Filed under: Travel
01/3/08 Taipei,Taiwan
K arrived last night and slept on an aerobed in the study. Kicked off the morning with hot sweet soymilk, egg crepes, fried Chinese doughnut.
We’re witness to history being re-written, as the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall has been re-named the Freedom Democracy Hall. Inside the photos of President* A’bien show him with an arm out in am alarming fuhrer-esque “heil” pose. This beautiful, sprawling park with manicured gardens, the opera theatre, white cement pagodas and bright blue tiled roofs is now a cultural battleground in a politically motivated war. I burn inside with fear and anger that history is being twisted, that this memorial I have loved all my life is being used as a tool for propaganda. CKS was no angel, but nor is he what they now demonize him to be. And those of us who have all benefited from the fortunes of modern day Taiwan ought to think twice before bashing our forefathers.
At the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, we view the Russian book donated to the museum by my cousin proudly on display, and catch the changing of the guards (which would be even more impressive if those guys weighed more). Dad takes us for Ilan influenced
Taiwan lunch, and dark chocolate gelato at the former “awfully chocolate”, now known as “Black as Chocolate.” We meet the owner of Shing Hwa tea as he roasts leaves in giant steel machines, and his son prepares an old fashioned tea tasting. We buy some ‘Iron Kuan Yin goddess” and “Oriental beauty”. Dad takes us to Han shen book publishing, where they have opened tea museum, also selling books and organic clothing. 
We pass the mall we’ve all dubbed “death star” for its 18 floors of dark, round steel. I expect Darth Vader to fly out at any minute.
K shops for Chinese gowns in preparation for her wedding, P shops for satiny Chinese outfits for our nieces. At the famous “73 flavors” ice cream, where K orders fluffy pork, P tops that with Pigs foot, and I go for 58% alcohol Keelung Kao Liang liquor. P makes faces continuously as we bravely try to eat these, and Dad orders a sweet lychee one as our chaser. “Helen doesn’t leave Taiwan without having almond jell-o”, Dad informs them. Thus we seek out yet another dessert stop, it’s fresh, perfect opaque and creamy white wiggle topped with pure white almond milk. That stuff called almond jello-o in the U.S. is a joke!
We metro to Taipei 101, and pay our tourist fees to journey to the 89th floor and walk 360 degrees around and view Taipei’s nightscape. There is a museum, and I ask P to do the math for me “too many zeros for me to sort out.” He informs me that the golden gilded flower costs about as much as remains on our mortgage payments! I came home and my laundry has been washed, boots repaired, and pants altered. Plastic bags were banned here years ago, and now everyone recycles and composts. ‘Efficient” is how P describes his Taipei experiences. Picking up mom we head to the night market for yet more food, and shopping. Thus concluded K’s one day tour of Taipei.
01/06/08 Tonle Sap Floating Village,Cambodia.
We’re on a giant canoe with a makeshift motor engine crammed onto the rear, and a homemade gears steering system being captained by a barefoot boy who looks about 12. His dark limbs stick out of the oversized T-shirt with Chinese characters on it that surely was gifted from a tourist.
In the Lonely planet book I had read about a “floating village”, and imagined a quiet, green oasis. In reality the riverbanks are stripped of vegetation, and the village is more grim than contented. Plastic bags and litter are scattered everywhere. Most of these children have no shoes, some are entirely naked. Not that ingenuity is absent. One home has set up a floating pigpen where 2 hogs serenely reside. Men play cards and smoke cigarettes, while dark-eyed children and their mothers paddle around trying to sell bananas, bead bracelets, or flat out begging. 
The two winners at today’s survival game are the toddlers who draped large, live snakes around their necks, which attracts the flabbergasted attention of tourists. They respond to the camera lens with an instant flash of the "V for victory" sign so popular amongst Japanese or other FObby tourists. We give each child a 1000 riehl bill. They take it, and clasp their hands together in a prayer position to thank us. This beautiful multi-colored bill only equals 25 cents at home.
P looks for a place to throw away an empty box of mediocre airplane food; kids suddenly crowd around begging for it, mouthing "yummy, yummy??" over and over.
My heart has bottomed out so fast my head has emptied. My actions seem frozen.
Later that week, I will kick myself. Why didn’t I give out all the granola bars back in the tour van? Why didn’t I just hand out more 1000 riehl bills? For God’s sake why didn’t I just give them the over priced clothes off my overfed, perfumed, pampered, back??
Later that day I spot a fruit seller. She’s also selling roast crickets and beetles. 
I make P ask our guide to ask her the price. It’s 3000 riehl for a cup of toasted and seasoned crickets. ‘I don’t WANT a cup, but I want one.” P, K and I each take one “down the hatch” K says, We pay 1000 riehl for our crickets. They’re pretty good actually, except for the pokey exoskeleton on my lip. "Want to try cockroach?" asks the guide. We drew the line at that.
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
