My god, the extent to which my mother can pontificate, endlessly, about the corrupt president and his corrupt cronies, you'd think she was running for office or working for the KMT (opposition political party to current government). I went to several dinners with my parents and their friends, and even though I'm no longer a teenager, I found myself wishing I could gossip about boys, shopping or anything other than boring politics.
7.1 Earthquake, first in 100 years
Of all the days and all the places to take a short trip, my parents and I chose the normally sleepy beach town of Kenting to get some extra warmth for the winter. We actually had a great time walking through the Kenting National Forest, which turned out to be more like Brooklyn Botanical Garden with paved paths and flora transplanted from different regions.
On the second (and last) night, after a day of sightseeing, we'd just come back to the room from dinner. The room starts to visibly shake and sway horizontally. My dad thought he was drunk because we'd had beers at dinner. I yell at my parents to get under the doorway, but the doorway is shaking as much as the room, and a deep sort of sonic growl permeates the air.
After the first shock, we pack up our valuables and water, and scram out to the hotel lobby. But our room is so far from the main entrance that we get caught during the second after-shock under exploding hallway lights and imploding ceiling bits. Nothing at all like the cali variety - what with multiple after shocks almost as large as the first.
We spend about four hours sitting in the parking lot of the hotel before they let us back in. We checked into different rooms, presumably closer to the front, but we still slept in our street clothes in case we needed to make a quick escape. The next morning, we noticed cracks in the cement pillars that supported our rooms!
Chinese medicine at the bathsOn the second (and last) night, after a day of sightseeing, we'd just come back to the room from dinner. The room starts to visibly shake and sway horizontally. My dad thought he was drunk because we'd had beers at dinner. I yell at my parents to get under the doorway, but the doorway is shaking as much as the room, and a deep sort of sonic growl permeates the air.
After the first shock, we pack up our valuables and water, and scram out to the hotel lobby. But our room is so far from the main entrance that we get caught during the second after-shock under exploding hallway lights and imploding ceiling bits. Nothing at all like the cali variety - what with multiple after shocks almost as large as the first.
We spend about four hours sitting in the parking lot of the hotel before they let us back in. We checked into different rooms, presumably closer to the front, but we still slept in our street clothes in case we needed to make a quick escape. The next morning, we noticed cracks in the cement pillars that supported our rooms!
Wang ayi took us to a spa/baths/swimming pool facility, where there were hot pools (think: large jacuzzi) and steam rooms infused with chinese medicine, aloe, and ginseng. It was pretty awesome. Almost as interesting was watching my mom and her friend gossip like school girls, in their swimming caps and floral bathing suits with skirts. Afterwards, just to top it off, we went to a chinese medicine soup place.
Youtiao, Jok, vendors, and food street
My all time favorite food in Taiwan is the snack - morning snack, mid-day snack or midnight snack. My first day there we ate 'shao bing you tiao' (oily sticks??) at this twenty-four place, it was awesome. The night after the baths, we went to a porridge place where you can pick side dishes to go with your 'jok'. On new years eve, my mom and I snacked our way through vendor stands while waiting to meet my cousin - dan bing (egg pancake), jiu cai he, zua bing. In the basement of shopping centers, in the 'food street', I snacked on all sorts of soup noodles, beef noodles, korean noodles, seafood noodles.
Shoe shopping binge
Ok so not that hard to believe but this was a lot even for me. I've become intimate friends with Sogo and XinGuangSanYue - shopping centers that combine the one-stop shop benefit of malls with unique boutique-quality offerings.
I don't really DO shopping centers in nyc, but for some reason, I LOVE the malls in Taipei. But I can say, with confidence, that the clothing is better at Sogo - on the 'fashion floor' - and the shoes on the first floor of building 11 in XinGuangSanYue are to die for. The key differentiator is that every mall has a 'mei shi jie' - food street. Oh yeah. Yummy sustenance, not some fast food crap, is the key to shopping.
Two hour pedi
Bella and I met up at Breeze Shopping Center, yet another one-stop shop with food in the basement level. We had a snack in the food street, window shopped, had coffee and cake at a cafe, and got a two hour pedi. It wasn't as good as the one in Shanghai but was good to gossip with Bella.
