台湾？ ？ 我与性交的怨恨台湾

台湾？ ？ 我与性交的怨恨台湾

So im in Taiwan. I hate Taiwan. No offence to the Taiwanese amongst you. I just really extremely uber hated it when I was here last time. Nice people. Sucky place. Bad food. Crazy drivers. Lame hotel. But i think as I was really hating my then employer company who was the reason for the sucky visit, that i hated it even more. Its like Adelaide and Taiwan just depress me. Oh yeah, in the same month back in 2004 I went to both Adelaide and Taiwan. Not good.
But something good did happen when I was here last. I bought an Astro Boy plastic toy from a night market in some place in the city. And since a certain US trip back in October 2005 he has become an extension of me whenever I travel. And he is here with me on this trip too.

For those of you who dont know the Astro Boy story, heres a summary;

Boy buys plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy. Boy gets made redundant. Boy has understanding fiance. Boy chases rock and fcuking roll dream in the city that never sleeps with money from said employer and permission from awesome fiance. Boy takes plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy as he is travelling alone and wants to have some childish fun. Understanding awesome fiance likes idea of plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy. Boy takes photos and emails to girl and select friends. Plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy takes on cult status amongst Girl and Boy's friends. Boy gets job. Girl and Boy get married and take to Hawaii too. Other stuff happened from October 2006 to December 2007 - not all bad. But some not too good. January/February 2008 Boy takes plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy to Tokyo twice and USA once. More photos. No words. No stories. Boy returns to another redundancy. Boy plans new trip for another rock and fcuking roll dream in the city that never sleeps with money from said employer number 2. Friend of Boy comes along on this trip too. Boy, plastic Japanese cult status 80's TV superhero toy and friend leave Sydney on a cold July 12 2008 afternoon for a month.

Trust me - that was the short version.

Boy has other stuff going on at the moment too. Boy is missing a major birthday of a special someone next week. But Boy is looking forward to the trip.

 

SYD-LA-NYC, October 2005

  

Really cool woman on the seat next to me on the flight to LA. Before I found out she was a Van Morrison fan (Van THE Man she called him), she was just some annoying cow taking up my notebook space. But we talked for a few hours about stuff and she totally loved the Astro idea.

His first Nana nap

More June 2006 - Airport / Plane

We scored an upgrade. Nice. Astro made his first appearance in 8 months in the Qantas club lounge before the flight.

Astro - sitting on Yvee's drink tray thing up in the pointy end. The pointy end was a good start to an amazing holiday. Perfect.

Hawaii, June 2006

Best.

Holiday.

Ever.

I cant recall correctly, but i think we both decided to take Astro along on the honeymoon. He stayed in the bag most of the time, but we went on a roadtrip up to the Haleakala crater on Maui and took a few photos of him up there amongst the clouds and the sulphur.

 

 

This above photo makes me laugh. 

Leaving Sydney, October 2 2005

Yvee and I had breakfast there at the airport before I left. I felt guilty - long weekends like the October one were always spent doing cool stuff together, but here i was trapsing to the other side of the planet in search of rock n roll.

She "got" it.

 

 

Notice how pristine and clean he looks?? Poor fucker aged about 5 years by the time we got home.

Breakfast, October 4 2005

Sitting here in Taipei airport uploading photos from 2.5 years ago. Fuck I hate Taiwan.

Much-o healthy-o breakfast-o on this day. Looking forward to a few repeat breakfasts starting in a few hours.

New York City October 2005 - part 1

This photo was taken on the plane - on the LA to New York
leg of the trip.

Finally arriving in New York and getting to my hotel - the
DoubleTree on Lexington. Bitchin hotel. Here's Astro watching
two of New York's finest

Day one of the trip started early. The "bitchin" hotel was right
across the road from a "fuckin" fire station. So Astro and
Adam got out and saw the "fuckin bitchin" city nice and early. I didn’t realise that my hotel was only a few blocks from
Radio City Music Hall.

Where it all started....

October 2005 I went to New York City. On my own for two weeks. So I took along Astro Boy. I purchased a few Astro Boy figurines when i was in Taiwan back in October 2005.

The idea was that id take photos of Astro in front of places in and around New York City. I copied the idea from an iPod web site I found once - people took photos of their iPods in front of famous places and people. It was mainly for my girl. She loved the idea. And so too did many friends. It got to the point where people didn’t give a shit about what I was doing - they just wanted more Astro photos!

A lot has happened since then. He made an appearance in Hawaii in June 2006. He was then retired. I put him in my suitcase for the Japan/USA/Japan trip in January/February this year. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. But I did it as it was my way of communicating to certain people I didn’t feel comfortable communicating with at that time.

In just over two weeks time Astro Boy and I embark on a 4 week trip back to where it all started. A good mate of mine is joining us as well. Not sure how im going to be. Time will tell. Over the next few weeks im going to upload the photos of his previous travels - as well as a few unpublished photos from the YAAP archives.

Enjoy.

ab