Taipei, sometimes things are different

Sometimes the sea is different
Originally uploaded by orange tuesday

An osscillating siren purred like an overbearing cat, increasing in pitch, then falling, fading away, only to increase in pitch again. This noise signal the start of a military drill in Taipei and six other cities in North Taiwan.

The siren osscillated several times and on the last osscillation, the pitch fall into a long, slow eerie death. At the death, people are suppose to be off the streets. To check this I needed to go outside on to my balcony.

Indeed the street seems quiet and I look down to the intersection. No traffic, thought there were still people on the streets and some motorcycles on the side roads. Two policeman had taken up position on the intersection. One stopped an old lady crossing the road, whilst the other forced a motorcyclist to get off his bike.

What made this sight more bizarre was that traffic lights were still changing colour. Turning green, to amber, to red and back again.

It's easy to forget that Taiwan and China are at odds. Everyday life, evades this fact. Everyday, the world turns, there's day and then there's night. People get up, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, have sex, sleep. Just another extraordinary day to some and to others, just another ordinary day.

There's no mass fear in Taiwan about China, at least not that I can detect. People are too busy, making money, living, studying to worry about things like this. But it's times like this, when everything stops that makes you think 'What if'. What if China thinks it hard enough? What would it do? Taiwan is so small and densely populated that an enraged China could do an immense about of damage. But then would it be worth it for China? Who knows? I don't have answers to such questions.

Perhaps, every city should have those drills. Once a year, for 30 minutes, people must get off the streets, stop what they're doing and think or talk or do something different. It could have a theme '30 minutes changing the world time' or '30 minutes of love'.

It's three o'clock again. The siren sounds again, this time a one long wail and a short falling pitch to mark its death.

I rush outside to see what's happening. Already, there are cars on the street. People get onto motorcycles. Life starts again. The exercise is over and for another year, I'll probably forget about the situation between Taiwan and China.

Vicious Circle

Finally went there this weekend and it didn't disappoint.

Me and Steph spotted it some weeks ago, looking seedy down some narrow alleyway. We didn't go, too drunk I guess. Last week, I saw it in the daytime and it looked a bit intimidating from the outside, though I saw it was a punk bar, so worth seeing sometime.

Then walking back with Lewis, last Saturday, we decided to go in. It was black on the inside too, and tarted in various bric a brac, some cute asian toys but mostly punk memorabilia. They have a 299 NT $ all you can drink offer. It's cramped upstairs but there are other rooms.

Next week, they'll have three bands playing, so hopefully, we'll get to see some Asian punks or 'anti' punks next week.

Life in Shifen

Life in Shifen
Originally uploaded by orange tuesday

The Pingxi village is only an 1hr and 30 mins away from Taipei. It's well worth going as it's slow to Taipei's fast, green to Taipei's grey and fresh to Taipei's stuffiness.

This photo appeared in the magazine version. For a full run down on the Pingxi valley, visit this link.

http://en.highway11.net/pages/full_story?page_label=news_currentissue&id=121777-How-Green-is-Pingxi-Valley-&article-How-Green-is-Pingxi-Valley-%20=&widget=push&instance=news_special_coverage_right_column&open=&

Taipei from Elephant mountain

taipei 101 hdr
Originally uploaded by orange tuesday

This is also from Elephant mountian but a bit further on. About 5 mins further than the rocks.

Taipei at night, with dreamy sky

Taipei at night, with dreamy sky
Originally uploaded by orange tuesday

Elephant Mountain is a great place to see Taipei at night. It has an excellent view of Taipei 101 and many people come here both day and night to take photos of it.

Elephant Mountain is a 'short' twenty walk that extracts every ounce of sweat from your body. A walk, that you start off walking and then to a determined slogg, which graduately slows down to a crawl. This short but steep walk is forested and provides ever better views of Taipei. Despite the initial struggle, you're greatly rewarded for your efforts once you reach the rocks of Elephant mountain.

At sunset, these rocks will be covered with photographers, busily clicking every subtle change of light over Taipei. This is just one of several places where photographer's gather. Once, here, the walk is much easier as the route flattens out.

The path goes on and there are maps that show an extensive set of paths.

Where the future is being washed away by the sea

For all the economic sucess stories of Taiwan, there are also many failure. One spectacular failure is the space village on Taiwan's north coast. And like all great failures, it's surrounded by myths and stirs the imagination. What were these people thinking? Were they genius, ahead of their time?

Construction started sometime around 1980 but was stopped due to the construction company going bankrupt. Originally, the houses were meant for Taipei high fliers as a weekend retreat. Nothing happened for a number of years but then worked atarted again. This time for a leisure complex.

Mystery surrounds the reasons for stopping a second time and this is where the myths of San Zhi Space Village creep in. One version, says that some workers died whilst working and that the other workers refused to continuing, fearing ghosts. Another story, says that work stopped due to the discovery of many human bones. In this story, it's unclear whether the bodies where from a WWII Japanese mass grave or from the Spanish, when they briefly occupied parts of the north coast.

This time, the work stopped permanantly and the development has gradually deteriorated into its present state.

Travelling from Dan Shui towards Keelung, the village is just before San Zhi village. It's easy to spot, the space pods come in many bright colours and stick out from the usual blocky Taiwanese buildings.

It's an eerie and fantascinating experience to wander around. The entrance is through a hole in the bizarre main gate, a theme park Chinese dragon inspired gate. After entering, it just gets wilder.

The size of the village seems bigger once you're inside. There's also a dried up swimming pool and slide tower, built to resemble a rock cliff. Some of the buildings are in a perilous state, whilst others seem safe-ish to wander into. Only when you're inside, do you realise that some of the buildings are build over seawater.

(more to add)

It's a dawn of a new era

Once upon a time, I travelled east. Full of youth and curiosity, I was confused when I came across expats in mock Western pubs, restaurants and watching the latest Hollywood offerings. I thought, why, come all this way and lead a Western life style.

But alas, I understand. My life in Taipei is a pale comparsion of my more adventurous youth. My expat life is contain within the bubble of work, my girlfriend and meeting up with friends, mostly in western style bars. My Chinese sucks, especially my speaking and whilst I can order food, I still can't have a good conversation.

Taipei has a lot to offer and I want to break out of my self imposed gulag. I want to discovered Taipei, see, taste, sense what it has to offer. I want to speak to Taipei-ians who aren't English Teachers, expats or local (as in my apartment block). I want to get on the streets and discover the delights of chicken livers, chicken feet, strange overly browned tofu and the myriad of street food that's on offer here. I want to meet up n coming designers, entreprenuers and get to the under belly of Taipei.

So here starts, a more adventurous self. One that wants to rediscover my younger self and the travel bug that's flowers in me every now and then.

Not sure why I added this photo. But I can't get rid of it.