Taiwanese Goal #5: Visit a Hot Spring

The last few days I’ve been distracted. First of all, my sister visited this weekend. She is in her first year of university at St. Francis Xavier U and doing wonderfully. Considering we’re heading off for a while, it was good to have a visit. Secondly, I got a brilliant book about Taiwan called, simply, Taiwan. More specifically, it is the Lonely Planet guide on the place, and man, what a wonderful read it is. I’ve been stuck on it since in came in the mail last week. I recommend the Lonely Planet series in general.

image from taiwanderful.net

We also got a Mandarin phrasebook. While it is useful, I find it a looming and intense reminder of how shoddy my Mandarin still is.

But I have another thing on my mind today: hot springs.

After watching a documentary or two that showed how lovely these natural wonders seem, I am determined to visit one on our visit. Or two.

It seems that the hot springs are all over in Taiwan and so it just depends on the type of visit you want. I think I would want to go for more “authentic” and less “spa”-type visit, at least initially, so according to my aforementioned guide, I will most likely be visiting Dongpu, Sileng, or Fan Fan.

image from taiwan.net

Not only are these spots meant to be healing and relaxing, they are often quite beautiful, and I feel I would be skipping out on a major aspect of the country’s tradition and beauty if I didn’t go to at least one. In one documentary I watched, the host could hardly dip more than her feet in the water because it was so hot. I can’t imagine how people submerge their whole bodies or even swim. But I suppose, when in Rome.

Now. If only I had a new bathing suit…

Taiwanese Goal #4: As Many Markets As Possible

This one sort of goes without saying. It would be such a shame to explore any region of the world that had as many markets as Taiwan does and not visit them. Because it is not a place like 7-11 (and Taiwan is particularly notorious for its 7-11 culture) or any other enormous big box store, I would love to visit these markets almost exclusively for my food. Of course this will all depend on their prices, among other factors, but I feel this could be accomplished.

image from icouldiwilltravel.blogspot.com

You can watch a 10 minute clip of someone walking through Yongan Market on YouTube right here. It’s not quite the full experience and maybe watching the whole ten minutes might be a bit redundant after a while, but it gives a wonderful perspective on what these booths and streets look like. Pay special attention to the sheer quantity of motorbikes parked at the beginning of the clip. From what I’ve read, Taipei has more motorbikes than it does people, much like L.A. has more cars than it does people.

Taiwan has a particularly excellent night market scene from what I read on several websites. Dave tells me this is quite different than Seoul in Korea, and he’s very excited for this change – as am I.

In reference to the entry I posted about thousand year-old eggs, many bizarre foods can be found in these night markets. So much so that this scene was featured on Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman (you can take a look here). I’m looking forward especially to the stinky tofu. Apparently it’s wonderful if you can get over the smell. Andrew Zimmerman doesn’t think so on the show, though.

image from asianfoodgrocer.com

Dave keeps reminding me on how I will basically have to turn any perception I have of normalcy upside down for this trip. I’m sure he’s right. That’s why I’d just like to throw caution to the wind and try everything. Duck tongues, stinky tofu, 30 day fermented pork… bring it.

Taiwanese Goal #3: Have a decent conversation

This goal isn’t particularly exciting. It doesn’t involve anything unusual or outstanding, and it’s something everyone takes for granted… conversation.

The official language of Taiwan is Mandarin Chinese and it is my goal to have a normal conversation with a native speaker of this language while in Taiwan.

image from nouvellesimages.com

I’m not looking for anything amazing. I’m not trying to discuss politics or Russian literature, I just would like to have a conversation of a few lines in which the person I’m speaking to doesn’t have a hard time understanding me. For example, I would be quite thrilled if the conversation went like this:

Amelia: “Oh hello, how are you?”

Unsuspecting Taiwanese Taxi Driver: “Fine, and yourself?”

Amelia: “Very well, thank you. Can you tell me how much it costs to get to [neighbourhood]?”

UTTD: “Oh about $3600 NTD.”

Amelia: “That’s absurd!”

UTTD: “Throw in a bubble tea and I’ll lower it to $3000.”

Amelia: “Fine.”

Something like that.

I have been learning some rudimentary Mandarin, and so far I can say “Hello,” “how are you,” “fine,” thank you,” and “thank you very much.” There are more words I know but I can never remember them when I need them. I’ve also been practicing the sounds of the Pinyin alphabet, which is Mandarin translated from the written characters into the Latin alphabet. But of course, like in any language, the letters don’t always make the same sounds as they do in English.

But it seems I have bigger fish to fry, linguistically speaking. I found out there are five tones in Mandarin, four of which I learned the basic concepts of. The tones in the words have the potential to change its meaning entirely. We have much more freedom speaking in English in terms of our tones. I feel this will be the hardest part in learning the language.

Taiwanese Goal #2: Storyland

What I didn’t say at the beginning of my last post was that I’m planning on coming up with a list of twenty goals for my experience in Taiwan. I figure this is quite doable since we’ll be there for a year. But, especially since I’d like to get some of this done in the first couple weeks of us being there, I’m trying to pick especially cheap endeavours. Next item on the list: Storyland!

No, not the Storyland you would find in New Hampshire, US:

photo from headtripusa.com ... how appropriate.

The Storyland you’d find in New Hampshire is themed around kid’s fairy tale stories, and features Humpty Dumpty and everyone else in between. It also features a large fake cow with rubber udders from which you can squirt water. No joke:

I don't want to know how many kids have secretly put their mouths on it.

But I digress.

The Storyland in Taipei is much, much different than Storyland, USA. The Taipei version is a recreation of Taipei streets in the mid 60s-70s. Using all the aesthetics like ice shops, cart vendors pushed into crammed, dimly lit streets with paper lantern lights, it’s supposed to be a really accurate depiction of life back then before Taipei became very mordern.

Taipei then, according to Storyland:

image from filigallery.com

A street from Taipei, present day:

image from wikipedia.org

As a foreigner, I think it would be very interesting and maybe even valuable to see Taiwan as it was before. I’m extremely curious about the culture, even more so than I was about Japan when we were planning to go there. I think perhaps because Taiwan seems to be quite prideful – but for much different reasons than other countries. It is a very new culture, the Chinese intermingling with the Aboriginal Taiwanese to create something brand new, only in the last century. And because they are so brand new, they stress so much of their old culture as well as finding ways to create new culture, in order to preserve it in the future.

This is all my own observation from afar, of course. I don’t know this for sure. This is just what I read and hear. From what Dave tells me, most Asian countries are all about preserving their old culture. But not all seem to be that concerned with creating new culture. More about that in a future entry about artist villages. But I am just aching to see this other side of the world. I am romanticizing everything a bit, admittedly. But why the hell not?

Taiwanese Goal #1: Thousand Year Old Egg

Dave and I, for the first few weeks in Taiwan, will have the fortune of being on vacation, in a way. The poor guy hasn’t had a proper vacation in almost two years. There are a lot of places I want to go (Taipei apparently is chock-full of museums) and a lot of culture I want to experience (I have to catch up on my Mandarin before I go), but there is a ton of food I’d like to try.

First and foremost, I would like to try that disgusting thing that has endlessly fascinated me through photos and fables online: The Thousand Year Old Egg.

Photo Credit: oneinchpunch.com

This is preserved duck egg, and no, it’s not actually 1,000 years old (obviously). It’s actually 100 days old. Its colour comes from the preservation method, and it looks like a really twisted version of the eggs from Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.

Who knows where these things come from

Apparently, you can get thousand year old egg by itself as an appetizer or served on top of other dishes as a topping. Dave is scared of these things. This coming from a guy who ate dog in Korea, otherwise known as bo shin tang, and liked it.

But, I regretted not trying black pudding when I was in Ireland, and I feel I would regret not at least trying some cultural culinary oddities when I’m in Taiwan. I’m not saying I’ll like it. But damn it, I’m going to try it.