Smells like... MSG. I'm not kidding. I landed yesterday morning, and the best way to characterise the smell is MSG. Or a Chinese restaurant. For those of you who are wondering what I'm doing in Taipei, or for what reason I've had an extended period of absence from writing (except on the music section), it's that I've been preparing for my return trip to Australia, which I departed on last night or something. I'm not even sure what time it is here at the moment, as I'm completely disoriented.

Taipei, from my impressions so far, is a typical Asian city. It's busy, a little chaotic, and reminds me a lot of Rajkot or Mumbai (the other two Asian cities I've been to). It's not ultra-slick like Western cities, but there's a lot of construction work going on, so maybe they're in the middle of installing the slick. Admittedly, I haven't had a chance to go around to do touristy things yet, as I managed to catch a full 20-odd hours worth of sleep last night. The flight across from Frankfurt was a killer. I don't know any of the language here - I can't even say hello, thanks, or anything. So everything around me is just noise, and I take pleasure in seeing the little bits of Engrish around the place. I haven't seen any particularly bad/great Engrish yet, but I'm holding out hope. It's also quite nice being a tall person here, and I swear I'm the only person of Indian descent in Taipei. The looks I'm getting are classic.

Apologies to Phill and Bhautik, I don't have pictures of Taipei (yet), and I don't know if I'll have a chance to upload them when I get back to the hotel this afternoon. I'm going off on a trek around Taipei today for a few hours, where I hope to at least check out Taipei 101, and some dock areas which I've been told are particularly cool. Unfortunately, Taroo and Michelle couldn't make it up from Kaohsiung for these past couple of days, but I might catch up with them on the return trip.

More from Australia.