26th May, 2010
Having finally boarded on the plane back to Hong Kong, it’s again time to reflect, or shall we say recall (considering the speed we went through the myriad of stalls during the night markets, I’m literally looking through the pictures of food to recall where we went) my 5-day trip to Taiwan. The respect and the passion that Taiwanese people still possess towards life is definitely something worth reminiscing.
To be honest, I would have never thought I would have picked Taiwan out of all the Asian countries. Sure, a lot of people rave about the beaches in Kenting and about the cheap food in Taipei. But I’m not a huge fan of beaches, nor does its food appeal to me in particular (and this proved to be true, more than half of the local delicacies contained some sort of meat in it). The recent trend of having girls take off their make-up and multiple layers of fake eyelashes on TV doesn’t really boost my overall impression of the place either. But then, I heard about the jewels inside the national museum, and about the freedom of speech that people enjoyed there…slowly, my curiosity about the place was evoked…
I regretted not having stayed there for a longer time. I can’t say that I would want to live there at this point, but there is that something about the people that really attracted me…take the ‘priority seats’ on the MTR (捷運) as an example. I was surprised that people actually observed them. The turnover rate of seats was the highest I’ve ever seen in a city. Giving up one’s seat for the elderly and those in need is a norm. While the law in Singapore forbids people from chewing gum, this kind of respect cannot be conditioned by any law. How many people in Hong Kong would actually be aware of giving up their seats for those in need?
Visiting the national museum struck me harder than I had thought. As I walked through the exhibitions, I could hardly believe how much I had forgotten about the history of China. The history, the culture, both the feats and the downfalls of China were reflected in every piece of kitchen ware, ornament and painting. From the meager memory I have of high school Chinese history books, Chiang was always portrayed as the devious general who would rather let the country weaken than to let the CCP take over China. But his transporting tens of thousands of national treasure (‘國寶’) to Taiwan in 1949 was a feat to say the least, or they would have all been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
Deep-fried mushrooms - tres cripsy and juicy
Taiwanese night markets are definitely something not to be missed. Taiwanese people seem to be always on the go for the best street food. Not unlike the concept of Spanish tapas, dinner consists of a range of small bits and strong taste (though this might only be applicable among the young). Experience the essence of the Chinese saying ‘ 大汗疊小汗’ (big sweat on top of small sweat) while meandering through the sea of people and motorcycles – yes motorcycles, they have become such an integral part of everyday life that some Taiwanese people are relentless when it comes to driving their darlings through any kind of crowd. We only managed try a small portion of what the night markets offered. My favorites include the syrup-coated taro/sweet potato(冰糖芋頭/甘薯) and deep-fried mushrooms (炸菇).
The ‘hostel’ – for it wasn’t a hostel in the traditional sense, but a residence transformed into multiple rooms for tourists, also coined ‘民宿’ in Taiwan – we stayed at during our visit to Sun Moon Lake was filled with writings of poets and important political figures of the past. Affectionately named ‘一斗夢藝棧民宿’, the owner of the place told us that the name was inspired by what was being used to describe 諸葛亮’s life philosophy ‘斗室何需大，夢裡乾坤濶’.
民宿充滿濃厚的歷史文化氣息, mais je les comprenais juste un peu…
