Taipei Day

Nov. 22-23

Thursday we moved to Taiwan.

We had a 6:30 flight that left us time to kill when we checked out of the Best Western Grand. So we walked toward the tip of the peninsula. We veered east from Nathan Road into the pub and food area. 

In our explorations, we found the original Hair of the Dog. The other day we had found II and III. There may be others too, but this so far is the only one not numbered. I haven’t been inside any one of them. 

Despite the name, they are closed early in the day.

Maybe we’ll get to one when we come back in a week. It’s on Hart Avenue, if you want to venture there some day.

Another highlight of the walk was Mody Square. This is a shopping mecca with a giant plaza and fountain and busloads of people standing more or less at attention behind people carrying pennants. Most of them seem to be waiting to get into restaurants booked by tour companies.

The experience has a condensed flavor of Hong Kong, or more specifically, Kowloon.

The airport was efficient enough. We checked our big bags and then Joanna asked one of the gate guards about the food available on the other side of the security check. Unlike Newark, Hong Kong’s main restaurants are outside the barrier.

We opted for Maxim’s Jade Garden. This is the same Maxim that owns Maxim’s Cakes, where we met Greg and Eugie on Wednesday night. It also owns a dozen or more other food brands with operations spread all over Hong Kong.

Passport control was the only glitch. They have an automated system, very quick when it works, that scans a passport and lets Joanna go through just fine.

I tried two scanners and neither could read my passport. So I was sent to the conventional line. And wound up in the slowest by far of four.

I finally got through and joined Joanna to follow signs for our gate. It was getting close to boarding time, but we were almost there. Or so we thought.

This was one of those annoying airport designs where you walk forever to the end of the terminal and then have to take a bus to another building. The bus always leaves from the far edge of the terminal to an island among planes.

We found the gate in plenty of time, though, and it was a short flight, only bumpy in spots, when they had to suspend cabin service.

Immigration in Taipei is as slow as it is in Newark. We killed the best part of an hour standing in line.

After that it was smooth going the rest of the way. We took a cab to the hotel, the CityInn on Baoqing Road. The room is small, but compared to the Best Western, seems like a suite. 

When I went to the convenience store on the corner for beer, I ran into my first real language barrier of this trip. Thinking about the morning, I asked for yogurt. The kid at the counter brought out a bottle opener.

Things were busy on Friday. It was the day before the elections.

When we walked out for breakfast, we passed the Falun Gong setting up a demonstration in the plaza by the big H&M. The banners, similar to those we saw in San Francisco, attested to the goodness of Falun Dafa, the organization’s teachings.

We saw similar-looking banners in Hong Kong about Falun Gong, but they carried quite a different argument, which followed the party line. The message in HK was that Falun Gong demonstrates on the streets to interfere with traffic and commerce and to contribute to “public disorder.” 

Bad Falun Gong. Good Red Chinese.

We asked at the desk for places to have breakfast. The lady directed us down Cheng Du Street to Fong Da, a luncheonette. I had a Taiwan coffee that was satisfyingly strong and a sandwich of ham and egg on white toast.

It seems the only bread here is white. This was conventional western bread. There are indigenous breads in Taiwan, but they are steamed, not baked.

I took one bite of the sandwich and found a surprising sweetness. Mayo. Not as bad on ham and egg as it is on stir-fry, but still a mystery. How did the Chinese develop a taste for mayonnaise?

Joanna doesn’t drink coffee, so instead had a hot soup full of lotus seeds, which are soft and mild-flavored beans. The soup stock was light and fantastic. 

Across the street is a temple devoted to Tin Hau, the patroness of sea people. This is the same Buddhist saint of the temple on Temple Street in Kowloon.

Like many temples we have seen in Hong Kong, it is an ancient structure covered with color and elaborate carvings wedged between newer structures.

The temple’s roof and eaves are covered in bright motifs of dragons and phoenixes.

The temple also has an ATM. I never used an ATM in church before, so I tried it. Apparently it only gives cash on credit cards, so my debit card didn’t work. 

Just because of the name, we walked into an alley labeled Hong Kong Street. 

That was the beginning of Ximending. This is a party area of a dozen or more blocks defined by streets and narrow lanes. There are motorbikes everywhere, and it seems almost everyone goes there to eat. 

We saw all the expected names, KFC, 7-Eleven, H&M, Uni-Qlo, Starbucks. There are also plenty of local joints. One particularly popular attraction had people lining up and others standing around in the street eating rice-flour noodles from paper cups.

We came to an intersection that opened into a large plaza. it was blocked off at the time for public works, so we had to follow the arcade around it.

Most of the commercial streets we have seen in Taipei have a feature that we saw in Singapore and in Bern, Switzerland. The buildings have arcades over the sidewalk so you can walk protected from sun or rain as you shop in the commercial properties on the ground floor.

Stores use some of the arcade space for displaying merchandise that lends itself to impulse purchase.

The local supermarket for the neighborhood is Carrefour, a French company. We stopped for fruit and yogurt. It’s open 24 hours a day, so if we get a craving in the middle of the night for ready-to-eat chicken feet, we’re all set.

Somewhere (not sure exactly at which point in our wanderings) we heard loudspeakers on the move. About a block away a caravan of trucks and motorcycles was turning a corner. They carried banners promoting a referendum for independence. 

I checked online and there were several referendum questions on the ballot this year, but not one on independence. 

This wasn’t the first indication of independence activism. Banners over the big intersection near the hotel (the same area where the Falun Gong was setting up) proclaimed the right of people to vote for their independence. 

Dinner was lot calmer than politics, and more enjoyable. Eugenia had told Joanna not to miss the beef noodles in Taipei. A top-rated spot to have them lies just around corner from the CityInn.

The place is in an alley off a side street. We knew it had to be the place because half a dozen people were waiting in line outside. 

It was a quick turnover. We waited maybe 10 minutes. 

The shop serves only beef noodles, with a choice of spicy or not. And pig’s feet. Nothing else, not even beer.

Imagine the best-tasting pot roast ever, swimming in a broth covered with wonderful fat. Add noodles to soak up the flavor.

After that, we walked up and down more narrow lanes, before we stuck onto commercial streets in search of a bar. 

I wanted a beer. But it’s like cops, ATMs, taxis, and sometimes 7-Elevens. You can’t find one when you need one.

We went into a hotel that advertised the Unwind Bar. It was only offering bottled beer. I had a Taiwan Gold Medal and Joanna had a Heineken. 

We had wandered so far that we were back on the edge of Ximending. With the lights and the crowds and the noise, it was like the Wildwood boardwalk on steroids. So we had to go in there.

That’s where we got really lost.

The plaza intersection, our landmark of the morning, it seems, is far from unique. I lost count of how many we crossed. 

We finally got to a place where we could read the street names, the corner of Xi Ning and Emei. We had to go south one block to Cheng Du Road, and then we were almost home.

We turned onto Cheng Du, and walked to the next big intersection. The streets are busy with shops and signs all the time. At night, everything lights up, even parts of  the sidewalk with flashing warning lights.

I couldn’t tell if we had been here before or not.

Then we came to a street that, on the map at least, is in the opposite direction of the one we wanted to take.

That’s when Joanna asked for help from a couple of kids with smartphones.

Yes, Cheng Du was the right street. We had just walked in the wrong direction. 

When we had not gone far, Joanna saw the sign for Fong Da, where we ate breakfast, and then we passed the Tin Hau Temple.

I bought a few cans of beer at 7-Eleven and settled in for the night at CityInn.

Here’s hoping everything stays bright and shining for you, too.

Good night, all.

Harry