I met a man from the future this weekend, what did you do?

This past weekend I went on my first of three major trips outside of the comforts of Hong Kong and had one of the most interesting weekends of my life. We arrived in Taipei on Friday afternoon after on hour and ten minute flight on an empty 747, I know, a waste of fuel and resources but it was my first time on a plane that large. One note on the plane though, it was old, the other than the general look of age on the interior, the plane's TV was a large projector in the front of the seats, it was interesting as I had only seen this in movies. Enough on the plane though, back to Taiwan. After landing and getting through customs Rodrigo, Andrew and I headed for the bus stop where we found about ten different companies yelling at us telling how there bus was the best, upon making the decision of after some light debate we boarded the bus for the hour long ride into Taipei. upon arriving at the equivalent of Grand Central Terminal in Taipei we got on the subway to Guting station and walked to our hostel.
This weekend we decided to stay at a hostel called Eight Elephants in the university area of the city, it was the first time I have stayed in hostel but after this experience I can tell you that it won't be my last. The place was simple a ground floor and a basement with a few bathrooms and showers, a kitchen, some private rooms, two dorm style rooms and a common room. We decided to stay in the dorm style rooms which had four bunk beds, I was on the top bunk and found that I was too big for the bed, I didn't really care, it was a novel idea for me to sleep on a bed that was way too small for me. EE as it is abbreviated is run by a small staff of locals and one guy from the states who seemed to work for free room and board to support his job as an English teacher. The American was a guy named Dan, in the small world that we live in he was from Rochester and had gone to Cornell. He was an interesting character who has been traveling the world studying languages and teaching English. Also in the Hostel we met a rather strange and drunk Australian who did research at university in Singapore. This was crazy to say the least, we met him on our last night in the hostel while we were taking it easy and watching Me, Myself and Irene, we introduced ourselves and started making small talk. As the night grew on and the amount of Bombay left in this bottle got lower he proceeded to get more and more animated. One of the best parts about this semester has been meeting the foreigners and observing how they view the US. This Australian fellow proceeded to bring up all the stereotypical points of interest in the US, he talked about our gun laws, our health care and our views concerning religion. All of his points were blown way out of proportion and had very little evidence behind them but we let talk not wanting to get in a heated argument with a drunk Australian who bigger than us and had access to us while we slept. After some nodding, a little agreement and some counterpoints we headed of to bed for our four a.m. taxi ride to the airport. Adding to small world concept I touched on earlier there was also a girl from New Jersey staying at EE who was travelling around SE Asia, around the city we must have met at least ten people from the greater NY area.
so now that i have talked about the hostel and all its goings on I guess I should get into what we actually did in Taiwan. After getting to the Hostel and putting our stuff down we headed back out and made for the National Palace Museum, this museum on the opposite side of Taipei from where we were staying houses what is widely considered the greatest collection of Chinese artifacts and historical works was amazing. If you are wondering why this collection of Chinese art and history is here in Taiwan and not China I am sorry to tell you I do not have enough time or reader's patience to go through the whole ordeal, feel free to email me or read the article attached to this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_Museum). The museum housed pieces from as far back as 6000 B.C. and they were all amazingly preserved. After the museum we headed to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world, it was quite a view from the top even with the cloudy weather. After 101 we went out to a dumpling restaurant that was supposed to have the best soup dumpling in the country. The restaurant was so popular that even the Philadelphia Enquirer had written an article on them. We found it from an article on the NY Times that outlined an itinerary for 36 hours in Taipei. The dumplings were some of the best I have had since arriving in Asia and that says a lot because I have had a lot of dumplings. After dinner the three of wandered the neighborhood and found that it was a very cool place filled with small stores and laid back restaurants that had the feel of a very laid back version of the Village in NYC with less bars and noise. We stayed out that night exploring and getting a feel for the city and headed home late.
The next morning we woke up and headed out to the edge of the city for Yangmingshan, a national park between Taipei City and Taipei County, for some hiking. The weather this day was not great, it was rainy and windy but when it came to hiking it made for a rather refreshing mix. We got to the park after a train and a bus ride, the park was about an hour away up in the hills of Taipei. Yangmingshan is home to the tallest peak, Mount Qixing (Seven Star Mountain), has an elevation of 1120 meters (3,674 ft), is peak is the highest point in Taipei City, and we decided to hike to the top. We climbed the mountain through most of what is classified as tropical rainforest and after about an hour, we reached the peak. Now seeing as we were over 3,500 feet above sea level and it was raining we could see very little from this summit but the climb was still worth it. standing at the top of an extinct volcano as the wind blows harder than you have ever felt it, you really feel alive. Something I have been asking myself more and more frequently is how many people in the world will do what I do, none, there is a uniqueness in each life that really can affect how you perceive the world around you. As I stood upon the highest point in Taipei, soaking wet and blinded from wind and rain I though about this and couldn't help but smile. After a break at the top and some peanuts for energy we headed back down Qixing and got the buss back to Taipei Main Station. After relaxing for an hour or so we headed out for what we hoped would be an eventful night, we would not be disappointed.
Saturday night we headed out to the same area we had been to the previous night and went to a Japanese restaurant we had seen called Dozo. The food here was amazing, the three of ate a meal that would have run us over $300 USD for what totalled to be only $30 each. The atmosphere was very modern with great touches of classical Japanese decorum and customs, the only place I can relate it to is a place called Buddakan in Philly. After a great meal we head to a club called Luxy that was hosting a DJ that Andrew had heard of and had played Coachella(Bonnaroo for the west coast) last year. After picking up the tickets we wandered around the streets of Taipei exploring and met a bunch of people who were also going to the show, the most interesting of these people was a German guy named Nick, he had spent the past four years in Taiwan and was now beginning college their. He spoke English, Mandarin, French and German. He was a good guy and we ended up meeting him again at the show while he was in "slightly" more inebriated state. We got to the club a little after midnight the DJ we guessed would come on around one. The house DJ was pretty good and this is the point in my night that brings me to the title of this entry. As we moved to the dance floor we saw something/someone up by the stage in all black dancing alone. As we got closer we could see that it was a Taiwanese guy with sunglasses who was best described as being from the future. During his few hours in our time he did manage to teach us some of his great dance moves, he showed to money man, the futuristic hokey pokey and the invisible drink. All of these moves have been added to my repertoire, a repertoire that only a select few have ever seen or will see for that matter. This guy disappeared eventually, probably back to 3013, but the DJ showed up and put on a great show. We didn't stay for the whole show since we needed to get up relatively early the next morning for the hot springs.
We got up the next morning around ten and headed for Wulai, a town on the outskirts of Taipei. After another train and bus ride of about an hour we ended up in the beautiful mountain town of Wulai. Taipei being a geothermal hotbed means that hot springs are a part of life for those lucky enough to live near them. The town is split by a river, that was flowing a rate too dangerous for us to get in, and grows upwardly towards the top of the hills that surround it. Since sitting in the river was no longer an option we decided to get a room for two hours in a hot springs hotel where spring water was pumped into large tubs for you to enjoy. We got to the room, relaxed for a couple of hours and enjoyed the view of the quiet town around us. We left the hotel and grabbed some bamboo rice and noodles at a local restaurant and then caught the bus back to Taipei. That night we went and got some really good Thai food and explored the bustling market near our hostel. We called it an early night and headed home to relax before getting up at four to catch a ride to the airport.
Taipei was an amazing city and I wanted to make a note about the people of Taipei. The natives of this great city were some of the nicest most outgoing people I have met in this world, they were more than glad to go out of their way to help you find your way and loved trying to speak English you, this didn't always help since we were trying to practice our mandarin but I can't really complain. Taipei is an amazing place and I highly recommend you check it out if you are ever in SE Asia.