Days 1-3: Boston to Taipei

Jan 30 - Feb 1

After a few hours sleep, I had a fairly rip-the-bandaid-off-quickly 6am goodbye to Jess, Jon, Karen, and Henry, and then I was abruptly on my way to the airport. I've been telling people that these last two weeks have been a crunch because of three things happening all at once: 1. tying up loose ends after ten years living in Boston, 2. moving out of our apartment, getting rid of as much as possible and putting everything else in boxes, and 3. preparing for five months of travel. Bleary-eyed, sitting in the back of the cab, nothing was sinking in yet. I was just on my way to the airport.

To get to Taipei from Boston, it's about the same distance whether you go east or west. I happened to be stopping in San Francisco. As my flight landed, I thought that I'd be making this same Boston to SF flight about five and a half months later when Jess and I move out there. But what a lot of stuff was going to happen between now and then.

I was already feeling a little crummy from my six-hour first flight, and wasn't excited about the upcoming 14-hour one from SFO to Taipei. I was a little concerned that my airplane neighbor was an extremely talkative southern baptist preacher. The plane was having electrical problems, so my neighbor and I had a quality two hours sitting on the runway to get to know each other. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against devout religious people, and they're usually much better and aware people than most. But this guy told me really long story after story, followed by a longer story about this (what seemed to me a pyramid scheme) costco-like business he had started with his evangelical buddy two week ago and which was already doing incredibly well, so he said.

And then I had my first bit of good luck: the flight was cancelled. United put everyone up in hotels and provided meal vouchers. I couldn't have been happier because I was in no rush to get to Taipei and I could use a break, a shower, and a good night's sleep before the marathon flight.

When I got back on the plane the next morning, I had my second bit of good luck: the preacher guy had gotten himself re-seated next to his wife, across the isle, and I had an empty seat and then the isle next to me. Having that extra space was an incredible boon for my comfort during the flight.

Chiang Kai-shek International Airport was nothing special other than its name. Even though my flight itinerary had this name printed, the terminal announced "Taoyuan International Airport" instead. This is an example of a nation-wide movement to remove Chiang's name and image from public spaces. Over his 20+ years in power in Taiwan, he was an able state governor who laid the groundwork for Taiwan's future economic success, but he was also responsible for the imprisionment, tourture, and murder of over 100,000 Taiwanese people.

I followed the directions from the hostel to get on the "lai lai" (east) bus line into Taipei city, and then had a bit of a hard time figuring out when to get off. The city began with slummy, run-down outskirts and turned into a mix bewteen Bogota (a big city in a developing country) and Manhattan (wide streets, lots of cars, brightly-lit stores, and bustle).

After getting off the bus, I had a hard time finding the tiny lane at the end of which my "Taipei Hostel" was. I paid my 300 NT (less than $10) and was shown to my dorm room bed. It was meager but clean, not including the bathroom that was damp and smelled strongly of mold. I'm pretty tolerant of such things, but it was revolting. It was then that I realized the whole hostel, and Taipei itself was humid and damp. Not hot humid, but pretty cold and damp, due mostly to the heavy mist that envelopes the city and looks disturbingly like smog. There were also many people, and all scooter-drivers, wearing filter masks. I learned later that Taiwanese wear masks when they feel themselves getting a cold, attempting to not spread the cold to others. But the scooter drivers wear them for resperatory purposes, not so much due to smog, but I think just because there are a lot of vehicles on the road in close proximity.

It was now Friday evening, after leaving Jon and Karen's place on Wednesday morning, flying for 20 hours, a long layover, losing a day when crossing the international date line, and navigating to the hostel. I hit the sack hard at about 9pm, Taiwan time.

Days 4-5: Bev and Dharma Drum Mountain

Feb 2-3

My first morning, Saturday Feb 2nd. I awoke pretty early, so things were quiet around the hostel. There was a good internet connection, so I decided to try skyping using my Nokia N800 mini computer. The timing was right (13 hours earlier, in Philadelphia, it was early evening the day before), and I was able to get my parents on the phone, calling them for two cents per minute. It was incredible how clear and instantaneous the connection was, maybe better than my cell phone connection normally. I called my brother after.


The Taipei metro is very easy to navigate, and I took it to meet with Bev at 10am. It was great to meet with a familiar face in a foreign land. She took me to eat some breakfast, and we caught up. Bev was a resident tutor in Cabot for pretty much the whole time I lived there, and we played ultimate frisbee together among other things. She is an East Asian Studies PhD student, studying East Asian religions, and is on a one-year Fulbright in Taiwan, studying Buddhist self-retribution practices in particular. She showed me the famous Longshan Temple and explained about the various gods and worship practices. We walked around a little more, and then we took the bus to Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), a Buddhist monastery complex where she is currently living in a professor's vacant apartment. It was a two-hour ride into increasingly lush, green mountains, though still very overcast and damp like Taipei.

Upon arriving, we were greeted by a DDM volunteer who put her hands together in front of her chin in a prayer-like fashion and bowed her head. We did the same in return, and to most other people we passed. It's the Buddhist way of saying "Hello there" to passers by. Since she was not wearing the monk brown and black robe, and her head was not shaved, it was clear that our guide was a lay person and not a monk. She spoke very good English and began giving us an introduction to the compound. Even though Bev was living there, she had never had a tour, so we agreed we would like a one. Our guide took us to a few sites and explained to us some of the basic beliefs and practices of this monastery.

After the tour, Bev and I went to her apartment to drop off our bags, and then she showed me around the compound some more. We visited a large sculpture of the Buddha on the top of a hill, and then went to the main space of worship where there was a service going on. The space was impressive: large and open, with three large Buddha sculptures watching over. The monks chanted in unison, singing an ever rising and falling line. Bev and I sat and watched for about 20 minutes.

As we headed the dining hall for dinner, Bev gave me some instructions: women sit apart from men, eat everything you take, bow to the statue of the Buddha before you sit down, and eat in silence. The dining hall was a basic, low-ceiling room with rows of metal table tops with small plastic stools facing the center where a self-service food line was. I grabbed a metal bowl and served myself a little of everything: whole grain rice, long-steamed carrot, yam, sprouts, green (like chard) and tomato, fresh orange quarters, and a tofu-derived substance. Buddhists believe in not hurting living things, hence the vegetarian meal, and also in keeping things very simple, hence no spices or intrusive foods like onions or garlic. While I used metal chop sticks to eat my delicious meal in silence, with only the sound of metal hitting metal, chewing, and slurping, I considered what it would be like to be a monk.

After the first course, you returned to the food isle to serve yourself soup with noodles and other goodies like mushroom. This was a nice way to close the meal, since the liquid of the soup, which you slurp from the bowl, fills whatever space you have left.

After the meal, we walked around the grounds some more and then returned to Bev's apartment. Still getting over jet lag, I went to bed on her comfy couch in her warm sleeping bag.


The next morning, we had breakfast at 7:30am and then Bev brought me to the main entrance where I caught the bus back to Taipei.

Day 5: Exploring Taipei

Feb 3



After returning from Dharma Drum Mountain, I had a full day of exploring Taipei by foot. First stop was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, soon to be renamed to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. The large square had a beautiful entry gate and two performance halls on either side. The fourth side was CKS Hall with a statue of seated Chiang, similar to the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. A wide grin on his face, he faces west towards China. In the hall was an exhibit which was a reminder of everything bad related to Chiang's tenure -- great juxtaposition!

I had lunch / dinner at a little dumpling joint where I watched the staff working at their dumpling stations, and then spent a while finding my way to the Happy Family hostel which was incorrectly placed on my Lonely Planet map. The problem with staying at cheap hostels in a huge city is that they're usually on back lanes and locals have ever heard of them, so they can be challenging to find. Happy Family had a very friendly caretaker who showed me to my very cheap single room. This place was cold in place of being damp and moldy, a situation I much preferred. I hung out talking to some travelling snowboarding Aussies who spend half the year in Japan and the other half in Australia, following the good snow. They were in Taiwan for a few days since Japanese tourist visas expire after three months. They would get new ones when they re-entered the country.

I put on all my clothes and got under two coverlets, and was able to use the hostel wifi to check email. I also ran my photo ftp backup program over night, and it worked like a charm.

Day 6: Taichung, Topeak, and arrival in Tainan

Feb 4

Taiwan is a small island country not much larger than Massachusetts but with three times the population: 23 million (and 22 million cell phones). 75% of homes are connected to the internet, but it is not safe to drink the water, even in Taipei. In the last few decades, it has had an extremely flexible and fast-adapting economy, changing from being a leader in textiles and cheap consumer goods to high-tech and computer chips. And it has a well-maintained highway system with signs in both English and Chinese.

Chiang Kai-shek's KMT made Chinese the official language of Taiwan in the 50s, and most everyone speaks it, though as you move south in the country more people (especially the older generation) also speak Taiwanese and / or Hakka, indigenous languages. English is a required class in all schools, so the younger people tend to understand and even speak it well, as well as plenty of older people. I learned that Taiwanese are informed about U.S. politics and that the U.S. has military presence near Taiwan to protect them from potential Chinese (communist) attack.

Taipei is the largest city, in the north, Taichung is in the middle, and Tainan towards the south (I believe that "pei" means top, "chung" means middle, and "nan" means bottom).

JC used to work for a company which imports and distributes bicycle accessories from a Taiwanese company, Topeak. JC helped me get in touch with a guy named Mike from Topeak to get shown around, and on Monday morning I took a train from Taipei to Taichung, about half way down the country, where Topeak is. With each mountain tunnel we passed through, the sky seemed to get brighter until finally there was blue sky for the first time since I arrived in Taiwan. I was met by Mike in his car, and he brought me to Topeak, an office of about 30 employees. We had an interesting conversation about the bicycle industry and Topeak's place in it. I had grand visions of being led to a huge factory where lots of 10-year-old boys with small hands would be assembling bicycle pumps, but learned that Topeak outsources their production. Then Mike grabbed one of his sales workers, Delia, to join us for lunch at an Italian restaurant across the street. It became clear during the meal that Delia was going to be my host for the rest of the afternoon, showing me around Taichung. During our lunch conversation, Mike and Delia were listening attentively to what I showed interest in, and determined that I would enjoy seeing the electronics market and the science museum in Taichung, correct on both accounts.

After lunch, Delia took more time out of her work day to show me the NOVA electronics market where she helped me score an 8-gig SD card for about $30, less than half of what I paid for the same thing in the U.S. a month before. While we were price comparing, she called her cousin who worked downstairs and got her inside advice. I was in good hands.

The science museum was closed since it was a Monday, so we just had a nice walk back to Topeak. Mike and Delia spent some more time showing me around before we all left in Mike's car. I told them I was visiting my friend of a friend, Pei-yu, in Tainan after visiting Topeak, and they got in touch with her to coordinate my travels. On the way to the bus company, we stopped while Delia jumped out to get me some authentic Taichung "sun cakes". When we arrived at the bus company, Delia bought my ticket and told me they would call Pei-yu to tell her when I would arrive. Throughout all this, Topeak was picking up the tab for lunch, cab rides, my present, and my luxurious two-hour bus to Tainan. This was my first encounter with what I learned is standard but amazing Taiwanese hospitality and generosity.

Pei-yu met me at the Tainan bus station, deftly navigating speeding scooters and agressive car drivers, and brought me straight to a night market. It was packed with people and rows of vendors providing everything from food to baby bunnies to the popular basketball game common in American arcades. We tried a number of interesting and generally gross foods including spicy fried fish balls (no, balls made of fish. Fish don't even have testicles.), and congealed pig's blood. Not exactly my cup of tea: frenzied, senseless consumerism and fried food. But fun to witness.

My Topeak hosts had helped me make a reservation in a hostel in Tainan, but when Pei-yu found this out she called to cancel the reservation, saying that I would be staying at her place. And so began my second encounter with Taiwanese hospitality.

Days 7-11: Tainan (and back to Taichung) with Pei-yu

Feb 5-9

Pei-yu lives with her parents in a fairly simple but spacious three-story row house above a drug store in Tainan City, and I became their guest and fourth member of the family for my four days there. My first full day, all four of us made a trip to the Alishan National Scenic Area, about 2-hours drive away and up steep, lush green mountains with little towns scattered on the way up, supporting the tourist industry. The drive up was scenic and steep, and then we hiked around for a while.





My second day, Pei-yu took me out to the Tainan markets just around the corner from her house, and then gave me a tour of sites and tastes of Tainan. In the evening, the four of us had a fun game of traditional Chinese mahjong, a game similar to the card game Gin Rummy. I had to learn the Chinese characters for 1 through 9. I even won a round!



My third day, we took another family trip to the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, Fo Guang Shan. After, we went to a touristy island off the coast famous for its seafood, and then walked along the colorfully-lit riverbank in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city, south of Tainan. Both places were packed with Taiwanese on family outings during the Chinese New Year.


My fourth day, we drove to another town to visit Pei-yu's grandmother and other family. Since this is the Chinese New Year, the country grinds to a hault and is filled with people visiting relatives and doing family outings. There were lots of family present, and we basically sat around all day eating and talking. Pei-yu acted as a great translator, as few other people spoke any English. There were a number of cute babies present, and it was generally a fun family time and low-pressure since there was a large number of people there.

At one point in the day, five of us went with Pei-yu's farmer uncle to his land a five-minute drive away. We watched him cut fresh tomatos, celery, potato greens, and huge heads of cauliflower and cabbage. He then explained in frantic Chinese how to tell when the corn was ripe for picking.



Hanging out with Pei-yu's extended family all day emphasized the importance of family in Taiwanese culture, something I had found also in Colombia. In fact, it seems common in a good portion of world cultures to live close, often in the same building or neighborhood, with your extended family, and for children to live with their parents as their parents grow old.

Throughout my my four days staying with Pei-yu, I ate all my meals with her and her parents. For a number of meals, we had "hot pot", which is basically a hot pot of boiling broth with all kinds of things thrown in, including hunks of chicken on the bone, sausage, cabbage, mushrooms, corn on the cob, and other unidentifiable bits. There are always at least two forms of rice. For non-hot pot meals, there is always soup similar to that from Dharma Drum Mountain, but now with meat. Everything is heavily cooked, and we rarely drink anything at the meals (though you get liquid from the soup). I can't say the cuisine is my favorite, but it's at least been interesting to learn what others eat and to try a few new things.

On the 9th, Pei-yu and I left early to catch the bus north to Taichung and spent the day with her friend Ann who is an electronics hardware engineer. Pei-yu and Ann chatted away in the front of Ann's car as we stopped off at various sites, including a bustling food market, a winery, a saxophone factory, and an outdoor flower garden. We had yummy dinner in an enormous food court inside an enormous shopping mall, and then Pei-yu and I said goodbye and took the high speed railway back to Taipei.

Day 12: Taipei National Palace Museum and taking it easy

Feb 10

Today I had a great visit to the Taipei National Palace Museum, starting with a 10am English tour. We wore receivers with headphones, and our tour guide had a microphone attached to her chest. Her voice was projected into our headphones, which made it very easy to hear her even when there was a lot of noise in the room or when she was far away. I was impressed by this little piece of technology.


It's a modern museum and well laid-out, with an informative orientation room where our guide gave us an overview of Chinese history and Chinese art. Then we dove into the collections, and the excellent tour lasted about an hour. I enjoyed having time on my own to slowly wander around the museum and the grounds, and enjoyed a delicious slice of coffee walnut cake and a pot of black tea in one of the museum's cafes.

Back at my hostel, I decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing. I was staying at the Hostelling International Taipei Youth Hostel which was twice as expensive as my previous hostels, but well worth the extra cost. I was reminded of what I love about staying in hostels: there was an excellent environment for meeting fellow travelers, and I enjoyed a few exchanges of stories. Andrew was an Irish guy who lives in Tibet, working for an organization that preserves China's national parks. He was visiting Taiwan with his mother who had spent a few years teaching English there in the 1960s. Danielle told me about her cycle touring across Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and beyond. And then we all enjoyed free dinner that the hostel prepared for the Chinese New Year week.