version without pictures printable pdf single page March 17 • March 19
Dear Family and Friends,
Alas I had hoped to finish writing up the day of March 17th with its five lectures but I’m only up to lecture 4 so the rest of the diary will probably have to be finished at home. Tomorrow we leave the ship at 6 am and go on our way to Hanoi. We will be home sometime on Easter Sunday.
Days have no meaning here and they have all been wonderful. I can’t imagine a more perfect trip. We heard this afternoon about the next trip studying women’s role in Islamic countries and that whole part of the country. Oil and terrorism and you name it. The topics are long as is the speakers list. We’ve signed up already for next March! Who would like to join us? It’s on the smaller sister ship that is going to be refurbished between now and then. I put in a request for a handicapped suite if they have one. It’s made such a difference to me.
We had a fine stop in Taipei though being shortchanged on their wonderful museum was too bad. Our good luck on weather everywhere ran out as it rained most of the day. We had lunch in the Grand Hotel where I had stayed by myself after leaving Steve in China. Again I thought about our good times together. I’m so glad I got to have that special time with just him before he died.
We’ve had the last lecture now and we attended them all. I only missed one day in the pool and that was yesterday because the Captain’s cocktail party started soon after we had returned from Taipei. I made up for it today with a longer time. I even had a drink while in the lovely hot spa after. Now what could be better than that?
We have to eat faster tonight as the entertainment starts at 9 pm. We are almost finished packing. Hope all goes well on the home front. Hope Geri’s 3rd treatment went well and I’m looking forward to catching up on all of you.
Much love,
Jo
It appears that I never typed up the real 18th and 19th so now after I am home, I will go back to my notes.
We arrived in the harbor of Keelung which is about a 45 minute drive to the city of Taipei. It was a rainy day and I saw lightening out of the bus window just before driving by their highest building. There are 23 million people in Taiwan and 350,000 are considered Aboriginal.
Our first stop was the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It had a very impressive hall of lanterns and many pictures of Chiang Kai Shek with world leaders — FDR, Churchill, Johnson, and Reagan. There were also many portraits with his wife. He was considered a benevolent leader (not the way he was described by Anping). Our guide was Albert and he said his family moved here in 1949 and he was born here. His brother received a doctorate from MIT and works in the government. About 85% of the government leaders received their education in the United States.
After we left here we drove by the largest library in the country which houses things from the Qing Dynasty especially an encyclopedia that was moved in 1998 in six trucks to Singapore. Taiwan spends a lot of money on National Defense. The military is still compulsory for boys at age 20. They spend two or three years. Some islands near China are still fortified. Chinese can still not visit here though Taiwanese can visit China if they go through Hong Kong. He thinks the Chinese will be able to visit in another year. They have more and more friends but few countries recognize them. We have culture, land, and a government. Doesn’t that make us a country? He thinks it does. The communists are very tricky His father and his uncle met after forty years of being apart. It was a very emotional time for his family.
We saw lots of parked motorcycles as we drove along in the bus. I remember my impressions of the 1986 trip to China and Taiwan. China was all bicycles and Taiwan had motorcycles or mopeds. Now China has everything and I suppose Taiwan does too. Albert told us that each person born in Taiwan has two names- one given to them by their parents and later one chosen by themselves.
They have five branches of government but I didn’t record them all. Taiwan is sending a baseball team to the Olympics. It was a pretty drive with camphor trees on both sides of the street and lots of shoppers. Michael Jackson came here and caused lots of traffic jams! He tells us our group is unlike any others he has led because we wear earphones so all of us can hear him in museums. We know more about Taiwan and ask more questions as well. He doesn’t usually talk about politics but he has today. People work five days a week which is down from six. He rents because he can’t afford to buy anything. He owns an apartment in Shanghai that he bought for $12,000. Taiwan is more expensive. Mc Donald’s is called the American Embassy here! There are 350 of them in Taiwan. You can vote at age twenty and drive a motorcycle at age eighteen.
Next stop was the Martyrs Shrine. Soldiers that did important things are remembered here with their name on a wooden plague on the wall. We watched the changing of the guard. It was a beautiful shrine patterned after the Forbidden City. There were red columns and roofs with well manicured gardens. It was built from 1967-69.
Next stop was lunch at the Grand Hotel. I stayed in this hotel in 1986 and it has a magnificent lobby. We ate in the grand ballroom and had bamboo shoots and lotus soup and a menu printed for each of us on a scroll! The waiter encouraged us to take home the chop sticks so I put them in my pocket. On our way out it was announced we should not take them but I had too many layers on to get them out! Shame on me!! We were entertained at lunch first by women playing traditional instruments. The second act was done by Aboriginal Dancers doing two different numbers. The last one was called “We are Family”. The dancers came from Taroko Gorge which I had visited in 1986 and found very impressive.
Then off to the museum which is world renown. I could hardly wait to show Phil because I had visited it twice in my two days here in 1986. Well it was a new museum and didn’t have that timeline that I had found so fascinating and well displayed before. Our time was very short here so we decided to stay with our guide who pointed out the important pieces. I guess because we felt so rushed and we didn’t have time to do things by ourselves, we really enjoyed the Shanghai Museum more. I snoozed on the ride back to the ship.
All in all I would say the parts we saw (which were not many) appear that the physical buildings are in decline as well as we have heard there is a brain drain because students leaving aren’t coming back. I probably shouldn’t make this judgment after seeing so little.
The Captain’s Cocktail Party and farewell dinner started soon after we returned to the ship so I didn’t swim and took a rest instead. My ankles are as swollen as they have ever been and I was able to order a salt free meal in the main dining room. Had an apple martini after meeting the Captain. We invited two Chinese women to eat dinner with us and Amy and her father. Amy was busy but her father agreed. However we could never find him so we ended up hearing the stories of the two women who had both been born in China. It was a very interesting visit.
We hustled off to the evening entertainment that started at 9 p.m. It was the singer and the singer comedian. Both played the piano well and were very enjoyable. It’s hard for me to remember the meals and entertainment because I don’t usually take notes. Like I know we had one memorable dinner with Sidney and Yulin Rittenberg yet I don’t remember writing it up. So much for being so busy and trying not only to do it but record it for later enjoyment! And so to bed. They put the Captains dinner a day early to give us time tomorrow night to pack our bags!