A trip to South - Tainan, Chiayi, Yunlin

Travel date: 20/05/2023

Due to my husband getting his teeth straightened, we have to drive back to Tainan every 2-3 months. After visiting the dentist, we usually have a few hours to spare. However, it's challenging to find parking in the city on weekends, so even if we plan to go somewhere or eat, we end up spending a lot of time driving around looking for an empty parking spot, often giving up.

During this visit to Tainan, we went to eat at DanDan Hamburger, which I had missed a lot. This fast-food chain can only be found in the south of Taiwan, with several stores in Tainan and Kaohsiung. It's different from McDonald's or KFC because they also offer soup options. They have vermicelli or corn soup (my favorite), and what's even better is that it's super cheap compared to other fast-food chains. For example, the set I usually choose costs less than 100NT.

Baihe Lotus Park (白河蓮花公園)

We also visited Baihe District, which is well-known for its lotus farms. Baihe produces 2/3 of all lotus seeds in Taiwan. Every year from June to September, the Lotus Festival is held there to promote tourism. The town offers lotus picking, lotus tea ceremonies, painting activities, lotus-based meals, and ice creams. The only other place that organizes the Lotus Festival is Taoyuan, the second-largest producer of lotus in the country. Since we had already visited the park several times in the past, we didn't find it as interesting. However, in addition to viewing the flowers, visitors can also buy various lotus-infused products such as ice cream, puffed rice, lotus seeds (whole or powdered), and dried flowers for making tea.

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National Chung Cheng University (國立中正大學)

Afterwards, we drove to Chiayi to see the Flame trees in bloom. The most famous place to see them is in National Chung Cheng University. The flowering period for these trees is from the middle of May to June. Flame trees are native to Madagascar and are known for their fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of orange-red flowers during the summer. In many tropical parts of the world, they are grown as ornamental trees and are known by several names, including royal poinciana, flamboyant, flame of the forest, or flame tree.

As it was getting late, we also stopped by the newly opened IKEA in Chiayi City. Feeling hungry, we then started to drive back to my parents-in-law's place. While passing by Dounan in Yunlin County, we saw a night market and decided to stop there for dinner. After finishing our meal, it was already 7:30 PM. We knew my parents-in-law weren't home, but they were supposed to be back between 8-9 PM.

Here's something I can't quite understand. They went to a Buddhist place (as they call it) for religious activities, but I'm not exactly sure what they do there. The place doesn't allow the use of phones, so we had absolutely no contact with them the whole day. I find it hard to grasp why people aren't allowed to keep their phones turned on. What if there's an emergency? It felt abnormal to me, as we grew up having phones, and being in touch is quite normal for us.

Anyway, we waited at the park while my husband tried to contact them a few times. It was already past 9 PM, and their phones were still off. He contacted another person who might have had more information, and we found out that their activities could last until 10 PM or even later. We had already been waiting for over an hour, and not knowing how much longer it would take, we decided to drive back home. Another peculiar thing about Taiwanese homes is that people not only close their regular house doors but also use garage doors. If not for that, we could have waited inside their home since we have keys. However, because the entire house was inaccessible, we had no choice. We started driving back at around 9 PM. The drive from Yunlin to Miaoli is 40 km, and it usually takes around 2 hours or even longer if there's heavy traffic. Fortunately, the highway wasn't too busy at night, so we arrived at 10:30 PM.

In retrospect, it felt like wasted time. We could have at least found a hotel in Tainan to stay for the night or, had we known they wouldn't be back until after 10 PM, we could have driven back home much earlier instead of at night.

I was raised as a Christian-Catholic, but I'm not particularly interested in religion. I also don't want our son to grow up following any specific religion. I dislike restrictions, although I don't recall having so many rules in Christianity. While I understand that people won't answer calls during prayers, the idea of having phones turned off, especially when staying somewhere for over 24 hours, is something I can't quite imagine. Perhaps others have different experiences with religion, but these are just my thoughts.

Address:

1. Baihe Lotus Park: 732台南市白河區三民路465號
2. National Chung Cheng University: 62102嘉義縣民雄鄉大學路一段168號
3. Dounan Night Market: 630雲林縣斗南鎮中興路

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Fireflies viewing in Miaoli

Travel Date: 2023/05/02

It's currently firefly season in Taiwan, and Miaoli and Hsinchu are fortunate to have plenty of places where you can see them. All you have to do is drive to the mountains and find a location near water. We drove to Lion's Head Mountain and parked near the Shuilian Bridge Trail. We followed the trail to a cave, but it was too dark to see much except for the temple inside.

Although we couldn't see a lot, the fireflies we did see were really beautiful. It's a shame that capturing their beauty with an iPhone camera doesn't do them justice compared to using a professional camera.

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Enchanting Beauty of Miaoli's Tung Blossom

Travel Date: 2023/05/01

We drove to Sanwan in Miaoli to see the tung trees in bloom. Along the way, we passed by Yongheshan Water Reservoir, and we noticed that the water level was lower than it was a few months ago. The place we visited was not well-known, so there weren't many people there. However, driving a car on the narrow roads was a bit challenging.

The Hakka Tung Blossom Festival started in 2002 as a way to promote Hakka culture. Every April to May, many people travel to the mountains to enjoy the beautiful sight of the blooming flowers. There were two trails, but unfortunately, one of them, which seemed to have more trees, was closed.

Tung trees, also known as tung oil trees or China wood-oil trees, were originally grown in the Yangtze River region of China. They were brought to Taiwan during the Japanese occupation. The majority of tung trees can be found in the northern part of Taiwan, particularly in Miaoli, Hsinchu, and Taoyuan, where they were planted by the Hakka people.

The seeds of these trees are used to produce tung oil, which traditionally was used in lamps. Tung oil is also an ingredient in paint, varnish, and caulk. It is known for its ability to protect wood furniture and make it waterproof. Additionally, tung oil is used in the production of Meinong's oil-paper umbrellas, which is an enduring Hakka craft.

The use of tung oil can be traced back to 400 years B.C., and it was mentioned in the writings of Confucius. Although the demand for tung oil is declining, it still holds a significant place in Hakka culture as one of their popular trees.

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Address:

352苗栗縣三灣鄉20號神棹山

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Poland Travel 2023: Goodbye Poland! Time to fly back to Taiwan

Travel Date: 2023/03/24 ~ 04/12

We flew back to Taiwan on April 12, so we were in Poland for a little less than 3 weeks. It was a trip filled with both happiness and sadness. Unfortunately, a few days before Easter, my aunt passed away. We decided to fly back when I found out that her health was deteriorating rapidly. We bought the tickets in February and flew to Poland at the end of March. I am grateful that I got to see her, even though it was a very sad time. Before visiting her at home, I was quite nervous as I dislike seeing sick people (I mean, who likes it, right?). I'm glad she was out of the hospital, so at least we could spend time with her at home. I told myself not to show sadness in front of her. I tried to give her hope and make her smile.

My husband seems to have bad luck because this is the second time someone has passed away when he went to Poland. The first time was in 2017 when my mother passed away the day after he arrived. This time, during our stay of less than 2 weeks, my aunt passed away. Sadly, her funeral was on the day we flew back, so we were unable to attend.

Sometimes I hate living abroad. I feel like I miss out on a lot and don't get to spend time with my family. Especially in the past three years, we couldn't travel abroad due to COVID-19. During that time, I lost a few family members, and now I worry about who else I might lose while I'm away. It's not easy to keep in touch because of the 6-7 hours time difference, and most of them are busy with work when I have time to talk, which is usually when I'm ready to sleep.

Adrian really fell in love with Poland, and he cried many times because he didn't want to fly back to Taiwan. He enjoyed the countryside and visiting different family members, especially because they all have pets for him to play with. In Taiwan, we often move around, and it's difficult to find rentals that allow pets unless it's an old, unfurnished, and often dirty place that I wouldn't want to live in.

We visited several family members who live nearby, and we also traveled to four different cities. You can see several videos from our trip to Poland on my YouTube channel if you're interested (Hsu Family 波蘭x台灣).

The journey back to Taiwan took 30 hours. This time, we flew through London, which I feel is better than the Netherlands airport. It's also a very big airport, and we had to take a bus to our terminal. We had a 4-hour layover, but because our flight was at night, all the shops were already closed. And once again, we had an almost 16-hour flight to Taiwan, which was exhausting. After arriving, we had to take the MRT, HSR, and a train. Since it was already 10 PM, we didn't want to bother our friends to pick us up. My husband used a U-Bike and rode home to get the car and then came back to pick us up. Luckily, we live about 2.5km away from the train station, so it's not too far.

We experienced jet lag for a few days, and it was quite a nightmare. We would fall asleep in the morning and wake up in the afternoon, but my husband was actually supposed to be working that day. He mistakenly took one day off less, but luckily, his boss was understanding.

Our son can't wait for the next time we go back to Poland. He even wants to move there. It's difficult to explain to a 5-year-old that it's not so easy to move to another country. Hopefully, one day, my husband will find a job in Europe so that we can be closer to my family.

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Poland Travel 2023: Keeping racing pigeons in Poland

Travel Date: 2023/03/24 ~ 04/12

My uncle has always had a great love for pigeons. As far back as I can remember, he had plenty of them. Initially, they lived in the city, and a pigeon house was built above my parents' home. I would always follow my uncle around, and sometimes my cousins would join us too. We would help feed the pigeons and bring them along for training flights, eagerly waiting for the birds to fly back. It was a lot of fun when we were kids.

However, my aunt never really liked the pigeons. So even though they moved to the countryside a few years ago, my uncle didn't keep pigeons for a while. Everything changed last year when he took his grandson to his friend's house. The boy saw pigeons there and asked, "Grandpa, can we have some pigeons too?" Being the good grandfather that he is, my uncle couldn't refuse, and they built pigeon houses and brought 20 birds back home. Surprisingly, my aunt didn't notice it at first. When she asked what they were building, nobody answered her. It was only a few days later, when the grandson mentioned he was going to feed the pigeons, that my aunt finally found out about them.

My uncle was overjoyed that we were interested in joining him, watching the birds, and listening to his explanations about various bird feeds and other products. He even took my husband to the nearby countryside to release the pigeons and let them practice before this year's competition. My uncle has participated in pigeon racing several times in the past, and he's preparing for it again this year. In Poland, the prizes for pigeon racing are usually trophies rather than money, but people still eagerly participate. Both my uncle and his two brothers keep pigeons and compete in these races. One of his brothers has even won a few trophies in the past.

Interestingly, my uncle also owns a very old-style pigeon clock that was popular at the beginning of the 20th century. The clock was made in Germany, and despite its antique appearance, it's still in use today.

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Poland Travel 2023: Making smoky meat in Poland

Travel Date: 2023/03/24 ~ 04/12

Smoky meat is highly popular in Poland, and it's a tradition carried on by my father, uncle, and other distant family members who have their own smokers in their yards. My father and uncle use handmade smokers, while others use store-bought ones. The handmade smoker is crafted from a barrel, with a hole dug beneath the ground for burning wood. The smoke and warm air are then transported into the barrel where the meat is hung. The meat is covered and smoked for several hours, depending on the temperature and the type of meat being smoked.

There are three types of smoking methods based on temperature: cold smoking (12-25 degrees Celsius), warm smoking (30-50 degrees Celsius), and hot smoking (50-90 degrees Celsius). Before smoking, the meat is marinated in a brine with seasonings, usually soaked overnight or even for a few days. This allows the meat to absorb flavors and become tender.

After removing the meat from the brine, it needs to be dried to remove excess moisture. The fire is started in the smoker, and the smoker is warmed up. The meat is then hung on hooks in the warm air for 1-2 hours to dry (with the smoker open), and then it's placed in the closed smoker for several hours. My uncle usually smokes it for 5-7 hours. Boiling the meat to kill bacteria and tenderize it is optional and not necessary.

In Poland, smoking meat is typically done around the Easter or Christmas season. The best woods to use for smoking are alder, beech, apple, plum, pear, and other fruit trees. During this particular time, my uncle used alder wood for smoking the meat.

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