Taipei 101
The whole internship thing was a pain in my ass since the beginning. I was hoping to hit it big, like going to Europe or US, but finally managed just a petty country like Taiwan. But now I realize how wrong I was.
After all the medical problems in the beginning( these stones seem to like me...as they keep coming back....this one in particular really didn't want to leave me... :P ) I was finally going to the place of my intern.
My first day in Taiwan was the most fun. There were three guys with me. Names Dipto, Jimi and one more( i still dont know his name :P). We went around Taipei city in our Professor's car. I was dumbstruck when I first saw the car. Not a Audi or Merc but really luxurious. Then when we entered the city, I was left agape. Globalization at its best. McDonalds and KFC's spread around the city. If you ignore the Chinese, the city was no less than a NY. We had a room booked for the night, courtesy our Professor again :P. As soon as we reached the room, I slipped under the blanket and enjoyed 2 hours of sound sleep.
When I woke up, others were ready to go to the famous Taipei night market. We went to the metro station. At first sight you might mistake it to the one in Delhi(I won't say Kolkata...it sucks..). But soon I figured out the difference. The whole place was automatic. The ticket came out as the coins went in. There were ATMs and whole lot more. The train was in awesome condition(looked brand new to me).
The night market was altogether a different world. The place had all kinds of stuff. The first thing we did was to eat. I was apprehensive at first since it was my first meal in Taiwan. I was expecting cockroaches and squids. Although I was not disappointed, I asked my friend to order me something which has four legs and was not a pig. I got a dish which I identified as beef. It was good, if not great. There is a dish called stinky tofu. People here find great pleasure in making foreigners eat it. It surely stinks. But I found the taste to be ok. I was full. These people have big appetite.
Then these guys took us to a drinks shop( fruit drink). These people love drinks. All kind of drinks. They have tons of different fruit drinks. It is difficult to choose one, since I knew nothing about them :P. They handed me a menu with pictures of some drinks and asked me to select one. A strange thing about drinks here is that each drink has something solid at the bottom. They make the whole drink look like one of the jars used in biology labs with some human fetus. Finally, after all the..... imagining the taste, I chose a red one and inquired about the taste. After I had my first sip I realized these people enacted the taste right. When they were doing there little explaining, I thought either they were signaling a cold drink with red chili or a really sour one. Now looking back, I conclude that Jimi, our translator, acted exactly like one of those centershock ads.
After that, we waded through the crowd for a little longer. Saw the clothes section of the market, went to the gaming or fun zone. These guys have really weird games. There is game in which you fish prawns in a small tank of dimensions limited to a mere 2 m* 2 m maximum, and you pay 100$ for one hour of that. Of course you get to eat what you fish. The last part was going to the snake market and the pet market........
Jimi showed us around the city and showed us the metro station(MRT station) and the bus station, the 23 no. gate which we were supposed to use when we want to go back :)...
After the long flight and our long stroll around the city, we finally got to the hotel and I rested in peace..... :P
This was my day one in Taiwan
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