February 17th, 2021 Egypt

Hey there,

Gonna take you back in time.  To a simpler one but also to the very beginnings of what has become our current age.  This is an old school diary travelogue.

In March of 2020, Betty and I went to Egypt.  She had to go for work and was tacking on a few days to tour the place, and as Egypt has been number one in my list of destinations to visit since the 5th grade, I wormed my way in.  We departed on March 6th and it is hard to recall what the world was exactly like on that day, but Covid wasn't even called that then.  The locals were taking the stuff really seriously, but not nearly as much as they would.  The schools were fully open, no mask requirements, etc., but folks were still freaked mostly from people coming from China.  In the week leading up to departure, the shit was starting to hit the fan in places other than China (the Seattle outbreak had just happened) and we spent those days thinking about pulling the plug on the trip, even as late as the morning we left.  Egypt had reported one case and we didn't know then what we know now, so off we went.  In retrospect, that was a dumb ass move and is partially why I didn't write up this trip at the time cause the remaining threads of Catholic school made me ashamed of going.

As this was 11 months ago, am relying on my notebook for details and observations.

The airport and airplane were eerily empty but the flights to Istanbul and onto Cairo were uneventful.  We got into Cairo midday and since we had the afternoon free, booked a couple hour tour on a traditional boat called a felucca to cruise on the Nile.  Historically sail powered, if there isn't enough wind then they crank up the motor as they did on this day.  The weather was good and it was the right thing to do in the few hours of jet lagged consciousness we had.

We enjoyed it OK.  Things we noted were the amount of huge party boats that were docked and cruising that played annoying hip hop at ridiculously high volumes.  We also thought the water was relatively cleanish, but there was tons of garbage, especially on the banks of the river.  And those banks were extremely unfriendly for people to enjoy.  I pictured walking paths and for the banks to be gathering points for the citizens, but they were basically sheer walls with nothing else but the aforementioned garbage.  We were the only ones on the boat and towards the end of the outing, another little motorboat with a mother and young (9ish) daughter goes past us, and as they get right alongside, the little girl holds up a giant knife and does a throat slashing gesture at me.

We were at a nice hotel and the lounge was on the 26th floor, so as your enjoying your dinner and such, can look out over the city, and seeing the pyramids in the distance had me giddy with anticipation.

Next morning was the start of our tour time and the pyramids were the first destination.  Have had a hard time writing up this entry for a bunch of reasons...didn't do it right away cause of the aforementioned embarrassment, there were so many great pix to go through that I would be overwhelmed in looking at them when I tried to curate, then had waited so long that some of the minutiae has faded, and finally, what can I say about the stuff that is so iconic and has been said so many times that I don't need to repeat.  If I run through some of the things with a couple words, there you go.

We started our day with a drive to the most iconic complex in Giza with the great pyramids and Sphynx.  A dream come true.

Our guide Jameer, who asked us to call him Jimmy, knew all the crafty picture poses and had us perform all of them, much to Betty's delight.

This one kinda says it all

We did a little camel ride around the compound for more fun.  The dudes tending the camels seem to be having a good time giving our rides the names Mickey Mouse and Michael Jordan.

The Sphynx is right there too.  More amazement and staged photos.

Lunch everyday was almost identical...choice of chicken kebabs or kefta (meatballs), but today's had a lady making fresh (and warm) pita and also came with a fermented cheese that they only make in this area.   I liked it but when I tried to describe it and get it on the table later, all the locals would turn up their nose.

The afternoon was spent walking around an open air museum in ancient Memphis where they had a bunch of relics that were in poor condition, or good condition considering they're 5000 years old.

And then it was over to the Step Pyramid of King Djosser.  

In the distance you can see a bunch of the other pyramids, including the bent one.  All of the pyramids are in the Cairo region and date back 4-5 thousand years.  Later sites down the Nile were from later Kingdoms.

There were a couple of tombs to explore and climbing down these narrow passageways is not for the claustrophobic.  I wouldn't say that I am very nervous of these things, but living my entire life in earthquake country does give me pause about being in enclosed spaces.

And heiroglyphics.  They are on every conceivable space and became just a blur.

Day two was dedicated to sites in Cairo with the first stop being the Egyptian Museum. The building is unsurprisingly British in design 

They're building a new one, it might even be open now, out towards the Giza pyramids.  We drove past it and it is modern and huge.  With the move imminent, they really weren't spending a ton of time keeping this one nice.  It was jammed with stuff and there was dust on everything.  There are so many artifacts even in this smallish museum that it is a bit overwhelming.  The centerpiece is the King Tut room that contains his sarcophagi and other relics.  The sarcophagi are knockouts, but taking pictures in that room are forbidden.  It is a lot smaller space than you'd imagine, and what was weird about the room is that the windows are wide open allowing the soot and dust of the city right in.  

The museum is in Tahrir Square, which is the cultural/social heart of Cairo and was the nexus of the protests in Egypt during the Arab Spring.  Probably looked a lot different pre-riots as you couldn't go a few feet without there being a fence or barricade now.  It felt chaotic and very unwelcoming.

To be honest, Cairo was a total dump.  No mass transit to speak of, which means lots of cars and pollution.  And the traffic is as bad as I've ever experienced and goes on 24/7.  Didn't see a sidewalk that wasn't totally cracked and it seems that every building was built without the ones around it being considered.  Am sure there are areas where people with money seclude themselves, but we didn't get into any of those.  None of this is surprising as the city is ancient and has had a few millennia of ineffectual/colonial governance.  What I'm saying is get in, see the stuff, and get out.

After the AM museum, took the 2hr/10km drive over to the Citadel.  I'm calm in traffic as a passenger, but when behind the wheel get totally aggravated by traffic and know I'd lose my shit if forced to drive here.  The Citadel is on the highest hill overlooking the city and has a mosque that is famous.  Nice, and the view of the city is unparalleled, but if I had to do it again, would probably target the Coptic Christian sites with the 1/2 day that this took to do.

On the way to the Citadel, we passed the oldest cemetery, which is giant and called City of the Dead.  Read about it in my book and was curious as it sounded interesting, but Jameer said it was quite dangerous as it is not only a cemetery but that 10's of thousands of people live in it.  You could see glimpses of them over the wall.  Read this article recently where a highway is going through a part of it and they're forcibly evicting the people living there.  They're pissed but not really fighting the government cause it is military again and you really don't want to make waves.  Whenever I would engage in politics with our guides, they were all in favor of the order that al-Sissi has brought back to the country after the Muslim Brotherhood period.  Didn't feel right or worthwhile engaging with them on this sensitive topic cause they all rightfully live in fear of being reported.

I did get to tell some of the gags that I'd researched before going.  The only one that got any traction from them was the one that goes, 'Why wasn't Jesus born in Egypt?  Cause they couldn't find three wise men or a virgin."  You can use that one anywhere, but it feels best done here.

Last stop of the day was at the souk called Khan El Khalili, which is billed as 'one of the stunning bazaars in the Middle East'.  Not saying I'm an expert on the matter, but I've seen a few and this was pure tourist trap.  We couldn't even find a magnet we liked.  We did enjoy a cafe at an old shop within the market.

 The third day was most fabulous.  Up and early to the airport for the 1hr flight to Luxor. 

This is the first moment in time where masks are now worn by everyone.  More on that in a bit.

We were met my our guide (Ismail) for the rest of our trip at the airport and drove straight to the Valley of the Kings.  I knew that all the burial chambers were located in the same area, but what was surprising was just how small that area is.  About 1000 feet long, it contains some 60 tombs, including King Tutankhamun's.  The price of admission allows you to go inside three of them and we did a Ramses trifecta, visiting III, IV, and IX (3,4 and 9).  If you wanted to see Tut's, that cost extra and Ismail said it wasn't worth it as he died young and the tomb was not nearly as elaborate as the other ones since it was a rush job.  You could see why it remained hidden from grave robbers as its entrance was right below another tomb so was obscured until Howard Carter stumbled upon it.

Going into these three, you have to descend down long narrow passageways and then can more around in the different chambers.  There is not an inch of wall or ceiling that isn't covered by intricately carved and painted hieroglyphics.  In each are dudes that are there to make sure you don't damage or graffiti the places, but they seem more interested in asking for a couple bucks to let you behind ropes into supposedly off limits rooms.  For a couple bucks, why not.  

Impossible and pointless to detail what you see...

Here is a YouTube video taken in the Ramses III tomb that does it some justice.

Talk about barren landscape

Next up and just around the corner was the Temple of Hatshepsut.  We had trouble saying it and Ismail said it sounds like Hat Cheap Suit.  The 8th grade baseball kids have Egypt in history and we quiz each other on Egyptian history, and they all say that name very well.

I have searched for it for years, but there was an episode of Speed Racer where this temple was featured as the home of the gang that Speed was fighting.  I can't remember for sure what gang that was but my five year old self remembers it being the Car Acrobatic Team.  You'd think that the internet would be of some help here, but I have found no trace of that episode anywhere.

The design of the temple is unlike any other and it is not in terribly good condition, but still breathtaking.  What also sets it apart is that Hatshepsut was the only female Pharaoh.  Cleopatra was too, but she was Greek and not in the heyday of the classic periods.  Still very sexy though.

Ismail.

By all accounts, Hatshepsut was a badass, but the dudes never bought in and so a lot of her markings were obliterated from the records after her demise.

The Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple are on the west side of the Nile, which is where the dead people go.  The east side is where all the living gets done, so we crossed over the river.  They only allow bridges every 60kms for some reason, so we took a little ferry boat.

On the east side is the Karnak Temples Complex and Temple of Luxor.  You may know Karnak from the Johnny Carson bit where he says the answer and then reads the question.  One I heard when I was little and have never forgotten went: Answer - Sis Boom Bah.  He opens the envelope and reads the question, What a sheep sounds like when it explodes

You probably never saw it, but there is an Agatha Christie movie from 1978 called Murder On The Nile and a key scene is filmed at the Karnak complex and that has always stuck in my mind.  The most striking feature is Hypostyle Hall that is 5000m2 and has 134 33ft columns in 16 rows.  Makes the hair stand up on your neck.

This complex also has 2 of the 8 remaining obelisks left in Egypt.  There were 102 total, but colonialism.

It was a long day and we got back to our hotel late afternoon with a nice Nile view.

Mentioned above that this was the first day that masks were seen everywhere.  We woke up this morning and looked on the English language Egyptian paper and saw the headline that a coronavirus outbreak occurred on a Nile cruise ship based in Luxor.  We considered a Nile cruise but it took too much time and we obviously dodged a bullet there.  There was one case in Egypt before we left Taiwan, and as of this moment, the place started to explode with it.  The people on all of the cruise ships were held on board that day, which made our visits to the sights pleasant as there were very few people about and we had most everything to ourselves.  And NO Chinese tourists.  Testing wasn't a thing then so they held people on board to take temperatures and look for symptoms.  They released everyone this afternoon and the hotels filled up with tourists.  The WiFi in our room was not good so I went down to the lobby to catch up and grab a cappuccino, and the scene was explosive with tourists frantically trying to get out of the country.  Next to me was a woman who was crying and pleading with their tour operator to get her the hell back to the States.  

What made it...funnier is not the word, but close...was that the headline was that the virus was brought on board the ship by a Taiwanese-American woman.  Betty resembles that.  This other Taiwanese-American woman took a trip and then the boat made two more trips before they discovered the virus was circulating by which point the outbreak was on..  The day we got back to Taiwan, there was a fantastic article in the Washington Post that detailed how this all went down.  You can read the article here.  It is good but long,  however reading about the coronavirus and how it was spreading in March seems not only so long ago, but almost quaint.

On day 4, we drove south from Luxor to Aswan (4 or so hours of driving) stopping at a couple of sights along the way...the Temple of Horus in Edfu and the Temple of Kom Ombo.  Maybe it was because the day before was so exceptional, but I don't have a ton of memories or notes from these two stops and even the pictures looked similar to the previous day and the only way to tell them apart is that they were date stamped.

Betty must have felt similarly cause in addition to temple pictures, she took a few dozen of the locals on donkeys.

In the town we stopped for lunch, Ismail took us to the spice shop.  These guides love to take you to places for you to buy shit, and assume they get a kickback if we buy, which I have no problem with cause that's what makes the world go round.  In Cairo, they took us to a place that sold papyrus art, where we bought a few things that I haven't opened since.  Need to put framing those on my things to do list, especially if we get stuck here again this summer..  Tomorrow, we'd be taken to a shop that sold essences...they had every kind and we bought a 4 pack.  We are getting our money's worth from those as Betty has a diffuser that she turns on while we're in the office.  At this spice shop, I went a bit crazy, buying a bunch of dates, some tea, cinnamon and a couple other things, and the bill was like US$100.  I still have a bit of the tea left so we used everything, but still felt a bit ripped off.

We hit Aswan mid-afternoon and the sight to see there is the Philae Temple.  You need to take a little boat as it is on an island.  There were a hundred or so of these little boats to ferry passengers to the island, but the virus made only about 5 viable on this day.

Hard to see it, but that is the Aswan dam in the next photo.  Doesn't look like much, but it not only tamed the Nile, it created a 298 mile long lake/reservoir that took 4 years to fill and stretches into Somalia.

On the last day of our tour, we were to drive to Abu Simbel, which is 3.5 hours south.  Another place that I knew from a grainy film they showed us in elementary school.  When they built the Aswan Dam, they determined that it was gonna flood some ancient sights, including the Abu Simbal temples, and I remember the film detailing the engineering feats they undertook to move them up the hill and out of the path of the future lake.

You've seen these things in pictures, but gawdamn are they incredible in person.  

It's not just the outside they moved, but there are rooms filled with carvings and such inside that were moved stone by stone.

This one is in a room that only gets sunlight one day of the year and it only shines on one of the faces.  I should say that at every stop and sight, the guides would explain which god or pharaoh did what, but my brain could not absorb much of it and I would be doing a disservice to try to recreate any of that now.  What did get through was marveling at the technical skill of the artists and the length of time this culture existed.

There are two temples...a boys and a girls.  What word for amazing haven't I used?  Whichever one it is should be the most emphatic cause this site was my favorite of all the ones we saw.  

Look at how few people there are.  Ismail said he has never seen it like this, even when terrorists were wreaking havoc a few years previous.  On the walk back to the car, we walked through the visitors center and running on a loop is that grainy movie of the Abu Simbel move I saw as a youth.  

On the way to and from Abu Simbel, you are driving through the easternmost edge of the Sahara desert.  Desolate and hypnotic.  There is one place to stop at the half way point to grab a coffee and visit the bathroom.

We get back to Aswan in time for our flight back to Cairo.  The next day was supposed to be the one Betty came to Egypt to work for and I was free to do whatevs.  Had been researching day trips...there was one out to the Sahara to see these geologic formations that I was interested in from the great episode of the documentary series How The Earth Was Made on the Sahara (must viewing).  I also considered going up to Alexandria, or out to see the Suez Canal, but the dude we were working with said that they were far and traffic was inconsistent and might not make it back in time for our flight out that night.  Decided I was gonna do a tour of the Coptic Christian sights in Cairo for 1/2 day.

As we are watching the news and talking with the tour operator, we get word that a storm is a-brewin' and is supposed to hit Cairo late the night we get in.  The weatherman says it is gonna be bad and they have already canceled school and public business the next day in anticipation of it.  The tour guys, as well as the people Betty is supposed to meet, says that if it is what they say it is gonna be, that all activities are off.  If the Egyptians know one thing, it is storms of Biblical proportion, and this was one of them.  We got into our hotel before it started, but once the storm started, you could easily tell where the authors of the Bible got the idea about the 7 plagues from.  The hotel we stayed at was in a cool spot right near the pyramids and the lightning storm really added to the mood.

This is also the time when I still had the Sideshow Bob look going.  Don't miss those days at all.

So the storm is brutal and we stick at the hotel and watch the airlines website to see if we're gonna get out of town.  The guys Betty came to work with come out to our place to meet there in the afternoon and we see our flight is gonna leave but is delayed, and these nice work guys give us a ride (2 hrs) to the airport.  If I thought that traffic in Cairo was bad before, seeing it in a deluge took it to a whole other level.  The place just isn't built to easily drain and we went through many spots that were over a foot deep.  

We get to the airport and our flight is ultimately delayed a few hours.  Know that making our connecting flight in Istanbul is gonna be tight at best and sure enough, we miss it.  It's now 2am or something and the next flight out leaves in 20 something hours, so the airline puts us up in a hotel.  Problem is, they have just recently built a new airport in Istanbul and it opened a month previous.  It looks really nice, but all of the associated infrastructure is not ready and that includes hotels next to it, so we have to drive for an hour to where the old airport was to get into the airline assigned hotel.  The driver was super friendly and told us that if we were here the night before, we would have ridden with Morgan Freeman.

The hotel is fine.  At this point in the virus timeline, people are freaking out everywhere, so the mood is subdued.  We had time to get out and see something or go to the place we loved to eat, but it just didn't feel right.  Plus, our bags made the original flight and we didn't have much in the way of spare clothes and I spilled on my shirt in Egypt.  The hotel had some shops and spent 20 bucks buying the ugliest Istanbul t-shirt you've ever seen.  

We make it out and get back to Taipei and at this point, Egypt isn't on the restricted to enter list, but it would get added the very next day.  The school wants nothing to do with me for at least two weeks.  If this were now, Betty and I would both have to have quarantined for 2 weeks in different spaces, but again, March 14th, 2020 was a different world.  Betty and I stayed home for two weeks and we almost went stir crazy and it is impossible for me to comprehend how all y'all have been doing this for 10 months.  

During those two weeks, we watched the local news and they would report on the new cases daily.  There was a Taiwanese tour group that was in Egypt the same time as us, and that group was on the plane that we were supposed to have taken back originally.  Each day, they started reporting that a person or two from that group got the virus.  After a couple days, they started to refer to that tour group as ill-fated, and after a week when 20 or more of them had come down with it, the paper changed the description of the group from ill-fated to doomed.  Again, good fortune shone on us for missing the flight with the doomed tour group.  But reading about them every day, I started to get a bit wiggy that I had contacted it and started taking my temperature every day.  One day I even convinced myself I was short of breath and to this day a part of me thinks that I had contacted the virus then.

 

February 15th, 2021

Hey there,

Some random stuff for today.  Updating rehab, tomorrow will be 4 weeks since surgery.  We went out with some friends right on week 3 and they asked how it was feeling, and I said 'great' so enthusiastically that I saw Betty get a look of surprise on her face.  It really does though.  While I always keep the cane with me, can easily walk without it and is almost pain free.  It is tight and still weird to sleep on my side, but feels way better than it should.  I know that cause I have looked at dozens of Web MD-like sites that discuss recovery.  The doctor here recommended a physical therapy place he uses speaks little English.  All the sites basically outlined the exact same exercises and the keys are to keep walking a bit further every day and to keep RICEing.  By all measures, my range and pain levels are a couple weeks ahead of the averages.  One thing that they all say is to wait 5-6 weeks before driving, and my guy was cool with it 2 weeks post-op.  Anyhoo, here is what it looked like yesterday...

Talking to The Boy the other day after a snowfall, and he shared a couple photos of the X-rated snowman they made, so of course have to share with you.

One of my old Arcadia High buddies was digging through some old boxes and sent along this gem of another buddy and I...1990ish I'd say.  Baked.  Nice 'staches too.

And finally from The Taiwan News, this Photo of the Day: Monkey working overtime in Southern Taiwan.  Looks like your side of the family.

February 5th, 2021

Hey there,

Since we moved here, I would Skype my mom about once a week, but when the lockdown started would call her every morning at about 5:45AM our time just so she would have a distraction.  We maybe missed each other a handful of times a month, mainly cause they unplugged her iPad and it didn't have a lot of charge.  The daily calls got weirder as the months went on as her brain started to devolve.  I don't want to detail what made them weird as anyone that has dealt with loved ones with dementia knows that there is no coherent way to explain them and also don't want the ravings to be the thing that I remember of her.  Still, every morning at 5:45 when the house is quiet, it is when I think about her.  I miss those daily calls.

Rehab update time.  Went to my first follow-up appointment on Wednesday, which was 15 days post-op.  The ordered chaos of the place is still a sight to behold.  No appointment time, but rater a window between 9 and 11:30am.  We arrive, slide our National Health Insurance card into the slot and are called into the examination room in about 5 minutes after arrival and are directed to sit on a stool next to two other knee replacement recipients.  There is a bunch of talk with the 3 nurses that move about the room attending to our trio and to the two other patients on the other side of the room that are candidates for  the procedure in the future.  The nurses cleaned my wound and answered our list of questions.  More specifically, they answered Betty's questions cause this is all in Mandarin.  She would relate the question to them, they'd talk for a minute and then Betty tells me yes/no.

All things considered, not knowing what is going on hasn't been too bad.  I went to this follow-up with the understanding that I was to get stitches removed and that I could take a shower, but there are no removable stitches and they told me I had to wait three more days to shower (and that I need to bag up the leg for 2 more weeks in any case).  Screw that...I self bagged today and showered like an elephant in Africa after the first rain of the season.  Hard to describe just how satisfying it is to really scrub down after 17 days, but awesome would be a word in that description.  Have been sponge bathing myself all along to keep the stink down, but there is just no substitute for really going at yourself with soap and a washcloth in those nether regions.  A good thing to note when considering the other knee replacement; as it was very mild here last couple of weeks, my odor was bad, but if this was summer, the crusty smell and rash potential is off the charts.

Speaking of charts, the nurses were trying to gauge my pain level.  Always have a tough time with this one as I want to be a tough guy but also want pain meds.  

Quick digression...something I forgot to mention about the time in the hospital and pain meds was that I was told that they would give me Tylenol for the pain, but if I wanted stronger meds that I would have to pay more.  They had two options...morphine, which sadly makes me vomit, and some other stuff that I cannot remember the name.  That first night, all the numbness from the surgery is gone and the pain is really bad.  Tell my caregiver who calls the nurse who then brings in a syringe, and at 2am, before she injects it into the IV, she says this will cost NT$700 (US$20).  The whole scenario is just surreal in retrospect.

So at the follow-up exam they had this bell curve chart that (I think) showed that people could be at a pain level8 after two weeks and that pain can be a 3 for up to a year.  Someone, maybe me, totally oversold how fast this thing was gonna feel normal cause I had about a month before I would start to forget about it.  To be honest, I still have no idea when to expect it to feel normal but the initial idea of doing lefty in April is off the table.  The doctor came around and we had our minute with him (he is the only one at this place that speaks any English and his is quite good).  He laughed at doing the other one in April but I got that idea from him, so what's up doc?  As we had most of our questions satisfied by the time he came around, the only one  I had left was "When can I drive?"  He makes a motion of pushing on the accelerator and says 'can you do this?"  I demonstrate that I can.  Then he does the motion of going from gas to brakes and asks the same question, to which I demonstrate that I can (doing so in pain but determined not to show it).  'Then you can drive now' he says.  Was initially surprised cause no matter how confident I am in my ability to drive, and I am VERY confident, no question I am somewhat compromised.  But then I realized that a decent percentage of the drivers in this town are partially paralyzed from the waist down/fully paralyzed from the neck up.  What was most surprising was that after we Ubered home form the hospital, Betty asks me if I'll drive her to work.  She is my harshest critic and that she would be cool with getting right into the car was stunning.  Have driven around and it was weird at first, but feel pretty good about it now.  Really feel good about the knee in general as I am completely off the walker and am using a cane and after the first couple of steps, walk relatively normally. It's been two days of the cane and today, I took two steps without it before realizing that I forgot it.  B-doll even said last night that I already look better walking with the cane now than I did before the operation.  

It is weird, but the knee almost feels best when I am walking on it.  The pain is greatest when I am elevating it or in the middle of the night.  That has been the worst part of the process to be honest.  Am a side sleeper and that just does not work.  Have tried, but still no way.  Reflexively try to roll over in the night, which wakes me up and have a hard time getting back to sleep, and crappy sleep sucks.  I feel for those folks that have insomnia and pray that that never comes into my life.  Another thing that has been hard to do so far is getting up from low chairs, like the toilet.  The contortions are acrobatic and while it's a ton better now, is still awkward and painful.  The worst was the time I sat down to go number two and the toilet seat was up.  Amazed I didn't wrench my spine on that occasion and feel bad for all those times women have complained about leaving the toilet seat up.  As the only dude in the house, have only myself to blame.

The most important takeaway I have so far, and the best advice to impart to anyone going through surgery is this...don't be an idiot.  Do what the doctor says, do your rehab with religious zeal, push yourself but don't think you're invincible, accept help with gratitude and remember to circle back and thank those folks that helped.  None of that should be revelatory, but it is easier said than done.

In one of the few conversations I have had with adults, one asked if it is gonna set off airport metal detectors.  Good question.  I followed that up by telling them that it is my wish to be cremated and wonder if the parts will survive the crematorium.  If they do, will request they be added to the urn so that when the kids break me out, they can shake the vessel and hear dad making a clanking sound.  

Couple of state of TW notes to share.  The government just announced that in 2023 it will lower the age of majority from 20 to 18.  Never heard it referred to that way and had to look up to be sure, but the age of majority means the age you are considered an adult.  Another news article from a couple of days later may explain why they decided to drop the age as last year was the first where Taiwan has recorded negative population growth.  Dug into this question a few years ago after a Japan trip where the same topic was major news at the time.  The solutions the experts continue to promote are to encourage more people get married and to make access to child care more affordable.  Seems obvious to me that the reason is that people that live in comfortable societies prefer to wait or have fewer kids cause kids are expensive and a huge pain in the ass.  It is a big fear of these countries that are having negative/neutral growth for lots of reasons (care of aging population, taxation, etc.), and one thing they (Japan/Korea/Taiwan) cannot consider for xenophobic concerns is to allow immigration.  I won't be around to see how this one plays out, just hope I can still get me some nice Filipina caregiver when the time comes.

And a quick follow-up to previous notes about the pork importation hot button, the government has created a pork dashboard where you can track how much pork was imported and from where, and how much was produced domestically.  It is updated daily at 9am local time and you can find it here.

February 3rd, 2021 Tainan

Hey there,

Have been posting a bunch lately cause I am freaking bored.  A lot of it is being typed while I am RICEing my leg and not all there as sleep is elusive, so not in the most optimal conditions.  I'm just so bored.  Not sure how all y'all are doing it with lockdowns since March to be honest.

Today's installment is a travelogue.  I miss doing those cause it means we haven't been traveling.  When The Boy was in TW, we budgeted a week after New Years to do a family road trip that was a clockwise drive around the island.  The kids and I famously did just that the first month we moved here.  This is usually the time when we do a family winter break trip to a fabulous destination, but you know...

Betty and I are fond of the area in the southeast around a town called Dulan and I love the drive down to it.  Takes 6+ hours, but you go through two different tunnels over 10km long, several other tunnels that look like the Japanese had just finished them using slave labor during WWII and can feel the ghosts, there are some cool mountain passes and the last 2-3 hours is road theat hugs the coast.  There are cool turnouts and typical touristy spots to stop, like the Tropic of Cancer marker and a new favorite...the Shiti Fish Port

OK...have never stopped at Shiti Fish Port and this was the first time I remembered to take an in motion photo, which was not very good, but it's called Shiti Fish Port.  

This was Betty and my third time to Dulan since August and it again did not disappoint.  We did and ate all the same things and I just love the laid back hippie vibe there.  On January 4th, the weather was a little over 80 degrees and the ocean water temperature was perfect as it is always here.  Anytime getting to toss the pig with The Boy in the ocean is priceless.

B-doll was miffed at the thought of spending 4 nights in the area cause she thought it'd be boring (and that she'd miss out on some party time with her friends), but the point was it for to be boring and to just hang as a family.  As this kids age into their own adult lives, we know these blocks of just us time are dwindling.  They taught me some card games and I taught them backgammon.  Brilliant.

We made finally crossing the Sanxiantai Arch bridge a main priority.  I've been there myself three times previous and have never been to cross it due to various weather factors, but this time we slotted a nice day where there could be no excuse not to make it across.  Except...they just closed it for repair thru June 2021

  

Will never get across that damn thing.  It sounds fun on the other side with a little island and lighthouse.  Oh well, still a tale we can retell and also a pretty spot in any case.

The kids like to walk and B-doll has developed a taste for strenuous exercise so she found a hike up a mountain for her and the boy.  

Side prediction...what B-doll is eating is evolving rapidly.  She was a carb loving chocoholic to the point it was worrisome, but over the last year or two, her craving for meat has been plummeting and her appetite for veggies is filling the void.  She came home late last night and had to make her own dinner and after, she proudly showed me a picture of it and it was this mountain of raw vegetables.  My prediction is that she'll be a full blown vegetarian by the end of her college tenure.  Nothing wrong with that of course, just hope she doesn't become one of those judgmental types that has to comment on me eating my juicy bacon topped burger.

We drove them to the trailhead along this really windy tiny one lane road.  Their reports after was that it was quite hard...she made it to the top while Boy-o bailed out about 1/2 way through, and that the view from the top was grand. 

By the way, I talk about this town as Dulan, but it is also written out in English on signs as Dou Lan and Dulen.  I wish they'd stop messing with me.

As you enter the road to go up the mountain is this totem, which has to be aboriginal as they figure prominently in this part of the country, with a penis that is rubbed raw.  Does every culture do this?

While the kids were hiking, Betty and I headed south a few kilometers to the nicest beach in the area...the one with the longest stretch of sand, etc.  On this beachfront is a really big resort they built a decade or so back, but when they finished it (there were curtains already installed) the government found they didn't make code on their sanitation and so didn't allow them to open.  This thing has sat there brand new and abandoned on one of the best beaches in the country.  I really don't understand all the details why they wouldn't allow them to open or the legal challenges, but see this happens a lot in this country...where things get approved by one administration, but are then blown out by successive ones.  Probably has something to do with grifting and is a strange feature to local politics.  Our beach walk was delightful though.

One cloudy cool afternoon, the family wanted to vegetate so I took the opportunity for a commune with nature beach walk, which are great on overcast days cause few folks are out.  Hit the end of the beach and see a dude balancing on a rock fishing in some rough surf and thought it'd be a cool picture and go for my phone, and can't find it.  The jacket I had on is newish and the pocket I put it in really wasn't a pocket and figure it must have fallen out and retrace my steps to no avail.  Drive back to the BnB and have Betty look it up on our location app and see it is in Dulan city.  We call it and someone had already returned it to the cops.  This country is old school as far as honesty and such.  Couldn't have been more than an hour since I dropped it and other than the fisherman dude, had not seen another soul.  We tool over to the police station and it is a sleepy little station.  We are assisted by two very nice officers.  After they do their paperwork (and they love them some paperwork in this place), my phone and I are reunited.  One of the cops was a cute little thing.   Cuff me.

We typically go back to Taipei from here by going back up the coast, but one of the long tunnels that connects the coast to the city backs up in an unholy jam that takes a long time to navigate on an off day, but can be 2-3 hours on the weekends and we have decided that we'll never do that again and continue going clockwise and up the west coast.  Takes an hour or two more, but adding in the frustration and jam of the tunnel, it's a wash.  The west coast is where all the people are too, so there are cities along the way to explore.  We targeted the city of Tainan

Tainan is the oldest city and formal capital of Taiwan.  It was the site of the first Dutch colony and where the Chinese General Koxinga based his rebellion against the mainland (if history or geopolitics are your thing, read up on Koxinga as he features prominently in China's 'historical' claim to Taiwan) Tainan  has about 2 million people and is the 6th largest city in the country.  As far as it's claim to be the biggest/highest/etc. or is the blank of somewhere, Tainan is referred to as the Venice of Asia.  

Nice enough, but Venice?  Puh-leeze  We spent two nights here and had a solid day and half to explore, which felt just about right.  City is a lot mellower than Taipei and we were able to walk to everything on our list from our BnB.  Our BnB was well located, but the pictures oversold it.  Not awful, but had one of those showers that is just part of the bathroom, it had a place in the floor that had rotted out that was next to my side of the bed so had to navigate that during middle of the night pee runs, and the bed was one of those that tingled my spine for days.

Things to see in Tainan...we went to the historic district that had the old Dutch fort and colonial government buildings, one of which has been absorbed by banyan trees.

Pretty cool to traipse around in/on.  They had a plaque talking about the site and banyan trees in general.

The philosophy is that wood from the Banyan tree isn't strong, so they are not chopped and allowed to grow, which provides shade, so 'everything is good for something' and 'being not useful is in fact of great use'.  Am gonna have to work that into my coaching philosophy somehow...probably not favorably to the person it's directed at.

We popped into a series of small streets that have little shops and cafes called Snail Street, it was early on a weekday and was pretty quiet, but it looked cool and must be hopping in the evenings and would be well worth checking out in more detail.  We also walked past the new art museum that was just finished.  Didn't go in as the exhibits didn't tickle our curiosity, but damn modern for this rock.  We toyed with the idea of going back at night as they have an outdoor garden that has a light installation that is supposed to be cool, but this happened to be the coldest day of the year and we are lazy sacks.

As you can imagine, as the most ancient city in Taiwan with a history of almost 200(!) years, they have a mess of auspicious temples, a couple of which we visited.

By far the best thing I saw in this town was the Hayashi Department store.  There is even a Wikipedia entry on it.  Built by the Japanese in 1932, was the first building in Taiwan with elevators!  They still have the original ones and they are classic  The whole place in fact is really neat looking...reminded me of (my beloved) art deco but with a Japanese twist. It was bombed during WWII and while the restoration was just finished in 2014, they left some of the marks in the walls of the roof from those raids.  The stuff for sale inside was quirky and kitchsy too.  We spent a good hour or two just looking at all the stuff.  Definitely the highlight of Tainan in my book.

Liked the place enough, but my back was barking at me from the bed so was glad to hit the road with our next stop 3 hours away for a night at a hot spring in Miaoli.  B-doll mentioned she wanted to do a hot spring but turned out she didn't mean she wanted to do them as a family.  We were booked so we went.  The drive up the valley to get there was pleasant and we pulled in and got our room.  There was no hot spring bath in our room even though we thought there was going to be, and the room was one of those that are considered nice in Taiwan (with four beds in a row like a plush army barrack), but us pampered Americans stuck our noses up at immediately..  We all sorta looked at each other and while we all eventually took credit for it, we simultaneously agreed that since we were an hour and a half from home to bag it and hit the road.  We all jumped in a communal but private tub for the hour that was included in our package, and hit the road.  We were prepared to pay for the night, but they just gave us back our money and said 'toodle-ooo'.  We felt like bank robbers as we drove away.

Hope the kids enjoyed our week...I certainly had a lovely time being able to have a week with both the kids.  Have detailed over the years that I trained the Boy to be a great co-pilot and hope he is taking those lessons to be a good pilot now that he is driving.  He doesn't bitch about the music, is always ahead with the next direction, and enjoy his sense of humor and observation.  One of our family tropes is me and the Boy complaining how we can never say anything in Mandarin in the correct tone, and Betty and B-doll explaining how stupid we are.  We're driving somewhere talking about this and the girls are tuned out in the back and the Boy says that the other night he was complimented by his friends by how well he said Xie Xie (Thank you) at the 7-11.  That is some pretty basic shit, but the bar is low for us.  I told him that whenever I am at the 7-11 and I give them exact change, they always count it and then give me a look like I am a Neanderthal that just invented fire.

Good times...