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Meaningless Rant: What Does Taiwan Sound Like?

Posted on December 29th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Meaningless Rants, Taiwan.

I was taking down some old worksheets that I had stuck up in the stairwell I’ve come to dominate in the Kindergarten.  They were some weeks old, back from our Health theme.  After taking a walk to the Nature Park on campus, I asked the kids to draw pictures of what they saw, heard, felt, and smelled during our nature trek.

At the same time, I was pondering our new theme, which starts next week: Taiwan.  I began mentally generating lesson plans as I cleared off a patch of the stairwell wall, and slowly the worksheets and Taiwan theme planning began to meld, and I started asking myself questions like:

1. “What does Taiwan look like?”
   Well, I thought, it looks like motorscooters weaving in and out of traffic under Chinese signs for food and shoes and betel nut.  Hmm…odd way to think of it, but it was the first thought to come to mind.
2. “What does Taiwan smell like?”
   Stinky tofu and pollution, I thought, though in Taiwan’s defense, that’s really just Taipei.
3. “What does Taiwan sound like?”
   The Fur Elise.

My answer to question three was immediate and definitive, and seemingly inexplicable to anyone who has NOT lived here.  Alas, you lucky ones who are sheltered from the horible truth.

Every night, garbage trucks travel throughout the cities of Taiwan, blasting the Fur Elise incessently.  The notes, unending, come blaring out of the special siren-like speakers on the garbage trucks, announcing the whereabouts of the truck.  (You see, in Taiwan, the garbage truck doesn’t pick up your garbage - it drives around the city and, when you hear the Fur Elise, you quickly gather your garbage, run downstairs, chase the garbage truck down the street, and toss the bag of waste into the back of the truck.  It is, without a doubt, a horrible system.)

While I’m complaining about obnoxious music, let me raise the issue of the washing machine I share with the tenants of the other seven studio apartments on the second floor of this particular building.  Whenever anyone starts the machine, and whenever a load is finished, the machine blares “It’s a Small World After All” so loudly that, if we wash clothes past 10pm, people in neighboring buildings call the cops to complain.

Why it’s necessary for the washing machine to play a song at the beginning and end of each wash cycle is really beyond me.  As to why it had to be “It’s a Small World”…I can only assume that the landlord, packing one and two people into 125 sq. ft. apartments, has a very sick sense of humor.

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Taiwan: Taipei: Taipei Flower Show 2006

Posted on December 20th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taipei.

Below are a few pictures I meant to post…but I never got around to it.  Surprise, surprise.  They were taken in Daan Park, a large park in central Taipei that’s about 10 to 15 minutes from my apartment by foot.  They randomly have events there - in November I stumbled across the Taipei Flower Show.

[Chinese sedan chair.]

First is the sedan chair that a Chinese bride was traditionally carried in from her family’s home to the groom’s family’s home, where she would live out the rest of her days in the insanity of a typical Chinese household.  To some extent, it’s my understanding that this tradition is still followed today, but they use cars instead of a huge, wooden hut on poles…kinda cheapens it, doesn’t it?

And this one…it’s just here because it’s pretty.  I like all the lanterns hanging from the trees, guiding one down the path, the flowers planted thick around the base of each cluster of gnarled branches.

[Pothead.]

There was a series of what I labled “Potheads” (yes, the pun was intentional.  Yes, it is horrible.  Yes, I am [vaguely] ashamed.)  I thought they rather looked like aliens among the large, colorful bushes of flowers.

And this one…really, I just thought he was cute/cool.  I really have no other reason.  He just makes me happy, and that’s all the reason I need.

And this last one…I have a sick sense of humor…but doesn’t that small child in the center of the photo rather resemble a food pellet that a couple overgrown, hungry koi are about to inhale?

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Taiwan: Road Trip 6/6: The Road Home (Su’ao & Ilan)

Posted on October 30th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

From Chishing Beach we continued north towards Ilan, where we planned to have dinner.  The traffic, however, was not so cooperative and dinner ended up being the beef jerky Matt had packed in the back of the car.

[The East Coast of Taiwan]

Hoping the traffic might lighten up after a while, we made a stop in Su’ao, home to a natural cold spring, which remains at 21*C (70*F) year round.  The truly special thing about these springs, however, is that they are naturally carbonic.  My guess is that this phenomenon has something to do with the type of rocks found there, but I have no idea.  A sign said that the amount of bubbles varies depending on the time of day and the season.

[East Coast + Anna]

I enjoyed sitting in the bubbly water, which tickled, leaving me squirming with laughter in the underground pool.  Eventually, however, we had to get back on the road, which was not much better than it had been when we got off it an hour earlier.  Luckily, Ilan was only 22 kilometers away.  We made the trip in two hours.  (Did I mention the entire country was enjoying a 5-day weekend?)

[Cold spring pool in Su’ao]

After a visit to Ilan’s night market, which is located under a overpass next to the Ilan Train Station, we got back on the road for the final leg of our trip.  It was time to go back to Taipei, download the pictures, and say goodbye for another half year.  If I haven’t managed to scare Matt away, maybe we’ll have another trip one day.  (I lived on the floor of his Shanghai apartment for a while and he’s still friends with me, so he’s obviously pretty tough, but everyone has their limits.) 

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Taiwan: Road Trip: 5/6: Hualien

Posted on October 29th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

After a good soak, it started to get dark and we decided it was time to move on with our trip.  We climbed back up to the car and continued our journey towards the city of Hualien, which turned out to be so packed with tourists that the traffic barely moved, and there weren’t even any illegal parking spots to be had.

Worse than the traffic situation, though, was the housing situation.  I had predicted this.  I had advised Matt to book a hotel, as I didn’t know when or where we would be, but as usual, he ignored my advice.  Luckily, he did listen to one of my suggestions: bring a tent.

The next morning, we crawled out of the our tent, which we pitched in a parking lot after it cleared late the previous night.  We packed up quickly and head out, got some breakfast, and hit the road.

Our first stop was Liyu Lake, where we debated over whether we should go for biking or boating.  Unfortunately, I won, and we went for boating.  I had wanted canoeing, but that’s not what was available.  Instead, we got a swan-shaped paddleboat that, we discovered, went a lot faster backwards than forwards.  We probably drew a few stares as the swan headed across the late backwards in a drunken fashion.

Chishing Beach is famous for the metamorphic rock that covers it.  We sat down and dug through the rocks, where Matt said that you could even find precious stones.  “I don’t usually encourage people to take rocks, though,” he added.  “Ten-thousand tourists come here every year, and each one takes a few rocks.  One day, there will be nothing special left on this beach.”  Though I found a few neat stones, I chose not to take them.

We headed down to the water’s edge.  “Look!” I said, pointed east across the Pacific Ocean.  “There’s my home, just over there.”  (Ah, the beginnings of a running gag.)

We rolled up our pant legs when we headed down to take a few photos, but the ocean waves aren’t as predictable as a Minnesotan might expect.  Translation: we got soaked, and we ran back up shore, clutching our damp camera bags nervously.  It was time to move on.

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Taiwan: Road Trip 4/6: Down into Taroko Gorge

Posted on October 19th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

After climbing Hohuan Mountain, we headed back down the mountain for some lunch (which provoked some local tourists to take my picture as we sat on the ground in a parking lot, dining on instant noodles out of camping pots like a stranded, poverty-stricken foreigner.)

Next, we drove down the other side of the mountain and into Taroko Gorge, which is located on the eastern side of Taiwan.  The roads were no less treacherous than those we faced on the way up, but this time the drop-off along the side of the road was a few thousand feet.  I was slightly perturbed.  Matt laughed and proclaimed that my life was in his hands, so I ought to be nice to him.  I was.

The further down we went, the more tunnels we passed through.  After the second Taishan Tunnel - the very same “Taishan” as Tarzan’s Chinese name! - Matt pulled over in a small parking area, announcing that we had arrived at a natural hot spring.

“I should tell you though, that some people died here this year when some rocks fell on them,” Matt told me.  My reaction was: “Huh.  That sucks.  Let’s get our swimsuits.  Hot springs!”  You see, I’m rather passionate about bathing in natural springs around the world.  So once again, we climbed over a series of fences - three sets this time - warning of death, prohibiting all civilians, and insisting that we turn back immediately.

The pool where the deadly landslide had occurred was empty, but there was still water in a small pool that was covered by a large slab of rock, which we decided meant that we would be safe from landslides.  The foggy water rushed out of a crack in the marble cliff walls at 41*C (106*F) and filled the shallow pool.  Even stretched out, the water didn’t quite cover our bodies.

[I just wanted to put this at the foot of my post…]

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Taiwan: Road Trip 3/6: The Ski Lift

Posted on October 17th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

[Credit on these photos goes to Uncle Matt - amazing pictures.]

On our hike up the mountain, we passed an interesting building (the path to which was also blocked by a sign we decided to ignore, of course - this was a trend for us throughout the trip.)

The dilapidated structure, little more than a pile of bricks and cement, served as the base for the upper end of a ski lift in its day - apparently it actually snows on some mountains in Taiwan and initially assumed the ski lift was for grass skiing, which I have heard is popular here.

While Matt acknowledged that the sorry excuse for a building was probably somewhat dangerous, that didn’t stop us from spending a good deal of time hanging out there, trying to get a few good pictures.

After satisfying our need for photos - note that Matt is worse than I am and is more than willing to risk his well-being for a good shot - we continued our course up the mountain towards the peak.

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Taiwan: Road Trip 2/6: Climbing Hohuan Mountain

Posted on October 15th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

[Myself, half-way up Hohuan Mountain]

After taking the typical Taiwanese mountain road, a narrow, one-way strip of pavement with two-way traffic and flimsy guards that protect cars from the countless drop-offs, we finally arrived near the top of Hohuan Mountain, one of Taiwans famous 100 Mountain - which makes me ask, how many mountains are there on this tiny island???

A choice lay before us.  Route A, filled with local tourists, was a quick and easy hike to a peak.  Route B, which was blocked off by fences equipped with signs warning of danger, was a harder but more rewarding climb to a more prominent peak.  Predictably, we chose Route B.

[Myself, resting on the East Peak]

After trekking through short bamboo and thorned bushes (because someone ignored my advice that we check out what appeared to be a path just a bit higher up, only later to look back and say: “Hey, look, there was a path just a bit higher that we could have taken,) we finally arrived on a path that didn’t randomly disappear in the foliage.

[Matt, with his baby EOS 30.  I tell him he looks like he’s pregnant carrying that thing around] :-P 

The climb was challenging for me, perhaps because I’m out of shape, perhaps because there’s less air above 10,000 feet, perhaps because I have a bad knee, or perhaps because the world hates me.  Nevertheless, I eventually arrived at the 3,421 meter (11,223 foot) peak, where we took pictures before I pulled the pomello and knife in my bag and declared it “Pomello Time”.

[Myself and Matt - inscription on the wooden post reads: “Hohuan Mountain East Peak 3,421 Meters Above Sea Level”]

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Taiwan: Road Trip 1/6: Our Best Laid Plans

Posted on October 14th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan, Travel.

[Matt will always be behind a camera lens in my mind, but that was established before this trip.]

While Uncle Matt was back in Taiwan for the October holiday in mainland China, we decided to go on a short road trip (which was going to be in a borrowed jeep, and then in Matt’s car, and then we were going to go by train and rent motorcycles, but we finally ended up in his car.)

We decided to leave on the 5^th and return on the 7^th.  Return on the 8^th.  Leave on the 6^th.  Return on the 9^th.  Return on the 10^th.  Leave on the 7^th.  We finally ended up leaving long before the sun rose on the 7^th and returned long after the sun set on the 8^th (I guess it would technically be long before the sun rose on the 9^th, really.)

You see, it’s not that we’re poor planners so much as that we didn’t really plan at all, which is typical of my and Matt’s traveling style.  I didn’t know when or where we were going, so I left booking hotels to Matt, who didn’t see a need to book hotels in Taiwan on a nation-wide, 5-day holiday weekend.  I advised he bring a tent just in case, and that may well be the only time he has ever listened to my advice. 

[This trip will likely cause Matt to remember me as the woman who couldn’t keep her eyes open while staring into the sun for a picture.]

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Taiwan: Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Posted on October 9th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Taiwan.

National Stare at the Moon Day is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, which fell on October 6th this year.  On this day, the full moon is said to be at its largest of the entire year, and this year, was said to be at its largest in nine years.

[Uncle Danny at the BBQ with his college classmate’s wife and children]

Taiwanese celebrate this day by breaking out the barbeque and heading for the nearest park or, if they’re lazy, the nearest sidewalk.  There was actually a haze in the sky because EVERYONE in the entire COUNTRY was barbequing.  I went out to a park in northern Taipei with Uncle Danny and his college classmates.

[A picture of the moon, taken by Uncle Matt on his Canon 30D during the 2006 Moon Festival]

While Westerners see a man’s face on the moon (actually, I never could see that…), Danny told me that the Chinese see a big, white rabbit on the moon (which looks so much more obvious to me!)  This figure is also known as the Jade Rabbit, and it is said that a rabbit was sent to live there after making a noble sacrifice of itself.

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Taiwan: Taipei: Ali Baba’s Indian Kitchen

Posted on September 24th, 2006 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Food, Taipei, Taiwan.

A friend introduced me to Ali Baba’s Indian Kitchen, which is near my old area on Nanjing East Road, Section 2.  Brad and I used to walk that route late at night - to think that we might have passed it!

[The obligatory poorly lit entrance with a lone sign to indicate a reastaurant within.]

Like to many excellent eateries in Taiwan, there isn’t much on the outside to hint at the delicious foods that are hidden within.  A small opening in the wall of buildings leads to a short, dark entrance hallway.  Up a couple narrow staircases and you enter a beautiful, clean, stylish restaurant filled with the aromas of Indian spices.

[We had a mutton curry, a spinach paneer, garlic nan, and mango lassis.]

They have a weekend lunch buffet for NT$399 (12pm - 3pm) otherwise the meal will run you about NT$500 per person.  I’m generally rather cheap and I thought the food was totally worth it.  For more information, you can also check out their website.  (Apparently they also have a Taoyuan branch.)

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