rice again

Unfortunatly as we have been experiencing particualry mental weather here on the mainland recently Taiwan was no different. Having packed for warm weather all we got was rain, cold and more rain. Though this didn’t stop us from having a great time and from Natalia showing me much of her great country.

One of the first things that struck me about Taiwan was the huge legacy left by the Japanese. My first 3 nights in Taiwan were spent at Natalia’s grandmothers family home in Hsinchu, a four storey building house complete with a bird that rants and raves in Taiwanese apparently about how painful its life is and a small family temple on the top floor at which Nats grandmother prays daily.  Her grandmother doesn’t speak Zhongwen (Chinese) or Guo Yu as they call it there to prevent any association with China. Ofcourse she was educated by the Japnese so she communicates in Taiwanese with the family but is proficient in Japanese. I slept in a japanese style bedroom, Shoji Screens and all.

One of the reasons besides visiting my girlfriends home, that I was excited about visiting Taiwan was the food. My second night in Hsinchu we went to a Hakka restaurant which was outstanding however what really did it for me was the street food. The night markets were literally seething with delecious morsels and I swear, if I put on 15kg after 2.5 years in China (i did), I put on at least 3 after a week in Taiwan. I particularly enjoyed the Taiwanese sausages, which many describe as having a sweet taste. Sometimes they are served up in a popular snack called “Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang” which is basically a Taiwanese sausage served inside a long sticky rice ball not too disimilar to an American hotdog. Delicious.

Taipei has a large, clean and honest taxi system, and efficient metro system and a fantastic array of eateries which surprised me with a relievingly high service standard. I was also surprised at the adherance to simple rules and ettiquette, especially displayed on the subway. Esculators are a two lane street, left for walking, right for standing. People standing near the door of a subway carriage will briefly disembark to allow people more deeply embedded to get off. It was strange and I often found my self acting like a rude idiot so used to the hustle bustle of China.

Much like my experience of Hong Kong I found Taiwan to be completely diffrent again, so I look forward to exploring more of the country, I just hope we get better weather next time!