Into the great wide open - February 27, 2014

Up where the sky's so blue 😉 That is both a reference to a song and to the fact that our new home in DaJia will be a LOT more sunny than Taipei.

Wow, what a busy week! I haven't had a chance to post! I'll try to give a quick run down of how things went so we can remember when we look back. 

We had Saturday off, that was when we had had the massive ice cream/shaved ice. Sunday it was right back to training and we went through one of the curriculums for the older kids. We had to prepare  this for our final assessed demo on Monday morning. I was exhausted by Sunday night. Renalda, "Yorkshire" Dan and I sat in our room and prepared our lesson plans. 

By 12 I was finished typing mine up and I ran down to the...guess what...7 eleven, to print my lesson plans out!! You can do ANYTHING at a 7 Eleven here! 

Just a quick aside, so far we have seen 3 different convenience store brands, 7 Eleven, Family Mart and OK Mart. Taiwan has the most convenience stores per capita in the world. There is something ridiculous like 1 convenience store for every 1500 people here, which is insane. In Taipei, there is literally one on every corner.

Anyway, so I printed my lesson plans after midnight at the 7 Eleven across the street, showered and went to bed, I was exhausted, and starting to feel a little bit of a cold creeping up on me again. Renalda, bless her, stayed up for another hour and a half prepping her lessons and doing other stuff. I woke up in the morning and all the relevant pages in the books I needed to use were marked with sticky notes! 

We had had to prepare for 2 lessons, for Monday and were to teach only half a lesson as a demo. I think everyone was quite nervous to get the older curriculum, Renalda and I certainly were. We got to work early and this time got a good heads-up on what sections we needed to teach for our demo. I "lucked out" as the Americans say. You would think this meant I got bad luck, but apparently it means my luck was good, I got the younger kids lesson. Renalda on the other hand got the exact section she didn't want to get and was not very happy about it. 

We were both pretty nervous, I think Renalda more than me. She put on a brave face, stole my notes for that section 😉 and delivered a good lesson. I hit all my steps and was quite happy with my delivery. Most importantly it was over and we weren't fired ☺. They "treated" us to pizza, I groaned. We have been eating the "local" food 100% of the time and have been loving it. Almost everything is served with rice, which I generally have a little bit of, but it's easy to avoid wheat and carbs in general. The lunches so far had been "lunch boxes" which included some rice, some vegetables and some meat. Pizza however gives you no option to avoid anything. Both Renalda and I had the first stomach aches since we had arrived in Taiwan after eating Western food...oh the irony. 

The rest of Monday and the whole of Tuesday we went through the final curriculums and generally just got early nights. Yesterday (Wednesday), we went through all the policy and contract related things and generally wrapped up the training. We signed contracts with our branches and had a bit of a cocktail party and then it was time for us to pack our bags before going to KTV. KTV is basically a karaoke club and the tradition for Hess NST graduation is to go out to KTV and sing. 

Put westerners in front of a mike after a couple of drinks and things go pear shaped! It was pretty funny and I also had a few beers and ended up with a hoarse voice singing cheesy songs as loudly as possible. We managed to get ourselves home before 12 for our early morning and the train ride south to DaJia, where our branch is.

Interestingly the branch management has decided that we should be at the same branch. We had originally thought they would put us at different branches so that we can take leave together. They seem to think that won't be a problem anymore, so we will just have to apply for our leave well in advance.

I'm nervous and excited about the imminent learning curve. I think because we are at the same branch we will have preschool kids, which I thought we may not have had, but we chose the contract option which included them. I'm really looking forward to getting going and learning some new skills. I have no doubt that it will be a lot of hard work, but I'm also sure that this will most likely be one of the most rewarding things I've done yet.

Fifth day of training

More than half way through! Awesome. We did our second assessed demo yesterday, 21st Feb, and I felt completely lost. I got through it alive though and we were let off early for a well deserved rest and a day off on Saturday.

The younger people in the group went off and had a bit of a party, but Renalda and I decided to rather take in another night market and some exotic food. We went south on the Zhonghe Orange line, and got off at the Yongan Market station, looking for the Yongan Market, but were disappointed to realise we were too early. But we did find a fruit shop who had the tiny citrus fruit I'd been looking for ever since my tangerine tea and the Chaing Kai Shek memorial! Yummy tea awaits!! 

We just walked around the vicinity and took in the sights, sounds and smells of the place. Something you hear at the traffic lights all over taipei and no doubt taiwan as a whole is what sounds like the start of a huge scooter race when the traffic lights turn green. Suddenly there is the loud buzzing of fifty scooters all racing hell-for-leather down the street and the crazy weaving of the jockeys jostling for first place. Very comical!

Something else I noticed was that the petrol stations are setup to serve scooters better. There are pumps that are in positions which a car could never get to, obviously a large proportion of their business comes from scooters.

We then got back on the MRT and headed for Nanshijiao station and to the Xingnan market, which we were sure would be happening at that time, we weren't disappointed! The smell of stinky tofu was in the air, we had arrived! We had gone out looking for duck, it wasn't something we had tried here yet. We found a place selling what looked like mildly smoked duck and asked for some. I also spotted some tripe. We also got some of that. Unfortunately the duck was not to either of our tastes, the first thing I can think of that we didn't want to finish. We also saw some intriguing tomato "toffee apples" which we tried, the sweet and sourness worked very well together, and the crunchiness of the sugar were all delightful. Toffee apples are definitely not my thing, but I might have one of these again in the future!

Toffee tomatoes!

We wandered around looking at the various clothing, food and trinket shops, nearly getting run over by insane scooter drivers on more than one occasion. Every now and then we were loudly invited into a shop to try this or that. We have a few extra things that will not fit into our bags on Thursday when we move to our branches so we had to buy an extra bag. We went into a store and "chatted" to a guy, who managed to convey to Renalda that his son had live in South Africa, NanFei, for a few years, where he learnt English. Very friendly people on the whole.

I have to have veggies with my meat so we went looking for a place selling a variety of deep fried veg, but Renalda wanted some chicken hearts and "pope's noses," who am I to argue with a woman who wants to eat more meat?! The couple selling the food seemed a little unfriendly but we thought nothing of it and were all smiles. When they were about to hand us our food we motioned to ask if we could take a picture of their stand, for which we got an emphatic "NO!" which we found a bit surprising. Perhaps they were having a bad day. 

We walked up and down some more until we found a shaved ice store!! It's ice cream, with a twist. They freeze a block of sugared water or coconut milk (we think), and then put it on what looks like a vertical lathe. They then use a blade to shave off the ice and put all sorts of sweet goodies with it. We had strawberries in syrup. Renalda had asked about the pineapple, but that was apparently not for the ice cream, so we couldn't get it on ours. However a few minutes later a little bowl arrived with some pineapple in syrup on the house! 

Renalda sampling some shaved ice, looking very pleased

It really was a mountain of numminess!!

I used my phone to translate "that was very good" as the sales people didn't speak any English. We then just came back to the hotel for a good night's rest, so that I don't have to wear the mask of shame next week ;) 

Mask of shame

Then last night I was awoken by the bed shaking back and forth and Renalda telling me nervously that it was an earthquake. It was indeed our first noticeable earthquake...and we are on the ninth floor. We have been assured that there is nothing to worry about, they don't even do drills with the kids here as the earthquakes just aren't that violent. Apparently Taiwan has about than 3000 earthquakes a year of which only a few hundred are noticeable. I guess if the tension is being relieved regularly the chances of a large earthquake are smaller.

Third and Fourth days of training

On Tuesday, we went through most of the kindergarten syllabus. It was a large volume of work to remember, but there were clearly defined steps and teacher's guides. Some of it was really difficult as I  had taken some "non drowsy" flu medication. Some of the time I was nauseated some of the time I was dizzy making it pretty hard to concentrate on the work. I found myself drifting off at times, while being taught by experienced preschool teachers who's job it is to maintain attention!

At the end of the day we were asked to prepare a preschool lesson, there was a clear teacher's guide for the lesson and we were told that in our teams of 4 we would have to present quarters of the lesson. There were sections on vocab and grammar, the alphabet, phonics and then songs and stories. But we each had to be prepared for the whole lesson as we wouldn't know who would do which section.

I had expected our group to realise it would be quicker and easier to do it together, but they all wanted to do theirs on their own! Which meant we each had to prepare the whole lesson. Renalda's group seemed to think exactly the same thing. In the end Renalda and I did our lesson together in our hotel room. We got to bed around 1am when we both felt we had enough...and we're about to crash.

We woke up at 5 with me feeling terrible and still somewhat nauseated. I had very little for breakfast and we got some fresh air walking to work. We got there early to get some practice in our assigned classrooms. Which at least allowed me to calm my nerves and think about how I would present my lessons. One thing I realised was that I should sit on a kiddies chair for definite!

We were then assigned our evaluator, our guy was a South African from the free state who had been working in Taiwan for the past 12 years! Big Afrikaans guy with a bit of a boep. He stated flat out that he absolutely loved teaching kindergarten!! What a contrast!

I got to go last and cringe through some of my classmates' nervous mistakes. You have to behave like a 'class' but I found myself trying to give them tips. I'm not sure if that put them off or helped them. I got the section presenting a song and a story book.

The most helpful thing I found myself doing was jumping up and down with the class shaking hands and feet to up the energy in the class and to get rid of some of my own nervous energy. So of course we did that at the beginning of my song. I thought the song went well and I got a good reaction out of the 'class'. 

I thought the story also went well, I sat down in front of the class and tried to craft a bit of a different environment by switching off the lights. I could also have gotten the class to sit on the floor, but I forgot. I got a pretty good review I thought. We had interesting feedback from our evaluator.

We then went back to the lecture theatre to finish the kindergarten syllabus and move on. The highlight of the day was when they brought a class of 4 year olds to sing to us and introduce themselves to us. They were so cute and innocent and keen. We were allowed to go talk to (swamp) the kids and give them some candy. I had to wait my turn, but got a little high five and fist touch in at the end. Sooo cute!

The rest of the day was mostly unremarkable, just more of the same and a Chinese lesson. After which we went to get some supper and headed to the hotel for an early night and some well deserved rest. And to hopefully feel a bit better tomorrow.

I'm reserving some of the photos of our more recent meals for a compilation. 

Second day of training

Yesterday, 18 Feb was pretty intense, but I suspect it will get even more intense. We were split into groups of four and were awarded points for participation throughout the day. We went through things like Mazlow's hierarchy and Human development. We also were introduced to the Hess teaching methods and the Hess curriculum, both of which are very comprehensive. We had a lot of fun with a gangsta wrap competition and some songs and story time. It's amazing how much fun adults can have when you tell them they are allowed to behave like children again. There was a hug-a-thon, where you were expected to hug as many people as possible.

Finally we had to present a song to some of our peers who were to behave like the students in our class. This was quite fun and acted as our first demo. We seemed to have done pretty well, and I was lucky enough to be in the same class as Renalda's group. She also did very well.

How do I feel? Excited, overwhelmed, terrified, interested and certainly challenged. I'm way out of my comfort zone, which is exactly where I want to be! My only problem is that the annoying little post nasal  drip that I've experienced over the past few days has turned into a full blown cold, stuffy nose, chesty cough etc. Not ideal, but I have stuff that will see me through. I did my TEFL under similar conditions, I will survive.

Taipei day 7 - First day of training

Today was the first day of training, and admittedly it was quite light. We were led to the Hess Main building by some of the Hr team. The first session was an introduction to Hess and dealt with things like housekeeping,professional expectations etc.

We then had to leave our "cool hats" behind and play some fun games. Four of the training team produced an impressive feat of memory. They managed to remember the details of 13 people, their home town, field of study, why they came to Taiwan and something quirky about each of them. And they mostly remembered them all! Wow!

We then played some high energy games outside in a communal area. Some to do with names, some to just get people having fun!

Before lunch all the South Africans were taken aside and asked about their visa and documents experience. It was hilarious to hear how inconsistent our government is with regards these things. Lunch was a "lunch box" which consists of rice meat and veggies, although I took the vegetarian option, Renalda and I shared her chicken and my extra veggies.

After lunch was a hilarious exercise to illustrate the implications of ending up in a culture that you don't understand. Directly after which there was a lecture on culture shock which was quite enlightening. We will see how we both do in this completely new situation.

Then we had a Mandarin lesson, Hess style, full of energy and movement and games. All the things that we love, although I did struggle to remember the Chinese for Rock Paper Scissors. 

The next lecture was about the documents process. There are 5 different items to get from government departments. First a medical check, then a work permit, residence visa, then an ARC and finally the medical card...I think! We can expect to have our work permits sorted before we get to our branches. The rest of the items may take a while longer, but these guys clearly have done this before and know what they are doing.

Then we got a brief intro to housing in Taiwan and what to expect. All will be good I'm sure.

Finally they discussed how placements were made and that the decisions were final. We were pretty sure that we were going to Taichung and this was confirmed, although, I'm still somewhat intrigued as to why we seemed to be the only couple who had a predetermined spot. Perhaps they wanted a 'mature' couple at these schools, or perhaps we were just very flexible. Most people seemed quite happy with their placements.

We then had to get 10 photo's for the HR process!!!!! Apparently the Taiwanese need a photo on every single submitted document!!

Finally we found a vegetarian buffet for supper with great food. We just knew none of the names of any of the items! And the soup was free!! While walking home, Renalda noticed that a huge hole and large construction site that had been there yesterday was suddenly gone, it's insane how quickly these people do things! Yesterday it was a huge hole, last night we smelled asphalt and saw a tip truck and today there is a whole new lane open in the road. Unbelievable

All veggies from a buffet

We now have a call from our branch manager after which, bed time!!

Taipei day 6 - last day of holiday

Today, 16 Feb, was the last day before training starts and we decided not to do too much. We had a ton of laundry to do so we went to the coin operated laundromat. It was quite interesting as pertains to the trust everyone had regarding their stuff. People had clearly put washing in and weren't planning on returning until much later. They counted on the next person to remove their washing and leave it there until they returned to put it in the dryer. Other people live life differently.

Renalda did most of the work, while I caught up on yesterday's post. I feel like it's important to keep writing this blog, both for the people who are reading it and for myself to look back on. I would write a journal, but this allows me to include pictures, and is a lot more fun.

We also decided that if we were to be here for two more weeks we should probably unpack a bit better, so we went looking for a supermarket to buy some essentials, like extra hangers and water. We also bought some sushi takeaway for lunch, which was ridiculously cheap. We headed back to the hotel to unpack our bags properly for the hectic 2 weeks which lay ahead.

We'd heard of a jade market under the elevated freeway a few blocks away so we decided to walk. We sure are getting enough exercise! We saw another thing that I will love about this place. Cape Town is only just catching on to this, it's the outdoor gym. We walked passed a park with equipment painted in playground colours. I'll have to find one of those close to home when we move to our branches.

We found the Jade Marker under the Jianguo elevated freeway. It smelled like incense and was
packed with people. Hundreds of stalls selling everything from rings to statues to blank chops (name
stamps). And of course the ever present zodiac symbols and statues. We settled on getting Renalda a small pair of jade earrings. 

Next along was the flower market, which was more like a massive nursery and flower shop. Think 500m of pots, seeds, tools, plants, bonsai trees, fully grown trees, garden ornaments and fountains, sold by hundreds of proprietress, supported by thousands of people.

Why did the tortoise cross the road? It didn't, it was made of stone!

There were massive carvings of all sorts of materials, stone, wood, amber.

Renalda and the Giant Pear... the sequel.

You could break a tooth on these litchis!

Grapes, litchis and what looked like a carrot. I wasn't entirely sure but it looked like there was another carving at another stall of a steak! It was made of red and white stone, so it had a strip of fat and marbling in the middle!! Amazing!

The final market was the handicrafts market where handicapped people sell their crafts to make a living. All sorts of paintings and other goodies on sale. We found a hairpin for Renalda made from cow's horn. When the proprietor asked where we were from we said Nanfei (South Africa) only to be told that the horn comes from...you guessed it! South Africa!!

A cow horn hair pin

It was actually the first sunny day we have had and we were able to get into shorts and t-shirts, if you hadn't noticed. And we got a great view of the 101. We will definitely need to take a trip up there one day soon.

Taipei 101 in sunlight!!!

Let's not forget the all important supper! While walking home we came across another market, and saw a vendor selling fish. We shared this wonderful looking specimen. Renalda just refused to eat the eyes. I can understand why. I didn't particularly enjoy the one I tried.

Whole fish of some sort

But the rest was tasty.

We ate it all!!

We stopped at another place to get a few veggies, we picked broccoli, green beans, radish (I think) and mushrooms. These were fried up with some garlic and spices and as usual were very tasty. As we neared the hotel we came across a Taipei Buffet restaurant, which looked great. We will definitely have to try it sometime soon! Now? To bed.

Taipei day 5 - a trip to the sea

Today, 15 Feb, there was an organised trip to Tamsui for anyone of the, lets call us Hess interns. About 20 people took up the offer. We had two of the Hess HR staff take us there. It was a bit like a school outing all over again. We walked together to the station and there was an explanation of how to use the MRT for those who hadn't yet used it.

The Tamsui is a big river that flows through Taipei. We were to visit it's estuary and an old Spanish for there and of course to eat some more interesting food. It was another rather miserable day and I must say I am currently missing the sun. It's been cloudy and rainy since we arrived. We got off the train to no sea smell at all, but there was definitely the smell of stinky tofu, probably the one thing so far which I'm not so happy to try. It's like a mix between the smell of sweet and sour sauce and ammonia.

We did see some giant ice cream which we had to try. We weren't sure of the flavours, it was pink and green. The green was tea flavoured, I think, but what I really like about it was it wasn't too sweet! Renalda was in seventh heaven!

Renalda and Amy with a giant ice cream cone

We then strolled up to the old Spanish fort, Fort Santo Domingo, later renamed Fort Antonio by the Dutch. Seems it was actually the Dutch that started all this renaming nonsense 😉

Fort Santo Domingo

I always wanted to be in the artillery

Who can resist lighting a cannon!? Of course Renalda couldn't resist a boat cruise...in a clog!? What the...? I also managed to add to my growing collection of stamps in my "Taiwan passport"

Renalda and the Giant Clog...good name for a kiddies book?

We went into the old British consulate building inside the fort. Old English (Victorian?) furniture isn't particularly interesting to me as we seem to see so much of it at home. However there was an exhibition of work and poetry by William Morris, a most influential designer of the late 19th and early 20th century. It seems he invented wall paper. I really liked this quotation, food for thought...

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful - William Morris

And then there was this beatiful Tiffany Lamp which reminded us of Renalda's brother Waldo, who made his own!

A Tiffany lamp

Tamsui/Danshui estuary

View of the Tamsui/Danshui estuary looking out to sea.

On the way back we got, what we thought was our first taste of Chingrish, what do you think a Doggy Poo Poo Bank is? 

Doggy Poo Poo Bank????

I can't confirm it, but I believe it may be that the Taiwan government pay their citizens to pick up after their pets and deposit it in a bank, where they are either rewarded with lottery tickets or treats for their dog! What a novel idea!!

Next stop the ubiquitous food street, where we had squid balls with wasabi, I think they are called yuwan, only one left when I remembered to take a pic,

Wasabi squid balls , Yuwan?

And battered deep fried squid, yummy!

All sorts of wonderful goodies...and I SWEAR I'm losing weight!!

The picture doesn't do it justice

Renalda, not looking so sure, but she had her fair share!!

After surprisingly little to eat...even with the great food, I swear our stomachs are shrinking...we returned to the train with the Hess interns, but we had a plan. We had been eyeing the Beitou warm baths for a few days and had packed our swimming costumes, so we hopped off at Beitou station and went looking for the baths, got completely lost and had to ask a policeman for directions. We eventually did find the baths which were scorching hot, but fantastic! The etiquette was a little difficult at first. Renalda's hair had to be tied up and when I wanted to stand up, because it was getting too hot, the life guard said, please no "just dipping the feet". The baths seemed very acidic, and I had shaved earlier in the morning, so we didn't stay too long, but it was very good. We headed home and got our first definite taste of Chingrish.

I'm not sure if a pretty girl would want to be called eye candle??!!

That's a real piece of eye candle there!! We also saw the premises of the local Rotary club, so I took a pic for Tom and Donna, unfortunately it's little blurred.

Just for Tom and Donna

There was talk of going to a pub for some drinks and some dancing. Renalda and I can never say no to a dance floor, so we decided to go that evening. There was also a suggestion that all the best places are in the alleys, so we walked down some alleys toward the pub, looking for somewhere to get some supper. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera. We walked into a place that looked friendly and were welcomed by the owner who rushed off to find English menus, we immediately felt obliged to eat there, and we are happy we did.

When the waitress came to take our order, we made a selection of meat and vegetables with a wrap. She seemed unhappy with our selection and called the friendly manager over, who then made some strong suggestions as to what we should order. When the food came we attempted to make our wraps. This was clearly not to the managers satisfaction, because while I was making my second he bustled over noisily, took my chopsticks and spoon and deftly wrapped the most perfect spring roll you have ever seen. He did the same for Renalda! By then, because of our sloppy wrapping, we had a stack off filling left and no wraps, so there was a noisy altercation between the chef and the manager, and soon there were more wraps on the table, and the manager was making our spring rolls once more. This guy clearly wanted us to enjoy our meal, and he made sure we did. After the second demonstration to each of us he was finally happy that we should do it ourselves, which we both did, quite successfully! We will definitely go back! Pity I have no idea what the place is called, just a map and a business card.

The rest of the evening was something of a disappointment and we will have to wait a little longer to get our dancing fix. The pub with the dance floor was only open for sport that evening. We had a drink or two and went walking around town looking for a pool bar with a few other guys, got fed up, then went home to bed. 

Full day!!

Taipei day 4 - Hess day 1 - Registration and medical check

It was an early morning this morning, we were up at six am. For breakfast at 7 and registration at 7:40. The Hess people are really slick, everything went smoothly and they have obviously done this many times before. As per the documents procedure, everything was clear, well organised and timed almost to the minute! The intake of teachers must be 40-50 people! English teaching is big business!

Ren Ai hospital... it was not torture

Waiting our turn to be poked and prodded

We were split into 2 groups and herded into a bus to get our medical check up done. The Taiwanese medical systems is fantastic! Very efficient, we saw a doctor who listened to our lungs and heart, then we got weight, height, blood pressure and eyesight tested by a nurse, then had blood taken and finally had a chest X-ray all within the space of about 3 hours! That would take 3 days at home...and this is the public health system!

We got to see the Hess main building and a large temple next to it where they took a group intake photo. And then they took us for lunch. After lunch we took a city tour on a bus with JC telling us all about the sights and history of Taipei and Taiwan.

I swear, if I wasn't there it would fall over! See, it's already leaning!

We stopped at the Dr Sun Yat Sen memorial where there was a much better opportunity to see the Taipei 101. 

Dr Dun Yat Sen Memorial

Sun Yat Sen led the rebellion that overthrew 2000 years of Emperial rule in China. 

Renalda and I at the Memorial

They like their bronze!!

Another stamp for my "passport" ;)

We then went back to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial where we watched the changing of the guard, which we had missed last time. After that, home for a well deserved nap, before going out to gorge ourselves on sushi. The Sushi Express restaurants are too cramped to take photo's and we were like 2 little piggies, trying all the cool things. Guess what they had at a sushi bar?! Veggies on the conveyor! Did I say I love the food in this place yet?

The internet in the hotel is a bit dodgy and I haven't been able to upload any of my posts since the day we arrived, so we came to a Mr Brown coffee shop to use their wifi, which is fantastically fast. We may also have found ourselves a venue to practise our other addiction, dancing. It appears there is a ballroom dancing club across the street from the hotel. It only opens at 9 so we will go check it out now.

Taipei Day 3 - Out and about in a rainy city

We made it to breakfast this morning! I think we have really beaten jetlag. There were a few moments last night when I woke up and struggled to get back to sleep, but I get that when I'm not in my own bed and I feel like I got enough sleep.

Breakfast was awesome, I skipped the cereals and went for coffee, veggies, eggs and meat. And there was Chinese pickle! Which tasted like it was fermented which is great for one's gut...I had a second helping and will make it part of my daily diet!

A small temple

We decided to brave the busses this morning and took of east on Nanjing E. rd on a random bus. We got off somewhere near Rohe street night market because we didn't know which bus we were on...heehee. It ended up being the bus we wanted to be on, a 306. But we walked around and were asked into a temple.Apparently there is a little new year happening tomorrow!

A bigger temple

They like their new year's. We then wandered somewhat aimlessly, trying to find a bus to the Maokong gondolas, which are free when you have a day pass on the Taipei transport system...why not!? So then we saw another temple, the Ciyou Temple. It reminds me of Germany's ABC tours (Another Bloody Castle). We haven't noticed them everywhere yet, but we have spent most of our time on the subway.

There was a small happiness shrine which opened up and played a little tune with dancing figurines. I'll post the video sometime. Next to it were some random Chinese figures... We couldn't resist.

Renalda met 'n sambreel

I always wanted to be a samurai, with wooden shoes

More public art!

But is it art?

We found a bus, the 611 South East, to take us all the way to the gondolas. On the way I saw a street food stall which made me very happy to be in Taiwan, you can get veggies as takeaway... at a street store!! 

Vegetables at a street food stall

The gondolas were great, there was a glass floor which was not as scary as all the portable defibrillators seemed to make out.

Baie mooi

Renalda waiting in the queue for the gondolas.

Shoes on glass

Our feet and a Malaysian couple's looking through the floor of the crystal cabin gondola. Below a very fuzzy fast flowing brook.

Tea and shrooms

Our first tea house experience, with deep fried mushrooms nog al. They served us Tieguanyin tea, which was quite mild. I'm not sure what the customs are regarding tea, but we had to order one item per person sitting in the tea house. They served the tea with warm water, which I assume was as a palate-cleanser. We then took a wet walk back to the gondolas and made sure we stamped our passport booklet.

Who said I don't do mushrooms? I'm a fun guy! ;)

Cheers!

I've had some trouble with my feet and knees in the past. Since going barefoot I seem to have much fewer problems. So we went looking for Vivobarefoot shoes, which I can wear in the classroom. So we made a mission to Hanyu shopping centre above Taipei main station, and I found a pair for NT2000 which seems pretty reasonable. And they are super comfy, super thin soled shoes.

After that we had to get some supper so we headed for Liaoning street night market where we had a feast of, chicken gizzards and hearts. Deep fried cauliflower and smashed chicken, think KFC, just edible.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach

Renalda eating chicken gizzards on a stick

Who said I don't have the stomach for heart?

Me eating chicken hearts on a stick

Liver...natures mutlivitamin

As our main course we had pigs liver and fried green spinach-like vegetables...yum yum.

And then straight home to bed!

Taipei – getting to know the city a little

We completely overslept this morning, day 2 of our Taiwan adventure. Perhaps our jetlag experiment didn’t work… or we just were really tired from our journey. Actually, I think it may be the latter, because it’s 22:15 as I start writing this post and I think I am suitably tired, but not exhausted and I think I will sleep well tonight again. I think we’ll know for certain tomorrow, but no signs of jetlag yet. Fasting seems to work!

Today our missions were:

·         Check out the Taipei MRT (Mass Rapid Transport)

·         Go see the Taipei 101

·         Go to the Shilin night market

·         Get a little lost

We succeeded in all of these. We were initially planning to go find the Shilin district to make sure we could get to it later this evening, but when we got on the train we decided it was a doddle and wasn’t necessary. Being from gas guzzling South Africa, I’ve had very little exposure to tube travel, I’ve been on the London underground a few times, on the Paris metro once, and on the Cologne and Basel trams before but I don’t think any of these can really beat the Taiwanese. This place works like clockwork. Queues pained on the platform to suggest where to board and get off the train, I’m sure London didn’t have those when I was there.

The train itself was super clean and almost too symmetrical. As I looked down the length of the train, I thought I was in a mirrored elevator, where the image repeats forever. It doesn’t help that the culture is so homogenous here…

I saw an advert for “Comfort Women” in one of the stations… what’s with that? There were signs in the train about sexual harassment, it’s surprising in such a law abiding country! I also remember hearing the train’s motors whining like an unhappy puppy…interesting.

Old Taipei South Gate

We got out at Taipei Main station and decided to walk one or two stations down towards the old city. We walked past the Presidential building, but unfortunately it was too late to go for a tour. There were military police everywhere, it was the government district, but still there was a guy guarding what looked like a bulletin board… what the…? On the other side of the wall, on which the “bulletin board” was hung, there was a severely dilapidated single story building in what looked like a traditional Chinese style architecture… what the…?

We then saw the old south gate of Taipei, which is an impressive old building; unfortunately it was now a traffic circle so we could not access it.

National Theatre Building

We then continued on Aiguo Street towards the National Theatre… now that is one impressive building!

And around the corner was the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. Another imposing building!

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

With a much larger than life statue, and 2 guards with an hourly changing of the guard ceremony, which we missed.

Chiang Kai Shek in bronze

We then looked around the museum two floors down, where we met an interesting guy who told us about the exhibition of calligraphy there. He also said we should go to one of the hot spring spa’s north of Taipei, which we may try tomorrow. We went downstairs to buy a few curios, and saw a girl stamping her “passport”. It seems that all over Taiwan places produce stamps for you to say that you have been there!

So of course I bought one, and have been trying to find stamps for it ever since!! There’s something about a passport full of stamps ;)

We then went in search of lunch and walked down a random street into what looked like a mom and pop diner serving deep fried chicken and veggies with soup on the side. Yum Yum. We tried not to eat the rice ;P and it was only $100 something like R40. It reminded me of KFC, without the salt and the batter and the horrible tasting secret herbs and spices. It was just good crispy chicken. And the soup!! Wow, it was in a huge cauldron with what looked like chicken, celery, seaweed and egg in it. It tasted divine.

Yummy something lunch

Taipei 101 was a bit disappointing as it was overcast, so the $500 would have been wasted. The mall was a mall like any other, once you’ve seen a mall, you’ve seen ‘em all.

A rainy Taipei 101

The public art in Taipei has been fantastic, it seems like it’s everywhere. From oil paintings suggesting pictures of trees, birds and dragons, to these changing photographs shown below.

Public Art Changing

       

If I remember correctly it’s about the connection between age and youth.

More public art changing

   

As the images change each block has text or other pictures displayed quickly. Some poetry no doubt.

The Taiwanese seem so friendly! On the train we met an old man promoting a free Taiwan recognised as a state by the rest of the world. I get his point, but what do you do about it. China is huge, Taiwan is small… I know it’s much more complicated than that, but I don’t know enough to hold an opinion.

Cabbage omelette something

The Shilin night market is huge, we got off the train and went towards it, but missed the main market place for at least an hour while walking around the other shops in the district. It was vibrant and busy as expected and the food was everywhere. We had a few things which we have no idea about, but they tasted good. I think the first thing was some kind of omelette with cabbage and spicy salt. We had something else that looked like squid encased in jelly and deep fried, tasted good. We then had a pile of veggies packed into a cone and smothered in batter, also deep fried, also yummy. We then went looking for veggies and found the “real” market and it’s food court. But we were almost full and there were very few veggies to be had, but I see another trip in the near future.

Renalda holding some sweet ginger tea

There were other interesting things like pigs livers and hearts and chicken “runaways”/walkie talkies/ie chicken feet. We found a place to serve us what looked like a pile of spinach on top of another pile of garlic, with some broth on top…did I say yum? We also found some sickly sweet ginger tea.

We couldn’t finish it between us. And I finally found a decent portion of veggies, broccoli, cabbage and seaweed, steamed and mixed with a spicy salt. The seaweed was fantastic.

After that, home time.