Welcome to a New Decade

New years Eve. It's a magical time for one and all, a time to remember days past and furrow your brow at the future.

My New Years began with a pleasant trip to Grandma Niti's. It's a small restaurant near the night market in Guting that caters to Westerner's with menu items ranging from burritos to turkey dinners. They also have a book exchange area where you can buy cheap English novels and paperbacks, one of the only places I've been able to find with such a selection.

Around nine o'clock we headed to Taipei Main Station to make our trip to Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall near the Taipei 101 building. This is the hub for New Years festivities and we could not wait to get there so we could meet up with a friend named Mark who was to accompany us to Kenting later in the evening.

The Taipei Main Station was throbbing with crowds. I've never felt more like a piece of meat in a sausage casing than the moment I was shoved onto a maximum capacity MRT. When you lifted your head above the immediate crowd and surveyed the long hallways, all that could be seen was bobbing black heads tossing and turning like the Pacific in every direction.

Upon arriving at Sun-Yat-Sen, we made for the nearest exit to street level, not sure what we would find when we got top-side. Imagine a 3 lane street divided by a barrier with another 3 lane street going the opposite direction. Now imagine that this street is completely devoid of vehicles and is instead filled with a river. Now imagine that this river is made up of human bodies marching endlessly towards the megalith known as Taipei 101.

It was awe inspiring to look back at where the crowd "began," if you could even call it that, and to look ahead to where they were going and not see a single gap in the mass of people. We hopped into the fray and held on to a scarf so that we could not get separated from each other. You had to lose all respect for personal space quickly and not worry about stamping on a few toes or bumping into people with your backpack because, really, there was no stopping it.

The view from the square outside Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall was spectacular, with the tower rising effortlessly above the skyline, dominating the city with it's height. The fireworks began and we watched with eyes wide and pupils dilated as each of the floors lit up with successive bursts of flame reaching the pinnacle of the tower in a beautiful flourish. The show lasted for only a few minutes, but we were dazzled none the less. I have to say though, as an American I'm used to a hell of a show, and this one did fall short of expectations. First of all, there was no cohesive countdown that I could hear and the fireworks did not last nearly long enough. To add to this, there was no finale or big finish to be had which would typically signal everyone that they could indeed go. Instead it petered out, leaving the crowd to stand about curiously, wondering if it had indeed finished. But, it was a beautiful way to celebrate the coming of a new decade and one that I will never forget.

We made our way back to the street and managed to get to a near-by 7-11 to have our first drinks of the evening. Taiwanese people filing past would shout "Happy New Year!" and we would reply with "Xi nien quai la!" Each of us eager to practice the other's language. We tried desperately to get a hold of our friend Mark but were unable to get any kind of connection on the cell phones due to the overload of calls. Eventually we got a small piece of communication from him in the form of a text and agreed to meet at the Memorial Hall again as soon as possible.

We were excited at the prospect of finally meeting up with him, but our chances of picking one person out of this crowd seemed dismal. We headed out anyway and soon reached the crosswalk outside of the square. We waited for the light to change and shouted "Xi nien quai la" to everyone that walked by and were usually met with friendly cheers and lots of smiles. The light was just about to turn when who should appear, to cross the street with us? None other than Mark! It was a New Years miracle.

at around 5:30am we met up with the rest of our group to take the bus to Kaohsiung and eventually to Kenting, the southern-most tip of the island. We filed onto the bus and settled in for a five to six hour ride.

We awoke to brilliant sunlight, warmth, and a feeling that is somewhere between complete bewilderment and the buzz of excitement. We were entering Kaohsiung but did not know it yet.

We stopped at a bus station and asked around to find out where in the hell we were, only to find that we were exactly where we wanted to be. It was a good feeling. From here we marched toward the next bus station which was to take us to our final destination.

The station itself was like a small airport terminal with rows of plastic seats intermittently filled with passengers and luggage. We set down our stuff gratefully and milled about looking for bathrooms and food respectively. It was at this point that I began to send a few text messages to another friend who was going to meet up with us who is from the middle area of the island, near Kaohsiung. I told him that we were there and would be in Kenting in about two hours. He was excited to meet up with us down south.

As we shuffled around and nursed our stomachs and heads, who should appear but James! He had stumbled upon our exact location just like Mark had the previous night and we couldn't have been more happy at how simply our slap-dash plan was coming together.

We opted to take a cab to Kenting since it was a few dollars cheaper and would save us an hour of travel time. We packed ourselves into three cabs and left in a yellow convoy of equal parts speed and honking.

I'd like to take a moment to describe driving, as experienced in the back of a taxi, in Taiwan. The first rule here is that you must pay attention to your surroundings at all times. You can be overtaken on either the median or any other piece of asphalt, or gravel, that is wide enough for a car to fit through. Honking is to tell people to either get the hell out of your way, or to warn them that you are going around them, so they better get the hell out of your way. It's not a single blare of the horn, but rather a burst of small beeps that is expelled every two or three minutes. The lines on the pavement are merely suggestions and do not reflect any real standard of where is appropriate to drive. Often times if you are in a hurry and there's no one ahead of you, you can simply straddle the two lanes so as to be prepared to pass on either side of the cars ahead. Also, a taxi driver can usually be rated on his skill level by the amount of betel-nuts he ingests while driving.

This leads me to explain Betel-nut. These are small green nuts that are actually a drupe, or a fleshy fruit. Wikipedia describes their appeal: "Areca nuts are chewed with betel leaf for their effects as a mild stimulant,[1] causing a mild hot sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness, although the effects vary from person to person. The effect of chewing betel and the nut is relatively mild and could be compared to drinking a cup of coffee." But when you take into account that most nut chewers eat a few them an hour or more, "a cup of coffee" every fifteen minutes makes for an interesting experience.

Kenting is a tourist playground with idyllic coastal scenery and small bays which can only be described as paradise. It is exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of a tropical island in the Pacific. Lush green hillsides rising up out of crystal blue waters the color of blue kool-aid and soft sandy beaches which tempt one to romp about with careless abandon. On the downside, the main strip along Kenting Road is trashed out from wave after wave of tourist trampling. It's the kind of place that looks like it had once been a beautiful, out of the way, surfer town that has since been slightly commercialized and blown out by careless visitors. There's trash strewn about and at night the stores blast awful music through four foot tall speakers everywhere you go. The music is the same that you find in the clubs here, which is to say Lady Ga Ga and her ilk.

Really though, it's hard to complain, and the cuisine here is second to none. Our first lunch was at a little Thai place off the strip that was buzzing with locals and tourists alike. The Thai food here is as authentic as it gets and you have to be careful not to order the maximum spicy-ness.

Friday afternoon found us beach side at the nearest bay appropriately named "Little Bay." We did not realize it was privately owned by the resort taking up the opposite street side and hopped a dilapidated fence to get down to the sand. It was fine though and we were not given a hard time. We spent the afternoon drinking beer on the beach and making sand castles while others explored the rocks along the outer edges of the bay. In these coves could be found a myriad sea shells and coral fragments. Also, many small coves which would seem fit for a pirates treasure store could be found with small caves and razor sharp coral to keep out intruders.

We spent the night with a bonfire on the beach while hordes of fireworks were set off a hundred yards down the sand. They put on quite a show and we were thankful to be able to relax next to our warm fire and be dazzled by the lights.

The next morning our group split into two, as it was difficult to get 10 people onto the same track. My group consisted of Caleb, Mark, James and I and we headed straight for breakfast and then scooters. We were determined to spend the afternoon atop a gas powered steed. Instead, we got electric powered ones because none of us has a Taiwanese license, but it was still quite fun. We formed a biker gang of sorts and called ourselves "The Evilest Ninjas." We headed down south to the most southern piece of the whole island; a little peninsula with a park which had some amazing places to throw a Frisbee around. We pulled into the what we thought was an entrance to the park and found out we had actually come up to the exit. We began walking down towards the main entrance and stumbled upon a hut with some betel-nutted locals who had obviously spent their morning with a couple of Taiwan beers.

This is the story of how I was molested.

As we walked past their shack we said "ni hao" which is a friendly greeting. They lit up and said hello back to us and began to strike up a small, fragmented conversation in both Chinese and English. Caleb reached for his phrase book and began thumbing through it to get some practice. Mark, James and I stood a couple feet to his right and began talking to one man in particular who seemed interested in speaking to us. We explained that we were from American and England and he stared at us with the glazed eyes of an alcoholic. Then something interesting happened. He came over to me, of all people, and began to pat my hip with his left hand. I thought, nervously, that he was checking to see if I had any valuables that he could shank me for. If only that was all that he was after. As he patted my hip with his left hand, his right hand, with all the grace of someone picking out produce, reached for my crotch and he just kind of palmed my junk. I mean he literally just went for it and I was too shocked to react, I looked to Mark who's face was blank as this man seemed to be testing the weight of my package. All three of us instantly turned down the street and burst out laughing, "Time to go!" However, Caleb was still thumbing through his phrase book and trying desperately to have a conversation with a woman standing near the molester. He had no idea what was going on but we shouted after him down the road, "Caleb, come on man, we have to get the hell out of here." We filled him in on the details as we rushed down the road.

After that, we entered the beautiful park and took a leisurely stroll through a beautiful tropical jungle. We saw some sights, including the absolute southern tip of Taiwan and a cave named the "Mystery Cave," whose only real mystery could be found in why it was called that at all. We came out of the jungle to find a large open field with pleasant grass and lots of room. We took out the Frisbee and tossed it around while Taiwanese people stared at us blankly. On one particularly fine catch by Caleb, which included running down a hill and leaping at the last moment, applause broke out from the onlookers. It was quite a scene. The other half of our group managed to happen upon us at this location and we swapped stories of our past couple of hours. Unfortunately, it began to rain and we headed back to our scooters, which were parked only a few feet from the molester-shack, and sped off before anyone else could have their innocence stolen.

We had to return to the scooter-rental building to get new batteries before we could head on to our next stop. On our way back however, James decided it would be a good idea to get into a small crash with a pole sticking out of the ground and ended up busting the whole taillight housing off the back of his scooter. It was now dangling by the wires as he drove. He also suffered some minor scrapes and bruises but it was laughed off and we got our biker gang back on the road.

After picking up some new batteries we decided to find our next destination: Baisha Bay. This took us through some very rural countryside and we were met with quite a lot of stares as you would expect from four white guys on electric scooters buzzing down a sleepy town's only road. It was great to get a feel for how the locals really live, away from the noise and confusion of the big cities. We barreled down a large winding hill to come to a stop at the entrance to the bay and hopped off our trusty steeds to run down to the water.

This bay was a locals-only type of place and we were met with even more staring than usual. Some people even wanted to take photos with us. We were the only ones crazy enough to go beyond playing in the first couple inches of water because, for them, it was the middle of winter. We swam right out into the ocean and were the butt of a lot of jokes, I'm sure. The water here was crystal clear even at twenty and thirty feet deep. I've never been in such a beautiful ocean.

We only had a six hour rental period, so we had to say goodbye to the bay before the sunset and began our trip back to the rental store with broad smiles on our faces.

That night we had made reservations at a famous Thai restaurant called Warung Di Di's. We had picked up a couple of friends from our school who we didn't realize were in Kenting and had a feast for twelve. We gorged ourselves on the most amazing curries, fried rice, noodle dishes and for desert a decadent slice of cheese cake. I am not joking, and I hope you will excuse my hyperbole but this was the best cheesecake I have ever had the pleasure of eating (Sorry Mom!). We ate, sat, and talked for about two hours and finally hefted our heavily satiated selves out of our chairs and back to the main drag. It was time, we thought, for some relaxation on the beach and perhaps a drink or two.

On Sunday morning we awoke to beautiful sunlight beaming into our hostel windows and everyone agreed that a fine breakfast was in order. We packed up our things and washed up as best as we could, knowing that the sand in our clothing and hair was going to be with us for days to come.

Eventually it was time to head back to Kaohsiung and further to Taipei. We arrived in Kaohsiung and waited at the bus terminal for the next available coach. One man kept offering to take us on his bus-line for 60nt cheaper and we eventually gave in. This was a mistake. We were promised a brand new bus and a five hour trip. What we got was a bus driver who ground the gears to hell, stops every twenty minutes to pick up merchandise such as live pigeons, chickens and anything else that could be fit in the storage below, and at one point a mild fender bender which was the result of our bus driver getting out of the bus to make another pick up and forgetting to put on the parking break, causing us to roll backwards into another bus.

It was an interesting ride and it was agreed that next time we should just pay the extra 60nt, which works out to about $2 American.

Another successful adventure with a great crew. I couldn't have been more pleased to spend this New Years in paradise.