Qixing Mountain (七星山)

As alluded to in my previous post, I wanted to climb a mountain this weekend... and so I did. The great thing about Taipei is that it's close to a whole score of them, some of which lie within Yangmingshan National Park. I chose the tallest peak to climb, being Qixing, or Seven Star. It's no Mauna Kea, but it was a pretty challenging 1120m, namely due to the entire climb consisting of stairs of varying degrees of steepness and slipperiness (damp moss-covered stones). It made the CN Tower climb seem like a joke.  All it took was a 30 minute bus ride from Jiantan station on R5 (once I figured out which side to actually catch the bus from).  Given its proximity to Taipei City, there weren't as many people as I thought there'd be, thankfully.  What a great experience, to be climbing a mountain through the clouds on a 21C mid-December day.

Danshui

Having spent too much time in 'downtown' Taipei, I decided to visit the historic seaside "town" of Danshui, 20 km away, at the mouth of the river with the same name.  It was one of the first colonial outposts - initially inhabited by the Spanish, then the Dutch, Chinese, and finally the Japanese. It was nice to breathe fresh air, eat fresh seafood, and hike along the hilly terrain while visiting sites of historical significance.  The best part of this was that it was accessible by subway and I didn't even have to change trains once. Maybe next weekend I'll hike up Qixing peak in Yangmingshan, a 1100m mountain just outside of Taipei.

People

Since coming to Taiwan I've had the great fortune of meeting people from all walks of life, ranging from street vendors and performers to professionals and business leaders.  Overall I've been warmly touched by their genuine hospitality and joie de vivre. I've also been quite impressed by how polite (most) people are here, something I hadn't experienced the likes of since travelling in Japan.  This is one of the reasons I came back to Taiwan, and just wish there was more I could do here from a professional point of view, because I think out of all the places I've been in this world (41 countries now) it would be nice to call this place home one day.

The Food I

The Taiwanese love their food and that's one of the big reasons why I love it here in Taiwan. Anything from extremely affordable night market food to upscale sushi and complex dishes with rare ingredients can be found. While here, I've had many Taiwanese delicacies as well as Japanese, Mexican, Italian and French food, all done with a local 'twist'.  I regret not having taken photos of this great live seafood restaurant I was taken to in Danshui by my friend here but I felt it would have been a little too touristy of me!  If it wasn't for the extremely hot weather (not so bad as of recent days), I'd certainly be pushing obese no matter how often I went to the gym.  I didn't include any photos of the night market food as many examples are in my previous posts (especially in my travel blog).

Healthcare in Taiwan

First off, sorry for the lack of posts - was in China on business for the past week, where I happened to catch a bug which had a whole lot of similar symptoms to H1N1. While, it probably wasn't H1N1 (probably not severe enough), I got some new symptoms starting yesterday which worried me. What better opportunity to explore the Taiwanese health system!  So - I went to the hospital that had an English sounding name (Mackay Memorial) figuring my odds of encountering an English speaking doctor would be higher there.  I asked the first person with a uniform what I should do if I want to see a doctor and she personally escorted me to the registration desk and then the internal medicine clinic (extremely nice of her, and probably not the typical routine).  The clinic was absolutely packed with people for 10:30am - perhaps normal, perhaps due to H1N1/seasonal flu?  The system was all number-based and there were about 10 doctors on duty, each with their own room and nurse. Records were kept in the same room as the doctor.  When I saw the doctor, he spoke fluent English, and was very thorough in his assessment of me. At no time did I feel rushed.  He felt that whatever I had was on its way out and he prescribed 2 medications to deal with cleaning up the aftermath (cough suppressant and mucous thinner).  I was then given a slip to take to the cashier.

I was afraid that this was going to cost an arm and a leg because I had seen an internal medicine specialist instead of a GP (assuming things were structured the same way there).  It turns out it only cost NT$580, which is just under $20.  The next step was to pick up my prescriptions... again, a number system was used although the people queuing were slightly confusing (it turned out the number posted meant anything below that number which is why it jumped 15 at a time).  I was afraid that the medications would be similar in cost as in Canada but when I asked about paying, it turned out that $20 included my medications as well!

In summary - very very efficient, very affordable (for a regular visit - not sure about surgery/complex), although extremely crowded and consequently a huge risk for the spread of disease.

Time:
Registration - 5 minutes
Waiting room - 20-30 minutes
Pharmacy - 10 minutes

Quite impressed. Sorry - didn't take photos (no camera).

First weekend

What a first weekend in Taipei. I decided to play tourist and basically walked around for my entire waking hours. Saturday was spent at the Botanical Gardens, then at the Dadaocheng fireworks festival. The festival started at 3pm, and I got there shortly after... however what I didn't anticipate is the whole of Taipei showing up. After every single spot to sit down was taken by 6pm (fireworks were supposed to start at 9:30pm or so), I decided to give my feet a rest and went home. Unfortunately my cute idea of taking a random bus that happened to be going in the same direction I was walking ended up with me being in a random suburb of Taipei across the Danshui River because I *thought* I saw the Chinese character for station... oops. I found another bus, fortunately.  I heard of a place called Snow King - a unique icecream shop serving a myriad of strange flavours and went there, discovering the Clarke's Quay-type place known as Ximen in the process. I have to say, pig feet ice cream was certainly an acquired taste, but the chili pepper flavour wasn't bad. Met a few interesting people along the way, and across the city.  The next day was relatively quiet with the highlight of the day being a traditional Chinese ethnic minorities concert at Zhongshan Hall - I wish videography was permitted because the performances were just stunningly beautiful. On the other hand, videos would not have done sufficient justice.