Hsinchu City and Stinky Tofu

The Huang family live in a first floor house located very near to Science Park. Most of the people in this area work for various companies located in Science park.

Lake Placid is a man-made lake in the middle of Science Park surrounded by beautiful footpaths and outdoor buildings used for community yoga and tai chi. I woke early one morning and headed down to Lake Placid for some early morning exercise. There were surprisingly many people out with the same idea as me.

As I beat a path around the lake which takes about ten minutes to complete, I passed a yoga class with many participants and a tai chi class set to music with a fat bassett hound in attendance.

Hsinchu is a tidily packed city with residential and commercial fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. Streets seem to have no rhyme or reason to me as they twist and turn with seemingly no real direction.

There does seem to be a lot of pollution - it can be seen on the buildings and felt in the throat.

Because of limited space, it seems the Taiwanese have developed quite a knack for expanding vertically. Cars are stacked three high by mechanical means in parking garages. Homes are apartment buildings four to 30 stories high.

Dinner one night was at a restaurant found down dark and twisting alleys - Anna felt it reminded her of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter - filled with a variety of smells ranging from sweet almond that is ground into a powder to rotting pig poop which Jess has informed me is the smell of stinky tofu. Stinky tofu is considered quite a delicassy...I have yet to try it, but I did promise Jess that I would before the end of our trip. I promised her this BEFORE I actually smelled it. Maybe she will forget about it.

BBQ

Gary suggested BBQ for dinner one night. I emphatically said yes! with visions of thick slabs of ribs dripping with tangy sauce dancing before my eyes. Instead reality was a brazier in the middle of our table for cooking our own pork, beef, and fish. And rather than thick slabs of meat, we were presented with trays of paper thin meat and veggies, that when consumed made me think I had arrived in heaven.

Wonderful accommodations!

Our journey was to take us all across Taiwan with 'our footprints touching all of this beautiful country.' North to Taipei, along the east coast to the city of Hualien, over the mountains across the exact center of the country to the west coast city of Kenting, to the southern tip, then north to Gary's home city of Tainan. All of this in less than a week!

Connie did an incredible job arranging our accommodations. We stayed in Taiwan's version of bed and breakfasts called 'home stays'. Each night found us in a different home stay in a different city all of them with uniquely breathtaking views.

One night our room was the 4th floor VIP room with a large canopied bed, a patio overlooking the city, and a clawfoot slipper tub. I felt very decadent taking a bath before dinner for no other reason than that I could.

The next night we stayed at an aboriginal village located in a valley surrounded by mountains. The guest houses were fashioned Japanese style with low platform beds, a large stone-floored walk in shower, and our outdoor living room had the most breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains.







We stayed one night in the city of Nantou otherwise known as Little Swiss. Before even knowing the nickname of the city, my thought was it felt very much like one would imagine Switzerland. This is the only place we stayed that had fireplaces in the rooms as this area is high enough in the mountains to actually get snow. Our room had floor to ceiling windows overlooking the valley below.

My favorite location of Kenting is located on the west coast and is a tropical vacation paradise. We stayed in a 'home stay' with gorgeous gardens and koi ponds owned by a British man who originally moved to Taiwan to build boats. Twenty years later, he's married with a couple of kids and owns a 'home stay' and two somewhat westernized restaurants. It was interesting talking with him - he's really living life.

After Kenting, we spent a night in Tainan at Gary's brother's house before taking the high-speed train back to Hsinchu.

Vacation from vacation

We are heading out for a vacation...while we're on vacation. I find this humorous. The next week we will be spending time at the beach, in the mountains, and in southern Taiwan. I'm just along for the ride so I'm not sure what computer access I will have. So much exciting stuff everyday!

Dogs and Porcupines

Jess has two pets. One is a dog named Show Ming. She is a happy dog that likes to go on long walks and has joined me on my morning walks around the lake. Lenny the white porcupine is named for South Dakota Lenny and escaped from his pen our first night here. He hid under the piano for most of the day until near evening he decided to search for food. Last night he was quite active in his cage as I think he was doing his part to prepare for today's party.

There are a lot of dogs in Taiwan both strays and pets and as there seems to be no leash law in effect here, it's hard to tell who's who sometimes. I've seen many people with their dogs in stores and restaurants and also riding on scooters!

Tourist traps are the same everywhere!

Yesterday was a day of more discovering as we took the train to Neiwan south of Taipei. The town used to be the sight of a coal mining town. It is a tourist location now filled with many shops and restaurants. There is a river that runs through the town with a swinging foot bridge and a car bridge available for crossing to the other side. There are also hot springs in Neiwan which we chose not to go to...it's hot enough as it is. Now if we could find cold springs somewhere, I'd be in!

The kids and I walked around the town visiting the different shops. It is your typical tourist town with shops filled with cheap trinkets and t-shirts that say 'grandma and grandpa visited Neiwan and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'. Okay, I didn't see any t-shirts but the cheap trinkets were in abundance.

For lunch we ate at a quiet little restaurant with great food and quick service. Jess and Amingo ordered spicy beef, mapo tofu, and bird's nest fern. The spicy beef is pretty self explanatory. The mapo tofu was a spicy yet sweet dish of tofu and peppers which was my favorite dish to date. The bird's nest fern is a vegetable like spinach that is steamed. Our lunch was served family style with each of us receiving a bowl of rice.

The land of Taiwan is lush and surprisingly mountainous. It reminds me a lot of Jamaica with the flora and fauna and temperature. Every morning I have woken to the sound of birds chattering.

Do you pray?

It was a busy first day with hiking around Lake Placid, attending a three hour rotary meeting, and grocery shopping for dinner. I'm hoping that jet lag is a thing of the past as both Anna and I had a hard time keeping our eyes open at dinner last night. Connie made a wonderful traditional meal of seafood and pork, but we were too tired to really participate.

One interesting conversation that happened last night over dinner was when Gary asked me if I pray...I stumbled my way through this as I am better at listening when it comes to religious conversations than I am at discussing. I told him that our family's tradition was to go around the dinner table and each say what we are thankful for that day. Through my stuttering and stammering I noticed that Jess was trying her hardest to keep from laughing. I wondered what she found to be so funny - maybe my struggle with trying to explain in a way that her father would understand, or maybe the struggle her dad had with following what I was saying. Actually, what she found funny was the fact that her dad had asked if I PLAY. As in play badminton.