Interesting Things I Discovered About Taiwan

My second sister, Ean Ean, had just gone to Taiwan for about ten days, and came back complaining so much, until I wondered why I had planned to visit Taiwan after her.

My original plan was to bring some of my brother's paintings to my nephew in Taichung. However, just after I had confirmed the flight and hotel stay, he wrote to ask me not to come as December is a very busy month for him.

I had been to 37 countries, and most of the times, I was kind of pampered. Either these visits were organised tours and visits to my relatives. My siblings often pampered me with cooking good food and driving me around. I had been to Melbourne 12 times, and today, I am just as ignorant about roads and directions in the lovely city! I had written to the Eden Handicapped Centre, but till the day I left the airport, the centre had not replied my email. Phone calls to them were always answered by an answering machine. Not deterred I thought I would call them when I arrived at Taipei. Fortunately for me, I had looked into the internet and checked on the availability of a hostel. After taking the airport bus, I arrived in the heart of the city. I managed to walk 30 minutes and found the hostel!! Fortunately there were still vacant rooms and the owner, Mr. John Lee, showed me the single room which he charged me NT400 for the first night and subsequently NT300 for the rest of the time of my stay. Indeed the atmosphere is as warm and as friendly as the name suggests "Happy Family 2". The location is superb, just across the Taipei Main Station and I could walk to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall as well the Museum for Fine Arts.

For areas that are not so accessible, I joined the Edision Travel Tour Group. For NT900, I was taken to Yehlieu. Met 3 Koreans who were also in the same tour with me. Of course, I took the opportunity to show off my Korean language. The tour guide told us that it rains in Yehlieu about 250 days a year! Yet, the weather was just great with so much sunshine!!! I told him I had brought the sunshine from Singapore!

Today's tour to Wulai Aboriginal Village was an eye opener. The aborigines are such good looking and artistic people. They wove their cloths and made beautiful clothes out of them. We were treated to a dance performance, after which we were asked to dance with them at the finale. They took individual photos for us and just after the dance ended, we were given our photo beautifully framed! What can you do, but buy the framed photo from them at NT500. Quite an ingenuous way of doing business! But the people are gentle and charming, and it is difficult to say no to them.

What a lovely walk along the mountain side. The push cart which ran on rails was out of order, but we did not mind taking a leisurely walk and admiring the beauty of the mountains, river and waterfall of Wulai.

I like the Taiwanese for they are gentle and polite. At the hotels, good service is given, even though I do not patronise the hotel except to book my tour.

The sales staff are polite and not pushy. Even if you don't buy from them, they would still thank you, and some even bowed their heads!

I was amused this morning when I saw a "karang guni" (junk collector) man on his motor bike which was attached to a pull cart. He played the recording advertising his presence. In the evening I was thrilled when I heard "Fur Elise" coming out from ..........a garbage truck!!! I guess with such lovely music, the workers would enjoy their mundane and less than pleasant job.

I also discovered that the Taiwanese are quite fashionable and many have good dress sense. Perhaps the greatest discovery is that Christmas is not a public holiday in this lovely country. I had wanted to go to a church this morning, only to realise that the streets were crowded with people on motorbikes, all rushing to work. Hence this means that the main religion in Taiwan is Buddhism or Taoism.

The tour guide told me that the original name of Taiwan is Formosa, which was given by the Portuguese during their short presence here. Indeed Taiwan is beautiful with varied landscapes, interesting cultures and rich history.

Gan Chau