I had a nice walk in the spring sunshine today to Ximen. I saw rather an interesting shop sliding door which caught my eye. Initially, I thought it was for accupuncture, but it turns out it was for a fortune teller. Essentially, palm-reading … but with your face.
Each point, marked with a Chinese character, indicates where it might, for example, be bad luck to have a mole or blemish.
His…
… and hers
Rather a beautiful temple roof detail, don’t you agree?
A voice like sandpaper singing songs of painful death (I think)I met this fella singing his heart out on his portable bike-mounted Karaoke system. Karaoke gets everywhere in Taiwan, people are surprisingly good and it is a massively popular way to spend a Friday night. For this guy, though, he is unlikely to find fame in the near future.
3 weeks of constant rain is getting everyone down at the moment – especially as our office has no heating. It’s funny, I lived in Scotland for four years, but somehow the cold combined with the humidity means nothing ever quite dries properly. Still, it makes a great excuse for excursions to hot springs. In the past week, I have made sure to pay my local spa a visit in XinPeitou and yesterday went down the coast the JhaoSi with Anke and Lars for a decent session, and language exchange with 7 year olds, fascinated by my hairy arms.
Rain in Ximen
Warmth in XinPeitou
This coffee was so bad it was worth taking a photo. It was completely undrinkable. You can see the Hundreds and Thousands sprinkled on the top, which I have no real problem with. No, it was the white sugar slime that is usually found on top of cheap cakes in the 1970s that was so terrible. But I liked the cup.
Officially the Worst Coffee I Have Ever Had
A fairy keeps watch in the Ximen district
Wufenpu clothes market in the east of the city – an amazing place to shop, since this is where the other night markets buy there goods from
One of Lorenzo’s first nights out (new Swiss member of our team). Here is Ximen – Taipei’s mini Tokyo… and possibly the coolest taxi I have ever seen.
On the way to the bar, and testing out a new 2 megapixel cameraphone… and look how happy I am. What is hard to realise is the Disco Mode that the phone has. Yes, a set of
LEDs that turns any location into a funky night club. Genius. Click here to open a mini movie (you may need to download Quicktime Player from Apple).
Outside the RIP bar, and preparations for a rather hazy hangover… for some reason, in Taiwan hangovers are much, much worse than back home. I blame Taiwan beer, personally – the local brew.
