tales from taiwan (1)

November 1, 2021 – March 4, 2022

Have no car, will travel
Public transportation is so easy, touring programs so abundant, there is no excuse not going places over the island. So we tagged on a bus tour to a southwestern town showcasing an old time sawmill with modern woodcraft, visiting tea farms, a coffee factory, and a natural eco park along the way;​

a self-planned (by a friend couple), self driven (by the friend couple) car trip to the big sky, blue ocean east coast and a deep river, silk stream fall, suspension bridge national park; 

​and a high speed train facilitated expedition to an erstwhile earthquake shaken town that features a "paper church", a Buddhist pyramid, and a village wall gallery right at the geographical center of Taiwan.

​Michelin and A-Cheng

Though restaurant business got hammered hard at the height of the pandemic (many "little eat" stands catering to tourists went out of business), the majority survived and thrived. From Michelin rated gourmet restaurants to corner soybean-milk and beef-noodle shops, to run-of-the-mill indigenous food providers such as Formosa Chang (鬍鬚張) and A-Cheng Geese (阿城鵝肉), crowds were as prevalent as ever, proving good foods and good dining are delights of life, perhaps even more so at hard times.
 

​​​Buggy jiang

She is the 6-year old granddaughter ("Buggy" because her ultrasound photo looked like a little bug in her mom's womb, "jiang" meaning "kiddo" in Japanese) of my sister's, a normal, happy kid of her age. She went to the kindergarten in the morning, got picked up by her mom in the afternoon and sent straight to my sister's piano studio for some very light-hearted, "happy-hour" lessons with her granny. She occasionally came up to our apartment (we lived in the same building as my sister's and my nephew's) with her mom and showed us the dancing and singing she learned at school, or had me print out some pictures for her to draw after. She was a joy to many. And when one weekend we took her to a newly opened playground in a neighborhood park for play, I was somehow struck by the rare scene of the many bubbly, bouncy kids all around, in a country that has been breaking world records for lowest birth rates for years.
 

And they wedded
My wife's favorite niece and her boyfriend had been going steady for years, and after some prompting and hinting, and finally overt incentive (bribe) from my wife, they decided to get married.

The wedding took place at a hotel ballroom. We arrived early to witness the "pre-game shows" of pranks and teases by their friends, and when it came to the part where the bride's parents formally said farewell to the daughter, the mother lost it, bursting out in tears while giving words of advice such as "don't over-sleep" to her daughter that were both touching and funny at the same time, totally unscripted.

The ceremony went smoothly afterwards: the processional, the announcement, the toasting... all on tack. The food was great, the atmosphere joyful, the newlyweds handsome and beautiful. Mission accomplished, I imagined my wife would say.

Will they have children? That would be the next question.

 

Where I have never trekked before

My father, during his time on Earth, took the habit of waking up at 3:30 in the morning and hiked to a nearby mount for over 40 years, until the year he passed. I decided to take the same hike myself, and asked my cousin Chris, whose father also passed away a few years ago and was the closest brother to my father who also went the same hike for some period of time with my father, to join me.

For four consecutive weeks, Chris and I not only went the same hiking route as our fathers did, but also explored adjacent mounts one at a time, all the way to the eastern end of Taipei basin. I was satisfied, not only by the discovery of new hiking routes, but also by the feeling of rekindled kinship with my cousin brother from childhood.