Visitors! – After nearly 5 months in Kaohsiung, we were pleasantly surprised to have some visitors from Indianapolis! Doris and Brandon arrived first last year, followed by Ken and Linda during the holidays, then Huong and Giselle for the last 2 weeks in a sneaky surprise visit, and finally Nina and Dad are visiting today! We love seeing familiar faces after being here for so long and it definitely made the time spent here recently much more fun. Thank you also for bringing emergency supplies (sour cream and cheddar chips) and also taking some stuff home for us. Shedding as much of our belongings now will make the final few months of travel much easier.
Taipei – We hopped on the north bound high speed rail and within 2 hours we were in Taipei. Upon arriving, not much seemed different other than slightly cooler temperatures. The MRT system was a lot bigger than Kaohsiung, but it was very well laid out in a grid pattern across the city so it was very easy to get to any part of the city.
We got a small and cozy AirBnB with a nice view of Taipei 101 in Da’an district. Outside was a really cool breakfast place with the biggest steam bun cookers we’d ever seen!
The first place we went to was the Taipei zoo. It was really scenic – we were impressed. Only problem is the walking route goes straight up hill, so we were exhausted after we made it to the top…leaving very little energy to come back down!
Next we checked out Shilin night market. While very similar to Kaohsiung night markets, we felt it was much busier.
The food selection was about the same, lots of deep fried seafood and meats. I think at this point, the “mouth watering” night market foods have turned into a slight hesitation due to deep fry overload haha. So…we stuck to the fruit.
Maokong Gondola was really fun. It’s part of the MRT system and basically a cable car which has 4 stops, each progressively higher on the mountain. By the time you reach the top you can have tea near the tea plantation while you enjoy the view of the city.
As part of Huong and Giselle’s visit, we spent part of their trip to go to Taipei again. Naturally, we started off with Dim Sum (Giselle would say, “Totes! Obvi!”). The one recommended by our driver was called 杭州小籠湯包 民生店. I do not know the name in English. The food was really good, and different from Din Tai Fung which has become our defacto standard. We were also able to go to the top of Taipei 101! The view was incredible, and really highlighted how mountainous the island is.
Giselle and Ellie checking out the view!
The last thing we did was check out the book store called Eslite (誠品書店) at Taipei Main Station. It is very famous in Taiwan and there are 8 glorious floors of books, crafts, stationary, and wooden nick nacks that you feel like you NEED to own even if you don’t know what you’re going to do with it. If it wasn’t for the lack of time we probably would have been there all day long.
Kenting – If you take the highway south, Kenting is basically as far as you can go on the island, and is home of some pretty cool beaches and nightlife. Since the kids can’t participate in the night life, bring on the beach! We hopped on the 2 hour Kenting Express bus, which is basically a Greyhoud. Since it mainly consisted of food and beaches, here is a slideshow and a video that Ly made which does a great job summarizing the trip.
Before Huong and Giselle left, we made one more short side trip – which we will post in the future – so for now it’s a secret. We would like Giselle to make a guest post from her travel journal. Palehog Giselle?? Salamat! (hint hint).
This effectively brings our time in Taiwan to a close! While we will definitely miss the friendly people, easy access to coffee/bakeries, plentiful night markets, Dim Sum at Din Tai Fung, and that one time we got on Fox Taiwan TV. We will NOT miss waiting at the 99 second traffic lights, treacherous/dog-poopy sidewalks, stinky tofu, occasional air pollution, deep fried ANYTHING, and being constantly scolded by older Taiwanese grandma’s that we should put a jacket on Vera because it is Winter (this just happened today twice in a 5 minute span of time… It was 77 degrees today). We are looking forward to the Lunar New Year lantern festival the day before we leave (January 30th), and then off to Thailand to taste some savory Thai curries!