Halloween, Taiwan and Weenie Wraps

It’s November 4th and the weather in Hong Kong is absolutely beautiful. It’s sunny with a cool breeze and the humidity is very pleasant (either that or we are getting used to it). It’s still shorts and T-shirt weather, but you can wear pants and long sleeve shirts and feel comfortable as long as you don’t walk too much and work up a sweat.

Halloween came and went without anyone noticing too much. They sell Halloween candy in the grocery stores and our building displayed some Halloween decorations, but Halloween is not celebrated the way it is in the U.S. I came home from work on October 31st and didn’t see one adult or child dressed up in costume. In fact, you wouldn’t even know it was Halloween except for the expats celebrating in the trendy bar area called LKF which is on the other side of the island than where we live. That didn’t stop Mark from buying Halloween candy “just in case” someone decided to trick-or-treat in our building, but we didn’t get one visitor. Back in Troutdale, we used to get more than 100 trick or treaters and the past 2 years it was freezing, about 25 degrees F, so all the little kids had to wear thick coats over their costumes. Ah, how things are different on the other side of the world.

Taiwan
My trip to Taiwan was pretty quick and filled with work, so not much time for sightseeing. First impressions of Taipei were that it was very similar to Hong Kong, but the streets were wider, and many more people on bicycles and motor bikes. While traveling by car through the country, I did see a band of wild dogs hanging out in a field which made me sad, but everyone tried to convince me they looked fat and happy. I know otherwise. They were probably covered in fleas, ticks and worms and will live short lives. Many people in Taiwan love their pets, but there is a huge problem with strays and many people don’t spay or neuter so there’s a huge overpopulation problem.

I did squeeze in a quick visit to the Taipei nightmarket the evening we arrived so that I could at least see something other than my hotel. The night market has street after street of vendors selling everything under the sun. It had lots of interesting food vendors, but my stomach still wasn’t 100% so I didn’t try anything. Next time I’ll get some pictures. This time, the oddities made me nauseous so I couldn’t loiter too much.

My 2nd day in Taiwan, we flew to the city of Tainen. Tainen is a huge city and it had a beautiful river running through the center with a paved river walk on both sides. It looked like it would make a great jogging, bicycling path much like the river walk area in downtown Portland, Oregon. We visited a castle like tourist attraction called the Chikan Tower in Tainen which is a famous historic site and was a Dutch settlement in 1653. It was also called the “Tower of Red-haired Barbarians”. (Funny!) Now it’s a museum and very pretty at night.

Mark’s Update
Mark said I should do a blog on his favorite Hong Kong meal ----the weenie wrap. Actually, it’s called a hot dog bun here, but it looks just like the weenie wraps they used to serve in his grade school and he can’t get enough of them. They sell them in all the bakeries for about 50 cents U.S. and Mark has them for lunch several times a week. If he’s not eating weenie wraps/hot dog buns, Mark can usually be found making peanut butter toast, cereal, instant noodles or, for a special treat, pizza from Pizza Express. With such a carb heavy diet, you’d probably think Mark might be gaining weight. Annoyingly enough, he’s LOSING WEIGHT! Probably about 8 pounds since we arrived. He was thin to begin with and still looks good, which is great for him, and annoying to me as I head out to the gym for another long workout on the treadmill.