For better or worse, I’ve developed a habit of writing some notes after each of my holiday trips. I probably have less to say about this particular trip than usual and I’m been so busy at work handing over my job to the new hire that I’ve only been able to work on this in fits and starts, but I’ll do my best anyway:

• This was a family trip. The original plan was to travel together with Shan’s parents, sort of as a filial gesture I guess. But then Shan’s mother started invited her friends along from her choir group, all elderly women. That made us a group totaling eight people. Some of the most amusing things about the trip involved interactions with these friends, but it would be rude to recount them in a public blog. Suffice to say that contrary to my fears, they were more pleasant company than expected and Shan and I were largely left to our own devices.
• Shan was in charge of organizing the trip and had found us a driver / tour guide through a travel forum. We basically hired him to drive us around the northern part of Taiwan for four days, leaving the last two days for us to wander around Tapei on our own. This made the first part of our stay more of an extended road trip and was a bit too sedentary for my tastes, but given the company we had, it couldn’t be helped.

• My mother-in-law is crazy about flowers, so Shan arranged the first day to include a trip to the Ta Shee Blooming Oasis flower farm. Apparently this is a popular spot for filming scenes for many Taiwanese television shows. Since we aren’t fans and the place seemed too small and too cultivated to impress us, this was one of my least favorite parts of the trip.
• However, it did serve to introduce me to a fun distraction: mocking the completely inappropriate English translations everywhere in Taiwan. Why is the flower farm called an oasis? Is it located in a desert? Its Chinese name doesn’t even have the equivalent. Plus there were signs throughout the farm pointing out spots where particular shows were filmed. The English signs called these shows “Idol Plays”, very literal perhaps but still a stunningly poor translation.

• The most egregious of these translations was found at the port in Tamsui where we spent the third night. There was small museum there exhibiting seafood or something and they translated its name as “Museum of Tamsui Fishie Goodies”.
• We visited the Taroko National Park but it was too bad that all we did was a scenic road tour, stopping just to take photographs at particularly notable sites. Our guide pointed us to a totally wicked climbing trail that has now fallen into disuse and is now too dangerous to actually attempt.
• A typhoon was moving just off the eastern coast of Taiwan while we were there, so we had rain on days two and three. It was particularly bad on day three as we had to walk the old quarter of Jioufen while it was raining heavily. At one point, the typhoon threatened to completely ruin our itinerary as the road we needed to take from Hualian back to Taipei was at risk of closure due to possible rockfalls. Luckily, the typhoon moved northwards towards Japan and the rain stopped in time.
• One particular sight that both my wife and myself looked forward to seeing while on the road were the infamous betelnut girls of Taiwan. But we never actually got to see any betelnut seller wearing particularly sexy clothes. In fact, we found few signs of any naughty activities at all. Even in ostensibly Muslim Malaysia, it isn’t difficult to spot massage parlors and nightclubs with questionable activities. Taiwan seemed positively squeaky clean in comparison.

• One thing that I unreservedly liked was the sulfuric springs at Yangmingshan National Park. The white clouds billowing out of the mountainside on a hot and perfectly clear day made for a wonderfully incongruous sight. Move in close enough and you can even smell and see the sulfur.
• The site we visited was also one of the starting points for what looks like a fairly extensive trail through the park. Doing the whole route would take a whole day so Shan and I had to content ourselves with a short hike to the edge of the mountain overlooking the sulfuric springs. The hike itself wasn’t really strenuous but it was a novelty to have to hike past hot rocks and clouds of sulfuric smoke.
• The Yeliou Geographical Park, with its odd rock formations, was pretty cool too. Arriving there just one day after the typhoon had abated, we were treated to the sight of some pretty spectacular waves. The whole place was a very impressive example of how to properly balance the need to preserve a naturally beautiful environment and the need to make it accessible to the public who would pay for its preservation and protection.

• We ate way too many times at the various night markets in different cities. Apparently night markets are a Taiwanese specialty. Shan adroitly remarked that many countries boast of their variety of food but she’d always thought that Malaysia still beats all of them, until she came to Taiwan. I’d have preferred to have more sit-down meals but I guess my wife enjoyed snacking from lots of stalls and I can see how it will appeal to lots of other people as well.
• Not much to speak of about Taipei as my wife spent most of the day running around bookstores. She bought a total of twenty four books, which I thought was a good number, considering how heavy books can weigh, but apparently another of her Malaysian friend who occasionally visits Taiwan to buy books bought over a hundred books on his last trip.
• We did of course visit the usual national monuments and palaces. These places have a constant theme: Chiang Kai-shek insisting that all of China is his dominion and that one day he’ll have all of it back. In the meantime, he built plenty of stuff to remind himself of home. We don’t much care for these monuments to personal vanity but I guess it’s obligatory to go see them at least once.
• We ended up spending much less money than expected. I was especially surprised by how little food and transport ended up costing us. It’s strange as I had expected prices in Taiwan to be somewhat on par with Hong Kong and Singapore. Instead, prices seem to be only slightly higher than Malaysia, which makes Taiwan a bargain considering its first-world facilities. The MRT system in Taipei for example is fantastic but costs very little. I think even Malaysia’s pathetic LRT costs more.
• We say it too many times for us to have credibility left, but we’d really like to visit Taiwan again sometime soon just to do the hiking trails and climbs we missed out on.