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J-Griff and G-Ball
November 1: The last day of my wasted youth. November 2: The first day of my dreaded 30's. November 3: I meet Jason and Greg at Chiang Kaisheck Airport for a week of debaucherous living, gluttonous eating and kung fu fighting. No one was disappointed -- except for a girl at a bar called B-1 who isn't talking to me anymore. . . but enough about my personal mellodrama, let's get on with the vacation notes!
Day one included long naps for everyone involved, cups of bitter Taiwanese coffee -- which the boys from Seattle did not appreciate -- a visit to the Lincoln Memorial-esque Chiang Kaisheck Memorial, and a trip to Keelung for the Keelung night market. At the market, we had some noodles and syaoumei. At the expatriot bar, Sundays: Waiter: "This is our last day we will be open." Ed: "Really? Why?" Waiter: "With the economic downturn, no one eats American food anymore." I glance at the menu, noting that I only ever drink the cocktails there: "Yeah, that stuff is very bad for you. I never eat American food." The waiter shrugged and wandered back to the bar.
Day two found us enjoying the National Palace Museum (known by locals simply as gugong). When the Republic of China fled the mainland, they took all major collections of Chinese Art with them to Taiwan. The People's Republic then destroyed all artifacts that remained, making the Taipei National Palace Museum the largest collection of Chinese Art in the world. Griff, Greg, my Taiwanese friend, Carry, and I enjoyed the sculptures, scripts, scrolls, calligraphy, and historic artifacts and then wandered the beautiful tea garden.
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Day 2 ended at the Hwansi Night market, better known as Snake Alley. You know what? Snake does taste like chicken. We still will never know if Snake Penis Pills really increase virility, though. Day 3 included a trip to the Sihlin night market where they recent renovated the central building to include several sub-basements of recreation: from rifle ranges to indoor paintball to a go kart track. Carry ran me off the road at one point, splatting Greg in the face with a chunk of track. Griff noted: "It was fun as long as I was far enough away to not get hit with anything." The guys working at the track cursed the gringos in broken English, I apologized in Chinese, and we went on with our fun and games. We also visited the Beitou hot springs in Yangmingshan National Park, but weren't alowed to take pictures in the hot springs to share with everyone. Even though we were enjoying Taipei, this was the point in the trip where it was necessary to get out of town and see some sites. . . November 14, 2002
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Here's to good friends
My birthday clelebrations left me at a high-class after hours joint off of Chungsiao East Road at 5:30 in the morning. I took a cab ride home and caught a half a Z before heading out to meet Jason and Greg two hours later. Despite my old age, I was too excited to sleep on the bus ride to the train station, however, I still had to curse my friends for flying in at such an early hour the day after my birthday. That is like telling an employee that they must work a morning shift on New Years Day. Anyhow, I was very happy to my buds from Seattle all the same.
