Activity is a little less eventful here in Taitung, since it’s not really a tourist attraction. There are still things to do and see, but it’s not as eventful as Taipei or Haulien. Even still, we’re waking up near 6:00 to get the days events underway. It’s a little necessary since it’s dark by 17:30. I was a bit surprised by that because I thought that since Taiwan was closer to the equator, the seasonal sunset/sunrises didn’t change as much as it did in our latitude.
This morning started off with the arrival of two of my dad’s friends. They are the same ones that picked us up at the airport, and they traveled down from Taipei in their respective cars to join us for the weekend. One of them is a civil engineer for the government. I don’t know what the other one does, but he’s the one that’s always joking with me and shoving food on my plate. The civil engineer drove down in one of his friends car, and it’s a sweet ride. I’m told he’s a cop, and apparently his english name is Stephen and he likes baseball. We started our day off with a breakfast at McDonalds or as they say Ma-don-ao. I was ordered a Sausage Egg McMuffin, and of course, some coffee. I don’t really drink coffee, but in keeping with the theme of only having hot drinks available, there was nothing else to order. It was fairly busy, with almost all the seats taken on both the first and second floor. It was also impressive that the customers are expected to separate their trash into general waste, recyclable trash, and cup recycling.
There were three major stops today, a scenic floodway/river system, the Yuan Sen Applied Botanical Garden, and the Prehistoric Natural History Museum. With so much learning, I hope that I’ll get more opportunity to explore more modern cultures of Taiwan. It might be a tall order since most of the event planning is being done by Laoshi Shen, and my dad seems to be a more than willing recipient of such cultural datum. I find it interesting enough, but I would appreciate a more rounded experience.
The floodway/river system was a scenic stop with a grand vista of a flood plain. During times of high rain or typhoons, the whole manages the water overspill and diverts it to the sea. While it wasn’t as interesting as the Toroko Gorge, it has some things going for it. The wind here was refreshing and cool, which was helpful in keeping the numerous flies off you. The huge concrete breakers they used looked other worldly. There was a nice water feature in the nearby park that provided some nice natural picture taking opportunities.
The Yuan Sen Applied Botanical garden would probably be really interesting to someone who liked botany. Many of the plants on display were native to Taiwan, and edible, hence the “applied” part of the title. The setting was picturesque but the part I found the most interesting was the small collection of animals they had penned up. I’m not sure why they chose these animals, but they had some goats, ostriches, and cows, all in the same pen. From what I understand, that’s a veterinarians nightmare. Since time was getting close to lunch, we took advantage of the “Applied” portion of the gardens in a unique lunch.
The lunch was hotpot with a twist. They had the normal variety of fishballs and meat, but one side of the buffet table was dedicated to all the different kinds of greens that they grew. I tried most of them, but my stomach limited the range of food I took in. That was partly because I couldn’t resist the potato salad they had. The grapes they had were grown in Taiwan and were the most delicious grapes I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve always wondered how candy makers formulated the flavor for artificial grapes, but I wonder no more. These grapes tasted like grape Skittles, and it makes all the other grapes I’ve eaten taste like packets of water by comparison.
The last stop of the day was at the Prehistoric Natural Museum. It was packed with the biological, geographical, and human history and development of Taiwan. One of the exhibits had some information about a landlocked species of salmon, now native to Taiwan called Oncorhynchus masou formosanus. Tommy, if you’re reading this, I snapped these pictures for you. If you’re not, some friend you are (just kidding). The exhibits and architecture were interesting enough, buy I’m beginning to grow tired of all the historical and natural education I’m getting on this trip. At least I can still find some humor in my surroundings. Another thing I’m also getting tired with is all the food.
I don’t know if it’s the culture, or if it’s my dad, or if it’s my dad’s friends, but they’re always talking about food. When they’re not asking if we’ve tried a certain food, they’re commenting on what the next food is that we need to try, or showing where the food is grown. Sight seeing is just an intermission between meals. There’s literally food everywhere. You can’t throw a Taiwanese piece of fruit without hitting another piece of Taiwanese fruit or someone preparing some kind of Taiwanese dish. There’s so much snacking in between meals too. On the drives between destinations, we’ll stop at fruit stands or small food markets and pick up cakes, fruits, and everything else we roll across. In the past year, I’ve trained myself to only eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m satisfied, but this trip is destroying that notion. Once, I was happy that we were stopping at a souvenir shop. Finally, I could get some shopping accomplished. Wrong. WRONG. It was a food souvenir shop that had tea and cakes and vacuum sealed bags of rice and alcohol and candy. Not one item of permanence. I feel like a Food Network personality and I’m filming five episodes a day and I really hate my job.
Dinner tonight was the most trying culinary experience I’ve had so far. Not two hours after filling up on the mango tasting fruit linked above, we sat down for dinner… at a place known for seafood. The double whammy of not being a big admirer of seafood and already being full was going to make for an interesting meal. Nonetheless I soldiered on and ate at least once of everything. Sashimi, oyster rice noodles, prawns as big as my hand, the waitress kept bringing dish after dish to the table. Every time another one was put down, I saw the look of almost sadistic glee in my hosts eyes as they spooned portions onto my plate. My dad is no help either. In fact, I think he’s out to get me. One dish had a suspect looking white meat on it. I could tell it was seafood and asked him what it was. “Cuttlefish” he replied. Okay, I’ve had cuttlefish before, I can handle it. Turns out he didn’t know what he was talking about. After eating a few pieces, and some flurried conversation, he informed me that it wasn’t cuttlefish. He attempted to describe to me that it was a deep sea fish, that’s kind of round… has a small tail. As the mental image formed in my head, I slowly, horribly, realized what I had eaten. Boxfish. I’ve seen little boxfish for sale in the pet store, not in the grocery market. From now on, I’m making it a habit to forcible ask my dad what I’m eating, although his translations aren’t always reliable. Maybe I should just declare that I’ve become a vegetarian.
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