2020-05-01

Honeymoon In The Time Of Coronavirus: Taiwan - Part 1



A version of the famous LOVE sculpture in Taipei

Prologue

We were supposed to go to Japan. Japan is the first subject that Teresa and I really connected on when we first met at Epic Nerd Camp almost four years ago. She had studied abroad in Japan, majored in Asian studies, and at one point wanted to move there; I have long appreciated Japanese culture, history and art (having gained this appreciation through the vector of Japanese videogames and anime). We promised that we would travel there often when we started dating, and when we got married there was no question that our honeymoon would be in Japan. I saved money and leave up for years so that we could really enjoy our time there and take a full month trip so we wouldn’t be rushed, and we postponed the honeymoon until 8 months after our wedding so that we had plenty of funds and time available. Teresa finally left her job before the trip, so that she didn't have to worry about leave. We spent months researching and planning and booking our trip. And then, the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic of 2020 happened, and all our plans got torn asunder.

Fake sakura blossom display in Taipei

Matt and Rosie were supposed to move to Japan. I have been friends with Matt since college, and we were roommates for a semester, staying up late playing StarCraft, watching adult swim, and sharing our love of scifi and gaming. One time we stayed up all night when it snowed, and built snowmen in the pergola, were the first to hear from security that it would be a snow day, designed and printed fliers to announce this and slipped them under the dorm-room doors of all our friends for a nice surprise, and then borrowed trays from the dining hall to go sledding in the park (and had breakfast without sleeping that night). Matt is the kind of friend where you make your own fun! He was a great roommate, and we've remained close friends since college. Matt and Rosie got married only a couple weeks after Teresa and I. While they lived 18 minutes away, we enjoyed getting together with them whenever possible; but in the months leading up to both of our weddings it was difficult to find much time to see them. They took their own honeymoon in Japan shortly after their wedding, and Rosie planned to apply to teach English there in a year. She ended up finding a job teaching in Taiwan instead, teaching Art and Drama in an English-immersion program to 1st through 3rd grades, and they ended up moving there very suddenly, not long after returning from their honeymoon. Matt and Rosie had planned to move to Japan, and ended up in Taiwan.

The school where Rosie teaches in Taoyuan, Taiwan

Since we were already planning our honeymoon in Japan, and Taiwan is reasonably cheap and easy to visit from Japan, but rather pricey on its own, we arranged to add in 6 days in Taiwan to visit with Matt and Rosie to our original planned 29 days in Japan, and our trip started coming together… until the world came apart. Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) first hit the Wuhan region of China; and while scary, it seemed for a long time that quarantines would keep it from the rest of the world. We’d seen epidemics come and go before. But this one was different. It traveled from country to country, and as it went, panic followed; and closures, and recommendations not to travel. And about 12 days before our trip was set to begin, already many of the attractions we had planned to visit in Japan were announced to be closed for at least part of the time we would be there (but likely to extend). Then we got the news that Taiwan would force a mandatory self-quarantine of 2 weeks for everyone coming in from Japan. Something had to change in our plans.

One of many Coronavirus warnings in Taipei

We monitored the situation for the next week, and as every day additional closures got announced (Ghibli Museum, Tokyo Disney, the Skytree - which was doing a Final Fantasy VII Remake themed event I wanted to go to, Tokyo teamLab immersive exhibits, and many museums, and government facilities, and schools), and the disease numbers mounted, we came to the realization that we would not be able to go to Japan at all; not at this time. We worked through several back-up plans--for instance moving Taiwan to the start of the trip, and hoping that everything re-opened in Japan when they said they would, and things would improve--but realized that as cases mounted even in the United States, that our window to travel anywhere at all was closing, and that things were likely to get worse before they got better in both Japan and the US. (Taiwan currently had no CDC alert for Coronavirus, although it did have a few cases as well. Japan had been a level 1, and had just become a level 2 advisory, simply recommending extra precautions but still--according to the US CDC--safe to travel to). We were not so much worried about catching the disease; we would follow the CDC recommendations to wash our hands thoroughly for 20 seconds, use hand sanitizer when not possible to wash, keep our distance from sick people, avoid touching our faces especially after touching surfaces that could be contaminated, and so forth. We were more worried about the possibilities for quarantine, and of course that everything in our plan would be closed or cancelled and this wouldn’t be the trip that we had hoped for anyway. Ultimately, with great reluctance and disappointment, we made the hard call to postpone a trip to Japan, and keep most of the savings, and instead go with a shorter 16 day trip to Taiwan; where we could stay with Matt and Rosie in their guestroom for most of the time, but still get a nice honeymoon suite at a Japanese-style ryokan (hot spring resort), and actually get a good amount of time to tour in Taiwan, and also have time for much needed relaxation and hanging out with the friends that we’ve been missing for over half a year. And so, like Matt and Rosie before us, Teresa and I also had planned for Japan, and ended up in Taiwan.

Day 0: Tuesday March 10

Getting lunch with Mom, Lisa and Pat the weekend before our trip at Pretzel and Pizza Creations

My Mom came up from Florida to house-sit for us and take care of Lunar while we are gone, with the plan that she would drop us off and pick us up from the airport, and get to visit with her DC-area friends and family while she stayed at our home. We picked her up from BWI on Saturday, and enjoyed our favorite ribs at Corner Stable, where we were joined by my sister Rachel and her primary, Bennett. Sunday we got together with long-time family friends Lisa and Pat for deliciousness at Pretzel and Pizza Creations in downtown Frederick. In the midst of all of this, we were frantically getting our revamped plans together, finalizing cancellations for our Japan trip, getting the house ready for Mom, and preparing for our new trip. We would be losing some money on the JRailpass partial refund, and paying a surprisingly high $75 rate to mail the tickets back to Spain, (where the affiliate that we bought it from is based, oddly enough), but otherwise everything was able to be cancelled, and United waived the flight change fee for us too.

Mom would soon learn that Lunar would never respect her personal space, and would demand all the snuggles!
I had already taken off Monday to pack and prepare (and Teresa quit her job a month earlier). We still ended up packing through the night, and got zero sleep and Mom drove us to Dulles airport bright and early. We groggily began our sleep-deprived journey, which would take us about 24 hours in total.

Check-in and security was a breeze, we practically walked through. Between it being 6AM on a Tuesday morning, and travel being vastly reduced due to the pandemic, the airport was only lightly populated. We grabbed bagel sandwiches and ate them at our gate.

Breakfast at the gate

Our first leg 5 hour flight to San Francisco was mostly empty, and we ended up with an entire section of the plane to ourselves. It was not a very comfortable ride - the plane encountered so much turbulence at the beginning it felt like it was trying to shake itself apart, and despite overwhelming exhaustion and attempting to nap, it was not very restful in the cramped seat.

Our first flight is mostly empty!
Japanese lunch at SFO

In San Francisco, we discovered that our second flight, to Taipei, was only two gates away, so we had plenty of time to sit down to lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the terminal. We had been avoiding Japanese food for a while, since we were going to be getting the real thing soon enough (and be eating it for a full month), but now that plan had changed, so we had the halfway decent airport Japanese food. Teresa’s gyudon rice bowl was a bit better than my tonkatsu rice bowl, but both were good enough; and we’re always delighted to find an extended Japanese menu beyond sushi and teriyaki in America. Teresa also got an egg sushi, and we shared an Ito En iced green tea from the cooler.

Teresa wore her new custom Little Petal dress, which she ordered at Magfest to wear on our honeymoon, since it would be difficult to pack. Also, it has pockets!

We boarded the 14 hour flight to Taiwan shortly after wrapping up our meal, and were again fortunate enough to have a row to ourselves, with nobody in the aisle seat next to us, and nobody behind us either (free to recline as we please!) This plane actually had really interesting tinted windows, instead of window shades, where you can control the degree of the tint and it works like magic (or like our transition glasses lenses, except a button changes the tint). Fortunately, I had found a really nice memory foam neck pillow at the airport, so along with the provided pillow, and my own mini travel pillow, I was vastly more comfortable on this flight, and caught up on more rest off-and-on, between unremarkable in-flight meals and watching some interesting documentaries (Armstrong, Mission: Saturn, and General Magic, about the ill-fated Silicon Valley pioneers that envisioned modern-day smart-phones 2 decades before the technology and public were ready for them). Teresa spent her time catching up on a backlog of in-flight movies, finding many that she had been wanting to see.

The long flight to Taiwan, much more comfortable this time!

When we land, it will already be Wednesday in Taiwan, and indeed, even back home despite being 12 hours behind.

Day 1: Wednesday March 11

Arriving at Matt and Rosie's home, with masks from the airport taxi
And with visible smiles! Exhausted but happy to see our friends!


Upon reaching the airport in Taipei, we turned in our Coronavirus surveys to the CDC, went through customs, and got our checked bags before meeting Matt and purchasing SIM cards for our phone. (Which come with unlimited data, but cost waaay less than my data plan back home! $650 New Taiwan Dollars for 15 days, which converts 30-1 in US Dollars, so about $22 a piece.) We grabbed a taxi with Matt back to his and Rosie’s condo, which is cozy, but nice and very high tech! It’s basically a common room which includes kitchenette on one end, and living room, a balcony with a washer and clothesline, and a great view of the city of Tauyuan where they live, a bathroom (complete with Toto washlet and humongous shower), and two bedrooms - one of which was our guestroom that is a little larger than the bed it contained.

Exploring Taoyuan with Matt and Rosie

By this point we were on approximately our fifth winds, so after chatting with Matt and Rosie, unpacking, and unwinding for a spell, we decided to seek out our first meal in Taiwan. We walked several blocks to a place that is known for their goose, and had Smoked Goose, Steamed Bamboo Shoots, Spinach, and (for Matt and me) Spicy Wontons - which we ended up getting a second order of after we downed the first one. We grabbed iced teas from a cooler to enjoy with the food (they will note what you took and add it to the bill.) Everything was delicious, even the things we were less familiar with!

At the restaurant

What would you order?

Deciphering the menu (You have to find the matching Chinese characters to select them on the checklist). Rosie is helping with Google Translate

Delicious Goose!

Delicious Spicy Wontons!

We swung by an egg custard place to try to get dessert, but they were sold out, so instead we popped into the FamilyMart convenience store, where I found a few interesting flavors of chips to try out, and some matcha ice cream waffles, and the others got drinks as well. Too tired to walk, and not wanting to face the uphill climb back, we grabbed an Uber back to the condo. We hung out late into the Taiwan night chatting and trying the various desserts and snack foods, including a very unusual Strawberry flavored chip that they had gotten earlier. Nobody really enjoyed it, the sweetness on a chip was discordant to our American tastebuds, but it was interesting! The day itself was brief, and our bodies have absolutely no idea what time it’s supposed to be, but we were exhausted and looking forward to a day of relaxing and planning for the two weeks to come.


So many unique chip flavors to be tried this trip!

Day 2: Thursday March 12


The building where Matt and Rosie live

Sleep did not come easily, as the guest bed (which came with the condo) was incredibly firm, and still our bodies were not accustomed to the timezone. We rested on and off through most of the night, before I gave up and got up. Rosie had work today, but Matt was already up, so we played a couple of fun games of Dominion (I had packed a collection of enough cards to give us plenty of variety, in a nice new card-case that I had ordered before the trip). We each won a game, and once Teresa woke up, we went out to grab breakfast. We walked a few blocks once more, to a small place called Yummy Burger where we tried several dishes which we split: a bacon and egg sandwich, potstickers, omelette crepes, and turnip cakes, french toast with chicken nuggets, sausage, and hashbrowns, and fast-food style cheeseburger. They even came with milk tea, and all three of us ate for about $9 US! My favorite was the more Chinese style dish with the potstickers, omelette crepes and turnip cakes.

Breakfast at Yummy Burger

Turnip Cakes and Potstickers

After breakfast, we hiked along a nice path by the river-side, which took us to a large department store (Carrefour) and decided to pick up a nice mattress topper. (It would cost as much as one night in a hotel, and instead we could use it every night we stay with them for a much better sleep. It will be our gift to Matt and Rosie when we leave.) We also picked up more chips and other snacks, and ended up buying a lap table for bed/sofa use that folds up small so we can take it home. Since we had a lot to carry uphill, we booked another Uber to return to the condo.

Hiking along the river

Outside the Carrefour

Inside the Carrefour

International food!

Back at the condo, we started looking into plans for the coming weekend. Rosie was fortunately able to take off Friday through Tuesday even though we had short notice on the change in plans, so we were looking into all traveling to another city in Taiwan and getting hotel rooms. We investigated several hotels in Jiaoxi, which is a hot spring town in the Yifen prefecture, in the east of Taiwan; and also looked briefly into Tainan, which is a very old city with a lot of history and mixing of cultures in the very south of Taiwan. Before we settled things, Rosie got home from work. While Teresa and Rosie caught up; Matt and I took a pleasant walk to get me an Easy Pass card at 7-11 (Teresa already found one she liked in the morning. They come in many different designs you get to choose, and you load the card with money to use on pretty much all public transit, and can even use them to buy goods!) Taoyuan doesn’t have very many sidewalks, so a lot of walking is in the shoulders, or hugging the edges of the road. Thankfully, drivers here aren’t nearly as scary as in mainland China, but we still have to be careful, and there was one point we took a detour on a winding side-road that passed by several houses, a military base, and was lined with a lot of greenery. Once we got back, Matt and I started another game of Dominion, which we paused when it was time to catch the bus to make our dinner reservations.


Taking the bus, something which would become a frequent feature of our trip

We all walked uphill a couple blocks to the bus stop; where we had apparently just missed a bus and had to wait at least ten minutes for the next one, which was a few minutes later than it was supposed to be. I got to make the first use of my Easy Card, tapping it on entry, and again when we arrived. We entered a vast department store (in Taiwan it is more like a vertical mall filled with different stores and restaurants) and took the escalators up and up, eventually checking out a store that had many gacha toy capsule machines, where we killed some time before our reservation, and got a couple souvenirs. (The machines give you a random capsule toy based on a shared theme).

Coronavirus warning at the restaurant. They took our temperature and gave us hand-sanitizer before we entered

When it was time, we proceeded up to the top floor--the 11th--to the Eatogether Buffet where we had a 7:30 reservation. And let me tell you, this buffet puts Las Vegas buffets to shame, for a fraction of the price. Not only was there a massive selection, but everything I tried was so well prepared, flavorful and more delicious than expected. The caramelized sweet potato bites (labeled “sweet potatoes with caramel sauce”) were simply crispy/sugary on the outside, smooth and sweet on the inside bites of heaven. Everyone agreed that these were a highlight of the buffet, and Teresa and I both ate a bunch of them! Also excellent were the puff-pastry covered cream of corn soup, spare ribs, the chicken stir-fried in Chinese spices, the barbecued pork with honey, and many many more Chinese dishes and even less-Chinese sides like creamed corn and garlic mashed potatoes. A drink of “apple cider vinegar with aloe” tasted a lot like lemonade with refreshing chewy bites of aloe (a bit like getting jellies in bubble tea). But they also had (included) milk tea and other teas, beers and sodas and juices of many varieties. They also had a station where you they made you duck wraps, which were more the Hong Kong style than Peking Duck, but Matt really enjoyed them, and tons of seafood and sushi, which I bypassed. And then there were so many desserts - including a full pastry case and Haagen Daz ice cream, but my favorite was the green-tea shaved ice with red bean and jellies on top. Scratch that, after dessert I went back for my real favorite, more of the sweet potatoes with caramel sauce. We are going to have to find a recipe for that somehow!


One quadrant of the buffet

Puff-pastry cream of corn soup

Teresa and Rosie enjoying themselves

Rosie and Matt and food!

Matt and more food

Getting duck

The pastry case

My favorite - the sweet potatoes with caramel sauce

Don't come between Teresa and her desserts!

Getting my just desserts!

When we wrapped up and paid the bill (which translated to about $25 USD a person; not bad for all-you-can-eat food of this quality!), we needed to walk off some of the calories, so we checked out some other department stores in the surrounding blocks. I particularly enjoyed a videogame shop that had tons of interesting finds that you don’t see in America; I picked up a few Amiibos that are hard to find, and we got a cute miniature Zelda: Breath of the Wild box (which can actually hold the game cart)! They already have Persona 5: The Royal on sale. (Which doesn't come out in America until April 1st!)

Heading back down from the 11th level where the buffet was

Videogames!

Persona 5 Royal on one side, Animal Crossing on the other. It's like foreshadowing of our back-home quarantine!

These are only some of the Amiibos they had for sale

Finally we grabbed a cab back to Matt and Rosie’s place. Matt and I wrapped up our game, and before crashing for the night we settled our plans for the rest of the two weeks we have left. We opted to keep this particular trip on the relaxing side, and also to ensure we still have plenty of time for nearby Taipei and other day trips to surrounding areas in the north of Taiwan, so we found a nice hotel (the Resort One) in Jiaoxi to spend Sunday through Tuesday in. Each couple got rooms there, and, plans now finalized, everyone crashed. Tomorrow, Rosie finally starts her time off, and we will all head in to Taipei at last for our first real day of touring!

Day 3: Friday, March 13

Waiting for the bus to Taipei

We slept far better on the new mattress pad, although still waking up at random times in the night, and getting less sleep than usual due to jetlag. Once we were all up, showered and ready to go, the four of us hiked a few blocks to the bus station to finally head up to Taipei! It was a fairly wet day, although rarely raining very hard when we were out and about. The bus was very comfortable (like a tour bus), but oddly denied my easy pass due to an “incomplete fare” - somehow I hadn’t properly tapped out the other day; but thankfully we had the cash. (The bus is only $69, or about $2.30 USD). It was a relaxing ride about 40 minutes up to Taipei. Since talking isn’t socially acceptable on the buses here, we all brought headphones, and I got to finally check out the just-released Steven Wilson single Personal Shopper from his upcoming The Future Bites album.

On the bus

Matt and Rosie on the bus
At the Taipei Train Station. Normally there would be large crowds just relaxing in this square, but during the Pandemic it isn't allowed

A random robot on display

Everywhere we went there were people sanitizing surfaces. They take preventing Coronavirus seriously!

Teresa found a cute soda machine

Posing at the train station

Once we arrived, Teresa and I booked our High Speed Rail tickets for our upcoming ryokan stay, and then we checked out many of the restaurants at the train station to choose where to grab lunch, they all looked really good! We ended up finding an absolutely amazing place when they offered us a discount to stop standing around outside looking at the menu, and come inside. We ordered several dishes (dim sum style) to share amongst ourselves. We got xiao long bao (Chinese soup dumplings), dan dan noodles (a kind of spicy peanut sauce over hand-pulled noodles), braised beef with thick hand cut noodles, beef scallion wraps, potstickers, crispy breaded pork cutlet over fried rice, pumpkin and mushroom soup, and we each ordered a special drink - Teresa and I got homemade peach and lychee sodas, respectively - which had huge chunks of real fruit in them. This was a veritable king’s feast, and absolutely everything was delicious beyond compare! My favorites were the beef scallion wraps, which had a kind of hoisin sauce and were fried; but the XLB (with fresh shaved ginger to blend with a mix of soy sauce and rice vinegar for a dip) was also amazing, as were the dan dan noodles (which were so long that Matt and I had a lot of trouble getting them out of the bowl! I joked that we would have to eat them Lady & the Tramp style, and Matt seemed willing to give it a shot!) And, ok, well, basically everything but the soup was my favorite, but that was for Teresa since we had gotten several spicy dishes! By the end of this feast of absolutely amazing food and drinks, when we settled the bill--including the 15% discount they had lured us in with--we discovered that we had each just paid the equivalent of $13 USD - barely more than fast food back home! I must say, I’m most impressed by Taiwan as an underrated foodie destination. Everything we’ve eaten here so far has been incredible, and remarkably affordable. Matt says in Taiwan their food culture is strong, so restaurants have to compete on quality, and there are tons of first-rate restaurants everywhere.

The restaurant where we had our amazing feast!


All together before the feast 

Choose your style of hand-pulled noodles

Several inspirational fixed price courses; we opted to roll our own though!

Putting in our order

Helping myself to some Xiao Long Bao

Rosie and Teresa enjoying their Peach Soda

My Lychee Soda (and Matt's beer)

Braised Beef Noodle Soup, Pork Fried Rice, Dan Dan Noodles and Beef Scallion Rolls

All together with a finished feast!

We took the Taipei metro to the Taipei 101 tower, but we opted to wait on going up the Taipei 101 (once the tallest skyscraper in the world), as it was fairly foggy, and the views would mainly be of clouds. We did get some great photos from the bottom of the tower where you can’t even see the top, since it is cloaked behind mist! Instead we walked through the massive shopping mall inside; it seems that in Taiwan shopping malls are still thriving, and are really huge and really beautiful. We grabbed bubble teas at the Kung Fu Tea (which is our favorite back home). We each got couples pictures outside by the famous LOVE sign. Then we walked to yet another mall that had a Studio Ghibli store, and got some souvenirs. Needing a break from being on our feet (especially Teresa, who is still recovering from her work-place injury to her hip), we grabbed ANOTHER bubble tea from Tiger Sugar, which is Rosie’s favorite, and sat at the tables outside. This bubble tea completely blew away Kung Fu Tea, sorry to say! Their boba have a delicious brown-sugar/caramelly flavor to them, where Kung Fu Tea’s are more honey flavored.

Teresa found a Krispy Kreme in the Metro station

Tokyo Metro

Taipei Metro

Taipei Metro, they are scanning everyone's temperature as they enter

Waiting for the train

Photographing the Taipei 101

At the base of the Taipei 101

The top of the tower is above the clouds!

Rosie and Matt

We found my market!

Enjoying our Kung Fu Bubble Tea

Outside the Taipei 101

Another view from the front of the Taipei 101 (it will be featured in a lot of photos)

Heading down to the Studio Ghibli Store

Riding the catbus

Waiting for the bus

Getting money from No-Face

Tiger Sugar Bubble Tea!

Dramatic view of the Taipei 101

From this point, we opted to split up and check out shopping. Matt and I went off in search of a videogame store, and Teresa and Rosie hung back and checked out other shops on their own (I know they found a Lego store, which had a massive Bubble Tea Lego that was bigger than Teresa!) Unfortunately, after a long walk, the store that Matt found on Google maps didn’t appear - there was a bank where it was supposed to be! Instead, we boarded a bus - standing room only - and headed to a massive electronics bazaar. There were multiple floors of little shops selling a variety of goods, including a few videogame stores. It was fun to explore! I found a camera shop where I was finally able to buy a replacement for my missing rubber eye-piece of my DSLR, and we found a shop that had decent prices on the Japanese “raffles”, where you buy tickets for random prizes based on a theme (you always win something, but the better items are rarer, and they show you how many are left of each prize, so you know the odds). Since they had one for the Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I liked the looks of every single prize, I decided to buy a couple tickets to it… and later came back and bought a couple more! What can I say, Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games of all time, and these make up for missing out on the FF7 Remake themed Tokyo Skytree (which is closed now anyway). I won a couple towels, a Cloud figure in the original PS1 blocky style, and a shot glass with the FF7 logo. Matt also entered a few raffles for some animes.

An interesting looking building

Taipei Street

Taipei Street, from a walking bridge

There are ornate temples dotted around the otherwise modern cities

The small temple

Detail on the temple

Motorcycles and Mopeds are the most popular form of transit in Taiwan, and you find them everywhere! (We even saw whole families riding on one, and someone riding with two dogs!)

Taipei 101 reaching into the clouds

Beautiful view on the outside, but we're glad we didn't opt to go up the Taipei 101 today!

At one of the videogame vendors at the electronics bazaar

Matt at the electronics bazaar

Outside the bazaar

I should mention that everywhere we went, they had infrared at the entrances to check for anyone with a fever, and at the restaurants they specifically would take your temperature before you could enter, and give you a squirt of hand sanitizer. There were frequently workers sanitizing surfaces like handrails and such, and most of the Taiwanese people were wearing face masks. I can’t imagine America is taking the Coronavirus this seriously! We have been hearing just crazy news from back home - now they’ve banned all large gatherings, schools are closed, sporting events are cancelled, telework is being expanded, the Smithsonian is closed, Disney World even closed! But still many people can’t get tested, they can’t pass a bill to give people sick leave (but they CAN throw away trillions to try to salvage the cratering stock market), and the president can’t even speak anything true or scientific about this very serious pandemic. We feel so much safer here - in fact, we would love to stay longer, since things seem too crazy back home to deal with! We were also taking our own precautions, taking a break to wash our hands whenever possible, using hand-sanitizer when not, and avoiding touching common surfaces. Everyone around here seems to be very conscientious of keeping safe, and currently Taiwan is one of the best countries in the world in preparedness and containment of the Coronavirus.

Taking the elevator to our fancy dinner

Our first Peking Duck restaurant!

This is a very swanky restaurant

When it was time to meet up again for our dinner reservations at a fancy Peking Duck restaurant, Matt and I grabbed the metro to meet back up with Teresa and Rosie. This restaurant was on the 31st floor of a Marriott, and was absolutely beautiful - we all felt under-dressed in jeans and t-shirts - and the food was again divine. The full duck was carved table-side, and they prepared the pancakes for us, as well as giving us platters of tender meat and perfect crispy skin and a plate of sauces and seasonings to dip them in (the crispy skin is wonderful in sugar!) They even asked which fillings we didn’t like, and made them special for you if you had a request (I didn’t want celery in mine). We also had Jasmine Tea, a pumpkin puff dessert, egg custard pastries, and Teresa got a fruit plate (she didn’t think she would eat much duck, but ended up loving it and eating as much as any of us!) Unfortunately, this is where Teresa learned that she has a bad food allergy to dragon-fruit! Thankfully, this was the end of the meal, so we paid the check (again, roughly $25 USD per person for a verrry fancy meal), and then went in search of a drug-store. With everything in Chinese, luckily Matt had a friend he could call who was able to translate for us, and found out they didn’t have what we needed, but they referred us to a pharmacy that did a few blocks away. We grabbed Teresa allergy medicine to help her, and then took the metro back to our bus stop. By the time we got back, it was very late (midnight), and we were all very exhausted.

Teresa and Rosie enjoying the appetizer

Presenting us with the different dips

Carving and preparing our duck at the table-side

Perfect little pancakes

Teresa receives her first pancakes

Ready to embark on our meal

The centerpiece

Another plate of pancakes! (I got mine without celery, so they made them special)

The whole group

Teresa was pleased to receive her fruit platter; and less pleased to discover a new allergy

Pumpkin Puffs

Waiting for the bus back home at the end of the night

Day 4: Saturday March 14


Despite once again attempting to sleep in, and how exhausted I was last night, I again woke up every couple hours in the night, and finally couldn’t fall back asleep around 7AM, so checked things out on my phone while killing some time waiting for the others to be up. This is another day to go into Taipei, although it’s still fairly cloudy and wet, unfortunately. With how exhausting the last day was, we’re very much looking forward to heading to Jiaoxi tomorrow for a relaxing hot springs town to relax and recuperate! Matt was kind enough to take care of our laundry for us, and take it to a nearby drier (they have a washer and clothesline only, on their balcony.) He also got everyone bacon and egg sandwiches! We decided to let Teresa sleep in, since she needed her rest, and played another game of Dominion. After four games, Matt and I are completely tied. Finally, as the clock ticked past noon, we decided it was time to get going, so I woke Teresa and we all got ready and headed out to catch the bus. (Matt and I stopped at 7-11 on the way to use the ATM to get extra cash).


Diarama at the Metro station

Figuring out where we are going

At the Metro station

On the platform as the train arrives

An underground mall at a Metro station

Penguin on the bench

Examining the gacha machines

Interesting art on the walk

To give Teresa a nice treat after her allergy scare yesterday, we headed to the Rilakkuma Cafe. This is a cute themed restaurant where all the food is styled around cute bear (and chick) characters from Japan. We all got drinks, and everyone else got desserts - but I got cheesy-fried-pork-cutlet with curry and rice, since this is another recommended Taiwan favorite. It was cutely presented (with the rice shaped into a bear), and was tasty enough, but didn’t blow me away. The latte art on our drinks was incredible (I got a matcha au laite), and Teresa was very happy with her cheesecake!

Entering the Rilakkuma Cafe

Teresa and Rilakkuma

Getting our temperatures taken to be allowed inside

A page from the menu of cute food options

Teresa posing in the cafe

Both of us

Rosie

Decorative detail at the Rilakkuma Cafe

The dessert case

Decorative detail on the wall

A dessert at the cafe


Teresa's dessert, my cheesy pork cutlet

Matt and Rosie share their dessert

How do you eat a cute bear-shaped rice-ball?

Just go in for the head

Teresa's cheesecake

Latte art!
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Detail on the latte art

Detail on the latte art


Once we wrapped up, Matt found a ramen place, and they were still hungry, since him and Rosie had shared a dessert, so we headed there and I ended up getting a second lunch to try it! They were able to bring over one of the staff who understood some English to help explain the menu to us, as we had been using Google translate to try to scan and understand what our options were. The food was absolutely delicious - a very different style of ramen then I am used to, with a soup that was so thick and flavorful, it was almost more of a sauce than a broth: all the toppings would float above it from how thick it was! Rosie and I got the soy sauce flavored soup; Matt opted for “salty”, and Teresa got cold noodles with a soup to dip them in. Portions were generous, and since I was already a full meal in, I couldn’t finish mine, but it was well worth trying!

Outside the ramen restaurant


Getting seated in the small dining room

Teresa and Rosie

They had a cute guestbook where we found these drawings!

About to embark on my second lunch of the day!

Teresa's cold noodles and soup

The whole group

The ramen kitchen, with our English-speaking friend

From here, we took the metro to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial park and museum. We walked through the pretty park, and entered the free museum, which included an exhibit on Sun Yat Sen (much nationalist propaganda was featured), and also art and calligraphy exhibits.

Adorable cats in pods

Walking through Taipei, passing the mopeds

Taipei intersection

Taipei grafitti and a parking ramp

Object at rest; objects in motion

Repair shop

Streetlamp

Crossing

In the park

Together in the park

In your eyes


Taipei 101 from the park

Statue

Watch out for... trees I guess?

The Taipei 101 peeks through the canopy

Walking along the park

Wildlife

People playing outside the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Museum

The flags of Taiwan

Another view of Taipei from the museum

Teresa and Jason

Matt and Rosie

Matt and Rosie being cute together

Inside the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Museum

Sun Yat-Sen

Checking out the exhibit

By this point we had done a lot of walking, so Matt suggested going to the “Continue?” Game Bar to get drinks and sit. I’m not much for bars, but I agreed since it had a cool theme, and was across the street from the electronics bazaar that we hadn’t finished browsing the other day, and we could let Teresa and Rosie sit and rest. There was a minimum buy there of $350 a person (about $12 USD), so we all ordered drinks, which were themed after various videogames, and checked out the bar - it was decorated in gaming paraphernalia, and there were many consoles available to play on. Rosie and I headed upstairs to play a bit of Rock Band, although only got through one song before we decided we should check if our drinks were out, and sadly didn’t get back to it. (Teresa couldn’t handle the stairs anyway). All the drinks were very attractive, although they took a long time to come out, one-at-a-time.

Leaving the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

Do Not Climb

Utility boxes are all beautifully painted

Fancy architecture

Moped riders at sunset

Crosswalk at sunset

Bridge at sunset

Streetlights

More utility box art

The menu, with creative videogame themed cocktails, at Continue?


We choose YES

Console Decorations at Continue?

Controller decorations at Continue?

Questionable wall art at Continue? with signatures

Teresa's Cocktail

My cocktail

Matt's cocktail

Our table

Rosie's Cocktail


Unfortunately, when I leaned over to show Rosie the picture I took of her with her Pikachu drink, I elbowed mine and tipped it off the table, smashing the glass and spilling all over my clean pants! I had to also pay for the broken glass, which was a surprise, but fair, as it was only $100 (which sounds scary until you figure out it’s about $3.33 USD), and since they don’t tip in Taiwan it wasn’t really too bad. But by this point, I was just not feeling it. I was tired, now soaked, the bar was small and the seats were uncomfortable (the tables looked neat, but had nowhere for your legs to go), and the main game I really wanted to try (the Taiko drum one that’s popular in Asia) was out-of-order. All the other games I can just play at home anyway! So Matt and I decided to go ahead and return to the electronic bazaar. There were another 3 stories (total of 6!) that we hadn’t explored the other day, but unfortunately, most of the stores had started closing at 8, so we had to rush through to see what we could. I did find an amiibo and a Pokeball Plus controller that I wanted for a decent price at one of the videogame sellers. I opted to wait on entering the FF7 raffle again, since there weren’t many of the good prizes left, and hopefully I would find it elsewhere. We returned, settled up, and all headed out to go to one of Taiwan’s famous night markets.

Cute mascots on the metro "Love Train"

Riding the love train

Mascot window art detail

Outside the night market, with a large temple in the background
Detail on Temple Wall

Temple gargoyle

More temple detail

The entrance to the Raohe St. Night Market

Outside the Raohe St. night market


I still wasn’t hungry, but the Raohe St. night market turned out to be perfect for that, because you could try many things that were all very small, and just get what you want. The night markets in Taipei open when it gets dark, and are open until midnight. This was basically a very long street filled with street food, vendors selling all kinds of goods for great prices (including knock-offs, but also hand-made items), shops also selling everything, and claw machines and gacha capsule toy mini “arcades”. Teresa decided she wanted to try some claw machines, so went into every arcade to find ones that had items she wanted and that looked achievable - although most were very unfair, she eventually did win a prize. I also got a capsule toy (a cat figure on a cat tree). As for the food, it was again excellent - the best was a special beef bun that was cooked in charcoal ovens, but we also had amazing candied strawberries, bubble tea, a caramel matcha waffle, some kind of sweet custardy puffs, hand-made peanut mochi (not my favorite flavor), and others. Matt had me try a spicy chicken skewer he had gotten, and it was really fatty and chewy and then also tough and cartilege-y … and only after I had been chewing it, and really not enjoying it at all, did he inform me that these were chicken buttholes. Thanks, Matt. Hey, I tried something new, and legitimately didn’t like it before even knowing what part of the animal it came from. He loved them for some reason. We did a little shopping, and got a few things for good prices. We barely made it halfway through the market by the time they started closing up, and as it was after midnight, we had to grab an Uber back to Matt and Rosie’s place for another very late night.

Teresa examines the claw machines

Famous beef buns

The brick oven where they cook the famous buns

Teresa plays a claw machine

One of the many food stands

More bubble tea, with appropriate shirt!

Street food stalls

Examining the goods

The BEST candied strawberries on a skewer

Rosie, Matt and Teresa getting waffles

This claw machine has face-masks

Teresa won a prize from this machine!

Continued in Part 2...


1 comment:

  1. I read the whole thing. Very enjoyable.
    Would like an accounting of all the money spent. Seemed you got great deals.

    ReplyDelete