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You can say this for Taiwan – you certainly can’t get bored from a lack of experiences. Consider our range of activities in 72 hours in Taipei and the surrounding areas.

• Gorging on a variety of strange foods bought from street vendors for $.50, in nighttime street markets.
• Taking an elevator to the top of the world’s tallest building.  A 600 meter per second journey that goes 89 floors in 47 seconds.
• Taking a subway out to the Beitou Hot Spring, and getting in natural cold, warm and hot pools with 50 people who didn’t speak a lick of English.
• Wandering through a giant temple in the middle of a downtown park.
• Bussing out to a natural park on the country’s north coast.
• Taking a gongola ride up 2,000 meters to reach some temples, then hiking a few hours to find a nother temple carved into the wall of a waterfall.
• Nearly getting run over by one of the 198 million scooters that dominate the roads.
• Shopping at computer markets getting incredible deals on memory cards, USB drives and other small accessories.
• And then, eating more food from more night markets.

I’ll slowly get the pictures up to illustrate some of these activities, but the basic story is one of Taiwan being one of the most diverse places I have visitied.  After the fury and fervor of Hong Kong, Taiwan could easily be termed disappointing or unexciting.  But when you look at the wide range of activities, it really is quite a fantastic place.  5 million residents is nothing compared to Hong Kong or Tokyo, but it’s still a major city with more to offer than you can do in 3 days.  Plus, Taipei represents the very top of a long island.  There are another 18 million people in the rest of the country, in areas we didn’t even contemplate visiting.

When you consider how close it is to all the major Asian hubs, like Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc… it really becomes a place that could easily be the start and end points for my next Asia vacation.  

With Hong Kong as the only Asian country I had visited, I expected Taipei to share the same frenetic energy.  Perhaps it was because we arrived at out hotel after midnight, or because of the rain, but we walked around downtown Taipei trying to get our brain adjusted to the more reasonable pace.

It became obvious quickly that while Hong Kong was very westernized and street hawkers wanted to sell us watches, suits and cameras, Taipei markets were mainly about food.  great great food at every little booth, all for $.50 to $1.00.  Barely any English was being spoken, even in the most popular markets, so ordering or asking questions is more a game of charades than actual speaking.

if Hong Kong is New York on steroids, I don’t know what Taipei is.  It’s certainly big (5 million people) and spreadout, but it’s buildings are generally 10 stories, not 80.  (Except of course for the tallest building in the world, Tower 101, which is essentially Taiwan’s shout of, "Hey, we can build tall stuff if we want to.  See?")

Temples, gardens, parks, and hot springs abound, so the city feels like someplace someone can actually live.  we are doing the area at breakneck speed, including tour buses (something we would never ordinarily do) so we can cover more ground.  We’ll get some pics up soon.   

I guess I’m really off the marketing track here….

When the chaos bcomes overwhelming, there is Lamma Beach.  A quick 30-40 minute ferry ride to the southwest, and you land on an island with no cars or rodas, just walking paths from side to the other.  A few beaches are located in strategic points.  

Aside from the neat pier of seafood restaurants (that aren’t as cheap as you’d expect), there really isn’t much to do besides hike and relax, which is absolutley what you ant to do after a few days in the city.

A small disappointment, though not totally unexpected, is the beach water.   While the sand is quite lovely and the surrounding foliage leafy and green, the water is not the clear blue Mediterranean water Vittorio was expecting.  And really all you need to do is stare at the horizon to figure out why.  Instad of a row of sailboats gently bobbing on the sea, you see a line of freighter ships and tankers steaming to Hong Kong Piers.  I think Vittorio had visions of South Pacific in his head which were shattered by the sight of mammoth, double hulled transports.

Maybe worse, was the fact that the power plant that provides the juice for all of Hong Kong is sitting in the bay.  On one angle, pretty view, on the other, a giant monstrosity.  Very unsettling. 

But if part of the purpose was to explore a little and find a different area of Hong Kong, then we succeeded.  Plus how can you complain about a  place where you lunch on the fish that are caught in the seas under your feet.  

Off to Taipei tomorrow.

So after the initial shock wears off a little, you start thinking, "Well people can’t live like this 24-7.  There must be areas where people actually live."

Our trip to Hong Kong was inititated by a friend’s wedding, so we had to navigate our sightseeing around ceremonies on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  But that has given us a few opportunities to branch out to the outer regions.

The first trip was out to the Northwest, near the airport, where we expereinced the world’s largest sitting buddha.  While it is very cool, it is also obviously a designed tourist spectacle that would make even the most commercialized American proud.  I’ll say this – they could not have made it any easier for white guys like me to hop on a subway/train out to nowhere, then hop on an amazing 20 minute gondola, to hike up the stairs and look over the bay.  It was amazing.  And yet, you have to chuckle when just under the buddha, you see a Starbucks.  I mean, when you can order a double tall latte on your way to the world’s largest buddha, then you have made it as a company.

Another little jaunt included a 25 minute bus ride down south for dinner in Stanley.  It’s a nice quiet little part of the island, and you get to travel through a number of nice neighborhoods to get there.  The Stanley Plaza is actually 100% British, and you don’t even feel like you are in Hong Kong.  Maybe this area was carved out by Brits living here as a place to live in relative peace.  or maybe it’s just a tourist area. But we enjoyed a nice relaxing meal on the water. 

Today will be a day trip out to Lamma, a beach island and place to eat seafood.

Hope to get more pictures up in the right spots soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Stories to come…. 

In a time crunch, so just going to throw out some bullets.

• The time crunch is caused by our need to find another hotel.   We were both very disappointed in what Hong Kong describes as a "Double Room."  The only way two people could stay in there is if we took shifts sleeping and showering.  So we either need to keep renting the dump we are in individually, or come up with a good Plan B.
• (NOTE: We moved into the greatest hotel ever.  I will have to think about whether or not I let anyone else know about this place.)
• Man, this town smells.  I mean, you smell the stench(es) everywhere you go.  And it just permeates your clothes and skin.
• And it’s humid.  Unbelievably so.  Stinking and sweaty.  
• If it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m not.  But with all the excitement and madness you get from the city, you get a few other issues to deal with.
• I still haven’t bought a suit, watch, knock off shoes or anything interesting.   But they have been pffered in abundance.
• I am generally a good map reader, but I still have yet to find anything I have been lookign for on the first try.  It’s really becoming comical.  I know exactly where I want to go, I have the directions written out, and when I get to where I think I should be, it ends up being a meat market with ducks hanging upside down or something equally ridiculous.   I simply can’t figure it out.  I think they just ccreate new streets to confuse me.

More thoughts after we get out fo our prison cells and into something more livable…

I’m 72 hours into the "Hong Kong Expereince" now.  Here’s a quick description of first impressions of the nightlife.

As I walked around the popular Lan Kwai Fong area, the first thing that came to my mind was, "This is what it look like if Bourbon Street was in Times Square."  Just bars and people an dbars and more people everywhere.  And adding to the effect is the fact that the area is on a pretty substantial hill.  The hill is so steep, actually, that there’s an outside scalator that carries people up about 4-5 blocks.

People literally spill out of the bars into the street. I suppose, in fairness, that one reason there are so many bars is that most of them are pretty small.   But it makes for a scene where lounges, meat markets, rock bars, English pubs, wine bars and Irish pubs all live next door to each other.

You do see everyone from everywhere – locals, tourists, expats, street vendors, taxi drivers, buses, security – really the whole gamut.  And some of the most luxrious lounges have the added kitch factor of being next to a broken down dilapidated building.

There’s another area called Wan Chai, which appears to be more suited to those people looking for dinner, drinks and a date all in one price of admission.  In fact, one bar proudly advertised, "Welcome Navy." We walked around and saw a few bars that looked interesting, but also noticed an uusually high number of Hong Kong women in skirts walking around by themselves.   Which probably wouldn’t mean anything if there weren’t 40 strip clubs in the district.  I don’t mean to be judgemental, but that scene was likely catering to a slighlty different group of people.

In the end, our best option in Lan Kwai Fong was to find a nice lounge and observe most of the chaos from a window ledge seat.  After seeing millions of people during the day, millions of people at night are best enjoyed from a slight distance…

Here I am, first time in Asia.  And while I want to do some real storytelling in follow up chapters, this post is more about simple gut reactions from the first 5 hours.  Nothing to do with the flight or anything, but just a free flow of thoughts that went through my mind as I took my first lap around the city.

Some Preludes: 

1) Airport: Longer story here about my missing bag, but I spent about 90 minutes in the airport, and hoenstly, it didn’t feel like Asia.  There were no lines, no crowds and no mess.  And all the signs are in English.  It could have been LAX, except it was more organized. 

2) I step right out from the airport to the train that takes you straight downtown.  $12 from airport to cit center in 25 minutes.  Most disappointing thing – the trains have these neat tv screens and speakers in each head rest, so you can choose to listen or not to the program.  Initially, very cool, but they had about 2 minutes of content, then kept re-running the same ad and opening promo overand over and over.  What a waste of space.

3) But as soon as that train leaves the station, man, the 80 story apartment towers are in full sight.  I expected this from pictures, but I think I expected them to be nicer.  Goeroge and Wheezy wouldn’t live in most of these, even on the top floor. It much just be because we are out of the island and in a poorer area.

4) Land in the Central District and I can tell from the inside that it’s chaos on the outside.  My plan was to hop on the subway to get to my hotel, but the prospect of lugging this thing through people is too intimidating.  An $8 cab ride has my name all over it.  In a rare moment of genius, I have already printed out a map with where my hotel is, which I can show the cabbie.  It’s a eerie quiet cab ride as I gawk at the chaos around me as we zip down the road toward my hotel.  I have lots to ask, but I can’t flip through my Mandarin phrasebook fast enough to get say anything.  And even if I did, how would I know what he was saying back?  Only when I get out of the cab does he give any indication that he actually knows English.  Jerk.

5) Ok, I’m checked in to the smallest room that isn’t on a train.  Plus – we have a awesome view of the harbor, so no compaints.  Vittorio doesn’t get in until later, so I have some time to kill.

6) The subway basicall runs underneath my hotel – very convenient.  I hop on and head back to the Central District,the place I had earlier decided was too busy to be roaming around with a suitcase. I think I have a goo didea and bring my laptop with me, sure that I’ll find an Internet cafe.  Instead this ends up feeling liek a 65 pound weight around my shoulders.  Must rethink these "bright" ideas…  

Actual Hong Kong reactions:

1) Holy shiiiite.  As a guy I met in the Taipei airport described it, "Hong Kong is like New York on a couple of lines."

2) I keep switiching back and forth between being mezmerized and disgusted.  Down one road is a gorgeous office building, and you round the corner and it’s a 80 ear old selling cat claws and god knows what else.

3) My map is proving to be useless.  I think the lonely Planet gus just made it up.  When I think something is a long way awa, it’s around the corner.  And when I think it’s close, suddenly 16 streets that aren’t listed in my guidebook show up.  I can’t find anything.

4) I may have figured out a source of frustration.  Apparently, I apparently came out of the Metro station in a different place thanmy map says I should have.  This would explain why I have been turning my book upside down wondering, "But wait, I know I took a left on Queen’s Way?  How could I possibly be near the ferries?"

5) Yes, that realization solved one problem, but no, I am not getting any closer to being able to follow the directions I am actually writing down for myself.

6) Coolest thing ever – An outdoor escalator, covered of course, that takes you up the hill for 5 blocks.  Imagine one of these going from the Waterfront to the Convention Center.   

7) I cannot figure out the pace of the people.  Everyone is hurring, and then you have 4 ladies lazily strolling down the street, window shopping arm in arm and making sure no one can ever get by.  It’s like a mad sprint, and then you run into a human roadblock. 

8) Lots of cool little places to grab a bite on Wyndham / Hollywood. If I had waited about 30 seconds, I would have chosen one of these places rather than the crappy English place I felt spectacularly lucky to find at the time.  Doesn’t that always happen?  ou give up on finding something cool, have a bite and a beer, walk out the door, and fall into culinary nirvana.  Lesson learned – if no one is in the restaurant, there’s a better one close by…

9) I still can’t get over how I walk by a wine bar that I probably I can’t afford, and then trip into a street vendor selling trinkets and garbage for a quarter 25 feet later.  Then there’s a brand new hotel sitting right next to a apartment building that makes Cabrini Green look luxurious.   There’s no consistency.   It’s decadence amongst the squalor, or squalor embedded in decadence depending on how ou wish to look at it.

10) I see a few random American tourists running around, but I don’t see many Engilish folks at all.  I guess it makes sense that they’ve left by now, but I figured a few would stick around.

11) It’s 4:00pm or so now and traffic is reeeeeeeeeeeediculous.  

11b) Ok, side note here.  Literally, I knew nothing about Hong Kong 36 hours ago.  I bought a guidebook yesterday (or whatever day was the day before I left).  I read probably 3-4 hours on the plane.  And after 3-4 hours of walking around, all the maps made sense, kind of.  It’s amazing the steep learning curve there is for a foreign land, where all it takes is a little exploration and you start figuring it out. 

12) Stumbled into someplace called Pacific Place, which appears to be about the most grandiose shopping mall ever assembled.   Since my messenger bag with the laptop now weighs approximately 452 pounds, this will have to be explored later.

13) Compared to Seattle, I haven’t seen a lot of homeless folks, but those you do see…….well……they are noticeable and you want to avoid them.  I’m not saying you want to hug a Seattle homeless guy, but these Hong Kong homeless look like they would infect you with a whole variety of interesting diseases just by handing them a coin.  Really sad and scary.

14) Well I’ve been back in the hotel room / broom closet for a little while now, and the brain dump is complete.  I know there was no story there (and no spellcheck) but those were the "off the top of my head" thoughts, unfiltered and unedited.    Follow up stories will have some sort of plot and storyline.