global and personal instability tour

i woke up yesterday morning to a phone call from sissy in chicago alerting me to a military coup in thailand. the past several days have seen round the clock protests against taiwans president chen shui bian. and just seconds ago there was an onslaught of rapid machine gunfire to my left. whereas the former are real, the latter was just one of my 100 or so taipei teen homies playing wow (world of warcraft) in an internet cafe near the jiantan night market.

trouble is, i spend a good bit of the day looking forward to my time behind the computer screen. when i finally get here and finish my biz in 10 mins, i wonder what the fuss was all about. it turns out that the internet cafe is my guilty pleasure, an oasis of comfort as my virtual connx to the outside world. as little annoying pc pop-up windows ask me various questions in chinese, i just click away, unsure what i have agreed to install or what passwords i have permanently stored here on terminal 9. all said, i still feel guilty staring at an lcd monitor instead of the wealth of cultural experiences on the outside. cmon marty, when u gonna be in taipei again?

i was in a fabulous state of euphoria on my short hop from hkg to tpe on tuesday, and i think it was more than the free internet i found at the hong kong airport. the flight attendant teased me for my silly grin and venti sized chai. we amurricans like things BIG (theres no venti in taipei). im not altogether sure why but that euphoria has waned since and i woke up with my corners feeling a little dulled and my spirits low. it doesnt feel like travel malaise per se, i suspect that im just a little low on seratonin. the trip up to the danshui river this morning offered a nice respite from city life, tho what did i do immediately after disembarking the train? headed to starbucks (embarrassing sanctuary #2).

lest i seem like a flagellater (no, not 'flatulator'), ideally, i think travel should include the mundane along with the exotic. theres nothing wrong with seeking a morsel of familiarity while being inundated by foreignness, lest we totally lose our identities. i just dont like feeling lazy, unappreciative of the opportunities around me, or finding more evidence that i value comfort over substance. all in all it is the slippery slope to complacency, superficiality and auto pilot (aka ordinary-ness) that i want to avoid. on that note, im going home to take a nap.