After little convincing, Emily persuaded me to go to Taiwan with her. My last trip there at the end of March was so enjoyable that there was no way I could pass up the opportunity. Our roundtrip tickets were only 266,000won with taxes (about $200 USD). Since my students had exams, I was able to use some of my vacation time on Thursday and Friday, which gave us a 4-day weekend.
On Thursday morning, we left Incheon and arrived at the Taipei airport around 11am. To get to the city center, we had to take a bus for about 1 hour. We were dropped at Taipei Main Station and walked to the nearby hostel, Happy Family (I stayed there for 3 nights during my last trip). No one was at the desk to help us check-in, so we walked up to the 5th floor where there is a TV lounge. We met a couple upstairs from Seattle, Washington. They attended a friend’s wedding in Thailand and decided to travel around Asia a bit more after the reception. After finally checking in, the four of us walked back to the main station to eat lunch together. Emily and I were eager to try Taiwanese food, but even more eager to try western food that is not easily found in Korea. So, we ate at a little restaurant called Sababa that sold Middle Eastern cuisine; we each had a falafel pita and shared some hummus and fried eggplant. It was soooooooo yummy!
From the main station, we headed to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall where we quickly checked out an art exhibition. We also made it just in time to watch the changing of the guards ceremony at the statue of Sun Yat-sen. What a boring job though! The guards have to stand completely still for 1 hour periods of time. After they stand on their post, another man comes by and fixes their uniforms, removing as many wrinkles as possible. Supposedly, this is a gesture of honor to Sun Yat-sen (one of few Chinese revolutionaries revered by both mainland Chinese and Taiwanese people).
We walked from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to the Taipei 101 building, currently the tallest building in the world (101 floors, but soon to be overtaken by a 141-floor building in Dubai). We were planning to go up to the observation deck on the 89th floor, but changed our minds after finding out the cost was about $12 USD each. Neither of us had that much of an urge to see an aerial view of Taipei. It still is neat to see that building from the outside. It was built to resemble a stalk of bamboo, so the windows have a greenish-tint and there are tiers within the structure that mock the shape of bamboo.
Read more about it here and see a photo. We went back to the hostel for a bit and then met Jeremy (the scooter man) at Taipei
Power Building station. I rented a scooter from him the last time I was in Taiwan and it was probably the best decision of the entire trip. Jeremy has now been in Taiwan for 18 years, 14 years of which he has been renting scooters. It is technically illegal to drive without a Taiwanese license, so most local people will not rent to foreigners. Anyway, he had 2 bikes ready us: the same one I used last time and a red one. Since I was already familiar with the silver bike, I used it and Emily took the red one. After two practice laps around the block, Emily was ready to hit the streets of Taipei! What an intimidating place! Not only is traffic heavy, but there was construction and it was nighttime! However, I am happy to report that neither of us had any accidents, although there were a few close calls…
We stopped by the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on our way back to the hostel. It is beautifully lit at night and not nearly as crowded. We walked around, but were unable to look at the statue since the building’s doors close early. On a side note, I don’t think I previously mentioned that I lost my camera a couple weeks ago. After my camping trip with Emily, I left my camera pouch on the bus and it was never turned in. I was quite bummed because I only had that camera for a couple months. Before going on this trip, I bought the same exact camera (a canon IXUS 870). I promised myself (and Emily) that I would be more responsible. Emily and I having a running joke about my luck with cameras. I ruined my other digital camera when we were in Phuket together. I accidentally knocked her sunglasses into the water when we were sea-canoeing in the ocean. I quickly dunked my hand in the water to retrieve them, forgetting that I had my camera around my wrist. Needless to say, that camera died (but I was able to salvage the photos on the memory card).
Anyway, at Chiang Kai-shek, Emily and I were so busy taking photos that neither of us realized that I left my new camera pouch on the ground. We were a little creeped out by a strange man following us and getting closer. I was ashamed after I found out that he was following us to return my camera pouch (which did not actually contain my new camera, but had my passport, U.S. debit card, Korean debit card, and a few other essentials). I am so lucky. I don’t even know how I could be so irresponsible. I thanked the man repeatedly and walked away. A few minutes later, he walked back up to us and asked for our contact information. Emily readily took his blackberry and wrote her email address. I was shocked until I realized that she wrote a fake email address. I, too, followed suit and wrote my name as Sara with a “happyday13” gmail account. It was a happy day after all, but his creepiness was starting to return.
We went back to the hostel and met up with the manager, Tom Lee. I met him on my last trip and had emailed him several times before coming again. He wanted to take us out to dinner to try some local specialties. We went to a small night market together and first tried the infamous “stinky tofu.” I didn’t think the taste was nearly as bad as the smell, but Emily did not like either. Next, we tried some oyster noodles which neither of us liked (but Tom readily finished it off). After that food, we needed something to wash the taste down, so we tried some jelly juice. Tom wasn’t able to tell us the name of the fruit in English, but I had never seen it before. The seeds/grains from the fruit are put in water and rubbed together. Somehow, this produces a thickened sauce. If the thickened sauce sits for about 12 hours, it forms jelly. The jelly is then served with a bit of lemon juice. The taste was mild and sweet. It was a bit like drinking aloe juice because you feel the random jelly chunks although they go down smoothly. Next on the
menu was a steamed bun/dumpling with cabbage inside (usually the have meat too, but Emily is a vegetarian). Very tasty! The bun made us thirsty again so Tom convinced us to try sugar cane juice. As the name would suggest, this stuff is really sweet!! Lastly, Tom wanted to take us for dessert, so we went to a bean/rice/other bizarre stuff restaurant. These are not foods that westerners typically view as desserts, but since sugar is added, many Asians do. Emily ordered “peanut” which amounted to a bowl of boiled peanuts in water and sugar. I ordered “red bean, taro, and rice balls” which was soft, squished red beans in water and sugar with pieces of taro root and tiny balls made from rice flour. A few spoonfuls were okay, but any more than that was too much. Once again, Tom had to polish off both of our portions.
By the time we walked back to the hostel, it was after 10pm. Emily and I were exhausted and ready to sleep!
We woke up fairly early Friday morning, packed up our stuff, and said goodbye to Tom. We headed east out of Taipei and stopped for breakfast and gas at a convenient store. The only maps we had were not very detailed (we picked them up for free at the airport), so we got turned around a couple of times. However, the weather was favorable and our adventure was just beginning, so neither of us really minded the minor inconvenience.
Before we got to Keelung (the first major town we’d be traveling through after leaving Taipei), we followed a sign to Tai-an waterfall. The first sign was in English, but after that we followed any brown sign we saw (with mysterious Chinese writing). We passed right by the waterfall and continued driving up the mountain. When the road ended, we were forced to turn around. On the way down we found the waterfall and enjoyed that the park was nearly empty. In general, there were a lot less people everywhere we went. In Korea, hiking up a mountain means that you’ll be sharing the trail with at least dozens of other people. Taiwan was much more secluded.
We continued on to Keelung, where we ate lunch (some bread-like pastries) and got some money from an ATM. Before leaving Korea, I copied some guidebook pages about Taiwan and made a list of places to see. But knowing me and my luck, you probably already guessed that I left the papers in Korea. So, we had maps, but not all of the attractions were labeled. Basically, we drove along the route we wanted to take and stopped when anything caught or eye or followed brown signs when we found them (like in the U.S. brown signs represent natural/historical sites). I wanted to go to a park that had a famous 5-story statue often compared to the Statue of Liberty, but I forgot the name of it. Luckily, we found it!
The name of the park is Zhongzheng. There are big, white elephants statues when you enter (one very distinctively male and the other female). Next, you walk past a sitting Buddha statue, a huge bell, and a temple. The main attraction though is the 5-story statue called Guanyin (the Buddhist emanation of compassion and peace). The best part is that you can climb up stairs inside of the statue and look out little peepholes on every floor. The ladder is very narrow and the stairs are steep! Anyone with claustrophobia would not be happy here. At the park, we enjoyed some fresh raspberry juice and traditional fruit cake cookies before parting.
After reaching Keelung, the remainder of our day’s driving followed the coastline. We were both overwhelmed by the beauty: the mountains were a vivid green with a slight trace of eerie fog and the water was so blue. The shoreline ranged from extremely rocky to white and sandy. Emily said a lot of the landscape reminded her of Italy.
We made a stop at Nanya, which is famous for having “peculiar rocks,” one in particular is shaped like a soft-serve ice cream cone. We met some ladies from Toronto who were visiting Taiwan for a family reunion. They took the one and only photo that Emily and I are in together!
We also stopped at Bitou Cape. We had to hike over a kilometer to get to the Bitou Cape Lighthouse, but it was worth it. The view was amazing and the sun was just starting to set. As we were about to walk back to our mopeds, we saw a mountain goat and then another! We were surrounded by so much beauty and no one else was in sight! I felt so fortunate to be able to have such an opportunity!
Since the sun was going down, we knew that we needed to find a place to spend the night. I did not think it would be very difficult, but I was wrong. I guess not seeing a lot of other tourists at the various sights, meant that not a lot of hotels were necessary in the area. It didn’t help that neither of us can read Chinese. I stopped at a small coffee shop to ask if they knew of anywhere we could spend the night. They said there was one hotel in Fulong (about 15km away). They called for me and said there were vacancies, but the cost was about $130 USD per night!! Emily and I are budget travelers and that was not going to happen. I thanked them for their help and left. We thought we’d just keep driving and keep our eyes open. If there was one hotel, there must be more, right?
We also remembered some advice that Tom gave us in Taipei. If all else fails, you can usually sleep in a temple or police station. I happened to see a police station as we were driving, so we stopped and asked the man inside for help. He made some phone calls and directed us to another hotel called “Joan.” The price was higher than we wanted, but reasonable ($50 USD/night).
After driving for about 10 minutes, we found the hotel. It was amazing!! It was actually called “Joan Resort” and a resort it was! Our room had wood floor, a king-sized bed, and many English TV channels. The resort also had bicycles, 3 spas, a sauna, a steam room, an outdoor pool overlooking the ocean, free breakfast, a bar, and other amenities. We felt like queens. The stay was reviving and definitely worth the $25 per person (the lady even gave us a $10 discount because we said we were traveling on a budget).
We are dinner Friday night at a tiny night market right down the street from Joan Resort. We tried shish kebabs, dumplings, and custard-filled cakes. After soaking in the luke-warm spa, we went to bed.
My school had its “Sports Festival” on Friday, May 22nd. It was a great day because I didn’t have to teach any classes and I was provided with entertainment which made the hours pass by quickly! Almost all schools in Korea have a sports festival day which is equivalent to a “field day” in the U.S. All of the students participate in various relays. Each class of about 35-45 students is grouped together as a team. The students take these teams very seriously and spend days coming up with elaborate costumes, accessories, cheers, and dances. It was amazing to see all the effort the students put forth to make this one day a success. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous: warm and sunny, not too hot. My favorite part of the day would have to be the class performances. Only the second-grade students (juniors) performed, but each class had their own time (12 classes each performing about 5 minutes).
