Winter Vacation

So winter vacation was a while ago.  I’m just getting to writing about it now.  I haven’t been busy, just lazy.  Since vacation I made a Harry Potter movie with my after school class, which came out phenomenally.  I might be more proud of that creative achievement than I am of my Tolan and Max music.  But that’s a debate that will rage on between the experts for centuries.  So on to the trip.

High One Ski Resort, Korea

The first leg was snowboarding.  Nick’s awesome co-worker Yoon helped us arrange a very reasonably priced package at High One ski resort, one of the best in Korea.  The package included two nights hotel, 3 full-day lift tickets, rental equipment, plus a bus ride from Busan to the resort and a bus ride from the resort to Seoul (where were flying out of) for only $300/person.  Pretty awesome.

To get to the resort, we had to take a 2am bus ride on Monday morning.  Nick and I decided to just stay up, as we saw no point in going to bed.  Once we got on the bus, which was actually quite nice, we passed out.  The only thing hindering our slumber was the oppressive heat on board.  I have no idea why the bus was kept so hot, especially when people were headed to go skiing.  I was boiling in rolled-up sweatpants and a t-shirt.

We got to the resort around 7:30am, and went through the motions of getting to our hotel, getting our boards, getting our lift tickets, and putting on our snow clothes.  When I took out my goggles, I noticed the strap had broken on one side where it connects to the goggles.  Being the talented craftsman that I am, I secured it with packaging tape.  When I put the goggles on my head, the other side broke.  I guess they were dry or old or something.  But I just slapped some tape on the other side and was good to go.

By about 10:30 we were on the slopes, and we decided to start slowly with a green.  To both of our surprises, we were boarding great.  I can only guess it’s from the core strength and balance I’ve gained from Taekwondo.  But whatever the reason, I was doing awesome.  Which was awesome.

We ended up boarding from about 10:30 to 4:30, taking an hour for lunch.  By the afternoon I’d built up my confidence to try the modest terrain park, but the dude running it said helmets were required.  So I had to put it off until the next day.

After a full day of boarding coupled with a 2am bus ride, Nick and I were pretty, pretty, pretty spent.  So we got a pizza at the Dominos by our hotel (which had a menu featuring the Shrimpus Pizza – a pizza we dared not try but laughed about for days, given the inherently hilarious name).  It was actually delicious – I wish Dominos in ‘Murica tasted nearly as good.

After dinner and a few beers, Nick and I went to bed exhausted.  Sadly, the hotel didn’t have any beds, only Korean-style sleeping mats (it was meant to be a condo but undersold, so they are renting it out as a hotel).  So I didn’t sleep as well as I’d wished.

The second day I rented a helmet, so I was able to hit the terrain park.  I had a few falls, but nothing bad.  I landed a 130 or so, which I’ll take.  I was going for a 180, but we can’t all be Shaun White.  After another full day of boarding, we looked for other restaurants on in the resort but ultimately settled on Dominos again.  It was again delicious, though, so no complaints.

The third and final day I again got a helmet and went to the terrain park, but it was a bit crowded so I didn’t try any tricks (for fear of falling and having someone behind me jump and hit me).  But overall a good day.  Like the first two days, the slopes were surprisingly uncrowded.  Unlike in America, where skier/snowboarded talent is fairly evenly distributed, over 90% of the people there were beginners.  So the beginner slopes were pretty crowded and had long lines for the lifts, but the intermediate and advances slopes were very empty and had very short lines.  So that was pretty rad.

After our last day of boarding, we returned our gear to the company we were using and got ready to take our bus to Seoul.  At the last second, though, were told we’d been changed to the Incheon bus and had to go immediately.  We didn’t have time to use the restroom or change, and when we got on the bus we were clearly the last ones on.  So we were made to feel like assholes, because we were the inconsiderate Westerners who didn’t care about showing up to our bus on time.  Never mind the fact that our company told us that they changed our bus only 3 minutes prior.

Despite the uncomfortable bus ride, our evening actually was pretty solid.  We stayed at the Lazy Bird Guest House near the Incheon airport, which was a marvelous hostel.  We were treated to a really nice owner who picked us up from the subway and took us to the airport the next morning, wonderful facilities, and a really cool dude from Seoul to share the room with.  A great way to wrap of the Korea leg of our trip.

The next morning, we woke up around 7 and then got shuttled to the airport.  Our flight into Taipei was pretty smooth, and quite empty.  I was able to catch some shut-eye, which was nice.  I also read 700 Sundays by Billy Chrystal.  It’s was a pretty good read, albeit a bit cheesy.

Taipei, Taiwan

Once we landed in Taipei, we had to get a cab to our hotel.  The listed price inside the airport was NTD$1300 (about $40 USD), but we found a guy who said he’d get us a ride for NTD$1000.  So he hailed one of his cabs (I guess he was a coordinator or something) and we got in.  At the hotel, the cab driver demanded $1300.  I was adamant that the guy had said $1000, but Nick didn’t want to rip off the driver so we just paid the extra fare.

Once we got settled at the hotel, we took a cab to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.  What a site, especially inside.  The roof is simply magnificent.  I think my favorite photo from Taiwan came from a shot I got with the inside of the memorial relatively empty.  Beautiful.

From the Memorial we took a short subway ride to National Taiwan University, just to get a feel for college life in Taiwan.  One of the first things we noticed was the laydees.  They give Korean girls a run for their money, which is impressive/surprising given the wealth gap between the two places.  The campus was pretty too, lots of grass and palm trees.  A surprisingly small amount of students just lounging around, though.  Almost all of the students we saw en transit, typically by bike.  Guess they work a bit harder than los estudiantes en los Estados Unidos.

From the University we took the subway to City Hall, which the lady from the hotel front desk told us to check out.  I don’t know why, though, it was really dull.  Bu it was en route to Taipei 101, which is what we really wanted to see.  And wow – what an impressive structure.  It’s the 3^rd highest structure in the world, just behind the Shanghai Financial Center and the Whatsitcalled in Dubai.  Unfortunately, we didn’t go up to the observatory because the lady at the desk warned us that we wouldn’t have much of a view.  Upon reflection, I don’t think she was right.  Though it was cloudy, visibility was good and the clouds were above the top of the building.

After Taipei 101 we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit, and then we went to the Shillin night market.  Ate a bunch of food, but nothing caught my eye in terms of purchases.  After maybe an hour and a half we were pretty spent, so we just headed back to the hotel and passed out.

Day 2

Even though we went to bed fairly early (10:30pm or so), we slept in.  Because man oh man were the beds at our hotel comfy.  We were staying at a very nice 4-star hotel that we booked online at a great price of only about $100/night. 

After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we went to the National Palace Museum.  The grounds of the museum are breathtaking, and the collection of ancient Chinese artifacts is one of the largest in the world (or so Wikipedia tells me).  So we spent nearly 3 hours wandering around, thoroughly impressed by the collection.  The coolest pieces were undoubtedly the small, incredibly detailed sculptures of marble and jade.  Some pieces had such intricate detail that they had to be viewed through a magnifying glass.  Still don’t know how they were made hundreds of years ago.

From the National Palace Museum we went to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines.  I didn’t know there was a significant aboriginal population in Taiwan, but apparently there is.  And recently there has been a large movement to allow them to continue their tribal way of life without infringement or discrimination.  The museum itself was really cool – it was beautifully maintained and well laid out, plus very informative (and had ample English).  We spent another hour or so there.

Sufficiently museumed out, we took a cab to the Grand Hotel.  The Grand Hotel is Taiwan’s most famous hotel, and for good reason.  The structure itself has a very cool design, and the interior is just beautiful.  I don’t even want to guess how much a room costs there.

After the Grand Hotel, we went back to our Good Hotel to relax.  After a few beers in bed, we grabbed dinner and headed to Luxy Club.  Luxy is the trendiest club in Taiwan, and man it was crazy.  Two stories, two dance floors, big screens, scantily clad girls walking around and pouring shots into your mouth, the whole deal.  The girls were smoking, too.  Sadly, the music was too bad to even pretend to dance to, so Nick and I just took in the scene.  Once we felt like we’d abused our ear drums enough, we went back to our hotel and wandered around looking for a nearby bar.

The only bar we could find was the Baking Bar, but boy did we hit the jackpot.  The owners, Ooweh and Jojo, were unbelievably friendly.  And Jojo had spent some time living in LA, so she spoke English very well.  The regulars there were also really nice, particularly a guy named Edward.  Nick and I both agreed that we want to return to Taiwan, mainly because of the really nice friends that we made.

Day 3

We ended up staying at Baking Bar until like 4am, so we slept in late.  Though the forecast was for rain, the weather held up and we were able to go to Yangmingshan National Park.  When we first arrived, we met this absurdly friendly kid named Jesse.  He spoke perfect English and was really, really talkative and cool.  He kept saying “I’m coming back tomorrow!  Be here tomorrow, OK?”  I suspect he and his family may have been from Hong Kong, because it really seemed like he was raised on English.

Yangmingshan was a really cool national park, with some cool botanical areas and pretty trails.  Sadly, it was overcast and we couldn’t get the views of Taipei that we were hoping for.  There was a super sketchy moment, though, when we followed the trail to an observatory.  As we approached, it seemed a little odd because the observatory did not look maintained.  Suddenly, a dog got up and started barking at us.  We decided to just back away, and then the dog started to chase us.  So we ran.  Luckily, the dog didn’t venture down the trail.  But it was pretty terrifying.  Our hypothesis is that some hobo is living in the observatory with a guard dog.

After we bused back to Taipei, we decided to try Taipei 101 again.  But while we were en route, the fog descended quickly and actually engulfed the top of the building, presumably including the lookout area.  That was a disappointment.

When we got back to the hotel, I learned a much greater disappointment.  As I checked my facebook on the hotel computer, I learned that my friend Mike Vogel from Semester at Sea committed suicide.  Though I wasn’t particularly close with Mike, three of my better from SAS, Martin, Nicholas, and Gabe, were all very close to him.  It was a real shock, and the news hit me hard.

From the hotel, we went to Baking Bar.  The great company allowed me to forget about my troubles for a while, but the bar was closing early for the Chinese New Year.  When we tried and failed to find more bars near the National Taiwan University area, I got down again.  So Taiwan Day 3 ended on a low note.

Day 4

For our last full day we decided to check out the Beitou Hot Springs.  Beitou, a sizable area of Taipei, is basically a giant hot spring.  There are several rivers which are constantly steaming, and then an enormous mother-load hot spring.  The signage said the mother-load reached a boiling 100ºC, and based on the amount of the steam I’d believe ot.  Nestled between steep hills dense with bright green trees and plants, it was quite the sight to take in.

There are some public hot springs you can bathe in free of charge, but Nick and I, being the geniuses that we are, didn’t bring towels.  So we went to a private hot spring in a hotel.  We watched the last 2/3 of How to Train your Dragon, which was pretty decent.  On the way back to the hotel we grabbed a half hour massage, which cost about $20 and was just what the doctor ordered.  Unfortunately, my masseur was a masseur, not the smoking hot Taiwanese masseuse I’d imagined while standing outside.

For dinner, we went to this pizza place that we’d walked by several times to get reach the subway.  The restaurant was located in what can only be described as a hippy part of town – there was a yoga studio, an art gallery, a cultural park featuring modern art type sculptures, and then this pizza place.  The pizza place was called Alley Cats and had a bunch of cats walking around.  It was pretty delicious.  Unfortunately, it started raining after dinner so we never got to explore the park.

Come beddy-bye time we were pretty spent, so we decided to hit the hay early.  Plus, football was on the next day!  49ers vs. Giants in the NFC Championship.  Long live Harbaugh and Alex Smith.

Day 5

Well football dashed my hopes and dreams.  It was a pretty good game, but the forecast actually cut out with 5 minutes remaining to go to local news.  No joke.  The game had been advertised as being broadcast on that channel for days, and then they just cut to news with 5 minutes left in the NFC Championship game.  It was probably all for the best, though, as the Niners blew it.  Eff you, Kyle Williams.  Eff you.

After football broke my heart, Nick and I took a cab to the airport to fly to Hong Kong.  We were cautious and left about 3 hours before our flight, which proved to be far too conservative as we arrived in about half an hour and found the airport virtually empty.  Luckily, the airline had space on a flight which left an hour and a half before our original, which would give us a bit of extra time in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

We landed in Hong Kong around 4pm, and by 5pm we were on the airport bus to get to our hostel.  But before we reached our stop at Nathan Road, we were told the bus couldn’t go there because the road was closed.  So we got off a few stops early and were pointed in the direction of our hostel.  Once we found Nathan Rd, we were disappointed to see we had to walk 8 long blocks with all of our stuff, and shocked/dismayed to see how crowded the street was.  Apparently there was going to be some sort of parade to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and people were lining up early.  We were also unpleasantly surprised by the number of hawkers setting up shop outside of our building, all of whom were approaching us saying things like “Hey, buddy, need a place to stay?  No?  Well I got copy watches.  Copy Rolex.  Great price.  Hashish?  Cocaine?  You want it I’ve got it.”

Getting through the crowds and the hawkers took a lot out of us, but we finally reached our building.  It was right on the main road, and I commented to Nick that I hoped our room would be on corner and have a view of the parade.  Nick laughed and said “fat chance.”

But once we got to our guest house, lo and behold we had a window!  The view of the parade, which started while we were getting settled in our room, wasn’t perfect but it was pretty darn cool to have an aerial view (we were 7 stories up).  And what a luxury it was to be out of the crowds!

After about a half hour, though, we started to feel hungry and decided to return to the fray.  We quickly left the main parade street to find eats, and ended up at a kebab place called Ebaneezers.  It was pretty delicious.  After dinner, we grabbed some beers and headed back to our room.  The walk back to the hostel was absolutely insane – the road, which had previously been very crowded, now had about three times the number of people that it did before.  It took about 20 minutes to walk a block that should have taken maybe two minutes.  We were so happy that we got on that early flight, because I don’t know how we could have managed that walk with our suitcases.

Once we got back to our room, we drank some Tsing Tao and watched the parade from our window.  Highlights included an enormous Chinese dragon (celebrating the year of the dragon), Vegas showgirls, the St. Louis Rams cheerleaders, a Brazilian troupe with incredible costumes, Star Wars characters, Toy Story characters, a break dancing crew, some insanely athletic monks, and a guy who was doing flips on a long, elastic rubber strap no wider than a balance beam (basically shaped like an oversized fettuccini noodle, no more than 4 inches wide).  It was a pretty fun show.

By the time it ended (about 10:30pm), though, Nick and I were pretty exhausted.  So we hit the hit the hay early.

Day 2

After a nice, long sleep, Nick and I headed out to take on the day.  After a breakfast/lunch of shrimp wonton soup and some fried fish balls, we headed out in search of hockey gloves.  We’d recently found a weekly game in Busan, but the spare gloves we’d been given were pretty worn.  We’d heard that Hong Kong, given its sizable foreign population, has some places to buy equipment.  So we found a coffee shop with a computer and researched where we could find gloves.  Turns out many YMCA facilities have inline hockey leagues and small pro shops, so we set out to the nearest one mention online.  Unfortunately, we were given some bad info by the man at the information desk in the subway station: he told us that the YMCA we found online was closed.  We later learned it was not, when we visited the YMCA near our hostel (which unfortunately didn’t have a pro shop).

Temporarily defeated, we wandered back toward our hostel area to get to the famous Hong Kong Waterfront.  On our way, we visited Kowloon Park, which was teeming with plant life and beautifully maintained.  Beautiful parks became a bit of a theme for our Hong Kong visit, which Nick hypothesized was due to British influence.

After about an hour at Kowloon Park, we ventured to the waterfront promenade and soaked in the scene.  This was particularly cool because we’d been there about two years ago when we visited on Semester at Sea.  We also walked down the avenue of the stars, where I got another photo with the Bruce Lee statue.  I later posted that photo side-by-side with the photo I took in 2010 to facebook.  It was the most “Liked” thing I’ve ever posted, getting over 50 “Likes” (I think).  I’m ashamed to admit how cool I felt getting internet points.

After taking in the sights on the water, we headed back to the YMCA we tried to get to in morning.  This time equipped with directions from the YMCA near our hostel, we reached our destination without trouble.  Because it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, the place was pretty much deserted.  But a nice and strikingly beautiful girl who was stuck working there took us to the pro shop and sold us each a pair of gloves (unrelated side-note, this girl was pretty much the only very attractive girl we saw the entire weekend.  Not-so-fun-fact: Girls in Hong Kong aren’t attractive.)

From the YMCA, we headed to the Temple Night Market.  We got some delicious dim sum for dinner, and then cruised around looking for trinkets.  I got a portable, bendable tripod for a mere $6, and super cool painting of the Hong Kong skyline at night for like $22.  Nick got himself a leather satchel, and we each chipped in for a copy Dolce and Gabbana bag for our friend Ryan.  All solid purchases.

After going back to the hostel to drop of our purchases, we took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong island and made our way to Lan Kwai Fong, the bar street we’d visited on Semester at Sea.  As the bars were obscenely overpriced, Nick and I stuck mostly to brewskies purchased at the 7-11 and consumed in the middle of the street (which, by the way, is perfectly legal in Hong Kong).  Luckily, to spice up the evening, we met a super cool dude named Demetry who we talked with for a couple hours.  He was from Russia but spoke perfect English, and told us how he’d been teaching in China but quit because he hated it.  Since he’d been traveling solo, and was currently bumming around in Hong Kong.  He was a super cool dude with a dry wit and sharp intellect – reminded me a lot of my buddy Martin from SAS.  Sadly, I was unable to find him on facebook.

Day 3

Our third day in Hong Kong (if you count our first half day where we saw the parade, WHICH I AM) was gamblin’ day.  Nick and I were heading to Macau to spend some cashola.  I’m talking dollar bills, folks.  Benji’s.  And of course, what I really mean is that we gambled approximately $18 each.

But before we could make it rain pennies, we had to get there.  Macau has a pretty awesome turbo boat, which takes you straight from Hong Kong to Macau in less than an hour (sadly, you still must go through customs).  So after arriving, we pretended to be going to a casino to get a free ride from the ferry terminal to the central part of the island.  We took ride to the Grand Lisboa, which unfortunately didn’t have a good bus (all the others were charters).  Nick dubbed it the Peanut Bus, which I still find hilarious for some reason.

Anyhow, after the bus ride we wandered the streets.  Macau is a pretty interesting place because it was a Portuguese colony until 1999.  So there are lots of cool sites to see, and many delicious egg tart treats (http://bestvacationdealstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Portuguese-egg-tarts.jpg) to eat.  Thus, for our first few hours in Macau we simply wandered around checking out the sites, the highlight of which was undoubtedly the Ruínas de São Paulo.  Just one wall remains from the 16^th century church, and it was damn cool to see at dusk.  But the coolest part of the wandering was that at times we were completely immersed in Portuguese architecture; it was hard to believe that we were in Asia.  See, sometimes colonial oppression can be fun!

After a delicious dinner of seafood street kebabs (which, as time would tell, DIDN’T induce traveler’s diarrhea!) we headed to the casinos to get our gambling on.  Before we did, though, I just ogled the casinos lit up at night and took probably 200 pictures.  All the casinos except the Casino Lisboa (built in 1970) were put up post-colonization, and are absolutely magnificent structures.  Unfortunately, these buildings are so darn pretty that the casino owners correctly think that they can charge you an arm and leg to wage some bills there.  The cheapest blackjack table we could find had about a $33 (USD) minimum bet.  So we stuck to roulette as a joint venture, and minimized our losses about $8 each.  We also were treated to an awesome dance show featuring girls in g-strings dancing to a super hokey song which had a tiger’s roar every 8 beats or so.  So that was pretty cool.  

But even though Nick and I are the Original Party Boys USA ™, we actually headed back around midnight because we had a rigorous itinerary planned for a final day in Hong Kong.

Day 4

We started our last day in Hong Kong by going to Lantau Island to see the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha, the largest seated outdoor Buddha statue in the world.  The Buddha quite a site to take in – 112 feet tall and made of pure bronze.  However, the experience was a bit marred because it was a very foggy day.  The statue is located at the top of a sizable hill, and on a clear day the view of the island is supposedly splendid.  We wouldn’t know, though, because all we could see was mist.

After visiting the statue, we checked out the Po Lin Monastery.  I actually really enjoyed this part, because it was comical how much the Monastery had whored itself out for some bills.  Nick and I kept joking about all of the sacred restaurants, food stands and souvenir shops.  Probably how Buddha would have wanted it.

From Lantau Island we went to Hong Kong Island hopping to go to Victoria’s Peak, which is famous for its views of the city.  Unfortunately, it was so foggy that it was immediately clear the peak wouldn’t be worth our time.  Astoundingly, there seemed to be a 2+ hour line for the trolley up to the peak.  I don’t know why people didn’t realize that the peak was going to be completely enveloped by fog, or why they’d choose to wait over two hours to save a couple bucks on a cab fare.

With the Peak out of the question, we decided to visit the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens.  It was a beautiful park, which had several cool plants, a gorgeous fountain surrounded by a flower garden, a bunch of exotic birds, some animals (the highlight was undoubtedly the leapin’ lemurs), and a reptile house with an ENORMUS python.  Perhaps the coolest thing at the gardens, though, was a small picture of the Hong Kong Waterfront from 1991.  Aside from the famed Bank of China building and a couple other skyscrapers, the skyline didn’t have much.  Since 1991, there must have been at least 50 new skyscrapers built, an incredible feat of engineering and efficiency.  Also explains why the buildings all look so modern and cool – because, well, they are.

From the Botanical Gardens we went to Hong Kong Park, which was equally impressive.  The park was filled with paths through trees and plants, grassy areas for sitting/picnics, an enormous bird conservatory, some basketball and tennis courts, and an observation tower at least 70 feet tall.  As we were losing light, we didn’t spend too much time wandering through the park, instead opting to go up the observatory tower.  The views up there were splendid, and we just soaked in the sights for a half hour or so before heading back to Kowloon via the Star Ferry.

Back in Kowloon we first researched airport busses, as taking a taxi or even a subway was quite pricey.  We saw that the last bus left to the airport at midnight, so we decided to get to our stop around 11:30 just to play it safe.

From the coffee shop with the computers we did some last-minute trinket shopping.  Nick got himself a bottle opener, and I got gifts for my co-teachers and my vice principal (Editor’s Note: The gift for the vice principal really paid off – I am currently enjoying an extra week of vacation during the school’s spring break).  The guy we bought the gifts from was pretty awesome, too: in addition to being really nice he was the only clearly/openly effeminate gay man we saw in Hong Kong.  He also wrapped up all of my trinkets very carefully, which I greatly appreciated and, in the spirit of the New Year that I don’t celebrate, I told him to keep the change on my purchase (about $2, so don’t Saint me).

Final purchases in hand, Nick and I headed out for an epic last meal.  We started with a Mediterranean wrap of Ebaneezers, the place we went our first night.  Then we went out for dim sum and ate shu mai and pork dumplings galore (Editor’s Note: Despite being absolutely stuffed that the moment, my mouth watered writing those last two sentences).  We then purchased some beers from the nearest 7-11 and got set for our ride to the airport.  I had about $100 spare Hong Kong Dollars (about $14 USD), so I decided to try to get a copy watch.  To my surprise, I couldn’t get a copy watch even if I tried to throw in an extra $20 USD.  Apparently the copy watches in Hong Kong aren’t as shitty as I thought.

At the airport we killed time with the beers we’d brought (our flight wasn’t until 2:00am and we arrived just past midnight – it’s called planning).  Some weirdo came up to us and insisted on talking to us about random things, so we conveniently mentioned our impending flight and got the hell out of there.

The plane was pretty packed, but I somehow ended up with an entire row to myself!  Huzzah!  While the space did enhance my aerial sleeping abilities (I’d say I slept for 75% of the flight), I was still thoroughly exhausted by the time I got back to my apartment around 7:30am.  So I crashed, content having completed a very fun winter break trip.

Taiwan Reactions

Taiwan is an absolutely amazing country.  The people are just so nice.  It’s unbelievable – by far the friendliest country I’ve ever been to.  Pretty much everyone who could speak English seemed to smile at us, ask us where we were from, and welcome us to Taiwan.  And unlike many places were friendly people approach tourists, they didn’t want anything from us.  They just wanted to say hi.

Taipei as a city was a little bit behind of what I’d expected.  The subway system is pretty excellent, but there aren’t as many skyscrapers as I would have expected.  The biggest construction project we saw was building a light rail to the airport.

But despite being a tad “behind” my expectations, the people seemed very happy.  The food and national beer are both good.  The people are very friendly.  The women are attractive.  The city of Taipei has a bunch of cool sites to check out (though I’m not sure how much there is by way of entertainment – recreational sports, pro sports teams, concert venues, etc.  I’d guess there’s an ample amount, but I didn’t run across any).  Plus, I made some great friends and never did get to see the top of Taipei 101 (or two seemingly wonderful national parks that are located 4 and 6 hours from Taipei, respectively) which makes me want to return to Taiwan when I finish my contract.

Hong Kong Reactions

People were noticeably less friendly in Hong Kong than in Taiwan.  One time on the subway, Nick and I saw a woman and her young daughter sprint in to grab seats another woman and daughter were clearly about to sit in (the latter pair was much closer to the seats in question).  I’d have to give the edge in cuisine to Hong Kong, though, as I’m a complete sucker for dim sum and Hong Kong also boasts many international cuisines, such as Mediterranean, Indian, and Italian.  The coolest part about Hong Kong, though, has got be the architecture, which is very modern and impressive.  If you like gambling, it’s pretty cool to have Macau a short ride away.

The most interesting question one can’t help but face in Hong Kong is how to view colonialism.  We are taught in school to view colonialism as a travesty, as colonial powers imposed their way of life on indigenous populations, exploited natural and human resources for their own gain, and crushed countless languages and cultures.  But with that said, one cannot deny how much higher the quality of life is in Hong Kong than it is in mainland China.  It really doesn’t even compare, and it is undoubtedly the result of British colonization.  Not that I’m arguing that colonialism was morally justified or at all pretty, but when you look at the result (at least in Hong Kong, the same cannot be said for many colonized places, especially in Africa) it makes you wonder: do the ends justify the means?  I haven’t really formed an opinion one way or the other, but it’s interesting food for thought.