Worked on Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman on the
plane. Periodically read this in place of 3g-access withdrawal when there was
nothing to do. Managed to finish the book. Flew into TaoYuan instead of Taipei
because Hongqiao airport in Shanghai is way too far from my house compared to
Pudong.
Initially,
my impression of Taiwan was a lot of interspersed jungle and factories, but as
we moved closer to the center of Taipei, the buildings started looking better. Dominant
colors were kind of brown-grey for buildings, with pretty vibrant green
mountains in the background. Most buildings seemed to be either somewhat old;
perhaps a result of a warmer climate that leads to more weathering? In places
closer to the jungle mountains, you can see trees actively digging into walls.
Of course, there were areas of Taipei that were gleaming, such as luxury
shopping courts near the Taipei 101. In comparison to Shanghai though, I would
say most buildings are a bit shorter and older looking on average.
The
people were nice and polite. Fashion wise, clothing was closer to styles I
would see in California than in Shanghai, which was a nice change of pace.
The
first evening, we took the metro to the Taipei 101 area. The Taiwan metro is
also older-looking, but much more organized than the Shanghai metro. I though
the plastic-coin ticket was pretty unique. Once we got off, we kind of expected
to be able to find the 101 easily, as it is
the tallest building in Taiwan. Oddly enough, this wasn’t the case, and we
ended up circling around the metro station constantly looking up. We ended up
getting our first taste of Taiwanese food in one of the food courts near there.
I remember the brown sugar milk tea and the egg/seafood omelets with… pink
sauce the best. Soon after we had… teppanyaki. Apparently most good places are
closed during Chinese new year; go figure. They did have some life sized chibi
figures outside the 101 that were cute and were popular photographic subjects
though, which was pretty asian.
The
Palace museum the next day looked small on a map, but we ended up spending
around five hours going through every gallery. I do enjoy museums, so I didn’t
mind, but there might have been a tad too much Qing dynasty ceramics. The jade
carvings were definitely the highlight, although I found that the piece of
imitation pork was more impressive than the jade cabbage. Due to the number of
mainland tourists, the entire third floor was basically a huge line weaving
slowly through galleries. Things that I found of interest:
Tiny carvings in walnuts
San
Bernadino, California is apparently one of four major Jadeite quarries in the
world. The other type is Nephrite.
Out
of the many, many ceramics on display, the type I liked best was “Jun ware”
because of the red/purple color.
Red
pigment for ceramics has microscopic flecks of gold in it.
Curio
cabinets look awesome. I don’t know what I would do with it, but I want one.
I also briefly entertained stoneworking as a hobby.
Apparently you need a lot of high power tools nowadays. Maybe when I have space/money/time. Wait, that's a lot.
Going
to the natural hot springs in the mountains in the evening was somewhat
worrisome. We chose a random taxi from a taxi queue outside the museum, and
then spent 40 minutes driving up a two lane road into the gathering dark. Not
the safest travel practices, but hey, we’re alive right? The hotsprings
themselves were probably the highlight of this trip for me. There were multiple
small outdoor pools, with less than ten people there in the entire area. I
chose to spend the majority of my time in the hottest uncovered pool. It was a
pretty picturesque and relaxing experience: a light drizzle, a tree partially
hanging over the mineral-clouded water, small pink flowers on the water
surface, dark sky with only a dim lamppost for light… quite nice. A minor
quibble would be the drops falling off the tree above were much bigger than the
drizzle, leading to a tiny shock when they inevitably fell on your face.
The
night market afterwards was vibrant and crowded. We didn’t really buy anything
to eat other than roasted corn on the cob. Probably a waste, but after the
salmonella poisoning I had the week before, I wasn’t quite ready for street
food. It all smelled quite overpowering though. I’ll probably have to go again
to get a legitimate experience.
The
third day we went to Jiu Fen, which is basically a small snacks shopping
district that retains the character of older Taiwan under Japan. Lots of snack
shops selling Taro ____, but the most interesting two stores there was one that
sold old-timey candies and snacks (I received one of those soda bottles which
are sealed by some sort of glass marble) and this shop with walls just covered
in clay masks. Apparently he gets “visited by apparations in his dreams”, and
the masks are the various spirits and monsters he sees. They are creative, if a
bit crude looking: some with multiple noses, some with oozing sores, some with
genitalia on their faces, ect. The main take-home impression, though, was that
the walls of this two room gallery were covered in them, with masks overlapping
masks. I would not want to live in this place at night; it seems like something
that would appear in a surreal book.
Lunch
was at one of those fish markets where you buy live fish, then go across the
promenade and pay someone to cook them for you. The variety of offerings was
pretty staggering; everything from conches, to geoduck, to what I can only call
a horseshoe crab without the tail (it tasted like odd lobster... not something I was enthusiastic about eating). It was insanely
crowded though; one cookery had a 2-hour waiting line. We ended up having to
walk a ways to find an open restaurant. I was more partial to the fish than the
shellfish overall, unfortunately.
The
day was rounded out through the purchase of tea. Although we have a Tenren tea
place in Cupertino, I was told that the good stuff didn’t get imported out of
Taiwan. I can’t really confirm or deny that though. It was pretty good tea. I
also ventured on my own to get dinner at ten, and ended up just gesturing to
menu items as the owners of some hole in the wall shop talked Taiwanese at me.
On a side note, the Taiwanese accent is more noticeable than I thought it was.
Dinner was a super cheap meal of that rice + pork mix and a vegetable + pork
mix. Pretty simple, but it was fast and convenient.
The
half-day cab ride to HuaLian was fairly unremarkable, although Taiwan’s
coastline is pretty spectacular in a vertical sort of way. Unlike every other
day in Taiwan, it was actually sunny and clear, so the drive was enjoyable.
Naturally I slept most of the time. We stopped in the middle to visit a temple;
it had 3 levels, with three buddhas on each one: one made of ceramic, one of
gold, and one of jade. The temple itself was pretty ornate, but seemed to be
somewhat new compared to some of the ones in china. I thought it was nice,
though, how they had free pumpkin porridge outside for whoever wanted it.
Once we got to the southern area,
we had some of the local wontons, and then went to the national park there,
which was famous for the mountains, flowering trees, and monkeys. Our cab
driver was quite knowledgeable, and we ended up eating some sort of lamb hot
pot meal together.
The
last day consisted of the drive back to Taipei and a last bit of food. We
bought a lot of mocha and pineapple cakes (except I chose green tea) to eat and
bring back to coworkers. Fresh mocha is pretty
good. We had lunch at the original Din Tai Feng, which tasted different
than the ones in Shanghai, but still were very tasty. As usual, we ordered way
too much.
I
think if I were asked to choose between the two, I would want to work in
Shanghai. It changes faster, has more things to do, and has more opportunities.
However, I would want to live in
Taiwan because of the atmosphere (figuratively and literally… haha) and the
smaller, more stable atmosphere. Also wax apples are pretty tasty.
Then
again, my opinion of the place will probably change drastically if I go again
with someone else my age. As far as a trip where the purpose is to leisurely
move around the country and relax, I’m happy with it.
