Cheap Sunglasses
Sunset on the Formosa Straits in Fangliao
I’m currently in the air
somewhere between Hong Kong and Bangkok after a great 3 days in Taiwan
with my
cousin Malcolm and his lovely wife Doris. Thank you guys so much for
the hospitality. I will see you on the rebound!
After the incredible train ride from Tapei to Kaohsiung, my cousin met me at the train station. From there we went to his house in Fangliao, a small town about a 40 minutes south of Kaohsiung. It is very quiet and worlds away form the hustle and bustle of Taipei and Kaohsiung. This is not a place frequented by foreigners, in fact I didn’t see one other foreigner the whole time I was there. THIS AIN’T KANSAS TOTO! English isn’t very widely spoken there and EVERYTHING is in Chinese, although it isn’t too hard to find somebody that speaks English. People are incredibly friendly and courteous. They tend to stare a bit, mostly out of curiosity. A little nod, a smile and a Nee How (hello!) and they smile and open right up.
The people of southern Taiwan are mostly aboriginal tribal people as opposed to mostly Chinese up north and in the cities. These are the people that settled the island before the Chinese arrived in the 17th century. There are about 14 different tribes, although that tends to vary depending on whom you are talking to. They have their own languages, customs and dress. You can tell by looking at them, they don’t look Chinese at all. They look more Polynesian.
The first night we took a ride down to beach, gathered some driftwood, built a nice fire and hung out with a nice bottle of whiskey remembering the old days when we were kids growing up and talking about the new days and where we are today. It was nice…..
The next day, we took a ride up to this mountain where Malcolm paraglides from. After 10 years I finally got up the nerve to do a tandem flight with him, but the wind just wasn’t there, so we hung out for awhile and went back down the mountain. On the way down we stopped and visited with some friends of Malcolm’s. None of them spoke English, so Malcolm did all the talking and interpreting. It was cool – we did a lot of smiling and nodding at each other!
The next day we took another ride up the mountain. This time the wind was much better, so we unfurled the wing (parachute), set up the lines and got our harnesses on. Everything was just about perfect. We were three steps away from jumping off the cliff, when Malcolm noticed that one of the lines was pretty badly frayed. This wasn’t just any old line, this was a major control line. If THIS line breaks, you have a pretty good chance of dropping out of the sky like a big freaking rock! Needless to say - FLIGHT CANCELLED! Maybe next time…….
Yesterday we took a ride over the mountains to a little aboriginal village to visit with some other friends of Malcolm’s. Again, a lot of smiling and nodding. From there, we went down to the other side of the island to another little village to see one Malcolm’s students. While his wife was showing his student how to set up and use Skype, we went for a walk around. We stopped by an internet café/noodle shop to check out their stuff. There were a few people hanging out. While Malcolm was talking to somebody, I just stood looking around doing a lot of smiling and nodding, everybody smiling and nodding. Some people sitting at a table pulled out a stool and invited me to hang with them. So of course not being one to turn down their hospitality, I joined them. A couple of the guys spoke some English, although it was pretty bad, we were communicating. Somebody had a bottle of cheap Taiwanese whiskey and poured me out a glass. So there we were, smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey, talking and laughing like a bunch of drunk sailors. I had my cheap gas station sunglasses on top of my head like I usually do and these guys thought they were so cool that they just had to check ‘em out. So, here they are, all taking turns putting on my sunglasses and strutting around looking cool and just having a great old time. After about 20 minutes, a bunch of cigarettes and quite a bit of whiskey, Malcolm made his way back. We hung out a little longer and then we got up and said our goodbyes and stumbled our way down the road. Now that was fun! You’ll never have this kind of experience going anywhere with a tour group. This was the real deal with real people – not some Disneyland approximation………
So now I’m sitting in my hotel room in Bangkok waiting for room service to bring me up some REAL Thai food – some fried beef and basil on rice (very, very spicy!) for about a buck and a half! After that, I’ll take a taxi down to the train station and buy a ticket for tomorrow’s train to Chiang Mai. It’s always best to get your ticket ahead of time here because you never know…..
After the incredible train ride from Tapei to Kaohsiung, my cousin met me at the train station. From there we went to his house in Fangliao, a small town about a 40 minutes south of Kaohsiung. It is very quiet and worlds away form the hustle and bustle of Taipei and Kaohsiung. This is not a place frequented by foreigners, in fact I didn’t see one other foreigner the whole time I was there. THIS AIN’T KANSAS TOTO! English isn’t very widely spoken there and EVERYTHING is in Chinese, although it isn’t too hard to find somebody that speaks English. People are incredibly friendly and courteous. They tend to stare a bit, mostly out of curiosity. A little nod, a smile and a Nee How (hello!) and they smile and open right up.
The people of southern Taiwan are mostly aboriginal tribal people as opposed to mostly Chinese up north and in the cities. These are the people that settled the island before the Chinese arrived in the 17th century. There are about 14 different tribes, although that tends to vary depending on whom you are talking to. They have their own languages, customs and dress. You can tell by looking at them, they don’t look Chinese at all. They look more Polynesian.
The first night we took a ride down to beach, gathered some driftwood, built a nice fire and hung out with a nice bottle of whiskey remembering the old days when we were kids growing up and talking about the new days and where we are today. It was nice…..
The next day, we took a ride up to this mountain where Malcolm paraglides from. After 10 years I finally got up the nerve to do a tandem flight with him, but the wind just wasn’t there, so we hung out for awhile and went back down the mountain. On the way down we stopped and visited with some friends of Malcolm’s. None of them spoke English, so Malcolm did all the talking and interpreting. It was cool – we did a lot of smiling and nodding at each other!
The next day we took another ride up the mountain. This time the wind was much better, so we unfurled the wing (parachute), set up the lines and got our harnesses on. Everything was just about perfect. We were three steps away from jumping off the cliff, when Malcolm noticed that one of the lines was pretty badly frayed. This wasn’t just any old line, this was a major control line. If THIS line breaks, you have a pretty good chance of dropping out of the sky like a big freaking rock! Needless to say - FLIGHT CANCELLED! Maybe next time…….
Yesterday we took a ride over the mountains to a little aboriginal village to visit with some other friends of Malcolm’s. Again, a lot of smiling and nodding. From there, we went down to the other side of the island to another little village to see one Malcolm’s students. While his wife was showing his student how to set up and use Skype, we went for a walk around. We stopped by an internet café/noodle shop to check out their stuff. There were a few people hanging out. While Malcolm was talking to somebody, I just stood looking around doing a lot of smiling and nodding, everybody smiling and nodding. Some people sitting at a table pulled out a stool and invited me to hang with them. So of course not being one to turn down their hospitality, I joined them. A couple of the guys spoke some English, although it was pretty bad, we were communicating. Somebody had a bottle of cheap Taiwanese whiskey and poured me out a glass. So there we were, smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey, talking and laughing like a bunch of drunk sailors. I had my cheap gas station sunglasses on top of my head like I usually do and these guys thought they were so cool that they just had to check ‘em out. So, here they are, all taking turns putting on my sunglasses and strutting around looking cool and just having a great old time. After about 20 minutes, a bunch of cigarettes and quite a bit of whiskey, Malcolm made his way back. We hung out a little longer and then we got up and said our goodbyes and stumbled our way down the road. Now that was fun! You’ll never have this kind of experience going anywhere with a tour group. This was the real deal with real people – not some Disneyland approximation………
So now I’m sitting in my hotel room in Bangkok waiting for room service to bring me up some REAL Thai food – some fried beef and basil on rice (very, very spicy!) for about a buck and a half! After that, I’ll take a taxi down to the train station and buy a ticket for tomorrow’s train to Chiang Mai. It’s always best to get your ticket ahead of time here because you never know…..
