Taiwan Story 3: Return of the Typhoon

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It didn’t take me too long to come up with a movie idea when trying to think of a creative title for my third typhoon related post.  Interestingly enough, both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars used the same naming convention for their ‘third.’ although Peter Jackson seemed to like the word “the” slightly more than George Lucas.  Mix in a little “Toy Story” – the only other worthy ‘third’ and now we’ve got a title.  (Speaking of ‘thirds’, Ender was a pretty good third too…but now I’m getting myself off track.)

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One Week Later: Taiwan, Taipei, Trains, and Typhoons

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One week after being unceremoniously dumped in Taipei’s city center an hour after midnight, I’ve felt this massive city shrink in scale as I’ve familiarized myself with its public transportation system and started to explore.  I’ve also started to get a feeling for how small Taiwan is itself – taking a 3.5 hour train ride halfway down the eastern coast of the country to visit one of Taiwan’s most scenic destinations …and then a Typhoon crossed my path.

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Short words on the city of Cairns

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Cairns.  It’s quite possibly the second most difficult word to correctly pronounce in the entire Australian vocabulary.  Sure – I’ll admit that I’ve heard grammar rules in my life about what to do when two vowels are together in a word, but I’ve never found any rules about silent r’s being added just for fun.  Subsequently, I cannot tell you why “Cairns” is pronounced as “Cans,” but I can tell you that I hate that stupid “r.”

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Sunken Ships and Broken Things

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“You’ve got to dive this wreck,” Greg says, gushing enthusiastically about the Yongala, “it’s one of the best wreck sites in the world.  Get in touch with YongalaDive and they’ll hook you up with everything you need.”  Thus begins the story of the time I went diving around a shipwreck over 100 years old off the east coast of Australia.  I met Greg at my hostel in Singapore.  He’s from Australia, lives in Indonesia running a dive shop, but happens to be in Singapore on his way to the Philippines where he’s spending a month island hopping and diving.  Greg clearly knows his diving – I write down ‘YongalaDive’ in my notebook with the intention of checking into the company once I reach Australia.  A few weeks later my teeth are clattering and my body shivering – 25 meters below water in a 5mm wetsuit submerged in 72 degree water and cursing Greg …and myself.

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