Traveling with the cast and crew of "5 Takes" has really been an amazing experience. There certainly are benefits in being with such a large group from Discovery, but sometimes I find that I have to jump in to lend a helping hand. Gabe, one of the cast members, is really a great guy...who happens to have a few fears. In Syndney, for example, it came out that he had a fear of heights, which he overcame by scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge (see the webisode). The other day, while shooting a scene in "Snake Alley" here in Taipei, he was to tackle his fear of snakes. After holding a Boa, he was then to eat a snake and drink it's blood (which, I might add, is not as gross as it sounds!). As it turned out, the latter was a lot easier to do! Stuart, one of the Producer's of the show and myself jumped in to lift the snake over Gabe's shoulders (with ease, that is).

I decided to get a foot massage yesterday to ease some of the pressure I've been feeling from all of the walking I've been doing. I left with a bit of regret, as the 30 minutes of grinding was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in my entire life... Literally, to the bone, my trained professional would pull and push and jab his rough knuckles until I would beg for him to stop. Apparently this is common here in Taipei, so I didn't feel so bad. The reason for all of this pressure is to get to the many different pressure points located at different angles and depths within the foot. Everything from high blood pressure to eating disorders are claimed to have been remedied through this torturous regiment. Definitely not for the light at heart...

I landed in Taiwan yesterday on a rather bumpy 5-hour flight through some severe tropical thunderstorms. This experience would prove to be a metaphor for the very history of the country I was landing in. Taiwan is one of those countries with an incredibly complex, and often times dark, history. Japan occupied the country from 1895 until the end of WWII. The occupation has had lasting effects, as there are still traces of Japanese culture. At one point Taiwan held the United Nations seat for the whole of China, but stepped down from this position in the late 1970s when China gained more legitimate recognition from other countries. In 1949, just before Mao and his Communist followers took power, the leaders and followers of the nationalist government fled to Taiwan and established Taipei as the capital of China, in hopes that one day they would return to mainland. That never happened. This and many other political moments in it's history has caused a big rift between mainland China and Taiwan. Technically a part of China, Taiwan has become a multi-party Democratic economic powerhouse while China remains Communist. China occasionally warns of military action against Taiwan if they pursue independence while Taiwan buys millions of dollars worth of weapons (mainly from the U.S.) in preperation, should it come to that point. There are about 25 million people on this island just east of China which makes it one of the most dense countries in the world. Of these 25 million, the major religions are Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity. The right to vote (suffrage) is gained at the age of 20. The currency is the New Taiwan Dollar (NT$) and the exchange rate as of today is around U.S.$1.00=32NT$. A can of Coke costs around 75NT$, to give you an idea of costs. Mandarin Chinese is the main language which is something I've been trying to understand (with a bit of frustration)...slowly but surely I will be speaking Chinese! ....we'll see about that.

Goodbye to Singapore! Today was my last day in Singapore so I took a look at the poll to see what I should do, and as of late Saturday night it looked as if climbing to the top of Mt. Faber would be the activity I would be doing Sunday morning... So I put on my sneakers, my shorts, a T-shirt, ate a nice breakfast, packed a few snacks and enough water to fight back the heat and headed for this Mt. Faber I've heard so much about. Whenever I see or hear about a land area with the word "mountain" before it, I get a specific picture in my mind. Perhaps this is because of my Boy Scout past, where we would set out at dawn on a 10 mile hike over many mountain tops just to find suitable land to camp on. These were mountains. Steep walls, jagged rocks, lots of huffing and puffing, exposed summits, etc. So it came as quite a surprise to find out that, in fact, you cannot really hike, in the traditional sense, up Mt. Faber through the dense jungle that skirts the top. To get to the "summit" you can, instead, take either a taxi or the more expensive option, the cable car. Because of certain time constraints, I hailed a taxi and within 10 minutes I was standing at the top of Mt. Faber! Not entirely disappointing, the view from the top was quite spectacular (as you can see). I stopped and enjoyed an ice-tea before heading back down into the pristinely clean city of 4 million. I am hoping for some hiking in Taiwan this coming week for sure. There are very dense tropical rainforests in Taiwan that are teeming with biodiversity that I hope to explore. Standing atop Mt. Faber had me thinking about what places like Singapore, with it's thick forests, must have been like hundreds of years ago, before all of the skyscrapers, the urban sprawl, the invention of the car and other pollutants. I'm sure I'll find this place in Asia...

Singapore is not only a major shipping hub, but is also the center of many new and innovative electronics, whether it be a new camera or a cell phone. If it's made in Asia, chances are pretty good that it passes through SIngapore at one point! I went looking for new computer equipment today and stumbled into a store selling massage goods. What I have on in the photo are a new pair of eye massing sunglasses with built-in ear phones and the belly slimming ab massager which, through very fast gyrating motions, is supposed to burn off fat. It's worth noting that both the eye massager and the belly fat buster were pretty uncomfortable. Interesting Facts *Singapore was the busiest port in the world in 2004 with having had over 1 biilion tons of goods shipped to the country. *A quarter of the world's shipping containers pass through Singapore. *Half of the world's crude oil also comes through Singapore.