Brisbane Airport and Taipei

11/21/13 Taipei

On a city bus on the way to breakfast with my grandmother. I'm not sure where we're going. I'm taking care to write in short spurts, as buses in this country are not known for their gentle and docile nature. Actually, I give up-

Now sitting in yet another cafe, with my dearest grandmother in front of me reading her paper, which I had just braved the street to purchase. Breakfast was a club sandwich accompanied by soup and salad. I've had a peaceful two days back in the motherland, I've made two trips to the travel agency. Once to submit my passport for an Australian passport, another time to retrieve my passport, because for some reason, Americans do not have visa-waiver status down under. I at a few times with Cousin Arthur and his family(my Aunt and Uncle, who do not have Anglicized names), and as Cousin Silvian returned from her honeymoon yesterday, I plan on visiting her today.

Beyond all that, little of worth has happened, with the exception of my 6 km evening walk last night from Zhong Xiao Fuxing Station to Muzha Station where I currently reside. Cousin Nancy had it in her mind to challenge herself to the “trek”, and being the caring and worried older brother, I accompaned her, to her eventual regret. For one, I didn't allow her to slow her pace or give up once it became clear that the flats she was wearing were extremely unsuitable for the task at hand. The entire exercise took 2 hours, about a fourth too long for my linking. I finished with a beer from my neighborhood convenience store; Cousin Nancy sat on a bench and would not get back up for quite some time.

As it's now the morning after, I feel great. She is probably cursing me, her legs, herself, and life itself.

I'm fine with that.

11/18/13 Brisbane Airport

Let's try it again! Plane ended up grounded due to technical issues. We made ourselves comfortable in the airport till about 0400, when the airline announced that the plane wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow, and would send us out on the same flight the next night. They had also found us all accommodations for the day, and are paying for the food and lodging. Being as there were 30 odd people in our group, the closest hotel they could find with enough vacancies was in a suburb some 50 minutes away. Unable to get a bus that early in the morning, we set off in a fleet of 10 cabs. At 3.3AUD a kilometer, each cab cost nearly 200AUD. We arrived in Ipswich and checked ourselves in around 0700 in the morning.

Not caring to retire and potentially ruin my sleep pattern, I decided to go out and explore the town, accompanied by Anna, another tour member who was traveling with her mother(who had retired for the morning). We first made our way about 1 km east of the hotel to Queen's Park, where we were told there existed a zoo with koalas. There did stand such a place, but our bad luck continued to haunt us: they did not open on Mondays. We consoled ourselves with the nearby park equipment, including a zipline and an awesome jungle gym. I also climbed into a provided hammock, but it was not comfortably designed, and I quickly gave it up.

We made out way to the center of town, where we explored the windows of unopened shops and waited for a nearby art museum to open. I wasn't so impressed by the museum when it did eventually open, as it was mostly geared toward a younger generation than mine. A much younger generation. Abandoning the town center, we moved westward toward the streets known as the Top of the Town, where numerous second hand shops, cafes, and bookstores greeted us. Snacked at one of the hipster eateries before walking into “Paint”, which turned out to be a sex toy shop, and a few second hand stores.

Last stop of the day was at the Riverlink Mall, so called because of the train tracks that run through it, as well as the river that it was built besides. I picked up a bottle of Shiraz at the liquor store inside, as well as some cheese and sausage at the grocers. After we returned to the hotel and whiled away the afternoon in conversation over said provisions. (Note: Anna is allergic to alcohol? She gets red and splotchy. Kinda odd, kinda cute.)

A bus picked us all up at 1900, bringing us back to the airport, where we now sit waiting to board the same plane that left us in the lurch yesterday.

Second time's the charm.

11/17/13 Brisbane Airport

We had morning call relatively late this morning at 0730hrs. We left about 0900, making the long journey to the Antarctic Center next door. First order of business was a ride on the Hagglund, the tracked Antarctic vehicle of choice, able to traverse over snow, ice, and rock, over steep grades and deep water, all of which was demonstrated to us. Kinda like a really bumpy rollercoaster. This was followed by a short stay in the simulation room, which basically was a room with some snow and ice, a slide made of the same, and some wind generators demonstrating how cold it is at the South Pole(Hint: it's really goddamn cold). We finished up with the Blue Penguin exhibit. Shortest of all the penguin species, blue penguins are also likely the cutest as well. Most penguins in the exhibits were injured or disabled in some way, so this was more a shelter than an exhibit.

Leaving the Center, we had a quick walk in a neighborhood park before heading back to Christchurch Airport for the three leg journey home. Our first two legs, Christchurch to Auckland, then Auckland to Brisbane, went well. However, our last flight is currently delayed, with no given reason. Three hours and three delays past original departure time, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

End New Zealand

(I missed the 4 year anniversary of this blog! Oh noes! But wait, its been 4 years! Let's hope I'll be able to keep up for another 4 years!)

11/16/13 Christchurch

We're back in the same hotel we stayed in last week when we came down to Christchurch. The C130 that was parked outside is gone, probably to the Antarctica base for a delivery. Of course, with that gone, I have nothing to do but to sit at the bar and put my thoughts to paper.

Our first stop of the day was Mt. Cook. By that I mean gazing at it from afar, in all its cloud covered glory. We hiked up to some random scenic lookout in some random park, about an hour all told. It wasn't the most impressive scene of the day, but the hike was enjoyable.

Our second stop was much more visually appealing. The Church of the Good Shepard at Lake Tekapo is a small stone chapel perched on a small(and I mean small) rise on the edge of a turquoise blue lake. Said lake had a rocky shoreline, but scattered around the lake are huge swaths of flowering lupines. Probably the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen(that I remember, anyhow). I could have spent the entire day just sitting there gazing at that lake, but unfortunate time constraints dictated that some inadequate photos were just going to have to do. A greater sigh hath never been sighed.

Our final stop before hitting out hotel was actually a gift shop/restaurant. Here, I gave into temptation and bought myself an alpaca fur rug. It cost me every damn dollar I had on me, and then some, but I had to have it. It was a third the price of a similar rug I had seen a few days ago, in the same snow leopard style pattern. At that price point, I was happy to spend a good percentage of my income on such a luxury. Now my problem is deciding whether to put in on my hammock, my bed, my sofa, my bedroom floor, or my study floor. That and hoping said rug will get through customs ok. Yes, I know; first world issues.

I've a red envelop in front of me, which I'm supposed to fill with money for the tour guide. $120USD or the equivalent in NZ Dollars. Both of which I spent getting my rug. Luckily, I've still got some Euro. I think he'll be fine with that, so long as I get the conversion right.

Tonight is my last night in New Zealand. We have a three plane journey back to Taipei tomorrow.

New Zealand is really an incredible country. Safe, clean, no dangerous beasts, nor pests. No enemies to speak of. Really, the only flaw is the dearth of beautiful women, especially when compared to Europe. Of course, with or without the women, I'll be happy to come back again, for whatever reason.

So long as that reason isn't Zombie-free Sanctuary.

11/15/13 Omarama

Lots of driving this fine day. On our way back north now. We spent most of the morning in Te Anau, going on a brief walk of the lake front, visiting several native bird exhibits. I got to see a live takahe, a blue/green chicken type creature. Kinda cute, but very vulnerable, very delicious looking, and probably not all that smart. Which is probably why they're endangered. Still, it's good to know people take their conservation seriously in NZ, even if they don't bother to lock the cage for their endangered species.

Following our walk, we watched a 30 minute film, Shadowlands, produced by a few people on the Lord of the Rings crew during their spare time, using footage shot entirely in the Fjordlands National Park. I liked the soundtrack more than the movie, but that doesn't mean that the movie was no good, only that the soundtrack was awesome. The visuals were pretty cool, but not really something I thought worthy of the soundtrack.

Some food, some road, and a bunch of Tom Clancy novels later, I was standing in the same river/stream Peter Jackson shot the water horses scene in Fellowship of the Ring. While I didn't quite recognize it, the stream was extremely pretty in its own right, especially with the SHIT TONS of flowers blooming around the place(foxgloves or lupines, I don't remember which is which). Really, I mean SHIT TONS of flowers in purple and pink mostly, but a few white ones scattered here an- my ex just called, she got into an accident. Must be her third one this year? She seems fine, if complaining less than expected.

Anyhow, after flowers, we stopped at a bridge with people bungee jumping off it for a quick gander. I wasn't much interested in jumping myself, as I've already done it before, but I amused myself watching other people jump.

We made it to our hotel some hours later, having a pre-dinner walk in the local countryside, which was much more interesting than I thought it would be. Anna, a tour mate(who lives pretty close to where I do in Los Angeles) found a (dead, I'm pretty sure) bird egg. I accidentally broke it. Yes, I'm a terrible human being. I know. My ex will tell you all about it. Or not. She doesn't like talking about our relationship, even now.

Anyways, I spent the rest of the night uploading photos.

11/14/13 Te Anau

Long day today. We woke up really goddamn early to catch a boat. Actually, we spent most of the day on boats. Our first boat brought us from Lake Manapouri to Manapouri Power Station, a hydroelectric power station that's mostly underground, which spins its turbines using the height difference between the lake and nearby Doubtful sound. Quite ingenious, really. It never occurred to me that hydroelectric power could be produced so. Doubtful Sound was actually our next stop after a short bus ride from the power station to another dock, where we got on another, larger, boat. We had lunch on board the second boat, which took us on a two hour tour of the sound.

I took lots of pictures, conversing here and there with tour members and our boat provided guide, a cute thing from mainland China here on a work study program. She reminds me a lot of Kristine, who is currently living half the world away in DC(sooo far). They're both tiny(or at least seem so) and excitable. Cute-as-a-button cute. We exchanged Facebook info, but as she is a mainlander, and behind the Great Firewall, I doubt it'll be of any use.

Returning to the dock, we retraced our earlier path, taking a bus back to he power station. En-route, while on an long uphill part of the journey, our bus' engine got hot enough that it set off the emergency fire extinguisher system in the engine compartment, causing a cascade of foam to pour out the back of the bus. It was somewhat startling, but wasn't really an issue. We took a third boat back to the dock we originally left from this morning, where we met our bus and made our way into the town of Te Anau.

After dinner, we walked over to another dock, where we boarded a fourth boat, which took us to the glow worm caves on the other side of the lake Te Anau was built along. The glow worms were the same species that we saw a few days earlier, but in much greater numbers, and in the pitch darkness of the caves, they looked like constellations on the ceilings. I actually picked out a jellyfish constellation.

After our fifth and final boat ride back to Te Anau, we checked into our hotel, and I retired for the night as the bar had already closed.

11/13/13 Queenstown

We had an odd start to the day. Puzzling world is basically a small theme park(emphasis on small) with a man-sized labyrinth as it's main(and really, only) attraction. The labyrinth contains 2km worth of twists and turns and dead ends. Of course, I made it through the thing with the wall touch trick, taking me about 40 minutes. It was surprisingly amusing.

Drove a bit to the 45th parallel, which was basically a slab of rock stating that we were standing on the 45th parallel. Took a commemorative photo before driving on to Queenstown. First stop in town was the Queenstown Gardens. Watched some people do green bowling. Didn't really understand it after 15 minutes, but they seemed be enjoying themselves.

Dinner was in the heights above the town, in a restaurant reachable only by cable gondola. I've been riding a lot of those recently.

Getting into the hotel relatively early, I found the bar(upstairs in its own little nook) and spent the rest of my evening there. Some tour mates showed up eventually, and we conversed some before heading to bed.

Probably the least eventful day of the tour. That I recall, in any case.

11/12/13 Lake Wanaka

First stop of the say was a reflection lake, of all things. It was about a 20 minute hike from the parking lot. Besides it being reflective, the view wasn't especially amazing. Maybe I've already been spoiled by New Zealand's many spectacular views... After our brisk morning walk, we got back on the bus and made our way to the base of Fox Glacier, where we dismounted and had ourselves another hike up to a vantage point to view the glacier. Again, not too spectacular, especially after yesterday's helicopter tour. We did get to see the odd hole formation under the glacier, which was interesting.

We followed our morning hikes with lunch, which was itself followed by another short hike, 5 minutes, through the woods where we marveled over the crystal clear streams. This was especially amazing to me, as I've never seen a forest stream 2-3 foot deep yet be as clear as glass. Beauttiful.

More driving in the afternoon to a scenic lookout for pictures of Lake Wanaka, then to a nearby airfield, where I proceeded to shell out lots of money for the privilege of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, surviving only because of some string attacked to a nylon bed sheet.

Skydiving is an interesting experience to say the least. I will recommend anyone going up there to where gloves, after I damn near froze off my fingers during the free fall. I didn't really think much about the “dangers” of skydiving, nor was I at all nervous. When the time comes, you just...get in position, and let the wind take you. The process is as follows:

You wiggle into a jumpsuit(I wonder if this is where the term “jumpsuit” comes from?), and are fitted with a cap and goggles/eyeshield. Then you meet your tandem jumper, and climb into the aircraft. Our particular aircraft was a converted recreational prop plane, painted bright orange. It takes about 10 minutes for the plane to climb to 12,000 ft, making a big spiraling pattern upwards. I'm told that any higher than 13,000 feet and you'll need oxygen, but that's an additional cost that I was unwilling to pay for. At some point, the door opens, the green light comes on, and you go flying out into the blue. Freefall is cold, and I don't quite like it. As I mentioned above, my gloveless fingers damn near froze off.

It only takes a minute or two to float our way down once the chute opens, but while I was up there...man. The snow capped mountains in the distance, the glistening lakes and rivers, and the crisp green fields...I don't know if I could pick a better place to go skydiving than over NZ. It's not a life changing experience to be sure, but it's one well worth doing anyway.

Dinner was underwhelming, but had a long walk along Lake Wanaka after. Very peaceful and contemplative. I aksed myself what I was doing with my life, but realized I was content with it. It's hard to be discontent while on vacation.

New Zealand, Part 1

11/12/13 Fox Glacier

Woke up this morning to a mediocre breakfast, but the rest of the day was anything but mediocre.

We took the train from Christchurch to Arthur's Pass, enjoying the mountain scenery along the way. There was even a special open air train car for photographers. Note that next time I get on this train, I should make sure to stand on the right-hand side of the car, where the views are superior. Alighting at Arthur's Pass and meeting our tour bus(which beat us there), we went on to have lunch in the little town of Hokitika, followed by a quick walk on the beach. I picked up what I think to be a large piece of unpolished jade. Apparently, the town is rolling in the stuff.

Leaving all that behind, we made our way to the town of Fox Glacier, but not before stopping at the Bushman's Lodge, definitely the most redneck structure I've seen outside of the deep South. Watched a short video about the history and development of the venison industry in New Zealand, accompanied by exhibits such as a giant eel, an albino possum, and a whole bunch of redneck paraphernalia. An interesting experience, to be sure.

Arriving in Fox Glacier, we dropped our stuff at our hotel before walking to the nearby helipads. A good dozen helipads were actively taking tourists up for a look-about of both Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Though it was an optional activity, I happily shelled out the $250USD for the 30minute ride + glacier landing/walkabout and boarded a whirlybird posthaste. Took lots of pictures. The weather was really cooperating, giving us blue skies and clear views of damn near everything.

Returning to town, we ate dinner and went off on a night time nature hike, this time to see New Zealand's famous glowworms. They're pretty hard to describe, but they basically attach themselves to the underside of things, then drop down lines of sticky mucous before emitting a glow from their backsides to attract insects. Said insects get caught in the lines and are consumed.

They glow blue, and are all kinds of amazing. Really.

Returned to the hotel, had some drinks, then went to bed.

11/10/13 Christchurch

Ain't much happened today. We visited the Agrodome in the morning, feeding sheep and alpaca, petting both. We also watched a sheep shearing and a herd dog demonstration. After that, it was all driving and flying, with a quick stop at a alpaca wool duvet factory. I also got to check out some alpaca rugs. I really wanted one, but for $4000USD(not NZD), it's more or less a pipe dream. Got on the plane from Auckland to Christchurch. Christchurch airport, incidentally, is the staging base for the US Antarctica mission, and had a C-130 Galaxy sitting on the tarmac outside the storage hanger for said Antarctic mission.

Dinner, drinks at the hotel bar, and sleep(slightly tipsy).

11/9/13 Rotorua

Had a pretty traditional breakfast this morning. Eggs, bacon, the lot. Left the Marmite alone.

We got on the tour bus and made out way out of Auckland. Seeing as Auckland is a pretty modern city, it wasn't really in our interest to stay and sight-see all that much. Arrived in Hobbiton, but didn't have a tour of the movie set scheduled, which was a shame. I'll be sure to come back and do that next time I come to New Zealand. After a quick stop, we made our way to Rotorua Skyline, a gondola accessible luge park located in the heights above Rotorua proper. We went up, went on a quick luge ride, and had lunch. A few photos later, we descended the heights, got on the bus, and made our way to some boat docks on the edge of Lake Rotorua. Our boat captain and first mate were both ethnic Maori, who greeted us traditionally with nose touches. The boat took up to the island in the middle of the lake, Mokoia, which looks remarkably like the snake that swallowed an elephant in the illustrated “Le Petite Prince.” We had ourselves an hour long nature walk on the island, ending at the Hinemoa's Pool, the scene of one of New Zealand's great love stories(Google it).

After leaving the island, we made our way to Te Puia, a Maori cultural park built around some steam geysers and hot springs. Took a glance at a Maori carving school and a Maori weaving school, but the most impressive attraction of the park has got to be the geyser terraces. White ashy terrain, full of cracks and vents gushing hot steam. It's not really a landscape I've seen before, and really wins in novelty.

The highlight of the day, however, was the kiwi bird exhibit. Visited the domed building multiple times hoping to see the thing, but it just didn't want to come out and say hi until I was just about to leave the park. Frankly speaking, it looks like a fluffy brown bowling ball, much larger than I had thought it would be. I got to watch the thing poke it's long beak into the ground looking for bugs to eat. Really unique experience.

Hotel for the night is a Holiday Inn. Dinner was at the same. Ate, then made my way to the bar, skipping the Maori Dinner show. Had a few drinks before making my way to bed.

11/8/12 Auckland

I'm sitting on my bed in Sky City Hotel. My tour guide claims it's the best hotel in town. I'm inclined to believe him, if his idea of best hotel is the one with a casino. I had spent most of the day on the plane and am not currently in an argumentative state. Taipei to Brisbane to Auckland isn't as annoying as LAX to Taipei, but it's not far off. Have since determined I'm the best seatmate you can have on an airplane, because I don't ever get up to use the bathroom, I won't be fighting for the armrest, and I'm not fat. As usual, caught up on my movies on the planes. Notably, I watched “Pacific Rim” and “Red 2.” Both were movies that I've been meaning to watch for some time. Enjoyed both of them very much.

My new tour group is 34+1 tour guide. In the 34, there are 4 sets of honeymooners, with nearly all the remainder being 40+ years of age, with the exception of one 5 year old boy and one 29 year old woman accompanying her mother. Prospects of making friends is not good, as are prospects of finding someone to converse with.

(My penmanship is terrible, especially when not writing at a desk.)

Good news! I got myself a prepaid Vodafone simcard. It cost me $35NZD, including $5 for the card itself. It comes with 500MB worth of 'Net, but I can always buy more with the $30 credit. Not bad at all.

We only had one activity on our first day(night) in New Zealand: We went up Sky City's tower and took some pictures. I suppose it's as convenient and interesting an activity for a bunch of tired travelers as anything could be.

Sleep now.

Back in Taipei/Pre New Zealand

(Really behind in transcriptions, but I really am keeping up with the writing.)

11/7/13 Taipei

Currently sitting in yet another cafe, writing up what's happened in the last three days.

Monday was literally just me lazing about at home. There wasn't much to do, what with the heavy rains outside.

Tuesday, I spent in various places. Notably, I went to the Xingmending shopping district, the Taipei 101, and Taipei Station Underground Mall.

Xingmending is known to have a hopping nightlift, though I've personally never enjoyed it, as I need to be home before my self-imposed curfew of 2000hrs, as my grandmother can't go to bed until I return. I'm also not really into hopping nightlife type activities anyhow. I was only in Xingmending to accompany Nancy why she shopped around. Didn't end up buying anything, besides food to eat on the spot.

Taipei 101 had changed some since I last explored it. Notably, in the mall, the 4^th floor, which used to contain a cafe, some food, and a PAGEONE bookstore, had been taken over by some well known luxury brands. Having checked the directory, I knew that the PAGEONE still existed, but kept missing it. It's original entrance had been converted to a Burberry store. Eventually managed to find it, spotting its tiny new entrance at what used to be a small service door, obviously jury rigged to serve as a new entrance to the large bookstore behind Burberry. Talk about bad faith.

Metro mall was just for shits and giggles.

Wednesday, I made the long metro trip to the last stop of the system, Danshui. It took me a little more than an hour to get there from Muzha, as Muzha was one station off from being the other end of the system. Walked along the beaches and explored the oldtown. I met up with Nick in the evening. He attends university close by, and was somewhat knowledgeable about the area. We proceeded to ride bikes along the banks of the river, followed by dinner at an American style vegetarian restaurant. The original restaurant I had wanted to eat at was closed, and this was the restaurant next to it. Wasn't all that enjoyable, but food is food, and I shouldn't complain. Caught the MRT home afterwards and made it back before 2000hrs, though it was a near thing.

11/3/13 Taipei

Woke up late today, but had to disappoint my grandmother. She had be wanting to go out for breakfast, but had to settle for home food when I informed her that her daughter, my aunt, had arranged to have lunch with me. My aunt's daughter, Silvian, who had just gotten married, and it was apparently some kinda of tradition for the two newly united families to have a meal together after the wedding or something. I am unsure how these traditions work, or even what these traditions are. Either way, I was invited. Lunch was at the buffet at the Ambassador Hotel in Taipei. My grandmother would have been invited herself, but for some reason, she disliked the family of the groom. The meal wasn't awkward, the food was fine, enough said.

After lunch, Silvian, her brother Arthur, and her new husband, had me come along with them to Taiwan's version of Home Depot. Pretty much the same as Home Depot at home. Major differences included the name, the building, and the general uselessness of the staff. Major similarities include the products sold, the layout of the store, and the orange aprons the staff wear. Spent a bunch of time looking for a roll of real duct tape for ducts, which I later used to repair the range hood vent in Silvian's new apartment.

Played boardgames after.

Not the most eventful day.

11/2/13 Yilan

Spent most of yesterday lazing about, with the exception of an evening outing to a newlywed relative's place. Silvian moved into a small flat about 40 mins away with her new husband, and not having left on their honeymoon as of yet(they're going to the Maldives via Singapore), they invited me over with Cousin Nancy to play boardgames and drink beer. Interestingly enough, the beer was from Le Ble Dior, and if you buy two growlers, they give you a hard foam case to carry it in. I thought it a good deal. Boardgames ended up being Portable Catan(which I had brought with me from Los Angeles) and Carcasonne. Having never played Carcasonne before, I thought the scoring system slightly confusing, and not really worth the money for what you get. Then again, most boardgames aren't really worth the money.

Currrently sitting on a tour bus, on the way home from Yilan. Woke up early to hump it to Taipei Station, to meet up with my one day tour group, some 25 people, plus guide and Samsung representatives. Samsung representatives? Yes, this was a photography tour half sponsored by Samsung, who was pushing their new mirror-less cameras on we ignorant masses. They had loaners available for all of us, but I figured today would be a good opportunity for me to test the limitations of my Fuji X100, and did not opt for a loaner. Result? I miss my DSLR, but at least my back don't hurt from humping a bunch of camera equipment around.

For serious photography, a DSLR can't be beat, even by a mirror-less. I missed a lot of shots today, and some shots that took a lot of effort would have been the work of mere-seconds on my D7000. Still, for a pure walk-about travel camera, the Fuji X1000 seems almost purpose built.

We visited a small botanical garden this morning, but due to poor weather conditions(rain), I didn't get the shots I wanted. We had a model along for the trip, possibly good looking, but with the Fuji's focal length, I'd have to get too close to the model for good shots, and would be in the way of other photographers, and opted to take other shots instead.

Second stop was a cultural park commemorating the logging camp that used to be in it's place. Apparently, said logging camp was instrumental in the area's development throughout most of the 20^th Century. I took a long walk around the park and the lake contained within it, and again, the rain was unhelpful.

Final stop was an contemporary art museum. We weren't there to admire the art. We didn't even go inside. We were there to admire the tilted structure of the museum, which was probably a nightmare for the contractor to build, slanted as it was.

Lesson of the day? Bring DLSRs for serious photography.

10/31/13 Taipei

It's been a few days since I last wrote, but only because, really, it's taken me this long to gather enough material to write about. On Tuesday(day before yesterday), I went out with my grandmother again, to Shenkeng. But before I get into that, I must relay at quick story about the bus stop in front of my grandmother's. Every day, buses labeled with “666” in big red LED letters pass by, with me always wondering where they went. Someone in the bus service must have a sense of humor, be cause they go to Shenkeng, which literally means “Deep Hole.” Yeah.

So my grandmother hears that a restaurant in Shenekeng serves good chicken, and decides that we should go, because, lets face it, what else do we have to do? We caught the bus there late morning, deciding to lunch there. Chicken wasn't all that spectacular, but was particularly fat for an Asian chicken. My grandmother loves to walk around looking at stuff, and since I do love my grandmother, off we went. Most exciting thing she saw were the fish in the semi-clear stream. I didn't think it special, but it made her happy. I was actually pretty happy about it too. They say you can't choose your family, but I like to think I lucked out on this end.

Wednesday, (yesterday) my grandmother decides she wants to go to the market. Being a dutiful, loving, grandson, I told her I would accompany her and carry the bags. Now when she says market, we ain't talking about no shiny, well-lit, one-stop supermarket. No, my grandmother does it old-school. Imagine a farmer's market, but in the dirty, smelly alleys of South-East Asia. Add the smell of rot and mold, stains upon stains, and don't forget that even if it's in an alley, the sun doesn't penetrate the dense canopy of umbrellas, tarps, plastic panels, and aluminum siding built into a common, hodgepodge structure I hesitate to call a roof. Stalls of vegetables, fish(maybe on ice, maybe on the plywood board it was chopped on) meat(probably pork, most definitely on the board it was chopped on. A typical upper-middle suburban American would freak at this place. One because of the smell, two because of the general lack of hygiene, and three they don't take no VISA, cash only. I will note that after foodstuffs, the most common stall is actually women's underwear, usually lacy, usually displayed on armless, headless, legless mannequins; sometimes lit from inside, sometimes not.

(Of course, I've been here many times and am quite at home with the sights and the smells, having lived at, eaten from, and slept in much worse. The above is only for reference, and only for any readers that stumble across this post that don't have any idea what a farmer's market in Asia is like.)

After finishing our shopping, we proceeded home, where I did some laying about until late afternoon, where I joined my cousin Arthur on a hike down the Taiwan Cultural University mountain. I don't actually know the name of the mountain, I just know that the University sits on the peak. We went our separate ways after the hike, me going to join another cousin, Nick, for dinner, and Arthur to parts unknown, hopefully for a date.

Today,(Thursday) I was somewhat more productive. I did little in the morning, but went out in the afternoon for a pre-trip prep meeting for upcoming tour of New Zealand. Basic info, but did hear that there would be optional skydiving. Will decide on that when the time comes. It ain't cheap, but I really didn't expect it to be.

Went to specialty pen shop afterward, and purchased a new matte black Pilot Vanishing Point(they call it a Capless here). I'm writing with it now, and I'm loving it. It's no Mont Blanc, but it's much more practical, and I wouldn't hurt if I beat it up some, as I'm wont to do with all my gear.

Had Halloween dinner at Le Ble Dior, where Halloween is apparently a big thing, even if noone else in Taiwan celebrates it. Tankards of beer with my cousins(female cousins, because it seems like my male cousins don't drink much, if at all), paper cat ears, and giant inflatable Jack-o-Lanterns was my theme for the night. Didn't get drunk, but caught the MRT home, since I wasn't driving anyhow.

So goddamn convenient, that MRT.

10/28/13 Taipei

I lazed about today, eating breakfast at Starbucks with my grandmother. I concluded that Starbucks has possibly the worst food of all the chain coffee shops in Taiwan. Escorted her to the doctor's office in the afternoon for a checkup, after which we walked home via river bank levy footpath. Dinner was Asian-ized pizza(not as bad as you'd think). I then spent the rest of the evening doing online things.