Visa

I finish pushing the last set of weights when my phone rings. It's Bob (name changed to protect privacy), my workout partner.

"Where are you?" I ask, noting that he is exactly 47 minutes late.

"My visa extension got refused and I had to go to Hong Kong on a visa run."

OK, that's a good excuse if ever there was one. And he follows this up with:

"Wanna go to lunch?"

"Sure. Meet me in the gym."

Bob, a Canadian, has been in Taiwan eight years, at least some of them illegally. He reminds me a bit of the character Jay in Stephen Clarke's A Year in The Merde, an American who has lived in Paris so long he switches between the two languages unknowingly and has absorbed some of the French customs. Bob is like that. He told me once when he went back to Canada, he was surprised at how many white people there were.

Lately Bob has been trying to live here on a study visa, but as he works (and parties) full-time, he has trouble keeping up with the attendance quotas. That would explain the Hong Kong trip.

I see him coming down the stairs, in his shorts and white t-shirt and bag strapped around his shoulder. He is 30 years old but still exudes a high-school student vibe, talking fast with a giddy smile on his face.

"Come on, let's take my bike."

Having visa problems has not stopped Bob from acquiring all the trappings of a Taipei resident though. And his bike is one of them. We walk out of the air-conditioned gym into a wave of moisture, heat, and cloudy skies. It's the first time I've ever ridden on his bike, an old black Yamaha, and for a minute I feel a little odd getting onto the back of another guy's bike. But this is Taiwan, and nobody would give us a second glance.

"I feel like I'm your bitch," I say.

"Or I'm your bitch, depending on which way you look at it," he replies.

We begin driving and I soon realize this is very different from the scooters I have ridden in Taiwan. It's a black beast which accelerates in short bursts, and though it isn't going much faster than the scooters alongside us, I can feel it has not unleashed all its power.

We speed down a major road, zipping past cars, the wind blowing in my face and the helmet barely staying on my skull. I grip onto the bars behind me but still don't feel quite safe. That's when I start to feel rain drops on my face.

Fortunately, we turn into a smaller street; almost there. Bob races between people and scooters. We pass a wooden sign which says "Bongos".

"That's my friend's restaurant, they make hamburgers and Mexican food. It's doing really well," shouts Bob over the engine and wind. He has been here so long, he seems to know every ex-pat in town.

We stop in front of a restaurant with a middle-eastern theme and get off the bike. As soon as we enter I go to look at the menu. Bob goes to say hi to one of the patrons, another foreigner, tall with brown hair falling over his eyes.

After ordering, I go to where they are talking.

"I dunno what I'm gonna do man, I gotta leave the country and change my name and come back or something."

Apparently Bob isn't the only one with visa problems. The guy, also Canadian, explains that he overstayed his visa after he realized the rules for visas had changed and his papers were not in order.

Originally, hiring foreigners under the table was attractive to employers (especially English schools) because neither party had to pay taxes. Recently though, the government has been cracking down on schools, and so they in turn have been following the rules more strictly.

Back in the middle-eastern restaurant, we order falafel sandwiches and discuss the plight of foreigners. It seems the Taiwanese government makes it difficult for foreigners to stay here. I guess it's normal as they don't want foreigners flooding the country, but it makes life more complicated.

After nine months of no problems (as a scholarship student I got an Alien Resident Card, the much-coveted "Green card" of Taiwan), on May 31 my visa will expire and I will have to find a new one. I'm going to Japan next week and will be able to get a new study visa, but the new one will only last three months, renewable once before I have to leave the country. That's why I'm trying to find a job which will sponsor a work visa for me (valid a year).