curiouskarenscapers2017

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Vol 2. Sep 2017

My 3 days off was absolute bliss. Think I caught up on all my lost sleep along the way. I experimented with some food stuffs I discovered and with cooking my own dishes with what was available. Totally different lifestyle than at home in SA. I could feel the kg’s melt away as I embarked on my mostly vegetarian eating habits with limited access to any western sauces and fried food. All clean eating, mostly in soups with fresh veggies and minimal meat. Spices make up for most of that and I easily adjusted.

Found these little parcels and actually remembered them from Taiwan. So I was brave enough to cook them as instructed in Chinese on the vacuum packed wrapping. Maybe could have steamed them a bit more but they turned out a treat. A gooey sticky rice around a sweet meat in the middle. Couldn’t make out whether it was actually meat in the middle or not, but the more I scrutinised my photo’s the more I’m convinced it was.

Anyway, I’m still alive and it was tasty. I settled into the school routine and started classes and demo’s like I mentioned before. So a demo class is more like a show class for the parents to see what the teaching is like with a foreign teacher but also whether the kid enjoys it and could actually attend the school. We as teachers also assess the kids English ability and level while playing with them and asking them what certain flashcard pictures are. My initial classes were quite daunting as one adjusts to the children but also the unfamiliar books and ways of teaching. Our lesson plans made up daily for the next class becomes a focus point as your time runs out and the classes follow one after the other with scarce 10 minutes in between which included a feedback session with the parents telling them what the kids learnt in the lesson….or not! BUT…like everything one gets used to the way things are done and you adjust. Doing lesson plans more in advance in off-times or allocated lesson planning times. I’ll survive…and like Lionel, my fiance, said, you’re not teaching a CEO of a company or training managers like I used to. That immediately calmed me down, all will be just fine. hahahahaha.

So as I was sitting at my fancy table in my living room in front of my TV with only 14 channels of either traditional hidden dragons and flying tigers with a monkey king thrown in or soapies or military soapies or sport where china is the focus or participating in with the occasional news I would watch to see the natural disasters of the world and then more 90% China news, I noticed that my table actually had a warmer in the middle, like the hot pot restaurants. Soo cool! Must have cost a small fortune. It has a display on the side to adjust and a fancy built in copper floor plug.

Thanks goodness while the US open tennis was on I could check  some of the main games at the weirdest times. And they would just stop broadcasting the game at a specific time whether it was done or not to go back to the games China was taking part in to show weight lifting while the tennis was a set from a nail biting finish! aaaarrrgghhhhh!

Must say while I had TV it was interesting to see some historical information they had in a particular show every now and then about the world wars and what they have achieved. They’re a culture that’s quite hard on themselves and their failures but there’s always hope and they always pull through and go the extra mile to make sure they achieve their goal set for them by their authorities, sacrificing much for the greater good.

As you stay here and live among the people you see how communism or socialism works and where it doesn’t. One area where it does work very well is everything is for everybody. No one begs on the street or no old people look destitute. Everybody can cope and is looked after to an acceptable level. The country is continually improving social structures and infrastructure. They’re worse than Dubai. Construction everywhere. High rises of 50+ floors everywhere being built to house the hordes. Amazing. It’s like a living breathing organism. They must be concrete/cement and blasting experts by now! I hear it daily and even hourly from my flat as they construct the railway. It sounds like firecrackers at times! and some times it is….hahahaha.

Thank goodness I found a cheap local wine that actualy doesn’t taste that bad….or maybe I’m just desperate…who cares.

It’s Mid-Autumn moon festival time. Much like Christmas for the Chinese in importance and we’ll be having a week of holidays 1st week in October. Looking forward to some relaxing then as I’m financially still a bit strained to be going anywhere for holidays. I’ll be patient…not yet not yet!

In all the stores the mooncakes are appearing and being handed out as gifts. Also teachers day is approaching and I’ve been getting some prezzies from the kids and mothers….hahahaha didn’t expect that! Flowers, a little packet of something and a dark toblerone! Yes! real chocolate!

The people also placed candles everywhere, this one was near our apartments and apparently it’s for the ancestral spirits.

Bit of a fire hazard if you ask me. Unsupervised open flame in a bush near an apartment block. Anyway, the ancestors were obviously appeased and we’re ok.

Some beautiful sunsets have been happening as the weather started getting slightly cooler, by a degree.

This is on top of the building opposite me. A few other apartment blocks have these little pagoda’s on top but very little temples around the city. I’ll have to go outside to find them.

Went walking around to my favourite mall in town and came accross the Holiland bakery at the entrance to my supermarket. Oh my word, and were they good! Only bought one donut! They know how to bake!’

  I treated myself to a coffee at a cute coffee shop called Cafe bene. They just couldn’t understand my order. i wanted an Americano with hot milk…got a black Americano, no worries, I can do that too.. Same at Starbucks. I’ll have to work on my ordering skills.

The decor was so cute and detailed. Look at the lights at the back, little doves, or birds in it.

My favourite supermarket was a must for some supplies. The display in the middle is all moon-cakes. Every cake is individually wrapped with decadent boxes and wrappings.

I was craving some fresh fruit and bought some grapes and peaches. Grapes everywhere. The bunch I got I could make a good bottle of pinotage from, they were huge and heavy, tightly bunched. Crazy, it looked plastic and weighed over 1kg.

I also indulged in a sushi platter for dinner at a third of our prices at home!

    The fridge was looking much better!!!

The week rushed passed and we were working a bit late at school one evening and Aya, who is my teacher’s adviser, asked me to go with her to get some dinner at the a place below the school before I go home, I was starving  and didn’t know what I wanted, so she suggested the duck, I said why not! and received my food.

It was way too much for me

The boys , Alex and John, were craving pizza from a real Italian chef/restaurant and we decided it was time to go after having to postpone before. We got in a taxi with Rowan a new English teacher and her boyfriend grant and off we went.

  We arrived at a mall we have not been to before and with much excitement we looked for the restaurant. Due to renovations they had moved it to a floor on a food court level, thank goodness it was still here. We arrived and was sat down and soon visited by the Italian chef himself Simone. He was so pleased to meet us and see Alex again. The boys went to go and buy alcohol at a shop in the mall while we perused through the menu. My mouth was watering! It read like a proper Italian restaurant menu.

Simone was so grateful to us being there that he made us a foccacia on the house. He was so surprised that I knew what a foccacia was that he kept on chatting to us throughout the night about the foods and ingredients. I ordered a fritta. A foldover pizza deep fried…yeah!!!! It was divine!! As was the rest of the food. Cold meats and bread sticks. We’ll definitely be back. And homemade ice cream on the way out.

Some of the other restaurants also looked inviting

As we explored the mall we found this awesome figurine store closing up but got some pictures in before we left! Look at the prices, but also the quality of them.

Amazing!

As we left the mall there was dancing going on outside in the square. Apparently it’s a thing these days and people dance in groups, bit of a line dancing affair and coordinated dancing typically instructed by a lady with her radio and music. Sounds very festive but tonight we had two groups going at the same time.

This mall also had a McDonalds and a Starbucks. We’ll definitely be back.

What a night, we then proceeded to walk the streets for quite sometime before eventually getting a taxi back! We were so tired and Alex wanted to go out somewhere, I think all were so tired that after looking for transport for over an hour we eventually took a black taxi just to go home. Thank goodness we were all together in this one! The car barely moved past 10km/h and struggled up hill. I had visions of us being stranded in the middle of nowhere with the overly friendly taxi driver. The guy turned out to be a UN soldier in his younger years so he could speak English and was facinated by us. Too facinated. He had a laugh that sounded like there was something not quote right with him. Like a low continuous chuckle. Never the less, we eventually got home safely and couldn’t get out of the car quick enough.

I was dead and passed out soon after in my cozy bed in my own flat. I was off the next two days so I definitely would be sleeping late.

So my next adventure was taking a bus ride into town for the first time. After making doubly sure which bus to take I was ready with my 2Y = R4 instead of the R100 a taxi charges me to go downtown to our head office in the city. Slight drawback, the trip might take over an hour and is usually busy so standing room most of the time….I can deal. Luckily the bus stop is not far from the school in our main road.

I waited a while and the bus arrived no. 237. It was great seeing different parts of the city and eventually being dropped off at my other favourite mall. Estee.

When the training finished about 2 hours later I walked a round a bit next to the river before catching the next 237 back to Jinyang.

The city is so green and a pleasure to walk in. As I walked I noticed that in a slight clearing behind the trees on the side of the pavement were seating places and older gentleman were hanging up something in the trees and walking from one tree to the next discussing something. As I came closer I realised they were putting birdcages in the trees and on closer inspection I found this type of bird in these cages. I’ve actually seen people carry what looked like a birdcage covered on blue cloth around and never thought much of it. Today all was revealed. It was a type of minah bird. We have them in south africa but with black, brown and white colouring and yellow beaks and colouring around the eyes, here they are a light brown with powder blue around the eyes and they sing beautifully.

It seemed like a daily routine still don’t exactly know what they discuss or whether they actually sell the birds. Very interesting.

I got back to school just before it started raining. The weather has been changing quite a bit lately, more wind and more rain.

Had my first bacon and egg breakfast this week! Smithfield is a brand they have here that is the closest thing to bacon and very nice I might add, only thing is it cooks away to nothing! Clever!

I made extra and ate it for dinner too!! Hahahaha…you can never have too much breakfast!

Louis offered me his bike to buy and I jumped at the opportunity to get around on my own but it turned out to be too small for me (legs too long) and a rip off of another well-known brand , Giant, which then resulted in the quality not being that good. Sadly I had to give it back! I was soo disappointed.

Next time! I’ll check the real thing’s prices and let you know, who wants one!

I took a photo of the school below me when the kids were doing their physical exercise to a cool country style song with shakers in their hands. It sounds so cool. I did take a video as well and will place it on the blog. They are so coordinated.

video

Also found my new favourite less fattening food ever! Shao Main, little noodles. It’s divine, they actually have eucalyptus tasting flavour in it that refreshes your pallet. For only 9Y = R18

One day when I arrived at my flat there was a guy delivering water bottles to our apartments, I thought nothing of it and the next minute when OI was in my flat my doorbell rang. I let him up and the poor guy carried a full 10-20lt water bottle up 4 flights. I thought Jerry from the school finally sorted me out with water a I have a cooler in the house that takes these bottles. He placed it and then asked for 15Y. I gladly paid him and then he wrote out a receipt for 50Y. I eventually understood it to be the deposit for the bottle. Hahahahaha so back at the school I thanked Jerry for organising and she said sorry but she hasn’t! hahahaha so I don’t know if the guy supplied the previous owner or if he just had a spare bottle and took the chance!! Either way I got my water that I have wanted since I’ve moved in. The other thing was that I didn’t have money on me at the time. I had the 15 but not the 50. Wechat is amazing. He just created the 50Y code on his phone and I scanned it with my wechat and it went off my account and he was paid. What a pleasure. The benefits of we-chat is seriously out weighing whatsapp. 🙂

Just as well I got the water because next week is heritage day and our braai day we have been organising follows on the Tuesday because we all work on Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah, organising meat, salads and drinks and I’m getting my housewarming wines from Justin and John. We’re combining the two events.

The day arrives much to everybody’s delight. A much needed letting our hair down event. Pan from school lent us his braai and John and I walked to TP mall to look for charcoal and fire lighters. Quite the challenge for a nation that doesn’t braai/bbq. BUT thanx to translators and Chinese friends at our beck and call we found it in the picnic section. Yes in a box not a bag. We took two.

We were ready!

photo 3

Yes, firelighters. Interesting little things these although just didn’t spark for long enough to get things going, we improvised along the way with supplements.

And the party started!

We then moved to downtown to a new bar called YOLO, you only live once for more partying.

It was great going out for the first time and experiencing different places.

Somehow Sambuca always ends up at the forefront!!! The hubbly Bubbly’s (Hookah) were beautiful. Fruit in the water gave them different flavours. They just looked so eerie. Beautiful bottles.

So after a while here we moved to Uptown the pub Justin took me in the beginning. By now I was tired and we started losing people left right and centre. And I didn’t stay long before I got a taxi home with May’s help at 1am and thank goodness he dropped me off at my apartment, I didn’t have to climb the mountain after all that! I just gave my very messed up flat a glance and said, I’ll deal with you tomorrow…or later.

Next month it’s holiday and my b’day!!! Lert’s see what happens.

Guiyang Gazette Vol 2. Sep 2017 My 3 days off was absolute bliss. Think I caught up on all my lost sleep along the way.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Vol 1 -Aug 2017

14th Aug 2017

And so a new chapter in my life unfolds, this time at a bit of a later stage in my life, more towards the middle I’d say.  Some might even think it a midlife crisis but I prefer to think of it as a crisis in my midlife. Not me personally but of my life specifically. I found myself at a crossroads earlier this year and not for the lack of trying to steer it in the right direction but more of the road changed as if magically to the one less travel and thus with less opportunity. I had to make a very hard decision after trying and relying on many to make a success of the road I chose but life had other plans, as usual, and I was faced with the option of entertaining extreme measures. And as life would have it I miraculously received a short term contract right before I had to finalise my decision to start the process of applying for an English teaching positions abroad.

I never thought this would happen …again. Not that it’s a bad thing in the least but at this stage in my life I thought I would be somewhere else doing something else BUT life had other plans and as usual a lot more adventurous than my original plans! Obviously I didn’t get that memo. Maybe my subconscious gypsy brain made this happen on purpose and the itchy feet followed like a horse out of the racing blocks.

I chose to apply for a position in Japan and China. Japan got back to me first and I had to attend a Skype interview. As I dialled in from my home office after checking that I had the right time zone about 5 times, a perfect porcelain smiley face greeted me in typical animation style; high pitched, soft voice and friendly giggle. Polite and very precise with her questions and replies. I was greeted again and told to await a response via email in 3 days. Which I received as promised. Another interview was set up and the same process was followed with another interviewer. I was again told that there would be a response via email in a few days. The interviews were quite hectic and I had to place myself in the frame of mind of a teacher every time. It was quite challenging as I’ve been in the corporate training world for over 10 years since my last eastern excursion to Taiwan but I managed however didn’t get the position.

They are quite rigorous in their recruitment process, as was China. Oh my word an how! I did not realise what was yet to come. Previously when I applied for the position in Taiwan , it was literally an interview with the recruiter and I was on my way. Here I had to do a criminal clearance record check, health check which includes a blood test for syphilis and Aids and x-rays for TB, then a check into your credentials (degree). After that’s done you need to legalise all those papers by sending it back off to Jobug to DIRCO (Department of International relations) only then do you go to the embassy with all your legalized papers and wait for your approval of a visa and then go back to collect it within 3 – 5 days. They are not slow in the processes but there are so many of them. At the embassy they were very cool calm and collected. Not overly friendly or too rude. You never really know whether you’re doing something right or wrong.

Finally after many interviews and paperwork everything was done. It then felt so sudden. Not enough time to do all I needed to and it didn’t feel real. Only when I booked my ticket did the reality hit home. Soo many things to do so little time. They were so supportive throughout the process and put me into contact with a girl called Rebecca from South Africa that has been there for 9months already. She gave me some tips over Whatsapp and I packed accordingly. Some of the foreign teachers I had interviews with also gave me some tips as China allows very restricted access to the outside world especially in terms of Facebook and Google.

And so my China chapter starts. So many things had changed since my last adventure to Taiwan as you will read in my Taiwan Times I’ll post on my blog. One thing’s for certain the criteria got seriously stricter! I literally had to give them my blood type, proof I don’t have syphilis and no outstanding warrant for my arrest…thank goodness they didn’t check for speeding tickets! Whew! Also had to dig my Degree out of the tomb of my Student pyramid, thank goodness I remembered what sarcophagus I placed it in, the mummy’s! Thanks Mom. My years of studying and never using it my whole life finally paid off…when I turned 47! Remember that kids…..hold on to that degree if you have one, you literally never know when you’re gonna need it!

So eventually, after doing all the checks and collecting the lever arch files of paperwork I was ready to go to the Chinese Consulate so that they can approve my going to enrich the lives of their young people in big ol’ China. Need to push Big K to the side a bit and let Little K through for some serious creativity and adventurism. Definitely a bit more difficult than 10 years back, for one, a few more suitcases in life’s baggage, big ones, heavy ones, important ones, ones you love and hold very close.

Well, they’ll have to wait in SA as I take a small empty one with to fill up with things “Made in China”.

So here is how I will publish them. With my Taiwan Times I did it per month ending up with 12 issues per year. I’ll do the same this time round as some months you do more than in others.

2107      Aug – Vol 1

Sep – Vol 2

Oct – Vol 3

Nov – Vol 4

Dec – Vol 5

2018 Jan – Vol 6

Feb – Vol 7

Mar – Vol 8

Apr – Vol 9

May – Vol 10

Jun – Vol 11

Jul – Vol 12

The last challenge I had was placing a meager 2 weeks of clothing and shoes into 2 pieces of luggage with a combined weight total of 26kg’s. Flying Emirates I am allowed 30kg’s but the problem is when I land in Guangzhou to fly a domestic flight only 23kg’s are allowed.  The girls suggested bringing as much as you can of your own vitamins and health tablets as they are expensive there. So eventually after 6 hours of packing and repacking and cutting and sacrificing I got it down to 26kg. With some clever re-arranging of hand luggage I managed an additional 5kgs of clothes and necessities…..I’m ready!!!

And then the day dawned, I wasn’t coping as well as I thought I would. I was emotional and stressed out as I tried to complete my contract work as well as making sure all my paperwork taxwise and just in general was organised. Thank goodness I started a few weeks go with filing and getting everything sorted but on the day I think I was just stressing myself out more than was necessary. Lionel was so supportive and brought me drinks and food throughout the day, with a cuddle and a kiss for the moral support.

It was time and off we went to the airport. I hate goodbyes as it is and this was the worst. Once Lionel left I walked through the passport control and was in the International terminal in 5 min. I’ve never been in Cape Town Airport’s international terminal and was impressed with the shops and layout.

I found the Bidvest lounge and booked in, After having a glass of champagne and a fruit bowl I started relaxing. My mom phoned and I spoke to my brother, skyped with Lionel and received a call from my BFF. I was ready to leave! Soo many well wishes from friends and family, so much appreciated.

A beautiful sunset highlighted the end of my SA chapter and the beginning of my China Chapter. Got on my flight said goodbye and off we went.

A red wine and delicious dinner later I was watching movies. The Beautiful Fantastic and the Zookeeper’s wife were my first two while writing my blog. Let’s see what unfolds in Dubai .

Arrived there at 5:30 am the next day. At this stage I was tired but still functional. I’ve been at the airport 4 times before so knew the layout pretty well. When I inquired about the long stay over allowance we got previously (a snack and a drink to a certain value for layovers longer than 2 hours) I was informed that that no longer applied. Off I went to find some breakfast. As usual this airport doesn’t sleep however the people do, everywhere I walked people were propped up on their luggage sleeping. In Dubai airport near the Ridiculously Expensive Le Clos distillery shop is a section where people can lie down on loungers. It’s nearly always full and you have to lean on the wall awhile until their flight boards then the elusive loungers appear. But I never have and probably never will because I’m too scared of missing my flight while flying off to dreamland where there’s lots of space and no seat belt holding you back.

I eventually sat down at the Giraffe, such a cute restaurant with an awesome vibe, and got given a menu to peruse while the waiter was cleaning up. The places were packed. I decided on this little table that just became available as I came along and decided I will not be deterred by the price, anyway how bad could it be for a breakfast? I think McDonalds will be a better bet! Thanks …and off I went. I refuse to pay nearly R100 for a cup of coffee…maybe next time!……NOT

Anyway, just as well I did because I got the opportunity to use a self-help ordering terminal…sooo cool. There were queues inside the McDonalds and I decided this was going to be the way. It’s so simple and relatively straight forward and even comes with a helpful assistant that walks around to offer some explanation. I did it! Order a sausage egg McMuffin with banana and coffee. And I just had to wait in the collections queue and not that long at that! Found a corner open eventually and sat there for a while. Time flies here because you can do quite a bit and walk around. But eventually my flight was ready and I got the honour of flying in the Massive Double storey Airbus A800. Space, Fancier screen, charging plugs everywhere, extra view camera from the tail above the plane now! Yeah!! Bring on the next 7 hours.

The food was tasty and enough, the wine was good, but still no sleeping for longer than nodding off sessions of an 1 hour to about 30min at a time.

Finally landing at Guangzhou airport time 22:10. The process getting from the plane to your luggage was quite a process as we had to queue in a very slow-moving queue going through customs. Interesting mix of people entering into the country, many African, many Arabic, Indian and the odd blonde person in between. After watching their police performing their very seriously taken job of keeping the people waiting to face the customs official behind the white line, it was finally my chance to say hi. I had a friendly official, meaning no smile but relatively friendly tone. At least I didn’t get a “You shall not pass!” in a Gandolf type voice. I got my approval stamp and so I entered through the Gates of  Great dynasty of China! Into a cold grey airport…..queue the cricket.

It was busy because of the flight and stayed relatively busy until about 12am. I was hungry and a friendly security guard pointed me in the right direction a few floors down. I found a restaurant that I could pay by card and ordered a beef dinner. Very nice thank goodness.

I quickly found a kind of ‘Always-on’ network and bought a subscription to have unlimited wifi for $9 p/month. I relaxed a bit and then walked back up to the floor I need to be on to board. So this 10hour 22min layover killed me. I was a Zombie stumbling through the airport. Here and there young people were attached to plug points watching movies on their phones or playing games, after about an hour or so one got up and I took my chance and filled the gap!

Around 5am the airport came to life again as the early flights started boarding. My flight was now on China Southern to Guiyang city. I was praying that I would get away with my two pieces of hand luggage each weighing about 8kg+, one being my laptop bag and the other overflow of clothes. Thank goodness by the time I got to the front a supervisor was with the guy and as he said ‘your hand luggage’ I placed it on the scale and it was 1 kg over, the supervisor said no problem. I could have kissed him! I was soo happy. Was stressing about it big time. Off I went, getting totally lost to where the gate was and then going through another security check point! Enough already! These guys are good! The guy found a lighter I had forgotten about in my makeup-bag, Lionel got them as gifts so I kept one just in case and my Nedbank power bank had no size on the unit which meant it couldn’t go on the flight. But after about 5 re-scans of my bag and unpacking it just about he found it. So it went through SA scanning, Dubai scanning and China scanning and nobody picked it up, just this little friendly (by the way) security guy. By now I was in and out of consciousness while trying to find a seat to sit on. The place was packed! I only later found out it was because of their holidays that the airport on the local side was so busy. After a few flights had left the waiting hall emptied and we were ready to board our 8:30 flight to my new home for the year.

The flight was on a local airbus 300 and the duration now only a laughable hop skip and a jump of 1:45 min. It went quicker because I think a started falling asleep. As I came into Guiyang I was shocked at how huge the airport was, didn’t expect that. Got stopped through customs again and they just searched my one bag because they couldn’t make out what a specific shape was – ended up being my shoe with facial pads in it! Thanks guys. But yet they were friendly and asking me questions about teaching English and asking me to enjoy my stay! As I came out of the airport into the arrival lounge I immediately saw my name on a placard and attached to it was the person who would be my personal concierge for the rest of the week and probably my life here, with no complaints! Louis.

Thank Goodness, he took me straight to my hotel and although I passed out knowing I had to meet the principal, May, later this afternoon, around 4pm, because she wanted to meet me and take me to dinner, it was a heaven sent deep sleep! The hotel room was good and clean and compact. I had everything I needed.

Both my alarms went off to jerk me out of my deep sleep.  I had a refreshing shower and then realised my ankles were huge and swollen, my hands were swollen and felt like I had a chronic case of water retention. I’ve never experienced the ankle thing as only on occasion with my one ankle where I broke it many years ago but never like this. I dismissed it and promised to be drinking a lot of water, which turned out not to be a problem as I was constantly thirsty. My feet were sore but I was ready for my exploration date!

I checked with May where she was and met her downstairs in the hotel lobby. Then the great trek started. Oh my word….was I in for a surprise marathon of Guiyang!

First we walked the kilometre or so to Estee Mall(as in Este lauder), which is now one of my favourite then got a taxi to Feisan Street, a popular traditional restaurant place much like a vibey Florida road in Durban. The place to be but for restaurants and eating experiences. With a lot of old world charm mixed with some new age places. I loved it. We walked to the restaurant where she wanted to take me and we entered. In South Africa you rarely see restaurants really spend much on the décor or detail. Everything is pretty much stock standard and the really expensive places spend the money on atmosphere and décor to enhance the experience. Here even the cheapest place has the best carved wooden tables and chairs, wall hanging and room dividers. All hand carved and treated and solid. It must way a tonne. Traditional headgear, instruments and tapestries lined the wall.

The waiters were all dressed up in this particular minority group, as they call it, ‘s traditional wear. So to explain about that. The minority groups are like ‘tribes’ of China, mostly boarder -lying communities and Guiyang has about 20 and the province next to us against the boarder over 30. They’re not much represented towards the main cities and central parts. They are all identified by a specific dish they make, which was really interesting. So here we were having sour fish hotpot. Sour fish being the traditional dish for this tribe. I’ve had hotpot before in Taiwan and really enjoyed it. A bit of a mission though and takes forever to eat and usually has way too much food for me, but it’s supposed to be a social event where everybody eats out of the pot together over an extended period of time, placing items into the pot randomly. Also very healthy.

The layout is really so convenient and we should look at incorporating it into our restaurants back home, I really thought the concept was very practical. The table we were seated at is in a booth style, the table itself has an embedded hotplate in the centre of it with a control on the outside of the table. So, how do we choose these items that now go into our boiling cauldron? I followed May to a section of the restaurant where various bowls of herbs, spices, vegetables I’ve never seen in my life were all neatly packed and next to each bowl a small cup with flat sticks with Chinese writing on identified the veg and kept track of what you ordered. At the end you just take all the sticks, give it to your waiter and they bring the items to your table and use the sticks to ring up your bill.

The part I didn’t see at fist was where May had to go select our fresh living fish out of a tank, maybe just as well. The type of fish is a Wuijang fish, much like our fresh water Salmon I suppose, from a specific region in china. Once back at our table, they then bring you your pot, looks like a huge wok pot. It’s pre-prepared with a standard mix into which you start placing your various items you chose. Enter; Chinese cabbage, mung beans, Chinese yam, spinach type leaves, lettuce type leaves,other plant leaves, tofu, mushrooms, sweetpotato strips, leaks and many more unidentifiable fresh veg. So while this is boiling away happily with your fish popping out of the merkyness you prepare your ‘sauce’. What makes this such a unique sauce is that it is not a sauce at all. Unlike our Ketchup, tomato sauces, mustard etc. it’s all fresh ingredients you put together in a small “soya sauce” type bowl, like you get with your sushi orders. In this you place a mixture of spices(some damn hot), spring onion chopped up finely, some other herbs and then taking some of the soup mix you pour about a teaspoon into your little bowl. This is now your sauce you dunk most of what comes out of the pot into. So quite quickly everything is cooked, you break off a piece of fish, as well as my untrained Chinese takeaway chopsticks ability allows me and place it ontop of your bowl mix. Making sure it’s covered in your sauce you then eat it. The most amazing tastes and flavours get added to the fish and what an awesome fish this was. And so you carry on for probably easily an hour or more.

As small as May was she could pack it in, I was stuffed after about the 10th chopstick full. Hahahaha, the theory that the slower you eat and the less you put into your mouth the quicker you get full is definitely proven here. Some cooked veg also accompanied the dinner, a weird looking root veg that looks like a stick outside and potato inside but has a slightly different texture was very nice, some potato and tomato and of course a pot of rice….where do you put all that!? On the side is always a teapot of green tea that is freely available to help wash down the tasty food.

We managed and had some take always. It didn’t take long for the waiters to start fighting about who was going to serve us when they saw me and soon after eating I had to pay up by getting a selfie taken with the waitress. I took a photo of the floor manager in her traditional garb and of two young guys playing a flute instrument at the door outside. Very interesting. May then excitedly said I have to try one more dish that’s one of Guiyang’s favourite, called a Siwawa. My eyes widened and my stomach reminded me that there was no room, but duty calls and I’m always up for a new adventure. Off we went only a few restaurants down. They had a bit of a waiting period that was much appreciated. The restaurant had a tree in the centre of it and Chinese drawings on the walls. After a few minutes, off to our table we were escorted.

Washing your hands before eating is a ritual taken seriously here and up we got, to a basin in the restaurant, washed our hands and went back to our table. The table had 2 silver teapots and the now familiar spices to make your sauce with.

The old lady waiter brought a tray of various shredded veggies and placed it in the middle of the table. There were 12 small containers with the following ingredients; top left to right and down; bracken, garlic, cucumner, onion, celery,noodles, bamboo type, herb, weird strong root type, potato, seaweed and leeks.Then gave us a small side plate with little pancakes on. With pancakes, I meant only it looked like a mini pancake but was made of a very fine batter that was nearly see-through. There was about 10 in a plate.

You slowly peel it off the pile, place it in the palm of your hand and then choose which of the various ingredients you want to place in your siwawa. The silver teapots had a type of thin soy sauce in which you then mix with the spices.

You have a spoon for this and you pour the sauce over the ingredients of your siwawa, fold it closed and then pop the whole thing in your mouth. A bit messy at times but so refreshing and light. Definitely one of my favourites now. They also gave us a cup of brown juice. It was so tasty and refreshing and it had little beans in it, Mung bean soup, it was called, more juice than soup and it was cold. Very nice, will have more of that!

After this, I couldn’t any more and greatfully we were off exploring Guiyang and it’s hidden treasures. With my sore swollen feet and ankles the treck was doable and more exciting than the pain was noticeable. We came upon an open square in a park like setting near a major intersection, they have many parks and community squares in the city which is awesome. I heard this cracker sound from far away and was wondering what it was. As we came nearer I saw older people with sticks in their hands hitting something silver on the floor.

At closer inspection I saw that the silver object was a spinning top, some had lights on them others had moving pictures on the side and the sticks were actually a kind of whip that you used to keep the top spinning, and everytime your whip connects properly with the top it cracks like a firework. We had to of course try as well. At first very awkwardly and my whip didn’t even make a sound never the less hit the top, but as I got the wrist movement right the sudden crack rang out…yesssssss, I nearly air pumped my fist but kept my rejoicing to a controlled level and just grinned ear to ear, May just laughed. It was great fun and your arms got really tired. Apparently this is an activity for the older generation to keep fit. Very considerate of the government.

We walked another what seemed like hundreds of km and then came upon the famous picture you would see of Guiyang, the Hong? Tower on the Nanming river, a beautiful sight full of people and very vibey. Everybody was taking selfies and pictures everywhere you look. It was evening now and darker and the multicoloured lights were starting to brighten the sky. It used to be a scholarly place where academic competitions were held and Guying produced of the top candidates in the country. It’s now a tea room where you can enjoy the view while sipping your tea. I’ll have to go back there as it was closed when we arrived. There was also more to see here that was closed at this time. So I’ll have to come back and check it out again. No issue there.

  And so our evening came to an end and we were back at the mall. Our head office-called the operations centre, is also attached to this mall next to the Haagen Dasz shop…how would I ever forget that! And the Starbucks across from the Haagen Dazs shop….I’m sorted. We said goodbye and I thanked her for an amazing evening and had to walk back to my hotel which was another km or so. I was dead, out of sight I could slump and limp back to my hotel…..my feet were killing me. I arrived had  a shower elevated my legs against the headboard of the bed and passed out.

Thank goodness there was free Wifi every where. Including the hotel which made it possible to whatsapp call and we-chat and skype all for FREE. The next few days were a bit of a blur.

Thursday at about 11(God bless his soul) Louis fetched me for a health check and also picked up another new teacher that would be working at another campus, Victoria, from Atlanta,Georgia. So together we sat in their health care centre that was soo well organised. We chatted while poor Louis filled in papers and spoke to people. Eventually he instructed us to get a signature from each department and then we’re done. So on the same floor in an open space about 8 doors(with English names on it) surrounded us, with chairs in the middle You walked up to the door and the doctor would beacon you in. My first one an old lady waved me in and I sat me down while Victoria stood in a short queue with young kids to do a EKG. She did my blood pressure , that was probably sky-high as I still struggled to adjust to the high altitude with my swollen hands and ankles. Pity I couldn’t ask about that. She probably deflated my cuff about 5 times before she looked and me scowled a bit and then showed me to the bed. I lay down and she poked and prodded my stomach. She squiggled her signature next to one of the tick boxes on the page and nodded her head. I thumbs upped and had my asking face on, and she smiled. Thank freaken goodness.

Next the eye specialist. Also an old doctor here I had to get on a scale that talks to you and probably tells the whole waiting area how heavy you are. I know I know!! And it did! Damn machine. I laughed as the most ridiculous number flashed in front of my eyes and I decided there and then that my diet was going to start today! The old doctor smiled and made a running motion with his arms which obviously indicated I need to exercise. Hahahah does he not know I spin???….well obviously it doesn’t show! Sigh! He had a sense of humour, I liked him. I then had to sit on the chair with my paddle in front of my eye and identify the E upwards, downwards or sideways and I did that, he then asked me to take my glasses of and I did the same. He came over to me and took my glasses asking me why I have them, because I see better without them…hahahahahhaha I nearly killed myself laughing. I explained with body language that they’re actuall just for reading, close up, he’s cool. As I left he lit a cigarette in his office and chatted to another doctor.

Neeeeext…my Ultra scan, just to check that everything is where it’s supposed to be and I’m not pregnant? Teeheeheee. They are very thorough and very well organised here. It was a relief, although you did feel like a cow being moved from one end of a paddock to the next. Next was a chest x-ray. Younger radiologist who helped me take my necklace off. Luckily no clothing needed to be removed, he just made me hug the X-ray machine a certain way and then walked out the room. Done and dusted. Next was a blood test with a young girl who couldn’t speak a word of English and poor Louis had to ask me is I was having my period…hahahahahahah what you don’t have to do for these foreigners. They did the tests and I had to go pee in a cup. Then last but not least the EKG. I just shook my head as I realised how much we had to pay for these tests back in SA to get the visa and here they’re doing it just like that. The lady wasn’t very friendly as she placed all these little suckers on my chest and lungs. Within 5 min that was done and she waved me out of her office. I laughed thinking that in SA about 3 hours after I did the test I had a funny feeling under my bra strap and realised when I got home the doctor had left one of the self adhesive attachments on me…hahahaha I had a souvenir.

Downstairs they had a photo booth that took passport photos and then up again for the paperwork part. We were done. Louis dropped me off at my hotel and I had to go elevate my legs a while. My feet were killing me.

Justin arranged to meet up to have a dinner at a non-chinese food restaurant run by Chinese. I agreed as I was getting quite hungry and needed some coffee. i decided I was going to meet him at the Starbucks first and  then we could go from there.

The place next door is a bakery where I also went into one morning for some breakfast and coffee. There coffee was nearly better than Starbucks’. I sat there and unwrapped my prezzies given to me by the school. How awesome.

The Restaurant was called The Monkey King. It was also a local craft beer brewery started by an old chinese lady many years ago now run by her sons.

After this he suggested we go meet up with some other foreigners in a place called Uptown. We got a taxi and even though I was exhausted I thought it would be a good way of relaxing and meeting new people. It was great fun from Russia to the Dominican Replublic, Australia to Holland, Columbian to South African and American, you name it they were there. They were playing pool and just having a good time chatting away. After about 2 hours I excused myself Justin got me a taxi back and I slept like a log.

Friday dawned and we were going apartment hunting…yay..under normal circumstances, I was just thinking about the walking. But I was excited and as I walked I felt better. This felt like house hunting. So exciting. Drove through an amazing new modern area. Looks like Dubai. Glass Buildings of all shapes and sizes were being built everywhere. Thousands of apartments look like hives of insects. The area reminded me of Sandton in Joburg, fancy cars driving around and clean, wide open well groomed streets and shops. Rrees and plamnts and greenery everywhere you looked.

Louis said that this area’s apartment to buy just doubled within the last few years. Huge museum here as well, I’ll have to come explore. There is apparently also a huge lake here hidden behind the trees. Saw a little 3 wheel car…only R14 000. Mmmmm maybe I should get one..very fugly.

2020 Guiyang will have 5 mil people. The city is comprised of many different communities. Each community os looked after by a police station. As you move into an apartment that falls within a specific community you have to register at the police station, as a foreigner. You are then under their jurisdiction and I suppose their responsibility. It has happened before that a teacher decided to move to another community and apartment and did not notify anybody, soon the police phoned the school and and gave them a warning, they could go so far as to fine the school and get foreign affairs involved. They randomly patrol the community and would check up on you.

One of the communities here in Guiyang is the largest in all of China with 500  000 people living in it. Hectic.

There is a huge green swirling art piece on one of the mayor traffic circles here and it represents a Green Future which is Guiyang’s claim to fame and future goals (Forest city). We drove further out oof this financial business district towards the school campus. We were looking for an apartment near the campus so that one would be able to just walk to school without being dependant on transport. We walked my feet off.

First one across the street in a glum looking community block there was a one room room. Dodgy. Next….26 floors up, coming out of a lift into complete darkness, with wallpaper coming off the walls, nice….not. The apartment was ok, 2 rooms but in a just too bad a state to make me want to stay there plus the squat toilet did put me off a little. I did notice a swimming pool in the community on our way back to the school. Will check that out later. Just under the school we saw an agency and walked in. Louis did all the talking and I said that is that one room was 1500Y and the other was about 1 800 I was willing to sacrifice a dinner or two and pay 2000 and get a better place. The school subsidised about 1800. (part of your package) The first one they showed was beautiful but I saw 2 500 and that was too much. I didn’t know Louis was such a real haggler and they settled on 2000. We went to look at the place. But first… we had to find it. It was also uphill! Today was a big challenge for me. Awesome for my step counter though…don’t ever forget about that!

The school campus is on the ground floor of two separate apartment building next to each other, below them on the street level is a open complex with many little shops, restaurants, supermarkets and fruit shops with a dried u water feature running through it. Louis took me for a hotpot lunch in the square. I was getting used to this now and the ingredients didn’ surprise me anymore, just different variations of food.

We walked through this and down a pathway where suddenly a huge ship came into view! What the hell! It looks like Pirates of the Caribbean did a Terminator stint and appeared in the middle of a residential area. It was huge, very surreal. It looks like it was a water feature with swimming pools around it. Hope thy restore it while I’m here. Anyway, awesome to have one in your backyard.

We walked up some more steps 60 to be exact and then finally asking for directions as we went came upon the building. It was perfect. Two sections of about 6 floors max and it was at the end on the 4th floor. Climbing a further 56 steps to the apartment I was breathing down poor Louis neck like a comrade’s runner. I have to get used to this altitude! Anyway trying to look composed and in control the lady opened the door and I fell in love with the apartment. Her and her husband were tenants and they were leaving. The wooden floors, open rooms (2 bedrooms), big bathroom with a normal toilet…yesss… and a nice marble kitchen and gas stove. I want it!! Even Louis was impressed and liked it a lot. We decided, Louis made a we-chat transfer to secure it and we made an appointment for Sunday to sigh the paperwork and hopefully I could move in on Monday!!! Thank goodness! Can I go home now?

It’s very green here which I love and on our way back to Guiyang city itself and my hotel we drove through a few tunnels through the mountains, the mountains are not swiss alps type mountains with rock face but rather wholly covered in vegetation. We had to pick Victoria up on the way back and get her registered with her police station. So I opted to wait in the car and bought something to drink while I waited from a little StreetSide vendor.

  My favourite beverage in Taiwan, Milky tea and honey tea. So refreshing. I can drink it all day everyday. As I waited I noticed a wall with Chinese literature on it. I’ll ask someone to translate. And then I noticed the roof tiles. On my walk yesterday around the old buildings I saw the ceramics they used on the roof tiles. Beautiful red tiles with round red embossed covers on the ends, but the end covers were breaking off with old age so some were missing and others just chipped or broken. But on these tiles on closer inspection I saw that they were replaced by plastic covers. So you get a similar effect but in plastic, obviously less expensive to replace if one has to.

They came back and we left. I was dropped off at the hotel and crashed immediately. Aaaahhh elevated legs. I was wondering how long they were going to stay so swollen, was getting a tad concerned. I was drinking copious amounts of water because it was so hot and also just because I was so continuously thirsty. We’ll see I thought they were slightly less swollen than before, I went out a bit in the evening for some food and water, got some snacks at a shop and wasn’t really hungry.

Everything here is individually wrapped, clever but annoying. Thank goodness I had my can of condensed milk and stowed away coffee. Saturday dawned and nobody phoned to do anything…aaahhhh yes, please let me have today to just do nothing! And my wish came true. I relaxed and slept, worked on a project I needed to finish and slept some more.

Sunday arrived and Louis came to pick me up. We drove through to Jinyang to sign the papers. This place doesn’t know when it’s weekend. It still looks like it’s a Thursday or weekday. Busy streets everywhere. They drive like many of our taxi drivers do. Lots of hooting to let people in and to warn people off, I’m sure they know the different tones of hooting. We got to the apartment, this time driving to the street level. And found n the apartment full of people. The landlord, the tenants and an agent. Lots of discussion going on and sideways glances at me, smiling away. The lady tenant is cool and friendly. Her husband was here as well. Thanks again to old faithful Louis things were done and dusted in record time. I had to put my red inked fingerprint on my name…

I found this so interesting and they just laughed at my quizzical face. I could move in on Monday! I was over the moon! My own place finally and so cool! I walked around trying to find dinner after being dropped off and found a little restaurant that had chow fan. I managed to order by pointing at the picture on the wall and it was awesome! Pity I might be leaving tomorrow.

Monday morning I got a taxi to my Jinyang campus to start helping out with PBL (Phenomenon Based Learning) summer camp. Two groups of 4 -6 year old and 7 -11 year old kids signed up to attend the camp for the week. And so did I. I figured getting into things as soon as possible will help me settle in quicker and also allow me to start meeting kids and build relationships with teachers and TA (Teacher advisors) basically the Chinese teachers that assist in class. It was draining but rewarding and great fun. I even got to explore Jinyang and the area because of this camp. We generally started at about 10 preparing, officially starting at 11:30 with the younger kids and then older kids in the afternoon till about 4:30 and so on. We played basketball at their basketball court arena, the next day to the Pizza hut (which will never be the same again as we went their twice with both groups, different days) and KFC, we went to the olympic ecological park which was quite the treat! We had a master chef class at the school making sandwiches and buying the ingredients at the local little supermarket.

Monday after PBL I finished off a bit earlier because of Louis was collecting me and taking me shopping for my apartment!

So exciting, going to Wallmart! First we went to open my bank account at China Industrial Bank and had a good experience with a friend of Louis that opened the account for me. He could speak some English. After that we were off to China Unicom for my sim card. Oh my word, I would have gotten totally lost in that shop, cellphones and tech stuff everywhere. Most at about half the price we would be buying them for back in SA. New iPhone 8 coming out here in Oct. I’ll go check it out, but their oppo R11 and the Huawei P10 mate are beautiful phones. New Motorola relaunch with clip on camera, clip on speaker, amazing. Mmmmmmmm.

So off we went, poor Louis, I was like a wife just putting stuff in the trolley and Louis following behind reminding me that I don’t have to buy everything here, there is also a mall there for things I don’t need right now…such a voice of reason in my happy bubble. Also afterwards I think thank goodness we didn’t buy more as it was a hall up 4 flights of stairs to get it in the apartment. Definitely a restriction on my shopping bag sizes in the future. The Wallmart was awesome and huge! Soo many things and choices of products some familiar some totally unheard of and some I have no idea what it could possibly be!

Got bedding on special and most of the other things too, like a pan and some food stuff essentials, like condensed milk, of course, for my coffee. Washing detergent and washing up liquid. Sorted. About 1600Yuan later = +- R3000. Not bad.

I waved Louis goodbye and thanked him from the bottom of my heart for all the effort he has put into getting me into this apartment and everything else. Truly awesome. Wednesday we’ll do my police registration.

Deep breath and close the door. My own place. I started unpacking all the shopping bags. Let’s do the bed first! Yeah. Got to my bed and realised that there was no mattress. Hahahaha. They only sleep on a few duvets and the plank. I tried it out the first night and couldn’t walk the next day! It’ll be the couch for me until I get a mattress. Is sent my friend Rebecca a message and she got Jerry , one of the TA’s to order me one online for about 258Y  immediately. I also realised I forgot to get a kettle. No worries I have a pan, I’ll boil the water on the stove for coffee. Then I was faced with the challenge of starting the stove….hahahahaha. I have a gas stove back home and really, how difficult could it be. But it clicked away as I turned it to ignite and I thought maybe the gas is finished or the igniter doesn’t work, wear and tear.  I started opening cupboard door to find the gas bottle but couldn’t find it anywhere instead just piping and a dial and a lever and a red button. Hmmmmm. Let’s figure this out. After a few futile attempts I decided I needed expert advise. So who do I contact? Louis of course with a picture or two asking him, what does this do? is this on or off ?and what is the dial for.? Some he knew and the rest I asked the next day at school. Pan is also a Chinese teacher at the school, he’s so cool. I just show him the pictures and he tells me what to do, like my washing machine buttons and the remote control! A few essential items one needs to be able to operate.

So after a few critical button identifications I was ready to operate. Had to wait until our PBL camp finished before I could go play around. Pizza hut was an experience. To get the kids to eat pizza with their hands was a mission. In their culture they don’t eat with their hands, so when the pizza came they all tried to eat it with their forks. Even in the restaurant when I looked around people here and there were eating their pizza with a fork.

Eventually the kids gave up and ate it with their hands, which they thoroughly enjoyed, others still managed to eat the topping off without touching the slice. Nearly like drinking soup out of a bowl, that’s how they tried to eat the pizza. Amazing how cultures differ. KFC was easier as we ordered ice-cream. Chaotic but easier. They also had a black rounder of sorts. Will have to try it sometime!

The second time we brought the smaller kids in I could just feel the poor Pizza hut sighing and bracing its ‘self for another onslaught, luckily they had a section where we were kind of separated from the rest of the restaurant and a sliding door could be closed.

The Olympic ecological park was also amazing. A path was design for people to either jog or walk or cycle it around the entire area which was designed around a lake. Small buses also took people from one end to the next. I’ll have to come back to explore more thoroughly as the park is quite big and there are specific stops with specific information pertaining to it that I need to still see and understand.

So eventually I got to my flat that Tuesday afternoon and tried out my new found knowledge. I got the stove to work by turning the dial to about however long I think I will be cooking for and then pressing the little red button to open the flow of gas which I then found out was city supplied. How cool is that! The flames nearly took my eyebrows off at first but I got it under control and soon was merrily cooking away! The washing machine I was using correctly anyway but just didn’t know which hole to pour the liquid. Pan suggested just in the barrel directly, which I did. The remote control worked once I put batteries into the remote control! Hahahahaha didn’t see that coming! And my final challenge came when I bought two bottles of wine at the little local supermarket and got home to find I have no bottle opener! By then I needed the wine! My newly acquired scissors did the job beautifully and I had to push the cork in.

  After baptising my face in redwine I was ready for the second glass! With support from the girls back home from the start via whatsapp we were killing ourselves laughing. Felt like they were there in the room.

Found the local large supermarket while visiting the KFC next to the Pizza Hut that Tuesday and went to re-visit it to buy my kettle and get some water. Such friendly staff and helpful. I cruised through the supermarket exploring the isles and came upon the fresh produce section, and very fresh indeed as in still alive fresh.  After getting over the fact that I’m not in a pet-shop, I started feeling bad for the poor eels, tarpaulins, fish, salamanders, bound crabs and just kept walking to the canned section, safer! I had visions of me freeing them all and them running round the supermarket terrifying the local shoppers. Maybe next time.

What a selection of stuff, two floors of shopping. The water was next to the alcohol section, obviously. The alcohol was quite a selection on its own but very little South African wines available. Rupert and Rothschild was there at about R500 a bottle, but I’m sure we can get it cheaper somewhere else. I’ll keep looking. Some of them were over R1000 cheapest around R300. My Chinese red wine I bought on special for two in a little plastic carry bag was 69Y so about R140 for two bottles and not that bad, not good, but not bad. Beers are cheap about R14 for a long tom or a 500ml and a wide variety of imported beers. Mainly Dutch and German.

The week flew by and I was exhausted as I haven’t really had some time off and was still adjusting. First week and a half done and dusted. My legs started going back to normal and by the weekend I recognised myself. Also adjusted to the altitude and didn’t get out of breath so quickly after walking. Have I mentioned the path I walk down to the school on a daily basis. I did mention my pirate ship in the middle of nowhere. Love that thing. So as I leave my apartment, I walk 56 steps down to the door that goes down in to the car park and out the gate. The steps down into the car park to the gate at street level is 88. Then there are 60 steps next to the ship and we can add a further 30 taking a short cut to the school. So going to school is cool, all downhill, coming back that first day I nearly passed out at the ship!  Then crawling and heaving the rest of the way uphill into the garage, like a wounded animal seeking refuge in it’s cave, only to traverse another 88 step up, by now sounding like a heaving comarades runner not making the 12 hour cut off when I get to the ground level of the apartments. The poor old men playing mah-jong under the little gazebo could probably hear me arising from the depths and stopped their game to watch me slowly make my way 10 steps to the door to the apartment section I live in, which thankfully was right next to the doorway down. Then after pretending to look for my keys while gaining my composure, I managed to get my breathing to a controllable panting-dog-on-a-hot-day speed. Nodding dignifiedly, I managed to open it and closed the door behind me, releasing some more pent up air to regain my composure before tackling my 4 floors of 56 steps to my front door. Finally nearly not seeing were the lock in the door is I manage to turn the key and fall into my flat. Closing the door an passing out on the couch. Here I lay recovering for a good 30min before finding the strength in my “where the hell did the spinning training go”-legs to get up and get to the kitchen to drink a litre of water. Needless to say that with that daily exercise and, on occasion since then, twice a day, I have regained my fitness and have now achieved a slight heavy breathing when unlocking my flat door. 204/34 steps one way. Amazing how your body just adapts. Yeah!! I had images of me finding a hole in the ship and like a stowaway, camping out there and pretending to live in my apartment.

Since then we had also explored some restaurants and hotpot places with similar setups to how I explained on my first hotpot encounter. They are all very similar with slight differences in meat and ingredients you could add. I found a little place with a friendly small young girl that tried to understand what I wanted and added me on wechat to be her friend. Jian. I call her Jane. She now knows my order but I had to put myself through moving down the menu list to find the one I could eat without losing control of my eyes and nose. I found it!!! 4th item down. I’m settling in quickly and even have a dog friend and her puppy that’s about her size already, at one of the restaurants I walk past on my route, so they see me twice. I stop to scratch them a bit as they lie in the sun in front of the restaurant, she recognises me now, probably because of the attention. They have mostly small dogs here, I suppose lap dog size. I have seen bigger but very seldom. Miss my dogs badly.

One of the days I met John, a south African geography teacher teaching here for a year to get some international experience, we got on like a house on fire, he’s sidekick was Alex, I started calling him Speedy because he was a small Mexican guy always on the go. Mad Mexican more like it. We soon got along and went out the one evening after class at the mall (TP Mall) which has 4 sections to it. You literally walk from one mall to the next, each section specialised in something like clothes, or homewares or food. We were in the food section with the KFC and the YH supermarket I visited before. Alex wanted to take us to the restaurant that you could cook your own meat and John wanted lots of meat, so after getting a bit lost but experiencing the different eating places in the mall we found it.Luckily Alex can speak Chinese and he ordered everything and organised everything.

You go and chose your own spices and veg (as usual) and then they bring the meat strips to the table. Lamb, chicken, beef and bacon. The centre of this table has a frying mechanism over which they place a wax paper nearly like your sandwich paper your mom used to wrap your sandwiches in. On top of this you place the meat and veggies. Very nice. Just before we arrived here Alex and John went to a bottle store that they know and bought some whiskey. Alex asked the waiter to keep the ice they also got in the freezer which they did with no issues or complaints. There is no corkage here and you can bring your own drinks and still smoke as well. After a while Alex had his speaker out and playing music and the next thing John asked if I had any South African music and just for him I surprised him with “Kaptein span die seile” he nearly cried! We played a few Afrikaans songs including Ou ry perd and Alex loved it. Hahahaha hope the rest of the people in the restaurant did as well. We sat there until they nearly closed. It was awesome. We became the 3 musketeers that evening.

They were talking about another friend Nadine (Dutch) that had left just before I arrived and how well we all would’ve gotten along. I then also realised that this is this life. Similar to Nigeria with the expat community, and I suppose Taiwan as well, different people arrive at different times and just as you get to know them and build relationships they leave. Alex might leave end September when his contract comes to an end and John finishes in Feb next year. It’s a sad reality and the life of contract teaching. The awesome part is that you meet people you might keep as friends your whole life.

I have been camping out in my lounge since I had my one evening on my rock hard bed and I must say, I have an awesome couch.

This area is noisy during the day with a school just below me, between me and the ship. Is has announcements every hour at a loudness I thought was meant for the town! With music in between to announce breaks from about 8am to about 8pm, after that it quietens down until about 10pm -11pm when it becomes very quiet. I leave all my windows open for fresh air to move through my flat, they have gauze shutters to keep out the bugs. I love this place. Living on raw oats, muesli, fresh fruit and milk breakfasts (Fruit varying from apples, bananas to watermelon all fresh from the little shops) and of course my condensed milk coffee in the morning.

  Lunch times my R22 rand chow fan or R16 pork dumplings and then noodles, dried mushrooms, onions, strips of various meat, peas and lentils at night.

Drinking litres of water and my green tea at night. Needless to say I’ve lost about 5kgs already. The Asian way of eating definitely agrees with my system. Touch wood, I haven’t gotten sick once yet and have been taking all my vitamin c’s, omega’s and multivites that I did at home before coming.

I was exhausted by now and Monday was scheduled for teachers training till Wednesday, I volunteered to get it done now rather than later and they can give me the days off they want after that. It was great fun and I learnt a lot. All about lesson planning, about teaching different age groups and developmental stages of each age group. By Wednesday I was dead. I had to take a taxi there and back and it started to cost quite a bit. Around 40 -50Yuan one way. A few times the taxi’s picked up other people which made the journey longer and more expensive. The last one I had a fight with the driver as he did that and then still got lost on his way to drop me off. I eventually stopped him and said I’ll get out here, then he wanted me to pay the fair of over 80Y, which is R160 rand. I refused and tried to tell him he got lost, not my fault and besides I only had 50Y. I think he tried to tell me ‘but I asked you if I can pick up somebody else and you said ok’…hahaha shame, I just refused and paid him the 50Y and pretended I was still not at the right destination. Luckily we did end up around the ship. So it wasn’t that far home.

The last afternoon I went through early so that I could walk around Ole supermarket. I did before but never enough time to explore all it’s little treasures. We went down for lunch once in our training as the office is attached to the mall and I had an awesome lunch at a little place in their food court call the Gluttonous cat. Hahaha, I did have second thoughts visiting it with that name but the food looked delicious and I opted for a potato omelette type dish, very filling and quite cheap. I have a video file on my facebook page of how they made it in front of me on the hot plate. The bowl below is like pork crackling they also use it in my chow fan I love so much.

This supermarket is like our Woolworths in SA. A tad expensive but you get everything and more from everywhere. Not a huge place but exclusive. I just took photo’s of probably everything I was so excited. The one thing I did find here is their Sushi art. Beautifully packed Sushi and not to expensive either, cheaper than what we get back home and more.

I wonder if I would become what’s written on the labels if I ate these specific nuts. For that price I better!

  They had a small café attached to the supermarket and I sat down to have a light lunch and coffee. The attendant was so friendly and she helped me get a special they had for a coffee and a hotdog looking roll. The coffee that arrived was so beautifully decorated and the roll was small but tasty.

Good value. She asked me whether it was ok to take a photo of me, I first thought she meant together, then I realised she meant her taking of me. I just smiled and said of course. She was so happy and appreciative. I should be taking of her with my coffee, she’s a master!

Some of the most beautiful shop faces I’ve seen in a while.

And so my first month came to an end. Only half a month but still it felt like I had a full month. Can’t wait for my three days off until Sunday, when I have my first demo’s. I’ll explain next time. Cheers for now, tsai-chen.

Guiyang gazette Vol 1 -Aug 2017 14th Aug 2017 And so a new chapter in my life unfolds, this time at a bit of a later stage in my life, more towards the middle I’d say. 

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Taiwan Times vol 12

Taiwan Times vol 12

Vol.12 July 2005 

And so my last few 2.5 weeks dawned and I was all over the place! The days were hot and humid and I started swimming ferociously at the university pool at the top of the hill. And what a hill this was! In this heat and cycling up hill to the swimming pool was a good work out in it self! It costs NT50 for a session and the pool stays open from 6 – 10 am and then 2 – 6pm…perfect.…

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Vol.11 June 2005

   And so my last month dawned. Got a website called Global paws that I emailed to help me with Draco and what was to happen on the plane and in quarantine…I feel much better. Trying to swim through our governmental website just wanting information about importing a pet is a night mare. You get 10 papers on importing exotic animals to breeding them but no, bring your cat or dog into the country and here are the papers everybody refers to but you can’t find!!! Thnx!!

Anyway, we’ll see, the poor thing is going for all his shots and microchips and fixer uppers at once….hope he doesn’t hate me too much after that experience!!!! Shame!!

It’s pouring out side in the warmth of the Taiwan summer. So we have warm dirty rain instead of cold dirty rain.  It does cool things off somewhat and makes it seem much cleaner.

We had our monthly , it seems now, “earth shudder” more than a “quake” really at about quarter past 12 at night on the 1st June. We’ve had very few lately….I’m not complaining!

Anyway, so the new teachers left again and I can’t understand how the management of this school can not see that they are doing something wrong!!!! It must be their existing foreigner’s fault that no new teachers want to stay…..hmmmm. What ever makes you sleep better at night!!!

So, the rain keeps pouring and the weeks fly by. It’s weekend and 1 week to payday!!! Also a week to go for the Dragon Boat festival! It’s starts at 8am on Saturday. So a good early start to our day…will have everything charged and ready!!! Received my mom’s package on Wednesday and handed out the bracelets we got made by my mom’s maid’s sister or something…everybody was going berserk about them and the kids started asking how much…..well let’s start a business, shall we? To think that this lady’s bracelets are being worn in Taiwan…how many people can say that? Ahhhhh the global village!

And so Draco’s fateful day arrived and I managed to get to see where the Vet was situated. Abby introduced me and I was immediately set at ease. I borrowed her scooter to go to Carrefour to get some monthly essentials like, yoghurt and butter and the usual. After about half an hour and getting to the till I realized I might just have too many things to pack on the scooter. Four big bags of heavy groceries, all liquids and things, and a pack of twelve toilet rolls….interesting. Now the test to see if I am a true Taiwanese begins…..all the years of my dad packing the trunk/boot of the car had finally paid off. On an area of about 1 square meter I packed two bags, tied to each other and the bag with all the eggs on top of them to keep them grounded to the floor and then the lighter bag on my lap with the toilet rolls between myself the bag and the handle bars. What a sight I must have been but then again, everybody looks like this here. I was a true Taiwanese!!!

I managed to get home in one piece with my toes curling under the two saddle bags on the floor to add support.

I collected poor unsuspecting Draco lying in front of the TV. “It’s time boy” I placed him in the carry cage and he was quite happy to be in it, having played up, over and around it everyday of his life. So when the door closed I think he was still ok with the idea. When the front door opened and the lift doors opened I think he felt differently. When the scooter motor started purring away I think he didn’t like the idea too much at all. He went all silent in the corner of the cage, as much as he could fill the corner of the cage as he occupied about half the cage already. The vet was excellent, spoke English well and had no problem telling us what I needed. We also asked for Draco to be “fixed” and Abby added her own version of “snip snip” to it to confirm what we wanted and the vet came up with his own word “castrated” we cringed and said rather used “neuter”, as this was for all animals. He just laughed and wrote it down with the word “fix” attached to it. He gave Draco his shot and we waited. After about 10 min or so, Draco was still way to wide awake, a few minutes later he was out for the count and all the stresses of hearing dogs bark and smelling new smells drifted away.

It was quick and painless. The vet, Mark, asked me into the operating room and he showed me the chip in Draco’s neck with a detector. It comes up with a 10 digit number. Cool! He got his vaccinations and rabies shots and everything! He had however to come back for the next three days for an antibiotic as he had some complications when “fixing” him. Poor thing!!! Never been out of the apartment save for three or so times down stairs in the garden and now, a scooter ride, injections, neutering, new people, noise, smells….I am way to into his shoes at this stage!!! I feel like a mother taking her kid to the doctor for the first time…hectic people!!!

Anyway, took him home and placed him on the bed. He looked like a party animal after a good Saturday night outing. His tongue stuck out, his eyes were squint and his head was bobbing around. I took a few discriminating photo’s…don’t tell him. After about 5 hours he could pick his head up and bob it from side to side to try and focus. After another few hours he could lift his front and drag his backside a bit. Later he could careen around corners and down the hall at a snails pace pausing from time to time to get his bearings. I wonder what goes through their minds when they are like this? The mind wants to go and move as he always does. Jump from one couch to another but the body ain’t goin no-where!!! It’s actually sooooo funny, but I wonder what is going to happen tomorrow when we have to go again!!! At least it’s only for an injection, nothing serious. Poor thing!!!!

Anyway, I returned the scooter to Abby, not before I decided to fill it up at a petrol station to say thanks. Do you think I could find a gas station ANYWHERE!!! With sooooo many scooters and cars…how could they possibly only have one gas station in all of Changhua!!! I went to where I remembered seeing one about 6 months ago. FINALLY found it and stopped at the pump. The service lady beckoned to me to go down the side of the station. I didn’t quite understand but followed to where she was pointing. A small, what looked like a drive thru side street lead me to behind the main station and pumps to a little miniature scooter world gas station. Too cute!!!! Little markings on the pavement to show where the scooter must drive to the pump etc. Shame!!! About 10 scooters arrived while the little service attendant helped me find the cap, which was under the seat, or rather inside the seat compartment. NT 100 / R20 filled the tank…I NEED to get one of these at home!!!! And with a cheerful toothy grin and wave goodbye I left the world of Lilliput feeling strangely satisfied!

Draco was fine the next day and could put one foot in front of the other without making it look like he had a few. I felt so bad putting him through this traveling again today to the vet, this time on the bicycle! Interesting. I dreamt about different ways of putting him in the basket and closing it etc. Eventually with his dog collar/brace on I placed him in the basket and left the cover, he filled the basket by half already. So, with my one hand holding him inside the basket and the other steering I started our journey to the vet at about 10am. He was relatively scared witless so he stayed in the bottom of the basket squashed in the corner. Every noise making him twitch. Shame!!! At one stage he made a leap for it but I grabbed him in mid air and pushed him back in the basket. After that he decided it was safer in the bottom and stayed their quite content. I sighed with relief. The vet was happy to see us and gave him his shots after trying to cut his nails a bit. Draco made it know that he hated this little procedure!! He tolerates it at home when I do it, but I think after the ordeal of getting here and the previous trauma of the previous day was enough to drive any cat over the edge. But it was done and he was alive!!!

The trip back home was much better, his initial reaction to be put back into the basket was legs straight kicking against the sides and straddling the basket….I nearly killed myself laughing! It was a cartoon moment! But once he was in, he settled and I didn’t even have to hold him down. He’ll live, tomorrow we do this all over again. Maybe a blessing in disguise so that he gets used to all the handling before he goes on his all time big trip home!!!!

The days went by with Draco and I cycling up to the vet and him now “punt in die wind” in the basket, smelling everything that his nose could smell. Eventually the paperwork done, and some more to come, and me still trying to get hold of the Cathay Pacific people to organise for him to go as cargo. Getting the run around and eventually contacting the right people…..who didn’t speak English. “Monica!!!” Once again she came to the rescue and spoke to the people as to what we needed what the costs involved were etc. Bit of a mission, I need to write it down and put it on the local website for anybody wanting to do this in the future!

A new teacher arrived today(Wednesday) and we were told that she was staying with Ryno and I, as of tonight. Kim nearly had a heart attack as they never said a word to her and her flat needed to be cleaned before somebody could move in. They usually take the new people to her flat, as she is the only one in it. A few weeks ago the landlord of that flat died and the daughter wants it for herself, so Kim will have to move into ours or ,when Judy gets another apartment, move into that. Bit of a mission. The contract Judy has(or rather had) with the landlord was that they have the apartment until end of August when Kim leaves, now that he died it suddenly doesn’t apply anymore and she must move out by the end of June…weird….you’d never get that in SA, a contract is a contract no matter who dies.  As usual it’s a surprise and everybody gets caught off guard including the poor new teacher, Chantal from Canada Ontario.

The weeks are flying past! And the weekend of the Dragon boat Festival arrived. No working on Saturday, because it’s a holiday….wooooooooo! Lucky us!!! Anyway, the plan is to wake up at 6:00am, get the 7:00am bus to Lukang and meet up with Gina, a Chinese teacher at the school, at the bus station. She will take me to the harbour where the boat race starts at 8:00am. The batteries are charging!!!

Saturday morning dawned and I was up at 6am. Out of the flat by 6:30am and off to the bus station. I arrived about 15min later and got my return ticket to Lukang. The bus arrived about 8min early and I was one of 4 people on it, lovely!! Got to the bus station and saw that it had been demolished, I thought something was missing. I asked the bus driver to stop and asked him where’s the building. He just answered “mayo” meaning “no building” or “not have”. I got off there anyway as we all still thought it was there and arrangements had been made. So Melissa and her crew arrived after 7:45 and Gina came to pick me up with her scooter at about the same time. We lead the way while the car followed. We ventured into an industrial office park area, all open and green! The harbour wasn’t really a harbour as we know it, it was more and estuary or lagoon that rises and ebbs as the tides do. All gray and muddy. We arrived at the boat race location and my rowing day memories came flooding back.

Many marquees were erected and the teams were getting ready to participate in their different company colours and flags. Not quite what I had expected but exciting enough. I had a very traditional image in my mind of flags blowing in the wind with dragon designs and traditional Taiwanese outfits etc. Somewhere in Taiwan perhaps, but not today. We walked onto a floating jetty and took our places watching the start. The boats were dragons with the heads and tails adorning the front and back of the boat. About 12 guys rowed with short oars and a steering person manned the back end and the drummer manned the head, shouting his commands and beating a big red drum as they went. The steering man reminded me of a gondola driver, about to burst into “O solo mio”. One team’s commanding crew looked like two taxi drivers, one tall and skinny with his “Chips” glasses on and the other with a wrap around black pair of sunglasses.

  The foreigners had entered a boat and apparently there was a lot of Russians aboard and a few faces from the Maple Leaf greeted us. Apparently the girl team was to row at about 11am. Wish I had entered, I REALLY wanted to do this!!! The started shouted out his commands and the crew raised their oars a few centimetres above the water level. As the shot was fired they dug in and pulled to the rhythm of the drum beat. Too cool!!!

After about an hour and a half we left and went exploring. Our group now consisted of myself, Melissa her new roommate Liz from Ontario Canada, Trista, a Chinese teacher at their school who’s family lives in Lukang and Gina, our Chinese teacher at Sesame Street, who’s family also lives in Lukang. Trista had a lot of historic knowledge about Lukang and it was great to have a tour guide! We visited the old familiar sights and discovered new ones.

We arrived at the Matsu temple we always walk past in our regular route and noticed marquees up in the court in front of the temple. A long table was set up and ladies were preparing food that looked like pancakes. Like a church bazaar, I suppose it was a temple bazaar in a way. What had happened according to Trista’s enquiries is that somebody made a wish and it came true so the temple was now celebrating this by making food for everybody….for free! We got a sweet pancake and a savoury one. Amazing, imagine us doing that every time your prayers are answered…a thanks giving celebration.

At the entrance to the temple there was a set up in the main temple door. The litter, I told you about previously, that they carry the god in and shake around was mounted at a height that people could crawl underneath. So what happens is you make your wish, say your prayer in front of it, kneel down and crawl through under it, as you come out the other side, you get a plum and a peach, also a religious connotation to fruit, especially pineapples.

On the inside of the temple in their centre court, there is a table set out with lucky water set out for all to drink, again for free. On another table people place food, go into the temple pray and come out taking their food or donating it to people.

  Another interesting thing we learned is that Matsu is their god of the people who travel the sea, fishermen etc. She has two helpers that are placed at the entrance to the prayer area on either side. One has the powers to hear exceptionally well and the other to see very far, so that when somebody is in trouble and calls out the one who hears well will tell Matsu and she will respond, the same goes for the one who can see people in trouble from far away. There is even a tiger god under her offering table that look after the children.

In the prayer hall there are two kneeling pillows and there are half moon shaped wooden blocks on the offering table in front of them. The blocks fit into your palm. You place them flat sides facing to make a little banana shape in your hand. You ask Matsu a question about anything that is troubling you and throw the blocks on the ground. If they fall a certain way then it means yes, if the fall the opposite way it means no. Somewhat like an eight ball you shake and it says, “maybe”.

We actually went into the Matsu temple like before but then we went in further along the side and found a whole touristy section behind it! A wishing well with the most amazing little tortoises that multiplied as you looked carefully between the identical rocks. You have to through a one dollar coin into the dragon’s mouth for your wish to come true. This is where your coinage and drinking games come in handy!

There is also a specific way you walked through a temple. You start at the right side and move out through to the left. As you go right the dragon gives you luck and as you go out the left the tiger gives you strength, wisdom etc. Up the stairs we came into a room with a “Christmas tree-looking” stand, with thousands of small lights shining from small indents with a little golden figure in it. It looked just like a Christmas tree with fairy lights. Each little compartment on the tree had a name and number on it and we found out that each year people come to the temple and paid a fee for the year to book a space. With this ritual they ensure a prosperous and lucky year ahead, good marks in your tests at school, good business year etc. Every end of the year the tree is cleared and new names get inserted. There wasn’t just the one tree, they were along the walls and there were about four or so trees with literally thousands of lights on them. Amazing how different religions work. They had stunning wood work on the roof of one such section with the dragon and the phoenix battling dawn and dusk, beginning and end. Small hexagonally folded papers were in a small wooden box and this is supposed to be placed in a little Chinese material bag the size of a matchbox around your neck to ward of evil during the festive time. It is supposed to contain a ghost that fights the evil spirits trying to enter your soul. Okay!!!!!

We explored out side and went down an alley we had never gone down before and a whole new shopping lane with the most amazing doors and entrances to houses lined the street. Traditional food, shoes, clothes and brick’a’brack were sold everywhere! Such a stunning feeling in these walk ways. Old but with a hint of new as the shops produce their electronic wears as well as old traditional. A lady was sitting in one bend with a “zippy zither” as I called it. I had one when I was little and loved it. This one was the size of a piano and done in a stunning red wood with inlaid mother of pearl designs at her feet and on it’s legs. Beautiful!

  We had lunch and oysters, fried and cooked and prawn chow fan etc. for about R15 each. Drank a fantastic cup of fresh watermelon juice! And shopped for gifts. The day flew by and the next thing we know it was 2 o’clock. We wanted to go and explore the Sea shell temple. So off Trista took us and we found it in a quiet section of the town between the rice paddies. The odd looking building is totally made from sea shells and by one man! The story goes that he had a dream once from Matsu and she told him to make a temple of sea shells, he dismissed it and for a long time to come he dreamt the same dream until one day he decided to do it. He’s still busy! The most amazing sight to see. The walls, stairs, lights, ornaments and everything else is made from sea shells. Amazing! The time and effort it must take to make only one wall is beyond me. He had made a the temple as the ocean to house the god. There are amazing dragons he made, their beards from coral and seaweed and eyes of a stone that looks alive, the scales of the dragon are all different coloured shells individually placed to cover the dragon…simply amazing! He should be in the Guinness Book of records for “the most sea shells in one place”….even the sea can’t compete! You walk through the temple to get to the back and in the process you walk down a corridor that is adorned on both sides with images of phoenixes and dragons. At the back of the building he has a business of selling sea shells as well and light fittings of sea shells etc. As you enter the shop section three massive replicas of temples surprise you. All made from shells with such depth and detail, you just want to go inside and walk around!

Outside you walk into an area where they have fish in tanks, 5 potbellied pigs and 3 crocodiles in the apartment next to them. One tank had barble in it, I was still looking at the small section on the things tail thinking it was the fish until he moved and I had to rearrange my vision measurement in my brain. It was a huge thing of about 5 foot something!!! There were about three basking in the shallow water…..now I know what lurks in Hartebeespoort dam!

Gina had to go home earlier and met us again at the temple with rice dumplings for all. These are not dumplings as such but they call them that. It is sticky rice with beef or pork, chestnuts and egg mixed together and placed inside two bamboo leaves and cooked/steamed. Very tasty and filling although only about two hands full.

We ended our day by going for a drink at a coffee shop and lazing around chatting until about 5 pm or so. Got home and Gina invited us to go see a movie. At first no one had the energy but later we decided to fill the day properly and saw Mr and Mrs Smith! Too cool!! In all of this I had forgotten that I had taken the bus to Lukang and had not used my return ticket, which was not the problem. I also forgot that my bicycle was at the bus station waiting for me to return. So the next day as we planned to go to breakfast at our usual breakfast nook, I suddenly couldn’t find my bicycle and thought somebody had moved it. Then it dawned on me it’s still at the bus station. We had our breakfast and the heavens opened. We sat and chatted until about and hour and a half before venturing back to the apartment. Melissa waned to show Liz some shopping in Changhua and I wanted to go to the internet café, and I had to go fetch my bike at the bus station all the way up the road. Walked up, said good-bye to the girls half way and continued my brisk walking pace. Once again a blessing in disguise, all this exercise!  It poured and luckily I had my raincoat in my backpack. Lost another kg sweating the next km in the wet heat and finally got to the bus station where old faithful was waiting for me….amazing country this! Cycle back to the internet café and just parked my bike and connected when the heavens opened and it poured for about an hour. Nearly two hours later at 6pm I went home and started organising photo’s etc. I took 104 photo’s in Lukang….amazing this new digital technology….I would have had to be a millionaire in the old days if I took photo’s the same way!

Only a few more weeks left!! And the heavens opened and the earth was soaked! As soon as you think the sun is forcing it’s way through the clouds to dry the land below it gets knocked out of the way by the cloud bully and the tears flow! The river got a life of it’s own and I couldn’t sleep last night in case I missed a flood! I was getting up every half hour in the pouring to check the level of it, it was rising and the ferns and plants on the sides were submerged….the poor river, only when there are typhoons and torrential rains does it become alive before diminishing into an oily, soapy slick trickle, discoloured and dead.

Our ESL program at school is coming to an end for the kids and final exams are all over the place making life easier preparation wise but more work marking wise. They end off on the 30th July for their summer break of a month. Then they come back at different times during this summer break for more classes…this time a bit more fun based classes. Shame…what about no classes over the holidays???? Their school year books are amazing compared to ours and money has been spent to make it memorable for the kids.

The girls, Kim, Abby and Teri have been practicing their dancing in a group for a promotional dancing session this weekend for a friends club opening. Very exciting but this weather!!! Since our Green Island trip they danced for us and soon attracted a crowd and from this interest the group began and they decided to do it a bit professionally. Too cute!! The outfits and the accessories make it!!!! They were stressed out but happy when I was asked to criticize one week day of practicing. They did great and with a few minor comments practiced the night away.

The weekend arrived and the preparations for the show started. A frantic call at about and hour before the show asking for the camera woman and booze, confirmed everything was going as planned. The weather held and it was actually quite pleasant out. Myself, Ryno and Chantal (the new room mate) walked up to the train station where the show was to be held. They have a performance area opposite the station where all their town activities take place. Some school kids gathered as we walked past to meet them where they were being made up and hair done. We walked into a café called Dream Café and found them upstairs like three models being fussed over. At times having two people doing their hair and a third the make up.

It was fun and exciting and we got them into the spirit so that not too much stress was building. We went down to the performance area and waited for their entrance. They arrived to do the Cumbia and everybody cheered for them as they performed. Gina and Monica and her sister arrived to support the cause. It was great fun. They did extremely well and can now say they performed professionally in front of a Taiwanese crowd in Taiwan! Who can say that!!! The disappeared after to get ready for the next act and we all met new people and chatted for a while. The reappeared in their new outfits and performed the Merenge. All flashy and well executed. After that Kim invited whoever for a Salsa lesson on stage to fill time. The next act was the Mayor handing over the money collected to two charities. And that was the end of that. We waited for them again as they collected all their stuff and got make upped some more as practice for the hair and make up people and ended up going to Abby and Teri’s apartment for some after performance drinks. We got psyched up for a party and all forced me with! We went to Taichung where Ryno’s friend Andrew had invited us to join them at Tiger City where there had been a fashion show and the after party was raging. We arrived and entered the Moet champagne lounge. Too cool!! All foreigners and most looking very arty farty and a tad conceited. It felt like I was back in Jo’burg! Shame, not all, just some of them. The outfits and hair! Very entertaining. We had a great time as usual and was dancing until around 2am. We all got hungry and got a taxi to the Soundgarden…opposite the Pig Pen..our other old time favourite. We got disappointed as their pizza kitchen closed and we decided to go home. We got a sausage and rice outside in the street from a vendor and that hit the spot as we were driven back home. Got home and crashed at about 3:45am. Need less to say I woke up around 2pm. I’m too old for this!!! Have I said this before????

I went to the interne café to email my dad happy father’s day and email my mom to say happy birthday and we’ll have another party on my return in exactly a month’s time today!!! Cool hey!!! It’s time!! Got home just in time for the Rugby, had my  blood pressure go through the roof as the French tackled the Springboks and the game end in a tie! Then Ryno and I took a walk up to the cinema’s to watch Batman….tooooooo cooooooll!! One for the DVD collection that’s for sure!! Next is War of the Worlds.

On the Monday I finally plucked up the courage to go to my swimming for the last time. I suddenly started to feel the emotions get hold of me as I cycled to the spa and saw the people there. As I left, after getting them to take photo’s etc. and the owner coming to speak to me and saying they will be very sad to see me go, I suddenly started seeing things as if it’s for the last time…which it was. Walking in slow motion into the steam room or sinking into the aromatic spa or relaxing in the bubble chair. This is it, the feeling you will have one day knowing it’s the end…….all seems better more beautiful and I wondered if I should stay another year……….hmmmmmm no thank you….I have people waiting for me! Things to do, places to see and people to meet….thanks but no thanks!

At school later that day I arrived on the school scooter after being at the other branch and I was immediately reminded of Mads. What do you think made me stop in my tracks and take a photo? Well maybe I should start with an introduction to her, she bought a cow print bikini a while back and came to love it! I just thought this would match it beautifully……a scooter painted in cow print! To die for doll!

The weather picked up a bit and we had beautiful bright blue skies dappled with fluffy white clouds…..a rare sight…believe me. Much like London weather, except for the rainy sky we have the foggy or rather smoggy sky. The rain cleaned it out a bit and the wind has picked up the last week and cleared the air a bit. I decided, the help of my mother, against bringing my faithful mountain bike back home. I don’t know what it is with me and transportation! I get very sentimental about anything that has faithfully transported me to my work or play through out my life! I can foresee a tearful departure!

The 2nd last week of the month has come to an end and I am in a lightly panicky mode as I am getting my things organised and hoping I don’t forget anything. I have to get to the post office at some stage to send my boxes home on the two month surface mail boat and am still waiting for the cargo company to get back to me with regards to Draco’s transportation. I have a quote already but just wanted a second one in case I could bring the price down a bit. Not too bad as it is. We still have to make our trip to Taichung within 10 days of departing Taiwan. I received his permit papers from SA and sighed a sigh of relief as that was now done and he was a legal immigrant.

Time is flying past and I got my Chinese shirt I had made. I bought the material at a corner shop with some stunning designs and colour but when I saw the turquoise and silver Chinese material I had to have it. I asked the guy for some African designs for my mom but they had very little and what they had was only an animal skin print. I asked him where I could get a shirt made and he took me around the corner to a connection of him. A family business by the looks of it. And old gentleman and a young guy. Probably father and son. He measured me up, made some suggestions in broken English and I decided on a design. It would be ready in about a week he said and I was back at the assigned time, soaked to the bone as this was the time the heavens opened! They weren’t ready yet and was putting on the final touches. It was beautiful! I decided not to rush them as he was displaying an amazing talent for stitching a hem….with his hand!! This is an astonishing accomplishment for me though, because I believe in machine work or iron on solutions……thank goodness they don’t and workmanship means everything to them in this country. I returned the next evening at about 9pm and found him on his own busy with the next project. My shirt was hanging in the window. What a stunning shirt it is! He lined it with a lavender and silver binding and frogs(Chinese ties) of the same colour. It picked up the small flower design of the same colour so beautifully. I tried it on and everything fitted perfectly. He was amazing, no adjustments needed and no mistakes made. Perfect!

I decided I will wear it to the kindergarten graduation on my final day of school in Taiwan. I showed the shirt to  the girls at school the week after and they immediately wanted me to don the garment for inspection. I agreed and “voila” they all exclaimed how stunning it looked. “You look so thin in it.” Was one comment I truly relished and decided that from now on I will be wearing this shirt every day! Naaahhh…but it’s a good sign that the design works for me…I’ll get similar ones made one day!

We went to see Batman and I was in heaven. It was stunning. Great movie and realistically made so that each physical feat is logically explained, not too super heroish. Father’s day passed and my mom’s birthday arrived and I was down in the dumps thinking about not being there. They phoned, I felt better and promised to have a party in a months time!!!

“All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go….” Sing with me “I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again……” probably never but I’ll never forget the people or this country, my faith in the human race has been restored and expanded to incorporate another race all together. The words of a numerologist that read my details probably 11 years ago at my first cell phone job in Jo’burg, still stuck in the back of my mind……”you will be a friend of the world…” interesting isn’t it?

So Saturday afternoon I went off to the Vet to get Draco’s papers for SA filled in and stamped and ready to take to Taichung within our 10 dyas of travelling and we got home just in time for getting ready for the rugby between SA and France (2nd match). Ryno suggested we go to Flamingo’s because they have Supersport on TV there and we went. Met Stacy(ex-teacher) and her SA boyfriend Douw and then the supporters streamed in wearing their SA jerseys. The pub that usually shows the games in Taichung was closed so they all got taxi’s to come and watch it out here. Like people coming from Durban to Toti to watch the game. An extraordinary feeling of camaraderie was on display as we cheered and shouted our comments on the match to the many TV’s all around. It was great! The best way to watch a game like this! Excited supporters cursed at the ref a few times and as we near the try line the roar was deafening and the beers were downed in celebration. We won and had a last round at about 11:30pm. We eventually left and went for a quick last last round at The New York bar…Melissa and I couldn’t find this place before but Ryno showed me the way and we chatted about our past travelling and again next year…hmmm Scandanavia and Norway will be the destinations, I think. We walked back at about 1:00am and I had a good sleep until about 9:30am when our next expedition was planned and executed.

So I escorted the new teacher Tanya that was leaving the Monday, to the morning market and popular street. We walked for over 5 hours. Started around 11am and ended around 5pm. Good exercise and good company. She had no problem finding clothes etc. She’s as small as they are and everything fits her perfectly. I saw the most amazing clothes for everybody today and it will probably not be there when I go back to buy it. The clothes are soo cheap ….a stunning shirt that would probably cost in the range of R100 – R200 will cost you R50 – R80 here. Really excellent export opportunity! Especially there shoes…you’ll have to cater for the 3 – 6 size, some up to 8 but seldom, at a third of the price at home. You can look like a Sandton coo-girl for R100! Designer wear and all! Let’s….

So our outing just re-connected my dulled senses with regards to my environment and I enjoyed myself as if it was the first time I went exploring. Great fun.

My plans to go to Chiayi with Melissa up the Alishan mountains fell through due to lack of funds with regards to the ever growing fight between gifts and pleasure. Gifts won and I was shopping like crazy, getting everything done.

The day was scorching and over 38degrees. In our apartment with the fan on it was 32…..lovely…Durban in Summer…aaahhh yes. SO suddenly I realised I had just over two weeks left before going home and the depression set in. Thinking about seeing some of the kids for the last time in your entire life! Seeing teachers or other people for the last time ever, was quite depressing and the stress of hoping alls well with all my paperwork for Draco just accumulated in my gaining another few grey hairs and many hours of lost sleep.

      Taiwan Times Vol 11 Vol.11 June 2005    And so my last month dawned. Got a website called Global paws that I emailed to help me with Draco and what was to happen on the plane and in quarantine…I feel much better.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Vol.10 May 2005

 The earth shook and my clothes swayed on the hangers. I’m sure it was just to say goodbye to April and the calm two months with no earth movement we enjoyed .…just reminding us that it’s still here under us, moving, breathing and changing. It started at 10:50 pm and it lasted about 5 min. I didn’t realize it was an earthquake until I saw my clothes swaying from side to side. The building takes a while to calm down though, so a lot of the additional swaying is the building coming to a stand still. It’s like taking a rubber column and moving the bottom and seeing the top go moggy for a while, like jelly until it is back where it started…pretty much like that.

And so a new month dawned with at least two things to look forward to….payday and the weekend away to Green Island “Liudau”. Can’t wait, need a break desperately and fresh air!!!! You can not believe how dirty air affects you! We are still very lucky in SA that our air is good….I have this vision of people wearing masks one day soon..oh wait they already do here!!!, everyone on a scooter has a mask. I bought one for my bike but couldn’t wear it, it was suffocating me. Even the smallest kids have. All kinds and designs…quite cute..sad but cute!! We need to appreciate it and try to hang on to it for as long as possible!! You only miss it when it’s gone! Trust me it’s gone here!

We had a photo session at the school for the kindergarten’s graduation etc. So they are making photo albums to give to the kids when they leave for BIG school…cool idea. I managed to steal the CD and copy the photo’s. The first photo is of the foreign teachers at the school. From left to right. Melissa( Canada), David(Canada),Teri(S.A), Abby(Canada), Karen(S.A), Ryno(S.A) and Kim(Canada). Photo 2 is our Zoolander poses in case you think we were serious!!!  The boys on the other hand obviously weren’t into taking photo’s as we were!! Photo 3 was my mom’s mother’s day gift. I need before and after photo’s, do you see the grey hair???? Photo 5 are all the teachers with the graduating class in Kindergarten called K3. With the owner Judy in the centre back next to Melissa. Great fun..as usual!!!

  So on Friday night I got a meal to remember! I was hungry and the Chinese teachers got me something for dinner..so nice of them. I opened the little square box, which all take always come in…someone makes them in their garage…..anyway, I opened it to see a pork knuckle. Skin and toes…lovely sight, I first thought it was a pork knuckle but kind of put it to one side thinking of eisbein or any other pork dishes we usually eat. The meat was sooo tender and fatty and homely that I licked it’s fingers off and enjoyed the meal. It was more difficult as I got fuller. But the paw or claw or foot was amazingly put together. Amazing what you learn about the anatomy of a pig if you eat all parts of it!!! It had fingers and nails like our feet…weird, with all the little bones you have in each finger as well, the end bone is slightly different and formed like a little hoof on it’s own…wow!!!!!! Anyway, so that was that, don’t know if I would like to do it again soon, but it was delicious, we are just way too spoilt for choice meat! To add to my day of experimenting with food, at lunch at the kindergarten I had some of the food they serve the kids. We had miniature squid as our meat source. About the size of a hair clip or a medium sized eraser. Tentacles, eyes and body……..I had to try two, each kid was given two, I saw a few on the side of the bowls after lunch….obviously not everybody’s cup of tea! Tasted like nothing much, chewy calamari, I think the eyes and the tentacles got me a bit….it looks very alive!!!! Don’t like to eat things that look like the original animal …you know? Anyway, been there and done that…bring on Fear Factor!!!! Obviously fear is not a factor for me!!!!!!

Samsung came to fetch my little camera all the way to Taipei for a service…yes people, I do take on average about 100 photo’s a day!!!!! Not really but I make up for it when we travel. I will have a full length 3hour movie when I get home, it might actually be more of a Lord of the Rings 1, 2 and 3…the more I think about it. How’s that for service. If anything goes wrong they fetch it where ever you are in the country…which is only the whole 360km of it from point to point…but that’s not the point. They come fetch it and fix it and return it within 7 to 14 working days which is within 7 to 14 days…teeeheee..these poor people!!!!

Anyway, it was 14 days on Wednesday and I got Monica, a friend of mine to phone to check where it is. So when she phoned they knew it was me “the English teacher from Changhua”. I’m famous…the whole Samsung Help Desk of Taiwan, knew me as the English teacher!!! They would try to get everything done a.s.a.p. I wanted it for my trip to Green Island next weekend, they assured me of priority treatment!! I suppose I was the only English name on their database…my name…Karen…no other details!!!!! Cell phone and address to pick it up and that’s it!!! They better hurry because my shooting/clicking finger needs exercise!

Mother’s day is coming and I’m getting all depressed about it! My mother is 14 hours flying in that direction to the west!!!! All the kids are writing our mother’s day wishes in their school mother’s day cards…too cute!!!

I’m going to explore Chiayi county with Melissa as she finalises her contract and paperwork with the new school. She resigned a week ago to the schools horror but they replaced her and me probably with two new people that arrived yesterday. We’ll still have to chat to them at some stage and warn them what they’re getting into. Just so that they don’t walk into this school blindly.

Kingdom of Heaven started this weekend as well so Saturday is movie day. Melissa wants me to go see the Boogeyman and House of Wax with her…I respectfully and politely tried to decline!! She’s a horror movie fanatic…also lives on a graveyard in Ontario…hmmmmmm…the friends I make!!! Anyway, Star Wars III is more my style and I promised to go with but watching another movie!! We’ll see if it works! Can’t wait!! Need to get some DVD’s before coming home…all the legal type, but much cheaper than home!!

I organised my mother’s day gift and package for sending and then you get stuck in what to send with, this is your chance of communication with the outside world, what can you send??? So many things!!! Food stuffs? No it’s mother’s day and besides it must be small enough to go express airmail to get to her by Tuesday or so. Anyway, so the gift with two cool photo’s and butterfly stickers she would love was carefully packaged as well as a school mother’s day card and a proper one….after bawling my eyes out writing the real one I ended it off with a silly one…all about balance!! I need my mom!!!!!!!!!

Anyway only two more months, missing her birthday as well! And don’t get me started on father’s day soon!!!!! At …how old am I now?……thirty something, your priorities change in life and family becomes the centre of your existence! Life is precious and way to short!

And so the rainy season also started with showers nearly everyday or every other day. My camera arrived on Tuesday to my relief and immediately I started clicking away…to check and see whether it works of course. My Q class at school graduated on Tuesday night and we had a bit of a ceremony for them. Pizza, biscuits, sweets and Milk tea. It’s amazing how you get attached to the kids and they to you. We exchanged email addresses to send photo’s. We’ll another two hours a week gone…my hours are dropping quickly as the stages graduate and move to other classes. In total I have lost 20 hours a month with this class ending this week.

Anyway, enough of that, let’s explore Taiwan rather and see what we can discover in the last few weeks. Well the heavens opened and we got washed away for a few days!! The poor dead river running next to our complex, suddenly got a life of it’s own and flowed merrily through the canal washing away all the sewerage that gets pumped into it daily from the factories along the canal. Soap, oil etc, etc. Can’t believe I hear the frogs chorusing at night. I think they are more in the actual rice paddies than in the river. Even small yellow and white butterflies flutter over the rice fields between the buildings and factories. To beautiful!

Well the weekend has dawned and I was getting very excited about our Green Island trip starting tomorrow night at 11pm on a bus in Taichung. Packed my three pieces of clothing, which included my cozzy (2 pieces) and my towel. No, a few things more, but light, minimum and mix ’n match style. I’m ready, camera charged!

After school on Friday night at about 9:00 Melissa and I walked to the station to meet up with Kim, Abby and Teri. We got our tickets and saw Kim already waiting…..big surprise as she is usually late…just shows you how desperate we were to go on holiday, even if this is actually only a weekend. Anyway, Abby and Teri pitched and we went for our train. We were on two different trains as we bought our tickets at the express machine but luckily there were two trains bound for Taichung within 15 min of each other. We arrived at Taichung and found the rest of the group in a pub nearby. We toasted our new adventure and met Eddie at the train station at 10:55pm.

He was on a scooter and we only had quick introductions. little did we then suspect what would happen over the weekend… So we got into a taxi and followed him on his scooter to the bus stop where we get our bus to Taitung. We chatted a bit and got some background on the his business etc. The bus was about 20min late but at 11:30pm we were in our seats and ready to roll. We explored the bus a bit and found a lounge on the bottom deck, which was basically just two rows of seats facing each other so that you could chat without disturbing the rest of the passengers sleeping up stairs. It was situated just behind the driver, between an extremely small bathroom and a semi bedroom section right behind the driver. We later discovered Kim had annexed the “bedroom” and made the crew stay up the whole night because she was in their bed!!! Just joking but she did sleep in their bed…..a bit of a Goldilocks ring to it, doesn’t it? I slept soon after we got on the bus and Melissa joined me upstairs soon after while the rest had a few drinks in the lounge and stayed there overnight. Anyway, after a fitful sleep I slowly awoke to see the sun rise over the flat mirror of the sea. Too beautiful. It reminded me sooo much of Toti sunrises maybe also because it was on the East coast of the country, that I have grown up with. The fishing boats were bobbing and swaying like floats on fishing rods in the calm grey early water. We arrived soon after in Taitung at about 6:15am. We got out, and caught the next means of transport to the harbour. The taxi’s dropped us off and we awaited our third means of transport in one day, a ferry, that was to depart at 7am for Green Island. We met up with Alicia and her two Chinese friends, I-han and Cleo.

It arrived on time and we boarded. A space age looking vehicle with all the space inside looking like an airplane and a small outside area on the top floor. Reminded me of a typical American style mode of transport, all engine and no packing space!

I took a space in a corner section of the railing and felt like Kate Winslet in Titanic, also wanted to burst into song…..but I didn’t. The small deck soon became crowded as the ferry rocked slowly toward Green Island that was visible from Taiwan soil. It was only 33km off the coast but took us about an hour to cross. Wonderful to have the wind in your hair, blue skies and fresh air. Aaah yes, fresh air! Blue seas!

Next minute a dog poked his head through the railing and looked out too sea with his nose to the wind and his eyes closed, so I wasn’t the only one. I patted him and looked around behind me on deck, it was a golden retriever convention! About 13 of them lay on the deck, it looked like a carpet! They were stunning.

We arrived at about 8:00.

The skies were clear as we thought we would have bad weather due to the storms and rain on the main island for the last few days. We were helped by Henry, a partner with Eddie to pack our bags in the combi while we were taken to get scooters. They were all 125cc and we chose number 18 to be our steed for our time here. We rode off like a biker gang to drop of our baggage at the hotel. It wasn’t even 5 min from the habour when we stopped at the Sunny Waters Hotel.

It was bit early and we left our bags to go and have some breakfast at the Green Summer Coffee – Tea. Our breakfast had real bacon!!!!Amazing how you miss the little things in life. Squires breakfasts at Harties or Cappuccino’s breakfasts at Menlyn. Anyway, it was fresh juice and a good breakfast.

We finished at about 9:30 and Eddie came in to tell us that we can go snorkelling at 10 if we want before it gets too hot. He said it was going to get about 40 degrees today. Lovely! So we all agreed and went off to the place where we get the wetsuits, snorkels and goggles and booties. I was wondering why on earth in warm water and a hot day do we have to wear wetsuits. I think we lost about 5kg’s just getting to the snorkelling site! It was damn hot!!!! On scooters we all left the shop and travelled to the snorkelling site, me with my helmet and my goggles and snorkel in the wind!!! I was told by Teri that it was quite a site!! I aim to please!

We arrived and took to the waters.

This island was known as Burning Island or Fire island by the locals who lived on this volcanic island. So many of the beaches have coral and volcanic rock you need to cross to get to the deeper water. So we walked ankle deep into the warm water for a few meters before being able to swim. It was beautiful, sea life worthy of the Maldives and many other diving sites in the world. The parrot fish, angel fish and many more darted in and out of the coral and crevices. They fed the fish with some bait and hundreds came to snap it up. Henry, our diving guide as well, caught a puffer fish and showed it to us, this little thing that was now a ball of spikes the size of a large apple, hissing as air escaped and he tried to make himself bigger, was not too impressed with this capture and unwilling demonstration of what a puffer fish looks like puffed up!!! When he was freed he deflated and disappeared among the crowds underwater. We saw a yellow and black, sea snake or eel type. Stunning! The people were not equipped with fins, to protect the reefs and plant life. The few times I tried to dive down, the buoyant wetsuit and lungs full of air popped me back up, feet first like a blow up doll. I gave up the battle after a few attempts. We were being stung like hell by small strands of jellyfish type things, that were mostly invisible to the naked eye but looking carefully, you could see them. They drifted about a ruler’s length thick on top of the water. Small specks of glowing neon red plankton was visible every now and then and darted away as you tried to touch it. Too cool, no pain no gain! It was great. After we returned to the shop and thanked them we went exploring, agreeing to meet each other at the beach called Dabaisha, “white sands” beach.

So off we went. I wanted to see as much as possible before the weather changes or we don’t get the opportunity later, you know how it goes on holidays, do it while you can and the opportunity presents itself. So off we went stopping at all kind of spots to get some stunning photo’s of the rock formations and clear water. There is a Sleeping Beauty rock with a small Pekinese dog rock near her head. We didn’t know this was the sleeping beauty rock until we looked at our photo’s later! Too beautiful.(last photo). This is the old harbour at high tide…remember this one.

The wind came up on the one side of the island and we found the beach. Kim and them were there already and we waited for Abby and Teri. They eventually came and we had a beach day for the rest of the afternoon.

We had our usual Zoolander shot that we used for our T-shirt of Green Island.

The Chinese people are a fascinating race, or rather the Taiwanese. For a nation that lives on an island: no one swims (or very few), they don’t go to the beach other than to take photo’s of themselves on it but clothed from head to toe because they don’t want to be tanned as this is a sign of being inferior or of a lower class and they work themselves to death. Why live on an island??? Go live in the UK. Oh wait, that’s also an island. Amazing the contrast to any other nation living anywhere near the sea or on an island. They always have a laid back attitude, lazy days, brown bodies and carefree life styles. Weird!

We were asked to pose with strangers we have never seen or don’t know from a bar of soap, we were taken photo’s of unawares by passers by and young boys with cellphone camera’s….we were over night celebrities! They could probably not believe that we would be lying in the sun tanning on the beach…what a ridiculous notion!!! Who does that? On our way off the beach we met up with a family from New Zealand. They were parents coming to visit their son who teaches in Taipei. The dad and I were talking rugby when he heard I was from South Africa. The mother was quite cool as well and the son told us of his 6months in Taiwan.

It was about 5pm when we got back to the hotel and went for dinner at the Fisherman’s. Eddie got us at about 6:00pm and we walked down the street to where the Fisherman was looking out over the ocean. Too beautiful to watch the sunset from there! We were organised at a table upstairs on the deck. We met Jackie another contact who apparently, we didn’t know this at the time, owned the ferry service and half the island. The godfather! Good to know him! We also got to know Ted, another Canadian, who joined us from then on. Everybody was in a festive mood and we took the restaurant by the horns.

We had delicious seafood dishes presented to us and the wine flowed. We thought that this was where the evening would end as everybody was drained by the sun and being awake for so long and not really sleeping on the bus. But then the second wind came for all and the party started!

And on it went! At about 11:00pm we ended up going to where Eddie and his crew hanged out, behind their shop. Stunning Japenese garden style layout of white pebbles and two sets of dark green granite tables and granite rocks for chairs. We all gathered and sat back and relaxed over a few whiskies. Then the thought came of all going for a dip in the old harbour which is used as a swimming pool. Off we went all on our bikes again heading north, past the lighthouse and there we were. The bikes were parked and we all skinny dipped, probably about 10 to 12 grown up people, screaming and splashing around like kids every time something brushed past our legs! (It was seaweed) Isn’t it cool to be alive!!!(This is where the harbour photo comes in)

That lasted about an hour and by this time it was nearly 2:00 in the morning. Then Eddie suggested we gate crash the hot springs! Okay!!! We were on the bikes and off again. The group had diminished somewhat to about 5 of us going to scale the fence of the famous, volcanic hot springs! We got there and parked our bikes in a dark undetectable section in the road…..all very 007, climbed over the fence and walked down to the three pools as if we were royalty! Eddie assured us that he ALWAYS does this, the people knew him by now! The hot springs are natural and heated by the active volcanic currents. One pool is hot, the second cooler and the third even cooler. Eddie educated us on the use of the pebbles at the bottom of the pool to rub on your skin or feet by pulling Melissa off her feet to perform the demonstration. It was fantastic. Therapeutic and calming. Everybody was in a pool somewhere and new customers kept coming and going at 2 in the morning!!!! At about 3am I couldn’t keep my eyes open and went home leaving the rest to percolate! I think at about 5am all the birds were in the nest. What a day!

The next morning at about 10:00 am we got up and went for breakfast. Various levels of hangovers were appreciated and shared and treated. After breakfast we were told Eddie managed to organise us the 5pm ferry instead of the 12 o’clock one! I think we impressed Jackie!! It’s who you know!  We were extremely grateful. We went exploring a bit on the way to the beach again at about 11:00 and swam and tanned until about 14:30.

Then things got a bit rushed as we were told that we had to get the 4pm ferry due to fully booked ferries. We went to the T-shirt shop, downloaded our Zoolander picture for the woman at the shop to put on out T-shirts and went for lunch. We came back and it was nearly 4pm. We raced to the harbour, parked our bikes on the side of the road and ran to the ferry as it hooted!! The whole ferry was waiting just for us!!! We let rip down the harbour side, bags, bobbing and foreigners flying. We made it! And the people on deck cheered!!! We apologised to all in general and explained we didn’t want to leave Green Island, they understood! We waved goodbye to the best holiday in ages and this photo shows a boy who depicted what we were feeling at that stage.

  But we reminisced as we sailed of into the sunset. Off to Taitung and a 6 hour wait for the bus back to Taichung.

Lucky for us the sea was calm but some still felt a bit under the weather with the motion of the ocean. We arrived at 5pm and went walking around. Dropping our bags off at the bus station saying goodbye to Eddie and going for a snack at Young’s a restaurant in Taitung. We had something to eat and drink and wandered the streets aimlessly after Alicia, I-han and Cleo got their train to Tainan. Email addresses were exchanged and photo’s promised. Good friends departed and the wait continued. We probably walked past the same people in the streets 4 or 5 times in our wanderings, and images of them asking us if we were lost flashed by. Oh look dad, those foreigners again…. Oh look dad, those foreigners again!!!!! At about 10pm after sitting outside KFC for nearly an hour I went back to the bus station to read my book while the other three went shopping for pillows at the Working House, a bit like Boardman’s in SA. The bus finally arrived after we surfed the channels on a TV in the waiting room and competed with a guy that probably works there or knows the guy who does. This bus had individual seats in a row, so you had a huge lazy boy all to yourself with no one next to you. We all passed out pretty quickly and I was only awaken by the wild bus driver’s maneuvering skills through the mountains and narrow mountain roads at an amazing speed for such a big bus, that moved me from side to side in my chair! I woke up again at about 5:00 as we entered Taichung. We said goodbye to Teri and Abby and caught a taxi to Changhua, I was back in bed by 6:00 and woke up at 12:00. The day was bright with an unusually bright blue sky. We then heard that they have had downpour after downpour the whole weekend…..isn’t it amazing how the good weather just sticks to me on my trips to places! That’s why the air was so clear. Amazing the difference the blue air makes to the look of the city. Anyway, back to work but in a much better mood than usual. Everybody commented on our stunning red tans and broad smiles. Let’s see how long we can run on this regenerated energy.

Monday 16 May, I now officially have 2 months to go before my contract ends!

The time flew by and suddenly it was the next weekend. We wore our T-shirts to school to the great delight of the kids. “Teacher I see you!” was most of the comments jabbing you in the back as they scrutinize the photo. Melissa had packed her bags and we had our last breakfast together at our breakfast shop, where the owner was fascinated by my silver bracelets I always wear. I promised her I’ll have a look around to see if she can get it here in Changhua. Very few people here wear bracelets or much jewelry, not even many rings. So of course, me with all my silver, always attracted attention with the kids. “I want this!”

So the depressing action of saying goodbye and seeing Melissa off to Chiayi began on Saturday afternoon at about 1:00 She packed, and boy did she have luggage. Two big bags and two smaller bags with one on the side. I suppose I haven’t even started to see what mine will accumulate to. Anyway, we got a taxi and Eddie, our initial taxi guy rocked up to take us to the train station. We got our tickets, got on the train and off we went. One hour later we arrived in Chiayi and was helped by the passengers to off load the luggage, amazing how helpful people are here!! Anyway, Harris, her new boss, was waiting for us to take us to her flat. We got dropped off and met with Gloria, a Philippines lady that has been at the school for about 4 years and about 60 years old. Too cool. We got Melissa settled in and went for lunch. As we left the building gate the 3R3H was winking at us from across the road….how lucky s that and how weird. Our favourite place just outside her door as well. We had the usual chicken salad and a stunning Melon ice smoothie, must get the recipe! We met up with her third roommate Michelle who was busy on her laptop in the restaurant. A proper coo girl, but in a very good way. Aerobics, dancing and shopping!!!! We unpacked all her things out of my suitcase and it was nearly 6 o’clock already when we started walking to the train station to see me off. Me with my big green empty suitcase and Melissa. Said our goodbyes and she’ll visit within the next three weeks for the dragon boat festival on the 11 June in Lukang, a must see! So there I was on my own, back to Changhua, got off and walked home with my empty suitcase.

Life carries on regardless. It’s a blessing in disguise, don’t you think? No matter what happens to you, it moves on and goes by whether you grab and hang on to it with all your might, it slowly slips from your grasp and suddenly it’s the next day!!!

We have had hot and humid days, nothing like Durban in Feb but close in heat. Your laundry dries in half an hour! No tumble dryer needed! (Unlike Durbs!) The school’s reading competition is on Saturday when we dedicate our well earned free time of 5+ hours to listening to kids read on a Saturday from 12:30 to about 5:40pm.  Lovely, that’s why we’re here!!!!

Anyway, we’re planning some relaxing after it. Apparently a new started and will be starting on Monday next week. She has been kept under lock and barrel from us, probably trying to get her to stay at least a week before deciding to go! Shame!! Anyway, no matter, they need people as David is leaving in 5 weeks, me in 7 and the rest each month after! Trying to get things organised for Draco with the vet that Teri and Abby use for their dogs. I’ll have to sort him out by next weekend because he can’t fly if the vaccinations are done within a month of travelling, must be more than a month.

Things are happening fast and furious in my last few weeks. Feels like I’m running out of time to do the things I’ve wanted to. In two weeks or so is the Dragon boat festival….can’t wait!

I pulled all my strength from my various reserves and went to go and see Star Wars III, for the first time without my brother………big move for me!!!! This is a tradition that has lasted all of his 26years. We do big movies together….no questions asked!!! Definitely loses some of it’s appeal without him. I nearly poked a Chinese couple in the ribs sitting next to me to show him my excitement when going to see a long awaited movie!!! You can’t discus things and say “cool hey?” you know?, those important little interactions when watching a cool movie. Anyway, the movie soon gripped me and I lost track of all the 10 people in the cinema. I waited a while before going to see it because of the usual rush and I went to see it at 1:00pm on a Sunday! Much better! Next movie “Batman begins” starting 19 June!!! Can’t wait!!!

Got as sick as a dog on Saturday, had a nagging dry cough that’s lasted for about a week or so and suddenly at the internet café on Saturday evening, I nearly lost them all their clientele with my coughing…..just joking, it’s so noisy in there with each computer playing full blast through their speakers and each guy playing a different game! But my eyes were streaming and I had to leopard crawl to the fridge for a water!!! It calmed down a bit after that. I don’t know who’s battery ran out first, mine or the laptop’s. Went home and Sunday morning I had a cold! Amazing how it works here. It hits over the head in a matter of approximately 2 to 3 hours flat. This place and the air is no good! There is a vicious child sickness sweeping Taiwan and three kids have died already. It looks like a rash on the inside of the lip and on the hands and legs. Looks like irritated mozzie bites. Immediately the alcohol sprays come out, although it was said this doesn’t help. Some kids will show different parts of the disease although not all is fatal, a certain combination or level is though. So any sign and they’re whisked off to the doctor. A few of the kindergarten kids have displayed some symptoms and were treated as best they can. The problem with this one is that the adults become the carriers because our immune system is strong enough to fight it…….hope this is not a repeat of my chicken pox episode at 30 years old!!!!!!!! A childhood with a record breaking 0 typical childhood sicknesses and I get it from a baby at over 30 years old!!!! Go figure!!!! Anyway, I’ll watch the cold as this would probably affect my immune system a bit….gimme meds!!!!!!

  Taiwan Times vol 10 Vol.10 May 2005  The earth shook and my clothes swayed on the hangers. I’m sure it was just to say goodbye to April and the calm two months with no earth movement we enjoyed .…just reminding us that it’s still here under us, moving, breathing and changing.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Vol.9 April 2005

    So off we went. Woke up at 4:45am had a shower and got ready. Way too excited! We went downstairs to wait for our taxi and Kim to wake up. They arrived at about 5:45 and we got to the train station around 6:00am We got our tickets which were around NT 793. Myself and Melissa did not get allocated seats and would have to stand or sit where we get a gap, realizing that the seats were already allocated. Not a problem, as they get on the train we get up and move to another empty seat. Our first hour and a half we had seats and the next hour or so we had to stand, not too bad as we were chatting away. We met up with Alicia at the Tainan station and the train got a bit busy. Kim got tired of sitting and asked one of us to sit in her seat while she gets up a bit and chats to Alicia, I took it and napped a bit and they all got seats with the next stop. We eventually arrived at Taitung station around 12:00am and was about to walk to the hostel which was nearby according to the map, but was helped by a young Chinese girl and a taxi driver dropped us off on the other side of the city! According to the map the hostel was near the old station, which wasn’t in use any more! Thanks for letting us know. Anyway, only NT100 later he dropped us off at Gringo hostel, bar and restaurant. It was closed up with no one in sight. We called the numbers and had no reply until somebody finally answered the phone. They were on their way to open up. It said on a notice on the door the place operates from 11am to 11pm….yeah right….12:30? It’s a coastal resort, they’re laid back! Very!!

  Anyway, a blond red faced guy and a Chinese girl stopped in a car while we were standing outside and she apologized profusely while opening the roll up garage type door that revealed a cozy setting of couches, dark wood floors and classic style furniture. Very nice! We sorted out our rooms and were allocated 302 and 301. Kim and Alicia were planning on staying for two days and us only one. We had to wait while the same girl, Coco, cleaned the room as well. We settled and decided on our next move which was eating! We were all starving! We went downstairs and ordered margaritas and some nacho’s and Mexican tortillas and synchrodillas..or something. Very tasty when they finally arrived as Coco was also the chef and the barmaid….surprise! We then decided to go for a stroll to find the seashore bike trail and hire some bikes. We ended up strolling and exploring the beach.

    The weather was cloudy and a tad drizzly but it didn’t stop us from exploring. We arrived at the beach and walked to the top of a grass rise and saw the ocean in all it’s glory! The sky was different shades of gray as well as the sand and stones on the beach. The whole of Taiwan is volcanic in origin and so has mainly gray pebble beaches with a few brown sand beaches in Kenting(South) and a few other scattered places. We had a few crazy poses on a huge wall that separated the beach from the grass and a group of Chinese boys tried to gather enough courage to offer to take the pictures for us. One poor boy of about 16 or so was ragged by his friends for offering to take a picture of us on the wall. Then they all wanted to take photo’s of us…I obviously asked for payment in return!

  I jumped over the wall which had huge step like concrete sections down to the sand. Many “dolosse” lined the beach and the pebbles were huge! Here and there was a section of normal looking sand, although it was gray and then smaller pebbles appeared until you finally got to the waters edge. I was in it in a flash. The water was warm and clear. Somehow the beach looked dirty! I think I am too used to a white or light beach to appreciate a gray one much. It is definitely beautiful in it’s own way. I collected some pebbles in stead of sea shells and we walked back to follow a path further down the beach. We came to an arty park where there were some native hakka statues and some modern art scattered all over the park.

  A huge frame angled into the ground caught my fancy and we all posed a few times in funny poses before moving on to a weird looking wave staircase. We got Kim to pose on this one. Then we walked by a small caravan coffee shop and decided to sit and have a cupper. They were so friendly and inquisitive. Eventually we were posing with the wife and the husband. The little caravan was very neatly organized and many pictures of white or golden Labradors were on it and we found out that it was their eleven dogs. Too beautiful and cute. So after waving goodbye we hurried on our exploration path as the weather was changing and we could see the storm coming in over the sea. We finally got the bike trail and a small suspension bridge over a river mouth. The girls posed and we made our way back to the hostel.

  We passed so many shops along the side that we decided to come back after we freshen up in our rooms. We all felt like some KFC for dinner and at about 6:00pm went for a shopping walk and dinner. We lay around Kim and Alicia’s room getting ready for our party at a club called Amigo’s that was advertised in the Gringo’s. Made sense. And at about 9:45 we went to find it. We also read that if we get there before 10pm we get free entry…important fact for me at this stage as I was on a tight budget! Anyway we got to where it said it was and it wasn’t there! It had moved! Thanks again guys! Luckily not far from the hostel or the old location. We just backtracked and found it, it also changed it’s name to Who’s. Very cool and decorated in a very up market style. Could do well in Jo’burg. Small but effective use of space. Quite new and a stunning dance floor with state of the art lighting and a lazer show. The bar was not very well organized but then the place never got busy until after about 1am. We got there and were the only other people there except for a guy and a girl. It was cool though, we got to know the manager and chatted away until about 11:00 when they said two DJ’s from Taipei was coming in to play for their promotional evening. We kept on thinking that there must be a party somewhere else because the place just never got full or even busy. The DJ’s were cool and as usual we opened the dance floor and were the only people dancing until two small groups of Chinese people joined in. But by joined in, I mean joined our circle….maybe it was the way we were carrying on, we were going wild as usual, I should add, and the next minute we were surrounded by happy people also going crazy…sooo cool! The outfits these people wear out to clubs! Interesting is all I’ll say. It is a coastal town anyway so that explains a glittering skirt with slops and a track suit top. No worries if you’re having a good time! We were shoeless at one stage after trying to get a drink in side ways, when we were abducted by some in the group and dragged back to the dance floor. We met and got to play some games with a Chinese guy called Russel, Jack and their friend Baby. They played a dice game that involved 5 dice. The one who can throw the most double numbers won. So everybody has a go and if you could get two doubles in a through the others had to drink. Cool game, I did well, but a bit unfair as everybody else was drinking! Anyway we were on the dance floor soon afterwards and danced up a storm.

 We met a Canadian guy that was there on holiday and he told us about his teaching in the Kaohsiung area, pronounced “Gowshung”. I have no idea why we’re are still at our school! The lowest salary he has ever heard of was a hundred more than we are getting, with holidays and they pay you for attending a half hour meeting once every month. We get paid peanuts and work up to 70 hours a month for free for the school with no teacher’s appreciation and that includes two meetings a week at our cost (in time)!. They don’t work on weekends! Another shocker! Why do we put up with our school? Okay, I feel much better now!!! Enough of work!

 Anyway, the party carried on and the place filled up a bit but we were still about the only ones on the dance floor, probably unwittingly the organized entertainment. At about 12:30 they had an amazing laser show! Too cool! I was mesmerized! We eventually left at about 2:30 with Collin, the Canadian guy, myself and Alicia walking back to the hostel. He invited us to go snorkeling with them tomorrow. We’ll see! We have to make some plans. Kim had left a bit earlier as she only got to bed the previous morning at about 1:30. They decided to go to Green Island the next morning, being picked up and taken to a ferry which will take them to Green Island in about 40min and spending two nights at the same place Ryno went to a while back. The guy they organized through is called Eddie, a South African guy. We’ll go someday, when the money is flowing a bit stronger.

   We decided to go to the temple in the hill just down the road and get some “mwatsie” for the girls at the school. It’s a sticky little ball with a red bean, green bean or sesame filling. We found out about a bus to Kaohsiung as there wasn’t that much to see in this town that doesn’t involve driving out the town. But we decided to go back to the hostel gather our things and get a taxi to the train station and take a train there. Easier. We got back at about 12:30 and they were still closed. We got our stuff and hailed a taxi and off we went. We got to the train station and were just in time for the next train, it was meant to be. We had 10min to catch the train. We got seats as well! We got to Kaohsiung and booked our ticket to Changhua before leaving the station on an expedition.

  No seats available for the 2hour trip, no hassles. We arrived at Kaohsiung at about 5:00pm. Organised a locker for our luggage and off we went exploring. We went to the bus station outside the train station and asked them how do we get to the harbour. The next minute they ushered us into an empty bus the guy went to start and the next minute some people joined us and off we went. Along the way we picked up an old guy with a cute round friendly face and he could speak English. We got talking. At our next stop we had crossed the river and we got off to explore the riverside a bit. It was beautiful. A really beautiful city, a mix between Taipei(the capital) and Taichung (the town down the road from us). The river is called the Lovers river in memory of a legend of a couple that died there. We walked along the river through a park with so many people and dogs and kids enjoying their Sunday afternoon in the park. We passed a film library, that would be interesting to explore sometime. We’ll be back.

 We followed our map and went down some funny siffy looking streets and started thinking we weren’t in the right place. I suppose any harbour has it’s greasy sections. We took a left at some stage and found we were finally back on track as we saw the Art Pier 2. There was a cool looking pub on the side of the road with people lining up for something. It was called the Ice Pub and from the glimpse we got inside the marquee it looked like it was done up as a ice cave. Cool! We unfortunately did not have a lot of time to explore as our train back was at 7:45pm. Melissa suggested we take a short cut to the Seaview Pavilion and we followed the traintracks until we got to the Kaohsiung Port. This reminded me so much of Durban’s waterfront. And the name of their complex? “Fisherman’s wharf”. Nearly identical to Durban’s layout. Watching the ships go by. There were many people and we got some dinner at the Pasta pot, which was part of a large food court. Many trendy looking pubs and restaurants on the outside. Very nicely and neatly done. It put me in a reminiscing mood. It felt like home!

  We walked on and got a taxi to take us back to the station at about 7:00pm. The taxi driver was very friendly and first tried to drop us off at a hotel that sounded like train station in Chinese…we obviously said it wrong! Luckily in the same direction as the station. The doorman explained to him it was the train station we wanted to be taken too and the driver nodded and smiled his red stained beetle juice teeth at us, showing he understood. It was quiet in the car and we could hear his chewing the nuts and spitting them out into a small bag…I nearly died! Melissa was sitting right next to him so it must have been even worse for her. He kept on replacing whatever he spat out. His mouth corners were red from the juice and his teeth, you don’t want to know about! We finally got to the station with enough time to get our bags and take a leisurely stroll to the platform, which turned out to be the wrong one, but we had enough time to walk to the next one without running our legs off. We managed to sit for quite some of the way but this section is much busier that the other coast. So our last half hour we stood. We arrived in Changhua at about 10:00pm got a taxi, got home and went straight to bed! I had an easy morning the following morning and could sleep late. Which I did! At about 12:00 I woke up and got ready for school. Tuesday is a holiday so Monday was just a reminder of what we were getting back to. 

Tuesday was tomb sweeping day. A day when each family goes to where their ancestors are buried and cleans it up, cuts the grass, trims the bushes and burn money. They then place some paper money on the tomb stone with stones to keep it from blowing away. They bring snacks and candy and eat it there before leaving. They spend about an hour there. The burning of money happens every so often as an offering to their gods to pay for their sins. This as you can imagine, pollutes the air something terrible. And a gray smog can be seen the next day. According to their air quality chart in the news paper Kaoshiung has the most polluted air. Taichung and Taipei are even, in just under “unhealthy” and Ilan and Hualien on the north eastern coast, the best air. They measure it in something I can’t make out but it ranges from 0 – 125. We are in the 50 – 75 range and Kaohsiung past 75. I’ll find out.  

Payday is coming! So the next few days obviously things happen and nobody has money. We had a braai on Saturday after a half day at the school with pre tests for the kids to do their Style Jet official testing later. Just to prepare them for the test more than anything. Next weekend will be the same. 

The school has now gone on a rampage with observing our classes, filming it and doing a reading competition in between! Hectic! We don’t have a chance! I think I’m being video taped over 11 times during the next 3 weeks! I’m famous!!! “Handtekeninge later”. So now they get training material and promotional material out of us for free! What a rip off, I want my money back! 

Anyway, you can obviously tell my 1 year expiry date is drawing near…. 

We had a course in “how to make rice dumplings” a famous food for Taiwan and Changhua specifically. The country has many towns that are famous for a specific food type. 

Anyway we went to visit a friend just down the road and she showed us how. They get the dough in a small circle ready made and powdered, feels like a soft plastic. The filling you make of minced pork and  dried garlic and cabbage. The cabbage and garlic you can dry out in the sun on a tray, the reasoning behind this is that if you put normal fresh cabbage in the dough it goes soggy…so you mix this all together with some ginger and voila the filling is ready. You take your circle of dough place a teaspoon of filling in the middle, fold it half and squash the edges together in a fan style. That’s it. Ready for the boiling water on the stove. You dump the in there and wait about 5 minutes and take them out….perfect! You can make any type of filling and my mind was already thinking of different fillings I can put in there, may be a breakfast dumpling will be good, egg, bacon and mushroom and cheese mix….yes!!!!! Anyway may be a boerewors or potjie filling….okay! I’m getting carried away…stop it! We had lunch and went through all her traveling photo’s. She teached Chinese in Costa Rica for 2 years and had traveled all over South America…stunning! I have to go there some time. So a Sunday afternoon with dumplings, orange juice, photo’s and good company! What a way to spend the day.

 The weekend crawled closer and we got on with a lazy disposition. We decided that Sunday would be our Lukang walking around day. Ryno said he hadn’t been yet and wanted to go. So at about 11am on Sunday we got to the bus station and got on our bus. 20min later we were in the hustle and bustle of Lukang in full swing. It had been a religious week so far, as it was Matsu’s birthday, one of their main gods. We showed Ryno our favourite shops and entered the arch just as the cacophony of music approached us.

 What a rush of adrenaline to see a parade like this in full costume and bright colours. Cymbals clashed as a group of men carried a litter with incense smoking from within. Bouncing lightly on their feet with a dark wood carved litter on their shoulders and shaking it violently from side to side. Huge brightly coloured figures marched regally past with glittering gold and silver costumes. The flat wine of their traditional pipes filled the streets as people took pictures and stared to look. These sounded much like bagpipes but the difference came in when the huge red drums being beaten by very competent drummers, flicking the short baton looking sticks nimbly between their fingers, appeared behind them. The rush of new knowledge is overwhelming and I was awestruck and was once again drawn and beaconed to follow. I ran ahead to get better photo’s of the amazingly well painted faces but they all had a small feathered fan that they held before their faces as you tried to take their pictures. They believe that the camera will cause something to happen to the spirits and maybe set them free to roam. The fan is a symbol of separation and in a wedding the bride throws a fan out the car window to reinforce their union.

    Many followers were carrying small statues of their gods covered in yellow silk sashes with red writing and people in between were burning incense while the drums kept a rapid heart beat. The huge 8ft figures past by silently batting their huge wide eyes and showing off their exquisitely made costumes. We moved further down the walk way and came to the temple where the ceremony was originating. Many people were gathered around the main ceremony area in the centre court of the temple. The painted face monsters with their protruding teeth were there as well with the huge figures of different gods performing a dance as they fell in line to start their procession from the temple. Crackers pierced the air and the smell of sulphur, crackers and incense mingled into a heady perfume enfolding all the onlookers.

We bought some traditional pastry, called cow’s tongue. Basically a “nayoshuping” butter pastry but smaller and in the shape of a cow’s tongue. They come in three colours now, a plain, purple(taro) and pink(strawberry). Very good. I’ll send a food package home soon! The walk way was alive with people and stuffed with new gifts and goods for their festive season. The little dragon puppets are amazing and I’m seriously thinking of getting a few. They reminded me of a huge puppet on strings I used to have, a big bird with big eyes and feathers. I loved it. These little dragons are about the size of a small foxy with big eyes, a moving mouth and little bells in between the furry bits and sequence, all the colours of the rainbow. It costs only NT300 which is just less than R50. Too beautiful.

The vibrant colours even on our grey drizzly day gave the market a festive atmosphere and people were in good spirits….as usual. Thousands of lanterns lined the streets between shops and department stores always giving Lukang a festive feel. Alive and pulsating. 

Suddenly the knowledge of going home makes me appreciate everything more than before. More like the first time I’ve seen them. I look at things as if it’s the last time I might see them. Suddenly I don’t have enough time and money again. Story of my life but the experiences, that’s what makes life worth living! This I write with “the Police” singing “Every breath you take” in my ears and watching the people pass by as I ride in the bus. Weird how music takes you to a place outside of the real world and let you look in. Like your own life soundtrack! Cool! People on scooters, kids n the school clothes riding their bikes home, rice paddies in between the buildings with the glimmer of an afternoon sun on the water. An old man smoking on the sidewalk, the smell of burning incense, two old ladies helping each other over the road, Chinese writing all over, and sidewalk vendors shouting their specials. The sun red in the smog of late afternoon. A banner with the words Washingwon D.C advertising a new complex to be built. No, it’s not a spelling mistake on my side! Taiwan are full of these gems. Any greeting card you pick up will have a weird ensemble of sentences lashed together making no sense whatsoever.

And so the month came to an end and we went to see Sahara at the Taiwan Hotel Cinema. Excellent movie….as usual…I only go to see excellent movies! Anyway I was in ecstasy when I found out Star Wars starts on the 5/20 and Kingdom of Heaven starts on the 5/6..can’t wait, luckily we got some coupons on our way out so I can see 3 movies at NT100 each instead of NT220(+- R44). Did I mention this before? Where is my discovery movie card now!!!!! We visited the internet café as well, hoping to hear something about my next job adventure but to no avail! Maybe next week!!!

Taiwan Times Vol 9 Vol.9 April 2005     So off we went. Woke up at 4:45am had a shower and got ready.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

March 2005

And so the short February month came and went. Only 5 months to go…how time flies! Things will be tight as we don’t get paid holidays and we had 6 days holiday this month….oh well, all part of the experience I suppose…limits my excursions a bit though, so this month will be a tad quiet by my standards.

 Suddenly I have to plan to go home…find another job and organise to send my stuff back! When you get here you plan on how to make the place your own and half way through your contract you plan on how to take it all back. 1 cat, 1 Hi Fi and a bike I never had before! Interesting! Well on the other hand who says I’m coming home??? Made you think, haven’t I? We’ll see how it goes with finding something either back home or else where…all depends. My flight is on the 23 July 2005…my cut off date! Don’t you just love the stress levels and adrenaline rush attached to deadlines!!!

 So my first weekend in March I get sick. Probably took all of three hours Friday afternoon and I was wheezing and coughing and struggling for air! Lay in bed the whole evening watching Lord of the rings. Saturday wasn’t much better and after my 2hour class I was ready to give up on life as I once new it. You don’t realize how important breathing is until you can’t! I told my boss Judy I don’t feel well, she whipped out her brother-in-laws business card to his nose and throat clinic, isn’t family wonderful, and off I went. Slept a few hours as the clinic only opens at 3pm. Eventually I got up and started cycling really slowly until I got there. Very neat, tidy and big. Got entered into the computer via my National Health Insurance card and got assigned a number, 34. I took a seat in the foyer where the other people were waiting. A very efficient and effective system. I sat in the front first and then moved into a corner position where I felt more comfortable and could watch the people from there, I gave one good cough and the guy next to me got up and went to the far side of the room…teeheeeeheee, didn’t mean to frighten him off. He probably thought what disease did this foreigner bring into the country! After a while I noticed one of my students in the clinic, Elaine, she helped me mark a few test after class today, I felt bad as I thought I had  given her this killer virus. I told you it worked fast, 3 – 4 hours and you have it!!! We’ll see on Monday how many I affected, maybe it was the other way around, they did it to me!!!  I felt like a bit of a celebrity as Elaine and her brother waved at me and eventually the mother waved as they left, everybody looked at me. Next minute another teacher form the school saw me and waved and I waved back and everybody looked at me again! Yeah, I know people everywhere!!!! Cool hey!!! The numbers flew by and finally it was my turn. I walked through the sand blasted glass door and was met by a slight Chinese doctor, Judy’s brother in law. With his mask on and the usual big silver round shaped “whatever that is”-iron eye on a band around his head. He was very friendly and gave me back NTD20 of the NTD100 I paid when I came in to get an appointment. A benefit of working at Sesame Street School! He asked me what was wrong I explained and I was seated in a dentist looking chair for the check up. The chair came fully equipped with a foot pump for the vertical movement of the chair! Cool!! He pulled out my tongue and asked me to say “ee” Do you now how difficult this seemingly easy task really is? Let someone pull out your tongue at least over halfway out of your mouth and then say”ee”. Anyway, he brushed some brown stuff onto the back of my tongue for the sore throat, which worked immediately..very effective. Then he sent me with his nurse. Not even 5 min and I was out, amazing. I went with her into a little indent around the corner where some inhalers were. She set up a little machine for me with a liquid ball in the middle and added the medicine to it and the next minute with the turning of some knobs and things it looked like a hubbly bubbly. I had to keep the “Kreepy crawly” looking pipe close to my nose and inhale deeply…okay lady!!!! About 5 inhales later I could breathe fully again, amazing. As part of his diagnosis he told me I have asthma…lovely, this air is doing me wonders!!

 After about 5 min I was done on the hubbly bubbly and was shown to the dispensary where I received a long package of individual sections, for each day, relevantly marked 1, 2, 3 which meant morning, afternoon and evening. SO for three days I take these and come back for a check up. Cool, see ya then. I went home and went straight to bed. At about 1 to 2 in the morning I realized what it felt to have an asthma attack or to suffocate. I couldn’t breathe, I had short breaths of air coming into my lungs and the bubbling of all the liquid in them made it sound like someone was laying snoring in my lungs, the weight proved that theory as well! I was in a panicked stricken way at this time and the more I tried to breathe the less air I got in and each breath became a huge effort. My muscles were aching in every possible way. I didn’t know you had muscles around your lungs, I think their stiff after this work out!!! I calmed myself down and eventually decided to take the number 1 package allocation of pills, because this was the morning. After that at about 3 my breathing became a tad more regular and I felt much better, just as I thought I will live the earth reminded me that this could be a temporary illusion. It shook and shuddered and went away…for about 1 min and came back just to say….fooled ya!!! Eventually at about 3:15 it was quiet again and I went back to sleep with Draco curled up next to me to keep me relaxed. I slept until Sunday afternoon when Melissa, the stunning flat mate she is brought me breakfast in bed! We chatted a bit and I went back to sleep, the pills I was taking was very effective and I felt better although every muscle in my body was aching……I think I lost another 2 kg’s because of this…cool!! Bring on the next 2 bottles of water please! Because of all the sleeping I lost track of the times a bit and found myself at 12 at night waking up and walking around a bit! Monday should be interesting as I have to cycle to the new school which is a few kilometers away, I think I’ll ask for the scooter!!

 A few breathing attacks later every time I cycled somewhere, I was fine. The clock is ticking and I feel the stress of deciding what to send when and how in the next two months. Finding something else at home or abroad is my other little stress factor but I’m not too worried at this stage.

 We decided we needed a break and went to the Maple Leafs in Yunlin which is about a 30min scooter ride from our place in the opposite side of Taichung. So if you were in Toti Taichung would be Durban and Yunlin would be Scottborough. Or Faerie Glen compared to Jo’burg. Take your pick.

 So Ryno left for Hong Kong to meet up with his parents on Thursday night to fly over on Friday morning and left us the scooter. We decided at the last minute to take the scooter and go exploring a bit. The evening was cool but warmer than usual. It was about 10pm when we finally got some vague directions as to get there. Off we went! We went through some places we have NEVER seen or knew of, cool! My kind of adventure! We finally turned down a second option after the first option was not the right road. There were two quick shops on either corner, a 711 and a Hi-life. We were told to turn at the 711 which in turn was actually the Hi-life. We drove down a beautifully lit up avenue and some interesting bars and places. After not finding the bar we phoned for final directions and were on the right road! So we turned around and just had to go down a colourful archway and there we were on our right the Maple Leafs- actually in honor of the Toronto Maple Leafs Ice skating team.

    Foreigners everywhere and they were putting pylons in one of the lanes in front of the pub. Apparently some sporting event was organized for tonight because it was St. Paddy’s day! Well, another very celebrated holiday in Taiwan, everything was green, everyone was wearing green and your beer was green…way to go guys!!! Americans, Canadians, Londoners and of course South Africans and some local Taiwanese. The live entertainment was a guy Melissa and Kim got to hear at a party a few nights before and apparently he was really good, called Andy. Looked very Israeli but was a Pommy. He was really good the little I heard before we were all ushered outside to view the sporting event that turned out to be—–tug of war. SO in the streets of Taiwan the foreigners played tug-o-war celebrating St Paddy’s day with bewildered drivers of cars and scooters passing in one lane next to the event. Cheering and shouting, comments entertained all who were watching including the Taiwanese family on the second floor of the building…poor people. After the girl teams won a few of the bouts the winning team dragged the losers over the chalk drawn line on the street while the host, a guy from Canada that reminded me of Brian Barry,  making his comments and cheering them on, held his hand up and announced the winners.

    The next event raised a few eyebrows as two cat sized rocks, green and gold, were brought outside. The gold one was slightly smaller than the green one that looked like a watermelon without the stripes, but not as round. It was boulder tossing!!! Lines were drawn and people were listed and the fun began. The contestants were at least courteous enough to wait for the scooters and driving cars to pass before tossing the boulder…most didn’t go very far but far enough to bump into a scooter or two parked outside the pub. Nothing serious, it just rolled that far. Soon the police was circling and the Chinese lady explained what was happening while the boulder was nimbly passed through the crowd out of cop sight. ��Keep the noise down, the people are complaining.” “Okay officer, maykwanshie(no problem)” Off they went, out came the boulders and we cheered a notch softer. The girls used the gold one and I was very tempted! But withheld the urge and took photos instead.

    We met some familiar faces from our valley and met up with Melissa’s people she met at the party. Very nice and festive, still small but nicely decorated with many ice hockey memorabilia. The drinks were reasonable at about R20 a Smirnoff ice, so we had two as we were scootering back home still. So at about 1am we decided it was time to find out way back. The road there was very basic and straight forward, no real turns or anything. One turn right and straight until we get to our traffic light and left. EASY!!! About 30min. It was a tad colder when we rode back but still better than it has been recently or at least the last two months. Summer is on its way.

 We’ll definitely do that again! Great fun and a well deserved break from the working environment and flat. I spent most of Saturday in the internet café after our school meeting which dragged on to 4:30. So at about 7:30pm I got to our flat and we decided that we will go to the movies on Sunday. See what was showing, maybe Miss Congeniality 2 or the Aviator; I still wanted to see that.

 So we ended up seeing neither but Assault on Precinct 13. Good movie. We went home and watched whatever was on channel HBO, which is our favorite because of the lack of commercial breaks!!! The only channel to do this I might add. We counted on our other channels, and there were more or less 10 commercials run in a break. Lovely, the short half hour movie becomes a two hour premiere!!! Nearly as bad!!! Anyway, we have cable, don’t complain.

 The following weekend we decided to join the girls and go on the Kenting trip for the holiday weekend of April. The Tuesday is a Holiday, 5 April, tomb sweeping day, and it’s exactly what they do. They go to where there ancestors are buried and they clean it out a bit, just to remind you where you come from I suppose.

 Anyway, so we have this trip to look forward to if it happens. It is a spring festival and apparently it is a bit of a “Splashy Fen” or “Woodstock” effect. Many local and international bands play there and everybody goes to pack out and listen! Stunning! Our organising was a bit late so we’ll see if we get space. Julian, had organized a bungalow for us all to stay in for Friday and Saturday night. Coming back on the Sunday. Some of us still have to work on the Monday. But I think a bit of a break will do me tons of good. The cold has subsided both, sickness and season. Spring has arrived and it has been raining a bit. We decided to go to the Maple Leafs on Friday night as we were braaing and drinking Canadian Club and orange juice which changed to Sprite when the orange juice was done. The guys, Ryno and David were drinking Beck’s and then Erdinger, they got it on special as the locals don’t really drink the foreign beer. We went to Maple leafs which was dead compared to last time we were there and watched them playing charades, which turned out to be good fun, especially after a few drinks (the contestants I mean!). We eventually left at about 12 and got home and crashed. Sunday we hit the streets and markets and went exploring, coming upon another market that appeared out of nowhere. Very interesting and I took some pics and video. Can’t wait to let you see this and hear it! To be lived!

  Photos 8,9,10,11,12

    We explored the small alley ways that was quiet and peaceful away from the bustling of scooters and people. We ended up passing a guy that was making dumplings. A small round piece of dough filled with your favourite filling and expertly folded and ruffled to look like a blue bottle on the beach or a “man o war”. I got some for tonight’s dinner.

    Anyway, back to popular street we discovered that they had an extended market that day and it was exciting again. We stopped at a little stall which had the most divine smelling dumplings and little snacks steaming away in their steamers. I have to get into the steaming, the food is great here just using the steamers. Anyway, I saw some crab, rice, chocolate and other many different flavoured bits. I tried to ask him what meat was in the dumplings, but the face said it all and he kept on saying it is NT10 per dumpling. Okay thanks, but what meat is inside? After trying to say the word for chicken meat and pork and getting no response but it is Nt10 I resorted to flapping my wings for chicken and snorting for pork! Melissa by this time was killing herself laughing as well as two guys in the stall next door. Eventually we just took ones that looked good, and they were divine! A mix of veggies and the dumpling dough with meat. Too good!!

    A while later as we traveled through the stalls we came upon one of the guys that was standing laughing at the previous stall and as we passed he flapped his arms and made like a chicken…thanks for that!!! I will be known as the bird woman from Changhua from now on!!! Melissa just died laughing!!!

 So I finally got to experience and photograph my first big parade. Definitely the biggest I have seen so far. It was a drizzling Thursday noon and the next minute the wine of the flutes and deep beating sounds of the drums woke me up. I got ready and eventually saw them outside my window rounding the 711. I got my camera and started filming a video. After some checking it was no good from that far away. I wanted to go to the internet café anyway, so I got on my bike armed with my camera and off I went. I felt like the Polar Express kid, chasing after the procession as it disappeared into the drizzle. Then it reappeared as I came closer. The illusive parade. It was actually a funeral procession of some important person, but it was beautiful. My camera was suddenly full and I quickly dashed into the internet café and downloaded what I had taken. Then I told them I’ll be right back! This is what I came to Taiwan for. I jumped on my bike and off I went. Stopping every now and then, to take photos. Then racing ahead and catching them at another angle as the approached. I saw the huge trucks with the colourful decorations and neon colours at that! Music galore! Each section had different music. From a forlorn sounding tone on the traditional instruments to prerecorded music from the huge trucks. Then the bands added their flavour as they passed. A military procession and band was followed by an all women’s band with their white shoes, short skirts whether they suited the figure or not! There was a truck that was totally decorated in the most beautiful flowers, it looked like a moving island of flowers. This was the actual funeral cart with what looked like the priests and family on the back. And then I saw my dragons! Although they were covering them with plastic against the rain I managed to get some of them uncovered. Will have to try and glimpse one again in all its glory.

  Photos 17 – 28

  Then a section appeared with the painted faces of the gods and characters of their religion carrying a person playing the part of the physical god. I mentioned him at the Chinese New Year party we went to, he was on their shrine; a red face and long black beard and the god of kung fu and things physical. What an experience! I really felt like a little kid seeing the circus come to town! I was in and out of the procession, first on the opposite side of the road then in the middle then on their side going with the flow and then turning and going against the stream. I was in my element, and then they disappeared, I tried to keep up and the next minute they were all gone, as the sun came out the mist with all it’s fantastical creatures disappeared. I went back to the internet café and read my email and went back to work….aaaaaahhhhhh.

 So our plans changed at the last minute and we are skipping Kenting, no space and too expensive at time, instead Kim suggested a place called Taitung on the east coast of Taiwan nearly directly across from where we are but a bit further south and it takes forever to get there. We have looked at it before and Melissa and I wanted to go badly! The photos on the http://www.tealit.com sight of this area are beautiful and very scenic. This side of the island is very mountainous and vegetated as our side is an alluvial plain and flat. The roads are narrow and winding and the trains stick to the flat lands which mean they go around the island to get there. No problem! Maykwanshie! All part of the sightseeing experience!

 Now the weekend is creeping closer and we are getting ready for our 5 hour train ride to Taitung on Saturday morning at 6:30…can’t wait!  Need to do as much as possible in my last few months!

Taiwan Times Vol 8 March 2005 And so the short February month came and went. Only 5 months to go…how time flies!

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume 7  February 2005

INDEX: Miaoli 2/6 ¡V 2/7 Chinese New Year 2/8 ¡V 2/9 Constantine 2/9 Traditional lunch 2/10 Taichung ¡V Chung Yo 2/12 Earthquake 2/19

And so the Chinese New Year sped towards us, the school slowed down and the holiday beckoned. Finally a few days without the kids and school! Whatever will we be doing?

Our plans still stood for getting on a train and going exploring towards the south of Taiwan. Melissa was to take new classes at the other school when the holiday was over so she was told to get driving lessons on the scooter with me as her teacher, let’s see how that goes. So Saturday dawned and we took the bike to the open parking lot where the night market usually gets set up. Melissa did great and looked like a pro. We went to the other schools where I gave her the tour as to what’s where and so on. We quickly went to Carrefour for some shopping and then went back to the apartment to drop the groceries off, and then the fun started! I told Melissa she could take the scooter back to the school and I will walk. It’s difficult to piggyback someone on a bike if you are not familiar with the bike in the first place. You have to do the one before the other. Get used to the balance and how the bike handles etc. So I followed her to where our parking garage exited into the road via a ramp. She revved the bike a few times, looked all professional and darted up the ramp! The red light came on warning of down coming traffic as she accelerated up the ramp. Just in time she saw the car as she rounded the first little bend in the ramp and applied the brakes. Sheeeeeew!! Good job!! Then as the car passed she revved the bike a tad too much and still had to turn the bike at a 90degree angle to round the corner, this was a tad too tricky for a beginner scooterist and she braked and accelerated at the same time and the bike didn’t turn at all!. I think one only realizes how fragile a scooter is when you try out a stunt like that! Melissa went north and the scooter went south. Thank goodness she had on her helmet because I heard it hit the wall from where I was. Full throttle into the pillar and wall! She was fine of course¡Kthinking her nose was broken initially and boy did that bruise a bit for the next two weeks! She was lucky it wasn’t broken! All in good spirits! I was wondering if the school would ever let us use the scooter again. I rode it back to the school….sideways as the suspension of the front tyre was a tad bent. We went on holiday that day so; we’ll see whether they’ll just fix it when we get back. Thanks hey! There you go! The basket was flat against the body, but I managed to pull it into somewhat of a square shape and put the front cover kinda back in to a presentable position. It looked fine man, no problem, just the sideways driving got me a bit, indicating this way and driving this way! Interesting, definitely tests the driving skills!!!!! Melissa was ok!

So that afternoon, which was Saturday 5th we were asked whether we wanted to go on holiday with total strangers! Of course we said yes and off we went at about 7:30 in the morning! We met up with Kim at her apartment with Alicia and met up with our first stranger Cynthia. A friend of Kim’s through her Salsa classes. We stopped at a McDonalds and waited for another pair called Edward and Iman, I named her, her Chinese name was similar and we thought she was very attractive so we named her after the super model, fair enough! Edward was cool and very funny; this was going to be cool. We also met up with another couple Jimmy and Mila, who was driving a black Solio (Suzuki) I want one!!!! So ugly but cute ugly! Bit bigger than a Smart car but a type of Smart van looking car! My mother would look good in one!! Maybe I can organize in my luggage somehow! I must say it was extremely big inside and looked smaller than it really was.

So off we went, where are we going? Oh, Miaoli, exactly like you would say it. I love these types of holiday’s they turn out to be the best, you expect nothing, no nobody and don’t know where you going! I was SOOOOO excited!!! My camera was fully charged and ready to go! Our first stop was in the misty mountains of Taiwan on our way in a Northerly direction, towards Taipei. It was stunning, everything was foggy or smoggy! Whatever, I thought of it as foggy! We went up winding little narrow roads until we reached a place called Lion¡¦ Head Mountain. Apparently it looks like a loin’s head from the one side and even has a tail obviously on the other side. What a cool place, all very eerie and misty and jungley. I loved it! I started clicking away immediately. I saw three old Chinese people sweeping the road on the way to the temple in traditional straw hats in the mist, you could just make them out, I took a stunning sepia coloured photo, it looked as if it was ancient times and I was swept away in my imagination into the days of Genghis Caan and whoever else terrorized the country side. I was all over the place while the group was deciding and waiting for people. We were on the back of the lion and started following a stairway down into the valley we couldn’t see because of the fog but I could “see” it! It was beautiful! Far off we could hear the forlorn sound of a flute playing and people’s voices.

We descended into the illusive valley feeling the air get damp and smelling the earthy vegetation.

The trees were entangled above us and the misty light filtering through them gave enough light to step onto the moss-covered stone steps. Slippery at times but manageable. Like a magical forest there appeared strange writings on the cliff walls, warning their travelers of dangers ahead or praying for their safe passage. Gray etched into cold hard gray.

The flute still beaconed and we were like adventurers in a lost land following the golden phoenix to some exotic mysterious destination that holds endless and priceless treasures and then it materializes through the mists of Miaoli. First the vague shape of a small Chinese temple roof top then the path connecting it to us and the smells of cooking. A small set up outside the main temple welcomed us and offered their wears that vary from traditional to plastic cell phones that play electronic tunes.

We entered the small gateway decorated in the traditional way. We were transported into another world of ancient traditions and beliefs with the flute as our guide.

The walkway lead us to our musician as he started another forlorn tune that brought memories of times past and lives lived. Surrounded by traditional instruments, maps and scrolls he smiled a toothless smile and offered us to try the flutes. I tentatively chose a large bamboo flute and tried to sound like him, but to no avail. It sounded like me blowing out my candles on my last birthday…scary! Anyway, where were we..?Oh yes, I wished him a Happy New Year in Chinese (shienien Kwai lur) and we disappeared into the mist.

As we left him and heard the flute again we rounded a corner and there the ancient temple emerged brightly decorated against the gray walls and floors. It looked like a sentry watching over mankind and the mountain staring out straight ahead into the mist.

The rooftops are ornately decorated with flying faans (like a peacock but an ancient bird that is always depicted fighting a dragon)

The roof tops slowly appeared out of the mist and the treasure was revealed! It looked like a mythical battle scene between animals time forgot.

It was a strange and beautiful sight. I turned around to find how best to describe what I felt at this stage and to truly capture the atmosphere that existed here. A feeling of spiritual awe combined with reverence and excitement of discovery. An amazing experience! I clicked away.

We went exploring further, every nook and cranny! No ornament was left unturned. They had a small cave carved out of the stone and molded to offer a cave like experience with a surprise at the end for the one who explores effectively.

Then our group had to turn back and continue our journey to our end destination of Miaoli. Our payment for being able to experience this amazing place and seeing the forbidden was 1115 steps back up the lions back! We gasped for air as we reached the top.

Thanks for that!!

We stopped off at a traditional restaurant that offered teas and cakes….with a difference.

You have to make it yourself! Interesting!

But it was the best fun. Our first task was to make Lai Tsa, which is a traditional tea that you make by grinding nuts and herbs into a pasty substance.

Jimmy and Bruce grinning on. The waitress then brings hot tea water and we mixed them together and stirred until the green thickish soup is ready for consumption!

Delightful taste with a nutty and often chewy texture to it! I had about 6 cups….They were small cups man! Then came the Chinese cake. Many cakes here in Taiwan are of a chewy substance or texture. More like a kind of dough not cooked. The traditional Chinese Cake we had comes in a plate with a white/cream sticky dough and surrounded by crushed peanuts. You pull the dough apart into manageable balls that stick to the chopsticks you have to use to the pulling apart and then you dunk it in the peanut powder. Lovely!! Good taste too, but not too much. I did however have the urge to do the usual van der Spuy mixing things together to see what it would taste like etc. and then added the peanut powder to my lai tsa….the best move ever, tasted even better!

Once again Jimmy and Bruce show us how it’s done!! Thanks boys!! I’ll look into getting them on a cooking show, maybe the Jimmy and Bruce Ready Steady Cook!! Or maybe the BJ Cook club….or not!

Anyway, that was our little “koek en tee” the Chinese way! On our way out we were hijacked into making somebody else’s Chinese cake…..

They asked for this, man!!! Enjoy guys! I hope that comes off our bill!! Kim got “stuck” into it as well…you go girl!

“Back on the road again”, Shrek 2 – Donkey’s holiday song in the coach! Cynthia’s driving was great as we hugged the mountains and veered to miss the race down hill! I’ll let her drive any day! We arrived shortly after, at a famous traditional Hakka restaurant….”what are we doing here?” I asked innocently, “we are having lunch” they said rubbing their hands together…”oh, again?” I asked. Silly question. Needless to say I only had a bit but boy the bit I had was a stunning lamb stew pot while the others got stuck into all kinds of different foods. When I tasted the lamb, I was transported back home on a Sunday and having a lamb neck potjie………..aaaaahhh yes. It was soo rich compared to what we were getting used to here in Taiwan that a few cubes of meat later I was stuffed….I like Hakka food very much!!!

Hakka was and is the traditional people of Taiwan. Like our Zulus or Ndebele. Same types of clothing and art works. Very interesting how that happens continents away and millennia apart. Their clothes are very bright and colorful, lots of reds and blues. Stunning.

After that we found our accommodation and everyone was ready to pass out! The total trip was not even 2 hours driving from Changhua, where we live. We drove into the little country town bustling with people and scooters. We stayed at staff accommodation for a company called Changhwa Telecoms. Stunning way of doing it. The shop is on the road level and the rooms are above on the 4th floor.

We got given our options of rooms as we were the only people staying there for the night. We checked the room and it reminded me a lot of the usual Holiday inn rooms, maybe a tad smaller, Formula One, maybe. The we saw the VIP suite, never been used in mint condition with a widescreen TV…we’ll take it!!! SO the four foreign people take the VIP room and organize accordingly. There was a double bed and we added two mattresses we found in another room. Amazing little thin mattresses, very comfortable!

So we crashed for what was about 30min, when a knock at the door revealed Edward asking whether we wanted to go to the lake. Kim slept and Alicia, Melissa and I went. The “lake” turned out to be a bit of a pond really. Nice and all, in the forest and everything but a little pond. We also walked a trail around it, which was very interesting and I rescued two puppies in a drain pipe trying to get out, obviously exploring too far! They were fine! The mother followed us for a while…probably to say thank you or thanks for getting the kids out when I wanted them in there for some peace and quiet! Anytime!!!!

We got back, woke Kim with M&M’s and we slowly got ready. The bathing suits were on, the towels were ready and off we went to the hot springs! It wasn’t even 10min drive from us. The steam rose as we approached the front entrance. We paid 350 NT and got given a disk. We turned around to where the shoe exchange was and got some funky slops. We walked down a walkway to where the pools were under roof but outside, so inviting! We got to the counter where you could get changed in the change rooms or leave your belongings in a locker. As you use the locker you get a plastic bracelet with the key on. Cool!!! Sun City must get this!

We were ready! In about 5min we were in the pools. What a cool feeling, nearly like my swimming spa but the real thing! Then the adrenaline kicked in, I was allover the place. What’s there, oh, ice cold water and there? Oh boiling water….hmmmmm interesting…what if I run from here and jump in the boiling water, then go from there to the ice cold pool and then back into the warm pool, what will happen? Let’s!!! I nearly passed out that’s what happened, when I hit the ice cold pool after a circuit, my eyes gave me drunk vision, my skin glowed a stunning tomato red colour as the circulation tried to keep up and I couldn’t walk straight without crawling through the boulders to the warm pool…I stayed there while until my sight steadied….sheeeeewwww what a rush!!!! And so we cooked and steamed for about 3 hours. Then the photo’s started! Kay arrived and she started taking the photos. We got a stunning “Zoolander” pose in that will do the movie proud! Left – Melissa, back – Alicia, right – Kim and front and centre- Karen. Just incase you couldn’t see past the “blue steel” look!

The last photo is more the Gorillas in the Mist look, my personal opinion.

After, that we went for supper at a restaurant and had dumplings. Not our dough dumplings that we know but a pastry with a vegetable filling steamed or fried. Delicious!

In this little restaurant there were the owners two kids, a little boy and a girl. The boy probably around 5 and the girl about 6 or 7. They were clearing the tables and wiping it down. I want to see our kids do that at that age. The little boy sat behind the till like the manager afterwards just incase we needed something else. The little girl brought our serviettes and chopsticks. Too cute!

We arrived back at our room and got ready to relax when the knock at the door asked us to join them in the staff party room. No ways!!!! We fixed up a bit and sauntered down the corridor to the end where there was a glass door. We opened it and the music flowed forth! The karaoke was in full swing with the singers looking bopping away excitedly. I have gained a new respect fro KTV (Karaoke TV) it is an amazing bonding experience! We were such an amazing composition of people together that it was probably the most exciting holiday in Taiwan ever!!! We soon got hooked into singing a few songs, although the English selection was a bit on the golden oldie side with the latest thing, Lemon Tree that was in Chinese except for …..”Lemon Tree”! House of the rising sun was sung with great gusto on our part, with Let it be a close second!!! With cheers and clapping and singing going on there was no ways anybody was having a bad time!!! I made a video of the Chinese girls singing a stunning little pop song in a real girl band manner!

What a party! Jimmy mixed some Famous Grouse 12years old in a decanter and I had a strange mix of Smirnoff ice and whiskey…interesting! We eventually went to bed around 11ish. And had a very fitful sleep!!! What a day!

We woke up and were soon carted off to breakfast at another Hakka delicacy restaurant. In the early morning hours Kay’s brother, Cynthia’s boyfriend was collected at the airport for a surprise visit from the USA. Needless to say Cynthia was the happiest ever!! She doesn’t see him for about 6months at a time while he studies there. His name was Chris.

Not your usual bacon and eggs but boy do I love this Hakka food….did I say that? It is rich and oily, just like home! Not so bad, but when you get used to steamed rice, cooked chicken and veggies and soy sauce, this is rich and oily

We were preparing to leave to go and find some more hot springs in a place called Taian. But not before we have a little group shot of the travelers from all over the globe who can get along like they were best friends for years!!!!

And off we went! Next!!!!

This time Chris was driving, there was definitely a difference…we were the ones racing down the mountain. Luckily we stopped at a temple in the mountains with a great view over a valley. The mists had subsided a bit and we had a clear day.

Enlarge the bottom right photo for a history on this temple, very interesting.

A bit of a subdued trip today as everybody was recovering and probably because we were going home at the end of it. But the warm breeze kept breezing, the sun kept shining and we were soon off again.

We finally arrived at Taian where a lot of construction was happening in the river bed. Their river’s here is not like ours where you have mainly sand and silt. Here it’s all volcanic because of the origins of the land, so the river bed is a river of gravel and boulders. Did I mention the river?…..what river? In a broad river bed of about 500m or more across, I’d say the river measured about 3ft across. They had built a road in the riverbed…my only concern was, if they are doing that and spending money on putting a road there, does the river EVER get any bigger say in the rainy season?….obviously not!! But it is a weird feeling driving on a tarred road in a riverbed! Images of the Mummy Returns keep popping up in my mind where the towering wall of water chases them through the canyons! Hey, I’m just visiting!

And guess what else they do here that we also do in good old SA….strawberry picking! What a treat, I have to come to Taiwan to do what my brother has done ages go in SA. Go figure! They organized a basket and we were allocated and area. We didn’t do serious picking, just enough for the group! They were huge!!! Not the big red one on the photo, that’s a balloon, the others.

Come and get your farm fresh strawberries from us, where you pick the strawberries and we smile!!

And off we went again! We arrived at a hot spring spa called Sunrise. Quite impressive but we ended up not swimming while the others did and had a coffee instead.

I went exploring for old times sake before we went home and waved good buy to a memorable holiday! I couldn’t believe it when they sorted out the bill for the weekend and we had to pay NT 500 each, this included all the lunches etc. R100 or less. Our accommodation we paid as we arrived and that was another R100 for the VIP suite and we paid NT350=R70 for the hot springs. They didn’t want to know about us paying for petrol! It was truly the best and cheapest holiday in a very long time!!! When are we going again??? Hey hey hey! We exchanged email addresses and said our sad good byes!

And so the Chinese New Year began. It was Monday and Tuesday on their new year’s eve we were invited to go to Monica’s family get together. What an experience that will be to have a family dinner as we do over Christmas, very much the same feeling as our Christmas, where family come together from all over. Apparently the greatest movement of people on earth over this time period. Mainland China and Taiwan exchange millions as people go home!

So we got picked up by Monica and off we went. Not to far outside Chunghua and not too far from Lukang, just on the outskirts between the two cities, where rice paddies greet the eye and open areas are being cultivated.

We arrived and were warmly greeted and made comfortable while we started watching “Meet the Fockers”. Here one realizes that humour is definitely a universal language although many nuances are lost, the main ideas are understood and found funny. Finally we were ushered outside to an open area surrounded by three buildings, a horseshoe shaped building with three separate parts. The building on the left was the house of the oldest son whose responsibility it is to look after the mother and father and who lives with them on the property. The centre building is reserved for their temple or rather shrine. This has a certain format and is the same where ever you go in Taiwan. It consists of two huge tables. One the height of about 5ft and about 7ft across in length. On this are placed the deities. Here were three. The god of the mental, old wise looking guy with a long white beard and white clothes, much like Gandalf in Lord of the rings without the hat. On the right a red faced god with black beard which is the god of the physical (Kung Fu) and in the centre a woman. Also on this level they placed insence and tangerines which is the fruit of New Year and good fortune. The second table is the same as the first but just smaller and fits in under the bigger one, usually drawn out in a step formation with incense and a few other items on it. All red lighting and coverings. Very interesting. The right building is also for family to stay in. In the little courtyard, about 5 round tables were placed with about 5 bowls of food on each. You get handed your little bowl, they fill it with rice or noodles (like spaghetti) and you add your meats and veggies on top and eat them together. Very festive! People chatting, family greeting, each uncle and aunt did their rounds to the various tables to wish each a happy New Year and good fortune. We toasted every time they came around, good wine!!

Even the dog has to use chopsticks to eat! Impressive!!! After the dinner we were invited to the uncles’ house for Oolong tea. We all sat there and drank our tea and eventually we left.

Monica took us to Puck’s place, her boyfriend, an artist who writes the most amazing Chinese scrolls. I’ll have to organise. We were under the impression that they do a count down like we do and braced our selves for the blast and thunder of crackers after twelve. But as we count down nothing happened. They have a temple ceremony at each temple and televised the main ones in Taipei and Lukang and other major centres. People were waiting outside the temples for the gates to be opened. Their custom is to place incense sticks in a sand filled earn and make their wishes. So the idea is that as the doors open whoever places their sticks in the earn first will have good luck for the year. So around 20 past midnight after they were waiting for a ceremony inside to be completed the door opened and people dashed for the earns….scary, few people got trampled etc. but in the end the sticks were placed en though it sometimes got thrown in from a distance, as long as it stays. Was very different to watch. No crackers were heard in the streets on our way back home. In fact more crackers were lit days after as businesses reopened and lit firecrackers at the entrance to ward of the ninien monsters. The beliefs are, much like Christian belief in Egypt when goats blood was placed on the door frames to ward of the evil spirit of death, they place red banners on the door frames with well wishes to ward off the ninien monsters of ancient times that killed and were evil. The crackers were originally gunpowder in bamboo roots, an ancestor found that this works well to scare the monsters and the tradition was started that any new venture or if things were not going well or there was a new beginning, crackers were to be lit together with a little table outside with offering to the gods. But later on that….

So we were invited back on Thursday for the 2nd round of the New Year Celebrations when the daughters returned from their new families. Cool tradition, we should do that over Christmas, will solve all the family issues when Christmas lunches and dinners are held. So after a day of rest the Wednesday we decided to go and watch Constantine with Keanu Reeves, the battle between Good and Evil continues, extremely well done!

We arrived on Thursday, for lunch this time, and the same set up was organized. This time just a younger crowd with many kids.

Monica and her sister. They bring all the soups and stews in bags and decant it into the bowls on the tables. We were given a doggy bag to take home with crab meat, prawns, mud prawns, fish and calamari or squid…delicious. Interesting foods as well, like shark fin soup, nice taste though, a pork and veggie soup which was quite rich and lots of vegetables and battered mud prawns that look like huge termites! Yummy!!! The shark fin soup bugged me because there was such uproar when that syndicate in Cape Town was caught out to have killed thousands of sharks just for their fins. They believe it’s good for your skin.

SO after yet another meal and interesting wheat drink we were ushered into the living room and KTV was waiting for us! The uncles and the smallest boy I have ever seen singing like a professional! Holding the microphone and making sure the wire isn’t trapped or stuck somewhere while his singing and bouncing up and down. If there was something wrong with a microphone he’d come over and hand you another one after telling you there’s something wrong with yours, even though you were too happy not to be heard properly!! We eventually got sung out, although we were trying hard to keep a low profile at this stage, went home to sleep!

Had a very good night’s rest after that! A whole week without school, weird!!! Saturday we decided to go to Taichung a bit and walk around, find the Jade market and go looking for Chung Yo one of the biggest shopping centres in Taiwan. So off we went to the train station. On the train at about 9:30 10:00 and arrived around 11:00am. We hit the streets with Lonely Planet at our side telling us where what was. We found the Jade market near the station and what a treasure chest this was. I was in awe of the craftsmanship and prices, so cheap for quality amulets and bracelets and pendants etc. My mom would have a field day here with all these beads!!!

It was a maze of little turns and alleys under roof. We ended up an hour or so later emerging into the sunlight and facing a stunning park. We went walking around it a bit after a drink and snack from the 711. The park had a pond where people were rowing and walking around. A fate or market of some sort was at the far end and we ended up walking through the whole park to check everything. They had the most stunning little gazebo in a Japanese style garden around it.

As we climbed the little hill and arrived at the top, a huge weird statue surprised us. I later, on closer inspection, saw that it was a base station (I think), made by Changhwa Telecoms, these people are everywhere!

After the park we walked up the street and found what we have been looking for….the mother of all malls!

This is the bridge that connects each building with the other. Three buildings with over 10 floors.

This was the best mall ever!!! The others we have been to like Mitsukoshi or Sogo are very up market malls where you do not get any cheaper normal people type stores, everything is Loui Vuitton and Gucci and Benetton, Diesel etc. This one has those as well on the lower level and the cheaper things further up. Where our malls work the opposite way, mostly. By this time I suddenly realized we have been walking since 11am, it was around 5pm when we decided to stop to eat something. Take that Lyndon, it must be some kind of a new shopping record! We went to TGIF – Fridays, had a hamburger and fries and had to ask for white vinegar…they actually had salt on the table…it was heavenly!! I had a glass of wine that actually tasted like our normal box wine we get when asking for a glass….stunning! We made our way back to the station, got lost in a flea market first and left around 9pm. We arrived at Changhua around 10pm and walked home slowly as my legs started cramping and I felt like I was back at having growing pains again!!! I collapsed on my bed around 11pm with my legs elevated to get some of the blood back to my brain!

On Saturday morning at about 4:20am I was shaken awake by some illusive force! When I surfaced I realized after a few seconds that the building was being shaken by an earthquake a tad bigger than the usual. How do I know this? I was sleeping! To wake me up you need to be pretty imaginative and or very loud!!! I would have loved to know how much that was on the Richter’s scale. Felt as bad as one of our first one’s. One of those was 7. something off the coast of Ilan, There is a fault there and that’s where most of the quakes originate. About 150km off the north-eastern coast. Lovely! I think if I had a choice I would prefer earthquakes in the evening when I’m a sleep. My motto “Ignorance is Bliss!!!

Sunday sailed past slowly, we had a braai and relaxed for a change. And Monday the school started again, on Valentines Day! Sad!

But we have another holiday coming up on the 2/28. It was a political massacre in Taiwan’s early years and Green Island was then the Robben Island of SA. Ryno went to Green Island with Andrew for initially 3 nights and four days and eventually ended up staying and extra two nights as the party was way too cool to come back, many South Africans, mostly teachers from Taipei. Next holiday!! Blade 3 is also planned for our Feb entertainment! Then I think we’re broke…again! All worth it!

Just to end off our month with a bang we had a school dinner at a department store called IDEE. A stunning 12 floor shopping centre with the top two floor restaurants. We visited a buffet styled restaurant with food in various nooks and crannies. Beautifully designed as most of their restaurants. Most of their restaurants are designed in a very up market dark wood and glass setting. Although the prices are very reasonable. This one was NT500 per person = R100 eat as much as you want with drinks included. Definitely worth it although the school paid, so it was even better!!! The boys went for the meet and the girls went for the Hagen Daasz stand for dessert! Obviously!! Delicious!

So another month has come to an end and February as short, wet and cold as it was has passed! 5 months to go girls and boys! Enjoy your week!

    Taiwan Times Vol 7 Volume 7  February 2005 INDEX: Miaoli 2/6 ¡V 2/7 Chinese New Year 2/8 ¡V 2/9 Constantine 2/9…

#explore #Food #sightseeing #taiwan #teaching #travel

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Six – January 2005

INDEX:

New Year 12/31 Taichung shopping and Phantom of the Opera 1/16 Earthquakes 1/18 & 1/20 Flight of the Phoenix 1/22 Elektra 1/30

And so the year changed and we were snuggled up in front of the TV watching Pearl Habour and switching to the Chinese channels to check the countdown. A chilly cold front hit the country and we were going nowhere!!!!

So the year starts off, laid back and easy! With another end of the year looming in a month or so. The Chinese celebrated New Year in the usual count down style, but with much less vigor than we do! Taipei was a hive of activity with thousands milling in the streets and freezing! Kim and Monica were on their way to Taipei and had to spend New Years countdown in the car with bumper to bumper traffic! But a good time was had by all. On the 1st Melissa and I went walking and ended up walking all the way to Carrefour. Only and hour and a half there and we called the taxi to take us back with all our shopping! It was freezing, or at least as freezing as Taiwan can get which is a windy 10 degrees C.

The year of the Rooster has arrived and this is supposed to be my year! According to the Chinese calendar I was born in the year of the rooster in 1969. So anybody born in that year is a rooster: courageous, good company (I told you so) and ………. So let’s see what I can accomplish! Cockledoodledoo!

We were starting to plan our Chinese New Year holiday as it is the only holiday in the year that allows people more than a day off! According to the law the government brought down the working days to 6 days a week in stead of seven and took away the holidays….fair!!! Anyway, so everybody is gearing up and getting very excited. The Xmas decorations are still up!

They have huge sales on at the moment which will continue until Chinese New Year. So we are planning to go to Penghu Island for the week from the 7th Feb to the 11th or so. Getting on the train and going!

We didn’t do too much this month as we are trying to save some for the trip and the lean month of February that will dawn and take away a week’s classes and money! Sacrifices!

So the Sunday we made plans with Jane and Celine to go to Taichung for a movie and some exploring! We left for the train station at about 10am and eventually left at about 12am, Jane would catch up on the next train, still waking up. We arrived and started looking around for the market they said was near the station. It could be anywhere. It’s like walking blind. We chose a road and there are 5 others in the intersection that turns out to be the right ones. Murphy’s Law. We never found it! We did walk over a stunning little bridge near a buss halt and “a river ran through it”. Shallow and flat but a river with water none the less. In the concrete river bed they tend to design animals jutting out of the floor. This time it was water buffalo.

We haven’t had any earthquakes for quite some time and started getting a tad edgy about the next one! Then the tremours came and everybody sighed a sigh of relief. Two in two days. The release button has been pressed. We’ll live!

Melissa and I went to see Flight of the Phoenix one evening and ended up walking the streets while we waited for the show to start. We were looking for a place to eat but can you believe after nearly six months we couldn’t find another restaurant that looked appetizing enough to try!  Weird smells and plucked fresh chicken hanging at the doors kept us at arms length and more. We ended up exploring a small alley way that must have escaped our exploring previously. We stumbled upon a small temple sunken into the ground. Beautiful setting nestled between a grove of buildings and perfectly preserved.

The concrete a dark gray with the aged colours dark red and gold against the drizzling evening sky. We discovered a small wooden building next to it that turned out to be a restaurant. It looked Japanese with all the wood and see-through doors. We walked in and were immediately welcomed warmly. A cozy setting amongst traditional flags and memorabilia. The manageress was talkative and communicated her three English words over and over. We sat down and decided there and then to stay and try this one out. From another table an elderly gentleman got up and came over to us to take our order! His daughter accompanied him and took down what we wanted as the gentleman spoke to us in English as we asked what this was and that! We promised him to leave his tip at the door! Everybody was laughing and the atmosphere was extremely warm. Amazing how these places find us! We tried pork and seafood chow fan, delicious! We also realized that the only places we ever ate at were always recommended by other people, we hardly ever found a place to eat by walking around. So word of mouth definitely works here! And we can add our recommendation.

As we finished and exchanged thanks and greetings to all, it was raining outside and the chef handed us an umbrella to take with, saying we don’t need to worry about bringing it back soon! Unbelievable! This would never happen back home and Melissa agreed! We took the umbrella after some protesting. Watched our movie, thoroughly enjoyed it and took the umbrella back on our way back as it had stopped raining a bit. I don’t think he thought we would be back so soon and was surprised to see us hand his umbrella back to him over the counter! Amazing country this! You can leave things unlocked or entrust people with things and be safe in the knowledge that you’ll get it back with no questions asked! Where are the days in our country where you could do that?

Anyway, we got home and told our story to Ryno when he got back! The schools were closing around the 21st January for their winter vacation and our classes started to diminish with only the Sesame Street classes running. Theses are the ones in the evening, so the days crawl past at home until 6 or later when the others start. My swimming was taken up vigorously and the Jacuzzi’s were my personal space as there were little to no people in the spa. Delightful! My own steam room and my own life saver as well!

Kim went away for the weekend to Kaoshung and left her bicycle to Melissa, and we went exploring a bit on the Sunday. We walked around the morning market and looked for Pooh Bear stuff for a friend of Melissa’s baby. I then realized how cheap they were here…..yes it’s the real thing! The cartoon brands are much cheaper and the selections are far greater here than at home! Bedding, baths, water bottles, lunchboxes and the usual little things like key rings, bags and towels etc. I decided then and there that I will be working on a baby box of Snoopy memorabilia for my kiddie one day! It will be priceless by then!!!!!

We decided to watch Elektra over the weekend – Jennifer Garner from Alias and same character from Dare devil – stunning movie!  Did I mention that the Xmas decorations were still up?

Anyway, the excitement in the air for Chinese New Year is building as people decorate their homes and businesses with red and gold! But more of that next month!

  Taiwan Times – Vol 6 Volume Six – January 2005 INDEX:

#Adventures #taiwan #teaching #travel

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Five – December 2004

  INDEX:

Morning Market, Carrefour, Lukang 11/12 Taipei 12/12 Taichung – party 18/12 Xmas 25/12

And so the weeks flew by!! My initial plan to go to  Green Island with Teri and Kim has been put on hold as funds are low as usual and we started planning a Xmas at home dinner etc. Much better! Besides I can then send all my Xmas cards and presents home! Definitely a better plan.

  The swimming has been going great and the steam rooms, Jacuzzi’s etc. are doing me wonders!! So our Taipei weekend was nearing and we were getting very excited about it. Xmas in Taiwan is weird. It’s like to explain to the people in Europe that we also have Christmas even though there’s no snow! Taiwan it’s even weirder because here nobody really knows what Christmas is all about and they go through the motions like they do for Halloween. Although the kids sing the Christmas carols and Silent Night without really knowing what they’re singing…I suppose that’s one way of doing it, at least they’re singing it!

  We are busy setting up the Christmas show and practicing our parts for the play. The kindergarten play is about the problem of Santa fitting down the chimney…quite sweet. And I play……guesss…come on…….nope….not Santa……just a ditsy character…isn’t it cool!!! I can be silly and fit right in without even trying!!! I had the girls and Chinese teachers in stitches with my stage acting!!! I’m a natural…I’ve been telling everybody this for years!!!

  They are playing a lot of Xmas songs on the radio…our one station amoung 100’s we listen to. ICRT. You can listen to it on streaming audio as well if you would like to listen to what I am subject to…after 5 FM it was a great disappointment, but after a few days or weeks with the local stations it’s the best station ever!!!!! Very much the Highveld stereo type channel with some worse and older oldies!! But it’s what we were given and it’s how we listen to it that makes the difference!!!! Right?? Anyway, the places are being decorated.

I had my little package prepared to send home, just needed a few more prezzies. I mentioned this and the next minute we were off to the Morning Market on Saturday at about 12:30. Myself on the scooter with Jane and Melissa on the scooter with Celine! We were off!! I drew my first money out of my new E.Sun bank account! Ooooooohhhhh. At least at some of the ATMs you have the English options on others I used my years of experience and guessed the top left hand corner is the withdrawal and the least amount of money!!! You can only draw a NT$1000 and nothing less! The next denomination is NT$ 3 000, what happened to 2 000, that’s the best one…but I think there’s more to it than that! If you draw 1000 you have to do it twice, charges for the bank, but if you draw 3 000 you are stuck with the cash and have to use it!!! Seee, I knew it, it’s a conspiracy!!! A classic lose lose situation!

  Anyway, we arrived at the market, very busy for a morning market! We walked around and I nearly died at a Chinese stall. The baby clothes, and little suits and outfits and for big people too!!! I’ll have to go back, anybody want to order something before I come home in Aug – Nov. Place your orders – I’ll take pictures and tell you how much! The next minute we were whisked off to Carrefour to do our monthly shopping! On two scooters with two people on it with monthly shopping!! Very interesting but not yet the limit! The huge bag on my right knee and me leaning in on the left knee balanced everything out beautifully!!!

  We dropped all our stuff of at home and our two taxi driver’s took us back up to the bus station where we all bought our tickets for NT$27 to Lukang. Here we come…our favorite ancient city!! We landed, got walking and shopping…naaahh, just looking! Got the last few gifts to wrap and send, visited our sexy Chinese antique dealer (some thought so) and were back on the bus on our way home!

  What a day, our Saturday afternoon felt like a full day! Well, we were getting really excited about tomorrow’s excursion and got to bed fairly early. We had to get up at about 6:00 to catch our 7:20 bus to Taipei.

  We made it with no effort whatsoever. Got the bus station after Eddie our usual Taxi driver took us and bought our NT280 one way ticket to Taipei. The trip was good and took around 2 hours. We chatted most of the way and napped 5min in between. Taipei loomed through the morning fog and we arrived at the bus station. What a city!! Reminded me of London or what New York must feel like!

Huge buildings, wide clean streets, electronic billboards to rival Piccadilly circus and department stores on every corner. All adourned in their Christmas decorations and scenes. We asked a police officer which way was the Taipei 101 building and he looked at us weirdly and pointed in a direction. We sheshe’d which is thank you and went on our way. I’m sure he mentioned we take a bus or taxi to get there but we were in the exploring mode and hit the pavements…..did you hear me say pavements??? And you would be right. Something they were very short of when building the rest of Taiwan. We now had the novelty of walking on broad open pavements….woooooww! The roads were very clean, buildings well looked after and huge department stores floors high looked down on the two country mice from Changhua. Coooolll!!!!! We walked past the most beautifully decorated shops and passed a huge SOGO department store with a huge Xmas scene in the front of the building.

Impressive, nearly Harrods material….I said nearly! We walked on…….stopped for a bite to eat and something to drink at Starbucks, next to a big Christmas tree and saw the tower loom on the horizon. Slowly but surely it was moving towards us, first just a shadow in the smog then the outlines sharpen, then it disappears behind buildings only to reemerge around another. We were looking at our small little map I still got at the airport when I arrived in Taipei and it helped a bit but no details.

Their metro rail or underground is an impressive network. With their snorkels above ground well marked and beckoning to come down and take a ride! Next time! We crossed a street and walked down a tree lined street, like all the others, beautiful. We were walking past a school that definitely doesn’t look like our schools back home and the next minute a huge park opened up before us and the Taipei 101 tower loomed high and mighty. What a stunningly designed building. The sections on it look like trapezoids stacked on top of one another. Giving it an awkward appearance, not the usual broad bottom to thin top, but more a broad top to thinner bottom. The park we crossed over had kids trying to rollerskate and guys teaching them in little groups.  To cute! There was a lady in a corner singing with a guy on his clavinova….at least not the usual karaoke we’re used to. We crossed over and arrived at a very interesting cross over in the road. Diagonally opposite us, was the Taiwan World Trade Centre where the computer show was, to our left was a huge bank and to our right the Hyatt!

The cross over had two parallel lines from each corner of the street as well as diagonally across meeting in the middle. Interesting! Then the lights changed and the masses moved……they crossed over diagonally instead of going from on side of the street to the other and then across again. Very clever! Only problem came when they met in the middle a bit. Definitely not a Lord of the dance routine, that I can promise you!! I want my money back!

Anyway, we did it a few times and finally landed at the TWTC. We walked in after getting a handful of brochures and pamphlets stuffed into our hands….a few feet further was the dumping site of those said brochures. Anyway, we politely hung on to them until we got a gigantic paper bag to put it in! I think I knocked around quite a few people with that bag, definitely ensures about a meter of space either way. This show was to die for doll! I am a bit of a gadgets pig and this was my mud puddle. So many things and people and interesting developments in the computer world. Don’t let me start, I’ll write a computer show review as a novel on it’s own!!! But needless to say, I thought my brother would love everything I saw! From new mobile MP4 players (that’s with video clips/music video’s etc) to online games galore at ridiculous prices…needless to say my palms were itching and it needed a product to scratch it! And I found it! A stunning little Samsung brand new camera release! Small, light weight but with all the added features you don’t expect! And that’s not all, it has many hidden features you can only find by killing the battery pressing buttons, as you don’t get an English manual with it…so it’s a little experience and adventure all rolled into one!!! Myself and Melissa succumbed to the temptation and both got one! Needless to say the little Chinese sales man, who could speak English very well, and they got him to talk to us because of this built in feature, loaded with a Yves Saint Laurent necklace and looking like he does quite well for himself, was very pleased. A cool guy to speak to as well as we waited for Melissa’s Credit Card transaction to go through, with all the noise they poor sales guys couldn’t hear the bank on the phone and they were hiding behind cupboards and in cupboards to be able to hear the phone. Eventually, after them giving us some pens and manicure sets to apologize for the inconvenience, we were off to our next adventure, Taipei 101.

Taiwan Times Vol 5 Volume Five – December 2004   INDEX:

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Four – November 2004

 INDEX:

Massage 6/11 Earthquakes Mon 8/11 – 12:00pm. Wed 10/11 – 11am  and Thurs 11/11 at about 10:15am Puli  and Chin-Jing 21/11 Alexander – the movie 27/11

Well what do I tell you about the massage! Devine! Needed! Painful! Stunning! All in one! I was as stiff after as if I have been to a gym session for the first time in years! But, distressed and feeling as if, if I don’t get a bed now I’ll pass out on the pavement, oh wait, there are no pavements! It was very professional and beautifully done up inside. All Japanesey looking, with sliding doors of a dark mahogany looking wood. In the little rooms it was tranquil, exactly the right temperature and the lighting was low. The wall paper was on the one wall you face as you walk in with a small flower decoration in the centre…very Feng Shui. The girl who did the massage was called Mary and had just come back from Canada in Vancouver after 5 years. She could speak English well and with not too much effort. The mood music in the background was of forest sounds and birds chirping…..peaceful!!! Good bye!! They did various little Chinese traditional things like getting rid of the bad Chi and replacing it with good Chi…..thanks for that! They scrape the bad chi out of your back with a wooden comb like instrument and then replaced it with what felt like a wooden rolling pin on fire, it smelt good, like a fragrant burning wood. What a treat! Definitely worth it!

The weekend was gone in a second as Monday dawned, I don’t do 1 day weekends too well, I now realized….once again. Monday night, while reading my book at about 12pm, I felt the room move! And no, the book wasn’t that riveting! I jumped up and ran to the TV room where Ryno was lying watching TV. And then the usual question was asked….”Did you feel that?” the room still swayed a while and was quiet. It obviously took me a while to sleep after that but eventually Tuesday arrived. The days are blurring into one another and Wednesday morning, I don’t have class and was flueish. I decided not to go swimming and instead read my book a while. At 11am, I’m sure it’s on a timer, the room moved! I was first not too sure whether it actually did or not….that’s the problem with earthquakes…you get used to them. The next one was on the Wednesday at about 10:15am. Ok so now they have had their chances and can’t do it again until at least next year!!!! Fair?? After that everything felt like an earthquake! The cat bumping the bed, the wind blowing into the room moving the curtains etc. etc. etc. Apparently the first one we felt was a 6.6 in the same general area as the first one a few weeks ago, then the 2nd was 6 and the 3rd trailed off and nobody even new about it!

So, I got the flue and the feelings of the earthmoving just got worse! But at least now I’ll be desensitized by the time a big one hits! Anyway, we started planning our weekend outing to a place called Puli and Ching-Jing. The best part about things like this is that you are always surprised, you never expect anything so you’re never disappointed! Cool!!! I was running low on funds but the Chinese teachers insisted and they were driving us there in their cars. Monica and Winnie pitched up with their respective cars and we were off!

First we stopped off at Puli, the liquor tasting would be happening here. The whole shop was decorated in clay vases that are used to store Sake and other liquor, including their wines. Huge clay pots adorned the outside wall as we entered the warehouse looking building.

More like a Makro or Hyper looking place. The bottles were so ornate and beautifully painted or glass worked that you would buy the drink just for the bottle!!! We tasted some Sake and it immediately brought back memories of a certain Mampoer evening!!! Sake will not be one of my drinks here..thanks!!

Anyway, we moved around in side along with the hordes of touristy Chinese and finally made our way to the wine vinegar bar/counter. Now I don’t know if you remember I bought a bottle of honey vinegar at Sun Moon Lake and these were the same types. No honey through but apple, peach and berry. So we bought some of that in a stunning packaging with a glass in the middle, like when you buy Jack Daniels in a promotional pack and get the whisky glasses included. Wanted to send it home, but it weighs too much, will try again later!!! We had a peanut ice cream and were on our way to Cing Jing.

Well, if you’ve been to Europe and the Alps…this is what it looks like at Cing Jing!!! Set deeply in the mountains after a horrendous climb up the mountains at an angle of note! More like driving up the old pass to Nelspruit, heavy ups and tight turns with Kamakaze pilots flying down hill on your side!!! No fancy railings and ropes to keep you from plummeting 1000m’s down the cliff side! Nice!!! And as we climbed the last curve with a beautiful backdrop of a lake shimmering in the noon sky we saw the little town nestled in on the top of the mountain. What a sight!

Swiss type buildings and guest houses adorned the twisting road into the town. The winter has started up here and the typical yellow dried grass was all over. Would be stunning to come and see this place in Summer time when all is green and lush! The most beautiful buildings and houses with huge windows and colorful walls with the typical Swiss dark wood crisscrossing. After much driving up and down the streets trying to find parking we parked and walked a while. Fresh mountain air…..weird! We eventually ended up at a little mall with food shops and curio shops and a Starbucks…it was freezing and we all went straight for the Starbucks….1 coffee of the day Grande please! Cream and sugar!! Delish! Took some photo’s…like typical tourists and got everybody involved. We were 8 girls and the guys just lined up to help! Nice! At some stage we even had a golden Labrador puppy between us for the owner to take a picture…we’ll send him the bill later.

On our way back to the car we stopped at a fruit stand that had the most unusual looking fruit. It looks like a tomato, feels like and apple, with the same skin but with a peachy interior that tastes like nothing you’ve ever tasted before in a fruit! Sweet and absolutely divine! We got some of that of course!

The lights were on in all the places and shops and it took on a totally different feeling, holidaying in the mountains….we’ll be back! The guest houses with the huge windows glowed golden into the darkening indigo sky. The mountain just outside the Starbucks had a Cape Town feel to it as the pink clouds flowed down over the top towards us…ah yes!!! This is the life!!!

I at least got a picture of a Chinese sheep…and you know what I could tell he was Chinese……something in the eyes……

hat a day, back to smoggy Chang Hua and another week of hard work and naughty children. Funny how they become more naughty as you become more nostalgic and more irritated…hmmmm.

So our next little outing was Alexander. Well, let’s start with the cinema…impressive from the outside, very much like ours from the street and that’s it! They have the little box office out side, like in the old days. No snack counters to get smarties, nuts or popcorn! Walk up the stairs and find your seat relatively easily. Melissa was surprised to see that the seating is fixed. I told her we also work that way. Canada doesn’t and it causes endless irritation….you know!!! Anyway, got our seats and sat down pushing the seat down from the up position…..like in the old days…did I mention that? They were narrow, pleather and deep, if you had someone too tall you wouldn’t see a thing! Otherwise quite comfortable and tolerable. The movie started and the lights didn’t dim all the way, the side aisle lights stayed on for the people wanting to go to the loo etc Ok no problem there I’ll get used to that. The ads rolled in all in Chinese and that’s where the difference started dawning. I nearly felt like I was home. The movie was excellent but the seats told me it was a 3hour movie!!!! Cell phones rang, people answered etc. A bit out of the ordinary as we were past this stage in SA already. But in all, the movie was a definite must again soon….National Treasure is coming out on the 12/17 and we’ll be seeing that! The prices were a tad steep and  a ticket sets you back NT 220 = R44 but as you go outside you get a free bee of 3 tickets for the next new release which was Polar Express in our case…yeah!! Anyway, because it’s only NT100 – R20 it will be worth seeing even if it’s not your favourite type movie…but Polar Express looks excellent, so there’s no loss there!!!

Well that’s me for this boring month, next month we have a few things lined up as in a tour to Taipei, Xmas in Taiwan, a birthday party and a computer faire!!!!! Will let you know what happened there!!!!

  Taiwan Times vol 4 Volume Four – November 2004  INDEX:

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Three – October 2004

The 1st of October, no ways!!!! It’s nearly my birthday!!! All gifts can be sent to Sesame Street School, No 2-1 Chung Yang Rd, Changhua. Thanx!

Anyway, miss everybody and will think of you as I party it up in Taiwan…..hey, I never had a birthday in the East before!!! Coooollll!!! I think I’ll buy a few fire crackers and set them off on the roof!! Payday is only the 10th….Go figure! I’ll have to party after then.

So my birthday came and went silently. Got little gifts from two Chinese teachers and then had a bottle of wine with the girls after work at our place, and everybody was so tired that we all crashed by 11pm. Plenty of time to party this weekend!

On Sunday they had their National Day celebrations and once again the crackers tore through the night air on Saturday. A massive procession was heard coming up the road on the side of the complex. The next minute at an intersection I saw the dancers in uniform pass with flags flying, the next two dragons of two people long. The next minute a huge float (which is just a truck exquisitely covered in a pattern of lights) the lights were actually quite blinding until I saw the second truck, I needed my shades!!! Beautiful. Followed by boxes of those flying crackers! Hectic but stunning and you could hear the music and crackers for miles to come! Wish I was closer to take pictures.

After a while we went to the girl’s place (Neps and Kim’s) I’ve never been there and it is quite impressive. Gardens, small pools and little wooden decks between the plants. They stay on the 10th floor….surprise! Stunning setting. Very upmarket. So naturally we braaied on the stoep!! Someone did stick their heads out to see what all the smoke was that came from apartment 10J but we smiled and cheersed them with our plastic cup wine glasses and had an excellent braai! The braais here are quite interesting and extremely cheap. I think people don’t have place to keep a braai so they literally have disposable braais. So when you go to the supermarket you buy your meat, bread and ‘n braai….every time. They cost less than R20 for a tin foil looking braai. It works!!! That’s what counts. We walked back at about 12pm and got home in about 10min.

I decided today was the day to bath Draco. Come here kitty, I won’t hurt you….really!! It was great fun though, he went all rigid but I’m sure after the clawing and crying he actually enjoyed it! I spent the rest of Sunday sleeping and felt a cold slowly get hold of me! Monday was payday! So we got up and went. Tuesday we hit Carrefour, to buy the monthly groceries and a few things. What a pleasure to shop on a Tuesday, the aisles are yours!!!!!!! Carrefour is yours!!!!!! Stunning! We got hold of our taxi driver and dubbed him Eddie!! He was very impressed with his new name and kept pretending to talk on a cellphone saying “Eddie, Long chia tsue” meaning Eddie pick us up at Long Chia Tsue…our building’s name. Ok then!! We’ll call him again to take us to Taichung on Saturday for our party….did I mention we’re having a party on Saturday evening?? Really?? Strange……. Anyway, we’re having my birthday party on Saturday at about 7pm……can’t wait!

And then it happened! The earth shook and my ears rang! My first earthquake! This is a phenomenon we are TOTALLY not prepared for if you’re from SA. Maybe once or twice in your entire life you feel a slight shudder in Jo’burg and then you don’t really know whether you did or not!

Myself and Abby were on the 2nd floor in kindergarten marking our kid’s books on Friday, chatting away when I suddenly felt a weird sensation and it felt like somebody jumping up and down next to you at first, or when you stop on a bridge and the trucks go by, a slight up and down movement. We looked at each other and Abby said “Did you feel that?” as I agreed the shaking got slightly worse and it actually pulsed. We were sitting there bobbing up and down for over a minute. I remember looking down the hall at one of the Chinese teachers talking to someone and when she noticed it she put her arms out and told the children to stay put. I remember wondering what I would do now if the roof started flaking and things started falling on the floor all around us…like in the movies you know. The weirdest part of this is that until you feel it you never really experience the fear that goes with it when you see it on TV or in the movies…you know!!! Suddenly that realization sets in that the earth and its movements don’t have a conscious. You are the proverbial ant making your way to your destination while the earthmover/bulldozer clears a field. No ones fault or no one doing anything on purpose. You are at the total mercy of what ever happens next. Totally out of control. The shaking continued a bit and then slowly subsided between bouts of starting up again.

We then heard on the news it was a 7 on the Richter Scale, 109km of the east coast of Taiwan, next to the county of Ilan. They felt it as a 5 and we got it as a 2, Taipei experienced it as a 4. I watched the news and it looked worse there with things literally falling to the ground off the shelves in shops etc.

After that, as we saw people, we asked, where were you when the earthquake happened? Poor Melissa, my roommate, was in our flat on the 10th floor. Quite the swaying she got! But we survived and will live to tell the tale…….this time! They said we should expect another within 4 weeks…great!!! Something to look forward to! There hasn’t been one for a long time and people were expecting it. Apparently it releases the tension in the plates if it moves every few months, it hasn’t happened for over 5 months, so it was due. Stunning!!

Anyway, at least we were going to a party soon. So Saturday came and dragged by after our meeting about Halloween and Xmas activities. Halloween is big here, we will be dressing up and getting the kids to do the same, they have to chant songs and do decorations. Quite the vibe here! So the evening came and we all got dressed up! In our party gear that is….not Halloween outfits. We were all in our flat chatting with a friend of Kim’s that arrived from the Tainan province. Her name was Alicia and she has been there for 5 months now. The only foreign teacher with one other Chinese teacher in her school. Very rural!! Jane, my Chinese friend and Celine who is one of the ladies from the school were also there to drop off my birthday presents. Jane gave me a stunning Chinese material purse. Light blue and silver with dragons on and Celine got me a stunning emerald green top with, you guessed it, dragons on. Too beautiful!!!

I had my new black and white slightly glittery top on with the usual black pants and high platformish shoes. I was the party girl after all you know!!!! Anyway, we got hold of Eddie and he brought another driver and off we went. Eddie even had the party music going in the car. Myself, Melissa and Ryno were in our car and Kim, Neps and Alicia was in the other. We got to Taichung and it looked like Vegas, so many lights and flashing billboards. We passed a massive department store called SOGO, apparently, Ryno told us, it has 12 floors….so we will obviously go checking that one out for sure!!!!! So we arrived at FM bar, a quaint little hidden in a side street kinda bar with lots of foreign people at the tables.

Very nicely set out and the waiter’s English is remarkable! We had drinks and I tried their Long Island Ice Tea (as usual actually). Quite potent, they are not shy on the tot servings here! Anyway, the menu looked exceptionally good and there was even “Boerevoers” on the menu….no ways!!! We were going to suggest a spelling change but thought it added to the Taiwanese look and feel of it! Melissa and I had a lasagna to die for, we’ll have to come back to try some of the other dishes! They looked very good, nobody complained and the food was well priced. Our lasagna was NT$270 which is R54 for a good portion! So the people added to our party and we were 12 people! We called different taxis and via scooter a Taxi and someone’s car we all went to Pig Pen…the London pub club. We got there at about 11pm and started partying immediately! There were so many foreign people there compared to the previous time I was there….oh wait yes my first night in Taiwan!!! Nothings changed, except for some groups of people that were obviously there as a company or on business etc. And we spotted a group of Nigerians as well….wonder what contract they are here on……..yeaah right!!! Anyway, the one was very interested in Neps and Melissa and we had to step in a few times and rescue them from deep conversations…….shame! The night carried into the morning and we had a blast. The local stage act…same as the night I was there before…were strutting their stuff on the stage. They also have a pole on the stage and every guy in the club at one stage or another according to how many drinks they had, climbs it!!!!! Amazing! Great fun to watch!

So at about 4am we left and waited for our taxi until about 5am. We slept all the way home although Eddie prided himself in getting us there in 10min! Same price though…..hmmmmm! Got to bed at about 5:30 and slept until about 10, woke up and cleaned our flat. We phoned Jane at about 4:30 and she took us to Rose records, which is a CD shop. Had a ball in there!! New CD’s are priced at about NT$ 350 = R70. So obviously I got a few. They sound stunning on my HI FI!!! We got pizza’s at Napoli’s on the way. And all met up again in our living room and had a quieter chat this time…the girls still had babalaas from the night before and started partying again during the day…easier than to deal with the headache!! Everybody went to bed early….we are definitely getting older!!! My neck was sooooo sore from the head banging!!!! This time I only did it for a few seconds…..!!! I’m getting old!!! Stiff neck for about two days already.

Kim is a dancer and said she’ll start a Salsa class next week. Obviously I agreed to join so Wednesday at 11am in the Kindergarten exercise room we gathered. Myself, Stacy, Monica and Winnie were here first students. Great to do something different and I’ve always wanted to take dancing classes. Going to get bored in the mornings I don’t have Kindergarten. Monday’s and Thursday’s I’m going to start swimming at the splash pool place. They have calmed down on the hours a bit. But the problem with that is that my money goes with it!!! So I need a happy medium where I can, do my own thing but also have enough money to make it worth my while here. We’ll see what happens.

Lukang is next on our list for this weekend. It is an ancient city and has over 150 temples. And then we were off. We phoned Eddie and got transported to Lukang. NT$300 later we decided to go back by bus…besides we haven’t done that before.

We were dropped off at the cultural art museum and found we didn’t want to go in, you had to pay anyway…….So we started walking around and exploring Lukang. I was a tad disappointed. I was expecting the open rice paddies and a few houses and shops and lots of temples, instead we got another suburb of Taichung with normal buildings and shops and in between hidden beneath the usual scurry of a town lay the hidden world of Lukang. We discovered tourist friendly signs all over the city, directing us to temples and walkways.

An interesting looking plaque said Nine Turns alley and we went down that road…..suddenly it was like being in an ancient little village, you are not aware of the noise of the cars down the road or the shining glass window shops down the main street. A small winding cobble stone road took us through a section that used to be a residential area, with a “wall of jars”. The wall was literally put together out of old, seems to be wine jars, made out of a terracotta. Only the top of the wall was left in tact as the rest was probably pillaged a bit by tourists or passing traffic those days.

The walkway was cool and peaceful with high walls keeping you on the path. The width was about that of a small car. Every say about 10 paces you had a small doorway indenting the wall. The doors were either made of old wood, painted a pale flaking blue or a bleached green. Here and there modern art made its presence felt in a metal door with the usual decorations etched on it but mostly it was wooden and small and hidden.

We came across a small temple in a dead end and explored it.

We made our way through the maze of turns and alleys and came upon an old original hand water pump, and it was in working order! Stunning. We explored, got lost and eventually ended back on the main road. Our search was actually to find the Holy Grail ….it seemed, we were looking for the Arts and Craft market and ended up coming full circle to the place we were dropped off. We asked the guard at the gate to the museum where the arts and crafts centre was and he quite casually informed us that it no longer exists. This is about 4 hours after we started on our quest! Anyway, all worth it in the exploring sense for sure! We also came across a lantern maker’s shop where they paint the lanterns to your request and the famous shoe shop. I obviously had to visit that as they made the shoes while you wait. Really?? You might ask flabbergasted, yes. They have the base of the shoes in sizes and you just add the material you want to. So here goes, all the shoes are solid wood of different wood colours and styles. So you pick the sole, then you pick the materials they keep in drawers, all stunning Chinese designs and colours. You then take these two pieces of shoe and give them to the man at the table where he then subsequently puts the two together. You try one on for size and then he adjusts it accordingly or then carries on with the next shoe. They are only slip-ons so it works well for them and the tourist, just waiting patiently for your own design shoe. I got a dark wood with a silver and dark blue dragon design material together…beautiful! And they had my size…kinda!

On our exploration we stepped into a small painting shop. I wanted to get some things for my mother, to get her doing some Chinese painting…..have you tried that yet????? We walked around and they had brushes everywhere and stunning Chinese writing hangings. The two gentlemen came over and introduced themselves as the owner and a 2nd gentlemen who looked older. He could speak English and it turned into a photo session within minutes. I looked around for some gift sets, although it wasn’t the kind of shop that would keep gift sets etc. More of an artists shop, with canvas and paper and ink and brushes. I saw a small brush box and asked him how much, and he wiped it off carefully and smiled at me and said it’s a gift! I was dumbfounded! I couldn’t believe people were still like this in the world. We thanked them profusely and left the store with me grinning from ear to ear!!!

We entered a huge red and gold coloured store and it turned out to be a famous shop in Taiwan that serves traditional pastries. Called “Nayoshupie”. A circular flat bread looking pastry, but made out of flaky pastry. The size of a saucer. The centre section of it was a sweet taste while the rest of the bread falls apart as you eat it….my favourite pastry here. The most amazing sweet taste. Difficult to explain, not quite a jam taste, but just slightly sweetened dough for 90% of the circle. This is a very traditional pastry and Lukang is famous for getting it at this shop! People come from all over the world, when traveling Taiwan, to buy this at that shop. We finally entered a walkway, with a huge Lukang sign arch across it.

This was like a flea market with many food stalls on both sides of the cobble road. Jade, stone, paintings, food smells, cheap gadgets, expensive red gargoyle looking tigers laughing at you as you pass an ancient antique shop. This is like in the movies. We walked into an antique looking shop, the musty smell and old paintings confirmed that, stunning boxes, with woodcarvings and inlaid mother of pearl designs, adorned the small crevices. Black jet figurines of ancient god and deities peered at you from between other small boxes and trinkets. Silver chalices and weird designs complemented the dark wood of the walls. Scrolls lay loosely in a large terracotta jar tied with a velvet ribbon. We opened them reverently and saw the old paintings of country sides and peacocks in green fields. Mountains with a temple nestled in it. How much? Only about NT$15 000 / R3 000 and those were the cheaper ones. We left quietly!

What a town! The festive feeling and the streets lined with shops of all sizes and crafts and things! We entered into a small square with vendors on either side surrounding the entrance to a huge temple. By this time it was getting dark and the half moon glowed above the dark ornate temple roof. People were buying fake Chinese money to burn in the temple as an offering and incense to pray with. Exciting and beautiful!

We made our way to the bus station and figured out how the system works. We could either go to an electronic board and guess the symbol for Changhua press the button and get a ticket or ask the bus conductor behind the bars at the station and be sure we’re going home! So we did the later and got our tickets waited 5 minutes and got on our first bus ride in Taiwan. We waved goodbye to Lukang with a promise to return soon. Cool!! Their buses are definitely not our low budget set ups, even for local transport between towns or suburbs. With soft leather seats and even a TV in the bus, although it wasn’t on. The bus ride was only about 20min back to Changhua. The bus stopped a few meters away and we walked wearily home. What a day!

The following week went passed so quickly and the weekend dawned on us again. This time with a bit of a twist, it’s Halloween!! The school has been gearing up for Halloween for about two weeks before. We got the kids in our different classes to memorise a song for a competition and they had to make decorations, like either cats, witches, pumpkins or spiders. The kids love it! So the school slowly changed into a ghoulish environment and we got into the Halloween mood. We as South Africans are not used to Halloween and all the things and excitement that goes with it. The costumes, the candy, the trick or treating, the Halloween songs….cool!!!! The kindergarten kids dressed up on the Friday evening…what a sight…what money the parents spent to make their kid look the best!!!

We had a hoard of Spidermen…definitely the thing these days, we had fairies, dracula’s, spiderwebbed people, scary movie masked people, traditional wear etc. etc. Then we were bundled into the kombi’s and went trick or treating with the kindergarten at about 7:30 with designated restaurants and places. The list included three stores, King Stone restaurant, Mac Donalds and Le’ Enfants (baby clothing). The kids arrived and the managers dished out candies into their little handbags and pumpkin bags…too cute!!

The teachers were dressed as well in our full witches regalia and Abby went as a pig!! The restaurant clients were offering the teachers, wine instead of candy!!!! We finished off at about 9pm, the kids were tired and half asleep in the back seat of the kombi. As I turned around to check on them from the front seat, I had the most Anne Geddes Halloween picture presented to me. A small pumpkin lying on Spiderman’s shoulder with a lion holding on to his candy! Too cute for words!!! Well, Halloween was definitely a highlight for me this year.

On the Saturday we were to go to Taichung for training again and supper on the school at the Taichung Steak House! That should be a good experience! We were all craving steak! The training went by and I bought a book at there bookstore, the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. We got discount ok! And we arrived at the steak house…..or rather it didn’t look like a steak house, it looked more like a fast food outlet all though it was huge with different counters in the centre for the different foods you wanted. All the South Africans and Canadians went straight to the steak/meat counter. You had to take a wooden tray, the type they put under your iron steak plate at the Spur, and place it in front of the grill. You could then leave and go get other food if you wanted to. I immediately felt some apprehension as to the quality of the steak, when do they ask me how would you like it????? What steak do you want? Sirloin, fillet or even beef or lamb??? Then we got the steak…….anyway, next on the food list was stir fry, good selection and they had two chef’s doing your bowl of stir fry you accumulated from the rows of metal dishes. Very effective and efficient. There was Sushi, seafood etc etc etc. Eat as much as you want for about R70. Then we found the oysters, and we ate our R70 worth!! They were huge! Probably double the size of the larges at home or in Cape Western Fisheries!!!! The evening was good and we went home, watched movies and went to bed. The following week we managed to book a massage….finally!!!! So Sunday 11/7 is our day for being pampered! The dates are all being written the American way, you get used to it, eventually!!!! 7 Nov. for the people back home! Will tell you all about that!!

So , miss you all!

Taiwan Times vol 3 Volume Three – October 2004 The 1st of October, no ways!!!! It’s nearly my birthday!!! All gifts can be sent to Sesame Street School, No 2-1 Chung Yang Rd, Changhua.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

Volume Two – September 2004

Ni Hao! (Chinese for hello remember)

Ok, so after about three tries we got it right and the teething problems are over, we are at press!

Thanks for all the compliments and please, if there is anything specific you want me to check out lemme know, it will make my life more interesting here!

I got the photo’s downloaded and we’re A for away. Will let you know about those.

Anyway, where were we, oh yes. We lost the two Canadian girls and got a South African, Penelope (Pen for short, because the locals had a problem saying the name) and the Canadian Kimberley (Kim for short, just easier) a day later instead. Poor Penelope’s luggage never left SA and two days later she got them delivered to the school by Cathy Pacific! They were put in a new apartment just down the road from us. Pen was having a very hard time about it. They were shoved into teaching the next day with no training whatsoever.!! Hectic, now where did I hear that before……oh yes, it happened to me too!! Anyway, the weekend they had time to breath after a terrible and disastrous two days teaching. They would be fine. I told them they must just calm down over the weekend, do an orientation stint then while it’s quiet and brace themselves for Monday. It will be better and it does get better. My week was a total nightmare hours wise. 13 hrs a day, 71 hours a weak, 306 hrs a month! But obviously I’m not being paid for the hours spent at the office only teaching hours are billed. It’s cruel!!! The initial 3months are used for training then after that you can go home if you don’t have class. For the first 3 months you have to stay at the office weekdays from 1pm – 9pm and Saturdays from 10am – 4pm. This is fine if you are not doing a kindergarten class that starts at 9am and you have to be there at 8am to prepare! So all in all my 1st three months will be 8am -9pm. Cool!!!!!

Anyway, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!! I finally went to the night market the other night. What an experience!!!! It was a maze of narrow rows between hundreds if little stalls that ranged from food to gadgets and of course the cell phone stores in between!!! My word! The food, the smells and some of the smells…..eeeeeuuuuwww. But overall the food look appetizing and very oily, everything is fried…fried dumplings, fried, noodles, fried meat etc. etc. ect. But what a vibe, Tuesday nights and Friday nights the night markets lives on, with people flowing like blood through it’s veins. Awesome. Better than Leki in Lagos. But different in a way as well. I liked Leki for the unusual stuff, with the odd little Chinese store in between, here most of it is shiny, glittery and it looks like Taiwan is stuck in the eighties!! So I’ll do the expected and start buying cool glittery hair clips and baubles for my hair, seeing as I don’t have much of a choice in the heat, I’m tying it up…can you guys believe it!!

Some beautiful hair stuff. Stunning Jade jewelry. Small trinkets for about NTS300 = R60 to NTS3000 = R 600. Stunning bangles of jade as well. You get a light white jade with a hint of green and then others are dark green. All little religious symbols and things you find at our Chinese stores back home as well as some different ones. This market is just interesting with all it’s stuff and smells. The gadgets are the best, the lighters are awesome, everything flashes!! Lot’s of CD’s DVD’s and VCD’s. All quite cheap. Didn’t look too closely as I was swept away by the stream. Boy what a stream!!! It’s like the game with the frog that has to jump across the road and avoid being hit by a the cars, level advanced!!!! I actually at one stage had to fall back in the stream the way I came and pop out a quiet pooled area on the opposite side and make my way upstream along the side I wanted to get to in the first place!!!! Anyway, it was a great experience and I saw lots of stuff for everybody. The girls will love the hair gadgets and clips and the brother will love the guys shirts here, very with it and clubby!!! The interesting food caught my eye as I was bustled by. Ducks head an neck fried to a crisp, Chicken feet fried to a crisp!!

Saturday I did my time at the school, had to teach 2 classes and then started on this volume. The girls are moving today which means I am moving into the big room with the en suite bathroom, going to miss them and the dogs!! Will go visit as Teri is leaving in 5 sleeps and poor Abby will be alone at home with the kids!

I had a weird traditional food on the Saturday that taste like raw dough…my favourite….but has a spicy or sweet centre that looks like fried onions. Weird, but ok. Won’t buy too many of those. They also look like the green goo we used to buy when we were kids that didn’t stick to your hands, it just kind of went through your fingers but left your hands clean. These balls were like that, they stuck to the plastic they were in but didn’t come apart or leave goo behind…very interesting food. Wonder if it will stick to a car window at a high speed………

Anyway, I moved and have never in my life sweated so much as when I was cleaning out our flat when the girls left. My word, it was soooo hot on Saturday, I went to bed in the quiet apartment and Sunday spent time going through all the left behinds to see what is useable and what’s not. A whole new way of life for me!!!! You don’t want to end up buying something expensive and you can’t take it with! So use what’s left behind and save on costs. The en suite shower is quite an experience, in  there being no shower!!! The is a wall mounted tap set and the shower head and away you go, next to the loo in the middle of the bathroom, no curtain, no indent just a slight downward angle and two draining holes…..quite cool actually. Maybe it would be a good idea for the resort…a fiberglass bathroom floor, raised and sealed along the edges and everything in it. Easy cleaning for the crew, you don’t need a bath for the resort and it’s hygienic! Viola, all these ideas!!! I tell you!

  So I finally get the dreaded cold I was bracing myself with Vitamin tablets against!!! Got it after Sunday’s cleaning and felt it more on Monday, Tuesday evening I had it full blast with a day from hell the next! Like I said, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger….right?….just incase you don’t hear from me again after this edition…….I love you all!!!! I mean it!!! Naaah not this “onkruid”.

Judy (the owner) was shaking her head in disbelief at the most amazing and well timed, managed, organized way my passport and visa was done compared to EVERYONE ELSE. For some weird reason, I’m the only one with no problems getting a 60day visa, secondly for some unknown reason my visa is the only one, now that they did leave it too late to get the ARC in time, able to be renewed until Oct 21 at the local police station without having to leave the country!! Strange but true, I’ve been telling everybody I’m easy and nobody believes me!!! I’m being looked after big time……as usual. Anyway, I have a three empty rooms, and I know who’s all living in them at the moment while there is space….once again!!!!

So, this is a sign for them maybe to…..I don’t know….hurry the process up a bit with the ARC!!! I’ll stay on them. Just a reminder if I haven’t mentioned it before, the ARC is the Alien Residency Certificate, basically allows me to stay here and work.

(Verimark add scenario)This new rice diet I have tried really works for me! I can’t believe the results! I was a lonely fat teenager all my life and the Chowfan rice diet has change all that!! I can look at people and say….yes, it’s me!!! …No really it’s me, me? Karen, remember? No really it IS! Look, see it’s me…..yes!! Over here, it’s me, I’m here!!!…..okay, maybe not THAT thin yet, but the loss of 10kg’s in my first month and a half, says something for the Chinese people’s cooking. There are very few obese people here, except for the foreigners who eat things like, fried dumplings, fried calamari, fried rice, tipenyaki and all the 7eleven can offer, because of their money that is. But once again, money is the root of fat, the less money the thinner you are….so I have come to the equation – no money = thinner! Eureeeeekkkkaaaa! I better hide my money away from myself after payday! But where….where?????

In my huge room I now have, I have cordoned off a section for exercising. I got some foam tiles you buy in a pack of 6/8 and you connect them to form a mat. I do my sit up/push ups etc all on this little piece of lime green foam. Good to have an exercise routine, I have been missing it! Made a list of what I need for the flat, so that I can go get it this weekend after payday Friday!!! Wonder what we’ll be getting?!!!?

Saw Teri off on Wednesday night at work…can’t believe she’ll be at home tomorrow sometime. Weird to think she’ll see boetie before I do! And I probably won’t see him for nearly a year! Never happened before!! I’ll have to organize…and what about the family, what about my friends and the cats…….aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Anyway, I’ll survive!

Found out a few minutes ago that we don’t have to sit here for the whole 13 hours a day, so we won’t!! Not that my classes are scheduled in such a way that it will benefit me though. But the small gaps in between might help getting away a bit! We’ll see how that goes.

Well I it finally happened again and this time I gave in to my deepest maternal instinct! The first time, someone found a few weeks old stray puppy and I refused point blank, emotionally, space wise and this place is no place for a dog. No grass, no fresh air, no…..wait, I want those things!!!! Anyway, so yesterday evening Abby and Teri was taking out their trash when they found a 3 week old orphaned kitten. She asked me today whether I would please take care of it, I didn’t want to, I said I don’t know, really I did, I was soo strong!!!!! Then I remembered last night when I got home, to my huge empty flat with no life in it at all…….! And then it happened…that little niggly feeling deep down inside, what will happen to this little orphaned kitten? Who will help it? Here? no one!

With typhoon season in full swing, it will probably drown in the trash or get swept away down a drain or…what if the stray dogs eat it??? What then??? It got to this stage and obviously needed help to have a full happy life further, it was meant to be found by them and be taken care of by me! It will have a wonderful life!!! It might just become the flat cat! I’ll see him tonight (Thursday 9/9)

We’re making plans to do the Carrefour journey this weekend to get all the necessary living items. Like bedding!!! I have been sleeping on a fitted sheet and a pillow! Amazing how it turned out that we got here in Summer, Winter would have been a bit funny with no bedding!!! Anyway, it’s not and I don’t have to! Carrefour is actually just around the corner, well sort of, maybe about 5km’s away. Can’t wait.

Ok, so off we went on Saturday after school at about 5pm. What a place!! About three stories high with everything your heart desires! From toiletries to food to bikes to hi-tech stuff……I was like a kid in the proverbial candy store!!! And every time I saw something I saw something else at the same time and bumped into myself a few times until we both pulled in the same direction!!! Stunning!!! Got stuff for the flat, like a wine opener!!!!!! Got bedding at long last, now my bed looks like a bed not a temporary couch I spent a month and a half on. Also the temperature is slowly declining at night and in the wee morning hours, so the new fluffy thick duvet with my different types of blue colouring looks homely and cozy!! You have never bought so blind as here. 1 picture with a full bed set on it. 4 pillows, 1 duvet, 1 fitted sheet and when you open it you have 1 pillow case and a duvet cover. Then you buy another to see whether you could get it as close as possible to the colour and then you find a fitted sheet with 1 pillow case in another….so at the end of the day you have a semi matching set consisting of a denim blue duvet cover with a check pattern and a light blue broad border that isn’t on the picture, a bright blue fitted sheet with circles on it and matching pillow cases and an old night frill around the bed frame that was left in the flat of a different blue….viola!!!!!

  Anyway, I sleep well and it feels more like home!! Back at the store! I was still shopping away. Myself, Jane and Melissa(the new Canadian girl that is sharing with me). She was a legal secretary for 8years and decided to do something different, got married the day before she got here! Hectic!!!

So we stopped at the cats/pet section and I got Draco/ Shao Long (Little dragon) a sandbox, very fancy, we should get one for the cats back home!! Some  Friskies for cats and Purina for kittens. Jane (one of the Chinese teachers here) was my shopping planner/co-ordinator. She eventually took my list and off she went! People were checking us out because we were probably the loudest shoppers in the mall, well definitely the most excited ones!!! So, we got all the basics and some nice things, checked out the bikes and saw a stunning red Coca Cola bike, but it was a bit of a girls bike….but really cool looking! I eventually left it for now as I wanted to check out the bike place where all the other teachers go for bikes. A toaster, a vacuum cleaner and a few other essentials came to a very reasonable price! We would never pay that in SA for all the things we bought! The coolest part was between the different levels where they had a walking escalator not a stairs one. The best part is that the trolley’s are magnetized and sticks to the escalator!!! You can’t move it!!!! Even with a full trolley, it didn’t budge up and down the escalator…cool!!!! I even approached it at a running speed….amazing! I will definitely go back there. We called the taxi and at about 7o’clock we left Carrefour!! I want to go try out all my stuff at home! Can’t wait!

So that evening the other girls came over, Pen and Kim and we (or rather Melissa) made stir fry, we watched a movie and they left with plans for going exploring tomorrow morning to find the everything store!

Well what a variety of everything stores this place has. Just when you thought this is definitely the everything store you walk into one that has more everything than the first one! I was so sure I got it until we actually got it! We walked a mile….but we were in good spirits and it went quickly. Our first stop was a video/DVD store where we enquired as to how much to rent etc. etc. Worked out to NTS1000 for 80 DVD’s That is a good deal compared to our Blockbuster deals. R200 for 80 DVD’s!! We’ll remember that and we filed down the road again. Next stop was the Pizza shop. Stunning little yellow shop with inside seating and two tables outside. We opted for inside as the aircon does make a difference in a place like this. A small pizza and iced tea worked out to about just over R10 something. Very good as well, I took a membership card as we left and immediately got it stamped!! We’ll be back!! Next stop was a big pharmacy on the corner of a main intersection. They even have a counter as to when the lights will change, this one started at 80sec and counted down. Cool really. Anyway, the pharmacy had quite a bit of paraphernalia and interesting weird stuff. A huge baby section was located upstairs. It’s quite a big deal having children here and they definitely cater for it! Didn’t find what we wanted, which was for me to get nail glue! Everything else is false around here except nails……….

Then we went across the road and found a huge book/stationery store. Cool, books below and stationery above. I left the girls to wonder around in their as I continued my quest for the everything store……just past the book store I found it, I’m sure of it!! A crammed supermarket type shop with everything in it. Looks like a typical Indian shop, you can’t move in the isles. Lots of food and further down lots of household stuff, like cutlery dustbin bags for cheap and then a huge section with beer….interesting! Got two little dustbins for the bathrooms, lots of bags for them and the big dustbin in the kitchen and was off to find the girls and let them know! Got back to the bookstore and they had disappeared into the myriad of shops in Changhua, swallowed by the black hole of consumer marketing and products on demand! So what to do…do I go on shopping or do I go find them….hmmmm…sat on the corner like a foreigner for a few minutes, nothing, walked up a while and side ways, nothing….Oh well, they’re all together so I’ll go exploring down this way………found some shoe shops and a huge everything shop with red writing further down the road. Cool and they had a little bit of nail glue! Must remember this place! Got some sparkly stuff for my hair and felt like a kid again. One with neon orange flower bits with a clear bauble behind it, two with two pink squares on either side with a mother of pearl shine and one with clear squares and a red elastic. Cool!!!!

Walked out and back down the street and as I came to the corner again they were crossing the road. I told them about the shop and they wanted to go see it. I waited at Mac Donald’s with Kim and had a Lemon Coke. We started our journey back nearly 4 hours later. Stopped at the Yellow store, a huge yellow electronics store called BC. Lots of gadgets in here!!!! Translators, camera’s MPR3 players to die for, CD players, TV’s you name it. Laptops are the same to a tad cheaper that home. HP Presario’s at about NT35 000 which works out to about R7 000 to more. I was hoping for much cheaper but they too import them. Then we checked out the Hi Fi section and we all had our favourites. I got a small Philips Hi Fi with a sound to die for and all the extras including a USB port to connect your laptop to it to play MP3’s. Also plays MP3, CD’s RWCD etc etc etc etc. Boetie, will love this!! Nee, dis myne!!! Stunning little thing for under a R1000. They had to order one. Got two fluorescent lamps for the bathroom and kitchen and we were off again. Got closer to home and found a huge fresh market. Walked in and they had all sorts in there! ALL SORTS. We took a quick route past the live chickens being slaughtered and checked out the seafood and other meats. Interesting but also very fresh and good pricing. Calamari to die for doll, squid, octopus, shrimps, clams bubbling away in their cold water crates, eels and al sorts of fish. I wonder if they have butter fish, we had it in Paternoster as part of our sea food platter, I could make a huge seafood platter with these things!!! At the end they had pastries and it smelled stunning! We left and suddenly walked into “The Everything store”. From pots and pans to electrical things in one huge corrugated iron room. Got a lamp for next to my bed, a squeegee to clean the floors with and Melissa also got some stuff. We were nearly home and passed so many eating places on the way. We made an arrangement that once a month we will try out one of the eating places, maybe twice a month as there are so many!!!! Got home, the girls left and I did my hair and nails and went to bed….a good shopping day!!!

The week started with a bang and I was back into my 13hour shifts. Although I had no class on the Monday until the afternoon! Then later I found out they went to the Confucian temple! I wanted to go tooooooo! Abby got the brochure and we’ll go soon. The week flew by and the guys from BC phoned me to come fetch the HiFi. I organized with Jane, my new Chinese best friend, and after work on Wednesday we got on her scooter and went to go fetch it! Great, it was there and they had it waiting. The box was not too big but just uncomfortably sized. At least it had handle holes on the sides. So we started planning how we were going to get the box, me and her on the scooter, so Jane suggested I ride and she’ll hold the box, I advised against that option as she knows her bike better and will be able to counter weight etc etc . So she got on, I got on with the box resting on my left knee and leaning to the right and we were off. The poor scooter! Thank goodness it didn’t rain. We dodged a few cars, had to organize space for us to squeeze through and we got home. I obviously immediately started assembling the thing well into the evening and borrowed CD’s from Melissa to check whether the 5CD changer option worked well! It did, and what sound!!! I’m happy, I have a real room now, bed and Hifi what more do you want! Now, I’ll need to get CD’s!!!! Leki market used to have them at R25 a CD in Nigeria, get this, here, none of them are over NT35 which is R7….I’ll stay here…please send your lists through to me!!!

Anyway, Friday arrived and I had to go to the new school. Asked Judy for her scooter and she said no……..what?…no? What do you mean no? If I have enough time they want us to either walk or ride our own bikes because of the safety hazard on scooters. FINE!!! I’ll take my bike!! I started cycling in about 30C heat and in jeans! It was great! I had such a cool cycle. With the bicycle you go past things slower and you can actually see shops….more shops….cool places to come visit! I made it to the school in just under 20min. Shows you what the scooter does to you, it makes you lazy!! I had a good workout while window shopping. Today they had a world Peace moment from 2:00 to 2:30 and no cars drove around….best time to get where you want to! On my way back from the school, I saw many army trucks and a road block….so much for world peace!!!

I had the weirdest epiphany while cycling back to the school. I suddenly realized fully I was in Taiwan. A country I have only heard about in my entire 34 years. The other side of the world. If I start digging now I’ll come out in Jo’burg somewhere….I’m sure of it. It was so cool, I looked around me saw the emerald green rice paddies in the fields between the buildings, suddenly was aware of all the Asian people around, the writing and the odours from the shops and small votive temples along side the road! Wow, I’m really here! Cool!!! I’ll let everybody know……oh wait, they already do, I’ve been here for two months on the 24th already. Ok then.

There is a Moon Festival party on the 24th in our complex and we are all going! I’ll take pictures! This Saturday is Kim’s birthday party at the Flamingo and we’ll go flea marketing or something on Sunday.

Well, the party at Flamingo’s turned out to be quite the party so we cancelled Sunday! It was great. We were all sitting there and even the Chinese teachers joined in! Melissa and I bought a small little cake at the night market on the Friday. It’s a bout a A5 size compared to a A4 sized cake….if you get the picture. We whipped it out, got the stale sparklers going….my idea of course and sang while the sparklers were going haywire and nearly burning the pub down….so typical!!!

Anyway, we sang for Kim and Sara. Sara is one of the front desk ladies that help us in all our teachings and materials for teachings etc etc etc. It was her 22 birthday to……….WHAT!!! 22….wow, when was that? 19………sad hey? I’m ok…I’m ok. So there we were, Sunny the owner is quite the cool Chinese guy and the place just got fuller and fuller. And guess what, all foreign people, they were coming out of the woodwork!!! Even more SAfricans emerged. From Cape Town nogal! It was great seeing normal faces where ever you looked. Weird! We had a ball and left at about 2:30. In bed by 3:00am and sound asleep. Sunday we woke up after 10 and remembered we organized to go to the morning market near Abby’s place. Nothing happened and I went to the roof to go read my book and relax in the sun. We had a craving for KFC and I went to go fetch it down the road. All the tour buses were parked outside the temples and people were in the streets with their uniforms on waving little flags. Interesting, obviously celebrating the moon festival period. At about 5pm Abby arrived and we all just sat and chatted and watched 2 CSI Miami’s in a row and she left. The one day weekend went so quickly….why?????

So the rest of the week went by. And I had to go get an extension on my Visa….after all that!!! Lucky….once again for me, I could do it at the local police station 2min from the school. I came to school early on Tuesday, got everything organized and was off. Got there and this huge fancy Police Station looks more like a hotel foyer than a police station in our country! So I ask the guy at the front desk what I should do and he gave me a form and I filled it out. Now, they are not supposed to know that I am working. I am only extending my Visa for the sake of holidaying a bit more. I had to go to a room around the corner and spoke to a very straight forward Chinese lady. I had to get the friend that I was staying with to come in and then it changed to I should get this other form filled in by the friend. So off I go again and in between my lessons, Mr Woo (Judy’s husband) got everything filled in for me. And at about 13:30 off I go again. Then the back office people were on lunch and they’ll be back at 2:00. Ok then, back to school and only at about 4:00 could I go through again and they close at 5pm. So off I went again! This time there was a guy that could help me. Very funny guy…don’t know his name. After a barrage of questions, he said to me “OK, I give you two months.” I couldn’t believe my ears. From a normal 2 month visa I’m getting nearly 5 months wear out of it!. Coollll!!! Anyway, as we were talking he said that I must just get a work permit before I start working here….I was like, what was that? Noooooooo, I’m off to Sun Moon Lake and my friends want me to stay for the Moon Festival etc etc. He just smiled and handed me my passport with my extended two month visa. He knows, I know it. I think they get so many people doing the same thing and the next week or two you face him again with a work permit!!!! Teeheeeee.

So there I was, free from any stress of having to leave the country to get a renewal, although a trip to Hong Kong or Thailand would have been great round about now!

Friday arrived and we were all so paste with working so many hours that we were a bit lethargic when we spoke about the Moon festival party at our apartments. We said we’ll see what they have going when we get home. Got home and it was one big Karaoke event with families sitting around their tables and eating and braaiing. So more of a thanksgiving party kind of thing. We decided to give it a miss and have our own. The girls and Ryno pitched in and we christened our rusted braai that has never been used and after a tremendous Smokey Robinson effect in our flat we ate at about 1am. We all just chatted , listened to music and never got around to the 10 VCD’s on the table Abby brought. I got some fish and meat at Yumawo and some mayonnaise for the potato salad Abby was going to make. Got wine and was ready to party. Kim, Abby, Neps, Melissa, Ryno, myself and the Draco(the cat). He had a ball with all the attention and we realized that he had grown double his size since he was found, just skin and bones. He was eventually passed out hanging over the couch arm behind the wine bottles. Would have been a cool photo!!

Found Ming Chia Mei on Thursday, Abby took me to show me where it was. What a shop. Like a huge double story Clicks! Everything you want regarding cosmetics, clothes, shoes, snacky types of foods and kitchen stuff. To die for doll and everything is on sale! They have absolutely all types of things here and even things I recognize from home although the names are different. Once again the logo’s stay the same! Thank goodness. Taking the rest of the girls there on Saturday after school.

It’s Joyce’s birthday on Tuesday and everyone is invited to a coffee shop around the corner called Vogue. They have a strange way of celebrating their birthdays. Just a tea with the friends late afternoonish and then that’s it! No presents, no party till dawn, no nothing, just a card and a cake to die for! I must say, they rival the Germans with pastries here! Their cakes are quite a big thing here for special occasions. The night at Flaming when we whipped out our A5 sized cake they maneuvered in a cake that makes ours look like a cup cake! The box alone is impressive with gold writing on a cream background and the famous, nasty translations of a once stunning birthday wish or something. I’ll enclose some of the translations here……you will kill yourself laughing if you get over the confusion part……WHAT? Can you say that? Is there such a sentence pattern?

It’s the thought that counts! So, tomorrow, Sunday 26/9 we are off to the Moon Carnival at Sun Moon Lake, about an hour or two from Changhua. Can’t wait, camera ready, batteries new….ready, pose, shoot!!

Just as well I did take the extra batteries and my original memory card because I filled it all! I still had photo’s on the cards from the beginning of my trip. I got it downloaded at a little Fuji camera shop. So now we can start seeing what’s going on. Well, what a jol this weekend was.

We got up at about 7am, got a taxi to the train station, Kim, Neps and me. We met up with three new people we didn’t know but that were friends of Abby’s and Nicolene. We explored the train station for the first time and boy, am I going to travel now!!! It’s like a gateway to anywhere! NTS 27 = R5 for a trip to Taichung. Coool!!! Anyway, we had 3 min to get to the platform and we got on the train and was off.

Reminded me of the last time I rode on a train. London underground and this was so similar. We got to Taichung station at about 9 and started looking for a bus to Sun Moon Lake.

A guy approached us with a taxi kombi and quoted us a price on taking us there. After about half an hour and exploring different options as well we decided to take him up on his offer. So all 8 of us got into the taxi and off we went. I called him James, the driver. Just so that I could say “Home James” He immediately handed us brochures of Sun Moon Lake. I think he was very well organized for a bunch of foreigners. It was excellent. We eventually paid NTS 250 there and NTS 250 back and boy for our NTS 500, which is about R100 we got a full on guided tour, stops and chauffeuring around the lake that we would never have gotten on a bus! He was looking after us from 9am to 6pm when we got back home! AND he dropped us off in Changhua that we didn’t have to get a train back. It was the best deal out, we’ll definitely use him again, good driver too. He definitely planned it well, had all his connections along the way where we stopped and shopped….clever.

So we arrived at a small town called JiJi.

This little town has a unique tourist attraction which is a animal freak show. Albino snakes and weird animals. We didn’t go in, had other things to do, like shop around.

They were having a festival outside the small JiJi Train station. The small train that uses their railway is called Chi Chi. It’s like a banana express or the Cherry express etc. We were finally ushered into a shop that we didn’t really want to go into with lots of snacks and biscuits etc. We eventually walked out of there with about three paper bags each….empty nogal. I think these Chinese people must think there is something seriously wrong with us foreigners. It is probably like them walking into Checkers in SA and asking for 3 plastic carry bags and being ecstatic about it because they will use it as gift bags for presents back home. That’s us in JiJi. We freaked out about the stunning brown paper bags with a picture and Chinese writing on. I actually felt a tad embarrassed as we were trying to pay for the bags and they refused point blank to take our money for it. So I bought a yogurt to justify getting three stunning paper bags!

Next stop Sun Moon Lake. Our driver serenaded us a bit more and the next minute the blue green water of Sun Moon Lake stretched out before us and a holiday atmosphere was evident. People all over and stalls and colours and food smells! Stunning! Reminded me a lot of Hartebeespoort dam. The water was just clean and green blue because it was clear not full of algae! There was an International swimming contest on as well from one end of the lake to the other!

Quite a distance but on a day like this, what a pleasure! We drove around the lake and I just wanted to get out and start exploring but we kept on driving to the top of a hill where the magnificent Wen Wu Temple sat overlooking the lake! What an impressive site! We got out and started doing the tourist thing. I explored the flea market as we usually do, quite organized so that I don’t miss anything. I came upon a little stall with a honey drink. And obviously had to try it. It is called honey vinegar and it smelled a bit like vinegar but when you taste it, it has the most amazingly refreshing honey taste. I bought two glasses on ice and eventually had to buy the bottle to take it home and make it there! We then got to a stall that had a soup made of 8 different mushrooms in a huge pot. We stopped and had our breakfast there. It was a clear soup with all these mushrooms in and some herbs. Stunning! I never new there were so many different looking mushrooms…..you could eat! From weird little button type mushrooms attached to long stems to the weird huge ones cut up into pieces. I was sure I was going to be quite happy the rest of the day! The tastes were mixed and nothing like our bland Denni’s mushrooms, fresh crisp and spicy tastes and tastes I’ve never tasted before! Devine!

Anyway, we made our way into the temple and had to stop at the curio shop first. The most beautiful Chinese material tops and shoes. Most way to small but they are starting to cater for the fuller figure!

Well, what a temple! If you think the Roman Catholic Cathedrals are ornate and decadent, you must see this! The most amazing wood crafted window panes, the gold filigree in the walls and the statues in the little prayer rooms were amazing craftsmanship! Here was a little shop in the temple about the third floor with the most stunning woodwork I have ever seen, except for ma’s and tannie Elizabeth’s work of course! I took some photo’s. We went right to the top of the roof where it looks out over the different levels of the temple roofs and the lake in the back ground, what an experience, this is what life is all about!!

  After that we went to the Peacock and Butterfly park. The peacocks were a tad dodgy an looked like they have been harvested! Shame, they looked OK but a bit worse for wear, not like ours with at least the full plumage. The white ones were a bit dirty but the idea was cool.

The Butterfly park was closed…..since 1999 when they had their bad earthquake. It destroyed many of the buildings, including the butterfly park. We then went back down the hill to the town and where all the people were milling around the swimming contest. Got there and the contest had finished so we decided to go on a boat trip on to the lake. So for about R40 we got a boat of our own and we organized some drinks for our what was going to be a booze cruise. We designed a new shandy called the Taiwan Shandy, which was using Taiwan Beer and Nestea Lemon tea. Stunning, please try it! We just started and we stopped at a little drifting island in the lake.

The whole island which was probably the size of half a rugby field was entirely made out of drifting platforms of plants and flowers with a solid piece of island in the middle with a monument. Beautiful, it nearly looked like it could be Avalon.

At this stage there was a storm brewing and the mists were all over the place and the mountains, making it look just like a Scottish lake. Too beautiful! Their monuments are so well organized and soo much effort had been put into them with quality material and workmanship. The platforms were of a sturdy wood and the tourist information was on pieces of glass framed by the wood. They sandblasted the island shape and information on these pieces of glass along the path as you circle it. Every piece of glass had some information on a plant on the island with pictures of it. Stunning! We were there for about 15 min and was back on the boat off to a town on the opposite side of the lake. This town was the starting point in the swimming race. A long wooden jetty with a pagoda at the end greeted us. As well as a huge blow up bridge with two dolphin shapes bobbing merrily on top of it, probably the starting point of the race.

What a cool little town this was. The colourful poncho’s were lining the streets. This was more a historical village that showed us a bit more of the original inhabitants of the lake. The Shao and Han people. They are called aboriginal as well and their art reminded me a lot of African art. The figurines, the straw hair the shapes. Very interesting. They had some extraordinary arts and craft here and we’ll have to come back! Not enough money this time round.

We had a very interesting lunch snack at about 5. They make a thin dough lining in a circle shape, fill it with veggies like spring onions and some other greenery and lots of mushrooms, fold it closed into a little ball and deep fry it.

Stunning!! This was so nice, except for the oil it was quite healthy.

It started to rain and the foreigners walked back to our boat. The boat actually looked more like a typical taxi with a dragon on the side breathing fire! Cool!! We got back to shore and got into our taxi and off we went…..Home James!

But James had a another stop to make first. We stopped at a heritage village shop. Nobody wanted to get out of the combi, we were so tired and just wanted to go home. But we did and after all we were definitely getting our money’s worth! SO we got out and the next minute we were all being dressed up in traditional wear! We looked sooooo cool! Bright reds and blues and silver beading on the tops, jingling away merrily as we started posing for photo’s against a traditional painted background outside. Seeeee, everything happens for a reason, we had a ball after all and that’s not all……..then we were treated to green tea! This was turning into a typical Tupperware party. All the girls( all 8 of us) around a table and an old white haired Chinese gentleman pouring us tea from a little stove in front of him on one side of the table. Then they brought out the merchandise……honey, royal honey to drink, royal honey to use on your skin which has amazing rejuvenating abilities. Made by the queen be only, it’s not sticky or sweet like normal bee honey. We were all sold and bought some royal honey to stay young forever! Then we could buy a royal honey drink mix, but I declined saying I had my honey drink already thank you….next time. We got a little tour of some famous peoples pictures that were taken years ago of Chang Gai Shue, a famous person in the history of Taiwan. The Taipei airport is named after him. I will find out more about him.

Then we saw a weird little packaged item in the counter and asked about it. It turned out to be a deer fetus and there were 5 of them! They believe that if you grind it into a powder and drink it you will have longevity and health. At NT$15 000 = R3 000 per fetus! Interesting. What next? How do they get deer fetus if they don’t have to kill the mother? So much for the continuation of that species!

Anyway, we loved the experience and once again told James Home! This time we ended up in Changhua and walked home at a leisurely pace. I quickly went into a Fuji film shop and transferred my two filed up memory cards onto disk for NT$50. Excellent, now I can start all over again!

I couldn’t believe it was the end of the month already. Nearly payday, then we can travel again!

The 28th September is a holiday, no ways……an actual real holiday that people don’t go to work…weird!! So Tuesday came and the Moon Festival was celebrated. It was full moon on Monday night and Tuesday. They celebrate it here by having braais( BBQ’s) with their family, very much like a bit of a Thanksgiving, like I said. We slept late for the first time in a while! Did as little as possible and went shopping at Yumawo (our Woollies) for some braai things. We’ll have a braai of our own. We ate at about 7pm and everybody went to bed early! The Fire crackers have not stopped since. They started about a week before and carried on for about 2 days after. The poor dogs around here! There is no control over fireworks here and we saw kids lighting massive sounding crackers!! I don’t even want to know about it….thanx! So the crackers were going full blast until way past midnight on the Tuesday night. Chasing the bad spirits away! I’m sure it worked well………..other than polluting an already heavy polluted environment and air. The sky was thick with things burning from incense to fireworks to their little stoves on the door step burning paper to ward off evil over this time!

Anyway, savouring my day of doing nothing for a second I listened to my music on my Hi Fi, with Draco (the cat remember) trying to suckle my ear and fell fast asleep!

Well until we meet again………miss you all…….wish you were here!

Tsai Chien! (Goodbye in Chinese remember…there will be a test in the future and you could win a Chinese gift…….made in Taiwan, teehehheee)

  Taiwan Times Vol 2 Volume Two – September 2004 Ni Hao! (Chinese for hello remember) Ok, so after about three tries we got it right and the teething problems are over, we are at press!

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

As I promised, my diary I wrote and sent to my friends and family, before the awesomeness of FB and blogging, on my year’s teaching English in Taiwan. I’m not changing anything as this is what I wrote then and want to keep it that way. Enjoy!

  Welcome to the all new Taiwan Times. This publication has a limited release of once a month, so don’t lose out, get your copy now!

1 Aug 2004 – Opening Special – 5Nt$

Puffy and red-eyed I disappeared into the customs queue, only to discover they don’t exchange rands for $ on the departure side, officially I have left SA soil. Anyway, can always change it in Hong Kong or at Taipei airport…..right?

So on the Cathy Pacific plane I got greeted curtly but friendly by red and yellow hostesses and secured myself a cozy corner with, as usual, a vacant seat next to me for my guardian angle. I started reading my JM Auel novel Shelters of Stone until we were circling Jo’burg, up, up and away. The dry brown grass slowly gave way to more green lush vegetation as I flew over Nelspruit and then….weeeeeeeee the big blue Indian ocean! First time out exploring this side!! Behind me the African continent, ahead of me, the big blue unknown. Weird, about an hour or three into the 13hour flight I see land. Stretching out across the horizon. Did we turn around at anytime? I didn’t feel anything! How weird! Then I started going through my geography lessons, Madagascar is just off the coast, but that’s only an island, surely this is not it! We probably flew for over an hour and the land just stretched out forever! I couldn’t believe it, and yes it was Madagascar! It was one of the few times…..I was totally taken by surprise geographically speaking! My word, what a huge country! Mountains, sand, desert looking areas and tropical fringes as we neared it’s east coast. Well, I will have to come visit this place soon!! I thinks it’s bigger than the whole of Taiwan, I’ll check and let you know!

Then …….only the wide blue expanse known as the sea. How small I feel now, like a mozzie hovering over a swimming pool…..an Olympic size swimming pool! Started reading my book, when I discovered everybody busy watching something. Now because of my position in the plane I was situated at an isle that does not have a seat in front of it. No TV screen except for one mounted up on the wall to my right. A safety video was playing as in our new airplanes. When it finished, I watched and waited……hmmmmmm interesting…….the guy next to me had his tray table out, wait, it’s not his tray table, it’s a TV screen. I fiddled and pulled and eventually found it hidden on a aluminum arched arm. Ha!!! Gotcha! Then the manual, yeaaah right, me and a manual……..what does this button do……….so on page 5 of the manual select this button for movies, sports etc. FINE! A few minutes later I had the world at my fingertips. My, how technology livens up a flight these days. I had a choice of Premier movies, Blockbusters, stuff for kids (only watched (The Emperor’s Groove)the lama movie once ….ok!) Games etc,etc. Watched Hildago x2 and Man on Fire once. Couldn’t sleep properly, only dozed as we cruised at 890km/h 37 000ft up. Lovely. In the early morning hours we flew over Phuket, what a sight!!! It looked like an alien life form sprawled out web like on the black velvet. The city lights outlined the whole island, small insects attached by orange byways. Then nothing. The strange Northern sky stars were visible as we passed through clouds and into clear indigo skies.

Breakfast was served at about 1 am SA time, 7am theirs and I looked down to see the South China Sea. I tired hard to spot any pirates but I think we were to high up……I could have sworn I…..no, no not to sure…… Anyway, next moment mainland China loomed and we flew into Hong Kong. Aaaaahhhssoooooooo!

As the clouds cleared a very alien land revealed itself. Mountains of Cape Town’s Somerset West area covered with lush green vegetation of KZN dotted with skyscraper clusters of white buildings. Each cluster had about 3 to 5 skyscrapers bundled together to form little sky scraper honeycombs of apartments. Difficult to see how high they are but any of our buildings look like squatter camps compared. My eyes can’t focus well today as I think I’m still sleepwalking, but roughly 100 floors up, divided by a central horizontal level, others look like they have a base of a shopping center with 5 spikes of apartments on it’s back.

As we flew in we crossed an amazing bridge that looks like thread holding the supporting beams up. Like those forms we used to make at school with threads around the nails in a board. Stunning. Lot’s of boats and freight ships up and down the harbour entrance.

It looked as if we were going to land in the sea when you suddenly see the runway jutting out into the sea…..coool!!!!!

You don’t get the impression that’s it’s over crowded here at all. Lot’s of green. Actually reminds me of Jurassic Park – Ilsorna Island. The temperature when we landed was 27C. The airport is huge, over 80 gates. This is why I say everything happens for a reason, I land at gate 66 and my departing gate is 4. So if it wasn’t I would have to walk from one end of this massive airport to the other!!! To see the shops, take pictures at every flowerpot because they have orchids in them, for pa etc. Definitely walked off the 13hours. This is a shopping paradise! Duty free is to die for! Went to the restrooms to freshen up and found an addition to my other novel I’m compiling – 101 ways to flush a toilet throughout the world – Today we tried the “self flushing” function, or what I like to call the “auto pilot flushing function”. Please check your packaging before purchase to make sure the box reads APFF, if it does nor say APFF it does not have APFF (Intel jingle here). Walk in sit down, stand up and leave – flushing will occur automatically/by itself……..cooooolllll!!! Ok, ok,ok just one more time!

Anyway, sitting waiting for my next flight to my island destination! They have an announcement system…wat skrik vir niks! A lady’s voice with a posh English cum Irish accent is used on the recording (like our voicemail on the cell phones…you have one new message…) It announces passengers still to board, but instead of the lady saying the passenger’s name a Chinese person had recorded the names and repeats it twice. Eg. Lady: Would passenger …….Chinese person: Yin Lung Chaw, Yin Lung Chaw….Lady: delaying flight CX450 to Beijing board at gate 4. Then everything get played again. It sounds something like Dory in Finding Nemo, speaking whale……..

Anyway, updated my report before my memory function shuts down…Don’t know how I’ll look like getting there and still going straight to the parents function —-that story’s for later! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

As we approached Taiwan, 1:10min flight, 399miles/h, 803km/h, the south side of the island is beautiful, out of the exotic island books. You can see the continental shelf and islands in clear blue water, as you travel up North toward Taipei, you pass some of the bigger cities. The clouds around each city had a weird haziness to it. Like a brownish glow amongst the white. The next city darker more hazy, less cloud. Until we reached Taipei. I thought we were flying into a storm, or at least raining weather. Then I slowly realized it’s pollution. My word. As the plane descended it was like flying into a dark cloud and you couldn’t see a thing! Once we landed it looked a lot like a Durban sized airport. I arrived, through customs and got my luggage. I was met by a Chinese guy with a placard with my name on. It felt like Jo’burg airport and a bus of Chinese tourists had just been dropped off.

Waited a while, while he collected 3 other people. Then we got into a kombi/Caraval looking VW with tinted windows and little curtains…..hmmmmmmmmm. By this time my bum was numb and here I was sitting in the taxi driving to who knows how far away. And boy did we drive and drive and drive……… Eventually a further 2 hours later, back South down the island, we arrived at Chang Hwa (also spelt Changhua), the town the school is situated in. We stopped outside the Sesame School. Cute. Hot and very humid, 32C and who knows what % humidity, using my built in KZN humidity counter I would have guessed well into the 80 – 90%. I could barely get out of the taxi! He unpacked my bags and they left while I met the staff.

Jane was the girl at the reception. I also met Judy, the owner and two other teachers Nellie and Yvonne. All very friendly but I just wanted to drink water! Got an iced green tea instead….hmm refreshing!!! Then they asked me to take a seat! What!!! I have been sitting half my life…it feels like it ok!…..no thank you! I asked if I could go walking outside while they organize stuff. MacD greeted me in Chinese just across the road. About an hour later a Canadian teacher David dropped me off at the apartment where I met Jake, the security guard at the complex gate.

The area is relatively clean but quite crowded with buildings. Reminded me a lot of Nigeria, just much cleaner and neater. Millions of Taiwanese signs with no English translations greets you merrily as you look down the street, the people here are bombarded with signage and become blind to any new signage! The roads are good and at least they have robots, although a red light means yield up to a point. No stop signs anywhere.

The apartment also reminded me of Nigeria and we arrived at no 2 on the 10th floor. An Interesting ,Chinese art work, metal gate adorned the front door. As I arrived my room mates were expecting me and we all greeted each other cheerfully. Abby is a girl from Edmonton, Alberta Canada and Teri is from Parktown Joburg. I was going to be just fine. They are the coolest!! Got my room, about my townhouse lounge size, green. Sorted my stuff out and crashed on the bed.

They were going to the graduation ceremony which I was invited to, but because I had suddenly had a choice, I declined and asked if I could just lie down for a short while. Woke up some time during the night, around 7. They came back, we had a bottle of wine and started chatting away, telling me everything I wanted to know and more! Then they invited me out to their monthly jol, which I started off declining but ended up accepting….I might miss out on something man!!!

We were sorted. Teri lent me 2000NTS for now and we got a cab from the security guard at the gate. Got into the cab and Teri showed him where we wanted to go from an add in a magazine. Taichung is the town next door. Much Like Pretoria from Midrand or Toti from Durban. Communication is a bit of a hassle here as most don’t speak enough English to communicate! We eventually phoned the club and handed the phone to the driver to ask for directions himself! And we were off!!!

The Pig Pen was out destination. Cool! 200NTS to get in and the party started. NTS is about 1 – 5. So 200 NTS is about R40. I am proud to say, in my state I actually made it and upheld my reputation for leaving last! We left the club at about 5, went outside into full daylight, had a hotdog on the street for about 100NTS without the roll and got a cab home!

Teri disappeared and we got stuck with an Australian guy that was there on contract. We met some cool people at the club! American, Auzzie another Canadian and an Irish guy called Gary, a teacher at our school, and a gay Chinese guy called Twingo who works for M.A.C cosmetics. All sorts!

Danced sokkie at one stage with the American guy who was into the gay Chinese guy, as sweet as can be. He thanked me for the couple of dances later and Teri disappeared again with Clark Kent (no, only a guy that looked like Clark Kent). We supported Smirnoff by drinking Black Ice, very nice, Teri organized a few Sambuca shooters and we had a jol. People only go out very late at night, usually at about 11pm.

We eventually got home and wound up with no keys, Teri had them! So at about 6:30 in the morning Abby and I were looking for the locksmith that usually opens their door for them and we had breakfast when we couldn’t find him. The little side street eating place, was a place I think I would never have found under normal circumstances. We had a chicken pita “effek”. We went back to the apartment and crashed in Gary’s apartment for a few hours until about 11:30 when the locksmith was open, on a Sunday nogal. After about 30min we were home free. I showered, washed my hair, watched TV and slept from about 3pm until Monday morning. The girls had a braai that evening but I was left to recover, it’s the age you know!!!!

All rested and ready for my 1st day at school! Another weird similarity with Nigeria is their bread. Its sweet. There is water available outside in the street at a little pump against the wall. You buy a plastic reusable container that takes about 10litres or so for NTS70 and you can then refill at these pumps for NTS10. It’s like a self service fuel pump. Point the nozzle into the container, put in your NTS10 and suddenly the water flows. Thought it wouldn’t stop before it reached the top but, exactly the right amount fills the container and stops.

Got up had toast and started sorting my room to make it more homely. Got a table and cupboard from the spare room/store room and unpacked all my clothes etc. It is very hot here, the fan goes full blast 24/7. My hands and feet are suffering from water retention and I’m seldom hungry – good will lose weight quickly! I only need and want to drink water constantly!

I only start at the school at 1 o’clock and stay there until 9pm for the week. Can’t wait, saw pics of the school and the kids and know we’ll have a good time.

Teri has been here 1,5 years and Abby 6 months. There is a stunning place called Nanoi out of town that is beautiful, with trees etc. Not much of that around here. We’ll do that soon as I have some money. Things are very cheap here. Food etc. NTS 20 + rent NTS 3000 – NTS 5000 and a cell phone prepaid option NTS 600 with about NTS 400 free airtime. I’ll find out more about that. But laptops and cell phones are relatively cheap, a bicycle NTS 1 000 and scooter from NTS 5 000.

My first day at school – I was cool! I was assigned to Abby to show me the ropes. She showed me how the lesson plans worked etc. IDCS prepared me well for following structure! Then we went to class. About 10 Chinese kids. All Chinese here, don’t really talk about anything Taiwanese…..interesting. Kids are the same the world over! Infact these kids were very similar to many of the people I trained – so grown ups are like kids….eeeeuuureka!!!!

The naughty one, the quiet one, the over achiever, the under achiever etc.etc.etc Great fun. One of the kids, who by the way all have an English name assigned to them when they start here, Stanley was quite a handful, he’s one of those who just looks naughty before he even is! Anyway, he was getting a tad out of hand. Extremely hyperactive……….I wonder if they know about ADDS or have any treatment for that here? Anyway, Abby asked him to go sit next to me to help him relax and quieten down. It worked like a bomb. I scare them already! Staring at me as if I was some kind of a strange alien like being from another planet…….wait…..I was!!! Shame, he did exceptionally well in his little exercise we had to complete. And after him Luke joined me with pretty much the same result. Clearly Fear is not a factor for me!!

My body is doing all kinds of weird things in this hot and humid and polluted atmosphere. I’ve gone a funny swollen white, not wearing jewelry because you can’t get it off. Had puffy eyes on Tuesday morning and felt a bit queasy. The girls say it’s different for each person. They had worse!

Last night I finished at about 9, weird but nice to have a shift from 1 – 9 everyday for 3 months….or rather that’s the idea. Saturday’s from 10 – 4. I walked home all relaxed, popped in to what I hoped was a Supermarket, and it was, and checked out the stuff. Very cheap drinks etc. NT$ 8 for a cool drink about R1.50 and lots of it! Just as well I did the logo quiz that did it’s rounds on the internet a while back – because Lipton written in Chinese doesn’t say Lipton. But the red and yellow logo kind of did. We’ll get there! Very nice shop with tons of stuff. Hair colour is available for NT$ 100 (Loreal +- R20) Should have just bought it here instead of paying R50 – R70 at Dischem – all part of the learning curve!!!

There logo’s with Chinese writing is quite cool if you’re into the Chinese theme. Maybe I can do up one of my rooms back in SA with Hello Kitty lamps and hello kitty toothpaste and hey what about a Hello Kitty bed set and Ko Bo Bear toothbrush etc.etc.etc.etc.etc Shoppers paradise!

I’ve had mixed feelings about this place throughout the last few days. From – oh no it’s like Nigeria to cool food – chowfan, stunning flied lice with veggies and a surprise meat – no not that type, but sometimes it’s chicken and sometimes it’s shrimp etc. I’m sure I’ll be fine. I think I did expect it to look like a typical Japanese rural set up – the romantic version. Greenery, calmness etc etc. But I’m feeling much better about it now that I’ve gotten involved with the living here.

A note on the cars here, 90% of all cars are either some dark colour like black/blue but all have tinted windows right around, windscreen etc. – very cloak and dagger looking. Eventually found out that there is no weird and sinister reason for it, just the extreme heat. Lots of the cars also have curtains in the windows. The major ranges are, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mercedes (they call it Benz), Mazda and Suzuki. Very few BMW’s. I cry a little each time I see one….like mine!!!!!booooohoooooooooooooo

Anyway, so I had my first on the Wednesday (28/7) – a bit nerve wrecking, weird and fun all together. I felt worse than I ever did training grown ups!! The kids are a tough crowd. But it went relatively well and the Thursday double class was great! I had a ball and was on a roll! The kids loved me even the naughty ones. Probably until they know me better.

Anyway, a few new habits I had to learn quickly: 1. I leave your shoes at the door. There are always shoes everywhere and nobody takes anybody else’s….cooollll. Even umbrellas at the shops. They have an umbrella grid outside the some shops, you stick it in there and when you come out, lo and behold it’s still there! 2. Speak like an American……..yeeeaaahh right, no really, oh….ok then! This I thought would be easy, because I love accents! But after a day or so twanging and drawling my mouth felt funny! I could get away with most sounds normally, it’s all the American sounds like a and r that influence their phonics studies. The worst part is the spelling!!!! To after 34 years spell colour –COLOR killed me!!! THIS IS WRONG, did you people know that??? Flavor, Habor…..eeeeeeeeuuuuuuwwwwwwww!!! I have to force the hand to omit the u……shame, that’s why I email and do the Taiwan Times in British Based English! AND ORGANIZE!!!!!! Really!!!

I had a lovely cooler walk home the one evening in the rain. Got a nice yellow raincoat from the girls that fit over my backpack as well, I look like the Michelin man now in yellow!!! At least no car can miss me!!!

No point in wearing closed shoes or anything but slip on or strap on shoes. Totally relaxed. I was way too dressed up for here. T-shirts and short are the order of the day – this is where I start realizing I am getting older!!! Too many corporate positions later…where you have to look professional or at least smart casual. Here it is whatever the weather dictates, the hotter the less or shorter. But no strappy things allowed. I am actually thinking of getting a few dresses……eeeeuuuuuww. I think however I’ll stay with the smart casual look, that’s more me!!

Went to the shop on Wednesday to buy bread. People aren’t into bread here, weird. Couldn’t get a full loaf of bread anywhere and then to ask for brown bread is unheard of. They have a 711 where they usually buy bread from and weird pastries…but divine!!! The only bread they have is like a delicatessen where you get a bag with 6 slices of something at NT$ 37 expensive. The girls said there is a bakery down the road, will check it out sometime.

I have a favourite food!!!! Chow Fan and a lemon type juice they mix at the juice bar borough. Softly lemon tasting with little seeds in it that look like tadpole eggs. They are cool to chew!!!!!!!!! Another unusual thing here is that unlike our ice cream truck with it’s memorable tune, the garbage truck has a tune. I ran outside to get an ice cream and was instead greeted by a “trash worker” not a garbage man – trash worker

Went to McDonalds for lunch. They have a Mc Rib burger/roll meal for NT$109. Stunning – look out for it in SA soon!!! A roll with ribless rib meat on a whole grain bun – jummy!!!!

We had my first teachers meeting the Wednesday night at 8:30. A weekly occurrence. I was formally welcomed. They have a power point presentation with the relevant points to discuss and 15 min later the meeting was over. I need to teach somebody some Power Point techniques.

The kids here are still up and going to these after school classes till 9pm. Even the little ones 5yrs and up. I couldn’t believe the energy they have at this hour!!!HECTIC.

It was a stunning day the Thursday morning, I could see the mountain from my room, clear and hot. Probably because of last nights cleansing session.

The channels here are HBO, AXN, Star Movies and a few other we don’t really watch. Discovery Channel and National Geographic is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles – thanks for that!! But I can at least watch the pictures go by. AXN is like SABC 1,2,3 even changes between programmes are similar. HBO is more movies. Watched XXX for the millionth time, and enjoyed every minute! Will have to get used to it. Not much time for TV though – I’m at the school from about 10am to 9pm soon it will be 9am – 9pm, they have plans. Saturday I went to the opening of their new school. Per scooter again!!!! I’m getting the hang of it now. I need to learn to relax behind the person riding because it’s not me in control! We met with the parent as well as new students, great fun. Outside the school they decorate the entrance with huge round wreaths. It looked like a funeral palour but then I realized it is festivity wreaths. People drop it of at the school to whish them good luck and good fortune. Red and gold are the colours of luck and fortune. Parents bring flower arrangements with a red ribbon/banner with gold writing on. Very interesting. Looks like a huge party. The round wreaths are nearly a meter to 1.5 m in diameter with red, white synthetic flowers and decorations. Probably about 6 – 10 of them outside and in the street along the side walk. After that I saw them around town where ever something was celebrated or good luck was whished upon the shop or house.

Saturday afternoon at about 4:30 I was back at home cleaning up a bit with the Beagle Buddies at my heals.

I met another SA friend of Teri and Abby, Nicolene and they went out partying at about 11:30pm. I watched movies and went to bed, woke up at about 9 and was told we are meeting Judy (the owner) at about 3 for a meeting about the new school and kindergarten. We lazed around a while and took a walk down to the school. Nobody was there and we waited a few minutes before heading back home via a different route. Saw a stunning temple on the way. Will take some pics. Got to the flat and Judy phoned. We met her after 4 at a place called Hola Amigo. They greeted you “Hola Amigo” as you enter. Very jazzy, lounge type look and feel to it but very nice. Décor very Jo’burg!

Monday 2/8 was hectic and confusing. Not too organized as to the new material to use with the new semester. But a few days of improvising eventually lead to the successful end result of knowing what you’re supposed to be doing.

The girls were in a bit of a slump the last few days with all the changes and uncertainty as to what positions they are to be moved into etc. Teri to the new school and Abby taking over the kindergarten with me. Me doing the kindergarten, ESL and Sesame street. Well see what happens.

I was still hunting down banks day after day with no success.

On the Tuesday night as I got home around 9:30. I met another SA teacher. Hennie Malan. We got talking immediately and he wanted to introduce me to the other teachers not of our school – nogal Afrikaans people. An older crowd……my age! I know what you were thinking there…… Watchit!!!!! I’m looking forward to gooi the taal a bit!A new teacher Ryno from SA arrived today and he’s Afrikaans……good opportunity!

It’s weird how you substitute certain Afrikaans words for certain situations when only the Afrikaans word kan explain it. Like today I found myself telling David, the Canadian teacher about something that was VREk ver….oh sorry….very far…naaaaah not the same! What a language we have!!

Abby felt a tremour the other day as we stood in the office. I didn’t even notice although I felt weird and everything felt “thick”..don’t know hot to explain it. The air was tight/thick……weird!!!

Anyway must look at maybe getting a place of my own in a new building, maybe on the 4th floor or 2nd floor, not the 10th! Less further to fall…..just incase you know.

I’m bursting with anticipation to travel. This Hennie guy had just come from a weeks holiday in Thailand. Stayed in 5s tar hotels for 6 nigths and how much did it cost him?…..a meager NTS 5000 not even R1000!!! The deals here are apparently the best. Because of a very small apartment culture 24/7 the people want to splurge on their holidays! Will have to check that out….maybe we can all rather meet there for a week…..pack the bikinis.

One very sad discovery I made here was that people don’t EVER tan!! Can you believe it!!! EVER! Apparently it is their culture to try and be as white and pure as possible. There is even discrimination against the darker coloured Chinese people, these are usually working class, or spend most of their time outside in the fields or rice paddies. Not pure. Interesting, I’m ranking in at the sub worker level without starting!

Well, I am definitely getting a scooter!!!!! What a rush!! Had to ride one yesterday for the first time because of Teri having had a bumper bashing on hers. This is where you start it, this is where you brake, this is the petrol and here’s your helmet!!! Go!! It’s like riding a bike only I never got to the motorbike part, I skipped it for the 4wheel vehicle. But well, let me tell you, ma’s going to love it!! Wind in your hair that sticks out, helmet hair and the occasional bug in your face. Reminds me of the movie Me Myself and Irene but the freedom to get around…faster, is the best!!! And left hand driving as well…on the road…not on the scooter! Man you can’t beat it!! Better than a car here because you can stop anywhere, park anywhere etc. etc. Needless to say I got hopelessly lost and a ride that would normally take 10min or less took me 45 min! I was late for the class and it was getting dark. I said to myself, myself, I have a feeling it’s down this road, I took a right and voila it was there. Probably a block away from where I was busy getting lost. But I did find, after many days of searching the land, the bank I was looking for ICBC! A pitty that I couldn’t do my banking then, because I will have to find it again!!! I suppose that’s the best way to find your way around. The only concern I had while getting lost was that nothing is in English or the people on the street don’t speak enough English to direct you if you asked for directions!! AND no cell phone!!! I’m going to have to organize!

Just got my massive paycheck of R1000 for my 1st weeks work and had a slightly depressing evening. Got home had a glass of red wine and went to sleep. The next day I had to get to the other school again. Every Wednesday from 2 – 4. I was going to cycle there but instead….somebody…lent me there SCOOTER!!!! Wendy a Chinese teacher did! Weeeeeeee, I’m OK now! Did I mention poor Amy had no petrol in her tank left after I returned her scooter? No? well I bought her a chocolate and she refused my money. Wonder where I can go with Wendy’s Yamaha SV today AND get this it has a remote!!! No WAY!!!! Like a car remote but only for a scooter!!! What next!!!??? Ma – I’ll get you one of those! Press the remote on your way to the bike and it starts for you…..over there!! Where it’s parked while you’re over here still walking over there!!!!…teeeeheeeheeee Then you switch it off via the remote. A tweet tweet and it’s off and locked….no no really!!! Troes bob!! I just need a cool helmet!!

Went on an outing Friday 13/8 to the swimming pool. Let me explain. It’s more of a water world under roof. Two buildings. One is more a spa. They have the usual pool with 8 lanes then an extra one with about 3 lanes or so and a small section with little pools all over, with different types of spa’s. Ones a Jacuzzi, one’s salty etc. Steam rooms and saunas very well organized with little seats per person in the spa pools. The outside building has the super tube inside that ends into a big play pool. A normal Virgin Active style pool as well next to it. They have 2 cool water canons mounted next to the play pool – I had to try it out!!! Got em all good and solid!!! Who da woman!!! They begged me to stop! It’s your birthday, it’s your birthday

What a jol. I didn’t swim, we had to watch the kids! Eventually the kids were pulling up my jeans so that I could walk into the pool until knee high! Too cute!!! Let me tell you what else this spa has….but let me just take a few minutes to tell you what karaoke means to these people. The karaoke bars or rather palaces dot the country side like chicken pox. It’s called KTV bars here and they are a religion all on it’s own. Back to the spa, you might ask why Karen did you tell us about the karaoke…well dear reader in the spa upstairs where you get dressed or undressed are two very fancy massage chairs and low and behold 2 bible looking A4 sized leather books with gold writing. As I turned around, there it was. A big screen TV with a coin operated pad to select your song and two huge microphones. I took a picture. Just incase your partner on the massage chair has no music to relax to. Now, I’m not the real gung-ho karaoke singer type and will ONLY participate kicking and screaming in the name of fun. Boetie, this place is for you and your gang and Erica!! I’m sure I can organize an amazing system here for you guys for next to nothing.

This weekend I’m getting a sim card, can’t go on like this! Will let you know as soon as possible.

Well I did it, got a sim card on Saturday 14/8 on the IF network – Far East Tone and set everything up. What a feeling of telecommunication freedom. Got my number 091 740 9954 and checked out the cellular info on their packages. Very cheap and very good because there are so many provider and networks. Competition is fierce!!!

Some Taiwan Cellular info: Got my SIM card on Saturday 14/8 and their airtime expires 6months after your 1st call. 2 Packages available are the Regular and Leisure airtime packages

Peak times are Mon – Fri 08:00 – 23:00 and Sat 8 – 12 at NT$ 0.2/sec. Off peak are Mon – Fri 23:00 – 08:00 and Sat 12:00 – Mon 8:00 & Holidays at NT$ 0.1/sec You pay to retrieve voicemail at NT$ 0.06/sec. But they have a chat room on the network and a multi way chat room where up to 20 people can chat via sms.

We were all getting very excited about our teacher’s weekend away to Kenting. The southern most tip of Taiwan. The days were flying past. Ryno is cool and we all get along very well. Good to be able to have a guy friend to chat to when the girly talk gets too much!!! It’s like having boetie here. Ryno is a year younger than Jacques.

Finally the weekend dawned, I’ve done my 13 hours a day since Monday and I need a break!! We packed on Friday night and were ready for the trip!

Woke up at 6:00 and got ready to leave!! We got to the school and the bus was ready and waiting. We got some supplies from the 711 because Mac Donalds was closed! Anyway got on the bus at about 7:05 and got settled …. at the back of the bus….as usual. Four TV screens in the bus, looking like one of our Indian Tour buses. It was comfortable and the movie that started was “The Chronicles of Riddick”. I nearly died, my kind of movie. 5 min later they stopped it and changed it to Harry Potter The Prisoner of Azkaban. Oh ok then. Cool to see the countryside. Very green with rice paddies and bamboo. We stopped about 2 hours later in Pai Ho – white river! The most stunning flowers/lotus lilies etc. Like a bit of a fleamarket. The most amazing Lotus plantation with large pans of the most beautiful blossoms in different colours ranging from shades of whites, yellow, pink to deep purples. I then also realized that I saw seeds at a few flower shops and shows I didn’t know existed until now. Now I know! The lotus blossom after losing it’s petals, the small seed pod is left behind. They take the seeds out and cook it or use it in dished etc. They also put the seeds into gut, like our boerewors and you eat it cooked. Look a tad doggey but it’s quite nice!

Tastes a bit bland and meelerig but good. The seed pods are then dried. It looks like a filled cup with empty sockets in where the seeds go. The lotus leaves are used in dishes too. We left White River and about 30 min later stopped at a small hall in the middle of nowhere. – called the Blackwood Museum. A stunning root/tree stump adorns the entrance.

As we walked inside it was a hall with about 20 -30 round tables in with about10 chairs per table. We were the only ones there until about 10 min into getting our food. Then the typical Chinese tourist buses filed in and within 20 min the whole hall was packed with people. The food was interesting. I have a new favourite food. A fried crumbed prawn in a lotus leaf with a seafood dressing on. You eat the leaf as well.

Excellent!! The funny little seed worsies were in a good sauce, which probably made them more exciting. When it arrived at the table it was on a hot plate, sizzling away! But initially I had my doubts as to what it was and what part of the little animal it came from!! They make stunning sticky rice with mushrooms in a big brown leaf. We finally arrived at Yoho Beach Resort at about 2:30 – we were ushered into the sports bar and waited.

Being South African and needing a break from the karaoke on the bus…yes that’s right you heard me, the whole little setup with microphone plugs etc all for singing your heart out from the comfort of your chair!!! We regrouped and decided to go explore while they decide who’s key is who’s and what everything means. It was 3 o’clock and we were wasting precious tanning time!!! We got our key went to our room, got dressed in our cozies, and went to the beach! Stunning place, well organized and definitely geared to cater for the masses.

People were everywhere, it thinned out as we headed for the beach. No Chinese on the beach, infact there was nobody on the beach but a few fisher man. We found a little path leading to the beach, past the beach volleyball court and the little security booth. We finally got to the beach and stared in a confusion of mixed feelings. 1stl the sea was a stunning array of blues, lights mixed with dark blues. Beautiful! The next thing was the coral reefs above the water line, little shallow rock pools everywhere…stunning!! The problem was that there was about +-100m of coral reef between the beach and the deep blue sea!!! We couldn’t believe our eyes!!! We couldn’t get anywhere near the water on this little PRIVATE beach!

So we found a huge driftwood tree trunk, unpacked our stuff and lay down, our toes just reaching a small rock pool’s warm water. It’ll do! We sat and watched the sun go down, drinking Heineken Ryno brought after a while. All our opening bottle tricks came out when we realized the beer wasn’t screw tops! Who doesn’t make a screw top bottle in this day and age! Really!!! I remembered the lighter trick and nearly killed Teri’s lighter in the process opening 4 bottles of beer!

Anyway it was all worth it and we watched a stunning sun set and made our way up to the swimming pools at about 6:20. Went down a super tube ride that makes Toti’s one seem like a bath tub!! First you think this is nothing, sliding from side to side about 3 times or so then it just totally throws you into a confusion of turns you think your body would follow but noooooooo, you come out the end spinning like a bullet leaving the barrel…..cool!!! Let’s do that again!! Once I find which way is up! We lay around in the pool until about 7:15 and were down at the BBQ buffet at about 7:45…typical. We ran to the room got semi better dressed and were ready for our braai! We got to the table, said hello to the Chinese teachers already there, eating their rice, noodles and other Chinese food and headed straight for the meat section!! The place wasn’t really and enclosed building, rather a gathering place with sleeper tables like at the Firkin or Keg and Chopstix.

All outside in the open. Well, all I had was about 6 stunningly braaied to perfection, juicy lamb chops! My word, they can braai!! Ryno went for 3rds and 4ths, he said he was savouring the moment and didn’t want to let go!! We were thinking of organizing take aways or a few dozen doggy bags, but I don’t think they would be too happy with that! It cost us about NT$780 per person. It was time for the rugby soon afterwards and we were checking out the local sports bar in the hotel. Can you believe that a sports bar doesn’t have the only channel we wanted. Also the only proper sport channel in Taiwan. Star sport. We moaned and tried to check all the TV’s. Even the concierge tried to help when he saw our desperation! But nothing! Great, outside the hotel we would be able to get other channels as the hotel has a limited amount. No transport but thanks for the thought! So we did the next best thing….get someone to sms us the scores while we sit on the beach, drink Heineken and watch the stars like true SA rugby supporters. Worked out extremely well. The spectators/fans, the beer no TV and a n sms every now and then. Needles to say we celebrated as if were there!! The best!!! Ended our supporters party at about 2am and went to bed at about 3. Woke up at around 9, packed our bags and had to meet everyone in the foyer at about 11:50. The girls went last minute shopping for shoes. Beautiful shoes here! We said goodbye, got on the bus and was on our merry way back to Changhua. Stopped a t the fish market again on our way back, I got some more peanut butter brittle type stuff, we watched Garfield the movie, tried to sleep and then some Chinese cartoon…Doraemon. A kind of Pokemon cat figure the kids love here! Between Spiderman and a combination of Fire Dinosaur and fire dragon Doraemon barely holds his own!! I’ll attach a picture if I can find one!

We got home at about 7:30 and found out that we will receive 2 Canadian girls in our already crowded apartment. Went to sleep as soon as we got home. Thank goodness there was no KTV on our way back. Everybody just wanted a quiet trip home….or rather the Canadians and South Africans did!

So the week began and what a hectic week it was! I was paste every night. The Canadian girls never came to stay and they left the Tuesday to find something else. Something about their agent telling them they would be earning NT$15000 more than they eventually found out they would. Not fair! We haven’t seen them since. But somebody saw them going for their medical at the hospital in Taichung. Everything went back to normal. I’ve been riding the bicycle to school these days after Gary had to go to Thailand because his Visa expired before he could get his ARC. Ryno was or rather is in the same position. He got a 30day visa and his time is closing in. The problem is a change in the system with regards to the processing of ARC’s. Where it used to be in Taichung next door they now have to mail documents to Taipei and they can’t check up either. A bit like throwing a rubber ball against a wall in a dark room and waiting for it to hit you at some point. Teri is nearly on her way home to Jo’burg for her well deserved holiday after a year and a half. So the list grows as I write…bring biltong, marmite, real cheddar cheese etc. Not too bad, prices for Pantene are cheaper here for bigger bottles and some other things are similar in price. Will check at the big Carrefour store. It’s like a Hypermarket or Makro and apparently you can get everything there, like a full loaf of bread! Will take my notebook and write down some prices.

We just went through a double typhoon warning session last week with the one Typhoon Aere being the only one really affecting us here in Central Taiwan to West Taiwan. If you get a chance and are interested have a look at the website http://www.tealit.com they have everything on teaching in Taiwan on their site as well as a map of Taiwan where you can see where Changhua and Taichung are and Kenting where we holiday’d. Also on the weather section you can see the weather for the next 7days and on the Typhoon report section all the movements of typhoons are noted, quite cool!! It is exactly like a cyclone in SA. Lots of rain and the school gets semi closed if it’s official.

Anyway, enough for now. Hope you enjoy the first edition as I need to find a way to post the pictures or send them without too much disruption to your PC!!!

Cheers for eers.

    Taiwan Times Vol 1 As I promised, my diary I wrote and sent to my friends and family, before the awesomeness of FB and blogging, on my year's teaching English in Taiwan.

#Changhua #englishteacher #Exploring #sightseeing #taiwan #teaching #travel

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

I love cars, I have always loved cars. Since I was a little girl my dolls were soon replaced by a small suitcase full of matchbox cars of all shapes, sizes and ages. I especially appreciate the handcrafted beauty of the classic cars. Its as if you can see each part of the vehicle being handmade by a factory worker himself, polishing the brass finishings to glint as it rolls off the factory floor into the great big world.

These cars we came accross while staying in Rheebok near Mosselbay. They were displayed outside a cafe on the side of the road. I couldn’t resist. 1900’s. Can you believe that that’s only when cars started seeing the streets, seems like only yesterday.

Just amazing. Solid metals and stylish designs. Yes your car weighed a tonne or three but hey, who cared, you looked good chugging down the muddy main street while people gawked at your fiery red Ford Model T.

The rims still made out of wood and yes that’s a Firestone tyre. Looks like your mountain bike tryes could fit..but they don’t. The gears also looked quite interesting on your steeringwheel, so empty compared to your fancy computerised consul on your basic cars these days. This Hupmobile 1908/9 had upto a 350 horsepowered V8 engine. Very popular at the Detroit car show in 1909.

Two interesting history tidbits on Wikipedia says that in 1914 Eric Wickman tried to establish a dealership but struggled to sell them so he started to transport miners in one of his Hupmobile’s and started the Greyhound lines.

Another interesting fact was that the famous NFL (National Football League)  was created at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio 1920.

  But good old Henry Ford was there all the way.  1863-1947. Can you believe that Henry worked in Edison’s company as an engineer. Yes the Light bulb Edison. Coincidence??….I think not!

These unique historical vehicles still make the heads turn when seen on our public roads and will do so for centuries to come as they embody man’s creativity, innovation, attention to detail and supreme dedication to craftsmanship. We salute you!

I have another car installment to follow as we visit the Franschoek Motor Museum of Anthony Rupert and his prized collection.

  They don’t make them like they used to I love cars, I have always loved cars. Since I was a little girl my dolls were soon replaced by a small suitcase full of matchbox cars of all shapes, sizes and ages.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

  September – October this sleepy little seaside town wakes up and starts entertaining the thousands if not millions of tourists that flock to it. Even during the year over weekends there is a non stop flow of vehicles on the highway into Hermanus.

Quaint little seaside shops, designer boutiques, hordes of amazing restaurants and many other attractions that’ll keep you and the family happy throughout the year.

I love it because it’s only about an hour and a half from Cape Town, so it makes a day trip possible.

One of my favourite discoveries after many visits to find it….don’t ask me why, was Bientang’s Cave. A restaurant in a cave on the rocks at sea level. A definite must see when you’re there. A tad pricey but worth the experience.

During October the streets are alive with small markets popping up everywhere and people just milling around. We were lucky enough to see a car show coming down the main road.

Hundreds of vintage cars rolled by, they chronologically sorted them ending with the modern sports cars. Always a treat. There are many hidden eating places around Hermanus and one of my favourites is Dutchies ,just past the CBD.

They have two parts to their set-up. First the main building where you can have from breakfast to dinner and for those lazy afternoons the beach section to enjoy your cocktails while watching the sea roll in and feeling the sand in between your toes. One of the other destinations we explored the first time round on recommendation from a friend was Harbour Rock, a bit more difficult to get to if you don’t know the surroundings but not impossible and definitely worth the view. Food is also good and the staff make you feel right at home. Located slightly before you get into Hermanus main.

  In the vicinity of Hermanus is the penguin reserve that is always worth visiting. To see these amazingly cute waddling creatures in their natural habitat is always entertaining. The reserve has man made housing for the colony living in the area and you can pay to go further into the reserve if you wish but for those who are watching their budgets, up to the gate you’ve seen a lot to understand how things work in the penguin world. You might even see a few dassies bathing in the sun while you’re there.

Some of the local wildlife will watch you as you meander along the coastal roads back to Cape Town, don’t feed them at all costs, as cute as they can be, it’s for their own good and yours.

Hermanus – Cape coast September - October this sleepy little seaside town wakes up and starts entertaining the thousands if not millions of tourists that flock to it.

[curiouskarenscapers2017]

A few years ago I wrote this letter, I just came upon yesterday while cleaning out old hard drives and couldn’t resist putting this in my curious karen album, as this is my life.

RAV4 3door – a girl’s best friend.

Please find attached my story to let you know how amazing this little car is and what it means to me in my life of travel.

It took quite a bit of convincing for me to finally trade in my BMW 318 E46 shape for a factory demo  RAV4 3dr with 64 000km on the clock. But after the sales man pried my fingers off my car keys and replaced them with a new pair I took a deep breath and entered the new world of off-roading and 4×4’s. Not that I was ever reluctant to try anything with wheels. I am an avid vehicle enthusiast and would like to one day have driven most vehicles including a few trucks and of course my ultimate, a Hummer H1.

Initially my reaction was one of slight disappointment with regards to the sparse interior compared to the BM. But that soon faded as I experienced the pleasure of added driving height, nippy size and a formidable bull bar plus much needed fuel efficiency and a very comfortable ride.

May 2007 was the month of our acquaintance. For the record let me quickly fill you in with regards to my lifestyle and driving requirements. I’m a trainer and probably average around 3 000km a month, sometimes 5 000km when I go on leave. So needless to say Durban South Toyota sees me quite often for my services.  I definitely commend them on their excellent service with reminder and follow up sms’s. Anyway, so our journey started. With a sound system that kick’s @ss and a very spacious interior compared to the small exterior perception we challenged the roads and off roads of Africa. While I started off tentatively climbing curbs and parking on pavements I started getting braver attempting some 4×4 territory and to my delight this little no wheel driver made it look as if it was born to be a 4×4. My first very exciting trip was when it snowed in Joburg on the 28th May 2007, I had just returned from a conference in Joburg, living in Amanzimtoti down the south coast, I had a training session in Kokstad and Matatiele and couldn’t wait to see the snow.

Neither did my car! Frosted windows, iced side mirrors it was beautiful.

Throughout the year the miles climbed with Joburg trips, up and down the coast trips and just plain travelling for fun trips. Two regional meetings at the end of the year with muddy weather and windy weather my Rav was there to entertain and work hard; carting equipment and people around.

My RAV also officially got it’s name, my number plate MOZAMBI ZN which is my dream in the making.

The adventures of Mozambi and I ranged between so many different locations and conditions. From beautiful cobbled stoned paved ways at work’s training centre near Mulder’s drift  to helping out with a friend’s wedding in Mafikeng. Bushveld driving with the girls at a V-club weekend always brings out the best in us.

Going to the beach with its canine best friend, Jessie to driving 1000s of km of potholed roads to Mozambique.

Bundu bashing up north of Maputo in the Morrungulo area to being on the road to Xai Xai city.

Stopping off anywhere for a snack and a cup of coffee early in the morning.

Helping out as a flower wagon at a best friend’s wedding. The duties never end.

Our Cape Town road trip took us through the Karoo and Beaufort West to a karoo lamb farm with the most hospitable hosts one could find in South Africa. A flat tyre and gravel road added to our adventure.

We arrived at the Transkei, Hole in the wall to do some more off roading. Getting stuck in the mud was not part of the plan but definitely worth the experience.

A trip up to Richmond in KZN which is a forestry area was beautiful and challenging in its self. Bad roads left by the trucks and rain and hidden pathways around every corner, kept the journey interesting.

Back up to Maputo in Feb 2009 had us attempting off road driving in the city streets, with dongas only 4×4 could master. But my RAV was a tough act to follow.

Back to Massinga and the rural way of life to camping on the beach at Sylvia’s Shoal , music filling the afternoon air as we start the fires.

Then the final part that earned my RAV the utmost respect. We were driving to identify property on roads that now longer existed and hadn’t seen a vehicle for many years and soft sandy roads through palm tree jungles. I felt like a rally driver as we skidded along the thick sand roads and up inclines and raised middle sections of the road. And then there were rivers and bridges. The rivers posed no threat and the bridges were amazing to cross. I didn’t manage to take a photo of my car half submerged in a river. Next time.

  So I felt the need to let Toyota know what a dream and pleasure this little car is and the excitement it has brought into my life. Putting it through its paces, it responded with no hassles whatsoever, in fact, it put some 4x4s to shame. It truly is a girl’s best friend.

  Thanx for creating this little vehicle. Karen

I have subsequently had to sell my life partner end of last year with a notable 360 000 km on the clock. That’s a Toyota for you!

Tribute to my Toyota Rav A few years ago I wrote this letter, I just came upon yesterday while cleaning out old hard drives and couldn't resist putting this in my curious karen album, as this is my life.