The THL
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2008
1
10
20
Trip End
May 09, 2008
Tainan,
Taiwan
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
There was considerably more traffic this morning than we had seen before, mostly because we left during rush hour. I am still amazed at how they manage to drive cars without killing the people driving scooters. The scooters zip everywhere, in and out of traffic with out much heed. Patrick tells me that when we get to Taipei, I will see that traffic there is more orderly because the traffic rules are stronger. No doubt they would have to be. I'm not sure they could be more lax.
The THL is located in an industrial park in Tainan County, just outside the city. Today was a bit less hazy than yesterday so we were able to see more of what surrounded us. Lots of fish ponds and way off in the distance, the outline of the city of Tainan
Lunch
. About 9 am, we were shown to our "Guest Office" and advised that Dr Wu would be in shortly to discuss his Piedmont project. Left to our own devices, we all pulled out our laptops and tried to get on the internet. We quickly discovered this wasn't possible. Patrick was able to get Melinda logged on, but the wireless system kept going up and down so it wasn't entirely useful.Melinda, Ted, Shuying, and I spent the next 3 hours or so having our own discussion about the Piedmont program in North Carolina. Because the 4 of us are usually separated across most of the state, it was very helpful to have an unorganized period of time to discuss the 10 years of operation of the program and brainstorm ideas to make Phase II even more relevant.
Dr Wu stopped by about 12:30p and apologized for leaving us alone for the morning. He suggested that we go get lunch with Patrick and Allen at a local town, stop by to see the local temple (which evidently is a very famous tourist attraction) and then meet back at the THL at 2pm. We were very hungry so it sounded good to us.
We drove a few kilometers to the town and stopped at a small open air store run by a middle aged woman. There were large baskets of spices like garlic and ginger. At the front of the store was the cooking area, which consisted of several gas burners run from a small propane tank. We walked past the cooking area into a small room in the back containing several wooden tables and benches.
Shuying interprets lunch menu
The room was covered with wallpaper that made it look like you were eating in the middle of a bamboo forest. We went through the usual difficulty of interpreting the menu written only in Chinese into an English description. Melinda and I fell back to our usual "something with chicken" choice, while the ever adventurous and vegetarian Ted wanted something without meat. Vegetarian, evidently is not an easy request, because all of the soups were made with a meat based broth. Alan brought Ted a sample of a deep fried dumpling with a mysterious grey substance inside. Ted said they were very tasty and ordered that, then he shared with us. They were very good, and believe it or not, reminded me of a deep fried pierogie, though from the outside they looked like a Tostino's pizza roll.
Shuying was stumped as to how to translate the name of the mysterious substance into an English equivalent. Patrick said he thought it was called "toad" in english. After a description of how it was grown, we figured out that it must be taro root. I have always heard that taro is bland and tasteless. Not when prepared however these were. Melinda and I did get some sort of sauted chicken meal as well as dumpling soup. Once again I did not leave hungry.
After eating we only had 10 mins to get back to the THL to meet Dr Wu. Instead of getting to tour the temple, we only had time to take a few photos from the car. Since I was sitting closest to the sliding door of the van, I was nominated to be the subject in the photo
our lunch chef
. I did take quite a few photos, though I'm not quite sure what I was taking a picture of.Back at the THL, Dr Wu joined us about 2:30pm and we began discussing their project in earnest. Dr Wu seems very puzzled by the fact that our REP project in North Carlina doesn't have a leader who at which whom "the buck stops". The concept of 2 different agencies, one Federal and one State, working together using only a coordinator as a financial go between is a nearly impossible model in Asian business society.
We did have a lot to discuss and did not finish until around 6pm. When we opened the door to leave, we were overwhelmed by Madonna's newest song blaring over the PA system. Evidently, an alarm of some sort signals the end of the work day, and at the THL someone decided that Madonna's song was an appropriate indicator. Anyway, off we go to dinner.
Dinner was just us, Dr Wu, Patrick, and Alan. That goodness, no formal dinner. We drove through Tainan City to a small eatery near a high school stadium. Complicating our trip was traffic from people attending a near by professional baseball game. Baseball is rabidly followed in Taiwan and they are very proud of a local player (last name Wang) who is now a pitcher for the NY Yankees. I asked Patrick what kind of food we could buy if we went to the baseball game and he said you can't buy food, only beer. They are allowed to bring into the stadium as much food as they would like. I explained that in the US we can't bring in food or drinks and instead paid inflated prices, but it was all part of the experience
Yes I know, don't ask what they are
. My description of hot dog, beer, and peanut vendors was enhanced by Ted who demonstrated a typical vendor chant. We told Patrick that if he came to the US during baseball season, we would take him to a game, because he needed to experience it himself. Both Ted and I would love to see a game here. We'll see what we can do on Sunday in our off time.At the restaurant, we discovered just how much pull Dr Wu had. The eatery was full, and after much discussion Dr Wu convinced the owner to open up the third floor just for us. Things were a bit dusty, but after a bit of clean up, we sat down to eat. Again, Dr Wu ordered an enormous meal, everything we at was very tasty. I especially liked a dish of cod that was broiled in garlic butter and covered with a bread crumb consistency things made of soy. There also was a type of bread that looked like a small Italian loaf, but was much crispier on the outside. Dr Wu said the dough is made out of rice flour and it is deep fried. Not very healthy I'm sure, but very tasty.
It was after 9pm when we returned to our hotel. We are checking out of our hotel at 7am tomorrow and going to Taipei. We will not have enough room to take our big suitcases, so I will have to stuff 4 days worth of clothes into my computer bag and back pack. Hmmm... it will force me to pack light.
