Prior to becoming drenched

Rounding out my Taiwanese... roundabout was a visit to the 3rd largest city in the country, Taichung. Or Taizhong. However you want to spell it. I prefer the latter.

Despite being the 3rd largest, Taizhong has a completely different feel to it than the rest of the country. It doesn't really feel like a big city. Yeah they for sure have some city stuff, but it kind of feels like a giant suburb with a small downtown core. Even Taidong, which has about 5% of the population of Taizhong, feels more urban. They're planning on building a metro system over the next few years, and I don't really see it taking off - I think they're going to have to lay too much track, and the stations will be too far from anything.

Consequently, you may think I am turned off by this non city slicker lifestyle, but this time I was lucky - I had a car! Well, at least a friend had a car. I arrived in Taizhong around 4 o'clock, and my friend Meimir was going to swing by to pick me up. Meimir just recently got her license, so I was prepared for a death defying struggle through Taiwanese traffic. It turns out she was just a passenger and her far more experienced mother was driving. Woohoo!

Eyy, this guy!

Apparently I have a reputation for being a mountain climbing, so Meimir arranged for us to climb a mountain before dinner. Unfortunately I don't have a clue what the name of it was. As is typical for all old Asian people, Meimir's mom kicked ass at climbing this mountain and didn't even break a sweat. Not that we even needed to sweat.

It started to drizzle on the way up, but when we got to the top, it was full on monsoon mode. I have yet, in my life, been in a rainstorm so heavy. I wasn't so much walking down the mountain as I was swimming. I put my umbrella away, cause it was doing a heap of no good. The trail basically became a river, and I thought for sure someone was going to slip. But we prevailed nonetheless, and went back to Meimir's house for a shower and to change clothes.

Quite hungry at this point, we went off to the night market for dinner. Turns out when I don't have to navigate myself, I don't have a gorram clue where I am going. And I think Meimir assumed that I 1) Don't know what food I like and 2) Can't read Chinese, because she liked to buy me things that I knew would not be my first choice... like spicy oyster noodles. I've had them before. They're okay. I would've preferred another kind of noodle. But alas, it was purchased for me before I could say otherwise.

My host for the evening

I was actually staying with April's family that night, but she was working for another hour - so we stopped by her workplace to annoy her, then retired to the Family Mart to drink and watch the drama of a cat and dog chase outside the window. Meimir went home, and I got to ride on the back of April's scooter from Taizhong to the suburbs. This was terrifying, yet fun. I think if I was going to be in Taiwan for longer I would get a scooter. We felt like we were going mach 2, but a quick look at the speedometer only registered 50 kph. Pfft, a snails pace!

Plan B - Work at 7 in Taizhong

April's family owns a 7-11, as well as the attached building - which has their house and a suite of dormitories they rent out. I got to hang out in the back room of a 7, which means I can scratch off one big item on the bucket list.

They put me up in one of their dorms for the night, which was really awesome and pretty much the biggest room I've ever stayed in in my life. The next morning I met her brother Cliff, and we went out to see the nearby earthquake museum.

This is a road. Frak a buncha that.

I am guessing the Taizhong suburb earthquake museum has never had a foreigner come here before. For one it's way out in the middle of nowhere in a town with pretty much 0 interest for tourists. It's quite cool though - basically 15, 20 years ago there was a really bad earthquake in this area. Tons of people died. This school was really hit hard, but instead of cleaning it up they just said "Ah to hell with it", and built a museum around it. I learned that earthquakes can really tear shit up.

After lunch and a rest, we went into the city proper. I wanted to see this interactive science museum, which is quite large but probably hasn't changed since the 80s. The one thing of note was the TOTALLY AWESOME dinosaurs. The T-Rex was like, pretty big. Also it moved and roared.

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA TZEBENYAAAAA!!

One more stop on the way back was a giant market for dinner and some shopping. I ordered a pork... egg... pancake thing, which probably should've taken 30 seconds to make. I think we waited close to 30 minutes though. This girl must have been making an order for all of Taizhong on the side, but was just constantly cheery and beaming the whole time. If not for her bubbly attitude, I probably would have told her to please take my money and go away, because I have eaten my shoes in starvation.

And THAT is the Taizhong experience. In general, I find that people are really, really patient. Life's a lot slower than Taipei, or really anywhere I have ever been in my life. I also learned that while I don't mind waiting for things, not knowing how long it will take will drive me crazy. Things like lines, or stations with posted times I'm happy to stand in, because you know why there is a wait. "Mystery waiting" drives me nuts. And I learned that when I am by myself, I travel like a boss. I think most people go on vacation to relax. I did a little of that in Kending, but that seems like a giant waste of time for me. You can do nothing anywhere. Bus isn't coming for 45 minutes? Don't just wait for it. Hell, if you start running now you can probably get there faster than the bus would, plus it's cheaper, and more importantly, you get to see stuff on the way. I'm still a firm believer in not making plans when travelling, because nobody has ever said "Man, sticking to schedules is SO much fun."

Heading back to the train station, I made it there with perfect timing - there was a train back to Taipei leaving in 10 minutes. I hopped aboard, and found a seat next to a guy that I thought didn't look native. I know that's weird to say, but I thought he looked Chinese. Just a casual thought. Then he started talking really loud on his cell phone, and eating his food super fast. He had a pamphlet with simplified Chinese on it, which all but confirmed my suspicions.

Then he passed out and snored really, really loud. Oh, mainlanders. I sometimes miss your "I don't give a shit." attitude.