Taipei is choc-filled with semi-feral dogs. Collared mutts with no masters roam BaDe Rd between the Beer Factory and the Main Station. I have heard that the locals are too Buddist to authorize wholesale slaughter of vagrant dogs without clear cause. There is something to this. The island is rabies free, and the dogs don’t beg or raid garbage cans that I have seen. That said, the other day I had a woman, complete stranger to me, hanging off my arm in fear at a crosswalk while a pack of pooches wandered by. 
Yesterday I took the bus south to Wulai, a little mountain town known for its hot springs and aboriginal culture. On the bus I met a couple of French backpackers who were equally ambivalent about what to do in Wulai. After viewing the town’s offering of tacky “aboriginal” art and sausage-on-a-stick stands, we decided to find our way towards Nedong National Forest. The tourist information center pointed us down the river, and an hour and a half later we arrived at the park. Well, the outside of the park anyway. Upon arriving we were turned away, due to the park being closed for mudslides or renovations or chupacabra infestation or whatever. The guy at the gate didn’t speak English.
As fate would have it, closer into town there is a small resort labeled an “amusement park” on the side of the ravine overlooking Wulai. The “amusements” include a decrepit ropes course, some fairground style games, and a “forest walk” path whose wooden boards could not be more slippery were they were greased with bacon fat. The only way into the resort is a gondola up from the river just south of town. The whole place feels like it is one gondola mishap away from being the local for a late 70’s slasher movie. Really creepy.
My work situation is quite odd now. I have only been given ten hours a week of work, which puts me in the awkward situation of having too much free time and not enough money to spend during it. I cannot easily pick up work elsewhere, because it would break my contract with Kojen and subject me to penalty fees. My work situation is going to have to change soon, one way or another.
Taipei is choc-filled with semi-feral dogs. Collared mutts with no masters roam BaDe Rd between the Beer Factory and the Main Station. I have heard that the locals are too Buddist to authorize wholesale slaughter of vagrant dogs without clear cause. There is something to this. The island is rabies free, and the dogs don’t beg or raid garbage cans that I have seen. That said, the other day I had a woman, complete stranger to me, hanging off my arm in fear at a crosswalk while a pack of pooches wandered by. 
Yesterday I took the bus south to Wulai, a little mountain town known for its hot springs and aboriginal culture. On the bus I met a couple of French backpackers who were equally ambivalent about what to do in Wulai. After viewing the town’s offering of tacky “aboriginal” art and sausage-on-a-stick stands, we decided to find our way towards Nedong National Forest. The tourist information center pointed us down the river, and an hour and a half later we arrived at the park. Well, the outside of the park anyway. Upon arriving we were turned away, due to the park being closed for mudslides or renovations or chupacabra infestation or whatever. The guy at the gate didn’t speak English.
As fate would have it, closer into town there is a small resort labeled an “amusement park” on the side of the ravine overlooking Wulai. The “amusements” include a decrepit ropes course, some fairground style games, and a “forest walk” path whose wooden boards could not be more slippery were they were greased with bacon fat. The only way into the resort is a gondola up from the river just south of town. The whole place feels like it is one gondola mishap away from being the local for a late 70’s slasher movie. Really creepy.
My work situation is quite odd now. I have only been given ten hours a week of work, which puts me in the awkward situation of having too much free time and not enough money to spend during it. I cannot easily pick up work elsewhere, because it would break my contract with Kojen and subject me to penalty fees. My work situation is going to have to change soon, one way or another.
4 comments:
ben. please. cut. hair.
just go ahead and break the contract with kojen. how will they know? and if they do, you can probably find a better contract anyways
i like your hair.
(sister knows best).
if you have so much free time, you should write more!!!
Ben,
Just letting you know that we will miss you at Amelia's bhat mitzvah. We have discussed the idea of a life sized cardboard cut-out, so maybe the haircut isn't such a bad idea. That said, we live for the blog, and if there isn't an update for a week or so, I find myself moping around all day. Good luck with work - let them know you need more or some of the dogs are going to start disappearing....
Ben,
Just letting you know that we will miss you at Amelia's bhat mitzvah. We have discussed the idea of a life sized cardboard cut-out, so maybe the haircut isn't such a bad idea. That said, we live for the blog, and if there isn't an update for a week or so, I find myself moping around all day. Good luck with work - let them know you need more or some of the dogs are going to start disappearing....
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