First Night in Taipei
4 Dec
Shocking fact #1: I am travelling with my folks.
Shocking fact #2: I am travelling with my folks and six of their friends. Median age, 52.
Unsurprising fact #1: I am not used at all to travelling with… people. So many people. So many old people.
Taipei seems a nice enough city, although we got here at nightfall and I haven’t seen very much of it beyond the Taipei che zhan (main station) area. If dinner, a quick and simple one at the corner store in the neighbourhood was anything to go by, I am going to like Taipei very much. The train stations have announcements in Hokkien, which still gives me a rude shock each time I hear it, with how versatile and expressive Hokkien really can be, in the right hands (“the express train to Hualien leaves in four minutes. Passengers who have not boarded please hurry up!”). I still take about five minutes to read menus, having to mentally transcribe each character from traditional Chinese script back to simplified Chinese and then back into English, the tardiness of which is linked directly to how long I haven’t used written Chinese, although my spoken Mandarin is holding up admirably.
More updates from Taipei to come — since there is free wifi in MY hotel room — I think I’m going to really, really like this city.
