It's not
easy love, but you've got friends you can trust,
Friends will
be friends,
When you're
in need of love they give you care and attention,
Friends will
be friends,
When you're
through with life and all hope is lost,
Hold out
your hand cos friends will be friends right till the end.
-Queen
I first met B & S in 2008 at an intense two week
training school for teachers in Fairfield, California. Not only could they win
a “Best Looking Couple” contest, but their pleasantly matched personalities and
easy demeanor made them a favorite among both students and teachers. They were also
learning Mandarin Chinese. I, of course, had absolutely no interest in learning
Chinese, let alone living in China. After the class’s completion, we exchanged
emails, hugged goodbye, and promised to keep in touch.
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| Dug this out of the vault - July 2008 |
About a year later, S included me in a mass email inviting
the recipients to view her online Picasa web album showing their recent move to
Taiwan and their romp through Southeast Asia. S’s beaming face as she stood on
the ruins of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. B gorging on fish in Korea. Sleeping on
trains from Vietnam to Thailand. Cambodian children. Pho in Vietnam. What an
awesome couple, I thought.
Last year, I ran into B & S at a large party in Fremont.
They were ecstatic to hear that we were moving to China later that year. We
caught up for a few minutes, and mused whether we would meet up on the other
side of the hemisphere.
They ended up in Beijing last October, one stop on a month
long tour of China. They slept in our
campus dormitory, had to schedule showers according to the hot water schedule,
and ride the bus and subway to Beijing’s historical sights. Even though we were
busy teaching English, we made time to introduce them to our favorite Korean
BBQ restaurant and street food (lamb chuanr + beer), whine over the extravagant
prices at Element Fresh, and unsuccessfully bargain over cheap clothes at
Dongwuyuan (one of my favorite places to find factory made brand names but
rejected for shipment to foreign stores). The week was over before we knew it,
and they headed south to Guanxi province.
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| B&S meet our giant friend - Beijing 2012 |
As the May holiday (a.k.a. Labor Day, yes China celebrates
Labor Day too!) approached, we contemplated jetting over to Korea to eat some
bibimbap and kimchee. We remembered our friends in Taiwan and chose to visit their
sub-tropical home and anticipated using the internet uninhibited by China’s
great firewall (hello YouTube!).
Both B&S and Taiwan welcomed us with open arms. Our base camp was B&S’s comfortable 14th
story apartment, nestled in a not-so-busy corner of Taichung (台中) above well-stocked grocery,
beauty supply, and stationary stores. In contrast to Beijing’s honking taxis,
the hordes of people crossing the streets in a chaotic fashion, the yelling salespeople
advertising fruit and vegetables, and general pandemonium, Taichung felt so
peaceful, so harmonious, so chill.
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| Taiwan beer is just like Beijing beer - smooth and as easy to drink as soda |
Here are some general observations about Taichung. (I have no
comment on Taipei because we spent so little time there.)
- Clean –Even though public garbage cans are nonexistent, the streets were devoid of garbage. I realized I have grown accustomed to seeing people nonchalantly throwing their snack wrappers where ever they happen to be standing.
- Obedient to traffic laws – When the light was red, even if no crossing traffic obstructed the path, the scooters, bicyclists, cars, and pedestrians obediently and patiently waited until the light turned green before accelerating. In Beijing, I tag along with the traffic law offenders and ignore the cars angrily (and rightly so) honking at us.
- Island feel – Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. I imagine that Taiwan’s moist air purged Beijing’s dust and grime that has accumulated on the linings of our lungs. A much needed lung cleanse. The weather was pleasantly humid and comfortably warm, a welcome change after the 7 months of winter we have endured. We also escaped the city and enjoyed Taiwan’s lush greenery with a mountain hike and bike ride around Sun Moon Lake.
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| Sun Moon Lake |
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| Hike Taiwan! |
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| Getting around |
Of course, we did what we do best…WE ATE and WE ATE. Fortunately
or unfortunately, B&S’s view of food is the same as us—not only is eating
food necessary to sustain life, but a way to enjoy life.
The food adventures began with a hot dog at none other than
Costco. That hotdog tasted exactly like the $1.50 polish-dog in Vacaville,
California. Like our hometown’s Costco and every other Costco in the world, the
aisles teemed with sample hording patrons loading their carts with rotisserie
chicken, California wine, Kirkland almonds and tortilla chips. We left Costco
with a gallon of olive oil, a block of sharp cheddar cheese, a bottle of Menage-a-Trois wine (from California!) and a package of Pilot erasable pens. Never
before would we have vacationed at Costco, but this trip was a great start to
our food holiday.
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| Not in America |
Other savory delights included:
Taiwanese beef noodle soup: A trademark Taiwan dish: Noodles
in a beef broth, melt-in-your-mouth beef cubes, a marinated egg, and a kick of
spice. Make sure to order the soup minus the duck blood tofu, a usual addition
to the spicy broth. To my horror, mine came with blood, which we promptly sent
back for a new dish.
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| Beef Noodle Soup |
Snake soup: We sampled snake soup at a tiny restaurant
that appeared to have four-fold purpose: cage the snake, kill the snake, cook
the snake, and eat the snake. Snake soup is widely believed to rejuvenate the
skin. Perhaps this belief stems from the smooth feel of snake skin? Resulting
in great skin or not, the soup is surprisingly tasty. The snake meat and skin
are simmered in a simple gingery broth. The snake meat tastes like chicken and
the skin is chewy.
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| Poor snakes. I wonder if they know that we are eating their friends? |
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| B was a little grossed out by the caged snake smell, so it was up to S and me to finish it off! |
Pearl Milk Tea: We drank bubble milk tea at its birth place,Chun Shui Tang (春水堂). I
love the Old Tea House in Davis, but this bubble tea is about a 1000 times
superior. The bubble tea is a mixture of milk, tea and small chewy tapioca
balls, which are slurped through a straw. The BEST milk tea ever!
Night Market Street Food: We gorged on rice and kimchee hot dogs,
fried chicken topped with gravy and salsa, chou tofu, watermelon juice, and
tapioca drinks until we felt like exploding. Street food is amazing in Taiwan!
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| Asianified hotdog! The bun is sticky rice, the dog a sweet sausage, stuffed with ginger and drizzled with wasabi |
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| Street Food |
We enjoyed the food and the sights (and Costco) immensely, but
more importantly, we enjoyed spending time with our friends. We laughed, we
ate, we drank, we hiked, and we contemplated the meaning of life. Funny, some
people you just connect with, even if you only see each other once or twice a
year. It is nice to know that friends will be friends.
Thanks B and S for an awesome, fun time in Taiwan! Love you guys!
Chinese word of the blog: 朋友 péng you
English translation: friend
Want more? Click here for pictures of B&S October visit
Click here for pictures of Taiwan.
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| Tiger sighting in Taiwan! |
