Taiwan

I only started travelling internationally a little over a year ago, but I have already come to appreciate a few things:

1. Learning about different cultures through immersion, trying the local eats, and exploration is amazing

2. Perspective is everything
3. You are bound to get ripped off at some point, especially early on in your travels. Just deal with it!

4. Traveling with people you love makes the trip that much more worth it.

That last one has especially stood out to me on my most recent trip to Taiwan. I remember having to travel out of my home city here in Japan by myself to take care of some visa-related things. And while it was nice to explore on my own, it just wasn't as fulfilling because I wasn't able to share it with someone else. But I have been lucky enough to travel to various countries with my lovely girlfriend, April. That being said, we had some extra company with us when we went to Taiwan:

Mr. Winston Kuantung Wang

lol, this guy.

I met this guy in grad school and we were instant buddies. Whether it was staying up late together to finish semester-long projects in one night, or staying up late together to destroy n00bs on Starcraft 2 after finishing semester-long projects in one night, it was always happenin' with this guy.

Anyways, that's besides the point. Winston and his family were nice enough to offer us a place to stay in Taipei while Winston toured us around the city. How awesome is that? Not to mention, Winston had to fly out from America to meet us there. Another thing I learned from having Winston with us during this trip: Having someone who already knows the culture, history, and language with you makes the experience even greater.

And it actually turned out to go beyond Taipei. Winston's family helped us book train tickets and hotels to tour down the east coast, and Winston called up his friends and we were able to explore the north coast including Jiufen (the town that was sort of the inspiration for the setting in Spirited Away).

Day 1: Taipei

April and I arrived in Taipei 12 hours before Winston. This gave us some time to explore some of the places we knew we could and should do on our own since Winston had seen them before. After some quick Taiwanese airport food, we were able to navigate our way to the National Palace Museum.

The exterior design of the National Palace Museum was remarkable.

And it is also just quite huge. They are planning to add another building by 2020.

They did not allow pictures inside, which is why we only have pictures outside, but we were able to grab a tour with an English guide. We learned how the many pieces of art and history actually came into Taiwan from China via nationalists fleeing their home country. And in reality, less than 1% of the collection is actually displayed at a time. We learned that they rotate the pieces every so often, but that there is a set that is always on display. I would definitely recommend coming to the museum especially if you are interested in history, art, and just Taiwan in general.

After trying some local cuisine from a street vendor, we made our way via bus and MRT to Taipei 101.

A lovely street vendor

So the name for this dish is literally translated as, "small hot dog in large hot dog." The small hot dog is true to its name but the large hot dog is actually sticky rice inside of a sausage wrapping. She put some sauce, onions, garlic, and cilantro in there as well. It was DELICIOUS.

So Taipei 101 held the title of "tallest building in the world" from 2004 until 2010, when Burj Khalifa was completed in Dubai and took over said title. That being said, it was still really cool to see and the views from the top were nothing short of spectacular. The admission fare was a bit high - 500 NT (~15 USD) - but I think it's worth it at least one time.

April admiring the view 

View from the 89th floor 

The main tuned mass damper as seen from the 89th floor (it can be viewed from 3 floors).

That main tuned mass damper is quite the sight and there is a video simulating how it helps the building withstand winds up to 134 mph and large earthquakes. There is also a mall on the first 5 floors of the building, which we briefly explored. It's like any other mall so I would recommend just admiring the view from the top, and learning about how the building was built and what it means to Taiwan.

After descending in the "world's fastest elevator," we made our way to Winston's parents place, which offers a pretty good view itself.

Winston's parents live on a mountainside, so the air is cooler and the view is beautiful

 Day 2: Taipei

We decided to explore more of Taipei with Winston and a friend of his whom he met through online gaming.

Meet Po! Here are Po and Winston performing the fusion dance.

The first thing on the list was to meet up with Winston's uncle, who was going to show us his favorite true Taiwanese dining spots. He led us through what Po described to me as "real Taipei streets" to a Taiwanese noodle place followed by some exploding dumplings in soup.

Delicious Taiwanese noodles (with oysters I think)

Enjoying those delicious Taiwanese noodles

Bustling through narrow Taipei streets 

Soup with dumplings that explode with flavor once you bite into them.

After the meals, we made our way to the Lin Family Garden, a beautiful and admission-free Taipei sight. Apparently, the garden is just about the most complete example of traditional Chinese garden architecture in Taiwan. It was full of many great sights, and we took a tour of the adjoining mansion in Taiwanese while Winston did his best to translate for us XD.

Winston said this is like the mark of the king. It says that the king recognizes you and your family. He said kings rarely gave things like these out to people. And the Lin family received one because they donated a LOT of money to the government. 

Taking a breather in a beautiful little courtyard house.

Just chillin' in front of another building. 

Hulk green water

Peek-a-boo!

We came to a garden on a day where you could dress up in traditional garb and take a ride in an 8-man powered vehicle. 

Next, we took MRT to Damsui (the last stop on the Red Line) and explored the many shops lining the waterfront, which included various Taiwanese street food specialties.

...and it was also quite busy 

Roasted quail eggs

Applying sauce on some fried stuff 

Enjoying good old Taiwanese sausages (they're sugary!) 

Winston and Po admiring the sweet potatoes 

Stinky Tofu 

Large fried chicken cutlet filled with cheese 

Enjoying some coffee while we take a break from... I guess eating. 

Doesn't look so appetizing now that I take a second look at this bread. 

But the inside is BUTTER  

???... Us being us.

We were able to catch the sunset :D

If I were to offer any advice for traversing Damsui, it would be to make sure to only get small food servings and share them with your traveling companions. Why? So that you can try as many different foods as possible! It will make your experience that much better. When it was too dark to enjoy anything else, we made our way back to Winston's. But, before parting ways with Po, we ate at his favorite Taiwanese Beef Noodle place and had some famous 50 LAN bubble tea.

So much goodness 

At 50 LAN, you can choose between 5 levels of sweetness (ranging from no sugar to a lot of sugar), and 5 levels of ice.

Day 3: North Shore

On another sunny day in Taipei, we met up with another one of Winston's online gaming friends. He told us to call him "Uncle."

Meet Uncle! We are holding some Taiwanese desserts at a restaurant in Jiufen.

Uncle took us all over the north coast of Taiwan, including a small town with some good eats, the Geo park, and Jiufen.

What's inside this bamboo leaf? 

sticky rice, pork, and other veggies! 

Steamed Geese (or broiled maybe?)

Mountain boar Taiwanese sausage

En garde!

This little girl was slangin' some Taiwanese food/gifts I couldn't quite make out. I think she's doing a pretty good job.

After making a little pit stop for food in this small town, we made our way to the Yehliu Geopark: an interesting collection of weathered and eroded rocks by the seashore displaying nature's true power.

View of the rocks from above

April shining the light on this rock 

Winston can't "stand" the beauty. 

...Neither can I 

And neither can April.

Cool backwards C looking rock 

Whatever we are pointing at, April doesn't seem to care. 

Winston is enjoying the Geopark a LOT.

The extra sunny day made for even more spectacular views.

The Geopark had a trail that led out all the way to the radio tower seen in the picture below. The views were just as beautiful I suppose, but the trail was more for just enjoying a walk along the water I believe. All-in-all, I think the Geopark is a must-see if you get a chance to explore more than just Taipei.

Can you see the tower?

Next on the docket was a trip to Jiufen, a city enclosed by mountains on 3 sides.

CAN YOU SEE JIUFEN?!

This was my favorite town to visit in Taiwan 

We are so taken aback by the beauty 

Uncle climbed a dangerous cliff to get this picture of us. 

Dat sunset 

View of Jiufen from the bottom-most parking lot bordering the town. 

A famous staircase? Everyone was taking a picture here.

When we weren't enjoying the views, we were... eating more food of course.

A sort of "halo-halo (Filipino)" Taiwanese snack that had some taro and other fruits on top of shaved ice and condensed milk.

Winston said it was Jiufen's version of Ba Wan, a sort of mega dumpling. Jiufen's version differs from the rest of Taiwan because they use this special red sauce instead of the traditional brown-looking sauce.

These aren't burritos! Don't be fooled! They are filled with ice cream.

After our stomachs were full and our eyes were tired of beautiful views, we made our way back to Taipei and called it a night. Before parting ways with Uncle, he bought us some lemony tea with grass jelly. We were so lucky to be driven around the north shore by this guy. Thanks for the memories, Uncle!

:D

Day 4: Taitung

Over the course of the final 3 days of our trip, we traveled by train down the east coast of Taiwan and enjoyed some countryside towns and sights including Taitung, Hualien, and Tarako Gorge. We woke up early on this fourth day to meet up with Winston's cousin, Keto (whose father took us around to eat at his favorite spots on our second day). We rode the train for maybe 4-5 hours all the way down to Taitung.

Taipei Main Station 

Enjoying some $2 (US) bentos on the train

Once we were in Taitung, we were able to find a pretty nice hotel for ~27 USD per person which offered free bike rentals. The place is called 台東UFO, and our room looked pretty fancy (though I can't seem to find any of our own pictures from it at the moment...). After checking in, we rode bikes to try the local eats. 

Goose (left), and rice sausage (right) 

I'm ordering a kebab 

Delicious delicious flaky scallion pancakes. One of my favorite dishes.

After eating, we were caught in some heavy rain, so we decided to head back to the hotel and regroup. After the train subsided a bit, we decided to out again on foot to explore more of this little town.

There was a blue art display with ultraviolet lights.

Liyushan Park had this pretty cool pagoda-looking building.

And of course, we ate more food. This is another shaved ice mountain. 

I think the name of the restaurant was 海草, and it was located in the northeast part of the city. They're famous for their rice noodles.

Enjoying another dessert 

Winston and Keto seemed to be enjoying another "halo-halo-esque" dessert as well.

Since we were pretty weary from all that travelling/biking/walking in one day, we decided to pick up some Taiwan beer+snacks and relax back at the hotel.

some snacks. 

<3 Taiwan Beer

Day 5: Hualien

Another early wake-up call helped us get on our way to our next destination, Hualien. The train ride was another 3 hours and the city was a little bigger than Taitung, but definitely still smaller than Taipei. After getting off at a station right before Hualien, we had a quick breakfast and another one of Winston's family friends hid us in the back of his truck (it was like we were being smuggled!) and took us to Mt. Lioushidan to enjoy the golden fields full of daylilies. They're called "daylilies" because they bloom once per day! And the petals produced by these lilies are used in teas and as ingredients for tempura.

More ba wan, so so good.

Braised pork over rice. Simple, but delicious.

Hualien is known for having the best rice in all of Taiwan. Something about how they're grown, the weather patterns, and Hualien's location are supposed to make for optimal rice conditions. It was pretty damn good.

Golden daylilies 

This man was making us some daylily tempura

The hills are alive... with the sound of Winston.

There was this little tower you could hike to overlooking the mountain and surrounding valleys.

The mountain was beautiful and the air was cooler. It was a nice break from the humidity in the valley. After descending the mountain, Winston's family friend treated us to a hot pot lunch.

It was served over a flame.

We then took the train the rest of the way to Hualien. After checking into a hotel that Winston's family has connections with, we ate some aborigines food, did some shopping at some local night markets, and watched and participated in an aborigines dance show.

They served us about 7-8 plates of different things. I don't remember what they all were 0_0 

I just remember that they pointed to these heads on the wall and said, "oh, this is what you are eating now." 

This dish reminded me of an ilokano dish (Ilokos is in the northern part of the Philippines). It's pretty cool because aborigines from Taiwan definitely share a history with the Philippines due to their proximity to one another.

Doing our best to keep up with the dancers! 

Check out Winston's moves.

Day 6: Taroko Gorge

So Taroko Gorge is probably in the "top 3 must-see Taiwan sights," for your average tourist. The other 2 would probably be the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and Sun Moon Lake, which is in the center of the island. Unfortunately, we were unable to see Sun Moon Lake because we ran out of time. The only way to get there is from the north (Taipei area) as it's blocked from all other directions. But, we did get to see Taroko Gorge, and it really was a testament to nature's power. I would say it's on par with the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop was this little trail that led out to a dam that was originally constructed by the Japanese when they occupied Taiwan.

Winston mentioned that this rainy season was sparse, which is why we were able to go down to these rocks to touch the water. 

Charlie's Angels? There's a temple/shrine in the background dedicated to the workers that died during the construction of passages in Tarako Gorge. 

We had to wear hardhats during part of the journey because of potential rock slides. The hardhat rentals are free! 

The name for this bridge translates into English as "Loving Mother Bridge." Winston loves his mother.

This was just another trail that we hiked in the gorge. 

Winston's family helped us book a driver for this excursion. And the total cost was 2200 NT (~74 USD). We split that between the 4 of us so it was a pretty good deal. She toured us around the gorge, got our hard hats for us, and took us to a dried fish museum afterwards (which was an alright experience). After eating Hualien's best "small sausage in big sausage," we traveled back to Taipei to have all-you-can-eat dim sum.

Po and Winston's older brother (Tom) joined us for this feast.

This marked the last meal of our journey, as our flight out of Taiwan was the next morning. It was an amazing experience and it would not have been possible without Winston and his family's hospitality. Thank you so much again!

Taiwan is awesome!