Taipei - the Unexpected Gem

Happy Lunar New Year to you! The year of the rooster has already brought much happiness to us as we embarked on our first international voyage and explored the beautiful island country of Taiwan.

To be completely honest, a visit to Taiwan had never really crossed our minds when we began our year in Korea. We knew that we would want to visit Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and hopefully Indonesia, among a few others, but Taiwan was never even in our top ten potential destinations. But, because of our limited travel time while working at a year-round private school, we had to be practical. We had a Monday and Friday off, and our next break isn't until well into spring. So, we weighed our options: we could travel to somewhere like Cambodia or the Philippines for over $1000 per ticket and a further flight, or we could look into Taiwan for a considerably lower price and less air-time. Can you believe we actually toiled over this decision?

Taiwan it is, we said! We booked our flights a mere 12 days before departure. On that Friday, January 27th, we woke up an hour late and barely made our flight (we won't go into the details of our continual "episodes" as our supervisor Sophie calls them - like sitting in three hours of Seoul traffic on the way to Gimpo for a flight with my family, or when I left my wallet on the bus before flying back to the USA). The point is, we made it (thanks to a helpful Eva Airlines staff member who scooted us through check-in and security and rushed us ahead of numerous crowds - thank you, D. W. Song!).

Two hours after take-off, we arrived in Taipei Airport, converted just over $200 cash, and took a bus to where we hoped our hostel was located. Finally, our traveling luck turned around. We managed to get off the bus at the right place and, without really trying, wandered toward the subway station and stumbled into a fair there. As we peered at different colored tags hanging from a string-light-lit tree, a local girl wished us a happy new year and told us how to hang our new year's wishes on the tree.

New year's wishes

After that, we boarded the subway toward our hostel two stops away, located a block away from the well-known Shilin Night Market. Happy Taipei, our home for the next two (and a half) nights, was a fine hostel, complete with comfy bunk beds, hot showers, quite a superior complimentary breakfast, and even hair dryers and a Foosball table; it did not leave us wanting. That evening, we wandered through the night market, trying about a half dozen street foods - sausage on a stick, marinated chicken, steamed dumplings - as our dinner as we meandered. After a game of Foosball, it was off to bed before our real adventure began.

In the morning, we caught a bus to the Yangmingshan National Park, and almost immediately realized that our trip to Taiwan was going to be more than worth it. We saw monkeys up in the trees! The locals were unfazed, but we were thrilled! Tony whipped out our zoom lens and took some Nat Geo worthy shots of one of the monkeys before he ran off with almost a dozen of his pals.

Soon, we wandered the maze of a park, seeing beautiful landscapes, waterfalls, green foliage, and enjoying the sunshine and warmth after too many months of cold air and pollution. The great outdoors on a beautiful day was a perfect remedy that we didn't even realize we had been needing after half a year of living in an urban area.

After the park, we headed back to another part of town to check out two neighboring temples: one Confucian and one Buddhist. The first gave off a more ancient, honorable, and historic vibe of reverence, while the latter was bustling with more worshipers carrying incense and offerings, bowing before the red and gold colored shrines. Both were absolutely stunning in their architecture and atmosphere.

Confucian temple

An ornately painted ceiling, evidence of enormous spiritual dedication

Buddhist temple full of worshipers ready for a new year of blessings.

On the way back to the subway station, we grabbed a to-go container of about a dozen sushi for just about $3 USD and chowed on it at a local fair. We checked out the products at the rows of tents and vendors - food, drink, tea, wooden goods, crafts, festival games. We returned to the Shilin night market near our hostel and it had exploded in popularity - vendors had multiplied, and visitors had accumulated exponentially. Truly, the difference from the night before made us gasp.

Bubble tea came to be in Taiwan in the '80s,
so I had to try some in its homeland!

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant that had graciously provided a menu in English after they sat us at a table for two. We ordered ginger beef rice, Taiwanese steamed dumplings, beef noodle udon, stir-fried vegetables, beer, and oolong tea, and they had to change our seats to a table for four because our small table wouldn't fit all the food. Everything was delicious, and we left with happy bellies.

When we woke up for our last full day - how was this trip already coming to an end? - we were torn on how to spend our limited time. We threw around ideas: the beach, the hot springs, the museum, downtown landmarks. We knew there wasn't time to do it all, so we chose the most exotic and most authentic experience - wild local hot springs. Tony found a blog written by a man who recorded his exact process to arrive at the isolation location, complete with shady clues including an passing an out-of-order outhouse, crossing a shallow brook, and trespassing past a warning sign. Technically illegal; totally worth it!

Oopsies

We arrived at the springs and enjoyed the variety of pools with different temperatures - from unbearably hot to bath water to chilling fresh water - and varying degrees of sulfuric egg-stench. We soaked, steamed, swam, and slathered our bodies with clay found in crevices between rocks, just like the locals. It was relaxing; it was paradise.

Too hot!

Too cold!

Just right!

A (sorta) secret, local gem.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the foresight to bring enough water or snacks to survive in that isolated location for more than a couple hours, so we began our journey back - after rinsing in the freezing waterfall to spare neighboring bus-riders the stinky egg smell that had surely seeped into our hair and skin.

After a shower back at the hostel, we prepared ourselves for one last venture out. We boarded the subway toward downtown, where we found Taipei 101 - a famous skyscraper that had been the tallest building in the worth from 2004-2009 until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai trumped its enormity. Its appeal for visitors: a high-end, fancy pants shopping mall. Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Burberry... So, we ate dinner in the food court because that's what we could afford!

Taipei 101

Afterward, we relaxed across the street at a block party complete with a variety of vendors offering craft beers, tapas, and international foods, while a DJ tried to get people to dance. There we stayed, chatting, people watching, and enjoying the music and warm evening air, until about 11 o'clock. It was there we realized that this was perhaps the best trip we've ever taken, and that Taiwan was a totally underrated vacation destination. There was so much we had to leave unseen: the National Palace Museum, largest museum in the world; Sun Moon Lake in the central part of the island, famous for its beautiful landscapes; the beautiful beaches; and surely more than we even knew.

We returned to the hostel for a 2 hour nap, woke up at 2:30am, caught a cab to the bus terminal, boarded a bus to the airport, and waited at the terminal - finally early for our flight, and this time, we were there three hours before boarding.