It's been years and years since I visited Taiwan. Remembered a 10-day Chinese immersion trip taken as a student who had to polish her command of the language to the requirements of an O'level paper taken at Secondary Three. Swallowed lots of martial arts novels (武俠小說) in a bid to hasten my understanding of the traditional Chinese script (which Taiwan and Hong Kong adopt) as opposed to what had been taught in Singapore schools, the simplified script that China uses.
Couldn't recall much of that school trip. Neither keen on the Taiwanese pop scene, movies, television dramas nor food, I've never felt the urge to visit the country again in a hurry. The man, is violently nauseated by the smell of tea eggs (茶葉蛋) and unwelcome memories as a National Serviceman based in Taiwan for a bit, and hasn't been hot about visiting it again either. Only recently, pushed by a renewed interest in Chinese tea, and H who shares the interest, as well as A, who randomly decided that we should all go, Taipei became a reality. From the time we sat down for a chat at the cafe to figure out dates, and sent the first email to discuss plans in earnest, the trip's confirmed in two weeks. We didn't spend much time dawdling over it. Air-tickets, accommodation and general itinerary all done. Efficiency, max. I like.
The girls have been flooded at work for the past two weeks. I definitely have spare energy to draft out an itinerary for us. Happily did so. Strange towns, names and locations, no problem. We'll just get lost and have some fun. Honestly, knowing the language makes traveling around a city/country such a breeze. I dislike package tours, and once I acquired the right to reject joining organized package tours (think forced family trips), I've never taken them again. With the power of the internet, working directly with vendors instead of going through a middleman to arrange my trips, is almost easy.
This entire trip, is tea-centric. However, heading out to the plantations isn't part of the itinerary. We won't have time to hit Taichung or Tainan. We want to be very focused and explore Taipei's teahouses and tea culture, both for business and pleasure. We're not even bothered to list out the interesting restaurants to pop in. Food isn't high on the priority list. Meal times will be uncertain, and we'll just eat at whatever eatery along the way. H and I, are clear that we can immerse ourselves in tea the whole trip. Even though I know A well and have travelled loads with her, we're worried that she, being a coffee drinker, might get prickly at all this talk about tea 24/7. Don't even know where to find her a cup of decent coffee. She reassured us she'll be fine. Okay. We take her word for it.
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