Taiwan ROCked

For Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, me and four other SLP teachers left Korea, a country which technically is always at war with its next door neighbour and could conceivably be attacked by nuclear weapons at any moment, and headed for Taiwan, a country which is technically always at war with its next door neighbour and could conceivably be attacked by nuclear weapons at any moment. I am thinking Iran, or maybe Syria for my next vacation, although I wouldn’t want to rule out Venezuela completely.

To give everyone the cole’s notes, in 1949 the Nationalist Chinese government (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party were involved in a civil war in mainland China. When the battle was over, about 2 million people, many of whom were military personnel, Nationalist politicos and business-persons, refuged to Taiwan and thought they’d give a little something called capitalism a shot. Communist China didn’t take too kindly to this and considered (and still do to this day) this part of their Republic a “renegade province.” Mainland China reserves the right to bring Taiwan under control by any means necessary, including militarily action, despite the fact that the Taiwanese have their own democratically held elections and are all but independent. Five days before we left for Taiwan, the county’s bid to have a seat in the UN was thwarted by the General Assembly. Wang Guangya, China’s full-time, permanent UN representative averred, “The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China... Although China is not yet united, the fact the both Taiwan and the mainland belong to one and the same China has never been changed.” (And you thought this blog was all hot dog toasters and espying naked Koreans in spas). Of course not an ounce of this crossed our minds as we took to the city of Taipei for five days; I think the photos and accompanying stories will attest to this, but that’s the recent history of this island.


Thanks Lonely Planet, you called it.


Taipei 101. (Three gold stars to anyone who can guess how many floors it is). The tallest skyscraper in the world, until Dubai and it's oil filthy hands complete their 152 story, 1853 foot building in 2008.
P.S. Come 2008: take a seat C.N. Tower


Longshan Temple. Thanks Buddha. Keep on keeping.

The first night was spent at The Source, one of the handful of gay clubs in the city, because we were assured by Frederick, a man who’s lifestyle takes him to these types of clubs often, that we would have a good time. I guess there was a little part of me that wondered what might happen if things got out of hand, uncomfortable and guys started to hit on me uncontrollably (hey you never know, it could happen). Apparently, I didn’t have to be concerned with too much propositioning because I was drinking beer and that’s got “straight” written all over it. Turns out that the club was all but empty because of the full moon holiday in Taipei, so we had the whole dance club to ourselves. We poured our own drinks, powered up the DJ equipment and took turns spinning our own private party until the wee hours of the morning.


Just bust a move. Is that boy in the blue shirt raising the roof? Oh dear.


This club had stripper poles all over the place and while I probably wouldn't be hired by the Chip'n'Dales, I think Spiderman might be giving me a shout sometime soon.

On the third day we woke up bright and early and headed to Taroko National Park to enjoy the Taroko Gorge. Upon arriving we rounded up 14 other tourists and hired two 12 seater vans to take us on a tour of the Park. Our tour guide charged us $600 TD (about $20 Canadian... and American (oh snap!)) each for 6 hours of van time, a tour of his jade and marble shop, lunch, which was served in the restaurant attached to his jade shop, and a ride back to the train station in his deluxe coach bus, which picked us up from his jade and marble shop / restaurant. (That capitalism stuff I mentioned earily is catching on in this country). When we arrived at the train station we were informed that there was only standing room left for all returning trains back to Taipei, so we bit the bullet and got ready for being erect. Before getting on the train we bought a deck of cards to help make the three hours more enjoyable. Our train car had a group of Taiwanese teens (who didn’t speak any English) and eventually I started to perform some magic for them. It was great to do card and coin tricks for them while bridging the language barrier.


Buddha's like McDonalds around here. If you need a Big Mac and a place to discover the Four Noble Truths then Taiwan is the place. A Buddhist temple deep in the heart of Taroko Park.


The Taroko Gorge and a perfect photo for the Outdoor Life Network.


A monument built to comemerate the 241 people who died building the scenic road along the gorge.


Posing for a photo with a fan of magic. The train was packed. It wasn't Mumbai, but one could definitely use a sardine simile if they felt like being banal.


I thought the museum was a tad boring. Apparently I wasn't the only one.


The Grand Hotel, once one of the 10 best hotels in all the world, certainly lived up to its name. When you're this big they call you Grand.


Treating ourselves to classy drinks in the lobby of the Grand Hotel. I decided to whet my whistle with a snifter of Johnnie Walker, the finest whiskey Scotland has to offer. When in Rome... right?

All in all, the trip was a terrific 5 days of fun, education and tourism. A wonderful group of us just became that much closer after our five days in Formosa (Portuguese for beautiful island).

UN for Taiwan. Peace forever.

With my all my heart,

Chief (and Hankie)