Tall Tales From A Short Canadian

Bonjour,

Below is a picture of Nic and I on a street in Taipei. Can you see it? No, not my smart new hat… the ROCK on Nic’s finger! She wanted something a bit unconventional, so I picked her a shiny blue sapphire. And I dropped the big question after I presented the ring at the Ring. It’s a long story. Anyway, we’re engaged to get married, and I’ll keep you all posted on the date and whereabouts, but in the meantime, enjoy the photos, and if you hang in till the end, I’ll describe the wonderful engagement surprise–er, sort of–in more detail and with pictures at the end of this entry.

OUR TRIP TO TAIPEI

Let’s begin.

Above, the first thing I saw after I exited the airport bus. I was firing shots with my camera before I even smelled Taiwanese air.

Above, the gates of the C.K. Memorial. I think it was built to honour Taiwan’s first… important… guy…?

The crowd above was centered around some hunger strikers. The majority of Taiwanese people want the current Taiwanese leader to step down. I’d elaborate, but I cannot.

She’s not French, but Dutch. And Hot. And engaged…

The memorial structure itself, above. There was a big statue of the important guy inside.

We saw all of this within an hour of getting off the bus, so eager were we to see all of Taipei’s main attractions during our short 3 day visit.

Later that same day, Sandra accompanied us to Taipei 101, which is presently the tallest building in the world. Below, you can see two photos of it, and one more taken from the 89th floor.

The next day Nicole, Sandra (both seen below), and myself visited the National Palace Museum. It houses the largest collection of Chinese artifacts in the world, featuring stuff like vessels from the Bronze era, jade swords, and Ming Dynasty ceramics. They also had a book section, which contained many ancient and important texts, including very old and beautiful hand-rendered-and-bound editions of important Buddhist sutras: the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra.

This poor guy had to wade around with the carp and collect garbage. Nicole felt that he had a zen-like demeanor and a happy rapport with the fish, however.

This weirdo (seen above) kept getting in all of my pictures!

The picture above does a little to illustrate the transportation reality of Taipei, which was buzzing full of scooters that often carried entire families harrowingly through dangerous intersections at obnoxious speeds. But, alas, being tied up at the tourist destinations, I failed to get many good traffic pics.

Above: our gracious and generous host and hostess celebrating with us following my grandiose proposal to Nicole, which I’ll describe later…

Here they are again the following day during our uncomfortable trip out to Fulong Beach. It was interesting to see all of the temples along the way. Below, a little household temple, and below that, a hillside covered in strange little temples.

Fulong is Taipei’s most popular beach, as it is gorgeous and easy to get to. We were there on a Saturday in July. Wait till you see the pictures I took of Haeundae today (a Monday in July)! No comparison! Fulong was mellow and relaxing, and I dodged very little garbage in the water.

Bored and suffering from accute TMJ (Ouch! Look it up…), I wandered to a temple at the end of the beach. Chinese temples are awesome!

I took some photos of the crazy looking bearded deities inside, but in my state of nervous excitement, I shook, and the photos look like crap. Aaiiiiiiishhhh!!! (Note: This is my favorite Korean expression. Translation: Aw shhhit!).

The next day, Sandra, Nicole (my fiancee) and I went to the supposedly must-see-while-visiting-Taipei Longshan Temple. It was incredible.

Everybody was doing prostrations before a variety of Buddhas and other Chinese deities. They were chanting and bowing deeply, with great reverence.

That was about it. Our experience of Taiwan was great, and truly we were initially unhappy to return to Korea. Korea has been good to us, to be sure, but Taiwan generally had a way more open, liberal, laid-back feel. I felt more relaxed and at home in Taipei (except for the language barrier) than I generally do in Korea (mind you, I was on holidays). While many Koreans are awesome, helpful, and friendly, the lack of xenophobia in Taiwan was immediately apparent. I generalize, but I think Korea needs a big collective hoot or something. Undo that top button. It’s ok to wear your grubbies once in awhile. Don’t stare. Get over it! And discipline your kids, for the love of God! Stuff like that… Oh yeah! The wedding proposal…

THE WEDDING PROPOSAL

Originally, I had planned to surprise the shit out of Nic with the ring I bought her. I sent a heads-up to Warren via email, and he and Sandra responded with some proposal location suggestions. I read the email at school one day, and when I got up to talk to Joe, Nicole went over and opened that very email message and read it. Surprise bust number one. Warren then suggested via email that he cook us a meal at his restaurant in Taipei, which specializes in weddings and engagements, and we surprise Nicole by having the ring come out on the platter with dessert. Great idea! The second night we were at Warren and Sandra’s house, and Warren started to tell us in detail about the meal he would soon cook us at our engagement dinner. Surprise bust number two!

While the surprise element lacked, the night was fantastic. We ate an incredible five course Euro-style meal (too good for my unworthy tongue… Warren, you kick ass) by candle-light in a restaurant that was empty save for the staff serving us, and was auspiciously named the Ring. Following dinner, we were lead out through a chapel to a backyard garden with a small pool. The ring came out, a gigantic bouquet arrived, I proposed to Nicole to the applause of the entire staff, and we got tipsy on champagne. It felt like reality TV. Contact Nicole if you want more details. Come on, it’s chick stuff, really!

We’re back in Haeundae now. I swam at the beach today and dodged garbage bags, socks, children in tire-tubes, and wooden chopsticks in the water. It has to be seen to be believed. I shall post photos soon. I have to go to sleep now.

Nic, Sandra, and four friendly jeuveniles from Taiwan say: PEACE!

xoxo

suteebun