My Trip To America. Part 6 - A day in Taipei

Arriving in Taipei, Taiwan at 5.30 am with no sleep and 12 hours of jet lag after my flight from LA. I stumbled to the information counter running on pure adrenalin and quite dehydrated and malnourished from the minimal food and beverage served on the flight. The lady behind the desk was really helpful. They offered free tours of the city for the passengers who were in transit and as my flight would be leaving at 8.30 PM I had plenty of time for a day tour of the city but was keen to be my own guide and director. "Good Morning, Where can I buy professional Chinese Flutes and other musical instruments?" A quick search and she had a few places and wrote them on a piece of paper and then marked the subway stations on a map for me. Great start I thought. I then made my way around the airport to the bus terminal to board a bus to the city. About 40 Min's later I boarded a bus bound for a main subway station near the city. And off I went on my search for some nice Chinese flutes, particularly the Xiao which my friend Sahayak recently introduced me to. I board a train and make my way to a part of the city that I was told to go on the map by the lady. A long walk from the station I find the street and walk up and down the street twice and there is nothing but shops selling wedding dresses so after finding a nice fruit shop on a side street and buying huge mangoes and smearing them allover my bearded face in an attempt to sufficiently nourish myself, I decide to head back to the station but find myself curious about this interesting building on the opposite side of the street. I go to explore and find out what it is, I assume it's a temple. But it's actually an art gallery and museum.

Gates to Museum

From gates you then walk to the entrance, amazing building inside and out.

Inside I find a pottery and art exhibition, but with limited time I rush myself through feeling that it would be great to have more time to spare and do it more slowly. I snap a few pics of the pottery.

Pottery display.


Big and small Blow Fish.

Interesting cracked Pot

Nice piece, a house in the Chinese style.

By now its really warming into a humid day that feels like a sauna. So I head back off to the station where I somehow lose the details of where the other shops are located. Well time is ticking away now and its 11.30, frustration and disparity tempt me to feed them but I refuse and with a positive attitude and intuitive guidance of the Great Spirits powerful homing device, I decide to head a few stops back up the line to find a big famous and expensive department store I am told by a lady at the Museum sell musical instruments, maybe someone can steer me in the right direction there. I find myself there a half hour later. I ask at the information desk. No sorry Sir we don't sell flutes here. OK well where might I find professional quality Xiao please. The lady says please wait and very kindly calls someone on the phone and comes back to me with a positive response, not far away apparently and draws me a map. Great this is exhausting and realising my huge mistake of wearing Levi Jeans and a thick hemp T Shirt which is literally stuck to me now in the highly humid weather of Asia, I again set off on the search. I locate the rough area and walk into a camera shop for help with the directions, the man shakes his head with confusion and walks outside, I follow then he smiles and points to a doorway to a building. Upon approaching I see a sign with all these lovely instruments and flutes on it. Feeling relief as I am now in the right place and moments from looking at some real Xiao's I proceed up the lift and open a door into a bright Air conditioned room. I greet a Man a d a lady both with warm smiles and friendly personalities. It turns out I have found the best maker of Xiao, Shakuhachi, Chinese Gourd Flutes, and many other Chinese flutes and wind instruments Lin Ku-Jen. Lin is the Director of The Chin Yuan Chinese Orchestra.The lady I mentioned Lydia is a teacher at the shop which is also the location of Lin's workshop where he makes the flutes. Lydia I believe plays in the Orchestra also.

I am very impressed by the quality of his flutes and stay for some time talking and playing the flutes.They are very welcoming and honoured to have another flute maker present from another part of the world. I ask to have him finish a flute I chose that needs only fine tuning and signing and he happily does then plays a song with Lydia who is more than happy to demonstrate for the camera some of her playing. See the YouTube video here that I made of Lin and Lydia playing together. Coming soon.

visit the channel to see more flute videos.

Matt and Lin meet, Lin passionately demonstrates his love and skill for the end blown Xiao and and other Asian flutes he makes like the Sahkuhachi and many others.

Lin Playing the super long Xiao, way too big for me!

Quite impressed in the presence of another master.

Lydia, Matt and Lin

Lydia Plays the Pipa and shows the skills she has acquired in some thirty years of study with this instrument. More Info on the Pipa and all the Chinese Stringed instruments here.

Chinese Gourd flute.

Xiao and Transverse Chinese style flutes.

Chinese String Instruments.

Stock of Xiao and Shakuhachi made by Lin

If you are considering buying a Xiao or any other Chinese instruments Please contact me for Lin's contact details, I certainly recommend the high quality of his instruments and his expertise in this field. Visit Lin's Website here.

More Info on the various Chinese flutes.

Lin's son then takes me to a near by vegan reaturant called love where I buy beautifully prepared vegan food that strangely for me is made from tofu to resemble all different kinds of meat. Isn't that why I became vegan! So hungry I hardly care, I load up on protein before jumping in a taxi to Taiwan's tool shop district to buy woodworking tools to bring back to Australia. I make it back to the Airport just in time. What a great day. Looking forward to a rest on the plane, before I arrive in Australia at 7 am, wow no darkness since I left LA. Thanks China Airlines for the Taipei stop over experience. Thanks Lin and Lydia for your friendliness and sharing your knowledge and music with me.

Part 4 - Rapid City and Hiking in the Black Hills South Dakota

After the Pow Wow the next day I left with Regie who had offered to give me a lift to Rapid City some 600 miles west over the boarder into South Dakota where in 3 days I would fly out to Los Angeles where I would later meet Guillermo Martinez of Quetzalcoatl Flutes and work with him as an apprentice. Reggie was going to just drop me at a motel as he intended visiting a friend south, but he decided to change his plans and host me a few days so I could experience the famous Black Hills, and offered to take me hiking in them. Well sure I said and I can certainly do with more exercises and fresh air. The American Diet had, as you can see with my pot belly, me eating too many corn chips and burritos. I also really enjoyed shopping at Prairie Edge, A huge Native American arts store in Rapid, that is run like a co-op with mostly Native People working there. There was not much they didn't have. I sold them a number of Cd's to help offset the hundreds I spent there. If you like this sort of thing and If you ever go to Rapid City you must find this store.

Here are some pics of the hike.

Me walking between cliffs on the trail.

view from the base of mountain

Reggie Boyd.

Big rock.

Reggie taking a break.

The famous Nicholas Black Elk- Lakota Sioux, apparently climbed this neighbouring mountain (in view) in his later years.

Great view.

Rose quartz and hematite vain.

French fry like mountains.

Me on Summit, where I very suprised to see two Mountain goats. They stopped and stared like they had never seen a human before. Their senses were highly tuned and before I could snap a pic they were gone disappearing between some rocks that I checked out after they had gone, man their path was a really hairy pass over the mountain, I guess they were going to the next valley for the night to graze. A very special and ominous experience.

Tunnel on road in the Black Hills.

Scenic View from Summit.

Many thanks Regie for taking the time to show me such a special and sacred place, and to the Sioux People and spirits for keeping me safe and well on their custodial land.

My Trip To America Part 3. Keepers Concert And Pow Wow

Being a small nonprofit organisation, the Keepers Pow Wow, is their big yearly gathering and their yearly meeting as well as a concert in the Pipestone Performing Arts Center, an amazing state of the art concert hall with a capacity for about 150 people. I was invited by Bud to perform at the concert along with Reggie Boyd and Mick Daniels. I wondered what it would be like to perform in another country so I thought it would be a good experience also staying the extra week would give me time to learn more about the people and the area as well as being able to attend the Pow Wow which are always good fun. The concert went well, and here are a few pics, I am still waiting for a few videos of me playing from Mark in Milwaukee.

While we were doing our sound check an Asian-Indian man who had arrived early wanted a pic with us so I asked the photographer to get one on my camera too. Maybe he thought we were famous Ha Ha Ha!

Regie performed first and gave us a lovelly dispaly of his musical tallents, he played flutes he personally makes. I really regies performance, he did a few really relaxing songs and then a rendition of a john Lennon song.

I found micks performance equally entertaining, his style is country and he sang a song that was about him loosing stuff around the house and his wife always knowing where it was. I loved it. I loved also meeting this great man, eventually finding we had a good connection as we communicated more.

After Micks performance I was welcomed to the stage, I was a bit nervous though played about 15-20 minutes before Reggie and Mick came back out do do a further song each.

I later found out the concert was recorded for programming on a cable TV channel in Minnesota.

The weather the next day for the Pow Wow was excellent, turnout was great and all in all was a awesome Pow Wow (I'll have the great videos up here soon) My music was supported with good sales on Cd's also.

I danced, hang out with Reggie and Mick, volunteered by making and putting up Tipi’s and signs the day before, and handing out program's to the tour bus travelers who attended on the day. I met many lovely people who there was spiritual connections with this weekend an it always stay with me as a special time. A lovely lady I met was Pauline, a local from Pipestone, and also her friend Mary. I also met Eric from and we seemed to connect well.

Just before I was to leave on the last day, I gifted Mark one of my flutes to show my appreciation to him for being and for especially his contribution by volunteering and driving over 1000 miles to lend his hands. I was then offered pipestone as a trade for a flute by Russ which I said I would be interested in but couldn't carry it, then Mark offers to send the pipestone to me back in Australia, well it was hard for me to ignore this good offer so I went to the guys house to inspect the stone and after forming a fair deal we traded.The meeting with Russ, and later that evening his wife Kimmy was a great connection. The flute I traded was a really lovely inlaid flute with Russ that he then gifted to Kimmy, it was a beautiful experience, she was so happy and really lit up. Russ traded me a milk crate of Pipe Stone for the flute which previously belonged to a skilled local Pipe Carver who had died and it was then gifted to Russ. I then passed the stone to Mark who’s wife had a use for the scraps and promised to cut pipe blanks to send to me in Australia, out of the thick slabs, to cut down the weight.

Local Lakota Pow Wow Drummers.

Me dancing inter-tribal.

Circle Dance.

Marty leading circle dance.

Lakota girls in maidens dance.

Circle dance.

Youngsters doing a fancy foot dance.

Honour dance.

Russ's Part Wolf Dog. I hope Russ can hold him back if he's hungry!

Me and Russ after trading.

Thanks Keepers for doing the great work you do, I feel honored to be a member of such a great organisation and such a lovely bunch of people. I look forward to attending the Pow Wow another time if not in spirit. Thanks also for all the great connections with the Souix Indians and all the other people I connected, thanks for being so warm and welcoming.

Solstice Circle A Great Success

Hi There Fellow Fluties,

The Solstice Gathering was a great success and proved to be a very transformational event for everyone who attended. About 20 people came to share the first gathering for the Northern NSW Flute Circle. Eve's 15 month Daughter Leela, the youngest member of the circle was keen to take part and played Eve's flute for us which was a blessing. Many other interesting people of all ages and backgrounds joined as we found together what it was like to be part of a Flute Circle.

We spent about 2 hours on the grass in circle which began with centering meditation by Sayahak and then some voice toning by amazing Sante, which really helped to set the energy. Then as the sun went below the mountains around 5 pm the prepared bonfire was lit, and once it was going well, which didn't take long at all being Camphor wood, we ate and socialised at the house before returning to the fire to sing songs and warm our bones.

The fire was a great idea as was the Spiral Mandala Walk, a meditation of prayer of our future journey's to the Creator, that all were keen to take part in. During the Spiral Mandala walk, a circle of glass candle lights placed in a spiral and a larger one at the center where you can then stop and pray before returning, flute songs were played to enhance the energy and healing. After we then returned to the fire which at this point was seriously raging and putting out a lot of heat, and continued our connections with each other, ourselves and our flutes.

On a whole it was an absolutely amazing event that all insisted they would attend next solstice as if there would be something wrong if we didn't do it again. So We surely will. What a great way to start a new group on a Winter Solstice, it was the most fertile time for us to come out and do this and assures a great power and future for this great sharing journey together. AHO!!

A big thanks to all those who attended and to Anna for generously welcoming us all to her place, thanks also to Eve for her committed help and beautiful energy, whenever I struggled Eve offered at least one suggested solution but usually many.

Enjoy these photos and please feel welcome to make comments on this blog.

Sante playing the flute

Me playing a tune.


Me, Eve, Cristiana. The group practicing a few new techniques like the trill, embellishments, tonguing, and flutter tongue etc.

Yu demonstrating her fantastic playing skills with Ben observing.

Ben accepts the offer to Play Yu's Lovely Drone.


Yu, Myself, Wan and Kaori share a group picture.

Anna's Friend, Anna, Eve and Cristiana.

The Fire.

Sahayak playing Cristiana's lovely snake medicine flute.

Sahayak in the moment with Sante looking on in awe.


Kaori and Yu, full tummies and empty plates.

Tending my fire keeping responsibility and enjoying the atmosphere of being amongst good friends.

Click here to see a video of Yu and Matt playing thier flutes around the fire after most people had left, a very special monment.

We welcome the help of those who would like to either help with the organising and admin. Work of future circles or those who would like to help by donating items to our raffles. The raffles are to raise funds for charity. Our current raffle is for an amazing collectible autographed flute and 3 Cd's, all the information including photos and sound sample are in the previous post down the page, titled What is A Flute Circle. Our current charity is Hands With Hands click here to see the website.

The next circle will be held in the lovely month of September. Details for next Circle will be available in late August. Again all are warmly welcome so please strongly consider joining us if it is possible to make it. I look forward to seeing you then. I will continue to post fortnightly so please do save this blog to your favorites and come back soon.

I'm off on a journey to the US shortly so wish me well and I wish you well on what ever you get up to until we join again next time.

Blessings on the journey

Matt