Road trip

Our First, Very Convenient Road Trip

Somehow I continue to expect that travelling in Taiwan is going to be the same astravelling in China 15 years ago.  As a result, everyday is filled with pleasant surprises, since Taiwan and China couldn’t be moredifferent.   When we lived in China, so many aspects oflife were 麻煩 (ma fan = a hassle, troublesome,inconvenient), but we were young and generally game for the challenge.  In contrast, life in Taiwan is extremely 方便 （fang bian = convenient) and fairly hassle-free.  Our trip last weekend to TaiChung, inEastern-central Taiwan, was a perfect example. 

        We had wanted to take a road trip out of Taipei for theweekend, and Peter’s old friend, Frank (Ping An) had suggested we go with hisfamily to Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan’s largest lake, which is located 45 minutesEast of the city of TaiChung.  On Fridaymorning, Peter went on-line to the Taiwanese Train website and was able topurchase tickets for the four of us on the high-speed rail.  This may sound completely normal, but youmust understand that while Peter and I can both get our message across withspoken Chinese, we have almost entirely lost our ability to write and readChinese.  As a result, websites can bedaunting, and Google Chrome’s translations are amusing, but notenlightening.  So, the Taiwanesegovernment has done a huge favor by making its entire web site English-friendly.  Once we purchased the tickets on-line, wewent to the corner 7-11, put a confirmation number that had been texted to usinto a machine and out popped our train tickets!  Coming from the Upper Valley where there is adearth of both public transportation and high speed technology, it seemed likemagic to us.

        Saturday morning dawned and within 15 minutes on the metro, wewere at the HSR (high speed rail) station ready to catch our train.  It was so incredibly easy.  Since we had allowed 45 minutes to get from home to the train, we had timeto hang out, have a coffee, and chat with a very outgoing, 9-year-old Taiwaneseboy who wanted to practice his English…. which was excellent!

        Boarding the train was another lesson in Taiwaneseefficiency.  Every passenger’s ticketdictates a car number and a seat number.  On the pavement on the waiting platform you can find your car number andthen you line up in between the white lines that indicate your seats.  It makes you feel a bit like cattle waitingfor slaughter, but man, is it effective! Within 10 minutes of the train’s arrival, and without one push, shove orcurse, every passenger was settled on the train and we were rolling out.  Lesson? Don’t be late for your train in Taiwan, ‘cause it ain’t waiting.

Peter and the girls at the HSR train

        Upon our arrival in TaiChung, we rented a car – also a completelylovely experience – and headed  east to the town of Puli, where we had agreed tomeet our friends.  Frank had expressedsome concern that we wouldn’t be able to figure out where to meet him, but hedidn’t realize that we are completely willing to ask questions and make foolsof ourselves, which usually means we figure out what we need to. 

        Frank, his wife Jennifer and their two kids, Julien, age 3+and Ning Ning, age 1+, joined us at a somewhat-skanky-looking-but-actually-quite-yummyroad-side place.  We ate and then headedout to our B&B, a place called “Woody House.” 

        Again, during our time in Beijing, there was no such thing asa B&B, much less a decent western hotel. Here in Taiwan, B&B’s are plentiful. The Woody House was perched on a tropical hillside.  There were four main buildings made of darkwood with green tiled roofs. One building was designed as a public kitchen/dining area andhad all of the equipment and basics one might need to make dinner.  Opposite the kitchen was a two story buildingwith four bedrooms.  In between was anopen courtyard with a BBQ grill and a table for traditional Chinese teapreparation and general hanging out.

Public Kitchen/Dining Area and courtyard

        After putting our supplies away, we headed to Sun Moon Lakefor a walk to give our legs a stretch. Exercise is the one thing that has been missing in our Taiwan equationso far, so the walk felt good.   Carlypushed Ning Ning in her stroller and Perrin and Julien ran around burning offenergy.

        Around 6:30 we headed back to the B&B, showered, poured aglass of wine and prepared some hors d’oeuvres.   As it became dark, we were invited to jointhe manager of the hotel and some other guests for a night nature walk.  Carly has written about that part of ourtrip, so I won’t go into it here, but suffice it to say that it was fascinating despite our inability to understand most of what the guide was saying.  I finally had toadmit to my daughters that I am SCARED to DEATH of snakes.  Uhg.

        We spent the rest of the evening preparing a feast.  It began with guo tie (pan-fried dumplings)c/o Frank, moved on to our contribution of a salad, and culminated with anamazing clam, garlic, cilantro and hot pepper pasta that Jennifer had learnedhow to prepare in Italy during her 1 ½ years there.  Peter then grilled some enormous steaks onthe grill and we gobbled it all down accompanied by many glasses of wine.  

Guo tie - pan fried dumplings

Carly, Perrin, Ning Ning and Julien

Jennifer cooking the clams for the pasta

Peter checking the doneness of the steak

Perrin finally called it a day at 10:00, Carly hit the sack next and then at 11:00, Jennifer and her two kids and I all went to bed.  Peter was up until 1:30 and Frank was up until 3:00 partying with a group of women celebrating their 30^th high school reunion. It was a fabulous night.

        The following day we biked part of the bike trail around SunMoon Lake and then headed back to TaiChung for a shrimp fishing adventure, thedetails of which I will let Perrin describe in her up-coming cartoon.