Cheese Misunderstanding

The great memories I had in Barcelona was so connected to a German girl Bianca. We spent the whole three days together walking around and listening to the opera. Without her, I didn't even know that it cost only a few Euros to go to an opera if you had an international student card.

This day we came to a traditional market and decided to take a look. To be honest, there was nothing I wanted to buy. But I always enjoyed checking around a bit. From local markets, you could see a lot of their culture.

She turned around, saw a stall, and said to me, “Do you mind? I want to buy some xxx.”
And this xxx was a new word to me. So I repeated it and asked, “What is that?”

She looked at me as if I was some kind of alien. Started to give me a lecture saying that it was one sort of cheese. And then gave me a long list of different vocabulary for various cheeses. OK. Give me a break! In my life, I thought I could survive perfectly well with only one general name──cheese. I don't need to know two hundred names.

So if you see this photo with Bianca trying to shop for this cheese, you can imagine, I was there listening to this conversation, which was all Greek to me. So I thought I'd better make myself useful by taking pictures for her instead of saying something stupid to reveal my ignorance.

(Oh, yeah. It was also possible that she wasn't really speaking English. No wonder it didn't make any sense.)



So this reminded me of the year before this, I met Sylviane in Mexico City. She told me a very funny story of hers. She said that she was traveling in Thailand and one day, she came to this traditional market. Wandering around, she got to a very beautiful stand selling so many colorful “cheeses”. Watching and couldn't helping drooling, and in the mean time, strained by the language, the one thing she could do was to point at one after another and asked, “How much?”

The vendor showed a number after another on a calculator accordingly. Not having any cheeses for a long time, she finally chose one, paid the money, and couldn't wait to open her mouth and try to get a bite.

NO! NO! NO! NO EAT! NO EAT! The vendor lady shouted.

It turned out that the delicious-looking cheese was actually not a cheese. It was a piece of soap.
It was so hilarious that I laughed to tears. Luckily she craved for a cheese so much that she couldn't wait to eat it in front of the seller. Had she waited until getting back to her hotel, what would it have been like?

So next time when you go traveling in another country and see something colorful, you might want to ask to make sure what it is. As an Asian, you might think they are soaps. Oh, no. They actually are cheeses.

Film Killers Taj Mahal and Sossusvlei

Have you ever been to a place that its beauty is more than a “wow” for the first sight? As soon as you see it, you drop your jaw and start to wow. Every single step, you wow again. And you move forward for one more stride. Still you find yourself wow again. You feel like a fool that can't utter something meaningful.

I have.

Years later, when I was reorganizing the slides I took in 1995, India trip, and in 1997, Africa trip. I still felt the pulsations I had at that time. These two astounding sites were Taj Mahal in India, and Sossusvlei in Namibia. I took approximately 50 photos for each of them.





Have you never been there, you would just think it was me being undisciplined. Who would take so many pictures of the same thing? However, the truth is, once you get there, you cannot help raising your camera and starting to shoot. It is wonderful. So you take one or two. Well, maybe more, because you are afraid that the ones you just take aren’t prefect enough. Then you walk forward. Now you begin to wonder if the sunlight is brighter than a second ago. So you think you'd better shoot more. And when you just finish some, you suspect that the sun shines in a different direction now, therefore you don't want to miss better shots. There you go! You come home with over 50 photos of it, only to find that none of them shows the sensation you have at the scene.

(Taj Mahal)


(Sossusvlei in Namibia)

As for Taj Mahal, its gorgeousness attracts your attention, no matter where in the city’s corner you are. Its elegance and sophistication, be it dawn or dusk, bright or dark, are just like highly generated magnet, constantly emitting its glory to catch your eyes. Back that time when people were still using traditional negative films. I asserted that film companies, such as Konica and Fuji, should have sponsored the preservation of these two places for they have been attracting thousands of billions of tourists and killing countless films, which has been of great help to their profit.

Now even afterwards I have traveled to a lot more countries, I still think there are not many places like them. Therefore, Taj Mahal and Sossusvlei are both highly recommended. As for the control of shooting photos, since now people have digital cameras, the cost of the negative films is not an issue any more.

City of Eternity--Varanasi

Ever since I arrived in Varanasi, I had started to get sick. Especially the headache was killing me.



Varanasi’s history could be dated back to thousands of years ago, so it deserves the name “City of Eternity”. It has long been a populated big city. Until now, while talking in the street, it is almost impossible not to bump into someone physically. It was hard for me to imagine which city would be more crowded than it. My friend Nick was so into Varanasi. He stood there and shouted loudly: “Look! This is true India. This is true East.” Not me. Thank you! I am Eastern and I grew up in a packed traditional market in Taiwan. I have been very sick of being in a crammed place. And not only that, here the local people tracked you down and followed you everywhere, which really pushed me to the edge. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown.


However, Varanasi had an undeniable attractive attribute of itself. The distinctive culture was built along the Ganges River. So if you want to see the true spirit of it, of course, the river was the must-visit.

Early morning, when it was still dark, we headed for the riverbank. To our surprise, we were not alone. People, old and young, men and women, also came out with their family and strolled down to the riverside. They had cups or mugs in their hands, some even with some kind of sticks, of which I was told were from a special tree and were used as their toothbrushes. Some people carried bottles or jars in order to take the divine water home, and some brought flowers for their rituals. And we were the very small part of this huge human stream flowing into the riverbank.

We hired a boat, sculling from the middle of the river, so we could see the waterside. Local people with colorful dresses were doing all kinds of activities you could think of. Some were bathing and chatting; others were brushing their teeth and taking care of their kids at the same time; and still the others were practicing a prayer, with drinking the celestial water as their endings. I looked at this brown holy water. Tree branches were floating, and the scullers were spitting into the river once every three seconds. More than that, there were two dead bodies drifting in front of everybody but it seemed no one cared. I thought about sputum and germs and bacteria and viruses; yet, they saw eternity in their eyes.

I dropped my jaw and stared at those devout people from all the castes. In a place that was so close to Gods like this, everyone appeared to be so humble. And the caste system seemed to be out of reach here. I was so touched by the sincerity and devotion of every single face's. Imagine myself to travel through the time and being in the same place two thousand years ago, it must have been the same picture. And in two thousand years from now, will it be still the same sight? No wonder hundreds of millions of people have been obsessed by this exotic country and coming here to seek for the mysterious eastern dreamland. Even for me as an Eastern, I could not help submitting myself to the enchanting sunrise in Varanasi and falling into the ancient sweet charm. Just like what I read in a book, like it or not, once you have been in India, you will never forget it. For it is a place that makes you remember your every day.

1997 While Hong Kong Was Being Handed Over

Recently the press has been raising the issue of the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong Hanover here in Taiwan. And I suddenly realized that it was 10 years ago that I was in Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, witnessing this important historic moment.

Alas! The older you get, the faster time seems to pass by. While I was little, a day seemed a year. Young children enjoyed holidays and festivals. I always felt it took forever for the next festival to come. And then when I got older, a day passed by and the next. Later, time passed one week after another. Now for me, it is one month after another. Well, one year is over following its previous. Yeah? Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997. What? That was 10 years ago?

OK. Enough. You don't want to listen to a middle-aged woman complaining about the lose of her youth. Now I am going to tell you about that day, July 1 of 1997, when I was at a guest house in Windhoeak, Namibia.

Namibia, previous a colony of South Africa, gained its independency in 1990. It was once controlled by Germany so that most travelers we met on the road were German. Here German was also its official language, along with English and Afrikaans. We ran into a lot of elderly people taking long trips, mostly German, too.

Of course, they were not alone. You could see young active travelers everywhere. There was this crazy German guy driving his 500c.c. vehicle, running around all over this beautiful country.

So, the guests in the house we were staying were European, mostly from Germany. Here there was a kitchen for us to buy and cook our own food. The leftover could be stored in the fridge but required the owner’s name on it. Every night after dinner, guests in the living room would go through channels to see what was on on TV. Nothing could really please EVERYBODY. Therefore, we decided to watch the video tapes that were neatly put beside the TV set. Approximately 30 different videos. All about African wildlife. Very professionally shot, exactly like nowadays the ones you can see on Animal Planet channel. (Basically travelers who would choose Africa as their destinations are very interested in wildlife.)

Nick and I now became their consultants. These Europeans had no idea about what was going on in the other side of world, Asia. Thus questions started to be thrown out. For example, why suddenly Hong Kong is now being handed over to China? And the historical background, etc..

As for Taiwan, it was Liang-zhang or who that was interviewed live. Therefore people asked, “ Now who is this guy?” and “Why does this have something to do with Taiwan?”

Alas! Nick was the one who did all the talking. (Having lived in Taiwan for eight years, he always thought he understood my country than I do.) Anyway, I listened carefully. While there was something I needed to add or I disagreed, I interrupted him and made some comments. (I was quite sure people wanted to ask me, not him.)

It was a precious lesson. For we were in a very young country Namibia, which was only 7 years old by then and with a group of Europeans, we witnessed the important moment together. Of course, I seized the opportunity and introduced my lovely and opulent country—free democratic Taiwan. Acer, Giant, these international brands made people all hear the name of Taiwan. As for China, that was another country that was far different from our culture. And it actually was a big bully that did not need me to say anything and no one liked it.

I remembered that I joked around saying Hong Kong Handover as Hong Kong HANGOVER. Now Hong Kong did have a terrible hangover since its freedom of speech was doomed to be cut down. Who would be happy to be taken away these basic human rights, especially when you already knew how wonderful it was to be able to say what you wanted to say?

July 1st, 1997. Hong Kong was being handed over to China. And I was far away from home, in Namibia, southern Africa, viewing this significant instant with a group of young European who really cared about the world. On top of that, I was young, as well.

Traffic in Asia's Big Cities

I met this retired Swedish lady on the bus from the Stockholm airport to Stockholm Central. The bus ride was about one hour and twenty minutes. It was surprising that she knew Taiwan.

She asked carefully, “Is there some kind of problem between you Taiwan and China?” I wanted to avoid unpleasant topics and talk about something fun, so I changed the subject to her tourist trip to China.

"Oh, what scared me the most was the traffic there. When I was in Bejing, I didn't even know how to cross the road," she said.

How come that doesn't surprise me? The traffic in most of the Asian cities are chaotic like that. Traffic in Taipei, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, it is all the same, classically frantic. You know how my foreigner friends in Taiwan put it? One of them put it this way, "Whenever I try to cross the road, people try to run me over."I told her the story and assured her that she was not alone. She burst into laugh, saying that it is so to the point. I have been telling this joke to people I met in Canada or travelers I met on the road, and so far haven't met anyone who doesn't like it.

The thurth is, I also drive. Here I have a confession to make. Every time when I am behind the steering wheel, I lose my patience just like others. This is embarrassing. But I have to say, there is some kind of chemical that makes drivers crazy. I remember that when I just started to drive, I was too polite. I always gave ways to others. But then I realized I would never go anywhere if I was not aggressive enough.

Now her complaints turned into an understanding to cultural differences after me joking around. Isn't that the reason why we need to travel around and talk to people from different cultures?

Villagers in Aus, Namibia

Aus, a small place in Namibia. There were less than 50 people in the village. But it had an unsmall location mark on Namibia's map, which deserved some place as big as Dan-shie on Taiwan's map.

Unable to get to our destination named Luderitz, so we might as well to stay in the little village for one night. There was still several hours of sunlight. After finding a lodge to stay, we went out to take a wander. Surprisingly I realized that there was a family living in the first house. Well, I didn't know if we could call it a house. There were just walls, no roof, which made me think it was deserted. The kids and the dog were running around happily. But seeing us approaching, the dog stopped playing and started to bark at us, just like any other dog which was very determined to protect his host family. The whole family members all walked out. Nick smiled and explained that we had no bad intention, we were from Taiwan, he is American and I am Taiwanese, and we wanted to take some pictures of them. We would send them the pictures after developing them.



As we could see they didn't speak English at all. But after using body languages to communicate, eventually they understood us. As soon as we raised our cameras, the vicious dog put away his mean attitude and started to posture. It seemed that he didn't want to look bad in the pictures. Funny, wasn't it? I looked at the family and it reminded me of a Chinese idiom “Jia-tu-si-bi”, which means the family is so poor that the only thing they have is four pieces of walls. As I looked over, there was only a bedquilt, not even a bed. Their smiles made me feel sad. This might be their only chance to take pictures in their lives.

Visiting Hawaii Again

The reason I went to Hawaii for the second time was mostly for visiting my friend Hannah. I had only ten days for vacation. It was not enough time for real travel, anyway. So I decided to go to Hawaii for five days and other five for Fit Resort Club in the Fuji Mountain to enjoy being rich.

Oh, annoying Hawaii. The weather was always so perfect. Hannah said that it was so ideal that it made her bored. “Oh, come on. What are you talking about? Do you know how many people are saving money for this paradise?” I laughed.

Yes. A paradise like this should fit all the criteria: white sandy beaches, blue clear skies, and forever bright sunshine, but with some breezes blowing and floating in the air. Cool and comfortable!

More important than that, there was a rainbow hanging up in the sky all the time. Or two, or three……

Although I was going there to visit my friend, I only stayed in her place for two nights. I booked three other nights in a hotel. And the view was quite nice. At the swimming pool of the hotel, I met an elder American lady and heard a touching story. And the narrative has been sitting in my computer for years and hasn't been published. I guess I just haven't figured out how I could put the words together to present the true love behind it.

Since being in such a special spot, of course I had to go to the Pearl Harbor again, and once more, mourned for the soldiers who were buried in the sea with their mother ship.

I also bought what most tourists would buy, the souvenir newspapers of the next day Pearl Harbor was attacked. (Please forgive my amateurism. I only have one inexpensive scanner that can only take the size not more than A 4. Here goes the whole headline: War! Oahu Bombed by Japanese Planes.)

Well, Hawaii was not famous for its sorrow. Let’s change the mood. Waikiki was really……

Alas, crowded and packed. Forget it!

Good thing Hannah rented snorkeling equipment for me. So this trip finally was pretty rewarding. The first time I went to Hawaii was with my roommates from university, so basically all the attractions I visited this time was nothing new but the snorkeling part. As for snorkeling, it was the highlight of the whole trip. Too bad I did not bring my camera because I had to get down to the ocean and had no idea about something called blog back then. So the wonderful memories were all in my mind. Besides, the undersea world was so breathtaking and spectacular that there was nothing my camera could have done, anyway.

The five days in Hawaii was relaxing and fun. I went there and here and waited for Hannah to finish her work so that I would tell her what I had done that day. Then, I flew to Tokyo, Japan to be one of the rich people. And of course, that was another story.