By the time anyone in the States reads this, I’ll be in Hong Kong as this morning was our last in Taiwan. I’m going to make this post short and sweet and share some amazing signs and posters I have come across in the last 20 days. They are all pretty ridiculous. I mean seriously…how hard would it be to consult one English speaking person before putting some of these up? Oh and the baby above is asking you a question! So am I?

Snake Blood. Snake Bile. Snake Venom. Snake Penis. Ginseng. Home Medicine. Story, more pics and video to come tomorrow, I need to pack and get some rest before Hong Kong. But just in case I die in my sleep, you will know why.

Update:

Ok. I know reading the content above sounds crazy but right in line with me being me. Let me start with this…As mentioned before, Three Sheets is one of my favorite shows. During the episode in Taipei, Zane (the host) goes to the Taipei Night Market in Snake Alley, in which he drinks all of these tasty beverages. The market consisting of street vendors selling everything from seafood, to snakes, to sexual products, to child toys. As per the usual I was fueled by competition and we played a few of the street games (I won a “CHLP ‘n Dale” stuffed animal, not to be confused the Disney character “Chip ‘n Dale”). Here is a video so you can understand the atmosphere a little more.

Now being a little bit courageous and a little bit nuts J and I decided we needed to give the “Snake Drinks” a go. This being one of about four restaurants that we saw selling this poison, we sat down and didn’t look back. It just so happened to be the same place Zane and his crew stopped in (last photo in the gallery below). In this video, we take shoots of infused 116 proof Taiwanese liquor, better known as 58. Four snake infused drinks…blood, bile, venom and of course penis. Two other shots of “home medicine” and infused ginseng followed. All of which are suppose to straighten different areas of your body… Now this video isn’t for the faint of heart and we both almost lose it during the drinks… So please don’t say I didn’t warn you… Worst idea ever? Yes. But you only live once, right?

JG this one goes out to you.

With it being out last full day in Taipei and in Taiwan as a whole, I thought it was about time to get out and see what else was going on in this city…. And it turned out to be one of the busiest days I have had here. The day was spent at the Taiwan Beer Brewery, Taipei 101 and finishing up in the Snake Alley Night Market…

First I need to give a shout out to my shoebuddy, Ms. Angela, for the tip on the Taiwan Beer Brewery… But I’m not sure this was how the tour was suppose to be… We arrived around 3pm by cab and kind of just let ourselves in. No real signs posted about any brewery tours, or even that we were in the right location. With Taiwan Beer being owned by the government, the only logos we saw were that of the TTL (Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor) and a bunch empty bottles… We soon found a person in an office that agreed to try and help us. He took us back to where we walked in, and went up to the Director of the brewery’s office. He came back 5 minutes later and said he got someone to give us a tour (BTW this guy helping us didn’t work for the brewery, he worked in sales for the TTL) but the only problem with the new guy that was going to give a private tour, he didn’t speak English. So the gentleman that was helping us before agreed to join us on the tour as well… During which we walk through what looks like were they give normal tours, but there really isn’t much to see besides the actual plant. In past brewery tours I’ve been on, there is so much marketing going on, you are so overwhelmed and put off. This trip had just a few posters and a lot of dark wet hallways instead. At the “end” of the tour in the brewery control room, we actually got some free beer that was as fresh as can be and by some I mean a lot for the four of us drinking it… At this point we had another worker stop in that could actually speak English and was one of the nicest ladies in the world. Of course I asked if I could have the glass I was drinking from as a souvenir, I even offered to pay (I usually steal them from bars/pubs around the world) so this was something new for me. But she actually gave me 6 brand new taster glasses for free because she couldn’t believe I actually wanted to keep one. “This ugly thing….we have a better glass you can see later”……and then she put in call to the main office, all in Taiwanese. As we finished our beers in the “heart of the brewery” we were lead out by “Vicki” back to the front gates where we were met with a gift bag filled with 6 more pint glasses, again for free…Speechless.

The people here have been unbelievable…  So beyond helpful and nice… And I can do is say thank you… It’s been a real refreshing trip in Taiwan, sure things don’t always go your way (maybe about 15% of the time actually) but that’s part of traveling… Two countries down and there isn’t really anything I bad I can say about the people and the experience thus far… [knocks on wood]…

Enjoy the pics of Taipei 101… and Part 2 of the day… Snakes.

So this picture is pretty much life right now…. What’s really funny about this image is that the eatable items are green. Growing up everything was white and plain. Slowly I have come around to a lot of new foods, but never as much as I have in the past month. Even during my last tour through Asia I stayed beyond picky… No mushrooms, no condiments and god save the person that put onions on my food…

For some reason… maybe I’m growing up… but this time around everything has color and isn’t to bad either. I have had more mustard in the past 7 days than I have had in my entire life. I have also tried so many new things, just to try them. Granted, some things are terrible…But the thing is, I like this, I’m glad I’m finally coming around to some amazing new food. Oh and those peas in that picture up there… Amazing.

The morning started early in Taichung as it was again time to move on. Today we headed to our final stop in Taiwan, back to the capital city of Taipei. With it being Saturday we actually took a little time to ourselves to venture out for lunch instead of the normal noodles or sandwich from a cafe. These are some pics from around the business district of Taipei and they include a dog with a very interesting hair cut, possibly the greatest logo of all time and some sort of protest. Again, it being Saturday, our last in Taiwan, we took it to the streets. 600NT club visit for all you can drink till 4am. Being two of the four white people in a large club, lets just say we stuck out. But the funny thing is everyone wants to be your best friend and take photos with you…

Taichung will be home for a few days as we make our way up to Taipei. Taichung meaning “Central Taiwan” is located in west-central Taiwan with a population of just over one million people, making it the third largest city on the island, after Taipei and our old home Kaohsiung.

The bus ride was amazing… Big comfy massaging chairs that had everything you could ever need…yes I’m playing NES games in that photo. I never wanted to leave. Unfortunately the ride was only 2 hours. However arriving somewhere you have never been before and not being able to speak the language is always fun, especially when you don’t have a place to stay and its 8pm. Always an adventure. After finding our barrings and a place to stay, we were off into the night to see what Taichung had to offer.

Bowling again ensued. During which a beer frame was won by Ally and myself, Jakob obliged on the walk home. Trying to order a mix drink and getting ice cream, priceless.

I’ve spent this entire next day (20th) in a cafe working… its around 11pm and I don’t think I have moved in a good 6 hours. I need to go pee and get some rest.

P.S. Check out my rad styrofoam house shoes…

Today marks one month. Not much has changed. The travel beard is gone (after 3 weeks in the making). My hair is a little longer (not cutting it till July). I have more bug bites than I can count. I have slept on floors, chairs, buses, planes, couches, beds, trains and even in a few long cab rides. 4 countries, 3 language changes and the start of one blog network later, I’d say I’m doing alright.

During a chat with a friend yesterday before my journey to Taichung (travel story to follow this post), I was asked if I was home sick yet… It got me thinking about a lot of things. As I mentioned in a few posts back, I had a moment that brought on feelings of home and this past summer during the Kaohsiung Lantern Festival, but nothing really to make me “home sick”. Now don’t get me wrong here, I do miss the people back home and I even miss the city of Portland a little bit too. But thinking back to 2002, I  have literally been on the move for seven years now. From college, to London, to SF and back to Portland, so the fact that I’m still on the go isn’t much of a change. I’m still learning. I’m still growing (seriously, I think I’m 1/2 inch taller than I was last year). I’m still the same Ol’ G. So to answer the question, no and I don’t see myself getting home sick at all during this project… I have the next 7 months planned out for me with some major goals to achieve. It’s fun a fun ride this far and I’m excited for what’s next.

Thanks to everyone that has been keeping in touch with me via, FB, AIM, Skype, eMail & this site, it’s keeping me motivated…. Keep the love coming.

Enjoy this video. Yes I know it sounds like an ice cream truck is coming, I too got very excited… But NO, its the damn Kaohsiung recycling truck instead and this sound never goes off….all day/all night. Haha… Today is another travel day as we are saying our goodbyes to Kaohsiung and moving up the west coast.

The internet was down at my favorite cafe yesterday, so I took that as my opportunity to get out and take some snapshots during the daylight. Here are a few from around Kaohsiung’s parks and food carts as well of our current home (The 85 Tower). The first picture below really reminded me of a logo Alfredo designed for Numonyx.

That photo right there is one of the best meals I have ever had and it came from a juice stand. Let me explain… Every night we walk around until something looks really eatable. Tonight we stopped at tea stand to just see if they also served food, the place looked clean and was filled with locals so we gave it a try. The first thing out of the lady’s mouth was, NO BEER. Ha… That was the only English she knew… Somehow after many words and drawings we were able to order chicken and rice with the help of her daughter… But the thing was, they don’t normally serve food there… We are guessing they went upstairs to their house and made us this amazing feast… for less than two dollars. At this point I didn’t think the night could get any better… Then we found a bowling alley…on the second floor of a building… Now I hadn’t been bowling in quite some time.. and it took a few games to shake the rust off. But it was all about the shoes, look at those things… After a sub-par series and three losses it was time to show off my pop-a-shot skills setting the high score four games in a row. The night once again ended with a night cap and me behind a bar serving drinks. Guess I just miss working at the Cabin…

We also took the time to learn our numbers 0-10 in Chinese… So the night was actually very productive.