The day started early as I stepped out onto the unexpectedly quiet, but already warm, humid street to catch a taxi to the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung. The train, mercifully comfortable and cool, sped the 300km south to Taiwan's second largest city in 96 minutes, (that's about 200km per hour), depositing me in the city just in time to be whisked away to my first government meeting with the Director of Social Welfare for the County of Kaohsiung.As I sat, sipping oolong tea, I found myself in an exercise of patience and frustration control: I understood not a single word that was spoken and smiling when everyone else laughed, or when the Director smiled at me, seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Apparently it was a good meeting!
Despite there being 22M people in a country only 400km long and 120km wide, the streets were unexpectedly quiet. Except for the constant bee hive like sound of hundreds of motor scooters buzzing and dodging cars, trucks and busses it appeared organised - if that's possibile in amidst the organised chaos. But, by the evening the streets came awake, street stalls appeared and people seemed to morph out of the shadows and fill the street side restaraunts.
After another drive north to Tainan, and a meeting with the Corps Officers, we headed for Cijin, apparently famous for it's seafood restaurants, and lucky me, (B&P I tried the, "I don't eat fish line") I got to choose my menu from the tanks and ice racks. Seaweed soup, sour gourd, bugs, crabs, snails, frogs, prawns and rice, all washed down with sweet, cold green tea. I did enjoy some of it!
So now it's back to tonights base. A room in a Buddhist Aged Care facility in Kaohsiung. It's been a day of culture, gastronomic and linguistic shock! But for now, I join Captain Julian Wong (Singapore) and Captain Jonah Wu (Taiwan) - before Julian leaves me on Thursday to begin his trip home.
Tomorrow? I'll wait and see.
