We've waved goodbye to the steamy sophistication of Taipai and now we're here in Hsinchu - a town so surrounded by rain forest that even its name sounds like a full-bodied sneeze.
This week we are situated in a university - Chung Hua University to be precise. It's quite surreal - they appear to have made a clearing in the rainforest and built a university campus here. The pool is very nice and the set looks great - I suspect that the show will go well here. The accommodation is adequate too. The university has a hotel management and catering department, and we are staying in their 'mock' hotel - the rooms they use for training. It's hysterical. The beds are as hard as mortuary slabs and the TV only gets local (Tiawanese) programmes. At least in Taipai (at the beautiful 5 star Imperial Hotel) there was HBO, CNN and BBC World.
The staff at the hotel have offered to clean the rooms mid-week. We have a sneaking suspicion that they'll only 'mock' clean them, ie: stand on the balcony for ten minutes and give the pillows a plump on the way out again. It's all very 2-D here.
The last few nights in Taipai were great - we bought lots of bizarre gifts at the night markets, visited the Taipai Seaworld (with nursing sharks on the 5th floor of a high rise building) and sadly, yes, we karaoke'd. Now, as a musical director and composer I never, ever, ever indulge in karaoke - how on earth can I be scathing and critical of anyone's vocal performance at work if they have heard me screach my way through some awful gay anthem the night before? However, I sucumbed. The shame.
Let me set the scene - the karaoke place was like a 5 star hotel, a huge chandeliered building with many floors tended by beautiful glass elevators. They give you a room with sofas, TV screens, microphones, a stage, a computer and a book of songs. Then they lock you in and ply you with drink. Now, bear in mind that, as a non-red-meat eating ceoliac, I had consumed very little by way of solids for a week. Bear in mind also that alcohol is expensive here and I hadn't had my usual weekly quota. Now imagine an endless stream of Smirnoff Ice. And then a microphone.
The shame. I believe I treated Taipai (or at least my cast) to everything from 'It's Raining Men' (which it clearly wasn't) to 'The Green Green Grass of Home'. I trust you not to tell a soul.
And now here we are in this strange part of the world - a university campus that is mostly closed up (it's not term time after all) a good 40 minute taxi ride from the nearest town. There are a selection of traditional Tiawanese eateries just outside the gates of the uni, but following a quick inspection I think this week's diet shall remain apples, boiled rice and chocolate from 7-11.
At this rate performing the show will be a blessed relief. I wonder if we can squeeze any more performances in?
Sounds like you're having fun!
Wish I was in Taipai... or even a place that sounded like a sneeze!
I go away for the weekend and end up in Wales!