Today we planned on spending the day in Tamsui to visit Uncle Albert. Tamsui/Danshui/Danshuei (different spellings) is a seaside city located north of Taipei. It takes about 35 minutes from Taipei on the MRT to get there. The cost of going there from our MRT station (Daan) was 44 NT = $1.75 CAD, which is the most expensive MRT ride we’ve taken so far. Ideally, Tamsui is a good place to visit when it’s sunny since a lot of attractions are along the waterfront. We had scheduled to visit Uncle Albert on Friday because the forecast had been for sun today, but the forecast changed to rain and even some thunder.
Nate is a pro on the MRT
When we arrived at the station, Uncle Albert was waiting for us outside the gates. He led us down a street filled with food stalls and various snack vendors (“Tamsui Old Street”). As soon as we entered, we ordered fried chicken nuggets and UFO stuffed waffles (taiyakis). The fried chicken nuggets were from this place called J&G Fried Chicken (since 1973), the chicken was just fried so it was moist and perfectly seasoned with a bit of spice (Tim: I asked for less spicy).
Rainy day in TamsuiFilled “UFO” waffles (10 NT = $0.40 CAD)Fried chicken nuggets – (75 NT = $3 CAD ) from J&G Chicken
Uncle Albert wanted to take us to a place on that street that served a traditional Tamsui dish. He ordered “a-gei” (bean curd outer skin with vermicelli inside) and fish ball soup.
Restaurant that served more traditional Tamsui dishesA-gei cut up
After we finished eating some snacks, we continued to walk in Tamsui’s “old town”. By now, the rain was starting to pick up and it became a downpour, my sister even bought a poncho for 30 NT = $1.20 CAD. Uncle Albert walked with us to Tamsui Presbyterian Church and then left us to get his car.
The Tamsui Presbyterian Church was founded by Canadian missionary, Dr. Mackay, the first missionary to serve northern Taiwan. Not only is Dr. Mackay an important figure in the Tamsui area but he is important to Tim’s family. Tim’s Great Grandfather was the Pastor at that church. As we waited for Uncle Albert to come back with his car, we went to a historical building next to the church where Dr. Mackay had run a dental practice. It is now a small museum and shop. The store attendants there gave us some tea and cookies as they explained more about Dr. Mackay.
Tea and cookie at the Mackay House
Us in front of the church, we took one in 2013 last time we came as well
After we spent some time around the church, Uncle Albert picked us up and drove us around to see other Tamsui sites – including Fort Santo Domingo and Fisherman’s Wharf (where they have the “Love Bridge”). The rain wasn’t coming down as hard as earlier so we got out and walked over the bridge and around the waterfront.
Love Bridge from the other sideNoel and Tim on the Love Bridge <3
For dinner we headed to a mall close to the Tamsui MRT station. Uncle Albert picked “Thai Town” – which has multiple locations in Taiwan. It was a nice restaurant on the 10th (top floor) of the mall that overlooked the water. All the seats in the restaurant had a window view. If only it were a sunny day, the seating at the restaurant would have been awesome. The food and service were good – the prices were similar to back home ($10-$15 range per dish)
View from our table at Thai Time. The sun is trying hard to break through. This is not a very good picture but I only took one!Green papaya salad (250 NT = $10 CAD)
After dinner, we said our goodbyes to Uncle Albert and thanked him for being such a great Tamsui guide. We decided to head back to the market street to buy “iron eggs” which originated from Tamsui. They are small chicken eggs that have been cooked down continuously until they’re the size of a quail egg. We decided to walk around a bit more and buy some snacks for later and for my sister to bring home. Nate had fallen asleep so my sister was free to actually look around. On top of the iron eggs to try tomorrow, we got more fruit (Noel loves the guava here), dried plums, this seaweed snack, mochis, and Mister Donut donuts at the MRT station.
Our conversation at the mochi stand was funny, my sister wanted to know what all the flavours were so she asked Tim to help her. Tim asked in Mandarin what the flavours were and the guy listed the six flavours fairly quickly. My sister asked for clarification from Tim on what one of the flavours was, Tim forgot and asked the guy to say the flavours again. When he repeated the flavour Tim wasn’t quite sure, he asked the guy to explain again. Then the guy just said “that one’s taro, black sesame, and green tea”. We all had a good laugh because we were struggling to figure out some of the flavours and the whole time the guy knew the names of the fillings in English.
Outside Mister Donut, a Japanese donut storeDonuts were discounted around 10 NT off their regular price at the end of the day (most were 25NT = $1 CAD)
We were all looking forward to going back to the apartment and having a chill night – Netflix and trying out the donuts. The donuts were different than any other donut I’ve had before, it was a bit chewy (almost like they used a bit of mochi flour in them). They are apparently known for their “pon de ring” donuts so we tried a strawberry, plain, peanut & chocolate and a double chocolate donut.
Tomorrow, we’ll probably do a bit of shopping and walking around the Zhongxiao Fuxing area. For dinner, we are meeting Auntie Sandra and family! They are in Taipei for the weekend from Hong Kong so it’ll be nice to see them.
This morning started much like yesterday – early in the morning except this time I went back to bed after initially waking up at 6am. Everyone got ready to leave the apartment around 10:30am. Today’s weather was a bit better than yesterday’s – it was still overcast but at least it wasn’t really raining and if it was raining it was just a fine mist.
We decided to go to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall – ticking off another Taipei attraction off the list for our visitors. Once we arrived, Nate immediately wanted to walk around the square himself. He was much happier today than yesterday. To be fair, I wasn’t too happy yesterday at the museum either so I understand his frustrations (Tim: always good to compare the state of your mood with a 1.5 year old). We took our time and walked around and up the stairs to the CKS statue. The Frozen exhibit was still set up and will run until April – it’s unfortunate that the exhibit is there as it’s a bit of an eye sore.
Nate checking out the National Concert Hall“Hello, pigeons!” Nate liked to chase them around the square saying helloNate popping a squatNate walking down the stairs – what a big boy!
After we took our pictures, we headed towards Yong Kang Street in search of lunch. This street is about a 8-10 minute walk from the CKS Memorial. As we went up the street, we decided to try beef noodles at 品山西刀削麵之家 (Taiwan Yi Pin Ramen and Sliced Noodle) that was on CNN’s list of best Taiwan beef noodles and has won a bunch of beef noodle awards (which most restaurants have as well). This beef noodle specializes in their tomato beef broth, which is unique, but I prefer the beef noodles from Lin Dong Fang. We’ll have to take them there another day.
We also stopped to get another Taiyaki snack to share and a bubble tea to go. We’re averaging one and half a bubble tea per day.
Walking down Yong KangInside Yi Pin Ramen and Sliced Noodle (Tim: Aka pulled and cut noodles)Our side dishes: seaweed, bean curd “noodles”, cucumbers (30 NT each = $1.22 CAD)
Beef noodle in their tomato beef broth (160 NT = $6.50 CAD)Regular beef noodle with thick noodles (140 NT = $5.60 CAD)Outside the beef noodle restaurant (品山西刀削麵之家)Croissant Tayakis – same as what we had yesterday except with croissant outside – yum! 45 NT = $1.80 CADCoco Bubble Tea: Ordered passion fruit tea with pearls and coconut jelly (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)Really busy shaved ice place – we’ll try it on a warmer day
We made our way back to the apartment so Nate and Noel (think he caught something) could rest this afternoon. My sister and I headed back out to buy groceries at Jason’s (a Singaporean based grocery store). They had a good selection of local and international items. We mainly picked up groceries for Nate’s lunches and dinners.
After Nate went down for the night, my sister, Tim, and I went to a restaurant close by, called Ya Meile. It was a place we got take out from yesterday for Noel. The lady recognized us and was probably wondering why Tim was always bringing his non-Taiwanese friends (as she called us) to this place. We ordered 2 bowls of meat sauce dried noodles, pot-stickers, pan-fried dumplings, boiled dumplings, green onion pancake with egg inside, and a congee (for Noel). All this food came out to $10 CAD.
This place seems to be open 24 hours, and is always busyPan fried dumplings and potstickers (30 NT each = $1.22 CAD)Pork dried noodles , it tasted better than it looks (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)
After dinner we went to 50 Lan to grab some bubble tea to bring back to the apartment. We spent the rest of the night watching Netflix and relaxing.
This is the drink we’ve gotten twice (35 NT = $1.40 CAD)
We’re planning on going to the Taipei Zoo tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be sunny – we haven’t seen sun in Taiwan for over a week!
It was another early morning as my sister, Noel, and Nate arrived in Taipei this morning at 5:30am from Vancouver. Tim and I set our alarms and waited for their arrival. They got to the apartment with Uncle Albert around 7am. They dropped off their bags and we headed straight to our favourite breakfast place – Yong He Soy Milk King! We were excited to share our love for this place with our Vancouver visitors.
Nate tasting his first sao bing with egg. He loved it and almost ate it all
After breakfast we went back to the apartment and the travellers took a nap before we headed out for the day. Since the weather today is a bit cold (around 15 degrees) and gloomy, we decided to go to Taipei 101 to check out the mall and eat at Din Tai Fung. But before we went to Taipei 101, we went to Daan Park to stop by the children’s playground for Nate to play. He seemed a bit scared about where he was so we wanted to bring him to the park to cheer him up; it worked!
At Daan Park
Once we got to Taipei 101, we could see the hoards of people waiting in front of Din Tai Fung. The wait was around 50 minutes (this was at 1pm). The wait actually went quicker than we thought it would be and we only had to wait about 30 minutes. Since we told them we needed a high chair, when we got to table they had the high chair set up with a Din Tai Fung plastic dish set (how nice). The dish set was really cute and we asked if they were for sale. Our waitress said they are but they are all sold out at the moment – the set (bowl, plate, utensils, cup) is 350 NT ($14 CAD). So now we’re on the hunt for these.
With my sister and Noel here, we were able to try a variety of dishes. We were also really hungry when we ordered since we hadn’t eaten since 7am. Nate was polishing off the noodles and loving the food. It actually slipped my mind to take pictures of a few of the dishes because I was too hungry to think about it. The dish I really enjoyed that isn’t pictured is the DTF house special appetizer dish. It’s a cold dish of sliced bean curd, (organic) bean sprouts, julienned seaweed tossed in a slightly spicy sesame sauce. (This dish was 70 NT = $2.80 CAD)
Nate and the cute dish set – I want one!We ordered 30 XLBs – so delicious! Nate loved them too (200 NT / 10 XLBs = $8 CAD)Spicy sesame and peanut noodles (100 NT = $4 CAD) – really good, would order it againPork chop noodle soup (190 NT = $7.70 CAD). Mostly for Nate – he loved the noodlesHot and sour soup – medium (140 NT = $5.60 CAD)
After lunch we walked around to the neighbouring malls and ended up at the 24 hour Eslite Bookstore (Xinyi location). We started on the top floor and worked our way down. Nate walked around the children’s floor and enjoyed looking around and touching everything. He even made some Taiwanese friends in the book department.
The little girl was telling Nate to not touch her book.
It was fun to watch Nate interact and observe other kids and their parents in the bookstore. A Dad was reading his son a book in Mandarin and Nate sat really close and kept inching closer hoping to listen. As he inched closer and closer you can tell from the look on his face that he didn’t understand anything that was being said. Pretty sure Nate knows he’s in a foreign land.
Eslite has floors of books as well as boutique shops within the bookstore – we took our time going through each floor since Nate fell asleep in his stroller.
Tim trying on an ostrich pillow – the lady said “just try it on and take a picture. Don’t buy it, it’s too expensive and not worth the price”. She was right, it was around $4000 NT ($162 CAD). She was the worst/most honest sales person.Ostrich Pillow Box“Chick Lit” is a genre at Eslite
After spending an hour or so at Eslite we made our way back to the apartment area (we decided to just walk there instead of taking the MRT two stops). We stopped by a 7-Eleven for pudding (to eat later) and bubble tea from “50 Lan”. We’ve seen this bubble tea place everywhere and have been meaning to try it out (there’s one located just down the street from our Airbnb). We ordered pearl milk tea with mini pearls – the tea was good, but I think I still like the bigger pearls (or a mix of both like the Panda bubble tea in Taitung).
50 Lan – We ordered pearl milk tea with mini pearls – large size (50 NT = $2 CAD)
After we got our bubble tea, we headed to MOS Burger for dinner. We decided to have a low key/casual dinner because everyone was getting tired. My sister and Noel were doing well staying awake considering they’ve been up for over 24 hours with minimal amount of sleep on the plane. MOS Burger is a Japanese fast food restaurant with multiple branches in Taiwan. I was waiting for them to come so I could try it out. We decided to just eat in since Nate was still sound asleep. I ordered the shrimp patty burger and Tim ordered an “Australian Wagyu Beef” burger. He ordered one combo which came with a drink and a side of chicken nuggets (default option instead of just fries). My sister and Noel tried their more famous burgers – ones that use rice instead of buns. I had a bite of my sister’s sukiyaki burger and it pretty much tasted like you were eating a donburi (rice bowl) in your hands.
MOS BurgerOur two burgers and chicken nuggets (75 NT = $3 CAD for my shrimp burger and 170 NT = $6.90 CAD for Tim’s combo)Tim’s burger – Wagyu beef with cabbage, lettuce and a thousand island type pink dressingChicken nugget dip – “Chinese Sauce” which is a sweet and sour
After an eventful afternoon/early evening, we headed back to the apartment. Everyone washed up and now are fast asleep. Tim and I are still awake working on our blog posts. We expect them to wake up really early like how we did during our first week here.
I hope tomorrow will be a good day after they get their much needed rest. Even though we are far from being locals, the fact that they came to visit us here, I feel like we’re responsible for getting them to like Taipei and enjoy it as much as we have. I hope the weather improves – we were blessed with such great weather our first week here but now it’s so cold.
Traveling around the city with a 20 month old is challenging and also enlightening to see how child friendly Taipei is. I noticed that it was really easy to get around with a stroller – especially in the MRT stations, which is something not to be taken for granted (ahem, NYC subways). Also, in each MRT station they have super clean bathrooms and “breastfeeding rooms” (which are also family rooms used to change diapers).
I’m really happy my sister, Noel, and Nate are here to visit us. I just hope that (even travelling with a toddler), they will be able to experience as much as we have so far during their time in Taipei.
Our steps for today are: 18,000 steps (I was surprised we walked so much with Nate – it was mostly because we walked back from Taipei 101 instead of taking the MRT).
This morning, we took the bus towards Taroko Gorge National Park. It’s about a 45 minute ride from Hualien. We caught the shuttle from the hotel to the train station to catch a local bus that does a loop of all the major sites around Taroko Gorge. The daily unlimited ticket was 250 NT each ($10 CAD).
We started out on the Shakadang Trail, which was about 6km. The scenery was amazing, especially with the low lying clouds; it made it seem mystical. The greens and landscape reminded me a lot of British Columbia. Although it was beautiful, it made us think that we’re pretty spoiled to live in such a beautiful place and it’s also a shame that we haven’t explored more of our own province. Hopefully we’ll get to do that more this summer when we’re back home.
Our favourite part of the Taroko Gorge Park was the Shakadang Trail, it was also the only trail that was opened fully. A lot of the park was close due to unstable gravel and rocks (they’re still fixing it up from typhoon season). It was too bad that a lot of trails were closed because this made all the areas that were open busy with all the busses of Mainland Chinese tourists. This was my only complaint about the gorge – it was a bit hard to fully appreciate its beauty when there were hoards of loud Chinese tourists around. We saw a bunch of them smoking when there were a lot of signs saying smoking was not allowed (the park should have more park rangers to crack down). As we weren’t able to go to all the different sights due to closures, we know we will have to come back in the future to see more.
Old suspension bridge on the left (max capacity is 5 people) and the new suspension bridge on the right (max capacity is 20 people)I’m posing like this for a lot of pictures because that’s what we see a lot of tourists do in TaiwanTim’s second follow me traveller photoBridge by the Shakadang TrailI liked the colours in the rocksAboriginal statuesEternal Spring ShrineCave under the Eternal Spring Shrine
When we caught the bus back into the city, I fell asleep as soon as we got onto the bus. It was a nice 45 minute nap. When we got back into the city, we started walking back to the hotel and we noticed that there were a lot of mochi shops in Hualien; specifically the one in the picture below. We decided to stop in and take a look, we had two samples and left. They were really tasty and I can see why lots of people were buying them. I tried to look up to see if they have a store in Taipei but their website doesn’t exist. This seems to be a common issue of website addresses on bags, store fronts and cups in Taiwan. (So far I’m 0/3)
Mochi store in Hualien. There are about 4 of them within 15 minutes of each otherThis cut out is here to meet you at every store
After resting up a bit and finishing the first season of “Fuller House” on Netflix, we headed out for the night market. It was raining quite hard tonight, but Hualien’s Zhiqiang Night Market has vendors all undercover so the rain wasn’t a huge deterrent for most people. The night market is unique compared to other night market’s that we’ve been to in Taiwan as there are a couple rows of vendors that are all aboriginal.
Zhiqiang Night Market
While going through the stalls, there was a huge line up at a roasted corn stand called, “Li-Jo Corn BBQ”. We decided to join the crowd and line up. They had video footage of testimonials and how they made their corn (typical). Once you get to the front of the line you pick corn you want and they charge you by weight. We thought it would be around 50 NT ($2 CAD) max per corn, but for our two corns it ended up being 164 NT ($6.65 CAD) total. It was quite pricey (For Taiwan standards), so we were hoping it would be amazing. We waited for our order for about 15 minutes (took about 10 minutes to get to the front of the line) and when it came and I took my first bite, I was a bit disappointed. The corn wasn’t fresh tasting, I’m not sure if they roasted it too long to make the corn kernels chewy. The sauce was a sweet, spicy, sticky soy sauce. It was good we tried it but I wouldn’t get it again – especially for 80 NT on average each. My favourite corn is still the corn from Cafe Habana in NYC (Tim: Me too. Best corn on the cob I’ve ever had).
Lin-Ji CornTim about to take his first biteCorn selection. There were two types of corn. One was more similar to BC Corn and another one the kernels were a lot bigger. We got one of each.
Here are some other items we got from the night market.
Duck wrap (50 NT = $2 CAD). This was good, but you can’t really go wrong with duck meat, cucumbers, pickled veg with a hoisin sauceYes, we got a corn dog from the Taiwanese night market. It was actually really good… (45 NT = $1.80 CAD)A huge 1L ai-yu jelly drink (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)We ordered fried chicken nuggets from here. They refry everything once you order it.Fried chicken (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)
We walked back to the hotel in the rain, the rain eased off a bit so it wasn’t that bad. We’ve been wearing these MEC breathable rain shells my Mom bought us for our trip… so far so good! I’ve noticed that a lot of people wear flip flops here when it’s pouring rain. I guess it’s better than soggy socks (although it wasn’t very warm here tonight).
We have to wake up around 5am tomorrow to catch our train back to Taipei. Tomorrow will probably be our laundry and errands day, in anticipation for my sister, Noel, and Nate’s arrival! Yay! I can’t wait.
Today was our last morning in Taitung. We bought tickets for the train to Hualien at 9:39am . Tim’s aunt picked us up from our hotel at 8:30am and dropped us off at the train station. She made sure we collected our tickets from the ticket counter, since this was the first time we bought tickets online. We said our goodbyes and said we’ll be back soon.
Tim’s aunt gave us a charm that she said means “Peace be with you”. We’ll keep this close to us during our travels
While waiting for our train to arrive, we grabbed some breakfast from 7-Eleven. I decided to try a tea egg and a pudding (which is a popular snack in Taiwan, probably not a very good breakfast choice, but a delicious snack choice!).
7-Eleven hardboiled tea egg (10 NT = $0.40)Delicious pudding from 7-Eleven (20 NT = $0.80 CAD)
The train ride to Hualien was 2 hours long. I finished up my blog from yesterday but after writing for a half an hour, I felt a bit train sick. I fell asleep for the rest of the train ride (I’ve been pretty good at sleeping most of the way), so I missed all the mountainous terrain on the way towards Hualien.
When we got to Hualien’s train station, we wanted to go to the ticket counter to get tickets for Sunday back to Taipei. Tim’s aunt warned us that the train is usually booked up from Hualien to Taipei, but we didn’t realize how crazy it would be. Once we got to Hualien, the train station was a gong show and we thought, uh oh, we’re in trouble. We had searched for tickets quickly while waiting at Taitung’s train station and couldn’t find any trains at a decent hour that were available.
The hotel in Hualien has a free shuttle service to and from the train station, so there was a van waiting for us when we arrived. Trip Advisor’s reviews were right, East Town 26’s service was really good so far. We were welcomed by the front desk girl and we were able to check in early (their check in time is 3:30, we arrived around noon). We got to our room and it was nice and clean and more modern than the last hotel we stayed in. The cheapest room (Tim: and only ones available) were single beds, so we just go that (we’re roomies!).
Our room at East Town 26 – two single beds. Tim’s going to get a good night sleep . ($66 CAD/night)Good sized bathroom
Once we got to our room, we both got on to our laptops and tried to search for train tickets back to Taipei. We weren’t having any luck, the website kept saying everything was full or that we’ve tried too many times for the same search. After about half an hour of trying we decided to go to 7-Eleven to buy the tickets. Most convenience stores in Taiwan sell rail tickets (at a premium, extra 8 NT = $0.30).
When we got to 7-Eleven, we took a look at the kiosk and realized that we weren’t going to be able to buy tickets because it was all in Chinese with no English option. Feeling a bit defeated we turned to the lady behind us and Tim asked if she could help us translate it. She asked us where we wanted to go and she pulled out an app on her phone. We sat down with her and she reserved the tickets on her phone (super quickly) and she pulled up the tickets on the kiosk we were just at with a confirmation code. The kiosk then printed out a receipt that we used to pay at the
7-Eleven counter. Tim asked her if we could get a drink or anything for her because she helped us out, but she said she didn’t need anything, she was just happy she was able to help us.
Unfortunately, the only time we could get that would get us back into Taipei before 3pm (we’re checking into our Airbnb on Sunday) was if we left Hualien at 6:07am (not looking forward to Sunday morning, but beggars can’t be choosers). We’ve learned our lesson about train tickets (especially the Hualien to Taipei route). We also learned that with that app, locals can reserve train tickets without paying for them right away.
With that out of the way, we decided to find something to eat. The lady at the front desk suggested a few restaurants she likes to go to. We stopped by one that looked pretty busy and promising. It looked like they specialized in steamed juicy buns. We got a seat and they handed us an order form in Chinese. Tim told the waitress that he couldn’t read and that we’ll just order 10 buns and hot and sour soup. We literally just looked at what others were eating and copied them.
Juicy bunsBuns and hot and sour soup (50 NT = $2.50 CAD for the buns and 20 NT = $0.80 for the soup)Inside the juicy bunAfter we finished eating, we walked out to take pictures. We almost dine and dashed.
There isn’t much in Hualien in the city itself in terms of “must see sights”. Most people stay in the city so they could use it as a base to see Taroko Gorge National Park, which is exactly what we’re doing. Although it was starting to rain, we headed to the coastline to walk around.
Along the coast between Nanbin Park and Meilun Coast ParkThat’s me with my hood, on the other side of the Pacific from home.Rocky beach
Tim shouting that he loves meRun little pug! There was pretty random artwork around the walkwayThese large concrete blocks help to prevent erosion3D art
It started to rain a bit harder so we started to head back into town. I was feeling a bit tired and cold. Today was actually the first day that I felt colder than normal. The temperature in Hualien was around 15 degrees and dreary – felt like home.
When we got back into town, we looked for something to eat for an early dinner. I wasn’t feeling that great and just wanted to take it easy tonight because tomorrow was going to be a full day of exploring the Taroko Gorge. We found a soup noodle restaurant so we decided to eat there. It was like Tawainese casual noodle restaurant. My noodles were okay, Tim seemed to enjoy his pork hock a lot more (Tim: The pork hock was good, but the noodles and soup weren’t much to write home about). It was only 5pm and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.
My noodles were with pork spare ribs (60 NT = $2.40 CAD) and Tim had pork hock (60 NT = $2.40). The side was a century’s old egg with tofu with bonito flakes (30 NT = $1.20 CAD)
After our early dinner we went to a bakery (“181 Bakery”) that we had passed by earlier to pick up some buns to pack with us on our day trip tomorrow to the Gorge. The whole bakery smelled really good. They had samples in front of most of the items, so we were able to sample a few.
We got a pizza bun, green onion bun, a croissant/palmier type of bun, and an egg tart to try tonight (140 NT = $5.75 CAD).
Because I wasn’t feeling that well, we decided not to go to the night market tonight. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a bubble tea place to grab a milk tea for later. We headed back to the hotel around 6pm and since then, I’ve been writing today’s blog post while watching “Fuller House” on Netflix.
We’ll probably sleep early tonight as we have to get to the train station tomorrow around 7:30am to catch a bus towards to the Gorge. I’m looking forward to going back to Taipei and chilling out and spending time with my sister, Noel, and Nate.
Today was our first full day in Taitung. The weather didn’t really improve much from yesterday, it was still overcast with no sun in sight (Tim’s going to say, “stop complaining about it being overcast!”). The reason why I wished the sun would come out is because I know that Taitung would be amazingly beautiful with the lush green mountains and ocean on either side of the city. But with an overcast sky, the city wasn’t able to really shine through. I suppose I had high hopes for Taitung because it is Tim’s favourite Taiwanese city. I wanted to love it here like he did, but I didn’t. I would like to come back when the weather is nicer (which is usually 90% of the time), to experience the city the way it should be.
We started off our day with a nice and hearty breakfast… at McDonald’s. We like to try different McDonald’s around the world because they always have unique menu items and Taiwan was no exception to that. We ordered a chicken and egg breakfast sandwich meal (which is like a McChicken with an egg in a muffin (Tim: and without lettuce)) and an extra sausage and egg McMuffin. The meal came with a hash brown and instead of coffee we ordered corn soup. I enjoyed everything in the breakfast – especially the corn soup (Tim: I love how corn soup is a substitute beverage choice).
Breakfast at McDonald’s. (136 NT = $5.50 CAD)Corn soupChicken and egg McMuffin
After our breakfast we picked up bikes from the apartment and started a trail that wrapped around the city. We headed towards the mountains and the bike path was pretty clear. It felt good to ride and feel the breeze – it was refreshing and freeing! (Tim: It wouldn’t be as refreshing if it was sunny and hot… Thankfully it was overcast). After we passed the 2km mark, the bike trail emptied and we were the only ones on it. It was nice that was it just us, fresh air, (away from all the scooter exhaust) and some small low flying birds.
Trail map. Taitung is home to seven aboriginal groups, the most in Taiwan, making up 35.5% of the population.Obama Cake?The bike path – I see my last name!Taiwanese countryside
Tim has fond memories of the time he spent in Taitung in 2009. He likes to recount how while biking along this same trail, a stray puppy rode along side him for a couple of kilometres until he got to a larger street intersection that he needed to cross. The puppy was too scared to the cross the street and Tim never saw it again. When he thinks about it, he gets a bit sad. (I think he regrets not keeping the puppy). I make it worse when I tell him that the puppy chose him (just like how elephants choose their mahouts (owners) in Thailand) and he just left him. Later on at the beach, a stray dog was attracted to Tim and followed him around while he took pictures. I thought it would make for a pretty epic story if that dog turned out to be the same dog from 7 years ago (too bad this dog was brown and not black).
Tim and his friendTaitung has a lot of stray dogs. This the one that followed us around a little bit at the beach.
When we reached a split in the trail we decided to head back so we could go back towards the beach. We ended up walking to the beach instead because I was too scared to ride on the street alongside all the scooters and cars. I get a bit anxious when I’m on a bike or scooter in traffic and I feel like in Asia it’s even more chaotic (although, it’s likely more of an organized chaos).
After dropping our bikes off, we stopped to get bubble tea a “Presotea” which advertised a “Panda” bubble (black and white pearls!). We also attempted to Facetime my family for my Mom’s birthday. Taitung County has free wifi (TT-Free) throughout the city if you register your phone number. Unfortunately, my family was only able to hear us, but we were able to hear and see them.
The Panda milk tea was really good. We enjoyed the different sized and textured pearls. (40 NT = $1.60 CAD)For my family, this is what we looked like while trying to Facetime
We walked to the beach area that we visited shortly yesterday. This time we walked down to the actual beach and watched the waves crash on to shore for a while. The east coast of Taiwan is very beautiful. In the summer, Taitung has a hot air balloon festival that looks awesome, maybe next time we’ll come for that. Although, I’m sure then I’ll probably wished the weather were like how it was now- mild rather than really hot.
A dome and walkway made out of bamboo. I can’t seem to find the name of it while googling
A man on a scooter taking in the ocean. It looked cold, but it was 20+ degrees, which is cold for Taitung standards.
After the beach we headed back to the apartment to grab our bags that we left there. We were moving to another place to stay because the apartment was booked for tonight. We walked down the street and checked into our hotel, “Traveller’s Hotel”. We read good reviews about it for being a clean and friendly hotel. The room is very basic and clean (the only important thing), which works for us! The only “bad” thing is that the internet is a bit slow.
Basic and clean hotel for the night (39 USD on Expedia, Tim used his Paypal account from his Canucks ticket sales. (Tim: Glad to spend USD Via PayPal, otherwise, it’s almost impossible to withdraw your USD Balance out of a Canadian PayPal account without paying ridiculous exchange fees… More on that later maybe.))
Once we checked in, we headed to grab a late lunch and walked to the Taitung Forest Park to wander around. We thought that on our way to the park we would pass by a lot of food options, but that didn’t happen. I think we underestimated the effects of a small town/city. I kept thinking, there’s got to be a lot of places surrounding the park or even a snack stand inside the park. We were wrong, there’s no vendors inside the park. It was about 3:30pm and we were both pretty hungry (Tim: Kaitlyn was pretty hungry). We walked around the park for like 15 minutes and then left to find something to eat.
Entrance to the Taitung Forest Park
We decided to walk down a different street on our way back. There were a few bento lunch options and we decided on “Woo Ricebox”. We’ve seen a bunch of these types of Taiwanese fast food restaurants around, mainly at train stations. The wooden bentos are filled with rice, pickled vegetables, cabbage, sausage, chopped bok choy and a meat of your choice. I had a pork chop and Tim got pork belly. They were a good lunch option and I can see why people would order them to take with them on a train.
Our bentos (75 NT = $3 CAD) and 85 NT = $3.40 CAD)
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to settle in and get ourselves organized for tomorrow. We booked our train tickets from Taitung to Hualien (we’re heading north on the east coast). This was our first time booking the train ticket online – we didn’t want to risk the train we wanted to be sold out. We also booked our hotel for two nights in Hualien – “East Town 26”. The hotel has really good reviews on Trip Advisor so I’m looking forward to it (hopefully I won’t be disappointed).
Tonight for dinner, we met with Tim’s relatives at “Showtime Plaza”. This mall was built a few years ago and is one of the newer building complexes in the city. It has a movie theatre, a couple of clothing stores (Uniqlo and Nike) and a few restaurants. Tim’s relatives made reservations at a Japanese Tonkatsu restaurant (I couldn’t find the translated English name). It’s always nice to meet with family and friends while traveling. It’s a nice familiarity and comfort knowing that loved ones are close by. The tonkatsu set meal and was delicious – it was my first time having tonkatsu where you have to crush the sesame seeds with a mortar to make the sauce. (Tim says now we don’t have to go to one in Japan…). Tim’s relatives are in the middle of moving so we caught them at a hectic time. They were very hospitable to us despite this and I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet them on this trip.
Crushing the sesame seeds for the tonkatsu sauceMy tonkatsu setTim got his with curryUs and the Pan family (Tim: Minus Daniel)
After dinner, Tim and I decided to check out the night market, which was down the street from where we were staying. The night market here is only opened from Thursday-Sunday (the majority of night markets in Taiwan are 7 days a week). Tonight it started to rain, and apparently when it rains no one in Taitung goes out. This was evident in passing by the night market. This was the saddest night market we had seen so far. Many of the vendors were closing down and some didn’t even set up. There were no crowds at all. See? This is what happens when the weather isn’t good in Taitung.
Deserted night market
Now we’re back at the hotel, getting ready for tomorrow. Tim’s aunt is going to pick us up tomorrow morning to drive us to the train station at 8:30am, our train to Hualien leaves at 9:39am.
There’s still a lot more of Taitung that we haven’t seen, but we know we’ll be back one day.
Firstly, Happy Birthday Mom! We love and miss you. Wish we could have spent the day with you.
Today was our last morning in Kaohsiung. We called it an early night yesterday and didn’t get to walk along the Love River, so that was our plan for the morning. We planned to catch the 12:40pm train to Taitung, a small city on the east coast of Taiwan.
On our walk down to the Love River, we stumbled upon a breakfast place that had a long line (out the door, if they had a door). Long line ups have proven to be the most trustworthy source on our trip, so this was a good sign. It looked like their specialities were steamed buns filled with pork and cabbage (it had it’s own separate line) and sao bing (layered flakey flatbread). When we got there, the kitchen was trying their best to keep up with demands of the line.
We ordered a sao bing with egg and one with a Chinese doughnut. After we ate, we got into the other line and got two steamed buns to save for lunch later on the train. In hindsight, we should’ve eaten these buns right away when they were fresh and juicy. You could tell that they would’ve been amazing if we had them fresh, oh well, next time! (Tim: They were still good when we had them on the train, just probably not as good as they could have been)
Scrambled egg and pastry bread (25 NT = $1 CAD)Delicious steamed buns (15 NT = $0.60 CAD). These trays were cleared quickly, most people ordered 10 buns at a time.After the crowds died down
After a satisfying breakfast, we continued our walk to the river. We passed by a baseball field that had multiple posters of the Taiwanese movie, “Kano”. The movie is based on a true story about a Taiwanese baseball team that goes to the championship tournament in Japan in the 1930s. Tim and I had watched the movie in Vancouver a year ago when they were touring the movie in North America.
As we past by the field, we saw the Korean flag and a flag that said “Doosan Bears Spring Training”. The team was having spring training practice, so we stood there watching the practice for a bit. The Doosan Bears are a professional Korean baseball team from Seoul. It’s funny that they’re a professional team, we saw half the team running along the river after but some were totally slacking and some were even just walking, so we thought they weren’t a professional team.
Doosan Bears practicingOther spectators
It was about 10:30am when we finally made it to the Love River, and it was already about 28 degrees in Kaohsiung. At least it was overcast or else it would’ve been more uncomfortable. Walking alongside the river and seeing some of the taller buildings against the water reminded me of Chicago. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s “second city” after all.
While walking along the Love River, we spot some slacking Doosan Bears.
Walking along the river was nice and peacefulOur love river selfie. We should’ve pulled out a selfie stick for thisTim literally stops to smell/take pictures of the flowersMiracle flowers
After a sweaty walk back to the hotel, we picked up our bags and headed to catch our train to Taitung. The train was about a 2.5 hour ride (~175 km away). As usual, I fell asleep on the train. The train chairs are comfortable because they recline quite far back, which makes sleeping on the train a bit better! When I woke up, I looked out the window and all I saw was green, then I turned to the right and I saw the Pacific Ocean. It’s too bad it was overcast and very windy out.
View from the other side of the trainMountainous greenery
We arrived in Taitung to Tim’s aunt and cousin waiting for us at the train station. They took us on a quick tour of some of the Taitung sights and brought us to the B&B we would be staying at. The host is a very friendly Burmese woman who moved to Taiwan for university and ended up staying here. Her place is very nice and super clean, cleaner than the last hotel we stayed at.
Our B&B that we’re staying at in TaitungHello, Pacific OceanTaitung Seashore Park. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be overcast and windyTaitung’s old railway is now called the Taitung Railway Art Village
Taitung is the smallest city we’ve been to on this trip. Although it is a lot more rural than the rest of the other cities, I’ve noticed that there are a lot more noticeable backpackers (single white males). In looking at restaurants that were recommended on Trip Advisor, there are a lot of western restaurants for tourists – mainly pizza places. It’s only been just over a week of Taiwanese food, and I’m craving western food already. We found a compromise of western food and Taiwanese food that was highly rated on Trip Advisor – it was an American fried chicken place run by Taiwanese people.
The restaurant is called Blue Dragonfly. It’s basically like a local KFC. Tim and I shared a combo. It came with a drumstick, wing, and two “chicken pieces (Tim: Not sure what part of the chicken this was)” and a side of fries (was basically like a sprinkle of fries) and a drink. We got a slushy (“slash shake” on the menu) that tasted like pina colada.
This combo looks pretty sad. But the chicken and fries were quite good! It also came with a drink (115 NT = $4.70 CAD)Blue DragonflyMenu. “French balls” are tater tots
After dinner we walked through the park that was filled with lanterns. It was so pretty. There was a mixture of printed lanterns and some that were painted by elementary school aged children (I assume).
We walked through the park and took our time looking around. The city is so quiet compared to everywhere else we’ve visited. It’s a nice change of pace.
After our walk, we saw a KFC and went to get an egg tart. I’ve been hearing about KFC’s Portugese egg tarts for a while now and finally got to try it. It was really good, perfectly flakey crust and warm egg custard. These egg tarts are only available at Asian KFCs. I would highly recommend them.
KFC’s Portugese egg tart (28 NT = $1.15 CAD)
We took a longer walk back to the apartment and stopped to get some fruit. Taitung is known for their custard apple, so we decided to try one. We also picked up a passionfruit lime drink from a vendor that is downstairs from where we’re staying. Both were very refreshing and the perfect way to end the day.
Passionfruit lime juice and custard apple (Drink was 40 NT = $1.65 CAD and the custard apple was 50 NT = $ 2 CAD)Inside the custard apple. Soft and sweet
Our internet was down so we called the host and she came by and brought us another custard apple! So now we have one for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we’re planning on seeing more of the beach and forest area. The east coast is beautiful with the tall green mountains and the ocean being so close. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow (Tim: And if it’s not, it’s out of our control so it’s silly to let it bother us, right Kait?).
The beds at CityInn were really comfy which felt good after our long night. Today, we planned to head south to Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city and the largest port city. It’s about 200km away from Taichung, and about a 2.5 train ride on the regular Taiwan rail.
Before heading out, we wanted to go back to Miyahara to have ice cream and browse around to buy something for family at home. The store is a couple blocks away from the Taichung Train Station (not the high speed rail stop) which makes it really convenient if you just want to go to Taichung to visit the store from Taipei. Miyahara is actually a former eye hospital built by a Japanese optometrist (Dr. Miyahara) while Taiwan was under Japanese rule. After WWII, the building was turned over to the government then eventually sold to a businessman and became a ice cream/tea/fancy treat store (pretty random). Taichung’s famous pineapple cake brand (actually they’re originally known for their cheesecake) is called “Dawn Cake”, which has made Miyahara their flagship location.
When we were there yesterday, the ice cream parlour had a crazy long line up so today when they opened at 10am, we decided to try their famous sundae before we left Taichung. When we got there, there were only a few people ahead of us.
For the sundae, you pick 3 ice cream flavours and get to pick 4 toppings. There are 54 different flavours of ice cream (18 of them are just chocolate) and they all looked really good. If we stayed in Taichung longer, I would probably go back for a scoop of ice cream each day.
The fruit flavours are always my favourite. We picked “Irwin Mango”.Which chocolate do you even pick? There are 18 different chocolates!Adding our 4 toppings to the sundae. We picked pineapple cake, strawberry cookies, cheesecake and a honey cake. We picked them thinking that this was our way of sampling some of the items before we would buy them.The finished product (305 NT = $12.45 CAD)Ice cream menu in English
The ice cream sundae was very over the top but we both really enjoyed having it (for our breakfast and lunch). My favourite ice cream was the mango. The chocolate was really good too, especially when eaten with the cheesecake. But I always gravitate towards fruity ice creams/sorbets because they’re more refreshing.
The ice cream parlour is a popular breakfast spot at 10am on a Monday
We bought tickets for the 12:17pm train to Kaohsiung and this time Tim and I were able to sit together. The train ride was about 2.5 hours long. This train wasn’t as nice as the last one we were on to Taichung, but it was comfortable enough.
Taichung Train Station. This guy caught me taking a picture in his direction.Central Taiwan country side
We arrived in Kaohsiung around 3pm and walked to our hotel, which was about 10 minutes away. We booked the “Cloud Hotel” on Expedia ($55 CAD/night), because of the decent reviews on Trip Advisor and mainly because it was a 3 minute walk from the Formosa Boulevard KMRT stop (which connects the two KMRT lines).
Kaohsiung Train StationFormosa Boulevard KMRT stopDome of light at Formosa Boulevard KMRT stationCloud Hotel – clean and decently sized room
Today, we wanted to catch the sunset from the British Consulate Residences (which is on a hill overlooking the ocean) and go to out Cijin Island for seafood for dinner (I read that Cijin has better seafood than Keelung. I haven’t been to Keelung so I have nothing to compare it to) While taking the KMRT, we noticed how quiet the train stations were. It was a bit odd, we have a few pictures of how empty the stations and train cars are.
Barely anyone there at 4:30pm
Kaohsiung is definitely a lot more laid back than Taipei and Taichung. There are way more locals wearing shorts and flip flops and you can feel how easy going things are. I like it!
On our walk, we grabbed pearl milk tea from “Gong Cha”. It was a fairly busy location with a large seating area. We noticed afterwards that they have locations all around the world, even in Canada (Markham). When we got back to the hotel, Tim looked at his expenses and saw we went to one in NYC this summer. I guess I drink too much bubble tea to remember. On a related note, Gong Cha is originally from Kaohsiung.
Pearl milk tea (35 NT = $1.40 CAD). The one in NY was $3.50 USD
While walking down the same street as Gong Cha, we came across a place filled with locals eating noodles at 4:45pm. We looked inside and decided to share something since we didn’t have lunch yet. Tim ordered pork hock with noodles and a Sarsaparilla (sort of like Taiwanese root beer). I got some pickled garlic cucumbers as a side. Everything was very tasty and the noodles were perfectly cooked. And in true Taiwanese fashion, they had a container of fresh minced garlic to add to your meal – which Tim did of course.
Pork hock noodles and Hey Song Sarsaparilla (Taiwanese root beer/ Dr.Pepper) – 135 NT = $5.50 CAD
Here are pictures of some of the interesting places we past by on the way to the viewing point.
Just chillin’
Interesting exhibits filled a field of Kaohsiung’s old train tracksMiniature train ride at the Kaohsiung Creative ParkLocals hanging out in the park
After our pit stops, the sun was starting to set (you can see it on its way down while we were at the park) and we didn’t know if we would make it up to the top of the mountain. We found steps up to the British Consulate Residence (which is the recommended viewing point for sunsets) and basically went up as fast as we could. It was a good short work out. But unfortunately, by the time we got up the sun had gone below the horizon.
Outside the British Consulate Residences at Takao. We didn’t pay to go in, but just walked around outsideWalking along the waterfront. Just missed the sunset.Tim stretching his arms. Feeling free (Tim: or rather, following commands).A lot of fishermen on the pier
After walking along the pier and trying to get ahead of the masses of Mainland Chinese tourists (there were over 20 tour busses at the park), we headed to catch a ferry to Cijin Island. Cijin Island is a small island five minutes from Kaohsiung Harbour, known for their seafood and beaches.
The ferry ride there was 25 NT = $1 CAD and the ride was a short one. There were three ferries operating at the same time to and from the island.
On the ferry to Cijin Island
Once we got to Cijin Island, we did a quick walk up and down the seafood restaurant row and just picked one. They were all fairly busy so it was a coin toss to see which one we would go to. I did read some reviews on Trip Advisor about one that was top rated by mostly Japanese tourists but I had forgotten the name. (Tim: the one we ended up at was only so-so).
We picked clams, snapper and shrimp at 100 NT per dish. My favourite was the stir-fried clams, they used a lot of garlic and basil. The deep fried shrimp was a bit underwhelming. If we had more people to eat with, we could’ve tried a lot more.
Pick your fresh seafood and they’ll serve it to you. We had clams, snapper and shrimp (300 NT = $12 CAD, $4 each dish)Clams, deep fried shrimp and apple sidraBBQ Snapper with lime and dipping salt
We decided to call it an earlier night and head back to the hotel. We took the KMRT back and again noticed there aren’t that many people using it. Kind of weird, right? Also, the train makes its transfer point announcement in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, English and Japanese.
Tomorrow we’re planning on taking a day trip to Tainan to visit the National Museum of Taiwan History and Tim has some other specific food he wants to try there.
Today we walked 21,000 steps. It helps being close to an MRT (or even having one)
I’m glad we’re spending another night in Kaohsiung, I really like the city so far. I like being close to an ocean and having the mountains close by too (reminds me of home). When we saw the ocean (Tim: straight) for the first time from the view point, it made me really happy. I guess because we’ve been in two land locked cities with a lot of scooter exhaust in the air for the past week; it made me really appreciate being close to water (I’m a spoiled Vancouverite). When we were walking along the waterfront, we sat and just listened to the small waves wash up against the shore. It was nice.
Today we planned on heading south to Taichung in the early afternoon. We still woke up really early at 5:30am (I’m always the first to get up) so we started to pack up our things and clean up the apartment before we left for the week.
It was early and we wanted breakfast, guess where we went? Back to 永和豆漿大王 (King of Soy Milk). We’ve been there three times on this trip so far but it’s been both of our favourite meals of the day and it’s within a 10 minute walk from the apartment! I know there’s supposedly a better place for breakfast in Taipei called, Fu Hang Dou Jiang, but it’s farther away and would require riding the MRT or walking 55 minutes (it wouldn’t have the same neighbourhood feel to it) (Tim: I’m also not convinced Fu Hang Dou Jiang could possibly be so much better that it justifies taking transit and lining up for it. I think sometimes people are just obsessed with having whatever is “the best” without concern for what marginal difference the best is actually better by, and at what additional cost you incur to have “the best”… I fall victim to this sometimes too). We’ll try it out eventually but for now, we’re feeling like the King of Soy Milk is our go to breakfast joint while staying in the area. We can’t wait for my sister and Noel to come, it’s 24 hours and their flight from Vancouver arrives at 5:30am, so we know where we’ll be going.
I was going to post a picture of what we ate, but I realize I didn’t take any pictures today. I guess we are transitioning into becoming more like locals. But I guess that’s wishful thinking, we both scream tourist when you look at us. Tim has a Vancouver Canucks t-shirt on and I’m wearing yoga/gym wear with a backpack 90% of the time.
We made our way to Taipei Main Station to catch our train to Taichung, which is about 175km south of Taipei. We took the regular (express) train versus the high speed “bullet” train to save some money and the location of the regular train stations are usually right in the city and the high speed train stations are usually at the edge of town. The tickets were 375 NT = $15.50 per person and the train ride was just under two hours.
Taichung Main Station
When we bought our tickets from the machine, we were assigned seats and the only ones left weren’t together, but were close to each other on aisles. I was seated next to a 50-60 year old man and Tim was sitting next to a 20 something year old girl. My row mate fell asleep as soon as he sat down and was snoring the whole way. I decided to join him (I don’t know if was snoring, but if I was he was probably overshadowing me).
Me and my new friend. We enjoyed our 2 hour nap together.
We arrived at Taichung Main Station and immediately saw our hotel from the platform, which made it easy to find. We’re staying at the “CityInn Hotel Plus Taichung Station Branch” for the night. The location is perfect for us since we’ll be leaving tomorrow for Kaohsiung. The room is small but clean, staff is friendly, they provide free bottled water and snacks in the room and even have free laundry machines to use downstairs. If Tim didn’t already do some laundry yesterday, this would be perfect for us!
Lobby at the hotelOur room ($68 CAD on Expedia)CityInn is a Taiwanese chain of hotels
After checking in, we walked down the block around the hotel and saw there were a lot of food and bubble tea options. We decided to have ramen at this place that translates to “One Heart Ramen”. It was a recommendation in Taipei by our Airbnb host but we saw it here so we decided to give it a try. Tim loves ramen (Tim: Sort of… I love noodle soup, and I love pork fat, so ramen is often a good fit… But in the world of noodle soup, it’s top 5, maybe top 3… “love” might be too strong a word) so this was a good late lunch option. The ramen was good but not amazing, Tim drank both all our soups still.
Shio and Miso ramen (330 NT = $13.50 CAD)
We got our bearings and narrowed down what we wanted to do here. We decided to check out Miyahara (Daniel’s suggestion) and Fengjia Night Market, which got glowing reviews on Trip Advisor. When we googled where the night market was in relation to our hotel, it was 7.5 km away or an hour and a half walk. Taichung doesn’t have a very good transit system – there’s no MRT here, just local buses. We decided to just walk to the night market and just see the city on the way there.
The streets outside the front of the train station (our hotel is at the back of it) was crazy busy. The sidewalks were congested and there were people sprawled all over the open spaces loitering. It felt like we were in SE Asia, which was a very different vibe from Taipei. But as we got further and further from the train station, the streets were much quieter, sometimes a bit eerily quiet.
Taichung Train StationTaichung has a bunch of canals and bridges as you walk through the city
Our first stop was the store, Miyahara. This store was recommended to us by our friend, Daniel. It’s such a nice looking store with lots of yummy things to buy (pineapple cake, cheesecake, chocolate, jellies, tea). We’ll likely go back tomorrow morning to buy a few things to try and to send back home. I love all the packaging, it’s so pretty! The busiest part of the store was their ice cream parlour. They’re known for making crazy sundaes, maybe we’ll try one tomorrow. They had like eight different chocolate ice creams – based on cocoa percentages.
Entrance to MiyaharaInside the store
Crazy line up for ice cream which we’ll try tomorrow.
After Miyahara, we walked in the direction of the night market. Taichung has a different feel from Taipei, a bit older and more rough around the edges. I was more scared for my life while crossing the street than I was in Taipei. We even saw our first scooter and car collision (well, the aftermath).
The aftermath of a scooter and car collision. The girl looked shaken up but was okay.
While walking along Taiwan Boulevard (for an hour), we noticed there were a ton of pineapple cake shops and wedding shops. Actually, the wedding stores dominated. They weren’t just all clustered together (although some were), but they were throughout the whole city. I guess the wedding industry is hot in Taichung! I’ll just share some pictures of what we saw along the way.
There are more strays here than in Taipei. But they all look very well taken care of and well groomed.There are tons of scooters in Taichung but also bike sharing is popular. Then we just saw one guy on a “segway-like” device (Tim: I refuse to call these hoverboards until there are no wheels and it levitates… calling them hoverboards is like giving up on human progress).If you’re caucasian and tutor English, you can have a billboard in Taiwan (we’ve seen quite a few).I thought this was cute.There were a ton of underpasses instead of crossing the street on ground level. I’m not a fan of underpasses… (Tim: Kaitlyn’s trying to make this underpass look menacing, but it took multiple shots for her to get one without single women and children walking in the background).Scooter city. Looks like they’re going to build a MRT?Cute monkeys outside Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store
After passing by these monkeys we were more than half way to the night market. Thank goodness!
Entering the edge of the Fengjia night market.
The first thing we wanted was something to drink. We had finished all the water in our backpacks on the way there (Tim: actually we had 1.5 full bottles still, Kaitlyn just wanted a fancier drink). We saw a whole street full of bubble tea shops in a row. So many choices! I read that Taichung was the birth place of bubble tea, which is also why I like Taichung. The prices for food and beverages are a bit cheaper than Taipei. We decided to get a passion fruit “QQ” drink (it had pearls, coconut jelly as well as passion fruit seeds). It was super refreshing, we sat down for the first time and it felt good.
We went to Orange Tea on the left. Then when we left realized there was a huge line up at the tea shop beside it.This is what we ordered. (45 NT = $1.85). We had the same thing (minus the pearls) in Taipei at Hot Star for 95 NT!This drink was so satisfying
After we rested for a few minutes and devoured the bubble tea, we headed out into the crowds. The Fengjia night market is right beside Feng Chia University, so the crowds were definitely very young. At first glance while walking through rows and rows of food stalls, we noticed there was more selection and more appetizing looking food than what we saw in the last few night markets we’ve been to. Basically anywhere with a long line up we wanted to try (Tim: Kaitlyn wanted to try. I prefer no lineups). But going to a night market with just the two of us isn’t ideal because we could only eat so much. We saw a long line up for this chicken place and decided to try it out. Not only did it have a long line up, but they had a TV screen blaring footage of the stand from local channels and testimonials from customers.
We didn’t know exactly how they were preparing it, but it looked good and the university students seemed to love it. We ordered the cheaper of the two options, not sure what the 85 NT option was. Tim said he would figure it out when we got back to the hotel when he google translated.
When we got the chicken, it wasn’t deep fried, which was actually surprising (Tim: Actually it was deep fried, just not battered). It wasn’t what we had thought it would be but when we tasted it was pretty darn good. Both of us don’t like white meat, but this was different. It’s hard to describe and the picture doesn’t do it any justice – actually the picture makes it look not that appetizing. The stall owner was a very nice chubbier man, he asked if we were from Hong Kong and then we told him we were from Canada. He thanked us coming to try his chicken.
Popular chicken standChicken breast (65 NT = $2.60 CAD) It was the most tender white meat I’ve ever had. There were two layers of meat.
After eating the chicken, we both looked at each other and we were full. Night market fail, we only got to try one thing! Behind the chicken stall was a gua bao (Taiwanese “burger”) stall, which is Tim’s favourite. The stall didn’t have any line up but Tim wanted to try one any way. Having no line up at a night market has been pretty accurate so far in terms of if the food is good or not. The gua bao wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good mostly due to the fact that the fatty pork belly in it, wasn’t pork belly at all, it was just slices of pork (Okay, so maybe short lines > no lines > long lines).
Gua bao stand. The actual meat did not look like that.Disappointing gua bao (45 NT = $1.85)
We walked around some more and I finally got to try the candied fruit on a skewer. The stall for this at this night market looked legit. It, along with most of the popular stalls had pictures of happy customers, write ups in newspapers, and TV appearances. This one also had a long line, so I decided if I’m going to have it, may as well be from here.
Candied fruit stand. We ordered the assorted fruit (55 NT = $2.25 CAD)They wrap the skewer up in rice paper and a thicker paper
We didn’t really try any other food because we were full from that chicken. I really wanted something refreshing and we past by a watermelon juice stall. Watermelon is my favourite fruit so this was a perfect way to end the night.
Taiwanese watermelonWatermelon juice (15 NT = $0.60) for 500ml size
At this point we were fading and our legs hurt. We found a bus that would go back to the train station. The bus was packed with university students and it took about 45 minutes. We stood the whole way which was a bit painful for me and we realized how much we walked. We finally got off the train and couldn’t wait to wash up and get back to the hotel.
Our total steps today were 25,500. This wasn’t close to the 44,000 from the other day, but considering we weren’t doing too much walking until later afternoon, it definitely felt worse.
Tomorrow we’re going to pack up, make a stop at Miyahara before getting back on to the train and heading down to Kaohsiung. We booked a hotel last night for $55 CAD on Expedia, good location and decent reviews. We were debating between staying one or two nights there because we were waiting to hear if Tim’s relatives would be in Taitung and Hualien (where we planned to visit later in the week). It turns out no one will be in Hualien for us to visit, so we may go to Tainan for a night. Tainan has a lot of sights Tim’s Mom suggested us to visit. Tainan is also where they recently had the 6.4 magnitude earth quake a month ago.
Any how, looking forward to seeing different cities in Taiwan. So far Taichung and Taipei feel same same, but different.
