Reflections of Taiwan

My dad came to visit me in Taiwan!  He was here for about two weeks, and we had a fantastic time.  I asked him if he would write a "guest blog" so everyone could hear some adventures in Taiwan from his point of view.  So, this is my father's debut blog.  Enjoy!

Find It, the customs dog of Taipei, seemed very interested in the chocolate chips cookies in my backpack. The human agents were less impressed.

Sam and company were waiting, even tough I was 10 ½ hours late. The terminal floor in Hong Kong was fairly comfortable. Sam and I still recognized each other, so signs announcing that they were looking for me were not needed. Off to Sam’s apartment, and the adventure begins.

Wugu Apartment

Wugu from the rooftop

The first place Sam took me, a small gay guy tried to pick me up. I told him I was flattered, but uninterested. The memorial at 228 Peace Park is really beautiful, pictures of protesters engraved in glass.

Pick up hot spot

2-28 Memorial

Engraved glass

At the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, it was Falun Gong, marching band, breakstep dancers and the changing of the Honor Guard. The soldiers stand motionless for an hour at a time. Tassels on their rifles reveal any movement.

Falun Gong in front of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial

Break dancers

Guard at CKS Memorial

Standing in front of CKS Memorial

Several days and much fun later Sam and I are off to Hualien to bicycle Taroko Gorge. I discovered that the Papa Baker buys rule is international. We met a young man at the hostel while drinking beer. When we went to dinner, he came along, he was a very nice guy who has been on the road for 8 months. We ate, laughed, talked and when the bill came, it only seemed logical that I pick it up. Just like El Rey, far east division.

Oyster omelette in Hualien night market

Luice, the bike rental guy took us half way up Taroko. We had 6 hours to coast 18 kilometers and descend 1100 meters. The road, the central cross island highway, was inhabited by cars, trucks, buses, scooters, tunnels and one-way areas of construction. We fearlessly strapped on our rented helmets and joined the traffic. The Gorge is gorgeous, and the ride was invigorating. Until we decided that it would be a good idea to ride 2k up to an aboriginal village for lunch. ‘Up’ is the operative word here. It seemed vertical. The restaurant had stopped serving as we walked in. Maybe they smelled us coming. Three bottles of water and an ice cream bar assuaged the need for calories. Getting back to the highway was all downhill, as was the rest of the Gorge. We stopped for a drink at the Eternal spring memorial to the workers killed building the highway.

Riding into a tunnel

Taroko Gorge

On a break... and on a fence

Eternal Springs Shrine

Sweaty, but happy!

Luice took us to the Taiwan Brewery visitor and practice center for refreshment. The forbidding of climbing into the koi ponds is very strict, I think.

Much-deserved brew

Chinglish at its finest

Closing for now, let me encourage you to go to Taiwan. Be the tallest person around. Watch the kids try to stare at you furtively. Eat whatever lands on the table in front of you. Use the sticks to eat. Forks are hard to find, and the pointing and laughing make it hard to chew.

On Elephant Mountain with Taipei 101 in the background

Paul Baker

Jackpot!

I won the Taiwanese lottery!

It’s true, I only won NT$200 (less than $7 US), but still -- I won.

So check this out:  Here in Taiwan, you are automatically entered into the national lottery every time you make a qualifying purchase and collect your receipt.  Each receipt has numeric code at the top, and that’s your lucky number.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

The idea here is to generate more tax revenue for the government by encouraging businesses to conduct more “on the books” transactions.  The business that printed the winning receipt also gets a kickback on the money.

I've had to force myself to remember to take my receipts, since I was so used to refusing them from the cashiers back home.  Then there was the process of saving them in an orderly fashion, instead of having them clutter the surfaces of my apartment or collect in dust-bunny piles in corners.

A place for everything, and everything in its place

On the 25th of every odd month, the winning numbers from the previous two months are announced.  You have to check each receipt individually, which is quite tedious.  There MUST be a more efficient method, but I haven’t found it.  Anyways, I always check this site for the numbers and pray to the Money-for-Nothing God for a winner.  It’s disheartening to spend half an hour straining your eyes on all those little numbers just to find out you’re a big loser.

But I'm no loser.  After I found my golden ticket, (and yes, that's a link to the timeless classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) I filled out the form on the back of the receipt, walked myself down to the bank, and cashed in my prize.  The guy behind the bank window didn’t question or even check my winning numbers.  He just looked at the receipt, saw that I claimed to have won $200, and passed the cash over.  I guess I have an honest face.

Just like my momma always told me, I’m a winner!  And I KNOW that next month, I’ll win the $10million NT.  I can just feel it.

Makin' it raaaaaaaaaaaain

Megabuck’s got nothin on me.

Jiufen

Armed with my camera, slathered in sunscreen, and accompanied by my two friends (and personal tour guides!) Alice and Sabrina, I made the journey to Jiufen.  Jiufen is an old mountain mining town with an interesting history.  Once a hot-spot for gold mining in Taiwan, Jiufen is now mostly a tourist attraction, boasting a couple museums, old streets, and beautiful views of the northern shore of Taiwan.

We started our adventure at the Gold Ecological Park.  We wanted to get some knowledge in our brains, so we stopped in at the Gold Building, which is a museum dedicated to the history of metal mining in Taiwan.  Highlight: on the second floor, you can see (and touch!) the world’s largest gold bar!  Yes, that’s right -- who knew?!?

Gold Ecological Park

Alice and Sabrina

OoooooOoooo.... gold.

The gold bar weighs in at 220kg, which means 485lbs to me.  The day we were there, the value of that hunk of metal was $360,288,534NT.  That’s a whopping $12.2 million USD.  Most money I’ve ever had in/on the palm of my hand....

Not wanting to let all that wealth go to our heads, we donned hard hats and trekked into the mines to remind ourselves of all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into yanking that gold from the earth. 

Cutest miners ever?  I think so.

The Benshan Fifth Tunnel is renovated and “safe” for visitors, although I had to sign a loss-of-life waiver before entering.  Still, it was worth the $50NT fee.  The mine shaft was damp and cold, and it was a bit eerie to remember that we were walking under a mountain. 

Benshan Fifth Tunnel

Thread of gold running through the rock

After all that faux-mining, it was time for a refreshing snack.  We stopped in at our first of many eateries for the day and sampled the local douhua.  This tasty treat is soft tofu served cold in a syrup of brown sugar and ginger.  Hao chi.  

Kind of like pudding in syrup

We strolled back towards Jiufen, taking in some magnificent sights along the way.  Then we weaved our way through the old covered streets of Jiufen.  It was easy to imagine what the town might have been like all those years ago, before the tourists and museums, when the miners came here to shop and trade.  

Jiufen

Jiufen

Covered streets

Old streets

One of the main attractions in Jiufen is the street food.  The most well-known eats are the yuyuan, which are taro balls.  We ordered ours with sweet potatoes, peas, and red beans, over ice.  I’m not a fan of red beans in my desserts, but I was able to eat around them for the most part and enjoy the taro! 

Yuyuan

Of course, you can’t go through the whole day just eating desserts (although I have tried many times), so we also dined on yuwan -- fish balls -- and buwan, Taiwanese meat balls with bamboo in a chewy dough.  That probably sounds gross, and they don't look that appetizing either, but it was actually quite delicious.  And watching them make the balls was fascinating. 

Time to make the buwan!

Just don't look at it while you eat it.

Mmmm, fish ball soup.

All that eating was exhausting, so we decided to revive ourselves with an ice cream.  I’d seen people walking around Jiufen with what looked like an ice cream burrito, and since that combines two of my absolute favorite things, I had to have it.  The woman started with a thin pancake, sprinkled on some shaved peanut brittle, scooped on the ice cream, and topped it all with cilantro.  WHAT?!?  Cilantro.  Who the F knew that cilantro and ice cream would be such delicious partners?  New favorite food.  

Made with one scoop each of pineapple, taro, and vanilla

Heaven.

Jiufen?  More like SoFun.  Hahahahahaha.  Hey, look at this!

Old streets of Juifen

Jiufen

Jiufen

Like Pulling Teeth

Last week I went to the dentist.  I like going to the dentist.  I like that squeaky-clean feeling after my teeth get a good power-washing.  I don’t get freaked out by the shiny pointy devices they use to poke and scrape around in my mouth.  I just like knowing my teeth are in good working order.

So, after six months living in Taiwan, I decided it was time for that semi-annual check up.  Thanks to my roommates calling the clinic for me, I got an appointment set up for the NEXT DAY!  None of this, “let’s book your visit for 5 months from now” crap Dental Associates puts me through back in Milwaukee.  Also, since I work until 9pm all week, my appointment was at 9:20pm!  Can you imagine?  

The next day after work, I walked down the street to the dentist with my roommate Muni.  She helped me fill out the paperwork (and of course, by “helped” I mean “she did it for me because I can barely speak, let alone read or write, Chinese”).  I flashed my National Health Insurance card, paid $100NT (less than $4US), and sat down to wait for my name to be called.  

When my turn came, I was ushered off to the X-ray area.  That’s right, X-rays are included, no additional fee.  Your typical hilarity ensued as the very kind hygienist attempted to position me and the machine and that little x-ray film thing in my mouth while speaking little-to-no English.  And we all know how much Chinese I know.  We worked it out, and only as the machine was rotating around my head, emitting death rays towards me, did I realize that I had failed to put on the lead vest to protect my vital organs from the lethal beams.  Oops.

Next up was the examination chair.  Mostly, it was your garden-variety dental cubical, except they had a personal TV for me to watch during the wait.  I spent the next 3 minutes glued to an episode of Chinese-dubbed Spongebob Squarepants.  Very relaxing.

The dentist came over and was obviously nervous having me in his care.  He spoke more English than he gave himself credit for, and he made every effort to make sure I understood what was going on.  I assured him I was not a nervous patient.  He did the normal poking and prodding, analyzed the x-rays, and told me I had a small cavity way in the back.  Then he grabbed one of the electric silver tools and started in towards my mouth.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, there mister!”  I was freaking out!  Was he about to drill that cavity out??!! Right now?!  No Novocain?!  What’s going on??!!

A lot of miming, pointing, sound effects, weird facial expressions, and a little help from a nearby hygienist later, and I realized the tool he was holding was only a water pik.  He was just starting the cleaning.  So much for not being a nervous patient.

The cleaning was quick (and painless), but it was not the same as at home.  Basically he just scraped around with that pointy thing and then used the water pik in all the crevices.  No high-fluoride, squeaky cleaning with that little nobby tool.  (Wow, I know nothing about dental equipment).  Either way, I was cleaned up and sent on my way back to reception to make an appointment for that little cavity.

I scheduled my filling for the next Monday.  I’ve only had one other cavity in my adult teeth, so I was a bit more nervous about this trip to the dentist.  My main concern was that he used the white filling material, not that tacky silver crap.  I don’t want anyone to KNOW I had cavity when I unhinge my jaw in one of my huge laughing fits.  Vanity first, people.

I shelled out another $100NT, and sat down in the chair.  The same dentist (poor guy) attended to my filling.  I think he had been practicing the English dialogue because he used terms like “pulp” and “dentin.”  After a little more poking and scraping, he told me it was time to start.

“Ummmmmm, where’s the Novocaine???”  Again, I am not a cavity expert, but isn’t the drilling into my head part going to hurt?  Isn’t this the part in horror movies when they cut away because everyone will throw up from the pain of seeing someone undergoing dental work without meds?

Little did I know, small cavities don’t require numbness.  He just went in there with that little drill, buzzed out the decay, and apparently stayed a safe distance away from my nerve endings.

Once again, the Taiwanese have impressed me.  Timely appointments, friendly staff, reasonable prices, expert work, and no screaming pain.  Oh, and beautiful, tooth-coloring fillings.

Xie xie, Dentist Man.

Kaohsiung Getaway

Over the 228 holiday weekend, I traveled with a group of friends to Kaohsiung.  “Another vacation?!?” you say?  “Is that all you do?  Just travel around having fun and seeing the world?”

Yes.

We took the High Speed Rail from Taipei to Kaohsiung, at opposite ends of the island.  The HSR is an amazing modern marvel!  A distance of about 185 miles was covered in only 2 hours!  And that was on the “slow” HSR train.  On the way back home, the “fast” train shot us home in an hour and a half!  Bullet trains are the way to travel.

When we arrived at the MRT (subway) station near our hostel, we were welcomed to Kaohsiung by the Dome of Light.  Amazing what you can find underground sometimes.... 

Dome of Light

Formosa Boulevard MRT Station in Kaohsiung

After a dinner of street food from the Liuhe Night Market, we headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf for some fresh air and a couple Taiwan Pijius.  That means ‘beers’.  :)

Xie xie

The next morning, we went off in search of breakfast.  Somewhere between the coffee and the noodles, we found ourselves in the middle of an earthquake!  Now, I’ve felt a few tremors living here in Taiwan, but this was crazy!  People, tables, and chairs were rumbling around, and you could hear the earthquake.  I started to feel seasick.  We found out later that it registered around 5.9 on the ol’ Richter Scale.  Best part?  The lady working at the restaurant went right on making tea during the whole thing.

Now certified earthquake survivors, we remembered that life is short and we’d better make the most of it.  We packed a lot of living into the rest of the day!

Our first stop was Lotus Pond.  We could have easily spent the entire day here, walking around the pond and many temples and pagodas.  At the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, the custom is to “enter the dragon and exit the tiger” for good luck. 

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas

Enter the Dragon

Exit the Tiger

Oh, hello.

Next up were the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, which are dedicated to Kuan Kung, the God of War.  The lanterns were beautiful, and very un-war-like.  

Spring and Autumn Pavilions 

I love lanterns!

We also visited the statue of Xuantian Shang-di, the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven, and guardian of the north.  Long name, big feet. 

Xuantian Shang-di

Very Dark Heaven-ly

Lastly, we stepped into the Temple of Enlightenment, which is the biggest temple by far.  Sometimes I feel like, after a while, all the temples start to look the same, but this one had some pretty awesome ceiling art. 

The phoenix and dragon theme was heavily represented at Lotus Pond

Ceiling painting

Ooo lala, fancy gold ceilings 

After realizing that we were too tired to walk to our next sight-seeing stop, we hopped in a couple cabs and rode in style over to Longcyuan Temple.  Now, I know I just said that all the temples are the same and I’m totally bored with them, but this temple really had an effect on me!  I think it was the flags and Buddhist chanting, but maybe it was the elevation.....

I mean.... just look at this!

The sound of the flags flapping in the wind was so peaceful!

The plan was to pick up a trail here at the Temple and walk around the Chaishan Nature Reserve to look for macaque monkeys.  But we were tired.  And we saw a couple monkeys on top of the bathroom.  So.... that counts. 

Just chillin

Back at the hostel, some decided to take a nap, but I was still on a “live life to the fullest / sleep when you’re dead” high from surviving that earthquake.  So, the rest of us journeyed back down to the harbor to take the ferry out to Cijin Island.  

Aboard the ferry to Cijin Island 

Kaohsiung at night from Cijin Island in the harbor

Back on the main island, we met up with the rest of the group to check out Love River.  So romantic!  Not really, but it was a cool river walk.  

Love River

Side note:  At dinner, the restaurant boasted many Western-style dishes.  We ordered the nachos for the table because, well, why wouldn’t you?  I am starting to believe more and more each day that my true reason for coming to Taiwan is to somehow spread the joy of Mexican food to this part of the world.  These “nachos” would not even be allowed  to be labeled as such in the States.  Bowl of tortilla chips. Cup of salsa. Cup of ranch.  Cup of honey mustard.  Tasty.  Not nachos.  End of rant.

The next morning, our group scattered to different parts of the island.  Some went to Kenting, which will certainly be the topic of a future blog here on SamanthaInFormosa, but not today.  I stayed with the rest in Kaohsiung to see what else the city had to offer.  We started at the Pier 2 Art District.  As we walked from the MRT station to the pier, we all commented on the traffic and its superiority over the sometimes-scary situation in Taipei.  The sun was shining, the air was less polluted, and the scooters weren’t constantly threatening to run me down.  I was really enjoying Kaohsiung!

And then we got to the Art District -- I was in love!  

From destruction comes beauty?

The expo was stocked full with these man/woman themed statue things

Graffiti art!

Wishing tree

More graffiti art

My coworker Anna had told me about the huge bowls of mango shaved ice you can buy in Kaohsiung, so of course that was on my to-do list for the city.  I’ve had many instances where my complete lack of Chinese language skills has affected my ability to get what I want or need, but it had been a while since it was this extreme.  I was just about ready to give up..... but I really wanted that mango ice.

Me: (standing around staring at the menu, entirely in Chinese) Ni hao. Wo yao nage.  “Hello, I want that.”  (I pointed to a picture of a mondo bowl of mango shaved ice.)

Restaurant Lady: (She obviously knew about as much English as I know Chinese, but for the sake of the story, and because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want, I’ll translate her Chinese and gestures into English) Hello, please fill out this order form.

Me: Oh, it’s all in Chinese.  I can barely speak Chinese and certainly can’t read it.  I want that bowl in the picture.

Lady: Ok, just fill in the order form.

Me:  Hmmmm, still can’t read it.  Can I just point to what I want?  That usually works for me....

Lady:  You want that?  Are you sure?  It’s big.  Do you want the big one or the small one? 

Me: Yes, I want that.  I have 3 friends to share it with.

Lady: Ok, cool.  Just fill in this order form.

Me:  (Deep breath)  I’ll be right back.

At this point, I was ready to give up.  Pointing always works!  Luckily, the Restaurant Lady recruited another patron who spoke more English to help me.  Ah, Taiwan, always so helpful!

Me: I want that big bowl of shaved ice.

Helpful Girl: You want that?

Me: Yes.

Girl:  What do you want?

Me:  Umm, I want that big bowl of shaved ice.

Girl:  It has fruit on it.

Me: I know. I want that one. In the picture.

Girl: Do you want the big one or the small one?

Me: The big one. I want the big one in the picture.

Girl: Do you want ice?

Me: Yes, I want mango shaved ice.

Girl:  Do you want white ice or regular ice?

Me: Wow, how can there possibly be this many questions about a bowl of mango shaved ice?  I want whatever is in that picture.  Or in that bowl right there on that table that the other people are eating.  I want to eat that.

Girl: Oh, you want the same thing as this picture right here?

Me: (Sigh) Yes, that is what I want.

It was AAAAALLLLLLLLLLL worth it!  Check out this little bowl of heaven!

Worth the effort

Rejuvenated by our delicious bowl of shaved ice, we hiked up to the British Consulate at Takou.  The cherry blossom trees were in bloom, and there were great views of the harbor.  I kinda want to live there. 

British Consulate at Takou

View of Kaohsiung harbor

I could live here. Easy.

Thanks to my Lonely Planet Guide, I knew where to go for a relaxing and delightful dinner.  We took a cab up and down some winding roads over to a small fishing village right on the shore.  The cabbie dropped us off partway down and pointed us in the general direction of the restaurant.  Apparently the remainder of the roads were too steep, winding, and narrow.  It made for a beautiful and quaint walk, though.  We arrived at Escape 41 and chose a seat out on the patio (in February!!) to watch the sunset.  We ordered beers and appetizers and took in the view.  At some point, the sun slipped behind a cloud or perhaps a layer of that Taiwan haze that seems to be ever-present, and the sunset abruptly disappeared before completion.  But we were not irked -- we had the best pizza in all of Taiwan to console us!  

View from our table

Last bit of sunset

Escape 41

Exhausted and buzzing with the thrill of living life to the fullest in Kaohsiung, most of us turned in early and slept like rocks.  Our weekend in the south of Taiwan was sensational, and it made me wonder: is there a career that involves ALWAYS being on vacation?  Because I think I’d be pretty good at it.