Erm, I'm Not Really Liking the Pulut Hitam
That, was one of the choice phrases uttered (during dinner at this zen vegetarian restaurant) on my recently concluded trip to Taipei:
This brings the number of times I've visited the city in the span of 1 calendar year to THREE: Nov 07 - Dec 07 with Weeds, May 08 with the Tear, Dar and Bear, and Dec 08 with Elva. Apparently, that's a lot of times. Well I can't say I've gotten sick of the city. Okay, so towards the last few days of this trip, I was kinda wondering what to do and I did think that I would have achieved more if we had gone to another city instead of staying in Taipei alone. But Elva hadn't been to Taipei before and seemed to really enjoy being in the city, plus I was kinda lazy to pack and uproot to another place and then travel back to Taipei for the flight back, so I was quite glad to just stay put.
Of course, the next time I come to Taipei (and there will be a next time because I still have a fortune in my 悠游卡), I will need to find a nicer hotel because Handsome Hotel is just too damn dusty! Even though its location is SUPER, I got the sniffles after a few days of inhaling that microbial air. I had to shift our stuff to another room cos they were renovating halfway during our stay so more fumes and dust. Also, the toilet damn gross. No shower curtain DAS MEAN eternally wet floor + damp.
Hmmm... so what did we get up to this trip?
There was FUNKY. As usual, touchdown Friday evening, check in hotel, eat dinner and then get ready for the deluge of Chinese pop song dance remixes + cute Taiwanese guys. Repeat the process on Saturday night. This time, it was even better because:
1) I knew more songs so it was more fun
2) There was this tall and chunky draglet with a bob whom Elva called 舞孃, and who made quite a spectacle on the dance floor with her semi-coordinated moves and energetic stomping. 舞孃 became a minor celebrity for us and we chirped with glee each time we saw her sitting in the 西門紅樓 cluster of bars with her little friends.
3) There was that cheek reddening episode of being asked by a wingman to slow dance with his friend during Saturday night's 慢舞 segment. And the subsequent sequence of events that made me realise that on Saturday nights, EVERYONE in Taipei comes out to play. Everyone.
4) As a result of #3, I got to make a new friend who showed me around the more obscure corners of Taipei (like the famous grubby beef noodle corner stall) and who gave me a bit more insight into what it is like to be a real Taiwanese.
Anyway.
I finally went to 淡水 to check out what the big deal was. Well true to the advice, it was pretty spectacular at dusk:
Well this little girl had a morbid toy dangling on her bike. This bewildered skinned chicken is fairly popular around the city. I've seen it sold at shops.
Anyway.
Also finally went up 陽明山. I think we were a bit unprepared for it (we probably needed a car) and we underestimated the effort needed to climb/trek up the mountain. Plus it was getting foggy and dark, so we made it sort of till the foot of one of the many insurmountable hills, called it quits and walked back the way we came.
The insurmountable hill.
Me trying to look rugged and accomplished. :P
Of course, there was the nuts energy that was in 西門町 and the place has changed somewhat since I last visited in May. There are these stalls by the side of the 紅樓 and there thoroughfare has been somewhat remodelled. This time, there were a lot more buskers like Elva's new husband Ah Wei (on the right):
And the more talented Vela:
Click to viewAnyway, thanks to Vela, I'm now repeating this song over and over again. In my head, on my laptop, on my camera. And by the way, she sang it much much better than that insipid 林依晨 did.
Okay, so according to Elva, the buskers were really good, so he looked forward ALL WEEK from Sunday till Friday (when they reappeared) to watch them ALL through the cold (ok not really) Taipei night. In all honesty, Vela is really good. But Ah Wei had an embarrassingly limited repertoire and a very big mouth, but Elva like leh.
Alright! This post is getting tooooooo long. Part 2 will follow.