About Me

My photo
Yilan, Taiwan
I just returned back to the States after 11 years in Taiwan with my daughter. Taiwan is an excellent base for us explore Asia, while living in relative (gun free) safety, while benefiting from a cheap and efficient national health care system. The people are amazing too. I have Taiwanese friendships that are 20 years old and I'm always making new ones! My coworker here in CO is from Taiwan.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Grateful to Live in Tainan: Top 15 Reasons


Its that time of year, to cultivate gratitude and remind ourselves to be thankful everyday. While friends and family are stuffing their face with organic turkeys, pumpkin pies on gluten free crust, washed down with local micro brews, I will be going to work like it was any other day. Evenso, I am counting my blessings-literally and in no particular order.



1. The People- Also a source of anxiety at times, but that is just part of living with imperfect people in a different culture. For the most part, the people here are very friendly, willing to help. Its very easy to make friends in Tainan, and friends that last.

Ive also come to appreciate the expat crowd. Undoubtedly we all might never hang out with each other if we lived in the same town back home, but here in Tainan we do, so its an interesting cast of characters. In my neighborhood, within a 5 minute radius there are a handful of guys, friendly neighbors that have helped me out in a pinch. Despite Tainan being a small city there is a pretty international crowd, loads of S. Africans, Japanese, Latin Americans, to name a few.

2. Health care- As an American I cant tell you how thankful I am to have cheap, affordable health care. Dental, reproductive health are all cheap and good. There are no political hang ups about how national health care is paid, everyone agrees that as part of the social contract of having a high standard of living is paying a very small tax each month. Every month I get 2000NT (67 USD) taken out of my paycheck for me and my daughter. I dont mind. If we need to see the Dr or Dentist, its a 150 NT ($5 US), including meds.

3. Relative Safety- Personal guns aren't legal so unless I'm hanging out with gangsters I can pretty much count on going to a movie theater or school without threat of a psycho with a gun on the warpath.

4. Base to explore Asia- My daughter and I have vacationed in Malaysia 4 times (twice to the peninsula and twice to Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak), as well as Sumatra, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. When I lived in Taipei before she was born, I was able to to travel to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. There are some great low carrier Airlines like Scoot, Peach, Air Asia and Tiger that make it affordable. This Chinese New Years we are going to Myanmar.

5.Sea, Mountains and Islands- I live literally 1 minute from the beach and port. I am blessed.Ok in Anping you have to travel a bit to get into the mountains, but Taiwan is pretty loaded with nice mountains thats an easy trip from Tainan. We have been to Alishan twice, Sun Moon Lake, Nantou 4 times, Guanshan covered in Daylilies, and of course Taroko.  I went river tracing last year for the first time and hope I can do it again. Now that my daughter is older, I want to start to do some more serious trekking.

As for islands, even that is pretty easy to get to from Tainan. There is Green Island (went there twice), Matsu, Xiao Liou Qiou and the Penghu archipelago. Orchid island is next on my list. In terms of coastal scenery nothing beats the East Coast. Taitung has it all, mountains and sea, indigenous culture and outdoor sports. Its just a 4 hour train ride away.

6. Exotic fruit All Year Long- It seems like every month a new fruit is coming into season; dragon fruit, local pineapple, sugar cane, guava, waxed apple, asian pear, lychee, avocados, papaya, plums, pomelo, mango, it never stops. I live for my fruit shake breakfasts.


7. Cheap Living Expenses- In comparison to the States rent, bills, fruit, clothes are cheaper. For a 3 bed 1 bath, super small kitchen, I pay 7500 NT ($253US). I can still get a decent bottle of wine for 8-10 bucks US. A 80 minute full body, traditional Chinese massage is 800NT (27 US), a 2 hour facial is about 30 bucks US.

8. Mild Winters- Having grown up in Colorado, which yes is beautiful and yes so is the snow, but after a few months of scraping the ice off the windows, waiting 10 minutes to warm up the car, yes I appreciate the relatively warm winters. Plus its drier here than Taipei so we don't really deal with year round rain like they do in the north, except for a few typhoons here and there.

9. My child is fluent in Mandarin- Its a changing, global world and China is a major player. Chinese business, Chinese people are everywhere and Mandarin is and will be an important language.

10. Don't need a car- This is probably truer in Taipei with better public transportation than Tainan, but for getting around Anping, a scooter is just fine.  I do get around Taiwan, using trains, planes and ferries, but if I could afford it I would have a car, if only because I grew up doing road trips. I covet the freedom to just take off and explore a new part of the island for a weekend. Still I see it as a luxury rather than necessity.

11. Hot Springs galore - The closest hot spring to Tainan is Guanzhiling, but I've also been fortunate to have been to 2 in Nantou, the rare salt water hot spring on Green Island, a handful in Taipei's Beitou/Yangminshan, some on the East Rift Valley, Hongye Hot springs (twice), Rueshuei and Antong. Then there was that nice hot springs on our way back from Kenting,

12. Fascinating Indigenous Tribes- Its not really something that comes to mind when you think Tainan, but I live 1 minute away from an Indigenous Park across from Anping port, which frequently on the weekends gets buses of different dancers and musicians from various tribes sharing their culture with each other. Z likes to eat some wild boar BBQ and I'll sip a little millet wine and enjoy looking at the different traditional costumes and interesting faces.



13. Cheap TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine)- Because of the cheap national health care system, I can pay 150NT to see the TCM Dr who at his recommendation might prescribe TCM herbs, acupuncture, cupping or scraping or whatever I needed. I also have learned a lot from friends about how and what to cook according to the weather and Chinese cosmology.

14. Less typhoon disasters and earthquakes- In comparison to Taipei or the East coast, Tainan is known for its safer position from tropical western moving storms and rarer earthquakes. The locals attribute this to Tainan's supposedly higher number of temples and temple activities.

15. Parks- In a 5 mile radius there are several nice parks with trails along rivers, trees with flower blossoms, bamboo, playgrounds to keep my kid busy, while I'll do some yoga or hang up the TRX straps. There are a plethora of baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts. Every morning the locals are practicing variations of Tai Chi alone, or in groups, with swords or fans, or practicing Chi Gong. I always feel lucky after spending sometime in the park, I'm fortunate to live so close to them.



Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Mad about Matsu








I recently read an article in the Features section of the Taipei Times about Taiwanese American Lin Wei-Kou and his experience filming "100 Days"  on Matsu. ("Hollywood to Matsu") I began to reminisce my April and thought I'd post a blog before 2013 becomes over.

My longtime friend and language exchange buddy Vicky (鄭鼎宸) and I, had planned on going to Matsu a year before and our schedules just couldn't flow together until April of 2013. We had a 3 day weekend or I took a day off, I can't remember. I had suggested we go to Matsu because neither of us hadn't been there before and Vicky is always up for an adventure. Our families and mutual friends had gone up to Alishan together and other various BBQ get-togethers before. Vicky and I used to meet every Sat afternoon at McD's so our kids could play in the indoor playground and we could do our "language exchange" (basically both of us mutually making fools of ourselves and having fun doing it.) She opened 2 successful guesthouses (The Flower House) in the beginning of summer this year and our Sat exchanges weened out to zilch. I know she is super busy, but I miss her!. ( If you ever need a new, modern decorated, cheap place to stay from visiting friends or family, they have a location in Anping across from Shi-men Elementary school and one by the train station.




Matsu  (馬祖列島 Mǎzǔ Lièdǎo) is made of 18 islands divided into townships. I counted almost all of them from my cropduster window. Our departures from Tainan high speed station was rife with strange energy. The train before ours had stopped because of a bomb, which rarely if ever happens here. Of course we didn't  find out until lunch later in Beigan, eating local handmade fishball noodles, the freshest I've ever tasted. (See 600 Evacuated from Taiwan Trains...)



We arrived Friday afternoon at Beigan 北竿, and spent the night in the stone village in Cinbe Cun across from Turtle Beach and Turtle island. Fujian, Mainland China out in the near distance called out like a casual, impulsive invitation  How strange to be closer to China than Taiwan. I could see the fishing villages and windmills.




Our accommodation was rustic, stone and wood, just perfect, with all the windows and doors overlooking a small beached bay and near little Turtle Island, The night was cool, we were bundled up, the big airy bathroom was freezing just for a piping hot bath. Wine mixed with the sound of breaking waves, lulled me to sleep, cozy in the cold.




At 芹壁村25號「Chinbe No. 25 Guesthouse」. 全海景宅所/全海景套房 (Panoramic Sea View Villa/Suites)  半海景多人雅房/半海景套房   (Partial Sea View Rooms/Suites)
Room rates include traditional Matsu breakfast. 住宿費用包含早餐 Online Reservation 



We toured Beigan on rented scooters on Saturday The island was dotted with pristine, empty beaches, innocent from any evidence of human footprints, except mine. There were tiny villages here and there, mosly old people and young soldiers, the old people living as time hadn't stopped. They were all fishermen, drying seaweed and tiny fish out in the day sun, drying themselves off from early nocturnal catches.




We parked our scooters and checked out a few trails. The most remarkable started from some Soldiers memorial museum (the Iron Fort) where they had displays on Comfort Ladies, bombs, stories of armed Chinese scuba spies (water ghosts Chinese People's Liberation Army frogmen infiltrators) that swam to Matsu's shores and occasionally killed locals. The trail went away from the island towards the sea and was a dangerous one person dirt trail that went occasional along the edge of a precipice (Suicide Cliff). One slip and it was certain death, which I suppose was crazy stupid since we had kids, but for some reason it seemed safe and doable they have been avid hikers/backpackers for years, and well same here. We moved slow and cautiously when needed, there was rope nailed into some of the rocks to help out. Mostly the trail went down the spine of this island's reaching arm, surrounded by some tropical kind of heather, island scrub, thistle flowers everywhere courted by darting lizards. We all certainly felt lucky to be there in fine weather enjoying the finer views in all directions, enjoying a clean perspiration that quickly cooled in the aquamarine breezes.





Saturday late afternoon we took a 20 minute boat to Nangan 南竿, the bigger island. We stayed in another picturesque coastal town with stone Fujian style homes in Jinsha, Village, Nangan.  This time instead of stone we stayed in a wood guesthouse and it seemed even colder. 

Saturday night minsu
After we arrived we quickly hopped on our scooters and started our exploration. It was definitely bigger, more villages. The biggest city had a famous distillery of which we had a few samples. The local dishes were flavored with locally made fermented  red rice yeast, that was added to the  rice. We ate a lot of seafood of course. There was a massive Matsu statue, a well placed garden cafe and lots of military things we stopped to see, Vicky's husband had done his military service here and we saw the museum he helped built (Folk Cultural Artifacts Exhibition Hall).

Tunnel 88 brand kaoliang (38 and 58 proof) sorghum liquor, as well as aged laojiou rice wine (around 30% alcohol). 

Would I go back? Of course! If only because the plan of developing the island is spoiling it into some second rate gambling wanna-be Macau.

Click here for all my Matsu photos.