Taiwan Observations, One Year Later

Our new view

We've now lived in Taiwan for just over a year and things are looking better than ever. We recently moved into our dream apartment, with cable and air-conditioning, in a building with a karaoke room and fitness center, and our Chinese is coming along steadily, slowly but surely.

Though we've always been happy in Taiwan, it's taken us a year to feel comfortable here (though, especially with the language barrier, we're aware that comfort possesses many variants). And, to celebrate both our newly achieved comfort as well as this 1-year anniversary, I wanted to highlight some of my thoughts and observations from this past year.

Number one on this list is how amazingly friendly Taiwan's people are and how this observation cannot be overstated. Although, when one first says a place is friendly, one may picture something akin to Mayberry, with smiling strangers and neighborly hellos, but this is not the type of friendliness that I've found in Taiwan. Taiwan's friendliness is of a different breed.

An example might be the apologies that are constantly being made by locals for not speaking English, as though they're supposed to know it. Or, if you're identified as someone who speaks English, having locals approach you with requests for tutoring or being engaged by strangers in bizarre small talk just so they can practice their English.

Husband was recently riding his bike home from work when some stranger driving passed him forced him to stop so she could practice her English, along with requesting Husband's tutoring services. (Because all English speakers are tutors here.) I remember once, in Seattle, someone driving passed me while I was on my bicycle trying to stop me, but that was because he wanted to beat me up for riding my bike and not because he wanted to engage in friendly chitchat or to request any services I may have been able to provide him. In the States, and in the UK, there are people who consider it a personal insult if you commute via bicycle.

Which brings me to my second example of Taiwan friendliness, the drivers. Drivers here are patient and considerate. When the concept of road rage is introduced in conversations it is met with confusion and disbelief (as it should be). Drivers will usually provide pedestrians and bicyclists ample room and are usually on the lookout for them (except, inexplicably, when opening their car doors). Driving is typically slow here, to allow for the odd pulling out or random stopping and, though I'm often irritated by the drivers because of their slowness / randomness, I definitely respect their patience and appreciate their consideration.

temple in Tainan

Another example of the friendliness of the locals takes place when friendliness matters the most, after an accident. A friend of ours was involved in a minor scooter accident when a random witness ran over to help her. Once it was determined that she was okay, the person just kept apologizing on behalf of Taiwan. "Taiwan is sorry," was the repeated refrain. Similarly, there was a horrible and tragic accident involving a color party and explosion in Taipei earlier this year where someone in Husband's training cohort was badly injured. Pages dedicated to his recovery on Facebook and GoFundMe are littered with locals apologizing on behalf of Taiwan. "Taiwan is sorry." It's a lovely sentiment and one that I've never heard anywhere else. It's a distinct breed of friendliness when random, uninvolved people apologize on behalf of their country.

Other observations I've made relate to an article I recently saw discussing the South Korean belief that electric fans will cause their death if employed while sleeping and comparing this notion to the American belief that you have to wait an hour after eating before swimming or risk crippling stomach cramps which will result in your drowning. Both of these are apparently cultural quirks, unsupported by science yet perpetuated by society. Over this past year I've made some similar observations, identifying at least one additional American case and a few of Taiwanese origin.

Tainan

The American case involves my recent discovery that locking my knees, a fear I've possessed since childhood, will most likely not cause my death. Though this fear has never really caused me any problems, besides the occasional semi-embarrassing conniption, it has caused a lifelong obsession with and hyperawareness of the status of my knees.

It was actually one of these semi-embarrassing conniptions, occurring at my first yoga class here, which resulted in this discovery. The instructor came over to adjust my stance by physically pushing my knee into a locked position. Because of my fear, it was not an easy correction for her to make. We silently fought a battle of strength and will and, eventually, she gave up (most likely due to time constraints as well as the trapped animal sounds I may have been making). But, she has been vigilant with these corrections and it has caused me quite a lot of mental and physical discomfort.

Talking with one of my local friends about these repeated corrections and my fear of passing out / death as a consequence of the instructor locking my knees, I was met with confusion. My friend had never heard of this "locking knees" malarkey. After some research, I am now aware that this fear is bologna and I have been working very hard at overcoming it. If I don't, I'm now terrified that my instructor will continue with her corrections and the strength she customarily employs to correct my soft knees will be met with my newly weakened will and an over correction may occur. Hyperextension is real, folks. (Right?!)

Another example of cultural misinformation occurred when I went out drinking with a Taiwanese friend. Surprisingly, on this particular occasion, she happened to be abstaining from alcohol. Confused, I asked her why and she said it was because she was on her period. I asked, "What does that have to do with drinking alcohol?" She replied, "You're not supposed to drink alcohol when you're on your period." I have never before, nor since, heard about this belief. I'm not sure if it qualifies as cultural misinformation if only one person believes it but, for these purposes, we'll go ahead and give her the benefit of the doubt and blame society.

Finally, it has been said on more than one occasion here in Taiwan that eating beef makes you angry. One of the few cultural misinformations with an origin story, some people say that this idea was developed as a way to protect the farmers' hardworking animals from becoming dinner. With no similar theory to protect the other farm animals, at least we can all agree that pigs and chickens are nothing but moochers and deserve to be dinner.

Four Days in Tokyo

Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park

We traveled to Tokyo earlier this month for a quick 4-day trip to meet up with a friend. He's the same friend we went to Cape Cod with back in 2013. This time we would be joining him and his significant other on the beginning of their Asian holiday, which would go on to include other cities in Japan as well as Hong Kong.

Our flight from Kaohsiung was our most expensive to date because we had specific dates and a specific location, which is rare for us as we usually chase only cheap fares. Still, tickets were less than NT$15000 (US $485) for both of us on Vanilla Air.

Shibuya Crossing

We arrived into Narita Airport around 7pm on a Sunday. Our goal was to meet our friends for a late night dinner traveling, as per usual, in the cheapest way possible. After exhaustive research we found the cheapest and most time efficient method would be via the Keisei Main Line.

We referenced TokyoCheapo quite a bit in our pre-travel research but nowhere did it help more than on this initial trip from the airport into Tokyo. Of course, it didn't bother to explain the complicated subway map displayed at the Terminal 2 Station. We spent a good 5 minutes staring at that map, utterly confused, before a kind stranger, speaking perfect English and very knowledgable about his city, told us (without even looking at the map) exactly what we needed to do. Thanks to his guidance, we didn't miss a transfer. We jumped on the next train, seamlessly transferred at Aoto Station, and again at Daimon Station, before arriving into Roppongi Station about 2.5 hours later. (Narita is quite a distance from Tokyo.)

Tokyo skyline from Imperial Palace

Our first night in Tokyo included a lovely ramen meal at Gogyo and a drink at the famous Gonpachi. Afterwards, we decided to walk home, taking the scenic route along Omotesando, Tokyo's Champs-Elysees, and the eastern edge of Yoyogi Park.

One of the things I've discovered while living (and traveling) in the world's safest places is that a late-night stroll is a lovely way to end an evening. It's also a great way to catch-up with old friends.

Imperial Palace grounds

Prior to leaving on our trip, I had made us all reservations to tour the Imperial Palace, as advanced reservations are required. Unfortunately, the palace tour is more of the surrounding grounds than of the actual palace, as we never actually ventured within. And, though the surrounding grounds are nice, the palace exterior is fairly unimpressive and not entirely worth the effort. The East Gardens, however, which are open to the public without prior reservations, are lovely and totally worth visiting.

Husband and I are craft beer tourists and Tokyo is our first Asian destination with a thriving craft beer scene and one of the highlights of this trip was a night spent excessively drinking various local brews. The night was not a highlight simply due to the excellent beers, though that was indeed lovely. It was also due to the quality of our company. During our first round at Shinshu Osake Mura we were engaged by a British expat and subsequent rounds brought some locals into our drinking circle. By the end of the night we had made several new friends and had a better experience than drinking on our own would have provided.

East Gardens, Imperial Palace

This experience, along with a few others, including our earlier experience at Narita Airport, really showcased the friendliness and kindness that we experienced from the locals. Not just Japanese locals either, but expats too. Perhaps this is what living in the safest city in the world does to people? If so, I wouldn't mind a bit more of that.

Our last full day in the city was met with rain, which kinda interrupted our plans of wandering through Inokashira Park and paddling in swan boats. So, instead, we stayed in Harajuku. We did venture out to Kichijoji Station for our final evening, which included shooting BB guns in a bar and eating amazing yakitori at a super local joint, before venturing back to Shibuya for some purikura, karaoke, and arcade games. We then savored our last night in Tokyo with one last late-night stroll home.

Shibuya area street entertainment

Although we had heard many warnings about Tokyo being an expensive destination, our experience taught us that Tokyo allows for travelers across the economic spectrum to enjoy themselves, much like New York City, London, and Paris. We successfully stayed within our fairly constrained budget while enjoying activities with friends, eating delicious food, and drinking copious amounts. We even did a bit of shopping. So, yes, Tokyo can definitely be an expensive destination, but it can also be very budget-friendly.

For more pictures, please visit my Facebook album.

Wandering the Streets of Macau

Rua da Felicidade, Macau

Husband & I recently spent a long weekend in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (like Hong Kong). Located just across the bay from Hong Kong, Macau is only a 1.5 hour direct flight from Kaohsiung.

We traveled on Tigerair, a discount airline which recently started flying direct from Kaohsiung to Macau. During a December promotion for the new route, we scored two roundtrip tickets for only US $112. Once we commenced our search for accommodations, however, it became very obvious that Macau is not really a destination conducive to budget fares.

St. Augustine Church Square, Macau

Macau has a dearth of budget accommodations. Usually we can rely on hostels or homestays, cheap hotels at the very least. Not in Macau. Apparently, due to government regulations, Macau has no hostels in operation and the one YHA requires special permission for lodging. At first we found this disheartening. We're a single income family and budget travel is our only real option. Perhaps we couldn't afford to go to Macau?

Accommodations are key to a budget holiday. Food and entertainment can usually be adjusted to meet your budget but accommodations and flight are static. If they're not within budget the trip is going to be irreparable. Happily, we persevered and eventually discovered the amazing (yet slightly terrifying) SanVa Hotel.

our room at the SanVa Hotel #nofilter

For only US $150 we spent four surprisingly restful nights in something akin to a third-world prison, albeit in one of the best neighborhoods and on one of the best streets in all of Macau. The SanVa was awesome and added an extra memorable layer to an already memorable experience.

Part of the reason staying at the SanVa was such a pleasant experience (rather than a traumatizing one) was because we sprung for a room with a window (thank god!). There were interior rooms without windows available, and some right next to the bathrooms, which made me very sad for their unfortunate occupants. But, we were quite happy and comfortable in our little room with a fan and window. I wouldn't go so far as to say we'd happily stay there again but we are happy we stayed there.

Some other highlights from our trip include:

Coloane Village

• The colonial villages Macau is a former Portuguese colony and maintains much of that colonial history in its three district villages; the peninsula of Macau, Taipa, and Coloane. Cotai, the fourth district of Macau, misses out because it is recently reclaimed land connecting the formerly separate islands of Taipa and Coloane. 

We stayed in the village area of Macau (on the street where Temple of Doom was filmed). Coloane's village houses Lord Stow's Bakery, the creator of the now ubiquitous egg tart, and a very scenic waterfront area where we caught our first glimpse of China and stumbled upon a filmset. Taipa's village was the most European. All made up our favorite parts of Macau.

• Egg tarts How have I never experienced these before? Delicious!

Macau's casinos

• Macau's casinos The new casino area on Cotai, and the main impetus behind its creation, currently consists of three large casino complexes: The Venetian (the world's largest), City of Dreams, and Galaxy. There is also the Sands and some giant luxury shopping complexes. They've dubbed this area the Cotai Strip, trying to emulate the Las Vegas Strip in both name and feel and, like Vegas, this area has plenty of wow but zero charm. The older casino area on the peninsula of Macau is where all the charm is and we spent many hours enjoying it.

The food, scenery, culture, and vibe of Macau are very enjoyable and we had a great long weekend experiencing it all. Despite our earlier concerns, Macau turned out to be a very inexpensive destination (if you stay away from the gambling tables and score a room at the SanVa) as we did everything we wanted to and still came in under budget. Any holiday where that's the case is a successful one.

For more pictures, please visit my Facebook album here.

Celebrating Tết in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta

Husband & I travelled to Saigon airport from Taipei on the evening of February 17, the day before Tết. Tết is the solar new year, also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Holiday. This year it was officially six days, from February 18-23, and our first chance at an international trip since Husband's English school, along with most everything else in Taiwan, was closed for the duration.

We chose to visit Vietnam due completely to airplane ticket prices. It was simply cheaper to travel to HCMC than anywhere else and, since this was our first international trip since relocating to Taiwan, we really had no constraints except that it be somewhere we've never been before. And that list is short; Hong Kong and Manila.

We flew on VietJet Air, one of a number of discount airlines found in this region. Nothing like RyanAir or EasyJet in Europe though. Much closer to JetBlue or Southwest Airlines in the States. Meaning, prices aren't ridiculously cheap. Prices can be inexpensive, however, but nothing only a weekend could justify. One needs, at a minimum, four days to justify the cost of air travel over here. In this case, because we had specific dates we wanted to travel, our tickets were reasonable. We paid US$725.88 for two, including seat reservation costs (US$3.96) and mandatory booking fee (US$20.00) but excluding any baggage costs since we travel light (read: carry-on luggage only).

After booking our tickets we read up on what we should expect in Vietnam over Tết. Basically, the country shuts down. Most everything is closed because most everyone celebrates the holiday with family. Similar to Thanksgiving in the US and Christmas / Boxing Day in the UK, everyone goes home and the country supports this (or enforces it) by shutting down to accommodate the migration from the cities to the villages.

Though we found the preponderance of closed shops frustrating at times, we were thrilled with our overall experience. Additionally, we had memorable experiences we wouldn't have had otherwise had we visited at any other time of year. And, because we visited at such a special time of year, visiting again at any other time of year should elicit a very different experience, which is just another reason to return.

HCMC or Saigon (both are used, though I'm not sure when to use one and not the other) is a lovely city. I read Graham Greene's The Quiet American before traveling, providing me with a little background to the city which I found extremely helpful and fun. Walking the former Rue Catinat was one of the highlights of my visit and one I'm not sure I would've experienced had I not read the book prior to visiting.

Bến Thành market

Bến Thành market closed at noon the day after our arrival, the first day of Tết (new year's eve, Feb 18), and remained closed throughout our stay. Unfortunately, only a few shops within the market chose to open that morning, so we didn't get to see it in all its glory, but at least we did get to go inside. We even had our first Vietnamese meal at one of the stalls; bún thịt nướng (grilled pork & rice noodles), summer rolls, seafood fried rice, and Vietnamese coffees. This meal would be the first of many delicious items we tasted during our stay.

It's true what they say about Vietnamese food; it's amazing. We ate a lot, and at a lot of super dodgy places, but didn't have one bad meal. At one spot there were so many chicken bones on the floor, Husband ate the entirety of his delicious meal with a drumstick perched on his toe (he was wearing flipflops) and didn't even care. Because the food was that good.

Our first meal

We stayed at Madam Cuc 127 in the backpacker's district which is an area we would normally have stayed far away from but served us well on this visit because it was the only area of the city that stayed completely open during Tết. Our hotel was fantastic too. There were a lot of stairs but the staff were super friendly and breakfast was free (baguette with butter and jam and coffee). Staying here also provided us with an indisputable reason for visiting during Tết, unbelievable hospitality.

Upon returning to our hotel after midnight on new year's morning (Feb 19) the owner and staff were celebrating with ceremonial offerings plus a delicious and generous meal for their guests. Not expecting to be invited to a celebratory late night dinner, we had already eaten and weren't terribly hungry. But we ate anyway. Because the food was, per usual, delicious.

On new year's day we found ourselves at the Saigon Zoo. We had ventured out expecting complete solitude, which proved nearly accurate, so we had just intended on wandering the city aimlessly. The map had a large park area near the river marked as a botanical garden, which sounded lovely, so we headed in that general direction. Upon reaching what we thought were the botanical gardens we were greeted by a zoo instead. And it was having a party. So we ventured forth and spent the better part of the day visiting with the animals.

gibbon at the Saigon Zoo

Now, it's true that some of the exhibits made me sad for the animals (which is often the case) but there were also a few exhibits that were awesome, like the gibbon exhibit which had a large section of the zoo fenced off so the gibbon could swing from trees over a river, seemingly uninhibited by boundaries. The gibbon looked so happy. The enclosure appeared makeshift, like the gibbon had escaped its cage and found this refuge instead and the zookeepers had decided it was just easier to fence off this area than to recapture it. It was very cool to see an animal so seemingly thrilled to be in a zoo. Also, the elephants were really close to the crowd. And when was the last time you saw kids feeding them? New year's day in Saigon for me. (I'm not advocating for this, I'm just saying this happened.)

elephants at the Saigon Zoo

When traveling abroad we usually spend a good deal of time pre-trip learning important phrases in the local language. But, because we've been spending all our time trying to learn Mandarin in our new home country, we didn't even attempt to learn any Vietnamese prior to this trip. I'm not proud of this, it's just a fact. We did pick up a few things once we arrived but not enough to do anything complicated on our own. Luckily, staying in the backpacker district helped bridge the language gap a bit, since they cater to tourists there and know English very well, but for more complicated transactions we had to rely completely on our hotels.

I'm usually quite wary of hotel tour booking services. The only other time I tried it was in Costa Rica in 2006 and the whole thing just felt like a dirty tourist trap. I resolved to never do that again. But, because we were traveling lazy this time, and I knew exactly what I wanted and had researched prices, we asked our hotel for help. The whole process turned out to be so simple and convenient and stress-free that I may begin utilizing these types of services more often.

Our hotel in HCMC helped us arrange bus travel to Cần Thơ in the Mekong Delta. We just wanted the normal public bus, which should have only cost us US$6 but, due to the holiday, wound up costing twice that. Whatever. The bus was air conditioned with reserved seats and even came with a pickup from our hotel and a free bottle of water and moist towelette. We felt like kings.

Saigon bus station

The bus station itself was a bit intimidating but we successfully navigated it and made it to Cần Thơ without incident. Upon arriving we found our bus ticket even came with free transportation to our new hotel. Score! What a system!

In Cần Thơ we stayed at the Kim Long Hotel. This was also a great experience. The location was perfect; right on the waterfront and only a few blocks away from all the action. Additionally, on our last night in Cần Thơ we were treated to hospitality similar to that of our HCMC hotel, a staff / family dinner. Such a great experience!

As soon as we arrived in Cần Thơ, knowing our return trip to HCMC on a Sunday night would be popular for those returning home after the holiday, we asked the hotel to book our return travel. Additionally, we knew we wanted to visit the nearby floating market and asked about that too. Unfortunately, due to the holiday, the floating market was closed. But, we really wanted to get out on the river anyway, so we booked a 3.5 hour tour for Sunday morning, hoping the market might be open that day. The tour was only US$9 per person.

Cần Thơ

With our tickets booked, we ventured out to explore our new surroundings. We had read that Cần Thơ was the largest city of the Mekong Delta. In addition, with most people returning to their village roots for the holiday, we had expected it to be much livelier than usual. If that was indeed the case, my expectations for the population density of the Mekong Delta are vastly inaccurate. Cần Thơ is a sleepy village. It's lovely. But sleepy.

We spent our days wandering the streets, grabbing the occasional beer and Vietnamese coffee, and stopping for the plethora of cultural diversions. In both cities, perhaps due to the holiday, we were surrounded by events. There were stages with performances (dance, singing, music, comedy), there were fairs and festivals, there were fireworks. It really was a wonderful time to visit such a lovely country.

Floating Market

One of the highlights from our trip was definitely our river tour. Though the market had decided to open that day, it was still very quiet. Despite that fact, seeing the area from the water was a great experience on its own and one I would repeat.

We were picked up for our tour at the ungodly hour of 5:30am but it was nice to see the area come to life. It's something I've noticed in Taiwan too; there is an entire early morning economy that I am absolutely oblivious to. Perhaps it's due to the heat but I have observed that most activity happens when the sun is down, both in the morning as well as in the evening. For instance, when the market is up and running, it is usually over by 9am. I don't typically wake up before 10am. That means an entire business day has passed before I even open my eyes. Astounding.

I really enjoyed our trip to Vietnam. I loved everything about it; the people, the food, and the culture. I look forward to returning often.

For more pictures, please visit here.