Don’t let my chiselled features or Herculean-Calvin-Klein-underwear-model body fool you, I’m no Derek Zoolander.

At the BnB we stayed at in Hualien, the owner was a photography aficionado.  On the top floor of his building he set up a mini studio, and part of the deal with his BnB was that you got some free studio shots if you stayed there.   Taiwanese people love their studio pics, so we all went up to give it a shot.

Di and Ting-Ting were pretty good at doing what he wanted or what they thought would look good.  I, on the other hand, was a miserable failure.  I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time.  I’m sure Di wanted some nice shots of us, but she’s pretty used to me taking bad pictures with her so I think she was cool.  Ting-Ting is also used to me being a jackass, so I think she found some of my antics comical.  The photographer, nice as he was, looked like he was getting slightly frustrated.  So I took a seat and let the girls finish the pics as I sat and watched.

Here is my favourite pic.  It’s funny to me because to stop me from cracking up Di told us to pose for the camera by making a scary face.  I went ahead and attempted to do that; Ting-Ting obviously misunderstood and went ahead and did a “I’m scared” face; and Di, who came up with the idea, well I have no idea what she’s doing.  What the hell is that?

I was 16 when I first begrudgingly arrived in Taipei.  I say begrudgingly because my parents and their friends basically enrolled the 4 of us (myself, my sister, and our friends Tim and Charlotte) in a free Taiwanese government run summer camp.  Supposedly we were to learn Mandarin and about Chinese/Taiwanese culture.  I know, to a 16 year old it sounded terrible.  After arriving on the plane we were greeted by Taipei’s airport, by far the worst I had ever been to in my spoiled childhood.  The taxi ride to the camp residence was equally disappointing; I had never seen so many crappy scooters in my life, and none of the car drivers were following the road rules I was used to in Canada (4 lanes on the highway here meant you could fit 7 cars across).  In addition, Taipei back then in 1995 looked like a big dump compared to the 2 other Asian metropolis’s I had been to, HK and Tokyo.  However, 2 months later I left to return home, having just experienced the best summer of my life.

Lots of our friends back in Vancouver are Taiwanese.  Lots of our friends back in Vancouver are from Hong Kong (or are descendants of those from HK, like me).  Thus there’s always been a friendly feud over which place is better; naturally I’m on HK’s side so I always poke fun at Taiwan.  But in all honesty (and no I’m not just saying this because my girlfriend is Taiwanese) Taiwan is pretty awesome.  I liked it here so much after the first time I came that I returned to do the summer camp offered for university students (again paid for by the Taiwanese government and aptly nicknamed “Loveboat”).  On both of those summer camps I toured around the island, and since Di had never done that even though this is her native country (tsk tsk), we decided to brave the roads and go for a ride. 

After we had our fun in Taipei our friend Aven, who went to UBC with us and is Di’s god brother, lent us his car to check out the sights.  Our first stop was Hualien, a city about 3 hours south of Taipei on the Eastern Coast of the Island.  We checked into a fantastic BnB (more on that in the next blog entry) that DI’s best friend Ting-Ting had booked.  Early the next morning, Ting-Ting (her English name is Jen, but I personally like her Chinese name Ting-Ting way more) flew in from Taipei to meet up with us, and we went river tracing.  This entails putting on a wetsuit, a lifejacket, and a helmet and walking up the Shapodang river and then back down (see above pic).  Most of the companies who do this are run by the minority aboriginal population, who descend from peoples more related to the Polynesians than the majority Han Chinese in Taiwan.  The river was beautiful, cool, and extremely clean, and there were ample waterfalls and cliffs for you to jump from with deep pools to land in.  The 3 of us had a ton of fun.  River tracing here is actually very popular, and there were at least a hundred people doing what we were doing that day.  Most were local Taiwanese from the big city which resulted in a lot entertainment for me.  The faces and accompanying shrieks of a large number of the girls as they peered over the ledges of the cliffs they were supposed to jump off of were priceless.  The corresponding loud encouragement from all the guys in unison (really cheesy, corny and not cool by our standards, though definitely warm-hearted) was almost as comical.  Though I hate to stereotype, bravery and athleticism seemed to be missing in the majority of the female participants.  However, Di and Ting-Ting were not the norm and had no problem tackling every jump, the tallest of which was 12 metres.  All the local guys were momentarily dumbfounded at these 2 girls who were more courageous than a lot of them.  Great job ladies!

The next day we drove 15 minutes out of Hualien to Taiwan’s top tourist destination, Taroko Gorge.  It is an absolutely beautiful park with great hiking, beautiful rivers, and lush green vegetation covering its numerous mountains.  We went for a hike and hung out on the banks of the Shakadang river for the day.  Next time I come back hopefully I’ll stay in the park and not in town as it really is a serene and stunning place.  Unfortunately Ting-Ting had to go back to Taipei that evening so we dropped her off at the Hualien airport and continued or journey south.

The next town we arrived at was Taitung.  Again we found a fantastic BnB and explored for a couple of days.  What we found was good food, really nice people, and a chill laid back vibe.  Half an hour away from Taitung is the Chihpen hot springs, so that evening after dinner Di and I made our way out there.  Of the many resorts at the springs we chose the Hotel Royal Chihpen (BnB recommendation) and at about 6 CAD dollars per person to use the facilities I thought it was a steal.  We spent most of the night just soaking in the numerous hot-spring tubs in the spa-like pool area.  Pretty relaxing.

The next day we drove to Kenting at the southern tip of the island.  There is definitely a more resort like feel to this town, with surf, diving and nightlife in abundance.  Though the beaches and the water may lack the staggering beauty of nearby SE Asian islands, it still is pretty nonetheless and there were tons of tourists here enjoying themselves.  We serendipitously rolled into town the one night of the year they have this big festival where teams of men try to climb an extremely tall wooden pole to grab a red ribbon near the top.  They do this by stacking on each other’s shoulders and there’s a big safety net to catch them if they fall.  Oh and I forgot to mention, the pole is covered in grease.  It was fun to watch, and fun to get into the excitement of the huge crowd even though I couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying.  That’s because the southerners speak a different dialect of Chinese (from the Fujian province of China) that is unintelligible to my Cantonese/Mandarin understanding ears.

The following morning we first drove up to the town of Neipu to meet up with Di’s grandparents, who could easily compete with mine for being the cutest grandparents ever.  Her 84 year old grandpa insisted on driving us to the restaurant to eat lunch in his Honda civic, and her hilarious 82 year old grandma ordered us a feast.  When we were about to leave, a tropical rainstorm descended upon the town.  Di’s grandpa, who literally can still move as fast as a ninja, ran out to the car to drive it to the front of the restaurant to pick us up.  However her grandma was unwilling to walk the 4 steps it would take in the downpour to enter the car.  So we watched as ninja grandpa was trying to convince reluctant grandma for about 10 minutes to walk while he was holding a big rainbow coloured umbrella.  Super cute.  Luckily the rain slowed and she got in, and we were able to make it back to their house where freshly cut fruit was waiting.  After leaving them we drove 20 minutes to Di’s dad’s office where he was working at in Pingtung.  He’s a well-known architect and just outside of Kenting he’s got a massive hotel that’s currently being built.  Anyways, we had some more fruit and coffee with him and a great little visit.  Our friend Mike (who also works in Pingtung) then met up with us at the office and he led the way to his house, 30 minutes away in Kaohsiung, where his wife Claire and daughter Kaitlin were waiting.  It was great to see him as we all went to school together in Vancouver.  He took us out for dinner where I watched him interact with his wife and daughter, occasionally in disbelief.  Why?  Because it was Mike, a guy we partied hard with as students, now a loving and devoted father and husband.  Good job bud!

After crashing at Mike’s for the night, we took off to Taichung for one last stop where we had a meal with Di’s high school friend Flora.  We had a good time catching up with her and hearing about her transition back to a Taiwanese life from a Canadian one.  After dinner with her we returned to Taipei, having spent 6 days driving around much of the island from the eastern coast to the southern tip, back up north along the western coast.

A lot of things on this road trip have changed since I first did it in 1995.  Firstly, the highways themselves are fantastic; smoothly paved and quite wide with clearly marked signs.  15 years ago, they were death traps on the verge of collapsing into the ocean.  Kaohsiung and Taichung have completely transformed, with both actually being very nice, especially Kaohsiung.  I remember Taichung as being a scary place (I saw a woman yelling and angrily waving a machete at another person) where I would have never considered living.  Today it’s been redeveloped and Flora’s neighbourhood is extremely new and pleasant.  There were tons of mountain bikers on the highways of the east coast, and with the road fixtures and the stunning coastline it’s easy to understand why.  Though the infrastructure has improved greatly, the people haven’t changed.  They are still as friendly and as warm as I can remember (minus machete lady).  Coming back to Taiwan and driving around the island reminds me a lot of why that summer was up until that point, and maybe even up until today, the best summer of my life.  This island will always hold a special place in my heart.  Did I just write those words?  The corniness of the local guys on the river tracing trip must really be rubbing off on me to finish with a sentence like that.

Ni hao ma?  That’s ‘how are you?’ in Mandarin.  Hope you guys are all doing well.  We are in my home country Taiwan!  It feels very nice to be back at my second home, especially having been on the road for exactly 6 months now.  Yes, 6 months, can you believe it?  We are halfway through our trip already.  Besides enjoying the comforts of being at home and seeing my family, I am also having a blast hanging out with my 1.5 year old niece.  Excuse me if I sound like a proud parent, but she’s so smart and adorable.  Even Eug can’t stop smiling and laughing whenever she’s around.  She looks like a mini version of my brother but much girlier.  She seems to have a great talent in always finding new ways to amuse you.  And she’s able to order Eug around by just pointing her fingers here and there.  I definitely need to learn from her.

We did the usual Taipei must-dos, like eat xiao long bao (soup dumplings) at Din Tai Fung; walk around Taipei 101 and Sogo area; and of course karaoke and hang out with friends.  But since we had more time than the typical 5-7 day visits before we decided to check out some tourist attractions in the nearby suburbs such as Jiu Fen and Yilan, and drive around the entire island to visit other cities that I never got to visit before.

My god brother Aven took us to Jiu Fen, a small area on top of a short mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean and surrounding small islands.  The narrow paths of the ‘Old Streets’ (picture above) have not changed since Aven was there 5 years ago, and from the looks of it, Eug can guarantee that it hasn’t changed since 30 years ago.  But that’s exactly the point.  Besides the endless food vendors, most people come to Jiu Fen to drink tea.  Most of the tea shops have an ocean view and you can make tea the right way (which is the long way) before drinking it.  We did exactly that, and it was quite interesting.  We bought a small bag of ‘Jin Shuen’ tea leaves, and that came with unlimited hot water and a complete tea set.  Our friendly young tea waiter showed us how to make tea for the first time.  He skilfully poured the hot water all over the tea set to clean and rinse the set (I said skilfully because later when Eug and Aven tried to do the same thing, the hot water spilled everywhere), then proceeded to make the tea.  He then rested the small teapot on the edge of the set and made circles around the set a few times to signify ‘Welcome’.  He used the first pour as the smell-test by pouring the tea into the slender and taller tea cup for us to hold and roll between our palms and then smell.  It was very very hot.  And finally we were able to drink our freshly brewed tea from the regular small tea cups.  It was very relaxing to chill in the mountain and enjoy the flavourful Taiwan grown tea.

We also did a day trip to Yilan, a city about half an hour away to the east of Taipei.  This is where our friends in Taipei go surfing.  We found a nice stretch of black sand beach and saw a handful of locals taking surfing lessons or just surfing on their own.  It was surprising to see so many of my peeps surfing.  As we watched them for a bit, I was quite proud of both those who caught every wave and those who caught none yet never stopped trying.  Maybe it’s because they were opposing the stereotype of Chinese people not doing many sports.  Bravo to my fellow country mates!

Another highlight was going to see Boyz II Men concert.  Thanks to Jen (my best friend since elementary school) who got us the concert tickets.  They were awesome!  Eug wasn’t used to people sitting down at concerts and tried to set an example by standing up, dancing and screaming on top of his lungs.  It kind of worked.  Boyz II Men said they love Taipei!

Taipei is much more relaxed compared to Hong Kong.  And people seem to be smiling more here too.  They are also way more willing to help when you need help.  Hong Kong may offer everything you can possibly want but Taipei has that charm that you have no choice but to fall in love with.  As much as Eug makes fun of Taiwan, he does like it enough that he came to ‘love boat’ (a Taiwan government program for overseas Chinese youths to learn Mandarin and Taiwan culture) twice when he was still in school, that’s two full summers.  Since he couldn’t get his Hong Kong ID, he will try to be Taiwanese to get a Tai Bao Cheng (Taiwan ID) to make it easier to visit China.  Stay tuned for Eug becoming Taiwanese.  One faux pas is to ask Taiwanese if they are blue or green (kind of like asking Americans if they’re Democrat or Republican).  It will lead to a passionate and endless political conversation without them answering your first question.  That’s because the Taiwanese love Taiwan and really care about her, and to be honest, so do we.  We love Taiwan!  Peace Peace!