April: Taipei, Taiwan

Our trip to Taiwan was, in many respects, a way for Karen to introduce me to a huge part of her identity. All her relatives on her mother side (with the exception of her grandparents who are in the US) live in Taiwan. Although her mom has migrated to the Philippines, both Karen and her mom continue to have strong Taiwanese pride, evidenced in their taste for food, fashion, music, and even office supplies. 

Throughout our 5-day stay in Taiwan, three insights kept on coming to me: 

1. The Taiwanese invest aggressively on infrastructure. Their elevated highways (equivalent of the Skyway in the Philippines) were very long and probably more than twice as high as the Philippine equivalent. Their tunnels crossing mountains were extremely long, one of which took more than 15 years to complete! If our government had the same commitment to building infrastructure, and somehow prevent the bleeding caused by corruption, what progress we could achieve! 
2. The Taiwanese are among the most hospitable people I’ve encountered. Of course, Filipinos are also hospitable, but perhaps the hard life has pushed some of us into becoming jaded and desperate. To give an example, vendors selling shades in Boracay will sell a pair to a Filipino for P150, but will charge a foreigner P1,000. In Taiwan, a tourist is given equal, if not better treatment by locals. The only impediment, it seems, is that few people know how to understand or speak English in Taiwan. 
3. Food is good and cheap! Especially street food! 

After checking in at the hotel on our first day, Karen’s cousins Patty and Peter took us to Taiwan 101 for an overview of the city. From the building’s 89^th floor, much of the city is visible. At each station, a handheld speaker tells guests of landmarks and histories surrounding the city. 

We then had dinner at the Howard Plaza Hotel, where I met Karen’s uncles, aunts, and cousins for the first time. We were all (16 people) seated around one huge table, and were served 15 different courses throughout. Each dish was good, but the stand-outs had to be the peking duck and the lobster! 

We spent our second day on a road trip with Karen’s parents and uncle. Our first destination was the Lanyang Museum in Yilan province, east of Taipei. There were exhibits on the Taiwanese environment, including the natural resources and the dependent industries in the country; and on Taiwanese history and culture, including the country’s colonization by the Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese. We then followed up with lunch at Mr. Brown’s Coffee, which was situated on a mountain top overlooking the coast of Yilan. 

We then drove north, towards Keelung City. Our destination: the seafood market for some sashimi. The vendors employed an amazing system of cascading water to keep their seafood alive. Although in the Philippines, it is not rare to find live seafood in the market, it was often only a matter of time before they do die. I feel like in the Keelung market, seafood can live indefinitely until they are bought. 

The sushi was really fresh and cheap, at only about P300 (US$7) for a set of 16 pieces. Unfortunately, we got too excited and ate everything before we could even take pictures. We also tried the sea urchin (uni) which they cracked open in front of us. 

On our way back from Keelung to Taipei, we stopped at a street-side eatery serving misua. 

Pooped as we were, we got our second wind when Peter invited us to go to the Shilin Night Market just as we arrived at the hotel. The night market had a diverse array of goods, and was generally more organized than what I expected. They had lots of carnival game stalls, and more importantly, food stalls! We practically tried every street food we came across: black pepper buns, stinky tofu, a meat sausage inside a rice-sausage-bun, candied fruits, pancakes, animal-shaped waffles, and lemonade. 

We ended up buying only 2 items, a bag and a panda hat for Karen. 

We spent day 3 with Karen’s mom. We visited the Longshan temple before lunch, where lots of people came to pray for various causes—health, business, school, family, love. The architecture of the place was incredible, with intricate details worked on almost every surface of the temple. Interestingly, there was this one shrine where people went to pray for a spouse or to get married. And around it, were exclusively girls! 

We then took a train ride to Tamsui, the northern most station of Taipei’s MRT. Again, they had a street market at Old Street where we ate as much street food as we could get our hands on: fish ball soup, misua in some red sauce, caramelized sweet potatoes, deep fried mushrooms, quail eggs on a stick, spiral-cut deep fried potato, deep fried tofu with sate, and extra-tall soft serve ice cream. 

We explored around the area with Mei-mei a bit while the moms had coffee. We ended up playing a target-shooting game, and left with a teddy bear as a prize. 

A bus ride away, we went to the Fisherman’s Wharf for a bit of sight-seeing. We crossed a super windy bridge, where we literally had to lean into the wind to walk forward. 

For dinner, Karen and I went to the Takashimaya mall, where we had burgers at the food court, and tea and cake at the London Tea House. We also met with Chinggay and Chin for a late snack at Citystar afterwards. 

Sunday, day 4, was our last full day in Taiwan. After accompanying Karen’s dad to the hospital for an allergy check-up, and an excellent lunch at Din Tai Fung, we headed to the Chang Kai-shek memorial where we watched the changing of guards; reminiscent of the CAT/ROTC drills back in high school and college. 

We met up with Peter and Patty again, and they hosted us for dinner at the Steak Inn. The food was delicious, especially the steak which was cooked at just the right doneness! 

Packing up and leaving on day 5 was bit sad, though not too much because I’m pretty sure we’ll be back soon! In fact, as I’m writing this, Karen’s already asking if we should join her mom when she goes back this June!