Taipei, Taiwan – November 1995
“Here. Eat this,” my sister Penelope says as she plucks a small green fruit-looking thing from a street vender’s cart.
I look at it for a moment. The middle of the fruit is hollowed out and stuffed with a white paste.
“It’s betel nut. The white stuff is a stimulant. Some say it’s cocaine, but I doubt it. It does give you a good rush, though.” She waits. “Don’t worry. It won’t stain your teeth red, unless you mix it with this green mustard paste.”
I take a breath and pop it into my mouth. At least she hasn’t tried to make me eat the fish eyes or chicken feet for sale in the night markets of Taipei.
I chew on the nut as we walk through the garishly lit streets, searching for Snake Alley. The bitter taste penetrates my sinuses like ammonia. A cold sweat breaks out on my forehead. Gavin and Tim wait for us to catch up to them.
“It’s supposed to be around here somewhere,” Gavin says.
“What is this place, anyway?” I ask. My head and face have become numb. My stomach feels like it’s been scalded. I spit the nut out and wipe my burning lips with the back of my hand.
“They say people come here to buy rhinoceros horn and other illicit things,” Tim says as we walk a bit further. “I don’t really believe it, though.”
His words give me goose flesh. I’ve heard about such places.
Penelope stops and squints her eyes at a long row of stalls. “I think this is it,” she says, and takes a swig from her bottle of wine.
It looks like the other night markets we’ve been to, only smaller. We turn down the alley. Tinny music blares in the aisles. The bright lights jab into my eyeballs. The alley constricts around us. The betel nut is working on me, and I feel like I am in a sinister cartoon. I press my hand to my sternum and try to slow my breathing down. Penelope smiles at me; I see excitement under the bleary sheen of her eyes.
At the first stall on the left, a man is chopping the heads off of live turtles.
There is a systemic rhythm to his work. He reaches into the aquarium, lays the turtle on the chopping block, brings the butcher knife down in one swift movement, drains the turtle’s blood into a glass, and then tosses the remains on a pile of writhing carcasses. The fat little legs rotate like windup toys running out of steam.
My stomach lurches. The others grimace and stare at the scene in silence for a moment, and then turn away. Grotesquerie never lacks an audience.
The man puts the glass into a grimy cooler and continues his work. An emaciated orangutan slouches on the counter. He stares at the pavement as if in a trance. He’s wearing a dingy gray shirt and a disposable diaper. My sister and I walk over to pet him. There’s a gash on his forehead and a heavy metal chain around his leg.
“Is this his pet?” I ask. “I can’t picture this guy being affectionate.”
“He’s for tourists,” Penelope answers. “They think this is what we want to see.”
The orangutan reaches over listlessly and takes the wine bottle from my sister. I take out my camera and snap a photo of him.
The man shrieks, “No taking pictures!” and reaches for my camera.
I jump back before he can grab it. He pounds his fist on a sign that says No Photo in Snake Alley. He scowls and then goes back to his work.
“He doesn’t want evidence of his cruelty getting around,” Tim says. He picks up the chain and tugs on it. “Sorry, little buddy. There’s nothing we can do.”
We all pet the orangutan’s head and walk further down the alley. We weave in and out of the stalls. Most of them sell the same tacky, overpriced trinkets we’ve seen all over the city—jadestone Buddhas, porcelain tea sets, and plastic jewelry. Others advertise their wares by showing photos of the maladies their concoctions are supposed to cure—disfiguring acne and psoriasis, boils, flaccid penises. These stalls have the juice of various amphibians for sale. The air smells like a combination of incense and swamp. The lights seem too bright for all of this.
An earnest crowd gathers around one of the stalls—all Asian men in identical navy blue leisure suits. We stand to the side.
A man with deep scars on his forearms and a pockmarked face reaches bare-handed into a wire cage. Snakes writhe against the sides of the cage and hiss. He wrestles a cobra from the cage. The snake whips around in his hands, tracing ornate swirls on the dirt floor. The crowd recoils. I imagine the pissed-off cobra flinging itself into the crowd. I’m nervous, but I smile. I reach instinctively for my camera, but then let it go. It would suck to get kicked out now.
A metal clip hangs from the corrugated tin ceiling. The man fastens it to the snake’s head and grips the flailing tail with both of his hands. He ties the snake’s tail to a rope that’s tied to a metal ring in the floor. He shortens the rope so that the snake is a taut green ribbon. It shudders in a last attempt to free itself.
The crowd leans forward expectantly. The man slits the cobra open from its head to the tip of its tail in one fluid movement. He drains the blood into a glass without spilling a drop.
“Jesus,” Penelope says under her breath.
My heart pounds against my ribcage. The world seems to be in fast-forward mode.
The man cuts off the snake’s gall bladder, a tiny blue nugget, and drains the inky fluid into the glass of blood. He holds the glass up with a triumphant smile. Shrill cries erupt from the crowd as the drink is auctioned off. The snake’s carcass gapes at us.
The four of us stand with our mouths open, too stunned for words and yet absorbing every detail. We will tell stories about this for the rest of our lives. I feel a twinge of disappointment that I only have one photo. People might think that I’m lying.
“I imagine it’s yet another so-called cure for impotency,” I manage to say. “You’d think they’d be ashamed of their desperation.”
We stand still and look further down the alley for a moment. No one seems to want to be the one to say they’ve seen enough. Finally, we walk away from the stall, back toward the entrance of the alley. No one says a word. My head aches, and I realize I’ve been gritting my teeth.
“Look!” Penelope says with a raucous laugh. She points to a sign that has close-up photos of hemorrhoids.
We laugh, and some of the tension dissipates. The stall owner shoos us away.
“It’s probably his sphincter in the photo,” I say, which causes us to laugh harder. My head spins. I hold my arms out to steady myself. Bile stings my throat. I force myself to smile so the others don’t think I’m a sissy.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink,” Tim says.
As we approach the entrance of Snake Alley I look away from the orangutan. From the corner of my eye, I see his head turn to watch us leave him behind.
**This travel piece originally appeared in Identity Theory in 2007.**
oh my goodness, this place sounds pretty full on. I don’t think I would be able to go into such a place, I would probably come back with some bolt cutters to liberate the orangutan and run for dear life!!!
Yeah, it was really intense. I thought about that orangutan (and the turtles, too) for a long time. My sister lived in a village in northern Taiwan and had other gruesome stories to tell. This was quite a few years ago, so maybe it’s changed a little since then.
I have a lot of things in my mind right now after I read the post but the most bothersome for me is, how in the world do you have only one comment from a reader in this post? I was expecting a lot of people would have said what I’m about to say and I’ll just go thru the comments and all. :p
First off, what was that fruit you were eating? Is that even legal? LOL Second, you’ve written it beautifully and I feel like I was there with you. I can feel, see and hear everything that you must be experiencing while reading this blog and that’s really awesome! At some point, I wanted to turn my head away from the post like what I would do if ever I was really there with you exploring that street. Third, I LOLed on this: “It would suck to get kicked out now.” That was a good call, otherwise it might’ve been you instead of the snake if you’ve pulled out your camera that instant. LOL. Fourth, that sounds like a lot of fun but I guess after reading this post, it’s already enough fun for me. I don’t want to see any of those live. So thanks for that. :p
Hi there – thanks a lot for reading all of that and for leaving such a long comment! I posted this not too long ago, so there will probably be more comments later. The fruit was just betelnut and it’s legal. It’s like drinking a lot of caffeine. I did not like it at all. That whole experience was intense, not exactly fun, but memorable because it’s not something you would see anywhere else. Thanks again for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. 🙂
Oh how brutal, that’s all I can say… I remember a friend who eats well at a tortoise resto. I went with him once but I dared not eat it. If I were to eat exotic, it wouldn’t be the most favorite pet that I ever had when I was a child. 😀 hahahah….
Tortoise resto. I couldn’t eat there. I feel the same about going to restaurants that have rabbit on the menu. I’ve got a “meat” rabbit as a pet.
Another cracking read – last night I watched David Ayer’s End of Watch, today I read your story – both portray gritty realism. I am stressed out 🙂
Oh no! Sorry to have contributed to your stress. 😉
Ah, my dear friend, the moment I read “Here. Eat this,” I knew your post would bring out a profound moment. It seems that to experience life, we eat what is in front of us. It is an innate curiosity, that begins before our first birthday. To eat is to know. And to know is to recognize and “taste” both the beauty and brutality of humanity. Thank you for your thoughtful posts.
Your comment made me laugh! The adventure could have gone so many ways after those words. It’s something I didn’t consider when I was writing the piece, but now that you’ve mentioned it in that way, I’m intrigued. Thanks so much for always giving me more to think about. 🙂
You always give me something to think about! And that is so very refreshing … 🙂
I have to say, in all my years living and travelling in Asia, I have never dared to eat a betel nut. And for just that alone I salute you. Great read as always =)
Haha. Thanks. 😉 You’re not really missing anything. Just drink 5 espressos and smoke a few cigarettes. And you won’t have to deal with the unsightly red teeth, either.
Wow! The images you create with words are stunning. There’s no doubt the things you described are as real as the picture with the orangutan. I’m not sure I would have been as brave with the nut, especially in those surroundings. Probably because I’d be afraid they might have tried to auction off my blood as I lie there having a coronary. Yikes! Great post! 🙂
I can imagine that American woman blood would fetch a high price in that market. Yet another cure for impotency? 😉
Back in the 1960’s, before your time, there were some documentary-type movies, beginning with Mondo Cane. They showed the weird, sick, perverted side of life and your post took me right back to a scene in one of those flicks. Your writing pulls in the reader and offers each of us your experience.
That’s not so long before my time. 😉 I’m surprised that there were films about such horrors in the 60’s, though they were probably authentic and not just conjured up for shock value like the disturbing things you see today.
Sounds memorable.
It certainly was.
Oh my god one place I do not want to go, I too cannot eat eyes is just not in me or chicken legs (or brains or pig legs), I went to a fancy restaurant once and they wanted to give me duck, my friend did try it and I wanted to through up. Anyways, like always great post I do not know how you remember so many details; I do not think I can write a memoir. Like the changes in the blog it is brighter and did not know you were freshly press.
Hi Doris – It’s not a happy place for sure, but maybe it’s changed since then. It’s been 18 years. I’ve always kept a travel journal and I read through it to help me remember things. This particular experience was burned into my memory, so I didn’t need a lot of help remembering. Thanks for noticing my new blog design. I felt like having something brighter for a while. I was Freshly Pressed way back in September.
Poor orangutan. They are my favorite primate so I feel so sorry for it.
He was so sweet. Poor little guy.
I’d be afraid of parasites, drinking snakes blood these days doesn’t do it for me. LOL. The fruit sounds familiar. Like Sour Sop.
Yeah, can you imagine what kind of microbes are in that? Talk about having a souvenir of your trip. Yuk!
Ugh. Really. Dangerous….
Ah you have been to TW as well! I have not many who have toured there.
I’ll admit that it wasn’t high on my list of places to visit, but my sister lived there so I had an excuse. I’m really glad I did!
wow such a descriptive piece….unfortunately I was eating my lunch reading this and believe me it was hard to taste anything good after imaginig what you have written here..good article dear 🙂
Uh oh. Maybe I should put a warning at the beginning. 😉 Thanks for reading all of that.
Some experiences just do not require photographs to remember, perhaps unless you’re a documentary photographer. Perhaps what you saw where once based on cultural traditions, but have now entered the realm of commercial opportunism and showmanship. As for the Areca nut, not something I’m up for trying in a hurry.
I hear that Westerners like to test themselves by drinking the cobra blood in Snake Alley. Gives them something to brag about. So the tradition isn’t going away anytime soon. Wishing you a lovely Sunday, Sean.
There’s a lot of that look at me syndrome getting around these days it seems, everyone’s their own media outlet (It came up in conversation today, with a new friend down here). A beautiful Sunday to you too, Julie, from a peaceful Coral Sea this evening.