In which: we travel to a hot spring resort with our hosts Matt and Rosie, visit the Yifen Cultural Center, and travel to the mountaintop market in Jiufen and drink tea in the famous Amei Tea House that inspired the Miyazaki movie Spirited Away. We try our hands at pottery, check out temples and night markets and eat more peking duck. We also have dessert in a toilet themed restaurant.
Continued from Part 1
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| Jason and Teresa at the Yifen Cultural Center |
Day 5: Sunday, March 15
Teresa went with Matt this morning to grab some food from the convenience store and get my easy card fixed up (they need to tap in and out again so it will work again on the buses in Taoyuan. Thankfully it worked in Taipei fine!) I got packed, taking enough clothes, swimsuits, sandals, pillow, bluetooth speaker, Surface, toiletries, even Dominion in my backpack/carry-on, and then strapped my camera sling/day bag in front, and then wore my neck pillow - I was quite over-burdened, although it was all manageable! We then all set out to grab the bus to Taipei, then a couple metro trains, and another bus over to Jiaoxi where we walked over to our hotel for the next two nights, the Resort One, and got checked in!
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| I might have overdone it... |
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| Temple on our walk to the hotel |
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| Carrying all our luggage |
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| Check-in at last! |
The rooms are beautiful, with two spacious spring water tubs (one for cold, one for hot) and a huge shower, surrounded by glass in a huge room, and a massive king bed. The toilet is oddly in a corner of the bathroom on the other side of the glass from the shower/baths, with curtains to pull closed for privacy. The Hotel itself has a massive spa as well, which we are hoping to get to check out tomorrow. As soon as we arrived, exhausted, we decided to shower and take advantage of the baths (in our respective rooms). There is a large tub with incredibly hot spring water, and a smaller tub next to it for cold water so you can cool off as needed. It was difficult to get acclimated to the heat, but very comfortable when you do, and afterwards your muscles feel refreshed, and your skin feels soft and smooth!
All relaxed, we decided to finally seek out food, and got a reservation at an all-you-can-eat shabu shabu style hot pot restaurant in Yifen, so we walked down a block to the train station and went one stop into the city. There was a long walk from there to the restaurant, but we had an hour to kill, so we meandered through another night market on our way, and even though we were going to dinner, Teresa and I couldn’t resist another skewer of candied strawberries! Matt couldn’t resist some fried spicy pork, and he gave me a piece (which turned out included some bone!)
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We finally made our way to the restaurant, which was another massive buffet. The table had individual hotpots, so we each could choose our own broth, and there was a large case filled with meats and veggies to dip in your hot pot, if that wasn’t enough, a butcher’s counter where you could get more meat, and of course a huge variety of other foods to try, a huge variety of dips to mix as you like, and lots of drinks to choose from (and desserts!). The best thing there was actually a Taiwan style pork belly that was delicious in a folded bun! Towards the end of the meal, we tried several of the desserts, which normally you can only get 2 at a time - but after several trips to get more strawberry daifuku mochi, Matt tried asking for 6, and the guy said he was very crazy and handed him a plate heaping with them! (The restaurant was near closing time by then anyway).
We swung through another department store/multi-level mall, and checked out the Japanese store there. Then we took a taxi to get back to our hotel, and another bath to round out the evening before, exhausted, I collapsed into bed.
And yet, exhausted as I had been, and comfortable as the resort’s king bed was, I found myself awake again around 6AM. I stayed in bed on my phone for awhile, once I gave up on getting back to sleep, and was able to grab breakfast at the hotel. They had a nice buffet spread with western and Chinese offerings. I particularly liked the fried (purple) yams and a purple mochi with red bean filling.
Once we enjoyed the breakfast, it was time to check out the hotel’s included spa! Which was simply amazing. Basically a water-park for adults. There was a fairly long water-slide, and there was a huge warm pool with tons of different water features - each designed to massage you in different ways with water jets, bubbles, water streams and showers, seats and benches and bars to hold onto and so on and so forth. The water slide opened at 10AM for an hour (and had other hours later in the day when we wouldn’t be there), so I went to try it and found out that we were required to have swim-caps to use the spa! Thankfully, they sold them, would charge to our room, and they were less than $2 each! I went down the slide once, then joined Teresa in the spa and tried out several of the different features. Once Matt and Rosie joined us in the pool, he wanted to try the slide with me, so I went a second time, and it was fairly amusing when the Chinese lady at the top tried to communicate that there was a 90kg weight limit, and kept looking pointedly at our bellies and gesturing and signalling her doubt that we were under the limit, but eventually we convinced her and got to ride. It was quite fast, but refreshing. Back to the outdoor pool, we all had fun trying out every water feature with Matt and Rosie joining us, and got some hilarious photos on Teresa’s go-pro. After we had tried them all out, and felt very refreshed (they have different water massages for basically every part of your body, each was activated with a button), we headed across to the series of hot-spring hot tubs - which were various degrees of hot (plus a couple cold ones to cool off), and each had different minerals so they were all different colors. We tried each of them, before finally Teresa and Rosie and I went to also try out the indoor spa pool, while Matt got himself a drink and snack. The indoor spa had fairly similar features to the outdoor one, and also a few different styles of hot and cold tubs, as well as really hot showers. Once we were all thoroughly refreshed and rejuvenated and feeling great, we returned to our rooms to shower and get ready for the day ahead.
We rushed to catch a train at the train station, but once we were on the platform we were informed that the next train was an express that would only take tickets rather than the Easy Cards we had paid with, and the next train that would take us would be another 35 minutes! So we opted to instead call a taxi and get driven over to the Yifen Cultural Center, and thankfully the train station attendant did something with our Easy Cards to ensure we weren’t charged.
We ended up spending the rest of the day at the Yifen Cultural Center, until they closed at 6PM. There were beautiful sites, shopping, delicious food, and a lot of DIY activities and crafts that you could try. We ended up booking for a pottery DIY, and grabbed lunch - I had a delicious Taiwan roast pork bowl, Teresa had an omelette-rice, Teresa and I shared a bubble milk tea, and we then grabbed a soft-serve matcha ice cream cone. The pottery was a lot of fun, we had about an hour to work at pottery wheels and try to make some ceramics, something I hadn’t done since high school. Since that was now over 16 years ago, apparently I no longer had any idea how to make anything, and kept messing up right when I was finally getting going. The others had a bit more success, to varying measures. The guide had made it look so easy when he demonstrated! We did end up with a few dishes to get fired, which would be mailed to Matt and Rosie so they could bring them to us next time they travel to America. Mine were far from perfect; Teresa had had the most success of us all! It was still fun and even therapeutic to play with the clay and shape it, even though I kept messing up and having to start over.
After this, Teresa, Rosie and I did a cooking DIY to make a sugar-based dessert, where you melt sugar and brown sugar in boiling water in a giant metal ladle over a fire, before mixing it in with some baking soda so that it will bubble and rise, and become like a sugary-candy-muffin of sorts. Mine didn’t rise very well - Teresa’s immediately shot up and exploded (which it’s supposed to). The guide took pity on me and gave me a free one, although she told me mine was also safe to eat. They were incredibly sugary, but good, but for me a little sweetness goes a long way, so Teresa ended up with most of mine and Rosie’s to enjoy. Matt went to work on another DIY to polish his own jade jewelry, while Teresa and I went shopping - and found a couple beautiful hand-made hair-clips for her and sandals and a special Taiwan sugar candy. We were joined by Rosie who graciously took some couples photos for us in the beautiful environs, before we finally had to meet back up with Matt as the place hit closing time at 6PM. I quickly also checked out the temple on sight, which was incredibly ornate with art and sculptures on every surface - walls, wooden beams, ceiling, all set in the beautiful ancient Chinese-style architecture!
Since the cultural center was now closed, and there was no longer a shuttle running, we had to walk to a convenience store to book a taxi, to head to our 7:30 dinner reservations. We went to the Toys R Us Express and the Carrefour department store in the basement to kill time before going to the restaurant, the Red Lantern, where we shared a whole duck multi-course meal where different parts of the duck were prepared in different ways. It was very well done, and delicious, although Peking duck is still my favorite style by far!
We then walked to the Yifen night market again to spend a bit more time there, including getting more candied strawberries (Teresa insisted - especially since one of the duck courses, the 3-cup duck, was spicy and she couldn’t have that one). I looked for a change purse, since the smaller denominations of Taiwan Dollars are in coins, but didn’t find one I liked yet. I also tried a few new phone holsters that were fairly affordable, but again didn’t find the right one just yet that would both fit my phone and look nice. I did end up buying some pretty magnets with three of the cities we had been to / were going to on this trip, and a shirt with beautiful art on it, including a tiger stitched into it! Teresa and Matt both won a crane game, although Teresa’s was a silly “mystery box”. Matt actually won an action figure! Teresa also bought some hair bands. Finally, we opted to grab a taxi again back to the hotel, rather than make the trek to the train station for a train that wouldn’t arrive for another 45 minutes, as we were all exhausted from the day.
Unfortunately, I discovered that I had sunburnt fairly badly, because, despite bringing it, we had completely forgotten to apply sunblock before hitting up the spa this morning, or spending much of the rest of the day outside. Teresa had found aloe vera at the Carrefour for me, thankfully, but I couldn’t really enjoy our hot-spring bath this evening due to my burns. We were quite exhausted from all the walking, so I did try to soak my feet in the cold bath for a bit, and dip them just briefly in the hot one, and I think it still helped a bit. Tomorrow, we’ll spend a bit of time in Jiaoxi before heading back to Matt and Rosie’s place.
It’s crazy that we're able to be here, enjoying our amazing vacation in Taiwan, where everything feels under control with Coronavirus. They are taking your temperature any time you enter a very public place (restaurants, shopping centers, parks, hotels), and being very diligent. As mentioned earlier, hand sanitizer is everywhere available, crowds are slightly diminished, and everyone is wearing face masks, but we feel very safe - and Taiwan has only had about 49 confirmed cases, and is going about as normal aside from those things. Meanwhile, we are hearing back home things are post-apocalyptic, with supermarkets cleared out of essentials (especially toilet paper), all bars and restaurants closing, gatherings restricted to under 50 people, telework expanding, museums closed, the stock market crashing the hardest it has in my lifetime, and general hysteria and madness! We are so glad to be out here, and wish we could just stay, even a little longer. Taiwan is definitely doing something right! They learned their lesson from SARS and acted quickly and decisively. America probably won’t learn their lesson, even after this.
This is our last day with Rosie before she goes back to work, and our last day in Jiaoxi. Teresa was exhausted and decided to sleep in and skip breakfast, and Matt messaged to say Rosie was doing the same, so Matt and I grabbed the hotel breakfast together. I was able to ask for a late 12PM check-out time to give them more time to rest. We decided that as amazing as the spa was, we would not return this morning, since it would mean taking wet bathing suits back with us, and I also wanted to let my sunburn heal! After breakfast (unfortunately, no fried yams this time), Matt and I checked out the koi pond, and then headed back to our rooms to get packed.
Once check-out time arrived, we had the hotel hold our bags for us, so we could actually explore the area in Jiaoxi, which we hadn’t seen much of the past couple days since we traveled in to Yifen. We walked down the streets, where eventually Rosie and Teresa found places to get their own breakfasts (Teresa ended up trying the Taiwan-style roast pork rice bowl, which included miso soup, for a very reasonable price. She enjoyed it!) We also hit up a sweet shop, and bought several Taiwanese desserts and snacks to try.
We finally hiked to a small park where they had a hot-spring foot pool, fish pond, and some benches in the shade to relax in. We opted against getting our feet wet, and just sat in the shade and chatted - and Matt and I even took on a Pokemon gym (I hadn’t logged into Pokemon Go in many months by this point). When we were ready to head out, we got our bags back from the hotel, I grabbed lunch from the 7-11 to take on the train (a fairly decent fried-chicken-curry-rice dish which they heated up for me, a bag of spicy chips, and a milk tea), and ran to the train station to get tickets back to Taipei.
The train was very comfortable, with plenty of leg room, nice recliners, and a tray so I could enjoy my lunch, and then watch the latest John Oliver (about Coronavirus, and shot in front of a white screen with no audience! The world really is changing!) When we arrived at the station, we opted to check our bigger bags into lockers at the station for a few hours so we could hit up the Raohe St. night market again (it was the same one we had been to before in Taipei, actually). I had to get some more glorious shots of the temple again, because it's amazing how intricately detailed and beautiful it is, while not appearing at all garish or overdone. They just don't make them like this in the western world!
I grabbed another of the specialty beef buns, and went with Matt to find the shop with the raffles, and I entered the FF7 raffle 4 more times (they had a better price for the tickets, but didn’t have the FF7 one the other day), but didn’t win any better prizes than last time. Matt decided to try his luck with 1 ticket. I told him I would kill him if he managed to win the best prize with his one entry - and then he won the single best prize possible in one go! (A large Cloud figure). I was so mad! But I let him live. For now. :-P
We all split up, and I found several other nice souvenirs to pick up, as well as some very useful purchases for really low prices - including a new case for my phone, a new belt holster for it as well (mine has been getting old and falling apart), a t-shirt, and a coin purse (since in Taiwan they use coins for denominations smaller than $100, and I had been borrowing Teresa’s until now.) Also some gifts for my parents, something for Matt and Rosie, and Teresa found something for her Mom too.
When it was time to head back, Teresa went to grab food from the 7-11 (she had been sitting on the bench by the entrance, since she was in some pain from all the walking, and needed money from me to get food - something that I had missed in her subtle texts). Matt, Rosie and I went to the train station lockers to get our bags back, and then, laden up again, we grabbed Teresa and boarded the bus back to Taoyuan - and the bus completely filled over the next few stops, so we tried to scrunch our things down into as little space as possible so everyone could get a seat. It was a huge relief to finally arrive, although we had to hike uphill several blocks to get back to the condo (where Matt met us a bit later, since he disembarked early to get to a restroom, after downing a huge water bottle just before boarding!) Finally able to unwind, Matt and I decided we would get a couple more rounds of Dominion in. Foolishly, I had lugged it all the way to Jiaoxi and back, for no reason. But we got to play a couple more games tonight, and I crushed him both games this time! (Including the most points I had ever seen in a Dominion game - I got 107 from 4 colonies, 2 provinces, 6 gardens worth 6 points each, 5 duchies, 3 estates and a great hall. That was a weird game where there was an easy way to duplicate silver, so the deck ran completely out, and it was useful both for a garden deck, and also getting a lot of money to buy colonies). I really love that even with a small set of cards, you can have a huge variety of game styles in Dominion just by introducing a few different card stacks.
Tomorrow Rosie goes back to work, and Matt will take Teresa and I to Jiufen, where we will go to the teahouse that inspired Spirited Away!
With Rosie back at work today, we had the day with Matt to head into Jiufen. We took the bus into Taipei, and decided to grab some food at the train station, so we got bubble tea and Matt and I got some fast food at a stall (I got a fried wrap with egg and pork). We took this on the train, which was more like a subway where it is rude to eat, so we decided to wait - although it turns out that other people were eating, so I guess we could have! By this point, we thought we were almost there and we continued to wait, but the train actually still had another 20 minutes to go. So instead we scarfed it down while sitting at the bus station waiting for the final leg of our trip. This bus wound it’s way along mountain-sides up into the city. It was very scenic, but a bit frightening! Jiufen is situated on the side of a mountain overlooking the sea. Once we arrived, the bus station was directly above a beautiful temple, and there was an incredibly scenic view to the ocean. We got several pictures, including at a nearby scenic overlook, and walked up to the market.
The market in Jiufen is a long, winding, hilly series of alleys with shops and restaurants lining the sides, lanterns hanging above. It was beautiful! You also couldn’t go a few steps without someone trying to give you a sample of something, usually the same hot oolong tea sample you just got at another shop nearby. I had to run through a bit first seeking a restroom, which was quite a distance away! There aren’t many branches, thankfully, so it was easy enough to find Matt and Teresa again, and we ended up buying still more souvenirs and food to take home (including an apple vinegar drink; you dilute the vinegar with water and it’s actually really delicious! Reminds me a little of lemonade. They had many different flavors to sample, and even gave us lots of samples of wines too!) The roads were very hilly, so we had to take things a bit easy for Teresa’s hip, but we finally got to a beautiful overlook at the end of a long row of shops and restaurants, and I decided to even break out my 360 camera and get a few shots on it! (Those shots are on Facebook, not here, since it actually works with 360 photos.)
We then headed over to the famous Amei tea house, which inspired the movie Spirited Away. It was down a long flight of stairs, and then back up another flight of stairs, and then another to get to the balcony where they served our tea and snacks. The view was absolutely lovely, but the tea house was fairly dead. (At this point, crowds are dying down a lot due to Covid-19, but things are still open in Taiwan!) This was proper tea, where you pour hot water over the teapot to heat it, brew the fresh tea-leaves just the right amount of time, pour out the first batch, then re-steep the leaves, then pour it through a filter before filling your teacups - and then you can re-steep the leaves six times, before replacing them. The tea was absolutely wonderful, although since Teresa isn’t a fan of oolong, she got a cocktail instead - and Matt let her have his share of the snacks (mochi, tea cookies, dried plums, sweet sesame crackers, and such). We got to sit and enjoy the view for a good long while, resting and just enjoying the delicious tea. As it started to get later, a few more customers did start to arrive, but it was still emptier than you’d expect. Once we had our fill, they allowed us to bag up the rest of our dry tea leaves to take with us. On our way out, we bumped into someone doing a modeling photoshoot in a risque outfit! It was an unusual site, since Taiwan feels more prudish than even America.
Once we left the tea-house, we had to head back up the long stairs. We checked a few restaurants to see if any place looked promising for dinner, but ultimately decided that the restaurants here were a bit over-priced, and we could wait until we got back to Taipei. Matt ended up picking up some fried squid, and Teresa enjoyed a bite, and I even decided to try some. It was cooked well, so it wasn’t rubbery, and it actually tasted a lot like shrimp (one of the few seafoods I do enjoy), so it wasn’t bad! At this point, the market was starting to close (earlier than usual - but we did get to see some of the paper lanterns start to light). I decided to pick up some tea from one of the tea shops, and then also sampled a delicious ginger tea and picked up some of that as well. After buying it, since they were closing down anyway, the shop-keeper filled a large cup for me! We went back to the bus-stop, and discovered that there had been a restroom at the start of the market all along! I took the opportunity to empty my bladder before the long bus-ride (no train this time) back to Taipei - but unfortunately all that ginger tea filled it right back up again, and I felt sympathy for how Matt must’ve felt a couple days back when he left the bus early to find a restroom. The kicker was that he had joked that we still had 29 minutes to go when I asked, but then said it was actually 11. Then over 30 minutes went by, as the bus went to stop after stop, and traffic light after traffic light, and I was fairly ready to explode (as was Teresa at this point) when we finally made it to our stop, then found a department store, and tried to figure out where the bathrooms were (down several escalators!)
The restaurants at the mall looked good, but also pricey, so we ended up finding a Japanese yakitori restaurant a few blocks away on Google. We hiked over there, and ordered several small dishes to share: bacon wrapped asparagus, steak with wasabi, chicken kaarage (Japanese fried chicken), fried tofu, salted grilled chicken, and egg scallion omelette. Teresa and I got iced barley tea to drink, and Matt got a highball. We used Google translate on our phones to figure out what things on the menu were, since it had no English - thankfully the app can use the camera and give you a translation of text that it sees, and it works decently enough to figure out most menus (although sometimes gives really odd translations). We’ve been making use of this app throughout the trip as needed. The food was nice, and we got to enjoy some Japanese flavors! (Rosie was exhausted from her workday, so didn’t join us for dinner). Each of us enjoyed different dishes more, so we split it up as fairly as we could.
We decided to grab dessert at the novelty “Modern Toilet” restaurant, for funny photos. We took the metro a few stops over to it, and headed up the stairs to the restaurant, and got a few novelty desserts served in “toilet” bowls, with chocolate soft serve shaped like poo. It was amusing, but the place was also fairly empty, and the food was just so-so. The waffles that came with Teresa’s order were the best thing we got - my chocolate poo sundae had really icy strawberries in it, and the soft serve tasted more like bad froyo to me. Worth a laugh, though! When we finished, we headed back downstairs and checked out the Shilin night market below. This one is huge, and supposed to be a big tourist destination, so it was also very empty due to the ongoing pandemic. Teresa and Matt played a few crane games, and we finally headed to the end and found a city bus to get us back to our bus to Taoyuan, then back up the hill to Matt and Rosie’s home.
I’m actually writing this a couple days later, because that day we had received an email from Dad about the worsening situation back home, and he wanted Mom to return home early. Since she is cat-sitting for us, as well as our ride home (and even has our keys!), this has been weighing on us and stressing us out all day, as has the tone that he wrote the email which was drenched heavily in guilt. It’s a bad situation, and there isn’t a lot we could do about it, so I had to spend my writing time that night working on an email to try to work out the situation back home - and then I was too exhausted, physically and emotionally, to write the journal. From here on out, I would be playing catch-up on these write-ups.
The next day we were heading to our much anticipated honeymoon suite booking at the Japanese-style Ryokan (hot spring resort). Taiwan by this time had already banned all international travel arriving from the US, due to the out-of-control Coronavirus situation back home. The resort had already emailed us offering a refund if we weren't able to make it (and they are normally non-refundable), but we were able to confirm that we were already in Taiwan and would proceed as planned. But the situation was starting to weigh heavily on us, as we attempted to continue to salvage our back-up honeymoon vacation.
And things were about to get even more complicated...
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| Our bath |
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| The room |
All relaxed, we decided to finally seek out food, and got a reservation at an all-you-can-eat shabu shabu style hot pot restaurant in Yifen, so we walked down a block to the train station and went one stop into the city. There was a long walk from there to the restaurant, but we had an hour to kill, so we meandered through another night market on our way, and even though we were going to dinner, Teresa and I couldn’t resist another skewer of candied strawberries! Matt couldn’t resist some fried spicy pork, and he gave me a piece (which turned out included some bone!)
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| Heading to the night market |
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| Crossing the rails |
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| The night market in Yifen |
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| Candied strawberries! |
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| Perusing the night market |
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| Matt shares his food |
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| Side alley |
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| Matt and Teresa can't resist the claw machine arcades |
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| Playing the mini crane game |
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| Perusing the night market |
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| Good doggy keeps watch on the games |
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| Matt tried on Teresa's hat |
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| Motorcycle garage |
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| Shabu Shabu at last! |
We finally made our way to the restaurant, which was another massive buffet. The table had individual hotpots, so we each could choose our own broth, and there was a large case filled with meats and veggies to dip in your hot pot, if that wasn’t enough, a butcher’s counter where you could get more meat, and of course a huge variety of other foods to try, a huge variety of dips to mix as you like, and lots of drinks to choose from (and desserts!). The best thing there was actually a Taiwan style pork belly that was delicious in a folded bun! Towards the end of the meal, we tried several of the desserts, which normally you can only get 2 at a time - but after several trips to get more strawberry daifuku mochi, Matt tried asking for 6, and the guy said he was very crazy and handed him a plate heaping with them! (The restaurant was near closing time by then anyway).
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| The shabu shabu hot pot buffet |
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| Posing with the mascots |
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| All you can eat hot-pot meat |
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| Veggies |
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| Slicing the meat for the hot pots |
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| Part of the buffet |
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| Sauces |
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| Desserts |
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| Matt and Rosie |
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| Teresa and Jason |
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| The entire table |
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| Plate-full of strawberry daifuku mochi |
We swung through another department store/multi-level mall, and checked out the Japanese store there. Then we took a taxi to get back to our hotel, and another bath to round out the evening before, exhausted, I collapsed into bed.
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| City wall mural |
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| Found the Harry Potter section in the department store bookshop |
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| Some unique Harry Potter Art |
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| Teresa found the secret hiding spot in the room |
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| Preparing the hot spring water bath |
Day 6: Monday, March 16
And yet, exhausted as I had been, and comfortable as the resort’s king bed was, I found myself awake again around 6AM. I stayed in bed on my phone for awhile, once I gave up on getting back to sleep, and was able to grab breakfast at the hotel. They had a nice buffet spread with western and Chinese offerings. I particularly liked the fried (purple) yams and a purple mochi with red bean filling.
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| Walking through the hotel to the spa-side for the breakfast buffet |
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| Breakfast |
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| Matt peruses the buffet |
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| Teresa and Rosie check out the hot food |
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| Delicious Chinese breakfast (the fried purple yams were the best part) |
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| Getting a milk tea |
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| Jason and Teresa |
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| Sitting down to breakfast |
Once we enjoyed the breakfast, it was time to check out the hotel’s included spa! Which was simply amazing. Basically a water-park for adults. There was a fairly long water-slide, and there was a huge warm pool with tons of different water features - each designed to massage you in different ways with water jets, bubbles, water streams and showers, seats and benches and bars to hold onto and so on and so forth. The water slide opened at 10AM for an hour (and had other hours later in the day when we wouldn’t be there), so I went to try it and found out that we were required to have swim-caps to use the spa! Thankfully, they sold them, would charge to our room, and they were less than $2 each! I went down the slide once, then joined Teresa in the spa and tried out several of the different features. Once Matt and Rosie joined us in the pool, he wanted to try the slide with me, so I went a second time, and it was fairly amusing when the Chinese lady at the top tried to communicate that there was a 90kg weight limit, and kept looking pointedly at our bellies and gesturing and signalling her doubt that we were under the limit, but eventually we convinced her and got to ride. It was quite fast, but refreshing. Back to the outdoor pool, we all had fun trying out every water feature with Matt and Rosie joining us, and got some hilarious photos on Teresa’s go-pro. After we had tried them all out, and felt very refreshed (they have different water massages for basically every part of your body, each was activated with a button), we headed across to the series of hot-spring hot tubs - which were various degrees of hot (plus a couple cold ones to cool off), and each had different minerals so they were all different colors. We tried each of them, before finally Teresa and Rosie and I went to also try out the indoor spa pool, while Matt got himself a drink and snack. The indoor spa had fairly similar features to the outdoor one, and also a few different styles of hot and cold tubs, as well as really hot showers. Once we were all thoroughly refreshed and rejuvenated and feeling great, we returned to our rooms to shower and get ready for the day ahead.
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| The ever important emergency butto |
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| Waterslide! |
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| Some of the different mineral hot-tubs |
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| Jason and Teresa |
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| Panoramic shot of the mineral hot-tubs (Click to view full size) |
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| Getting a back massage |
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| Teresa Relaxing |
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| Rosie |
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| Trying out the massage seats |
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| Jason and Teresa |
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| Jason and Matt and high water pressure |
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| Teresa tries the shower |
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| Teresa and Jason |
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| A romantic moment |
We rushed to catch a train at the train station, but once we were on the platform we were informed that the next train was an express that would only take tickets rather than the Easy Cards we had paid with, and the next train that would take us would be another 35 minutes! So we opted to instead call a taxi and get driven over to the Yifen Cultural Center, and thankfully the train station attendant did something with our Easy Cards to ensure we weren’t charged.
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| Outside the train station |
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| A temple seen from the taxi |
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| Outside the cultural center |
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| Yifen Cultural Center Map |
We ended up spending the rest of the day at the Yifen Cultural Center, until they closed at 6PM. There were beautiful sites, shopping, delicious food, and a lot of DIY activities and crafts that you could try. We ended up booking for a pottery DIY, and grabbed lunch - I had a delicious Taiwan roast pork bowl, Teresa had an omelette-rice, Teresa and I shared a bubble milk tea, and we then grabbed a soft-serve matcha ice cream cone. The pottery was a lot of fun, we had about an hour to work at pottery wheels and try to make some ceramics, something I hadn’t done since high school. Since that was now over 16 years ago, apparently I no longer had any idea how to make anything, and kept messing up right when I was finally getting going. The others had a bit more success, to varying measures. The guide had made it look so easy when he demonstrated! We did end up with a few dishes to get fired, which would be mailed to Matt and Rosie so they could bring them to us next time they travel to America. Mine were far from perfect; Teresa had had the most success of us all! It was still fun and even therapeutic to play with the clay and shape it, even though I kept messing up and having to start over.
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| Wandering around the cultural center |
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| Finding lunch |
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| Delicious lunch! |
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| Taiwan Roast pork |
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| Teresa's Omelette-rice |
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| Jason and Teresa enjoying lunch |
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| Teresa informed me that the Matcha Ice Cream was so awful she would save me and have all of it |
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| View from the cultural center park |
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| Beautiful temple at the cultural center |
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| Walking beneath lanterns |
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| Teaching us how to make pottery (he makes it look easy) |
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| Trying to make pottery |
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| Teresa making pottery |
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| Matt getting advice |
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| Give me five? |
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| Some of our finished pottery, ready to be fired. Maybe some day after the pandemic Matt and Rosie can visit and bring ours to us |
After this, Teresa, Rosie and I did a cooking DIY to make a sugar-based dessert, where you melt sugar and brown sugar in boiling water in a giant metal ladle over a fire, before mixing it in with some baking soda so that it will bubble and rise, and become like a sugary-candy-muffin of sorts. Mine didn’t rise very well - Teresa’s immediately shot up and exploded (which it’s supposed to). The guide took pity on me and gave me a free one, although she told me mine was also safe to eat. They were incredibly sugary, but good, but for me a little sweetness goes a long way, so Teresa ended up with most of mine and Rosie’s to enjoy. Matt went to work on another DIY to polish his own jade jewelry, while Teresa and I went shopping - and found a couple beautiful hand-made hair-clips for her and sandals and a special Taiwan sugar candy. We were joined by Rosie who graciously took some couples photos for us in the beautiful environs, before we finally had to meet back up with Matt as the place hit closing time at 6PM. I quickly also checked out the temple on sight, which was incredibly ornate with art and sculptures on every surface - walls, wooden beams, ceiling, all set in the beautiful ancient Chinese-style architecture!
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| Sitting in a gazebo |
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| Making the sugary snack |
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| Teresa had huge success! |
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| Matt, Rosie, Teresa |
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| Teresa enjoys her sugar |
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| Traditional cymbals |
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| Comic Mural |
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| Lanterns and shopping |
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| Good doggy |
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| Mural of Traditional candy-making |
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| Buying traditional sugar treats |
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| Trying on hairclips |
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| Sunset |
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| Wall art |
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| Dragon carving |
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| Beautiful sunset |
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| Rosie on the bridge |
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| Jason and Teresa on the Bridge |
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| The married couple at sunset |
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| Couples shots beneath the lanterns! |
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| Matt polishing his jade |
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| Inside the temple |
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| Temple detail |
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| Temple Birb |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Temple Lantern |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Temple Doors |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Temple Art |
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| Temple Detail |
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| Lanterns outside |
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| Art at the entrance |
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| Leaving the cultural center |
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| Parking lot surveillance |
Since the cultural center was now closed, and there was no longer a shuttle running, we had to walk to a convenience store to book a taxi, to head to our 7:30 dinner reservations. We went to the Toys R Us Express and the Carrefour department store in the basement to kill time before going to the restaurant, the Red Lantern, where we shared a whole duck multi-course meal where different parts of the duck were prepared in different ways. It was very well done, and delicious, although Peking duck is still my favorite style by far!
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| Toys R Us still exists in some form in Taiwan |
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| Found a little bit of home (Maryland) in the Carrefour |
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| Made in Hunt Valley, MD. Too bad they didn't have Old Bay, though! |
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| Delicious ducks! |
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| Entering the Red Lantern |
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| Preparing our duck skin eggroll appetizer |
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| Delicious duck-skin egg rolls |
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| Making pancakes |
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| Delicious pancakes |
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| Extra duck! |
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| Rosie enjoying her food |
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| Rosie, while Matt and Teresa demonstrate how to use chopsticks |
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| Teresa and Jason enjoying the duck |
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| Spicy 3-cup duck for Matt and Jason |
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| The whole party |
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| Soup made with duck broth. Nothing was wasted! |
We then walked to the Yifen night market again to spend a bit more time there, including getting more candied strawberries (Teresa insisted - especially since one of the duck courses, the 3-cup duck, was spicy and she couldn’t have that one). I looked for a change purse, since the smaller denominations of Taiwan Dollars are in coins, but didn’t find one I liked yet. I also tried a few new phone holsters that were fairly affordable, but again didn’t find the right one just yet that would both fit my phone and look nice. I did end up buying some pretty magnets with three of the cities we had been to / were going to on this trip, and a shirt with beautiful art on it, including a tiger stitched into it! Teresa and Matt both won a crane game, although Teresa’s was a silly “mystery box”. Matt actually won an action figure! Teresa also bought some hair bands. Finally, we opted to grab a taxi again back to the hotel, rather than make the trek to the train station for a train that wouldn’t arrive for another 45 minutes, as we were all exhausted from the day.
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| Delicious Night Market Candied Strawberries! |
Unfortunately, I discovered that I had sunburnt fairly badly, because, despite bringing it, we had completely forgotten to apply sunblock before hitting up the spa this morning, or spending much of the rest of the day outside. Teresa had found aloe vera at the Carrefour for me, thankfully, but I couldn’t really enjoy our hot-spring bath this evening due to my burns. We were quite exhausted from all the walking, so I did try to soak my feet in the cold bath for a bit, and dip them just briefly in the hot one, and I think it still helped a bit. Tomorrow, we’ll spend a bit of time in Jiaoxi before heading back to Matt and Rosie’s place.
It’s crazy that we're able to be here, enjoying our amazing vacation in Taiwan, where everything feels under control with Coronavirus. They are taking your temperature any time you enter a very public place (restaurants, shopping centers, parks, hotels), and being very diligent. As mentioned earlier, hand sanitizer is everywhere available, crowds are slightly diminished, and everyone is wearing face masks, but we feel very safe - and Taiwan has only had about 49 confirmed cases, and is going about as normal aside from those things. Meanwhile, we are hearing back home things are post-apocalyptic, with supermarkets cleared out of essentials (especially toilet paper), all bars and restaurants closing, gatherings restricted to under 50 people, telework expanding, museums closed, the stock market crashing the hardest it has in my lifetime, and general hysteria and madness! We are so glad to be out here, and wish we could just stay, even a little longer. Taiwan is definitely doing something right! They learned their lesson from SARS and acted quickly and decisively. America probably won’t learn their lesson, even after this.
Day 7: Tuesday, March 17
This is our last day with Rosie before she goes back to work, and our last day in Jiaoxi. Teresa was exhausted and decided to sleep in and skip breakfast, and Matt messaged to say Rosie was doing the same, so Matt and I grabbed the hotel breakfast together. I was able to ask for a late 12PM check-out time to give them more time to rest. We decided that as amazing as the spa was, we would not return this morning, since it would mean taking wet bathing suits back with us, and I also wanted to let my sunburn heal! After breakfast (unfortunately, no fried yams this time), Matt and I checked out the koi pond, and then headed back to our rooms to get packed.
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| Matt feeds the fish |
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| Koi |
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| Jason and Matt at the pond |
Once check-out time arrived, we had the hotel hold our bags for us, so we could actually explore the area in Jiaoxi, which we hadn’t seen much of the past couple days since we traveled in to Yifen. We walked down the streets, where eventually Rosie and Teresa found places to get their own breakfasts (Teresa ended up trying the Taiwan-style roast pork rice bowl, which included miso soup, for a very reasonable price. She enjoyed it!) We also hit up a sweet shop, and bought several Taiwanese desserts and snacks to try.
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| Another temple; in Jiaoxi |
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| At the sweets shop. We bought a few of the things pictured here! |
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| Jiaoxi |
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| Teresa getting breakfast of roast pork |
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| Teresa enjoying her breakfast |
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| Grabbing a drink at a convenience store |
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| Checking out more Asian chip flavors |
We finally hiked to a small park where they had a hot-spring foot pool, fish pond, and some benches in the shade to relax in. We opted against getting our feet wet, and just sat in the shade and chatted - and Matt and I even took on a Pokemon gym (I hadn’t logged into Pokemon Go in many months by this point). When we were ready to head out, we got our bags back from the hotel, I grabbed lunch from the 7-11 to take on the train (a fairly decent fried-chicken-curry-rice dish which they heated up for me, a bag of spicy chips, and a milk tea), and ran to the train station to get tickets back to Taipei.
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| Walking to the park in Jiaoxi |
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| Along the walk in Jiaoxi |
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| Along the walk in Jiaoxi |
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| Hot springs park in Jiaoxi |
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| The public foot baths at the hot springs park |
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| Watch out of walking |
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| Walking, and watching out |
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| Teresa chilling in the shade |
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| Rosie and Teresa chatting |
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| Hot springs park |
The train was very comfortable, with plenty of leg room, nice recliners, and a tray so I could enjoy my lunch, and then watch the latest John Oliver (about Coronavirus, and shot in front of a white screen with no audience! The world really is changing!) When we arrived at the station, we opted to check our bigger bags into lockers at the station for a few hours so we could hit up the Raohe St. night market again (it was the same one we had been to before in Taipei, actually). I had to get some more glorious shots of the temple again, because it's amazing how intricately detailed and beautiful it is, while not appearing at all garish or overdone. They just don't make them like this in the western world!
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| Taking the train back to Taipei |
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| My hot lunch (cheesy pork curry, another Taiwanese dish) |
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| These may be my favorite of the Asian style chips. Luckily I've seen them in Asian markets back home! |
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| Getting our bags checked at the station |
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| Heading back to the night market |
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| Teresa and Jason |
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| Seen on the way to the market |
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| Once more, the temple outside the Raohe St Night Market. The next several photos will show more detail, so if you're tired of all the majesty, feel free to skip ahead! |
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| Ancient and modern |
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| At the night market entrance |
I grabbed another of the specialty beef buns, and went with Matt to find the shop with the raffles, and I entered the FF7 raffle 4 more times (they had a better price for the tickets, but didn’t have the FF7 one the other day), but didn’t win any better prizes than last time. Matt decided to try his luck with 1 ticket. I told him I would kill him if he managed to win the best prize with his one entry - and then he won the single best prize possible in one go! (A large Cloud figure). I was so mad! But I let him live. For now. :-P
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| Beef buns cooking in the specialty oven |
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| Cooking the buns |
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| Night Market Puppers |
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| Matt and Rosie share food |
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| This store really wants people to come in! |
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| Jason selecting his raffle tickets (poorly) |
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| Matt entered once, and won the best prize. Look at that sheepish grin. |
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| The Cloud Strife figure Matt won |
We all split up, and I found several other nice souvenirs to pick up, as well as some very useful purchases for really low prices - including a new case for my phone, a new belt holster for it as well (mine has been getting old and falling apart), a t-shirt, and a coin purse (since in Taiwan they use coins for denominations smaller than $100, and I had been borrowing Teresa’s until now.) Also some gifts for my parents, something for Matt and Rosie, and Teresa found something for her Mom too.
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| Crossing paths with Rosie and Matt |
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| Matt getting a sausage inside a rice sausage "bun" |
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| Demonstrating how it works |
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| Incense burner in the night market |
When it was time to head back, Teresa went to grab food from the 7-11 (she had been sitting on the bench by the entrance, since she was in some pain from all the walking, and needed money from me to get food - something that I had missed in her subtle texts). Matt, Rosie and I went to the train station lockers to get our bags back, and then, laden up again, we grabbed Teresa and boarded the bus back to Taoyuan - and the bus completely filled over the next few stops, so we tried to scrunch our things down into as little space as possible so everyone could get a seat. It was a huge relief to finally arrive, although we had to hike uphill several blocks to get back to the condo (where Matt met us a bit later, since he disembarked early to get to a restroom, after downing a huge water bottle just before boarding!) Finally able to unwind, Matt and I decided we would get a couple more rounds of Dominion in. Foolishly, I had lugged it all the way to Jiaoxi and back, for no reason. But we got to play a couple more games tonight, and I crushed him both games this time! (Including the most points I had ever seen in a Dominion game - I got 107 from 4 colonies, 2 provinces, 6 gardens worth 6 points each, 5 duchies, 3 estates and a great hall. That was a weird game where there was an easy way to duplicate silver, so the deck ran completely out, and it was useful both for a garden deck, and also getting a lot of money to buy colonies). I really love that even with a small set of cards, you can have a huge variety of game styles in Dominion just by introducing a few different card stacks.
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| Home at last, now laden with all our souvenir purchases as well! |
Tomorrow Rosie goes back to work, and Matt will take Teresa and I to Jiufen, where we will go to the teahouse that inspired Spirited Away!
Day 8: Wednesday, March 18
With Rosie back at work today, we had the day with Matt to head into Jiufen. We took the bus into Taipei, and decided to grab some food at the train station, so we got bubble tea and Matt and I got some fast food at a stall (I got a fried wrap with egg and pork). We took this on the train, which was more like a subway where it is rude to eat, so we decided to wait - although it turns out that other people were eating, so I guess we could have! By this point, we thought we were almost there and we continued to wait, but the train actually still had another 20 minutes to go. So instead we scarfed it down while sitting at the bus station waiting for the final leg of our trip. This bus wound it’s way along mountain-sides up into the city. It was very scenic, but a bit frightening! Jiufen is situated on the side of a mountain overlooking the sea. Once we arrived, the bus station was directly above a beautiful temple, and there was an incredibly scenic view to the ocean. We got several pictures, including at a nearby scenic overlook, and walked up to the market.
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| Teresa grabs breakfast at the convenience store (they have a nice area to eat!) |
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| Teresa enjoying her breakfast |
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| Teresa found Frozen 2 Honey Milk Tea |
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| The bus stop up the mountainside in Jiufen |
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| Detail on the mountainside temple |
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| Overlooking the sea |
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| Jason and Teresa in Jiufen |
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| Because it is a fairly vertical city, advertising can be done on rooftops! |
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| At the overlook |
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| The mountainside |
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| Jason and Teresa |
The market in Jiufen is a long, winding, hilly series of alleys with shops and restaurants lining the sides, lanterns hanging above. It was beautiful! You also couldn’t go a few steps without someone trying to give you a sample of something, usually the same hot oolong tea sample you just got at another shop nearby. I had to run through a bit first seeking a restroom, which was quite a distance away! There aren’t many branches, thankfully, so it was easy enough to find Matt and Teresa again, and we ended up buying still more souvenirs and food to take home (including an apple vinegar drink; you dilute the vinegar with water and it’s actually really delicious! Reminds me a little of lemonade. They had many different flavors to sample, and even gave us lots of samples of wines too!) The roads were very hilly, so we had to take things a bit easy for Teresa’s hip, but we finally got to a beautiful overlook at the end of a long row of shops and restaurants, and I decided to even break out my 360 camera and get a few shots on it! (Those shots are on Facebook, not here, since it actually works with 360 photos.)
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| At the Jiufen Market |
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| Jiufen Market streets |
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| Stairs |
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| More painted utility boxes and parked vespas in an alley |
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| Teresa dress shopping |
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| Sampling the apple cider vinegar drinks |
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| Cheers! |
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| Still more stairs |
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| Heading towards the teahouse |
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| View from the mountainside |
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| A cat surveys the marketplace |
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| Panarama of the view. (Click to view full size) (The full 360 photos are on Facebook) |
We then headed over to the famous Amei tea house, which inspired the movie Spirited Away. It was down a long flight of stairs, and then back up another flight of stairs, and then another to get to the balcony where they served our tea and snacks. The view was absolutely lovely, but the tea house was fairly dead. (At this point, crowds are dying down a lot due to Covid-19, but things are still open in Taiwan!) This was proper tea, where you pour hot water over the teapot to heat it, brew the fresh tea-leaves just the right amount of time, pour out the first batch, then re-steep the leaves, then pour it through a filter before filling your teacups - and then you can re-steep the leaves six times, before replacing them. The tea was absolutely wonderful, although since Teresa isn’t a fan of oolong, she got a cocktail instead - and Matt let her have his share of the snacks (mochi, tea cookies, dried plums, sweet sesame crackers, and such). We got to sit and enjoy the view for a good long while, resting and just enjoying the delicious tea. As it started to get later, a few more customers did start to arrive, but it was still emptier than you’d expect. Once we had our fill, they allowed us to bag up the rest of our dry tea leaves to take with us. On our way out, we bumped into someone doing a modeling photoshoot in a risque outfit! It was an unusual site, since Taiwan feels more prudish than even America.
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| Beautiful lanterns along the street |
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| More lanterns on the mountainside |
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| Lantern detail |
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| Can you find Matt? |
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| View of a building |
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| Heading up to the teahouse |
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| Teresa in motion |
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| Outside the tea house |
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| The tea house balcony view |
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| Our menu |
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| View from the balcony |
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| Dried plums |
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| Mochi |
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| Sesame crackers |
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| Bean Cakes |
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| Our snacks |
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| Oolong Tea |
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| Tea |
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| Our tea pot set up |
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| Teresa's cocktail |
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| Enjoying my tea |
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| Teresa and jason |
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| Jason and Teresa enjoying the view |
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| Teresa preparing tea |
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| Jason and Teresa |
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| But that's none of my business |
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| Finished snacks, used tea leaves! |
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| Heading back down |
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| Departing the tea house |
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| Another view of Jiufen buildings |
Once we left the tea-house, we had to head back up the long stairs. We checked a few restaurants to see if any place looked promising for dinner, but ultimately decided that the restaurants here were a bit over-priced, and we could wait until we got back to Taipei. Matt ended up picking up some fried squid, and Teresa enjoyed a bite, and I even decided to try some. It was cooked well, so it wasn’t rubbery, and it actually tasted a lot like shrimp (one of the few seafoods I do enjoy), so it wasn’t bad! At this point, the market was starting to close (earlier than usual - but we did get to see some of the paper lanterns start to light). I decided to pick up some tea from one of the tea shops, and then also sampled a delicious ginger tea and picked up some of that as well. After buying it, since they were closing down anyway, the shop-keeper filled a large cup for me! We went back to the bus-stop, and discovered that there had been a restroom at the start of the market all along! I took the opportunity to empty my bladder before the long bus-ride (no train this time) back to Taipei - but unfortunately all that ginger tea filled it right back up again, and I felt sympathy for how Matt must’ve felt a couple days back when he left the bus early to find a restroom. The kicker was that he had joked that we still had 29 minutes to go when I asked, but then said it was actually 11. Then over 30 minutes went by, as the bus went to stop after stop, and traffic light after traffic light, and I was fairly ready to explode (as was Teresa at this point) when we finally made it to our stop, then found a department store, and tried to figure out where the bathrooms were (down several escalators!)
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| We found a tunnel |
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| Checking out the tunnel. It could be a bit of a squeeze! |
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| View down the tunnel |
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| Heading back through the market |
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| As the market closed, actual vehicles squeezed down the streets! |
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| Jiufen Market, this is! |
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| Couples photo under the lanterns |
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| On our way out - checking restaurants out |
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| Teresa got a delicious strawberries and cream dessert |
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| Yum |
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| Distances to various cities |
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| Leaving Jiufen |
The restaurants at the mall looked good, but also pricey, so we ended up finding a Japanese yakitori restaurant a few blocks away on Google. We hiked over there, and ordered several small dishes to share: bacon wrapped asparagus, steak with wasabi, chicken kaarage (Japanese fried chicken), fried tofu, salted grilled chicken, and egg scallion omelette. Teresa and I got iced barley tea to drink, and Matt got a highball. We used Google translate on our phones to figure out what things on the menu were, since it had no English - thankfully the app can use the camera and give you a translation of text that it sees, and it works decently enough to figure out most menus (although sometimes gives really odd translations). We’ve been making use of this app throughout the trip as needed. The food was nice, and we got to enjoy some Japanese flavors! (Rosie was exhausted from her workday, so didn’t join us for dinner). Each of us enjoyed different dishes more, so we split it up as fairly as we could.
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| Egg scallion omelette |
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| Chicken Kaarage |
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| At the restaurant |
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| Bacon-wrapped Asparagus |
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| Delicious steak with wasabi |
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| Eating corn with chopsticks is a challenge every time! |
We decided to grab dessert at the novelty “Modern Toilet” restaurant, for funny photos. We took the metro a few stops over to it, and headed up the stairs to the restaurant, and got a few novelty desserts served in “toilet” bowls, with chocolate soft serve shaped like poo. It was amusing, but the place was also fairly empty, and the food was just so-so. The waffles that came with Teresa’s order were the best thing we got - my chocolate poo sundae had really icy strawberries in it, and the soft serve tasted more like bad froyo to me. Worth a laugh, though! When we finished, we headed back downstairs and checked out the Shilin night market below. This one is huge, and supposed to be a big tourist destination, so it was also very empty due to the ongoing pandemic. Teresa and Matt played a few crane games, and we finally headed to the end and found a city bus to get us back to our bus to Taoyuan, then back up the hill to Matt and Rosie’s home.
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| An ad for the FF7 Remake in the metro |
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| The Modern Toilet Restaurant |
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| Modern Toilet Decor |
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| Matt selecting a toilet seat |
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| Modern Toilet Interior |
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| The specials |
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| Bubble Pool |
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| Souvenirs are available |
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| Matt's ice cream |
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| My sundae |
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| Teresa's waffle/oreo dish |
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| Ready to attack |
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| Our desserts |
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| Another arcade at another night market |
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| Lanterns at a night market temple |
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| Lanterns |
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| Luckily I didn't have to win my wife in a claw game |
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| Checking out the games |
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| A kitty stands watch |
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| Outside the Shilin night market |
I’m actually writing this a couple days later, because that day we had received an email from Dad about the worsening situation back home, and he wanted Mom to return home early. Since she is cat-sitting for us, as well as our ride home (and even has our keys!), this has been weighing on us and stressing us out all day, as has the tone that he wrote the email which was drenched heavily in guilt. It’s a bad situation, and there isn’t a lot we could do about it, so I had to spend my writing time that night working on an email to try to work out the situation back home - and then I was too exhausted, physically and emotionally, to write the journal. From here on out, I would be playing catch-up on these write-ups.
The next day we were heading to our much anticipated honeymoon suite booking at the Japanese-style Ryokan (hot spring resort). Taiwan by this time had already banned all international travel arriving from the US, due to the out-of-control Coronavirus situation back home. The resort had already emailed us offering a refund if we weren't able to make it (and they are normally non-refundable), but we were able to confirm that we were already in Taiwan and would proceed as planned. But the situation was starting to weigh heavily on us, as we attempted to continue to salvage our back-up honeymoon vacation.
And things were about to get even more complicated...
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