Coming Up on the Final Stretch

It's been more than nine months since I arrived in Saudi Arabia, and I've got to do some serious thinking about what happens next. Should I endure Saudi Arabia for another year? Are the fat paycheck and the vast swaths of vacation time worth it? Or should  I go back out into the world and experience a new country while I am still young and full of vigor? Should I take my earnings and spend the next year traveling the world? Or should I pay back what's left of my student loan, and hurry home to rack up a new one?

I'm always weighing the pros and cons of living in the Kingdom. The job is, frankly, a cakewalk...which isn't always a good thing. Because I am not held up to very high standards, the incentive to grow as a teacher and reach for excellence isn't always there. The money is good--but I have to make a lot of sacrifices for it: I have to live in a back-water burg in a theocratic dictatorship which regards alcohol, premarital sex and dating, music, even cinema as sinful--and illegal. It's not danger pay--it's desert pay. They give us tons of vacation time, which is nice, but the cost of plane tickets adds up after a while--and no one who hasn't had their brains baked solid wants to stay in Saudi during time off. All things considered, I don't think I can handle another year. I can see myself coming back eventually, but I need a break.

I am tempted to throw caution to the wind, and buy a sixty liter backpack and just travel. I had this idea to start out in Tunisia to practice my French, and then work my way west across north Africa, cross over to Spain, swing over to Portugal before making my way into France, check out Marseille and cross over Italy into Austria to arrive in Hungary and visit my good friend Dave and his family. From there, I would decide whether I wanted to continue on into China (via Siberian express) go home, or whatever.

The responsible part of me wants to go back to Canada, study to get my teacher's license and become a bona fide teacher, to start a master's degree in creative writing or linguistics, or to get some kind of technical writing accreditation--but probably not in Vancouver; Ontario or Quebec would suit me better. The irresponsible part of me wants to go back to Canada, pick up a guitar, start writing songs and learn to paint while I work on the great Canadian novel. I love that part of me, but it lacks discipline!

BUT, what I will most likely end up doing is find a job teaching English in either Japan, Taiwan or Singapore. All three countries have something different to offer: for me, Japan has always had a powerful mystique about it, and I've wanted to go there since I was a teenager. Taiwan has Taipei, which is maybe my favorite city anywhere. And Singapore offers a slightly higher paying job, which requires fewer hours, and in which I would teach to students who already speak English. Of these options, Japan seems like the best, because there I can get a four month contract, which I can renew if I like the place, or not if I decide to move on to somewhere else.

So, those are the options on the table. Should I be responsible, or reckless? Should I stay in Saudi, go home, or go someplace new? Who knows? Thankfully, I'm not anxious. I have faith that the best option will assert itself in time...and time will tell!

EID Vacation: Sri Lanka (Pt.1)

Well, this was unexpected. Four weeks into classes, and it's time for vacation again. Game on. Having just gotten back from vacation, my main criterion for the break was to find someplace cheap. I new basically nothing about Sri Lanka, but a return ticket was under $700, and some quick web research confirmed my suspicions that the in-country expenses would be minimal. Away we go.

I had expected to spend the majority of my time in Colombo, sipping tea and sketching from a comfortable sea-side perch. Colombo was not the city I expected. Colombo is not even a city. Colombo is many little cities with no space in between them. Really--they even have names, like "Pettah", where the train station is and "Havelock City", where my hostel was. Alternatively, you can call them "Colombo 01" and "Colombo 05" respectively. Imagine, if  you will, a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people AND NO CITY PLANNING WHATSOEVER. That's Colombo. My hostel, quite removed from any beach or metropolitan center was located smack dab in the middle of this gigantic dog's breakfast called Colombo.



I gave it day. I found the ocean but there wasn't any beach. To my amazement, instead of developing the Oceanside property with walkways, bike paths, basketball courts and the like, inexplicably there was only a railway. Well, at least the passengers would have a nice view! I was walking along the coast when I was convinced to go to a Buddhist-temple by a would-be scammer who insisted that we go see the "elephant ceremony" that would miss if we didn't go right away. I must admit, the temple was interesting, but the "elephant ceremony" ended up being a chained up baby elephant eating plantain leaves. By that point, I was well aware of what was going on--he was taking me on a tour that I hadn't asked for, and would bill me for it later. Leaving the temple, I told him to take a hike, and then had it out with the tuk-tuk driver that had brought us to the temple: our clever tour guide's accomplice.

That evening, I had some drinks with some of the others staying at the hostel. The lightweights were weeded out over a game of King's Cup and the rest of us eventually found ourselves at a very forgettable nightclub. We had a round of drinks and left. The next morning, I decided Colombo wasn't worth another day. The hostel lacked sufficient guidebooks, or maps, so I went online, picked out five tourist attractions, found them on a map, and wrote them down in my notebook, in what I thought was a logical order and headed for the train station. The names I wrote down were: Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, Kandy, Adam's Peak and Galle.

I found the train station and after some tribulation, namely standing dick to ass in a a ticketing room for half an hour, I procured my first class train ticket for one thousand rupees and got on the train to Anuradhapura. I could have gotten third class for two hundred-fifty, but the thought of standing dick to ass in a hot, sweaty cab for three and a half hours deterred me. I arrived in Anuradhapura somewhat after dark. As I got off the train I was immediately aware of two things: I had no idea where the fuck I was, and if I didn't start looking like I knew where I was going immediately, I would be accosted by throngs of tuk-tuk drivers like so many mosquitoes at a Colombo hostel. So I just started walking in the direction I assumed was towards town.



Before long a van slowed beside me and the man inside predictably asked me where I was going. I said downtown. He said I could jump in. So I did, but instead of dropping me off downtown, he just kept driving, insisting that I see his hostel. Seeing as how I had no idea who this nutter was, I told him to stop the fucking van or I would jump out. Only when I had the door half way open did he relent and turn the van around. This time he passed through town and took another turn, saying that I should check out the hotel he decided to drop me off at and if I didn't like it, he would take me to his hostel. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not going with him anywhere and that he should fuck off. He still waited for me to come out of the hotel, and I had to tell him to get lost again.  I waited until he was out of sight until I started walking. I made my way back into town, found a restaurant, hired a tuk, and eventually found a decent place for a reasonable price.  

The next day, I hired a tuk-tuk driver named Douchematar (I remember his name because it's one letter away from being "Douche Master") to take me to Sri Jaya Maha Bodhi--the oldest intentionally planted tree in the world, which grew from a cutting from the tree under which Siddhartha Gotama reached enlightenment. I had hoped against hope that I would be able to meditate under the tree. No such luck: it was raised on a platform out of reach from ordinary folk. On all sides foolish people prayed to the tree and offered it lotus blossoms. Neither for the first nor the last time during the trip I though to myself, these people don't understand Buddhism at all. I was quite a nice tree as trees go, however, and I was able to procure a couple of leaves which had fallen to the ground.   

The rest of the morning and a few hours into the afternoon, Douchematar drove me around and endless succession of ruins and stupas, for which I had to buy a ticket for twenty five hundred rupees (ouch!). Douchematar first asked that I buy a ticket for him, but when I refused, it turned out not to be a problem, as he could drive around the sites anyway. Nice try, Douche. When we finished, Douchematar dropped me at the bus station (the wrong one) and drove off with a cool fifteen hundred rupees. I think that must have been my most expensive day in Sri Lanka! Eventually I found the right bus stop, crammed in, and made the very stressful and uncomfortable journey to Dambulla.

To be continued in part two...

Summer Vacation Part Two: The Northern City

In keeping with tradition, let me introduce the topic of this entry, which will (in theory) prevent it from degenerating into a ramble about my personal life: Taipei is a fantastic city. I would love to live here, and if I could go back in time, I would have done a year teaching here rather than in Korea. 

I've been in Taiwan a couple of weeks now, and I've spend all of that time in Taipei. I didn't imagine I would be in the city for much more than as week, but here I still am after nearly three. It's been a real adventure. I've really gotten everything I needed and under different circumstances, I would say that it was the time of my life. Given the actual circumstances, it's been the perfect place to lick my wounds, reflect on life, and begin to move on. (Refer to the previous entry for context).

                                 

I came here on short notice on the advice of my friend Cathy, who I met doing tutoring last year in Vancouver. As per her recommendation, I checked in at a hostel called The Meeting Place. It's just far enough out of the way to feel comfortable without being feeling disconnected. People there are, as a rule very social, and there is a large common area in which people are often watching a movie from a projector. The atmosphere was chill and so were the people. Shortly after I arrived, the weather started to turn sour. It was perfect. While writing in the computer room, someone suggested I download an app called "Skout" and that if I did, I would  be hanging out with a Taiwanese girl that very evening. But, I was warned that Taiwanese are, for the most part, nice girls, so I shouldn't be expecting too much. I decided it was worth a shot, and as luck would have it, I met Taiwanese girl named Jenny Chang, and she showed me around the Shilin Night Market. Turns out Jenny had just gone through a breakup as well. We hit it off right away. We ate Chinese medicinal soup, bubble tea and pork's blood pudding on a stick. It was a nice first night--it was pleasant just to share space with someone in the same situation and wander around a while. 

                                 

I spent the next couple days bumming around, not really leaving the hostel much. I wrote Kyungmin, trying to get some kind of closure, or maybe just to have contact. Because I put her picture in this blog (now removed), she told me I should stop trying to contact her, and that she was going to forget her memories of us together. I wandered along the riverside feeling sorry for my self, wondering what the hell happened to the sweet girl I used to know. I went drinking with a British guy who spoke fluent Chinese named Neil and a Cambodian-American named Ken. We got drink and instead of hitting on girls, we talked about Buddhism. The next day, there was a big typhoon that swept across Taiwan...but left Taipei relatively unmolested. 

Cathy flew in on the night of the typhoon. I stood around waiting for her at a subway stop for an hour before returning to the hostel. I then saw on the news that a plane crash-landed after missing the runway at the Taipei airport. Luckily, though it wasn't Cathy's plane and she showed up at the hostel a few hours later, chipper as ever. We had a couple beers by the river and she was graceful enough to listen to me wail about my situation. Cathy came back to Taipei to teach for another year, and has been busy with training ever since. Even though I would take a 50% pay cut to live in Taiwan, instead of KSA, I have been considering it. A lot of people, like Cathy, love it here, and I think it's for good reason. 

Cathy introduced me to her friend Aiden (also an ESL teacher) who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and has lived in Taipei for eight years. Aiden is seriously considering leaving--his leaving status has downgraded from definitely leaving, in the past couple of days, due to meeting a girl. Aiden, despite being a Aussie, is a really good guy. He let Cathy and I crash at his place for a few days, and we had a lot of fun. Here's a list of things we did:

- Had a rooftop cook-out. 

- Went to a party in Daan Park. 

- Went to a pool party (full of smoking-hot Taiwanese girls in bikinis).

- Went for a bike ride with Aiden's buddy, then swam in the river. 

- Went to the chiropractor, then the masseuse.  

- Went to the gym.

- Went to the bar, then the spa, (with said buddy). 

- Went to the top of Taipei 101. 

Aiden talked about his iron-hard resolve to leave Taiwan. I whined about my situation. I learned some Australian, had a good time and came out of that week significantly less mopey. 

Allow me to break the narrative for a moment to say this: Taipei is a wonderful city that has a unique flavor. Having not spent enough time in China to really get a feel for it, I can't use it as a point of reference. So instead, I think of it as sort of half-way between Thailand and Korea. Like Korea, it's clean (they are big on recycling here), the culture is influenced largely by Chinese and Japanese, and it is firmly capitalistic. On the other hand, like Thailand, it's tropical, the people are super chill, and there are scooters everywhere. It's a good balance. Thailand can at times seem too chaotic, and Korea can definitely feel too uptight. Taiwan has a good balance. 

It was great hanging out with Aiden and getting a taste of what it's like to live like a local, but all good things must come to an end. So, I returned to The Meeting Place in time to hang out with some of the long-term occupants before they continued on in their journeys to The Philippines, Thailand and Australia. Although I didn't expect to be back, I was glad to return. I had a lot of fun staying there on both occasions. Somehow, something interesting to do always happened. 

It would take too long to go into detail about all the things I did, so here's a list of I got up to while staying at the hostel (on both occasions):

-Hiking with Neil from the hostel, followed by hot springs. 

-Hiking with assorted hostelers. 

-Jogging along the river.

-Eating Dim sum ("Hong-Kong food") with Jenny. 

-Hot Springs and dinner with Jenny. 

-Bike riding along the river with Cathy.

-Soccer with hostel members. 

-Assorted massages (sans the "special").

-Exploring the night market near the hostel. 

-Going to the sports center to work out, and go swimming with hostelers. 

-Seeing live cheesy magic acts and live music with a beautiful Taiwanese girl. 

-Exploring Shi Men Di with Cathy.

-Going out on my own to check out Chain Kai Shek memorial and the national museum. 

-Went to a computer/games expo with hostelers. 

-River tracing with Adien and his buddies. 

Perhaps it's redundant to point out that Taipei is a very fun and interesting city with lots to do. It's not redundant, however to point out that the people are super cool and really friendly. Although Taiwanese people are very hardworking, they also manage to be very nice, polite and easy-going. I really don't know much about what it actually teaching English in Taipei is like, but I know that the living in Taipei part is excellent. I came here to try to get over my Korean girlfriend, and my time here has served that purpose very well. I'm sure it has dulled some experiences which otherwise might have been even more fun. To vacation here under normal circumstances must be very satisfying indeed, and I expect living here must be the same.