Halfway Mark

Rats...this thing keeps deleting my entry as soon as I finish it! Here goes again...for the third time...

Today, we didn't really do much. Spent the morning at home, then went to Hian Ying's host's parents' jewellery shop, and then to Xi Men, which is basically an enlarged version of Heeren's Annex and Cine's Level 2 combined. There were lots of shops for youths selling labels from Adidas to Giordano, and things from shirts to accessories. Except for the streetside hawkers who kept moving around with the tide of the patrolling police, I think that place can be called Little Orchard Road, though it is more colourful. There was a shop, though, who could transform your photo into a caricature doll for $60. But really, it wasn't much different from Singapore...though I did buy a CD of songs from musicals, and a T-shirt, one of the few on sale in winter Taiwan, and at quite a bargain price =P

Hian Ying's host's parents are perfectly hospitable. In fact, I think they take the hospitality thing a bit overboard. They not only stuffed us with pizza and fried chicken (from Dominoes, a US brand), but also provided almond milk and peppermint tea (tastes like Mentos) for afters. And absentminded me stupidly forgot to top up my wallet, and had only NT100 with me, so her dad just lent me NT2000 straight off. And he went on to top up my EasyCard with a whopping NT400 (considering that a trip on either bus or train costs NT18 regardless of distance)! It's quite discomfiting to have money practically thrown at you. But the thing is not that I don't want to be in debt, but that I'm not sure whether they'll allow me to repay them. It's not nice to feel indebted when you know that you don't need to be in debt in the first place.

But Hian Ying is an interesting character. I think a bit more self confidence will do her quite a bit of good. I always get the impression that she's behind a defensive wall of some kind, though something more warm and natural breaks through occassionally. She's quiet, restrained, but clearly eager...reminds me a bit of myself in Primary 6 =P This trip should be quite enriching for her, I reckon.

Anyway, tomorrow, I shall find myself a church and then try my hand at using the buses and trains by myself to go meet some of the RJ people to watch the Incredibles. I'm still determined that before we go, we get a chance to wander around independently for at least an afternoon. I want really to get to know the real side of this city intimately.

In This City
27 Nov '04

Lorries decked with slogans cruise the streets shouting the names of election hopefuls

The only hieroglyphic language still in use bedecks transplanted raised roads of America

Cleaming Nike does it between a flour-grey bakery and a grime-grey coffee shop

People move in the mirror-image of home traffic (and I stand on the wrong side on secalators)

Trains, blue-decked, are a long-distance facsimilie of home

Lonely-Planet yellow-cabs cruise through the glamourous grykes of Hong Kong advertising avenues

Walt's characters have a whole building to frolick in

The States' ideals are embodied in green circles and coffee liberally scattered

Warmth sinks to street level

Those who live with their heads in the clouds may as well be elsewhere

Life is as socially stratified as a tropical rainforest

And the steam rising to smog is because people burn joss sticks with gasoline

You can live on instant everything

But it's more worth it to find the nooks where the scents of yesterday subsist like moss

There are echoes from all the places I have been

Making every snapshot a quilt of memory


Perhaps it is uncanny because Everywhere looks like Everywhere Else

And home is different

pondered by phoenican @ 27.11.04