• Getting to the airport – I took the tube, there was a heat wave, andso I cooked, as air conditioning hasn’t yet been invented in London.
• The flight from London to Bangkok – I started reading the book ‘Theboy who fell out of the sky’ by Ken Dornstein, which probably wasn’t awise choice as I don’t like flying, and I was sitting on a plane.According to my imaginary statistics, the more times I fly, the morechance there is that something may go wrong, so my fear is slowlygetting worse.
I have to say though that the airline that we flew with was fantastic.The staff were very helpful, the entertainment was superb, and wearrived alive. Excellent.
• The flight from Bangkok to Taipei – On landing in Bangkok I noticedpeople playing golf on a golf course that was less than fifty yardsaway from the runway. But when we took off, the heavens had opened andsoaked the bunkers which caused the Thai golfers to vanish and alsomade for a wobbly take-off.
• The coach journey to the hotel – Even though it was very darkoutside, (it was late at night in Taipei), and I was completelyexhausted,(I’d been travelling for about twenty three hours) I couldn’tresist playing the game ‘Who’s the first to spot the world’s tallestbuilding?’ I can’t remember who won but I saw it, and what a surprise,it’s huge.
When I finally arrived at the Holiday Inn - Asia World, I set my mobilephone alarm to wake me up early, as the next day was a day off torecover from the jet lag, but I was determined to use the free timeexploring this country that according to my Taipei guide book, had somany things to do.

When I woke up in Taiwan I had no idea where I was. I looked at mywatch, it was midday, I looked at my mobile, it said it was 3am. I hadset the alarm but forgot to change the clock on my phone. D’oh! So much for getting up early, however, there was no time to waste, so Ijumped straight out of bed and stretched my travel stiff body in thehotel’s outdoor swimming pool. Back in the hotel room, I prepared tohead towards the strangely magnetic Taipei 101 (currently the World’stallest building), that was attracting me and making me feel compelledto get inside and whiz to the top. As I walked towards the giant, man-made, bamboo look-alike, I watchedit slowly grow taller and wondered what the builders had felt like whenthey finally put the last piece on top. When I entered Taipei 101, it was like walking into Brent Crossshopping centre. A very large shopping centre with a lot of names thatI recognised. I wasn’t there to shop though, I was there to go up, so Ifollowed the signs to the lift and stood in the queue.

The lift to the top actually travels at around 40mph (that’s fasterthan London underground) - just 38 seconds to travel 90 floors.Impressive? Well, it is, but it meant that I didn’t get a sense that Ihad travelled so high. In England it takes 38 seconds for the liftdoors to close, so when I got out and saw the panoramic view of Taipeithrough the giant glass windows, it felt slightly unreal.

There were more stairs to climb to visit the outside deck. Onceoutside, as well as seeing the peak above my head, I could feel thestrong force of the wind. And then, I started thinking aboutaeroplanes, so I started my journey back to the ground.
Taipei 101 for me was more inspiring to look at than to be inside. Itis an incredible piece of architecture that I am happy to have visited.
After travelling so much vertically, I then travelled horizontally tothe Taipei’s nightmarkets. Huaxi street (nicknamed Snake Alley), andShilin market – Taipei’s largest and most popular market.

At Snake Alley there was a very authentic atmosphere, but I was morethan shocked when I saw a man gather a crowd of curious people, while acobra sat staring at the audience in front of him. He then pulled a sixfoot snake out of a box and swung it around like a rope before smashingit’s head on the floor – twice!

The snake man hung the almost dead snake on a hanging hook and slicedit down the middle. He then squeezed out a red substance from the snakeinto a glass of water, followed by a green substance. Finally, while smiling, he offered the drinks to the audience, for a price of course.
It was horrific. I didn’t stay to see if anyone attempted to drink thefresh cocktail as I would have produced another substance that wouldhave been just as appetising.

Finding the theatre was more difficult than I thought as I was lookingfor a building that looked like a theatre. But Taipei’s NationalTheatre looked more like a giant Chinese temple, and I walked past it afew times before I saw Kevin Darvis (the company pianist) enter intothe side of the building. Curiously, I followed him, and sure enough Isaw the familiar English National Ballet headed notices on a board,telling me where my dressing room was, and my schedule for the week.Backstage of the theatre was much like any other, although it wasn’t asgrand as I’d hoped. A common trait in theatres is that backstage is notas important as in front of the stage, and this was just as obvioushere as anywhere. However, the stage, and front of house was enchanting and I was lookingforward to getting on stage and hearing how a Taiwanese audience wouldreact to our production.

The journey to Taiwan had takenits toll on my body and so when I did my first ballet class in Taipei Ifelt stiff and disorientated. It was a shame we didn’t have more timeto recover, but like anything else, time is money and it wasn’t longbefore it was curtain up on the opening night.

It wasn’t until the third performance that I got to hear what anappreciative audience the Taiwanese were. I was playing Rothbart and soI was on the front row of the curtain calls with Elena Glurdjidze(Odette/Odile), Arionel Vargas (Prince Siegfried), and Nigel Gaynor(the Conductor). We had three curtain calls and it sounded wonderful.

Afterwards I overheard some of the swans chatting -

Swan “They should do Swan Lake Act 5 where we just call it curtain calls.”

Another Swan “Yeah, they should at least let us change feet, the curtain calls are a killer.”

Funny, I bet the audience don’t realise that the more they clap, the more pain for the swans.Overall, the eight performances went well, and with such a busy week,(one technical rehearsal, one dress rehearsal, seven ballet classes,and eight performances in seven days) the week flew by. I did manage todo some sight seeing during the week, and a little bit of shopping (Ibought a foldable bike for around £60, an incredible bargain), but Ihad been looking forward to having a day off which was to be my lastday in Taipei.

Monday began with the hotel breakfast inthe hotel dining room that resembled a scene from the film BladeRunner. While eating, you could sit and watch transparent lifts torpedopeople up and down the hotel. The choice at breakfast was quite varied,my favourites were miso soup, sliced ham, special rice, sausage, bakedbeans, water melon, coffee, and mango juice. Quite a mixture I know,but it did the job and prepared me for the day.

Firstly, I headed for Beitou, north of the city, and home to Taipei’swell known hot springs. On the MRT, (Taiwan’s air conditioned tubetrain) the journey took about forty five minutes. Once there, the hotsprings were easy to find. There were various hot springs, ranging inprice from 800 Taiwan dollars to 40 Taiwan dollars. On recommendation,I decided to head for the 40 Taiwan dollar option and I was very happythat I did. There were four various pools, ranging in differenttemperatures from very cold to exceedingly hot, and there was aboutfour other people bathing. It took me about ten minutes to get into thehottest pool as it was almost painful to get inside. After bathing inthe hottest and the coldest a few times, I felt completely relaxed andrefreshed. I only wish I could do it more often, but once every 32years is still lovely.

From Beitou I travelled further North to Danshui, the Blackpool ofTaiwan. Although there is no Blackpool tower, one of Danshui’sspecialities is their giant tower ice cream cones. The ice cream isover a foot high (green tea and strawberry flavour) and because of theheat I had to lick it very quickly, although I still managed to make amess.

Another speciality available was black eggs (or iron eggs). I didtry a taster of the eggs which are black, cold, and spicy, but I didn’tfeel the urge to bring any back home.

There were lots of market stalls selling various products frommassagers to jellyfish. I could easily have spent the whole dayexploring Danshui, but as it was the last day I decided to head back tothe city to visit the electrical market (I love gadgets and this was amini gadget heaven) near Zhongxiao Xinsheng station, where I bought ahard case for my ipod, and a robot dog.

I was now getting quite tired, but knowing that tomorrow I would bestuck on a plane for 16 hours, I decided to go back to the hotel for afinal swim in the outdoor pool.