Short Story: Lost In The Colourful Maze

Short Story: Lost In The Colourful Maze

One thing about my blog is that I always give places and people a new name. For one thing, it provides anonymity and for another, the new names describe the places and people in far greater detail than their original name ever could. (Or at least i like to think so). They are not just words on a piece of paper – a tourist’s guide book or a birth certificate. They are the names of the things in my world.

In my world, Taipei is called 'The Colourful Maze'. It’s a city of colour. Everything is vibrant; streets of rainbows and pick 'n' mix sweets. When everything around you is so amazingly bright and beautiful, it’s incredibly easy to get lost. I’m used to making mental markers with the exciting things I see. Perhaps it’s time to start remembering the bland and boring – here these things are few and far between.

Life in Taipei so far is like a dream. It’s better than I ever could have imagined, a surprise, a discovery or an adventure waits around every corner. I realised how that rainbow just keeps on growing and growing the further you travel. At home I knew every food in the supermarket, how it tasted, how it felt in my mouth, how it made me smile or squirm. Now all the shelves have been restocked, I’m wondering around the aisles blindfolded, but all my other senses are super strength. I’m happy to be lost in the colourful maze.

Every five minutes, someone pops out from a side street to help me on my journey. It’s always a friendly Asian face. Even the people are colourful. They beam with happiness and do it with such grace. I want to be jealous of the women – they’re the most strikingly beautiful and delicate individuals I’ve ever seen. It’s their innocence and elegance with prevents me from being envious and instead I just want to cuddle them all. Or steal their beautiful children.

One thing which I dislike is that when I’m surrounded by all of these gorgeous women I just look like a fat ogre. I wonder how I am going to find clothes or shoes to fit my fat bum and flipper sized feet. On the other hand, it takes me an hour to eat one grain of rice. I still haven’t mastered the art of using chopsticks and by the time I’ve worked my way through half a bowl I’ve forgotten that I was ever hungry in the first place. Maybe in a year’s time I will have shrunk to the childlike figure of an Asian woman. That’s very wishful thinking and still doesn’t solve the problem of the gigantic feet. The Taiwanese can eat an entire banquet in what seems like a millisecond. This is very puzzling.

In such a small space of time, I’ve experienced more than I have in years. I discovered peace at the coast – practising Tai Chi with a man we met on the bus, and then listening to the wind and the waves crashing on the shore as we lay in the sand. I discovered euphoria - dancing around a Taiwanese man’s birthday party in a karaoke booth singing the Mandarin version of ‘happy birthday'. He was overjoyed that a group of rowdy, drunk Americans (and two Brits), had invaded his birthday celebrations. I am sure that in England a group of Chinese people would not receive the same response. I discovered people – listening to their stories as to why they came to Taiwan. Each story is different but each one always ends the same. Whatever happened to us, our lives were in need of a splash of colour. We now have a full paint pallet, with every colour in the spectrum.

For a person who usually has so much to say when so very little happens, I am almost left speechless. I struggle to find the words to describe such a magical place. I guess it will come in time, when I’m not so overwhelmed. I hope that gradually, once I have found the right words, I’ll be able to paint you the picture which includes all of the colours I can see.