Taiwan Evening Meal

Hi all,

I arrived in Tainan yesterday. It’s on the Western coast of the island nation. Tainan is the old capital city and is deep in history and culture, going back to the Dutch rule in the 17th century (more on that later). But one thing Tainan is known for is its great and distinct food much admired by the rest of Taiwan. One of the great traditions all over Taiwan is having meals out with family and friends. More than half of the Taiwan people eat all their meals out. I have gone to only a couple of traditional restaurants, most of my meals I get by walking along the streets and looking for a busy place that I know is popular with the locals.

Last night was no exception, except I had one of Tainan’s traditional dishes - cooked eel over noodles. Yea a great vegetarian meal right? Actually I asked via google translator if they had a vegetarian plate, the waitress said no, but I have fish. How about eel? I said go for it, and asked if I would like it. She just laughed. She spoke great English, didn’t need google :)

It was good! Tasted a bit like river trout. Here. Is the scene:

Food Taiwan Style

Hi all,

One of the rewarding things about travel is the chance to try different foods from different countries and cultures. Taiwan was no exception. The food is basic Chinese in origin, with dumplings (remember DimSum?) different meats, rolls and Soy. As a vegetarian, although meats were very prevalent, I really had no problem since the Buddhist influence added many non meat dishes to cultural food choices. Here are some things I tried:

The Grand Canyon of Taiwan

Earlier in the week I booked a tour of Taroko Gorge on the east side of the island a little north of the city of Hualien. This is THE top tourist spot in Taiwan. Millions of years ago the corals in the ocean under pressure were converted to limestone and then to marble. The collision of adjoining tectonic plates caused this layer to raise up high above ocean levels. Then soft portions eroded by water and wind over millions of years, similar to our own Grand Canyon, created this beautiful gorge 18 kilometers long. Many places are just a stones throw apart.

The tour guide spoke only Chinese of course (that was a trip listening all day :) ) but as is typical of these wonderful Taiwan people, several of my fellow tour members took care of me during the day with key translations on tour logistics.  Here are some pictures of this amazing place:

Music and Food - The International Communicator

This is a little out of order, I haven’t caught up yet on my blog. This just happened yesterday, sometimes those memorable events have to be told :)

I hired a shared van to go down the east coast of Taiwan to get to the very tip of the island. On board with me in our 8 passenger VW van were 6 young professional mainland Chinese “kids”... in their 30’s on a holiday in Taiwan. They all worked together in Shanghai. The reason I know their ages is the way this trip started out. I was the last to sign the manifest where we were required to put our birthdates down. I squawked to the driver, and put my 1945 year down among the many 1984 dates.... the driver looked at my entry with big eyes, looked at the kid behind me and they were counting on their fingers in disbelief.  

Haaaaa, that’s how we started. Things were quiet till the first meal stop when technology took over. We all got out our phones and “chatted” at the table using Google translator.. which is quite good. It was fun and we bonded a lot. I know they knew more English but are shy in using it. During the trip one young woman was translating the allotted times at each rest/view stop for me. She watched out for the old man.  

Then I shared USA music, some real new hits with the architect guy who quit work to travel. He was up on it, said his favorite was Almost Lover, by Fine Fantasy...we shared music titles back and forth during the drive, again with Google. Lots of smiles and nods - music bonds.

I have a few new WeChat friends now!

This all day drive along a beautiful east coastline brought me to the Southern tip of Taiwan and the town of Kenting. I’ll tour around the area today. The coast is amazing, although very rocky for many miles like Northern California, there are miles of unused beaches, no houses, and not even any surfers....some good surf and not a one surfer in sight all day. This coast has huge potential.

More pictures

The Night Market

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Arrive in Taiwan

It’s been 4 days now in Taiwan. I started with the capital city, Taipei where most people first land. A big city of some 3 million. Incredibly fast and efficient transportation system, everyone gets around on the metro, not many but the super rich and taxis are using cars. (Slight exaggeration, but you get my point) Food being cooked not only at every corner but along the street too. Literally so much variety in prepared food, most people eat their meals out!

Let me catch up. First it’s about the people. So polite, quiet non-pushy, not particularly friendly to strangers except when you engage them and BAM, are they helpful! If they struggle to answer your questions where or what, they w:ill drop everything and show you or walk you to the place you want. Wow what a change. On a Chinese speaking bus tour several participants took me under their wings and translated key things. The same was true on a museum visit.9lll

Taiwan is an island country about 236 miles long and off the coast of mainland China. It has jungle covered mountains along its backbone some in the range of 12,000 feet created millions of years ago by the collision of regional tectonic plates. Beautiful river valleys and nice beach’s lie along these mountains. In history the Dutch and Spanish ruled in the exploration years; the Chinese peopled and ruled for many years giving Taiwan its principal culture; the Japanese occupied the island for a hundred years just after the 1900’s; Chiang Kai-shek fled China to the island with his followers losing the civil war from Mao after WW II and lead the nation for awhile. Today it’s a parliamentary democracy with a woman president with China jealously looking down upon it.

Observations: They are not into tattoos; very few dogs; polite and not pushy

The cities are very clean. Phones and motor scooters are the thing!; MRT (metro) system fast and efficient, runs every 6 minutes. There are more motor scooters than anywhere else in Asia.

Taipei has been a fun city. I’m working my way clockwise around the island, on to the city of Hualien.

Here are a few pictures: