Inspired Artists Day Four

Day four of our trip was designated to shopping and fashion; I had my fill of art yesterday and my head is still spinning from sensory overload. I collected lots of magazines, business cards, and ideas to expand my career as an artist. Now it was Funky's turn. As mentioned, we didn't make it to Danshui, and we also didn't get to the Jade market - another place I was hoping to get to.

Taipei has lots of shopping options. Around Taipei 101 is probably the most 'high class' fashion area - all the big expensive brands and malls. We were looking for bargains and inspiration, so instead we went to Ximending (the area around the Ximen MRT stop). Ximending is a popular place for teenagers so it has tons of fun, trendy, not too expensive clothes and accessories; it's also just a fun place to hang out. Spend some time in the indoor malls in the center of the shopping blocks to find interesting specialty stores.

In the evening, we took the MRT to Tienmu, and upper-class area above the Shilin MRT stop. Tienmu has a brilliant weekend flea market that has grown very popular. This is the place to dig through piles of 2nd hand clothes, pick up strange or exotic knick-knacks and souvenirs, bargain for a deal. Up the street from the market are some pretty great clothes stores as well. Sometimes they have live music or other arts on the weekends too.

We hope you enjoyed our trip!

Thanks for watching!

Contemporary Art and Fashion Taipei

Day Three of our 'Taiwan's Best Trip' Journey started with a 5 hour bus ride from Tainan to Taipei. The high speed rail option almost 3x the price; and although it's about 3 hours faster, we were relying on the sleep time.

We got to Taipei around noon and checked in to our hotel. 'Budget' hotels in Taipei will still cost at least $50usd; there are other options - like private rooms in the hostels, but they're about cramped for two people. We would have chosen CityInn or the Dandy hotels - both very modern and artistic - or the hotel 72... but I booked too late and we were stuck with 'Welcome Hotel' - which was fine, but a bit overpriced.

We headed straight for the Taipei 101 area to find the Art 2009 fair and got a nice surprise - next door, also in the Taipei World Trade Center this weekend was the 'In Design' fashion show; a collection of works from the fashion departments of many of Taiwan's universities. This was perfect for our theme so we spent some time here before heading into the Art 2009 area.

I had come prepared with business cards and a portfolio, but was a little intimidated by the high-class gloss and glamor of the presented artworks. Something to grow into at any rate. We stayed late and didn't make it to Danshui as planned; Danshui is a beautiful area though - go if you get the chance, it's 35 minutes outside the city on MRT. We got lots of pictures of the art and fashion designs - watch our video to see!

Inspired Artists Day Two

Today started with a late lunch at Tainan's best restaurant, 'Chikan' (named after the Chikan towers, which is just down the road. Specializing in traditional Taiwanese specialties, and with a very cool decoration scheme, this place is not to be missed. Visit their website: www.chikan.com.tw.

Next, we headed out to Anping. 'Old Street' in Anping is the oldest section of Tainan. Although the Dutch fort has been redone, there are several authentic monuments that are several centuries old. The 'tree house' and the Anping museum (near the elementary school) are nice places for pictures. Old Street itself is an artistic stretch of narrow alleyway, full of handicrafts, seashells, snacks and toy stores. On the weekends this place is packed, so avoid the rush. At the end of Old Street, (between the Anping Fort and the Guanyin Buddist Temple) the fun continues with about 100 stalls selling food, collectibles, and hosting carnival-esque games. It's kind of like a nightmarket, but open from pretty early. We found lots of traditional Asian art here; and surprising mix of ancient and modern symbolism.



After Anping we went through Haian Road. This area (near the JungJeng shopping area) is full of late night coffee/tea/snack shops. It's become extremely trendy - it's the place to hang out with friends late at night playing cards. Several years ago the city commissioned a series of murals by local artists. The project has grown and today there are a dozen pretty interesting art installations to visit; you'll find Taiwanese taking pictures here any night of the week.



If you don't like coffee, head up Gongyuan Road to the Amory - one of the oldest (and still very popular) bars in Tainan. The Armory has always been a friend of the arts, sponsoring exhibitions and live music performances. http://armorypub.com.tw/

We hope you enjoyed our brief tour of Tainan city. In a few hours we're getting on a 6am bus to Taipei. Can't wait!

Inspired Artists Day One

Unfortunately, after recent typhoon Morokot, much of Eastern and Southern Taiwan is inaccessible. Our plan was to start day one in Meinung to visit the Meinong Umbrella Factory, but the best we could find was a train-bus-taxi combination... and one website said, in effect, if you aren't bringing shovels to help dig, don't come.

(There's great info about the Meinong Umbrellas here and here. For directions, visit here.)

Add in the fact that yesterday we spent the day in the hospital (Funky tripped and got four stitches in her chin), and you'll understand why we've decided to let Meinong go and focus on Tainan for the first two days.

Day One Agenda: NCKU campus, Beimen Road, Confucius Temple, JungJeng shopping area.

National Cheng Kung University is a big promoter of the arts, and also has a beautiful campus. The 'banyan tree park' has become almost a national symbol... at any rate it's a beautiful place to relax and walk around. The university has only recently expanded it's arts program, commissioning about a dozen new sculptures (the campus looks like a 'statue park' there are so many of them around now). They also have a very nice, newly renovated art gallery.

The university campus is directly behind the Tainan train station (if you go out the back entrance and walk straight up the street, you'll get there.)

The next stop is Beimen Rd. Exit the front of the Tainan train station and turn left - this is Beimen. This is a shopping area full of cheap clothes, gadgets and novelties. There are a couple big bookstores. It's also a great place to buy electronics, or computers. Less known is that Beimen has a great arts supply store with everything you need; you can even order custom sized canvases (a large canvas will cost between 200~500nt). It's just about across from the Caves Bookstore.



















If you're looking for a hotel, there are several budget hotels along Beimen (next to or across from Caves Books).

We drove past Gongyuan park (Gongyuan and Beimen Road) and headed to the area around the Tainan's Confucius temple.


The original Confucius Temple was completed in 1666, but some of it has been moved or restored. It is on Nanmen Road, near the Cultural center. The area around the temple is interesting; there are several art stores and boutiques. There used to be a gallery across the street but it has been shut down recently. Still, the long street facing the Confucius Temple is full of crafts and activities.




Finally, we did a little window shopping around JungJeng Street; near the intersection of Haian and JungJeng.

Taiwan trip Augsust update

It's finally here! After all summer - and a devastating typhoon - Funky and I are about ready to do our trip to Meinung, Tainan and Taipei to look at art galleries, attend the Art Taipei 2009 convention, and do some shopping. We'll go next week and start uploading videos and pictures, both here and on the Taiwan's Best Trip Competition website.

Thanks in advance for you support and video hits!

Banking and name chops in Taiwan

One of the nifty cultural differences in Taiwan (or Chinese culture) is the use of the chop - or a special stamp with the Chinese characters for your name on it. They are cute, fun, cool, and I spent countless hours when I arrived in Taiwan picking out special ones that reflected my personality. 6 years later, specifically yesterday when I went to the bank, I again noted what a huge, frustrating pain in the ass they can be.

You have to have a name chop to do any kind of business, sign forms, contracts, apply for bank/license stuff... not a huge deal, but they don't fit in your wallet, and if your house is as disorganized as mine, tracking one down in a hurry is emotionally taxing.

They used to let me use my thumbprint. Yesterday I finally got them to take a 'signature' - except for them, our signature (which should be a 'mark', fluid, illegible and difficult to forge) is gibberish. So I had to print my name clearly so they could read it - which of course is a huge security risk; thus the need for a name chop.

What am I really complaining about? That they can't just speak English and use signatures like the rest of the world? I had 4 other pieces of ID; a name chop could also be easily forged (although you're supposed to keep the same one FOREVER so that it is exactly the same - heaven knows what they do if they lose one, the new one wouldn't be valid I guess because it doesn't match the old one.)

I suppose it's the Chinese cultural affection for order, safety, regulation, and propriety over more functional concerns that really irks me. But whatever. Not wrong, just different, and I'm a (anxiety ridden) round peg surrounded by square holes.

Typhoon Morakot, 2009

I got back to Taiwan just in time for the year's biggest Typhoon. Gusts of up to 112mph, lots and lots of rain - most people don't have to go to work or school, but I have a lot to do! So I got out my full body rain gear and went out shopping. I could drive about 20mph, and see 10 feet in front of me. Things went pretty well most of the time. A couple of times, the strength of the wind drove me into the divider between lanes and I'd get stuck; I just couldn't drive straight no matter what. But I made it to Carrefour, B&Q, and RTmart, where I bought the desk I'd been looking for. On the way back, things were less easy carrying the 4x4 foot box between me and the handles of my scooter. Twice I was surprised by people driving towards me (on the wrong side of the street) - although this is normal in Taiwan, doing it during a Typhoon when nobody can see is just freaking stupid.

Oh yeah, I also bought a pool for my backyard pool party next week - hope the weather gets better.

sony vaio

Some pics of the Vaio I have for sale. 3GB, 140 GB storage.

Taiwan seizes cocaine-filled energy drinks!

I'm home in America (land of fat, selfish people with big houses and cars). Today I had a RockStar Sugar Free Energy Drink, which unlike most other energy drinks including Red Bull, didn't make me sick. Rock on. I have to down 5 big cups of green tea to get anywhere near the caffeine content of coffee (which gives me Migraines); my RockStar has 80mgs. Recently I've been drinking tons of CokeZero, which is basically caffeine and chemicals (and not that much caffeine, actually, around 50mgs). Additionally RockStar has 1000mg of Taurine (which may improve liver function as a free radical), lots of vitamin B's, Gingko Biloba, Ginseng, Milk Thistle, and Guarana! I'm impressed.

So I tried to search and see if I can buy RockStar in Taiwan, because I'm going back next week and need a supply as a new devotee.

And in doing, I found this article.

Basically, Germany, being the healthy, discriminating EU country that it is, decided to ban "Red Bull Simply Cola," which is flavoured from decocainised coca leaves. I don't know why - but they were unconvinced that coca leaves without the cocaine were still fit for consumption.

Taiwan, and Hong Kong, hoping to jump on the band wagon, followed up by seizing a huge shipment of regular red bull - 17,165 cases Red Bull Energy Drink, valued at USD 781,000 - which doesn't have any coca leaves or anything else questionably illegal.

I found RockStar in Japan.... but so far not in Taiwan, and with the current energy drink debate, it may be awhile. Meanwhile it's 5am and I don't think I'll be able to sleep for days.