Cairns esplanade (promenade) at dusk. Looks like Hawaii, no?

I'm in Cairns!

Hi!
Just a quick email to say that I am safely in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is a backpacker's haven! Lots of cool people. I started my dive class today. What an extraordinary experience to breathe underwater. My last blog failed, so I will keep it short. I have a cell phone for Australia:0409316453.

Week 4: Back to Taipei

I leave for Australia in a couple of days.
Mom and I took the train up to Taipei from Kaohsiung to see some relatives. The past few days have been a fast-paced road show visiting tons of people. We had a lot of fantastic meals and conversations about me and Iraq, me and my would-be career, me and my trip around the world, me and my lack of a spouse and children...et cetera et cetera. I felt like a politician giving
the same speech over and over again. I'm not complaining except to an observer I probably seemed like a complete egomaniac. I think everyone here was curious as to why their American-born and raised relative is such a complete freak of nature. Thanks to everyone for seeing us here and feeding us and housing us here in Taipei and Kaohsiung. Some relatives came up from other places in Taiwan to see us here in Taipei this week.
Thanks for everyone who has gone out of their way to post comments on this site (Woodman, Smitty, Slapit, Hasty, Yogi, Renee, Roberts...) I get your comments emailed to me automatically.
Some parting thoughts on Taiwan...
Taiwan is a pretty cool country, although they could focus more on enhancing the tourism industry here and cleaning up some of the sights. The food is delicious and cheap. The non-stop nightlife of Taipei leaves Manhatten in the dust. Late night eats are awesome. And drinking (although I have luckily avoided doing it very much here this time) is a serious game here. There should be an entire chapter written about drinking customs and courtesies in the Lonely Planet travel book. Although food is delicious, cheap, and readily available every couple of feet, and the people tend to eat and drink late into the early morning hours, most people here are thin by American standards. I have no idea how they stay so fit here, except maybe it has to do with walking more than sitting in a car, but this may be an overestimation on the calorie-burning effects of walking.
My friend Michael pointed out there are more religious people in the States than there are in Taiwan. We argued this point back and forth. Interestingly, there has never been a religious war fought in Chinese (Buddhist) culture. I see temples everywhere (although less so in Taipei), and small shrines in most people's homes. People honor their elders including those who have passed on by having their stern blown-up mugshots in their living rooms and next to their shrines, so they can honor them daily when they "bai-bai" (an incense-burning ritual that involves kowtowing toward the shrine with your head lowered and three incense sticks held aloft). They also go clean their ancestors' tombs every year. There are colorful and noisy parades in the streets for funerals and for honoring a
temple god or goddess, and for bringing proserity in business.
Interestingly few people have an firm understanding on the etiology of the rituals and the many deities here because most of the rituals are traditions. I get a strong sense of mortality here because of the apparent carelessness with motor-safety. Oddly, I feel that seeing the frankness in which meat is slaughtered and butchered in the morning street markets contributes to my sense that life here can be brutish and short. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and I think this allows for them to cope with this reality. Or this could be complete crap that I've made up.
My friend Michael and I were sitting in a Subway (on Thanksgiving night no less), and the two girls working there asked us if we wanted a cookie because they had made too many. Mike and I looked at each other with mouths agape; like, this has never happened to either one of us. He asked, "Is this what happens when you're White in the States?" It reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy SNL skit where he goes around town disguised as a White Dude and the bank manager just moves a stack of money toward him and winks, "Go ahead! Just take it!"
Today while visiting a Science Park that my aunt works at, there was a caucasian child that my uncle approached. He asked him, in English, "Where are you from?" and he replied in Chinese that he lived here. He was about 7 or 8 years old; his father was American, his mother was Spanish, and he was here attending school at with the rest of the locals here in Taipei (he was born here). He could speak all three languages. (Dude, that is awesome!) I pointed out to my relatives, that the way they looked at this white kid
(with fascination) is basically the way most people looked me when I was growing up in the States. Except, I was lying; growing up in the States I was sort of a freak. My point being, that here, I really am anonymous, and I think this is what it must be like being White in the States. And it isn't until I am here that I feel that difference. That's basically what is cool about being in Taiwan. Besides the fact that I have, like, a million relatives here that I don't have back home. "Home"...hmm...that's another thing...
I head back to Kaohsiung tomorrow morning, then I leave for Australia the following night. I have an overnight flight from Taipei to Brisbane where I will change planes to go to Cairns.

reburial ceremony in Lukang. about thirteen years ago, this relative died, and recently he was exhumed and his bones were cleaned and dried and placed in a large vase (the light blue one). he was brought to this new grave site (next to his father's grave). this is his new home. the porcelein is better vessel for him (and leak proof). food is brought as an offering. incense and ghost money is burned. feng shui is followed. we bai-bai (prayed) to his memory. this is celebratory event. we had a large banquet at a restaurant afterwards with about 80 friends and relatives.

mom, me, and dad in the hot springs at chihpen.

aboriginal dance for tourists.

sunsetting on the east coast

street cart cooking. corn, shish kebabs, fish, meat, and squid.

Dad and Mom at an overlook on the east coast of Taiwan.

the east coast gets good surf.

this is a traffic jam in Taroko Gorge. the gorge narrows to almost 15 feet in a couple sections. the road is carved into the granite.

a sneak attack photo by Mom. my hair is about as long as it's been since my first days in Bahrain. this is a shrine in Taroko Gorge.

the east side is clear of smog and has great misty mountains and fields of rice.

view from the top of the Lion's Head mountain.

the main temple area at the monastery. no, not garish at all...

a sweaty arrival at the monastery at Shihtoushan.

Week 3 and stuff from before: Taipei to Shihtoushan

Briefly, I ended up leaving Taipei a couple hours after my last blog for a Buddhist monastery in the mountains; that's where I've been for the last couple of weeks.
Actually, I did go to the monastery at Shihtoushan (Lion's Head mountain), via train and bus, about a couple hours south of Taipei. From where the bus dropped me off, I had a fairly steep hike up the mountain with my backpack on, and by the time I got to the monastery, I was soaked. I was hoping that I would be staying in an ascetic dorm for pilgrims, but by the time I got there, I didn't mind that the monastery had hotel accommodations for tourists. I only spent one night there and took the train back to Kaohsiung the next morning. My Dad was back from Hong Kong and he and my mom and I rented a car for the next three days. I got to drive with the rest of the crazed lunatics!
We drove across the island to the east side and visited an prehistoric musem and a hot spring. We also visited Taroko Gorge, a pretty amazing national park on the east coast.
Last weekend we went to Lukang, a historic city in central Taiwan, where I got to witness a ceremony involving the deceased. It would raise eyebrows in the States.

Still in Taipei

I ended up not going to Taroko gorge because it was raining there this week. Earthquake + Rain = mudslides? There were two more earthquakes in the past couple of days. It's like having an earthquake in California; no one stops what they are doing as long as things don't start breaking. We ended up going to the National Palace museum which has the largest collection of Chinese artwork in the world. Why not in Beijing? Because when the Nationalists escaped to Taiwan to flee from the Communist Revolution, they brought these treasures with them. China has asked for this stuff back, but Taiwan has refused, adding that all this stuff would have been destroyed during the Communists' Cultural Revolution where everything "bourgeoise" was destroyed. The Palace Museum was under renovation so the exhibits were much smaller than they would have been. We balanced the sightseeing at the musem during the day with beer and wings at Hooters Taipei. I love that place. The wings are not as good, but it's always a good time. We also visited Tamshui, a port north of Taipei, which left much to be desired. The weather was hot hot hot so we took a bus to the mountains overlooking Taipei, Yangmingshan. We hiked up the steep paths under the jungle canopy. Hot and humid.
Yesterday we headed to Wulai, a place I have already described in the photo. Last night we went to "Snake Alley"; a night market where the main attraction is a few restaurants where they kill snakes to the delight of on-lookers. The crowds were sparse last night, and they didn't kill any while I was there, but there was a video playing of the killing of a snake. There was a live cobra, hooded, being taunted by the salesman. The whole point of this is to get people to come into the restaurant and have a shot of a clear hard liquor with what I guess is the blood or bile of the cobra. They will also cook up the snake into a soup or maybe fried it up. I also saw a turtle dangling on a hook for probably a similar fate. They didn't allow photography so I didn't take any pictures. Sorry. I remember seeing this place when I was in the 4th grade. It's turned into quite the tourist show; much different from before when there were two live mongooses tearing apart a cobra.
Taipei has a nightlife that sort of kicks Manhattan in the butt. This place is packed. It really reminds me of a smaller version of Tokyo. To give you an idea of how crowded this place is: there are 23 million folks in Taiwan in an area just over the size of Maryland and Delaware combined. The population of Taiwan is larger than the state of New York and about four times the size of Maryland and Delaware combined. The statistic I read said it had about 700 folks per square kilometer. There is a word in Mandarin, re-nao, which sort of means "hot and lively". That's what this place is, very re-nao.

is there no wonder why my "ingrish" is not so good? this is a t-shirt i saw. there really is no reason for this kind of bizarre string of english words, yet this phenomenon continues into the 21st century. lots of folks wear coats, sweaters, and shirts that have meaningless logos and words; sometimes, with no recognizable words. i've even seen this on billboard ads and signs. there is an adidas ad campaign here with the motto: "impossible is nothing". i do not know if this is intentional or not.

this is the view while riding up the cable car, gondola-thing. the mountains are covered with a thick jungle canopy. even the steep cliffs.