Room with a view

Throughout March, Paul and Eigi have graciously, "put us up"; read, "put up with us". Paul doned his tour guide hat and packed in as much as he could of this awesome island. He didn’t waste any time either...

We hadn’t been in the country even 24 hours when we went on our first Hash! And no, I don’t mean toking in a guava orchard. Until I met Paul I had not heard of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide running group, who refer to themselves as a drinking group with a running problem. At an arranged time and place, usually on a weekly basis, the group gets together to Hash. A couple individuals volunteer to be hares and take on the task of scouting a route. On run day, they take off first, leaving behind clues and signs with chalk and playing cards for the group following, otherwise known as hounds, who must try to catch the hares. And the prize for catching a hare? Well, glory of course, and huge boasting rights at the down-down ceremony after the run. But I'll come back to that.

 



Our run started in the countryside of Kaohsiung, where we cut through farmers fields, bushwhacked up hills, ran through small residential neighbourhoods, and up through temples and bars tucked into small spaces. It was tough but so much fun! We covered about 9k and given that Aran and I have had limited exercise to date, we were pretty happy not to come last!

 

At the end of the run we feasted on chips, chocolate, energy drinks and BEER! Everyone has silly hash names and we spent probably over an hour doing, "down downs", which are nominations for a variety of reasons including poor marking by hares, being a first timer, stupid remarks, looking good, not using correct hashing names, eating the last of the candy...let’s just say there isn’t much discretion. Nominees must then ’down down’ a glass of beer in less than 5 seconds or “wear it”, dumping what’s left of the beer on your head.

All of this took place in the parking lot of a huge temple. A little old man, who told us he was 93 years old (but looked about 62), watched and laughed at our antics. Afterwards we all went out for Chinese food together...the real deal too. Tofu, fried morning glory, jasmine rice, spicy peanut chicken, duck soup, oh and more beer.           

The following weekend we joined the Hash again for a St. Patty’s day pub crawl to celebrate Aran’s birthday, and then dragged our hung-over selves out of bed to meet Eigi’s family for a seafood feast before hitting the road to Kenting, where we spent a lazy day soaking up the sun and waves at Bai Sha beach. Under the shade of our umbrella, we drank cold beers delivered by a Taiwanese man on a 4-wheeler, while watching Chinese tourists from the mainland nearly drown in the monster-waves.

A few days later it was the weekend again. This time we recovered from my birthday karaoke hangover before heading up to Nantou county. We pitched our tents on an organic tomato farm and woke up early to bike around Sun Moon Lake, stopping for Taiwan burgers and squid on a stick before continuing our hilly 30k loop, earning me an indulgent, guilt-free pastry.

Next up was a tasting tour of Tainan hosted by Eigi and her friend Emma. Honestly, the amount of food I consumed on this day rivalled some of the best (or should I say worst?) days in India.

As Emma led us into a restaurant at 8 am I felt something cold slap against me. I looked down to find a piece of raw fish dangling from my arm, and then I laughed along with the little Taiwanese lady as she peeled it off me, and threw it back in her bucket.

And so we sat down to have fish soup. For breakfast. OK, I agree, not so appealing right? This was a perfect example of how Taiwanese food has continued to surprise me. The most unappealing, ugly looking concoctions turned out to be the most flavourful, delicious treats! And the fish soup was no exception. The originally intimidating large bowl I was served was gobbled up in no time.

We digested with a wander through Chinkan Tower, an old building that used to be the home of the dude who liberated Taiwan from the Dutch. After that, we had jumbo spring rolls and Zua Bao, Taiwanese burgers made of fluffy buns stuffed with pork and peanut sauce. We washed it all down with milk tea and cucumber lemonade as we ducked down back alleyways of Tainan that led us to the Anping Tree House. Here, the Banyan trees were crawling and twisting their way through an abandoned building, making for a beautiful, and almost air-conditioned setting. Lunch was shrimp rolls and deep fried oysters and then lemon tofu pudding for dessert!

The sun got hot while we explored the Anping Fort, formerly Fort Zeelandia. Feeling lethargic, Emma took us to her friend’s cafe where we perked up with iced coffees, and well, beer.

Next up was a boat ride on a small river lined with mangrove trees, alive with scuttling crabs and fish. We even saw a few rats! After a snack of rice and fatty pork nostrils, we wrapped up the food tour with mango sticky ice! That's right. Ice, not rice. Mango pieces on shavings of ice, with coconut milk drizzled over a scoop of mango ice cream!

The travel continued the next weekend. Leaving the car behind, we jumped on the train for a visit to Taidong, where we got in a swim at the kilometre-long reservoir, earning ourselves a big lunch followed by Mwoi Chi, a Taiwanese doughnut made of rice gluten and filled with peanut butter for dessert!

The next day we headed for Jinlun, a small, aboriginal village, known for its natural hot springs, where we relaxed among locals and let the water soothe our sore arm muscles. Once again we camped with the mountains as our backdrop, and in the morning we set off for a couple days without Paul who had to get back for work...what's that?

Up in Hualien, we felt very small as we wandered through the Taroko Gorge, getting thoroughly soaked by rain and the water curtain pouring through the cracks of a large cave on the Baiyang trail.

In between these weekends away, Paul spent his mornings before work taking us to Lotus Lake and the aboriginal village of Sandimen, which included sampling local flavours like Dan Bing, eggs rolled up into crepes with bacon, and Fan Tuan, pork wrapped up in tubes of sticky rice. The eating continued with late dinners at the Liu-He and Houjing night markets to taste intestines, stinky tofu, and my favourite, Nia Pai, egg and steak with noodles in a brown sauce.

And now our days and weekends in Taiwan are over. Laundry is done and packs are stuffed. We spent today slowly cleaning up the room we've been so fortunate to stay in for the past 5 weeks.

We're going to miss this place.

We'll miss outings with Eigi and her family.
We’ll miss "good mornings" in 7-11 as we head out on road trips with Paul.
We'll miss Eigi's funny exclamations in English including our favourite, "I'm Eigi Chen! Don't worry, okaaay!" as she drives with the pedal to the metal through the streets of Kaohsiung .
We'll miss Paul's addictive morning coffees and his two crazy cats.
We’ll miss Eigi's yummy dinners and hospitality.
We'll miss endless beers, corndogs, antics and laughs.
We'll miss our room with a view.

A view of Taiwan.

And what a view it was...