Author: Elizabeth

I’ll continue the story about our evening trip to the main train station to scope out tickets and coffee for the next day. Despite a lack of coffee shops, the station was hopping and all stores and services were open. Well, the next morning, we showed up for our 8:00 am train to find everything shuttered, all the stores, the food outlets, the lovely bakeries, everything deserted. And the station was jammed with incoming and outgoing passengers and commuters, so how could this be? We were so puzzled, but went through the barriers to access the platforms, and lo and behold, found a little kiosk there selling packaged buns, other snacks, and coffee, so got modestly fed and watered before the trip after all. That’s when Dorothy and I realized we weren’t in Kansas any more 😉

Taipei to Tainan took 90 minutes by high-speed train, and we travelled about 70% of the length of the island, so that gives an idea of how much is packed into a small country. Happy to report that Tainan was worth the trek. Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese from 1895 to 1945, and a strong influence is still visible. The Hayashi Department Store in Tainan is a beautifully-restored 1932 building, selling local and Japanese goods. It also boasts an elegant café on the top floor where Geoff tried a local specialty called “shaved ice”, that is not at all icy or granular. Rather, it’s like fresh snow, the powdery kind but not quite so powdery as the kind that blows away, scooped onto maraschino cherries, and covered with an intensely-flavoured fruit syrup. I’ve no idea how they make actual snow in a café in warm weather, but there you are.

Next visit was to Anping Old Fort, originally built as Fort Zeelandia by the Dutch around 1620. In true Dutch fashion, they reclaimed a huge lagoon and a sandbar to create enough terra firma for a big fort and outbuildings. There was no mortar in those days, so the bricks were laid with a paste of oyster shells, syrup, and ground sticky rice which the Hokkein-speaking Taiwanese called “ang-mun-tou”, meaning “red-hair soil”… because the Dutch were gingers.

For some reason, Tainan is a big centre for shrimp chips. They put the dough into the silver hopper you see here, and every 5 seconds or so the gizmo spits out a freshly-blown shrimp chip with a startlingly loud “pop”! Intense competition among the vendors to have you sample and buy THEIRS.

In closing, a somewhat random post — the Taiwan Walk light. I love the guy’s easy stride. Sadly, I wasn’t able to film the next stage because it created a strange sparkle effect on my iPhone, but around the 6-second mark he speeds up and starts running like Usain Bolt. Love it!

And to finish this trip’s blog on a totally random note, here I am displaying my relaxed crabby face, watching a movie with a bear, while the big cat looks somewhat irritated by the photographer.

We’re now back in the capital Taipei, and have visited Taipei 101, which is a mega-skyscraper that’s almost but not quite as tall as the CN Tower. That said, it has a faster elevator, which takes just an ear-popping 34 seconds to reach the observation deck on the 89th floor.

Taiwan is earthquake-prone and subject to typhoons, so there were challenges in building something this high here. I tried not to think about any of this until I was back at ground level again, but must confess I felt I was swaying a bit up there, though that could have been my imagination playing tricks. The tower holds a Tuned Mass Damper, which is a 600-ton suspended steel ball in the centre of the structure’s core, up around the 80th floor, that moves to counteract the building-sway effect of earthquakes and typhoons. Thankfully it was not moving when I saw it, but I took a video-of-a-video showing it swinging during Typhoon Soudelor in 2015. I do hope it was filmed by an unmanned camera, and that some poor soul was not up there filming during this scary event.

Visited the Puppet Arts Centre, a fun and funky little museum dedicated to this historic form of entertainment. Lots of puppets from around the world, some videos of what happens behind the scenes, and demos of the ways puppeteers can move multiple parts at the same time. There were mock-ups we could use to try our skill, and believe me it was hard to move just one leg or one arm the right way at one time. Can’t imagine making a puppet dance, scratch its ear, fight with another puppet, and move its jaw, all at the same time.

We found ourselves at one point in a very upscale shopping center, with stores like the Mink Mile in Toronto, and are not exactly sure why the Canadian city that made it into the list of sites with directional pointers was (can you guess?)…

Our guided trip is now over and we are on our own. In planning a day trip to Tainan on the west coast, we went to the main train station last night to buy our tickets for the journey today. We also tried to scope out a place where we could pick up a coffee before boarding the train. This enormous train station has about 20 bakeries and pastry shops, all selling amazing-looking stuff, and all doing a brisk business, but NONE of them sell tea or coffee as well. To a Canadian, that just seems so strange. Finally found one lonely Starbucks, up on the third floor of the station, well away from where people actually board the trains. It’s not a big takeaway coffee culture, that’s for sure. But do check out a sample of the beautiful bakeries:

Starting to make our way back to the north today.

First, a somewhat typical breakfast here — a little different from the bacon-and-eggs or cereal-or-toast standbys at home. I’m enjoying the change but not sure that I could really get used to this.

Enjoyed a trip through the Old Town in Taichung, which also has one of the oldest temples in Taiwan.

I know this next photo is not artistically attractive, but it’s the best I could do from my vantage point. It is not the Russian embassy, despite what you might think — it’s a condominium in Taichung!

Next, Rainbow Village, also in Taichung. After Chiang Kai-Shek lost the war and had to leave mainland China in 1949, small villages were constructed for army veterans who came with him to Taiwan.  Over time, many houses became rundown and were slated for redevelopment.  But in an attempt to save his little compound, even as his neighbours moved away one by one, a certain Mr. Huang began painting inside his house, then outside his house, then just kept going.  Eventually, local university students discovered Huang’s work and successfully campaigned to save this particular village. Something of a Maud Lewis vibe happening here!

And that’s it for now, friends!

We spent a lot of time around Sun Moon Lake today. First in the town of Ita Thao, which reminded me of Banff, with that same kind of touristy charm and a mountain backdrop — plus the lake. We saw floating fishermen’s houses, which are small, and built on rafts with a crane at one end. They don’t fish during the day, but at night they spread a net under the water, shine a spotlight down into the water from the top of the crane to attract fish, then use the crane to lift up the full net. Doesn’t seem entirely fair, somehow, does it? 🤔

Wen Wu Buddhist temple was next on the list. Beautiful building, although Geoff got his fortune told there, and got some disconcerting news. Oh, well….

Visited a tea shop attached to a farm. As this is not the time of year to see planting, harvesting, or processing, they got us making our own tea bags instead. Our tour guide asked if I had ever worked in a tea factory because, for some odd reason, I showed a surprising talent for this work, and ended up assembling and filling everyone’s gift boxes, having finished up all my own tasks too quickly. Who knew!?!?!? But, tea-blending…? Phooey! Just wish my super-power was golf, or skating.

It’s been a bit of a whirl. Taiwan’s a volcanic country, and last night we stayed in Yilan, a hot springs area. The hotel pool is a natural 37 degrees C., and the in-room showers are also fed directly from the hot springs, no further heating required.

We visited an onion farm. Tasty scallion pancakes are ubiquitous in Taiwan; some are thin like crêpes, and often envelop a cooked hard-fried egg, but others are more solid and scallion-y, and yesterday we had the chance to harvest the main ingredient and make one of those. All pancakes are equal, but some pancakes are more equal than others. No names mentioned. Well, first names only.

We spent part of this afternoon at The National Centre for Traditional Arts, a sprawling complex with a visitor centre, artisan demos, shops selling local products, and a theatre. We attended a performance: a lively combination of singing, dance, magic tricks, and acrobatics. Also bought a souvenir teapot, painted with a dragon to celebrate my Chinese zodiac birth year. Geoff is a 🐇, not nearly as impressive, in my opinion.

Indigo dyeing is a local traditional craft we were excited to try, hoping to discover hidden artistic potential… although to be honest, it still remains well-hidden 🤔. But we WERE pleased with the results — two reversible water-bottle holders. And it takes some pressure off, as I think we now know what we’re giving each other for Christmas.

Finished the day — in the rain, sadly — visiting Jiufen, a mountain village. Only the town residents can obtain a motor permit, so it was a very very VERY long walk up what felt like thousands of stone steps. A few general pics:

Taiwan is a mountainous island, formed several million years ago when the Eurasian tectonic plate and the Philippine Sea plate collided, forcing the plate edges upward out of the sea. It’s not big, only 395 kilometres north to south and 145 kilometres across, but has 268 mountains exceeding 3,000 metres in height.

We did a lot of walking today in the eastern mountainous area. First stop Taroko Gorge, where we hiked a trail that was not difficult in terms of elevation, but nonetheless slightly hairy, because the trail was cut into a cliff, whose ceiling was a little low for a tall North American. I had to watch my head in a few spots.

Next stop Qingshui Cliff, a highly-Instagrammable beauty spot. This is the actual edge of the collided tectonic plates. The cliff continues below the water to a depth that is greater than its above-water height, and it increases in height by about 2 centimetres every year. Geology professors often take student groups there, as it is apparently very rare to find a place where such activity can be easily observed and measured.

Another interesting snippet about Taiwan: it has very little crime; for example, our guide tells us most lost wallets are quickly returned. We saw a surprising thing connected to this late last night, passing a closed-for-the-day shop with many beautiful floral arrangements outside. I felt sure that, had a Toronto shop left out comparable displays, they would all have mysteriously vanished before we could have seen them!

Left Taipei early this morning on the train toward Hualien, a smaller city in the southeast, then took a trip into the surrounding country. Here’s a pic of a (spent) field of lotus, which are grown in wetlands for their seeds, with the central mountains behind.

We visited an Indigenous village to see traditional fish farming. It’s an interesting process; they use three layers of vegetation to raise three types of seafood. The bottom layer is bamboo tubes that will attract and shelter what they initially described to us, rather puzzlingly, as “fish without clothes”, which turned out to be eels, which do not have scales. The layer above that is twigs, which attract and shelter shrimps, and the top layer is leafy palms that shelter fish with scales, such as tilapia and carp.

I had no desire to try things out for myself, but luckily my lovely assistant Geoff stepped forward to don hip waders, and while the eels and shrimps eluded him, he did manage to net a small fish.

Next, a soup-making demonstration. It reminded me of the kids’ story Stone Soup, which some of you might remember from grade school, and here is why. They didn’t use a fire to heat the broth — rather, they put cold water into wooden dishes with vegetables, plus fish or other protein. Then heated rocks (serpentines) to about 700°F, and dropped the said rocks into the soup, which boiled instantly and continued to cook for some time. And it was pretty tasty!

Note the soup on the left is boiling hard, from freshly-heated rocks!

In the evening, back to the nearby night-market for a street-food dinner. More sanitized than the night market in Taipei — really more like an outdoor mall, but the food was again very tasty. And still a lively scene. Food vendors, funfair contests like ring toss, places to gamble at mahjong, street singers, and home remedies!

The large spiny fruit in the bottom pic here is durian. It is famous for being so stinky that the airlines won’t let people on board with it! No, we did not buy one 🥴

I feel like we lost a day somewhere, because of the 13-hour time difference, but with the dust now settling on our jetlag, I figure we’ve been in Taipei two full days. Day 1 was spent strolling, and trying to stay awake, then today we met up with our guide and started the official tour. There are 10 of us in total — 5 Australians, an American, an Englishman, and a Korean, with Geoff and me as the Canadian contingent.

We visited a night market to people-watch and have a street-food dinner. If you are not familiar with the concept, these are big open-air bazaars where you can buy a great variety of goods, food, and drink, and they operate from early evening until well into the wee hours of the morning. The food is somewhat eclectic; we shared some beef skewers, then fried sweet potato balls. I’m not a beer drinker, but Geoff drank something interesting: draft from a tap poured into a plastic sleeve, upon which they then snapped the top of a beer can!

Today we visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. He’s a very controversial figure in Taiwan, but is quite revered in this impressive marble monument, with an honour guard 24/7. Apparently Feng Shui dictates that his statue should face east, but Chiang faces west so he can look toward China. Shallow though you may think me, the feature that most impressed me was the trompe l’oeil floor outside the post office at the back entrance. It is a TOTALLY flat floor that you could roll marbles across, but doesn’t it look 3-dimensional?

I’ll close off with a few random shots of Taipei from our subsequent walking tour.