Frozen in time

Chinese New year, in the wet, rainy, futuristic, neon-lit streets of Taipei, Taiwan.

A city eager to assault your senses. Bubble tea looks remarkably like frog eggs. Stinky tofu aromas linger in alleys jumping out on the unsuspecting traveler. A sure sign of bravado to locals if this can be stomached.

Night markets offer endless options to steal your hard earned money. Wandering the streets and endless meandering alleys, the smell of firecrackers and human festivity fills the night.

The crowds push and shove, like a giant jostling blood stream. Trying to go anywhere against the flow is nigh impossible.

It is in one of these crowds that I'm trying to find a young, dark haired, Asian boy, wearing glasses, with a beanie and a green track jacket. It's like Where's Waldo for adults. Except at ground level, and you have a cell-phone, although the messages are erratic at best, because of the high volume of people in the same area desperately trying something similar.

We manage to glimpse each other but are pulled in opposite directions across the pet and pinball arcade sections. We swim around in the melee of people until we are reunited in front of a stall of small surprised looking dogs in jackets.

Here is someone I met in another country when I was much younger, being by pure chance in the same city as me for a short while. We pick up right where we left off.

Onwards! To Baby18 a Taipei Club where for NT$200 you can drink all you like, but pay extra if you want to sit down. Filled with neon dance lights and pop hits from the 90's it feels like I'm 12 again, but someone gave me a fake ID. The awkward children of my youth replaced by awkwardly dancing young Asian men, desperate to talk, but not knowing enough English.

Another evening is spent drinking whiskey from the 7/11 and looking for an elusive reggae bar with a supposed gargantuan choice of records. Our shoes are wet, our legs tired, and our whiskey finished. We find it.

The beer is expensive. The record selection not fantastic. The company far from being interesting looks like American families trying to have a good time out with their estranged teenage children. Said children dying in a cloud of embarrassment as Dad gets redder and louder.

We enjoy each others company more. Back to the 7/11 and the rain-washed streets. It is silent at this time of the morning, the only noise our feet through the puddles, and the music coming out of the one pair of headphones we're sharing underneath an umbrella. Hiding in parking garages to play just one more song. Dancing in darkened lantern displays. Mouths spill forth an endless stream of stories.

We walked all night. Until fear of hypothermia and the safety of our toes sent us in two different directions.

I fell in love that weekend. With a city, a culture and my best friend.