3/18/06: Taipei, Taiwan

Day 1. For my Cambodia/Taiwan Adventure, I first met up with my mom in Taiwan and wandered around there a bit. First thing that I noticed was how often I really thought I was going to die. Not as in the "Oh my god, if I don't get an A on this test I'm going to die", but the "These two bodies of mass are converging onto the same point and one of them isn't going to make it out alive" type of death: Riding the taxi in Taipei traffic is the scariest thing I think I've ever experienced. The only analogy I can think of that might be remotely representative and accessible is to say that it's like LA traffic but with rabid, crazy drivers and hoards of scooters (some with little dogs on the back or children sandwiched between parents) zipping around making up traffic rules. However, the second thing I noticed about Taipei was the incredibly delicious and cheap food. At the night market, an amazing four dish meal for both my mom and I was only $3 US. Breakfast was usually around $1-2 US for both of us and, of course, was a party in my mouth with no one throwing up. And third is that most of the people that I saw (airport, on the bus, hotel) all spoke what seemed to be fluent Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, and English. Very cool and convenient for barganing, which was at all the shops, even the really nice ones at the hotel.

My mom and I went to check out Taiwan's National Museum, which was really nice and actually very crowded with a couple tour groups and tons of people, mostly from Japan, Taiwan, or China. I even saw an almost fight next to one of the displays between a man in a tour group from China versus his Taiwanese tour guide and a crowd of angry Taiwanese locals; according to my mom, he was a pompous "typical" Chinese ass who thought he was rich and big stuff here in Taiwan and made some comments about the displays (many of which were from China) that were not appreciated. Met my aunt whom I hadn't met in about 15 years. She was actually very cool. Except for when she told me about my last visit and how when I went with her to an art class, I was apparently concentrating so hard on my sculpture piece I forgot to go to the bathroom and wet myself. Keep in mind that I was about 8. My aunt took my mom and I to this really neat historic, old town street famed for its ceramics and lined with both ceramics stores and art galleries. Day 2: Cambodia.

1: Night market prices- About $100 Taiwan to $3 US

2: Woman waiting for customers
3: Ceramics for sale
4: Cool van near ceramics street
5: Scary lights display at an underground mall/market