TAIWAN...that's the plan!: Betel nut and Beer...

Chewing betel nut here, is to us like smoking is. It's common practice by many, and you know it's bad for you, but once addicted it's a habit that's hard to break. A lot of Taiwanese chew betel nut. Become addicted to it. Rot and turn their teeth black. Constantly have to spit from having far to much saliva slurring around in their cancerous mouths. Give themselves throat cancer. Filthy habit!

But Taiwan isn't really helping it's citizens kick the habit. No that would be preposterous! No instead they have these, what I can only really describe as a service station. Just a little shop on the main highways at various places. At these stores they sell betel nut, fags and other bits and bobs. All sounds pretty harmless, yes? Well to entice people to stop at these shops, they only employ young, 'attractive' girls and get them to wear the skimpiest of outfits and totally tart themselves up. The front of the store is a big window, so the girls are basically selling themselves. We spoke to one of these girls recently (I wasn't buying betel nut, just to clarify!) She was only 19! She said she studied to be a beautician but didn't know what she wanted to do, so was working this as a job until she figured it out. It was hard to take her seriously as she stood before us in her underwear with a short, little lace skirt on! But what I found even more appalling, was that in the store, they have a shrine to a Buddhist deity. They're burning incense to appease the spirits. What?! Is that not a little hypocritical?! Also, this is right on the main road, not like you have to go to some seedy area, it's just right before your eyes...what kinda message is that giving little kids?

There are soooo many reasons why this enrages me, but I'll save that little rant for another day!

On a less serious note, my puppy is so clever...but naughty. She has been moved to the third floor of the house. So she now has her own room, it's a long story. We put a make shift puppy guard at the stairs so she couldn't escape. Except she did escape! She has always refused to walk up/down steps before. But she somehow jumped over the guard, ran down the steps and knocked at my bedroom door. Soooo clever...but naughty. They do say pets are like their owners. Does that make me clever but naughty?! Hehe.

And onto an even better topic...BEER! Last night, my favourite Western friends took me to a bar! Bar type place, hard to describe it. Anyway, it was this German themed restaurant/beer house. And the beer was gooooooood! I forget how quintessential beer or a good ale is to my British life. (Not that I'm an alcoholic, but who can deny that on a sunny day, you don't want to go to a beer garden?! It's sunny here a lot and my nearest good beer place is this one...30 minutes away!) The beer comes in a 1000cc (1.75 pint) glass tankard...two hands were required to pick it up! :) The staff had the most wicked uniform ever...proper lederhosen. The cutest black shorts with embroidered braces...I'm not gonna lie, I was jealous and wanted the outfit for myself! Hehe, I could try and pull it off :P Oh and they also wore a cute hat with a feather! Every so often we would forget we were in Taiwan, until a Taiwanese drunk girl would randomly scream. Asians, really cannot hold their booze like Westerners. But it's funny watching them try to be Western. It's just always great to do slightly Western things with a twist! Top night!

A song I am absolutely in love with at the moment is Lotte Kestner - Falling Snow. Such a beautiful voice! Check her out!