When I was a very young boy I used to go with my two best friends to the Jersey shore. We would often dig big holes in the sand hoping they would eventually take us to China.

Many years later, I was in Washington, D.C. anxiously awaiting an overseas assignment. The word of mouth came that it was Taipei, which I had never heard of. I anxiously pulled out a map and finally located it on Formosa, which I later learned meant beautiful island, so named by the Portuguese when they occupied it hundreds of years ago.

The trip started from San Francisco on Philippine Airlines. The airliner was a propeller driven DC-6, very slow by jet-age standards. Each leg lasted 12 or 13 hours. First stop was Hawaii, followed by Wake Island then Guam and finally landing in Manila. From Manila we boarded an old C-47 single engine puddle jumper that had to land for refueling on a dirt strip carved out of the jungle on the northernmost island of the Philippine Archipelago.

We finally hopped to Taipei, where I was met at the airport. I did not have to go through customs or immigration and my passport came back with a permanent entry chop. Then we left immediately for my lodging.

It was to be temporarily in a large old Japanese-style guesthouse with many rooms and a number of hot sulfur baths, the sulfur water constantly flowing in through bamboo pipes from natural sources farther up the hill in Peitou. About a dozen single American men, working for Western Enterprise Incorporated were staying there temporarily. Western Enterprises, as it was know in Taipei, was actually a CIA front.

An elderly Chinese man was in charge of our daily needs. We had our meals at a round table with a large lazy-susan in the center, Chinese style. I did not know how to use chopsticks but was determined to learn so I wouldn’t starve to death. I did not dare let go of the chopsticks throughout the meal and did manage to eat some of the delicious food. After several more attempts, I finally learned how to hold them after staining several of my new shirts.

I enjoyed the many strange sounds from the street, blind masseuses, vegetable vendors, knife and scissor sharpeners, noodle vendors, etc, each with his own distinct call or noise maker. Fascinating for a young, very naïve traveler like me.

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In 1594 a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and dubbed it “Ilha Formosa,” which means “beautiful island.” Although Taiwan (formerly Formosa) has been part of the Chinese empire for a very long time, the aboriginal inhabitants are not even related to the Chinese, but came from the islands of the Pacific.

The Chinese only arrived in large numbers after 1600, when the Dutch East India Company established trading posts and forts on the island. After they defeated the Dutch in 1662, they gained control over the island and stayed until the end of the 19th century when the Japanese took over. They also left their mark on the island, remaining in control until after World War 2, when they were succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang.

How can I begin to write about my trip to Taiwan except to use the Portuguese word “Saudade”? “Saudade” is a word that envelopes so many emotions: nostalgia, longing, yearning, love, friendship, desire, etc. No other language has a word like it. Taiwan was once called “Formosa”, another Portuguese word which means “beautiful.”

I was last in Taiwan when my husband, Richard, served in Vietnam between 1968-1970. Our family was not allowed to go to Vietnam, so I went to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, with my two young children. We were 180 wives with no husbands.

Since then Taiwan has changed so much that I did not know the place, but all for the better. It is a wealthy and vibrant island with hard working, polite people. They especially stress the importance of a good education for its youth.

I wanted to see my older sister, Amy, because her third son Michael had written to tell me she had been ill. It had been many years since I last saw her, as well as her three sons and their families. I did not want to linger over my decision for fear I might change my mind. I booked my ticket and left four days later. None of my family members could go with me, so I was quite nervous about flying half-way around the world alone. I had never gone anywhere without Dick, even on short trips. I closed my mind and refused to think negative thoughts, especially about the typhoon that was pounding the southern part of the island causing devastation and death.

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