The Taipei Subway: The MRT (vs. The MTA)

As a New Yorker, if there is one thing I feel comfortable with, it is the subway. Sure, I make the occasional misfire, but for the most part, you have to be on top of your subway navigation in order to survive. Today, Dad and I took a taxi to the closest MRT subway station (they are still building the station that will be closer) to head into Taipei.

Our home station, Xinpu, is located in the southwest suburbs of Taipei. Our destination is the northwestern part of the city, Xin Beitou, where we will meet my cousin and her daughter. The first thing that I noticed about the subway is how clean it is, especially compared to the NYC subway. This is in part due to the fact that the MRT (Taipei Subway) is a little over 10 years old, compared to the MTA (NYC Subway) which just celebrated its 100th anniversary. It is also due to the fact that no food, drink, or gum is allowed on the subway and it is heavily enforced (there were plenty of security guards everywhere).

We took a look at the map to figure out exactly how to get where we wanted and then headed to the automatic teller to get our tickets. As a subway veteran, I was quickly able to figure out ticketing (that, and the directions were in English). In the MRT, prices are based on where you begin and end your trip, with trips costing between $20 and $45 NT (about $0.75 to $1.50) depending on how far you go. I helped Dad get his ticket and we walked through the turnstyle.

The platforms, again, are so clean. They even have flat-panel TVs to tell you when the next train is coming. The trains themselves are again clean and more spacious than MTA trains. There are similarities too, though; adverstisements line the walls and a recorded voice chimes in to tell you what the next station is going to be (similar to the robo-L train).

We transferred at Taipei Main Station, which is like the Grand Central Station of Taipei. Here, all the subway and long-distance trains meet, serving as a hub for transportation around the city and the country. It didn't look all that big to me, because the large space is made up of the long corridors between subway lines, rather than the vast, open space of Grand Central.

Like the NYC subway, the trains move above ground as you get further from the city center (think F train out to Coney). We ended up in Xin Beitou, where we met with my cousin and her 18 year-old daughter (my second cousin). From here, we head to the hot springs.

Breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma

I woke up around 8:00AM this morning and took a shower. Again, breakfast was laid out for me as I came out. We enjoyed some Taiwanese pastries, tea, breakfast sandwiches with bacon and egg, Taiwanese grapefruit, and soy milk. I really think I could get used to this.

After breakfast, Grandma and Grandpa came downstairs. At 90+ years old, the fact that they can still walk down the stairs by themselves amazes me. Maybe they shouldn't be doing this, but I think they prefer to show their independence. I sat with them and listened to them reminisce, Dad translating for me every once in a while. We took out a photo book of pictures of my family in Minnesota, including pictures from Christmas, my cousin's wedding, and Megan's prom. As we looked through the pictures, I pointed and said "Yi-Jian" (my brother), "Yi-Ling (my sister), and "Baba" (Dad).

Grandma and Grandpa's vision is not so good, so they spent a lot of time looking over the photos. At the end of the photo book was a picture of me as a baby sitting in Grandma's lap; it was taken during their visit to Minnesota. Grandma looked at the picture and smiled. I had never seen the photo either, and I smiled too. I noticed that in the photo she was wearing a jade bracelet, the same jade bracelet that she was wearing today.

We are heading back into Taipei and have more exciting things to do and explore. I'll keep you posted.

The Shihlin Night Market

Welcome to the Night Market! This is something that I have been looking forward to for a while. Ask anyone where to go while you are in Taiwan, and they will tell you that this is where you need to go.

It is called the night market because business generally begins to pick up at sundown. We arrived at about 6:00PM via taxi. The market itself is a series of winding alleys that are crammed with tiny shops which are crammed with stuff for sale. Once night falls, these alleys are crammed with people meandering and browsing. Get the idea? It's crammed. For all you Minnesotans out there, I would equate it to taking all the food stands at the State Fair and condensing them into one square block.

There was a movie theatre right where the taxi dropped us off. And guess that they were playing? That's right . . . Snakes on a Plane! I asked Dad what the Chinese translation was, and I think that it basically is "On a plane there are snakes." You wanna help me with this one Paul?

The Night Market is basically divided into two areas: clothing and food. I'll bring you through both of these areas one at a time . . .

Clothing

The clothing area is a series of connected alleys that are filled with shoe, clothing, and accessory shops. You can hear Taiwanese pop music coming from one shop and American hip hop blaring from the next. Shop owners stand outside their stores and lure customers in with the deals they shout as they walk by. The clothing itself is very influenced by American and European fashion, however, there is definitely an Asian flair to everything. Trucker caps, Air Force Ones, and Polo shirts with oversized logos are real hot right now.

While walking around, I bought a few pairs of iPath socks from a stand dedicated to logo-ed socks. The man selling the socks began to talk to me in Taiwanese, but I promptly told him, "English." He, in turn, promplty ripped me off. Oh well. I ended up paying $200 NT, which roughly $6 US. (For those that are interested, the exchange rate is $1 US = $32.5 NT.) Nowhere did the word "iPath" appear on the packaging. Hmmm . . .

Food

This is where things start to get interesting. The food night market is basically crazy. As you walk around, you are assaulted by the smell of all types of food. The market itself is shoulder-to-shoulder, and you have to be rather deliberate as you move, lest you get run over by a black-haired mob. I'll give you a short tour of the market by showing you all of the food I ate along the way.

The first food we ate were these little gelatin balls. They are filled with 3 different pastes, one of which I think was red bean paste. Yummy with a strange texture.






Next up was some fruit. Dad got some guava and bell fruit that had some spices on it. This is one of my American grandma's favorites.






And the food on a stick begins . . . this time it's grilled corn with spices. It's not as sweet as Minnesota corn in July, but it was pretty good anyways.






I didn't eat either of these, but they were notable for their American counterparts: donuts and corndogs.






We stopped for a minute to sit down and eat one of Dad's favorite snacks, fried oysters and eggs. It is covered with a mayonnaise that is ketchup-based and is served on lettuce. Next to this is deep-fried fish paste and pickles, which I found quite delicious.





As we passed some of the food stands, I would catch a whiff of a nasty odor. It smelled like hot garbage or rotten diapers. I imagine that it is not unlike the "panther perfume" from Anchorman. The smell comes from a type of tofu known as "stinky tofu." The scent originates from the fermentation process that is used to make the tofu and is released when cooked. While it smells quite bad, it tastes quite good, surprisingly.

I washed all of this down with a bubble tea (boba), which you can find in the U.S., but was invented in Taiwan. For those of you that haven't had this, it is tapioca balls in a cold milk-tea. This was actually my second one, and was taro-flavored. Mmmm . . . tapioca balls . . .

Having stuffed myself silly, we took a cab back to the van and headed home. My self-induced food coma knocked me out on the ride, and I woke up when we got there. Looks like it's bed time . . .

Flickr Update

FYI, I am posting my photos to my flickr account. Take a look for uncut pics from my trip.

National Palace Museum

When Chiang Kai-Shek fled mainland China during the Communist Revolution, he didn't leave empty-handed. In fact, he took just about every important Chinese cultural artifact of the past 6000 years and brought them to Taiwan. The result is the National Palace Museum in Taipei, one of the most famous landmarks in Taiwan.

It is really hot in Taiwan right now. It is about 98 degrees and humid. Spending time indoors is a good thing, but it is even better when you can look at invaluable jade sculptures and bronze antiques. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the museum, but I managed to flick this one of a Buddha statue outside the exhibition halls without getting caught.

As we were walking in, I caught a glimpse of a guard doing something curious. He had Steve Irwin-ed a snake near the main entrance to the museum. He took a minute to pose for a picture, then carried it off to what I can only assume was an airplane occupied by Samuel L.

There were two particular pieces that we saw worth noting. The first was the "jade cabbage." It is a jade scuplture of a Chinese cabbage with a grasshopper and katydid sitting on its leaves. The painstaking detail of the carving can only truly be appreciated in person. It is one of the most famous jade sculptures in the world and people come from all over to see it.

The second piece was an ornament made of ivory that is known as "latticed balls within balls." It is had to describe exactly what this is, but basically an artist carves a single piece of ivory into several concentric spheres that can freely rotate inside each other. The particular piece that we saw had 17 balls and amazingly intricate artwork embedded on the outside.

We stayed in the museum until it closed at 5:00PM, and then headed back to the van. The view from the parking lot was pretty nice, so I took a pic. I can hardly wait for where we are about to go next: the Night Market.

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 might sound like a class you would take freshman year, but it is actually a building in Taipei. In fact, it is the tallest building in Taipei and is currently the tallest building in the world. It provided a good "crash course" for me to learn about Taipei and get an idea about the layout of the city.

We left homebase around 10:00AM and hopped in my cousin's van. The drive into the city is about 45 minutes, and there was quite a view as we entered. As we approached Taipei 101, we could begin to appreciate just how tall this building is.

The first 5 floors of the building are an upscale shopping mall, very similar to the Time Warner Building near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. There are stores like Dolce & Gabana, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Brooks Brothers, etc., spread around these floors. One of the strangest things I saw was at a store that sold message chairs and devices. Called the iGallop, it is a message chair that imitates the motion of a galloping horse. I was under the impression that this motion leads to saddle sore, not a relaxed and refreshed back.

We got tickets to ride the elevator to the 89th floor of Taipei 101. "101" represents both the number of floors in the building and "going beyond the best". The elevator goes from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in under 30 seconds, making it the worlds fastest elevator. While on the 89th floor, I walked around and learned about the city with the help of an audio guide. I learned interesting facts like "the population of Taipei is 2.6 million" and "there are four mountains surrounding Taipei city and they are named after animals" (I forgot which four animals . . . bear, elephant, leopard, ?).

From the 89th floor, we walked up to the outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor. The deck reminded me of the Empire State Building's observation deck, with a tall, hooked fence surrounding the edge. From here we could see the very top of the building and a hazy view of the city.

After riding back down, we stopped for lunch in the food court in the lower level. I had what I would call "seafood noodle stew" from a Japanese fast-food noodle restaurant. It consisted of shrimp, clams, noodles, half of a boiled egg, tomato, cauliflower, garlic, Chinese broccoli, and hot spices (pepper). I washed it down with an apple soda called "Apple Sidra".

Having oriented ourselves with the city from above, we headed back to the van to go to our next destination: the National Palace Museum.

Breakfast

I slept good. Real good.

After waking up at about 8:00AM, I took a much-needed shower. Dad, grandpa, uncle, and cousin were already up and having breakfast. I joined them and had a bao tse (steamed bun with vegetable filling) and warm soy milk. Add a banana and some tea and it was a nice wholesome breakfast. My cousin gave me some dried ginseng, which you chew on for health.

We have a big day planned ahead of us. Back to the action. Blog you later.

We made it!

I'm sitting in my uncle's living room right now, watching the Twins/Yankees game live on ESPN. I go to the other side of the country and I do the same thing I do at home. Weird.

The flight from Osaka to Taipei was quick; it was supposed to take 3 hours and we made it in 2. During this short trip, I sat next to Rei and Mario from Boston. They are on their way to visit Rei's family in Taipei. As veterans, they shared some Taiwan favorites with me. Hoping that we can meet up later in the trip.

Upon arrival (approximately 9:00PM local), we gathered our luggage from the claim and waited for my aunt and uncle. Since we were a little early, they weren't there yet. My dad found them among the dark-haired droves and we hopped in the van.

As we drove through the outskirts of Taipei, I finally realized that I really am here. I'm on the other side of the world and there are many things that are similar and different. The landscape is littered with neon signs, some familiar, some not. Seven 11 seems to be a staple, along with KTV (karaoke) and scooters. More on this later.

We arrived at my uncle's house. It is very reminiscent of a New York apartment, particularly the 4th floor walk-up aspect. My people live here: my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, their two children (my cousins) and their spouses, and my cousins' children (11 total). After dropping off our luggage in the guest room, we went upstairs to visit Ama and Aba (grandma and grandpa).

We sat down and talked with grandma and grandpa for a while. Grandma immediately reminisced about the time she spent in Minnesota with me when I was born. We looked at pictures from my cousin's wedding in Dallas and my graduation from Rice. I was amazed at how sharp my grandparents are. The do not show their years.

We went back downstairs and my uncle came in with a box full of food, mostly fruit. There was lychee, bananas, and mango, along with treats from the bakery and Taiwanese Coke (which is more like root beer). We sat around and talked (well, Dad translated) and ate and drank until late.

Laying in bed was a comforting feeling. Looking forward to some deep zzzzz's.

I think I'm turning Japanese (I really think so)

So, we've landed in Osaka after about a twelve hour flight that took us over Canada, Hudson Bay, Alaska, and the greater part of Japan. I'm sitting at an "e stand", trying to type on a Japanese keyboard (where are the quotation marks?).

The flight could have been worse, especially considering my current contempt for flying. I spent a lot of time reading (Mindstorms by Seymour Papert), doing Sudoku puzzles, and listening to music. I even sat through Inside Man (sorry Spike, me no like) and a crappy Lindsey Lohan movie (I'm gonna pretend that I don't remember the name of it).

The in-flight culinary experience was decent; they served dinner, a snack, and breakfast. The dinner consisted of chicken in BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, a salad, shrimp cocktail, a dinner roll, and a tall, cold Budweiser (what would an international flight be without a little buzz?). The snack was just a turkey sandwich and a Twix bar. Breakfast, served at the end of our flight, was a Swiss cheese omlette, sausage, potatoes, fruit, OJ, a muffin, and some tea. Mmmm . . . jealous? Don`t be. I`m hoping for more interesting gustatory experiences in the next 9 days.

Our brush with Japan is proving quite fascinating. Here are some pictures from inside Kansai airport in Osaka. I especially like the Kansai mascot. I'll have to take another trip to Japan to explore more someday. Anyone else interested?



Thanks for your comments so far. It's really encouraging. I hope that I can bring you every excruciating detail (like the in-flight menu) throughout the trip. Gotta fly to Taipei!

Wangs on a Plane!

Our journey is underway. We are currently sitting in Wayne County airport in Detroit, Michigan. Having just filled out stomachs with some airport-quality sushi, we have settled down at our gate, with approximately two hours to departure (3:30PM EDT). While I have some downtime (and an outlet to plug my laptop into), let me catch you up on my progress . . .

Yesterday afternoon, after some last minute shopping and packing, I hopped in a car service cab (note: form of transportation #1) to JFK to catch my 5:30PM flight to Minneapolis.

The flight presented little difficulty, despite some ear-popping issues and a frustrating wait at the luggage claim. Mom greeted me with a traditionally long welcome-back hug and we headed for the car.

Although I was only scheduled to be in Minnesota for a little less than 10 hours, I managed to squeeze in some fun. On our way back from the airport, we stopped at the Minnesota State Fair, a yearly staple of my childhood. We met up with Ange, Christian, JT, Isabel, Myles, and Carl outside the Grandstand and proceeded to consume our monthly intake of fried food. One corndog, bucket of cookies, tub of fries, beer, reuben sandwich, plate of garlic fries, fried shrimp skewer, and vanilla cream puff later, it was time to go.

I learned from Mom that this short detour has some significance to my current trip. When I was one year old, my grandparents came from Taiwan to visit me. My grandmother helped take care of me during this time, and consequently has a special connection with me as her grandchild. While they were visiting Minnesota, almost 23 years ago to the day, they went to the State Fair. Something tells me their Taiwanese sensibility steered them clear of the deep-fried cheese curds.

Upon leaving the fair, I spent some time with Ange in St. Paul, then headed home for a couple of hours of sleep before leaving at 5:00AM CDT for the airport.

Dad and I checked in, passed through security (liquid-less), got some coffee, and wandered to the gate. Our first flight, from Minneapolis to Chicago, took a little less than an hour, and we turned around and took the same plane to Detroit, where we currently stand . . . well actually sleep.Here’s where were going to be spending the next 16+ hours (Detroit to Osaka to Taipei):

Next stop: Taiwan! Blog you then.