Goulet in H.K.

Four months in Taipei marked the longest I had stayed in one place for the past year and a half. I was feeling the strain of travel withdrawal and I knew it was time for a short relapse.

A chance to rendezvous with friends from home in Hong Kong provided the perfect excuse to get away. I booked monday off of work and headed to the airport as soon as I was off on the Friday. The short flight meant I would arrive with plenty of time to get ready for a big night to precede a massive weekend on the town.

I met up with both Gord and Adam at the airport. Gord arrived from Bali where he is currently living while Adam flew in from Bangkok as he nears the end of a Southeast Asia backpacking adventure. We took a taxi to our friend Ally's apartment at which Ally had graciously offered to put us up for the weekend.

I spent the majority of my time in Hong Kong, just as I had planned, getting the most out of Hong Kong's nightlife with my friends. I did manage a small amount of sightseeing during the increasingly short amounts of daylight for which I was awake. Ally was an excellent host and ensured that our Saturday night was not to be a sober one by treating us to a 1.75 L bottle of vodka.

I also got a chance to check out my friend Chris', newly opened Korean reataurant in the heart of Hong Kong.  We gorged on delicious modern Korean food at Jang on Sunday night with Chris before heading out for one last night our in HK together.

After a large tasty meal, which included desert, Adam suggested I attempt a challenge that he had conquered on a prior visit to HK. The challenge was to drink 2 litres of beer in 15 minutes or less, so as to have it free, otherwise face a penalty of more than $40 cad.

Given the large meal I had just eaten, I was apprehensive to take on the challenge but after some convincing from my friends, I finished off the chalice, like a champion, with 7:11 left on the 15 minute timer. Unfortunately, I'll need to shave more than 4 minutes off my time to beat the all-time record.

I was back in Taipei the following evening to get back to teaching on Tuesday.

I went for an interesting walk on the following Saturday afternoon. I stumbled upon an neat artist's commune that I had previously overlooked. The neighbourhood, called Treasure Hill, is home to many artist's studio's and public works of art. It is a pretty cool area, not far from where I live and I'm surprised it took me so long to discover it.





After a stroll around treasure hill I followed a large crowd of people to a gathering at the nearby National Taiwan University. It turned out to be a comic-book convention complete with hundreds of young adults dressed as their favourite Japanese comic book characters.






I'd never seen a comic-convention before and it proved to be quite entertaining.  Even more entertaining than the many scantily costumed girls were the hoards of men with cameras snapping photos.





Just a couple of days ago I visited an art exhibit of an American artist who works entirely with Lego.  I spent a lot of my childhood with those colourful bricks so it was pretty cool to see how someone had made a career for themselves by playing with Lego.  I really enjoyed the exhibit and I am grateful that a friend of mine was able to get us free tickets.

Since the past typhoon the weather has been sunny and great but extremely hot.  I've continued teaching at the same school and acting for the magazines.   The trip to Hong Kong has reawakened my travel-bug somewhat and I'm starting to feel like things are getting a little too routine around here.  Nonetheless, for now, life is good and I'm happy here!

Four Months Flown By

The summer weather here has been great so-far, although possible only because an air-conditioned retreat is never too far off.

I finished up the first month of teaching at the new school with no hassle at all and my class for August is even smaller (just 4 students). It's an easy job and with the supplemental income from the acting job I'm getting by.

I've been active enough on my free afternoons. One day I took a short trip to an are of Taipei I had not previously visited. The neighbourhood's main feature is a major shopping center, similar to Vancouver's Metrotown, that has hundreds of stores, restaurants, an I-max movie theatre and a massive Ferris wheel that has become a major symbol of Taipei tourism.

I chose not to take a ride in one of the slowly circulating glass greenhouses in the midst of 36 degree heat.

Last Sunday I took the train-to-bus journey to the scenic, coastal, hillside town of Jiufen.

Jiufen, an extremely popular destination for Japanese tourists, is known for its narrow cobbled streets and traditional foods.

The ambiance of the streets, alone, was worth the visit but the foods were the real highlight. Cold tapioca and sweet potato ball soup made for a refreshing treat while sweetened boar meatballs wrapped in sticky rice jelly settled my carnivorous cravings. Sticky sweet and savory balls made from mung-bean paste were another delicious delight as was a delicious peanut shaving, ice-cream and cilantro pancake wrap.


The scenic ocean views from the hillside were breathtaking and were it not for some rain showers should have made for spectacular photos.

A small nostalgia museum did make for a few fun, yet cheesy, photos and Jiufen made for a fun and memorable little day-trip.

I expected to be doing a bit more sightseeing as of late but seeing as we have finally had an internet connection installed in our apartment I have been wasting a great deal more time getting caught up on movies and TV shows.

The primary motivation for having the internet set up was that one of my roommates was moving out and saw it as an added incentive for a new tenant to takeover his rental agreement.

I suppose the incentive was good enough as we have now said farewell to my former roommate, Mike and he has been replaced by a student who is here studying Chinese.

A couple months ago I wrote about my desire to feel the force of a full-blown typhoon. Well, I'm getting what I asked for at this moment as Typhoon Saola thrashes at my windows. The typhoon has produced a "typhoon-day" akin to a Canadian snow-days, wished for by school age children and their teachers alike.

So, I've got the day off tomorrow but in-light of the heavy rain and wind that the typhoon brings I'll likely spend the day at home.

The typhoon is expected to pass by Friday, just in time for a weekend that I'm eagerly anticipating. The coming weekend will have me making the short hop to Hong Kong to hangout with my friends Adam, Gord, Chris and Ally. I'm looking forward the having some drinks with old friends.

The only other news I have is that I'm in four different magazines this month and probably just as many for next month.  Additionally, some of the photos from my sock modelling gig are online now and can be found here.

One of the latest vids: