To You, Tainan-I

In the beginning it was just a smell a smell i could not quite make sense of a smell that the city was, a smell that the people in it were in the beginning it was just a smell a smell that dragged swarms of people of their homes onto the streets, into the trains, into the strangers’ eyes and their uncharted territories slowly i realised all cities are, first, smells to the outsiders and Tainan was smell sound taste touch to me there were moments when i felt this city is just people, so many of them; how beautiful that i do not know any of them, yet i know them all sometimes i would think if i emptied the city of all these countless faces and bodies jostling with each other, what would remain of the city? would it still beat if i put my ears into the hearts of the depeopled Shennong Street at the dead of night? i came to Taiwan for the same reason that a Vietnamese, an Indonesian, or an American comes for, to chase my dreams, to become more of me, instead I became it it wasn’t as easy and quick as they make it out to be; it took time, for love has its own mysterious ways i started to embrace Taiwan and its culture huge numbers of scooters and cars Everyone follows the traffic rules wait patiently for the green signals one in Tainan city never feels pity city buses and t-bikes are the best friends of a wanderer in the city people are always helpful, they adore you as they adore ‘hello kitty’; small parks almost at every half a kilometer elderly people like Mr. and Mrs. Wang use them for exercise sometimes the parks provide sweet beds to the homeless; i often use the underground passage of the Tainan train station i look at the people sleeping there they have made their small worlds in the underpass they eat, they sleep, they chat with their neighbours people look quite strange and funny without boundaries around them their small worlds haven’t yet known the ways of the boundaries, the frontiers; these people are happy in heavy rains and in extreme cold, are they happy? Tainan has a home for everyone, i guess when I feel bored, i go to the sea and bathe in the sounds of its waves lapping against the shores sunset-platform lets you enjoy the majestic sunset and calming breeze born of the boundless deep _____to be continue in part-II