Trip to Asialand.

BOOYAH!
Hey guys. As most of you know, I’ve been in Asianistan for the last 2 weeks because of spring break, visiting relatives, and just because I was given the chance to go back to my Mothaland. Y’know, Taiwanese people’s mothaland. Take a guess.
…
If you haven’t gotten it by now, let me give you a hint.
Taiwan, you twat.
So since I haven’t done a normal blog in a while, I said, “what the hell? I’ve got nothing better to do in my hotel room other than shoot blanks and write a blog, and I’ve already done the former.” On a side note, I just tried to drink my yogurt drink with the cap on. Fucking hell.

Taiwan; the island nation below Japan and the Koreas that not a lot of people have heard of.

So, if you didn’t know, Taiwan is an island nation south-west of Japan.

Sorry the image quality is shit.

Now that that’s out of the way, Taiwan is pretty much an extension of China, except we speak Chinese differently, as well as our own language of Taiwanese. We like to think of ourselves as our own country, because for the most part we are. We have our own prime minister, government, economy, etc. It’s just that we are still tied to China somewhat, except we aren’t a communistic country. Officially, Taiwan is the “people’s republic of China”.

The city itself.

So. Taiwan. I’m living in the capital city of Taiwan, which is Taipei. It’s the busiest city on the whole damn island, and the population is roughly 9.3 million, in one fucking city. That’s a lot of Asians. Taipei is full of buildings, busy streets, and a LOT of 7-11s, fast food places, and Asian restaurants. Seriously, there are at least 4 7-11s within a 10 minute walking distance of the hotel i’m staying at. Also, during the 7~12 PM time frame, the streets become a can of sardines, and it’s basically like boxing day at the mall (or Black Friday for you devious foreigners).

Currency

The Taiwanese currency is called the New Taiwanese Dollar, or NT for short. Currently, 30NT is worth approximately 1 American/Canadian dollar. As well, people in Taiwan make significantly less than people in Canada and the US. That being said, everything here is dirt cheap.
A Big Mac from McDonalds which costs like, 4~5 dollars in Canadian/American, costs 45NT, roughly a buck and a half. Sooo cheap. Today, I got a burger, 2 meat buns, a 580 mL yogurt drink, and a 591 mL bottle of root beer for approximately 124 NT, which is like 4 dollars. Fuckin’ crazy huh?

Transportation

So, being a very large city, Taipei has a very large transportation network. The MRT, or Metro Rapid Transportation system. It’s basically a system of sky-trains that go throughout the entire city with convenient maps on the trains, the stops, and pretty much everywhere. It’s very easy to get around, and you’re never worried about getting home. As well, they have buses that can get you anywhere you want, but their maps aren’t quite as friendly as the MRT ones. For one, I can’t read Chinese, and the MRT has everything in English as well as Chinese, so i’m pretty much fucked in that aspect. Another thing is that they don’t always have maps on the bus stops, so that’s pretty annoying to people.

Something different that Taiwan has that other countries don’t have is the use of a card specifically for using the public transportation. It’s called a yo-yo card, and you load money on to it to access public transportation. How it works is that you take your card, load it up with like, 100$ or something. Then you hold the card in front of a scanner, and it takes money away from the card, and lets you through. It’s quite efficient, and pretty much everyone uses it.

Food

Food is one of the main draws that bring people to Taiwan. Everything, as said before, is dirt cheap, and tastes awesome. There are traditional Asian food places that serve things like hotpot, noodles, rice, all you can eat stuff, etc. If that’s not your thing, no problem. There’s Italian food, Japanese food, Korean food, North American food, and a lot of variety that will please any one. If you’re too white for any of that stuff though, there’s always the 7-11s with their frozen burgers, rice balls, ready to go lunches, etc. The food in Taiwan is just kickass.

Mmmmmm.

Sights to see.

There are also lots of sights to be seen, like the Beitou hot springs. They’re huge hot springs up the side of an inactive volcano that are always at boiling temperature, around 100 degrees Celcius and higher (raise your hand if you’re in a country that uses that system of measurement!). I went there yesterday with my mom and her old middle school friends. My mom is 52, so think about that for a second. It was so weird, because they just kept talking and laughing like they were still 13, but you could hear them getting tired as we climbed up the mountain. As well, one of them kept calling my mom a spicy woman back in the day, which just made me shudder like a Butterfree.
As well, there’s the world’s second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. You can ride the elevators that go 150 km/h up to the very top and look down at the city through the holes of 12 feet tall poles put in place for obvious reasons. It’s really quite breath taking view, and if you ever go to Taiwan, I highly recommend it.

The People

So the people in Taiwan are either one of four things.
1. Skinny and beautiful. 45% of the population.
2. Skinny and NOT beautiful. 35% of the population.
3. Not skinny, and NOT beautiful. 19.99% of the population.
4. Not skinny, but beautiful. 0.01% of the population (just me. 8D)
Seriously though, there are no sexy fat people in Taiwan, but I guess that’s a matter of taste.
As for the people in category 1, almost half the people in Taiwan look like this:
, or
Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the people here are so attractive, it’s ridiculous.

As well, I don’t know why, but every time i’m walking through the streets, I always see guys hanging out in the doorway of various restaurants and stores, leaning on the sides of the door, smoking a cigarette, staring off in to the distance with some kind of smirk, or angry face. It’s like a cross between these two guys.
and

Well, maybe not, but it’s pretty damn close.

Anyway, my fingers are tired from typing and stuff, so I guess i’ll stop writing now.
Buhbye!

Crim