trying to get out
The past few months i haven't been feeling great. Work is fine, but it takes up a huge amount of my energy and it utterly exhausts me. I have been drinking a lot more alcohol than i would like to be drinking, and i notice i'm gaining weight as a result, and that just makes me feel even more unhappy, which leads to more drinking. The weird itchy, pimply spots that cover my butt and waist, plus one elbow, one knee, both heels and my thighs... yeah, they're still there. They get strong and weaker in intensity, but they never go away. Sometimes when i forget to cut my nails they itch so much i wake up in the middle of the night bleeding from scratching while i slept. The dermatologist is still convinced it's post-scabies issues, but i don't believe her and i don't know what to do. It's raining all the time. God i fucking hate rain. And now it's kinda cold too. Not Europe cold, or North America cold, but everybody is wearing coats and to be honest, i have even pulled mine out once or twice when i went out for a late night booze run. I hate the cold too. My life isn't terrible, but it's just not that great, and damnit, i want my life to be great. I deserve a great life. Everyone does.
After wasting yesterday hungover again, today the recent brief spell of dry weather held out, so i decided to go on an adventure. I've realized that my favorite direction to cycle in is toward Taoyuan and places further south, where the sun shines brighter and the people are more down-to-Earth, and that's the route i took. But rather than stretch it out to Taoyuan, i decided to stop at Yingge district and head up the nearby mountain.
Before i started hiking, i ducked into a nearby noodle place that had a sign saying 麻辣乾麵 mala (numbing and spicy) dry noodle outside. I didn't hold out much hope given how utterly spicy-averse most Taiwanese food is, but i wanted something light and simple ahead of the climb. Right after i ordered, i saw the 老闆 boss pouring something white onto a large metal sheet and sprinkling it with ham, egg and so on. YOU GUYS. She was making 腸粉, which i haven't seen since i left Guangdong. That's the rice noodle roll type thing which is ubiquitous at breakfast joints over there. I took a closer look at the menu, and this place did bill itself as a Guangdong style breakfast joint. I was very tempted to order a 腸粉 too, but didn't want to overeat, so i just remarked how long it'd been since i'd eaten one, and lived vicariously through the guy sitting opposite who chowed down on that and a bowl of 粥 congee and other Cantonese goodies.
And then. The noodle arrived. Now, Guangdong guys aren't really well-known for spicy. So my expectations had actually dropped even lower than they originally were when i ordered. But i was pleasantly surprised. In fact. It was the best noodle i have had since i got to Taiwan. And i have had a lot of noodle. It was a thicker noodle than you normally get here, something more like 撈麵 lo mein. But even though it wasn't super spicy, and of course there was no 麻 (numbing), it actually did have the proper Sichuan-style accompaniments that i've missed since arriving in Taiwan. Julienne cucumber. Julienne carrot. And crispy, toasted peanuts. You have to put the peanuts! It was so refreshing to eat a noodle that wasn't just "Q" but also had some crunchy in it. I absolutely will try make it back there again. I need to try their 腸粉!
So the noodle put me in a good mood. I climbed the first hill, hoping - but failing - to find a hiking trail. Turns out a lot of the trails going up and down the mountain i was at are one-lane roads, the kind where pretty much the only vehicles are mopeds and kei trucks. Oh, and fucking douchebags in Mercedes SUVs, but we'll get to that.
It sounds like a bit of a bummer to hike along a road, but i actually only saw three cars the whole way up, so it was fine. There was a lot of bamboo around, which is kinda creepy to hike through if you've never experienced it. The stalks rub together and make a sort of creaking that sounds like a horror movie effect. In the distance - and sometimes not so distance - barking dogs. I decided to head up to a temple that was on a very steep incline and at a dead end. It was a pretty fabulous temple with a fantastic view, and then i got charged by three crazed dogs. I steeled myself and fortunately the caretaker popped up to yell at them. Fucking dogs, man. At least i didn't meet too many wild ones this time. Last time in Taiwan seemed like they were everywhere.
The hike continued, up and down roads, past tiny little temples nestled in the bamboo, there was hardly a soul out there. Eventually i reached the ridge and turned onto a bit less steep of a road that had a fairly healthy amount of foot traffic - Taiwanese hikers with brightly-colored jackets, streamlined backpacks, poles and a sense of purpose. I asked one where i could get a drink and he said there was a nearby coffee shop. The fuck? But he was right, there was a coffee shop on the top of the mountain. I went in, and waited. A couple had arrived by moped just ahead of me and were seated immediately. Someone else pushed in front of me to pay their bill, which i had to do a double-take because i couldn't believe how expensive it was, over 1100NTD which is about us$35, which is more than my weekly grocery bill. Eventually i just asked the clerk (who was ignoring me) for a menu. He's like "oh, how many are you". I said, just me. He did not give me the menu. I'm like "please, can i see the menu". "No. There are no seats available." There were about 5 empty tables. I said i just wanted to get a drink, i didn't need a seat. He said "well, i'm sorry, there's no seats". I was absolutely fucking beside myself. Was it racism? Was it xenophobia? Was it classism, because i rolled up hot and sweaty from hiking up the hill instead of driving up there in a fucking Mercedes? Like, why would you refuse to serve someone like that? Even if every table was reserved - at a fucking coffee shop! - you can't just give a to-go cup? Fucking fuck that shit.
And then i remembered i went to a coffee shop last time i was in Taiwan which was some pretentious-ass fucking Japanese-style drip coffee place and where coffee cost a goddamn arm and a leg and yeah. That's when i also remembered that Taiwan is great compared to China because you can find coffee everywhere, but also coffee here also has some kind of weird gourmet wank culture around it, so better to just get it from the 7/11 because it's still great coffee and it only costs 50 kuai.
Anyway, i left pretty annoyed, because i was hot and thirsty and i had only brought one liter of water. I stupidly assumed that the hiking trails in Taiwan would be like China where every trail has at least one guy sitting on a cooler selling sweet tea and water and cucumbers. Nah. So i continued along the trail, not finding anywhere to get a drink. I decided to hike to a place called 清龍嶺 which i love the name, it means green dragon ridge. When i got there, it was a lot more bustling than the road i had taken up the hill. There were several temples and karaoke places, which i can't figure out if they were temples too, because there seemed to be a bunch of overlap. Also tea houses filled with oldies brewing up their favorite blend and chatting. Although one place seemed to have cold drinks, i didn't get a really inviting vibe, so after taking a look back at the city, i headed down the hill once more.
The route i took down was a much busier road that steeply wound its way past Chinese cemeteries. Groups of well-dressed hikers and spandex-clad road cyclists passed me in the opposite direction, testing their mettle. Kei trucks crawled past every now and then, presumably delivering booze and tea to the karaoke temples on the hill. I decided to stop in at a small karaoke place that was thick with cigarette smoke and had a visible fridge right at the front entrance. I picked up a tall can of coconut juice and it was glorious. So refreshing. Just a tiny amount of sweetness, enough to give me the calorie boost to make it down the hill. That's what i was looking for, that's all i wanted! Why should it be so hard to find cold, semi-sweet drinks on a mountain?
Anywho, back in the city i jumped on a sharebike and booked it back home. Total adventure time: a bit over 5 hours, pretty much non-stop exercise. I missed it so much. I need to do it more often.
I need to get out in general, more often.
A few weeks back, a cycle tourist slash vagabond who i have exchanged a few messages with over the past couple years happened to be in Taiwan. He was originally going to be here for 3 months, but after about a month he decided he wanted to head back to the UAE, which somehow he has found to be a comfortable spot for him. We were originally going to meet up in Keelung, a city northeast of Taipei that i've never visited before, but due to a sequence of unfortunate events that didn't happen, and instead i went out to see him in Taoyuan the day before his flight. We met up at a shopping mall next to a subway station, way out past the airport and... just sat there in a courtyard outside talking for about 4 hours straight.
We didn't get dinner. We didn't go for a walk. We just sat on chairs, next to a big-ass Christmas tree, out front of this absolutely hideous fucking shopping mall, in a neubau district full of gleaming and empty residential highrises. And we talked. We talked about cycling and cars, about city planning, about how he left America during COVID because he couldn't deal with his hippie friends turning into right wing nutjobs (i bonded a bit on that), about alternative living communities, anarchism and veganism and climate change and globalization and dumpster diving and sleeping rough and all kinds of stuff.
And it was great. I was very tired, to make that time on a work night, go over an hour away to Taoyuan, then commute an hour back home again, but it was worth it. It's worth it to just hang out with people who are interesting. To do stuff. I need to make myself do stuff.
So one of the things i am thinking about doing is flying to Laos to meet up with my old landlord from Kamloops. She is heading up there with her sister, they're doing some kind of hippie trail thing, visiting places where there are temples and yoga and whatever. She is a bad ass old lady, over 70, still smoking and drinking and living life like it's meant to be lived. I really hate traveling with other people. And i also am not a fan of short vacations. I've done it before, and i'm always left feeling like i didn't really get what i wanted out of the place. I like slow travel much better. But the bottom line is, i am back in a regular job, where i only get a pitiful handful of holidays every year, so no matter where i travel it's going to be shitty and short and superficial. And this would be an excuse for me to visit somewhere i've never been before. Get to do the full-out tourist thing. Be that dumb foreigner who can't speak or read the language. It sounds like a bunch of stuff i would normally hate. But on the other hand. It'd be SOME stuff. And i'd get to have a 4 hour conversation about interesting stuff again. And that would be nice.
So. Thinking about it.
My everything is starting to itch again, fuck my life. Time to cook up some vege dumplings and put some actually numbing and spicy sauce on top, then play a computer game to distract me.
After wasting yesterday hungover again, today the recent brief spell of dry weather held out, so i decided to go on an adventure. I've realized that my favorite direction to cycle in is toward Taoyuan and places further south, where the sun shines brighter and the people are more down-to-Earth, and that's the route i took. But rather than stretch it out to Taoyuan, i decided to stop at Yingge district and head up the nearby mountain.
Before i started hiking, i ducked into a nearby noodle place that had a sign saying 麻辣乾麵 mala (numbing and spicy) dry noodle outside. I didn't hold out much hope given how utterly spicy-averse most Taiwanese food is, but i wanted something light and simple ahead of the climb. Right after i ordered, i saw the 老闆 boss pouring something white onto a large metal sheet and sprinkling it with ham, egg and so on. YOU GUYS. She was making 腸粉, which i haven't seen since i left Guangdong. That's the rice noodle roll type thing which is ubiquitous at breakfast joints over there. I took a closer look at the menu, and this place did bill itself as a Guangdong style breakfast joint. I was very tempted to order a 腸粉 too, but didn't want to overeat, so i just remarked how long it'd been since i'd eaten one, and lived vicariously through the guy sitting opposite who chowed down on that and a bowl of 粥 congee and other Cantonese goodies.
And then. The noodle arrived. Now, Guangdong guys aren't really well-known for spicy. So my expectations had actually dropped even lower than they originally were when i ordered. But i was pleasantly surprised. In fact. It was the best noodle i have had since i got to Taiwan. And i have had a lot of noodle. It was a thicker noodle than you normally get here, something more like 撈麵 lo mein. But even though it wasn't super spicy, and of course there was no 麻 (numbing), it actually did have the proper Sichuan-style accompaniments that i've missed since arriving in Taiwan. Julienne cucumber. Julienne carrot. And crispy, toasted peanuts. You have to put the peanuts! It was so refreshing to eat a noodle that wasn't just "Q" but also had some crunchy in it. I absolutely will try make it back there again. I need to try their 腸粉!
So the noodle put me in a good mood. I climbed the first hill, hoping - but failing - to find a hiking trail. Turns out a lot of the trails going up and down the mountain i was at are one-lane roads, the kind where pretty much the only vehicles are mopeds and kei trucks. Oh, and fucking douchebags in Mercedes SUVs, but we'll get to that.
It sounds like a bit of a bummer to hike along a road, but i actually only saw three cars the whole way up, so it was fine. There was a lot of bamboo around, which is kinda creepy to hike through if you've never experienced it. The stalks rub together and make a sort of creaking that sounds like a horror movie effect. In the distance - and sometimes not so distance - barking dogs. I decided to head up to a temple that was on a very steep incline and at a dead end. It was a pretty fabulous temple with a fantastic view, and then i got charged by three crazed dogs. I steeled myself and fortunately the caretaker popped up to yell at them. Fucking dogs, man. At least i didn't meet too many wild ones this time. Last time in Taiwan seemed like they were everywhere.
The hike continued, up and down roads, past tiny little temples nestled in the bamboo, there was hardly a soul out there. Eventually i reached the ridge and turned onto a bit less steep of a road that had a fairly healthy amount of foot traffic - Taiwanese hikers with brightly-colored jackets, streamlined backpacks, poles and a sense of purpose. I asked one where i could get a drink and he said there was a nearby coffee shop. The fuck? But he was right, there was a coffee shop on the top of the mountain. I went in, and waited. A couple had arrived by moped just ahead of me and were seated immediately. Someone else pushed in front of me to pay their bill, which i had to do a double-take because i couldn't believe how expensive it was, over 1100NTD which is about us$35, which is more than my weekly grocery bill. Eventually i just asked the clerk (who was ignoring me) for a menu. He's like "oh, how many are you". I said, just me. He did not give me the menu. I'm like "please, can i see the menu". "No. There are no seats available." There were about 5 empty tables. I said i just wanted to get a drink, i didn't need a seat. He said "well, i'm sorry, there's no seats". I was absolutely fucking beside myself. Was it racism? Was it xenophobia? Was it classism, because i rolled up hot and sweaty from hiking up the hill instead of driving up there in a fucking Mercedes? Like, why would you refuse to serve someone like that? Even if every table was reserved - at a fucking coffee shop! - you can't just give a to-go cup? Fucking fuck that shit.
And then i remembered i went to a coffee shop last time i was in Taiwan which was some pretentious-ass fucking Japanese-style drip coffee place and where coffee cost a goddamn arm and a leg and yeah. That's when i also remembered that Taiwan is great compared to China because you can find coffee everywhere, but also coffee here also has some kind of weird gourmet wank culture around it, so better to just get it from the 7/11 because it's still great coffee and it only costs 50 kuai.
Anyway, i left pretty annoyed, because i was hot and thirsty and i had only brought one liter of water. I stupidly assumed that the hiking trails in Taiwan would be like China where every trail has at least one guy sitting on a cooler selling sweet tea and water and cucumbers. Nah. So i continued along the trail, not finding anywhere to get a drink. I decided to hike to a place called 清龍嶺 which i love the name, it means green dragon ridge. When i got there, it was a lot more bustling than the road i had taken up the hill. There were several temples and karaoke places, which i can't figure out if they were temples too, because there seemed to be a bunch of overlap. Also tea houses filled with oldies brewing up their favorite blend and chatting. Although one place seemed to have cold drinks, i didn't get a really inviting vibe, so after taking a look back at the city, i headed down the hill once more.
The route i took down was a much busier road that steeply wound its way past Chinese cemeteries. Groups of well-dressed hikers and spandex-clad road cyclists passed me in the opposite direction, testing their mettle. Kei trucks crawled past every now and then, presumably delivering booze and tea to the karaoke temples on the hill. I decided to stop in at a small karaoke place that was thick with cigarette smoke and had a visible fridge right at the front entrance. I picked up a tall can of coconut juice and it was glorious. So refreshing. Just a tiny amount of sweetness, enough to give me the calorie boost to make it down the hill. That's what i was looking for, that's all i wanted! Why should it be so hard to find cold, semi-sweet drinks on a mountain?
Anywho, back in the city i jumped on a sharebike and booked it back home. Total adventure time: a bit over 5 hours, pretty much non-stop exercise. I missed it so much. I need to do it more often.
I need to get out in general, more often.
A few weeks back, a cycle tourist slash vagabond who i have exchanged a few messages with over the past couple years happened to be in Taiwan. He was originally going to be here for 3 months, but after about a month he decided he wanted to head back to the UAE, which somehow he has found to be a comfortable spot for him. We were originally going to meet up in Keelung, a city northeast of Taipei that i've never visited before, but due to a sequence of unfortunate events that didn't happen, and instead i went out to see him in Taoyuan the day before his flight. We met up at a shopping mall next to a subway station, way out past the airport and... just sat there in a courtyard outside talking for about 4 hours straight.
We didn't get dinner. We didn't go for a walk. We just sat on chairs, next to a big-ass Christmas tree, out front of this absolutely hideous fucking shopping mall, in a neubau district full of gleaming and empty residential highrises. And we talked. We talked about cycling and cars, about city planning, about how he left America during COVID because he couldn't deal with his hippie friends turning into right wing nutjobs (i bonded a bit on that), about alternative living communities, anarchism and veganism and climate change and globalization and dumpster diving and sleeping rough and all kinds of stuff.
And it was great. I was very tired, to make that time on a work night, go over an hour away to Taoyuan, then commute an hour back home again, but it was worth it. It's worth it to just hang out with people who are interesting. To do stuff. I need to make myself do stuff.
So one of the things i am thinking about doing is flying to Laos to meet up with my old landlord from Kamloops. She is heading up there with her sister, they're doing some kind of hippie trail thing, visiting places where there are temples and yoga and whatever. She is a bad ass old lady, over 70, still smoking and drinking and living life like it's meant to be lived. I really hate traveling with other people. And i also am not a fan of short vacations. I've done it before, and i'm always left feeling like i didn't really get what i wanted out of the place. I like slow travel much better. But the bottom line is, i am back in a regular job, where i only get a pitiful handful of holidays every year, so no matter where i travel it's going to be shitty and short and superficial. And this would be an excuse for me to visit somewhere i've never been before. Get to do the full-out tourist thing. Be that dumb foreigner who can't speak or read the language. It sounds like a bunch of stuff i would normally hate. But on the other hand. It'd be SOME stuff. And i'd get to have a 4 hour conversation about interesting stuff again. And that would be nice.
So. Thinking about it.
My everything is starting to itch again, fuck my life. Time to cook up some vege dumplings and put some actually numbing and spicy sauce on top, then play a computer game to distract me.