#198 Strolling around lovely Taipei

Transcript

All right, walking up some steps out of a subway and out onto the street, bang, bang, boom. So one week to go in Taipei. It's a Thursday now. Next Thursday is my flight. And I am a little concerned about how that's going to go, because my sleep schedule hasn't gotten any better. It was one of those things I was having trouble sleeping, because I just always do in general. But in Japan, I was definitely, you know, burning the candle at both ends. But it really went crazy when I got to Seoul. I was sorted down about things when I first got to Seoul. And I remember that first night, by the first night, I was texting my friend Brad back home, who he's the reason I went to Japan in the first place, because back in 2019, he lived there.

And that was like my window, my gateway, to go to Japan and see what it was like. Let me try to find a way to get off of this street. Get off of this major street.

I don't quite know where I am or where I'm going. I haven't looked at a map yet, but that's the point I'm going to get to. I love how variable, how easily variable things are here. But yeah, in Seoul, I remember I was texting Brad that first night, just kind of saying like yikes, because I guess we had this plan back in 2019, to go visit South Korea after my Japan trip was over.

But I had a lot of problems on that first Japan trip where I lost my passport. And I had, no, I guess I had a real passport by then. I had a temporary passport in the middle. It was actually really cool looking. I should have taken some pictures of it. Instead of a black passport, it was a white passport that was only valid for like, there's a three weeks I was waiting for my passport. But the bigger problem was, I only had one bank account back then, because I just didn't even think about that. And I had a problem with my debit card. And again, my fault, because I didn't look at the expiry date, but my debit card expired midway through Japan. And I just took a crap ton of money. Every day, I took the maximum amount of money out of the ATMs, it's 7-11. And I literally just paid for everything with cash. For like the last...

Man, it was a long time. Like the last six weeks, that was in Japan or something? So I had to go home, but originally our idea was to go to Seoul. Check it out. And it probably would have gone a little better because that was summertime. But yeah, getting there in the winter and just realizing it's compared to Tokyo, it's like, oh, this city. A lot less pretty, a lot more garbage filled, and a pollution nightmare. So anyway, I was texting Brad that first night being like, man, I don't know, maybe we dodged a bullet not going to Seoul. At that point, my opinion was Seoul sucks. And you know, once I learned about Bukansen and stuff, I came to a big rudging semi-respectful alliance with Seoul. But yeah, I was up to like six in the morning because of the time-change stuff. You know, it was like 6 p.m. for him. And he even commented like, isn't it like crazy late for you? Why are you still up? And I remember saying to him like, yeah, whatever. Like I've already in this first day decided my fate in Seoul is like, fuck it.

I'm just going to all stay up all night here and spend the days in coffee shops. And like at that point, it really didn't even seem like there would be anything I could do except be in the city. It says like, yeah, fuck it. You know, nighttime's prettier around here. At least you can't see the haze in the smog.

But that really set the tempo ever since. I've just been staying up all night.

And it just hasn't stopped consistently. As recently as last night, I saw the sun come up. It's like, geez. So anyway, I mean, it's a pretty casual flight from here. My flight doesn't leave until 1 p.m.

But, you know, again, to get up, get all my stuff together, get to the airport, get there ahead of time. That still means I'll have to get up early in the morning. It's going to be a bad travel day. Compound that with the stress of having to get through Japan customs when I haven't been gone for a full calendar year. Yikes. But anyway, that's for next week's me to worry about. I've still got a week to try to get my shit together a little. We'll see. We'll see. Maybe I'll get lucky. And I'll just like, I mean, literally all I need is for that one day before. 5:00 It's like, wow, what if I just go to bed at a reasonable time that one day before? It'd be all right. But easier said than done.

But anyway, since I was up all night, I also woke up really late today. And that's just what's really cool about Taipei especially. Like, it's this way in Asia in general since everything it's like taking a North American city and compacting it, squeezing it down. Everything is so nice and close. And I don't really notice the opposite effect very much. Like, there were some times in Japan where things were crazy crowded. Shibuya is mainly where I have those memories. You know, Shibuya and Shinjuku. And Shibuya station during rush hour. Really just Shibuya. I'm sure there's other crowded parts, but for me, that was the one that stood out the most. But where, you know, you really do feel like packed in.

But even in Japan, that doesn't happen that often. And I never really felt that way in South Korea. And I've never felt that way here in Taipei. So it's like even though everything is dense and close together. You know, the downside should be, shouldn't there be people everywhere? And it's just not an issue. I guess a lot of these places I've stayed are quite packed in with people. These Airbnb type setups. But it keeps them nice and affordable. And everyone is just very well trained to be quiet. You know, I've never really had problems on that end besides an occasional snorer.

And it just makes the day so easy, so easily variable. In North America, you really do kind of need to pick a plan. And that's more or less the plan. Where you can just change course around here. It's great. It's like yesterday it was raining. So I just hopped down the subway. Took a ride, you know, a third of the way across town. Wondered around a bit, bought some stuff. The rain wasn't letting up, so I just went home. Still had kind of a fun little day.

Today the weather's beautiful. But I didn't get up and out until like three o'clock. So yeah, now it's quarter to four. I was thinking I would just go to the very first place by Jiantan station on the red line. The very first place that I did a hike in Taipei. I was like, oh, I could just go do that again. Up to Su Chow University, looped back around through my old neighborhood. Just because why not? You know, that's what I have been doing. It's just the greatest hits. Just go hit up the places that I've been before. Why not? I don't really need to do any more exploring and stuff. It's all right. Now I'm kind of getting a taste of like... What would it be like if I lived here more permanently? And I've already done all the major exploration. And now it's just like, oh, I'll just go back to this place and go back to that place. And it's pretty delightful. Just go back to a hike I've already done. That's fine. It's still fucking beautiful. There's plenty of details. You don't notice the first time. So I was thinking I would just do that. But that wasn't the shortest hike in the world. And the day is getting away from me. And the days are getting shorter and shorter. Not the best plan ever. And then when I got to where I was supposed to transfer from the orange line to the red line. I just decided to swap out and just switch the plan.

Because I had to go use the washroom at that station.

Toilet talk on the bingo card.

They only had a squat toilet at the station I was at. And I think this is the longest time I've spent in a squat toilet. I was just like, oh, man, my tummy is rumbling. I was in there squatting for some time. Apologies for the squat talk. But it's one of those things where it's like, ah, yeah, you know, I'm not really used to squatting and it does hurt my knee a bit. But hey, what choice do I have? And I mean, it is kind of better. I was always a little worried that what would happen if I got stuck with a squat toilet when I needed to spend a lot of time in the toilet. And it's like, yeah, you know what I mean? It is a little tough for me to just squat for long periods. But the pooping part of pooping, I mean, it is better when you're not sitting, right? It's the whole thing about like, you get like a kink in your intestine. When you're in a sitting position, like, it's more natural to squat. So it's like, oh, yeah, this is actually maybe it's better. It's not the worst. But with the rumblings in my tummy that I wasn't sure are over and the day getting away from me, I was like, well, let's just not do that then. Never mind. Just have a new plan. So that was a Minkwen station. It starts with an M. The one where the red and the orange connect. Minkwen Road, I think it's called. But I was like, yeah, fuck it. I'll just get off here. And now I'm just walking. I don't know where the fuck I am. I'm just walking. It's this nice little pedestrian walkway. I walked by some other subway station just now. Hey, here's a bakery called Supra Normal. 10:00 S-U-P-R-A. And it's got a big painting, like a big mural on the wall of an astronaut with a coffee. And it says, beyond this world, be super-normal.

What is the relevance of that? There isn't one. It's just like, I'm just walking around.

Walking around some random neighborhood I've never been to and just seeing stuff. I just see a new stuff that I haven't seen before. And you know, when I'm done recording podcast, he am rings, I'll check where I am and recalibrate. But it's like, we even care. It doesn't matter. You know, like I said, I just walked by another subway station. I think this walkway, this pedestrian walkway, is probably following the subway line. But my plan since it's all beautiful out, is just to walk to a she-men and just walk through that neighborhood and walk across the bridge to walk home. This will be my new plan. My little afternoon walk. Just wander around.

And yet, it sounds like such a diss to North America. This that I'm about to say. And to be fair, maybe it's just, you know, I'm just burned out on North America. I just lived there for a long time. Like when I first moved to Vancouver, it blew my mind. It was amazing. When I first moved to Toronto, even. I was like, wow. Different than Vancouver, but I like it. When I first went to Montreal, I don't know that I ever literally moved to Montreal. But I've spent probably in a combined year there. Super great. I loved it. So it could just be that everything's better when it's novel. But that thing I was saying about, you know, you pick the plan and you do the plan. I just like the setup of Asian cities. So much better. Where when you walk out of the door, like I said this to somebody the other day, when I'm a, when I'm a files back home, I was talking to you. I was like, yeah, the thing is because like, it's this weird thing of like, why are you in Asia for so long? But you're not trying to move there. And you're only picking up various bits of culture by accident. And you're not trying to learn any of the languages. And you barely even talked to anybody. I'm like, yeah, I know it is. I know. But it's literally the cities. When you walk out your door in the morning, it just feels fun. That's the first thing I noticed in Japan. And it took a little bit for me to regain that, to calibrate that in Korea, but I did. And then I had it again immediately in Taipei. You just walk out your door and it just feels fun. Just whatever direction you go, wherever you go wander around, it just feels good. There's just people around. There's stuff happening. There's 7-Eleven's abound. Just waiting for you. There's subways. There's buses. There's mountains to climb.

I'm at another cafe now where this one is, what's this called? I don't know, but it's like European style. Our nine cafe, it's called. Like the letter R, the number nine. And there's all these paintings on the wall that are like European style. They look like out of a European storybook.

It's like, you know, a lady in a French beret with a coffee and just a poulangerie chef guy. They're definitely going for a French vibe.

And it's got the different languages of Jettem, Mtiamo. Akusinta Kamu, I don't know what language that is. Or Minrakastan Sinua. Ikli Badik. I love you. It's just cool, man. It's just pretty. It's just fun. Just leaving the door and going to walk around just feels fun in a way that, yeah, again, apologies to North America, but I just don't feel that way in North America anymore. And I don't know that I ever did fully.

And yeah, I love that variability. I love it. Just go outside, you know, pick a vague plan. You know, there's a sort of a direction and if something goes wrong, just go a different direction. Just go do something else. Yeah, like there's all these little alleyways here. Where the hell? Let me check. Where the fuck am I? Just don't even know where I am. But this is cool. I've never been to this neighborhood. Like it's funny, I'm sure. When I released the episodes about she-men, I'm sure I...

Added the name, she-men, to the episode titles. But it was funny that the first, like, probably the first week almost. I was walking around that neighborhood. I didn't even know what it was called. It's just like this place is the best. Yeah, so here we go. Yeah, I literally just started at Minquan West Road Station and I'm just walking... Oh, perfect. I mean, I'm walking in the right direction and everything. I'm walking south past Shuanglian, station toward Zhongshan. So if I just keep walking this way, yeah, this is fucking perfect. It'll take me up by the park, the NTU Hospital Station. And from there, I just know where I'm going already. Because that's basically the she-men neighborhood. She-men ding. Yeah, this is just a little pedestrian walkway that goes over top of the station. Now what is this? Underground Book Street. Zhongshan Metro Mall. Well, all right. I mean, it's very perfect.

I'm pretty out here. I kind of prefer it up at street level, but let's go down just for a bit. Let's just see what that is. Because again, why not? Just go. Just go random places, wander around. Man, it just feels nice. It just feels good. Here we go. It's just a big bookstore down here. Or a library, possibly. Yeah, it's just a big underground mall. I mean, what did I think was going to happen? Of course, that's what this is. Big underground mall. Yeah, it's two pretty upstairs.

It's too nice. I'm going to go back upstairs. There we go. Back upstairs. But yeah, walking around Asia, dude. It's just pretty good. But yeah, additionally, I just love, too, that it's both things at once. It's the country and the city together. Because this area I'm in right now, I mean, it is a lot of stores. It's a whole big, like, underground mall. And then this above ground sort of shopping prom and add on top of each other. Right along the subway station. A lot of people here. A lot of shopping type stuff. But my other plan to go hike through the mountains for the afternoon was literally, like, three or four subway stops north of here. You know, it's so fucking close. So easy to get to. Both things are just next door to each other. And again, this is kind of unique to Taipei. With a little work, you can get to some nature in Tokyo. But that is a little tricky. Seoul is not that bad once you figure out how to get to Bukka.

Busan. Bukkonsan is pretty accessible. But then the smaller cities, Bukwoka, Jetschan, especially Busan. Really no problem. Oh, looky here. Now I recognize this. I've been here before. Ya, there's a dyesel right near here that I went to. See, now let's get into a pointless minutia. So yesterday, when I went out, when it was raining, I was also going to a dyesel because I just wanted to get some crazy blue. So, I So with my boots, there's always something incredibly pedestrian and stupid that I'm yammering about on this podcast, hair buzzers and the like. So I got these big cool boots in salt that are breaking down a fallen apart look like hell. Oh, there's a guy walking a pig like a big pig. Like a pig that's like bigger than your average dog. Just walking down the street with him on a little leash. I've never seen that before. Again similar to the turtle I saw the other day. I kind of want to take a picture but I feel like it's a little weird. It's a little uncouth to just take a picture of a guy walking a pig. I just let the guy walk his pig leave him alone.

Yeah, these boots are falling apart and I found out the hard way that when they get really wet, that when they get really wet the polyurethane smells like ammonia makes it smell like their boots have pee on them. Only one of them was doing that. I should obviously replace these boots but I don't know what it is where I just want to hold on to everything as long as I can. It's just something in my brain that it's like you just keep your stuff till it doesn't work anymore. That's just my thinking. It's how I've always been. But these really were fallen apart because additionally the soles were starting to disconnect from the boot. But I bought some crazy glue the other day. One of the soles was coming off at the toe and the other one at the heel. And I crazy glued the one at the toe and it really worked. I just blew up crazy glued the fucking thing back on and it's perfectly sealed and it looks great again. So I was like alright let me go get some more crazy glue which was my plan yesterday and try to glue this heel back on.

But the heel I guess you know it's a lot more there's a lot more movement going on a lot more bending of the shoe at the heel. It did not so easily glue back on it really wouldn't reattach. So that's what I did yesterday. It's like well I tried I tried to save these but why am I trying to save these boots that look like they were made by the devil at this point and they haven't I haven't had the pee problem since because it hasn't rained that hard on me even yesterday just it was okay but this is just dumb. I should just get rid of these fucking boots. So that did it yesterday. I finally was like alright I can't even glue the fucking heel back on. This is stupid get rid of these. I finally went and bought some shoes. I like having boots. I like having big clumpy boots like I like just being able to like today again like I could just go to the city go hiking without a thought in the world like you can still do that with shoes with sneakers. The only time I literally felt like I needed boots was on boot concept. That's 20:00 the only time like it was a mountain mountain where it's like I should not be doing this in sneakers but you still have to be a lot more mindful of sneakers. Mindful of where you step, mindful of where you're walking. If you're going through tall grass and just different whatever terrains I do love even though it's been hot and it's been summertime I've just been happy to have big boots and I was like maybe I'll just be a boot guy maybe I'll just always wear boots forever. But boots are just way too expensive. These ones from Seoul were like 70 dollars and they lasted a good nine months I feel like that's fine but all the boots here in Taipei are 200 plus minimum you know it's just like that's such a lot of money. So we'll see when I get to Japan we'll see but for now it's like well just buy some shoes. So then part of me was like well just buy the cheapest shoes but cheap shoes really are bad. Like I've had like Walmart shoes that didn't even last I don't know by three months you know they're just like following a part on my feet. It's like why did I buy these? What's the point of this? So instead I just found the biggest shoes I could find that helps cut things down a lot because it's very hard to find. I thought 290 centimeters was the biggest but I found some 295s because my feet are not that big that's like a size 12. My feet are more like a 10 and a half or an 11 but because my toes I have like spacers between my toes so I don't develop bunions and you can get special brands of shoes that have wide toe boxes but I don't know I can't find that shit around here but I learned that if you just buy footwear that's too big it just gives you room. It gives you room for your toes to not get crammed in. It's a very strange design of sneakers. It's like they're designed to cram your toes into each other and I don't know much about bunions I didn't research it until I started getting pain in my big toes but it doesn't seem very easily reversible it's like surgery and stuff. But as long as I keep spacers between my toes I wear spacers in my shoes and I have different ones that I wear at night as long as I just don't allow my toes to develop the bunions. I think I'm going to be okay or at least it severely slows the process. I just need room in my shoes. So I could only find three pairs of shoes that were that big 295 centimeters. One of them was 25 bucks, one was 35 bucks, one was 45 bucks. So I just bought the $45 shoes and like fuck it. If anybody should be spending out a little on fucking footwear it's me. It's all they do is walk. That's not an area where cheaping out is a good idea. But I am wearing the big boots right now. It's like yep just wear them into the ground, wear them for this last week and then when I go to the airport next week I'll just slip on my little sneakers and suddenly I will have the latest feet in the world and I will keep my eyes peeled for boots because I still extremely enjoy big cool boots but I don't know I just don't want to spend $300 on boots. Yeah because of the weird exchange rates I never really did get a great grip on how much stuff costs here in Taipei but it is generally kind of expensive. Like I never really think that the 100 one bill which is basically like I think of as a dollar but really it's more like a $5 bill Canadian almost you know it's like 450. So like I was buying these dried mango slices when I go hiking because they're just you know nice thing to kind of tuck away but it didn't really occur to me at each one of those little pouches of dried mango slices was almost $5. It's just like oh yeah shit I just wasn't paying attention. I feel like the prices in Korea were quite comparable to Canada and the prices in Japan are similar but a little below a little less in Japan. Everything is definitely more expensive here in Taiwan but I just sort of never noticed you know I just take a big whack of money out of the bank every three weeks or so and not really know exactly how much money it is and not really know how I mean I'm definitely spending slow I mean I don't fucking do anything or buy anything except food it takes a long time to burn through these bills in my wallet but yeah I still just never I never have a good sense of what things cost how much I'm spending I'm glad to report by the way again really old news but when I went to see Beetlejuice too the only time I went to see a movie in Asia and I didn't like it it seems like the consensus is yeah it's not very good like I always enjoy the kind of funny podcast so they did Beetlejuice in review and talked about how amazing the first Beetlejuice is but they're generally fairly positive people which I sort of enjoy in general but when you don't like something it's just not fun to hear 25:00 people talk about liking it it's like I hope they don't just talk about how good Beetlejuice too is but nah every one of them didn't like it and I'm like oh good sanity prevails I movie did suck it wasn't just me oh here we go high pay city mall if yeah this is definitely yeah this is the place this connects up to that very first place that I went when I first arrived in Taipei came in from the airport this is more or less where they spit me out so this is that underground mall with all the video games and anime stuff well let's just go back down there relive my first day in Taipei it is a weird feeling too when transitioning between cities it does just kind of make all the other cities start to pop up in my mind of like just being in the subway today and the way they have dividers so you cannot get to the subway track they also do that in South Korea so that made me think back to South Korea and I was like oh I kind of missed those subways in South Korea especially those little drink machines where for 50 cents you get a little coffee that's it was awesome which speaking of I should buy another coffee to fuel me on the walk home and then back in Japan you know you can access the tracks but since everybody else is doing these full barricades I bet Japan's gonna do that eventually because it really does make sense hey here we go into the mall yeah I'm at the very end because this is the spot where there are blind people who sell massages just quite an interesting business kind of a neat thing yeah here we go just have a little walk through the mall oh of course one last thing yeah of the different countries you know where I start to compare contrast them a little more when it's time to transition to a new one when I was in that squad toilet I forget about this not done my squad toilet talk since I was squatting in there for several long minutes probably in there 10 minutes later maybe not maybe not 10 whatever you don't need to excruciating details of the squad toilet but I had a lot of time to just glance around and soak it in and I did notice that there is an emergency button in there because I remember I commented on that specifically in South Korea because it was so prominent and so evident every single place no matter how rural little washroom there's pretty much always an emergency call but the only time I can think of where there wasn't one was this extra rural little outhouse bathroom that I found while I was circumnavigating Jeju but there's pretty much always an emergency button to the point that I was like it feels almost weird where it's good to have the emergency buttons but do you really need this many emergency buttons like I don't know it just seems like it's it starts to have the opposite effect of like it makes it seem like instead of feeling safe it feels like what kind of fist of the North Star lawless wasteland am I in that you need this many security buttons but I don't think you do need them Asia seems extremely crime free particularly just as a dude walking around I feel I mean I generally feel pretty safe anyway that's luck of the genetic lottery you can walk around as a dude by yourself and everyone just ignores you but it's extra so in Asia no one cares about me in a good way but they have all those buttons way more than I ever saw in Japan but I realized seeing that button today and in the squat toilet that I was like oh yeah actually they do have those buttons all over the place in Taiwan as well but they're just not as signposted like they're in South Korea it's almost like a big arrow with like cartoon explosion almost like ding ding ding like a store that sells fireworks or something but it's like here's the emergency button where in Taipei they're there but they're just a lot more subtle they're just a lot smaller like you know here's the emergency button if you need it but they are everywhere still so I thought I should mention again not a bad thing to have and who knows maybe they have more of them in Japan than I realized maybe I just wasn't paying attention I'll keep my eyes peeled this time but I really don't I don't know I mean I don't remember them but they do have them here in Taiwan as well That'll be something I mean, assuming I get back into Japan and everything goes okay. I do think this is going to take a lot of the weight off of Japan, now that I've been to these other Asian countries, and like for my purposes of just hiking around and soaking in the vibe. These other countries are also extremely excellent, so it takes a lot of the pressure off Japan. It's like, yeah, I like Japan, but there's other options. It's fine. So when I get back to Japan, theoretically, 30:00 it'll be a lot less like, wow, super magical wonderland. I've even started noticing it in my own mind as far as like, Japan vloggers and stuff where I'm kind of like, why do you only talk about Japan? I'm one to talk, right? I did a hundred episodes of this podcast about Japan.

But it's like, just like endless vlogs about Japan everywhere. Japan, Japan, Japan. It's like, you know, there's other fucking countries, but also you got to go where the audience goes. I wasn't watching anything about these other countries. If there's any really famous English-speaking bloggers for these other Asian countries, I don't know who they are. Again, Japan, Japan invaded all of our minds, and God bless them for it. But I mean, yeah, it's through 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, every generation of North American kids comes up with Japan in their brain.

From speed racer to fucking chainsaw man, you know, it's just like, I bet you dollars to donuts, you like something from Japan.

And I guess these other countries, they just don't have that in road to your brain, to your little mind in that same way. But now that I've been out here wandering around, it's like, man, these other countries are pretty fucking good though. They're pretty fucking good. But all that being said, the double triple flip, I'm sure when I get back to Japan, I'll be like, oh, this feels so good though. Fuck, I love Japan.

But that'll be coming up soon enough. And the meantime, I'm just going to walk through this mall, speaking of Japan, like here's a gacha machine with Mario and Zelda.

Well, here's a Bandai Namco one, but it's all Pac-Man and Dig-Duck. No Dark Souls. Mappy, come on. You can have some large ranch shit instead of Mappy. Bomberman, teletopies, are they still going? Does Bandai Namco own teletopies? Or do they just make the toys?

But yeah, gacha, anime, video games. This Taipei main station mall is fucking cool. That is fucking cool. And there's new ads now. I remember when I first got here, again, just to set this in time, it was when the Elden Ring DLC first came out. So there was a bunch of posters for that.

Now it's Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake. But okay, thank you for listening to me, Rambul once again. Sure, they'll be more to this episode, but I don't know what it'll be. Just whenever something else strikes my mind as I walk around Taipei for my last week. Yeah, this is feeling pretty good now. I guess last episode I was talking about that sort of weird stress of like, oh man, only two weeks ago, I got to squeeze in stuff. But I've definitely kind of settled until like, okay, I don't worry about it. You've done enough. You've done enough. Like it's kind of good to be deliberately just going back to places I've already been. To just kind of diffuse that thing in my mind of like, go explore a new place, go find a new thing. It's like, you've done it, dude. You're alright, don't worry about it. Next time you come to Taiwan, you can go to the East Coast. You can go to a different city. You can do all kinds of stuff.

For now, just wander around the places you've been and just soak it in, man. Just enjoy it.

Alright, it's the next day and I did come to the first hike that I did here in Taipei by Gentan station where you just go a little south of there. And then hike east over to Suqiao University, although you can sort of connect up and keep going all the way to the lakes on the brown line if you keep going east. But today, as with yesterday, I started pretty late, like 3 p.m. before I got started on this thing. So I'm just going to go to Suqiao. But it's kind of interesting going back to places I've already been. It definitely feels different. Oh, there's just a guy walking his dog on a little leash up here. It's a tiny dog, too. So yeah, that's how easy this hike is. It's a bit steep at the very start just to get up on this ridge and then you just walk along a nice ridge. I just passed the observation deck across from the Taipei 101. So I think I'm like halfway.

Yeah, even though I started late, it should be no problem to get through here. And yet it's different to go somewhere you've already been because going to a new place, like that's definitely the most exciting feeling of like, oh, what's going to be here? How's it going to go? 35:00 My mind is way more active and engaged and just like, wow, cool.

But it's kind of nice in a way, too, just coming back to a place you've already been. It's comfortable in a different way, like my mind is wandering way more. I'm paying more attention, I guess, to side routes and like what other potential places could I go around here? But this really is just a one ridge, you know, the side stuff is all just various little observation areas. I don't think there is actually other paths up here. But yeah, it's kind of nice in its own way. I've just like my mind is just wandering. It's a little bit like when I was in my hometown for COVID years and I just hiked in Odell Park in Frederickton almost every day. And at first, Odell Park is deceptively complicated. And I was like getting into weird spots I'd never been to before, even though I lived in that city my whole life. And I'm like, where is this? What is going on? But then I reached a point where I knew every little square inch of that park, you know, I could just, you know, you could place me, you could geogess, put me at any spot in Odell Park and I could tell you exactly where I am.

You know, the music coming out of people's radios, that happens a lot. I pass people playing music. It always kind of reminds me of the title screen of Portal 1, the video game portal, where they're just playing the... This is a triumph song, but like a jazzy somba version through a little radio. It's kind of what it sounds like. But as I would walk around Odell, you know, my mind would just wander and I was just like, yeah, you know, whatever, I know where I am. I've been here a million fucking times. So this is only my second time here, but it does, it's reminding me of that a bit, where I'm just, instead of being engaged, my mind is just wandering to other stuff. But it's nice, too. It's like I know where I'm going. I know where the end is, I know how to get off this trail. I know if I want to extend it, how that works. You know, like I did the heavy lifting already, I did all the work. And now it can just be a nice, relaxing walk that I can do even if it's a bit late in the day and even though the days are getting shorter, like there's zero concern. I still got my back up bottle of water and everything I've learned from my past mistakes. The heat wave is basically past, but it's still like a touch above 30 today. It's still not, not not hot.

Yeah, it's just kind of nice. Hey, doggy guy, let us dog off his leash. Dog is just wandering now. Unless, no, that can't be a wild dog. This dog has like a little harness on and stuff. It's like, is this just a wild dog that happened to be walking next to a guy, but no, this is definitely a domestic dog.

I mean, you can even just tell because its fur is shiny and awesome where the wild dogs are a little, not patchy, just, you can tell they haven't been brushed, you know, their hair's got little cowlicks and stuff in it.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I don't know, even just having people be a little more comfortable having their dogs off leash and stuff. It's kind of nice because it does remind me of the olden days in North America, like that's really been locked down, like speaking of Odell Park. Even in the big park, like the law is you're supposed to have your dogs on a leash. But I would run into people because I was always walking in obscure parts of that park. I'd run into people that are walking without a leash on their dog because, you know, they're in the middle of the park and no one's as usually ever there. And they always were so apologetic, like they were like afraid that I was going to call the city, call a dog catcher or something on them. And I always just have to be like, yeah, no, it's really okay. It's totally cool. I do not care if your dog's not on a leash. I don't mind.

But I got to assume that the populace in general in Canada is like, no, no, no, you're a dog. I'm not on a leash.

So it's kind of nostalgic.

But yeah, nice in a different way. Nice casual walk.

When you know already where you're going and what's going to happen ahead of you. It's actually very, it's been super clear for a while recently. So I haven't even checked the AQI in like a couple of weeks, I think, because the air quality has just been really good. But today, looking out at the view, it is that, that haze that, you know, I guess it's because again, fall's coming. It definitely gave me soul vibes of just like, yeah, there's that gray, looking out over a gray city, looking out into the hazy distance. But when it doesn't happen every day, when it's not just constant and oppressive, that's kind of nice too. It's just nice in a weird way. Just like, you know, that is pretty in a post-apocalyptic way. 40:00 And it was just too much in soul where it was literally making my lungs burn. And it looked like, like, fall out. It looked like the end of the goddamn world. But when it's only half that bad, well, maybe three quarters that bad, it's pretty bad today. It's pretty bad looking. But it was clear yesterday, might be clear tomorrow, when it's just a, a happenstance. It's kind of cool too in a weird way.

Actually, the weather says it's supposed to be pretty clear right up till my last couple of days. It's supposed to rain my last two or three days. So, I'll say fairly well to Taipei in the rain, it seems, but that's kind of appropriate. This has been a very rainy place.

And I mean, hey, we were talking a lot about toilets last segment. Toilet update too. I was just like, got up on this ridge, was walking along, got kind of hit in the belly of like, oh darn. This always happens to me. It's like, how come I didn't need the washroom at home or back at the station? Why do you have to wait till I get on a mountain? I got to assume it's because, you know, I slam a coffee and eat a sandwich from the convenience store. And then hike up a bunch of steps and it probably loosens up the organs. But yeah, then I was like, oh geez, I actually need the washroom a little bit, bad. But there was a washroom up here on the trail that actually had a squat toilet and a western toilet, but somebody was in the western toilet.