Well Sue is off for a vacation in Canada.
She was really excited about going home to visit her friends and family! We took the opportunity of her departure to stay in Taipei for a couple of days. We went up to Taipei with our friends Albert and Phillip on Friday night, stayed for two nights and after her plane departed on Monday morning I came back to Chiayi that I could be at work that afternoon.
If her trip seems a little soon to you (it isn't a year since she came to Taiwan, it's only 10 Months), it is due to the unhelpful folks at that miserable institution known as Air Canada.
Thanks to the nonsense at Air Canada she was unable to change the date of her return ticket home. They had promised her at the time of purchase that it would be no problem to change her flight, but now it turns out it's impossible... and nobody can be bothered to help. This left her with two options:
1) Lose the cost of the return portion of her ticket and buy a new return-flight in July when our school has vacation time.
2) Use the return portion, go home now, find a replacement teacher for a couple of weeks, and buy a new flight BACK to Taiwan with a return ticket to Canada dated for sometime next year.
If anyone EVER suggests you fly Air Canada. Don't. Ask anyone who has had the misfortune of doing it. They suck in all respects (especially in-flight... don't get me started on how hungry Sue was when she arrived in L.A. last time).
Anyway... this isn't going to be a bitch-fest Air Canada-bashing blog... so I'll stop moaning about them now.
Susan, Phillip, Albert and I took the Aloha bus from Chiayi to Taipei on Saturday afternoon. We arrived in Taipei around dinner time, found our hotel, jumped through some hoops to get our reservation right, went through some rigmarole when checking in, then dropped our luggage off and went to eat. I will admit to the check-in problems being my own fault. My spoken Chinese is by no means flawless and somewhere in the course of my making the reservation, I booked a single room for four people instead of four single rooms for four people. **SIGH*
It all worked out to our satisfaction, and we got the four rooms we wanted.
We went to eat at the Outback Steakhouse. Phillip had been dreaming of it, and in fact, it was really the only reason he went to Taipei that weekend, LOL! Albert was meeting a friend at the airport Sunday morning; Susan was flying out to Canada on Monday morning and I was accompanying her; Phillip was going to Taipei for a steak. :)
Our meal was excellent and we headed back to the hotel that night feeling sleepy and replete. Susan and I bid Albert and Phillip goodnight and wandered around the shops a little bit before heading back ourselves.
Albert returned to Chiayi the next day with his friend, so Phillip, Susan and I took the afternoon and went to visit the Terracotta Warriors exhibit in Taipei at the National History Museum. We had a blast. The exhibit was very small compared to the last time I had seen the Warriors in TaiChung (2002) but it featured some awesome newly-discovered pieces and was a real treat.
No visit to a museum in Taiwan is complete without the obligatory typo of course, and we found ours on a sign discussing a newly discovered section of the tomb. The discovery is credited as having happened in July of 2007... which was really exciting because it was only May 2007.
I must admit, aside from this one gaff, the signs were excellent. The museum did an amazing job at making themselves understood and at using proper English. Having lived here for awhile now, I have seen how easy it is for mistakes and strange turns-of-phrase to sneak into printed material. I was very impressed with the museum for having done such a good job.
The most striking part of the exhibit was the display of three Terracotta Warriors still adorned with the original coloured paint that it is believed was part of all the Warriors when they were originally created. It is believed that over time the pain faded and disappeared. These three Warriors are some of the only examples of what they all must have looked like when they were new. They were really awesome! The colours were still vivid and added a truly life-like quality to the statues. I can see why grave robbers would have been terrified!
The difference between the coloured Warriors and the plain clay coloured ones that we have all seen is amazing. It is really like night and day. Compared top the unadorned Warriors, these three were really life-like, right down to the expressions on their faces. One of them looks like he would enjoy a good laugh. Another looks stern. The three of them certainly look as though they were modeled after living soldiers.
Here is a scan of the museum entry ticket, which depicts one of the three painted Warriors. As you can see, there is a huge difference between him and the many other unpainted guys we've seen in the past. It is unfortunate that the picture on the ticket doesn't really do him justice, as the colours were far more vibrant in real life. Nevertheless, standing in front of this guy and looking into his eyes, you could feel his spirit. I believe he was honoured to have been chosen to follow the Emperor into the afterlife.
Some of the other recent discoveries at the tomb were court musicians, scribes and clerks, and a pond with wildlife. Originally, when the tomb was discovered, it was believed that only the Warriors were there protecting the emperor. It now appears that the entirety of the emperor's court was recreated for him to be surrounded by familiar things in the afterlife! Archaeologists are really excited by what this means for scholars of the early Chinese society. This tomb is the burial place of the first emperor of China, a man who ruled for a very short, yet very prosperous time. It will be interesting to see what insights this discovery will give into his daily life, and into his society.
When we exited the museum, we posed for some goofy pictures, then we went off to see a movie to get out of the rain that had dogged us since our arrival in Taipei.
We caught the latest Nicholas Cage movie,
Next, which we all REALLY enjoyed (despite the fact that the chinless-wonder was the star...UGH! Why is he popular? I don't get it.) then we wandered around a bit more before heading over to Dan Ryan's Chicago style restaurant for dinner.
Phillip headed home after dinner, and Susan and I made an early night of it since we needed to be at the bus for the airport around 7. We travelled out to the airport together and (to my guilty-pleasure) had Burger King breakfast at the departure gate (terminal 2). I had heard there was a Burger King at the airport, but this was the first time I had managed to find it! :)
Susan boarded her plane and took off, thus ending our whirlwind trip to Taipei. I hopped on a bus at the airport which brought me to the High Speed Railway station. I bought a ticket and took the High Speed Rail back to Chiayi from the airport. I was astounded by the comfort and the speed. It was awesome and I highly recommend it.
If it wasn't for the High Speed Rail, I would never have been able to accompany Susan to the airport in the morning and still be on time for work that day. Usually a bus from TaoYuan (where the international airport is) to Chiayi is about three and a half hours. I was home door-to-door in an hour and forty-five minutes!
As you can see by the cost of the ticket (NT$1580) it costs a little under three times as much as the bus. Well, it only costs twice as much if you travel by economy, but this is a first class ticket... in for a penny in for a pound, right? I must admit I was suitable impressed. I can't wait for an excuse to ride the High Speed Rail again...um... When is Sue coming back to Taiwan?? ;)
