For this year, we took a different approach, and decided to give you all a treat – a sticky rice dumpling treat to be exact. A local community center had a dumpling-fest, and we decided to take the Teaboy along and make it a family outing. We were told it was a free event, and all we had to do was pick up the ingredients, do the basic preparations at home, then bring the rice, filling, and bamboo leaves to the center for wrapping. What we weren’t told was that we were preparing 5kg of materials for all the other neighbors to share, and that we were only allowed to keep 6 dumplings for ourselves. Despite not getting to keep enough dumplings to make more than a snack for the three of us, we did have a lot of fun, and the people were very friendly.

The basic procedure is as follows:

Fold 2 bamboo leaves into a pocket.

Spoon in some rice (uncooked).

 Add meat or other filling. 

Then a bit more rice.

Fold the top down, pinching the leaves together (makes a ‘wedgie’ – (snicker)), and then fold the leaf around one side to seal it.

 Tie the dumpling together with a string.

After preparing the dumplings, they are steamed or boiled until the rice is cooked, then eaten.  Yummy!

Here are a few more photos from the event – the Teaboy and myself giving it our best shot, and some of the more ‘professional’ grandmas and aunties in attendance. You’d have thought they were baking pies the way some of them were going at it. Enjoy!

Hope you all have a wonderful year!!!!

Traditionally, Chinese follow a lunar calendar system, which is why the New Year’s Eve falls on a different day each year, usually between the end of January and mid-February. For more information on the usual customs, foods, etc. click HERE.

If you’re interested in the Chinese Zodiac (the 12 animals – Ox is the 2nd in sequence if I remember correctly) click HERE.

One of the main traditions of this holiday is to post Chinese couplets around the door of the home to bring luck, health, money, or any combination of these to the family. There are lots of vendors set up to sell these around town, but the weather was pretty bad so I didn’t venture out to take pictures as I’d planned to.

The front of our house is very exposed, and the past 2 years, the couplets I put up were literally ripped from the wall within days. This year I took a different tack, and I think it will pay off well. After writing my own couplets on red paper (the left one is basically for prosperity & wealth, the right one for health and happiness), I glued them to plywood and varnished them heavily. Then I mounted them next to the door with screws. Can’t wait for typhoon season now!!!

This year was pretty low-key for us. As my family is all in the US, we naturally visited the in-laws for dinner (and copious amounts of tea of course!) followed by a few friendly rounds of Mah Jong, including the Teaboy’s first introduction to the game(it requires 4 players, and I was too preoccupied with my gaiwan to get interested).

My own personal ‘celebration’ was to finally purchase the tea board I’ve been drooling over for almost 2 years. This beauty is a piece of Taiwan Cypress that has been sanded down smooth. The coloring is from tea spills being wiped into the surface over time. Seeing this (and the smaller ones that Master Tsai uses regularly in his tea room) inspired me to start working on my own tea boards as well.

On the way home from our Landrover Camping Trip, we decided to make a short detour up into the bamboo groves for a visit to my favorite spot in all of Taiwan – we usually just refer to it as ‘the mountain’ – a dead-end farmer’s access in a natural bamboo forest that overlooks the valley I lived in before the 9/21 (1999) earthquake hit the area.

Since we were driving a Landrover Defender 110, I felt we could probably handle the road up to the grove. I hadn’t been back there for about a year and a half, and wasn’t even sure there would be a road anymore. Turns out I was pretty much right! The jungle takes over quickly, and it looked like the locals hadn’t been using this area for a couple of years. Despite the overgrowth and some deep potholes (caused by typhoon runoff),  we had a very easy ascent. After I scouted the route and returned to the vehicle, Mrs. Teaguy asked, “Can we just not drive up there?” I shook my head slowly and replied, “We’re driving a Defender, dear, so, no, it’s not possible for us to not drive up there!”

After getting to the halfway point where the trail cuts back to the right, the road was more visible and easier to navigate. I engaged the differential locks for extra traction in the wet foilage, but we didn’t really need them. The only real ‘roadblock’ was a bamboo cane that was growing horizontally across the road, but my Leatherman tool made a quick job of getting us through that!

It was great to see all of the new bamboo growth – the forest seems to be doing well. I found this spot on my first weekend living in Jiji. I was trying to find my way up to the top of the mountain (on my motorcycle) when I came to a fork in the road (it was much better maintained in those days, so there was less adventure driving around). My dog, Bojangles, who was running along in front of me, took the right hand fork and led me up to this spot. We ended up spending the rest of the day here, then heading home. It’s been my favorite spot ever since. When Bojangles was hit by a van 6 months later, I buried him here, and come back to drink tea with him as often as I can.

The road down the mountain is much better than it used to be – it’s been paved in recent years – but clearing the  jungle back to improve the roads leaves them prone to mudslides from the heavy typhoon rains. Luckily we were still able to pass through this section here. There’s also a tea farm down below the bamboo, that grows Jin Hsuen and Sz Ji Chwun (two kinds of oolong tea).

This was their yearly Landrover get-together, so there were booths set up for a number of sponsers (mostly camping gear, tire company reps, and Landrover accessory manufacturers). That meant lots of planned activities, which include loud music and frequent announcements, so it wasn’t exactly the quiet getaway I’d anticipated.

To get away from the hubbub, we took a walk down the highway to where the bridge washed out a couple of years ago. Further up in the mountains from here there is a bed & breakfast place we used to go to – an aborignial-style stone farmhouse, wood-fired water heater, and electricity provided only by generator. We had to drive down a very steep and narrow road, then ford the river twice to get there, but it was always worth the trip. With this main bridge out, there’s no longer any access to his place, so he’s moved to the Sun Moon Lake area a few miles to the north.

We had originally planned to do some off-road driving on Saturday, but the nearby river was still very muddy from the September typhoons, and the bridge leading in to some good driving areas was washed out. So, our driving excitement was limited to running the ‘baby course’ at the campsite. It’s mostly there for SUV people to have a chance to get their tires dirty, although the kids really enjoyed taking turns in the vintage Defender shown here.

We had been told meals were buffet-style barbecues, but they turned out to be more buffet than barbecue. While the food was pretty good, fried noodles and soup just don’t enhance the camping experience the way canned chili, hotdogs, and s’mores do! Fortunately, we were on our own for breakfast, which meant banana pancakes for me and the teaboy!

I was a little excited when I saw them preparing wood for a large fire on the last night, but that almost didn’t work out either.  As they got the fire started, one of the campers brought over a 5-gallon can of diesel fuel and started to dump it on the fire – until a buddy suggested he put the fuel in a cup first instead of pouring directly from the can. After 3 cups of diesel, which did manage to increase the fire, they then dumped several handfuls of wet leaves on top, smothering the whole thing. I finally stepped in, and after a few minutes they left me alone to deal with it, meaning we ended up with a cheery, well-tended fire for the rest of the evening. I even managed to toast a few marshmallows for the Teaboy and some of the other kids hanging around. Now that’s what camping is all about!

When I asked if he had room for my family and I, he replied, “Well, do you want to drive the Discovery or the Defender?” It wasn’t a hard question to answer!  I hadn’t been camping in Taiwan for several years, and still miss my off-roading days of yore. I signed on for the Defender 110, and the preparations began. I ended up bringing Aliang and his boy along as well, so we had 5 in our car total. We left Taipei in a 3 vehicle convoy, but added a couple more Landrovers on the way down (friends of Billy’s).

The trip down took us through Miaoli county, and we stopped at a temple near Shr Tan, which is where Aaron likes to go for high-quality spring water. We also rested for awhile at Ming De Reservoir, a popular hiking & fishing area near Miaoli City. The weather was very nice, and it was great to be out in the hills again. As you can see from the photos, Taiwan is a very lush and green country once you get away from the concrete jungle.

After topping up the tanks on our way through Nantou, we finally headed up into the mountains in the late afternoon. Part of the main road was flooded out during the typhoons we had this year, so we had to detour up over a mountain on a steep 1-lane farm road, pulling off at one point to wait about 15 minutes for traffic coming up the other side to clear before we could go down. 

Other than a few recently-cleared rockslides, the rest of the drive in was fairly uneventful. We arrived at the camp with just enough time to get our tents set up before nightfall, and then fixed some dinner.  There was a big crowd at the camp – over 100 Landrover vehicles were there, plus other campers as well – so it was a bit noisy, but things settled down by 11pm. I ended up sitting out with a British friend, Larry, who was visiting Billy in Taiwan and came along with us, drinking tea and chatting until about 3am.

Well, I was going to skip posting about this typhoon because it didn’t seem like a big deal, but it suddenly swerved (literally6 90-degree turn) into us, and is probably the largest & strongest typhoon to hit us in a couple of years. Seems we always get a good one about the same time the US does.

As you can see from the photo, the eye is very large and well-formed, which means a stronger storm. This one is currently (9/12, 11pm)sustaining winds of 115-120mph, which means it’s a credible threat. Taiwan is under the white clouds directly left of the eye, and I hope we’re still there when it passes over! We’ve had strong winds the past two days, and from this afternoon some serious rain began pounding the Taipei area.

Naturally, the storm will be past us on Sunday, so there won’t be a need for a day off next week (yay!). I’ll update through the weekend as it passes through. Along with my usual preparations (see Typhoon Prep), this time I’ve added a ‘storm shield’ across the front door. When the wind blows really hard, the front door gets pounded with rain, which runs down and under the door into the house. Hopefully we’ll avoid that this time (if it works, I’ll post up a picture – if it doesn’t, I’ll post a picture of the ‘swiming pool’ in our living room!).

Here’s the weather bureau link if you want to check it out: http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/index.htm. You can play around with the various views. The 12-hour button is my favorite, because it shows hourly shots of the storm so that you can see how it develops and moves.

UPDATE: Seems we got lucky again. The high winds didn’t hit (at least our area) overnight, and the storm is already downgraded to tropical storm status. The weather is still nasty enough that I’m cancelling my tutoring classes today, so I’ll probably get busy and catch up on my blogging (and maybe drink some tea as well ).

At A Liang’s recent Tea Lecture, we got to enjoy fresh air, lush mountain scenery, and of course, some gnarly nature! His friend’s farm is home to all sorts of interesting critters. Two that stood out are featured here – if you’re squeamish, skip this one!

I arrived at their place around 10:00am to set up the teaware, and noticed this little guy hanging around the main door into the coffee shop. It had a very large web (about 5ft. across) from the eaves of the house to a small tree. There is also a large hive of bees up under the eaves, and they seem to be this fellow’s main diet. Around 11, the bees started swarming for some reason, and 5 or 6 got caught in this web within a few minutes, so naturally I got the camera out! For size reference, the body is about the length of my thumb, and the legspan is about the same as my hand with fingers outstretched. They are poisonous, although I’m not sure how dangerous to people they are.

Our ‘special guest’ appeared in the early afternoon (around 1:00, when everyone was here for lunch, naturally). No doubt about this one – he’s called a ‘Bamboo Snake’, and is a kind of pit viper. One website I checked says this one most aggresively attacks people, although the poison is rarely fatal (Click HERE for more information on poisonous snakes in Taiwan). He was hanging around in the bushes right next to our lunch pavilion, and the owner said he’d probably been there all morning (note above where I mention I was setting up the teaware all morning right in front of this guy!). Fortunately he’s got a snake grabber (same as mine), and he said he gets at least 1 snake a week, and quite a few of these guys, so no big deal. He released it across the road in a small gully, and hopefully it won’t be back.

I really struggled with the decision to write this post – it’s a hard thing to admit to the whole world one is getting older. I turned ?? on Friday, August 8th (let’s just say I was born in the Year of the Horse, and you can go figure it out on your own HERE, ok??) and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the Chinese Olympic Committee for having such a grand celebration in my honor!

I had a really hot celebration this year – 102 deg.F to be exact – because I caught a nasty virus and was (still am actually) feeling rather miserable. Although I managed to get through the work day on Thursday, I spent most of Friday sleeping, partly due to the fact that I (accidentally) double-dosed on my meds. The health care system is pretty good here, although it’s abused regularly. It was cheaper for me to see a doctor and get prescription drugs for 3 days (about US$5) than it would have been to buy cold medicine over the counter, so people often go to a clinic or even the emergency room for headaches and minor pains.

Anyway, the important thing is that Aaron is back from Malaysia, and had invited me down for tea Saturday, which I naturally wasn’t going to miss out on. I called up the Captain (my tea drinking buddy) and asked if he wanted to take a bike ride. We had a great trip down through Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, taking smaller back roads along winding river valleys and forests of bamboo, until finally coming out in Miaoli City. As always, Aaron’s hospitality was excellent, and we had a relaxing afternoon (with some great teas) and an awesome veggie lunch.

By way of gifts, I got a new teapot from A Liang, a Ching Dynasty teacup, and a Malaysian lucky charm (both from Aaron), plus a nice bike ride and some wonderful company, so all in all I had a very good birthday in spite of everything. When I got home Saturday evening, I put on some Van Morrison (Hymns to the Silence) and enjoyed some Tieh Kuan Yin in my new cup. It tastes pretty good Aaron!

Also, thanks to Aunt Yvonne & Uncle Sonny for the birthday card. You picked an extremely appropriate one for me this year!

There wasn’t a lot of damage in the Taipei area, but man, did we get a lot of rain! My dog pen behind the house ( a covered area between our house and retaining wall where I keep our two dogs) had about 5 inches of standing water in it, and I ended up putting the dogs in the house for most of Monday. The record for this storm was at Tai Ping Mt. on the east coast, which ended up with a total of 32 inches from Sunday – Monday afternoon. Other areas had between 15 – 20 inches of rain on average. The quickest accumulation was a city on the western plains in Chia Yi county, which had 3 1/2 inches of rain in 1 hour yesterday. Imagine what that would do to the Magic Valley!!

Overall, I guess we were pretty lucky this time, but we’re likely to get 3 – 4 more before the end of our typhoon season (October), so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

My first job after a late breakfast was to go out and secure my yard a bit better. I have a tarped roof over my picnic table, which we use for BBQ and tea drinking. I’m quite proud of it because I designed and built it myself (after a fair amount of trial and error), and it’s lasted for 4 years now. Fortunately, It’s built to be taken down quickly.

I start by taking out the bamboo supports that keep the tarp from sagging. Then it’s just a matter of unhooking the bungee cord (a great idea) from the hooks (I used 3″ cement wall anchors for the hooks – another great idea). After rolling the tarp off the frame, I wrap it around my lawn furniture, and tie everything down. If the winds get too strong, I can unbolt the frame and have it down in about 5 minutes, but usually I just tie it down as well. With the center of the storm coming across central Taiwan, I think we’ll be OK.

We’ll also tape our large picture windows (this keeps the glass from flying around if the windows break), but nobody here ever boards up their shops or houses like in the US. This is a shot of our upstairs balcony (off of the Teaboy’s bedroom). Three summers ago, the roof came off, and the windows shattered out (we still find broken glass in the yard). Last year, the wind was stong enough to take the paint off of this retaining wall, but the house didn’t have any damage.

These shots don’t show it very well, but the clouds are moving in really fast now. In any case, this is the view from our front yard (looking East). The post-typhoon weather is usually very clear, and I’ll try to get better shots Monday or Tuesday.

Oh, by the way, the bug in the opening shot is some kind of moth I found sleeping under some stuff – just thought it had cool markings, so I included the shot.