1. The People:

My previous experiences traveling in Asia, especially India, had my guard up. You know the deal, thousands of touts & hustlers all descending upon you at once.

People in Taiwan are extremely helpful and friendly with no underlying agenda.

2. The Public Transportation:

Taipei to Kaohsiung in an hour and a half! Love it! Cruising around the city in a CLEAN subway. Love it! Train ride along the scenic east coast. Love it!

3. Taxis:

Am I really saying I love taxis? Absolutely! They’re inexpensive, metered, and almost everywhere. It was often more economical to take a taxi than to pay to park, and without the burden of a car while out on the town you’re free to drink!

4. The Haircuts:

Heavenly. Seems an odd thing to love, but seriously, if you haven’t had a haircut in Taiwan, get your ass on a plane NOW!

5. Technology:

I love my gadgets and they were readily available in Taiwan. I also love to roll my own gadgets and there’s an entire district in Kaohsiung devoted to selling electronic components. It’s as if radio shack has a farm (but you don’t have to give your phone number to buy a resistor).

6. The Liquor Laws:

Eager to get out the door but don’t want to leave your beer? No worries, just take it with you. It’s like Las Vegas in that regard. Want a beer at 7AM on Sunday? No need to drive to the next county or state where the churchies haven’t ruined it for you yet – just go to the store, damn near any store and grab a cold one ANYTIME. Going home from a hard day’s work but don’t



A typical scene at the betlenut girl stand Photo Credit - Tobie Openshaw

want to go through the ordeal of finding parking so you can buy a beer? Just pull over to the betle nut girl stand and a negligee adorned beauty will RUN with a beer to your window. You can do this while stopped for a red light. Awesome!

7. Taroko Gorge:

This is Taiwan’s National Natural treasure. I’ll be writing about it at some point in the future with photos and the whole bit. For now, take my word for it. It’s GORGE-ous!

8. Love Hotels:

This was one of those things I figured I had to experience before I left Taiwan (by ‘I’, I do mean ‘we’ – I didn’t go to the love hotel by myself). Drive-thru check in, parking garage right by your door and ‘Batman’ themed room? How romantic is all of that! Really! I expected it to feel sleazy in that run down hotel on the interstate frontage road kind of way. The place was quite surprisingly classy.

9. 7-11:

Pay your parking (there are no meters in Taiwan – they use a different system), pay your utility bills, buy concert tickets, airline tickets, cassette tapes, scotch, wine, Bailey’s & beer, even get a tea egg or some salty squid bits. Taiwan 7-11 redefines convenience. And they’re everywhere.

10. The Low Crime Rate:

Ever left something in a taxi? When it happens, you usually figure you didn’t need it that bad anyhow, or you figure that you’re never going to get it back so why bother. Lost cause right? I left an iPhone in a taxi in Taiwan. I got it back – took a couple of days of tracking it down, but I got it back. We had another phone – one of those $10 throw-away phones pretty much. It also got left in a cab. Got that one back too – from the bar where we had caught the taxi from.

Violent crime is almost unheard of in Taiwan.

The parking garage in the 'Batman' themed room

A room in a Taiwan Love Hotel

So that’s the short list. There’s so much more to say about my life in Taiwan – Use one of the follow along buttons below to keep up with what’s new.

Even though, technically, I had lived in foreign countries during my time in the military I hadn’t really experienced life in a foreign country the way that the people from there do. Living on a military base shares many similarities with living in the U.S. The food is familiar, the products in the store are familiar and things work just like they do back home.

One year ago, I took a job overseas, working and living in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The challenges of living in a foreign city turned out to be pretty grand. Things that I would take for granted in the U.S., e.g. trash removal, mail service, grocery shopping were done differently, and in a language I didn’t understand. The food smelled bad, and was unfamiliar. The products in the grocery store were strange and I damn sure couldn’t read the labels. I became overly self-conscious about my consumerism at trash time. It was the strangest thing. You see, there are no dumpsters in Taiwan, instead, the trash trucks circle the city playing ice-cream truck music and everyone rushes out to the street with their bag of garbage to throw in the truck. Every day when trash time would roll around, I would grab my massive bag of trash and share an elevator for 24 floors with my neighbors who barely appeared to consume anything. For every 40-gallon hefty I filled up, my neighbors filled up something that was equivalent in size to a sandwich bag.

When my job in Taiwan ended, my wife and I moved to Hunachaco, Peru. Huanchaco is a place that I had traveled to once before. The differences that I am noticing between traveling in Peru and living in Peru are pretty immense. Eating in Peru isn’t expensive, and if you’re o.k. with goat stew it can be downright cheap to eat in Peru. Hostels and hotels in Peru don’t tend to have kitchens because it is so easy and convenient to eat out. But, now that we live here, and saving money is a greater concern, I’ve had to explore shopping

photo credit: codybanger

for food at the local mercado. If the food had packaging, I could probably safely say that the packaging and labeling were different, but alas, it’s not packaged at all. Fruits, veggies and grains are all easy enough, but meat is something else, entirely. I don’t know how to ask for “rack of goat ribs” and I wouldn’t know what to do with a whole chicken, on full display with half-formed eggs still attached. What is the best cut of manta ray?

From a previous post about moving overseas:

I don’t know how to butcher a chicken. It’s not pre-packaged for me in Styrofoam and plastic wrap. I could very well starve to death, not for a lack of food, but for a lack of knowledge.

I will admit this, however, the lack of packaging on my food sure has cut down on my daily waste. Also, consider this interesting fact about Peru: You can’t flush toilet paper. The plumbing simply can’t deal with it. Now, if you’re traveling and staying in hostels or hotels and forget, or simply blow it off, no big deal, right? If somebody else’s plumbing gets clogged up, it’s not really your problem is it? But when you live here…I don’t even want to try to negotiate with a plumber.

As it turns out, no explanation was needed. I had no idea that Lion Dancing was this spectacular. See for yourself (if your internet connection speed allows it, select the “HD” version):

Living

So, first things first. When I was first presented with the possibility that I would be moving to Taiwan to work, one of my primary concerns was housing. I really couldn’t get an answer from my company on what I could expect. My greatest fear was that the company I work for simply rented a floor or a block of apartments or whatever and I would be living with the people I worked with. That fear turned out to be completely unfounded and I’m pretty happy with where I’m located. My company already had a leasing agent set up, and she focuses primarily on housing everyone in one certain area, which I have come to refer to as “special white-man village“. Don’t get me wrong, the housing in this area is exquisite. Spacious luxury apartments with many of the conveniences and amenities one would expect in any modern city. This area is set far away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, suburban high-rise living if you will. Through some quick networking and expression of my desire to have a more authentic experience during my time here led me to an alternative to the pre-programed leasing agent and I found an apartment much nearer downtown. So, here I am, on the 24th floor with a wicked view of Kaohsiung Harbor, the Dream Mall and its famed “Hello Kitty” Ferris Wheel. I LOVE my view, especially at night and I’m fairly happy with this location.

Working

Well, my parents always taught me if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, so I guess I shouldn’t say anything at all about work, but here goes. A job’s very nature is that it sucks. I’m pretty o.k. with that and actually get quite a bit of amusement from kvetching and grousing at and about work. The suckage at my current job, however, is several orders of magnitude worse than anything I have experienced previously. The good news is that it’s only 40 hours per week and the paycheck is a pretty hefty one, provided I can find fulfillment in my personal life, I will probably be able to survive this job.

Eating & Drinking

One of the things I was really looking forward to was Taiwanese dining. My first foray into street food here was hugely disappointing and really put a damper on my willingness to explore further. I’ve never been one to let language barriers get in my way, but I’m finding learning to read a menu to be a nearly insurmountable challenge. I’ve really allowed myself to slip into old routines in this department. There is no shortage of western style dining here in Kaohsiung, so that’s what I’ve done mostly. I do live very near IKEA, having never set foot into one before it was one of the first places I visited. IKEA has a cafeteria serving Swedish Meatballs and the like. The ease of it all, combined with the novelty made it an early favorite, but the novelty has worn off a bit and visits are less frequent. Mexican food is quite easy to find, and much to my surprise, is done quite well here. This is the first place outside of North America that I’ve found Mexican food done right. Other familiar restaurants and fast food options exist. McDonald’s, T.G.I.F., Outback Steakhouse just to name a few. And then, there’s “The Brickyard” a rathskeller near Central Park which serves up some of the most delicious food around. Seriously, if you’re in Kaohsiung and hankering for a deliciously filling meal, good music and service staff that are just out of this world, The Brickyard is where you want to be.

Daily Challenges

So, I live in Kaohsiung, but work in Pingtung. Pingtung isn’t that far away – perhaps 23KM but driving there is a hassle. Traffic here in Taiwan is pretty heavy. And the scooters, what a pain in the ass those things are. I really can’t describe the utter mayhem that is my daily commute, suffice it to say that the traffic rules that I was accustomed to in the U.S. don’t apply here.

So, my experience with trash has always been either pitch it in the dumpster, leave it on the curb on specified days or throw it in the back of the truck and take it to the dump/landfill. None of these seem to be an option here. Trash trucks seem to be on a continuous route through the city and pass my building at a prescribed time 6 days per week. This is very unsettling for me for several reasons. Everyone is taking their trash out at the same time, so it’s just awkward to be in an elevator with four or five other people all toting the day’s trash. Taiwan is an island and as such is taking a very proactive stance on recycling. Due to all of my seasons on The Ice sorting trash into recycling categories is pretty much second-nature now and judging from the huge “thumbs-up” gesture I get from one of the people who takes my trash(*) I must be doing it right – or maybe he’s just happy to be getting all of my empty beer cans – at any rate, imagine yourself carrying a translucent trash bag in an elevator in a country where you already attract way too much attention – it’s as if my neighbors are examining my trash to try to decipher how I live. It feels a bit invasive. And probably the biggest bummer about the way trash is handled is that I have to be around at a certain time of day to deal with it. If not, that smelly whatever I threw away last night is going to get smellier.

(*)I’m not sure how things work, and my assumption is based pretty much on “dead-reckoning” and context cues, but I’m not actually handing my trash over to the trash truck guys. I hand it over to a group of elderly. I believe they are freelancers of a sort and act as surrogate trash handlers in exchange for the recyclables for which they are paid for. As Taiwan has no social-security I think this is how the elderly “make it” if they have no other means of support.

I have a lot more to say, but I’ve lost motivation to continue writing right now. I’ve been working on another project which will hopefully become a regular augmentation to this blog. It’s called “What up Kaohsiung?” and if you haven’t already seen the premier episode via facebook or forumosa, check it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_IMEy2NvpQ

If you’re reading this from one of the various rss feeds/facebook…whatever other off-site reader, you will be able to get the full experience of the photo gallery by visiting vagabumming.com

If you’re reading at the site – clicking the “piclens” link below will bring the photos up in slideshow/shadow box style with captions/descriptions on some of the photos.

the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

Looking at culture and trying to define it for myself brings up some interesting thoughts. First, I truly believe that individuals can be defined more clearly through their culture than they can through their race. This is significant for me because lately I have found myself rejecting the label “Caucasian” when referring to my own race, as I have no knowledge of any ancestry from the Caucuses. The other popular choice seems to be “White”, but that conjures immediate images, not of race, but of the culture of suburban America.

Image: who needs variety?
lars hammar

A few days ago, I started what will be a few weeks of airports/airplanes and hotels/chain restaurants en route to Taiwan. My current leg of this journey has me visiting the mainland U.S.A. to say goodbyes to loved ones and close friends. So, right now, I’m in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, UT and I’m realizing that the more time I spend away from this type of setting, the more I loathe being around it. It seems that the culture of suburbia is to consume. The preferred method of self expression is to show off what you have purchased. Secondary to this, it seems that producing large numbers of offspring and getting them involved in as many things possible, i.e. soccer, dancing, hockey, this team, that team is some sort of pinnacle of success in this culture. Making up for one’s own empty existence by trying to live vicariously through your children? Is that what this behavior is all about? There appears to be, perhaps three different hairstyles amongst the women in suburbia, and the only acceptable choice for the menfolk seems to be a short-cropped haircut and goatee (yes, this is STILL popular?). Caked-on make-up seems to be very definitive, and don’t even get me started on the [complete lack of] fashion exhibited in suburbia. It is the cult of the soccer mom. This is a culture demands its followers become wage-slaves. An existence that I am happy to be free from and have no desire to return to. It would appear that I am in the minority in rejecting this type of lifestyle, so I suppose I probably have it wrong, but in the end, I can say that I have truly found happiness in rejecting the pursuit of consumable goods and placing freedom at the very top of my list of personal values.

This brings me back to the question of race/culture. I guess I still don’t know what groups I belong to, but I damn sure know which ones I want no part of.

There are several languages spoken in Taiwan, due to various historical occupations as well as indigenous languages that have somehow survived. The official language of Taiwan, however, is Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. A few weeks ago I didn’t really have a firm grasp on what that meant, exactly, but alas, the Lonely Planet guide to Taiwan has come to build my understanding. From the guidebook:

by altering the voice’s pitch within a syllable, the meaning of a word is completely changed. Getting your tones wrong can have embarrassing consequences – wǒ gǎnmào, for example, means ‘I’ve caught a cold’, while wǒ gàn māo means ‘I copulate with cats’!

Here kitty kitty

I’ve managed to actually figure out what each of the different types of accent marks indicate as far as intonation are concerned. Baby steps.

Yes. I’m in absolute awe at the possibilities that life has presented me. I mean, I’ve had it pretty good for a long time, but I’ve really found myself appreciating that fact for the past year and a half or so. I’m so completely blissed out for such long periods of time that sometimes I begin to worry that I’m manic. But no, no mania here, I’ve just been blessed with a wonderful life.

So, this fact that life is wonderful, I’ve found, can’t be taken as a small piece. It can’t be isolated from the rest of my life. That’s to say that decisions that I’ve made and actions that I’ve taken all came together to put me exactly where I am right now at this very moment. While there have certainly been rough patches in the past; and I often think that if I would have known then what I know now that I would have done things differently, well, I think I’ve abandoned that line of thinking too. All of those events that I may have resented before have contributed to my current state and I am unwilling to give this up, regardless of what any alternate past may have produced.

Right about now, you’re wondering, “what the hell, Will, what are these possibilities you speak of and why all the introspection?” Well, wow, where to start? As you likely know, I’ve been doing contract work in Antarctica for the past six years or so. I’ve done some amazing things, including spending a winter at The South Pole, a winter at Palmer Station and several seasons at McMurdo Station as well as visiting quite a selection of field camps and research sites on the continent of Antarctica. I can remember, very clearly, how completely overjoyed I was when I the possibility of working in Antarctica was first presented to me. Something that I hadn’t ever even considered before, something that was far beyond my wildest dreams ended up becoming a reality and is now a huge part of who I am. I remember last winter at Palmer Station when, for just a moment, my mind was able to really grasp how utterly privileged I was to be doing what I was doing and getting paid for it. Sailing INSIDE a volcanic caldera who gets to do that at their job? I never thought I would, that’s for sure.

Now, if the job itself isn’t special enough, what about the time off and travel? During my long periods of time off I have been privileged to surf in Mexico, ski in Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, France, Norway and even Kashmir. I’ve seen what is surely one of the most macabre churches in the world, traveled all over central Europe by rail, visited the lochs of Scotland, gazed upon Big Ben, communed with nature at Machu Picchu, been amazed at the passion exhibited by Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, stood in awe at the power of nature at Iguazu Falls, been fascinated by the remnants of an ancient society at Easter Island, surfed in Ecuador and found a home (of sorts) in Hawaii.

I was all set to try and get myself hired to go on an overland traverse on Antarctica for this upcoming season. Yes, 80 days of staring through a windshield at barren, flat white, eating T.V. dinners and pooping in a bucket sounded very appealing to me, like a grand adventure even. But alas, the universe has thrown something even more exciting in my direction. So, it looks like I’m taking at least a one-year hiatus from The Ice.

What’s Next Then?

Well, I pursued and have been offered a position in Taiwan. I’m not entirely comfortable posting much detail here, but the position is at least related to the same type of work I’ve been doing and is almost exactly what I was doing in Korea (if you knew me in those days think BIG TRUCK!!).

So, there you have it. Brand new adventure coming up and I expect to post more details about my upcoming move as they become available to me. For now, if you’re interested in the exact location you can see it on a map here: Kaohsiung (pronounced “COW-shung”). If you haven’t already, might I suggest you subscribe via RSS or you can even get email updates. Both of these services are free, don’t include any advertising and are a great way to keep up to date with what I have posted.

P.S.
I am SO looking forward to taking a surfboard with me to my next job!