week 1: Kaohsiung to Taipei

I arrived to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, last night. I have spent the past week in Kaohsiung, a large city in the south, staying with my relatives and my mother, who is visiting too. The weather is nice and warm in the south, like Biloxi. Let me paint a picture for you...
The morning open air market bustles with produce and meats which many folks buy for their daily meals. The vegetables and fruits are larger than we see in the states, and far more exotic and tropical. The meats are exotic as well; I've seen live fish, shrimp, crabs, eels and frogs awaiting their doom next to a chopping block. I've seen fresh pasta being made for wonton skins and noodles. They also sell all sorts of nic-nacs like footwear and clothing. Salespeople wear headset microphones so they can tout their wares via a PA system. Dogs roam the alleys freely and you have to keep an eye out to watch for their poop. By midday, the morning market has packed up and gone and the store fronts open up their shutters and bring out their latest fashions on clotheracks and displays to the sidewalks. Traffic zooms by: scooters, gold-colored taxis, and blue mini-flatbed trucks with some apparently oblivious to lights and lanes. At night, food carts appear with their lighting systems, tables, and stools. They don't serve hotdog and pretzels like they do in NYC; they are able to cook up noodles, meats, dumplings, and on and on. It's all very good, very cheap, and hopefully very hepatitis-free.
I spent the weekend in the mountains at a hot spring resort. Hotels pump thermal water into their swimming pools and wading areas. It is pretty fun, and the water is filled with minerals, without the foul odor I expected. They make you wear a swimming cap along with your trunks. I wore a pink one, because that's what was left. Awesome.
I've seen three scooter accidents in four days. As I have mentioned, the driving is pretty erratic. Hit-and-runs are common and bystanders are sometimes afraid to stop to help for fear of being accused of causing the accident. It seems, at times, that folks live their lives one day at a time.
Taipei, by comparison to Kaoshiung, is like Manhatten to any other major city in America. The streets are huge, there are no piles of dog poop, and billboards and neon lights advertise major international companies. Today I visited Taipei's 101-storey skyscraper, apparently the tallest building in the world for those keeping track. The mall inside probably has a boutique for every French and Italian fashion designer in the world...and the stuff they sell all looks the same: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Cerrutti...whatever. The mall inside is about five-storeys tall, and it feels like being in the States. I am visiting my good friend Michael here, and today we had lunch at a buffet. For about $20 USD it was all-you-can eat food (fresh crabs, shrimp, fish, meats made to order, and sushi, and Chinese food) PLUS an open bar. After an hour, we decided to get drunk. I don't know how much I had to drink, but we probably would still be there except they closed at 4pm. We were there for about 3 and a half hours. Fortunately the MTR (mass transit rail) is sparkling clean and modern and close by.
In a couple days we may head off to Taroko Gorge via train.
I will try to visit the National Museum. :)