I don’t think I could have asked for any better way to spend the first few hours of my 29th birthday. Standing at the Martyrs Shrine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan looking out over a spectacular night view I had to laugh. Beside me my new friend Molly (in Taiwan everyone seems to have a Westernized nickname) looked up and asked why I was laughing. Her innocent question only made my smile get bigger and my laugh get harder. Here I was in the middle of Taiwan celebrating a birthday with someone I had met just a few hours ago at a famous landmark with a breathtaking scene before me, how could I not laugh with joy. And it had all started with a nasty little hangover…
Remember that shave I mentioned in my last post? Well, it was the beginning of an evening that would become, how can I put it, legendary (yes that is a ‘How I met your mother reference).
Some of my new friends in Kaohsiung had mentioned that they were headed to a popular club for a bit of drinking and dancing that night and, though I was initially hesitant, I finally gave in with a ‘why not?’ After all, how many chances do you really have to have an experience like that in the relative safety of the company of your friends?
The club, called Dreams, was just as its name implied. I won’t go into details of what went on but let me tell you I will never forget that place. Clubs in the West are one thing but clubs in Southeast Asia are a whole other world. It was all you can drink for $500 (about $18US) and we had come on bikini night…and no, it wasn’t one of ‘those’ clubs. Just a normal place, if you could call it that.
So, skipping ahead a couple of hours ‘till 4:30am when the place closed…
The group of us, which had grown from 3 people to 5 (me, Aaron, Blake and an Irish couple from the hostel) had a hankering for some breakfast so like hungry people without an idea of where to go we engaged the assistance of some locals. It took a few minutes of trying to get them to understand what we were looking for but not speaking a word of English they finally resorted to pen and paper and when that failed we just hopped on the back of their scooters. After a second of stunned silence they laughed and jetted off down the street with us hanging on tightly to the back. Where exactly we were being taken no one knew but we were having fun.
Now, anywhere else in the world this might have been a really bad idea, but Taiwan is one of those places where the people are friendly and open enough to take something like that in stride and run with it. Lucky for us…
We ended up at a small place just a few blocks away but opted instead to grab some grub from the Family Mart (convenience store) just across the street. That turned out to be a bad idea, not because of the food but because we were with Irish people in a country where it is legal to drink outside.
It was about 8am when our taxi finally pulled up at the hostel and I was ready to call it a night, or rather morning. By the time I regained consciousness it was 2:30pm and most of the day was already gone.
Now many of you out there might be shaking your head or stunned that I would ‘waste’ time by having a night out on the town in a foreign city when I should be getting my rest and doing some proper exploring. Well, I’ve lived in Southeast Asia for 6 years and to be honest, much of it looks the same. Temples might be in different colors and have different statues but they are still temples. I have come to love experiencing the people of a place and the only way to do that is to get in the thick of things with them, and sometimes that means having (quite) a few drinks.
My head was hurting but not from a hangover. I was tired, real tired, but ready to go out and get some sightseeing done, albeit in a reduced form to respect my abused body.
I stepped out of my hostel and quickly slapped a thick lather of sun block over all the exposed parts of my body. Kaohsiung is hot, real hot, and sunny as well. I had no desire for my delicate skin to be burned lobster red. The heat did nothing to help my condition but there was no way I was going to let this day be completely wasted.
My wanderings took me to Pier 2, a place located conveniently near my hostel. There were no signs to explain where I was or the nature of the area but as I moved forward something of an idea began to penetrate the fog of my mind.
Suddenly odd human shaped sculptures began to pop up along the sides of he neatly trimmed sidewalk that I was walking on. Graffiti made itself know on the sides of buildings in well thought out murals. The whole atmosphere of the place began to scream…well, artsy.
I found myself standing in front of a warehouse like building where a steady stream of people seemed to be coming in and going out. Beside it was a small sign that proclaimed, ‘Kurt Wenner something something something something (Chinese characters).’ ‘Kurt Wenner, who’s that?’ I wondered. A young lady standing out front noticed my puzzled look and beckoned me inside.
There I was stunned by another bit of chance. Apparently Kurt Wenner is a famous artist who specialized in 3D images drawn out in chalk on concrete and I had stumbled into one of his exhibitions.
‘Wow,’ was pretty much the only thought that could work its way through my muddled mind. As the young lady who had lead me in and her friend tried to explain things about the art we gradually fell into a more friendly exchange and before I knew it I was making plans to meet one of them later that night, Molly. It would have been the three of us but her friend, Te, had other plans.
With a wave goodbye I headed back to the hostel for some much needed rest before our next meeting at 8pm.
…
It was actually around 11pm when we arrived at the Martyrs Shrine on her scooter, zooming up a mountain around tight winding roads and through a thin mist, all while I hung on tightly to the back. We had spent the last few hours talking about a heck of a lot of things. It was fascinating the differences in culture and thinking that made itself known as our conversation wandered about. I wanted to learn more about Taiwanese people and I was definitely taking advantage of the situation (but not in that way 
)
We sat on the base of a marble gate munching away at our food sipping on some sort of sweet rice drink (kind of like a milkshake but way different). In front of us lay the whole city illuminated with white orange lights and bathed in the pink glow of pollution. It was a stunning scene and judging by the number of people around us, very popular, even at 3am when Molly and I finally left (still only conversation).
The hot air of the afternoon had changed to a cool breeze that felt just perfect on your skin. Around us the sounds of other conversations, birds, and insects hummed. The evening felt alive with a tingling energy that couldn’t be denied. Even with the remains of a night of drinking left in my system I was filled with an excitement, for what I don’t know, but for something.
The early morning air whipped past my face sending an invigorating chill through my body as we sped through the city back to my hostel. I almost couldn’t believe what had happened in the last couple days, the last couple months, the last year… Life had taken me to some pretty strange places and through some pretty tough experiences but here I was, still alive and kicking. My 29th birthday…I’m 29…wow. Wonder what’s going to happen this year?
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