And Now We're Back Stateside!

My last few days in Taiwan were been spent in my mom's hometown, Lo-Tung. It's about 1.5 hours south of Taipei. It used to be a much smaller, provincial town, but it's been booming the past 20 years. My mom was born and raised here and my grandparents' house/clinic has been torn down since they passed away and is now a shopping arcade (somehow this seems fitting). According to my mom, the town is the #1 consumer city in Taiwan. Apparently, this shopping sickness of mine is genetic also.

There is still a lot of small-town flavor here though. There's no need for a car--everything you need is walking distance. My mom is a regular at the fruit stand next door, the little eatery across the street (it's faster and cheaper to go there to buy rice than make your own) and the beauty salon two doors down. They notice when my mom is coming and going, or if she has a suitcase with her, orout strolling with grandkids they've never seen before. It's nice, but on the other hand, if we buy fruit from a different vendor we have to hide it as we walk by, and sometimes we go the other way around so no one sees us.

It was the Tomb Sweeping holiday on April 5th, a federal holiday and long weekend for most people so the town was bustling! Tomb Sweeping is a holiday to honor and remember your ancestors, clean their tombs (obviously), make offerings, etc.

We did two touristy things: went to this National Traditional Arts Center and the beach. The arts center was huge, kind of like a folk arts village. They had really nice lawns for people to run around or picnic, a river for boat rides, a cute shopping "avenue", a bamboo arts exhibition and a bamboo maze.

We also went to the beach. This beach was nothing like the Thai beaches we visited. No clear, blue water, no fine white sand. There are extremely strong--and dangerous--undertows and a small temple was erected right on the beach by the Taiwanese government after several children had drowned and the people petitioned for the temple. There hasn't been a drowning since.

And so, after a rather uneventful flight back (15 hours total--bless that tailwind), a chat or two with U.S. Customs agents in Seattle (they love to talk to me, but luckily they never ask to inspect my luggage), the slowest plane ride EVER to Newark (those 5 hours seriously felt longer than the 10 hours from Taipei to Seattle), an hour-long wait for our luggage, and then a mishap with the car service, we made it safely home. Thankfully my apartment building was still intact when I pulled up. Whew.

I am very happy to be home.

Travel Fabrications

A dear old friend of mine once told me about how he lied when he was on airplanes and people asked him what he did. He would tell them that he was a successful lawyer or businessman. I asked him why he did that, and he said that it was better than the truth: that he was an unemployed 30-something chain-smoking alcoholic who lived at home with his parents. Nice old ladies--and attractive women--don't like to hear that. (Note: he doesn't live at home anymore.)

My mom does a similar thing. She's not a pathological liar or anything, but she doesn't like strangers knowing too much. "They'll ask questions otherwise, " she says. Um, if you fabricate too much, won't they still ask questions?

So in Thailand we were on this tour with three other people: the Lins, a middle-aged couple, and Mrs. Chen who was traveling alone. Mrs. Lin liked to talk. A LOT. She is one of those people who seems not to get out enough. She will interrupt conversations and just talk louder to get peoples' attention. This is rather annoying when you are driving around an island in a passenger van. There's nowhere to hide and I can only listen to my headphones so loud.

I should mention here that Taiwanese people are very friendly and chatty. More so than your average Midwesterner, actually. We were at a restaurant and my aunt burnt herself on the tea pot because she's having problems with a tendon in her hand and the waitress comes over and talks for about 10 minutes about how she had the same problem and she had surgery and it was much better. This is one of the less personal conversations with random people that occurred.

Anyways, mom didn't want our travel companions to "know too much" so she would fib and withhold information. Thus, the basic story was this: My sister and I are Taiwanese born and bred (not true) and she sent us to the U.S. to live with relatives and go to school at a young age(also untrue), which is why we speak English. She mentioned that I understood Taiwanese (true), in the hopes that they would just speak Taiwanese to me, but they took it to mean that it would be better if they spoke Chinese to me. So the whole time they would speak to me in Chinese. Which is fine since I understood enough, but not ideal since I understand it the LEAST of the three languages.

Oh, what a tangled web of lies we weave!

sigh.

Then last night, my sister found herself doing the same exact thing to the scallion pancake cart guy. They were talking (in Taiwanese) about her being from NY and he asked how much a house was there and how much her salary was, etc. She totally lied about it, and almost told him that all four of them worked (her, my brother-in-law AND the two children under the age of 5) but caught herself.

It must be genetic...

on spirit houses

the two most important things to the thai people are the monarchy and religion.

there are posters of the king everywhere! some guy got sent to seven years in prison for defacing a poster of the king-that wasn't even the max sentence. last year marked the 60th year of his reign. he's been through 17 military coups, 20 prime ministers and 15 consitutions.

so onto spirit houses. these are small houses/temples the size of a birdhouse in front of people's houses. they are very ornate and serve as a house for the spirits. by giving them a fancy house they would rather live in than your house, they can't cause trouble. i think this a marvelous idea! not only does it make the spirits happy, you have a nice decorative piece on your lawn!

now i ask, what has your garden gnome done for you lately?

The Last Few Hours in Thailand...

So yesterday we woke up early and hit the morning market. It was your standard fresh food market, but they did have Thai springrolls fresh out of the hot oil and although it was only like 8:30am, I thought I should partake. They were quite good.

The morning was spent shopping. Asian tours have arrangements with certain establishments and I think the tours get a commission from everything purchased. We went to a cashew factory (yum!), a bird's nest "cave", and a store that sold products made from Andaman stingray skin (rather ugly stuff).

Back to the bird's nests: there are very few edible bird nests (unless you like to eat twigs and whatnot). Swallow's nests are made from a sticky substance the female swallow generates in her beak. Yes, it is essentially bird spit. The nests are considered a delicacy in Asia and are rather expensive. My mom and aunts love to eat that stuff. You cook it in liquid and eat it like soup.

More massages! We went to this fancy spa, sauna-ed ourselves, then got oil massages. Very relaxing, and much less painful than the Thai massage. Good times.

Then we went to Wat Chalong. The main religion in Thailand is Theravada Buddhism--it's the school of Buddhism that draws scriptural inspiration from the Pali Canon (or Tipitaka), which is considered the oldest record of teh Buddha's teachings.

Wat (temple) Chalong is Phuket's most important temple and is revered for its healing powers. The prayer hall contains statues of three of the temple's most venerated monks.















And at end the day, we went to FantaSEA, the mulitimillion dollar "cultural theme park" which was voted Best Tourist Attraction in Thailand from 2000 to 2004!!! It was rather gaudy and what I imagine to be a little Vegas-esque. There were no rides, but cheesy performances (fire juggling bartenders!), games, gift shops and LOTS of flashing lights. The main show was a little bit like some sort of Asian circus with acrobats, tigers, elephants, a magic show and even fake rain. At least that is what I gathered--I actually fell asleep while waiting for the show to start (damn narcolepsy) and woke up intermittenly during the show.


So today is our last day and our flight back to Taiwan is this afternoon. I am ready to get my mosquito-bitten self back to a cooler climate. I've been gone a week and it feels like I've been away for much, much longer. I guess that's a good thing?

More Phun in Phuket

Our second full day in Thailand we went "caving". I have to say, it was really cool! We drove to the mainland to Elephant Hill: legend says that this guy came to the region, stayed there, but a herd of wild elephants came and trampled his crops. He was pretty pissed so he grabbed his spear and ran after the herd. He came across one lone elephant, which wasn't one of the wild ones and was actually quite innocent, and he speared it to death, gutted it and ate its innards. Well, they say that the hill is the remains of the elephant. It actually does look like an elephant. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures!)

Anyways, inside the hill are caves with interesting stalactites (sp?) and such. We took a rubber canoe through the narrow water filled channel, then transferred to bamboo rafts (which weren't necessary, just for tourist fun) and then we trekked through thigh high water to wander around. I did have a moment when I thought the flashlights would go out and some gigantic prehistoric amphibian who was really hungry and angry would pop out and eat us, but it was only for a second. However, there were lots of bats there. Which makes me wonder, since people always say it's good luck if a bird poops on you, does that apply to bat guano too? More likely I will get rabies, right? (DOH people, please confirm that I have nothing to be worried about since I wasn't asleep in a cave with bats.)

After the caving, we went to an "Island Safari", or as I like to call it "Exploit Animals for Tourism!" We rode elephants (here I will confess that I took my sandal off so I could touch the elephant with my foot. It was much softer than I had expected. Very comforting to touch, actually.), watched a poor monkey on a leash toss a few free-throws and shake hands, and then there was the ox-cart ride. FUN!











































Now we are in Phuket City. It is not as touristy here and definitely pretty run down looking. I think we might do some shopping today.

Okay, I'm out of time. Next time I will have to tell you about our fellow tourists and about spirit houses.

Not Quite One Night in Bangkok

I left cool, rainy Taipei for sunny, warm Phuket, Thailand two days ago. We are here through a tour group (that seems to be the only way Taiwanese people travel) so yesterday was rather activity packed.

Phuket is at the south of Thailand and a popular resort place. It is also one of the places hit by the 2004 tsunami that devastated SE Asia. I've never been before so I can't say whether or not it's been totally rebuilt back up. We're staying in a less developed part, Kamala Beach so it's quieter. Patong is much more popular and crowded, with a Molly Malone's Pub and other such places. Ugh.

I will have to keep this relatively brief because the mosquitoes are TERRIBLE here, and of course, love to bite me. I am the owner of many large red welts. 2 new bites since I started this post. Dammit.

So here's what we've done so far:

1. Parasailing!
















2. Beach time on some of the islands off of Phuket. The water is very blue and clear. And thank god, very shallow. (For those of you who don't already know, I don't swim. And thus I have a fear of deep water.)
3. The UV Index is like a 10+, which I think is freakin' high. After slathering myself with SPF45 I STILL managed to burn a little. Ah well, I am a fast healer.

4. Took a drive to the southern tip of Phuket. Cape Promthep. Very beautiful.



















5. Thai massage. I was worried I would get the life kneaded/beaten out of me, but it actually wasn't too bad. Although, the girl did spend way too much time massaging my feet. I am not a big fan of having my feet touched. And although I was pained and sore afterwards, it all went away by this morning. Although I do have a few bruises and welts on my skin from it.

























6. Transvestite Cabaret. I kid you not. I don't know why they would think Asian tourists would want to see this. It was a little raunchy. Mom loved it, of course. I fell asleep halfway through. It was too sad to watch--these people obviously weren't putting much effort into it. The lip-synching was pathetic, and the performers pretty much looked like unattractive men with lots of make-up on.














Today we're going back to the beach this morning, then to some cave or something.

Another update soon!

My So-Called Taiwanese Life

I have arrived safely in Taiwan! The 18-hour flight was somewhat painless, although travel halfway across the world is the biggest vortex of lost time. Where did a full day go??? When I went through immigration in Taipei, the immigration officer looked at my passport pic, then at me. Three times. Then he said something in Chinese along the lines of "You look younger in your picture."

Okay, I am not one of those people who looks fresh and lovely after an 18-hour flight with two small children. AND, that passport photo was from 8 years ago. I've lived a lot of life in the last 8 years and apparently it shows. Sheesh.

Anyways, this will be brief--the family is waiting for me to finish this post so we can hit the shopping markets. (The shopping sickness runs in the family.) Regardless, I have easily reverted to the Taiwanese lifestyle which revolves around eating, shopping and sleeping. I must admit, it isn't a bad lifestyle.

Must go shopping now...

p.s. Blogger is coming up in Chinese, except for what I'm typing, so hopefully everything will translate accordingly.