Ilha Formosa

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Taiwan. Perhaps the most under-rated country in Asia. Everyone I've met since Arriving in Korea has expressed interest in traveling to Japan, China, and various Southeast Asia countries. I've met very few with Taiwan on the top of their list. Granted, there may not be as many notorious sites in Taiwan such as The Great Wall or Mount Fuji, but with that being said there are just as many stunningly beautiful and breath taking places in Taiwan as you'll find anywhere in Asia; without the crowds. I admit, I originally went to Taiwan because I couldn't get the vacation days I was hoping for and was forced to put my Cambodia trip on hold. I thought to myself, where the fuck can I go for 5 days? Taiwan was close, tropical, and a cheap plane ticket. Within the first 30 minutes of actually researching Taiwan I knew 5 days was not going to be near enough. In fact, I could have easily spent a month or more traveling the small but enchanting island. The Portuguese called it "Ilha Formosa," which means "beautiful island." It didn't disappoint.

My gangsta ass bitch Jess and I started the journey in Taipei, and in true Brandon fashion, not as we had planned. Upon arriving at our hostel we learned that the reservation I had made (two weeks in advance and with a follow-up reminder the week before) had not actually been booked. I had never really made a reservation before, so for me, it was like I was just as lazy as ever, winging it from the get go. We were fourtunate enough to get a room that night, but spent the remaining two nights in Taipei moving from room to room. However, we didn't let that discourage us as we didn't come to Taiwan to be inspired by their backpacker accommodations. As soon as we settled in we headed to Taipei 101, the world's "current" tallest building. We spent some time at the top, looking out the windows, climbing up to the observatory deck, but all in all, once you been to the top of one tall building, it's kind of all the same. We more or less hit it up because you don't really go to Taipei without seeing it, it's like going to Paris and not visiting the Eiffel Tower. The best part of Taipei 101 was actually the food court in the lower levels. The food itself was nothing spectacular but the variety was impressive. My favorite part of the food court was this little grocery store with food from all over the world. It was there that I finally found something I've been looking for since I started traveling years ago: Durian. This notoriously stank fruit has been elusive, but I finally was able to indulge in it's slimy, rotten goodness. I'll admit, it wasn't as delicious as I expected, but that is probably because I've been hyping it up for all these years. Jess also found a fruit from her childhood days that she hasn't been able to find since moving to the Northern Hemisphere. All in all, a successful shopping experience. It was also at this market that I picked up something you should be able to find at any convenient store in Taiwan, but the anticipation was too much, I had to try it then. What's this you ask? Asparagus juice. As disgusting as it sounds, even for the asparagus lovers out there, it is surprisingly sweet, and actually really good. However, our North American pallets couldn't handle the sugar load gut rot that would ensue from finishing just one. Our next stop in Taipei was the Longshan Temple. Originally built in 1738, it is actually it's a place of worship for Buddhists, Taoists, and Matsu. The confusing thing about Longshan, is it's actually the name of 5 different temples in Taiwan, and until the day before departure, I thought it was in a totally different place. I've been to a fair number of temples in Korea, but I have never been to one so lively. Everywhere you looked were people worshiping in various ways, from praying, to lighting incense, to making offerings. It really was an amazing experience. Jess and I didn't say a word to each other the entire time, we were both in awe watching everyone in their own world, but all with a common cause.

That night we headed to the Shilin Night Market, the largest in Taiwan. Stall after stall of street food, everything you could possibly imagine. The smell, sounds, and sights were breath taking and overwhelming at the same time. The shopping section was also just as chaotic, stores and stalls as far as the eye could see selling everything from clothes, shoes, to souvenirs. There were a fair number of sellers occupying the center of the walkway, who kept packing up and running to the side alleys, only to move back to the street 5 minutes later, and at first we couldn't figure out why. Soon after we realized that it was because there was a cop strolling around, and either they weren't supposed to be there or weren't supposed to be selling what they were selling, either way, that didn't stop us from bargain shopping. However, the REAL reason we went to the night market was the food. One thing I love to do (as you have probably gathered from previous entries) is eat shit that by American standards you aren't supposed to put in your mouth. Asia is my culinary Mecca. The first thing we went for was the Taiwanese standard, stinky tofu. We had heard tell that you will recognize a stinky tofu stand by the pungent smell from a distance away. The stinky tofu stands in the market itself didn't seem so bad, but it could have been because of the various other stinky shit that was being brewed in the same general vicinity. Later on in the journey stinky tofu became much easier to recognize. Despite the smell, it was actually pretty good, so good in fact, not only did we try stinky tofu by itself, we also took part in stinky tofu soup. After that we found my personal favorite stall, everything you could possibly imagine on a stick. This isn't your Iowa State Fair Twinkie-on-a-stick bullshit, we are talking about chicken hearts, coagulated blood, and a shit ton of other stuff I couldn't even identify. Granted, I had tried hearts before, but I wanted to try "Taiwanese Style." I took part in all of the above, and while none of it was "oh my god, give me more," it wasn't bad.

The reason we chose to stay in Taipei for 3 nights wasn't because of my love for cities (or lack there of actually) but because it was a good location to make day trips outside of the city, without hauling our shit around. The next day we went to Wulai, an aboriginal village in the mountains famous for it's waterfalls and hot springs. As soon as we arrived in Wulai, it had that other worldly feel, which translates to my kind of place. We started the journey through the quiet little mountain town towards the waterfalls. As always, what looks close on a map is quite the opposite. I personally love the sun, heat, and humidity, and my partner in crime took it like a champ (on this particular occasion). When we finally got to Wulai Waterfall it was worth the hike. It was one of the postcard moments that the pictures never really do it justice, like most of Taiwan. It is one of those places you really have to experience to understand. We sat down at an aboriginal restaurant directly opposite of the waterfall for lunch. The staff sat us on a little porch with a golden view of the waterfall to relax and enjoy our food. We ordered aboriginal chicken (all the food from all the aboriginal restaurants in Wulai comes from the mountains) and the bamboo rice. Bamboo rice, saying the name alone makes my stomach growl. So simple that it's genius. They basically took some bamboo, stuffed it with rice, and cooked it, but my oh my....We also took the opportunity to sample some of the "home brew." The night before we put down a couple "Taiwan Beers," which in fact was the name of the beer. Original, I know. It was only in Wulai when we realized that all the local beer in Taiwan is called Taiwan Beer. But it wasn't the beer we were excited about, but rather the Kaoliang liquor. This is the local "palm wine" as we called it back in Africa, but it is actually made from fermented sorghum. More or less it was gasoline flavored poison that will put even the mightiest men on the floor after a round or two. With our bellies full and slightly buzzed we set off again towards a national park rumored to have amazing scenery and equally as stunning water falls.

Had we known that we would be walking 25+ kilometers that day, we might have wore something other than flip flops. Actually...we had shoes in my bag, we just couldn't be bothered to put them on at any point. With jungle to our left, canopy above, and the Nanshih River to our right (a color of blue that reminds me of the Kool-Aid my brother and I used to drink religiously as kids) it was truly the hike I was hoping for when we set off. We stopped to admire the occasional waterfall, watching others frolic and swim without any idea how we could possibly get over there to join them. At one point we sat down for a rest and were joined by this wasted ass old Taiwanese lady with her shirt tucked into her underpants, trying to get us to join her God knows where. It wasn't until a couple of German cyclists came by to talk to us that we used it as an opportunity to flee the scene. When we finally arrived at Neidong National Forest Recreation Area, once again, was worth the hike. Waterfall after waterfall under a picturesque jungle canopy. We started walking up the incline trail without any idea where it was actually going, but after what seemed an hour or more we decided it was going to the fucking moon and it was a journey suited for the 75+ year old Taiwanese hikers who had been smoking us on the trail since we arrived. We decided there was no way in hell we were making that journey back, so we plopped our lazy asses into the first cab that came our way.

We went straight back to Wulai and had, what both of us would agree was, the best meal in Taiwan. This little corner restaurant called Taiya Po Po, along the main road was the most anticipated moment of our itinerary. It was there we heard tell of two foods neither one of us had encountered before. The first, fried bees. These aren't your average run of the mill honey bees either. These were proper bees, and to sum up the taste in one word: fantastic. Seriously, some day in the future you may be presented with the opportunity to try these delicious little pollinators, and whatever you do, don't turn it down. This was Jess's favorite, however mine was something that goes by the name of Damamein. To understand what damamein is, you must first understand how it is made. Basically, you take a giant jar of raw pork and let it sit at tropical mountain room temperature for two weeks. It's so rotten it's pickled itself delicious. Granted they cooked it a little bit, but it wasn't really a thorough cooking as it was a light browning. But what you really want to know is how did it taste. As I said earlier it "pickled" itself delicious, so it was like sauteed pork with a squirt of lemon, and I don't mean to sound repetitive, but it was one of the best dishes I've had in a long long time. Fermentation seriously does wonders. After that we strolled around Wulai some more looking for what the village is actually famous for, their hot springs. There were hot springs hotels littered all around the river drag in town, but we didn't come all this way to pay money to sit in some hotel bath, we wanted the free springs. Not only because we are cheap, but you shouldn't have to pay money for something that nature provides, and we wanted to experience the real thing, not a bath tub of hot spring water. Along the Nanshih River we found exactly what we were looking for. Hot spring baths in the river, and we were the only foreigners. Not only was everyone super friendly, but they spoke enough English to have a basic conversation. We spent the rest of the night soaking (or rather in and out repeatedly because it was hot as fuck), conversing and gossiping with the locals, in the river, surrounded by mountains, under the stars. An experience I wouldn't change for the world.

We arrived back in Taipei around 10 and decided it was early enough to head out to another night market. This time we visited one called Snake Alley, and that's exactly why we went there, to eat snake. Little did we know we would encounter a plethora of other awesomely disgusting shit for us to sample. When we first stepped into the market we found, once again, my own personal heaven: random shit on a stick. This time we were provided with foods we hadn't encountered before such as: rooster crown, unlayed chicken eggs, and chicken ass (the real deal this time). The crown was probably my least favorite of the stick food, only because it had a rubbery texture. The unlaid chicken eggs taste just like normal eggs, even if they never actually exited the chicken before it died. As we continued walking, my eyes and ears Jessica spotted something most intriguing...a pot of whole frogs. Naturally, the next step was to sit down to a bowl of steaming frog soup. When I say whole frog, I mean whole frog. Skin, head, everything. It wasn't as good as frog legs, because it was boiled as opposed to grilled or fried. We played with it for a bit, and while it wasn't bad at all, and I could have easily ate the whole thing, it was a pain in the ass and I had so much more to try. After leaving the frog stand we found what we had came for, the snake restaurant. We started the night off with "snake shots." It was literally shot glasses filled with various snake liquids. We took: snake blood, snake venom, something the lady kept calling "snake dick," medicine (for the venom), ginseng, snake bile, and popped a few pills that were made of snake fat. We then enjoyed a plate of barbecued snake, that was actually amazing, but once again such a pain in the ass to eat we just couldn't be asked to give it our full attention. We also stumbled upon something called coffin bread that night, which is just deep fried texas toast filled with a bunch of shit. It was decent, but at that point we were just eating for the sake of eating and ignoring our bulging stomachs.

The next day we went to go see something called De-Ri Valley, which is a geothermal valley, and what original visitors to the island were convinced was Hell itself. After walking around this quiet little suburban town with everyone sending us in every possible direction, we finally learned that the site had been closed to visitors because a few workers fell into the water not to long before that and died. Jess was thoroughly impressed with me at this point because we had wasted "valuable beach time." So to please the boss, we hopped on the next subway to Baishawan Beach. The beach itself was nice, although the ones in the South are supposed to be substantially better. The only problem was that the riptide can be pretty brutal, so they had the swimming area roped off and everyone on the crowded beach was forced to swim in the same small area. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day (minus my unexpected walking tour of Xinbeitou). Jess had a friend she used to work with back in Old Country who was originally from Taiwan and was living there again, so that night we went out with her and her friends. We finally had some REAL Taiwanese food, and while I haven't the slightest what we actually ate, it was fantastic. We went to another night market after that where I sampled goose head and neck (literally the entire head and neck, sparing nothing), and some wild mountain boar. After that we checked out the Taipei club scene, which normally isn't something that blows my skirt up, but it was cool to check out and I'm definitely glad I did it.

The next morning we had stuff planned, but we decided to sleep in a little considering we were out late, and had really been busting ass the whole trip. We took our time and headed south towards a little village called Pinglin. Our friends (some from Taiwan) and other foreigners (who had been there for some time) had all not heard of Pinglin, which surprised me considering it's known as the tea region, with the large amount of Taiwan's tea coming from the area (and they certainly love their tea). While waiting for the bus we noticed the wind was growing increasingly strong, with some talking of a possible typhoon. Clearly, we hoped this wasn't the case because A.) we were planning on camping, and B.) no one really wants to be in a typhoon anyway. Luckily, it never arrived while we were there, but to anyone who has watched the news the past few weeks you would know it did arrive, and it hit hard. We missed it by a matter of days. Pinglin was another beautiful escape from the city. Surrounded by mountains and tea fields, along a river, in the middle of the fucking jungle, we set up camp. We were the only people at this tiny little camp site and I thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet. The only sounds I heard was the rushing of the water, the croaking of frogs, the singing of birds, and the occasional freak out by Jess being chased by a bee. We walked up the road to a quiet little restaurant for a bite to eat, and were excited to learn that everything on the menu was made either from or with tea. We ordered deep fried tea leaves, river shrimp, and a pork sandwich seasoned with tea. Even the bun of the sandwich was made from tea powder. All of the food was fantastic and seemed to go hand in hand with the serenity of this relatively unknown corner of the world. That night we sat around the camp fire and enjoyed a few Taiwan Beers, while a few thousand mosquitoes enjoyed us. We fought them off as much as we could, but gave in soon as we soon discovered our feeble attempts were useless. The next day we went into town and had one more tea meal and said our goodbyes to Taiwan. We did so much and saw such different worlds it was hard to believe that we never really went more than an hour or so outside of Taipei. There is so much more to be untapped on this captivating little island. I will definitely return someday.

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Photos

Waterfall
Neidong Forest Recreational Area.

Shilin Night Market
Let the insanity ensue.

Suspension Bridge
In our hood, Pinglin.

Jess
Enjoying her rooster crown.

Hot Springs
The most refreshing dip in boiling water imaginable.

Jess and I
What it isssss.

Comments

[Marjean...aka BBoys mom]

AWESOME BRANDON
WOW Awesome story Brandon,you kids explore explore explore!!!!!!!!!!!!!Love it, I hope Ben is keeping a dairy like this, trust me it's priceless:)I can't thankyou enough for looking over BBoy, he's a awesome child, sounds like you are too!I hope someday we may meet, and Jess is beautiful, you 2 are some great people..........

[barb]

were is formosa , show me on a map