I’ve decided to stop writing new posts for this blog. The whole idea behind the thing was to document parts of my trip for myself, my family and friends back home. And now that I’m back… well, I’ve run out of material (at least material I can share publicly). So time to move on. I’ll leave the blog up for sometime just in case others might like to enjoy these stories. You can sort by country via the links on the right. And if I start writing again I’ll let you all know.
Richard
One nice feature of the free wordpress blog platform is the stats page, where I can see things such as where the readers of this blog come from. and what those folks seem to be reading. Well, by far and away, my most popular post is the one I did on my trek through Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains (here). Unfortunately, I lost the majority of my photos from Ethiopia and the trek when my computer was stolen in Goa. However, I was recently cleaning out my e-mail account when I stumbled across a few that had been sent to me by other members on the trek, so I thought I’d share them:
JD, myself and our guide looking out over a canyon on our first day.
Tea, coffee and popcorn at camp after Day 1. For some reason in Ethiopia, it’s customary to serve popcorn with coffee and tea. The popcorn also tastes a bit different there as it’s made with sugar (just a little), so it’s sweet as opposed to salty and buttery…
Dinner time in the cooking hut (Day 1 I think). Notice we’re all bundled up even near the fire… it definitely got cold.
More spectacular scenery…
Same day as above…
One thing about Ethiopia was that no matter how remote you thought you were, there were always people living nearby, which meant there were always, always, kids everywhere. Here were some kids selling baskets by the side of the road.
The young village boys were always out and about as shepherds for the animals. These boys would often sprint up and down the mountain to come say hello, ask for food/candy/money/water or to try an sell you something (usually a basket). They also would sing to each other from across the hills, which you would hear while walking from time to time.
Me taking a picture of something… animals, flowers, shepherds? I honestly don’t know. At least it must have been something interesting judging by everybody’s focus.
The morning of Day 4. Sure, it’s beautiful in this moment, but all of us (trekkers, guides and porters) spent the night in the cooking hut in the middle because it rained and hailed all night (soaking through our tents, as it had the previous night as well).
Male Gelada Baboon… one of the best things about this trek is that you can get pretty close to troops of these animals.
Nice shot of some of the mountains as well as our armed scout (a requirement while trekking here). He did have a rifle, but I could never get him to show us if there were actually any bullets in it.
Goats among the flowers. Day 4 I believe…
Stopping in a village coffee house for lunch Day 4. You’ll notice the flat metal try on the table, which is the way most Ethiopian meals are served. No utensils as everything come with a hard-to-describe spongy flat bread called injera, which is used to pick up everything else (generally meat, beans and vegetables).
You can see a bit of trail on the right of the stream. From here the trail went down the canyon, forded a river at the bottom, then went back up the opposite side in the ravine you can see across the way. Obscured from this shot, Ethiopia’s tallest mountain, Ras Dashen, is (way) in the distance.
More tea, coffee and popcorn at camp on Day 4. Despite the smiles, JD’s expression on the left sums up most of what we’re feeling because it’s pouring rain outside at the moment. We know that if it doesn’t let up we’ll be sleeping in the cooking hut for the third night in a row. The other problem is that the cooking hut is the building where we’re sitting in this picture (I’m sure you can see why we wouldn’t want to sleep there). Luckily, after dinner, the rain let up and didn’t come back all night (so we were able to sleep in our tents until morning). It’s pretty cold here, but I was saving my jeans for the evening as I knew it would be even colder then.
Some of our crew, along with some ladies from the nearby village, the morning of Day 6.
Kids selling hats and baskets on the trail (which you can see to the left). There was a constant refrain of “you want basket” most anytime we passed kids (baskets were 90% of what they were selling). The galoshes are actually a genius move considering the climate in the area. And you know it’s cold when even the little kids are bundled up.
Hmmm… that title could really be misinterpreted ;-). As I mentioned in my last post, I got to spend some time up in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I’m fortunate that my parents own a condo there and graciously allowed me to use it for a bit this summer. Now, Mammoth is primarily a ski town. In fact, I used to come up here every winter with my family for exactly that before I went off to college. There’s also stuff to do in the summer, but only really if you’re into the whole outdoorsy-mountainy thing (fishing, horse-back riding, mountain biking, camping, hiking, etc.).
For those of you that have never heard of Mammoth , rest-assured, you’re in the majority. Despite being a really, really nice place to ski, due to a quirk of geography, during the winter the place is really only accessible by car to people from Southern California (Mammoth is located on the eastern side of Sierra Nevada mountains, so Northern Californians can‘t cross over the most direct routes, as they‘re closed in the winter, and the one available route goes through Lake Tahoe, so they just all stop at the ski resorts there. Southern Californians can just drive around the southern end of the Sierras and go up the eastern side from the get go, no snowed over mountain passes involved). So Southern Californians are all up in that piece (year-round), while no one else really knows about it, or if they do know about it, it’s still too hard to get to so they won’t go. And I’d even go so far to say that the majority of those Southern Californians are actually from San Diego (as opposed to LA/OC/Inland Empire).
The above fact alone makes Mammoth an interesting place just to people watch, its like a mini-San Diego in the mountains… the clothes people wear, the way people talk, the cars they drive, etc… the whole feel screams San Diego (for those of you that live, have lived, or have visited San Diego for any length of time, you know what I’m talking about). It was just fun to sit back an observe, because even though I’m from there, I don’t think I really share too many of those traits anymore (aside from ultra-laid-backness… other than that at least I don‘t think I do too many other stereotypical SD things… and you can correct me if you think otherwise).
Anyhow, my impeccable timing kicked in for the positive as one of the weekends I was there coincided with the Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza (which is exactly what it sounds like). Two old friends of mine (one of which I’ve know since elementary school) came out for the party. I wish it was solely because they just really wanted to see me after a long time out on the road, but I’m sure the free place to stay for the festival didn’t hurt. And the festival provided the perfect excuse to do what old friends do when they get together… get drunk. The general flow to the whole thing was that there’s a large area with stages where bands play (stay with me here) the blues, while craft breweries from all over set up tents and you walk around sampling their beers. Your entrance ticket includes a (small) cup and the beer is free (save for standing in line). Now, another little known fact, San Diego has one of the largest craft beer brewing scenes in the country, so most of the breweries slinging beer were from San Diego. That, plus 80% of the people there being from San Diego, exemplified the whole mini-San Diego in the mountains/forest feeling I was talking about earlier. Of course there were people from all over, but I kid you not that 80% of the people I spoke with were from SD.
Of course it turned out to be a great weekend (kinda hard to mess things up with that kind of combination). In addition to the festival, we even managed to get some hiking in the night before everything kicked into gear. We might even come back again next year as my friend’s band was invited to play… we shall see. Yes, that’s it… no crazy stories (that I can tell here anyhow), no broader point, just reporting on a good weekend out in the mountains. Oh, and some photos of course:
Hiking near Mammoth…
Devil’s Postpile National Monument…
Scene of a forest fire in the 90’s…
Our destination…
Looks smaller from above (that’s my friend Shaun standing next to the bottom of the falls)…
Yours truly swimming under the falls (very, very cold and very, very fun)…
One trail starts near the ski resorts parking lot (you may have noticed the Mammoth)…
General ambiance of the festival…
Shaun starting in a Drunk Level 2: Feeling Good (DL1 being Just Chillin’).
What fun is a festival without costumes…
More costumery (and a good brewery)…
Shaun, Ryan and I reaching DL 3: Feeling Great.
Everyone at DL 4: Acting Foolish, later that night (yes, I had face paint on as well. no, I don’t have a picture of it. Where did we get face paint anyway?)
Ryan reaching DL 5: Done For The night.
One of the passes that gets closed in the winter (on my drive out of Mammoth to San Francisco), and why very few Northern Californians get out to Mammoth.
Whoa… no posts for quite a bit of time. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time floating around California… spending time with family and friends mostly. I have managed to get myself out and about a bit, although maybe not as much as I would have liked. One place I did manage to spend quite a bit of time in was Mammoth Lakes, CA; a small mountain/ski town in the Eastern Sierras. As it’s summer, there’s no skiing, but plenty of outdoor summer activities (fishing, mountain biking, hiking, etc.) if you like that sort of thing (I think you know that I do… well, at least hiking anyhow).
On the drive up from San Diego I saw a sign touting the “Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest” and thought it might be worth checking out. A week or so later, after some intrawebz investigating, I found myself driving back down from Mammoth for a solid afternoon of exploring. Now, the attraction here is that forest contains the oldest living tree on the planet (named Methuselah, the tree is an amazing 4,484 years old as of 2013… smartly, but also sadly, the actual tree is unmarked for fear of vandalism). That, plus, as you will see below, these trees look amazing. As you might expect, the forest itself is pretty remote (this whole region of California is pretty remote and sparsely populated) so it took sometime to wind my way up into the mountains get there, but it was well worth the effort. I’ll bore you with some of the details I found interesting before getting to the pictures. There’s two main groups/groves of trees, one you can get two via a paved road. The other is 12-miles away on a dirt and gravel road (it took me 45 minutes to go 12 miles one way). Both groves are up pretty high elevation-wise, but the one at the end of the dirt road is above 11,000 feet (3,350 meters for you metric thinkers). Each grove has some small hikes, but the lower one has a nice 5-mile loop that will also take you by an abandoned mine. I went to both areas and did the big loop as the sun was setting, which made for some really nice views (given the light) and ensured I had the place almost all to myself (only one other car in the parking lot when I left). It’s hard to explain how majestic the place felt…maybe the photos can convey some of it. All in all, a very good way to spend a day.
Abandoned mine building…
Abandoned mine shaft… note, that it looked entirely possible to worm oneself around that grate.
These trees seem to grow right out of solid rock…
Who’s national forest you in? I’m inyo national forest… sorry, could not resist.
Somewhere in Nepal, I decided that I needed to go back to the US. It’s hard to describe why, but something just clicked inside and I knew it was time to start on my next phase/adventure/whatever-you-want-to-call-it (plus, after spending so much quality time with Ben, I wanted to see my family and friends again). I wasn’t exactly going to be flying back the very next day, but I did begin to turn my thoughts toward moving in that direction.
When I set out on this little jaunt (I left my then home in San Francisco on May 1st of 2012 and drove to my hometown of San Diego) I had the following vague goals: 1) Stay out of the US for at least one year, and 2) I must see and experience Ibiza, Ethiopia and Nepal. Otherwise, I was just going to put up a sail and see where the wind sent me. After Nepal, I didn’t have any more “must dos”. It was like that point late in the evening of a great party… everything has been spectacular, you’re still having a good time, but you just know that it’s over. You’ll linger for a bit longer, but you know you’re going home soon. That’s exactly what happened; I just knew that this trip was over and it was time to go. Now, here I am… back in the US.
FAQ
I’ll spare you more some more boring introspection. For the curious out there, I’ll give you my answers to the 5 questions I’ve been asked the most about this trip since I got back:
1) What was your favorite place? Way too hard to answer as there are too many great places to pick just one. However, I will say that my favorite single experience was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The magic of undertaking and completing such an epic journey, the metaphor of the camino for life itself (it’s the journey not the destination) and getting to share the whole experience with one particularly wonderful person (as well as the other characters you meet along the way) made the camino a very special experience for me.
2) Did you come back because you ran out of money? No, I came back because I wanted to come back (see above).
3) What was your favorite food? Indian… by far and away. The spices, the different regional styles, the breads, the yogurt, eating with your hands, free refills (sometimes), the tea, the coffee, the lassis, the prices (India was the cheapest place I traveled… yes, it’s cheaper than sub-Saharan Africa), the lime sodas… I liked Indian food so much that I sought it out in Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong (all places which are known for great food).
4) Did you get sick? Yes, several times (all food poisoning). However, often it was my own fault, forgetting to wash my hands, or eating something I knew I shouldn’t (generally so as not offend people you’re with), or thinking I’m invincible (in general, I have a pretty iron stomach, but some places will put that thought to the test). Ironically, out of all the developing countries I visited, the place I got the sickest was Spain. Conveniently, in most countries one can buy antibiotics over the counter at any pharmacy (because the locals get sick sometimes as well, and the prices are a lot lower than in the US). However, in Spain, for antibiotics, I needed to get a prescription. So it took me much longer to get over it than it did anywhere else. Also, I generally tried to avoid antibiotics unless I knew it was going to be bad, so once or twice I had some low-grade lingering issues for weeks at a time. But I also didn’t necessarily take the greatest care of myself during these times either (late nights, partying, etc.).
5) Did you ever feel unsafe? Rarely. Now, it helps that I am a bigger than average male, but, honestly, the vast majority of places one would travel to are as safe as can be (you’ll often feel more comfortable walking around in many places in the world than you will in many places in the US… sad, but true). Here’s an interesting article, focus on numbers 6 and 7 for the purposes of this question as I found the answers to be spot on. Now, I did get robbed in Goa, but it was a room break-in where I was away from my room (an inside job I thought), and I did get sucker-punched in a bar in Addis Ababa (crazy dude who promptly got the shyte beat out of him by the bouncers before I even got up off the floor), but those are the only two “incidents” that happened. Occasionally, I would get the hair standing up on the back of my neck feeling, but that was mostly me putting myself in a dumb situation (taxi ride alone through a kidnapping prone region of the Sinai, having to walk a mile or so along a pitch dark beach in Goa at 4 AM, or walking around certain crappy parts of Cairo and Addis alone at night), things that could have honestly been avoided. But again, these feelings happened very, very rarely.
By The Numbers
Some tabulating for the future version of myself. Here’s a timeline breakdown of this adventure, which I’ll count as being book-ended by me being in San Diego:
New York: 5/10/12 – 5/16: 7 days
London: 5/17 – 5/20: 4 days
Spain/Portugal: 5/21 – 8/29: 102 days
Amman, Jordan (transit): 8/30: 1 day
Egypt: 8/31 – 9/16: 17 days
Ethiopia: 9/17 – 11/15: 60 days
Kenya: 11/16 – 11/20: 5 days
Tanzania: 11/21 – 12/10: 20 days
India (1st time round): 12/11/12 – 2/7/13: 58 days
Thailand: 2/8 – 3/2: 23 days (spent night in Colombo airport in transit to India).
India (2nd time around): 3/3 – 4/6: 35 days
Nepal: 4/7 – 6/4: 59 days (had dinner in Kuala Lumpur in transit to Taiwan).
Taiwan: 6/5 – 6-24: 20 days
Hong Kong: 6/25: 1 day
Tokyo (transit): 6/26: 1 day
New York: 6/26 – 7/13 (re-lived the 26th due to the international dateline): 18 days
Total Time Gone: 431 days
I also added up/estimated about how far (distance-wise) I ended up going (not counting intra-city transit or anything I forgot of course):
Flights: 39,481 miles.
Driving (myself): 1,563 miles.
Bus: 1,252 miles.
Car/Taxi: 2,510 miles.
Train: 3,281 miles.
Walking: 948 miles.
India Overland: 4,880 miles (don’t worry, no double counting with the above).
Total: 53,915 miles. For the record, the earth is 24,901 around. So adding up my total mileage means I could have circumnavigated the globe twice.
Even though I’m back, I still will have some more posts coming out, so don’t go away just yet.
In this post I mentioned the set of emergency instructions I noticed on a Taiwanese train, which were as follows:
1) Press Button to sound the alarm and alert the authorities (actually, the first step of every set of emergency instructions anywhere in Taiwan is “Press Button”, which I found very funny).
2) If an object is blocking the train tracks, passengers should get out of the train and help clear the tracks.
3) Passengers outside of the train should take great care to not get hit by another train.
And I made some comments about how nothing like these instructions would ever, ever appear in America (primarily because the assumption of competence and responsibility in the adult train passengers is implicit in the instructions). In a semi-related note, I just came across this article:
The summary, in Tokyo a woman somehow fell onto the train tracks and became trapped under a train car. The station agent (someone, clearly, must have pressed the emergency button.. always step #1) held the train while the passengers collectively rocked the train car over to the side to make a space large enough to allow the woman to be rescued. The train then left the platform only having been delayed 8 minutes. Granted, this is Japan and not Taiwan, but they must have the same set of emergency instructions as shown above.
Now… could the above have happened in America? I’m actually confident that yes, it actually could have happened. However, I’m also cynically confident that post-incident, the lady that fell would sue somebody over platform gaps, slick surfaces, inadequate warning sings, improper safety procedures, psychological trauma resulting from the incident, etc. Also, it’s likely inevitable that one of the passengers who helped move the train would also sue somebody for causing, or re-aggravating, a back/wrist injury. The end result of which would be some kind of monetary settlement, a forced re-examination of the train safety regulations and emergency instructions, and the posting of the new “revised” emergency instructions exhorting everybody to do absolutely nothing in case of an emergency (except, of course, for waiting for the authorities to come to the rescue). Sad yes..? But you all know that’s what would happen. Feel free to insert your own mental commentary on the situation and what it all might mean.
Now, I had a 10-hour, overnight layover in Tokyo in June. I decided, rather than just sit in the airport all night, to take the train into town for dinner. I then caught the last train (circa midnight) back to the airport and slept on an airport bench for a bit before my morning flight (the train schedule was such that my original plan of staying out all night and taking the first train back was unfeasible because I couldn’t get to the airport in time for my flight). The one thing I noticed was drunk businessmen. They were everywhere, literally… and this was a Tuesday night (the only place I’ve ever seen something similar was London). On the train on the way back to the airport (filled with drunken businessmen), at one stop, the door opened to reveal this sign:
Apparently, other people have noticed this phenomenon as well… so much so that they need a warning sign in the train stations to exhort people to look out for drunken businessmen that might get hit by a train. Again, I’ll leave it up to you to make any possible connections about how the same society can simultaneously produce the above story and need the above warning sign.
Taiwan is a tropical island. Literally, the tropic of cancer (everything below which is considered the “tropics”) runs right through the island. The landscape is, more or less, what one might picture when asked to think of a tropical island… lushly, jungly green, mountainy and volcanic, turquoise ocean water, humid as all get out, etc. So what to do when the friend you’re visiting unexpectedly gets a week off of work… fly to another tropical island of course!
Arrival…
The beach just down the street from the airport…
As a bit of background, the friend I was visiting in Taiwan works in a hospital (she’s a surgeon). The hospital, for various reasons, gave her, and all the other foreign surgeons there on fellowship, a week off of work. So they put their big doctor brains together and planned a short two-night group trip (surgeons on spring break) to Penghu, a Taiwanese archipelago located almost exactly halfway between Taiwan and mainland China (or the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, as each country is officially dubbed). By virtue of my impeccable timing (i.e. I happen to be there during this week and having others plan and book the whole trip), I got to go along for the ride (I really enjoy when things like this work out).
The view from my room…
The crew…
Typical shops…
So, a house was booked, a car was rented and we were all off. Turns out the house we rented was owned by an American man / Taiwanese woman couple who now live with their family on Penghu (good for information without a language barrier). There were eight people in the group, two Americans, a Canadian, a Scot, a Hong Konger, a Welshman, a Czech and a Turk. All are surgeons but myself and the HKer (the girlfriend of the Scot, but she is gainfully employed as an accountant). Transportation of such a motley crew was provided by a super-hella-sweet 8-person Toyota van. By popular consensus I was elected to drive… mostly because I’m a man (y’all know we’re better drivers, just ask the auto insurance companies… no wait, don’t do that, but everyone knows it’s true anyhow ;-). Okay… maybe I drove because I volunteered (I like driving), and because I am used to driving on the right (details).
Surf shop… Sadly no waves that day…
Dinner at an all you can eat BBQ place (you have to cook everything yourself through)…
Sunset from the house…
Making friends at the aquarium…
I found it interesting to hang out with a group of surgeons. Mostly because I always find it interesting talking with people who’ve always known what they wanted to do with their lives (despite being previously gainfully employed, I was never really excited by my previous line of work, nor was it something I’d always wanted to do). It’s a very different perspective. Also, stepping back, you just get some funny thoughts. Like that when Scottish dude, with whom you’re currently partner interpretative dancing to a Journey song, goes back to work the following Monday, he’s going to be doing things like re-attaching people’s limbs. At least I find it funny… people are just people no matter what they do, and it’s nice to see that (or be reminded of it).
View from the ferry…
Spontaneous Interpretive Dance Performance…
Temple plus mandatory Asian tourist photo pose…
Outside the ice cream shop…
Dinner…
Tropical island things were done… beaching, sunning, lounging, swimming, volley balling, etc. Highlights included a makeshift party on the balcony the last night of our stay, eating pink cactus fruit sorbet (a local specialty), gorging at an all you can eat bbq place, successfully making it all the way from one end of the archipelago to the other with the gas light on (all the gas stations except in the main city close at 5 PM), and taking a ferry out to a beach so pretty you’d question the fact that you were in Taiwan. All in all, it was a very lovely little vacation within a vacation (within another vacation?).
Trying not to get stuck in the sand…
I know… jumping photos are so 2011… whatever… yolo!
The beach from above… still hard to believe this is Taiwan?
Remember what I said in a different post about Taiwan just being nice. Check out the painting on the electrical boxes to the left… lots of little things like this in Taiwan.
One guy brought some professional camera equipment for fun and some engagement photos… I got to help out. But please ignore us… look at that sky.
I think I can see China from here…
When roaming far and wide you tend to meet a lot of people. Most of these people, for a variety of reasons, tend to be other travelers. And, in my experience, most travelers tend to be what I categorize as “western”… i.e. Europeans (French, German, Scandanavian, Spanish, etc.), UKers, Canadians, Australians, Americans, etc. We’re all different of course, but we generally share a common culture and have similar frames of reference. Of course I’d run into the occasional traveler that wasn’t from one of the above places (Koreans in Spain, Argentines in India, Brazilians in Ibiza), but it was less common. However, certain places, again, for a variety of reasons, become hotspots for particular folks… Israelis in India and Nepal, Swedes on Lanta Island in Thailand, Australians in Lagos, Portugal, older frauleins in Mombasa, etc. Such is the case with Russians in Goa.
I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s a combination of Russia being cold over the winter, Goa being a relatively close winter beach destination, India being a cheap place to stay and other Russians having been there before. Whatever the reason, most of the northern beaches/towns in Goa are dominated by Russian tourists (such that most of the menus are in Cyrillic, many of the workers can speak basic Russian and clubs feature Russian New Year’s parties with DJs from Moscow, etc.). Now, what happens when you get a majority of people from any one particular culture is that the place tends to take on the culture of that dominant group (or maybe even a slightly exaggerated form of that culture). So I think it’s safe to say that you can get a little slice of Russia… the culture, the attitude, the quirks… in Goa.
I’ve never really been around a large number of Russians before. So it was nice to turn on the observational powers and just watch them action. One thing that stuck out was what I deemed the “Russian Girl Photo Shoot”™. First, let me step back a moment and say that it’s no big revelation that girls like to take pictures of themselves looking good to show off a bit, and that both men and women like to look said pictures (there are entire industries built around this principle). From American girls out at a party to endless stream of selfies by Taiwanese girls, it’s a universal phenomenon. However, Russian girls have elevated their photo-taking game to a whole ‘nother level. In Goa, no matter the time of day, somewhere nearby there was always… always… a Russian girl modeling for a camera. And when I say modeling for the camera, I mean full-on posing… crawling through the water on all fours, acting like a cat, smiling, staring, turning, sitting down in the sand, legs crossing, uncrossing, looking over the shoulder, etc. You can almost see an imaginary director there yelling out the posing commands. If you were on the beach at sunset, there were Russian girls getting their pictures about every 100 yards. They’d also never just take a couple of pictures and be done with it either, with all the posing, these things would turn out to be full on 10-20 minute photo shoots. I know that when everyone is picturing this scene in their heads they’re picturing young women, but that’s thing, it was all women… from the young ones to the babushkas (yes, really). And more often than not it would be two women taking turns photographing each other (if they were using a prop, like a scarf or a hat, one would hand it to the other as they switched places). Otherwise, it would be the girl’s boyfriend/husband taking the pictures.
For illustrative purposes, one time at beach my friend and I were watching a rather attractive couple doing the Russian Girl Photo Shoot™. The guy was full on into the photo-taking process, running around for different angles, lying on his stomach, getting in the water… so much so that at one point, while on this stomach (with a professional-style large camera and lens I might add), he actually monkey-rolled all the way over back onto his stomach to continue taking pictures from a slightly different angle, all while keeping his giant camera from getting any sand or water on it… just pure ridiculousness. Another funny thing with this couple (that I never saw with another Russian couple) was that she stopped posing, took the camera and proceeded to take pictures of him… however, it only took her about four pictures before she stopped and got back in front of the camera herself.
I had never seen such photo-taking mania en masse like this before. The Russian Girl Photo Shoot™ was everywhere in Goa, and as Goa was the first place I really saw it, I just chalked it up to a Goa thing… but then I saw it along the beaches in Thailand. And then, at the Taj Mahal, I noticed a couple of well-dressed women doing some model-like posing there… sure enough, they were Russian (I asked). I saw it again and again and again at other tourist sites in India as well, empirically proving that it’s not just a Goa thing, it’s a Russian thing. So be on the look-out… if you see girls doing some ridiculous camera posing for an abnormally long period of time at a tourist destination near you, there’s a good chance they’ll be Russian.
Ingrained in the culture? A Russian father and his daughter posing Russian Girl Photo Shoot-style on Morjim beach in Goa at sunset.
Take a minute and think about this… what do you actually know about Taiwan? Think about it for a minute and get back to me. Done… alright… well, if you’re anything like me the answer is/was not very much. Here’s what I knew:
1) It’s in Asia.
2) It’s an island.
3) They used to have some kick ass little league teams (I only know this because when I used to play little league, teams from Taiwan always seemed to win the LLWS. Funny note, here’s a shot of the back of a 500 Taiwanese dollar note).
4) They used to make lots of cheap little plastic crap.
5) It’s in Asia… shyte, already said that didn’t I.
If you googled Taiwan, you’d also probably come up with the following additional answers that you’ll tell yourself you should have known in the first place:
6) The island was formerly known as Formosa.
7) For various reasons having to do with communism, if China attacks Taiwan, the US will nuke China.
Now, of course there are many Americans out there who know more about Taiwan than this (I’m looking over at you folks with Taiwanese heritage), but I’m sure there are many that know even less than the above (geography is not our strong suit after all). So I’ll let you in on a little secret… Taiwan is nice… really, really nice. It’s a developed country, so there’s little of the chaos associated with travelling certain parts of Asia (no honking, not super-crowded, no yelling, no spitting… in short, much more orderly). Suffice to say, that after being in a country as dysfunctional as Nepal (or India for that matter), Taiwan feels like heaven… well, heaven with gigantic language barrier anyhow. A couple of observations after my time here:
Putting the Convenience Back in Convenience Store
The Taiwanese have taken the art of the convenience store to a whole new level. There’s a 7-11 on seemingly every corner (or the local versions, Hi-Life and Family Mart). Now, you maybe doubting me here based on the usefulness of the 7-11 in your neighborhood back home, but the difference between the two is night and day. Do you need to buy a plane ticket? Go to 7-11. Do you need to buy a train ticket? Go to 7-11. Pay your power bill? 7-11. Set up your cable TV? 7-11. Pay your phone bill? 7-11. Register your car? 7-11. When you park your car on the street, instead of putting money in a parking meter, the meter maids put little slips of paper on your wipers based on how long you’ve been there. Guess where you pay? That’s right… 7-11. I’d say that if you had to ask yourself where you needed to go to get something done in Taiwan, there’s a good 70% chance the answer is going to be 7-11 (the food there is actually pretty good as well).
Even the outside of the 7-11’s are nice in Taiwan.
People Stand In Line
There are lines outlined on the floor of the subway station… and people actually use them! There’s so many lines that an Englishman would feel right at home here. And after India, Nepal and previous trips to mainland China, where the whole concept of queuing up just doesn’t exist, lines are a breath of fresh air… no pressure to gear up for shoving people out of the way to get on the bus, no getting elbowed in the kidney by a 90-year old lady trying to get to the check-out counter in the grocery store before you, just one after the other in the order in which you arrived (so nice).
Lines on the ground.
People actually standing in line on the subway platform.
A societal sense of order seems ever-present. For example, no one is allowed to drink or eat on the Taipei subway system (and when they say no food or drink on the subway, they mean it). My friend Duretti relayed a story about one time she had a plastic water bottle on the metro and she took a drink. An older woman walked up my friend, wagged her finger and said “no more”. It goes without saying she didn’t take another sip. I knew this story and didn’t want to tangle with any old Taiwanese ladies (they’re much tougher than I am), so I remained food and drink free on the metro (as did everyone else). People seem to follow the rules here, and they don’t seem shy in telling you when you’ve stepped out of line.
Some government agencies provide helpful signs and directions pretty much everywhere.
Why a blond chick?
In Case of Emergency, Press Button.
Despite all the do’s and don’ts above, I also found that some level of personal responsibility and competency was expected of everybody (or that it was at least implied). For example, on the train (the train train, not the metro), the emergency instructions were as follows:
1) Press Button to sound the alarm and alert the authorities (actually, the first step of every set of emergency instructions anywhere in Taiwan is “Press Button”, which I found very funny).
2) If an object is blocking the train tracks, passengers should get out of the train and help clear the tracks.
3) Passengers outside of the train should take great care to not get hit by another train.
There is no way that this set of emergency instructions would ever get put up anywhere in the US… never… ever. First, the instructions assume the passengers taking some sort of responsibility for themselves by helping to get whatever is blocking the train tracks off the tracks so the train could proceed. Second, the instructions assume that you’re competent enough not to get hit by another train (they’re just reminding you). The above instructions have to assume that at least some of the passengers are able-bodied adults who can team up to help and help themselves out of a jam while at the same time mustering up the wherewithal not to get hit by another train… I don’t think it’s unreasonable, do you? Contrast the above to what you know the instructions would say in the US: stay in train until the proper authorities come to your aid. That’s it… end of story. In the US, it’s just assumed you are too stupid to help yourself (that, and our ridiculous legal culture where you could actually be sued for trying to help). I think it’s a very interesting, and telling, cultural contrast.
Engrish
Like many (all?) east asian countries, there’s lots of English going around… signs, t-shirts, etc. But, often, it’s just not quite right:
No pets allowed, but bring your own booze, bottle openers and cash.
Ummm… so where are the non-classy restaurants?
I’ve never thought of describing a pet clinic as “vogue.:
Technological Genius
Now, just in case you’re not aware of it, many parts of the world are way ahead of the US in certain technological arenas… like how I can get cell phone service on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but can’t seem to get a signal at times at my parent’s house in San Diego. Well, Taiwan is crushing the US in paper cup lid technology (amongst other things as well). Yes, paper cup lid technology. I know, you’re thinking why is this important to me? Well… maybe it’s not, but it’s just another thing that makes one wonder why didn’t we think of that, or at least, why aren’t we copying this? So, In Taiwan, when you order a drink of some sort to go (to go drinks in Taiwan seem to mainly consists of some sort of sweet or bubble tea) a machine seals the top of the cup with a piece of thin plastic (feels like a thicker version of saran wrap). I know it doesn’t sound that impressive, but the beauty of it is that until you pierce the top with your straw, your drink is spill-proof. I doubt I’m the only one out there who has spilled some stuff on themselves due to poorly sealed to go cup lids (or am I the only one who cares), so I find this technology quite impressive.
Lidded!
No spills…
More Photos of Taiwan:
In an elevator… I tend to be taller than most Taiwanese.
My new found friend at the zoo…
My friend Duretti and I at the shore.
View of Taipei from the nearby hills.
Changing of the guard at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial..
Taipei 101, one time world’s tallest building.
In an underground location immediately adjacent to the Chungking Mansions there is a mall. And in this mall there is a restaurant. As you approach the restaurant, this is what you see:
This the host, menu, waiter and cashier all in one. You select your food and drink from the handy buttons, pay the bill and receive a little ticket from the machine. Even with the instructions written in Chinese I was able to do it quickly (and if I can do it, anybody can). Immediately adjacent to the above machine you have this:
This is a seating chart. The combination of the ticket and the chart direct you to which seat is going to be yours, so when you go through the door (to the left in this case) you find your own individual seat that looks like this:
The red patch in the back is a cloth drape. Once your food is ready, the drape is pulled back and your food is placed on the table.
The food was really good…
Once your done, you simply leave your stuff on the table, get up and walk out… that’s it. Not once during the whole time do you interact with a person. Yes, there are people there… the cooks and the busboys who put your food out and take it away… but they’re conveniently hidden so you never see them. I found the whole experience rather strange. Was it easy… yes. Was it convenient… yes. Was it weird… hell yes. When I’m travelling alone, sometimes the only personal interactions I may have over the course of the day are with food servers and shop keepers (especially if I’m not feeling particularly social that day, which happens all the time). Eliminating those little interactions just feels very alienating to me. Of the many ways that East Asia is a bit ahead of the west on the technology curve, this is one that I hope doesn’t catch on.
Richarding 