Fili’s world

"Thai what?" was the question I usually got from the Bangkokians when I told them where I want to go. Trying out "Republic of China" or "you know… that small island next to China" didn’t seem to provide better responses. I think there aren’t too many English speaking foreigners going from Bangkok to Taiwan since finding the ever-annoying updated Lonely-Planet’s Taiwan wasn’t easy and getting a good flight deal was a drag. I actually saved up a couple of thousand bahts on airfare just because a little Dutch Mhoi bird whispered in my ear that Dutch KLM flights to Taiwan stop at Bangkok as I usually got "Oh, yeah, you’re right, they do fly there too. Oh, yeah, it’s 2000-4000 baht cheaper" from at least 3 Khaosan agencies.

Evening and I’m exhausted. It’s been a full day of waiting for the Airport Bus, waiting for the traffic, waiting for the plane, waiting for the landing and waiting for passport control. All in all, I’ve been waiting for almost a whole day and it shows.

Honestly, I was scared. There’s a sensation that I know very well from all the time I got to visit new places, but this time it was even more intense. I knew, and still do, that I know absolutely nothing about Taiwan.

First understanding of what Taiwan is I got at the airport. Seeing all the Chinese around me I remembered one of my best friend’s descriptions of his 3-months Tokyo experience. No English, it’s all Chinese from now on. For some strange unexplainable reason - there are also absolutely no western tourists around. Intimidating, lonely, hopeless, all mixed up together.

Riding the bus I was confronted by the Taiwanese meaning of an Airport Bus to the Main Station. Seeing the Video-on-demand personal screens on my super spacious seat I was realizing how far I’ve come from the Bangkok airport dirt-rag buses in just a few hours. Reliving the Singapore experience I was noticing how clean everything is, how trendy high-tech shick everything looks and how different I am. Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely.

Walking the unfamiliar streets of a new city I was completely lost. Turning my book over and over again, looking at it from all sides, trying to match the small map to the incoherent Chinese street names around me was mission impossible. My back hurting, my soul aching, I needed help. It came soon enough. An old guy that’s been watching me for 2-3 minutes approached and made the small gesture of "what the f*ck’s wrong with you, mate?" with his hands, and I pointed to my book muttering "Happy Family Hostel?" with disbelief. He smiled and dragged me along after him for a few blocks till we arrived at the most horrible building in the area where he stopped and pointed to the second floor. I went up and took a look at this crappy dorm place and thought to my self that if this is what Lonely Planet considered as best value Low range accommodation then I’m in hell. I’m still in a pretty crappy place, called "Happy Family number 2" which is about tenth of the quality I had in Bangkok for twice as much, but I’ll live.

My first night and day on the town were unbelievable. It’s gorgeous, what I expected and much more and all the rumors about the Taiwanese being the friendliest folks in Asia have so far proven to be reality. People smile at me everywhere, offer their good grace and kind help, stop to chat with me while I’m resting in the park and walk me through the obstacles.

My best experience has been in the National History Museum in a huge elegant Japanese building where I arrived late for the 15:00 English tour only to find out that I’m the second guy to request that tour in the past two weeks. V, a cute art-history graduate tour-guide, seemed very eager and cheerful to get the chance to walk me through the place. As she took me through Chinese artifacts and history, which I was fascinated about, we got to know each other more and I could ask her about her life in Taiwan. Hours went by and we chitchatted till closing time. She’s offered to show me around town some more, and together with the night-market I visited and the wonderful peace-park area I couldn’t have asked for a better first day anywhere.