Just a day after our return from Bangkok and all the amazing sights and sounds of that megalopolis, we turned our thoughts to another huge Asian city, our home of nearly 6 years, Taipei. The reason for this introspection was the arrival of Cassy’s parents, Chris and Val, who had just finished a two week tour of Cambodia and Vietnam and were visiting us on the end of this trip. This was to be their third visit, and we honestly wondered whether the wonders of Taipei would be evident to them this time around.The irony is that on their last visit four years ago, they were more enamoured of the place than we were. We were a little down on the place, mainly because the very Chinese essence of the place had lost its initial luster and the lack of facilities and conveniences we were used to had started to wear us down. Four years later, Taipei has changed incredibly. Chris and Val’s arrival has really brought this home to us and a little introspection saw that the progress of the city has been one of great stealth when you live and work here. Regular readers of this blog will know that we regularly seek out, and find, different and excellent restaurants, but there is more to it than that. We now have a dedicated TV cable channel, the Australia Network, delivering shows from home to us along with ABC news. The inception of super high speed internet means that we can torrent any other audio or video material usually overnight, and we regularly stream live video (like Surfest from Merewether beach) and radio (the football talk) as well as access 24 hour delayed rugby league broadcasts.
Taipei has really come of age in the last 5 years. It has continued to strive, through lots of government campaigns to clean itself up and has succeeded, it has the very best of the world’s leading stores and leads the world in terms of access to the latest and greatest computer and audio/visual equipment. The new centre of Hsinyi is built around Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building and the vibe and energy surrounding this district is palpable every time we visit. Chris and Val have noticed the changes too: they have been surprised at the massive range of products and services available to us and are in awe of the sleek and modern transport system.
We certainly haven’t enjoyed the best weather for their visit, however! The soaking, relentless Taipei rain has been with us for a few days and looks like staying well into next week at the very least. They have been very adventurous this week as we have been back at school and set out to Takashimaya and done some shopping and picked up all sorts of bits and pieces along the way. Chris got me some oil additive at the Carrefour as he recognized the packet (all Chinese!) that he has seen at home after I was lamenting the smoke pouring from the poor old “Auburgino”, our rather dated Corona. Chris and I went down to the computer market in Bade St. just and hour or two ago and found another example of the amazing service available to us here. He ordered a part for the computer he got here last time: nothing was too much trouble and the man spoke great English.
We’ve done lots of stuff with them and thoroughly enjoyed the experience ourselves: especially our first trip to the traditional pottery village at Yingge. I think we were all expecting something fairly rustic, but the quality of the shops and the wares was just outstanding. Val got some beautiful plates to take home and I got the opportunity to use a little bit of my rudimentary Chinese. Speaking of which, our visitors have been witness to what might be a watershed in my Chinese language learning. It was the first time that I have “used it in anger” so to speak, and I have been amazed with the results…even though I can barely understand what I am trying to say, people are responding very positively, so I think I’ll persevere for a while yet!.
We’ve got the day off tomorrow (a personal day that Cass and I have requested) and we had great plans to travel to the east coast. The incessant rain might ruin those plans, but we’ll wait and see. Apologies to the couple of people actually reading this blog regularly, it is a couple of days late; due to me being otherwise engaged. Photos: train fun, pottery shops and shopping, 101 district.