Holy Haven! Has Heaven Heard of Hualien!

ok. here's the thing. east coast of Taiwan = beautiful ocean, small towns, no jobs. The no jobs thing became apparent only after some time. In the meanwhile however, we rented a scooter and zapped all over the place. "Hey Brad and Jacqui! is it legal to rent a 125cc scooter?" hahaha "there are no rules here" we reply. In Hualien there is a really great little hostel owned by a Taiwanese world traveler named Ya Chen. We stayed with her in her absolutely gorgeous hostel for almost three weeks.

Taroko gorge is one of the most beautiful spots in all of Taiwan and is located just north of Hualien city. Coincidence time! family member in town! My (Brad) uncle Charles just happened to be hanging out in Taroko with a bunch of his university hommies. So we zapped through that gorge like there was no tomorrow... ziggin... zaggin... 100 foot drops.... sharing single lanes with buses through underground tunnels. Oh ya. Taroko is a blast. Seriously though, Taroko gorge is one of the most beautiful areas you will ever see in the entire world.

Oh Ya! we also had to get a health check done in Taiwan for our potential jobs. So we went to a wicked, amazing, friendly Buddhist hospital. No one could speak English except... little girls! They translated a little note we wrote and we showed that note to the doctors. Success!

We met up with Charles and had some free lunch. You see, him and his pals we're being shown around by the Taiwan government... it was great. Then we flashed back down to Hualien to meet up with Charles and his band of merry men/women. We had a great tour of a wonderful Buddhist temple, where we had a first hand view of the Buddhist operation in Taiwan. Charles then had to quickly leave to catch a flight back home. It was great for both of us to have some help from family. We hope to visit Charles in China later this year. Back to the story!

Holy smokes!!! we only have a 60 day visitor visa... no jobs... no prospects.... everyone is telling us we are under qualified... "do you even know how to teach Taiwan children?" they said. "No" we replied, "the internet said we didn't need experience!!!" panic attack!

We went back to the hostel to regroup... well after a couple days of catching rock shows, flying up and down the coast to surfing beaches, and blasting through the beautiful mountains....

ok ok. but then we asked another teacher vacationing in our hostel where he was working. He told us that Taichung city was really great. He also gave us a couple more useful tips. So... with one opinion from a complete stranger and having heard of Taichung (the third largest city in Taiwan... much cleaner than Taipei), off we went. Taichung bound. last straw or we would have to leave Taiwan and re-enter..... $$$$$$ PANIC! ps. see ya soon Charles (high five!)

First Impressions of Taiwan

After our brief stint in Tokyo it was time to set up a "real" life in Taipei. We stayed at a youth hostel called Taipei Hostel, a little bit of a contrast from the wonderful Kimi Ryoken. Flying from Tokyo to Taipei could be compared to flying from Toronto to Mexico City. We stepped off the plane and everything was tropical and dirty. In Tokyo you'd have to be a real idiot to have a hard time finding your way from the airport to the city, in Taipei we wandered around forever just trying to find the buses. Driving attitudes here are a little different; no rules, no fault, just get out of the way. Made for an interesting voyage to the hostel, dragging all our earthly possessions. At the hostel, we were greeted by the desk staff and a couple cockroaches. Spirits weren't the highest that night, we decided bed would be the best idea and went to sleep, only to discover that there are at least as many mosquitos in Taipei as there are mosquitos *&%&(

Things felt a lot better in the morning. Nothing exciting to report from the stay in Taipei, just devoted some time to getting ourselves on our feet. Highlights included the best bowl of noodles ever from another fancy veggie restaurant and chillin with the people at the hostel. Although the hostel filled us with dread on that first night, it ended up being a great time. The people there really made it, it was our first intro to the expat english teacher scene here, basically just a bunch of laid back people who didn't like the "real" world. The hostel had a roof top garden so nights were spent talking, drinking some beer and playing/appreciating guitar. A guy at the hostel told us about a great hostel in Hualien, on the east coast, run by a really cool girl who would help organize surf trips and stuff. Although we had planned to head to Tainan to look for work we decided to check it out first and off we went.

Tokyo: where everyone is a super fashion icon

When we booked our flight to Taiwan, the travel agent suggested a layover in Tokyo which would last as long as we wanted, in return we only had to pay an airport tax. Obviously we took it, and booked ourselves 4 days in Tokyo.

We stayed at the Kimi Ryoken, famous as the best budget hotel in Tokyo. The room worked out to a little over $60 a night for two people, of course budget is relative. The hotel was fantastically Zen. Instrumental Japanese music was piped out on every floor. The room was absolutely Japanese; bamboo screen, mats on the floor for sleeping. A machine in the lounge dispensed green tea 24/7 another one was equipped with every product ever made by Sapporo.

In Canada I loved nothing more than going out for Japanese food, miso soup, veggie sushi, noodles, salad, so I absolutely couldn’t wait to get to Japan and eat until I burst. Apparently vegetarian Japanese is a North American creation. We told the hotel clerk that we’re vegetarian and her words were “Oh, I’m sorry!”. They don’t even have a word for vegetarian in the Japanese language. Our first night there we couldn’t even be bothered to go find food so by 6:00 am we were just starved. We headed out in search for some breakfast, breakfast in Asia is remarkably similar to lunch and dinner. After wandering around for a while, we finally found a noodle shack that served noodles in miso broth, no pork or fish. Immensely proud of ourselves we handed the vendor a wad of cash. Sighing at the ignorance of tourists he walked over to the entrance put the money in a machine which printed food tickets for us, he handed us the tickets to us, we gave them back to him and then he made our noodles. Noodle shops in Japan are deafening, as slurping is the way of complimenting the chef. (Brad complemented those chefs to near death)

The majority of our time in Tokyo was spent figuring out where we were going to eat next. What can I say, we like food. We did find one really great veg place, a Nuevo Japanese concept restaurant. I can’t remember what we ate but I do remember it being very tasty. I also remember that the restaurant seemed to be in the theme of a midget treefort.... but we love treeforts!! We also made it to a Buddhist temple in a park, featuring a gigantic ginseng tree, a temple, another alter with an ornamental path to get to it, and a statue of a dog which was in a cage, I guess in case it came to life and escaped? At the temple there was a big gong which people would ring after tossing a couple coins towards it. We found another, more deserted temple just across the street with a bigger bell and thought we’d give it a ring ourselves. GONG!!! we we're so pleased with ourselves as that bell rang loudly through a nearby cemetary!!.... then a Buddhist monk came out of the temple to tell us to stop, probably broke a vow of silence or something to do it. Oops.
Sometimes we are just an awful sore thumb.

Japanese kids are about the coolest cats we’ve ever seen, cooler than any European or North American, they all look like rock stars. We thought we’d see how these hipsters partied, but jet lag hit hard, Japan is 13 hours ahead of Ontario. Ever seen Lost in Translation? Our time in Tokyo was just a tiny taste, 3 days is hardly enough time to explore a city. I can’t think of an easier way to ease ourselves into Asian life though, Tokyo, although I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily westernized, is very metropolitan and sane; easy to navigate, nice metro, etc. Taiwan on the other hand is a madhouse.

Marrakesh, Marocco: Robert Plant's Personal Fav.

Picture a centuries old labyrinth where you're never really outside or inside. The streets are too narrow for a car but fit a donkey-drawn wagon perfectly. This is old Marrakesh. Finding your way around is impossible, so you accept being lost and explore the next twist. Your taxi driver tries to sell you hash, the nightwatchman tries to sell you hash, the street vendor tries to sell you opium. If they're not old enough to be selling drugs then they will try to give you a guided tour of the city in English, French, Spanish or the language of your choice, or at least try to help you find your way home. The poverty is overwhelming at times. Marrakesh seems an oasis after a train ride through the desert, where the land has nothing to offer; the people in the city seem just as hungry. Europe's proximity adds a sharp contrast. Mercedes and beggars, fine dining and food stands, French and Arabic.

For ten dollars US, two people can stay in a gorgeous Moroccan guest house. To find our buried palace, we had to hire a local man to guide us through five foot high tunnels, stone staircases and dark alleyways. It took our guide about thirty minutes of pushing his wheel barrow, filled with our bags, to finally announce that a 4 foot door covered in dirt, was in fact our destination. On the inside however was a completely different story. The guest house opened up unbelievably on the inside. Our loft had an open concept marble shower and bamboo bunk.

We spent most of our time wandering through the streets of the city, trying to piece together as many things as we could. The centre square featured snakes, monkeys and thieves during the day. At night, elaborate musical performances, street fighting and a huge food market created an atmosphere like no other. It would be easy to go on and on about how wonderful Marrakesh is.... it is a workout to get there.... worth it though.

U.K.O.K

I spent just under a year going to school in England. I was staying in a little holding cell at Lancaster University. The floor I was on was all male!!! I definitely miss some of my Lancaster friends thats for sure. I took a flamenco guitar course which really changed my taste in music. My teacher was a great guy named Howard Haigh, who taught me a lot about performance. I took part in one of his massive performances, which consisted of over 100 people singing, making weird noises and playing instruments all at the same time. The performance was called shifting sands... to see a flamenco band, a jazz band, a children's choir, an adult choir and a group of local maniacs (me and some homeless folk.... no joke) making "sound atmosphere", was out of this world. I also played some really great music with a friend I met there named Garreth, who's CD I still listen to all the time.

Jacqui came down to stay in the prison for a while and we had a really great time. We went camping in the lake district (where we froze our bodies to the bone). We also caught a really great rock show in Birmingham. The Hives & John Spencer Blues Explosion kicked @ss that night!!! We ended up stranded in the streets of England with nowhere to stay..... Finally, a girl that we had met earlier at a bar caught us wandering the streets and offered us a place to crash for the night. We stayed up all night drinking tea and talking about all kinds of England vs. Canada things.

Its always nice when you meet some nice friends on the road and is probably the reason we keep floating down the road.