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.
View of Haeundae Beach. Walking around Dongbaekseom Island (동백공원) on a rainy day post Film Festival binge watching.
My daughter and I used the 10/10 holiday weekend, plus a few extra days to take a little breather in Busan, S. Korea. The weather post typhoon Champa was fabulous, clear, with refreshing cold autumn winds, sunny skies, except for one rainy day. On that rainy day we decided to check out the 21st International Film Festival, or BIFF.
Unexpectedly, the first film we watched was from Taiwan, called "The Lost Daughter " directed by Chen Yu-Jie, who also directed award winning Dawn (2014). In the film, a half sister has a diving accident in Kenting and her living half sister is the prime suspect. More than a, "who done it" movie, it implicates everyone as guilty. The film made my daughter upset unfortunately, but provided an opportunity for reflection and conversation as we walked around Dongbaek Island later. The characters were beyond dysfunctional as that would imply some basic familial interaction. These family members were so remote and removed relationaly, I felt the film's primary message was that modern life in Taiwan still requires strong family ties and that we are are all responsible for one another.
The next movie we watched was from Iran, "The Violinist" which was somber but hopeful, based on a true story. Other movies from Taiwan represented in the Busan Film Festival, was the comedy My Egg Boy and the very serious White Ant(白蟻).
How ironic to go all the way to Korea and watch Taiwanese films, but its not like the two theaters in Yilan have English subs. A rainy day well spent.
Happy solstice and strawberry moon! Summer by western tradition is officially here, but in Taiwan the Yang element is celebrated with Dragon Boat Festival.
Binh and us at Balagov's
Our recent four day Dragon Boat Holiday was boring, prosaic and perfectly calming. Usually, in my restless, wander lust I would have planned a trip (abroad) months ago, having checked the holiday weekends in January. This time, I have been so content with Yilan and also so exhausted from the end of the semester madness, both Z and I were relieved to just kick up our heels here at home. In fact, old friends came to us for a visit. The weather was just ideal; radiant, sultry mornings cooling off with a brief drizzle or thunder shower. Ironically, the west coast was covered with rain.
We will be doing enough traveling this summer, so catching up on housework, kombucha brewing, and lots of yoga, seemed wildly decadent and grounding. After living enough years in Taiwan to see various dragon boat races, and last December participating in one (on an episode of Janet's), we both had zero desire to do anything remotely related to the actual holiday.
Z's homeroom teacher did organize his class (which is the entire 4th grade) to make zongzi, the traditional food. Z was stoked, she loves to help in the kitchen. Stuffing banana leaves with sticky rice, peanuts, mushrooms and meat instead of math class is always more fun. Other than that we rested.
Driving anywhere in Yilan congested with holiday weekend warriors, is hardly my idea of R and R. What we did do was eat twice this same weekend at Balgov's. Its where I dine with friends who come into town and have never eaten here before. I met Binh my coworker from Tainan (and also from Denver) and another friend from my Tainan beach days, the Croatian charmer Goran with his girlfriend. More frequent than eating wholesome Ukranian food, I took Z and her friend from upstairs to the University track everyday to play.
Going back to work on Monday seemed a bit of a shock to the system. Dragon Boat being the Chinese start of summer, has already passed, so now the countdown to my summer holidays has begun in earnest.
The one thing to expect on a 3 day weekend in Taiwan are the crowds. That and train tickets will be sold out 2 weeks before they sell at the station (you can buy online with a Taiwanese ID #). So when we had moments of crowd-less nature, I definitely was over the moon with gratitude. It was also the first time in 6 years I was free in my own car to explore Yilan.
The empty Neibi beach, Suao.
Saturday Day 1 of our Moon festival weekend, went as planned. On our way to Nanao, we stopped for coffee at Neibi beach. It was totally desolate. We had the rooftop cafe to ourselves as well as the view of the Pacific. Where were all the crowds? In Kenting no doubt. After coffee and a shared shaved matcha iced tea with red beans we were back in the car.
The woman at the cafe told me in Mandarin that the local Matsu temple was moving the goddess idol to visit a god in Yilan and she explained times and locations. I was pretty giddy to have my comprehension of her explanation proved when we ran into the pilgrims. They had the coolest shirts, a sea of red devotees.
My friend climbing for a jump, Auhua Waterfalls.
After that it was back in the car to Nan'ao and there we found the crowds, bumper to bumper on the notoriously dangerous and most beautiful highway, the Suh-ua Highway. Its danger is not due to the narrow one lane switchbacks that plummet to the Pacific, but because fellow drivers are impatient and pass the corners on blind spots.
Outside a little aboriginal village called Aohua (the 161 km marker) there is the most magnificent waterfall. Three aboriginal teens on one scooter took us there. There were other cars in the lot and we hiked up a 5 minute walk, scrambled some rocks and there it was. There were a few families, but the pool was so enormous, the water dwarfed us so there was room enough for all. My companion bravely scrambled a bit up the wet and slippery rocks to plummet into the sparkling cold abyss.
We went home as planned, beat, ready for Sunday and finding a camping spot. Our day 2 definitely did not go as planned, except for the coffee at the revolving cafe on Highway 7. We found a camping spot next to Champing Lake, which was fairly close, like 15 minutes outside of Loudong. There was a lake circumstanced by wooden walkways and the camp spots had wooden platforms and BBQ grills. There was even a go-cart track. Surpisingly, there were few campers, maybe 2 or 3 tents that I could see. And still, greedy for solitude, we kept going further up the 7, farther away from big cities, only to find more crowds and rain. Camping did not happen.
We did go up the eastern part of the North Cross highway to check out the Mingchi Forest Recreation area. It was disappointing. The lake was over-developed and charged an entrance fee. The Forest area itself has a massive resort (明池國家森林遊樂區) on it with cabins and a restaurant that was of course crowded. The North Cross Highway which is high in altitude has some nice views and dark, misty, dank forests. There were moments we drove in clouds and we definitely got caught in the rain on the way back. We took a walk behind the cabins and found a few trails, but there were no camping spots there. Who knows we might com back on a non-holiday weekend and stay in one of the cabins.
Day 3 of our Moon Festival weekend, on Monday, we took our time heading out to one more nearby waterfall. Around the corner from Xingliao Waterfall is the abandoned Jiuliou Waterfall, about a 20 minute drive from my home. The trail was not very well maintained, but there wasn't another person there. We had the whole overgrown trail and small waterfall to ourselves. The overgrown parking lot is a perfect camping spot, no bathrooms, wooden platforms or vending machines. The path from the parking lot to the trail has a pomelo orchard on it. Pomelo is the fruit of the mid-Autumn festival.
We will hopefully return to those falls to camp next weekend.
Turtle Island from the Suao/Suhua Highway overlook
At the end of April it was that time of year to start looking at job prospects, especially since now I have my coveted, long awaited APRC (Alien Permanent Resident Card) . So I took a Friday off work, got my daughter out of school and jumped on an early High-speed train to Taipei. I met Kite from Take your Time guesthouse (see post, "Catching Up on East Coast"), they were in Taipei and she took Z swimming with her boys while I had my demo/interview.
I was late of course.
The school is a private bilingual elementary school, with borders, in Sanxia 三峽區. It didn't matter I was late, they had no idea until I told them. They were busy interviewing my competitor, an Irishman married to a local. They gave the job to him. It was weird,strange doing a demo for 3 adults, pretending they were a classroom of 12 year olds; my icebreaker, a game of "Snowballs" throwing crumpled paper balls at each other, fell flat. Two of them were Taiwanese, the other was the head teacher, an American, with wife, kids, very sympathetic, he made me feel at ease. We "shot the shit" about raising kids here. I don't think I knocked their socks off with my demo, but I wasn't bummed. I looked at it as a learning experience, I really haven't done many demos. All these little baby steps to step out, are stepping stones to somewhere, destination unknown. On the taxi ride back to the MRT, I kept on reading signs, "Enjoy your trip", "Relax", and I felt like High Powers wanted me to just enjoy my weekend in Taipei above all else, which I did.
At Da-an Park, MRT
I picked up Z from Kite and met another friend I recently met in Taitung, at Da-an Park, where she and I caught up and watched Z get dirty in the sandbox. Then I met one of my oldest friends Alisse for a hotpot dinner and went back to her house for the night. She and I go back to my Tamsui days when I worked in ChuWei, she dated my then housemate. That was 14 years ago. She came to see me 9 years ago in York, when I was in grad school in England, pregnant and breaking up with my daughter's father. (Which is to say perfect timing for a true friend).
Familiar View, Chu Wei, Tamsui
I imagined how life in Sanxia would be. It was more developed than I had imagined. The mountains were beautiful, but I couldnt really see them with the all the eye sore apartment building blocking my views. In the morning we said goodbyes and met my friend Sherry at Chu Wei MRT who picked us up with one of her older students and drove us all to north of Tamsui to Sanzhi 三芝 for the mountain flower festival.
Tung flower 油桐 Festival
I could totally live here! I could live in this mountain village so close to the sea and just a bus and MRT away from the city! Sanzhi 三芝was what I thought Sanxia 三峽 would be (minus the sea). I was kind of relieved that Sanxia didn't work out even more now. I felt like it was a positive confirmation that Sanxia wasn't right anyway, but something good was around the corner, if I waited.
It was that the end of April that time of year for the Tung flower 油桐 to bloom. (Hsinchu is better known for them, Z and I got to see them when we went there a few years ago for another job interview that didn't work out, I turned it down). After a sweaty hike up the river along unkempt fields, small plots and gardens, shrines and a dead dog drowned in the river, finally we reached the wooded and shaded "mountain" where the white flowers blossoms littered the grounds. There were centipedes and butterflies galore.
As far as Tung Flowers go, Hsinchu's are vast, rolling hills of it and in cooler weather, its bloom there being a month earlier. Sanzhi's little plot is small and I regretted not bringing a hat, the sun was brutal even at the end of April. But it was good to walk, enjoy the coming of summer in good company.
Rear View from 25 Seconds, Sanzhi
By lunch, we had worked up a healthy appetite from our morning excursion and met former coworkers (that I forgot, shame, shame) at 25 Second, a pasta and pizza place on the coast with gorgeous views from its rear seaside promenade. Z and I shared a pizza, which was more than enough. I didnt like the crust, it was too thick and starchy and tasted like it came from a Buttermilk Biscuit already made, add the water dough from a box. The topping was also a white sauce obviously not handmade, covered in layers of processed cheese, with carrots and peas (from a frozen bag) under the goo.The plates were overpriced.
Rear View from 25 Seconds, Sanzhi
The dessert redeemed the place. Had I known, I would of just had my dessert for lunch. My cappuccino was perfect and the cheesecake was the best Ive had in Taiwan. Most cheesecakes all taste the same here, even Starbuck's which I always hoped would taste better. We were stuffed and passed some time outside playing in the shade of tall trees overlooking a boardwalk. Then we continued north to Dongmen.
Dongmen was more sublime and picturesque than Sanzhi, as if my day couldn't get any better, it did. We went to visit Sherry's brother Michael, also an old friend. He's a realtor who just has this side business at the Dongmen Fish Market beside the harbor. Its all frontside seafood restaurants and cooks from Taipei who come here for the freshest catch. The roof of the fish market is surreal, even Gaudi like. It looks like someone sawed off the tops of two dozen gigantic wine bottles and stuck them on this roof.
Dongmen Fish Market
We said our hellos and continued to walk up the road, on the most magnificent little coastal path along the Fugui Cape 富貴角. It was still sunny but the fresh sea breeze licked our sweat off immediately. In our view was this bleached white, octogonal Lighthouse set on a verdant hill jeweled with wild lilies and large, bizarre shaped rocks that were spit out of ancient volcanos, while waves crashed below. I spotted a few places I could practice yoga and we followed the path around and overlooked a green algae beach that extended for some time, with a blue mountain in the background. Small orange, ground level flowers were everywhere. It was a lovely walk.
Wild lilies on the field, Fugui Cape
I really didnt' want to leave. But it was getting late and we had to get back to Tainan. Sherry dropped us off at Tamsui MRT around 6 and we went to Taipei Main station waited in line forever for High-speed ticket back to Tainan, running into my friend Monica (also a former coworker from Chu Wei, we both worked under Sherry, she and her husband Roger and son also lived in Tainan a few years ago). Monica and Roger were protesting around the corner against president Ma's nuclear power policy, during the political fast by 72 year old Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) (read, "When the Wind Blows"). They were bummed we were leaving, they wanted to take us out to dinner. I was bummed too, oh the world for an extra few hours. I regretted not getting home a little later and dining together anyways, but I was so tired.
Fugui Cape overlooking the green algae beach
The entire time we walked on the cape, I kept on hearing the same tune in my head, "Lilies" by Bat for Lashes from the album The Haunted Man (2013).
It was June 22 and I needed as the saying goes, "to get the heck outta Dodge". A day trip was in order. I told my Chinese teacher that early Saturday morning I was going to hop on one of those free shuttle buses the local Tainan government provide to get people into Tainan county, but the itinerary was going to mango farms and nothing to do but eat mangos. I like mangos but not enough to ride several buses there and back when I get perfectly fine mangos from my local fruit dude.
The Bike Route
My Chinese teacher (and friend) Kevin, advised we take a 45 minute train north to Hou-Bi. So after mid morning yoga class thats exactly what we did. We hopped on a train to Hou-Bi, and took a 10 minute taxi to BaiHe 白河區. He dropped us off at a bike rental shop in the middle of car-free bike trails and loads of lotus ponds. It was the season of the lotus flowers in bloom, the locals have a Lotus Blossom Festival every year. You'd think taking photos of lotus flowers would get old after so many years, but fortunately it doesn't.
I was rejuvenated just seeing mountains off in the distance, hearing the wind in the tall grass, there were just so many happy birds chirping.
Me on the path
The only problem was the weather was extremely humid. It could of been worse, the subtropic sun could of been blasting us, but it was overcast. My daughter was in one of her moods and complaining most of the time. It was during her afternoon siesta, so next time I would bike earlier or later. It didn't help her bike chain falling off twice. Still, even her sour mood didn't spoil the day for me and she was all cuddles on the train back to Tainan.
View of where we were when Z's chain fell off and we decided to eat our sandwiches.
Sometimes when I get antsy, a day trip is just the thing to keep me sane. Bai-He is near enough to get out of the city and in nature. I want to go back as we were only 5km away from a reservoir when the girl had about enough of sweating, chains and tiredness.
The Dragon Boat Festival or "Duan Wu" or "Duan Yang" (Duan-Wu meaning Duan means beginning. Wu means Horse month) It can "Upright Sun" or "Double Fifth" in Chinese) is one of the major Chinese festivals officially celebrated in here in Taiwan on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. There are several poetic and depressing stories about the actual origin of the festival, most involving suicide and drowning. (Try explaining that to a class of 4 year olds; I just tell them Chu Yuan fell into the water and didn't know how to swim--so take some swimming lessons!)
There is the philosopher/poet/statesman Qu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), which is the most popular story. He tied a massive rock around is neck and jumped in the river after the king was persuaded by his peers not to take his, Qu Yuan's counsel, the king was killed and the neighboring enemy king took over. The common people were so distraught with is suicide they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them in the water so the fish wouldn't eat Qu Yuan's body or to feed his ghost so as not to torment them. They rowed their dragon boats and threw in their rice dumplings, beating drums to scare away unwanted apparitions, or to scare away the fish from devouring his drowned corpse.
At this time of year it is quite common for the parents of my students to shower me with these green triangular rice dumplings called Zhong-zi 粽子. There are a variety of fillings, of course hard to digest, sticky starchy rice, sometimes egg yolks, peanut, black mushrooms, chestnuts, jujube, pork.... I like them, (Z doesn't), but I couldn't eat them everyday, they stick to the inside of my gut. I put the extra in my freezer for when I don't want to cook too much and just steam it (followed by a nice soup to wash it down).
There is also the other suicide legend of a young girl Tsaou Er's father who drowned in the river. For 17 days she mourned his death and then on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month she threw herself into the river and also drowned.
One more theory holds that the festival originated from the taboo of evil days and the five poisons. At this time of year, people would fall sick either to poison snake bites, scorpions, centipedes or summer related illnesses. Traditionally, the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is held as an inauspicious one since the forces of "ying" and "yang" is considered to be imbalanced during this period. This is associated with a legend when someone hung the herbs Artemesia (Mugwort) and Acorus (Calamus) on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, and the village was spared some epidemic disease. So people starting hanging these plants around their doors to dispel poison insects, pests and contagious diseases. This evolved into putting the powders of these herbs into handmade satchels called Xiang Bao (香包) to be worn around the neck.
Xiang bao nowadays, Sponge Bob and Angry Bird among the zodiac animals
Some mothers will put a smudge of this yellow medicinal powder on their child's forehead or nose to dispel disease (hand foot mouth?) and probably mosquito's. A mother of one of my students did this to her daughter. In Europe during the Middle Ages Mugwort was also used as a magical plant and herb against insects and disease. It is still used in traditional Chinese medicine in moxibustion, which is when the herb is lit, the heat releasing its medicinal properties at specific locations of the body (which for my constitution have never needed, unlike cupping, blood lettings and acupuncture). When I lived in Seoul, the neighborhood bathhouse I regularly went to had several pools infused with Mugwort.It kind of smells like marijuana when its lit and can be smoked. In Ayurvedic medicine it is used for anxiety or dis-ease. (I can ramble forever about plants so better stop myself here.)
Most likely, like all ancient civilizations, this festival had long existed in many other parts of China as marking the first harvest along with Sun and Snake worship. Dragons were venerated and worshipped by farmers as controlling the rains, so giving offering of rice dumplings would hopefully endear the dragons to rain on their crops. With increased interaction between people of different regions these festivals eventually got merged and became an independent celebration. Both the Sun and Dragons are associated with masculine energy, the yang aspect. Dragons have traditionally been associated with the Imperial family and specifically the Emperor called “Real Dragon and Son of Heaven.” The five claw-dragon was a symbol of the imperial court. Emperors placed dragon symbols on robes to thrones to flags and everything in between. (Perry, 1966, Lord of the Four Quarters; Myths of the Royal Father, Chapter 5).
The day of the Dragon Boat Festival, traditionalists will fill a glass pitcher of water and let it bask in the sunlit window all morning. Then at 12 noon proceed to wash the body with this super charged yang water. The belief is that this sun water will infuse the body with radiant health for the next year. Also at noon, the sun's energy is so strong that it is said an egg can balance on its head. So today Z and I did a little science experiment and we tried it. I was skyping my folks and wasn't paying attention to the time so I was five minutes past. At 12:05 the egg did not balance. Later at the tea shop their TV was showing the news where hundreds of people successfully were balancing eggs. I was surprised (and just a little jealous). The news then cut to a scene of huge plastic water containers basking in the sun being delivered by truck to customers.
The number 5 has a special significance in Chinese cosmology (Perry 1966) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (read any Mantak Chia books for detailed information). There are 5 elements, that correspond to 5 directions/ 5 organs (yin and yang), 5 emotions, 5 seasons and 5 flavors:
Dragons themselves are deeply rooted in Chinese legend. The Chinese creation myth centers around a half snake half human brother and sister who survived a global flood. To regenerate the human race they became husband and wife. The mythical god/hero Fu Xi (伏羲) and his goddess/sister Nu Wa (女媧 ) themselves are the descendants of semi-human creatures with snake bodies. She is the goddess who created men, animals and repaired a rupture in the wall of heaven. He is said to be the inventor of writing, the I-Ching and the Bagua. Over time they evolved into bodies with animal legs, a horse mane, a rat tail, deer hooves, dog claws and fish scales and thus became dragons (Perry 1966). Perhaps their story evolved from the worship of snakes often represented as Naga, half human half cobra found in Tibet and SE Asia. (I have some Naga photos from my Cambodia trip here.)
As for our experience of the Dragon Boat races, we arrived in Tainan in July 2008 so we missed that year's Dragon Boat festival. The 2009 Dragon Boat weekend we checked out the boats in the Anping canal and then made our way to Nantou. Last Dragon Boat Festival we went to Green Island (photo here). This year we parked by the aboriginal cultural center and walked a few paces to the canal. Z bought a black Angry Bird Xiang Bao and we got a pretty decent spot by the water to catch a few races. We didn't stay long, its like a big, crowded night market, but Z enjoyed the races. We caught a few aboriginal dances before the sky poured on us and left home early.
2009 Dragon Boat Festival
2012
Sources:
Mantak Chia (on Taoism and Tai Chi)
(Perry, 1966, Lord of the Four Quarters; Myths of the Royal Father, Chapter 5).
My May really kicked into summer that first weekend with local music festival May Jam. The first night, I went with my good friend Grace and our kids. I was a little stunned that her husband decided to join us, he usually opts out when we hang out, but I'm glad he did. Those two acted like Uni students and it was good to see him relaxed and dancing, getting into the music.
Our kids were certainly in awe of the fire jugglers. We left before we could see fellow beachcombers Dog Eat Dog rock the venue. The kids were getting tired and my ride was leaving.
Day 2
Here is Grace and I below and our kids (Day 1).
Imma's Bakery and Tin Pan provided some yummy bites and beer. And it was good time to be had by all. The mosquitoes certainly were out for a good time. I saw some old friends I hadn't seen in a while.
The following weekend my former housemate Eric was in Taiwan and came down to Tainan for a visit. I hadn't seen him in maybe 2 years when he brought his wife and daughter. He and I go way back, we once squatted in a condemned building in Chu Wei, Tamsui around 2001. He is the illustrious founder of Happy Cow website an international guide to vegetarian and vegan eateries and lifestyle.
He first came to Tainan many years ago before moving on and it was great to hear his stories of local mobsters. His first day in Tainan he found a job and an apartment in like 20 minutes. When he came back to Tainan this most recent time, I picked him up in Anping near the Tree House, and by then he had already made some beautiful female friends and other friendly locals were swarming him ready to take him home for dinner. He was grinning ear to ear and remarking on the hospitality of Tainan (its true.)
Eric, me and Z went to the beach before dinner and he said to me, "uh the water looks green , is it radioactive?" On closer inspection the beach was covered with a slimy, thick layer of seaweed. In four years I have never seen it like that. It did look like the water was green, breaking lime green on the shore. It was so nice to have him around, he is so "present" and he made space and time even in his short visit to really BE with me and Z, very enjoyable.
May was also Mother's Day, had a lovely morning w/my daughter followed by lunch and dinner with her best friend's family. Her mom cooked for us and we watched the kids catch fish in the pond. I was exhausted and then I found myself in an indoor playground (with AC) in some place in the Tainan City Council building affiliated with the YMCA.
The girls were hungry and on our quest we accidentally came across a young calf to bless the opening of a tea shop (also had never seen that before). We had dinner at a local pasta joint.
The calf thing was surreal. Just before I had this insane dream about a bull that would jump out of the TV in intervals, each time getting closer and closer until this massive, powerful beast was literally sitting on me, breathing heavy in my face, eye ball to eye ball until we sorta merged (maybe the bull was part of me?) It was scary and exhilarating and one of those dreams that were meaningful in an unexplainable way. So it being Mother's Day I felt like I wanted to free this poor baby calf and feed it and bring it to some green pasture.
May ended with more festivities. That last Friday, Z's kindy class had a camp out at school, so Mommy could have a very late night. My friend Gregorio took me out to the new and improved Olga's Russian BBQ, near my house, followed by some salsa dancing.
Now June is almost halfway over, I'm trying to enjoy summer before it passes away like an easy breeze while also counting down until our July holiday.
