In which: we attempt to enjoy our expensive, beautiful honeymoon suite at a Japanese-style Ryokan hot-spring resort, while getting lost and caught in the rain, eating a lost-in-translation mystery meal, dealing with potential flight cancellations and attempted rebookings, and home drama. We also try Wagyu beef, and get a very heart-warming surprise from the resort restaurant staff. And, we finally go to the top of the Taipei 101, finding it mostly deserted.
Continued from Part 1 and Part 2
 |
| Happy Honeymoon! |
Day 9: Thursday, March 19
The time had arrived to head to our expensive ryokan hot-spring resort, Hoshino Guguan, the planned “honeymoon suite” that we booked after switching our plans from Japan to Taiwan, and that we had been looking forward to! The resort had also actually offered to let us cancel for free a couple days back, when all travel to Taiwan was banned, but we told them we were already in the country, so could proceed as planned.
At this point in our trip, we also decided that we should start wearing masks full time. Nearly everyone around us has them, and despite initially following the US CDC recommendation not to use face masks unless you are sick, the local feeling is that everyone should be wearing them. We had been taking the American claim that they were ineffective and not recommended at face value, but we wanted to ensure everyone that everyone else was more comfortable around us. (With the benefit of hindsight, as I edit this blog in June, it turns out the American line about masks was a complete fabrication designed to protect the mask supply for medical professionals, because the American response to the pandemic has been incredibly botched. The masks actually do reduce transmission of the virus on particles that you expel; and since you can be asymptomatic for up to two weeks, it protects people from you if you caught the virus and don't yet realize it.) Unfortunately, we only had the disposable masks we had been given at the taxi from the airport, and there were none to be had at any shops. (Thankfully, we would later be able to get more at the resort front desk, which would last us for most of the rest of the trip.) The masks themselves are a bit annoying to wear, since they tend to fog up your glasses, and your mouth gets hot from your breath getting caught, but we wanted to do our part to help keep everyone safe and comfortable, especially since we are very obviously foreigners, and now with all travel banned, we have been getting more looks and concern.
We packed up and grabbed a taxi to the High Speed Rail station in Taoyuan to catch our train to Taichung. The rail was very scenic, fast, and comfortable - and only took us about half an hour to arrive! At the station we had a little time before our arranged “chauffeur service” to the resort, so we grabbed some take-out. I got a beef bento from a Japanese place, and Teresa got several things at a bakery, including a chocolate mochi cake roll that she enjoyed so much that I had to go buy my own, just to be able to try it! We ate hurriedly in the waiting area, and then headed down the escalator to meet our driver.
At this point in our trip, we also decided that we should start wearing masks full time. Nearly everyone around us has them, and despite initially following the US CDC recommendation not to use face masks unless you are sick, the local feeling is that everyone should be wearing them. We had been taking the American claim that they were ineffective and not recommended at face value, but we wanted to ensure everyone that everyone else was more comfortable around us. (With the benefit of hindsight, as I edit this blog in June, it turns out the American line about masks was a complete fabrication designed to protect the mask supply for medical professionals, because the American response to the pandemic has been incredibly botched. The masks actually do reduce transmission of the virus on particles that you expel; and since you can be asymptomatic for up to two weeks, it protects people from you if you caught the virus and don't yet realize it.) Unfortunately, we only had the disposable masks we had been given at the taxi from the airport, and there were none to be had at any shops. (Thankfully, we would later be able to get more at the resort front desk, which would last us for most of the rest of the trip.) The masks themselves are a bit annoying to wear, since they tend to fog up your glasses, and your mouth gets hot from your breath getting caught, but we wanted to do our part to help keep everyone safe and comfortable, especially since we are very obviously foreigners, and now with all travel banned, we have been getting more looks and concern.
We packed up and grabbed a taxi to the High Speed Rail station in Taoyuan to catch our train to Taichung. The rail was very scenic, fast, and comfortable - and only took us about half an hour to arrive! At the station we had a little time before our arranged “chauffeur service” to the resort, so we grabbed some take-out. I got a beef bento from a Japanese place, and Teresa got several things at a bakery, including a chocolate mochi cake roll that she enjoyed so much that I had to go buy my own, just to be able to try it! We ate hurriedly in the waiting area, and then headed down the escalator to meet our driver.
 |
| Arriving at the train station |
 |
| No shops have any masks |
 |
| The high speed rail arrives! |
From here, it was a 90 minute drive to get to the resort, which is in the isolated mountainous center of Taiwan. We drove through Taichung, and then the scenery gradually changed from urban city-scape, to green mountains, and we wound our way across mountains, along valleys beside ravines, and over gorges. It was very beautiful, but a little scary and a lot of motion meant I could mainly just listen to music while we rode. Thankfully, Porcupine Tree had just released a bunch of rarities on BandCamp, including their first ever live performance, and several other live and acoustic sets.
Once we finally arrived at the resort--which was across a river gorge from a small resort town, and situated partway up a mountain--we got seated in a comfortable lounge and told to wait to be checked in, and help ourselves to snacks and tea. Snacks included candied orange slices - which included the rind and everything!
Staff came to us to check us in, while we sat comfortably, and then a personal guide took us on a tour of the resort and up to our room on the fifth floor (really about eight floors up, because every other floor is for the baths), where he walked us through everything, showed us the various amenities (including clothes we could wear around the resort, pajamas, and bathrobes), and then even made us tea and served us a passion-fruit mochi! The room opened with a foyer, where you’re supposed to leave your shoes and change to slippers, to the side was the powder room, with a full featured toto washlet toilet (we really want to buy one for our home now), and then you step into the main room - which featured a large floor-to-ceiling glass wall with a breathtaking view of the mountain, surrounded by mist! Below, you could see the water-gardens and beautifully land-scaped grounds of the resort, as well as the pool and the restaurant and lobby. To the side you could see the small town, but otherwise we were very much isolated in nature. We had a table with comfy chairs, and to the left, a couple steps up to a lounge area, which was very soft and decked out with pillows. Great for sprawling and enjoying the view! Behind that was the dresser and the bed, which was on a small platform and very soft. The lights could be dimmed through various configurations. The star of the show was the hot-spring fed bath, which was down some stairs, where there was an ante-room with two sinks and all the toiletries we could ever need, a glass-enclosed shower, and then a sliding glass door to the bath area. The tub was enclosed in beautiful stone, with fresh hot spring water continually flowing into and out of it (over into a drain). Wooden slats could be slid open to the outside for the stunning mountain-side view.
 |
| Waiting to check in |
 |
| Tea and candied orange slices |
Staff came to us to check us in, while we sat comfortably, and then a personal guide took us on a tour of the resort and up to our room on the fifth floor (really about eight floors up, because every other floor is for the baths), where he walked us through everything, showed us the various amenities (including clothes we could wear around the resort, pajamas, and bathrobes), and then even made us tea and served us a passion-fruit mochi! The room opened with a foyer, where you’re supposed to leave your shoes and change to slippers, to the side was the powder room, with a full featured toto washlet toilet (we really want to buy one for our home now), and then you step into the main room - which featured a large floor-to-ceiling glass wall with a breathtaking view of the mountain, surrounded by mist! Below, you could see the water-gardens and beautifully land-scaped grounds of the resort, as well as the pool and the restaurant and lobby. To the side you could see the small town, but otherwise we were very much isolated in nature. We had a table with comfy chairs, and to the left, a couple steps up to a lounge area, which was very soft and decked out with pillows. Great for sprawling and enjoying the view! Behind that was the dresser and the bed, which was on a small platform and very soft. The lights could be dimmed through various configurations. The star of the show was the hot-spring fed bath, which was down some stairs, where there was an ante-room with two sinks and all the toiletries we could ever need, a glass-enclosed shower, and then a sliding glass door to the bath area. The tub was enclosed in beautiful stone, with fresh hot spring water continually flowing into and out of it (over into a drain). Wooden slats could be slid open to the outside for the stunning mountain-side view.
 |
| The resort's water gardens |
 |
| Our guide leading us to our room |
 |
| The resort |
 |
| Water flowing through the bamboo |
For the full tour, check out my video showing off our room:
 |
| Shoe foyer |
 |
| Enjoying tea |
 |
| Enjoying tea and the view |
 |
| The view from our room |
 |
| Passion fruit mochi |
 |
| Resort Map |
 |
| The lounger |
 |
| Lounger and bedroom |
 |
| The comfy bed |
 |
| Our view of the water gardens and the pool |
 |
| Down the stairs to the bath |
 |
| The vanity downstairs |
 |
| Shower |
 |
| Bathrobes |
 |
| The bath |
 |
| The hot-spring fed bath |
 |
| View from the bath |
 |
| Amenities |
 |
| Provided PJs. Sadly, they didn't come in American-sized. |
Once we were finally settled in on our own, had enjoyed our tea (Teresa sampled the mochi, but was worried about allergies to passion fruit now, so I had most of hers too), and finished marveling at our room (I even took a video to show it off on facebook - you can see that video embedded above); we decided to take advantage of the shower and then take a nice bath in our private hot-spring continually running tub and enjoy the view from there. Thoroughly relaxed, and with our skin now incredibly soft thanks to the spring waters, we decided we needed to head out to dinner before it got too late. When we booked at the resort, we balked a bit at the price of a meal at the restaurant there, which would come to over $100 a person for a fixed meal that would include a lot of fish dishes that we weren’t interested in. However, reviews mentioned that it was a six minute walk across a nice pedestrian bridge into town, and there were a dozen or so nice looking restaurants to choose from in town, which had more appealing food and prices, so we hadn't made a reservation with the resort’s restaurant for dinner tonight. We checked google, and found a promising looking restaurant with great reviews in the nearby town, so out we went.
By this time it had grown dark, and started drizzling a bit. I threw on my jacket, which has a hood, we grabbed the flashlight from the room (they really give you everything), and let Teresa take my portable umbrella - but it turned out that there were much nicer umbrellas to borrow at the lobby, so we grabbed those. We stopped at the front desk to ask directions, and here we got the bad news - the convenient pedestrian bridge we had been depending on for access to the town was closed for maintenance, and we would need to walk another estimated 20 minutes down the street to take the car bridge instead, forcing us to head in completely the wrong direction before looping back into town. No taxis or shuttles could be booked; a taxi would need to come from a city an hour away and be very pricey. But at this point, we were committed, we needed food, we had no reservations, and we had to go into the town to get to any restaurants. At least the route seemed relatively easy to follow, and I had google maps up on my phone. A bit daunted, but nevertheless confident that it wouldn’t be too much extra effort--and not having much choice at this point--we set forth.
And it started raining a little harder, as we ventured down the drive, out the gate (the gatekeeper opened it for us), and downhill, around multiple winding bends, past the closed pedestrian bridge and other resorts, and down to the bridge. There were rarely any vehicles, so we mostly had the street to ourselves, which was good because the sidewalk ended so we had to walk on the shoulder, and cross the gorge on the car bridge, and then start back uphill. With Teresa’s hip injury, we couldn’t go too fast, and the rain started to come down harder. It was pitch black at this point, as we climbed steeper and steeper hills on completely isolated streets. The views became quite beautiful as you looked back at the lit-up resorts, now across the river gorge from us. We reached a fork in the road, but I was confident that we should continue to follow the gorge, rather than head to the left. Google was a bit hard to read at this point, since I had the satellite map on, which showed trees everywhere. Unfortunately, as we descended for a good while, we found the road looped back and continued down, and the town was up above us. We had to turn back, and now hike back uphill to that fork, and then follow that. We passed multiple parked buses, and continued onwards, finally finding the actual fork that we were supposed to stay right at. It started pouring even harder, as we reached town there were finally sidewalks again, but the sidewalks were more small rivers with so much water flooding everywhere, even the drains had become puddles. We tried navigating around them, but before long our shoes and socks had soaked through, and we were growing miserable. Finally we reached the spot where the restaurant was supposed to be, the restaurant that google said was open until 8 (it was now about almost an hour after we had left the resort, but was still 7:20). It was closed.
We continued, and saw several more closed restaurants. We did pass an open convenience store, and finally, we noticed a few restaurants that were open a couple blocks farther, although all seemed to be mostly seafood - with large fish tanks right in front of the entrances. Teresa noticed the sign for one advertising English service, so we decided to check a menu. It had fish tanks, and even a duck chained to one in front, so also seemed like it would be mostly seafood, but when we asked about a menu, they seated us instead, and we were too drenched and weary to continue so decided to make do. The restaurant wasn’t very attractive, it was open to the outside from the front, the roof had a leak, and it was fairly grungy, and was completely empty besides a small staff, and us, and a caged parrot that said “Ni Hao” sometimes.
 |
| Walk in the rain |
 |
| We're walking in rain... in the rain... |
 |
| Finally made it to the town |
We continued, and saw several more closed restaurants. We did pass an open convenience store, and finally, we noticed a few restaurants that were open a couple blocks farther, although all seemed to be mostly seafood - with large fish tanks right in front of the entrances. Teresa noticed the sign for one advertising English service, so we decided to check a menu. It had fish tanks, and even a duck chained to one in front, so also seemed like it would be mostly seafood, but when we asked about a menu, they seated us instead, and we were too drenched and weary to continue so decided to make do. The restaurant wasn’t very attractive, it was open to the outside from the front, the roof had a leak, and it was fairly grungy, and was completely empty besides a small staff, and us, and a caged parrot that said “Ni Hao” sometimes.
We were given the English menu, and indeed most of the food was not to our tastes, including tons of seafood, odd organ meats, even insects and bee larva; but we cobbled together a few things we wanted and thought we could eat. Bamboo shoots, roast pork, egg drop soup with basil, and beef lo mein. The waitress kept hovering over us while we were trying to read the menu and decide what we wanted, which was a bit odd. When we were finally ready, we pointed to what we wanted, and discovered that she of course couldn’t read the english menu she had given us, and had no idea what we were trying to order. Only a few of the items had pictures. We tried to use google translate to explain the “egg drop soup with basil”, and she pointed to a picture that looked more like an omelette, and we signaled - no - and finally found the soups on the Chinese menu and figured out which one was the egg drop with basil (which we confirmed with google translate), and pointed to that. Then she used her own phone translator to say that, actually, she needed it in Vietnamese! We did our best to explain what we wanted, and finally had the order in. And one by one dishes arrived. Some were what we ordered, others were something else entirely, and we were beyond caring at this point. We ended up with the omelette with basil instead of the soup. The pork, which had even actually had a picture in the menu, ended up being a different dish of an indeterminate part of the pig (we suspect intestine, since that was also on the menu). The beef lo mein ended up being pork instead of beef, but we just sighed and tried everything. And lo, it was actually all quite tasty, even if we weren’t always sure what it was!
When the dishes stopped coming:
Me: "is that everything we ordered?"
Teresa: "It is four items, and we ordered four items"
On the pork (possibly intestine):
Teresa: "oh my! That is good. I have no idea what it is, but it's delicious."
The omelette that we kept trying not to order was actually my favorite, it was a bit salty and the basil gave it a lovely flavor. The weird pork dish came with a side of ground pepper to dip in, and was served atop onions and drizzled with a delicious sweet sauce. It was a bit tougher and chewier than I’d prefer, reminding me a little of the chicken butthole Matt fed to me earlier in the trip, but it was more palatable than that had been at least. I also grabbed a barley tea from the cooler. In the end, we made a meal of it. When we got the check, the owner also gave us a bag with some masks. (We aren’t sure if they were gratis or not, as the food we had ordered didn’t match what we received either, but in the end the whole meal wasn’t too pricey, and those masks would end up coming in handy).
 |
| The entrance to our restaurant. Note the duck. (We didn't try to order duck). |
 |
| Weary and ready to settle for whatever we could get at this point |
 |
| Decoding the menu |
 |
| Some food arrived |
 |
| Our "egg drop soup with basil" that... wasn't |
 |
| Our mystery dishes |
 |
| Trying a bit of everything |
 |
| At our table |
Then we had to steel ourselves for the long walk back. Despite continuing to rain throughout our meal, it had thankfully lightened by this time, and the streams of water along the sidewalks had finally gotten to the drains. We stopped at the convenience store, and decided that we never wanted to do this hike again, so we stocked up on food for our breakfasts and lunch tomorrow, and we also decided that we would go ahead and order wagyu shabu shabu a-la carte at the hotel restaurant for tomorrow’s dinner - which was a more reasonable $40 per person. We hoped that it would be enough food, but were excited to enjoy proper wagyu beef, and if it wasn’t enough - well we’d have a midnight snack back in our room. Our room has a mini fridge, and a hot water kettle for tea/coffee, so we got fancy instant noodle bowls (much nicer than your ramen packets back home, mine even included real beef in it); and of course I had to get more chips to try. We got what we thought was a coffee jelly, but translated to “fairy grass jelly”. I’m still not sure if I would’ve liked it, because we never got around to eating it. (It sadly got left out of the fridge once we returned to Matt’s - spoiler alert - since we didn’t end up eating it while still at the ryokan). We also got some breads - I got a dark chocolate one. And we got green tea soft serve ice cream to have for dessert, taking it back to the nice eating area (seriously, convenience stores in Taiwan are nothing like the ones back home. They have lots of actually great food, and often nice sitting areas). As I ate, my cone ended up dripping out the bottom and spilled on my pants, which were also already soaked in the lower legs from the rain, and sadly are my only pants with me (since my other pair were left at Matt and Rosie’s, due to them needing a wash as well after the incident at the bar).
 |
| Wait... how do I eat this through this mask? |
 |
| Our delicious matcha ice cream |
 |
| Teresa enjoying her ice cream |
After this all-too-brief ice cream break, we started back for the long hike up to our resort. Our shoes and socks were still drenched, and we now found ourselves with even more uphill streets to trek up, and as we walked I found that my feet started to itch from the soaking socks, and my bladder started to feel very full as well. And let me tell you, there is no misery like that of needing to walk uphill about half an hour with itchy feet. This was a fresh level of unique, intense agony. We walked out of town, down winding dark roads with our flashlight--and I was now also using my cell phone light--through the fork, past the parked buses again, and descending to the bridge over the river gorge. Finally across, we started back uphill, each step bringing more and more agony, until finally we reached the gate of our hotel. I practically ran through the lobby and back out to the room (Teresa agreed to book our dinner for tomorrow and let me run to the room). I was ready to just tear off my shoes right there! The winding wooden walkway up to the building with the rooms through bamboo and past flowing water, so charming when we first walked along it, was now maddening. The walk down to the elevator: interminable. The elevator seemed especially slow; and finally I burst into the room and practically leapt out of my drenched shoes and socks and clothing, and rushed to the bathroom - where I used one of the washcloths to try to get relief for my itching feet as I relieved myself. (For some reason they use hand-towels for washing, and washcloths for drying your hands. It wasn’t ideal, as they tended to retain dampness and become less effective as time went by). When Teresa finally arrived, we headed down our stairs for a very much needed shower, and bath. And that bath was so much more wonderful when we were aching from that long hike, and the view now had shifted to lots of pretty lights from the grounds below, with a nice night breeze. I then discovered that the pants they had provided for me were way too small for my fat American ass - they could barely get past my knees! We set our wet pants on the banister to try to dry them, and I put back on the bathrobe.
 |
| Beginning the long trek back to the resort |
 |
| Leaving town |
 |
| Into the unknown |
 |
| Past the fork in the road |
 |
| Our resort is across the gorge and up the mountain, way in the distance. (Other resorts in the foreground) |
 |
| Through the parked buses |
 |
| Across the bridge. No sidewalks. |
 |
| Starting out uphill |
 |
| This would've been the entrance to the pedestrian bridge we could've taken! |
 |
| Painted stones |
 |
| Painted sidewalk |
 |
| Painted sidewalk part 2 |
 |
| Painted walls |
 |
| More painted walls |
We went to relax on the lounger, and once we were finally feeling human again, we decided to give Mom a call on Facetime; we had discussed doing this a couple days back but hadn’t found good timing for. We chatted for over an hour with her, telling her all about our day, and getting the situation back home. It was very good and comforting to hear from her, and I think we all managed to get to a better place after talking. We explained how much we really needed her for Lunar, and she was also our ride from the airport (and had our house keys), and for now we agreed that she would stay, and we all felt much better about things.
We finally retired to the comfortable bed, and agreed that tomorrow would be a relaxing day, we would not be going anywhere, just taking advantage of the beautiful honeymoon suite and even checking out some of the resort activities. We badly needed that. I set up my bluetooth speaker and we drifted off to my night-time playlist...
Day 10: Friday, March 20
...And woke up a bit earlier in the morning than we’d have liked to, to a slew of messages as our phones were buzzing nearly constantly from notifications and messages. Overnight the situation has changed completely. The US State Department had just raised the international travel level for the entire world to level 4: do not travel. Anywhere in the entire world. And, they advised, if we don’t want to be stuck sheltering in place where we are during this pandemic, we need to return home as soon as possible. Getting home now is going to be a nightmare! Forced awake with this rude new reality, we started trying to figure out where we go from here.
We decided that we needed to just get home. We have this room tonight, and already have the chauffeur service and the high speed rail tickets scheduled for tomorrow. We started checking flights, and found that we could leave as early as Sunday, so we decided to cut this honeymoon short at that point. Hey, we’ve already done quite a lot, we’ve seen a lot of great things in Taipei, spent time with Matt and Rosie, gone to Yifun/Jiaoxi and had the nice hot spring spa there, and now also gotten to our honeymoon suite ryokan. If we have to go early now, at least we had a great time! So I went through the United app and booked the flight for Sunday. Oddly, it was trying to charge us a change fee, despite the very same page saying that we have a waiver on changes. But we figured we would fight that later, we really needed to get our flight switched while we still could, so I confirmed everything, selected seats, and put in the payment, and then the site hit an error. So I tried again, and it hit an error. And tried again. And again… It just wasn’t working, and wasn’t letting us change our flight. So we had to call. But the United US number wouldn’t work on our Taiwan sim cards (which also have very limited talk time, despite unlimited internet). The United site link to find their number for foreign countries was broken, so I had to google for their Taiwan number. And that didn’t work either!
Teresa remembered that when she lived abroad in Japan, she was actually able to use Skype to make phone calls, and was sure that the toll-free number would mean we didn’t need to spend money for it. But when I tried to install Skype on my phone, the app wouldn’t download from the Google Play store! It just hung, trying to start the download and never proceeding. I tried it on my VPN (through America) and off, on the hotel wifi and on just mobile, and even rebooting my phone and trying again. It just wouldn’t install for some reason. Thankfully, Teresa had Skype already on her iPad, but couldn’t remember her account - so I logged into mine, and we started the call. We were informed that “your hold time is over two hours”. So we grabbed an external battery and hooked it up to the iPad so it wouldn’t die, and set down for the long haul. There would be no resort activities for us today, after all. Teresa ended up figuring out her own login and also called on her phone, to have another chance at it. (I also tried setting up Google Voice, but I discovered it apparently needed a phone number to link to it even though it gives you a new number, and I don’t have access to my US number right now, so had to give up on that option.)
Teresa remembered that when she lived abroad in Japan, she was actually able to use Skype to make phone calls, and was sure that the toll-free number would mean we didn’t need to spend money for it. But when I tried to install Skype on my phone, the app wouldn’t download from the Google Play store! It just hung, trying to start the download and never proceeding. I tried it on my VPN (through America) and off, on the hotel wifi and on just mobile, and even rebooting my phone and trying again. It just wouldn’t install for some reason. Thankfully, Teresa had Skype already on her iPad, but couldn’t remember her account - so I logged into mine, and we started the call. We were informed that “your hold time is over two hours”. So we grabbed an external battery and hooked it up to the iPad so it wouldn’t die, and set down for the long haul. There would be no resort activities for us today, after all. Teresa ended up figuring out her own login and also called on her phone, to have another chance at it. (I also tried setting up Google Voice, but I discovered it apparently needed a phone number to link to it even though it gives you a new number, and I don’t have access to my US number right now, so had to give up on that option.)
I hopped back on Twitter, since that’s where I had earlier gotten in touch with United about changing our Japan trip, and wrote this to United:
“With the US travel advisory urging us to return home as soon as possible, we are trying to change our flights so we can get back to the US earlier so we aren’t trapped out here. Currently the website is not working for re-booking, and we have been waiting on hold for over an hour. We are hoping that you can help us! Our confirmation number is [XXXXX]. We were able to find the following flight that would work for us:
Sunday March 22, 2020 TPE (Taipei) to IAD (Washington, DC), 7:55AM (5 hr connection in NRT), using flight numbers BR 184, UA 804.
The website says that we have a waiver for changes. Please assist, thanks!”
They didn’t get back to us on Twitter.
Since the hotel guide had told us to be out of the room from noon to 3, so they could do housekeeping for us and clean the tub, we had to call the front desk and try to explain in simple English that we needed to stay in the room while we were on hold (we didn’t want to risk losing wi-fi and our connection and spot in line on hold). Meanwhile, the world stood still, as we waited. We took turns with the iPad, but were too stressed to actually enjoy the amenities of our room while we waited, or even cook the food we had brought back from the convenience store. Instead, we continued to read up on the situation and investigate our options, and inform people back home of what was going on.
Since the hotel guide had told us to be out of the room from noon to 3, so they could do housekeeping for us and clean the tub, we had to call the front desk and try to explain in simple English that we needed to stay in the room while we were on hold (we didn’t want to risk losing wi-fi and our connection and spot in line on hold). Meanwhile, the world stood still, as we waited. We took turns with the iPad, but were too stressed to actually enjoy the amenities of our room while we waited, or even cook the food we had brought back from the convenience store. Instead, we continued to read up on the situation and investigate our options, and inform people back home of what was going on.
Finally, after 2 hours and 15 minutes on hold, we got through to a representative. We detailed the flight that we had found to him, and he checked, but he said that flight was actually showing as cancelled on his system, and the customer-facing website just wasn’t yet updated. So he started looking for earlier flights for us, and we waited another 15 minutes for him, before he got back to us and informed us that there were none. There were literally zero available flights home. We asked him to at least confirm that the flight we already had scheduled for Thursday (in a week!) was still scheduled, and he said it was. So this was now the situation - we had no option to leave early; we would finish out the vacation as planned; and hopefully our flight on Thursday would still happen as scheduled. And now, instead of enjoying our expensive honey-moon suite, we have spent half the day stressed out and trying to ensure we could get home.
We had some of the milk tea we had brought with us and just tried to de-stress as much as we could. We decided to head outside and try to discuss the plan with Mom. Thankfully, my pants had dried from the night before, and they had special socks and wooden sandals for us to wear around the grounds, as my shoes were still very damp. The sandals were a bit uncomfortable and hard to walk in. You had to grip the strap between your toes, or slip out of them! (I actually tried walking up a ramp on the hotel grounds, and literally slide down out of my sandals!) But at least they were dry!
We sat on a comfy seat overlooking the water gardens to call Mom up on Facetime; even though it was after 1AM back home at this point, we knew she wanted an update. With the situation as bad as it was, things back home had changed as well, and she was nervous about being trapped in our house and not being able to get back home to Dad and Becca. We’re trying to let her go home early and work something out logistically for Lunar to be taken care of, and for our airport pick-up now. When the call wrapped up, we decided to try to salvage what we could of our day and get a bit of relaxing in, so we grabbed a free iced tea, took a walk around the water garden, and sat in a comfy gazebo with sofas and chilled for a while, enjoying the flowery scents, the soft breeze, and the overcast--but not chilly--weather, while listening to the trickling of the water through the gardens, and gazing over the beautiful grounds. All other things aside, at least this was a very pleasant day!
 |
| Sitting by the water gardens while we chat with Mom |
 |
| Water lilies |
 |
| Water gardens |
 |
| Showing off our sexy masks |
 |
| Beautiful gardens |
 |
| Getting iced tea |
 |
| Exploring the grounds |
 |
| Trying to relax |
 |
| Exploring |
 |
| More water lilies |
 |
| Our walk |
 |
| Teresa on the bridge |
 |
| The gazebo in the woods |
 |
| Heading back |
 |
| Our resort |
We headed back to our room to have a few snacks (although it was too late by this time to really have a full lunch, so we enjoyed some of the bread we had bought, and some Lays Stacks chips flavored like the beef buns I had from the night market); and finally enjoy our nice hot spring bath again. After a much needed shower and hot spring bath--overlooking the grounds and the mountains in the distance--we headed down to our booked dinner at the hotel restaurant. (It was so nice to just walk across the beautiful grounds for a change, and not through rainy hilly streets into the town!)
 |
| Inside and outside |
 |
| Making our way back to the room |
 |
| Wistful |
 |
| Restful |
 |
| The view from the bath |
We were seated at a comfy Japanese-style table for two, in a little private alcove, and got our wagyu shabu shabu hot-pots. It was also served with rice and a plate full of unusual greens (some leafy, one that looked almost fern like), a veritable forest of mushrooms, and some carrots and baby corn and onions. We also got two sauces each, with a bowl of sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle, to pour in a peanut sauce and mix it in; and another that was a soy-based sauce that we added green onions and a paste (mine had some chili, Teresa got a radish paste instead that was more mild). I tried everything, although mostly left the mushrooms untouched. The slices of wagyu were nicely marbled, and were sliced thin so you could cook them very quickly by swishing them back and forth in the hot-pots. We ate slowly and savored every little bite of this flavorful amazing steak that literally melts in your mouth. They had to top-off the soup in our hot-pots multiple times, and even needed to give mine a new gas canister when the flame died. We had hot tea with the food, and once we finally polished off the last of the wagyu (and Teresa also finished her veggies and rice… I had a bunch of mine but not all), we ordered ice cream for dessert (milk and green tea flavors) to share. The restaurant then surprised us with a special extra “happy honeymoon” dessert, with strawberries, kiwi, chocolate letters, and macarons - as well as a couple drinks (one sweet wine, one honey-lemon) - all on the house - and when we asked them to take pictures for us, they also took one with their camera - and then surprised us again by presenting us with the photo as a keepsake! And while this wasn’t a cheap meal, they had thrown in the extra dessert and the photo keepsake for free, and really went above and beyond in service and making us feel comfortable and happy, and the food was incredible! We were so glad we had booked this one meal with them, to really get the full experience of the resort we had come to the other side of the world to stay at, and also glad that we didn’t have to hike into the town again.
 |
| Night falls and the lights come on |
 |
| The mountainside through fog |
 |
| Lit up water gardens |
 |
| Sitting down to shabu shabu hot pots |
 |
| Our sauces |
 |
| The Veggies |
 |
| Our special dinner together |
 |
| Our meal |
 |
| Selfie-style |
 |
| The wagyu beef - the real star of the show |
 |
| After cooking in my hot pot |
 |
| Teresa cooking in her hot pot |
 |
| Our ice cream |
 |
| Our surprise dessert and wines! |
 |
| Milk and Green Tea ice cream |
 |
| The sweet and honey-lemon wines |
 |
| Happy Honeymoon! |
 |
| Enjoying dessert |
 |
| A classy way to end our stressful day |
 |
| Gifts from the resort |
Back at the room, we took another bath, this time overlooking the night sky and lit up grounds, and took the time to relax in our nice honeymoon suite, before again Mom pinged us and we talked to her again about the ever-changing plans.
To bed.
 |
| The resort at night |
 |
| The grounds at night |
Day 11: Saturday, March 21
We slept comfortably, but unfortunately didn’t want to get up early enough to use the nice bath one last time. We packed up, checked out, and met the chauffeur for the ride back to the train station in Taichung. At the station, we checked out food options, and ended up deciding to try the Mos Burger, which is a Japanese fast food chain: they had a meal deal for 2 that was actually really delicious! Teresa got the “wagyu” burger, and I had the bbq pork on a rice/quinoa bun, and we also got fries, chicken nuggets, fried purple yams, and a fried mashed veggie of some sort. It was all surprisingly tasty for fast food; and very affordable, and even came with a nifty reusable bag. I wish we had this chain back home, I might actually be willing to eat fast food more often! We grabbed more of the chocolate mochi buns at the bakery that Teresa loved, this time getting half a dozen so we could share a couple with Matt and Rosie, and then grabbed our high speed rail train back to Taoyuan, where we got another taxi to get back to their house.
.
.
 |
| Our fast food meal (you can see the pork in the rice quinoa bun best here) |
 |
| Grabbing our lunch at the train station, and showing off the included bag! |
 |
| Waiting for the train |
 |
| Waiting for the train 2 |
 |
| Waiting for the train 3 |
After unloading, and catching our breath with Matt and Rosie, we discussed options with them. Since we were stuck in Taiwan for now, we decided to try to make the most of the rest of our time here, especially as things were still open in most places (although New Taipei City had closed attractions, we weren’t planning to go there). We decided that we should take this chance to finally go up the Taipei 101 tower; even though it would be dark by the time we got there, skies were at least finally clear.
We grabbed the usual bus to the MRT to get to the Taipei 101. We bought our tickets, and there was no line at all, we just boarded the elevator - which was somehow simultaneously incredibly fast, and incredibly smooth - I barely noticed that it was moving and it arrived 89 stories up! This floor was surrounded by windows, entirely indoors, but you could walk around every side and see the city sprawled out below--and lit up beautifully--in every direction. There were no crowds up here; we almost had the place to ourselves, although we did run into another American couple (the boyfriend was temporarily working here for 10 months and his girlfriend was visiting, making it into the country before they closed down to travel just like we did) who wanted someone to take photos for them; and we made sure to get photos of us as well when we were up there!
 |
| Map of the mall beneath |
 |
| Finally back at the Taipei 101 |
 |
| Heading towards the ticketing |
 |
| Heading towards ticketing 2 |
 |
| Heading towards ticketing 3 |
 |
| Ticketing |
 |
| Heading to the elevator |
 |
| Some of the other tallest buildings in the world in comparison |
 |
| A lego model of the Taipei 101 |
 |
| Taking the elevator |
 |
| Posing at the observatory level |
 |
| We realized that the statue is actually doing a "101" for the Taipei 101 with his fingers and mouth. |
 |
| Doing it properly without masks |
We got bubble tea and a green tea ice cream float at the shop up there. Exploring all around, we discovered that you could see the giant wind damper in the center of the tower - it was a massive ball affixed with massive metal cords to each corner of the tower above and below it, and it’s designed to stabilize the building in winds. Very impressive! We then found stairs to travel 2 more stories up and to an outside deck, where we could view the city below from the outside. There was a guard here, and it was otherwise empty. Unfortunately, the other sides were roped off, so we could only view the city from one direction. Behind us, the thinner portion of the tower beneath the spire continued upwards, almost a sky-scraper unto itself! The view was extraordinary! We had a video-call with Paul and showed him the sites and chatted for awhile, and got several pictures, before heading back down.
Another story beneath the start, we headed to the bar on 88. There was a beautiful coral jewelry exhibit to walk through (and a shop), and then the bar itself - which had comfortable seats, and beautiful views, and was also completely empty of customers. I ended up ordering the world-famous beef noodle soup (another dish Taipei is known for), and Teresa was happy to find they had cotton candy cloud drinks, and got one with a caramel nitro coffee (Rosie got one with bubble tea, and Matt ordered spicy tripe. He likes all the weird cuts of meat, apparently!) We sat at a comfy table beside the windows, and ate. I tried a bite of the tripe, and the spice was good, but I wasn’t a fan of the texture. I ended up sharing half of my beef-noodle soup with Matt, because it was a lot, and while it was fine (good braised beef, and nice noodles, in a broth), it wasn’t the most exciting thing I had eaten in Taiwan. I’m glad to have tried it though!
 |
| Getting ice cream |
 |
| Matt and Rosie |
 |
| My green tea ice cream float |
 |
| Hanging out with cats |
 |
| To the super big wind damper! |
 |
| Checking out the super big wind damper |
 |
| This thing keeps the sky scraper stable |
 |
| They love their mascots in Taiwan |
 |
| Taipei 101 has multiple mascots (note that their faces look like "101") |
 |
| Rich Gold protects the super big wind damper |
 |
| Wind damper detail |
 |
| Wind damper detail |
 |
| More mascots |
 |
| More mascots |
 |
| More mascots |
 |
| Year of the rat display |
 |
| Origin of the year of the rat (click to expand) |
 |
| View of the city below |
 |
| Mostly empty observation level |
 |
| Getting a group photo |
 |
| Jason and Teresa |
 |
| Matt and Rosie |
 |
| Love |
 |
| Taking the stairs to the outside observation a couple stories up |
 |
| Map |
 |
| The 91st floor outdoor observatory |
 |
| The skyscraper on top of the skyscraper |
 |
| Matt and Rosie observing the city below |
 |
| The city of Taipei as seen from the top of the Taipei 101 |
 |
| Matt showing Paul the view |
 |
| Paul takes in the view |
 |
| We also found something that is taller than Paul! |
 |
| Group shot at the top of Taipei 101 |
Another story beneath the start, we headed to the bar on 88. There was a beautiful coral jewelry exhibit to walk through (and a shop), and then the bar itself - which had comfortable seats, and beautiful views, and was also completely empty of customers. I ended up ordering the world-famous beef noodle soup (another dish Taipei is known for), and Teresa was happy to find they had cotton candy cloud drinks, and got one with a caramel nitro coffee (Rosie got one with bubble tea, and Matt ordered spicy tripe. He likes all the weird cuts of meat, apparently!) We sat at a comfy table beside the windows, and ate. I tried a bite of the tripe, and the spice was good, but I wasn’t a fan of the texture. I ended up sharing half of my beef-noodle soup with Matt, because it was a lot, and while it was fine (good braised beef, and nice noodles, in a broth), it wasn’t the most exciting thing I had eaten in Taiwan. I’m glad to have tried it though!
 |
| The view down the stairs |
 |
| They just go on to infinity |
 |
| Yeah, they aren't kidding about that gap |
 |
| Teresa posing |
 |
| Mirror-selfie |
 |
| Jason and Teresa backlit |
 |
| Some more facts about the damper |
 |
| Matt posing with the damper |
 |
| Rosie and Matt |
 |
| Jason and Teresa and the damper |
 |
| Coral art |
 |
| Coral art 2 |
 |
| Coral map of Taiwan |
 |
| Coral art 3 |
 |
| The Bar 88 cafe |
 |
| Placing our orders |
 |
| Bar 88 (the 88 is for the 88th floor of the Taipei 101) |
 |
| Sitting down with a view |
 |
| Teresa and the view |
 |
| Rosie and Matt and the view |
 |
| Teresa and Jason waiting for food/drinks |
 |
| Rosie gets her cotton candy cloud bubble tea |
 |
| Teresa tries her cotton candy cloud nitro cold brew |
 |
| Braised beef noodle soup |
 |
| Teresa and Jason with their orders |
 |
| The city below |
 |
| Rosie and Teresa before the view |
We headed back down the elevator as it was almost closing time by now, and ended up going to the basement food court to get dinner. The others were hungrier than I was, since I had gotten an actual full meal, but we ended up sharing a bunch of food from a few places, including beef scallion rolls (still one of my favorites of Taiwan), chicken and rice from a place with a Michelin star, pork and soup. I had half of the beef scallion rolls, since that was what I really wanted, and tried bites of everything else. When we were done, we hit up Jason’s Market, a nearby grocery (and I loved the name!) and bought some imported Japanese snacks, and alcohol - we wanted to have a little party when we got back! We took the metro back to the bus. This bus driver was not very considerate, he wouldn’t let anyone board until he was ready to depart, and when we reached our stop and walked towards the front (we were in the very back of this packed bus), he actually started the bus again before we got to the doors! We all got jerked forward, before he stopped again and finally let us off. Anyway, we walked back uphill to Matt and Rosie’s place, and got everything ready for our party.
 |
| Beef scallion rolls |
 |
| Chicken |
 |
| Teresa enjoying dinner |
 |
| Still more food! |
 |
| Shopping for snacks and booze |
 |
| Teresa is going to have most of this bottle |
 |
| Heading out |
 |
| On the metro |
 |
| Taking the metro |
 |
| Waiting on the bus |
I figured out that we could screenshare the Jackbox party pack and play it across the world with Paul and his brothers, and thankfully I had recently picked up the Humble Jackbox Bundle! So I set about getting Steam installed on my Surface, getting the games downloaded, and getting Discord installed and set-up. We had a little trouble with my third-party usb-hub that gives my Surface an hdmi output (as well as extra usb, and sd and micro sd slots), but when we laid it down flat we could finally get it to detect that there was an hdmi cord plugged in, and finally we were able to get everything working with everyone over Discord with screen-sharing (this is something we would end up doing a lot of once in quarantine back home).
We mixed milk tea with Bailey’s, and I also had Cider, and we played different Jackbox games with the Bartholomew brothers halfway around the world until almost 3AM (our time). Teresa ended up getting drunk, having downed almost half the bottle of Bailey’s. It was pretty tasty, and we had a really great time laughing and playing with friends we were missing halfway around the world!
We mixed milk tea with Bailey’s, and I also had Cider, and we played different Jackbox games with the Bartholomew brothers halfway around the world until almost 3AM (our time). Teresa ended up getting drunk, having downed almost half the bottle of Bailey’s. It was pretty tasty, and we had a really great time laughing and playing with friends we were missing halfway around the world!
 |
| Teresa having Baileys and Milk Tea (a delicious combo!) |
Mom went home today, and arrived safely back in Florida. We managed to arrange for Lunar to be checked on by neighbors, and Mom said that we will be picked up by one of my uncles when we get home (hopefully on Thursday as planned!) For now, our flight is still on, but United will be cancelling all international flights soon, so we are getting anxious, and checking schedules every day and hoping.
Things were out of our hands at this point, and we would do our best to enjoy the remainder of our stay. But they were about to really spiral out of control.
Continued in Part Four
Things were out of our hands at this point, and we would do our best to enjoy the remainder of our stay. But they were about to really spiral out of control.
Continued in Part Four
