Less Traveled Path

We started a Taiwan Tour the day after arriving in Taipei. The van picked us up and two couples at other hotels before we were on our way. After our third stop, our tour guide tried to figure out which language he should use on our journey. One couple was from mainland China, so Mandarin was their vote. Then there was the couple from Brisbane, Australia who could speak both Cantonese and English, but couldn’t understand Mandarin very well. I was excited at the prospect of using Cantonese (since I can understand it so much more than Mandarin), but since our tour guide didn’t speak Cantonese, Mandarin with some English was the winner.

She was 52 and her husband, a software engineer, was 57 and they had one daughter, though she did not accompany them on the trip. Both had retired and were taking the time to travel. We traveled with them for two days on the tour and I would frequently see them snacking on something; they didn’t let the possibility of water-related sickness affect their gastronomical pursuits.

Time it took for our van to reach our first official stop on the tour: 3 hours and 30 minutes
Time it took for the Australian-Cantonese lady to suggest to my mom to find a son-in-law (husband for me): 3 hours and 50 minutes

Ah, how Chinese.