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...

Taiwan translated

One of the first marks we made on our dining room world map was a big "do not enter" symbol over China. Neither of us had a strong desire to visit China, but more worrisome were the number of letters I'd posted to the Chinese government regarding various human rights abuses. Not sure if you've noticed but they don't take that stuff too well, and I figured they just might be organized enough to have my name on some, shut-these-people-up list. Either way, a risk I'd just as soon avoid.

Coincidentally, a small island off the coast of China was starred as a definite stop. Before now, Taiwan was a place I usually saw after the words, "Made in", and beyond that I knew very little about the country except that Aran's Uncle moved there and loved it.

With all that said, I naturally had minimal expectations and was happy just to be hanging out with Paul and his girlfriend, Eigi.

As we boarded our flight to Taiwan, I noticed most of the passengers held passports that read, 'Republic of China - Taiwan'. Admittedly, I didn't realize how complicated relations were between Taiwan and their land-based neighbour to the North. Curiosity led me to some (albeit, questionable) Wiki research.

Taiwan is considered the Republic of China, whereas mainland China is the People's Republic of China, where they do not recognize the government of Taiwan as legit. From the sounds of it, Taiwan's status is up for discussion. It's touchy, but right now the majority of Taiwanese seem happy to be independent of China. And from what I can see, Taiwan is doing alright on their own.

One of Eigi's favourite past times is listening to radio and TV forums that openly criticize the current Taiwan government, so they've embraced freedom of speech a lot better than China. In the Olympics, you'll recognize Taiwan as Chinese Taipei. Unfortunately, due to pressure from big bad China, the international community has not embraced Taiwan as part of the UN, (but North Korea is allowed in the club? Go figure), nor have they allowed Taiwan membership with the World Health Organization.

But as Eigi would say, "That's okaaay".

And so we have had the opportunity to experience Chinese flavours, culture, and language, without me risking jail when speaking my mind!

Living and travelling around the country with Paul and Eigi has given us insight that we would have otherwise missed. And I am so happy we came here.

I think Aran would agree that our favourite moments have been in and around Kaohsiung, visiting local spots with local folks.

Our first Sunday in Taiwan, we enjoyed some good eating with Eigi`s family. We watched as Eigi's mom and Uncle Jojo prepared 'ground chicken' by building an oven out of dirt and stones. Then they buried seven whole chickens along with cobs of corn, eggs and sweet potatoes in the ground to cook. After a few hours of drinking beer and eating soup and noodles, it was time for dinner! Out came the shovels and the delicate process of unearthing our meal began. We carted everything in wheelbarrows and buckets through the guava orchard back to the house, where the 'digging in' continued. Forget the chopsticks, we followed suit as the family dug in with their hands, tearing apart the chickens and munching away.

Uncle Jojo was toasting us every few minutes and then banging back his pijiu (pee-jo), aka beer, along with a family friend who kept looking at Aran, saying "shaui ge", which means, handsome brother, a term of respect, but it sounded more like Slugger, so we stuck with that. Actually, we've been playing the "sounds like" game a lot in Taiwan. Making up English phrases that sound like Taiwanese or Mandarin. For example, when we go into 7-11 for the usual "B-double E-double R-U-N, Beer run, Beer run", we're always greeted with "huan ying guang ling", which means, "thank you for gracing our door with your presence". Aran, being the goofball that he is, shouts an enthusiastic, "Good Morning!", in return, which is exactly what the Mandarin sounds like, but makes absolutely no sense for him to say.

Aran, Paul and Jojo got good and drunk. And we had a blast trying to repeat Taiwanese (not to be confused with Mandarin) phrases back to them. I'm proud to say I can now tell the difference when listening to old ladies chat on the bus! We learned, "say say", for thank you, which is very close to the Mandarin, "xie xie", (sheh-sheh), and, "wa ga yi", for I like that. And if we got the pronunciation right? Well, we just made their day! Excited laughter and clapping ensued, followed by "Gan bei!", Taiwanese for "Bottoms up", to initiate chugging another glass of beer. I'd be bilingual if French class had been this fun.

When dinner was over, a fire was lit to cook up some fish...why not eh? It was so fresh and delicious and we all picked at it with our chopsticks until every bit was gone.

A week later we got to spend another awesome night with Eigi's fam. This time for birthday celebrations at KTV. Imagine a small room, the walls lined with couches all surrounding huge tables covered with loads of food. Add about 20 Taiwanese people, 3 Canadians and a lot of beer and you’ve got yourself a good night in Taiwan. That was my birthday party. Turns out I share the same birthday as Eigi's niece, Sandra, so it was a double party. Taiwan beer for the adults, and flavoured fruit beer for the kids.

Drunk Uncle Jojo sang classic Taiwanese tunes and Eigi danced while belting out energetic beats! The teenagers stuck to sappy love songs and in between, Aran, Paul and I picked out some tunes from the limited selection, including Que-sera-sera, Man on the Moon, Ob-la-di-ob-la-da and Ticket to Ride! The highlight of the night was the birthday song, all in Taiwanese except for the bit that goes, "Happy Bursa-day! Ha! ha! ha! Hey! Hey! Hey!". I say, 'bursa', because the Taiwanese don't do the 'th' sound, and so, 'bursa', it is. We have been singing this song randomly since that wonderfully, hilarious night.

 

This trend of drinking has encouraged some exercise and as such, we’ve been going for runs early in the morning through the local guava farms and little villages, made up of a few houses and a temple. I'd look forward to the corner where an old Taiwanese man and his friends would be sitting, without fail, under the same tree, ready to give us the thumbs up and shouts, "jia you!!", literally, "add oil", encouraging us to keep going!

And everyday, Paul has been teaching us plenty about Mandarin and recognizing essentials like Beef Noodles, and Homestay. Our lessons have not been limited to words and signs, but ensuring we pronounce the the tones correctly, which can make a big difference in what you are saying. We've learned that Chinese characters represent ideas, not words or sentences like English. The symbol for bike, for example, is literally translated as 'iron horse'. And trains are 'fire vehicles'. My favourites are 'straight up machine' for a helicopter and 'very door' for the emergency exit. 'Western gourd' is a watermelon, while 'grape teeth' means Portugal. Are you laughing yet?

We have been. The hilarity in translation is everywhere. Like in the well-intentioned signs translated into English for tourists. See right for an awesome example we found at a rest stop during one of many road trips around the island.

And while Mandarin is a language with a structure very different from what we know, I wish so much that I knew how to speak it as well as Paul does. I wish I could chat with the old ladies on the bus. I wish I could ask Eigi and her mom questions and really tell them how awesome their food tastes. I love the Taiwanese people. So friendly and welcoming, always willing to talk away to you in their language even though you have no idea what they’re saying.

Then again, it doesn’t take a genius to understand kindness and sincerity, so the language barrier here hasn’t been too tough to handle.

 

Xie xie, Paul and Eigi