We looked up the terminal number online and headed that way after negotiating the expressways leading there. The huge underground carpark had to be seen to be believed and we found a spot not too far from the action. We then waited outside the arrival hall with our sign, as Chris and Val were actually expecting our erstwhile driver, Daniel, to be doing the honours. They got a huge surprise and it was great to see the look on their faces when they realised it was us.
Luggage and bodies safely quartered away in the Honda, we made our way back to Tienmu and we’d already had a mini catch-up by the time we got home. We didn’t really feel ready to face the town on Saturday night, so we ordered takeaway Alleycats pizza, which seemed a good choice.
We were all a bit tired, so after an early night and a relatively late start to our Sunday, we were ready to mosey down to the Jade Market in the early afternoon. This gargantuan temple to all things jade and jewelry is rather confronting for menfolk, and I’ve told this story on these pages before. Suffice to say that Chris and I were partly reluctant participants and managed to fall into a despond of boredom in proceedings after about 10 minutes! We relied on having chats about this and that while Cass and Valerie pored over various tables of black pearls, where Val was looking for a colour and size match for the earrings she was wearing to buy a pearl for a pendant. She was eventually successful in her quest after, I must admit, a very short period of checking and deliberation!
On the way of course, we dealt with the excitement of Taipei’s rapid transit system. It really is very slick, and we were sandwiched against a bunch of 10th graders from school whom Cassy and I both had taught over the years. They didn’t realise I was there for a few stops and they were mortified when they spotted us as they had been using some not inappropriate, but rather colourful language about certain things on the way down! When we changed trains and negotiated the swarm of humanity at main station we transited to the eastern Nangang line just for a couple of stops.
The walk to the Jade Market is pleasant on wide boulevards but not terribly inspiring, so I decided to use a little of the time to give my sister Jen a ring. I actually wanted to speak to her daughter Ellen as I had set her a mission which I needed to fulfill at the market, but I hadn’t stressed any urgency, so she hadn’t got around to it yet. It was no problem whatsoever, but it was funny to hear Jen’s voice and long hesitation when I said hello: I think she recognized the voice but took a while to compute as it was kinda weird to hear from me out of the blue like that!
By the time we got back, we were all a bit spent, so again deceided to be home bodies for tea and had some left over pizza and toasted sangas, along with some delicious pineapple that Valerie had bought literally from the “back of a truck” from the little man camped outside the train station.
It’s always a little surreal at first to have visitors in our house over here, but it’s a very pleasant experience: it’s good to see our family members in this our adopted environment and enjoy seeing Taipei through different eyes again! Photos: Cass and Val at “Pho” Vietnamese at Taipei Main Station, looking at pearls at the jade market, dog in a bag (!) and some of the amazing bonsai at the adjacent and just as big Flower market. Cassy is reading a book that Gurecki lent me,Home Game, an accidental guide to fatherhood by Michael Lewis
