The first day:

The temperature in Taipei is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is humid and the air is thick...just how I remembered it.  We get into my father's car heading for Shi Jir.  It is a countryside north of Taipei city where my mom and her siblings grew up.  My grandfather still lives there.  He is 80 years old but healthy and a full head of hair.  I am happy to see him after five years.  He works as an apartment building security guard at night.  It is common for senior citizens to work in Taiwan.  The Taiwan government encourages senior citizens to work if they choose to.  There are jobs that are set aside for them.

Kevin starts to experience culture shock as we get into my grandfather's (yea yea) house.  It is a Japanese style two story house.  It was recently renovated.  There is a gutter that runs right in front of the house.  The gutter smells funny.  Kevin is taller than EVERYTHING.  He bends his head to enter the house.  Yea yea greets us with his warm smile.  I show Kevin around the house that I used to go to when I was a child.  The furniture is new but the house is very old.   The bathroom is through the kitchen.  (If we can get the video to work we'll let you see how it looks like.  Until then, I will have to describe it.)  Kevin is shocked by the size of the bathroom and how one takes showers.  It is VERY small.  First you have to turn on the gas tank that is OUTSIDE the house.  Then you have to use a shower hose that does not even reach my head and I'm only 5'2".  You take a shower in the middle of the bathroom.  There are no curtains or a tub.  There is just a room with a sink and a toilet and a shower hose.  A drain on the floor allows the water to go into the...gutter, I guess.  Kevin sees a huge bucket and thinks he has to dump out the shower water after it is gathered up in the bucket.  He is dumbfounded at how one can actually take a shower like this.  I assure him that we are only staying here for one night since my parents haven't figured out where to put us yet.

It is around three in the afternoon.  Kevin and I are ready to hit the streets.  We want to hit the ground running.  NO RESTING FOR US!  We gather our bag and camera and my dad and mom drive us into Taipei city.  First we to to Tien Mu.  It is a pretty affluent part of Taipei city with many American shops, European boutiques,  Japanese department store such as Takashimaya.  The Japanese School and the American School are both on Section Six, Chung San North Road.  My third aunt (san yi) lives there, right across from Takashimaya.  We greet her and her friends.  My san yi has these mah jong parties at her house all the time.  She is like the queen of gamblers amongst her friends.  If they want to play mah jong, they know where to go.  If husbands want to find their wives, they know to go to san yi's.  By the time we got to say yi's is about five or so.  The only place to go is a night market.  Night markets are huge in Taiwan.  There is a night market in every town and every city.  The one by Tien Mu is called Shih Ling.  

  As a child I used to go to Shih Ling a lot.  You can find all sorts of stuff for really cheap.  Plus the food...Taiwan is know for its good food.  In Shih Ling, you can have an assortment of great Taiwanese dishes for dirt cheap.  The only problem is Kevin doesn't want anything he sees.  Everything is very foreign or strange.  He can't even identify most of the food he sees, let alone eat them.  Which is expected since it is his first day in a country that is very different and foreign.  Many people will think that if you visited Chinatowns in the States then you have experienced Asian cultures...WRONG!  Chinatowns, Koreatowns or Japantowns are totally different from the real deal.

A couple of suggestions when visiting Taiwan's night markets:
1) Bring change since you WILL barter.  Don't ever pay what they tell you otherwise you are a sucker!
2) Don't buy as soon as you see what you want.  There are tons of vendors selling the things you want, shop around until you see the best offer.
3) You better learn how to speak some simple Mandarin, such as "how much", "too expensive", "thank you", "I want" and learn how to count and the money system.  Otherwise you will get cheated.  The vendors are pretty sneaky and they try to take advantage of tourists.  (One thing that is pretty interesting is that the street vendors will speak Mandarin to you once you start speaking it to them.  Many times the street vendors start to tell Kevin stuff and start to talk to him as if he speaks fluent Mandarin.  But because they speak too fast for him, it takes him a while to digest what was said and respond.)
4) Make sure you keep your money in the front pocket or a fanny pack because the night markets get so crowded that it is very easy for pick pocketers to try to pick pocket you.

So since Kevin doesn't want any of the foreign, hard to identify items being sold from the street vendors, we decide for Korean barbecue in a restaurant around the block that is right outside of Shih Ling.  It's only the first day so Kevin has to get use Taiwan first before he starts to experiment with all sorts of food.

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