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On the second to last day of my trip, I visited my grand uncles and uncles at my late great grandma’s old house at Danding — a mountainous region at the southeast edge of Taipei basin.

My great grandparents had six children. My grandma is the 3rd of the six. Each of the six children (my grandma and grand uncles) had many kids, which results in my mom having lots of cousins and me having something like 26+ uncles and aunts all in the Taipei region. My parents used to spend a lot of time with that side of the family when we were little, however, ever since moving to Taitung when I was 10, interaction with all relatives in Taipei became sparse, although the family bond remained strong.

And then after we immigrated to the U.S. in 1992, interaction with all grand uncles, uncles and aunties become even more sparse because 1. once I visit one uncle, I have to visit all others to be respectful and fair to all of them. 2. visiting all of them could easily take a whole month, but all our trips back to Taiwan had been too short for that. Read the rest of this entry »

The sweetest and most romantic part of this trip happened after 11pm on the 2nd day of our trip. We were in Taipei together that night. We visited John’s cousin, had a fancy Japanese dinner with John’s dad, his cousin and her family, then John’s dad took us back to Taipei, made a brief stop at a baseball shop for John to visit his friend, and then drop us off on a street nearby their house because John wanted to show me around in his old neighborhood.

That late night walk around his old neighborhood was the most romantic part of the trip. Hand in hand, he lead me to the places where he spent many happy years — the park, friend’s house, grand parent’s house, his parents’ old house, the bus stop, the stores he used to go to, the restaurants …. He told me how the neighborhood transformed over the years … how old homes were torn down and replaced with multi-story apartments… how a street was reconfigured …

The whole time I just imagined a joyous little John laughing and running happily on those streets. Ah… how adorable he must have been as a kid!

He showed me his elementary school, and told me which classrooms he used to study in, where he used to play basketball, where the gym was, how his best friend used to run on the track everyday, how he used to walk to and from school, where he went to play with friends after school … I just imagined a little John sitting in those miniture chairs with little books and a little book bag… listening intently to what the teacher said … then playing gleefully during recess… Ah… so so so cute!!! I had this mental image of this cute, absolutely daring little boy growing up in that very neighborhood that I was walking in. The boy was so cute that I wished I could dive into the picture and gave him a big hug.

But what was even more beautiful was that the little boy has grown up to become a charming, handsome, outstanding, intelligent, wise, unique, caring, sincere and humble fine gentleman who was holding my hand and telling me stories in the most gentle, loving voice.

Everything that night felt like the strawberry and mango shaved ice that we shared after the walk  — it was a soft, precious, tender kind of sweet.

It was very simple, but pricesless.

On this day, I took John and his friend James for a half-day trip along the East Coast. John’s friend James, whom he met through fencing, had never been to Taitung (my town), and since Taitung is normally not on one’s travel itenary (despite its beauty), he came to Taitung to visit John. Therefore, I took the two of them to see what I think is the most beautiful asset of the region — the beautiful coastline.

We visited many spots along the scenic coastal drive, but my favorite stop was Sanxiantai. As a kid, I’ve always liked Sanxiantai for its harmonious, echoing relationship between water, land, and the bridge. There are three gigantic rocks off shore – remnants of some volcanic activity millions of years ago which is also home of some pre-historic artifacts that provides prof of Taiwan being the origin of the Austronesian culture. Ok, all that geologic and pre-historic things aside, as a kid Sanxiantai was just a big adventure land to me.

Too bad it was cloudy the day! Basically, it was cloudy through much of my trip. Nonetheless, I was very happy to re-visit my childhood adventure land, and I thought the two gentleman enjoyed it very much as well. There’s a different kind of beauty in cloudy days, but I just hoped that it was sunny so John could see the blue ocean that I’ve talked so many times about. Read the rest of this entry »

This day in my hometown, Taitung, mom took John and I for a day trip with dad’s car. We drove to the mountain ridges of east coast first, then made our way to Hongye where we visited the Hongye Little League baseball museum, before we made our way to Quan San for an unforgettable bike ride.

Taitung hasn’t changed too much since I left. Being in the country side between Pacific Ocean and Eastern Rift Valley, it is where mountainous topography made mass transit difficult to develop. It is more difficult for big developers and industries to come to Taiung, and as a result, it is the most pristine, unspoiled land left in Taiwan.

Yes, there is a town center where all the hustle and bustle is, but everytime I go back, I always love visiting the country side — it’s where the beauty of the region awaits me.

Little farm houses, nice people that would invite you into their homes for tea, roosters roaming around, mountain goats running lose, coconut trees, beetle nut trees, butterflies dancing admist spring blossome, and the mountain ridges that I see in my dreams…

I’ll let pictures tell the story… Read the rest of this entry »

No trip to Taiwan is ever complete without seeing Erin, or at least a serious attempt to meet up. During my 2007 Taiwan trip, she accidentally injured her eyes and therefore we were unable to get together. This time around, there wasn’t any excuse not to.

She and I went to the same jounior high and were classmates for a year. A year wan’t a very long time, but our friendship quicky grew and has remained strong till today. Back in the old days, she and I not only would spend time together during recess, we even sent each other letters even though we didn’t live that far apart. She was my closest friend at the time I moved to the United States, therefore she was, and has always been the one friend whom I think of the most whenever I think about “Taiwan”. Read the rest of this entry »

While in Taipei with John, we spent a very relaxing afternoon at Bamboo Lake and Yangmingsan National Park. The trip was my request, and, although it was during the Yangmingsan flower festival and the primary reason for the trip should be to catch cherry blossoms, for me the main attraction was actually the calla lily farms at Bamboo Lake.

Calla Lily has been one of my favorite flowers since childhood. I’ve always loved it’s simple elegance, it’s soft silken white, and it’s broad green leaves. I’ve tried planting calla lilies in the yard before, but unfortunately our yard wasn’t equipped with the right soil type so the result wasn’t thriving. Over the years I’ve seen pictures of Bamboo Lake and was always touched by how the place is transformed into a dream-like Calla Lily wonderland in the spring. Therefore, Bamboo Lake became a place I must visit. And since I was in Taipei during Calla Lily season, I just had to ask John to take me to there. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a very, very fulfilling trip, so fulfilling that it’s impossible to write about in whole. Therefore, I am only going to write about the highlights, which is a lot to write about already. In the upcoming days, when time allows, I’ll be writing a series of highlight posts about my Taiwan trip from 3/16 to 3/24.

Let me start with what’s most difficult to write, and that is — the 2008 Presidential Election in Taiwan. That is the main purpose of this trip. Having duel citizenship, I was eligible to vote in the presidential election. Since this election is crucial to the future of Taiwan, my beloved home country, I just had to do my part as a Taiwanese to vote. Therefore, I paid for my own airfare, took days off work, and voluntary went back to vote and to support democracy in Taiwan. No one bribed me. Thank you.

The first thing I did after I arrived in Taiwan on 3/16 was that I joined my folks in my hometown in a march to support our candidate and the referendum. It was a nation-wide march, with teams after teams of people covering the entire circumference of Taiwan. My daddy, who has been a leader in NGOs for years, was the leader-in-charge for one of the teams in the east coast. Naturally, that’s where I was for that significant march. It was a very successful march where we were received countless warm cheers and smiles. People reached out their hands to us and even offered us drinks throughout the way. It made me feel very proud to be Taiwanese, and also to be my dad’s daughter. Read the rest of this entry »

I am back. I arrived home last night. Didn’t fall sleep until past 2:30am but went to work today and stayed for the whole day today despite the jetlag, so I am quite impressed with myself.

Was I only gone for a week? It felt longer, probably because I did so much in Taiwan.

Overall, it was a very, very good trip filled with sight seeing, visiting places where I spent lots of my childhood time at, golden moments with my family and John, plus much learning about the nation as a whole. Taiwan is my home country, and each trip to the beautiful country only strengthen my love for it. In the upcoming days, I hope to write about the trip. There are too much to write, and honestly I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll get to it.

In twelve hours, John and I will fly to our home country, Taiwan. This is our second overseas trip together since we started dating almost 7 months ago.

It’s going to be an extremely, EXTREMELY BUSY trip where both of us will be flying back and forth from his part of the country to my part of the country on an almost daily basis. We’ll have so much to do and I don’t even know where to start. But in between doing important things, we’ll also find time to have some fun.

I’ll have lots to write after I return on the 24th.