I've lost my stamina for blogging about Taiwan, honestly.

We played an outdoor concert on New Year's Eve (this is where we got to see the other bands perform and watch the Kazakhstanis doing their whole choreographed thing, trumpet spinning, etc), wandered around town a bit (although Chinese New Year is a much bigger celebration, the Taiwanese still put on a bit of a party for New Year's) and then headed back to the hotel to have our own party.

We ended up having a party with the Kazakhstanis, which as I'm sure you can imagine got a bit interesting. Like all Eastern European types, they were doing abundant vodka shots and you weren't a man if you didn't join right in! Zaubi gave in a bit but I told him if he got too drunk I'd go sleep with E. the bari sax instead! She can't/doesn't drink. I've held enough heads over toilets in my lifetime, thank you. I kind of stayed on the outside drinking my 2 beers during the party and watched the younger set bounce around and flirt. Not too many people got trashed, in fact, which was nice. And the next morning, though most had a headache, pretty much everyone was still in good spirits, which given the circumstances was quite amazing. All in all, it was good fun and we got to sing Waltzing Matilda to the Kazakhstanis :-P

Thursday -- I can't even remember what we did Thursday! - we went to Astronomy Park which is on the Tropic of Capricorn. It was a beautiful day. Zaubi found some firecrackers lying around on a bench and we set them off on the sidewalk later that evening after our final concert in Chia-yi. It was another outdoor concert, the closing concert for the entire month of the festival, in fact, and it went extremely well. Was very well attended which was nice!

Zaubi was bombarded by little Taiwanese chicks who adored him for his height. Indeed, even one Taiwanese GUY followed him around saying "you're so tall and handsome!" to Zaubi's horror. he is distinctly uncomfortable with that sort of thing. No one followed me around :'( I suppose I am too large and sturdy for the typical little Asian guy!

Headed back to Taipei on Friday and spent the afternoon at the American School having a workshop and then our final concert. It was the only bad concert of the lot: we were pretty tired by then, and the audience was small and uninspiring. Ah well. 4 of 5 isn't bad.

Back at the hotel, I managed to fall down the stairs and break both kneecaps. Well, not literally, but the black and red and blue and green is really quite fantastic. Ran too fast down, and feet skidded out. I blame it on my ancient, busted-up boots.

We went to the night markets after that but it was late and they were essentially closing down, to our disappointment. In fact, when we tried to get back to the hotel, the metro was closed and so most people took a cab back, but Zaubi and I and L. the trumpet and N. the clarinet decided to walk. It was a beautiful night: clear and cold with a fresh wind. We wandered the empty streets a bit vaguely, not quite sure where to go: the sidewalks were wide and devoid of people, the sky was black. That walk was in fact probably my favourite part of the whole tour. After half an hour or so we found our way back and collapsed into bed.

The next day was a free day as our plane left late that night so Zaubi and I and L. the trumpet decided to hunt for the elusive Silicon Alley, a place where there are a whole bunch of electronics shops in a kind of twisty warehouse complex. We went there back in 2003 and there were a lot of great deals on electronics. We wandered for a long time before we found it (and then discovered we'd actually found it 30 minutes previously but had gone in a different door and didn't recognize it!) but were disappointed by the prices: going there under the US dollar is quite different than going under the AU dollar, unfortunately!

After that went to Taipei 101, which used to be the tallest building in the world: L. went up to the top to the observation deck, but Zaubi and I were too stingy to shell out the $20 each. Given that the rest of the place was filled with upscale shops of the type that make me feel exceptionally poor, dowdy, and unattractive, we quickly fled. When L. came back down, we headed back to the hotel.

Had a final dinner all together as a band (during which I had a very interesting conversation about How To Catch A Woman with my increasingly tipsy friend who I shall call Blackpearl. Blackpearl was pretty fervent in his thoughts on the best way to make women fall for him, and I wasn't entirely convinced, but it was a good conversation anyway. I love Blackpearl. Belligerent and opinionated as he is.

Shortly after we got on the bus to the airport, we realized that our plane's departure time had changed... to 1.5 hours earlier than expected! Needless to say, the bus driver drove 120 kph all the way and we just squeaked through the gates. Plane ride back uneventful. All our instruments came through okay, which was a relief, as they were not insured, it was too expensive! L. the trumpet lost his bag, but all else was well.

And that was Taiwan! Whew. Glad that's done :o)