each year, i have a goal to spend new year's eve in a different country. i have experienced madrid, munich, and rio de janeiro twice. this year, i head to taipei.
i had originally planned to spend new year's eve with my new friend, xaiochau. 6 hours before the countdown, he canceled because he had too much work. what am i going to do with myself? i don't know anyone here, and the thought of going out to taipei 101, the tallest building in the world located near city hall, with 700,000 other people, sounds daunting.
for the past three days, i have been befriending a woman named ana. she works here at the hostel where i stay. she speaks little english but understands it, and we were able to have a conversation about her life. she is from the philipines and she is here in taipei working two jobs to support both her 4 yr. old and 5 week old baby who still live in the philipines with her parents. she is an amazingly humble and hard-working woman, to say the least.
i decided that since my plans had changed, i would invite her out. she was pleased and with a smile from ear to ear, accepted my offer to take her out. she is off work at 6pm and she comes to me and i ask her if she still wants to go out. she says "maybe another time". i could tell she was tired and needed to rest for the 7am work day ahead. i was again, disappointed that i had no one to spend new year's eve with, while considering that i could be around 700,000 people and still feel completely alone. but what did i expect, coming to taipei alone. this is why i came here.
not thirty seconds later, a young man from hong kong walks into the lobby of the hostel and asks if me and another stranger from korea would like to go out with he and a few friends to watch the fireworks shoot off of taipei 101. we, bright-eyed, both having no plans and being alone, accept. a half hour later, we were walking around a congested food district to find a place that didn't have a long wait. we ordered dumplings as a snack, served with both a soy, fish-sauce and a red chili sesame oil. we the walk to the MRT (their metro), which was packed, and loaded into the train with many other excited passengers.
we arrive at city hall and move in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people to the tower that's within sight only two blocks away. we find our friends, after many loud and frustrating dropped calls. while walking around the square, we see loads of people in circles with bright light sticks surrounding them to mark their space. they are all playing cards and sitting on newspaper. there are women with babies in strollers, many teenagers and well, people my age. we simply find a place to sit right in front of the main spectacle.
nothing is happening. i'm thinking there will be some kind of "pre" performance. but there isn't and then, everyone begins to count....5......4.............3............2............1.............!
then an explosion of light coming from the top of the building, the sides, within the building windows, up and down the building, shots of fireworks in a line going straight up from the ground in front of the building. electronic beams of coordinated light flowing and spiraling up and around the base of the tower up to it's spire. then, a bright white light engulfs the entire tip of the building, smoke blowing to the right, and when the light disappears, the simple phrase, "2011 R<3C". STUNNING.
everyone is cheering and screaming and hugging. they teach me how to "say happy new year" in mandarin and i forget.
we begin our treck back to the MRT and we are amazed at how much trash there is cluttering the streets, drains, business fronts, etc. i suppose it's only fair to be able to little one day out of the year. the rest of the year, taipei is the cleanest city i have ever visited. we lose a friend in the meantime and i decide to go directly back to the hostel while everyone else gets coffee. i arrive at the metro, along with the other 700,000 people and am forced into a cattle-like crowd that is not moving. we end up waiting for 2 hours, packed together, with only three steps of advancement every 5 minutes. i almost fall asleep standing up, as it's 2 am and i still have not reached the entrance. we finally get to enter, we wait for the train, we take a quick ride and i am only a half a block from my hostel.
bed was my best friend. i woke up bright and shiny at 8 a this morning and i am refreshed!
