February 1, 2024
It’s been a year since I left my job and familiar, comfortable, stable life in Hawai’i, to live as a full-time traveler. January 31, 2023 was my last day with job responsibilities, and on February 1, I flew towards America’s east coast and Europe with a one-way ticket. Since then, I have only been buying one-way tickets, different from me only buying round-trip tickets during the past 20 years.
I cannot lie about the last year being the most interesting and rewarding of my life so far. I walked a lot, saw a lot, and thought a lot. I also read a lot, mostly in Chinese and occasionally in English. I wish I could say that I wrote a lot, but I did not due to different distractions and situations. But that’s ok, the fifty thousand photos and five thousand videos will help me relive some experiences and will inspire me to write.
During the 365 days of the nomad life, I did not spend a penny on medical services. I have been very lucky to be healthy, and only had a minor cold and an annoying cough that lasted for a few months. There were a few close moments that I could get hurt, mostly during my solo hiking trips in the wild, but again, no accidents yet, knock wood. I hope I can keep it this way.
My sleep gets better and I also noticed some new hair growth on the forehead, in the area that got thinner as I grew older. This is a happy surprise that I didn't see coming. My legs get stronger from many hours of walking and hiking. My weight kept changing depending on what I was doing. In Spain and Norway, I lost weight. I often skipped dinner in Spain and only had drinks and tapas; in Norway, I captured most of my food - fish, crab, sea snails, mushroom, blueberries, etc. These foods were organic and came from hard work and long walks. Currently I’m in Taiwan. It is impossible to not gain weight back, because I am surrounded by tasty food and milk tea 24/7. For example, I was going to check out a bookstore that is only two blocks away, but I couldn't help stopping at three places and bought four different kinds of food and one beverage. I gave up the idea of maintaining weight in Taiwan. I consider it a necessary sacrifice to indulge myself in local culture, and that local culture is, in large part, food.
I am the kind of traveler who can only be inspired to learn about the local history and culture when I’m physically residing in that place. My channels of learning are historical museums, art museums, traditional markets, public libraries, interesting coffee shops, bookstores, alleys in the cities or little towns, and places where locals eat. Within days after arriving at a new place, I will find myself motivated to look for information on Wikipedia, YouTube, and search for books about history, culture, politics, social issues, and local people’s life stories. Currently I’m reading a book about real life stories of local Taiwanese and how their lives were intervened and influenced by historical and political events. Reading their stories at the place where they took place adds another layer of appreciation and understanding to this place. Last summer, I stayed in a small village at the border of Hampshire and Surrey, England, for a month-and-a-half. My landlord loaned me a children’s book, “The Story of Britain” by Patrick Dillion, that she read to her children. The book is big and heavy, but I brought it with me everywhere I went. I read it in the park, churches, coffee shops, pubs, university campuses, and historical ruins. It was the perfect “tour book” for me; it took me, not just to places, but also through time.
I start to learn about things without a specific goal or prescribed outcome in mind, things such as researching an historical event I saw in a museum, exploring a cool fishing spot mentioned by a fellow traveler, making a recipe I liked at a restaurant, learning about a god or goddess I don’t recognize at a temple, or internalizing a song I heard on the street. It’s interesting to see more and more random videos YouTube “suggests” to me. I think the search words I’ve used have confused the various platforms’ algorithms. I became an unpredictable “outlier”, which I am proud of.
When I stay in remote areas, I like to go out for walks. While I’m wandering in the streets where I stay, a neighborhood walk often turns into a full-day hike as the streets often end at trailheads. My favorite hikes were the ones I took in Norway; the mountains, sea, and fjords are breathtaking, and, because I went in late summer and early fall, I almost always was rewarded with delicious wild mushrooms for dinner. Now in Taiwan, I have a different kind of hiking that also involves food - lots of food. I feel like I’m hiking in the city with a mission to look for the best food. I bought books about local food to learn about the stories behind the goods, how to make them, ingredients used, and where to find the best of the best. The challenge is to ignore the many good foods I encounter on the way, to avoid reaching the destination with a full stomach. Trust me, it is not easy. Of course, I had real hikes in Taiwan too. This past weekend, I walked along the beautiful east coast of Taiwan and enjoyed the views that look so much like Hawai’i. The advantage of walking is to get to enjoy less accessible beaches that have nobody around, beautiful shells, interesting rocks, and even secret waterfalls. This hiking route is “luxurious” in the way that it has frequent bus stops, so I can “hop on and hop off” whenever I feel like it.
For me, one of the nicest aspects of visiting Taiwan is that I understand the language and culture, which makes it possible to interact with locals at a deeper level. Different from the last time I visited Taiwan in 2016, this time it cannot be more obvious that the locals have a lot more interest in me, when they notice my mainland China accent. They almost alway start with the question of “Miss, where are you from?” My guess is they mean, where in mainland China I am from, so I will say, “Shandong.” Then they often respond, “no wonder you are so tall,” or “but you talk so slow and gentle, you sound like you're from the south.” Occasionally I change my answer to “America” just to see what they say, and just as I expected, most of them will keep asking, “I mean where in mainland China are you from?” Then they will ask me how long I will stay in Taiwan, why I picked this place to visit, can they help me with anything, like showing me where to find good food or museums. Some of them will tell me their experience of living and working in mainland China, or the U.S. after they learned that I have lived in the states. I think the locals show extra interest in my background this time because there are very few mainlanders visiting Taiwan now, due to the political tension from both sides of the Taiwan Straits.
My Airbnb in Tainan happens to be located on the route of fighter jets. Everyday, the jets fly low across the sky from as early as 7am to early afternoon, and occasionally throughout the day, even at night. They are so loud that the building shakes when they fly by, and they fly so low that I can see details. A local restaurant owner told me that the first jet is from mainland China and the two jets after it are Taiwanese jets chasing it away. Her words scared me, but soon I learned from a new friend I made at the local gym that this is not true. We met at the samba dance and had afternoon tea afterwards. To my great surprise, she used to fly military jets when she worked in the Taiwanese Air Force. She confirmed that all the fighter jets I see and hear are from here and, most of the time, they are practicing. They do occasionally go after the jets from the mainland if they pass the median line. She left the military to pursue a new career with a flexible schedule last January, when I left my job in Hawai’i.
Same as the BnB host I met in Changbin, a little village on Taiwan’s east coast. This young girl quit her job of teaching Chinese as a second language in a big city to take over this bed and breakfast business in a little village. From Changbin to Hualien, I alternated my way of traveling by walking and taking buses. I ran into a local walker and had a chat with him while waiting for a bus. He told me that he quit his government job after working for 17 years to look for a change. I said, “me too! Today is January 31, and this day a year ago, I quit my job after having spent 17 years in that career.” “What a coincidence,” he said, “by the way, my last name is Zhang, 弓长张。” I smiled, “me too.” “Ha, interesting,” he said, “my name is Zhang Nian Yang, my dad came from FengYang in AnHui province, he named me Nian Yang, meaning to remember or miss FengYang.” “Well, my name is Zhang Yang,” I said.
Life is full of surprises and coincidences. Such surprises and coincidences make an ordinary day special and a special day like today, my one year anniversary of quitting, even more special. Faulkner said, “you cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Here’s to the day I first walked into the water.
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