A story of horror and of Taiwanese betel nut chewers


My story began at this Mintsu Loo taxi stand
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan

He embodied the tell-tale signs, eyes hard shut, face haggard, lips and teeth red, which I noticed as his ajar mouth loudly exhaled and inhaled—he was crashing from a betel nut high, in necessary sound sleep.

But I needed to be somewhere 10 minutes away, in the next 15 minutes. I suspected danger, but feared being late.

Cabbie, you were my only hope.

He made the first left turn exaggeratedly wide; then, on a sharp right turn, we swerved inches away from a truck on our left. That’s when I leaned forward and watched his face: His eyes were fluttering! And, the ratio time open to time closed was 1:2!

Phew! He stopped at the red light and I exclaimed, “Hey!” He looked at me in the rear-view mirror. “You!” I nearly shouted as I closed my eyes, put my hands together like a prayer and cocked my head to the side, universally symbolizing sleep. He understood; he nervously laughed.

He made a big effort on the straight-away that followed, most likely because my disapproving stare was deadlocked on his eyes. I was ready to leap into the front and grab the wheel in the worst case scenario.

AyYayYai! We headed into a T-collision with two scooters but before impact I shouted “HAO!”, meaning, “OK”, his signal to pull over and let me the h-e-double hockey sticks-OUT!

I boiled with the frustration of not being able to yell at him in a tongue he’d understand. Instead I sort of threw the money at his out-stretched palm. The powerlessness of the ride shook me as I walked the rest of the way to school.

Cabbies here stay alert by alternately puffing cigarettes and chewing betel nut, which is consumed in a similar fashion to tobacco chew—gnawed on for awhile, and then spit out the window, creating a blood-red splash wherever it lands, like in the photo below.


Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan

In Taiwan, Areca nut is wrapped in a betel leaf, like this, packaged in baggies or boxes printed with photos of seductive women, and sold by the “Betel Nut Beauties”, otherwise known as lingerie-clad ladies who perch on bar stools facing floor-to-ceiling glass windows, shrouded in the glow of the green and pink neon LED signs advertising their wares. Below, a typical betel nut stand:


Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan