Author's Note (10/15/2023):
These final 2 parts are being presented as originally written back in 2020. Everything was ready to go except I had to take some time to get the pictures added in, but shortly after posting part 3 we started to hit some marital issues, and I diverted my focus to trying to save our relationship and the timing didn't feel right to post the next part. Unfortunately, Teresa ended up asking for a divorce in October, moved out in December, and we came to our agreement in early 2021 and the courts finalized the divorce by May. Through all this, it never felt like the timing got any better to share the rest of the honeymoon Travelogue. However, it is a good story, the trip was the one true highlight of a terrible year, and it's a very interesting perspective on the beginning of the pandemic as well. I want to complete the story, so I am going to go ahead and share the last 2 parts as written. While there should be accompanying photos, and maybe later I'll go through them and add some, for now I'm just posting the writing as is, and unedited. Enjoy!
In which: We attempt to finish off our planned trip with as good a send-off as we can muster, while also taking the time to relax and hang out and avoid stressing out too much over the world travel situation. We take the Maokong Gondola and take in amazing vistas on a beautiful hike and get some amazing tea, have the best Peking Duck of our trip, catch up on lots of shopping and more delicious meals, including an amazing hot-pot place where the noodles are hand-thrown table-side by a dancer, and visit a Chinese-style garden for nice photos. Then we get all packed up for our flight home and say our farewells. Spoiler alert: there will be a Part 5.
Continued from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
Day 12: Sunday, March 22
We slept in this morning. While Teresa took a shower, I facetimed with Mom and Dad. Matt and I got in a few rounds of Dominion while giving Rosie and Teresa time to rest and get ready. Since it was getting a bit late, we all took an Uber to the Maokong Gondola to save time, getting there directly rather than taking multiple trips on public transit. Lines weren’t terribly long, but since we opted to try out a glass-bottom gondola, we had a longer wait, since there are only a few of these gondolas, and they were also the most popular.
The gondola ride was fantastic! It took us up and across a mountain range, with spectacular views of Taipei, the zoo, temples, and tea plantations. There are several stops where you can exit the gondola for the zoo and a beautiful temple (and a few stops where you can’t exit, which are for maintenance purposes). We rode it all the way to the end at the very top.
We hiked a few blocks down the street and found a place to get lunch. We ended up at a place with a balcony overlooking the mountainside, although it was very hot and I worried about getting sunburnt, so the others allowed me to move to sit under the umbrella’s shade better. This was a more European-food inspired place (which is a bit like when we have “Chinese” food back home), but everything was good. I ended up with spaghetti with garlic, bacon and chili. Teresa got spaghetti with pumpkin, which was delicious. We got the specialty tea from the Maokong mountain to drink, and it was amazing - it had hints of fruit in a very complex flavor. (I believe it was Tieguanyin Tea - double-check this). Teresa doesn’t normally like Oolong tea at all, but she loved this variety - it helps that we were having it in the region it comes from, so it was fresh!
After lunch, we went to the hiking trail nearby for a leisurely hike along the mountain-side. The beautiful path passes right above active tea plantations and vegetable gardens; you can literally see the workers in the fields and gardens going about their business as you hike past! The views were simply breath-taking, with a huge temple nestled into an adjacent mountain-side, and views of Taipei down below us. The hike was wonderful, although for a significant time we lost Matt and Rosie, and had to try to catch up to them. Once we were all together again, we wondered whether we should turn back, but I checked the map I had picked up at the gondola stop and noticed that we were already halfway, and there was a bus line we could grab at the end of the trail. We ended up hiking to the bus, and it was a tiny bus that was barely larger than a van, and a very scary and uncomfortably hilly ride along the mountain-side roads, but thankfully it wasn’t overly long before we reached our stop back at the gondola station!
Here there were a few shops, and I ended up buying some of the local teas at a tea shop, which let us sample any flavor we wanted - and so many were delicious it was hard to choose! I ended up with four different teas, and that was hard enough (they did give a discount at least!) They had an adorable cat in the shop, who is also their mascot, and they sold tea-flavored ice-cream which they put a cat-shaped cookie on top of. I got the Oolong Ice Cream, and really loved it. Matt and Rosie had got ice cream at the shop next door, and Teresa tried some of theirs and enjoyed it. I gave her money to get some of her own, but they had run out! So we got the “green tea” ice cream from this shop for her, but it turned out to be more of a jasmine (often they translate other flavors to “green tea”) and she isn’t a fan. I tried some, and even though I like jasmine tea, it tasted too much like perfume, it was odd. We ended up having to try to scarf it down quickly to run to the gondola stop; our Peking Duck reservation was coming up, and we were now starting to run late!
Back at the gondola station Teresa and I added more money to our Easy Cards, and then we all took a regular gondola down (it was getting dark, and we had already gotten the glass-bottom experience). We then had to take 2 Metros to get to our restaurant, Celestial, and at this point we were a bit late, but they seated us fine. The section we were in was practically empty! The staff were incredibly friendly, and we got duck Beijing style, 3 ways - as well as extra sides of pork lo mein, potstickers, and a pork xiao long bao that didn’t seem to actually have soup in it, or ginger. The extra sides turned out to be unnecessary since the duck was ready quickly (Matt and Rosie had called ahead to order it in advance when they got reservations). Duck 3-ways meant it came with a duck soup and duck with beansprouts, but these mainly used up the bits of meat that weren’t great for the main course - the proper Peking duck with pancakes. While they didn’t carve the duck in front of us this time, they did present it to us before it was cut, and then took it away to get it prepared for us. And it was cooked to perfection! The skin was crispy and not slimy or fatty, the duck meat was tender and plentiful, the pancakes were thin and pliant. The meat was presented beautifully, laid out in the shape of a turtle. They demonstrated how we could use chopsticks to make and roll the pancakes, and Teresa ended up getting pretty good at doing it on her own! (I managed… partially. Getting the pancake rolled up is tough with only chopsticks!) Of all the Peking Duck places we went to, this one was my favorite. It was the cheapest of them as well, but each experience was unique and memorable and tasty in its own right!
After our meal, Matt and I took a walk around several blocks, while Teresa shopped in a Japanese store. We didn’t find anything too interesting, so headed back to join them. We then took the metro to our bus stop, and took the bus back home. Rosie and Teresa went straight to bed, so Matt and I played several rounds of Dominion into the wee hours of the night!
Day 13: Monday, March 23
Today is a day to rest and take it easy, get our laundry done, and mainly stay in. Rosie went back into work. I slept in as much as I could, before we got up to head to the laundromat. While Matt and Rosie have a small washing machine on their balcony, their clothesline on the balcony is currently full of their clothes, so it made more sense to take it to a real laundromat and be able to fit more clothes and get it dried too. I was also already out of short-sleeve shirts, so I needed to wear one of the shirts I bought out here. We walked several blocks to the laundry, then grabbed breakfast at the 7-eleven. They really have great food at the convenience stores in Taiwan! I ended up with a “malted milk” with a packet of some kind of corn flakes, which was delicious, and we grabbed a bubble brown sugar milk to drink (tried to order milk tea, but there were communication difficulties. It was delicious anyway!) Teresa got some cold noodles in a kind of peanut sauce which I enjoyed a few bites of, and Matt got a Taiwanese meat bun and a sweet potato (the yellow really sweet kind they keep heated). We switched the clothes to the drier, then walked several more blocks, and across a bridge, to another Carrefour so Teresa could check the Skechers store for shoes that she is looking for (which you can’t get in America.) After checking out this multi-floor department store for a bit, we headed back (she didn’t find them in her size), and picked up a chocolate sponge cake from a vendor next to the laundromat. The cake was actually huge, for the equivalent of $4USD! We grabbed our nicely clean and dry laundry and headed back to the condo, I grabbed a quick shower and changed and Rosie got home. We chatted for a bit, Rosie had some of the cake too, and then we headed out.
We took the local bus, which was very crowded and only had standing room, and jerked around a lot. There was a little time to kill before dinner, so we walked to a beautiful temple, and walked around it, then walked through a market, before heading over to our restaurant for dinner. We went to “Just Eat”, an all-you-can-eat Japanese barbecue. They gave us a table-top grill and a hot-pot with two flavors of soup (Matt and I chose Szechuan for our half), and endless meat, which we cooked ourselves. Everything was amazing! Teresa and Matt primarily worked the grill, keeping a supply of delicious food coming. Rosie and I cooked in the hot-pot. We had different cuts of beef, filet mignon, ribeye and other steaks, even tried tongue, ribs, pork, chicken, lamb, sausage, shrimp, and more. We had a two hour limit, and used every last minute! In the end, we got desserts - a delicious brie cheese pastry, Japanese mochi, and marshmallows that you cook on the grill, and ice cream, which had multiple varieties and flavors - I particularly loved the Thai Tea flavor and also tried the Swiss Chocolate, Taro, and Lychee. This was quite an excellent meal; everyone was well satisfied!
We took an Uber back home, and Matt and I ended up playing Dominion again into the wee hours. I miss having a friend around to play it with regularly! The card carrying case I bought before this trip was a worthy investment, it let me bring just enough cards to make a great variety of games! Tonight Matt was on more of a winning streak, after I dominated last night (even winning a couple times by one point). I did win a fun gardens game even though he got most of the provinces. Teresa hung out for awhile after Rosie headed to bed, and put together a miniature Lego knockoff. It was amusing, because it was somewhat poorly made, and instructions were often wrong, and pieces kept popping apart (the figure she built kept popping out of his pants!)
We got the news that back home, all non essential work in the state is closed. Crazy! We still want to get home, since we're worried about being trapped abroad indefinitely. Otherwise, though, it'd have been nice to have extended our stay here even a little. Our flight is still scheduled, although now the second leg is waitlisted, and we're possibly being put on a later plane. I can't believe our time here is already nearly over!
Day 14: Tuesday, March 24
Today we decided to take it easy again. Didn't sleep very well, stress and anxiety are now a constant background presence, and dreams were filled with nightmares. So far it still looks like we can get home, but there won't be much to look forward to there other than finally seeing Lunar again and having our own bed! Otherwise we'll be self quarantining and staying home. At least we'd be home, though!Rosie stayed home from a migraine. Matt and Teresa and I took an Uber to a small Japanese mall and got lunch there. Everything was ordered off a touch-screen at the table, which also showed us when our food was being cooked, plated, or brought to the table - it was really useful! Teresa was excited to find hambagu on the menu, one of the foods she loved in Japan! I tried a variety of things, including a fried chicken (name?), shrimp, beef and pork cutlet, and egg (omellete roll?) to share. Matt got a large combo to try as well. Afterward we checked out the toy store and an arcade and furniture shop, and picked up a small specialized pan and wooden chopsticks to cook the egg (?) In the proper Japanese style at home.
We walked back and stopped to get bubble tea at Coco. Teresa and I grabbed brown sugar and buckwheat. When she asked how much sugar and we said 100%, the last was shocked and said that was so much sugar, so we went with 70% instead. It was still very sweet! We had assumed 100% meant normal, ha. Matt picked up something for himself, and a kitkat special drink to bring to Rosie. Back home, we started packing (to make sure we can fit all the souvenirs), which meant that I set all our things on the bed for Teresa to tetris into the cases, and Matt and I played Dominion, while Teresa and Rosie chatted and she packed. We want to make it easy to finish packing tomorrow, and also ensure we have space for everything we’ve been buying out here!
We headed out by Uber to dinner, going to the same mall as our first buffet, to eat at Haidilin Taiwan. We were supposed to meet a friend of Matt and Rosie’s, but apparently there was some confusion about which location to go to, so wires got crossed and she ended up across town from us! While we sadly didn’t get to meet their friend, we did have yet another amazing meal. Every dinner we have here I feel there is no way it can be topped… until the next meal we have here. Taiwan truly is a foodie paradise! This restaurant even had free haagen daz, tea, and slushies while you were waiting outside, although our wait was actually very brief. Inside, we are seated around a hot pot, given aprons to wear, and ordered from a tablet, getting a large variety once again, and getting a numb and spicy schezuan for me and Matt (less numb for us), and a non-spicy one for Teresa and Rosie. The waitress offered Teresa to have her nails done for free, offered hairties to the girls, and Teresa ended up heading back out of the restaurant to get her nails done, while we finished placing the order for the table.
We got pork, two styles of beef, pork dumplings, egg dumplings, a couple orders of hand-thrown noodles, fried tofu, shitake mushrooms, baby corn, starchy roots (potato, taro, etc), fried crispy pork, a sweet mochi dessert, and rice for everyone. Shortly after Teresa was led out, music started playing, and a man came out dressed in vibrant traditional garb and a mask, to perform a mask dance - as he dances, he’ll instantly change his colorful masks and his temperament to match. He also incorporated some high fives and handshakes with the audience, and at the end even had me wave my hand in front of his mask as he changed one last time. (We felt that he probably should have modified the act to remove the contact with the audience members, and while we obliged him, we washed and sanitized our hands again after the show). Teresa came back before he wrapped up, so she caught the end, but there was a second show while we were still eating. It turned out that the szechuan numb and spicy hot pot was actually TOO numbing for me - it actually did make my tongue go numb to the point I couldn’t taste anything. It was very different from your standard spicy heat. I ended up going back outside and getting another scoop of haagen daz (brownie macchiato) and mango slush to cool off and reset my taste buds. The fried tofu really soaked it up too much, but the meat was ok - and Matt didn’t seem to mind. I can’t imagine what standard would be like, since we got it less numb and less hot! The waitress later removed some of the peppers and peppercorns for us and added more broth, which helped - and I ended up eating some of the things from the non-spicy pot as well. The Taiwan-style sauces that the waitress made for us were incredibly tasty (and I believe had garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and some chili peppers), and we also had a minced garlic/ginger dip. The best part of the meal was the hand-thrown noodles. They took this very literally, and a man came out to perform for us - playing music and dancing with the noodles as he threw them to perfection - waving them all around him like a rope, causing them to wiggle back and forth like a rave - snapping them before our very faces (and phones/go pro/camera too). It was an astonishing performance, and in the end he cut them into our pots - and once cooked, they were absolutely amazing! We ended up ordering two more portions of noodles later in the meal, and got 2 more shows and helpings of deliciousness. By dessert time, the waitress surprised us with a beautifully arranged fruit platter, that had a special note welcoming us to Taiwan, and had a picture of the Taipei 101, and the Statue of Liberty, since earlier we had chatted with her about where we were from. It was a really sweet gesture! In general, they made us feel very welcome here, and gave us so much. This was yet another meal that just blew us away, and this time it even included a show!
Since this was the same mall with the videogame store we had first stopped at, after paying the bill I went down 4 floors to the shop. When the others joined me, Teresa decided to enter the Sailor Moon raffle. They didn’t have the FF7 one that I liked, but I entered the cheaper Sword Art Online one a couple times - and ended up buying Teresa a couple more tickets for the Sailor Moon one so she could win more prizes. She also bought a Final Fantasy moogle mug, and I decided to get a Famicom Mini (the Japanese version of the NES classic, which has unique-and-region-specific games. I figured it would make a cool collectible of something you cannot get back home!) I also happened to spot a CD with artwork that looked familiar - it was for the game AI: The Somnium files, which I have been playing recently and really enjoying (the latest by Kotaru Uchikoshi, one of my favorite writers in games.) When I asked about it, the cashier said that I could have it! That, for me, was one of the best prizes.
We grabbed a taxi back home, where Matt and I wrapped up our current game of Dominion, before playing a couple more rounds. In one I managed to completely break the game with a strategy that ended up with my purchasing four colonies (the most expensive, highest victory point card there is) in a single turn! This were some very specific cards to allow for that combination - I was able to use an event to upgrade my villages so they drew an extra card when played, and drew through my entire deck and played every action card I had every turn - including minting a copy of a platinum (the best money card) and immediately proceeding to draw it again, and also had a couple bridges that made purchases cheaper, and plenty of extra buys. After that crazy game, we changed up our kingdom setup to have a different game and block that particular strategy from working again. But that’s the fun of Dominion - with enough cards, and random setups, you will never have the same game twice! Although by this point we have definitely managed to play through just about every possible strategy with the cards that I had brought along. I’m glad that I was able to bring as many as I had (I believe the card case I purchased holds about 600 cards). It really was great to be able to play with Matt again, and I think we got more games in during these 2 weeks than in at least 2 years while he was still living in the US! We called it much earlier this night, however, so we could all get to bed for our final day in Taiwan.
Day 15: Wednesday, March 25
This was planned to be our last full day here, so we went to hit up a few more items off the list. We started the morning with coffee jelly, which Matt had gotten for us (a treat enjoyed with creamer, rarely found outside Asia). Then we caught the bus into Taipei, and switched to Metro to head to lunch. On the way to the restaurant, there was a small mall in the station that included a toy store, where Teresa ended up finding several things to buy, and entered another sailor moon raffle. I bought an anime figure from Sword Art Online. We then walked over to a Japanese Okonomiyaki restaurant for Teresa for lunch. This plan had come about last night, since we were joking that we hadn’t had the need to eat the fancy instant noodle bowls (with meat) that we had bought for lunch at the ryokan on Thursday night, and Matt said that he would pick a place that only Teresa would like. We ended up going with it anyway to make Teresa happy, and I would find something to try. (Not being a fan of cabbage, and not having enjoyed okonomiyaki in the past when Teresa made it for me.) The restaurant was very cute, with a small flat-top grill in the center of every table, and tiny metal spatulas for everyone to scrape their food off the grill (although it was cooked by the staff for us). I ended up trying the rice monja yaki with bacon and cheese. Despite still having some cabbage in it, I actually really enjoyed it! This was a different preparation - looser, and without the fish flakes and sauce and with less cabbage than the more “pancake”-style okonomiyaki that Teresa and Matt got. (Matt got a really fancy one that even included noodles inside it!)
After this meal, we took the metro to Shaungxi Park, a Chinese-style garden in the Shilin district. It was very picturesque, but sandwiched between streets in a city block, so wasn’t as large as some of the truly impressive gardens I have visited in Suzhou and Shanghai China. It was still beautiful, and they crammed a lot in - including a large pond filled with cute turtles, and exotic birds, several zig-zag bridges, an arched bridge, covered walkways and multiple gazebos. I handed Matt my camera, and Teresa and I walked a circuit, finding spots for him to snap pictures of us from across the pond. Then Teresa took a break, and Matt and I walked around the rest of the garden, and I took many more pictures of the scenery and wildlife, before we headed onwards.
We headed to the bus stop, but while the bus we wanted was taking awhile, we noticed that all the busses looked uncomfortably full, and would take us awhile, so we decided to call an Uber instead. We headed from here to the Animate store, which is a Japanese chain that specializes in manga, anime, figures, and related merchandise. The store was down a stairwell that was surrounded by lit up signs full of anime characters. They had a ton of Japanese imports, and sections for many popular shows and games, including final fantasy. They also had a few raffles, but none of the ones we were interested in (though Matt decided to enter one for konosuba to win a prize for us to bring home to Paul - this is a show we have recently been enjoying with Paul). I perused CDs hoping to find some rare Japanese soundtracks or even CDs for visual kei bands I enjoy, but the soundtracks I found were overpriced, so I only ended up getting a used copy of the Your Name soundtrack by RADWIMPS, since it was decently priced. Teresa and I found a few more things to buy, and then had to rush out to make our dinner plans with Rosie.
Along the way, we checked out nearby Skechers and crane games as we walked to the train station to meet Rosie for dinner. During this long walk I discovered that I had finally, after 2 weeks, developed a bit of a blister on my foot! At least it’s towards the end of the trip.
We met Rosie and went to eat at the same place we got an amazing lunch at the very beginning of the trip. We had another amazing feast, for about $14 per person, including two styles of dandan noodles, spicy garlic and chili wide noodles, red bean fried pancake, xiao long bao, a couple orders of beef scallion rolls, a scallion pancake, fried pork rib fried rice, and fruit sodas (with the real fruit in them) for all - 2 with lychee (for Matt and me), and 2 with peach (for Rosie and Teresa). I had specifically requested to have our final meal here, because we knew it was amazing, it included a huge variety of authentic Taiwanese/Chinese foods that are hard to find back home, and we knew it was very affordable for such a feast. This was to be our grand send-off, and we would be leaving fairly early in the morning tomorrow. On the way out, we grabbed delicious cake desserts at a nearby bakery, which offered us buy-1-get-1 on a few specific ones (I got them to treat Teresa and Rosie - Teresa got a strawberry one, and Rosie a chocolate cake). We circuited around all the restaurants again looking for a down escalator (while finding several up escalators), and then downstairs we also grabbed custard-filled cream puffs at Beard Papas, and headed outside to the bus stop.
While waiting for the bus back home, I checked our flight status. There had been no emails or notifications of any sort from United, and since we had heard that they had been adding back some cancelled international flights to get people home, and we had checked just this morning, we were feeling fairly confident that we would be preparing to fly out in the morning tomorrow as initially planned. That’s weird… the app was only showing the San Francisco flight? But then I went over to my trips, and clicked through and found our Taipei flight. But both flights now say “waitlisted” on them? I clicked through to the status page, and there I saw the bad news. “Your flight is cancelled due to the unprecedented circumstances currently affecting travel. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” No advance warning, no email or any kind of contact, not even notice on the app until I checked flight status. No next steps, no way to reschedule or even get a refund. And now our bus pulled up, and I had a 40 minute ride to sit with this news and no ability to take action until we got back to the condo so we could call United again, knowing we would have another long hold. Meanwhile, I emailed the neighbors to confirm they can keep checking on Lunar, updated family and facebook.
Thankfully, when we got home and called United using Skype again, after convincing the automated system to transfer us to a representative, we only had a 2 minute hold. The call itself went for another 40 minutes of holding while the representative found us a way home. Unfortunately, United no longer offers ANY flights out of Taiwan, and that seems to be why this one was cancelled suddenly (weirdly without notice or notification, and despite being confirmed that it was still scheduled when we last checked back on Friday in our last fun conversation with a United rep on the phone!) She found us a flight on Sunday with EVA Airlines. It would be making a layover in Tokyo, before we transfer to a United flight to San Francisco, and then finally home. Weirdly, she said we had to pay $64.40 per passenger for the fare difference. Didn’t they cancel our flight and offer no alternative? I protested, but she insisted, and rather than fight, right now we just need to get home, so I gave my credit card and finalized the change. She did at least give us “economy plus” seats on the United flights (extra legroom and no other real perks). Mostly, we just want to get home. Things back home sound like a hellscape, with everyone forced to stay home and coronavirus going rampant now (over 1,000 cases in DC, Maryland and Virginia now! This is an order of magnitude over before we left!) But we can’t stay here forever, nice as it is, and we do need to get home to Lunar, and at some point I do need to get back to work - thankfully I should be able to work from home while we self quarantine, and hopefully continue to do so to maintain social distancing, and flatten the curve, and all the rest. The most worrisome is all the airports we will be going through. We don’t want to catch this, as the hospitals are being overwhelmed. But we do need to get home.
I also bought Teresa the new Animal Crossing on Switch digitally so that she could have something nice to play while we’re stuck here awhile longer. (Although it took until really late at night to finish downloading!)
While I went to my email to find the email about extending our travel insurance, I found an email from my Costco Visa. They had detected fraud on my card. Thinking that it was probably just because I had used it in Taiwan, I checked… and didn’t recognize the “fresh internet” charge they flagged, and then found a shopping spree of charges (what the heck is supremenewyork dot com?) So I had to flag all these fraudulent charges - and then also noticed 4 identical pending charges from Friday for United airlines, all for $360! It looked like they had charged us for the times we attempted to change our flights back then on the website, when it kept failing to go through. Hopefully those are just card holds that will go away, and not real charges (it turned out they were). Anyway, now that card is cancelled and they’re sending a new one. No rush on the shipping needed there! Unfortunately, I can’t verify charges on my other cards, because they want to text me at my standard US number for a confirmation code that I can’t receive right now, so hopefully nothing else goes wrong with them!
So this has been a long and stressful night. And now it looks like we’ve ended up with an extension after all.
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