Week #7: Wulai, Yingge and Sanxia

In the past couple of weeks I continued my usual routine of teaching and acting. Prior to last weekend I finally managed to set up a bank account here in Taipei (with the much needed assistance of a translator, provided by my acting employer).  I feel like a real Taipei resident now.

I had a busy weekend sightseeing around Taipei.
On friday, before work I was up early and on the Metro and bus on my way to the nearby aboriginal town of Wulai.

Wulai is famed for it's hotspring's in addition to it's aboriginal culture. While only about one hour on public transport from my apartment, Wulai feels a world away from Taipei. Surrounded by lush, green, tropical forests, flanking either side of a large river, Wulai town is a tourist's delight. The main street sells mostly aboriginal tourist kitsch but also serves up a great selection of local delicacies such as the delicious hot-spring eggs, bamboo steamed rice and local varieties of sausage.

Across the river from the main street was a small tourist train, originally used for logging, now for bringing the many visitors up a small mountain to get a view of Wulai PuBu (waterfall). The pubu was pretty impressive and after catching the view it was a nice walk back into town for a visit to the famous hot-springs.

While Wulai is known for it's hot springs so are a multitude of other small towns and districts in the Taipei area. In fact, taiwan has the second highest concentration of hot springs in the world, being edged out only by Japan.

I hired my own private hot-spring room at one of the many spas that lined the "hot-spring steet".
My room included a hot bath, a cold bath and a cable TV with over 100 channels. For about $6 one could lounge around it the spring water all day but after just 1 hour I was as relaxed as I was going to get and ready to leave.

Tasty goat soup for lunch

After another quick bite to eat I was back on the bus en-route to teaching in the late afternoon.
The following day I went to two other nearby tourist towns of Yingge and Sanxia.

Ceramic pottery is Yingge's claim to fame. Tourist's come from all over to buy or make their own ceramic pieces many also pay visit to the Ceramic Museum. Ceramics aren't really my cup of tea, so to say, but the real highlight of Yingge was a renowned sushi shop selling budget pre-made sushi. It was really good and super cheap.




After some confusion finding the right bus-stop I was aboard the bus to Sanxia.
Sanxia has a popular walking street that features Japanese architecture from the nearly 50 years that Taiwan was a Japanese colony. The old storefront facades were a invited change from the typical architecture seen around Taipei.

Sanxia also has a famous Taoist temple with incredibly intricate carvings throughout it's interior. The carvings were done by a renowned  Taiwanese artist.  Sanxia's temple was the most beautiful religious site I have seen in Taiwan as of yet.  

Praying for more work

As with seemingly every tourist hotspot in Taiwan, Sanxia is not without it's own regional delicacy. "Bullhorn croissants"; a sweet croissant in the shape of it's namesake, are the snack of choice. I had one halved, hollowed-out and used as a tasty ice-cream cone.

The week that has followed my busy weekend has been uneventful.  My acting work was cancelled this week due to a lack of available performers.  That mean another hit to the wallet but I've got my fingers crossed for the receipt lottery draw this Friday.

I signed up with a modelling agency this week and went in to get some photos taken Yesterday (free of charge) so hopefully the sock modelling work will start flowing in. 

A delicious fried fish soup at a nightmarket.

International Sock Model and Trip to Tamsui

Over the past two weeks my life has become pretty normalized and everything has started to fall into place.  I'm working regularly (though still not enough) and I've begun to develop a daily routine.  

When you last heard from me I mentioned that I would be modeling socks on the coming weekend; well, last Sunday I practiced my model poses  and "blue steel" expressions before making my way to the meeting place for the model shoot.   After meeting the man in charge I was driven to a park where I would spend the next three hours putting on and taking off pairs of socks and doing my best impression of a model.   I felt awkward most of the time but I'd happily do it again as it was good and easy money.  To my disappointed they did not offer to let me keep any of the pairs of socks. They did however send me some of the pictures for my "portfolio.

Professionally Good Looking

The week that followed my model shoot was pretty standard.  I did my acting work on Tuesday and Thursday and taught everyday.  I guess my profession is now Model/Actor/Teacher (triple threat).  I'm still actively searching for more work but things are still pretty good right now.

The only other noteworthy thing I did over the past two weeks was a day-trip to the nearby seaside tourist town of Tamsui. When travelling I often forget how much miss the ocean until I see it again.  While Taiwan is a pretty small island and you can never be very far from the ocean, Taipei is inland and I had not seen the ocean since I left home almost 2 months ago.

A-Gei (阿給) : deep fried tofu that has been stuffed with glass noodles and sealed with fish paste (surimi) served with a spicy sauce and Tamsui fish balls (淡水魚丸)

Tamsui is a stop on the Taipei metro rail system making it very easy ad convenient to get to.   The nearby fisherman's wharf was pretty neat and it was a nice short ferry-ride from Tamsui. Tamsui is also known as the home a famous Canadian missionary who established several schools and churches in the area. It also has an old fort that has been used by various colonial power throughout it's history.  Tamsui has a lot of historical buildings to see and lots of local delicacies to sample and I had a great time just being near the ocean for a day.

I'll have to make more trips out of Taipei in the future because as much as I love the city it is nice to escape it for a few hours.  I'm still having a wonderful time here and time has really flown by. The weather has gotten a lot nicer as of late and it has rained a far less and I hope that continues.  I hope I can find some more work in the coming weeks; glove modeling perhaps?

Part of the old Portuguese fort cum British Consulate known locally as "Red Hair Castle"

View from the Fort

On the ferry to fisherman's wharf

Already 1 Month?

My Neighbourhood

Already, 1 month has flown by since I arrived in Taipei. From what I hear from others whom I've met along the way, I've fared pretty well in my month here. The fact that I have accommodation, income and a sizable social circle is no small feat and I guess I've been pretty lucky.

Since the last post I have been up to much of the same as before. I worked as an actor again last Thursday which when equally as well as my previous experience and I completed my first week at my new teaching job.

It has become clear that working 1.5-2.5 hours probably wont be enough to be putting any thing away into savings; however, surprisingly (I've done the math) it will be enough to more than cover my monthly expenses given that I don’t make any extravagant purchases. That said I would like to have more expendable income and have been searching for more work hours. I have an interview on Wednesday for another teaching job that could fill my evening hours. I would rather get a job that has hours earlier in the day but i guess I'll take what I can get at this point.

Nothing much else is new really. I went to see the Avengers on Sunday night in what may have been the largest movie theatre I've ever been in. I also went to a museum and the botanical gardens which were...well, pretty much as one would expect.

One of the interesting things I have yet to mention about Taiwan is the Jeremy Lin obsession. For anyone who has not turned on a TV in the last 6 months, Jeremy Lin is an American born basketball player whose parents happen to be from Taiwan. People here are obsessed with him and I see at least 10 people wearing some form Lin memorabilia every day, it's “Lin-sane”. Nowhere is the Linsanity more evident than in my classroom where the students all have some type of Lin school supplies and go on to no ends about him. I've noticed that the “Lin” surname is one of the most common names here so that may have a little bit of an influence on the popularity of t-shirts sporting the name and number 17 on the back.

Another thing that is noteworthy about Taipei is how safe it is here. There is nowhere in Taipei that you could be in the middle of night that you would feel even slightly threatened. It's not at all uncommon for people to use a phone or a laptop to save their seat in a coffee shop while they buy another coffee or use the washroom.

I have my first modelling job this Sunday modelling socks for a catalouge.  I hope I can get some free socks out of it.  

 Below are some pictures of a big apartment fire in Central Taipei.