While some, if not most, people grow up with their family, I grew up in boarding schools since I was 12. I don’t remember much before first grade and memories of elementary school is now somewhat of a blur, so this leaves me with most of my memories being in the US. Nostalgic would not exactly describe my feelings, but I felt very warm when I saw my family at the airport. My mom’s hair has greyed a bit, but by looking at her, you probably won’t guess that she is 60 years old. My dad looks the same as he did a few months ago in Mexico. John, my older brother, has gained a bit of weight; that happens to everyone coming back to Taiwan – the food here is intoxicating in a good way.
He is about to be a father some time next spring. Holy crap, I am going to be an uncle. It’s a bit unnerving to think that I am getting older. I was pretty sure you only get older on your birthday. Taiwan has changed while I was away in la la land.
My mom kept asking me if I remember this street, that building or this other family friend. Of course, I remember none of it. The last time I was here, I was still listening to cassett tapes. My mom has taken up the study of I-Ching, one of the ancient Chinese scrolls that’s supposed to tell you the secrets of the universe. Feng-Shui is a part of this study. I learned from her that as one enters the doorway of the house, “movable furnitures” such as TV and piano should be on your right and “stationary furnitures” such couches should be on your left. Don’t panic next time you enter your living room!
 My dad has kept busy with his pineapple research; here you see him with one of the local farmer whose land he rents to grow heat, cold, disease resistent vegetations. I attended one of his lectures, my first, at school on renewable bio-fuel. I felt like I should have known first hand much more about what he does at his job, but at last now I know.
 My brother has just finished his 3 and some years of military service with the Taiwanese Defense Department; luckily for him, he was only required to do a few months of basic training after which he was sent to work at a defense department affiliated consumer electronics company.
Taiwan’s tourism industry other than Taipei and a few main attractions is not well developed nor promoted yet, but there are definitely many places worth visiting.
My mom and I first stopped at a garden/cafe/restaurant. On a monday afternoon, the garden was tranquil and peaceful. A small waterway speckled with rocks and pebbles surround the main building; there are even two ducks playing in the water. The garden is petite, but much attention was paid to every detail.
4 leaf clover on every stem!
As we drove around the countryside, I saw many chicken wire mixed with plastic net, covering fruit trees. They look like this.
Apparently, this net would force the trees to grow more horizontal rather than vertical, making the harvest process easier. I don’t know if the farmers used machines to harvest, but if they didn’t, shorter trees sure would make picking fruits much easier.
We then stopped by a private monkey reservation area. The family who run the monkey garden grew up in the mountains where the monkeys reside too. When they were kids, they hated the monkeys, but now they have set up an area for tourists. The monkeys here are still, to a large extent, wild because the owners have taken great care to not have tourists feed them. The monkies would come hang out and play by the viewing area for the entire day and then wait for their feeding of sweet potato around 4 pm. Then around 5pm, the different group swing and hop back into the mountain.
Two, maybe three tribes, make up almost 200 monkies who come for their daily feeding. Each tribe has a monkey king. It’s easy to pick him out of a group; he’s the biggest and most mean looking one of the bunch. Baby monkies hug and feed on mama monkey while mama monkey walk around on all fours.
When the monkies ate, they stuff two food-holding pouches beneath and to the right and left of their jaws. A few minutes later, they would then push on these pouches to get the food out to swallow. It’s kind of like a cow regurgitating their food except the food never go into their stomaches in the first place.
Now food, no worries, no snakes or monkies.
Gelatin balls, red bean and taro pastes over shaved ice. Delicious!
A meat ball covered in gelatin layer topped with mildly spicy sauce
More meat balls – this one from Fujian province
Black Horn shaped nut
and lots of them.
