Ni hao from Hualien, Taiwan, where we’re at the Parkside Hotel. The past two days have been either lacking a decent Internet connection or sleep, so I haven’t had much time to update. But, boy, have they been full (or so my legs say).

Friday

Friday (which would have been Thursday for most of you readers), Lexcie spent the day in Taipei visiting various transit agencies. I joined him for the first one, but it was difficult for me to understand the Mandarin that was spoken. I did get a minute with the laser pointer to discuss ethnic neighborhoods and the NYC subway system (in English, of course – especially after somehow turning “waitress” into “turtle” during a previous conversation).

While he was in his meetings, I joined his parents for lunch, where I had a spring roll (not fried like I’m used to – steamed, with crispy cabbage), shark fin soup, and rice with pork. Shark fin was new to me – not something I would usually eat, but it had a nice fishy, yet light, taste to it.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Taiwan National Museum of History, where there was a traveling exhibit on Van Gogh, showcasing 98 of his pieces. His lifestyle drawings were neat to see, considering I was only familiar with his impressionist paintings beforehand. I am still drawn to the paintings, however, and particularly liked Flower Vase with Thistles, which was on loan from Japan.  No Starry Night, which I assume is safe in its position at the MoMA. I was told in Chinese not to take any photos, but I should have played ignorant American tourist.

We met up with Lexcie and two of his dad’s colleagues for a ten-course dinner at a restaurant called G-Woo. What a culinary treat! I certainly added to the “new foods” list. Below are:

1. Asian cole slaw with jellyfish (the jellyfish was actually crunchier than the vegetables)
2. Chicken with chilis
3. String bean and pork rolls
4. Chicken soup (the restaurant is famous for this soup)
5. Sea cucumber (has a very light fishy taste, and may be the most strangely textured food I’ve ever eaten. As Puumba says in The Lion King, “slimy, yet satisfying”) and quail eggs
6. Shrimp in tomato sauce and sweet shrimp with pineapple
7. Spare ribs
8. Cod fish
9. Mushrooms and green vegetables
10. Cupcakes made with black rice

Saturday

Lexcie and I spent the entire day in Taipei, walking around. We started by strolling down Nanjing East Road to Fuxing North Road, where we visited various shops. It’s quite an eclectic mix of retailers – you’ve got the Western familiars, like 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and McDonald’s, mixed among the mom-and-pops, food shacks, and luxury stores (I dare you to find a 7-Eleven and Cartier that co-exist in Manhattan). Many of the shop owners were burning papers and incense and leaving gifts of fruit and meat outside of their stores yesterday (likely for ancestors; Lexcie had asked someone, but he didn’t understand the person’s explanation).

We then happened upon Breeze Center, Tapei’s first American-style shopping mall. The first three stories were the Fifth Avenue brands like Louis Vuitton and DeBeers, while the rest of the mall became increasingly affordable as we traveled the seven floors. While we didn’t spend $3,000 TWD (Taiwan New Dollars, equivilant to approximately $100 USF) on luxury baubles, we did probably drop that amount (mostly Lexcie) at the Kinokuniya Bookstore. My favorite store was the kooky Hands Tailung, a Japenese import store. Speaking of kooky, our next stop was the Core Pacific City, a golf ball-shaped mall and events center. The stores were a bit more affordable there, and we stopped to play some Whack-A-Mole and Pokemon Plinko at Tom’s World, Taiwan’s answer to Chuck E. Cheeze. We won three pencils and a glow-in-the-dark bouncing ball.

This is what we ate – it’s called a railroad lunch box, which used to be handed out on trips.  It included rice, a pork chop, fried tofu, vegetables, and a soy sauce-pickled egg.

The day ended with a trip to Danshui, a city in Taipei County. We walked around the various vendors packing the streets, and I was convinced that a scooter was going to run over me (I did find out that they’re not just a Kaohsiung phenonmenon. There are scooters everywhere). Lexcie says most of them know how to navigate around people, but the speeding 12-year-olds didn’t convince me. The side streets looked very much like Manhattan’s Chinatown, with vendors hawking shoes, handbags, clothes, and various food. There was plenty of Engrish to be had on the clothes (for those who don’t know, Engrish is poorly translated English). My two favorites were “Dotroit Lions” and Spongebob Squarepants pajamas that had “Mr. Assorbancy” and “Rokey Drokey, Then” splashed accross them.

We then hopped a speeding bus to Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf (Tamsui is the Taiwanese name for the Mandarin Danshui). In order to get over to the retail boardwalk, you have to cross a colorful illuminated bridge nicknamed “Lover’s Bridge,” which is modeled after a sailing ship’s mast and rigging. We ate some fish and chicken ball soup for dinner, while one of the wharf’s janitors grilled Lexcie on why he was with (and marrying) an American girl. We do get some stares; it’s more common for an American male to be with a Taiwanese female, and most of the Americans I’ve seen in Kaohsiung and Tapei did not refute that. On the way back to Danshui, a scooter almost hit Lexcie as his disembarked the bus. See? The scooter drivers are crazy!