More on Xmas

Now that Xmas (again, I do mean ex-mas, like in that Futurama episode) is over, I'm already sad it's gone.

After the giant gift grab (my boyfriend scored a new camera for traveling and a microfiber blanket, among other things, I scored a silver bracelet from said wonderful boyfriend and a new MP3 player, among other things. My sister got a Chinese-style shirt in cinnabar, natural fiber with hand-embroidered flowers and a jade pendant) we hung out for awhile, then began preparations for the Christmas bash.

I made an Iranian salad and my sister and I rolled the truffles from the batter I'd made last night. Then we all went to Geant for some last minute supplies - drinks, Pringles and a few extra plastic chairs and began chopping fruit and setting out other dishes (hummus, babaghanoush and Ethiopian fusion satay among them).

I'm afraid I have no photos - the party was so much fun that I truly forgot to take them.

It began with a few early-comers - our friends Sasha and Cara and one of Cara's friends. They helped us chop the bread and set out other food - and by 9pm had a party going of about fifteen - half expats and half locals. By ten we were at more than twenty, and numbers didn't start to dwindle until approximately 1am (those left at midnight figured they'd be taking taxis anyway, and a few people crashed on our floor). I made hot wine at 1am and the last of us chatted as we drank. By 2:30 the apartment was reasonably clean, with our friend Joseph helping out with the clean-up, and we collapsed into bed at 3.

All in all, it was a pretty classy affair - no wanton drunkenness or untoward behavior, but lots of merriment. We got one call from the landlady's niece about the noise, but any good apartment party gets one of those. Only one person collapsed in our bed, but it was someone we know well. We only found one stray pair of glasses this morning.

I noticed the manifestation of a true cultural divide - our Taiwanese friends left at about midnight ("I have work tomorrow") to get at least a snippet of sleep, whereas the expats stayed on until the wee hours ("Doesn't matter at this point anyhow") and just slogged through work exhausted and possibly hungover. Brendan and I were fortunate not to have class today and spent Boxing Day eating leftover hummus and Gouda's Gilde Siroopwafelen (caramel wafers available at Jason's) and generally schlubbing around the apartment.

All in all, a great party. Every expat should have one of these to go to. I've been lucky and had good Christmases every year I've been abroad (in China, I visited friends in Guangzhou for a family Christmas. In 2006 I went to Lishan with Cara and last year Brendan and I had a quiet day together and went to Red House Pub in the evening).

A Taiwan Xmas

Xmas - pronounced ex-mas - finds its true home in Taiwan.

Basically, this woman got it right: No Reason for the Season - I'm not an atheist, more of an agnostic who doesn't try to answer questions she can't answer and prefers a secular basis for morality and goodness, but I see where the writer is coming from.

You see, I really think it's time all we secular folk accept Christmas for what it is...an awesome mid-winter pissup whose true meaning is family, friends, presents and candy. (Hey, I said "friends and family" first, and I mean giving gifts as well as receiving them).

Taiwan is especially good at this because most Taiwanese are not Christian, and yet they really, really seem to like Christmas, especially at kindergartens and in the Xinyi shopping area. I work at two different buildings in Xinyi so I'm there a lot, and let me tell you they've gone so Christmas-crazy with the LED lights, the fake trees, the advertising-decked Christmas trees (I especially like the Tiffany tree outside 101 mall), the giant Christmas cake (?) that the whole place looks like something out of a freakish holiday Star Trek. Bling bling!

The true meaning of Christmas rests here. Both are in great abundance, while almost nobody goes to church or celebrates for religious reasons. Other important parts of Christmas - santa hats, cheesy Christmas carols and things made out of tinsel - are also right at home in Taiwan.

Our own Christmas morning is proving to be great fun - I'm blogging this as my sister runs to Cosmed and my boyfriend heads out to teach his one class for the day - lots of gifts, sugary cereal and those caramel wafers from Holland. Woohoo!

Later tonight we'll hold a big party - about 20 people - in our smallish apartment with loads of food, drink, cheesy music and fun. Ahh, Xmas.

And Now For Something Completely Different

We're planning our trip to southern India next month and I'm looking into accommodation in Wayanad. A few interesting things about the homestays and hotels available there:

Apparently one of them is called "Mountain Dew Homestay"...which makes me think that the beverage of the same name has never really caught on in India.

One of them offers "homely food". That's good, I don't like my food to be too good-looking. (I think they mean 'home-style food').

Another one says "The best time to visit is between December and March, when coffee and vanilla is harvested. If you like incessant fog and rain, you can also visit in June and July." Wow, sign me up for the July "rain and fog" special...

Don't get me wrong, I love India and I love Indian English; if I didn't, I wouldn't have studied there or returned three times afterwards.

Anyway here are some pictures of our cat, just because we like him.

The Back End of Maokong

We went hiking up the backside of Maokong today, starting at the gondola station (which was frighteningly deserted) and winding our way up, over and across to Maokong Peak. Maokong Peak seems much higher than it is (about 560 meters) because of the tricky terrain - nothing an enthusiastic hiker in good shoes couldn't cover, but still requiring ropes and a good sense of balance - when you get there, you feel you've climbed much higher.

We were originally aiming for Erge Shan, but when we realized exactly how far it was, we scrapped that plan and stopped early. You see, we'd wasted the morning with a hearty 'hiker's breakfast' of cranberry scones, muaji-red bean buns, toast with jam, pomegranate, oranges, apples, coffee, goat milk and of course Bailey's Irish Cream (breakfast of champions!). If you set out at 11:30 from Jingmei, you aren't going to make it to Erge Shan in a day.

The hike starts at the trail behind Sanxian Temple (not sure about the Pinyin there), which is directly across from the final stop of the (hopefully not erstwhile) gondola. Climbing lots of stairs, you pass a small tea farm run by a friendly man and his dog...


...and then eventually make it back into the shade, where rockier, more 'natural' stairs take over. By 'natural' I mean "better looking, but less comfortable to climb."

Hiking aficionados will be happy to hear that the stairs end here, and what begins is a real trail. Dirt, rocks, tree roots and everything. An honest-to-goodness hiking trail! So much of hiking in Taiwan, especially around Taipei County, is stair-based that it's a relief to finally do something that really feels like walking and not just, well, stair climbing. The scenery also gets a lot greener.



...with lots of really big bugs to gape at.


The signage is not very good as the trail progresses, but there's always at least one sign to point the way if you speak Chinese. Not far after a lovely clearing the trail splits in two - take the lower; the upper goes to an electrical pylon. Then a narrow ridge of a trail (one member of our group did fall off, but only fell a few meters into the undergrowth) winds along, with hiker's ribbons and lots of signage...if you can read Chinese. Fortunately most of our group can.


At only one point in the trail is there no signage whatsoever; there is another lovely clearing with bamboo and a flat rock, perfect for a picnic. Heading towards Erge Shan/Maokong Peak, awhile later you will reach a T-junction with no guidance. (Head left). You'll pass a bamboo clearing with a camping/BBQ area and after a few tricky sections requiring ropes, you'll be at the top.

We tried to descend the fast way, that is, straight down, but soon became discouraged with the condition of the trail in this area, as well as the 70 degree straight drop. We're not entirely convinced it was a trail, and with fading daylight we felt that it would be much smarter to just head back the way we came.

All in all, Maokong Peak is a great idea for a quiet day with great weather, when you just want to get out and walk around in nature. The views are mostly obscured by forest growth and bamboo, but the air is clean and you can make it there and back in half a day.

We settled in at a teahouse (Mountain Tea House, next to Red Wood House). Mountain Tea House may not have a very original name, but they're friendly and down-to-earth and their upper balcony has the requisite amazing view of Taipei. They also have mountain pig, lemon diced chicken, mountain vegetables and other delicious items on the menu for around 200 NT/plate. The lemon chicken comes with diced sweet potato and is served in a tart, tangy sauce. I highly recommend it.


One more thing before I sign off for the day - go to Maokong, people! The tea is still great, the teahouses are still there and the view is still the best in the city (and I work on the upper floors of Taipei 101 a few times a week; I should know). Did you know former president Lee Tung-hui refused to have the teahouses, which were illegal at the time, torn down because he loved them so much. Well, Lee might be KMT but he's got good taste in tea and views, that's all I can say.

It's not as expensive as you think to drink tea at some of these places, and the food is generally pretty good at the more homey ones, the ones without all the tourist frippery.

And yet, because the gondola is out of service, nobody's there! On a beautiful Sunday night, with a bright night sky and reddish clouds rolling in over a spectacular view, we were the only customers in that teahouse, and looking in the others, all were doing slow business. Nevermind that the gondola is perfectly safe (I have a good source and I believe this person) and should never have been closed in the first place. You can still get there for about 200 kuai in a taxi - which is nothing, if you're sharing with friends - or take the Brown 15 bus from Taipei Zoo station every half hour. Any teahouse owner will happily tell you when you can catch one back.

Not only will you enjoy the treat of having Maokong all to yourself - no crowds, no irritating music, no shouting kids, no tourists - but you'll be helping out a sector of the economy that is really feeling the economic crunch.

Go to Maokong!

Sanyi and Surrounds

Sorry I've been so horrid about updating; I was sick on top of a killer schedule plus a lot to get done for Christmas - we're throwing a party! - so just haven't had the time.

We spent Sunday in Miaoli county, wandering around Sanyi and it's well-known surroundings. In general it was a lovely trip - we did some holiday shopping, ate delicious Hakka food, saw the very good and very underrated museum (I think it's better than the Yingge ceramics museum) and hiked along the abandoned train tracks near Shengxing, a Hakka "village" that thrives mostly on its heritage and old buildings.

As Brendan rightly pointed out, Miaoli seems to be full of old folks. I mean that in a complimentary way; after all the more mature generation of Taiwan has endured, they deserve a hearty hats off with some applause thrown in. We have both noticed that all of our students seem to have at least one eldery relative in Miaoli - a grandmother, great uncle, distant cousin, aunt or great great great great grandfather. "What did you do last weekend?" is so often met with "We went to Miaoli to visit our grandmother" that we coined a new slogan for the county's tourism campaign:

Miaoli: Home to Every Taipei Resident's 92-year-old Hakka Grandmother.

I think it has potential, no? There could be an entire series of commercials...oh well. Nevermind.

There were a lot of day trippers and visitors but all of them were Taiwanese; I find this a lot less irritating than finding places thronged with foreigners including tour groups from Japan, China and Korea. It's crowded, sure, and loud...but also great to see Taiwanese people enjoying part of their cultural inheritance.

And for anyone who still argues against Taiwanese food being delicious - Prince Roy, I'm looking at you - the Hakka food we enjoyed for lunch decisively put that debate to rest. It was wonderful. All savory dried squid, fragrant pork and chicken, winter melon, taro and...just good. Much better than a lot of local cuisines of the mainland (like Beijing) and able to put up a good fight against Sichuan food.

Some photos from the day:



The broken bridge about 5km from Shengxing was quite atmospheric, although the market, parking lot and other tourist amenities set up near it kind of ruined the mood. Still, there wasn't another foreigner to be seen and we enjoyed seeing locals and day-trippers taking pleasure in their own history. That's me snapping a photo (this photo is Brendan's).


The train tracks between Shengxing and the collapsed bridge are scenic if you look ahead, scenic if you look around, and even scenic if you look down at the old wood forming the base of the tracks.


My sister making lei cha (blended/pounded tea) at the well-known restaurant where we ate lunch. We all took turns with the mortar and pestle and ground the various nuts until the mixture was a paste, shining with the oil of pulverized nuts. Then some other powder and hot water is added to make a starchy "tea" (not really tea at all) that is also sweet and quite filling.


Kids on the old train tracks. Not many people hiked further than this; the day trippers drove. We hiked, and got a taxi back (worth it, though I would have hitched if it had been just me or me and Brendan).



Delicious winter melon blob! Under the blob you can find taro, cabbage, pork and some other stuff. Very nice flavor, hearty on a chilly day.

Old-skool house...Shengxing is full of these and is worth the trip from Sanyi town. Then you can return to Sanyi to shop (but buy the sweets here).

See what I mean? Lots of friendly older folks. I'm sure these guys have third or fourth nephews or grandkids who have office jobs in Taipei. I bought some stewing spices from the foreground guy - long, fragrant plants grown in the mountains and rolled up. The guy in the back seems to love his cigarettes.


We saw these signs all over the roads - the header says "Everyone Come Learn Hakka" and it teaches some basic phrases in Hakka for drivers or pedestrians. A lovely facet of Miaoli that makes a sincere effort to promote local culture. I love it!


Walking in the countryside is a wonderful treat, especially in the late afternoon as the sun takes on a warm, filtered quality.

Taiwan gets more media attention

...this time for a story in the New York Times on jitong, or "shamans" who become possessed by gods and spirits and can divine things, deal with illness or consult people on their troubles.

If you've read the past few entries in this blog, you'll remember that my friend and I saw a jitong a few weeks ago at the Qingshan Wang festival:


...but the sight was far scarier than the happy drinking monk who possesses Ms. Chang.

The article says that the practice still survives in China as well, but I'd never heard of it being done there, not in modern times anyway. It seems like the sort of thing that would have been quickly eradicated by the Cultural Revolution.

Life is Quiet

There's not much going on in life right now; haven't been to any good protests, have been out to a few good restaurants and will write about those later - although at least one is famous, so what's the point? - and generally been either working or sick in bed with a cold.

After a week of working my butt off (including on Sunday, in Taoyuan of all places), having Monday off really brightens things up. I'm finally not sick anymore, either!

While in convalescence, we put up the Christmas tree. We have a little fake one from Canada that a coworker gave us, and ornaments from IKEA. As you can see, the cat likes it too. Very homey. We even put on holiday music and had some millet wine afterwards, enjoying our 'fireplace' (a space heater). We're "doing" Christmas this year; having about 25 friends over for food, drink and talk, so I'm happy we've got the tree.