Awesome Halloween in Taipei

We were at Room 18 on Saturday night celebrating Halloween in pirate costumes. It was super fun night with new friends, great music on a roof top under 101 and amazing display of costumes. People had really worked hard physically, mentally and monetarily to come up with costumes.

Zombies are common in every Halloween party, but zombies I saw this year looked so real and so much in character. Good job, Taipei Zombies!There was a couple with their skin zipped open only to show blood and flesh underneath.. eew. There were plenty of cute and scary black and white swans. Also, jumping around were few LMFAO Party Rocks carrying that hot suffocating golden boxes on their heads all night. There was one super hot Eve who walked around with her apple,  little leaves to cover up and all the eyes following her back. We met a few fellow pirates and we exchanged some sword wars or friendly hugs and pictures. Cleopatra, belly dancers, nurses and maids looked super hot despite of the cliche get up. Alice in wonderland group was fantastic with complete makeup and costume. My Japanese friend was dressed creatively as a flower, she had a real flower stuck around one of her eye. She looked gorgeous and elegant. I thought "7-11, always open dude" and 'One night stand' (yeah he was literally carrying a night stand around his neck, funny but not sure of many locals got the joke;) ) were really funny.

Thank God for not a single Playboy girl! Taipei Halloween got some bonus points from me on creativity for that one ;)

Age no bar

Mountain hiking, biking, running in the park, gym, swimming.. you name it. I see 60 plus people everywhere engaging in the respective activity with so much passion and energy. I went to run in the Da-an park yesterday and this 60 plus man passed me thrice in my one 2.5K round. Seriously??

Mandarin: Once Optional, Now a Must

I have been in Taipei for two years but honestly I never got serious about learning Mandarin. In my defense, my super crazy work load prohibited me from giving justice to any formal training of this daunting language. Day to day work did not require me to know this language at all as employees were expected to know good English in American company where I worked. It was always convenient enough that only thing I had to really learn was to slow down during conversations to allow English-Mandarin translations in the background. Chinese maybe optional today but 10 years from now I am pretty sure that tables will be turned. If you want a coveted job in the market then you will be expected to know Chinese as these jobs will now be listed by Chinese companies.

Don't believe it? Well, China trip that we took few weeks ago was a big eye opener. The mere scale and pace of the city, including infrastructure, technology and international presence was simply overwhelming. It is really hard to fathom how strong China has become behind their closed doors and hence you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it. World-class metro, high speed trains, city bus, twelve lane roads, overpasses, skyscrapers, Olympic park, numerous malls for luxury brands, international hotels, cosmopolitan restaurants and beautiful historical and tourist spots that seemed so successful in attracting the global mass for trade and tourism. This country is growing at a very fast pace and very consistently for last decade. 9.6% GDP was recorded in the first six months of 2011 while USA was around 1%, if the trend continues then guess which side of the table will be heavier? Neighboring countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia etc with significant Mandarin speaking population are also growing at a much faster pace than any country in Europe or USA.

In next decade, Mandarin will not be an optional language in my opinion in the world of business

Moon Festival

 

 Moon festival, one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture is over 3000 years old and goes by many names such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cake festival, Autumn Lantern festival, Lunar Harvest festival and particularly Taiwan it is also called Reunion festival and Bunny Girl ( NO, not the playboy one) Moon festival. Chinese origin people around the world are found celebrating this festival by stuffing their mouths with variety of moon cakes under the eighth full-moon of the year. Needless to say, I did not miss the opportunity to stuff my mouth with delicious cakes as well. 

  



Our box of KeeWah pastry

 We have been very lucky to receive boxes of moon cakes and pomelo (see my blog on Exotic Fruits) from friends and colleagues for last few years in Taiwan. First year was difficult as most of the cakes I received had egg, pork and other non-vegetarian items and I could only ogle at pretty boxes but then it was corrected very quickly when a friend ordered special vegetarian moon cakes with stuffing such as mung bean, red bean, taro, dry fruits for us. They are just perfectly sweet in taste (think 30% less sugar than a typical milk sweet from India) and goes very well with oolong tea or red wine. Week before moon festival, office desks are piled with beautifully decorated moon cake boxes showing off the brands of the vendor. Imported ones from Hong Kong are gaining popularity and in this slightly pretentious culture you do see these high-end boxes on top of the piles.



Vegetarian Moon Cakes before I over ate 



Now, on the day of the festival, typical Taiwanese family will gather for a barbeque feast under the moon. Motto of the day is to “eat, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat, drink, eat, eat … “according to one of my colleague. By the way, barbequing on this day is very unique to Taiwan which has emerged as a custom only in last twenty years and hence largely attributed to economic development and western influence by the outsiders. During my first year in Taiwan, I saw people on the streets, walkways and parks barbequing in the open, sneakily shouting “Gan-bei” followed by gulping their disposable cups of “pijio”, enjoying moon cakes and sometimes remembering to check out the moon through a thick smoke cloud that forms above their mobile barbeque pit. Friendly as ever, Taiwanese people will never forget to share their food with the passers-by. There are also many moon-roof parties organized these days which tends to demean western styles than traditional Chinese culture. Whatever the setting, its time of the year to celebrate with your loved ones and remember the ones you love under the moon light. 

This year we were in Beijing for the Moon Festival. We heard that this year Green movement had taken a strong stand in Taiwan for the sake of the environment, road side barbequing was prohibited but dedicated parks were created for open barbeque so people can still enjoy in the 20 yr old custom. I guess I missed the Taiwanese clean, green Moon Festival this year.

Beijing was on a completely different scale. We tried to stay away from the main areas of Moon Festival celebration to avoid the crowds but our attempt was vain. We literally floated through tempestuous ocean of people throughout the day wherever we went. But as the evening set in many government buildings were beautifully lit, red lanterns decorated popular streets and dragons were seen ready to roar and dance that night. Unfortunately (or not), it was a cloudy night in Beijing with no moon in sight so it was a night best spent in the hotel room with a dim night lamp mimicking the moon ;) After a sumptuous dinner we headed back to the room and hoped to catch festivities on the TV. The most popular coverage seemed to be the continuous live coverage of the world’s biggest tidal bore on the Qingtang River (check out videos and images by google search, its really something) that comes every year during this festival. According to the TV coverage, it was considered one of the natural wonders of the World at one point but I am not sure how true that is in a world outside of China. Thousands of people had camped out and gathered by the river shore to watch this wonder wave under the full-moon light today while I virtually thanked the live Moon coverage for a loving husband and embraced him in the faint moon-light that fell on our bed from the TV.

Current state of Taiwanese Weddings

Our closest friends gave birth to a sweet little baby girl today. We are so excited and as if she was our own we screamed "yay, its a girl!".

I think most of the Taiwanese couples these days are probably screaming with similar excitement as well when they give birth to a daughter instead of a son. There may be a reason for this excitement which lies deep within the centuries old marriage tradition and effects of today's modernization instead of the pretty twinkling eyes of the new born. Unlike most part of the world, when a Taiwanese couple gets married, groom and his family has to pay a huge dowry to the girls parents and this is all but the crux of the stress for the boy and his parents at the time of marriage.

Most of the lavish wedding expenses including pre-wedding photographs, dinners, gifts (could include apartments, appliances, cars, furniture etc) and imported wedding cookies for the girls extended family are to be paid by the groom. All the terms and conditions regarding expenses are negotiated before the marriage is actually finalized. Needless to say, parents take over the wedding negotiations from the couple even if it was supposed to be a cute love marriage. These days Taiwanese women are well educated, self earning and independent which makes weddings even more  expensive then they ever were. Brides parents want to recover the cost of raising their well-educated daughters and such attitudes sometimes just crashes the spirit of the marriage or worse, a man's will to get married.

Traditionally, boys have been preferred over girls across most part of the developing countries in Asia for centuries now. In last few decades, sex-selective abortion was on the rise and has given rise to uneven boy to girl ratio which is now 110 males for 100 females in Taiwan. This clearly means there are less females available for marriage. Also, more and more women these days are choosing to be single or delay marriage to focus on career and hence by the time they are ready for marriage, they are either too expensive or little too old to find the right partner. Ironically, divorce rates in the country are extremely high (close to 40%) too and it is also influencing to-be groom's wedding decision as they are getting penny wise and do not want to waste money on extravagant weddings which may end up in a divorce. All these independent trends and more which are not listed here have eventually led the country to earn a record breaking lowest fertility rate in the world. (0.9 children per child bearing female.  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan#Vital_statistics).

All the data above is enough for me to believe that there is also a rise in mail-order brides in Taiwan. It is very common to see a man in Taiwan going through marriage brokers to find brides from countries like Mainland China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam where brides get married mainly to get financial help to support their families back home while the men gets a life companion for a much smaller amount than a Taiwanese wife.

'Old Culture + Modernization = Disaster?', I wondered as I sipped on my cup of oolong tea.

Just Jhakaas

There are perfect looking people everywhere I look. Let me rephrase that to, I see perfect looking women everywhere in Taipei. They are so perfect and so many in number that you can actually look through men in this city. Mannequin like bodies are dolled up with expensive shoes, matching dresses and bags. I wonder sometimes if the shoes came first or the dress. Glowing white skin like butter, expensive makeup finished with heavy mascara or fake eyelashes. Perfectly cut and styled hair with just right amount of colour successfully accentuates these model like creatures.

Lets say even if you had all the time, money and skill for style and fashion, can someone please explain how do you get the inspiration, will and perseverance to doll up day after day after day.

Btw, you all look just jhakaas (great) :)

Johnny, May and the others



From the peak of the ZhongZheng Mountain



ZhongZeng mountains and surroundings looked gorgeous from the peak that Sunday morning. Cool, crisp breeze carrying scent of the mountain dew was refreshing after our little hiking adventure. Now, Taiwan Government has done a fantastic job by making covered wooden decks and benches for people to rest and enjoy the views at many such popular outdoor spots. So we sat there on a bench, gulping our waters, dabbing our sweat and watching a big group of giggling septuagenarians in heavily clad hiking gears with a marvellous mountain backdrop.

It may be Sunday morning for the rest of the world but it was definitely a peak hour for camera shutters. Frequent "Yi Er San.. tien" ( 1, 2, 3 ... smile) sound was followed by the evident mechanical click sounds. In one corner, I even spotted a young couple celebrating some occasion with a bottle of wine and clicking zillion pictures. After several photos and loud conversations, the oldies left and carried on with the next phase of their hiking trip. We were finally left alone with our friends, young lovers in the corner and the beautiful views. We sat there eating some crackers to load up on carbs, we even took some pictures ourselves and got engrossed talking about our next plan of action for the day. Just about that time, few more people made it to the peak. One of them was Johnny.


Young couple was celebrating with some wine and champagne up in the mountains

 Johnny was dressed in white Tshirt, grey shorts, a hat, a good pair of hiking shoes, a walking stick and a Nike back pack. He stood out from the rest of the group that climbed up the deck with him like some spicy hot oil in an Indian curry. He was definitely pouring more sweat and not carrying a camera like the rest. He stood by the fence of the deck, stretched out, soaked the view, closed his eyes and took a deep puff of the crisp air. Then he took out his towel, water bottle and settled near our benches where there were open spots. His handsome glowing face was very clear now as he had moved his towel from his face. I noticed a little grey on the sides of his hat and I said to myself, he is definitely forty five plus and a pretty healthy one. We exchanged a visual greeting while he was drinking his water and instantly after that we broke into a conversation. We discovered that he has been hiking up this particular mountain from the base ( few miles before the spot where we started our hike) every weekend for last 6 years. And he was Fifty Eight years old only and not forty five. He said that, for him and many of the oldies in Taiwan, a healthy lifestyle is a priority over everything else. His passion for hiking and a happy healthy life was very evident. He passionately gave us tips about nearby trails and a big encouragement about trying to stay fit. He was not happy that we were so young and opting for such small trails.

While we were talking to dear Johnny, another small group of retired friends came by and settled near the adjoining benches. They had brought several bags of fresh cut fruits with them. As usual, we exchanged a gentle visual "nihao" with them and the very next minute they placed two bags of fruits in our hands. Wow! I mean seriously, wow! They gave us disposable forks and napkins too! I have to say that these were the most amazing watermelon, guava and dragon fruit that I have had on top of the mountain after a hike. Fruits and the company that we were gifted was super delicious. Johnny and we enjoyed these gifted fruits, we took pictures with the group so we can remember how nice Taiwanese people are and continued chatting while cleaning our mouths constantly from the juicy fruits.

Nicest strangers in the world are in Taiwan.

More people were pouring in and they looked genuinely tired from the hike. We offered our seats to them, bid good byes to our stranger friends and we started to walk towards the young bamboo dotted trail. Johnny was with us. We chatted more with Johnny on our way down and we noticed that he was genuinely a happy person who constantly advised us to live up every single day and enjoy every moment in life. He was not preachy like some Masters here in Taiwan but a super friendly person. He finally told us that he is a cancer survivor and after his recovery he has not looked back. Life only gets better he said. His spirits and enthusiasm were high but definitely carried a patronizing attitude. I was quiet for rest of the hike, I even slowed down a little and let them pass ahead of me. I could not tell if I was spell bound by his beauty or his story that made him so beautiful.

Johnny leading the way

Once we reached the base of the mountain he said now I want you to meet the most beautiful person in my life, my wife. He shouted towards the rest pavilion, "Hello May, please come here" and then he winked at us and said "now you are about to meet a movie star". And indeed, a very beautiful woman with a glowing skin like butter with a big hat, stylish sun glasses, comfortable tshirt, shorts and sports shoes walked towards us. She was simply gorgeous! Johnny and May looked at each other passionately which was no less love than what I had witnessed on the mountain top with that young couple in midst of a celebration. May looked at us and politely said "Hello" in a very American like accent. She later told us that she was actually Korean by birth ( May be studies in US? who knows? ). We took pictures with this gorgeous young couple as well and bid our farewells as our stomachs were now calling aloud for some food. Johnny nagged us again to live it up as we walked towards our cars, my heart filled up and I just smiled without looking back.

With Johnny and May

As we drove down the winding roads, my mind was in a constant debate of  whether it was the mountains, the dew filled breeze, the sweet fruits, their political and cultural history or some other unknown factor that made people in Taiwan so beautiful at heart? Just about then I saw a Taiwan tourism's sign board that said ' TAiWAN: Touch your heart!', I smiled and I said "I just did".

More Pictures of the trail and the mountain

One of the steep patch on the trail

                                                   Trail was not that serious but hikers were!

That was huge!

Hey! my water bottles looked pretty too with the mountain backdrop ;)

Green Ghost Month



Shop right across my house sets up table of goodies every day during Ghost Month

So lets first start with what is Ghost month? Every 7th Lunar month of the year, Taiwanese folks observe Ghost month. They believe that ghosts move freely around the island during this month and visit from home to home looking for food and money. Locals will cook special meals and treats and place it outside their shops and homes for the hungry ghosts who are roaming around and make them feel warm and respected. One of my local friend explained to me that, every day of the month they serve very good and elaborate food to the ghosts there is a chance that their ancestor's ghost might visit them as well and this is their only chance to pay tributes, respect and take care of them. They will offer favourite dishes, wines, teas and sometimes cigarrettes of their decesed ancestors just to make them happy and get their blessings in return. They also burn paper money as part of paying annual allowance to them and sometimes write letters with messages and put them in the fire.

This unique tradition is believed to be originated about 3500 years in China. Today this festival is observed in most part of the east asia with minor variations but equal enthusisam. Real Estate markets are relatively slow during this month as people avoid moving to new house or buying a new propery. Critical busienss deals are also delayed after this month is over. But local and international TV channels have taken this festival very seriosuly and commercializing every bit of it. Ignoring my constant  agony they continue showing horror movies on every channel every hour of the day to keep the spirits alive!

Paper Money being burned during ghost month

Now here's something worth a big applaud. Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan is heavily encouraging people to Go Green this year and avoid burning paper money and letters. Many communities have come together with innovative ideas to support this initiative. One community has launched a website where you can offer virtual feasts and virtual money on the internet and its claiming to save 420,000 tonnes of CO2 emmission. While a community in Kaohsiung City is encouraging people to donate the funds that they had put aside to buy paper money and get a certificate of their deeds. This money collected will be used for the charity. Now that's a real win-win situation!

7-Eleven : My extended pantry and a lot more

One of the many 7-Eleven stores in the city



Did you know that Japanese convenience store company, 7-Eleven, has highest number of franchise in the world?  Yes,  it surpassed McDonald's in this race long ago.  

Do you know which country has the lowest number of Customer to 7-Eleven store ratio? Bingo! its Taiwan. Since its first store opened in 1980s, Uni-President, its Taiwanese owner has not looked back and opened over 4500 stores in every livable corner of this island. Each store now claims to serve no more than 6200 repeated customers. There is a 7-Eleven store in my residential building and I can literally walk less than 100 metres in any direction from my building and bump into another one. I have also seen several streets with these stores almost facing each other.  

Having a 7-Eleven right where you live is super convenient and it stands unbelievably true to the concept of convenience store. Extent of service and products it offers is beyond comprehensive. Above and beyond all the paid products and services it offers, it ends up providing one free service and that is sense of 24x7 security. These stores are open all the time with bright florescent light and security cameras. I can walk alone with my girl friends late hours of the night from a night market and not be worried because there are 7-Eleven almost everywhere and there are always people in there shopping! Enter any time of  the day and you will be greeted by a loud sweet sounding cry from super friendly 7-Eleven employees which sounds like "Good Morning" said in a little stretched southern US accent but actually they are saying "Huan Yin" meaning welcome. In some of the busy stores at busy hours, you will hear a constant chant of "Huan Yin" as people constantly pour in and out.



Typical store from inside: clean, organized and well lit.



Taiwanese people rely heavily on these stores and it is now embedded in there daily life and culture. They have several 7-Eleven souvenir (only) stores as well! Now who would buy a convenience store souvenir? hmm, you will  be surprised, but these stores witnesses some decent traffic! 7-Eleven mascot is cute and cheerful and sits proudly on desks, cell phones, bags, books of many of my local friends and colleagues. God forbid but if this ubiquitous chain of 7-Eleven stores decides to close down some day in Taiwan then I think country could actually crumple. In the spirit of adopting Taiwanese culture and lifestyle, one of my first and easiest thing was to imbibe in to the 7-Eleven culture, after all the store and I shared same notion of "keep it simple, silly".  

7-Eleven Taiwan Mascot

In Taipei, kitchens and pantries are smaller than what I am used to from my days in India and US. I quickly figured out that there was no point (and place) to stock a lot of extra stuff in the house. My fridge is full of Indian spices, flours and lentils and there really isn't enough cabinet space beyond my extensive set of pots and pans. We decided very early that "Buy it as you need" was the most efficient way to go. Within few weeks of living in this apartment, we realized that you can go down to 7-Eleven for almost anything and it will cost barely any additional time or money. It takes 15 secs to go down stairs, pick what you want, get out in 45 sec, back up in 30 secs so in total 1.5 mins max you are back at your place with things that you need. There is one more advantage of shopping at 7-Eleven, you can get point stickers every time you shop something and after you have collected enough points you can exchange your point card for its cute toy of the month. By now I have a collection of little toys and I have to confess that I am a little addicted to collecting stickers or lets say those cute toys!



Some of the 7-Eleven toys that I have collected.

Movie night tonight? By the time I pop a DVD and get ready to hit the PLAY button, my dear hubby is back with a bag of popcorn and soda from 7-Eleven.

Need cash and stamps? No problemo pick it up from ATM at 7-Eleven. 

Want to buy books online but not sure about giving your credit card? Don't worry, use pick up and pay service at 7-Eleven.

Out of sugar? ill get you in a minute honey from 7-Eleven, says by hubby

Party night and out of drinks and chips? Smirnoffs and lays back on the table without your friends realizing that you actually left your home for a minute.

Can't keep your eyes open for this late night conference call? Gourmet caramel machiato from 7-Eleven City Cafe might just do the trick for you.

Pay Bills? Sure, bring all your cell phone, gas, water, electricity and any other utility bill. Oh and you can also bring your parking ticket!

How about a trip to South Taiwan? Buy High Speed Train tickets from 7-Eleven

Hungry kya? Take your pick from a huge array of good quality healthy salads, cut fruits, noodles, soups, trail mixes, gourmet pastries, yogurt, jellies, crackers, cookies and lot of unusual local products that I do not recognize.  





unusual local product (Black fungus drink) on 7-Eleven Shelf.

  

Missing home? Buy a little Taiwan souvenir and a card from the store and send it back home using its courier service

Visiting Taipei but forgot your essentials? Don't worry be happy we have 7-Eleven downstairs. ( no kidding but one of our very close friend did it. Peace and hugs my dear friend, I will not disclose your name ever :) )

Send receive fax, make photo copies, buy magazines, DVDs, cosmetics ( DHC, Maybelline, Burt's Bee, Mentholatum, Herbacin...etc), first-aid, govt garbage bags, sit in the cafe area drinking tea, reading newspaper or surf with free wi-fi, travel toiletries, festival goodies and gifts, umbrellas or simply come and people watch. List is truly endless, as there is a constant introduction of new products and services at my 'extended pantry and lot more' store. Its hard to keep up but I assure you that I will continue to explore them and amaze myself as long as I am here.

Oh but before I conclude this blog there are few tips for y'all.

• Firstly, Never ever give 7-Eleven as a meeting point or as a landmark in your directions when you are in Taiwan. You will be lost for sure.
• Secondly, You have not truly visited Taiwan if you have not visited one of its 7-Eleven.
• Lastly and most importantly, Keep it simple, darling!

Dabbawalla aka Lunch box delivery man

120 years old,  dabbawalla community is an integral part of my home town, Mumbai. They have formed a solid reputation of consistent quality and efficiency and seem to have frozen the image of their appearance over decades. Generation after generation they look the same and promise the same quality of service. You thought Dominos leads the consistency trend with consistent 30 minute Pizza delivery? Take a peek into this community and you will be amazed at how this barely literate people manage their complex network of dabbawallas and ensure six sigma (99.999999 % acurate measured by Forbes) delivery of satisfying home-cooked lunch to the hard working Mumbaikars and many school kids each day, every day, rain (lots of rain) or shine at unbelievably low cost of service. According to some research, average dabbawalla is believed to be making less than USD 100 a month. 

In recent times some of the sub-communities have progressed a little with use of SMS and online feedback system which only aids the unparallel but crude code system of color coded characters on tiffin boxes.



But which dabba is mine? Dont worry! dabbawalla knows it exactly using his coding system.





Typical Dabba Code - Image courtesy Google search.

 Right on dot at 10:05 am, door bell rings and a middle aged man of medium height stands there impatiently in white cotton kurta pyjama and white colored Gandhi style cap. Everyday my three year old nephew drops everything at hand and runs to the door to check out his dabbawalla friend with white topi (cap). Sometimes my nephew gets lucky if my mom and sister-in-law are running late in packing the tiffin and he gets to wear the topi for few minutes and enact as a dabbawalla. Shantaram, the dabbawalla shouts "Hurry Hurry! I am running late. You find a new dabbawalla if you can't keep the time". My sister-in-law rushes to deliver two tiffin boxes to the door, one for my brother and other for my dad and catches the first relaxed breath of the day. My little nephew says good bye to his friend and promises to see him again tomorrow. This is such a familiar sight in majority of the Mumbai household and an image that is pressed in my memory by its constant reprints day after day since my early childhood days. 

So why am I talking about these legendary dabbawallas today at my lunch time while comfortably enjoying noodle soup from the local restaurant? Simply because they touched my heart recently for two key reasons.

Firstly, for the first time in 120 years of their existence they went on strike! Yes, every single of the 5000 dabbawalla went on strike forcing people to eat out, disrupting kitchens and disrupting hardened daily food habits. They went out on strike last week on Aug 19th to support 2011 Anti-corruption movement in India. This event made me proud and ponder whether we as literate and well-paid global citizens of Indian origin are doing enough to curb the corruption? How many of us are actually walking the talk?

Secondly, on my leisurely stroll through the mall last weekend, I came across a stand of very cute looking colorful bags with fun designs on it. I got closer to check out if I can purchase it for my nephew. Interestingly it was a tiffin bag by a US based company called "Dabbawalla Bags" who makes fun, stylish and reliable lunch bags for kids. http://www.dabbawallabags.com/ These bags are manufactured locally in Taiwan before they are sold worldwide. Beautiful example of globalization.

Owners of the company were apparently impressed by the dabbawalla community during their travel through India and hence the name. Who knew that Shantaram and his friends are now famous worldwide for their sincere and reliable maangement model and service that they have provided for last 3-4 generations in crazy city of Mumbai? Who knew that a single piece of bag carrying their name would actually cost half their monthly income?

Exotic Oriental Fruits

Taipei has by far the best fruit produce that I have seen anywhere in the world. Fruit quality is genuinely high class and it actually tastes as good as it looks. Many fruits in US look really big and healthy ( may be hormone induced) but it tastes a little pale to me. Definitely not so over here. You can buy them at a local fruit store or stalls at the local day market, vegetable and fruit markets, night markets, fruit trucks on the streets or super markets. Irrespective of where you buy it, be assured that it is GOOD.



Fruit truck that comes every evening near our home



Many of these tropical fruits are locally grown in Taiwan which I am a big fan of. Seasonal fruits such as peach, mangoes, dragon fruit, lichee, longan, passion fruit, pomello, papaya, melons and oranges are particularly amazing. You get good quality imported fruits as well but we sincerely try our best to cut down on carbon footprint and consume as much local produce as possible. Taiwan introduced me to many new fruits that I had not experienced it ever in my life. I will definitely miss them when I leave this place.

Some of the fruits that I experienced for the first time in Taiwan are as follows.

Dragon Fruit

This a yummy sweet summer fruit that looks nothing inside like it looks outside. Also, its tasty and not at all scary as the name suggests. Easy to eat and not messy at all so I super like it! Soft white flesh is sweet and cruncy tiny seeds breaks that smoothness nicely.

Pomello

 This is a big thick skinned citrus fruit. In the peak Autumn season you can find single piece weighing 1-1.5 kgs in the local market. It tastes little bit like grapefruit but it doesnt have that bitter after taste. Great source of vitamin C.

This fruit also has a significance at Moon festival ( mid-autumn festival). Fruit basket containing Pomelo is given to family, friends and co-workers. I was introduced to this fruit by my team mate during my first Moon festival holiday in Taipei.

 Longan

These brown shelled little fruit covers white juicy flesh just like lychee. This fruit is super sweet and very tasty. It is available mostly in summer time in this while in winter you get the dries variety of this fruit which is dark brown in colour and consumed mostly in form of teas or as herb in the soups and desserts. This fruit is known for its properties such as generating body heat and its suppose to be "good for women".

Passion Fruit

Its a thick purple skinned fruit with golden yellow flesh and lots of black crunchy seeds. Its sweet and sour in taste and can get very sweet as the fruit is fully ripe. I love to just cut it in half and eat the flesh with the spoon. But its also very popular to have this fruit in juice or fruit tea form in Taiwan. Its super refreshing to carry an iced and sugared passion fruit drink on a hot summer day.

Durian

This is a huge jack fruit family fruit with a stinky stench. Taipei public transport system forbids you from carrying this fruit on subways and buses for its smell. But its a popular fruit and they say that its sweet with not so bad smell when it is eaten immediately after cutting the fruit open. I have to be honest that I have not dared to eat this fruit as I can't even enter the area of the super market where they display this fruit. I took the picture below and ran away quickly!

This fruit is mainly available in summer time.

Its a Peach!
No I don't come from a world where peaches call for a surprise. But while touring the famous Yangminshan Mountains in Taiwan, I came across this little round pretty looking fruit ( slightly bigger than a good sized lychee) with a little peak at one end, mostly green color with some shades of red splattered. It was hard like apple and had a very slight velvety texture. A middle aged lady came by with a box of this fruit and offered us to taste. It was yumm, it was crunchy with white firm flesh and a little red at the center where the seed was. It turns out that it was very sweet with a hint of peach and plum flavour. I instantly bought a big bag of this tiny marvel for 100 TWD.
It took a lot of asking around to finally figure out that this is actually a type of peach! yeah, it was jaw-dropping good!

Welcome summer - June 2011.

Summer sneaked in finally in June of 2011. Spring seemed longer than usual which had actually delighted old and young in the city. But now the temperatures had started to soar and the Sun fell straight down showing no remorse at all. Walking on the streets was forbidden during the noon hours by the mighty Sun. Only fools dared to fight it. Sea of colorful umbrellas, protecting delicate tall and thin doll like women from the UV rays, oozed out of the corporate buildings every single weekday at lunch time in a very smooth and predictable order.

Today was just another early summer day but yet something was different. Sun was fighting to stay strong and wind blew today swaying the sulking green trees on the main road. It was a nap time for the city when Gods decided to wake the city with an alarm. People on the road were on their way back from lunch. And there it was, a loud thunderstorms that Taipei had heard in years followed by the a heavy down pour. It was first of the summer showers of the season which will now make appearance every afternoon for next few months like a clock work. I could now hear giggles under the river of umbrellas on the sidewalk and smooth order of umbrellas was now disturbed as people started to pace up. Heads that usually hung on the desk to nap now rose with chatter and smiles.

Shower lasted for not more than 45 minutes but it made the city so refreshing cool. Everyone was cheerful with a relieving smile. Roads of Taipei glistened and so did every face on that sultry Taipei afternoon of June 2011.

All izz well

Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots movie is a big sensation this year in Taiwan. I can't tell clearly if it is the bollywood music, Aamir's charm or the similar education system plot that the local are relating to. But 3 idiot DVDs are available in all major book and entertainment stores in best selling section. Movie played in the regular theatres for many weeks. Someone even mentioned that they were showing this movie in one of the corporate office conference room during the lunch time.

Many taxi drivers are chatty here and they love talking to you about which country you are from and moment you say India they talk about how pretty Indian women are, how smart and brainy Indian people are and / or Amitabh Bacchan. But in last six months or so Taxi drivers are talking about 3 Idiots and Aamir! So my dear Aamir, who cares whether you are King of bollywood or not, you live in the hearts of Taiwanese people and mine too :)

Sky Lantern Festival - Welcome Chinese new year!

What a fantastic way to welcome the new year by sending thousands of pretty lanterns to the Almighty and sneaking in some demands while you alure HIM. Chinese and Taiwanese people are pleasantly sneaky in  getting their demands fulfilled.

We were groups of 6 curious visitors who boarded a train to Pinxi from the Taipei Main Station along with thousands of other folks from all parts of the Taiwan on the 15th day after Chinese New Year. We were amazed and taken aback by a surprise because the excitement and enthusiasm of people around us had not dampened even a little bit despite of constant pushing and pressing of human bodies that were being marinated by body odor and breath of fellow passengers.

We made it to our destination in about 1.5 hours, we were already running out of patience and really hoping that this better be really good. We poured ourselves on to the train platform and contributed to the flood of people. People waited for the train to pass and jumped onto the tracks from all sides just like the river would flood into every open space. In less than a minute platform and track was full of people and I could not differentiate tracks from the platform anymore and colourful lights from lanterns beautifully dotted the sides.

We walked or let me say we got pushed by people in the direction of the spot with best views of sky lanterns and fire cracker show that was organized by the governement every 30 minutes. We held each other tight so that we don't loose each other, we all had phones but how do you explain where you were to your friend when you are lost? Maybe I can say that "hey, I am right outside the lantern shop by the platform? Where are you?" But there were 100s of lantern shops on each side of the platform, where will my poor friend find me. We finally could feel our legs and managed our pace when we got to a spot where the platform ended and the open space began. People spread themselves a bit and we were jsut in time for the fireworks show.  We stood at a good spot and enjoyed the sparkles in the sky. But only when the fumes from the fireworks cleared we noticed something so spectacular. Up in the sky we saw thousands of sky lanterns dangling and floating in the sky.  I was spellbound. Some of the lanterns grouped up and formed beautiful abstract patterns, while others were scattered alone and covering entire length of the sky. It was as if stars had decided to come closer to Earth today so we can enjoy its warmth and beauty! It  This site was mesmerizing and totally worth the long painful travel from Taipei.

I could not wait to paint my own lantern, write all my wishes and send it up in the sky. All of us bought our own lantern and we borrowed Chinese paint brush and an ink pot to write our wishes. We had to buy lantern of specific color for specific wishes. Honestly, I am greedy, I want it all - Money, family, power, peace etc. So I bought a multicolored lantern, scribbled all my wishes with my dear hubby, we lit the candle at the bottom of the lantern and held it for few seconds while the heat from the candle filled its belly before we let it go in the sky. We stared at it in some trance or momentary sincerity to see our wishes fulfilled. We saw it go up and high until we could not distinguish it from thousands of other lanterns. We smiled and hugged, it was a beautiful feeling.

We walked up and down the tracks, tried local delicacies like grilled corn, glazed strawberries and special sweet New Year pastries. When we were tired we looked back at the platform and a train at distance that was leaving the platform and wondered how in the hell are we going to make it in those trains and make it back home!



Blessed!

A local Taiwanese friend had invited us for a vegetarian Taiwanese dinner at her place with some of her friends and with my 5% of Mandarin and her 50% of English skills I think I understood that she wants to take us somewhere for blessings after dinner because 'we are very nice people'. So I am all dressed for a casual dinner at a friends place on a Saturday night. She came to pick us up sharply at 6:45pm. We stopped in one of the busy areas, outside the lobby of a skyscraper and we took the elevator to go up to the floor that we were supposed to. Everything was going very well so far. But as soon as the elevator door opened, we were greeted by at least 5-6 men and women in white and navy blue formal western clothes. They gave us wet towels to clean our hands and escorted us inside the apartment, we crossed a little passage and on our right was a room which was shut and the next door was open so I peeked and there were more men and women, cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. We kept walking straight and ended up in a big hall with chairs lined by all walls except one where there was a high pedestal with traditional Chinese carvings  carrying an idol of one of the version of Buddha and decorated with traditional religious paraphernalia, incense and lamps. This Buddha is known by the name of Ji-Gong Living Buddha. In the center of the room was a huge dining table with at least 20 different dishes being set up for dinner. Once the 1x1 introductions were done we were given a seat with my friend on my side and a translator on the other and everybody else were back to their activities such as chatting, giggling and setting up food for dinner. Everybody in the room was smiling and looked peaceful in what they were doing except my husband and I looked at each other in a complete bewilderment. I also felt like a colourful sail in the sea of whites.

In our small little group, we started chatting about what this place really was. Who are all this people and what are they really doing here? It turned out to be a group of people who believe in the way of life of Dao, they don't call themselves following a religion but somebody who wants to adopt the way of good life as led by Buddha. I think she was saying a potato is a potaaato but anyways at that point my curiosity superseded all the suspicions and I thought sure, there is absolutely nothing wrong in leading a good and peaceful life. Few minutes into our discussion, an elderly lady walked in with a microphone and started saying something in Mandarin. Then she said something about two new Indian friends in Mandarin and I recognized that she was welcoming us and asked us to start the dinner. We got up like some chief guests and helped ourselves with all the delicacies in our Chinese dinner bowl. Rest of them followed us and then everybody went back to their seats enjoying dinner and chatting.

I wanted to learn more about the place and people. Two more young women sat with us this time. They both spoke very good English and we found out that they actually live in New Delhi and teach Chinese and Dao Sutras at a Dao temple built by this group. They explained that they are focusing on opening the gate to our soul and letting good thoughts enter our body and soul through the gate. They are focusing on preaching people to do good deeds and charity because we are eventually going to go back to ashes. Not very different from Hindu culture, I thought. And they kept saying that they love India and Indian people, "very smart people but food is very spicy!" . I guess we have heard that many many times before :) 

After we enjoyed our delicious dinner and exotic fruits, we were taken to another room across the passage and were asked to rest ( in my mind I rebelled with "why"). Whether it was the food or the smell of the incense but by this time I was simply felt carried away. Soon after that, from an adjoining room which was mostly closed during our dinner, a very neatly dressed man in his fifties walked out and everybody bowed and made way for him. Clearly he was a person with high importance. He had very pleasant smile and manners. He walked towards us with my friend and the translator. Introductions were made. We were introduced again as "very nice people from India". He was introduced as the Master of the temple. He was very delighted to meet us and said "I feel I have some affinity with you." I could only smile, not being able to speak the language a lot helped. He took us into his room which looked like an office and we were very surprised to see a big Map of India on one of the walls. He told us about all the temples his community had built across India in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and few more in smaller villages in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. They try to do charity work in India and learn about the culture and sutras. He said all the sutras and teachings were originated from India so there was no better place to learn about it than in India.

Now the time for blessings had come. Some of the women in white dress came to us and asked us to write our names on the paper where it looked like some religious mantras were written. We were taken back to the main hall where we had our dinner. It was now cleared and setup for some kind of ceremony. Men had changed into the Chinese robe and stood neatly in 5 rows of 2 on one side. My hubby was asked to stand in the first row. Similarly women lined up on the other side and I was asked to stand first in the row facing Buddha. Just by the pedestal there were 6 small sitting stools. 5 men stood on each side of this group of pedestals facing each other. Ceremony began with a loud cry by a woman on the back and she announced the arrival of the great Master. He walked in between the group of men and women and everyone cried welcome Master in one voice in Mandarin. Ceremony began. Ceremony was for us!

Chanting and bowing continued, incense and candles were lit. Fruits and teas were presented to the idol by a row of people in a very formal manner. We felt like a bride and a groom. We were given blessings by the God via Master. Master lit the candle and asked us to focus on the main candle while he touched our crossing at nose bridge and forehead and opened gate to our soul. We were asked to chant in Mandarin a special mantra which can never be said out loud unless you are in front of the idol with 3 candles lit (which apparently meant that we are thanking God for its mercy and asking him to open our souls so we can brighten our life and be a better person). At the end, we were asked to make a silent wish. My friend was given the title of 'Introducer' and the one who I kept calling translator was announced as our 'Gurantor', she guaranteed to the community that we are nice people and we deserved to be blessed in this ceremony. We got up from kneeling from the pedestals and walked to the Master to thank him. We were asked to thank our friend and my guarantor without whom we would not be blessed.

Master touched my husbands forehead and did a gesture of Namaste to me, blessed us one last time with a very pleasant smile. All the disciples walked in towards us and congratulated us. I was simply awed, my spirits were floating in the air. I looked at my friend with "i simply can't believe that you arranged all this for us" . Later my friend and the guarantor explained to us that this ceremony happens once in a life time and is limited to the people of the community. Only because our friend spoke so highly of us we were given the much deserved blessings. They brought us a bag of fruits from what was offered, I immediately said out loud, this is like Prasad and also gave us couple of English books nicely wrapped so we can learn more about this community and what they believe in. In the end, we were given an individual wallet sized card with Ji-Gong Living Buddha picture on one side and other side was filled with details such as date, names of our guarantor, introducer, Master and our names. This was kind of a proof that we were blessed.
I gathered my souvenirs, gave bows and hugs to all the new friends, exchanged email and phone numbers with English speaking friends that I made and hurried to take the first elevator down. My heart was simply overwhelmed by this surprise. We were quiet all the way. I guess we were internalising what had just happened and what it meant. I haven't found out yet and maybe I never will. But mix feeling of awe, bewilderment, suspicion, disbelief, delight, warmth and smiles lingered around me through the night ...