How I feel today...

Taiwan

Long weekend in Hong Kong (public holiday on monday), quite a few days I still had to take as holidays, someone willing to travel with me, and a very reasonably priced package deal... what do you do? That's right - book a trip to Taiwan.

It was one fo these trips where everything seesm to go wrong, but the more it does go wrong the funnier it becomes. A typhoon was passing over Taiwan on sunday, so flights got cancelled and delayed. Our was delayed by about 6 hours, but Alex managed to get us on an earlier flight so in the end we only got there about an hour later than planned. The streets were empty, no traffic at all, people were staying in while the rain washed the streets clean.

At the hotel we got an upgrade to the top floor suite because there were so many cancellations. It was amazing: pink walls, white Louis XV-XVI furniture, and a large bathtub with jets and colour changing lights. The public areas of the hotel were decorated in the brightest colours and patterns, never seen anything like it.

We decided to go tot he famous 24h Eslite bookstore, and that's where it started. It had been open for 15 years non stop, and closed for renovation 2 days before we arrived. Then there was the Confucius temple: closed for restauration until the 25th. The open air observatory deck of Taipei 101: closed for maintenance. The big concert hall on the square by the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall: in scaffolding. Etc etc. All we could do was laugh, the weekend ended up being so different from what we had imagined it, and there was just nothing we could do.

We had a good time though. Saw some nice things, had great food and had a very relaxed time at the hot springs. I guess I also should mention our visit to Hello Kitty Sweets, the one and only Hello Kitty cafe. As you can imagine we were the only guys in the there, the rest were girls :)

Taipei is a nice place, very friendly and damn cheap compared to Hong Kong. I'll be back there at some point, I'm sure. It's only an hour and a half away :)

Mid Autumn Festival

The Chinese festivals keep coming. After the Ghost Festical in August where people remember those who died, we now have the Mid Autumn Festival coming up. There's a dragon dance involved, some godess flying to the moon and a rabbit living in the moon (isn't it fun to be a cultural philistine?) but more importantly: there are mooncakes. Traditional mooncakes are pastries of about 10cm diameter, with a crusty pastry outside layer and a filling of lotus seed paste. In the middle is a lotus seed and a salty duck egg yolk. These traditional mooncakes are still available, but at the same time many modern versions are on the market, with fillings ranging from chocolate trufffle to caviar or foie gras.

I tried the traditional one - got to go for the real thing, I say - and it tastes disgusting. Really, really heavy, to start with. The lotus seed paste is sweet, but tastes strange, and the contrast with the salty yolk is just horrible. Tried it, didn't like it, won't have it again thankyouverymuch!

push push push

Let's clear up one misunderstanding about the Chinese. You have that image in mind of serene, patient, meeky people. Forget you ever had that thought. Here are a few situations that I encounter every day here in Hong Kong.

In the morning when i take the MTR (Mass Transport Railway) and get off at Admiralty station, there is a rush to the escalators. Being used to London, where people patiently follow the mass of people to get on to the escalator, I was quite surprised to see that over here people have a lot less patience. While people are queuing to get on, there always are people who go right to the front of the queue and push in from the side. When I say 'push in', I mean that quite literally: they push. In London people observe a certain patience and politeness towards each other. Not here. The worst offenders are invariably women, they are just plain rude at times.

A second example. After I get up the escalator, I get to the lift lobby at the Lippo Centre, where I work. Four elevators next to each other, and a bunh of people waiting along the width of the four doors. When a lift arrives, people who happen to stand in front of that door get in, select the floor where they asre heading, and then right after that start pushing the 'close doors' button - not once, but over and over again. Do they care about the people who are a bit of a distance away and have to walk to the right doors first? Not at all. I've seen it happen several times that people are still walking towards the elevator and inside someone is already playing a drum solo on the button so it closes before the person actually reaches the doors. Again - very rude and inconsiderate when seen through western eyes.

The funny thing is though that you take over these bad habits. An eye for an eye, I guess. See that woman running on her stilettos to get to the lift in time? Oh, the sheer satisfaction of pushing that button so the doors close right before she gets there...

Me like athletics :)

Allright, I admit: I just like the sight of hot men in lycra ;)