Day 11 - Taipei and then Home

This is my last day in Taiwan, as my flight departs at 6:50pm.

I woke Brad at 9am to start our day. We had breakfast at the same place we did when we were first in Taipei – Dante Coffee. We both had our usual.

After breakfast we checked out of our room and stored our luggage in the lobby of the hotel. We decided we would go to a mountain that overlooks the city and has all kinds of neat sounding statues on it's top. We took the metro there , but once out of the car, we discovered it was raining and the clouds over the mountain were quite dark.

We had left our umbrellas with our luggage and I was wearing my flip-flops that are very slippery on wet surfaces. So, we came up with a Plan B. We looked through the guide book and found the Martyr's Shrine – it was in the direction where the sun was still shinning. We took the metro a few stops back towards the city and got off to walk. We came upon The Grand Hotel – Wow!!

It was massive and quite ornate. To get a sense of the size of the hotel, look at the tour bus in front of the building.  We kept walking and eventually came upon the Shrine. The Martyr's Shrine can best be described as very similar to our Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

It is a very solemn place, and it is guarded by an elite group of military guards. Each hour, there is a formal changing of the guards ceremony. The precision of their steps, the movement of their arms and guns, the marching in unison, was all quite something to watch. It was a great way to end the sightseeing portion of the journey.

Afterward, we took a taxi back into the city. It was raining, and we still had a few hours to kill before I was to leave for the airport.  It was lunch time so the timing was perfect.  My official last meal in Taiwan would be roasted pork, chicken and duck over rice served with ma-po tofu served with some cabbage and pickled veggies:

We decided to go into the enclosed malls and just look around. Brad saw a Muji Store and got all excited. Seems it's a popular Japanese store that sells a little of everything. We went in and bought some essential oils for the steam room and a writing set for Leslie.

Then we found a small electronics shop – I picked up a dual – USB charger for $11. We walked and walked and eventually found a place to sit down. It was now around 2:30 and I decided it was time to make our way to the hotel, grab our gear and head back to the station area.

Brad was going to the metro to move to a different part of the city and I was going to the bus station to take an express bus to the airport. The steps going down and then up for me to get to the bus station were wet with rain and my shoes would slip. We switched gear, Brad dealt with my suitcase, while I put on his backpack. Bought my bus ticket - $125 - $US4 – said our goodbyes and I got on the bus.

Got to the airport in 1 hour 25 minutes due to traffic, checked in, went through security and then proceed to shop in duty free. Was planning on picking up some inexpensive booze, but all they sold was Scotch Whiskey. Instead I got Zak some oolong tea and bought some pineapple cakes for us all to consume.

It's a bit difficult to summarize a trip like this. Brad and I traveled a loop around the entire country in a period of 10 days. We covered many different areas and saw an incredible amount of sights. This is a stunningly beautiful place, with mountains that reach to the clouds along with beautiful ocean views. The people are extremely pleasant and friendly, always willing to lend a hand. Taipei is very metropolitan, almost like NYC. We had a blast moving about the southern area on our motor scooters, even if it was pouring rain. Brad's ability to communicate in Chinese is absolutely amazing to me. It's been odd feeling like an illiterate person for 10 days, not understanding the spoken word or the written signs. I feel extremely fortunate that Brad invited me to join him on this adventure.

This was not a trip that could have been done with a tour group. We saw and did things that the tour groups did not. We traveled by bus, by rail, by scooter and by foot. The food choices and Night Markets really sets this place aside as something special, especially for a foodie like me. While I was brave enough to try many new things to eat, there were many things that I didn't have the courage to try. While it may have sounded like we were constantly eating and eating a lot of food, that wasn't really the case. Our breakfasts were generally on the small side, our lunches a bit larger and our dinners were usually lots of small plates that we either shared or just tasted and then tossed away. We made a point of trying to stay as hydrated as possible, constantly drinking either water or fruit drinks. Okay, we did booze it up a bit, but that was more out of boredom due to the rain keeping us from other activities. We toured, we shopped, we ate and we rested. We even got along with each other. I guess I'll end here by saying Taiwan is truly a special country and I'm one of the luckiest guys on earth to have a son who took me on the adventure of a lifetime.

Day 10 - Tainan to Taipei

Brad's and my last full day together in Taiwan. We woke a bit later than usual and went into the lobby of our hotel to have breakfast. Really is great how most all the hotels include breakfast with the room rate. We got downstairs at 9:40am and found the breakfast buffet deserted. I guess people get up early in this town. We were told that breakfast would end in 20 minutes. While this would have been okay at just about every other place we stayed in, here it meant that they would be done and cleaned up by 10am. We immediately set out to grab all the food we wanted, before they could shut us out!! We had eggs to order made, got the toast going, grabbed a bit of fruit and made some espresso for ourselves. Brad pointed out the thousand year old eggs and mentioned that it was an opportunity I hadn't yet had. Tried a bite of the egg with a bit of tofu. The egg was very dry tasting, but not horrible. Not good either, but not as bad as it sounds. And no, they are not a thousand years old.

After breakfast we packed up and asked the guy at the front desk which would be the best way to travel to the High Speed Rail (HSR) Station. He told us there is a free shuttle every 20 minutes from just around the corner. Great!! We made out way to the corner and waited for the bus.

It was then that Brad realized he didn't have his sunglasses. So he ran back to the hotel and found them under the curtain in the room and made his way back before the bus had come. The bus arrived, we put our luggage down below and boarded the bus. Turns out the HSR Station is outside of the city. It was about a 45 minute ride to the Station.

We entered the station and saw that the next train would be departing in 9 minutes. The next train would be leaving in 25 minutes. We decided to book the second train, as we were in no need to rush. Got our tickets $1,350 each (about $US42), took our time and made our way to the platform. Boarded the train and we were on our way.

I should mention that this was a magnetic levitation train. It travels at speeds up to 300 km per hour – that's about 180 mph! We arrived in Taipei in 1 hour and 45 minutes, traveling a distance of 305 km or 180 miles. While we didn't go as fast as possible, our average speed was about 103mph. Not bad. There were six stops along the way.

Once in Taipei, we made out way to the Hotel Flowers, except this time we stayed in their other building. Room was a bit larger than the first one we stayed in and newer. We dropped off our gear and went across the street for a lunch of Japanese Curry. It was quite good.

After lunch we continued in our quest to find Leslie a nice Jade Buddha necklace. We made our way to the Fujian area, where there were nice stores. Brad had seen a large SOGO Department store, so we went there. The idea of going to a department store to purchase the necklace rather than from a street vendor, as was quite possible, we felt that it would ensure a quality product. The first SOGO store we went to only had very high end jade encrusted with diamonds. Not what we were looking for. We went to another SOGO store that was larger than the first, hoping they would have a larger selection. No luck there either.

We made our way back to the Station area and went into another department store. We found a Jade shop within the store and found what we were looking for. The woman who took care of us was actually quite nice and a lot of fun. I made a bit of fun of her as just about the only English she could speak was “Credit Card Please.” She reminded both Brad and I of someone's silly Aunt.

After we made our purchase, we looked around at some other things. Eventually we decided to take a break and made our way back to the hotel to rest for an hour.

We decided to check out an area we had never been to before – Ximending. Turns out it was walking distance from our hotel. Once we got there we discovered where all the young people hang out.

The area had all kinds of cool little shops selling everything from handbags, book-bags, shoes, beauty parlors, tattoo shops, piercing places, etc Of course there were lots and lots of places to eat. We ended up in a Chinese chain restaurant - I ordered beef noodles and Brad ordered some pork with rice. It was really tasty and only cost about $3 each.

Afterward, we made a point of finding some betel nuts for me to bring home – they are fresh and we wanted to wait as late as possible to purchase them. Bought 2 bags for $100 – about $US3 – and headed back to our hotel to put them in the fridge. On the way we passed a camera shop that had a bunch of small tripods on display. I've been wanting one since the last time I went to China and wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by. I got a small tripod for $11. When Brad and I were in Shanghai 2 years ago, I saw one and didn't get it. Once I got home and started to price them, I found that they cost a bit over $100. I wasn't letting this opportunity go a second time around.

The night ended around 9pm for us, as I think we're both getting a bit exhausted. Taipei, being a city not near any coast seems to hold the heat and humidity more than the other places we had been.

Day 9 - Tainan

Today we traveled from Kaohsiung to Tainan via train.

We began with a nice breakfast at The Ambassador Hotel. This was the first hotel that offered breakfast on premises, it was included with our room. Nice buffet, nothing too out of the ordinary. Coffee was bad, but we soon discovered they had an espresso machine, so that was a bit better.

We took took our time checking out of our hotel before taking a taxi to the train station, bought our tickets and took a 35 minutes train ride to Tainan. Tainan is a city of 800,000 people, 4^th largest in Taiwan. It was the original Capital of the country. We arrived just after noon and checked into our hotel, just a few blocks from the Rail Station. We stayed at the Hotel Tainan.

Once checked in we went out to explore. It was raining, so we decided to stop for some lunch before proceeding to some of the ancient buildings that make up the tourist sights here.

We ate at a Sushi Express, which is a sushi restaurant chain, where they make all different types of sushi and place the dishes on a conveyor belt. You sit at a counter and pick-up whichever plates you would like. Each plate has 2 pieces of sushi on it and cost $30 (just under $US1) each. 

Once done, the waitresses counts up the number of plates and charges you accordingly. Brad and I had about 20 plates between us. So a really good sushi lunch ended up costing us around $US20, which included tea and seaweed salad and soup.

After lunch we walked to Chihkan Tower, an old fortress that was originally built by the Dutch around 1650 and later captured by the Chinese. It was pretty cool but all the time we were there it was raining. Not just raining, but pouring. We made the best of it.

After we left Chihkan Tower, we crossed the street to check out Official God of War Temple – small yet still in use. It was still pouring rain. We decided we wanted to see the Confucius Temple, but on the way the rain came down even harder. We ducked into a cold drink shop, ordered a funky drink of some kind of medicinal jello combined with lemonade.

Surprising good. As we were sitting there we checked the weather forecast and it wasn't looking good for at least another week. Given that our plan was to spend 2 days in Tainan walking to the different sights and enjoying the night markets that this town is known for, we decided, after checking the weather forecast for Taipei, that it made most sense to just spend the one night here and then take a high speed train to Taipei. Taipei offers more, even if the weather there turns on us.

We booked a room for Friday night at the same hotel I had started at, Hotel Flowers, not far from the Taipei Main Station.

After sitting in the tea shop for at least an hour, we finally decided to try to catch a taxi and go hang out in the one modern department store. We ended up hanging around the store for 3 hours and once we got outside, it was still raining quite hard. Fortunately, our hotel was just around the corner, so we made our way there.

After a short rest we decided to eat dinner in the Cantonese Restaurant just downstairs in our hotel. They had a buffet, but very different from any buffet I've been to. While they had a few chafing dishes with some food in them, the key here was to order whatever and as much as you wanted from their menu and each dish was made to order. Brad did a great job ordering. We had a few small plates of various seafood dishes, then a few plates of meat type dishes. It was Cantonese food like I've never had before. Some were really, really good while others were not so good.

It was still pouring rain after dinner, so we went upstairs to our room. Brad's been watching TV and I've been updating the blog as we have internet access here.

Tainan has been a bit if a disappointment, but it's really due to the rainy weather. There are quite a few historic sites to see and a few different night markets to explore. The activities are all outside and there's no subway system. If it was a light rain it wouldn't have been an issue, but the rain here has been torrential. Given the circumstances, heading a few hundred miles north to better weather makes the most sense to us.

Tomorrow is my last full day here. The High Speed Rail will get us back to Taipei in about 2.5 hours, so we'll leave in the morning and have an afternoon and evening there to do some shopping and eating.

Day 8 - Kaohsiung

Today we travel from Kenting to Kaohsiung. When Brad asked the people at the surf shop the way to take a bus, we were told that it's actually less expensive to take a taxi – or that's what Brad thought she said. Turns out she was suggesting a mini-bus. Which was great, as the guy picked us up right outside the shop. It was pouring rain when we left. He then made 3 stops to pick up more people to fill the bus. Only issue as that the people sitting near the a/c vents closed them, so the 2.5 hour ride was quite stifling. We arrived across from the Kaohsiung rail station and a taxi took us to our hotel.

Our Hotel is the finest hotel in the city – Ambassador Hotel. Doormen, Concierge, restaurants, etc. Now we're living! All for less than the cost of a Holiday Inn back home though!!

When we asked where to get Regular food, after much back and forth the Concierge suggested we go to the department store as there were restaurants and a food court there.

We ate lunch in a nice Japanese Restaurant as Brad was craving curry. I had a dish of fried pork over rice with a spicy meat sauce. It was served with a salad, sliced pickles and a marinated sliced fungus of some sort, along with iced tea. Quite good. Lunch for 2 was around $500. We were in a nice upscale kind of place. I'm liking the good life...

We then walked around a bit, stopped into a Starbucks and Brad enjoyed a beverage while we sat upstairs enjoying the view of the traffic below.

We then found the metro and went to Lotus Pond, as suggested by the guide book. Frankly it was quite lame.

We then went back to the metro and instead of going to where we got on, Brad suggested we get off where the 2 lines intersect. Good decision – he knows how to travel and find stuff! It put us near a busy area – Bridal Cake Street and the Night Market.

The Night Market was just getting started, so we walked to the end.  Saw some chicken hearts on a stick and just had to give them a try:

By the time we got to the end, it was dark and we were in a nibbling mood. We tried candied fried squash,

stopped at a seafood market ordered a plate of clams and beers,

then tried squid balls – yuk – tossed them away, which was a first for me on this trip.

Brad ordered a “Mexican” Burrito, strangely good and I ended with some dumplings.

We then made out way back to hotel with the intent to walk along the River Promenade, but it started to rain so instead we went to the top floor lounge and had a few adult beverages. Brad had ordered Johnny Walker and it was served with 1 ice cube – shaped like a small baseball thoguh, perfect size for the glass. Very cool.

So that was Kaohsiung, on to Tainan next...

Day 7 - Kenting

Today was one of those days that was truly a blast. Not so much for what we saw, but rather, what we did.

The day started with Brad and I getting breakfast at one of the little local shops that dot this tourist area. By now you may have picked up on the fact that the food here is strange. Breakfast kept that up. When we walked into the shop, they handed us a breakfast menu. Breakfast seems to be sandwiches here. I ordered a ham and egg salad sandwich, sounds pretty basic right? Wrong! The egg salad was chopped egg and carrot in mashed potatoes. It was built into a triple-decker with a slice of ham and some cucumber. Surprisingly, although it sounds like a strange combination, it was rather good. Brad ordered some kind of smoked chicken, sauteed onions, cheese, sliced tomatoes all on a large roll. The thing was huge. 

We ordered 2 coffees and were given 2 plastic cups with already sweetened iced coffee.

After breakfast we crossed the street and rented 2 motor scooters for a grand total of $1,000 ($US 33). 

And of course - "Killer Dad"

We had to get fuel, so we were pointed up the road to the gas station. While Brad rode scooters throughout Thailand, I haven't been on any motorized bike since I was a kid. We were shown how to start them and we decided to act like we knew what we were doing while in front of the rental guy. It really only took a few minutes to get the feel of them. We each got about half a tank of gas and headed south. 

We stopped at a park with a lighthouse and walked the perimeter of the park along the seashore. 

Park was cool, as it bordered the sea.  We came upon the Kissing Rocks:  

The day started gray and by the time we completed the walking loop of the park, it began to drizzle. Fortunately, there were vendors near the exit. We found sun visors to wear under our helmets to keep the rain off of our eye glasses. The visors were a great purchase for about $3 each. We continued south heading towards our destination – Jialeshui, about 25km away. On the way we stopped at the most southern point in Taiwan where there's a marker. We met a couple there from Ohio!

We stopped in the town of Gangkou, crossed a suspension foot bridge over a river 

and stopped for a delicious lunch of beef noodles for me 

and sesame noodles and dumplings for Brad. 

 The rain seemed to be subsiding, so we continued on our way north up the east coast of the island. We stopped at a few scenic overlooks, a military installation near the peak of a mountain and eventually made it to Jialeshui. After we paid to park and the admission, we got on a truck and were given a tour of rocks that took on the look of common animals and things. 

Rhino Rock

Bullfrog Rock

 They were shaped by the forces of nature, wind and sea. It was kind of cool and hopefully the photos do them justice. Once at the end, the rain was really coming down. We purchased some plastic bag rainwear and began our trip back towards Kenting. After an hour or so, we got back to Kenting. The rain had subsided, so we decided to take a ride up into the National park to see what we could see. As we headed up twisty, windy roads, the rain started again. By the time we got to the summit, it was really coming down and the wind had picked up considerably. Despite the plastic bag rainwear, we were drenched. Now we had to get down from the mountain. It was treacherous, but we took our time and made it down. Just before we got to the bottom, I noticed that my fuel gauge was blinking – oh no! I can't run out of gas now.

We brought the scooters back to where we rented them, parked and crossed back to our hotel to change into dry clothes. We had the scooters for 24 hours, so we kept the keys

We had such a good time, crusing around on the scooters, it's difficult to convey here the fun we had. Once we were back in the room, we turned on the TV to see if we could get a weather report. We were considering staying in the area to do more exploring. We discovered that while we were out and about, we were in a true Asian Typhoon!! As Brad commented, we were owned!!

It was now about 5:30pm and pouring in buckets. What to do? We went to Amy's Cucina, took a table up front, noticed they had drink specials so we decided to sit tight and drink. We ended up having 3 vodka and cranberry cocktails and one vodka with Roses Lime juice – all 2 for 1s. We had a plate of assorted food with our drinks, a bit if fried calamari, mozzarella sticks and samosas. We were feeling real good.

Brad has been hankering for seafood, as all he can get in Beijing is squid on a stick. We went to a place that had tanks out front with all kinds of sea creatures. We chose a crab and a lobster and also ordered clams, some sauteed cabbage and some fried rice. Once the food came we chowed down, had a few beers and really enjoyed our meal. It was a real treat for Brad and had to be our most expensive meal to date $2,600 ($US 81), still very reasonable for what we had.

Afterward we walked with our umbrellas in the rain, did some souvenir shopping and made it back to the room around 11pm.

We took out the guide book to make a reservation in Kaohsiung. First place we tried was booked, so instead of stepping down, we've booked the finest hotel in the city for the price of a Holiday Inn back home.

We will figure out how to take a bus there in the morning.