Early glimmerings

Tom and I had a long stint of 15 hours waiting for our connecting flight in Taiwan, and at the airport in bleary morning hours met an easygoing woman traveller who was going on to India with us and to Ladakh to do a photojournalism gig. So, in Taipei we had the pleasurable company of Alison Wright, a freelance photographer working for National Geographic with whom to explore the city. She has worked on many incredible projects and co-created several bestselling books on Buddhist culture and people of southeast Asia (visit her work at http://alisonwright.com/) We visited the oldest Buddhist temple in Taiwan, dedicated to a form of Kuan Yin, by taxi from the (cruddy) airport hotel. Being as aforementionedly pugnacious as the hotel was, we made a quick decision to spend (what we now consider in India to be) outrageous amounts of money on a shared cab to see Taipei. The rainbow-multicolored and intricately hewn, dragon-pillared temple had a large open courtyard area inside with a central shrine with around seventy people and many coming-and-going performing prayers and offering incense. Standing in the sweltering heat with other pilgrims, I tried to connect with bodhicitta and surmount the miserable humidity in the peaceful shrine of the Goddess. The weather was providing a direct opportunity to transcend attachment to comfort, and call to mind the preciousness of the moment, and being on a pilgrimage, and yaddy-yaddy, but it was only a foreshadowing of the weeks ahead we were to get in India heatwise. Alison took pictures of the only really eclectic-looking person there, an elderly Taiwanese woman who looked like a shaman and a fairy all at once with coral and bone necklaces, flowing whimsical clothes, and a spry step. I was touched by how Alison brought out the primadonna in this sweet grandmother who never grew old really inside. She held her face for a long moment like they were old friends, and the lady didn't want Alison to stop taking pictures of her. It was like more of her kept coming out with each shot. That is the magic of a visionary photographer, which upon looking at Alison's websites and galleries later I am sure you'll see she is.
Other than that, due to the heat, the other highlight of Taiwan was getting to visit the largest building in the world, a 101 story skyscraper called eponymously Taiwan 101. Turns out to be a mall, a veritable monument to capitalism, with brand name retailers on every level. I sigh to Tom that such accomplishments by humanity have gone along the wayside in their dedication to such religious sciences as shopping, but perhaps it is a fitting "temple" for the seeming direction of the one-pointed attention of humankind? It's service to humanity was not in vain however as we benefitted greatly from trying out all of the mall's massage chairs and had foot-squeezing ecstacy and a high octane coffee after Tom and Alison soared to the top for a view from an elevator.