An Introduction:
A new year brings a new country, in this case: Taiwan (or Formosa, or Chinese Taipei, depending on who you ask). Taiwan, with the exception of mainland China, had the last unseen professional baseball league in Asia (and the one on the mainland seems to be on unsound footing at best). Taiwan has a history as an island filled with baseball fans, and under fifteen years ago, it had the second-largest pro league in Asia, with an average attendance that would be quite at home in the highest level of the American minor leagues, not to mention a second, competing major league vying for fans' attention. But a series of gambling scandals linked to organized crime decimated the league, causing over half its teams to fold and never come back. Almost five years from the last big scandal, and energized by a surprisingly good performance at the 2013 World Baseball Classic and the signing of steroid-tainted former MLB star Manny Ramirez to a half-year contract with one of their teams, the remaining four teams of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) have seen a surge in interest and attendance that seems to indicate a rebound for the struggling organization.
As with all Asian baseball teams, the squads are named for the corporate team owners who use them as a form of subsidized advertising for the parent company. (And as with the Korean teams, the city affiliation isn't even mentioned in favor of the corporate.) This was a particularly important point when the betting scandals hit, as the parent companies bowed out as soon as the scandals went public, as it was not good PR to continue their association with mobster-tainted enterprises. The remaining teams standing are the Brother Elephants (hotel chain), Uni-President 7-11 Lions (the ubiquitous convenience stores), the EDA Rhinos (entertainment conglomerate), and the Lamingo Monkeys (the health products and travel agency arm of a shoe company).
And also as with all Asian baseball teams, the parks are split up into home and visiting cheering sections. And, following the Korean model, those cheering sections are centered on the top of the dugouts, used as stages for the home MC, cheerleaders, and band to run the crowd through the paces of cheering (in the form of choreographed songs, noise-making, and hand gestures) for their batters when at the plate and their pitchers when they make an out.
Because the CPBL uses the last two weeks in June as make-up games without formal scheduling (it is immediately followed by their All-Star Game week and the half-season break), I had to push up my normal end-of-June schedule to the start of June. In the interest of international good will, I'd like to offer the good folks of the Taiwan Tourist Bureau some suggestions for slogans for Taiwan in June:
Taiwan in June: The Temperature Can't Hit Triple Digits If You Use Celsius
Taiwan in June: It Only Usually Rains Once a Day
Taiwan in June: You Can't Spell "Huh, My Lungs Have Fluid" without "Humid"
Taiwan in June: Five Minutes Outside Before You Are Permeated with Sweat Is Enough for Anyone
Enough with the scene-setting. On we go.
On a Long Ride
Sunday June 2, 2013
Jamaica, Queens
Outside the Game:
The logistics of this day were a lot more difficult to quantify than even the previous trips. For example: When exactly did I leave on this trip? By strictest definition, my flight was scheduled to leave at 1:45 AM on Sunday, June 2. Yet, the majority of the time and preparation for the flight would fall on the Saturday previous. The time travel for this flight would be particularly acute, as I'd experience only the briefest sliver of Sunday, and be immediately thrust out into the world of Monday morning without so much as a how-do-you-do.
Existential problems aside, this left me with the entire day to get my affairs in order. Given how much of a worry-wart I get when big travels are afoot, this arrangement is probably for the best. I had all day to finish packing and fretting to the point that I was even able to do recreational activities, such as napping and buying over-priced tickets to the MLB All-Star Game, before I had to leave for the airport.
As I had to have my car in for its regular state inspection, I drove over to my parent's house to leave my car for said inspection and have my father kindly take me to JFK. We struggled through some mild traffic and listened to the Yankees get pummeled by the Red Sox as we drove past the scene of that particular crime in the Bronx. Traffic aside, we made great time, found my terminal, and I was cast out into the uncaring world of JFK Terminal One.
I had splurged for a business class ticket (sorry, "Royal Laurel Class"), so I got to go straight to the check-in counter, which wasn't that crowded as I had gotten in quite early for a quite late flight. I got checked in and went to the VIP security line.
It was here I had my first existential crisis, as the security people weren't interested in me at all. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to be hassled, but as an official middle-aged white guy, I was completed invisible to the security process. Because we all know honkey ain't going to bring down the plane. Hey, maybe I will, dammit. Middle-aged folks used to cross the street to avoid being too near me. I'm still threatening. Pay attention to me! What have I become?
What have I become?
I've become a guy who can afford a business class ticket, that's who. And that ticket got me into the Japan Airlines club room, because coach is for suckers, yo. The club had free food, booze, and WIFI, and tons of chairs to luxuriate in before the flight. And I had plenty of time to kill. There were a bunch of older folks decked out and sleeping when I got there, and I wasn't sure if it was because they are old, or because it was a good idea. The flight is leaving in the wee hours of morning, and it was arriving in the wee hours of the morning, so I wasn't sure if sleeping at the start or sleeping at the end was the best idea.
As I sat in the club, some Chinese students (likely on their way home for the summer) sat behind me and started talking rapid-fire. But they were breaking my mind, because they kept switching in and out of Chinese to English, and I wasn't sure if my comprehension was getting better, or they were just speaking English. So it goes.
Eventually, it was time for boarding. And it seemed to go fine, or it went fine as far as I could tell, since I was the second person on the plane, and quickly settled into my command pod. I forgot how much coach
really was for suckers. The seat pod had a truly amazing array of controls just for the various permutations of the seat, which ranged from full upright to fully flat, with about a hundred and fifty different stages in-between. You got your own mega stereo headphones and inputs for nearly every personal electronic device you could imagine should the expansive choices on the entertainment display not be enough for you. And a free water bottle, and super slippers, and circulation socks, and more stuff than I knew what to do with.
The stewardess eventually came around to welcome me aboard and take my orders for the various meals throughout the flight, and ask if I needed anything at the moment. It was all very civilized, and my only goal at that point was not to fall asleep until we were in the air at cruising altitude so I could try out the seat's bed mode.
This was complicated by some rather cryptic delay messages that went out over the intercom. Something something person... The crew was speaking their accented English very quickly, so it was hard to hear what they were saying, and being nearly passed out from exhaustion didn't help. Eventually, after about an hour, a group of four passengers were marched off the plane. The stewardesses eventually went around to every seat in first class and explained that a passenger had a very high fever and was trying to fly, and they eventually kicked them off when they wouldn't leave voluntarily. As I sat there, under my fluffy blanket, drinking my free water, and eating my free snacks, I just couldn't get all that upset.
I was reasonably worried about a sixteen hour plane flight, even though it was only two hours more than my flight last year to Korea. But we eventually took off, and I put the seat into bed mode, and I immediately slept half of it away without even looking at the sleeping pills I had procured from my doctor earlier in the week. I apparently even slept through dinner, which would be odd to serve in the first half of a flight such as this where most of the passengers would be asleep, but that's not for me to decide, really.
Upon waking up, the stewardess asked me if I wanted a snack, which turned out be a big bowl of pork noodles. Solidly awake, I started flipping through the entertainment options, and came across the entire run of BBC
Sherlock. And the rest of my flight is pretty much over there. I spent most of it watching
Sherlock again, having meals, or naps. Frankly, my sixteen hour flight to Taiwan felt a lot shorter than my twelve-hour flights to Japan. Or, hell, even some flights I've taken to the West Coast.
Because first class is awesome.
The Accommodations:
The plane in my mega-pod seat thing.
On a Long Day
Monday, June 3, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan
Outside the Game:
I begin the reckoning of this day on when I got off the plane, and for this particular flight, it is largely congruent with reality. We got off the plane at some time around 7:00 AM local time. Not having any bags to pick up, I went straight to customs with the first group from first class and got through in about five minutes. I made my way through the terminal to the tourist booth and waited my turn to ask about where the ATM was and how to get the bus to Taipei proper (as the international airport was really the next city over and about an hour from Taipei itself). Both were quickly answered, and I went on my way.
I found myself behind another American at the ATM, and she seemed completed mystified that the money would come out in Taiwanese currency as opposed to American. Strongly resisting the urge to slap her until she made some damn sense, I nodded and got my own money and then went to the buses.
A little bit of back and forth got me to the bus line I needed, and I was informed that the next bus to Taipei was leaving right now, so I grabbed up my change and ran outside to get on the bus. While driving around, I got my first real look at the staggering amount of scooters in use in Taiwan. They outnumbered cars easily 10-1. Teens to grandparents were, um, scooting around on them, and it all seemed pretty practical until it started to rain. And then they
all stopped, got rain gear out of the seat compartments, and went on their way without missing a beat.
It was an uneventful ride to Taipei, and the bus stopped right at Taipei Main Station. My first hotel for the trip was right by said Station, so if I had planned that one out, good on me. I walked around the station until I found the tourist information booth and availed myself of an English map of Taipei and directions to my hotel, which was, in fact, only a short distance away. I boldly marched out into the Taiwan morning, and nearly melted under the humid heat that at around 8:30 AM was already threatening the world with promises of spontaneous combustion.
My hotel was a little boutique number that took the entire floor of a building across the way from the station. I hadn't even realized these things exist, despite my travels to Japan and Korea. I'm not sure if this was just a Taiwan thing, or something I'd missed previously. It was a perfectly crumulent hotel; it was a hotel that was, however, just one floor.
Mildly coherent as I was, I gave the nice lady behind the counter my reservation and my passport, and then she let me check my bag with her, as I was there
slightly before check-in, just shy of 9 AM. My room would be ready some time around three.
So I headed back out into the slowly boiling Taipei morning. My hotel, being right near the main train station, was just up the street from the 228 Peace Park (dedicated to the suppression of democratic protests in 1947), so I headed down there, lacking any particular directive at this point.
It was on that walk that I started to get my feet wet, so to speak, with the way Taipei worked. There was, for example, another city on the face of the planet that used Boston's completely backward traffic patterns, where everyone can make left turns and then everyone can make right turns, and if you weren't doing either, you got to sit and wait for a good, long time. Most traffic lights, however, have timers that count down how long you have on green
and red lights, so you don't just sit there waiting for god knows how long. The walk signs even have some helpful animation, as they show a stick man walking, and as the timer gets closer to zero, the stick man starts walking faster and faster. This is known as a hint.
Also, scooters are everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean in every possible place that a scooter can physically fit, a scooter is there. Some street corners actually have railings installed to make sure that there is a place to walk on the street, because otherwise, scooters would just block the entire proceeding. It is also important to note that "everywhere" also includes the sidewalk, so there is really no time you are not in danger of being hit by a scooter, so don't daydream.
Sidewalks themselves are also a bit of hit and miss in Taiwan. There is nothing Westerners would identify as a "sidewalk" in a lot of places. There are definitely some pedestrian sidewalks, and there are some uneven places in front of stores that you can sometimes walk, but there are also times that you just have to walk on the edges of the street. Walking in the direction of oncoming traffic is probably your best bet, as at least you can see what might hit you, most of the time.
I eventually made my way down to the 228 Peace Park, and once I got there, I found out that most of the museums and whatnot in the area were closed because it was Monday, and that's the day they close. I walked around the park for a while to see what I could see, and then a quick check of my guide book told me that the relatively nearby Chang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall was open that day.
So I made my first foray into the Taipei subway. It was a relatively straightforward thing, especially if you're used to Asian subways. You pay by distance, and you need your ticket to get both in and out of the subway. If you buy single trip tickets, you get little casino-token looking things that you have to deposit to leave. You can also get an Easy Card that you can load up with money and then use as with an RFID reader to enter and exit that station.
I took my first trip over to the Chiang Kai-Shek station and went out into the world. Now, Mr. Shek is a bit of a controversial figure in Taiwan, as you might imagine. He was responsible for a brutal subjugation of dissident activity on the island while he still controlled the mainland, and then when he was ousted by the Reds, he preserved democracy on the island by imposing a sometimes brutal and repressive regime on the island that is just beginning to leave his somewhat sinister shadow. Most of the Taiwanese people are trying to move away from his overarching legacy, and there is a growing movement to get this particular monument removed. They have been successful so far in renaming the park in which it sits (previously "Chiang Kai-Shek Park," and now "Democracy Park"-- bask in the subtleties), but the effort to close the memorial is still in process.
And what a memorial it is. It is a thing that North Korea aspires to, and I'm sure most dictatorships look on it with envy. Subtle it is not. It sits at the head of a courtyard, flanked by the buildings for the National Theater and National Concert Hall, but very much towering over all of them. The pyramid-like structure culminates in a 80-some step ascension to a giant bronze statue of the man in question, continuously protected by an honor guard of two soldiers in (I kid you not) reflective chrome helmets and tap boots, who have an elaborate changing of the guards ceremony every hour for the benefit of the onlookers.
The base of the marble pyramid houses cavernous halls that contain galleries, exhibition halls, and, unsurprisingly, a museum dedicated to the man himself. It's not as much the things you'd probably expect that throw you (the formative years, the good family, etc. etc.), but the things like his bitching cars (two of which are featured prominently in the flesh), and his wife's clothes, and the really, really disturbing recreation of his office, where a mannequin of him greets you eerily from behind his old desk, smirking paternally at you. I have seen more humble gods than this.
That said, they do also host some content worth seeing there. One of the temporary exhibits in one of the halls was all about ancient Rome, so that was a gimmie. It was a fairly basic review of the empire, but it had a surprising amount of authentic pieces such as statuary and coinage on loan from various museums in Italy.
After that, it was back out into the world. A nearby pond had a fish-shaped vending machine from which to buy food for the fish that inevitably inhabited such things. I spent $10 NTD ( about .30 American) and relaxed while the fish fought over my generous bounty. I then walked over to the Taiwanese presidential residence, but you had to arrange for tours in advance, and they did not allow for photography, so I lost interest quickly.
It was about 1 PM at this point, and as far as I was concerned, I had been up since last Thursday. I needed to kill some more time, but there was nothing open of cultural interest nearby, I was kind of loopy, and the heat was
not helping. I decided to take the subway back to Taipei Main Station to do some research for the buses and trains later in the week, and kill some time indoors. I found all the schedule information I needed for the bullet trains, and I got all the info on the bus for later in the week at the tourist info counter (as well as my free login for the Taiwan WIFI system that is active in pretty much all government places). I went upstairs to the food court to look around (but I wasn't hungry), and bleary-eyed at this point, I whipped out my iPad and started to check the Internet until I nearly fell off the bench I was on due to exhaustion.
Just shy of 2 PM (or 2 AM in "as far as my body was concerned" time), I went back to the hotel to either get into my room, or pass out on their lobby couch for a while. As luck would have it, housekeeping had just gotten done with my room, so I finished checking in, dragged my crap to my room, and promptly passed out on my bed for about four hours or so.
After my rather extensive "nap," I took a shower and got dressed, and headed out into the much more reasonable Taipei evening. I went into the subway, and headed over to Longshan Temple station, home to the aforementioned temple and apparently a bevy of "night markets" for which Taipei is famous.
Longshan Temple was the first I was to visit in Taiwan. As with many Asian temples, it was built right into the urban landscape with not much separating it from the outside world. There was a ceremonial waterfall in the entrance for which to bathe away the outside world from you before you entered the temple. The inside itself was surprisingly spacious, and it was filled with absolutely gorgeous detail. Although nominally devoted to the goddess of mercy, over a hundred other gods line the bays around the walls of the temple. It was enough to get me in the right mood of things, at least.
Also featured in the area were at least three night markets. Usually centered around temples such as Longshan, they are regular streets that are closed off at night to allow vendors to take over, sort of similar to a street fair, but not quite. There were two or three in the area of a major temple such as Longshan.
And the night markets were quite a thing. In addition to an endless array of food stalls, which I guess you'd expect, there were gaming and gambling concessions, more massage therapists than you could shake a stick at, and stalls selling everything from children's clothes, to sex toys, to personal electronics.
Sorry, what's that? Back up a bit? Children's clothes? Oh, you mean the
sex toys. Yes, there was not just the one, but several little booths (usually run by adorable-looking older folks) that were filled with implements that would make someone from the San Fernando Valley blush. And there weren't just in the same night market as children's things, but sometimes right next to children's games and the like.
Ayup.
It is probably not surprising, then, that the DVD stalls were filled with pirated Japanese porn. Which was sort of interesting, to be honest. Because Taiwan is kind of prudish in a lot of ways. You will never see a breast, gory violence, or serious cursing on TV. I remember reading an article about the editing "Game of Thrones," for example, had to go through before it was shown here, and I was able to take in an episode in my hotel room, and it was significantly
briefer than I remember. There was also some sex comedy on TV about a Chinese guy who became a porn star, and there wasn't a bit of nudity in the entire thing (despite some really, really suggestive jokes). Yet there are tons of pictures of breastfeeding billboards, and several nude billboards for plastic surgery places. I never quite got a handle on the what's verboten and what's not.
I got some street food and wandered around until I was tired again, and then took the subway back to the hotel, to end the longest day in quite some time for me. It started on Saturday morning in America and ended Monday evening in Taiwan.
The Accommodations:
I was staying at the New Stay Inn, which, as mentioned, was a floor in an office building right down the street from Taipei Main Station. It was as if you had just taken the floor from a normal hotel, and instead of the elevator bank, you replaced it with a small lobby. And that was your hotel. The elevator, then, shared usage with everyone else in the building (including one or two other hotels of the same ilk), and to get to the elevator, you had to walk through some ground-floor street stalls.
The room itself was quite nice, and I'm pretty sure I booked the place because it had a footed tub in the picture. It featured a main bedroom (small by American standards, but average for Asia), with a TV on the wall and a small desk ledge built into the wall, and a raised glass doorway in the back of the room that led to the bathroom with the aforementioned footed tub. It also had a small sink counter and a shower so you could wash up before you bathed. The bathroom also had a small window that led out to a walkway around the edge of the building. You could conceivably use it to go from any one room to any other, but it was going to be a quite a hassle to get in and out of the tiny thing, so I didn't think that much of it.
The bed was plenty comfortable and the air conditioning worked, and those were my only two big concerns on my first day in country. Well, that, and a cryptically worded warning in the bathroom not to put toilet waste in the toilet, which opened up some larger concerns about what exactly I was to use the toilet for.
On Learning the Difference Between "Rain" and "RAIN"
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan
Outside the Game:
I got a decent night's sleep that evening, even with the long "nap" the previous afternoon. Still, I was up on the early side and out and into the world at around 9 AM the next day, eager to hit some of the close-by museums that I had foregone the day before as they were closed for Monday, for whatever reason that entails.
I grabbed some breakfast at one of the ubiquitous 7-11s in the area, stopped at the bus station to buy my ticket for my trip the next day, and then headed back down to the Peace Park.
It struck me that with a day in-country to get me settled, a thought I had on the previous day hadn't changed at all, but my perspective had. "I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this time," thought in a panic as I was dragging my sleep-deprived body around the train station food court, became "I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this time," thought in a somewhat giddy mindset as I marched off to do god-knows-what for the remainder of my two weeks in Taiwan.
My first stop on the hit parade was the National Taiwan Museum, the oldest museum in Taiwan, dating from the Japanese occupation early last century. The main building was a stately Victorian structure with a glorious stained-glass dome, leading to some traditional Victorian museum layouts among the sweeping staircases and hardwood displays. The museum used all the space available, cramming exhibits into the basement as well as the rafters of the ceiling. Among the regular natural history fare, one exhibit of note was a basement temporary exhibit on amber. One part showed a map of the main areas of amber production in the world, which featured a door panel for good old New Jersey, which made me feel at home so far away.
While I was in the ecology exhibit in the top floor, it began raining rather hard, as it echoed quite loudly off the roof rafters. This was disappointing, as I was just finishing up here and was ready to head across the street to the second building in the museum. I went downstairs, and armed with my poncho, I thought I would make short work of the crossing. Just as I went outside and donned my poncho, it stopped raining and started doing something else involving water. I'm not quite sure of the proper nomenclature. Regardless, there was suddenly a lot more water coming from the sky, to the point where vision was impaired. Nearly immediately, everyone in the open had sought shelter, and there was clearly nothing to do but wait it out. Foolishly leaving cover was to lead to nothing but an absolute drenching almost immediately, with a real potential for drowning in the mix. So all of us huddled on the steps on the museum, hunkered down, and waited. After twenty minutes, the torrent turned to merely a deluge, and five more minutes reduced it to a trifling heavy rain. Emboldened, I took the opportunity to dash the hundred or so feet from cover to cover to the museum building across the street.
I successfully made it to the old Land Bank Building, which housed the Evolution Gallery of the National Taiwan Museum. The main exhibit hall, unsurprisingly, was devoted to displaying a tight group of dinosaur skeletons in what was previously the main room of the bank. The image of the actual dinosaurs in the actual bank was enough to illicit a Calvin-esque grin from me, at least. There were only two other exhibits in the museum, one about the restoration and renovation of the bank building after its closure, and an exhibit in the old bank vault that told the story of the bank, from its founding during the Japanese occupation until its nationalization and eventual move from the property. It even had old checkbooks you could put into an old checkbook machine to print out fake transactions, which was neat. I spent some time in the gift shop loading up on dinosaur and other needs before heading out into the now drizzle.
I went across Peace Park to the 228 Memorial Museum, which was also closed the previous day. This museum was dedicated to the crackdown on democratic protests on the island in February of 1947 that led to the martial law for which the Shek administration would become best known. Most of the exhibits were in Chinese, but they did had a free audio tour in several languages available at the front desk. When I got there, a small group of young Japanese business people were negotiating the receipt of Japanese audio tours. They were all shuffling around, and as I was trying to get out of the way of one, I accidentally backed into another, and almost reflexively, I said, "Excuse me" in Japanese to him.
This threw him for a minute, as most Japanese people don't expect Americans to know any Japanese, and it is less expected outside of Japan. He threw me some furtive glances, and then I realized what was going on. He had just bumped into someone older than him who might know the proper forms of Japanese interaction, so we were going to have ourselves a formal apology. And then it came. He walked over and bowed and begged pardon, and I bowed back and said it was nothing, and the world could get on its way. They got their headsets and went off, and they were animatedly talking in low tones, and I'm sure some of it was about me. I went up to the lady at the counter to get my headset, and I asked for English, and she asked if I was sure, because I looked like an American, but acted like a Japanese, and I'm pretty sure none of that was a compliment, although she was clearly joking with me.
The museum itself was a rather exhaustively done record of the events around 2/28, from the context of the incident, to its instigations, actions, and aftermath. It did a fine job of giving the whole story of what became the beginning of the end for a truly democratic society in Taiwan and the impact that it had on the whole nation. It was informative without being dry and emotional without being strident.
After my visit, I headed out into the afternoon that began to get hot, as the earlier rain was soon vaporized to nothingness by an afternoon heat wave. This drove me into a nearby McDonald's to get my visit in country 11 or 27 out of the way. There was a special promotion just launching for collectible glasses of different colors you'd receive when ordering value meals. I received a green one with my Big Mac and went upstairs to find a seat in the crowded restaurant. It turns out they were doing some manner of photo shoot there for the glass promotion, so I got a small stage show as a backdrop to my lunch.
In the immediate area, there were some small art galleries and Shadao Temple that occupied some of my post-lunch time before I headed out to Da'an Park, the largest and most popular park in Taipei (sometimes referred to as "Taipei Central Park," although it is really located in the south-east of the city). I took a quick subway ride over, and by the time I got there, it was still overcast, no longer raining, but incredibly hot. I spent the remainder of my afternoon ambling about the park, going from the amphitheater to several ponds to older people playing board games. The weather having cleared, the park was slowly coming to life again, as families and students started to fill more of the area as the afternoon went on. Eventually, having been on my feet for most of the day drove me back to the hotel for a nap, a shower, and a soak.
That evening I decided to visit the biggest night market of them all, the Shilin Night Market, located in the north end of town, across the river. This grand-daddy of them all was centered around the Cicheng Temple, and went on for more crowded square blocks than any of the others by far. There was a separate area where some of the food stalls had a more permanent home, and there were also permanent stands for some of the stores, making it a half night-market and half-mall combination. Cheap street food was to be had again, as were the slightly embarrassing sex toy stalls which were noticeably smaller in number, but still quite present. This market was also much more packed with people than the others, as it was clearly a place to be and not just a place to shop.
I walked around for a good while, but I had a bus trip to Lukang the next day that would require an earlier start, so I headed back to the hotel at a reasonable hour to get some adequate shut-eye for the next day.
The Accommodations:
I was at the New Stay Inn again. After leaving in the morning, I only came back for the late afternoon nap and a relatively early turning in for the travel the next day.
On New Experiences, Bus-Related and Otherwise
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Lukang, Taiwan
Outside the Game:
One of the main reasons I had picked my first hotel was its proximity to Taipei Main Station and all of its subsidiaries. On this morning, I had a three-hour bus ride to Lukang in the Western midlands of Taiwan. The high-speed rail didn't go there (not without some transfers and shuttles from a distant station), and the regular rail also required a transfer and shuttles. The bus was the only non-stop way from Taipei to the city, and although it is usually the worst manner of travel, I decided to give it a shot regardless.
Looking to get the most amount of time to poke around once I got there, I took the 8:20 AM bus. This was from Taipei Bus Station, located behind Taipei Main Station, and not to be confused with Taipei West Bus Station, located next door to Taipei Main Station. This was my first travel move in Taiwan, and I was not looking forward to dragging around all my belongings again. I am getting old, indeed.
I arrived at the bus station with time to spare (it was located in an upscale mall, for some reason), and I waited for my bus to be called. There was a small group waiting with me for the bus, and boarding was indeed announced. I followed the process and eventually stowed my bag in the luggage compartment and climbed onto the big, green bus.
It seemed to be a double-decked, but there wasn't any discernible "first floor" to the thing, just the long row of seats at the top of the bus. You could pick your seat, and even though this was a non-stop bus ride, I decided to sit in the row of single seats by the window near the front so that I could hear all the announcements, should there be any. The seats were plush and comfortable, and there were video screens every few rows. Before we left, it was showing a safety video similar to a pre-flight show on airplanes. It talked about where the exits on the bus were, what would happen if the bus broken down, and, curiously, the proper procedure for knocking out the windows with a fire extinguisher in case the exists were blocked and the windows were the only way out. Up until that point, I hadn't given any consideration at all to the bus being flipped over on its side so that the emergency exit in the roof was blocked, but for some reason, it was all I could think of at the moment.
Once we got going,
We Bought a Zoo started playing on the video screens, and there seemed to be some controls in the armrests that would let you hear the movie or some audio channels, but that early in the morning, I could not figure them out. I eventually drifted in and out of sleep for the duration of the ride down to Lukang, and, at least of the bits I was awake for, it seemed to go without incident.
I was dumped out at the U-Bus station in the late Lukang morning. The first order of business was to get my ticket back to Taipei the next day, so I went into the storefront, and with a mixture of rudimentary Chinese and pointing, bought a ticket for the bus back. However, I had no idea where in the world this station was in relation to anything else, and the station agents couldn't read my map to help. So I wandered along until I found a tourist map on a post that helped me get my bearings. The northern Visitor's Center was relatively close to my hotel in the north end of town (if I was reading this correctly), and I wasn't that far off, if the map was to be believed.
So I headed off to the Tourist Information center, and after a couple of wrong turns, I found the building. The office was staffed by two ladies, who seemed ecstatic to see me. One of them spoke the most English, and she sat me down and eagerly brought over English maps and other items and gave me precise directions to my hotel, and got me some water, and altogether seemed to have adopted me. She seemed concerned when it started to rain, but I assured her I had a poncho and an umbrella. Before I could leave, she insisted on taking a picture with me, and it seemed the least I could do.
I managed to make it the rest of the way to my hotel, and it still being early, I was able to drop off my bags and register, but my room wouldn't be ready until later on that afternoon. It was really start to rain outside, so I got out my rain poncho, put it on, worked out the easiest way to get where the culture was on my map, and set out. There was a main road that skirted the eastern edge of town from top to bottom, and I decided to follow that down from the hotel. Along the way, I stopped into 7-11 to get something passing as lunch, as I was hungry from the bus ride and dragging all my stuff up to the hotel. And then it was just a matter of walking all the way down south.
About half way there, I was checking my map just to make sure I hadn't veered off course, when a guy on a scooter pulled up next to me and asked where I was going. I showed him on the map and asked if I was still on the right road. And then he told me to come on. And it took me a minute to realize that he was offering me a ride to where I was going. And without really thinking, I got on the back of his scooter, and off we went to south Lukang.
It was then, when I had a moment to really think about it, I realized I was riding on a scooter on a wet road, holding on to the wet jacket of my driver, without a helmet, and then the many different ways I could be catastrophically injured became more of the focus of my thoughts. But frankly, there is something on the reassuring side about scooters. You're just on them, and you're riding. If something
really bad happens, you're not going to have any time to worry about it, so just let it be.
I eventually was deposited in one piece at my first stop in Lukang, and I thanked my driver as he sped away into the afternoon. That stop was Yangqiao Park, a small park at the south end of town that hosts several festivals. My only real problem now was the rain. As I was walking across one of the bridges over the tiny lakes in the park, the sky lightened up and the rain stopped. It seemed as good a sign as any.
My next big goal was to get to Longshan Temple, considered by many to be the jewel of Lukang. And even though it was only about three blocks away, I learned a lesson I would continue to learn for the rest of the day: the road system in Lukang is inscrutable. Even though a map might show you that you literally just have to walk straight down a road to get where you want to go, you will inevitably have made a wrong turn somewhere. And gods help you if you actually
turn. Then you're on your own. After some initial setbacks and frustration, I found the correct frame of mind for walking around Lukang is to know where you want to go, see what the map says is the right way to go, and then just go the way that feels right. You're just as likely to get where you're going as if you'd followed the directions closely, plus Lukang is so filled to the brim with cultural treasures, you're never really going the wrong way. It evokes Kyoto quite strongly.
I eventually found Longshan Temple, and it was everything that was promised, a place where you can just drown in the details, and each turn reveals more intricately carved decorations, or patterns, or statues. It was easy to get lost wandering around in there. I eventually tore myself away, and spent most of the afternoon visiting numerous temples, and places such as the artists lane, Shih Yih Hall (where drunk scholars used to have debates), and Wine Jar Lane (where ship ballast jars did double-duty as wall material). I find that the more I'm completely entranced by a place, the less I'll directly remember. It was just a matter of taking in as much of it as you could experience. Each corner brought something different and new. But when it was getting late in the afternoon, I went to the see the highly-regarded Folk Art Museum before it closed. Located in an occupation-era Japanese mansion, the museum showcases all the different folk art from the area and beyond. I entered just behind a large Chinese tour group, and so I ended up tailing them through the entirety of the museum's suggested visitation route. Had I understood more Chinese, I'm sure I would have gleaned some interesting tidbits not in the English signage, but I nevertheless enjoyed my visit more than I imagined I would.
After a little more wandering about, I decided to go to the hotel and properly check in, as well as wash a day of sweat and walking off my person. I went up to my room to be greeted by my luggage, and promptly took a shower and had a change of clothes before arranging everything in my bags for my return trip to Taipei the next morning. There also was likely a nap in there somewhere, after all of the walking the day had allowed.
In the evening, I went back out to get some dinner. The hotel was right next to a sports park, and in the twilight, the park was absolutely filled with people either running or walking around the track circle or doing other exercises. It was a hallmark of the Taiwanese people that they were always exercising in the morning and the night in a way that just seemed exhausting to me by merely observing.
With a day of exploring under my belt, I felt a little more confident in my ability to follow a road out to one of the main drags in town. Everything increases with difficulty at night, and I knew I was likely one wrong turn away from disaster. I surprisingly managed to make it back to town with little problems, and I found an open restaurant that fed me some noodles and sweet buns for desert. Still having some energy left, thanks to my nap, I spent some time just wandering in town. All of the stores were closing up for the evening, and the families that run them were all revealing hidden TVs in their shops, and in storefront after storefront, families were gathered in front of TVs, eating dinner and watching TV, and especially in the night, the wood from the temples and old buildings that dotted the city had a distinct smell that seemed to speak of a geologic time scale, and the whole experience of the smells and the families slurping noodles in the dim electrode glow of their TVs was quite new and singular, and one of the things that really stuck with me on this trip. That kind of unique situation is nothing I'd have seen if I had stayed at home, and it seems as good a reason as any to go on these excursions.
\
And as I was taking all of this in, a woman greeted me in English, and I greeted her back, and then she told me she was a Jehovah's Witness and wanted to witness to me, and things got too weird too quickly, so I told her no thank you and took that as a sign to go back to the hotel. And with minimal mis-steps, I managed to make it back past the still-exercising populace at the sports park and get to bed at a reasonable-ish hour.
The Accommodations:
There are surprisingly few hotels in Lukang, which may contribute to what was apparently a lack of foreign tourist presence in the city. In my research, I eventually found out about the Zhida Service Guest House, which is a fairly large facility at the north end of town, and it would seem the hotel's capacity could hold a lot more tourists than were housed when I was there.
I didn't actually go into my room until late in the day after seeing the sights. For the cheap price I paid, I had a surprisingly spacious room, with an entry foyer leading to the bedroom, with its large king-sized bed facing the opposite wall with a TV and desk. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the far wall led out to a balcony, sadly locked against my efforts to enter it. A couple of chairs and a small table were positioned so you could pretend to be on the balcony, I suppose. The smallish bathroom had a full sink and toilet, but the shower cubicle lacked a tub that my feet sorely needed on that day.
The hotel itself had a sizable performance space in its first floor that was hosting some sort of children's show the night I was there, plus there was a small art gallery on the long walk from the lobby to the elevators that led up to the rooms. I got the impression that this place had been open for a while and had gone a little to seed (much like my hotel on Jeju last year), but if it has been a going concern for so long, it was a little strange that it wasn't mentioned in any of the guidebooks and Websites I researched, especially given how scarce accommodations are in the city.
Another mystery that may never be solved.
On Nothing Staying Wet in Taiwan
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan
Outside the Game:
I wanted to get the 8:30 AM bus back to Taipei, so I got up relatively early to make sure I didn't have a repeat of the previous day's triangulation of the U-Bus station. Having gotten to bed at the correct time and enjoyed a solid night's sleep, I actually woke up a little early, showered, finished packing up, and went down to my breakfast, which was included in my stay and opened early enough for me to get breakfast before I had to go to the bus.
I went down, and it looked like a Taiwan grammar school had exploded in the cafeteria. No, wait. I regret the analogy immediately. Either way, the rather huge restaurant was
filled with Taiwanese school children, likely from the dance exhibition the night before. The line for the breakfast buffet literally had three back-and-forth bends to it. Another gentleman who came down on the elevator with me muttered something in Mandarin and went back to the elevators. Not having the luxury of waiting, I got in at the end of the line, as a gaggle of schoolchildren eyed me warily. The line eventually made its way through, and I acquired my breakfast, and sat at a table of what appeared to be exhausted school proctors just happy that the kids were finally off eating.
Breakfast had, I went up to my room to grab my things, checked out, and then began my walk over to the bus station. One of the truly dispiriting things about the heat in Taiwan is how utterly
searing it is so early in the morning. Usually, it will start out a little hot and get worse over the course of the day, but not so there. We're going to start you out really hot and keep you really hot for the rest of the day. Oh, and here's some humidity in case you had any hope left in your soul.
I arrived at the bus stop a little early, and the driver was just getting the bus ready to go. He offered me a cigarette and then asked if I had anything to eat. I'm not entirely sure, but I think there is something about me that makes Asian people worried about my well-being. There was some excitement as the driver argued with two ladies about whether they had to put their truly massive bags of produce in the luggage compartment or take them on the bus with them. We eventually boarded (sans produce) and headed off north to Taipei.
There wasn't much to note about the trip up. There were bouts of napping, interspersed with bouts of typing this thing up, and then some solid staring out the window. I did find out why the seating on the bus was so high off the ground, however. The bathrooms for the bus are actually underneath the main seating area. I had thought that the stairwells in the middle of the bus were actually just exits, but someone used the bathroom while I was awake and watching this time, and it involved going down those stairwells to the bathrooms. I'm not quite sure what the rest of the space is used for, but given what
part of it was used for, I wasn't too keen on finding out.
I also figured out how the seat controls work on the entertainment system. On the trip down, I hadn't seen any jacks or anything for a headset, but it turns out that there are speakers worked into the head cushions of the seat, which was sort of nifty. The channel controls took you from the movie being shown to some radio channels, I think. To be honest, I didn't understand a word of what was going on.
I eventually got dumped back at the Taipei Main Station around noon. I decided to march off and find my hotel before grabbing some lunch. After a subway ride and some walking, I was able to find said hotel. As with my first place in Taiwan, it was a boutique number that this time occupied several floors of an office building instead of just one. I left my bags and set out into the world again.
As this was my first day in East Taipei (having spent my first stay in the Old City Center), I decided to take in the big sights in this area of town. The first of which was the memorial to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, which was but a short walk from my hotel. On the way, I saw the under-construction "Taipei Dome." I wondered if it was meant to be a more central location for baseball and other sports in Taipei. A little poking around revealed that was indeed what it was for, but not if there was any particular ballclub going to call their home. It was also apparently grotesquely off timeline, as it was to have been completed in 2007.
I got to the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, dedicated to the man whom they call the Founder of Modern China. At first glance, it smacked a little too much of the Chang Kai-Shek memorial on the other side of town. There was the giant bronze statue of the subject, and the honor guard with their shiny helmets and tap shoe boots. But looking through the historical materials presented, Dr. Sun had at least a more decent claim to actual greatness than the military dictator the US propped up for all those years.
There were also extensive art exhibition areas, as well as cultural classes held in the lower levels. It marks the first time that I have ever understood abstract art. I've tried on and off for years, but nothing ever hit me in a way I found comprehensible. There was an exhibit there that day about "Dream Fields," and one of the series of paintings started realistic, and showed the artists' progression to the abstract field. Seeing that, I could at least grasp how he got there and understand the painting a little more. It is no secret that I'm a pedant, so holding my hand through the process led to a successful comprehension of an abstract piece. So there.
Afterward, the next and inevitable stop was Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is the third tallest building in the world (it held the topmost spot for 5 years), and a host to a ritzy mall in its base, pricey office space in the middle, and the obvious tourist trap at the very top.
While walking there, I found that in the nearby World Trade Center (no relation), there was an international computer trade show going on (Computex) that had a lot of pasty white folk wandering around the area. I was originally going to meet a friend of mine who works for HTC this week before his trip got moved to later in the month, so I wonder if this was the show he was going to be attending.
I eventually got into the building itself. Frankly, it doesn't look all that tall, even when you're standing right next to it (particularly, I think, because there is nothing very tall next to it). You have to go through several layers of mall (filled with Guici and Cartier stores and the ilk) before you get to the entrance for the observatory. You buy your ticket at a counter and then queue up in a line that takes you through some high-end electronics counters. While waiting on the line, you are compelled have your picture taken for a souvenir photo, and then the picture follows you on video screens as you proceed down the line. At the very least, this was mega-creepy.
They are suitably proud of their pressurized high-speed elevator, which takes you from the ground floor to the top of the tower in under a minute of ear-popping elevation. You are then dumped onto the main level of the observation deck, where you can pick up a free audio tour and be guided around the floor-to-ceiling windows of the deck, learning about the building's construction, it LEEDs certification, and what you are looking out towards at any moment. The audio tour ends as you are brought around to the stairwells to the other two levels of the observation deck. The stairs up take you to the open-air observation deck, which due to high winds was only half open that day. It gives an appropriately majestic view of the surrounding landscape.
You can then go down and see the giant motion dampener that is used to keep the building stable in the wind. Basically, they took a giant weight and anchored it with cables so it hangs somewhat freely in the center of the structure, and thanks to science, this somehow makes the building sway a lot less in the breeze. They are inordinately proud of this as well, and have actually turned the giant weight into a cartoon character whom they use to promote green energy and energy consciousness in the country. There is also an art and education exhibit about all the high-end materials used for Taiwanese art and the like, such as coral, amber, and jade.
Once you've had your fill, you can go to the elevators to get out. But in the most extreme case of "exit through the gift shop" that I've seen, you must weave your way through dozens of shops selling jewelry and other art objects that were described in the previously mentioned exhibit. Some of the prices were truly jaw-dropping. The jade pieces started with small executions that cost a down payment on a house and just went up from there. Even dividing by thirty (the US to Taiwanese exchange rate at the time), the prices were enough to make your head spin (not to mention why there weren't better guards for the millions of dollars in merchandise up there. But then again, how are you going to get away?).
There is eventually the line to go back down the elevator once you get through the shops. While I was waiting in line, I made use of the free WIFI to email a bunch of people for no purpose except to tell them from whence I was emailing them. Eventually deposited back on terra firma, I walked back to the subway train to have my afternoon siesta.
But walking from the subway back to my hotel, the skies absolutely opened up with about a block to go. I already had on my poncho due to some sporadic rain earlier, so I decided to just go for it, because I was getting tired, and who knows how long it was going to rain, and the hotel was just across the street.
It
was just across the street, but in the distance it took me to get to my hotel, everything not directly covered in plastic got drenched, and that included the only pair of footwear I had brought with me for the entire trip. I dragged my nearly drowned butt up to my room and left everything hanging up to dry in the bathroom after I showered, and then headed to bed for a needed nap.
When I woke up and got ready to go out for the late afternoon, my shoes were still damp. Not having much of a choice, I put them back on and headed back out towards Taipei 101. And within no more than ten blocks, the heat and walking had emaciated them out to the bone dry again. So there is something to be said for the benefits of oppressive heat.
I went back out to Taipei 101 to get some night shots of it, and since I was there, I availed myself of its upscale food court to get some dinner. I ironically ended up making a choice between Japanese and Korean for dinner (Korean BBQ won) before heading on out into the night.
My walk back to the subway station took me past the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial, which was dimly lit in the evening. It wasn't that you couldn't see where you were going or anything, but it was a lot less brightly lit than I've come to expect my public spaces. The dimness was quite refreshing, to be honest, though I wondered if it wasn't a boon for the less forthright of society. What was particularly interesting about the entire proceeding was that there were dance classes going on everywhere. These ranged from the more expected traditional Chinese dances, to ballroom, and, inexplicably, an 80's dance class. I assume these were classes of some sort because there were leaders that everyone was following, but for all I know, they were just practicing for something. Either way, it was kind of an odd thing to just sort of happen in on, these random dance classes going on in the partially lit gloom of the Taipei evening.
A quick subway ride got me back to the hotel, and bed, and a good night's sleep was on the docket as I could actually go and see a ballgame the next day.
The Accommodations:
I was staying at the RF Hotel (which stands for "Rich & Free" for some reason) this time out. I wanted something in the east side of the city this time, after staying in the Old Town for the first leg of my trip. The RF Hotel was part of a chain of business-oriented establishments, and it turned out to be much like my first hotel in town in that it took up several floors of a building, but was not the exclusive tenant of said building.
Their lobby was on the third floor, and they had the third through fifth floors of the building as room space. They even had a little breakfast area built into their "lobby" on the third floor, but even that area had two rooms shoved in the back, as every last place imaginable had rooms put in. The staff that checked me in were at the lobby desk all day, and I really have to wonder how they can work like that. You are essentially at a tiny little desk next to someone else all day... it beggars my imagination. Especially if there is some friction between the employees, or they don't particularly like each other. Maybe one unsuccessfully hit on the other a couple weeks into the job. And now they have to sit, touching each other's hips for hours. The potential for awkwardness is endless.
My room was up on the fourth floor, next to the elevator. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that an unlabeled and locked panel in my room had something to do with the elevator. Thankfully, it was all sound insulated quite well, so I didn't spend all my time listening to the elevator.
There was a main bedroom, dominated by the bed in the middle of the room, and a TV with some desk space built into the opposite wall. A door led into the bathroom, which had the shower and tub wedged in one corner of the room, and a small sink and counter wedged into the other.
There was one particularly odd thing to the room that I only discovered in the middle of the night on my first evening there. I kept waking up and not knowing why, until I discovered something. The top of my bed was done up in a headboard-type thing in some manner of fake leather. What I found was that when you bed up against it, say as you were turning over in your sleep, it made a loud squeaking noise, as if you were cleaning a window. I had to array myself so as to not hit the headboard at all, and afterwards I had a restful remainder of the night to sleep.
On a Day of Whiskey (and Some Actual Baseball)
Friday, June 7, 2013
Brother Elephants vs.
EDA Rhinos
Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium
Chinese Professional Baseball
New Taipei City, Taiwan
18:35
Outside the Game:
Finally ready to get some boots on the ground in an actual baseball stadium, I was eager to get going on Friday. I went down a floor from my room and had a quick breakfast buffet at the hotel, and then back up to the room for a shower and some clean clothes to set me out for the day.
Before baseball, there was a morning and afternoon to occupy, so I decided to avail myself of several museums of note in the area of my hotel. A short subway ride left me in a sweltering Taipei morning, and upon exiting, I was trying to find my bearings on my map. Looking around, I was confronted with a building-tall advertisement for KaVaLan Whisky. There were far more whisky and Scotch advertisements in Taiwan than you'd find in America (or perhaps even Scotland), but this was the first I had seen about some
Taiwanese product. It turns out they had a flagship store in the building with the ad, and I made a note of it for later at lunchtime after I had a museum or two under my belt.
My first stop was the Museum of Jade Art, but a sign out front said it was closed for an event. I ran into a Chinese lady from Houston who was in town for the Computex convention who said that another sign said they were closed for a remodeling. The disappointment was short lived, as right in the same building was the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan. I had planned on visiting it anyway, and now it just became my first stop. The lady from Houston decided to get an early lunch first, and we parted ways.
There were two ways this could go, I imagined. Either this was a museum of really small things, or it was all dollhouse or model exhibits, and it turned out to be a little bit of both. I actually surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it. There were straight-up dollhouses and the like to be sure, but many of the buildings were re-enacting famous stories or places, or, in one series, the idealized vacation home of a daydreaming Englishman. One of that set featured the world's smallest working television (or so it was claimed). There was also a miniature Glenmorangie distillery with tiny bottles filled with actual Scotch (if the brochure was to be believed). The day was getting sort of a theme.
After my fill of the museum, I went into the gift shop, which had aisles upon aisles of doll house furniture, from the simple to the complex (such as working clocks). I looked up all the whiskey-related items I could find, which included some whiskey bottles, a decanter, and a cognac set with a metal plate and goblets. I don't need to give you a reason.
My next stop was the Suho Paper Museum. It was exactly what you'd expect (a museum dedicated to paper-making) that was founded by Mr. Suho Chen, a man who dedicated his life to paper before his death just before the turn of this century. I went in to pay my way, and I was told that since the second floor was undergoing renovations, the paper-making demonstration, which was usually an extra charge, would be included with the admission price. But the next exhibition wasn't until 2 PM, so perhaps I should go grab some lunch before I went in.
This sounded like a capital idea, so I grabbed some lunch from one of the many restaurants on the street, then took the short walk back to the KaVaLan showroom nearby. On my way there, I passed a banner with Captain Kirk on them -- the
real Kirk and not the retread. It turns out that there was a
Star Trek: The Exhibition exhibit in town, and it immediately went on my list of things to do while in Taipei.
I made it back to the KaVaLan shop, and I was greeted by a nice Taiwanese lady in a suit. She spoke a little English, and between us, we made known to each other that I was here to try out the whisky and that she was happy to do so for me. She sat me down at a little table and gave me an English-language brochure, which told the story of setting up the distillery in Taiwan and explained the range of the bottlings from it. I was told I could try all but the highest-priced bottles, so we started at the bottom and worked up, and agreeable time was passed as I tasted all of the surprisingly good whisky they had available. It is said that Scotch is all about the environment, and I can't possibly think of any place more the opposite of rainy, cold, and windy Scotland than rainy (well, there was at least
one thing), hot, and humid Taiwan. Yet they managed to put out some decent hooch.
I decided to go with the highest-end whisky I tried, a sherry-casked job in their Solist line. I forget whether it was about $100 or about $150. I was in no mood to quibble over price at this point. I was risking dragging this bottle of whisky all over Taiwan against the likelihood that it would not be available at Duty Free stores in the airport, and frankly, I wasn't going to take any chances. As a parting gift for buying one of the higher-end whiskys, I was also gifted three big boxes of Mr. Brown coffee, with which I immediately didn't know what to do. I don't drink coffee, and I sure as heck didn't have space for three huge boxes of it in my luggage when I had to head down to Tainan in a day or so. I couldn't refuse them, so I decided that fate would provide and headed back to the paper museum.
I eventually got back there at about 1:30, and paid my admission and went in, stowing all my bags in an alcove they had on the first floor. There was a short movie available in English on the first floor; the second floor was under construction, as previously mentioned; and then the third floor was just everything you could possible imagine about paper. There were source fibers, and types, and manufacturing methods through history. It was interesting to only a small slice of the population, of which I was one. There were a number of interactive exhibits as well, providing demonstrations in foldability, and grain strength, and absorbency, and a number of other paper qualities. Seriously, this was interesting stuff, at least to me.
It was eventually time for the paper-making exhibition, so I made my way up to the roof of the building, where it was scheduled to take place. I was up there a little early, so I had a seat down by the basins and waited until the instructor came up. It was just me that day, so she asked me where I was from and where I had been, which I told her. She seemed impressed that I went to Lukang, so she asked where I was heading next. I told her Tainan, and she asked why I bothered to come back to Taipei since I was already half way to Tainan at Lukang.
And here it was: The point in any long conversation I have with people on these trips where I have to explain that I have to come back to see a baseball game, so I can go back to see another baseball game, because I've traveled several million miles to visit your country... for baseball. Oh, and I'm not crazy. Or dangerous.
She was surprisingly okay with this information, or at least a lot less eager to end the conversation and run away from me as many are after the big reveal. She showed me how to make paper correctly by adding the pulp to the water, then getting the pulp onto the mesh, straining it out, and then getting the paper off the mold. She even showed how to add some decorative flourishes by adhering some leaves to the paper with some extra pulp. I picked some leaves from a bamboo tree and managed to get them to stick. We talked a little more as she was getting everything ready, then explained that it would take about ten or fifteen minutes for the paper to dry downstairs. She said I could wait in the bamboo tea hut on the other roof that I had missed up to this point, so she went downstairs with the paper, and I crossed the roof, took off my shoes, and then sat down in this neat tea room for about a quarter of an hour, just spacing out for a while, which was welcome.
I got my shoes and went downstairs, and my paper was waiting for me, along with a certificate I couldn't read that I was assured proclaimed my paper-making abilities. I got several items from the gift shop that I bought, and I was complimented on my choice of notebook. Apparently, it was by far the nicest one they had for sale; I just thought it looked neat. When I was retrieving my bags, one of the women asked me if I wanted some coffee before I went (as it was still drizzling), and I mentioned that not only did I not want some coffee, but I was burdened with three boxes of the stuff from my purchase at the whisky store. So I insisted on giving them the three boxes of coffee, and they gave me the full bow thank you, and I might as well as thrown down a ninja smoke bomb as I left that place, because
that is how you make an exit and fight the image of the ugly American in one fell swoop. I'm a foreign relations hero, if just for one day.
I had to head back to the hotel, because it was close to the time to leave to get to the game. I took the subway back to the hotel, dropped off my stuff, picked up my game bag, and headed back out to the subway. The stadium was at the next-to-last stop on one of the subway lines that forked, so all I had to do is get on a subway train going in the right direction to the right destination and I was home free. And perhaps surprisingly, I did it on the first try.
I got out at the subway in New Taipei City (a newer suburb that is part of the western expansion of Taipei proper), and I immediately saw signs for the stadium. I knew in general the route I had to take, so it was just a matter of making sure I was on the right road, and it would all work itself out. I headed down the road to the larger park where the stadium was located. I made it to the corner of the park nearest the subway, and there was a 7-11 at the intersection, which I keyed on as the landmark I would use to get me back after the game. When you see the 7-11, make a right, and it was straight back to the subway. So simple, an American could do it.
It turned out the stadium was at the other end of the park from where I was, and it took a certain amount of walking around to eventually find it. After the game, it was much easier to find the way back. There was a steady stream of Taipei-ites heading back to the subway. Or at least, I hoped they were heading back to the subway. The crowd eventually passed by the 7-11, and I knew I was going the right way. I got on the train back to the city and made it back to my hotel at a reasonable hour. Completely exhausted by the day's events, I showered before turning in for some much-needed rest.
The Stadium & Fans:
This was my first stadium in Taiwan, so it seemed only fitting that it be the one closest to the capitol. Technically located in the sub-urby New Taipei City east of the river demarking downtown, it was still within the tendrils of the Taipei subway system. Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium is located within a larger park, mostly devoted to sports. If you want to play it, you can. There are basketball courts, tennis courts, two large gymnasiums, tracks, exercise tracks... you name it. The stadium is tucked way in the back corner, at least from the perspective of where you get to the park from the subway.
Xinzhuang is right across the way from a pond in the park, with a walkway circling the structure. In the outfield, one of the batting cages is open to the outside behind a chain link fence, so fans can watch their favorite players taking swings in the cages. The outfield bleacher area is completely segregated from the infield grandstand, and it has its own entrances, toilets, and concessions. (This would be important later.) There are several small areas of statuary and monuments dotting the outside of the park, and there is a large fountain park near the main entrance (although it wasn't in operation on this night). There is scooter parking, well, pretty much any place you can fit a scooter outside of the park, and a parking garage for cars next to the main entrance.
The only ticket window is located at the front of the stadium, right next to a customer service window that was curiously closed when I went. There are large ramps on either side of the front of the stadium that lead up to a second level that offers entrance to the infield grandstand.
As I got there a little late and was taking pictures, when I went to get tickets at the window, they only had outfield seats available for the ridiculous price of $100 NTD (about $3 American). Thinking that it may just be that window that was out of grandstand seats, I tried a couple windows down, but only bleacher seats were available. I was slightly annoyed at not having come earlier. Most ticket sales, I was to find, are done at kiosks in every 7-11 that let you buy tickets to many events, including baseball games. As this was an appearance by Manny Ramirez in the capitol, seats were at a premium.
I eventually entered in through the outfield-only entrance. The outfield bleachers were one long seating area from left field to right field with one big walkway at the top of the seats to get people in and out. There was only one concession stand, located behind the batter's eye, and it was closed. The infield seating was separated into an upper and lower deck extending from left to right field behind home plate, and serviced by a walkway at the top of the lower seating bowl. At this time, I didn't have much more information about it. The upper deck seats were covered in an awning, and the lower deck seats were covered by the upper deck, so there was a good deal of protection from the sun and rain. There were some luxury boxes arrayed around the press box, as per usual in most modern baseball digs.
The visiting Rhinos were the "home" team tonight. Because of the contraction in the league, while teams have one primary "home" stadium, they also play some games in the vacated stadiums of the teams in the league that have folded due to the gambling scandals. I learned that they also sometimes switch up and are the "home" teams in other teams' home stadiums as well.
Cheering seems to be on the Korean model. The home team's cheer squad was located about the home dugout, and the home territory ran from home plate to the outfield behind the home dugout, while the visitors had the opposite turf. Cheering seemed to center around one or two MCs leading the cheering songs on the dugout stage, assisted by the cheerleaders, and perhaps a mascot or two. Between-inning entertainment was largely cheerleader dances and some frolicking by the mascots. There as no seventh-inning stretch, but there were some extended breaks between the third and sixth inning as the grounds crew made an extended clean-up of the field.
Fans brought signs with them and used solid plastic thunder sticks and horns to help the cheering. They sang along with the MC and the band for their team, with little individual cheering that wasn't part of the group, as per standard for Asian baseball. Unlike Japan or Korea, the Taiwanese did not seem overly concerned about foul ball safety, as the nets were just a little further out than the average MLB stadium.
At the start of the game, I wondered where this sell-out crowd was, as the stadium was at best half-filled, but by the third or fourth inning, nearly every seat was taken in the house. As the regular home team was "visiting," the visiting section, top and bottom, was packed, and as the biggest star in the league was on the "home" side, that section was also eventually packed to the gills. Both sides of the crowd were large and enthusiastic, and the noise was quite impressive when either side had reason to cheer. The batting team pretty much lead the cheering for each batter, and the team on defense would counter-cheer for strikes and outs. On full counts, it got quite loud in the place.
It was quite a positive introduction to the Taiwanese game, if only from the outfield. But everything had its reasons.
At the Game with Oogie:
This is really the story of the trip. And not just this trip. Perhaps if all my ramblings around America and Asia to see all the baseball had a point to prove, it was proven this evening.
As I had gotten my tickets late, Manny-mania had relegated me to the segregated outfield bleachers, which were a first-come, first-served affair. After lining up in the outfield entrance, we were all let in, and those there quickly scrambled for the best available seats, saving them in Asian fashion by putting some person items on them. I decided to wander around and take as many photos as I could from the outfield, and maybe find a way to sneak out of the bleachers. For whatever reason, I decided to start in right field and work my way over to left. I took my shots and poked around, eventually going down into the first row of seats in the corner of left field to take some pictures, and then I headed back up to the top of the stairs to go find someplace with good sight lines to sit down.
As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw an older gentlemen pulling out some papers and getting settled in right by the top row of seats by left field foul pole. I had to do a double-take, but it appeared that he had some scorecards with him. This was the first person besides myself in all my trips in Asia who I'd found scoring a game. What I had wanted to do was to walk up to him and ask if those were, in fact, scorecards. What I actually did was practically run up to him and said, rather energetically, "Oh my god, are you keeping score?"
He proudly showed me his scorecards, which turned out to be for a Yankees game. There was a bit of a language barrier, as he spoke a little English, and I spoke a very little Chinese, but I immediately whipped my scorecards out of my bag, and we were quickly showing each other "1-3"s and "DP 6-4-3"s and when he proudly showed me a "DP 3-6-3," I nearly hugged him.
I asked if I could have a seat, and we quickly spent the time before the game exchanging what non-baseball information we could. It turned out that he was 81 (and he didn't look a day over 50) and had two sons living in America in Oklahoma City who were in their 50s. He had been up since early this morning watching the Yankees and then the Orioles game on Taiwan TV and keeping score on them before he came out for the game tonight. I told him where I was from and what I was doing out here, and he approved. We kept going through our scorebooks to see the different way we scored things and any new things the other had, and when language failed, pantomimes got across enough information to make ourselves understood. He had never seen the backwards "K" before for a strikeout, and some play-acting later, he had gotten the meaning. He hoped there was a strike out looking tonight so he could try it out.
This was just transcendent. I thought of the string of events that had to happen to get me here at this place at this time to make this happen. I had to go to right field before left field, or I probably wouldn't have noticed him. I had to try and buy a ticket too late to end up in the bleachers to begin. I had to decide that I was going to go to this first game at all, since I wasn't scheduled to start until the next night. The only reason I knew about this game because a friend of mine was planning to be in town on business before his plans changed, and he wanted to see a game with me before he had to leave for home. I had to have everything earlier happen to make me feel lucky enough to try for the game tonight at all despite the rain. I had to start going on this trips at all. And it led me to this point in time.
Needless to say, we spent most of the game going back and forth after each playing, showing how we scored it, and about other things such as 1,2,3 innings (or yi, er, san as the case may be). Eventually, a family ended up sitting by us, and the father spoke better English, so he was able to act as interpreter for us both. It was a hell of a way to spend an evening. Around the end of the seventh inning, my friend decided to call it a night and go home, and since it was the third ballgame he watched today, I didn't feel in a position to judge.
After the game ended, the gates between the outfield and the infield opened up, and I ran down to take some pictures in the grandstands before the park emptied out.
The Game:
The game almost seemed like an afterthought after what had come before, but played it must be. Things started well for the "visiting" Elephants, who got a leadoff infield single. If only to remind me that we were watching a game in Asia, he was immediately sacrificed over to second, then moved to third on a short single stopped deep in the hole by the shortstop. A clean single to center brought the runner from third home, and the next batter got plunked, loading up the bases. But a pop to third and a strikeout ended the threat with the Elephants up, 1-0. The "home" Rhinos only got a one-out single, promptly erased trying to extend it to a double.
The Elephants came right back in the second with a one-out double to left. The runner was promptly lifted for a pinch runner, which I've never seen before. The manager must know something, because a two-out double to left brought him home, making it 2-0 Elephants.
And then Manny. Manny Ramirez, chased out of the MLB with failed steroid tests, had signed a half-season contract with the Rhinos, and was no doubt why most of the fans that packed the stadium were here that night. First at bat, third pitch, he gave them what they came for and launched one out of the park, deep to center. The next batter also went yard, this time to right, and the back-to-back homers tied the score at 2-2. The rest of the Rhinos went in order to end the 2nd.
Then the game took off to a bit of a sprint. The Elephants and Rhinos both went in order in the third. The Elephants did it again in the fourth, while the Rhinos mixed it up with a one-out walk (to Manny), erased on a double-play to end the inning. The Elephants showed life again in the fifth, when a leadoff walk and fielder's choice left a runner at first with one out. The runner stole second and then came home on a single to right, before two flyouts to right ended the half inning.
The bottom of the fifth would mark when the wheels came off the bus for the Elephant's starter. Three singles in a row to start the inning brought in two runs, and a sacrifice fly brought in another. Two more singles and a sacrifice fly resulted in another run, before the final out ended the inning, with it 5-2 Rhinos. The Elephants went in order again in the sixth, while the Rhinos had a leadoff double moved over to third on a ground-out to third, and then brought home with a one-out single. That remaining runner was sacrificed over to second, but stranded there on a ground-out to short. The score was thus 6-2 Rhinos at the end of six.
The seventh was on the odd side. A bunt single for the Elephants got the leadoff runner on. He was erased on a fielder's choice, but another single to deep short made it first and second with one-out. A double-steal moved the runners to second and third, and a long sacrifice fly to center brought the runner from third home, but the runner on second was nailed trying to advance to third to end the inning. In the Rhinos' half, there were two, two-out walks, but a strikeout ended the inning at 6-3 Rhinos.
The eighth continued the oddness. The Elephants' leadoff single was followed by a booted ball at third, making it first and second with no outs. Another single to deep short loaded up the bases. A grounder to third came home on a 5-2 putout. A grounder to second became a 3-2 put-out. And then a strikeout ended the half-inning with no one across after bases loaded with no outs. In their half, the Rhinos had a leadoff walk erased on a pickoff throw from the pitcher. The next batter walked (apparently the pitcher wasn't as good with control as he was his pick-off move), and a two-out single moved him to second, but a ground out to second ended the threat and the inning.
Not content to go quietly in the night in the ninth, the Elephants got three, one-out hits in a row, bringing in a run. A walk loaded the bases again, but two caught-looking strikeouts ended the game with a victory for the "home" Rhinos at 7-5.
The Scorecard:
Elephants vs. Rhinos, 06/07/13. Rhinos win, 7-5.
For this trip, I was using the Baseball Writers' Association of America Official Scorebook again, as there was no indication that there were any sort of scorecards available for sale in Taiwan. And this proved to be true.
The real story of the scorecard for this game was going back and forth with my Taiwanese friend, showing each other how we scored each play. Each home run, each hit by pitch, every ground out to third was an occasion to look at each other's cards.
There were some oddities. Having a runner pulled for a pinch-runner in the second inning was a new on for me. The double-steal followed by the outfield assist on the sacrifice fly in the seventh was another one. (Not to mention the second batter of the game getting nailed at second 7-4 trying to extend the single to a double.) And the two-in-a-row put outs at home with the bases loaded in the eighth was another first.
The only point of sadness I had was that in the bottom of the ninth, two Elephants struck out looking back-to-back to end the game, which would have let my friend finally score one. But perfect days are perhaps only defined by their imperfections.
The Accommodations:
I was at the RF Hotel again, and didn't spend much time there at all.
On Taking in Some Culture
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan
Outside the Game:
After the relative triumph of the day before, I decided to take it easy. I was originally slated to go to the Elephants game this evening, but I decided against a two-fer for a number of reasons. Firstly, after yesterday, it seemed like trying to gild a lily by going back the next day. Secondly, it being a weekend game, the crowd would no doubt be even larger than it was for a Friday game, so my chances of getting an infield seat were even less likely than on Friday. And finally, as great as it was, the previous day was kind of extensive, and I wanted a relative down day before the travel would pick up again the next day.
So I slept in relatively late, went down to get some breakfast, and then back up to the room for a quality soak in the tub. I wasn't in any sort of hurry for the day, and that worked out just fine. My feet clearly appreciated it.
I eventually set out around 11 or so to go back to the train station to get my ticket for the next day's train down to Tainan. After a good bit of fighting with the credit card machines, I eventually bought my ticket. Down to $100 NTD, I had to get some more seed money to keep going. As I was at the main rail station in the capitol, I figured I should be good to go, but after trying damn near every ATM in the place, none would actually give me money. So I headed outside to the first 7/11 I could find, and promptly got some money, because in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, it never, ever fails. One might even thank heaven for such a thing.
Money in hand, I took the subway several stops to the Huashan Creative Park, where Star Trek: The Exhibition was to be found. The Creative Park started life as a manufacturing facility, but it was now converted into several cultural and art spaces. This was all nice, but considering how old the factories were, I probably contracted about seven types of cancer just by being there. There was some sort of festival going on as well, with live bands performing on a stage, and booths set up selling various cultural wares all around. There were also, for no apparent reason, several photo shoots going on. I passed no less than three while wandering around.
And wander I did for a while, as there was no particularly clear signage on how to get to the Star Trek exhibit. After a bit of walking, I found the right passage to go down to get to the absolute back of the facility where the exhibit was, in fact, housed.
I paid my admission and went in. The exhibit was traveling around to several countries, and it had materials from all of the movies, including the misbegotten reboots. The first room had a timeline of Star Trek, and after the bit about
Enterprise, the timeline quickly got complicated, as there were two parallel timelines for the original series and the godless reboot movies.
In retrospect, that first room was all about chairs, as they had several of the prop chairs from the series along the wall, including Klingon thrones and the such, as well as the first of the "picture stations" where you could get a photo in famous Star Trek environments, such a Captain Kirk's original chair. (The other two were the Next Generation bridge and the original series transporter pad. You could even get a perspective-changing picture thing of the transporter that made it look like you beamed in and out of the picture. Yes, I got it. Yes, you can shut up.)
The rest of the exhibit went through costumes and make-up, and, outside of the unfortunate inclusion of the reboot movies (and, let's be honest,
Voyager), was quite well-done. At the very end was an augmented reality station where you could use an iPad and several keystone posters on the wall to fight the Borg or see 3D models of several of the ships from the various series.
After having my fill of Star Trek, I went back out onto the complex to poke around the various studios and shops and whatnot, stopping at a Beatles-themed hipster restaurant to get some lunch (because they had an extensive whisky selection behind the bar that I was able to see from the courtyard). There were a number of photo shoots going on that day at the park that I passed in walking around the place. Mostly it was models covering in the shade so their makeup didn't run and then popping out into the light to take some photos. They were doing one right behind the Beatles restaurant, so there was some theater with my food. A small child nearby kept running to the models because he wanted to play. I'm surprised that they let that go on for so long before suggesting that the parents take their adorable youngster elsewhere.
After lunch, I continued exploring all the stores, and there were an older white guy and woman doing a tap dancing class in the middle of a square. I have no idea what it was all about, but they had a pretty sizable crowd watching them, though the woman looked a little sheepish by all the attention. It could have been a class; it could have been performance art for all I know. I went upstairs to another store, and I ended up buying some CDs of music on traditional Chinese instruments before I headed back to the hotel. Because although it didn't manage to rain at all on Saturday, it was so hot that it affected your ability to think clearly.
The regular nap and shower were had, and I spent a good amount of time getting all my bags and whatnot ready for the travel the next day, as well as staying out of the insane heat while watching the ballgame on the TV.
I only really popped out to grab a quick dinner, and that was it for the day. I had a relatively early train the next day, and I always travel better when I get enough sleep.
The Accommodations:
This was my last night at the RF Hotel. I spent a good portion of the late afternoon and evening in my room, as mentioned. Nothing much on this front.
2013 Taiwan
