Taiwan Sequel

Been back for three weeks, will post these few more journal entries, and then onward... westward....

1/27/09, 11:15am
Writing now with good feelings... we bought standing-room-only tickets for the train to Hualien, but have been able to sit the whole time... gorgeous views of the mountains and sea... temples everywhere, rice paddies under water like swimming pools divided by low grass walls... constantly sharing food and drink... if one gets sick, we all do, but it doesn't really matter....

1/31/09, 5:25pm
Tainan in the morning was lovely: we hit some cool temples and finished our walking tour. I had a slight hangover, but the warm temperature and cool breeze set me right. Took the high-speed train back to Taoyuan, and was dead tired for much of the day. Dan, Aaron, and I bought betel nut from a "betel nut beauty" down the street (an interesting phenomenon probably worth Googling), got noodles, and had a nice walk around town. Then to Taipei, the hostel, and out for a good dinner, Aaron and Mom shopping, and Dan and I sitting down in front of shops, people-watching. Back to the hostel around 11, laundry, and back out, to the Jurassic Beer Bar and Restaurant. Only one other family was there, on a Friday night at midnight, but it was great - gigantic dinosaur skeletons everywhere, the cavernous interior, jungle walls, and jurassic-style restrooms. We got jumbo San Miguels (about a liter each - huge!), and had a good time.

2/2/09, 9:35pm
I have been getting hungry (or wanting to eat) a lot this trip, maybe more than everyone else. Aaron said he thinks I have tapeworm. I said, if this is what tapeworm feels like, I wouldn't wish for anything else. So much great food, and I will devour it all.
Saturday evening we went to dinner with Aaron's girlfriend Jennifer - another great one (dinner, I mean; but Jennifer too) - at a Beiping place. Lots of dishes - kung pao chicken, garlic tofu, beef, something like naan, something resembling a porridge, etc., etc. Then shopping in an endlessly circular and crowded market with all sorts of funny English T-shirts and people everywhere. Too much for Dan and I. We all went back to the hostel and drank beer, like being in college.
Aaron and Dan and I went back out around 12 to look for Le Ble D'Or (perhaps Taipei's only brewpub). Aaron tried to ask the guard at Asia World, who sent us up to the 8th floor, where we were greeted by beautiful girls in exotic dresses, holding menus (with women emblazoned on the front), who told us we were at a "hotel." We explained to the guard that it wasn't quite what we were looking for. Then we went to look for a bar called Apocalypse Now, and on the way, met an old man with a cane who directed us to "the monkey restaurant" (in English). We grabbed beers at 7-11, found Apocalypse Now was closed for good, and met Jennifer again. The old man turned out to be prophetic: we next went to a bar called Brass Monkey. Took a cab to Wax, an all-you-can-drink dance club, where we drank lots of cocktails and danced. Things started to quiet down around 4, so we went over to Vibe, where things were just getting started. Aaron and Jennifer left around 6, and Dan and I ran into some Cambodian girls and ended up staying till the club closed, at 7:30. It's a wonderful thing to emerge from a downstairs night club, directly into the healing rays of a bright Sunday morning sun. Better than breakfast.