Has your Mum ever visited you in Taiwan?

I think I saw your mum the other day, taking pictures of all those scooters, fumbling with chopsticks in the restaurant, nearly getting creamed by a blue truck at the zebra crossing, saying Shay Shay to everyone, recording every vendor at the nightmarket with one of those jumbo video cameras from 5 years ago, wearing a T-shirt and shorts when everyone else is wrapped up like Michelin Man in a duvet, putting soy sauce on her fried rice.

She flew back last Sunday. It was her fourth time here.

[quote=“Spack”]I think I saw your mum the other day, taking pictures of all those scooters, fumbling with chopsticks in the restaurant, nearly getting creamed by a blue truck at the zebra crossing, saying Shay Shay to everyone, recording every vendor at the nightmarket with one of those jumbo video cameras from 5 years ago, wearing a T-shirt and shorts when everyone else is wrapped up like Michelin Man in a duvet, putting soy sauce on her fried rice.

She flew back last Sunday. It was her fourth time here.[/quote]

haha, my mom went back from her fifth visit recently, always fun!

My mother came here for Mother’s Day 2002 and hated it (the asshole waiguorens who refused to help her when she got lost were part of that…don’t let me find you). She loved eating shabu shabu, got a kick out of the animated walk signals, and helped me tuck in my little guys for their naptime after our school’s Mother’s Day Tea. I wish I could convince her to come back now that I know more about the island (and she knows not to visit me when I have to work all week, even if it was nice to have my mom there for Mother’s Day), but she says “hell no”. She’s probably still confused as to why I like it here so much.

Same here! She loves it when the guy starts flashing at 10 seconds as it looks like he’s starting to run. She thinks they should have 'em in England.

No, but I wish she and my dad would. They were in Singapore last year and they didn’t even bother coming here to see me. I always did think they preferred my sisters.
Seriously, I think it’s my fault - my vivid descriptions of a country when I first arrive, and thus written while I am suffering from culture shock, have so far scared them off China, Korea, and Taiwan.

My mom likes the food here but doesn’t see the magic in this place like I do. Yes, magic. And she can’t figure out why I’ve been here so long. She does agree that it’s way more interesting here than America. She thinks the women are beautiful but that the men are sexless. Sorry, boys.

More interesting and tastier too.
My mum kept saying ‘oooh they don’t have this in England’ as she munched on some tasty treat from the nightmarket or a dish in a restaurant. Or she’ll say ‘I’m going to miss this when I go back’ cramming in another deep-fried shrimp with pineapple.

She has learned to bring very little with her so that she can stuff her suitcase with goodies to take back such as dried beef, various peanut/sesame sweets, tea.

Funnily enough the local swimming pool was a big ht cuz it’s got various hotpools, some with waterjets and a steam room. She went into the men’s steam room by mistake (or so she claims)! Fortunately, it’s not a birthday suit steam room.
Back in Blighty you just get a rectangle of water to swim in. Boring!!

She’s already booked a flight for end of October this year. She’d move here if it weren’t for the heat of summer and her two beloved mogs.

My folks both came here in '97, and wil be here again in August for my wedding banquet. The last time they came here, their visit was one week, and it was a success, all things considered. The trick is to mix in some familiar things with unfamiliar things, keep them busy, but allow for frequent “down” time. One hot sweltering day, we took the MRT to Muzha Zoo and back, just because noone felt like walking anymore. The middle of the day is a great time to do stuff because the MRT isn’t packed, and the traffic si bearable. With that in mind, I also had arranged for a friend to loan me a scooter - put my dad on my bike, and drove my friend’s scooter with my mom on the back up to Qintiangang at the top of Yangmingshan. Great idea for summertime, because it’s warm, but not sweltering up there. My dad thought the whole thing was a hoot as well - bragged to his friends back home about negotiating the mean streets of Taiwan on a scooter. :laughing:
Took them to the symphony at the National Concert Hall, National Palace Museum, and a variety of restaurants, both western and Chinese. Still remember that we were at Grandma Nitti’s on Rainbow’s first day of business at the Shi-Da Road location. My mom was intersted in the SHilin night market, but got slightly agoraphobic in the indoor eatery part. My dad took pictures of the motorcycles parked by the Shilin night market MRT. He was amazed at the number of them.

This summer, I want to take them to Hualian and/or Taidong for at least a few days. We’ll probably do more exploring outside of Taipei this time since I have a car. I’m looking forward to it.

My parents (and sister) loved Taroko, were amazed by the Taipei madness (XiMenDing was a big hit) and cooed over 4 hour tea sessions in Jiou Fen. Was my fathers first time anywhere OS and he loved it. We are currently planning a round Taiwan motorcycle trip.

Anyone who hasn’t taken THAT picture? :slight_smile:

My folks visited in 1987 and 1989. They plan on popping over for a few weeks in August this year… probably will be their last trip to this side of the planet. We plan on going to Taroko and some other places yet undetermined.

My brother was here in 1986, 1989 and several times since 1995. He comes over frequently and likes to jump from Taiwan to the beaches in Thailand and Guam and also likes going to Hong Kong.

All of you are so lucky. My parents have never visited me in Taiwan or Hong Kong. They’ve never even met my wife’s family. It makes me quite sad sometimes. My mom’s physical health is such that she will probably never be able to take a long trip again. I would actually worry about her trying to come to HK. My dad’s physical health is ok, but I would worry about him coming over here without my mom; he’s a bit emotionally fragile. They’ve never been to Asia and they worry that everything they see would be tainted by the thought that “our boy has given up life in the States for this. Why?” No matter what I say to them, they think that I will never move back to the States. How do all of you handle it when you take your parents to the aiport to send them back home? I can’t help but thinking that on the day I would see my parents off back to the states, their feeling will be “great, now we’ve seen the place where our son will probably have his children and live the rest of his life [not necessarily true]. Well son, maybe we’ll see you next Christmas back in Tennessee.” Sometimes I think it is good that they will probably never visit. I remember the first year I was in HK, every time I would see or do something new, I would think about how interesting it would be to introduce my parents to the same thing. I don’t think that way anymore, partly because I am settled into HK and there isn’t too much new stuff to experience, but mostly because I know they are never going to come. That leaves me feeling pretty empty sometimes.

My mother and stepfather enjoyed it very much. They must have stayed at the Palace Museum for about 6 hours. They did not like the pollution and were over cautious about the food, in other words, they only ate at the hotel, Fridays or Dan Ryans. No Chinese food for them.

My father and sister were another story when they visited. If you have a stupid, immature, neurotic crybaby of an adult sister, this is not the place for her to visit. Whenever my father visits China/Taiwan or a Chinese restaurant in the US, he goes into this Chinese-accented simple English laced with terrible Chinese mode and it is friggin’ embarrassing.

So as my mother polished off the second plate of stinky tofu, I thought to myself “Hmmmm… maybe that week-long trip around the island by train is not such a bad idea after all…” And I was right. She loved Taroko, Lukang and Tainan. My mom’s a trooper. Dad is too, but he’s pretty attached to his job. But then again they lived in Singapore for 5 years, so Taiwan was pretty easy. I just wish I could get my mom on tape speaking her cute Chinese: “My name is “zhen”. I am from America. I have two boys. Thank you. Delicious. I’ve eaten. Goodbye.” For now I’ll have to be satisfied with pictures of my dad attempting taiqi.

My dad went here in 1996 and liked it, believing that this ought to be one of the world’s great tourist destinations. My mother and my younger brother tagged along, and they still talk about Taroko and the national palace museum.

My brother came late 2001 and stayed 2 weeks. My inlaws took care of him and showed him around, with my part of his stay limited to a hike up Jade Mountain and drinking in the german bar. He came again june 2003 in order to pick up my daughter for her annual trip to Denmark, but only stayed 2 days,which he spent in bed and barbecuing.

My mother and sister came in August 2003 bringing my daugher home. They went straight to Taroko on their own and enjoyed it. I then took them up behind neiwan and to a night market. The rest of the entertainment was left to my inlaws, who took them all over the place, i think.

The whole clan will come again february 2005.

They seem to like it here.

Wow! And I always thought just smoking in bed was dangerous! Your brother likes to live life on the edge, eh?

During my first decade here, my parents often mentioned that they’d like to pay a visit, but I always dissuaded them from coming, encouraging them to take trips around China and Southeast Asia and arranging to meet up with them there instead. One reason for my doing so was that I thought they’d be enormously disappointed by what they saw here, especially in Taipei, would find it even harder to understand why I’d given up so much to come and live in a place like this, and would have stronger arguments for trying to persuade me to return to the good life in England. Another reason was that I genuinely feared for their safety getting about in the mean streets of Taipei and other urban areas.

Now, I’d love my parents to be able to come and meet their new daughter-in-law and her family. I’d be able to put them up in a decent home and show them around a city that has improved beyond recognition in recent years (however much it still leaves to be desired in many respects). The pity is that their world’s now confined to a small patch of churchyard in rural Suffolk, whence they’ll never be able to make another journey to any destination on earth.

I’m sorry to read that. I don’t really miss my home town. While I may one day move back to the States, I could be just as happy staying over here forever. However, the one thing that still makes me sad is thinking about my parents dying while I’m not there. That thought can take the shine off of the best days.

You make some good points Omni. In 4 years here I’ve been visited only by one brother and one friend. Though my parents have traveled quite a bit in Europe even in recent years (from California), they are now in their mid 70’s, have artificial knees and back problems, have never flown to Asia and would find the flight to be a tremendous difficulty (I remember how the flight seemed like a big deal for me several years ago).

If I were in Tokyo, Shanghai or Hanoi it might make sense for the parents to make the tremendous effort of visiting, as those cities are clean or beautiful or modern or exotic or something worthwhile. But Taipei seems so drab, dreary and unexciting. I too feel anyone who visits me here might come away feeling a little sorry for me and wondering why I was so attracted to Taiwan to make it my home. Why Taiwan???

I’m very happy, though, that my mom will visit in a few weeks because I’ve finally mated with a local and created an offspring of my own that the mother would like to see. Dad’s too crippled to make the trip, so we’ll fly to the states in the summer to show off our creation, but mom couldn’t wait that long.

Despite the fact that Taipei is so ugly, crowded and polluted, I look forward to taking mom for morning walks past the Taichi and other goofiness in the parks, to local breakfast places, and out for good dumplings for dinner, etc., and I think she’ll have a good time.

Yes, my mother had a pulmonary embolism last October so the long flights from Ohio to Taiwan and back are out of the question for her. It would be nice for her to come and see me again, though. I think aside from the 282 asshole bus drivers and, of course, the foreign pricks that refused to help her when it was obvious that she needed help (when finally a Taiwanese guy with broken English took the time to draw a map to help her), she seemed to like a lot about Taipei. She explored the city by herself equipped with only my cell phone, a Lonely Planet Taiwan, my bus and MRT cards, and no knowledge of Mandarin (although she really tried hard to learn xie xie and ting bu dong) and wound up going to places I still haven’t been to. We had conversations like this over hot pot:

Mom: And then I went to this really big park with a huge pagoda in the middle and some people asked to take a picture with me.

Me: You mean Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall?

Mom: Oh. Okay. Anyways, I went there and then I went to that drama school you mentioned and got to see them sing.

Me: You mean you got to see some jingju?

Mom: Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, and then I got to try on a hat.

Me: Did you get a picture?!

Mom: Of course, silly!

I still haven’t seen an opera performance here and I’ve been here 137 times longer than my mother has. She has the impression that the locals are nice, but the foreigners…well. She’d probably wash my mouth out with soap if I told you all her opinion on the average foreigner on the streets of Taipei. She would have loved Taroko Gorge, though.

My brother and sister-in-law want to come and visit me when my niece is old enough to endure the long flight (Tennessee to Taiwan…with a baby!). It’s a little funny how my siblings and I have names that begin with T and all of us have moved to places that begin with T.