So I was supposed to be on my way to the airport, but I just bought myself a bit more time. So I'll kill a bit of it by sharing two songs with you. But not continuing to write about Taiwan. Sorry. That'll come soon. Maybe this weekend.
As for music, here's a couple things. Peter CottonTale has, to me, just popped up from nowhere. But apparently he's been working together in the background of other projects for years, generally alongside Chance The Rapper. Which is an ok start, can't say I know much Chance The Rapper. But on top of that he produced Anything, my favorite track from SZA's official debut last year. And also one of my favorite albums of last year. I don't know if he's gearing up for a solo project or what, but he's released two songs, the second of which, Forever Always, is weirdly wonderful. It features a whole ton of people that I'm not going to mention here. But you can see their names in the embedded video below. This song is super melancholy, a la Frank Ocean style, so you know I love it. It is also extremely different from his other single, which is also quite good, so I will definitely be watching out for this guy.
Ok, back to the Taiwan story. We went out to Kenting the next morning. This was supposed to be our nature and hiking day, but as it turns out, distances are much further than they look on a map. So we thought we'd make it another bike day. But everyone told us no bikes, just scooters. So we got a scooter. Which turned out to be the right idea because, again, distances are much further than they look on a map. Also, it was super hilly. Like, not bikeable hilly. Our scooter even had trouble with one hill in particular. So it was a good choice. Then we just scooted around all afternoon, down to the beach and up to viewpoints (including the southernmost point in Taiwan) and just checked out the nature around the national park. But there are no real hiking or walking trails. It's basically a paved road along the coast, with lots of beaches as you move along, and various other viewpoints. There is some stone forest or something near the actual Kenting Town where you can maybe do some hikes, but we didn't buy tickets and go in. Anyway it was a great afternoon scooting around, with a great sunset on the beach.
Plus we met our favorite Taiwanese woman, Misha. As we were getting to the end of our ride along the east coast of the island, we passed this random Hello Kitty house in the middle of nowhere. It is not technically Hello Kitty, but if you think of Hello Kitty, then you have the right idea. It looks like a frosted cupcake with a giant pink bow on top. In the middle of nowhere. So we figured we had to stop and take pictures on the way back, right? And when we did, there was a woman sitting out front. That was Misha. It turns out it's her place that she rents out as a B&B, and she gave us the entire tour. It is adorable. And then she forced us into a photo shoot on the lounge chairs out front, and with the fake sheep statues out front (yup, she's got those, too), plus a bunch of selfies inside. The place is adorable, and she is hilarious, and it was pretty fantastic to find this random woman in the middle of nowhere who was so nice and had such a weird and fun home. And she added us on Facebook to share photos and now follows us on Instagram, too. Yay for new friends!
Ok, so that was day 1 in Kenting (with a night market, of course) and on day 2, we basically just spent the morning at the beach. But they did have activities, so we did that banana boat thing and another similar thing where you sit on an inflatable and get dragged around at dangerously fast speeds by a jet ski with no protection. This was clearly the Chinese part of Taiwan. Plus we did some pretty decent snorkeling. And then it was back to Kaohsiung. We only had the evening, but we spent it at Pier 2, their outdoor arts district. It's actually more shops than galleries or anything, but it is covered in art, and there's fun little things to buy and a bunch of local artisans. Great for an afternoon wander, and very, very Instagrammable. Like, too Instagrammable. It's difficult to pick what to post. But anyway super cool. And then the next morning I had to fly out really early, and Hanna spent one more day on her own.
Overall, we loved it. I definitely want to go back to Taiwan, specifically Taipei and the north now. I've always heard it's a mix between China and Japan, and it totally looked like it could have been a tropical Japan that stopped being maintained in the 80s. A lot of the buildings and layout of the city were quite Japanesey, but run down. And it's full of Chinese people and Chinese food. And I've also heard Taiwan is like China with manners, and that is also very true. Much less pushy, must more welcoming, just really wonderful. We had a great time. I can't wait to go back to Taiwan.
I guess while I'm talking about Forever Always, I can talk about Rex Orange County, who's featured on it. First of all, he is not from Orange County, he's from the UK. And being from Orange County, I have no clue why he would choose to put it in his name. But anyway, he did. Which had my attention already. But then the song Loving is Easy was making the rounds of the blogs, and it is a lovely little song. Super chill and pretty. I thought about blogging it a while ago, but then wasn't too impressed by older stuff from him so I put it off. But considering the Peter CottonTale link, why not? So here is Loving is Easy, and hopefully whatever comes out from here on out will also be this lovely.
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