Travel to the South-East Asia: Hong-Kong and Taiwan
31 January, 2004
Part 2. Hello, Taiwan!
Early rise, breakfast at the hotel - regular, European, tasty enough. On seeing us at the table, a merry Chinese waitress is racing somewhere skippingly. She then brings the bill and smiling charmingly is handing it over to us, we are trying to explain that all has been paid for, but fail to come to a consensus. We pull out our guest cards, she is slightly aggravated and is explaining something to us in a Chinese-English mix. We hardly understand that she is giving us a 40% discount for the breakfast. We are lazy to argue (we were terrifically sleepy - over here it is 7 am, while in Moscow it is 2 am). Anyway, it's time to leave, we pay and leave the restaurant - she comes up with us by the lift and returns all the money back, still spluttering something, thinking that she explains all in a good English language - funny.
Here is the taxi. The porter explains the taxi driver where to drive us - looks like the word "airport" is clear enough, but nevertheless the explanation is long and detailed-))
Again we are riding through a ripping tunnel, over those incredible bridges, looking at the branches of skyscrapers... The city is snorting, in many ways a city of the 22nd century, although ancient China is peering-))
Three-tiered crossovers of Hong-Kong airport...
Winter, last day of January - a farewell to Hong-Kong.I was amazed by the mandarin trees growing everywhere. They told us later that strawberry and mandarins are winter fruits!
The boss is hurrying outside to smoke again and again before the journey although it's not long - merely 1 hour 35 minutes, the bus-like planes travel to Taipei and back every hour.
Motto of the day:
"An hour without smoking - flight from Hong-Kong to Taipei without a cigarette!"
A smoke-break before the flight. I am sitting and watching the takeoff strip, the Pacific, the planes ... I did like the Drakon Air, a Chinese air company, with a huge red dragon depicted on the fuselage rear of every plane.
A small plane by Ketti air company - looks like an Icarus passenger bus.On the plane, we are served with breakfast sort of McDonald's big Macs - awful muck, much worse that that served at Aeroflot planes. At the same time, high-tech is where it should be - monitor displays at every chair back, earphones, lots of TV programs, the chairs themselves are simply a miracle of convenience...
Maybe the European food is the top of pageantry for Chinese? I don't want that luxury - give me something different! They also serve fruits, that's another pair of shoes! Although we don't know the names, the taste is superb.
The flight is not long at all, we had a snack, and .. here we are in Taiwan.
I am looking at the Taiwan island from above - there are lots of neat little ponds, they collect water for irrigation and storage (salty water is everywhere), all the houses are mainly low - the island frequently suffers from earthquakes.
The landing - Taipei airport is no match to that in Hong-Kong, it is smaller, but no smaller than ours, Domodedovo.
Chang Kai Shi airport - 31 January 2004 - winter, the sun is shining, +17 C in the shade.
We pick up our suitcases, walk through all the check-ups, taking off the hat traditionally -)))
There are two types of taxi standing on both sides - the first row is red, the other one yellow. I choose the yellow, we are trying to get in - Andrey is holding out the address note to the driver who grabs the card, splutters something and rushes to the dispatcher who then directs us to a red taxi. In so doing, the dispatcher is explaining something to the taxi driver at length, although we have the hotel's card on hands where all is told in details, even with Chinese hieroglyphs. As we found out later, neither card nor note help dealing with taxi drivers. The only option left is oral explanation, so on leaving the hotel the porter gave all the instructions to the taxi driver, but more often we called those whom we were to meet for talks, then handed the receiver over to the driver... then we listened to a long Chinese talk, and finally he drove us to the place we requested.
What a scorcher that taxi-driver was! He was overtaking all, changed driving lanes every minute, and was rushing like a madman. Poor boss who has a horror of fast driving and yells "Slower!" all the time just turned mad and was bellowing all the way, but was unable to explain anything to the scorcher - he does speak English at all.
In the end, breathing freely on getting out of the taxi by the hotel he forgot completely about his favorite hat that he had put under the glass at the seat back, and .. the taxi rushed off at the same crazy speed, leaving us deeply upset..
On the way, frozen on the seats with both hands to secure against the rough maneuvers of the driver, Andrey anyway contrived to show me the sights ... and even take pictures of them.
The palace that Chang Kai Shi gifted to his wife is impressive...Our hotel - Agora Garden - is simply magnificent.
The front door to the hotel
The New Year illumination of the hotel stays there for almost a year round...
| A surveying digression - forgive the thoroughness -)
When I was back in Moscow, I went deep into all the encyclopedias trying to figure out - what sort of Agora garden was that? There were two options found:
- Agora means "bazaar" in Greek, but the meaning is deeper - in the antique times Agora was not only a city market square, but also its political, cultural and religious center. Maybe it was a garden of that very Agora?
- but that may have been Gera, a goddess and wife of Zeus the Thunderer, who was given a magic apple tree as a wedding gift to keep her perennial youth and health with its fruits.
The second option seems more probable to me since the rearward part of the hotel is called Paris Garden - I hope it's known to many that "gardens of earthy pleasures, gardens of love" are meant, where Paris awarded an apple of discord.
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In our hotel, all the apartments are de luxe suites, two-roomed and, most importantly, connected to Internet.
Having dropped our things, we first thing logged on to the net (of course, Andrey brought his notebook) - looked how 3DNews was going on without out tender guidance. It's 10 am in Moscow, and Pavel Alashkin calmed us down that all was going well.
Then we, Internet addicts badly yearning for the net for almost two days, chatted in turn from Andrey's ICQ with all our numerous friends and partners, signing all the time if it was Andrey or Sasha, since our manner of communication is different, and the briefness of the boss makes quite a difference from my extended messages, so it didn't make sense aggravating our regular chat partners with my abrupt dryness or surprising those who are used to Andrey's conciseness of replies:-)))
We also received emails confirming the dates for our meetings for the nearest coming days. I made corrections to the calendar of appointments for 5 days compiled while in Moscow and rushed out to look around the hotel's neighborhood because here like in all southern countries it gets dark quite early.
Andrey wanted to show me some sights before it gets dark, and when we got to the hotel and unpacked our things it was already 5 pm.
A huge one-stop department store where you can buy virtually anything -three very long buildings linked with crossovers.
The center, also called "moll".All in all, we are not used to such thing like a moll. It is an aggregation of trading, spectacular areas and catering establishments. You can spend a whole day over here - shopping, cafe, restaurants, cinema center and lots of other attractions.. simply impossible to list all what is there in here. Families with little kids come here for a whole day and spend it getting bright and varied experiences. Of course, such amusement will not suit to all - personally, I would have got bored in a couple of hours, but I realize many people find the place very interesting and rejoicing. Young Taiwanese who drive around the city on scooters (motorcycles and petrol is too expensive for them) come here to have some fun after work or studies.
On one of the lower floors of the moll, there is "a food house" - a huge premises with lots of cafe show-cases where you can buy the food from all the world's countries and eat it up right here sitting at the tables disposed over the endless hall.
We quickly ordered a lunch at 150 Taiwanese dollars (amusingly, the Taiwanese dollar is almost equal to the ruble, so it's easy to count) made up of soup, salad, tea. The soup was in a big enough plate with noodles and lots of gifts of the sea, so neither Andrey nor I were able to eat it up although it was absolutely tasty and we felt hollow after the flight.
An ocean of mopeds and scooters.All over the city there are lots of scooters and young people with books, copy-books and notebook PCs. They all study - there's the impression that all the youth study - in the cafe, in the streets, underground - everywhere. The difference in living standards between the company professional worker who speaks English and the ordinary Chinese is immense. acquired All want to have a life of dignity and invest lots of efforts for that - very impressive, and you understand why they are progressing so fast. We haven't seen neither drunkard nor drug addict anywhere - I understand it's there in remote districts, but there were NO ONE dilapidated, disorderly young Chinese wherever I was. Frankly, it is enviable.
New Year holidays are still on.
Elegantly dressed streets.Our hotel is located in the district of the new Down Town, a busy city center. Office buildings, banks, expo complex (it's within short walking distance from the hotel where journalists are usually put up during Computex) - all is new, impressive, rich and nice.
New Year tree.
Local "Yukos" - a tower of the Taiwanese oil company.
Almost built symbol of the developing Taiwan - the highest tower in the South-East Asia.Construction of this skyscraper building in the form of a banana palm tree was launched two years ago, which is to complete by November 2004. Unfortunately, the observation platform still won't be complete by June's Computex, and the boss won't bring any photos taken from the very top. For now, the highest if the tower in Hong-Kong, but in Taiwan they are proud that theirs is going to be higher. The tower is seen from great distance, even from the airport which takes 40 minutes drive to get.
But for today sightseeing is over, at 7 o'clock we are to meet Jean-Pierre and May - from our Taiwanese advertising agency IT Mediagate, as well as to see HER - the famous Peking-style duck.
The duck is already on the table with lots of hors-d'oeuvres.That is a family-run restaurant, the wife is in the kitchen, the householder is doing the most important part - cutting the duck, the daughter is a waiter, the son.. and two more people streaking by.
The householder - a restaurant owner - is at work.There are only two halls; the one we were in had merely 7 tables. Each table is taken by a Chinese family with a lot of little kids, and then a ritual starts.
That is a whole procedure - lots of small dishes with snacks are served - vegetables, herbs, almost all is spicy but tasty. Then the householder rolls out a small table and cuts the duck in thin slices, having cut loose the skin in advance. The dish is put on the table, and blintzes sort of pita is served. You take a blintz, put a slice of duck skin on it, soak it in sauce, wrap it up in a roll and .. gulp in now time. Really tasty.
The duck is already on the table with lots of hors-d'oeuvres. Then they serve the neck and the backbone, or bouillon is brewed of all that (the thing they brew it in looks like a Russian samovar), which is also served on the table.
the Chinese "samovar".Andrey and I felt greed on seeing all that abundance and overate in 10 minutes, so could hardly taste what they were serving as appetizers to the duck again and again.
The restaurant is very well-known in the city, so have to book a table in advance. As many as 40 ducks are eaten during an evening over here - a whole flock. The place is very cozy, home-like curtains on windows, the clients help themselves to the beverages they want - juices and water from the refrigerator. At the same time, it is a well run albeit small enterprise - there is a smaller hall for VIP servicing. I adore well-established business, especially family-owned.
They say the householder was several times offered to sell the well-developed restaurant, but he refused to give up the family business point-blank - the Down Town is 200 meters away, so there's no end of visitors.
Jean-Pierre, a big, calm and hasteless man who comes from Switzerland, and May is Chinese, local but absolutely non-typical - she is full of spurting energy, she can hardly sit calmly for a long time, running, bobbing up and down all the way.
We three with Jean-Pierre drank a big bottle of "sake" but weren't rocked at all - a weak warm booze. May didn't drink at all: as they explained me later, alcohol is homicidal to Chinese ladies because they almost never take strong drinks - after a tiny cup of sake the girl is already deadly drunk.
May and I made friends despite my complete inaptitude of talking English. Andrey went out for a smoke-break, and Jean-Pierre was bewitched while watching May and me socializing lively using gestures and some English words, discussing my boss -)))
She simply asked me if my boss is good to me, if we are friends. And I said to her that it was not bad indeed, the boss is good and we normally are on friendly terms, but sometimes disputes nearly end up in fighting (which is absolutely true!)
The guys were simply shocked to know that we've been working for 5 years already, and later we figured out why - it's normal over here switching jobs frequently (funny to realize - a new job calls for a new wave of patriotism to the new company).
May adores all to do with horoscopes and immediately put forward a vast "scientific" theory saying we've worked for so long together because I am a Capricorn, and Andrey is a Leo, which means opposite signs gravitate to one another etc.. Entertaining. Meticulous May was inquiring me at length about all I do, my duties, then gasped with surprise and leeched to the boos with the question what my MAIN job was. There was a long explanation, narration and then Andrey finally enunciate is like this: "Alexa is my notebook PC!" (very funny - I even noted that down to remember)
The duck has been eaten, the acquaintance is made.The last day of January was very long and replete with impressions (Hong-Kong, Taiwan, flight, duck-))), and on return to the hotel apartment, recalling the sake with disgust we drank "to the arrival, I had some whiskey, Andrey - tequila to refresh himself... and fell asleep like a log. I hardly switched on the alarm clock in my mobile phone to be in due time for the pre-paid breakfast-))
P.S. That was Day Two. Continuation to follow in Part 3...
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