Taiwan 2006

Just came back from Taiwan. I am damn glad I decided to have a go at Taipei first as a civilian. The experience of the place is vastly different as a trainee than as a normal being – more constrained, less time, more hectic, more meaningless things that you have to do simply because you are scheduled to do as part of this entire herd of people … like the E-tour. I have many gripes about the E-tour. We set off from 屏東 all the way to 雲林 … (yes near 斗六) and then back to 高雄. … The next day we set out from Kaohsiung all the way to 南投 then to 台北. And all the way we were entertained by movies that invariably showed girls fighting one another … WHY?

It is not all complaints of course. The shopping at 新崛江 in Kaohsiung was good. The E-tour in Taipei actually covered places I had never been to. SYS Memorial was quite boring. The change of guard at 忠烈祠 was cool. The best was the National Palace Museum, which after renovation looks like a cool modern museum. But we only had one half hours there. I would gladly have traded some time at amusement parks for more time at the museum, so I could at least have had a guide. Oh well …

Some observations I had in Taipei. I quite forgot that Singaporeans were quite the bunch that was overly obsessed with food and shopping. I put that firmly down to the fact that I had joined in with tributes to Bangkok in March, and now in Taipei. I had seen many interesting things after a month last year, and I thought it was time to indulge in some things that I didn’t necessarily want to the last time. Still the intensity and passion for shopping which gripped my fellow tourists left me dumbstruck. The worst thing was that it only came to me when tp came and asked about other attractions in Taipei and taking the MRT. I almost thanked heavens for somebody who actually thought of seeing the place (even if it might have been for other motives) instead of just seeking out the next cheap bargain.

So I was glad I went to Taipei before as a civilian, but for more reasons than I would have anticipated last year. I would definitely want to be back. I probably exaggerate when I tell people that “the only thing I can possibly have against this city is its English”. There’s also probably going to be a lot of frustration with politics in the long run and also air quality. Otherwise I’m looking at possibly living there for a while. But that’s in the not-so-near future. For now I’ll be content to go back to Taipei, and maybe visit Yilan for hot springs and Tainan just to walk around. And then there’s New Zealand and Vietnam and …