Avoiding Taiwan

There only seems to be one topic in our house that brings out arguments: Taiwan.

We've been going back and forth over and over and over again about going to Taiwan this summer. The prices have been all over the map. From a high of about $14,000 to a low of $4,400 for all four of us to fly. The lowest price comes from some Taiwanese travel agent who lives in Illinois. Christy was referred to her by some woman in Austin's Chinatown, and they've only spoken over the phone and through email.

Who is this woman? Do they have a local office? Do they even have a website? Christy can't even answer these simple questions. I'm not about to give out my credit card number to some voice on the phone I know nothing about.

Christy really cares about her mom a lot. Sometimes too much, I think. At one point she wanted to take Sara out of school for two weeks so the two of them could go this May (when prices are cheaper). No way, I told her. Sara can't miss that much school. She had already missed a week this year because of the flu. Missing another two weeks would not only get Sara in trouble, but me as well. We either have to go during the summer break or we can't go at all.

I then ask Christy what we're going to do once we're in Taiwan.
"Just visit with my mom." she tells me.
"For two weeks? Just visit with your mom and do nothing else??"

I then point out to her that both myself and the kids would become extremely bored with this idea. Only one person in our house can speak Chinese, so it seems that Sara, Kyle, and I are left to wander about the house, getting bit by mosquitoes and looking at bamboo.

Christy likes to bring up the fact that she came with me to visit my family for Christmas three years in a row. This is true...but...I also planned activities for us to do during the day. We went to Disneyland, we went to the beach, we went to Santa Monica pier, Sea World, the L.A. Zoo, etc. I didn't expect Christy to just sit at my mom (or brother's) house (although, at least in Christy's case, my mom acknowledges her existence.)

However, other than visiting David and Pi Chi (my only remaining friends in Taiwan), I'm not even sure what I'd like to do in Taiwan as a tourist. I considered going back to visit the staff at Kojen in Taichung, but the turnover rate was so high, I doubt there would be anyone left I remember. And there's no way I would visit Hess, the cesspool bushiban chain of Taiwan.

I guess I could take Sara and Kyle to the place where I first met their mom (the Starbucks in downtown Hsinchu). I could show them my very first apartment, and the "sewer river" I had to walk over to get to work, and the underground tunnel with the homeless guy who always waved to me. He was pretty cool. I once gave him one of those popular "lunch boxes" with the chicken leg, rice, and boiled egg in it. He loved it.

Nah, I think I'll spare my kids those places. It would probably just scare them out of their minds and scar their brains forever. I'd rather return to the places where I have much fonder memories. The restaurants. "Chen Shui Tang", with its great boba tea and "low bo gow." "1-2-3", with its delicious gung pao chicken. The dim sum. The teppanyaki. The "Sushi Express." The "Doraemon" pancake house. As bad as Taiwan is, at least their food doesn't suck.

Now....if I can just escape from the mother-in-law....