In hindsight I suspect that what my problem was in Taiwan was that I contracted some sort of low-level stomach bug early on and kept aggravating it because I was stupid like that -- I can be unhelpfully good at ignoring low-level discomfort until it becomes critical -- instead of just taking it easy and giving myself time to heal up completely. So now I know, if I ever end up going there again.
I have to say that I really loved Taiwan. It's beautiful and the people are very open and inquisitive about visitors, particularly when you get out of Taipei (which is interesting, but in some ways just another Big City, and very polluted). In Japan, I rarely had the experience of people just walking up to me in the street or the public market to ask me where I was from and why I was visiting their town, even when I was outside of the big cities; in Taiwan, it was pretty common to have people just strike up a conversation even when they knew you didn't speak Chinese and they didn't speak English. Lots of pointing and nodding and gesturing. Very informal, especially after Japan.
You might enjoy visiting someday. Especially in the south, there are hordes of natural hot springs, many of which have been turned into soaking spa-type baths and are about as far from onsen, culturally, as you can get without going to California and going hot tubbing. Families bobbing around in the soup, giggling kids playing with beachballs, muddy un-paved paths, picnickers, and such. It's very laid-back.
Fortunately, when I was there I didn't have to worry about the dairy issue at all -- not only does dairy just not figure much in most Asian cuisines (yay!) but I wasn't allergic to casein back then. The allergy set in only in the last year or so, oddly enough.
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Date: 2005-04-17 03:10 pm (UTC)In hindsight I suspect that what my problem was in Taiwan was that I contracted some sort of low-level stomach bug early on and kept aggravating it because I was stupid like that -- I can be unhelpfully good at ignoring low-level discomfort until it becomes critical -- instead of just taking it easy and giving myself time to heal up completely. So now I know, if I ever end up going there again.
I have to say that I really loved Taiwan. It's beautiful and the people are very open and inquisitive about visitors, particularly when you get out of Taipei (which is interesting, but in some ways just another Big City, and very polluted). In Japan, I rarely had the experience of people just walking up to me in the street or the public market to ask me where I was from and why I was visiting their town, even when I was outside of the big cities; in Taiwan, it was pretty common to have people just strike up a conversation even when they knew you didn't speak Chinese and they didn't speak English. Lots of pointing and nodding and gesturing. Very informal, especially after Japan.
You might enjoy visiting someday. Especially in the south, there are hordes of natural hot springs, many of which have been turned into soaking spa-type baths and are about as far from onsen, culturally, as you can get without going to California and going hot tubbing. Families bobbing around in the soup, giggling kids playing with beachballs, muddy un-paved paths, picnickers, and such. It's very laid-back.
Fortunately, when I was there I didn't have to worry about the dairy issue at all -- not only does dairy just not figure much in most Asian cuisines (yay!) but I wasn't allergic to casein back then. The allergy set in only in the last year or so, oddly enough.