On fears, the zoo and gondola, plus a guest post from Dave!!

I have two main, extremely rational fears- snakes and heights. Like, Indiana Jones afraid of snakes. I don’t want to see them, touch them or hear about them. Just nada. And you put me high enough over the ground and my hands grow clammy, my heart starts to pound and my feet hurt.

And what did we do our first couple days in Taiwan? Visited the snake exhibit in the zoo, then rode a gondola to the top of the mountain.

I mean, they were both some pretty amazing experiences (the zoo as a whole, not just the snakes), but I feel like it says something when on your second day you face two of your fears. It really makes me wonder how many other things I’ll look back on after this year and think wow, we’ve come a long way.

One of the most difficult things so far we’ve found to get over is the sleeping. Our bodies are still in North America mode, meaning we still want to sleep during the day here and be awake when it’s dark. We’ve been trying to force ourselves to stay awake while it’s light out and relax when it gets dark. Last night I turned in around 8 and woke around 4:30, but it’s better than the night before when I didn’t sleep at all. But I guess it’s a process, just like learning Mandarin (every day we seem to learn something new, it’s slow going, but I do have a Chinese lesson in a few days!!). Nothing happens overnight.

So far I've felt two earthquakes- one of the HR guys says they happen every day but you won’t feel 99% of them. The first night I was sleeping, and when I woke couldn’t figure out if I was still on the plane or if the earth was shaking. Earlier today the Dave and I had just gotten off the elevator with a lovely couple when I felt dizzy. It is an interesting experience, to say the least! I was told one of the largest buildings in Taipei was built on the fault line, and over time the weight of the building has slowly helped push the line apart.

The squatter.

Still on the topic of fears, one of my concerns about moving to Taiwan was the lack of western toilets in certain public places. I realize it sounds like a silly concern, but it just one of the those unknowns I wasn’t sure how I’d handle when it came time to. Sure enough, second day in I walk into the washroom stall and stopped. “Hello there,” I said to the porcelain hole in the floor. “I was wondering when we’d meet.” Honestly girls, really not that big of a deal. Kind of like using the bathroom in the woods, except cleaner, and you leave your tp in the garbage.

The internet here is really hit and miss, which is not at all what I was expecting. It frustrates me a lot because I can’t even make a phone call through skype. Part of that may be the hotel we’re staying at (which is one of the main causes of my frustrations in general), but it’s pretty obnoxious just the same.

Riding the Gondola.

David's Thoughts - Nov 8

The view from up here is fantastic!!

So  Steph and I had the chance to go to the Taiepi Zoo. I had been looking online for what our best options where to get there, Bus, The Rail Train or a Cab. So what we decided to do was just walk a bit and flag down the first cab we could find. What I figured would be easiest to communicate to our cab driver who was an older gentleman and could hardly speak English was to write on paper the words in large print  動物園 (tōng-bu̍t-hn̂g)  which translates zoo In Taiwanese. Then as we were going he said the word “PANDA” and “LION” He was great and even found 102.4 cfrc the English news channel and in a radio voice said 102.4 C.F.R.C. anyways the cab ride was very inexpensive 320 ntw dollars or 8 bucks Canadian. The cost of the zoo for the both of us was 120ntw or $ 4.27 cdn. We got see a lot of different snakes, birds, fish, reptiles, butterflies  from the all over Asia and we even saw a couple of Pandas. A few signifigant things that happened at the Zoo I found a 500 ml bottle of PEPSI for 25 ntw or .89 cdn. Another cool thing that happened was that 2 Chinese boys asked me to take a picture with them. I was wearing my Canada shirt and they asked where we were from and they thought I was very tall and cool. Hey I’m a giant in this Country and I get people looking up at me all the time and nodding and waiving hello. The zoo even had a few familiar exhibits such as the Beaver and the Racoon both found in North America (slight Canadian Pride). 

After the zoo Steph and I decided that we would go up the Maokong Gondola. This gondola ride has special cabins called the eyes of Maokong which have a glass bottom so as you ride up the mountain you can see directly below your feet. The Maokong District has a very long history for growing and harvesting Green and oolong Tea and it was really neat to see all the rows of tea growing on the side of the mountain. After getting of the gondola we went and found some food to eat for lunch. I was not sure what to get as our Mandrin is very poor and all I could see was symbols and numbers so all I did was point. What got for 25ntw or .89 cdn was a plate of glass noodles, vegetables, and steamed pork ( I’m confident that it was an old boar intestine) the texture was very different sorta rubber like but also very light on the mouth hard to describe but the taste was actually not all that bad.  I found steph a bubble tea and it was really good. It was made with coconut milk, sweetened Soy and tapioca pearls very tasty and refreshing.

“TAEPEI  ZOO” which is also referred to the locals as the “MUZAH ZOO” well the reaction we got was the best ever. The cab driver read the word and pronounced the word “Monkey” with the sound and gesture’s that he was an orangutan and when we said yes he got all excited! Monkey he laughed and then said okay you mean zoo.