now Kaohsiung
I'd say so far in about half of the internet cafes in Taiwan smoking is allowed and in others it is not. Also, it seems really common here to have food and drinks available, sometimes with a kitchen. You have to buy at least 30 NTD worth of stuff besides your internet time. One extra way to make money I guess. The rest is the same, 99% of people playing games 24 hours a day and always full.
The second half of my stay in Tainan was pretty fun. I met up with Susan the couchsurfer who turned out to be Buddhist and vegetarian. We had dinner that night and the following night at two good vegetarian restaurants. When we met up near her work she arrived on a motor scooter so I got my first ride on the back of one of those through Tainan. Much better Tainan than Taipei or Kaohsiung, I'll tell you that. It was pretty fun and I'd say that I only had a few moments of close-my-eyes-and-hope-for-the-best. Needless to say I survived. Next stop will be driving one myself, though I think I can't do that just yet, I need an international driver's permit. I'm on it. Anyway, I hung out with Susan and spoke as much Chinese as I could though her English was pretty good so that helped with translation as necessary and also with me being lazy as also necessary. My last day I took a long-ass walk all the way to the town of Anping near to Tainan. There's a lot of old streets out there, a few temples, a large formerly Dutch fort that has been completely replaced except for a few walls, and various other interesting scenery. I'll let the pictures speak on that, which are actually up by the way. I'll put those links at the end.
Kaohsiung may not be for me. It's a big city, the 2nd biggest in Taiwan, and it is more like Taipei than Tainan, but it is substantially dirtier and less interesting based on my limited experience. It is not without its moments and admittedly my initial impression has been marred by the fact that I do not know anyone here and have thus been on my own since arrival sans the occasional meeting with a stranger. On the bright side, I am either really lucky or there are a zillion vegetarian restaurants here. They are all Chinese and Buddhist so far, but I haven't even had to look at all. Within a few blocks of my hotel I found 5 different ones by accident. It's kind of remarkable. The people running them and dining in them seem to be very friendly and have all offered to help me with the menu and otherwise been chatty about where I'm from. Last night at a buffet I met a Taiwanese group, the daughter of whom has been studying in Pittsburgh for a Masters degree. She was just back to visit her family and have a vegetarian hotpot apparently. Anyway, I walked down the Love river which runs through the center of Kaohsiung and then down into interesting but gritty residential and industrial areas near the water. Kaohsiung is a port city and there is a lot of seafront scenery with varying degrees of grunginess. I found my way to a ferry pier which I took over to Qijin island, visiting a long street of seafood snacks with the occasional small temple, a lighthouse up on a hill with a pleasant if smoggy view of Kaohsiung, and Qijin beach with a nice sunset and a strange black sand. I think it is geologic in nature and not pollution or anything before anybody gets grossed out. Later that evening I visited the Liouhe night market and wandered the street watching people and eyeballing snacks though I was too full from my prior feast to participate. There were in fact a few all vegetarian snack stands. Today was spent at Lotus Pond. That's about a 15 minute train ride north of Kaohsiung in Zuoying. It was really beautiful and surprisingly empty considering it is Saturday. I thought it was a really nice place to spend the day and the weather was again beautiful. I think I may have even gotten a bit sunburned. So these excursions out of the heavily urban center of Kaohsiung have been enjoyable but I think after my trip to the Foguangshan monastery tomorrow I'll be plenty ready to move on out of here.
Briefly, I have had many occasions to witness the Chinese tourist picture-taking technique, which consists of locating a thing which can be a famous monument, body of water, other interesting visa, or in some cases a sign indicating you have arrived at the visa, and then taking turns while every person gets a picture of themselves taken in front of that thing. Sometimes people pair up. This is usually a hands-at-the-side or clasped-in-front pose. Occasionally the "peace/victory sign" is involved. As far as I can tell it is proof of having been at the destination. It only becomes inconvenient when obstructing all passing traffic. Additionally, it just seems like just nobody lets anybody else go here. Maybe it is like that in New York too and I just forgot, but I have seen not a single person hold a door for anyone else, or when getting off a bus actually pause and let the person in the row in front of you who has been waiting go. On the street whether on foot or on a scooter or a car, nobody seems that concerned about consideration to their fellow man. Maybe I'm generalizing, but I really haven't seen one single instance and I've seen plenty of cutting off, cutting lines, shoving people to get on trains, total lack of mutual respect. I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions, but they are still exceptions and apparently not the rule.
Here are pictures from Taipei and Tainan.
The second half of my stay in Tainan was pretty fun. I met up with Susan the couchsurfer who turned out to be Buddhist and vegetarian. We had dinner that night and the following night at two good vegetarian restaurants. When we met up near her work she arrived on a motor scooter so I got my first ride on the back of one of those through Tainan. Much better Tainan than Taipei or Kaohsiung, I'll tell you that. It was pretty fun and I'd say that I only had a few moments of close-my-eyes-and-hope-for-the-best. Needless to say I survived. Next stop will be driving one myself, though I think I can't do that just yet, I need an international driver's permit. I'm on it. Anyway, I hung out with Susan and spoke as much Chinese as I could though her English was pretty good so that helped with translation as necessary and also with me being lazy as also necessary. My last day I took a long-ass walk all the way to the town of Anping near to Tainan. There's a lot of old streets out there, a few temples, a large formerly Dutch fort that has been completely replaced except for a few walls, and various other interesting scenery. I'll let the pictures speak on that, which are actually up by the way. I'll put those links at the end.
Kaohsiung may not be for me. It's a big city, the 2nd biggest in Taiwan, and it is more like Taipei than Tainan, but it is substantially dirtier and less interesting based on my limited experience. It is not without its moments and admittedly my initial impression has been marred by the fact that I do not know anyone here and have thus been on my own since arrival sans the occasional meeting with a stranger. On the bright side, I am either really lucky or there are a zillion vegetarian restaurants here. They are all Chinese and Buddhist so far, but I haven't even had to look at all. Within a few blocks of my hotel I found 5 different ones by accident. It's kind of remarkable. The people running them and dining in them seem to be very friendly and have all offered to help me with the menu and otherwise been chatty about where I'm from. Last night at a buffet I met a Taiwanese group, the daughter of whom has been studying in Pittsburgh for a Masters degree. She was just back to visit her family and have a vegetarian hotpot apparently. Anyway, I walked down the Love river which runs through the center of Kaohsiung and then down into interesting but gritty residential and industrial areas near the water. Kaohsiung is a port city and there is a lot of seafront scenery with varying degrees of grunginess. I found my way to a ferry pier which I took over to Qijin island, visiting a long street of seafood snacks with the occasional small temple, a lighthouse up on a hill with a pleasant if smoggy view of Kaohsiung, and Qijin beach with a nice sunset and a strange black sand. I think it is geologic in nature and not pollution or anything before anybody gets grossed out. Later that evening I visited the Liouhe night market and wandered the street watching people and eyeballing snacks though I was too full from my prior feast to participate. There were in fact a few all vegetarian snack stands. Today was spent at Lotus Pond. That's about a 15 minute train ride north of Kaohsiung in Zuoying. It was really beautiful and surprisingly empty considering it is Saturday. I thought it was a really nice place to spend the day and the weather was again beautiful. I think I may have even gotten a bit sunburned. So these excursions out of the heavily urban center of Kaohsiung have been enjoyable but I think after my trip to the Foguangshan monastery tomorrow I'll be plenty ready to move on out of here.
Briefly, I have had many occasions to witness the Chinese tourist picture-taking technique, which consists of locating a thing which can be a famous monument, body of water, other interesting visa, or in some cases a sign indicating you have arrived at the visa, and then taking turns while every person gets a picture of themselves taken in front of that thing. Sometimes people pair up. This is usually a hands-at-the-side or clasped-in-front pose. Occasionally the "peace/victory sign" is involved. As far as I can tell it is proof of having been at the destination. It only becomes inconvenient when obstructing all passing traffic. Additionally, it just seems like just nobody lets anybody else go here. Maybe it is like that in New York too and I just forgot, but I have seen not a single person hold a door for anyone else, or when getting off a bus actually pause and let the person in the row in front of you who has been waiting go. On the street whether on foot or on a scooter or a car, nobody seems that concerned about consideration to their fellow man. Maybe I'm generalizing, but I really haven't seen one single instance and I've seen plenty of cutting off, cutting lines, shoving people to get on trains, total lack of mutual respect. I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions, but they are still exceptions and apparently not the rule.
Here are pictures from Taipei and Tainan.
posted by Dan at 3:42 AM
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