Taiwan - The End of my Journey

It wasn’t the first time I had touched down in Taiwan. In fact after having already visited this country twice I was quite used the layout of the airport. The first time had only been a stop over for twenty-four hours at hotel while I waited for a connection flight as I made my way to Japan. The second had been months earlier waiting for eleven hours for my flight back to Sydney. The difference this time around was that I would be staying in Taiwan for a month with Ya Ling, who at the time was my girlfriend, and now remains a great friend.

The two of us spent a majority of our time together travelling all over the country from Northern Taiwan down the very most southern tip which was made famous only last year in a movie called ‘Cape No.7.’ We met a lot of great and interesting people and also made some new friends who I am still in regular contact with.

We celebrated Ya Ling’s Birthday during the first week and stayed in Taipei for quite some time. The days were passed by going to theme parks, sky scrapers like the Taipei 101 or an 85 story hotel called ‘The Splendor’ in Kaohsiung to the south and just keeping ourselves busy exploring. I was even able to experience my first cyclone or ‘Typhoon’ as they are known in Taiwan, while we stayed at the beach town of Kending. Even though the beach wasn’t open for most of the week it was worth seeing the huge storm roll in over the ocean and riding on scooters, go-karts and swimming when we could. I even had the pleasure of falling off a motorbike while in riding in Kending. Admittedly I was being a cocky bastard, so I guess I had it coming to me, but a few cuts, bruises and $80 later and I have a good story to tell.

Taiwan actually led me to several strange and unique experiences. At one point I was confused for a millionaire foreigner and asked to make a speech to the graduates at Ya Ling’s graduation. I denied the request and tried to explain the situation to them with the extremely little broken Chinese I knew, but much to Ya Ling’s embarrassment I spent the remaining two hours on stage and was presented as some big shot from some university in the U.S. Go me! I always manage to get myself into some interesting predicament… I love my life!

We spent several days’ in Ya Ling’s home with her family. It was interesting to see their culture and how normal families in Taiwan live, but mostly it was awkward and humorous. They cooked huge meals for me and I ate a variety of different foods, from hearts, livers, kidneys to things like hooves and anus. Actually… Anus wasn’t so bad. They were really nice to me and I’m really grateful for all their hospitality. Her father actually had two electric guitars in his room and we had a bit of a jam one night in front of his friends and Ya Ling’s family. I think I made a good impression on them.

In all honesty there are so many experiences and events that happened while I was in Taiwan I can’t recall them. Each time I type one thing it triggers one more memory and I get a truly nostalgic feeling in the pit of my stomach.

For the most part every time I write on here I get that same feeling, and have since I began writing this blog two years ago when I first arrived in Japan. I’ve always enjoyed writing for others and telling my stories of what I do, where I go and who I meet. That is why I feel a little sad to announce this will be my last post on this particular blog. After this post I will be beginning a new blog, in which I’ll detail my life and all that goes on for the next three years. From what I can tell my life is going to change dramatically soon, and like always it will be a hell of a roller coaster ride, so I hope that you can all join me.

Thanks to everyone who has read my blog, and keeps upto date with where I am and what I do. I hope too see you soon on my new blog – The Three Year Dreamer.