then archive.org will record my words for all time… I guess just posting this has doomed me! How about I make it available by request only. Send me an email if you want to read it, and I’ll forward it to you. And, no it’s not racist or full of obscenities or anything, it’s just… grumpy.
Asia 2006: Jun 04 - Jun 10
So I didn’t like Japan… but guess what. I LOVE Taipei!! It’s quite possible that this is all in my head, but this city seems magical; the people here seem so happy. Funny, I just searched for ‘taipei magical’ to see if it was just me, and I found a letter written by Tapei’s mayor in 2005 that contained the following sentence “Taipei’s magical charm and Taipei citizens’ happiness do not come about without reason.” I guess at least the mayor agrees with me, on both counts!
When I landed at the airport on Saturday, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. As I walked toward the quarantine area, I saw a large white sign with red letters that said “TRAFFICKING IN DRUGS IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH IN THE R.O.C.” Woah! But then I was a little surprised by the seemingly lackadaisical passport inspection and customs… They didn’t ask me a single question and no one was even standing at the customs counter. In Japan, they asked me a bunch of questions about why I was there and how long I was going to stay. Here, they scanned my passport and let me walk in.
The day before, I realized that I’d be spending my weekend in Taipei so I better find some things to do with my free time. One thing that stood out in my search was a Taipei City bus tour. I emailed a place about it before I left, and they told me to call them as soon as I landed in Taipei. In Japan my cellphone didn’t work, but it did here! But I had no idea how to make an international call from an American cellphone located in the “international” country in question! There was a tourism counter in the airport, so I went up and asked the guy at the counter. “How… do… I… call… this… number… from… American… phone?” After a week of practice in Japan, I think I’ve gotten pretty good at speaking slow, simple, deliberate English. The answer was to drop the country code, but add a zero at the beginning…
So I called the place and a lady answered the phone in Chinese. I asked “Is this Edison Travel?” which carried the unspoken question “Do you speak English?” She said “yes” so I told her that I emailed them yesterday, and I would like to reserve a spot on the Taipei City night tour for that evening. She said ok and asked me what hotel I am staying at? I said “Forward Hotel” she said “Fowo Hotel?” I said “FORWARD Hotel” and she said “… do you have telephone number?” I gave it to her and she told me to wait while she called them.
When she got back on the line, she said my hotel was too far away for pick up, so could I take the train and meet at a different hotel? I said ok even though I had no idea if I really could or not… I had no idea what the train situation was, no idea where my hotel was, and no idea where the hotel she wanted me to go was. But, yeah, will do. She said “Ok, the hotel is call Seesaw Park Hotel.” I said “Seesaw?” She said “I spell, C-?-?-S-A-R P-A-R-K, SeeSar Park Hotel.” I missed some of the letters, and I still wasn’t quite sure what she was saying, so I asked her to spell it again, but she didn’t understand… I said “Can you spell it again? The letters?” She said “I start over.” And this time I caught it all, be at Caesar Park Hotel at 6:05pm. Ok.
Now I needed to take a taxi to my hotel. As I exited the airport, a guy approached me and said “Taxi?” I said “No” (I learned that lesson back in New York) but he was adamant. “Where you go? My car very cheap!” Me: “No.” This happened two more times before I made it to the official taxi stand. When they asked me where I wanted to go, I handed them a page that I printed from the hotel website. It had the hotel’s name written in Chinese characters and a map. They said “ok” and I got in the car. As I went to put on my seatbelt, the driver said “No, no, no.” I said “No? Why?” But he said “map.” So I handed him the map, and he took off. But I’m still wondering, why can’t I put on my seatbelt? Then I look down and notice that the buckles are not sticking out of the seat. Ok, no seatbelts… hmmm.
My taxi ride was interesting because I’m just trying to figure out where I am. The driver speaks no English, he looks like he could be sinister (don’t all cab drivers?) and I have no idea how ‘safe’ Taiwan is. Oh, and I’m not allowed to wear a seatbelt! Now, I’m not super freaked out or anything, I’m just paying attention and trying make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Of course, I also have no idea how far the cab ride should be, and I can’t read the highway signs, so I’m really just helpless and clueless. Meanwhile the cab driver asks for the map twice more along the way… does this guy even know where I need to go?
Apparently so, we eventually pull over and he says “Ok?” and points. I see the hotel and say “Yeah.” He says “Ok?” and I say “Yep, I see it.” “Ok?” Right, no English… “Ok.” He pulls out a sheet to show me how much I owe… $1280.
Now seems like a good time to describe the New Taiwanese Dollar… Let’s see, they call it a dollar, and use the $ sign, but 1000 Taiwanese dollars is worth about 30 American dollars. The smallest denomination is $1, which is a coin ($1, $5, $10, $50 are coins, and $100, $500, $1000 are bills) and they don’t have cents. Things are a bit more expensive than they are in the States, but the different pricing scale makes things look REDICULOUSLY expensive (at that price, it better be life sized!)
Anyway, I got to my hotel room, and WOW it’s HUGE and very nice! The furnishings are very contemporary and high quality. There is a walk in shower, the bathroom is all marble tile, there is a control panel next to the bed that controls all of the lights in the room. It’s really quite impressive. When I walked in, I actually said “WOW!” and the bellhop laughed. Free internet, so I hooked up the laptop and looked up how to use the train system. It appeared to be WAY easier than Japan’s system so I headed downstairs to see if I could find my way to Caesar Park Hotel.
Piece of cake. There was enough English on all the signs for me to buy my ticket, find the train, and get off at the right stop. I got to the area about two hours early so that I could spend some time walking around to take in the sights. The first thing I noticed was how many American stores were here! McDonalds, 7-Eleven, KFC, and a ridiculous number of Starbucks stores. The sidewalks were cleaner than I expected and there was quite a bit to look at. As I walked further away from the station, I noticed a lot of greenery down a side street. I figured it was a park, so I headed toward it to investigate. Wow was it ever beautiful! There was a giant Koi pod and some pagoda gazebos and a VERY unique sculpture/fountain. I’ll try to describe it, but I think it’s impossible to do so with words. These pictures are of just the upper part of the sculpture, the base is covered with a thin layer of water, and there are stepping stones so that you can walk to the center where the water cascades down 20-30 feet underground. Water also falls all the way around the outer ring of the base. I think it is the most creative and original design that I’ve ever seen.
There were many people walking around the park, and everyone seemed so happy. At the same time, there was a somber feeling to everything, like this place had spiritual significance. I didn’t even find out the name of the park until late that night after returning to my hotel… 228 Peace Park. At first, I thought the name was weird, like they named it after the street address. But then I noticed the number 228 elsewhere when searching about Taiwanese history. And that’s when I discovered that the sculpture and park are a memorial to the victims of the 228 Massacre. A translation of the memorial inscription which describes the tragedy can be found here.
After I left the park, I walked back to the shopping area and went into a giant department store. This place was a 12 floor shopping wonderland! I checked out some of the clothes sections and found some very interesting clothes brands… Marlboro Country and Jeep! I was very tempted to buy a Jeep shirt, but they were very expensive… I eventually made my way to the 8th floor which was all toys and videogames! I browsed the videogames, but they were super expensive too! I noticed a crowd of kids standing in a little section, so I walked over to see what the attraction was. They were all lined up in front of these miniature arcade cabinets, playing a game called Mushiking: The King of Beetles. The unique thing about this game was when you put money in it, it’d spit out a trading card. And then you could swipe that or any of your other cards through a card reader to build up your beetle. These kids had huge stacks of cards! I stood there for a while trying to figure it out, but I ran out of time and had to get over to Caesar Park Hotel.
