and so my journey begins... TAIWAN (n Thailand) a short journal of my accounts in the East!


[Start: 7.13.01]
6/somethin: leave for Thailand... oops forgot something, go home, go to marina.. get on bus for SFO airport, talk to alvin, girl1 or girl2 (Wt vs Kn) get to airport.. oh! meet Eric Ngyuen (frum st. F) and his family/frends... wut a surprise.. theyr goin to Thai too! get on same plane... on plane

day2: still on plane... slept... watched Double Take... sleep... eat plane food... arrival in taiwan intl airport.. wait for 3 hrs for connectin flight to thaiL.. talk to eric and frends... listen to music... bored... get on plane... get to ThaiL airport... eric parts his separate way to go to vietnam after thai tours... its humid... find out our tour group is just us (my family of 4) .. alvin thinks tour guide is a hustler/con-artist... wutver.. get to hotel.. rest

jumble days: eat... ride elephant(guy takes my digital camera).. parasail/jetski/ride spd boat... watch a show/fake thai boxing... pet a tiger/monkey/parrot/snake... go to a white sand beach(get sunburned)...oh! watch transexuals who "were" men dance and take pics with them... visit some temples.. visit thailands kings old home... pray...


TAIWAN ADVENTURE



6/25: arrive in taiwan.. uncle jerry pics us up... its semi-late.. what to do? we go to "yie shi" aka nite market.. its tight BUT...... stOmAchE achE! my dad and i feel sick frum probably somethin we ate in thailand.. cuz we both felt sick the mornin we left thailand... so the heat plus the different smells in the yie shi.. make my dad and i wanna barf.. so hurriedly.. uncle jerry takes us back to the car and he drives us to my dads other frends (uncle huang) house.. there we spend the nite.. a painful nite due to stomache probs... we sleep in an air conditioned japanese style room upstairs... and rite outside if u go to the roof of the apartment.. theres a great view of the city...

6/26: wake up... stomache feels like "sai de(twnese)" >>shit<<.. can i still go visit "wen hua da xue" the place where i will practice wushu? moreover can i actualli practice wushu?? well... uncle huang takes the 4 of us (mom, dad, bro, me) to "yang ming san" yangming mountain where the college is... first he shows us where the "jie yun" subway is.. at that time im like.. "jie what?".. neway.. we get to "wen hua da xue"... uncle huang is asked by the guards who he is.. he unwaveringly says.. "im a professor of sthing.." and we enters... (normally neone can enter the college.. but not neone can "drive in" b/c of parking space probs..).. we get some taiwan local style food(sandwhich with pork shreds or tuna and hot milk tea) then go to the "guo shu" wushu building.. my stomache begins... doing its thing... its hot.. im gunna diarreah or hurl.. i see 3 or 4 members warming up.. swinging a stick.. accordin to my email... the morning session frum 8:30am to whenever is supposed to be "traditional wushu" so i dunno wut that means.. im afraid it means choppy strong style wushu (jp.. traditional is coo too.. just not the contemporary wushu i like)... i mean.. was it gunna be choy lei fat or somethin? after awkwardly watchin i knew it was WUSHU... but i was dressed like a foreigner.. or at least.. i wasnt in my sweats ready to go... my bro and i felt awkward... i mean.. do we jus go and uh... start warmin up with them? what would they think? finally we talk to "Tang Lao Shi" teacher Tang.. who is a really cool/nice guy.. he says.. he knoes of me cuz of my email... so my bro and i start warmin up... i ask someone how long hes been practicing to break the ice kinda... he says 10yrs.. im like..."shiet.. i probably realli realli suck compared to them".. haha.. but it turns out most hav learned for about 3-6 yrs... we start practicing and i can hang... im decent enough to be treated as an equal... afterwards im dead tired... alvin is tired too.. he stops wen we start practicing taolu sets... i practice "chang quan" longfist sets and strt swrd... at this point the fams takes a bus and leaves, but i wish to stay for more.. oh by the way... i dont notice ne stomach problems durin wushu practice... then coach asks someone to take me to eat.. shen me "qun" takes me to McDonalds.. we walk... my stomach sux for a while durin this trip (days).. i eat half a mcChicken and i drink a soda with a bug or some shit in the ice cube... feel like barfin again.. cant help it... its the thai food i ate.. we go back to the practice location and go to some locker room and get some sleepin bags and rest... "__ qun" and i talk quite a bit.. about taiwan and america and lifestyles, etc... then practice ensues... im dead tired after... fam comes back.. walk and we get picked up...

day2: stay with "si jie" talk.. listen to music(amei), rest... feel taiwan... not frum an outsider/tourist view.. sorri.. and i diarrhea alot at si jie's place

go to some bath spa place that my dad has connection wit the owner and we "pao" soak in some hot springs that smell like sulphur.. some weird bugs makin loud tire-turning-screeching sounds too..

take bus... late.. uncle jerry and "chen xuan" gary come.. i meet at the wrong spot.. body is aching "yao shuan bei tong" "fei chang shuan tong"... eat at some shanghai delights place with ba ba's other frends... the food is good... but dang my aching stomache...

go wit "si jie" but drop by "A Ji's" place and meet "hong ji ji" and "zhen long" and rest and watch "he xio he xio" at "A Ji's" place... hahaha... oh.. the fun begins...

im so sore from 3 days of practice.. wed-fri.. family leaves on sun.. i stay wit uncle jerry.. next day take bus n jie yun to yangming san... practice.. eat with "li kai".. stay with "qiao shen" joe... he lives with another wushu teammate called "guai shu shu" aka.. weird uncle.. haha.. (one time he was on the phone and he sed "wo zai tuo di.. huh?.. hao.. wo zhen de zai da sho qiang hao bu hao?!".. and everyone stared at him and qiao shen and i inched away frum him... "i dunno him" haha.. and he sed to us.. "hao.. peng you bu dang, yie ke yi").. yea.. heres wher alot of pinyin/chinese/zhong wen comes b/c ive ben in taiwan for a while and my chinese is startin to get smoother "gen liu li" and tho i hav an american accent... its ALOT better than wen i first got here.. and i learned a lil sumpin sumpin about "tai yu" taiwanese... for example..hehe.. "gan! kua sha xiao"... the first tai yu i was taught here.. hehe.. how fun..

yea.. more fun.. was afterwards... qiao shen, qiao shen's sister, "qi ming," his gf "gui ling," "bi kong deng" nostril stare, "hsu qi," (later a ji and zhen long) and i went to a beautiful tea garden on the mountain realli close to wear a ji and si jie lived... but.. haha.. the beauty was tarnished by my "shit" problem.. my stomach sucked.. (despite havin to go all the time and havin my stomach hurt 23-7.. even durin this time i was still realli enjoyin taiwan).. neways.. sigh.. =\ ... i realli had to go #3 and the bathroom had a line.. so... haha..hehe... i held my waste... but I REALLI had to GOoO... REALLY. my face was hurtin.. i couldnt hold it in any longer... damnit! what was i supposed to do?! i was hobbling as i walked... the pain grew stronger and stronger... i was realli gunna cry... on the way to the enchantedly beautiful tea garden u had to climb stairs to get into natures domain.. so i hobbled down the stairs as fast as i could, climbing out of enchantment and as a person looks like before they puke.. i began to dia almost... i found a sewer waste hole held it in for 5 more painful seconds as ppl passed by... and BAM! they came off and i "blEhed!" it all out... i was hidden behind a car and it was nite so i think i was okay.. oh!... tho my stomach still hurt.. i was SOOO relieved.. by this time the tea gardens bathroom line was gone and i still went in the bathroom to cleanse myself, wipe, and regain composure.. qiao shen even knocked on the door.. askin if i was ok since i was gone for a while.. "ni qu na li le" he asked.. "zhou le zhen me jiou".. hehe..."jus my stomach was weird from too much calpis (ke le bi shi.. which i had the other nite at chen xuen's and i thought that helped my stomach)" was all i could say...ppl were havin a good time.. but i had that dizzy unbalanced feeling cuz my tummy still hurt... so i could barely eat the apple pie i ordered out of not wanting to not order nethin... the nite is "dece" (decent).. im rather quieter than usual.. hopin no one saw.....

ok... we got the "wu ke chuan zhang / he xio he xio" game where wen we were supposed to be practicing we actualli played some version of "truth or dare".. yea.. funny stuff happend... i think this nite we went to "Shr Ling yie shi".. Qiao Shen only went cuz Hsu Qi went... haha.. i got my adidas backpack and some vcds here..

went to "tainan" north part of taiwan...on a big bus with comfortable seats (watched a chow yun fat movie + lost cell on the bus cuz i was playin snake and i didnt wanna play nemore and the batteries were low so to save i turned off the phone and put it in my backpack which remained unzipped cuz i had food in ther that i was eatin.. but i fell asleep and it musta fell as the bus was movin...).. went to watch a taiwan wushu competition... it was coo.. and in the "dirty sex hotel" that we stayed at... i was assaulted/molested "qiang bao" (not like.. realli realli molested as in traumatic experience.. tho it was traumatic) by all the guys on the wushu team practically..5 on 1 at certain points.. i could handle 2 on 1.. but.. 5... plus "jun hao" who is Mr. Nan Quan... i cant handle his buffness...

next day i didnt wanna watch the tai chi part of the tournament.. not cuz i dont like tai chi.. i actualli enjoy tai chi.. i wanna learn it well too... but... its jus that it was realli hot at the tournament location and i watched wushu the whole day the day before... so.. i decided to go wit A Ji and his gf "Qing Xiou" and Zhen Long to Ping Dong which is where A Ji's family lives... i stayed there... watched tv.. ate sheep balls (like... testes) and "dan bing" egg biscuit (i guess thats how u translate it).. lets jus say.. i like the "dan bings"

next day train back to taipei.. we had a long trip ahead (approx 6hrs) so we decided to get some pizza.. i wanted to compare chinese pizza to american pizza and yea.. the taiwan round tables we tried sucked.. it was like "dan chao fan" fried rice pizza... neways.. as we were walkin to get pizza.. i HAD TO GO AGAIN!.. grr.. by this time.. my stomach was basically good... but it had a few problems still... i ran into the closest department store and A Ji went to go order the pizza... i found out the mens bathroom was on the 5th floor.. man! i had to go... i ran up 3 flights of stairs and that was more than enough.. i had to go... i see the womens bathroom.. and i almost go in.. but i dont.. so the next floor has got to be the mens bathroom.... whew!.. i rush in... unzip! i poo... (yes... alot of incidents that will stay in my memory are related to my butt... because i did hav stomach problems.. im not purposely tryin to be nasty.. but these r lasting/good/fun memories so read on if u want...) as i enter the bathroom.. i somehow feel awkward... i dunno... its my presence or someone elses or somethin... i see some pink wrappin that is probably tissue paper wrapping cuz in taiwan a lot of the bathrooms dont hav toilet paper so u hav to buy ur own little tissue paper... neways.. i shrug off the uneasy feeling cuz i want to take care of business first...i let out an "ahhhhh...." as im squatting on the floor (cuz thats how u gotta poo in taiwan/china in certain places...) i notice the pink thing again... and then i hear 2 ppl walk in... theyr sayin "a.. ni yao bu yao xi shou" or somethin to that effect... but the thing is... its a high feminine voice! shit! there i am squatting on the floor slowly wipin my ass wen i realize that im in the womens bathroom!... im helplessly lookin around... "oh shit"... i cautiously wipe my butt... just as im finishing up (still squatting) someone knocks on the door... "oh my gaw...." i cough an "ahem..! (high pitched) you ren" meaning theres someone in here.. i dunno.. but frum wut i heard wen that girl sed "hao" ok... she sounded like she was lookin at me (my stall) weird... i get my pants on and stand hunched cuz im afraid my head mite be seen or somethin... i wait until the 2 girls washin their hands or wutever.. leave.... then.. even tho theres a girl in the stall next to me.. i feel its my chance to escape cuz she wont see me since shes in her own stall.. i rush out.. left arm covering my head kinda ducked hunched over like i hav a cape... but the girls bathroom entrance door is open and as i run out.. theres a girl standing by the door apparently waiting for her frend.. i didnt realli dare look up.. but she seemed surprised or slightly shocked/disgusted/confused? haha?... =\ ... i ran all 4 flights down to the exit and ran all the way to the round table where my frend was...haha... my legs where kinda unsteady and i kinda fell/sat on the waiting chair at round tables and then i told my story.. then we laughed a lot.. mainly at me.. then got the pizza.. suddenly it was raining.. (thats just how pingdong is.. it rains suddenly in the afternoon) and i had to pass by the department store on the way back.. cuz we had to hide frum the rain.. and my frend yelled "hes the one that ran into the gurls bathroom!" and other stuff as well..haha... got on the big bus.. watched some chow yun fat movies (one where he marries 2 gurls and hes a stock broker.. the other is where is helps this retarded guy remember he is a killer/gang guy)

back at uncle jerrys.. tv.. rented and watched 6th day

next day.. "wang ka" internet cafe.. "rau he yie shi" another nite market... went to "ba xien le yuan" a water park like raging waters... got slight sunburns... went to shi ling yie shi area.. met a "xue zhang" elder student (he graduated).. ate... watched a "liu de hua" movie about thai boxing.. i fell asleep halfway.. on VCD side 2... next day.. bought some dan bings and hamburger (chinese style).. and watched "shi shen" God of Cookery.. which was funni and then i took the jie yun back to uncle jerrys... watched Cats and Dogs today.. it was pretty funni.. i gotta sleep!

[continued: 7.16.01]

i met up wit jeff n beryl on sat the 14th... we met at the jie yun zhan and walked to the love boat dorm beryl was stayin at. beryl had a fatty bug bite so she had to go fix that up at tha doctors and jeff was all soaked cuz it was suddenly rainin n it stopped so he wasnt too happy and... yea... and then we took a cab to drop off beryl at her aunts and then we went to the hotel where uncle hsieh was stayin (zhong tai bing guan).. we chilled and watched tv (mainly pool or some random stuff).. then jeffs love boat frends came over cuz we were gunna go to "Kiss" the semi-famous tw club that was downstairs.. Dave came then Howard and his cousin Danial, and then Kevin Keung (i kno his last name cuz i was gunna borrow his ID n pretend to be him.. hehe).. neways... after they all got here... we still had to wait for beryl who was at a cafe wit her 30yr old cousin (i kno her cous was 30 cuz kevin enquired about her).. beryl came and we went downstairs to Kiss around 11something ish... but jeff couldnt get in cuz of ID probs.. stoopid Kiss place... oh well.. some ppl paid 500 NT (tai bi / tw $$) and then jus decided to leave still.. even after paying .. cuz they thought the place kinda sucked.. so im glad we didnt get in there.. then we went around and decided to go to DV8.. we ended up gettin dropped off at "Twins" which was 800NT for guys so we continued down the street 2 blocks to find DV8... everyone got in no prob... even me.. hehehaha.. the club was coo.. they played mainly US hip hop/pop songs and a little trance type music.. the songs were pretty up to date.. neways.. i was satisfied wit the music... now about the ladies.. haha.. jp.. everyone was coo.. half of the ppl were ABCs cuz they all came frum love boat... but yea.. everyone looked good (well not everyone.. but u kno wut i mean...) at first wen the group i came wit got in.. we jus walked around a bit got some drinks... then Dave started to go in n dance a lil so since i wanted to dance too i went in and then Kevin followed... everyone else was sittin still.. dave was like gettin his mac on or somethin... he was dancin in a group n talkin to some gurls then went around to some other group leavn me (kevin left me n dave) wit these ppl i didnt kno.. but wutever... i danced a little and started to move around and look around.. i started dancin on the stage and then saw some ppl next to me (3 gurls & 1 guy who couldnt realli dance) who seemed coo... saw i started dancinc wit them n i asked one of them if they were frum tai bei... she sed "dui" yes... and then i talked and found out she lived by Sogos which has the jie yun zhan in front of it... that was the area where i was staying too so i was like "what a coincidence" and she asked me if i lived in tai bei or wutever and she seemed surprised wen i sed i lived in the US... haha.. actualli "i" was surprised that she lived in tai bei b/c half the ppl in the club were chinese americans.. neways.. then she asked me wen i moved frum taiwan to the US.. then i told her i was born here in America... haha.. shes like.. "ooh".. newho.. i talked to them and showed them some steps (not that im all great at dancin... but they jus wanted me to show them how to dance.. even tho i thought they were ok enough at dancin)... oh.. haha.. and btw she thought i was near 20 or so.. mainly cuz of the darkness and lighting and the fact that u gotta be at least 18 to get in.. so i was like.. no im only 17... i mean.. uh.. 18.. haha.. then some other taiwanese ppl came over and was like "damn.. theres so many americans in here... i finally found a taiwanese group" then "Kwei Ying" Queen sed i was an american too.. but i was like (in chinese of course) "stop jokin around Queen.. u kno im frum taiwan" and so i told that guy i was frum taiwan and then Queen sed "fine.... he was born in taiwan but is jus studyin in the US" hehe.. compromise... that guy believed us neways.. so we danced and danced until Jane and some other gurl frum loveboat came over.. they spoke to us in eng assumin that we were loveboaters too.. i was the only one that understood them... then these semi drunk asses started gettin funky with us and they used chinese to talk to the other ppl.. one of the gurls started freakin Queen (not realli.. jus in a funny way)... and afterwards they sed they were gunna get some water but.. i dunno... maybe they meant "fire water" or somethin.. i danced wit them until i saw *gasp* a cirlce form on the dance floor.. so i got down from the elevated stage part.. and went to watch wut was goin on.. some "~ok" breakin n poppin was goin on.. i got a lil peace of it... i mean.. wut did i hav to lose in tw neways... plus i can at least bust out a "little" stuff... then the circle was encompassed n i went back ta dancin wit the "dang di ren" locals of taipei.. a slow song came on and Queen asked me "how do u dance to this" so i slow danced wit her fer a bit.. after a lil more dancin it was bout 3am ish already.. and we went to get a drink and they left... they were coo.. i got their contact infos so ima keep in touch to be frends cuz wen i go back to tw itll be fun n i can kick it wit them.. go clubbin or somethin... neways.. woohoo.. "happy hour" or some shit came the DJ was sayin somethin about 100 tai bi (approx 3$US) fer Tequillas n some other shit.. hehe.. so.. yea.. (hiccup).. then i went dancin around... and now theres hella fewere ppl already.. i saw someone doin ravin lights n i wanted to check it out.. Jennifer taught me and i asked if she was on loveboat and she sed no.. then she asked me.. and i sed i was here on my own too.. she sed she was in some study chinese course tho.. and i asked if she knew ppl frum Brown and we found out that we both knew Karen... and Carol was Karens frend... so i met Carol too.. hehe.. it was interesting.. that was pretty coincidental.. so after ravin a bit and jus loungin at the club i saw that mosta tha ppl i came wit left already n i took a cab bak to Jeffs... but wen i got back.. still hyped... i got to the 10th floor and was all flippin around n shit.. i carefully knock on the door.. but no one opens... damnit... plus we still had food in there we were gunna eat.. so i went all the way outside n across the strt aways to the local 7-11 which theres one ever half block... to buy a phone card and some bakery food while i was at it... i called and his cell was off cuz it was charging... damnit... i go back try again.. knock louder.. no one answers.. go downstairs.. all the way to B1 or somethin and see a group of kids loungin around.. theyr wannabe punks or somethin so they dont let me borrow their phones so i can try again.. i go to frontdesk where theres like only 1 person.. and tell him to call rm 1006... ok.. jeff wakes up and i get in.. (jeff fell asleep watchin pool)... i eat a little n then fall asleep...

15/7/01 : My Last Day
jeff and i wake up in a rush cuz we hav 10 min left to catch the downstairs buffet... we eat some breakfast like doa jiang and mien... then later we go pick up beryl and go to "CHEUNG" some glamour studio cuz beryl is pickin out her pics that she took a wk ago (took 9hrs!! omg..).. jeff n i look at some pics... its takes a long time to pick and thats definetly understandable.. haha.. but still kinda borin for me!.. hehe.. all good.. but then later jeff n i go to a closeby net cafe for some drinks and CS (counter strike)... its fair cuz we had 2 drinks (milk tea and green milk tea) and played for 30-40 min.. which was worth the 2 dollars... then we went to "guang hua shang chang" to look at electronics and V/Cds.. we got some cds.. etc.. then tried some food at the farmers market next to the shoppin center... by this time it was rainin and we jus ran around samplin stuff and bought a lil food.. it was already almost 4pm! and we hadnt eaten lunch.. we meet up wit karen and go to the area near "din tai fong" a famous restaurant that makes different chinese buns like "xiao long bao" etc.. we ate cheap mien at a not so famous restaurant.. then we had "chau mei" strawberry "bao bing" ice.. karen n beryl r kinda sick and its raining n were eatin ice... so i dunno.. if thats all that good for them.. haha... but neways.. i take a pic here... then we leave and its stil rainin so i trade in mangos that i jus bought at a store for an umbrella... we get in a taxi.. karen goes bak.. i get dropped off at Chunghsio-Fuhsing which is where i need to END up cuz thas where uncle jerry lives.. but instead at this pt i need to meet up wit A-Ji real quick one last time so i can giv him some pics.. we meet up at "Tai Bei Che Zhan" taipei railway station and hes a lil late cuz of rain.. i giv him pics.. he gives me a litte "ji nian ping" momento (its a knife/mini sword w/his writing on it..)... we take a pic and say bye bye... and i rush back to chunghsiao fuhsing... i get to uncle jerrys house.. and pack, shower, pics, and..... leave.... this begins the end of "this" trip to Taiwan (a fun place)... but there will definetly be more fun ahead.. haha... "wo zhen de you hen duo hen hao de hui yi" "shi ma?" "shi de".. sigh.. good memories (i want to remember them thas y im spendin all this time writin my thoughts/memories down)... i get to TauYuen Int'l airport and meet uncle Hsieh... do the whole checkin passport ish.. go to VIP room cuz uncle Hsieh is a frequent flyer... theres dimsum, magazines, and free drinks.. its pretty tight loungin on the sofas too.. then time flies and i get onboard flight 0004 China Airlines.... i go back to econo class and fly... wait.. the funs not over.. after sleepin bout 7 hrs.. i wake up and my eyes r all blurry cuz my contacts r dry... and pop... my rt contact falls out and i think its just somewhere in my eye.. but its not.. damnit... i cant find it so now i gotta go get a new set of contacts.. then im back at frisco SFO... aunt Hsieh conveniently gives me a ride back cuz they live about 8 min away.. ok.. thats it.. this journals over.. im in Cali now... thats not Taiwan.. this is all about Taiwan. i wanna go back to taiwan! hehe.. until next time....


Taiwan Trip Pics (more to come)


outside the "loveboat" dorms w/ beryl n jeff


me and gary (rain soaked) outside his apartment


at a bar where "jun hao" worked.. and i took a **** here too


me and bruce on yangmin shan (mountain) outside his room


inside bruce's "a-ji" dorm/living place


outside the club DV-8... it was hella fun!


jeff n i lookin bored as we wait for beryl to pick her pics (it was posed =P)


me, beryl, jeff, n karen under umbrellas on my last day in taiwan


in the streets of taiwan.. near "shi ling"