It's funny how it feels like just yesterday, we were ushering in a new millennium, and just like that, a decade has passed...
Anyway, I've long since heard about the festivities Taipei had every New Year's Eve, so it was something I definitely wouldn't stand to miss. Most of the locals suggested that I stay home to watch the event on the tube, but that would be like watching football on TV! I wanted the WHOLE experience. The good... and the bad.
So, Thursday morning, I grabbed the train to Taipei and met up with long time buddies, and fellow Gators, Lawrence and Will from back home. I figured that if I were going to be in Taipei anyway, I might as well go camera shopping on 博愛路(Bo Ai Rd.) aka "Camera Street." I've been thinking about getting a DSLR for a while now, so I didn't think it'd hurt to look. I think all that camera shopping got Lawrence hooked, though!
After several hours up and down all the camera shops, we dropped Will off and headed to the City Hall, where all the happiness was supposed to happen. It started off REALLY slowly, with a traditional ensemble with albino girls, and then some rapper dude. We were surrounded by around 90,000 people, and we couldn't be more uncomfortable... or so we thought...
About an hour through all the rubbish, the first performer I recognized, Rainie, took the stage. Don't ask me which songs she sang... because I don't know any of the song names... but I assume that most of the songs by all of the performers are pretty popular. Everyone knew the words, and even I had heard a lot of the songs. Even Lawrence was impressed by Rainie, but he simply couldn't stand the obnoxious crowd anymore, squeezing in, and sometime literally climbing over our shoulders for a better view!
After Rainie, were some performers that I recognize from TV, but don't know the names of... Like this girl... who is in a couple commercials...
This girly guy with a mouth but a pretty decent voice...
This funny looking guy who dresses in the early 80's ALL the time. Short short gym shorts and long pull up socks with blue and yellow stripes. Big glasses and a watermelon hair cut. He has a funny story. He was just an ordinary guy without any musical talent. Then he got hit by a truck. Out of sheer boredom in the hospital, he taught himself to play the guitar and sang to pass the time. Then, he became famous at his college talent show. Boom! Crowd Lu.
Lin Zhilin, allegedly one of the most beautiful women in Taiwan...
Then, the crowds reached half a million. People were trying to squeeze so hard that I could literally lift my legs off the ground without falling to the floor... The 12C (54F) weather felt more like 90F and dripped of sweat and breath... Four of the five members of Farenheit took the stage. Finally, performers who were either bright enough or nice enough to come out to the wings of the stage so people could actually see them!
S.H.E., who do an assortment of pop and rock, and had loads more visual effects than the artists before them.
They were followed immediately by MayDay, who by far got the loudest and most enthusiastic cheers of the night. The lead singer had some nasty sore throat stuck through it. Listening to it was a bit painful, not because it sounded bad (which it kind of did), but because you could tell it hurt. The band more than made up for it, though, with some killer solos and fireworks!
Speaking of fireworks, the president of Taiwan, himself, came out to introduce the "finale." Taipei had invested 30million NTD (about $930,000 US) for the 188 second spectacular, which was to feature more fireworks than previous years, new shapes, and for the first time, different launch trajectories! I captured the whole thing on video for your enjoyment! The vantage point kind of sucks because I was pushed by the, now 600,000+, crowd under the stupid street sign!
After the fireworks, Wong Lee Hom, the spokesperson of Taiwan did his number with a sweet metallic dragon guitar. At this point, a lot of people had already begun to leave to try and beat the traffic, so I got pretty close to the stage. But it was tough for me to fully enjoy, because the commotion knocked my football out of my arms and around the crowd... The ONLY football in all of Taiwan... lost... just like that... T_T
Having walked several miles camera shopping and standing and fighting off the crowds for nearly 7 hours, I was pooped. I got a phone call from my cousin who wanted to hang out, but before we could meet up, my phone died. I tried to find him at the place where we agreed to meet, but there were simply too many people out and about. It was impossible.
After an hour of looking around I decided to get back to the train station. To my dismay, gobs of people were waiting in line just to get INTO the subway stations! Instead of waiting, I opted to jump to the next subway station, but SURPRISE! Same story! In fact all of the subway stations were packed to the surface... Literally millions of people were in the streets of Taipei. I've got to admit! It was pretty cool. It's like parading on University Ave. after the Gators win a National Championship... except more.
A few miles later, I finally made it to the train station. As I anticipated, the trains wouldn't be up until 5am. Finally, lugging around my laptop came in handy! I plugged in my little 3.5g card and browsed away! I got home around 6, thankful that I rent right next to the Taoyuan train station, took a shower, and hit the sack, only to wake up a few hours later to skype the family and friends back home in time for their New Year!
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