Hey everyone! Since I haven't been able to document my daily travels in Taiwan such that I could recount my everyday experiences, I've decided to instead write a reflection on the wonders of Taiwanese culture which simply cannot be experienced in Sydney. To make it easier I'll try to break down each paragraph into a single aspect to help gather my thoughts better.

The Streets
the first thing you notice when you're out of the airport is that the road sides are reversed, which is typical of many countries in the world. However, once you head off from the airport and into the streets of Taipei, looking outside the taxi window is a sight in itself to behold. The first big difference I realised was that there were scooters everywhere!!! I dont think I noticed that many in China or HK but in Taiwan, the amount of scooters on the road was probably 1 for every car! For those of you who have been to China or HK, you'll feel a slight sense of Asian nostalgia, but I think in Taiwan the streets are a bit more special - there's a very 'taiwanese' feel, a sense of homeyness and friendliness on the streets which I haven't really experienced anywhere else. Maybe it's just because Taiwan is one of my home of culture, but I'm sure anyone else who goes or who has been will know what I'm talking about. At any rate, walking the clean streets of Taiwan at night feels totally secure and safe since its always busy and bustling!



Night Markets
one of the key aspects of Taiwanese culture and lifestyle, the night markets is your paddy's markets-style booth shopping Taiwanese style! That means the food is delish and cheap! (usually in the range of 15-35NT a bowl/dish, which is around $1AU!! the exchange rate is around 1AU to 29NT) There are night markets everywhere in Taiwan, each one with its own flavours, specialties, etc, but all of them are bustling with people non-stop! Truly one of the essential experiences of Taiwan!

Getting Around in Taiwan
lets start off with the taxis - cheap as expected, yellow like new york taxis except scribbled with Chinese taxi agency labels and Id numbers. In Hualien when we went to see the mountains, a taxi drove us around as a makeshift tourguide! That was something which I thought was pretty cool...and I think we had some sort of special price because otherwise it woulda cost us quite a bit travelling around all that mountain road!

In a country with more people than the whole of Australia squished into the land the size of Tasmania, you'd expect a good infrastructure of transport and indeed it does. The public transport absolutely rips everything in Australia! To use a 'jie yun' metropolitan railway, you buy your 'token' at a non-laggy (cityrail!!!) touch screen which displays the amount of money you want to pay. A map above the screen shows you how much each destination costs - the further away the pricier, ranging from 15-70NT! at this wonderfully low price, theres no point in return discounts so only single fares are sold. Anyways, you touch your token onto the barrier to go into the station, and you insert your token into the barriers to get out. Ingenious!!! Once you're on the platform, directed by easy to read, english and chinese signs, you see a screen which isnt filled with stop numbers but instead devotes 3/4 to a tv channel to watch while you wait, while the other quarter tells you when the train is due, which is usually 2-5 mins. Simple, efficient, cheap and effective transport. Is that too much to ask Cityrail?

Housing
Speaking of high density population, the housing is probably like that in HK or China where there are no Sydney-like suburban areas full of roofed townhouses with backyards and everything. Everyone lives in tiny little concrete apartments (at least we did), but they're usually located within close proximity to bus stops, shops, night markets and everything you need to stay alive! From living in my aunty's place for a good week or so, I've concluded that the standard of living and quality of life is still better in Australia, but when vacationing, there is no other place like Taiwan!!

Shopping
What about all the big big shopping centres?!?! Well, most of them were quite boring to be honest since most of them were just huuuuuge David Jones/Myer type stores without the electronics level (to my complete dissappointment), so it was just clothes and clothes (not cheap like those found elsewhere) perfumes, and beauty products - perfect for all you girls out there but for a guy who's more interested in electronics, its a nightmare! There were however a few really cool clothes stores which I liked and which aren't in Australia, including Hang Ten, Net and Bossini. There were Nike and Adidas shops EVERYWHERE but the prices there weren't much better than those in Australia, and who knows if they're even real =P

However, one thing which can only be found in Asian countries is the way shop attendants treat customers - like royalty!! If you go into a shopping centre as it opens (everything in Taiwan apart from food opens at 10-11am) you will be greeted by a line of door greeters who bow and say "huan ying guang ling!" this saying is probably the most common phrase which you will hear while shopping everywhere in Taiwan and no doubt other Asian countries.

Luckily there are separate electronics stores, and there was even a building dedicated to just electronics (like similar buildings in HK and China) called NOVA near the Taipei main train station. It was here that I saw Yoga Lin, the winner of the first season of Taiwan's 'Idol' show, One Million Stars (超级星光大道). All the pictures I took of him were quite hilarious because he was very fidgety haha...check the link to my pics below for those.

Another thing I'd like to comment on is the cultivation of 7-11's in Taiwan. They are seriously everywhere!!! My conclusion is that the role of a convenience store thrives due to the hectic Taiwanese on-the-go lifestyle, and also, for some reason, you have to go there to pay for parking o__o

Food!!!!
What can I say...the food is undescribably awesome! The thing I noticed about Taiwanese food is that it takes food from different cultures, modifies it Taiwanese style, and damn does it taste good! Most of the food is typically asian though, with some famous and delicious night market dishes including oyster omellete, broiled beef with rice, spring onion noodles, pigs feet, smelly tofu, roasted corn, quail eggs, and the list goes on and on. More exotic remixes out there which I noticed were the Taiwanese hot dogs, 2 sausages, 1 big and one small - the big one made of rice and the small one made of meat, sandwiched into each other and served with optional sauces and spices! It was delicious, even though it looked kind of frightening (which is another feature of most Taiwanese specialties! haha).

Eating Taiwanese food is the definitely one of the most enjoyable experiences you will have in Taiwan, but make sure you have enough space in your tummy for it! and be prepared to pack on those kilos!! I gained an epic 3kg in my 3 weeks in Taiwan, and now that I'm back its time for them to go! Pump it up!!! >=]

Since my grandparents are very well connected with lots of various rich families, we were treated to a lunch or dinner by their friends pretty much every single day. Each day held different types of dining, whether it be food vendors from night markets, traditional chinese restaurants, western restaurants, teppanyaki restaurants, thai restaurants, and buffet/ hotpot buffet restaurants! It would take me forever to go through dining at each one so I'll leave it at that. =D

Having good food available at your fingertips is all well and good, but going about eating it is a whole different ballgame. I'm sure most of you know that asians in general love to make their guests eat as much as humanly possible, and every single day I was subjected to this kindness as once I had put my chopsticks down, an uncle or aunty would point at a plate of food, prompting me to eat more, which I would always do without complaint as I felt it was rude to turn down their generous offer. Eventually, I was getting so full everyday that it was very very uncomfortable and no doubt unhealthy, so that was the end of that! The moral of this story is - when eating in Taiwan with relatives/family friends, always eat very very slowly! The hard thing for me was that Taiwanese food was so good, so naturally you'd eat something yummy more quickly!! well...that's my logic anyways.

Entertainment
So...what are the things to do and the sights to see in Taiwan? Theres plenty!! hunting around for various night markets, shopping centres and shopping districts, there's definitely a lot to shop around in Taiwan, and even for me, I was still shopping around on my last day! The arcades in Taiwan are expectedly cheap, and interestingly, the most popular game in the arcades is shooting hoops! Also, there are lots of little spaces dedicated to photo machines and skill testers, much like capitol in Sydney except more compact and can be found everywhere!

Karaoke
Oh damn! You knew it was coming!! Taiwanese karaoke is THE BOMB!!! The K in Sydney just simply cannot compare. The place I went to twice was a big karaoke franchise called Holiday KTV, where you can sing 4 hours for around 400NT (16AU). Every room has its own toilet, and theres a mini-buffet with snacks like french fries and fish balls, and you also get unlimited drinks!!! Which include soft drinks, lemon ice tea, hot water, various coffee machine drinks, etc etc. Also, the audio quality and TV's are very very good, and there's also comical effects such as high pitch helium/chipmunk voice and low pitch gorilla voice which was hilarious!

Scenery
For those of you who haven't travelled anywhere and haven't been sight seeing, prepare to be blown away by Taiwan's amazing and beautiful mountain regions! The pictures I've taken of the Hualien mountains can only capture a fraction of the vastness and sublime beauty of these mountains! The Maokong gondola in Taipei also has a really beautiful view of suburban Taipei, with its mountains, all overshadowed by a towering Taipei 101 in the distance. Its the beauty of mankind and nature all in one!

Life-changing much?
Coming back to Australia, I brought back more than just overweight luggage and an overweight me. It was probably one of the most life-changing experiences I'll ever have since the most important thing I gained from this trip was the confidence to break my stigma of not speaking Mandarin! I know it probably sounds a bit silly to all of you who grew up speaking 2 languages, but for me, I've been speaking English to my parents and grandparents since I started primary school and slowly developed a stigma for speaking Chinese. I just never felt comfortable speaking it around them, and so I left for Taiwan hoping that it could change me and set myself free, and indeed it has. It was a 'geni loci' for me, I was able to return to my roots, rediscover my heritage and finally reconcile with my culture and my identity. I feel like I've regained a part of myself which has been buried deep within, and I feel that that alone was enough to make my trip to Taiwan unforgettable. I'll definitely be back!!

Photos. . .
I can't really be bothered to put every photo in its place so I'd rather you all just go to my photobucket site to check out all 500 odd photos I've taken with my wonderful Sony Cybershot T20 in its 8 megapixel goodness! click here for the jump! Also, I've uploaded specific photos with me in them onto my facebook which have little commentaries so feel free to check that out too! click here!

Sorry for the long delay of this blog but I've simply had no time and also, blogging is new to me and it still takes me a long time to get my thoughts together (I'm amazed how Cam was able to write that super long post in only half an hour!) This has probably taken me a good 3-4 hours collectively to think up and write. Thanks for all of you who have read this far! Cya!

Geoff
09.11
Sydney, AU
B Elec Eng/Comm @ UNSW