Serendipity

BEW:  It had taken me 24 hours from the time I left home to the time I touched down in Taipei.  There is a 12 hour time difference, so let me say hello to everyone from the future.  It is Saturday morning here, but Friday night in Virginia.  Last night I thought I would sleep in until noon, but here it is, 7:30 am, and I am up, feeling fine.  I suspect that will change as the day wears on.  The hotel provides breakfast, but not on site.  They gave me a coupon for the coffee shop next door.  It is called Dante (“Coffee Life Always Bright”).  Man, are they busy!  I had a coupon, but I can see coffee costs $70 for a small cup.  Outrageous!  Almost forgot, the exchange rate makes that about $2.25 US.  I had a big breakfast, which included a hard-boiled egg, very typical of East Asia.  But it was a brown egg.  I had crossed into the Brown Egg World (BEW).  I recalled American egg exporters trying to sell white eggs to the Chinese several decades ago.  There was no market because white was associated with death.  Brown eggs sell here; white eggs don’t.  Having lived in New England, also a part of the BEW, I am almost nostalgic.  In fact, I remember leaving New England and moving to Maryland and thinking how anemic white eggs looked.  I had become so used to rich brown, it was hard to go back.  By the way, there’s no nutritional difference.

The Palette of Place:  With no agenda, I went out exploring today.  As usually happens, my instincts led me in the right direction, the old North Gate of Taipei, which I could see in the distance.  It was standing all alone without its wall.  I felt sorry for it, especially when I saw how close the freeway fly-over approached.  As I got closer, however, I discovered something was going on this Saturday:  a festival celebrating the goddess Mazu, one of Taipei's respected deities.  The focus of the festival was a parade, and I had stumbled upon the starting line.  It seemed like every temple in Taipei which was even partly dedicated to Mazu had a part to play.  It reminded me of the videos I have seen of Chinese New Year.  There were intricately carved Mazu houses carried by porters, huge yellow dragons, and costumed warriors from ages past.  Along the route were places where offerings were left for Mazu.  It was the perfect opening for 'day one' in Taipei, and later in the day I would catch up with the parade at its culmination and see more of Taiwan's colors.  Geographers often talk about the spirit of place (certainly in evidence here), but I want to coin a term:  palette of place to signify the color signature that places etch upon the landscape.  Taipei (perhaps shared with all of Taiwan and maybe all of China) has a color signature that is bold, bright and saturated; it is dominated by yellows, oranges, and reds.  Every place has a palette of its own, and Taiwan seems to have one of the world's most striking.  I could not have planned a day richer in culture than this one, thanks to Mazu.

Haircut:  Shaggy was I when I arrived; it had been two months since I last had my ears lowered.  So, one of my first practical objectives was to find a barber shop in Taipei.  I chose one down a side alley.  The owner was from Singapore and he had a bevy of women working for him.  I liked my haircut, the second this year that I have gotten in Asia.  As some of you know, I collect haircuts from different places, preferably different countries, but also different US states.  When you are traveling, you need souvenirs that are light and a haircut is lighter than light because you actually have less weight to carry home than when you started your trip.  I would like to think that I now  look Chinese.  And, speaking of the palette of place, watch the following videoclip to see what the Chinese have done to the red-and-white barber pole (this one wasn't taken at my Singapore barbers).  You find these all over the city, and they seem to be excellent in attracting attention.  This is the first time I have posted a video, so let's see if you can get it to work.