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[kuberkat]

It's just about a year since I left the "Green Silicon Island" for pastures that are proverbially, if not actually, greener. Lucky me? Well, yes. My time in Taiwan was tough, but it was also a valuable stepping stone. And though it's taken me a year to admit it, there actually are a few things I miss. Take a look at these, and feel free to post what you will miss about Taiwan, too. Oh, and if there's something you haven't tried, give it a bash. We're in this for the adventure after all.

1. Green Oil (lu-you)
The cure-all for everything from headaches to travel sickness. Essential for any long-haul bus ride. Available at 7-11.

2. Double-sided tape
The Teacher's Best Friend. Available everywhere that sells stationery.

3. Magnetic sheets
Great for magnetizing your flashcards or fridge poetry. Available at good stationers and craft shops.

4. Tea stalls and tea houses
The fountain of life on a hot summer's day. Learn to say "ban-tang" (half sugar) if you love your kidneys. (Or "buyao jia tang" if you're smitten with them)

5. Eight Immortals Fruit (Ba Xian Guo)
These little cubes of spiced dried fruit are salvation on heavy teaching days. Available from herbalists.

6. Daiso Dime Stores
Selling essentials and expendables at bargain-bucket prices, this is always a super place to find a new teaching prop- or something to cheer up a drab tiled apartment.

7. Markets
Taiwan opened up for me when I learnt to forget the smells and peruse the markets. A vegetable vendor who likes you is an ally for life and a lifeline to good health on this polluted island. They often sell eggs, tofu and soy milk, as well.

8. Hairdressers who claw your scalp
Though I will never thrust one with scissors again (and thereby hangs a tale), gettign your hair washed in Taiwan is an unparallelled experience straight from De Sade.

9. Chinese Doctors/TCM practitioners
It is said that once Chinese doctors were only paid as long as the patient remained healthy. A good TCM practitioner is a doorway to understanding the culture. When the inevitable Taiwanitis strikes (which it does to every foreigner every now and again), there is usually a bitter licorice-laced remedy that wil have you back on your feet within days.

10. Hot and Sour Soup (SuanLaTang)
Usually sold with dumplings, this spicy concoction is a meal in itself. just thinking of it makes me pucker up.

So what's on your list?

[trukesehammer]

Greetings from Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

I was tempted to take the local commuter train from Phnom Penh down to the beach town of Sihanoukville. That temptation lasted all of 20 seconds.




I am never going to complain about Taiwan trains again!

[Serious_Fun]

[kuberkat]

... After Cambodia it's tough to complain about anything again! (At least for a while...)

I remember the guides in my guest house sleeping four hours a night right there on the floor between a day of canvassing for business on the notorious border bus for 12 hours and guiding for ten hours. Cambodia is one place where you really learn to count your blessings.

Thanks for that, Trukesehammer.

[Girl Scout]

(1) The ease and comfort of travelling by train

(2) Food - the street snack and night markets were and still are great.

[markholmes]

If you didn't make it to Sihanoukville you missed a great place.

[Gifu]

I missed...

- Stinky Tofu!!!
- Fresh Tropical Fruits
- Cheap shopping
- Betel nut spit (ok, not really)
- Walking on the road when there's no sidewalk
- Carrying water to my apartment
- Night Markets
- Scooter
- My FRIENDS!!!

Formosa was the best!

[markholmes]

I miss;

Sitting in my 10th floor apartment for five days in my underwear during the Neihu flood of 2001 and watching old ladies being rescued by boat from third floor windows opposite (the water was well into the second floor of buildings). No water, no aircon, no electricity and 40 degree heat for a week - trapped. I enjoyed watching a 40ft metal shipping container float (I didn't know they did) past the freeway, not 300 metres from my apartment (a spectacular sight from the 10th floor).

I watched in disbelief as 8 out of 10 scooter riders fell off into the foot high mud that covered the road as they tried to ride there scooters as the water receded.

I do not miss watching the poor unfortunates living on the first and second floors turfing out out all there worldly possession into the street, now sodden and mold encrusted, or smelling the piles of rotting fruit and vegetables from the market that lay in the 40 degree for some two weeks before the army cleaned it up.

I miss my old scooter, the Spanking Kwangyang. On advice from the guy down in the foyer I pushed it up some steps to get it about six foot of the ground, alas six foot was not nearly enough and the poor Spanker, as I affectionately called it, drown in mud and grit. It was never to start again.

On another note, I miss running out of Kojen kindergarten without my shoes, because the place was being raided. Without shoes my wife and I escaped on my second scooter to our home until the all clear was given and we were able to return to school and collect our shoes.

Lastly, I miss being conscious of standing near tall glass buildings as the earth tremors begin. One sliver could cut a man in half.

God bless Taiwan, you couldn't make this up if you tried.

[Gifu]

Haha...Mark, I remember the 2001 flood. I was close to where you lived in Xi Zhi (or was Shi Zhi). The flood only got the parking lot basement since I lived on a hill. If not, I would have been swimming in my 2nd floor (1st floor?)...haha...

[markholmes]

I lived in Donghu which I think must be the lowest point in Neihu.

The flood happened 10 days after we moved to Taipei from Kaohsiung. I asked my students in Kaohsiung what Neihu was like. The only things they could come up with were, it has CostCo and it floods! Knowing that Neihu is a flood area, I always wondered why so many shops and restaurants were in basements.

Four weeks before we left Kaohsiung there was flood there too (abeit much smaller than the Neihu one) . Living on the six floor we felt fairly secure. Unfortunately, the drains on the roof were blocked with leaves and someone left the roof door open. The water poured down the stairs from the 10th floor and flooded the entire building from top to bottom.
Four weeks before that we were burgled by someone abseiling off the roof.

Terrible times, but great memories.

[trukesehammer]