Yet another weekend of travels has past. This time it was back to Taoyuan, my port of entry, for 端午节 (Duanwu Jie- the Dragon Boat Festival), although I didn't really do anything for the holiday. I always tell people I've already seen dragon boat races...even though I've never seen a real race, only people practicing. I lie only because I've never met anyone truly interested in taking me to see the festival races. There seems to be a "if you seen one, you've seen 'em all" attitude towards the races. I'm thinking that the only reason the holiday has been preserved is because you get to eat special food, Zongzi 粽子.
Like tea, and shaved ice, where elsewhere in the world you will be lucky to find one variety, in Taiwan 粽子 also comes in several different flavors, shapes, and even sizes. Big, small, triangle shaped, cones, cylinders...meat, mushrooms, red beans...there's a little bit of everything. Thankfully I've had my fill and I don't have to eat anymore until next year! Don't get me wrong, almost every variety is amazing...my favorite are the one-bite baby triangles with meat and veggies...but when you eat 2 ...or 5 :) a day for 3 days, you can wait a while before you have the urge to pop another one.
So what was I doing in Taoyuan? Well, nothing really...but I did get to do/enjoy a few of my favorite things.
On my way to Taoyuan, I finally called my friend Ed's dad - here after referred to as 连叔叔. Ed had told me that he would be in Taoyuan, but I didn't want to give him a call until I knew I would actually be heading up that way. I called him, and I nearly instantaneously had a dinner invitation! He also asked me if I had a place to stay, and I replied "I'm not sure yet." I have a bad habit of not planning ahead when I travel. I've found that if you don't make a lot of plans you can either have the best, most enriching and rewarding experience, or the worst and most and traumatizing experience. I'm not so keen on taking the planned route and having everything turn out to be mediocre, so I mostly rely on good fortune and a bit of wit (whatever I possess that may be called "wit") to improve my odds of avoiding trauma. Back to the point, I was glad 连叔叔 inquired about my accommodations. I had made tentative plans with a local couch surfer (Bruce), but I found out after I spoke to 连叔叔 that I had written Bruce's number down wrong, and would not be able to contact him until I returned to 高雄Kaohsiung. I wonder if not knowing where you will sleep on a daily basis is good therapy?
When I arrived in Taoyuan Kay's mother and sister met me at the high speed rail station. If there's one thing I dislike more than the unnecessary use of hotels, it's the unnecessary "guest reception." I don't like people going terribly out of their way in order to make me feel comfortable...knowing that I'm a burden makes me feel very very uncomfortable. Regardless, I was received and scurried back to the house before, somehow I ended up with a beater mountain bike from a shop owner (relative maybe?) of a tv/sound system store below my friend's house/apartment.
Riding a bike is one of my favorite things! Since I got here I've been trying to get my hands on a decent used road bike, they're hard to come by...borrowing the bike made me feel quite alive. Since I started writing this post I gave up on the used bike idea and just bought a new folding bike, almost identically to the one i had stolen from me in the Mainland a few years ago.
It was like instant freedom. I rode around at high speeds for nearly 4 hours straight, only stopping at a few bike shops I saw to ask about used bikes. Eventually 连叔叔 gave me a call with directions of where to meet him (and family) for dinner. After getting a rough map from a security guard at a local university who claimed I was "好几十公里" (several 10s of kilometers) away, I set off towards the Taoyuan Train Station. I'm not sure that it was "several 10s of kilometers" away...I mean if I went 30k I would have already be in 台北 Taibei. In about 30 minutes I arrived at my destination, only to realize I was only about 10 minutes (Kay had told me 30minutes) away from my starting point. After another phone call with 连叔叔 I found the restaurant and it was dinner time.
I wasn't really hungry that night. Whenever I'm with Kay's family I'm never really hungry. But I was happy to see Ed's dad (I hadn't seen him in years) and speak English. After about an hour at the restaurant Kay's mother called me asking where I was, and telling me the shop folk needed the bike back. I had to take my leave, but not before I had arranged to possibly spend the night with 连叔叔 and parents.
The best part of my whole night was riding that bike at lightning speeds at night through crowded streets. I didn't have my glasses which makes things even better. In the daytime I'm fine, but at night without glasses all the streetlights and headlights and shop signs all kind of melt together in to a few giant beams of light shining rather harshly into my eyes. I got to blindly weave in and out of traffic like a lunatic charging through traffic lights (most cyclists here will stop at the appropriate traffic signals...but I just don't care). I skid the rear tire a lot when I jammed on the rear break. If the front brake had been on the left (where I generally prefer it to be) I definitely would have flipped that bike over. The whole thing was over in about 10 minutes though. And after convincing my friends mother that it was fine to stay with 连叔叔, she arranged for her brother to drive me over there. I would have preferred walking, but she insisted he drive us ( I say us because she is very protective and wanted to see who I would be staying with).
Ed's grandparents' house was quite nice. A modest apartment in one tower of and apartment complex.
Everything was very clean, and I was a bit surprised at how well the grandparents could manage for themselves. Ed's father knows a lot about Taiwan and it was nice to talk learn about Taiwan's political and cultural past. Topics that, in general, I don't get to discuss on a daily basis.
I got the floor in a room near the dining room and the kitchen. It felt pretty good to sleep on the floor. I find in the summer, the weather down on the floor is always much nicer. I also feel like a get a really good stretch in my lower back when on sleep on my back on the floor. It was quite a refreshing nights rest, and breakfast the next morning, 薏米绿豆汤 (barely like grain and green bean soup) and 馒头(steamed bread).
The next day my Kay's Cousins and younger brother took me to 淡水(Danshui), the last stop on the red line of the Taibei MRT. I only later, after another conversation with Ed's dad, found out about the historically signifigance of the city which had been home to a Dutch Castle/fort. My friends family where all about the food. Which I thought was good, but in excess! It was interesting to see the crowds of people, and weekend bike riders and the like, but the highlight of the day was came after a short boat ride and a rest for drinks. Yup, I'm talking about green tea coffee. Two of my favourite things, green tea and black coffee, when mixed together create a super amazing beverage!
My day ended back at Ed's grandparents house. After another nice conversation/history lesson and saying goodnight and goodby (I wouldbe leaving early the next morning to go hiking), I went back to sleep on my comfy spot of floor...and
You can read about my short excursion the next day under the Full Moon Mountain Blog if i ever right it :) You can see the pictures if you Click on the Full Moon Mountain link in the A few of my favorite things post.
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