First few days in Taiwan

Taipei Journal

Wed May 19th, Taiwan time.

Landed: 5:20, 10 minutes late due to high winds during flight, amazing actually that the EVA stewardesses didn’t drop any of the food they were serving…some of the turbulence was quite severe, it was like being on a roller coaster.

6:00 finished customs and went to pickup my baggage. Amazing, the carts are free thank goodness, much better than Pearson where it costs a dollar…

6:30 called Peter, woke him up LOL. Thanks James for the phone card, without it I would’ve been in deep trouble as I had no TWN coins and the phone stores weren’t open yet….

6-7:30 took nice bus, $120 NT to downtown main Taipei train station. Nice LCD screens on the bus, it was like a coach bus, but there was nothing playing on the LCDs, granted the trip wasn’t very long. One of the fellow passengers was very helpful, told me the stop to get off at for Main Taipei Station AND gave me a pack of bubble gum, yay . Really nice, considering he really didn’t understand most of what I was saying, but later I would find that neither did most of Taiwan :P.

8:40 Peter arrives after an hour! It was pretty hot outside considering it was early morning, scary with so much luggage out in the open….hard to carry it places.

9:30ish we got to the general area of my future apartment, stop by a food vendor to get breakfast -> $1 for a egg and cheese sandwich yumm.

10 we go to get drinks from a convenience store, soo much choice over there also recognized some of the Chinese brands I saw at T&T supermarket….

10:15ish find landlords parents, take mt o apartment, um…….they don’t know ANY English, I don’t know any mandarin, things get interesting here cause Peter has to go to leave (work). I go with Melinda’s grandfather (landlord’s father) to the bank to get my traveller’s cheques exchanged. When I get there, the stupid bank doesn’t except my traveller’s cheques, apparently ONLY American Express bank accepts American Express traveller’s cheques. The first bank wouldn’t even accept American dollars (Cash) because it didn’t have any holograms on it (apparently new American money will soon have holograms on it ), soo ghetto they said my American money printed in 1996 was too old….Anways, after wandering for an hour we finally found an American Express Bank to get the money exchanged, all thanks to me, my guide (Melinda’s grandfather kinda gave up….interesting walking with him considering he never understood all the stuff I was saying, I felt like Tom Cruise in da Last Samurai, LOL….).

12ish I get back to apartment and pay my rente deposit than start putting away my clothes into the closet, I get my apartment keys but no coat hangers  I want to ask for some, but they really don’t know what I’m saying.

12:15 Melinda finally calls says her grandparents want to take me to a free lunch at a budhist temple down the street…oh ya in Taipei literally everything is just down the street, one of the advantages of living downtown.

12:30 I’m at a budhist temple in the basement of an apartment building. Whenever people come in they bow and nemeste to da Buddha in the room.

12:45 The people at the temple go to eat, there is tons of food on a large long table, similar in style I think to an Indian temple. Anyways, I’m really freaked out now cause all the Chinese are staring at me, so I convince Melinda’s grandparents that I’m really tired (How-lay, Say-jow), and wanna sleep, Emily’s 5 words of mandarin came in handy, LOL. I than kinda run outta there…

I go back to the apartment, get Peter’s number, and go shopping with a list of stuff I need for my apartment, cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc. I get to the OK convenience store (like 7-11’s, they are EVERYWHERE in Taipei). I buy some stuff, and call Pete, he not answering, so I go walk around da neighbourhood, CONSTANTLY avoiding cars and even scooters on the sidewalk, transportation here is a mess unless you use public transit which is quite decent. I come by a computer store, and I ask about buying a monitor. The guy and girl there don’t understand English and just giggle, they gimme some glyer and I leave….er….

I see a bubble tea store near the OK convenience store I was previously at, wow bubble tea for 2-25NT (80 cents to $1), lotta ppl seem 2 B buying, but I’m scared they won’t understand me…cause menu is in Chinese.

Saddened, I walk back to the payphone outside the OK and call Pete, he answers this time (1:30_ he tells me how to order in Chinese, then he gotta go 4 lunch, says meet-up after 5:30. Um…k. that’s like 4 hours from now so I go back home, shower, shave, it would’ve been releaxingf if the shower head was handheld and their was a shower curtain, argh!! I also cleaned da apartment somewhat…

I definitely gotta tell the landlord today or tomorrow about that…

Anways its 3 now so I write this journal (didn’t bring any paper with me so wrote it on the back of my VLSI lab  #2)

Everything eerile reminds me of India, must get a cell so everyone can reach me and a monitor, handwriting this journal is tough. Yikez! Bugs everywhere, even saw a massive cockroach  but Pete said itz normal in Taiwan. Man, really starting to miss Canada now, but at the same tyme everything here seems so kewl. Just wish everyone spoke English, than this place would be really awesome 

New Journal entry May 20th, Thursday morning:

By the way, my apartment room is the same size as my bed room back in Canada, so its pretty decent.

K, here is what happened yesterday, I left home, went to Pete;s place (left at 4:30) its only like 10 mins walk, took 40 mins cause walked in a circle couple of times, horrible directions, got there 5 p.m.

Pete’s office building really nice, very modern, beautiful foyer, prettier than BCE place, huge pond at basement with fish, will get photos later, waited 2 hours downstairs for him, grrrr!! Till 6:45 p.m.

k. he apologized and we went shopping 

There is this area just filled with computer shops! Krazy, just amazing, anyways, I picked up a monitor Samsung 753DFX….same one I have at home, but in Canada its called 753DF, I dunno why there is an X on the end of it here….after that computer store the fun REALLY started ….

We hit this night market, woa! Such cheap stuff, bought slippers ($4) , hangers ($1), garbage can ($2), and dinner ($2). It was like taste of the danforth, or the CNE, soo much food and soo cheap, everything $1 or $2 Canadian. It was great, Peter I suggested I buy an umbrella but I was like I;m not afraid of a little rain.

Anyways, after we hit the car (we had spent several hours at da food vendors, its worth coming to Taiwan just for the food! ).

It was 10 p.m. and I was exhausted, I hadn’t slept in 24 hours. I fell asleep in da car and woke up at ma apartment and unloaded all my stuff, monitor, food and other stuff I had bought. I bid Pete a farewell, his gf was waiting for him (and dinner) and went upstairs and fell asleep. (Dang I forgot to buy a pillow  )

Wow, and that was my FIRST day in Taipei, not bad, I had an apartment, somewhat settled in , and most essentials in my apartment to survive for some time. I had also spent about $1500 (that includes like $1350 for the apartment rent for 4 months and the $180 approx for the Samsung monitor). I still hadn’t met any of my apartment neighbours.

I woke up at 7 a.m. (mom would be proud) and my neck hurt, I started to install my monitor but no powerbar, doh! Hence writing dis journal entry on paper still  ! Oh, I also talked to my neighbour around 7:30 dis morning (his name is Richard) he knows English, woa!

Anyways, its 8 something a.m. and its raining like crazym been raining all night, dang I shoulda bought an umbrella….I shower, shave and eat some cold noodles with sesame sauce I had bought the previous night at the Night Market for breakfast, delicious! And it only cost a $1  . During shaving I saw this giant giant cockroach, argh I was gonna have to do something about my apartment bathroom, I really don’t like it, besides that my apartment is great ( well da one room I get ), I don’t use the shared kitchen , or living room but than neither does anyone else  . Ok time to go out and brave the rain and buy an umbrella.


4 p.m. Ok I just got home, time to write about what happened, on the computer yay  I am soo exhausted. I bought an umbrella ($4) from the OK store, a powerbar ($14) very expensive powerbar, but that guy through in a converter for free to fit the wall socket the store I bought it from was very high end. FMAC which is inside Asia world, a very upscale shopping mall where I saw several white people.

Soo tired, I walked several kms in different directions from my apartment, I took some camera shots and used the MRT, Taipei’s train transit system, its quite advanced, very clean and efficient. The ride cost is about 74 cents but changes depending on how far you are traveling. It’s a pretty kewl system, I think TTC can really learn from it, I know Matt will be impressed by it, I should upload their transit flyer….thanx Alex for your maps, they proved to be very very valuable.

I also bought some strawberry bubble tea, its not dat good but it was only 80 cents...it was cute how they had me write out ma order in english cause dey couldnt understand my words :P This is the same place I didn’t try buying from yesterday.

Anyways, I am now typing on a computer, yay~! thanx 2 da powerbar...

Remind ma self 2 buy a chair next tyme i get some cash...tyme 2 go type up all da stuff I been writing on paper for the last two days, argh...

Anyways, its 4:50 p.m. now, my second day in this country ( or republic of China? ) and Peter should be getting off work soon, so I’m gonna step out and give him a call, I really need to get a cell! Still haven’t called home, but they shouldn’t be too worried, otherwise they would’ve called Pete’s cell rite? :P. I also bought a English newspaper, Taiwan Times, but it doesn’t have much local news, except some stuff on the Taiwan / China, crisis, and a special feature on the election issues in India and poverty in India, who are they to judge?? But I think I;m da only Indian in Taiwan/Taipei, so I don’t think I’ll start protesting outside their bldg just yet… :P

Argh, still raining outside, been raining for more than 12 hours, straight, amazing, the streets practically flooded, anyways, a change of socks, and a top and I’m off for Pete’s Office Bldg.

Peter took me to some places, including this area where a lot of students and teenagers hang out, very colourful at night, lots of large neon displays.

Ok I don’t remember what I did but when I got home (around 10:15), I met my fellow room mates (Ted, Richard, and Allan). I spoke to Ted, and he called someone to hook me up with cable internet by Saturday, yay! Meanwhile, Richard took me to a local internet café where I could @ least login and tell people I am alive  When I got home I was tired as I was @ da café from 10:30-11:30 p.m. Anyways, when I got home I broke my umbrella fighting with a GIANT cockroach that was trying to crawl into my room, I finally beat it back and it crawled into one of the other tenant’s rooms. That totally freaked me out! The bugs here are MUCH bigger than Canada, wahhhhhh  now I am starting to regret coming here .

I slept horribly, I kept the lights on, and the air conditioner on, I had to use the bed sheet to stay warm, I kept waking up every hour to see if the bug would try coming back, luckily it didn’t 

Journal Entry for Friday May 21, 2004 (day 3 in Taiwan)

This morning I woke up @ around 8, I met another one of my fellow Tenant’s (Viona) and told her bout the bug that went under her door, I than went to Pete’s office building and tried opening a bank account at Citibank, but they refused cause they said like most foreign banks they wanted a balance of $10,000 Canadian, I was like what?!

Anyways, around 10:30 or so I met up with Peter and we went to the company I would be working at, and I met my co-workers, I got soo many business cards, adding them to the pile I have from just my roommates, I knew I had to do something about it….um…anyways, we left that place and Pete took me to a very large mall/office tower, called Taipei 101, its HUGE, almost the size of the CN Tower. Right next to it are some other malls as well, very large, it was basically like being in the U.S. or Canada, the malls were very modern, in fact more modern than N. America I think…In the basement of all the malls they have these really nice food courts with great food. I can’t say enough how great the food in Taiwan really is…..its great 

Anyways, I chilled at this mall area from like 12-3 p.m. (I bought ANOTHER umbrella  ), and than met up with Pete again at 3 p.m. where we went on some errands. I got a bank account setup with a local company, I tried getting a cellphone on a monthly term but was rejected since I’m not a citizen  , and I think pay as you go is a rip-off so didn’t get that…We also went to some markets, and went back to Taipei 101 tower, as they have like a Dominion Supermarket (its called MarketPlace, but very modern, similar to Loblaws or Dominon) in the basement. I met some Indians in that supermarket, soo surprised, they told me where I could find a hindhu temple in the city, wow, yay! I guess I am not alone, they said they had been here for like 4 years, wow!....

I picked up some baked goods in the bakery at MarketPlace supermarket, the stuff there was delicious, seriously soo tasty….great food in Taiwan  Ok we than went to Pete’s house to drop off the groceries, than met up with one of the company co-workers for dinner. I finished up around 9:45 p.m. and window shopped till like 11 p.m. although I did buy some RAID bug spray and some cockroach bait killer. The bugs really bugged me, grrrrr. I also wrote this journal entry starting from yesterday right now until 11:45 p.m. Supposedly, when I called Ted earlier today, he said the Internet people would be coming tomorrow to hook up my computer to the internet, that sure would be sweet, I could than post all my journal entries online .

Well time to sleep now, almost 12 midnight, and I did a lot of walking today. Hopefully I will lose some weight soon, cause I sure need to , man these Taiwanese soo fit, they mostly have really nice bodies.