If you are wondering what happened on January 2nd, it was pretty quiet. Bill went to Taipei to take care of some business of his. He bought a cane for Debbie and brought back some nice bread.

Armed with the cane, Debbie was better equipped to walk around the Dharma Drum complex. So I led her around the complex to visit a bit. I showed here the office room I am borrowing from Joey. I also showed her the main hall and the Wish Fulfilling Guanyin hall. In the main hall, two volunteers were very eager to show us how to properly bow. The way we bow in our group in the US is a little different than in Taiwan. Here, they end their bow with a gesture of the hands which we do not do in the US. The women showed me and I tried as well as I could to do it. It was not perfect but hmm…. well… I tried. Even after months at Dharma Drum, I still bow with a Koreano-American “accent”. Debbie was not able to try because of her bad back.

After lunch Shuya took Bill, Debbie and I to Jinbaoshan. It is a cemetery located higher on the mountain, behind Dharma Drum. It is contains rows of mausoleums organized in terraces along the slope of the mountain. We passed by the Christian section and headed to the Buddhist part of the complex. We limited our visit to the lower levels of the cemetery because of Debbie’s back. Still, we got to see quite a few intricate sculptures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There is also a building which houses a series of sculptures by Ju Ming. Appropriately, the sculptures housed at the cemetery touch upon the topic of birth and death. I found the middle sculpture showing man and woman in the heat of passion particularly amusing because of the evident enthusiasm with which they embrace.

The rest of the day was uneventful. The photo album for that day is here:

Yuedong and Adeline (both are among Bill’s assistants) prepared lunch for us. Bill, Yuedong, Adeline, Hsiu-Lan, Debbie and I had a delicious lunch together. After lunch, we napped. At tea time we went to a restaurant by the sea. Each of us ordered coffee or tea, and cake. While we were eating, Bill and Adeline noticed the people at the next table. They formulated the idea that our neighbors were German but after listening carefully my ear did not agree with their assessment for I recognized a French-Canadian accent. Now, I’m not in the habit of talking to strangers just for the heck of it. (See the note in my previous post about how I purposely avoid Westerners.) After a bit of soul searching, I decided I should talk to them. So I walked over to their table and asked where they were from, what they were doing in Taiwan. I don’t quite recall the details of the conversation. I recall that some of them worked in Taiwan and the rest was family coming for a visit. They asked me what I was doing in Taiwan and I explained. Debbie reported to me that Bill thought I was gesticulating a lot while talking to them and “would have my back covered” if needed. I guess he was worried that I was picking a fight with those “Germans”. I returned to our table and reported that those guys were French-Canadians.

After the afternoon tea, we stopped to get some zongzi at a roadside shop. Then we drove to the nearby 18 Lords Temple. Also known as the “Big Dog Temple” because of the huge statue of a dog. Quoting from Lonely Planet (Taiwan, 2007 edition, p. 156):

According to one version of the legend, 17 fishermen went missing one day. One loyal dog pined for days for the return of his master until, unable to bear the suffering any longer, he leaped into the foaming sea and drowned himself.

The dog was huge. The place was cold and windy and the temple next to the dog was deserted. The big dog is the most peculiar attraction at this site. The temple itself resembles a lot of other temples I’ve seen in Taiwan.

For supper, we had the leftovers from lunch together with the zongzi we had bought. It was the first time Debbie had any zongzi. The first time I tried them was last Summer in my intensive Mandarin class. After coming to Taiwan, I also had several occasions to eat zongzi again. It is one of foods that travelers visiting Taiwan ought to try, even if handling a zongzi with chopsticks can be a little daunting at first. Expert eaters are adept at unpacking the edible center and carefully fold the bamboo leaves on the side. Others, like me, send the bamboo leaves flying everywhere.

That evening was quiet. The photo album for that day is here:

The morning of the 31st, Debbie’s back was hurting more than the night before. We decided that it would be better for her to see a doctor rather than chance it. After breakfast, I called Hsiu-Lan to tell her that we would not be going to Dharma Drum that day. She offered to bring Debbie’s luggage to Dharma Drum. Debbie and I would stay in town so that Debbie would be able to see a doctor.

Debbie and I took a taxi to the National Taiwan University Hospital (aka Taida). I felt somewhat more comfortable with Taida than other hospitals and Debbie deferred to me in this matter. On the way to the hospital, I suggested to Debbie that it might be better for me to push her around in a wheelchair rather than let her walk. Our taxi driver made sure a wheelchair would be at hand after we arrived at the hospital.

Unfortunately, by the time we had reached the hospital, it was impossible to see a doctor in the morning. I called Hsiu-Lan to inform her of the further delays. We already had established that the hospital visit would prevent lunch with Prof. Chuang. Now, with the additional delays, it looked like we’d also miss our evening invitation to have supper with Hsiu-Lan and Bill. After talking with Hsiu-Lan, we sought the food court. I asked a passerby for directions. In response, he took upon himself to personally lead us to the elevator.

After going around the food court once and mentally noting our options, I parked Debbie’s wheelchair at the end of a table for four. I ordered noodles for Debbie from one of the food joints and something vegetarian for myself. When I came back to our table, I found that someone had decided that the unoccupied chairs were up for grabs. Luckily my chair was still unoccupied. I gave Debbie her food and sat down to eat mine. It was not the first time Debbie was using chopsticks but I think Chinese restaurants in the West arrange the food to minimize challenges. The food I ordered for her that day was not designed to spare a Westerner’s ego. It proved frustrating for Debbie.

After lunch, we came back to the waiting room upstairs. As we were waiting, another Westerner approached us. I noticed him approaching from afar but I purposely did not pay him any special attention until he addressed me. He asked me to confirm whether he was at the right place for his doctor’s appointment. I examined his appointment sheet and replied that this was where he should wait. It turns out the kid needed some sort of injection for pain in his knee, due to a martial art injury, if I recall correctly. Debbie and him compared notes about joint pain and other similar ailments.

Commentary: As a general rule, I do not show any special interest in the random Westerners I encounter when I’m in Asia. The reason is that I want to avoid feeding the erroneous assumption that all Westerners know each other. “Oh, you are Canadian, surely you must know so and so. He’s Canadian too.” Sure, Canada is a village of five people.

Eventually, Debbie’s turn came to see the doctor so I grabbed Debbie’s wheelchair and wheeled her into examination room. I had never seen (and I think Debbie neither) such a scene. The doctor was spinning left and right on his swivel chair going from one patient to the other. Two elderly women being prepped for injections were sitting on an examination table. A coterie of young medical students was present carefully observing the doctor’s performance and taking notes. After a bit, the doctor turned to us. He first asked whether we spoke any Mandarin. I explained as I would explain many times during the next two weeks that I speak a little Mandarin and my wife speaks none. Debbie explained her pain, in English. The doctor asked a few questions. Finally, he ordered an X-ray.

So I wheeled Debbie to her X-ray exam. There was already a woman waiting in line there when we arrived. Upon seeing Debbie in the wheelchair, she graciously motioned for us to go first. Debbie got her paperwork and waiting number. When the number came up, Debbie first had to change into a hospital robe and then was admitted to the X-ray room itself. The nurses asked me to wait outside the X-ray room so I don’t know exactly what happened in there. Debbie reported to me that the girls were very giggly for some reason. Whether this was just nervousness because they had to perform in English or something else entirely, we’ll never know.

I helped Debbie change back into her clothes and wheeled her back to the doctor’s waiting room. We waited again until a nurse motioned us to come over. The circus in the examination room was still as spectacular as before but the coterie of students was absent. After taking care of other patients, the doctor turned to us and started commenting on the X-ray. It soon became evident that he did not fully understand what he was seeing on the X-ray. After I explained to him what kind of surgical operation had been performed on Debbie five years earlier, he understood the picture in front of him. He showed us where Debbie’s current problem was, prescribed medicine, commented that maybe surgery would be needed again and suggested that Debbie get a corset. He said that a nurse would tell us where to get one.

After we obtained all the information we needed, we paid the hospital fee, which came to about US$50, and then took possession of Debbie’s drugs. A volunteer helped us determine that the pharmacy inside the hospital had no corsets, contrarily to what the nurses told us. The volunteer found that there was a pharmacy close to the hospital which sold corsets. She kindly took upon herself to walk us all the way to the other side of the hospital, across a street and into the store, and waited while we ordered. I assured her that we’d be able to get back but she insisted on staying with us. She accompanied us back to the hospital while I tried to thank her in Mandarin the best I could. When she figured we could no longer get lost, she parted ways with us.

Commentary: Imagine a foreigner coming to the US and having the same problem Debbie had. The hospital bill would be in the thousands of dollars. No matter how the demagogues want to explain it away, that’s inhumane.

Once we found the front entrance again, I hailed a taxi to drive us to Dharma Drum. I forgot to mention that while we were waiting for the doctor, Bill had called me to check on us. He offered to pay the taxi ride from the hospital to the college. We accepted his offer so we took a cab. When we got in the neighborhood of Keelung, our driver did not know where he was going and had to stop about five times to get directions. He had to turn around at least twice. While he was trying to figure out his way, I asked him whether he knew where he was going. Eventually we got to Dharma Drum but I was not happy with the detours we had taken. The driver recognized his mistake though and knocked off about one fourth of the fare.

It had already been planed that we would use Bill’s apartment during our stay at Dharma Drum so we headed up there. When we arrived, Bill was out with Hsiu-Lan. Eventually Bill came in. He was carrying cake and Douhua for Debbie and I, a gift from him, or Hsiu-Lan, or both, I don’t quite remember. In fact, that’s about all I remember of that evening. The stress of the day probably scrambled my brain that night.

Next episode: a huge dog!

Since September I had been looking forward to the day Debbie would be joining me in Taiwan. When I left for Taiwan, we had in mind that she would come visit during my nine-month stay. We thought her visit would both alleviate the pain of living apart for so long and take advantage of the fact that I was already going to be in Taiwan for other reasons anyway, so we might as well plan for a vacation together in Taiwan rather than France.

On December 30th had arrived the moment which for so long I had been hoping for, the day of Debbie’s coming to Taiwan. In the mid-afternoon, I took the Guo Guang bus from Dharma Drum to Taipei to greet Debbie at the airport. Debbie had surprised me two weeks earlier by announcing that she had booked a round trip to Taiwan. Just a few days before her announcement, she was still telling me how difficult it would be to find time to come to Taiwan. I was despairing that she would ever come. While riding on the bus from Dharma Drum to Taipei, I was looking forward to our long-awaited reunion but I was also concerned that maybe this reunion would be delayed. I had been keeping track of her flights online and knew that her flight from the US to Tokyo had been significantly delayed. It was not certain whether she would make the connection to her Tokyo to Taipei flight. The buses between Dharma Drum and Taipei run on such a schedule that calling the airline to know whether Debbie would be on her originally scheduled flight would have not changed anything to my travel plans. Therefore, I planed on her arriving at the airport at the expected hour.

After my arrival at the central station in Taipei, I went up to the food court on the second floor of the station to grab a quick supper at Minder Vegetarian. I then returned to the first floor and stopped at the information desk to ask about travel options to Taoyuan airport. I was planing to take the High Speed Rail but it never hurts to know about alternate possibilities for transportation. I learned that there is a Guo Guang bus which takes 40 minutes to reach the airport and costs about 120 yuan. I decided I wanted to try to HSR anyway so I bought my HSR ticket and made my way to the train. From the Taoyuan HSR station, I took the shuttle bus to the airport.

Travel tip: I now believe the best option is usually to take the HSR and the shuttle bus from the HSR to the airport. The Guo Guang is not cheaper than the HSR by much and is not as convenient. A taxi from the central station area costs about 1100 yuan and is not faster than the HSR. I know because I’ve also done the trip by taxi.

Arriving at the airport just a bit before Debbie’s scheduled arrival time of 7:30PM, I congratulated myself on my planing. As I looked anxiously at the arrival announcements, I saw that her plane would arrive on time. So when people started streaming out of the immigration and customs area, I kept my eyes on the exit to make sure I would not miss Debbie when she came out. And I waited, and I waited, and I waited, and she did not come. When it was clear to me that she was not on her flight, I went to the information desk and asked for help. The clerk put me in touch with Japan Airlines, which confirmed that Debbie had not been able to make her connection but would be on the next flight from Tokyo.

Commentary: I don’t know how different flights which are sharing the same plane (i.e. code-shares) can arrive at different times. And yet, this is precisely what the arrival board was showing. My wife’s flight arrived before the other flights which were on the same plane!

So I had to wait some more. I called Hsiu-Lan to let her know that Debbie was going to be late. Hsiu-Lan had helped us book a room at the Beauty Age Hotel (Meidai) for that night. Hsiu-Lan and I had also been planing to maybe ride together to Dharma Drum the next day. After the call, I explored the airport, spotted where the buses arrive and leave, bought new batteries for my camera, had a coffee. Finally, Debbie’s flight arrived, and just as Debbie came out of customs, my phone rang. It was Hsiu-Lan calling to check on the situation. So I ran to greet Debbie, all the while talking to Hsiu-Lan on the phone. Not quite what I had imagined when I was thinking of Debbie’s arrival. At any rate, when the phone call was over, I finally was able to welcome Debbie properly. (Feel free to imagine what “properly” means.) I also quickly learned from her that her back was hurting. She said that the pain developed during the flight from Tokyo to Taipei. This was the first sign to me that our trip around Taiwan might not go as planed.

I was initially planing to go to the hotel by public transportation but after hearing Debbie talk about her back pain, I asked her what kind of transportation she preferred. We took a taxi to our hotel. We were expected there so checking in was speedy. After receiving a tip from me, the bellboy who took our luggage to our room decided to show us the location of all the light switches in the room. Beauty Age is a hot spring hotel so our room had a large bath, large enough for two people to be submerged to the neck and still have plenty of room to move. So Debbie and I took advantage of the hot spring bath. We were hoping the warmth of the hot spring would help her back pain.

Travel tip: A taxi from Taoyuan to Beitou can make sense because it does save significant time. What does not make sense is a taxi to between the airport and the central station in Taipei. Of course, all of my tips are subject to modification depending on specific circumstances.

Next attraction: the hospital.

For now, you can check out a map of our travels I created with Google maps. It is not finished but is usable.

Stay tuned for future updates. (NB: posts about our travel will be posted in the same categories as this post.)