I went to my grandma (mom’s side) house for Chinese New Years. Her house is located in Chiayi 嘉義, the middle/south part of Taiwan.
Day 1
Great seeing the family, same old same old. Gave many members the trademark full body massage, Crispin probably feeling betrayed now. Had a fantastic dinner.
After dinner, I took an hour-long walk around the downtown Chiayi area with my 13 year old cousin and spontaneously bought a pair of shoes. I then spontaneously hung out with Vivian.
She picked me up in a moped and brought me to hang out with her family. I had dessert and tea at their house. It was coincidentally her dad’s birthday. Met her aunt, uncle, and cousins who were all unique in their own respective ways.
Their dog Wu You also captured my attention. My manliness goes down the drain when I see a cute dog. Game over man.
Afterward, they gave me a short tour of the Lan Tan Lake and drove me home. They treated me extremely well. Great hospitality, as if we were old friends.
Day 2
Spent the day at my grandma’s house hanging with the family.
In the afternoon, I walked 5 kilometers to the 228 Memorial Park “228 紀念公園.”
Then met up with Vivian who took me to the Chiayi Night Markets 嘉義夜市. We walked her dog, ate dinner, hung out with her parents a bit, walked around with her some more, and called it a night.
Day 3:
Vivian’s Dad picked me up on his hipster motorcycle and drove me to their house for breakfast. I would describe the food, except I can’t name any of the items in English. There was tea.
We then drove to the mountains and walked a bit, drank more tea, pretty stuff. There was more tea.
Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the place we went to. It was gorgeous, and I’d love to go on a full day hike in the mountains. It has a different feel than Maokong 貓空.
I really like that dog.
That’s some artistic nature.
Getting all philosophical with my picture-taking.
Getting in touch with the arachnids.
Top of the hill, where we drank some tea. Her dad is a tea connoisseur and I drank more tea in three days than I did in half a year. 普洱茶很好喝. I can see where Vivian gets her charm from. Both her parents are good looking folks.
Went back to grandma’s house and hung with my family until dinnertime. Then, went out with Vivian, who took me to a unique restaurant. They allow dogs to roam around freely. They said that all customers should bring their dogs there because they are man’s best friend. Why doesn’t San Francisco have this?
I had milk and cheese hot pot with some vinegar tea.
Good food with a gorgeous girl.
Even the dogs know what’s up with my massages.
After dinner, we then walked around another part of the city, then called it a night.
Day 4
Hang with the family. Usual business. Apologies for the lack of details and history of the places I went to, that takes way too much energy to translate to English and I’m writing this on the High Speed Rail高鐵 with this chubby kid sitting to my left staring at all my pictures and text. I think he’s fascinated that I’m typing in English or something, or he’s extremely bored.
I’ve brought some gifts back up to Taipei with me. Mr. Chen gave me a huge thing of tea and some snacks. Way too much for one person, so the colleagues will be enjoying this.
Work begins again tomorrow, great short vacation.
Andy Cheng 