04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Taipei
Tags: homesick, island living, moon cakes, Mrs. Fields
Taiwan's public art
For the past 8 weeks I’ve focused on getting to know this fascinating island, or at least parts of it. I’ve really resisted comparing life in Taipei to life in the States, for fear that I will lapse into homesickness. There is much to appreciate here, but sometimes comparisons are inevitable.
Every Monday when I join the line of folks waiting to separate and dump their garbage , every week when I take my clothing from the clothes line several floors up (no dryer but hey, at least we aren’t washing our clothes in a stream), when I realize that I can’t bake even the simplest of cakes (I have no stove; very few people do) I can’t help but wonder what life would be like here with a few extra “modern” conveniences. Taking public transportation is a great leveler – everyone does it. Walking downtown at 11pm? Completely safe, if you don’t count the taxis cutting corners into crosswalks. The Harvest Moon festival, complete with a 3-day weekend, is coming up. We’re each getting a package of Moon Cakes. Guess that’s the Taiwan equivalent to Mrs. Fields…
04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Taiwan
Tags: Bank of America, exchange rate, money, US dollars
I went to the bank to exchange the last of my US dollars and got quite a shock: apparently US currency printed prior to 2003 is worthless here! Seriously? Are you kidding, I say? No, says the pimply kid behind the counter. It’s too old. Too old?!! Who looks at the printing date of the bills in their wallet? No one I know! I wonder what the one Bank of America branch in Taipei will say?
04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel
Tags: jade market, rhino, Tibet, watercolor
Next up, the trek through the Taipei jade market, adjacent to the flower market under a busy overpass. Row after row after ROW of jade, beads, pearls, and all manner of pretty shiny and carved things.
Jade (and other) Treasures
It’s difficult to know where to look next and after just a few minutes, the sheer volume of -well – EVERYTHING overwhelming. I take a deep breath and soldier on. I attempt conversation with various vendors; most don’t speak English. I see a lot of antique-looking items from Tibet, old Chinese textiles (gorgeous!), Japanese watercolors, ivory carvings, and rhinocerous horns (ewww) among the most amazing translucent green, white, pink, and yellow jade treasures.
04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel
Tags: Holiday Flower Market, lilies, lotus, roses
A lot of Taiwan’s sights are located in spare spaces: hidden underground, beneath overpasses, in some really unlikely spots. You might easily drive, ride, or walk by them without notice. The Taipei “Holiday” flower and jade markets are no exception. I stumbled onto the flower market when I walked down the wrong side of Jianguo, trying to find the main Taipei Library.
Greenery Galore!
Inside the market, the first thing you notice is the fragrance of a million flowers and flowering plants. There are blossoms of every shape, size, and color. It’s like a wacky kalidiscope image, bursting at the seams. The market stretches farther than I can see and I wander along, simply amazed by it all. The Taiwanese love their greenery and you can see why – so many options. Bonzai galore, one even taller than me (and that’s saying something!). Water plants (lilies, lotus) for dish gardens and outside fountains. Pots, saucers, rocks, gardening implements and garden furniture. Herbs, fruit and citrus trees, strange insect-eating plants, orchids galore all being misted from above to maintain their health (I guess the intense natural humidty isn’t enough, but I must say the mist feels good). Vendors pass out samples of their teas and various drinks made from herbs, and lots of, well, I’m not really sure exactly what the ingredients were, but most of it was delish! So many choices but finally I settle on a bunch of sweetheart roses (20 stems for 50NT) for less then 2.00US. Of course the bouquet is beautifully wrapped, the stems inserted into water for the trip home, and then placed into a long plastic bag to protect it on its journey on public transportation.
Bougainvilleas
04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel
Tags: humidity, Jiangao, library, Taipei Mail Library, weather
Heat was coming off the road in waves; oddly, you can feel it most when a slight breeze kicks up. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long for the 235 to show up on An He and transport me along Heping road to Daan Forest, a green slice of botanical planning. I walk through the “forest” and watch groups of people practice martial arts under the the cool of the trees, families bicycling along the packed clay paths, and one lady playing a haunting melody on her flute, under a gazebo. When I reach Xinyi I realize I’ve gone too far and haven’t seen the library (too-shoe-gwahn). But I have discovered the Flower Market! (I’ll go there later; now I’m focused on finding the library.)
I ask one of the policemen directing walkers across the busy streets. He points back the way I’ve come, on the other side of Jiangao. I’m feeling the heat and humidity descend now, wishing I’d brought a bottle of water. I’m not sure what the library’s address is exactly but I figure it should be easily visible – it’s the main one after all. And there it is, all 11 floors of it. I go inside, present my ARC and within a few minutes receive my very own card. Now to check out the books….
The entrance to Taipei's Main Library
On 4F there is one section of books in English, mainly non-fiction (I select a macaron cookbook, despite not having an actual kitchen) but there are a smattering of fiction options as well. One consideration: anything I select must be lugged around so I pick our several paperbacks and go up to 8F to check out the movies. Maybe I was looking in the wrong area but I found nothing of interest. Oh well, it’s hot inside and I still want to make it back to the flower market…
04 Sep 2011
by twgurl54
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel
Tags: Breeze, pet store, police, Zhongxiao
We were walking along Zhongshao after dinner, on the way to Breeze, when the normal, ambient road noise spiked. Looking around it wasn’t difficult to spot where the cause: something was happening in the pet store. An iguana on the loose? A cat coughing up a hairball? A customer complaining about the price of Iams? Who knows?! What became obvious is that someone wasn’t happy – and they were letting everyone know about it! I could see a stocky man with short dark hair winding back to sock someone – it seemed like that object of his ire was a store employee (wearing an “official” smock). Several other people were attempting to hold him back. Then the altertercation spilled out onto the sidewalk with the angry man chasing the other man Next, they were down ono the ground (sidewalk actually) and at least half a dozen bystanders had their cell phones out. Literally within 2 minutes, the cops showed up: 4 on scooter and 4 in two cars, all with lights and sirens. What excitement! A crowd gathered to watch. We had a great view point from across the street. Instead of cuffing or tasing anyone, the cops surrounded the angry man and his nemesis. No guns were drawn; I’m not sure the cops here even carry. And then they LISTENED to what each person was saying. What a concept! Even from a distance it was obvious that the angry man was calming down. After a few minutes the crowd began to disperse; talk can be boring when drama is expected. And just like that, the soothing sounds of another evening in Taipei enveloped the shoppers…
15 Aug 2011
by twgurl54
in Daily Life, Taipei
Tags: haircut, lavender, Paul Mitchell salon, scalp massage
I give! I’m crying “uncle”! Enough is enough! I cannot stand the humidity one second longer! So…I made an appointment and had my hair cut REALLy short! Halle Berry I said and after some internet searches by the stylists (it took three) the cutting began. An hour later, a lot more of my hair was on the floor than on my head. But boy did it feel a whole lot cooler. I love it! It takes no time at all to style in the mornings and I especially love that I only paid 600NT (20US) for the cut, shampoo (which was essentially a 15-minute scalp massage with some lovely lavender-infused Paul Mitchell product), and blow dry. I’ll post a pic soon!
13 Aug 2011
by twgurl54
in Culture, Shopping, Taipei, Taiwan
Tags: Momo, Piin, shopping, Working House
So far, I haven’t been able to identify one. No national sports teams. No sports team colors being worn. No raucous debates and liquor-fueled bar brawls over a game score. I hear tell about monster mah-jong games but have yet to witness (or participate in) one. If there is a common thread running through Taiwan society, I’d say it’s the constant need to SHOP! There are day markets, flower markets, flea markets (wish I could find these), and night markets. There are malls in every district., stores on every street and alleys, too. And the stores are open late 7 days a week. Taiwan is a night owl’s shopper’s mecca.
Last night I found myself at the Momo mall (Nanjing and Tunhua) after getting an IKEA receipt stamped with a tax ID for an expense report. To give you an idea of the mall’s size, even though IKEA is HUGE, it occupies the bottom two floors of only the eastern quadrant of the mall! After getting a 10NT soft serve ice cream cone, I took the elevator up to the 5th floor (the building has 15) to look around Working House (a larger selection of house wares and decorative items than the one down the street from me) and down to 4F, Piin, to look at furniture and textiles. While in Piin, I meet someone else who speaks English – this is really a rarity! It turns out, she’s the wife of a China Air pilot based in Taiwan. We got to talking and she told me there are are lots of LIBRARIES here (!) and offered to send me the information about the main branch. Sounds like I’ve got next week’s adventure lined up…
13 Aug 2011
by twgurl54
in Taipei, Travel
Tags: bamboo, day market, flowers, guava, kiwi, roses
I’ve been promising myself to brave the heat and humidity to visit the day market, in the same space occupied by the night market (go figure)! The day market is where you’ll find fresh produce of every shape, color, and size, plus flowers and “lucky” bamboo – it’s everywhere, fish and seafood, meats (ugh), and rice and grains. (At night, you’ll only find cooked/prepared foods.) I ended up with fresh grapevines (they smell strange but taste wonderful in a salad or stir-fried), basil, gold kiwi, honeybells (tangelos I think), guava (bah-luh) , both pink and white flesh ( they smell heavenly), and white roses with greenery – all for under 500NT (16.00 US).
Guava and flowers from the Day Market
13 Aug 2011
by twgurl54
in Culture, Taipei, Travel
Tags: hungry ghost month, rice, temple
August is the time of year when the “ghosts” (of dead ancestors? any generic passing spirits?) must be appeased – with food! This makes no sense logically (ghosts don’t have a physical body so how can they eat anything?) but then, this is more about tradition than logic. One day, the street outside the Temple (five floors below my apartment, literally) looked the same as always. By evening, a 8-foot high framework (bamboo poles, corrugated tin roof) had been set up all along the lane, obscuring the lanterns from the street level but protecting anyone under it from the frequent downpours. I noticed that the foot traffic outside the Temple dramatically increased (as did the noise). For a week people brought flowers, paper “money”, and all sorts of fruits as offerings (to what, I’m not quite sure – maybe the hungry ghosts?) and stacked it up on the giant marble “alter”. One morning, van after van showed up (blocking the alley) to deliver their cargo: enormous bags of rice were the only item I recognized. Wow, those ghosts must really be famished! Where will they store all those food stuffs? And then, the mystery of all that food was revealed! Lines of people (the faithful Temple goers?) stream into the Temple to collect (pink plastic) bags filled with (I’m guessing here) the rice and whatever else was previously delivered. At some point I will have to attempt communication with the Temple folk and ask them about this time-honored tradition.
Guarding the gates of the Temple
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