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Published: March 8th 2013
The first few days in Taipei are full of new sights, tastes and smells. We visit the city at a relatively easy pace, no need to go hardcore sightseeing when you're here for a longer while anyway. Most of our daily activities centre around finding good places to eat. We check out some vegetarian eateries, which you can find in pretty much any district. Some of them are the traditional Buddhist vegetarian type of soup kitchen, others offer buffet food, and yet others are more proper restaurants. One of the latter we try out is The Loving Hut. The food there is not bad, although it centres a bit too heavily on fake meat, in my opinion. What really gets to me, though, is the cultish propaganda by the owner of the Loving Hut restaurants and self-proclaimed 'Supreme Master', Ching Hai. That rather creepy lady really wants to promote her books and 'teachings', a mumbo-jumbo hodgepodge borrowing from Buddhism and Taoism mixed with esoteric hippie crap, sectarian mind-control and a dash of Yoga. Her intention: to relieve gullible folks of their mullah. If there was a Taiwanese Futurama, she would be 'Mum'.
We visit the extraordinary National Palace Museum, which
houses one of the world's biggest and most important collection of Chinese art. It appears that the Chinese have noticed this as well, for the museum is full of mainland tour groups. In parts of the museum, there are so many that we get stuck and have to follow the flock around until we are able to escape. For some of the more famous jade sculptures, we have to line up with them. When some of them start pushing forward, I broaden my shoulders and deliberately block their view onto the artworks just to piss them off in return and get them out of their comfort zone. It's a bit like trying to educate little kids - misbehave and you'll be told off.
Afterwards, we check out the famous Shilin Night Market. We try our first Taiwanese Stinky Tofu, a deliciously putrid dish that most of you would hate, I'm sure. There's coffin bread, a fried fat toast filled with a sort of veggie chowder. We also have sesame noodles, various types of excellent baozi (steamed dumplings) and sweet chiffon cakes for dessert.
One day, we wander around Da'an Park, a nice, sprawling site where people walk, hike,
exercise and shoot films. It's also perfect for a little nap on a bench, as it turns out. Right next to it is the Taipei Grand Mosque, a rather beautiful building amongst the otherwise dull architecture of most of Taipei. A friendly Muslim man spots us shifting from one foot to the other, hesitating, unsure whether we're allowed to enter. He says it's no problem, and shows us around. Turns out he's Indonesian, Javan, to be precise. He tells J. to go up the stairs to the lady's prayer section, and opens the door for me to enter the main prayer hall. We sit down on the carpet to contemplate. There's an African man to my left, immersed in prayer, but I wave at him and he waves back, smiling, all the while continuing his recitals. After a few minutes, I nod at my Indonesian guide, indicating I'm ready to leave. We thank him many times for his help, and wander off, back into the Taiwanese reality.
It doesn't take long for the persistent smog layer that covers the sky, particularly in in Xinzhuang district, where my apartment is, to get to us. It reddens our eyes and clogs
up our sinuses. The traffic is inevitably hectic and crazy, with armies of scooters zipping in between the cars to get to the front of the red traffic lights. Just like in many other countries, the drivers of posh SUVs do their best to be dicks; in their world only they exist, their vehicle a shield from the outside world, which has to be overpowered and subdued by any means necessary. That said, it doesn't seem to get as anarchic as in China. In fact, the comparison with the mainland springs to mind various times in those first days. People lining up in such a neat and orderly fashion everywhere? Almost unthinkable in the People's Republic. I'm guessing it must have been Japanese influence that caused this specific aberrance.
Apart from that and some other differences I have yet to uncover, on the surface Taiwan could be mistaken for China. Especially for the uninitiated, non-Mandarin-speaking, unassuming visitor. For me, who has experienced the big mainland sibling, it sometimes feels like China light. Taiwan is definitely an easier country to travel. The Taiwanese seem to be a bit less...um...uncouth, and maybe a tad more polite and aware of others and
their personal space. Certainly there is infinitely less retching and spitting going on in public. Everything seems to work somewhat more smoothly, seamlessly, perhaps more effectively as well. Let's have a look what else we can find out about this curious little island, eh?
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Brendan Vermillion
Glad to see you are on the road too
Nice to see a blog from you. Great pictures. I have to say that the no urinating pic made me laugh. Have fun!