Cartoon-shaped pancakes are sold on a stick –

Yesterday, on our way home from a vacation in Hualien, Floyd and I drove through beautiful Taroko National Park.  Known as the Grand Canyon of Taiwan, Taroko Gorge is one of the top vacation spots in Taiwan.

We had been there before when my parents came to visit a couple years ago (you can see pictures of that in my other blog post here), but we didn’t really get to go hiking at that time, because there had been an earthquake a few days before and almost all the trails were closed off due to landslides.  

We didn’t have as much time on this trip, but we did park the car and walk around a little in an area that had been inaccessible the last time.  It was nice to see some scenery we hadn’t seen before, even though it was mostly just from the side of the road.

This area is called Swallow Grotto because of the many swallows that make their homes in the holes in the rock.  You can read an explanation of how the holes were formed in the sign below.

The day was overcast and the lighting wasn’t the best, so unfortunately a lot of my pictures didn’t turn out all that great.  The gorge was a lot more impressive in real life, but hopefully you can at least get an idea of how beautiful Taroko is!

It would have been fun to actually hike along one of the trails, but we were short on time and we would have had to buy a permit to do so anyway.  So we contented ourselves with walking along next to the road.  There were sharp drop-offs just to our left, with sheer cliffs stretching down to the canyon floor hundreds of feet below.

Warning signs were everywhere.  The national park service wasn’t leaving anything to chance!  We didn’t have safety helmets, which we would have had to borrow in another part of the national park (most of the tourists we saw did), but fortunately there weren’t any rockfalls while we were in the area.  🙂

It’s hard to get a clear idea of the scale just by looking at a picture, but some of those boulders in the river bed are the size of buildings!

In many places, the road passed through tunnels, often narrowing down to one lane to squeeze through.  This made our journey home much more exciting!  Many of the tunnels were too long or curved to see the other end when we went in.  We just had to pray there would be no cars coming from the other direction before we made it through!

Sometimes a roof had been built over the road (as you can see on the left) to protect it from rockfalls, which are extremely common in this earthquake-prone destination for typhoons.

The drive home to Taichung took about six hours, and much of the way we were surrounded by beautiful scenery like this.  Some of those mountain curves did get a little scary when the thick fog rolled in (especially when oncoming vehicles didn’t always keep to their side of the road), but God answered our prayers for safety and we made it back without incident.  

We even saw two monkeys, one crossing the road ahead of us in the gorge, one sitting by the side of the road further on, though unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to take any pictures of them.  

The gorge-ous drive was a fitting end to a fun Hualien vacation!

It’s literally right by the ocean, and though it’s not a water park (i.e. no waterslides), the whole place has an ocean/watery theme.

It was fun to watch the sea lions play volleyball and basketball!

Tell me that cute sea lion (below) doesn’t remind you of a bird in this position!

 

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Taiwan is truly a tea lover’s paradise. There are tea shops on practically every corner, and I would estimate there are between twenty and thirty of them within walking distance of our home.  Each one is a little different: though they carry many of the same beverages, each tea shop mixes the ingredients according to their own recipes, and many offer specialties not easily to be found elsewhere.

There are several tea shops I frequent more than others, for various reasons.  (Perhaps I’ll feature some of them in a future blog post.)  But my current favorite is called Georg Peck.

http://id.openrice.com/
Besides various types of green, milk, and black tea, they offer fancy coffees and fruit smoothies.  However, I have to confess that I’m really not a fan of some of the drinks I’ve tried there.  The other day I had their pearl milk tea and didn’t much care for the flavor.  Their ji cha (kumquat green tea) is okay, but I realized later that they just make it with citron tea (a marmalade-like goop) stirred into warm water (or maybe into green tea?)  Not bad, but I can do the same thing at home cheaper.  I also don’t recommend their sesame milk tea (pictured below).  I thought the flavor sounded interesting, but it turns out it’s made from crushed black sesame seeds stirred into milk tea, and it settles to the bottom in a sludgy layer unless you constantly stir it (much like the ji cha in that regard, actually).

 However, I do like Georg Peck’s smoothies, even though the smoothie category on the menu is rather scarily called “Mouthfeel Slush” (yes, there’s an English menu posted on the wall).  The mango smoothie is my favorite so far.  They’re very refreshing on a hot day, and much healthier than many smoothies you’d buy in the States, since they’re made with crushed ice and not ice cream.  (Georg Peck does offer ice cream in some of their teas, float-style, though I have yet to try those. As we get closer to summer I’m sure I will.)

I also like their hazelnut milk tea and caramel milk tea (yum!).  The passion fruit green tea is okay… nothing to write home about.  I haven’t tried many of their coffee drinks yet, but the iced caramel macchiato is, in my opinion (and granted I’m not a coffee connoisseur) just as good as Starbucks’, at less than half the price.  Ooh, and the warm ginger milk tea is to die for on a cold afternoon!

But you’re probably wondering what the big deal is.  Aren’t there tea shops that carry more drinks I like and fewer that I dislike?  

Maybe.  But my favorite thing about Georg Peck isn’t the drinks.

A couple of months ago I started taking my laptop to Starbucks to work on my next book away from the distractions of home.  But after I had used up my gift card, I decided I was too cheap to keep paying Starbucks prices, and it didn‘t seem right to sit there and write without buying anything.  So I looked for other options and discovered a new tea shop in the neighborhood that had a couple of little tables and chairs out front (an uncommon sight around here; most tea shops are just designed for customers to walk up, order their teas at the counter, and leave).  

I got someone to teach me how to say, “Is it okay if I sit at this table and work on my computer?” in Chinese, and successfully recited my line to the shop owner (who I later found out speaks excellent English).  She assured me it was fine, and ever since then I’ve parked myself in front of Georg Peck for three or four hours straight at least once a week, spending quality time with my characters in Alasia and Malorn. 

I’ve gotten to know the tea shop employees, who are always happy to see me.  Most of them are at least conversational in English, and sometimes we chat a little.  I found out that their names are Lydia (the boss; at the front in the picture below), Ingrid, Penny, Nina, and House.  Yes, House.

 One of the first times I was there, the weather turned cold, and I was wearing short sleeves.  Lydia walked out to where I was shivering at my little table and handed me her own jacket!  I gratefully put it on, and it helped me last another hour or two.  When I was finally ready to leave, I tried to hand it back, but she told me to wear it home and just “bring it back next time”.

When I returned the jacket the next day, I brought her a tiny jar of my homemade jam to thank her.  Later, as I was typing away and sipping the tea I had bought, Lydia came out to bring me a free donut!  (I don’t think they actually sell donuts there, so I’m not sure where it came from.)  A couple of times the ladies have given me a second tea for free after I’ve finished my first one.  Last week I brought them a plate of homemade gluten-free chocolate cake (I was trying out a new recipe and figured they might like it since it contained beans, a very common ingredient in Taiwanese desserts).  They reciprocated by giving me a bag of candy on my next visit!  I guess it’s my turn to bring them something next time.  Hmm, I’ll have to think what.

 
 So, that’s why I like Georg Peck.  Not for the drinks as much as for the people.  It’s fun going somewhere where people know me and are glad to see me, and I love that we actually know each other’s names now.  In spite of the distractions inherent in working on a public sidewalk, I find that I can still concentrate on my writing better there than at home.  

Have you ever been to Georg Peck?  I found out it’s an international chain, but for you Morrisonians, the closest one is just past the afternoon market, right next door to what I call the Black Spot (also known as Tea Shop) and catty corner from QQ’s.  If you’ve been there, I’d love to hear in the comments what your favorite drink is.  If you haven’t yet, you should try it! 

Now that a new year has begun, I’ve decided to recap some my favorite memories of 2012.  Here goes:

April 14

I was asked to be a guest speaker for an English class at Tunghai University here in Taichung.  They had been reading my book, Prince of Alasia, so I came as a visiting author.  It was really fun to interact with the students and watch the readers’ theaters they had prepared based on some of the chapters.  I felt like a celebrity autographing their books at the end!

May 20

My second book, In the Enemy’s Service (sequel to Prince of Alasia), was finally published in Kindle format, and later in paperback.  I love the cover art by Jack Lin.

June 12-15

Floyd and I took a brief vacation to Penghu, an archipelago just off the coast of Taiwan.  Our boarders Natasha and Isabel (who had lived with us for the last year) and their parents own a bed and breakfast there, and we were able to stay with them and reconnect with “our” girls.  They showed us around and we had a great time together!

June 28-29

My grandparents, Frank and Carolyn Jordan, brought the extended family to Solvang for a night to celebrate their 60th anniversary.  Since Floyd and I were spending the summer in California, we were able to be there too.  We watched the musical Little Women, enjoyed some tasty meals together, and had fun walking around and seeing the sights.

September 14

Floyd and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary.  In honor of our first decade together, we decided to have some professional “couple pictures” taken.  (Missy Sparrow did a great job – check out her photography at http://melissasparrowphotography.blogspot.tw/.)

November 21-25

I had the opportunity to attend a teachers’ conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I presented a workshop about self-publishing.  I really enjoyed the experience and hope to do it again sometime.  After the conference, I had time for a brief tour involving such unforgettable memories as riding an elephant and petting tigers!

Watch a short video of my tiger encounter

December 14-30

With just a couple of days’ notice, my sister Julie was able to fly to Taiwan for a visit!  Adding to our full house, my brother Jimmy, sister-in-law Erin, and adorable 14-month-old niece Sienna (who previously we’d only met over Skype) arrived a few days later.  (Their visit had been in the works for months, so Julie was the only surprise.)  Floyd and I had a blast celebrating Christmas with them and showing them a little of our life in Taiwan.

Thank you, Lord, for so many blessings in 2012!  I can’t wait to see what 2013 will hold!