December 15, 1998
Our trip began with a 14-hour confinement aboard an EVA air
747. Unlike my previous flight, the plane wasn’t crowded and we had our
pick of the seats. For practicality’s sake, I choose to sit in the aisle
seat of an exit row; A position which afforded me a luxurious amount of legroom
for my 6’3" frame.
The only problem was that we were very near the galley and
the stewardesses had a regrettable tendency to step on my feet when they exited
carrying trays of food. What this says about the stewardesses' gracefulness or
the size of my feet, I cannot say. However, on more than one occasion they
tried to convince me that I’d be happier in one of the other "normal"
seats. How little they understood my situation!
This was my first flight on EVA airlines and I only had
Singapore Airlines as a comparison. The EVA Air crew were very professional and
efficient, but the service lacked the polished edge of Singapore Air and the
food just wasn’t as good, but I really had no complaints. We took off and
landed on time and the fare was quite reasonable.
We arrived late at night on the 15th of December
at the Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport outside Taipei. We caught a bus to
the Leofoo hotel in the city arriving just minutes after midnight. The
MacDonald’s down the block had closed their doors at midnight and I was
left to go to sleep hungry contemplating the posters for the new "Peppersteak
Hamburger" that adorned the MacDonald’s windows.
December 16, 1998
The Leofoo was a pretty hotel with small, but clean rooms.
Each morning, guests were given a "Western-style" all-you-can-eat buffet
breakfast. The meal consisted of sausage, bacon, eggs, rolls, toast, corn
flakes and a curious, soggy, gloppy, watery rice dish.
The prospect of all-you-can-eat bacon for breakfast was
tantalizing; however, the reality was somewhat less than satisfying. The
Taiwanese eat lots of pork and, reportedly, there is no incidence of the
disease Trichinosis on the island. Consequently, the bacon was rare –
pink, in fact. A lifetime learning that pork should never be eaten unless fully
cooked was impossible to overcome and the bacon remained safe from my food
marauding expeditions.
One nice thing about the buffet dining room at the Leofoo
was that we sat next to a second story picture-window looking down on a busy
intersection. From the safety of the second floor I could watch the chaotic
turmoil that is Taipei traffic and prepare myself psychologically for dealing
with it before each day began. On our first morning at the Leofoo, I watched an
ambulance, siren blaring, attempt to make a left turn at the intersection. The
maneuver took fully 5 minutes as the rush hour traffic simple refused to yield
to the ambulance. Even the scooters and pedestrians continued on their way,
oblivious to its errand of mercy.
The best part about the ambulance diversion was that it
temporarily drowned out the selection of awful Christmas muzac playing
incessantly in the lobby.
 We set out for Chu-Wan’s parents’ house. The
weather was perfect. We had been expecting continuous rain, but the weather
couldn’t have been much better. Her parents had only returned to Taipei a
day before us, as they have been in the States for our wedding, so all we did
was drop off some things we had brought for them in our luggage, checked my
Internet mail and headed off for a walk in Ta’an park. I spent a good half
hour attempting to get my dad’s GPS unit to function, but to no avail. It
later turned out that I needed to turn off battery-saver mode after travelling
any distance over 400 miles, but I didn’t learn that until I returned
home.
After failing to get the GPS working, we set out to the
South-East corner of the park to locate the web-cam operated by the city
Taipei. Normally the camera looks over the elevated freeway, but sometimes it
points towards the surface streets and the park can be seen. If the camera had
been pointing towards the park we were going to attempt to set a time for our
friends back in the States to see us on the camera. During our whole trip, the
camera stayed stubbornly pointed at the freeway.
(http://ftp.bote.taipei.gov.tw/liveimg/livecam13.jpg)
On my previous trip to Taiwan, there were times when I had
been sorely desperate for American food, this time, my in-laws went to great
pains to find me places to eat. After our walk in the park, they took us to the
Basil Mint restaurant. An oddly-named place specializing in American food and
Australian seafood. It was all-you-can-eat, and I ate a lot – gorging
myself on steak, fried chicken, grilled chicken, lamb and spaghetti. We ate
lunch with friends of Chu-Wan’s father, one of whom was a businessman
working in Indonesia. He told us several stories of the violence going on there
targeted at ethnic Chinese.
Afterwards, we started our great Wedding Photography
Adventure. Phase one was to go to a place called "Catherine’s" – one
of the many places that specializes in wedding photography albums. The wedding
albums are apparently unique to Asia (so far) and consist of a rather elaborate
glamour photo shoot, which ultimately results in a handsome album and portrait
of the couple. The photos involve multiple clothing changes for the groom, and
many more for the bride, including complete make-up and hair changes too. The
process ends up taking several days to complete. Today we just went for Chu-Wan
to select the dresses she’d be wearing. Meanwhile, my father-in-law took
me to a men’s ware store to buy shirts and ties.
Before leaving the States, Chu-Wan had reminded me to bring
a suit. She failed to remind me to bring shirts, socks and ties to go with the
suit. I’m a proponent of travelling light and was making every effort to
keep the baggage to a minimum; however, forgetting the clothes was just a
stupid oversight.
 We walked back to the
hotel, finally confirming my suspicion that, despite having 2.6 million people,
Taipei actually covers a relatively small geographic area. On our trek, I made
note of the various exotic western restaurants that we might eat at: Subway,
Tony Roma’s. Hooters (Never made it there, but really have to see that one
for myself! I suspect they have to import foreign waitresses to "fill out"
their staff.) Hard Rock Café, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays, Ruth Chris
Steakhouse and Trader Vic’s – just to name a few. Ultimately, we
decided on RoundTable Pizza, and I was once again pleasantly surprised at how
similar their pizza tastes compared to the American "original".
Before we go on, I can tell you I spent most of the rest of
this part of the trip in bed. Sounds perfect for a honeymoon, doesn’t it?
Well, read on…
December 17, 1999
I awoke with a cold. Visions of my previous Taiwan trip,
which had been hampered by a bad cold were haunting me. "No", I cried, " this
will not happen again!" Perhaps saying this outloud the moment I awoke was an
indication that fever had already set in.
The Leofoo breakfast was identical to the day before, but
this time, instead of a selection of Christmas music they instead played only a
muzak version of "Joy To The World" – over and over again. It was a
particularly long version – perhaps 10 minutes from start to finish, and
when it finally would end, it started again. It may have been the fever or it
may have been the muzak, but I could feel my sanity slowly began to slide into
oblivion. That was the first day that I thought I might someday be able to
drive in Taipei traffic.
Once again, the weather was great, so we walked 2 miles to
Sogo Department store, hoping to find Japanese books in the Kinokuniya
bookstore inside. Unfortunately, they didn’t open till 11:00 and it was
only about 9:30. Already I was feeling run down.
Rather than plunge on, I needed a rest, and so we stopped
into a small café across the street call the Sun Merry Café.
Chu-Wan made some phone calls to her friends while I sat, relaxed, drank some
tea and looked through tourist literature. The Sun Merry Café is an
upscale place, with tasteful decour and a unique glass door on the men’s
room, allowing the people on the pay phones to watch men urinating. Culture
Shock rears its ugly head in the strangest places.
It was still too early for Sogo’s, so we headed on to
the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park. A beautiful park, and a solemn memorial for the
founder of the Republic of China. An honor guard is always on duty when the
memorial is open. The guard remain perfectly motionless for most of the time,
but at (apparently) pre-determined times, both guards change their position,
very slowly and in perfect unison.
Figuring we’d waited long enough, we headed back to
Sogo’s, which was now open, and up to Kinokuniya, which was, for one day
only, closed until 5:30PM. Inside the bookstore they appeared to be conducting
some form of staff brainwashing or motivational exercises. By now, I was
loosing ground fast and we went back to the hotel, where I went to sleep for
the remainder of the day.
December 18, 1998
I awoke the next morning, surprised that I had slept for
over 14 hours. While I was nearly unconscious, Chu-Wan had gone out to the
night market with a school friend. I had been too sick to notice.
I was almost unable to get out of bed all day. In an attempt
to get me to eat, Chu-Wan brought me pizza, which I couldn’t eat. While I
have a healthy distrust of doctors I do realize that when I can’t eat
pizza, it’s time to seek professional help.
My father-in-law took us across town to their family
doctor.
Doctor’s offices are quite different. For starters it
was open till 9:00PM for walk-in patients. I was diagnosed as having a viral
infection in the sinuses, as well as bronchitis. I was put on a series of
anti-biotics and given a really, truly painful shot of vitamins to help
compensate for my lack of eating. We had a really big day ahead of us tomorrow
and it didn’t look like I was going to make it.
I had one more shock before I left: The bill for the
doctor’s visit and prescriptions came out to a grand total of US$25.
December 19, 1998
I awoke with a bit more energy than the day before, and I
was going to need it. This was phase two of the Wedding Photography Adventure:
Picture Day. With luck we'd spend the entire day driving around scenic spots in
and around Taipei having wedding pictures taken.
Luck wasn't with us. After days of perfect weather, today it
had settled into a steady rain. We spent the entire day confined to the studio,
we didn't even have time to leave for lunch; however, a catered box lunch was
included in the package. It would have been totally inedible had it not been
for the fact that I could neither smell nor taste anything.
 An all-day picture shoot would be
exhausting at the best of times, but with my sinus problems, I was constantly
blowing my nose. This tended to wipe off the make-up, so they had to have
someone powder my nose between every shot. Also, my ears were so clogged I
could barely hear anyone speak, but since the photographer only spoke Chinese,
I couldn't have understood her anyway. Hand gestures didn't help much either,
since I was wearing fake glasses with no lenses in them.
From 9 in the morning till after 6 at night, I was blind,
deaf, unable to smell or taste. The only way they could accomplish the shoot
was to have the photographers assistant powder my nose and pose me like a
mannequin between each picture.
Strangely, by 6:00PM I was beginning to get my strength back
and so we went for a steak dinner. I was able to eat the whole thing, but was
still unable to taste anything.
When we left the studio, Chu-Wan discovered something
unpleasant. During the elaborate make-up job they did on her, one over-eager
make-up girl shaved off 50% of one of her eyebrows.
December 20, 1998
Our flight to Singapore was at 9:20AM, so we planned for an
early start to the airport.
Unfortunatey, Chu-Wan refusd to go out in public with only
half of one eyebrow and spent an inordinate amount of time constructing a new
one, which made us late for catching the bus to the airport. Chu-Wan's father
came to the rescue and drove us to the bus stop, but it was already gone, and
so we chased the bus down in his car, somewhat like a car chase on Hawaii 5-0,
until they stopped at the next stop and we got on. |
