Travel Grove and Cheap Airfares

I've been writing for three years for my blog and have a chance to receive some compensation now. I also wrote a post about this issue earlier, so this below is a sponsored review.

Anyway, this post is for a travel site. I don't have anything against traveling, not at all. I hope people will through traveling and having their eyes opened learn to see the world in a way that doesn't lead them to look at each other with suspicion or call others who might look dissimilar, who could have a different skin color, "foreigner," etc. Therefore, I don't have any issue with putting up this information for Travel Grove and Cheap Airfares. Their Web site is a meta-search engine that helps users find cheap offers. If you are looking to travel check them out. You could save some money. They save the best prices found by users and then display it to you when you are searching for the same thing, so though, the page is not perfect, this service can be useful. You will find offers like cheap flights to Chicago, or how about something that is closer to us, in Asia, cheap flights to Hong Kong. If you want to read about these destinations, you can also do that. You can find many up to date travel guides in the top menu of their homepage so you can check Hong Kong sights.

The Travel Grove representative who contacted me seemed pretty cool. She said I could write whatever I wanted, but could I please include the links above. That's it. If you have further questions, you can reach her at lidia@travelgrove.net. Her name is, surprise-surprise, Lidia.

You might see some of these posts from time to time. I'm not against advertising when it suits the mandate of my blog. Once again, I don't have any issues with people seeing the world as cheaply as they can. And I have been providing content for Patrick Cowsill Wanhua Taiwan for three years. If I can put a few bucks in my pocket every now and then, what's the problem with that? Do you have an issue with me supplementing my efforts with the odd advertisement? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments component then. I would never put an ad up that I found problematic, and would kill this program if someone were to make a reasonable argument for killing it. 

On traveling, as the poet once said: "Come, my friends, / 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. / Push off, and sitting well in order smite / The sounding  furrows; for my purpose holds / To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths / Of all the western stars, until I die."

Madou (麻豆), Taiwan: Coming Home

Madou's (麻豆的) most famous restaurant: Allen's Wagui 阿蘭碗粿

We stopped off at Madou (麻豆), a suburb of Tainan, for a bowl or two of wagui, during our Lunar New Year visit to the south. The dish wagui is like hard creamy wheat, with garlic soy sauce. The restaurant pictured above is the region's most hopping place, thanks in large part to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). It was his family's destination of choice. The line-ups when we visited were long and the table-space limited. During lunch, I mentioned to my wife and her family Madou used to be called Mattau during the Dutch colonial era. It was one of 13 Aboriginal villages they kept an eye on, that were directly within their realm. My wife asked me what the word meant, but I didn't know. Obviously Madou (麻豆) is a Chinese re-working, like Koahsiung of Takao, etc.

I checked W.M. Campbell's Formosa Under the Dutch for clarification on the name, but couldn't find an answer. There are some interesting references. Campbell's book is a collection of letters, translated from Dutch into English in 1903, covering letters home from the 11 governors http://patrick-cowsill.blogspot.com/2006/09/taiwans-first-governor.html that served in Taiwan from 1624 to 1661. Here are some snippets on Madou (麻豆), previously called Mattau: "Allowance Made to Native Teacher.... While writing this, everything is progressing favourably, the Lord daily adding to His church those who will be saved. The schools are prospering. In these six villages [Soulang, Mattau, Sinkan, Bakloan, Tavakan and Tevorang] there are about six hundred school-children, some of whom can write tolerably well in Latin characters, as you will be able to see from their own writing, which our Rev. brother will take over with him. But, alas! while the harvest is great, the laborers are few" (October 7, 1643). 

Another item that catches my eye is "Destruction of the Idols" on page 165: "This took place first at Soulang on the 19th instant, and then at Mattau on the 20th, on which occasions the elders addressed those present in the name of all inhabitants in the following words: 'The Governor has now personally appeared among us as an everlasting memorial to our children and our children's children, that on this day we have cast away our idols as a sure and certain sign that, in the presence of His Excellency, we have sworn to forsake our gods and declared ourselves willing to be instructed by these venerable clergyman in the true doctrine of Jesus Christ...'" (December 12, 1637). The Dutch eventually disappeared from Taiwan's history. They were replaced by Koxinga (鄭成功) and then the Ching Dynasty followed by Japanese and KMT colonial times leading up to today's democratic period. Christianity, generally speaking, gave way to the Chinese concepts mixed with Aboriginal symbols that we have now. Interestingly, something like 80 percent of the "pure" Aborigines as they're seen by the census still view themselves as Christians. 

Madou (麻豆), which occupied such a central place in Dutch thinking (I count 42 references to Mattau in Campbell's collection of letters), has slipped into a sidebar of Taiwanese history. Mattau's undying cooperation with the Dutch gives them a particular place in Taiwan's history. Campbell's records leading up to the Dutch fall to Koxinga (鄭成功) in 1661-2 capture the following: "the Mattau people who left on April 27 [1661] for the mountains to punish the rebellious Dunckeduckians, returned with three heads which they had struck off. According to the former heathenish custom when celebrating a triumph, they began to dance round these heads and to perform other ridiculous antics."

This account is not an over-and-out for the history of Madou. There's more to this sleepy town resting beside the freeway some 10 kilometers north of Tainan than its hardened rice gruel that has intrigued Taiwan's former first family in recent years.

Huazhong Bridge in Wanhua Taiwan

My family visits "Go Go Land" under the Huazhong Bridge (華中橋) in Wanhua (萬華) or Manka (艋舺), if you like, regularly. On weekends, local venders set up a traditional arcade. It includes shrimp and goldfish fishing (see above pic), traditional pinball, which issues tickets for prizes, and a ping pong ball throw. There is also a Thomas the Train ride which my daughter likes. It's hauled in on a three-wheeled motorbike.

According to its plaque, the Huazhong Bridge (華中橋) was completed in 1975, though it looks much older, thanks to wear and tear from the city's pollution and the Danshui River, over which it reaches. Huazhong Bridge is special for several reasons. First, it connects Monga (艋舺) to Zhonghe (中和), once a sprawling countryside of emerald-green rice paddies but now one of the most densely populated suburbs in the world. The bridge is also an interesting example of 1970 / 1980 architecture, viewed as shoddy by many. Flaws in the era's construction were revealed following the 1999 earthquake, a 7.3 with an epicenter in central Taiwan. Buildings, almost exclusively from this period, fell in an instant, exposing the corruption of builders who were in cahoots with officials. Columns were cracked open so that everyone could see they were hollow. Sometimes they were stuffed with newspapers or bottles to extract the echo should someone knock on them, but this was laid bare too. Hundreds of buildings lacked the basic amounts of concrete needed to keep them standing.

The shoddiness of this kind of architecture also speaks to Taiwan's unique history. Until 1945, the country was a colony of the Japanese. During the colonial period, the Japanese put up some magnificent and long-standing buildings, such as the Presidential Building and Biology Museum in 2-28 Park. All around this core, architecture remains as a reminder to Taiwan's impressive progress 115 years ago until the Second World War. After the US allowed the KMT to escape to Taiwan, things changed. The KMT invaders, intent on returning to China, saw little use in pumping money into Taiwan. For 30 years, general infrastructure spending stagnated as Chiang Kai Shek's regime siphoned off funds to the military and developing alliances overseas, in a policy of checkbook diplomacy.

By the 1970s, it became apparent that Chiang and his team were going nowhere. They were losing it internationally and having a hard time maintaining legitimacy at home. Taiwan was booming economically, and the democratic movement was gaining a footing. In 1973, the KMT regime, scrambling to remain relevant, implemented the Ten Major Construction Projects (十大建設):

1. A National Highway
2. A Northern-Link Railroad
3. An International Airport in Taoyuan

4. A Port in Taichung

5. A Port in Su-ao

6. Electrification of the Western Railroad

7. A Steel Factory
8. A Shipyard in Kaohsiung

9. An Oil refinery / industrial Park

10. A Nuclear Power Plant

At the end of the day, the Chiang regime was deemed illegitimate and martial law, which will always be attached to Chiang, came to an end. Locals were allowed to vote. They also began to speak and ultimately reclaim their country. Besides serving as a landmark in Wanhua, the Huazhong Bridge stands as another monument to this troubled and dark era.

The top picture is of my daughter fishing. The vendors who have set up shop under Huazhong Bridge have been carrying on for decades. They don't seem to have licenses, but the cops, who occasionally scooter down the center of the show, don't seem to mind. The owner of the fish tank my daughter frequents told me that she has been working under Huazhong Bridge for 12 years. The second picture (at the top) is of Ahleena's favorite ride Thomas, the Train. The third is just a wider view of "Go Go Land". It captures a stinky tofu stand followed by a bank of traditional pinball games. The fourth is Huazhong Bridge, kooky wiring and all.

Christmas in Taiwan

My friend Carrie Kellenberger, who runs the insightful travel and culture blog My Several Worlds http://www.myseveralworlds.com/ gave me this bar of chocolate, wheel of spiced Camembert cheese and white wine, an excellent-looking bottle of an Italian style, Pinot Grigio, for Christmas. My wife and I plan to crack it open tonight. We're saving the chocolate for a bottle of Shiraz, to follow in the next couple of days. It's Christmas after all.

All the best to you, Carrie, and your husband John, during this Christmas season and in 2010. 

Monga, the Film

I'm looking forward to the release of the government-funded movie, Monga (艋舺), which according to accounts is about the gangsters and prostitution that are rampant in the neighborhood I live in. Here's a quick, cool trailer. Only one word is uttered, an oddly-pronounced "Monga", or Manka.

Directed by Doze Niu (鈕承澤), the film though not released is already controversial, as some don't like it's portrayal (I'm guessing they're getting this from the trailer) of Taipei's ancient borough, Monga or Manka in Taiwanese (Hoklo) and Wanhua in Chinese. The Taipei Times wrote up on the movie last week and the controversy: Here's the link: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/12/01/2003459824

I don't really have a problem with Wanhua (Monga / Manka) being portrayed as a gangster and hooker haven. From the accounts of locals that live here, it is / was exactly that. I guess what critics object to is the viewer might not understand that the area had a golden age before all the scum crept in. 300 years ago, Wanhua was one of the Taipei basin's three most important communities. Those communities, Wanhua, Dadoacheng (大稻埕) and Danshui, later merged to create the city of Taipei. At one time, an armada of boats sailed up the Danshui River daily to dock in Wanhua, or Manka / Monga, as part of a trade network that extended to the south of Taiwan, China, Japan and the West. Those days have passed us by, mainly because the river silted up to the point where around 150 years ago, large vessels could no longer make it up river (Wanhua is around 35 km. from the Taiwan Strait).

Over the past 100 years, several prominent gangsters have called Wanhua home. I guess the most well-known would have to be Hsu Hai-ching, who went by the nickname of Wen Ge (蚊哥), meaning the "Mosquito Brother".

The Mosquito Brother died four years ago at the age of 93, after gagging on a piece of raw fish. His story is a long and interesting one. Someone should write a book about his life, as they might get at the workings of the government here, and specifically, how enmeshed it has been with organized crime. The Mosquito Brother started out in Wanhua during the 1930s while Taiwan was still a colony of Japan. He, like any person of his generation, was able to speak Japanese. When Japan fell to the US and Taiwan was invaded by the KMT, the Mosquito Brother simply adapted to a new regime and got on with business. His ability to work with different groups earned him another very cool sounding title: The Final Arbitrator. Hsu's resume was impressive; he had links to the Japanese Yakuza, the Bamboo Gang, the gangsters that Chiang Kai-shek came up with in Shanghai and whom he imported to Taiwan to do his dirty work during the White Terror era as well as more organic Taiwanese clans, from which Hsu came.

I also remember reading about Tsai Tai-ting (蔡岱廷), a pachinko parlor operator, who died a spectacular death in 2007 at a wedding, when an assassin unloaded a dozen bullets into him and then fled after hailing a cab.

My own neighborhood in Wanhua is called Ga-la King after a benevolent gangster who liked to eat oysters, hence the "ga-la", which is oyster in Taiwanese (Hoklo).

More on Monga after I've seen it.

"Foreigners" Getting a Credit Card in Taiwan

Banks in Taiwan generally refuse "foreigners" credit cards. I guess they're afraid they won't be able to recoup money (I would think this line of doubt should be extended to any customer, regardless of his or her skin color). Taiwan's constitution states in Chapter I, General Provisions, Article 5: "There shall be equality among the various racial groups in the Republic of China (Taiwan)." But it doesn't seem to have had much bearing on this issue. The card hawkers who set their tables up at the doors of Taiwan's department stores, outside theaters or even on sidewalks seem to shiver with fear when they see a "foreigner" approaching. I've discussed the absurdity of this with a local friend who works for a bank in Taiwan, a bank that also denies people access based on their skin color. He told me: "We really don't have any way to make locals pay us back any more than we do 'foreigners'. Credit cards should be issued on salary, whether people have collateral, appear normal, etc. But I just don't want to rock the boat".

About a month ago, I was leaving Costco (Cheng Ho branch) in Taiwan. Chinatrust Commercial Bank had set up a booth at the door. Their sales rep., seeing my Taiwanese wife out in the lead, immediately came up to her with an application in hand. My wife, who hates credit cards, turned him down flat. When I had caught up, I said: "I'll apply. What's the process?" These words sent the Chinatrust Bank rep. into a stuttering state of confusion. Aghast, he told me:

"You're a 'foreigner'! It's not possible". Actually, I figured this kind of response was on the way. Several of my friends have been turned down at Chinatrust Commercial Bank on their credit card applications based on race. One friend, who speaks Chinese, was even offered a card. After he'd finished the application, the teller informed him, upon conferring with her superiors:

"We can't give you a credit card because you're a 'foreigner'".

Naturally, the whole "you're a foreigner" stuck in my craw. After considering my options, I decided to write to Costco and explain the situation - namely, they were cooperating with a bank that discriminates against out-groups. I asked: "Do you really want this attached to your brand"?

The next day, and for a week following, I received a flurry of email replies from Chinatrust Commercial Bank, who assured me that their bank didn't discriminate. They told me: "It was just a big misunderstanding. We'd like to process your application pronto". They were even willing to send a rep. over to my office at my convenience. When their rep. did show up, a VP no less, he explained: "It was just a big misunderstanding. They're afraid to speak English!"

"But I was speaking Chinese," I countered, "just the same as I am speaking Chinese to you. Plus I can name people who have been told they couldn't apply at your bank because of the color of their skin".

"It's just ignorance," was the reply. "BTW, let me have the name of the rep. so he can be punished".

"That's not necessary [especially if he's following company policy]." I liked the guy and didn't want to get into it. I could see he was trying, and that he didn't agree with what had transpired.

My application was passed seamlessly. I didn't even have to, oddly, submit information about my salary, assets or what have you. Some of my friends have pointed out that I was just being bought off. I can't really verify this. When I emailed Chinatrust back about statistics, in particular, how many "foreigners" have credit cards at the bank, I received no reply whatsoever. In fairness, I suppose it would be violating the bank's confidentiality code and undercutting security. I do, however, now have another credit card, my first Taiwan-based credit card. Did I receive it to shut the f*&^ up? Maybe. I still believe that it could mean that Chinatrust has had to rethink how it deals with its customers. If so, this is great news.

Let me know if you've had problems with Chinatrust Commercial Bank in getting a credit card. They have stepped out into the light to clarify their position. This post, or an email to the bank, might speed things along.

Note: I've been contacted by advertisers in February, 2011. They would like me to put up this link. I don't have a problem doing so as I've been posting for years out of my own pocket and time. Plus, I don't find their company troublesome in the least. If you do find this concept to the contrary, please let me know. Anyway, here goes: it's for a credit repair company.

Postcards from Taiwan

I received an interesting request a few weeks back from a blogger in Malaysia: "How are you doing? I’m from Malaysia. I’m a postcard collector. I’m trying to collect postcards from all over the world. I have not yet got postcard from Tuvalu. I would be grateful if you could send me a postcard from Tuvalu, and I will send you a beautiful postcard from Malaysia as a return". The sender has a blog with postcards from all over the world. I sent him one of National Taiwan Democracy Hall ( 國立台灣民主紀念館): http://kajang-postcard.blogspot.com/2009/09/taiwan-07.html

This is the postcard of I received from Ian in Malaysia

Actually, I'm in Taiwan and always have been. I just said I was in Tuvalu because I'm tired of people asking me where I am from. I am from Wanhua, Taiwan, this city that I am standing in as you are asking me.  Plus I guess I found it amusing at the time.

Ian found me online at my Patrick Cowsill Wanhau Taiwan profile, where I claim to be Tuvalu-based: http://www.blogger.com/profile/12904899672214340947. For Taiwan, Tuvalu has been a good friend. The country was one of only 15 to support a UN resolution last week that Taiwan be treated more respectfully by the United Nations. Can't argue with that.

If anyone out there is in Tuvalu, Ian wants to get in touch with you.