Taipei – Less Car, More Life

How we spent our days in Taipei.

Barely a toe over the line in a Taipei Metro station. Metro riders are very orderly.

Right before we left San Francisco for Taipei someone asked me “How do you spend your days when you’re traveling? What do you do with your time?” It’s a good question, and not an easy one to answer since our days are so different depending on where we are. When we’re bike touring the answer is easy- we spend the days cycling and eating. If we’re house and pet sitting the day is structured around what the animals need from us and what we can explore in our free time. When we’ve pitched up in a new place though, or even a place we’ve been before, it’s harder to answer that question. So I decided to keep track of what we did on our second and third days in Taipei.

In a downtown metro station at about 10:20.

Day Two (after our first nights sleep, day one was 6:30 am arrival day). We slept until 6:30 or so, had coffee and tea in our room and went down for breakfast at 7am. After breakfast we hung about our room doing a little travel planning and catching up on emails and texts until 10.

Walking to our museum destination and admiring the neatly parked rows of scooters.

In the basement of an office tower is one of those quirky specialist museums.

Amazingly detailed miniature houses. I won’t call them dollhouses.

Each diorama or vignette had a creator credited, and often a small backstory.

This pre-war typical Japanese street was just infused with nostalgia and sadness for what was destroyed and will never be again.

Astonishing miniature Hall Of Mirrors, Versailles. You can see my reflection at the end of the hall.

Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Taipei for a few days, we spent about 90 minutes there and headed off for a restorative caffeinated beverage at a coffee shop we spotted on our way to the museum.

Mr. Brown Coffee Nanjing Store, billed as Your Urban Living Room. That’s hot chocolate for me.

And coffee for Rich. We ordered on the ground floor and then went to the 3rd floor hang out space. The second floor was the work zone.

We read the home news (yikes!) and chatted and messed around on our phones for about an hour. Then headed out to find an adapter at a big electronics mall.

Goodbye Mr. Brown. Very chic you are. Rich said his Americano was excellent.

Wandered into an event space beer hall at the Taiwan Brewery on our way to the electronics mall. Stopped to take a picture.

There was a pop up shoe and clothing event on the ground floor. Very popular.

And eleven floors of all kinds of electronics and electrical lifestyle products. Rich thought it was pretty awesome.

Surrounded by small streets of electronic and gaming stores.

I checked my google map and found that a shushi place I had marked on my map at some point was nearby. It’s now almost 2pm and definitely time for lunch.

Conveyor belt sushi! One of my favorites. The Taiwanese aren’t too rigid about eating times, but many small restaurants do close between 2:30p and 5ish.

While Rich is figuring everything out, trying the app based order system and identifying dishes, I’m scooping plates off the conveyor and chowing down! With unlimited pickled ginger.

The little train delivers your app based orders. Good sushi and very reasonably priced. We had a good feast for about $20.

Back to the hotel by metro and we showered and chilled until evening when we headed out with two things to accomplish: find Rich’s favorite shirt at the Wufenpu Shopping District, and eat pork buns at Renhoe Night Market. If successful it will be the third time he has bought this shirt in Taipei. The market is a ten by ten grid of small streets all filled with shops selling clothing, shoes, and handbags. Rich is looking for one specific shop that for two years in a row had a shirt that he loves for Asia travel. The first one, purchased in 2023, was destroyed by sweat and sunblock and retired in Sri Lanka. The second was purchased in 2024 and is in France. It failed to make the trip back to the US for this onward hot trip to Indonesia. Rich had a good idea of where the shop is (and yes, this time we dropped a pin on Google maps), but it takes some searching, and the shops do change a lot.

On the way from the metro to Wufenpu Shopping District we stopped at some Lunar New Year lights.

Ok, which way? And mind the scooters! 5:45 pm.

Found the shop! They had the shirt in his size, but not in white. So he got it in blue.

And by 6:30 we were at the Rahoe night market to get some black pepper buns. That $65 Taiwanese dollars is just under 2.00 American dollars right now.

Find a place to stand and try not to burn your mouth on the piping hot pork.

Just before 7:00 it was on to dessert, vanilla ice cream in a pineapple bun, with a fresh watermelon juice in between.

No pineapple in the pineapple bun. The crosshatch top and crumble topping give it the name. It’s a sweet delicious bun.

One last stop at our favorite Taipei bar, the Tipsy Dragon. The first time we came here they had a bar cat. Didn’t see them this time.

We got wrapped up in China versus Chinese Taipei badminton match! Really fun to watch – super fast speeds. One drink each then home on the metro.

Day three was another fairly early wake up, about 6:45 am. Pretty good after dealing with a frustrating and hilarious early morning hotel experience. Our room had a tv in the bathroom , so you could watch TV from the tub, and it inexplicably went on with full volume at about 1:30am. It took us a while to figure out how to turn it off, but we did and went back to sleep. But 45 minutes later went off again! We called the front desk and a staff member came up to our room with a remote control and did something. The tv thankfully stayed off the rest of our time at the hotel. But, it wasn’t the most restful night.

There’s the shirt. Over a yummy savory breakfast at the hotel.

We decided to hike the mountain trail across from our hotel. We felt in need of some good step climbing. We headed out about 8:30 am.

You will notice that photos of me are taken as I’m trying to keep up. Usually of my front. And his are of his quickly retreating back as I hurry to catch up.

We think this branded signage is new. Taipei Grand Trail. 92 kilometers along Taipei’s scenic peaks.

This section was quite popular on this Friday morning with other retired folks. We were glad it wasn’t a weekend.

And little signs to hold up as you took photos. It says The Usual Place.

Near a graveyard, a place to sit. It’s being consumed by the tropical foliage.

And a lovely woman feeding the feral cats.

I had to get involved. Caused a bit of a cat fight though.

Noodle lunch at Captain Wang’s Sauce Sauce Noodles again. So good!

We got back to our hotel after walking about 7 miles. After afternoon coffee and tea in our room we hit the hotel gym. The rest of the day encapsulated why we know it’s time to start looking for a place to be able to return to. A place with our stuff. With a kitchen where we can cook good healthy food. And where we can get enough exercise and do the kind of work outs we want to do. After the gym we showered and hung out, and then started the search for dinner. In my previous working life if you had told me “you will eat out every night. You won’t have to grocery shop or cook.” I would have been thrilled! But it does get to be a chore. And it is a struggle to eat healthy when you’re eating out so much. That evening after a bit of a struggle, we ended up at a lovely little family run Hong Kong style restaurant close to our hotel. No photos since we were both a bit burned out and wanted to just eat and go back to the hotel. It was good to have a check in with each other and confirm we are on the same page about finding a home base.

Early next morning at the metro station to get to the airport.

Very thrilled to see that our Eva air flight is Hello Kitty branded.

Taipei – staying awake on day one.

Happy to be off the 13 hour flight from SF and in Taipei.

Wednesday February 12, 5:30 am. We left San Francisco on Monday February 10th near midnight. Look at those happy but tired faces. We love Taiwan, and this is our third trip here. Transitions are tough and stressful and leaving San Francisco, sneaking in one more catch up visit with friends, putting stuff back in storage and making notes about where things are, is tiring. We were both looking forward to, and dreading, the long plane ride.

How lucky are we to have so many friends to catch up. A walk and dinner with Anne and Vic, and the Golden Gate Bridge view from Tunnel Tops park.

I have to be quick to snap a screenshot of the city mascot in CityMapper, still the best transit app we use. I love this little dude holding his Boba Tea and a lantern to send into the sky.

Less than 3 hours left of the 13+ hour flight, flying over Japan in the early hours of the morning.

On the express train from the airport to Taipei Main station – Rich using the magnetic wireless cell phone charger on the train. Such a fun convenience.

Heading to our hotel on the rush hour metro escalators. Metro is trying to get folks to stand on both sides of the steps, instead of standing right and walking left, to increase capacity at rush hour. Yes, the escalators carry more people when everyone stands.

Dropped our bags at the hotel (check in is at 2pm) and walked out for breakfast at a nearby cafe. Rich looking slightly dazed.

Mine is a peanut butter, ham, and cheese on a croissant. A tasty combo. My expression doesn’t make it look so tasty, but it was.

Rain was threatening so we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and walked around a bit waiting for rush hour on the metro to ease off before heading to the Taipei Zoo. This is in the Shilin District of Taipei.

The lanes have numbers and names, and are too small for cars, but scooters and bikes abound.

Day one was all about staying awake! And what’s a great way to stay awake? Head to Asia’s largest (or one of the largest, depending on who you ask) zoo. Taipei Zoo.

The Shiba Inu is the safety and politeness poster mascot dog.

Public transport for the win again, Metro right to the zoo.

This Lunar year is the year of the snake, so snakes on the zoo tickets. Save them for the mythical scrape book.

The map. Do not be fooled into trying to walk the grey line, that’s the train route.

Zoos can be problematic. They promote conservation and awareness, but a sad depressing zoo is just awful. Thankfully the Taipei Zoo is quite good. It moved to its current site in 1986 and has 90 hectares (222 acres) open to the public with more land available for expansion. We walked our poor jet lagged feet off – almost 9 miles total on day one, probably 5 of those at the zoo. The tropical vegetation is really lovely, the animal habitats are good sized, and boy do you get your walking in as the zoo is huge.

You can climb into the big yellow poo to experience life as a maggot. We passed.

A capybara in front of the Pangolin Dome.

The dome has multiple species all out in the open to experience and was quite well done. My favorite were the Cotton-top tamarins wandering the enclosure.

A common marmoset saying “hey.”. If you do go to a zoo, go early in the day when the animals are most active and about to be fed.

One of the two pandas at the Taipei Zoo, snoozing with an appreciative audience.

And the second one (I think) wandering their outdoor environment.

After the zoo and a quick snack of Onigiri from the 7-11 we headed to our neighborhood and had a noodle lunch before checking in to our hotel and having a much welcomed shower. There are showers at the airport, near baggage claim carousel number six (in T2) but we decided against using them since there is one for men and one for women and the men’s was occupied. We changed into a few new clothes when we dropped our bags at the hotel that morning.

Rich’s beef noodle soup. Not visible to the naked eye – all the garlic!

My cold braised noodles at 王艇長酢醬麵, which Google translates as Captain Wang’s Sauce Sauce Noodles. Address: No. 18, Qiangang St, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111

Post shower and coffee and tea, still awake and out to the Shilin Night Market.

The Lunar New Year fire crackers helped wake us up! They are meant to scare away evil spirits and monsters. So much smoke.

The small streets of the night market have some charming small restaurants in addition to street food stands.

Noobtent – a camping themed bar. Yes, there are camp chairs and tents inside for you to enjoy. So cute. I love these themed places. No, we didn’t go in, a cocktail was not going to keep us awake.

Dinner was a cold noodle and spicy miso sauce dish. Delicious.

We walked back to our hotel, awake enough to enjoy the New Year’s decorations.

Mission accomplished, we stayed awake until 9 pm and slept quite well. More Taipei to come!

The Happy Travelers on the Taipei Metro.

Sun Moon Lake, and Taipei again. Briefly.

Fishing boat on a mirror lake in the morning.

We love cities. Love visiting them, love exploring and speculating. Adore watching the citizens go about their days and testing out the public transit, biking, and walking. And the food choices! So many choices in the Taiwanese cities we visited. But sometimes you just burn out.

The bad air quality definitely contributed to our burn out.

We’d gone back and forth about visiting Sun Moon Lake, and while in Tainan we decided on yes. It would be nice, we thought, to have a break from cities before returning to Taipei, and hopefully the air quality would be better in the mountains. Yes, we’ve lived through much worse air quality for longer in San Francisco during California wildfires, maybe that’s why we’re a bit sensitive to it. It was interesting to hear locals blame bad air quality on pollution blowing over from China, but from what we read a lot is home grown, due to industry, diesel trucks, cars and motorcycles (which I assume includes scooters), and other usual suspects. So, off to the mountains it was. And, our first trip on Taiwan’s very impressive High Speed Rail.

That photo of Rich in front of the HSR train reminds me to tell you the story of his shirt. Probably only we remember his first version of that shirt, it was purchased last January 2023. He bought it in Taipei at the clothing market, a warren of small streets and clothing stalls, wore it in Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka, and finally threw it out our last day in Sri Lanka. Sunblock and sweat had done it in. He missed it. One year later, he found the same stall in the clothing market (more amazing than you can imagine), and bought the exact same shirt!

Train lunch! One chicken and one pork. Bought in the station for about $3.00 each.

Honestly, you just have time to eat your lunch on this trip. The train leaves Tainan at 11:48 and arrives Taichung at 12:30. our only complaint with Taiwan High Speed Rail is it’s too quick a ride! Oh what a problem to have, huh California? So, bus to train, the HSR station is a bit out of town, reachable by rail but the bus was easier for us, and train to Taichung, and then a hour and 15 minute bus ride to Sun Moon Lake.

With our rental bikes, ready for the next day’s sunrise bike ride.

Our hotel, The Laurel Villa, offered a sunrise bike ride, led by one of the family members who owned and operated the hotel. You go pick up a bike from one of the many rental places after 4:00 pm, park it in front of the hotel, and at 6:05 am the next day you ride with Wei, who was born and raised in town, left for university, and came back. He knows his lake.

The lake before the sun peeks over the mountains.

Oh, a rare non selfie. Our lovely guide took the photo for us. As the sun comes up the moisture in the air makes it hazy.

For anyone who does go to Sun Moon Lake, the number one recommendation we have is to get up early and go for a bike ride. Later in the day there are many many many people out on bikes. Many of those many bikes are e-bikes, throttle bikes actually, which don’t require pedaling. Folks are calm and patient, and all the scooter riding gives them good bike skills, but we always prefer no crowds.

Sun Moon Lake’s present size was created with a hydroelectric project built by the Japanese in the 1930s, which joined two smaller lakes together, making the lakes resemble a sun, and a crescent moon. Or, two dragons fighting over a pearl – an island in the lake. The path around most of the lake (joins the road for a few stretches) is beautifully constructed, and the sun and moon motifs along the way show a dedication to the theme.

Had a lovely chat with a couple from Taipei who also got out early.

Our choice to go up to the mountains was rewarded with clear air and nice weather. After our dawn bike ride we returned the bikes, had breakfast in the hotel, a rest, and headed out to hike up to the weather station for a view of the lake from above.

I’m so impressed with the care put into pathways and seating areas around the lake. There are tea growing fields around the lake and the tea leaf motif is picked up in some of the seating areas. It’s a steep climb so the benches are very welcome.

A tea leaf motif and my GORP (good old raisins and peanuts – translation for those of you who didn’t backpack in the 70s). Assembled from 7-11 purchased products.

A fun tea sign on the main street of Shuishe, where our hotel was located.

Our last day was a bit cloudy, but our morning walk before catching the bus back to Taichung was still lovely.

High Speed Rail back to Taipei – only 50 minutes long, eat your lunch quickly – Rich booked a hotel close to the main station so our airport trip two days later would be easy, and we had a short little Taipei stay of two nights. We hit some of our favorites (it thrills me to have Taipei favorites!), black pepper buns at Rahoe Night Market, boba tea, a drink at The Tipsy Dragon Bar, and a new find from Rich – Beercat. Just what it sounds like.

BeerCat ! A bar with cats. Two cats. And the best logo.

Is there anything better than a cat on the bar?

Delicious coffee and tea, mine was the tea, lemon and winter melon.

At the Rahoe night market. I love these little rolling cubes. Put your stuff inside and your kids on top. And I love that the parents didn’t mind me taking a photo.

And the happy travelers are off to Borneo.

A Rift in Our Travels

After three days of romping around Taipei and getting over our jet lag, we set off from the city on a big clockwise loop of Taiwan.

Rail is in my heart at the Hualien Railway Culture Park

We were excited to head out of Taipei Central to Hualien City, at the north end of the East Rift Valley. Hualien is a city reinventing itself with culture and art, and is now more than a gateway to the immensely popular Taroko Gorge.

A bit too early on the platform at Taipei Central; Cheryl’s trendy TJs bag at my side

Ocean view from the TzeChiang Express train. Plenty of room in the standard seats

But first, a few train tips for the wonky planners out there. In addition to local and high speed rail on the west coast, the east is served by modern Tze Chiang limited express trains travelling up to 125mph. They are spotless, spacious, and punctual. And although we tried the business class on one segment, regular cars and seats are plenty roomy. If anything, we found the new trains a bit too clean and sterile, but certainly a pleasant and very low stress way to go.

You can pre-order a train bento on the TRA App for less than $3 and it’s delivered to your seat

Taipei Central’s local platforms are not wide or particularly pleasant and there are not really any services beyond the pay gates, so I’d recommend getting to the platform no more than 10 minutes prior to departure as it’s easy to find the platforms and coach number sign. Hang out or get food in the adjacent shopping mezzanine. At some stations; they don’t let you onto the platforms until 10 minutes prior.

The regular meat bento was pretty good considering, although maybe not up to the hype of its somewhat cult following. Cheryl got the veggie version -:).

You can buy tickets on the TRA App or at the stations, but I found the app pretty convenient for booking tickets once you get the hang of it. One person can buy tickets using their passport number for up to 5 people and pay by Credit card or Apple Pay. You then collect your ticket on your mobile and have the other passenger (s) download their ticket on their phone (in the App) as you provide the reservation # and a 3 digit collection code.

The charms of many smaller Taiwanese cities take awhile to reveal themselves in back alleys, converted old buildings and lots of plants.

Red lanterns ready to be deployed in Hualien for the month+ long Lunar New Year celebrations.

Note that as soon as you click on a specific train after searching time and destination, a reservation and seats will be made immediately. You have a reservation and specific deadline shown to pay via credit card or Apple Pay (very convenient) or at the station. You can delay paying for tickets for a day or two (it gives you the deadline). This gives you an easy option to change or cancel tickets, but a word of warning, I did this a few too many times as I was learning the system and it locked my passport number for a month! I’m guessing the limit was about 4-5 incomplete/unpaid reservations. I could have called customer service and perhaps begged for tourist mercy, but we got around this by reversing our process and buying the tickets on Cheryl’s TRA app (and her passport number) and then I downloaded second ticket to my phone. You only need one ID to buy tickets via the App.

It also is smart to wait to collect the tickets on the App (or at the station) until you are sure that you want to take that specific train, as this allows you to change a ticket on the App, not just at the station. Apparently locals don’t “collect” tickets until the last minute for this reason.

Hip coffee shops abound and are generally only open after 11am or even later as the coffee cafe culture is an afternoon thing in Taiwan.

By the way, there are also local trains that you can see on the App timetables but you can’t buy reserved tickets. For those, you just show up and use your IC tap card to enter and exit the station and take any seat on those trains. They are also the easiest option with bikes.

Ready to scan my QR ticket at the turnstiles.

Taiwan is really promoting cycle tourism and these helpful signs are everywhere around cities, transfer areas, and stations.

Besides trains, I love to study the geography and geology of the very place we visit. It always shapes the history; culture, and economy. The geography of Taiwan is dominated by a central ridge of mountains, the remnants of the formation of the island from magma rising up between the junction of the Eurasian’s and Philippine tectonic plates. The central range reaches heights of over 3000m (10,000ft) and it does snow sometimes in the higher elevations in winter. So only 30% of the country is flat, and much of that is highly developed.

A second smaller coastal mountain range hugs the east coast. These ranges are both actually rising as the Philippine plate continues to push against and under the Eurasian plate. The valley where the plates meet, the East Rift, is one of the only flat areas on the east side of the country. It’s also fertile for growing things year round and attractive for cycling. Most of the industry and population of Taiwan is concentrated on the north (Taipei valley) and west sides, so the east has always been considered a more wild and remote place.

We loaded up on veggies at the Azure Hotel’s amazing vegetarian breakfast buffet for three days and used it as an excuse for street food, night markets and other less healthy options the rest of the day -:).

Ok, so onto our travels. We spent three days in Hualien and used it as a base to visit the famous Taroroko gorge and Taroko National Park for a full day by train, bus, and foot. The geography of the mountains is dramatic and consequently there are a lot of issues with rockfall, slides and road/trail closures. There are very limited bus services up and down the gorge now due to construction around a massive landslide that occurred in October 2023. There is single lane traffic controls and you can wait for up to an hour to get through each way, even if you hire a scooter or taxi for the day.

But we love buses and challenges, so decided that we would catch the earliest #302 bus from Xincheng Taroko station at 9am (the #310 bus is not currently running into the gorge) and ride it all the way to its end at Tianxiang. You can drive (or bike!) further than that and apparently it is much less visited beyond the reach of the buses.

Oops, our electric bus broke down half way to our destination in the park.

Our short train hop from Hualien arrived Xianming about 8:30 and there were about 30 tourists waiting for the bus, including some other Americans from Utah. After we boarded, the driver made a long speech in Mandarin that didn’t sound encouraging but somewhat surprisingly, our young pale Utah friend spoke Mandarin and translated for us. It turns out he was half Taiwanese! The driver was just preparing everyone for what we already knew, that there would be significant delays at the construction. So the half of us who were still on the bus at the construction were all patient for the 40 minute delay.

We were finally rolling again through the closure and spectacular gorge scenery, when suddenly the electric bus started to stall and sputter. The driver mumbled, stopped, and fixed (rebooted?) the batteries in the back, and we rolled on again slowly. But alas 500m onwards the bus finally died for good. So the remaining dozen or so of us got off and walked on the road. But we soon figured how nice it actually was walking the road, as the normal continuous two way traffic didn’t exist due to the long road closures all day. Roll with it and we’ll see what we see.

Happy travelers rolling with the bends in the road today

Plan B, walk the Lushui trail for a few kms

Oops; trail closed midway so back to the road

Cheryl resigned to wait for the next bus…at least she had some books on her phone…

It was peaceful and beautiful, and we walked to a campground area with bathrooms a few kilometers up the road. We then decided that we’d hike some of the Lushui trail which branched off the road above and then try to catch the next bus as it rolled by in about an hour. Well, the geologic gods had also closed that trail in its middle, so after a pleasant 30 minute out and back, we returned to the campground bus stop and resigned ourselves to wait up to an hour for the next bus. It was too far to walk (15km) and there were dark tunnels with no shoulders. But after about 10 minutes, a nice young Dutch couple in a little white car came by and offered us a ride to the end! Very nice and put our day back on track -:). They also were going to the Bayiang Trail, so we avoided another km+ of road walking.

Made it to Baiyang Trail with time to review the rules of monkey engagement -;)

A mysterious start to the trail takes you through a mountain to another side gorge

We were lucky that the Baiyang trail had just reopened after its own landslide closures. We could see why.

After walking back to Tianxiang, we got some tasty food at one of the small cafes there.

This crazy territorial macaque grabbed food from unsuspecting people coming out of the only 7-11 in the national park and was hilariously peeling off the warning signs!

Taroko is a special place and we’re glad we made the effort, but can imagine with normal traffic and tour buses it may be a bit much. We also noticed that cycling is possible, as the lower climb is spread out over 30km or so. You would be rewarded with continuous views but do need to mind the many narrow tunnels.

Exploring the East Rift valley on rental bikes (Giant of course).

A surprise stop at an old Japanese temple. There is a strong Japanese cultural legacy on Taiwan due to its 50 years of occupation.

Next up was a short train ride to Yuli, where we spent two nights in a small hotel. This allowed us a full day cycling up to and exploring YuShan National Park. Much less visited than Taroko and the jumping off point for the Walami trail.

Destination reached at the pleasant Liyu Lake.

A delicious indigenous influenced meal at the Liyutan Tree House near the lake. The preservation of indigenous culture is a priority on the East Coast where it survived longer due to its isolation.

Cycling in Hualien was fun since we were really the only foreign tourists about.

We’ve been eating well, but the food customs and timing can sometimes pose a problem. We have loaded up at some our breakfast buffets, which generally have many savory and healthy options. Lunch is a small restaurant/shophouse stand. Street and night markets are always an option but you need to be up for crowds and eating small things standing up at the edge of the road or against a building. We actually prefer food oriented streets to night markets. Oh, and good pizza is popular here, and a trusty traveler break from a lot of (excellent) Taiwanese food.

About our fifth beef noodle try, this one with the works of tripe and knuckle…mmmm!

Even the dogs know that scooters are the way to go in Taiwan.

This giant fried chicken vat amazed us at the most popular stand at the Yuli Night Market (Fridays Only!) .

Yuli is a bit drab to be honest but the area around it is peaceful to cycle. Many of the Tawainese cities are spread out and walking not always the most pleasant as most locals use scooters to get from point A to B, they don’t consider long walking practical. We found it to be much better to bike from place to place and walk locally, especially when looking for restaurants. Small places on Google are often hard to locate, closed, or don’t seem to exist. But you’ll always find something and just need to stay flexible or pick a well established place with lots of reviews (including recent ones).

The area SW of Yuli is pleasant for cycling and a good way to get to YuShan.

Yea! we made it the official park boundary at El 1500 ft.

Suspension Bridge Number 1 and my number one travel companion -:).

I hiked in to this beautiful waterfall complex and suspension bridge number two while Cheryl enjoyed promised reading time!

From Yuli, we had another short train ride to Taitung, where we spent another two nights. Taitung has a great museum of Prehistory on its outskirts that was worth a stop on its own. Although Taitung has a bit of an art scene by the old train station, if you are short of days, you might consider a stop at Taitung train station and storing your bags in the train station lockers to visit the museum (10-15 mins by taxi or bus, cafe or picnic on site) and then roll on to your next destination. Of course if you have your own wheels, then the areas north and south have lots of natural beauty and are certainly worth it exploring.

Taitung’s old railway station has been turned into a pleasant cultural area.

And alas that’s one of our limitations without a car or cycle touring here. We do miss a lot of the places in between, but we’ve balanced that by getting out of each region by bus or bike and seeing quite a bit. It really depends on what you like, and we do like cities. And we’re seeing enough, as experiences can be had anywhere.

So we’re now on the west coast and heading back towards Taipei. The lunar new year buzz has started and we look forward to sharing more about our experiences soon. Happy travels!

Taiwan. So fun we came back to see more.

In January of 2023 we came to Taiwan on our way to Bangkok. We were only in Taipei, and just for a week, but we loved it. When we were discussing where to start our 2024 travels Taiwan was top of the list. It’s a long flight from San Francisco to Taipei, but non stop. This time we’re here for three weeks and will circling the island via train.

Back at our local MRT stop, Jiantan on the Red Line.

What is it we love about Taipei? It’s a very easy city to visit. Great transit, amazing food options, such helpful locals. It seems to be an overlooked Asian City. Taiwan has close ties to the US, we know folks in SF who have Taiwanese roots, so it’s one of the many places in the world where locals happily tell us about their connections in the US. Since we landed on Election Day there were even more returned Taiwanese since they must come back to Taiwan to vote. No mail in ballots here.

Joplin Fried Dumpling restaurant which Rich wanted to try. Yikes, looks a bit confusing, but fear not.

A young man in line in front of us explained that you take a clipboard to fill out your order, and a number from the push button machine.

Done and done. At this point a young woman behind us checked to make sure we had gotten a number. People want to make sure you’re all set, which is so appreciated. Google translate helped us through the menu in Chinese.

After paying at the register, where the cashier advised us to change our order to one set of pan fried and one set of boiled dumplings, she gestured us towards a table and I went to get our dipping sauces. She left her cash register to come over to explain the different sauces to me.

Cheryl demonstrating her chopstick skills with a boiled dumpling.

The pan fried dumplings. Crispy bottoms. Delicious.

I could fill an entire blog post with photos of amazing food in Taipei and how incredibly nice and helpful people are, but food isn’t the only thing that brought us back here. We are both big fans of cities, and getting to see and understand what makes a city a good place to live, or a bad place to live, intrigues us. And how a government helps or hinders its citizens. What steps have been taken to make a city more livable? To allow young and old to live safely and happily? What is the temperament of the locals? Do they seem happy or cranky?

Raingo umbrella rental. When you get caught out by rain. Some MRT stations also have courtesy umbrella stands where you can borrow an umbrella for free.

This group of children were rain ready in their bright ponchos.

Plenty of water fountains and taps. In most playgrounds and parks, of which there are many.

The QR code shows you the water quality tests. And to answer your next question, yes! Loads of public toilets too.

In the Shilin District the space under the metro tracks is for folks on foot and bikes.

In a metro station, you can always find a way to charge your cell phone. A simple outlet, or a battery pack for rent.

We keep saying we want to bike tour in Taiwan, but haven’t gotten it together to get our bikes here. There are places that rent touring bikes, similar to what we did in Korea, but I have a hard time getting a bike that fits correctly and comfortably. Being uncomfortable and eventually in pain on a bike is no fun.

Getting around by bike is popular in Taipei.

In order to sign up for a UBike account we used the app, our Taiwan phone numbers which came with our SIM cards, and a transit card – which you tap for not only transit, but the UBikes, and to my delight, vending machines. (Hello Gummy candies.) You link your transit card to the app and that is how you pay for the UBikes; super easy.

A proper city bike with fenders and a basket.

Ok, a bit small for Rich, but fine for a few hours of riding.

Plenty of bike stations from which to check out and return the bikes.

Which makes it easier to get around the city and check out attractions such as the Taipei Expo Park.

And the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum

Scooter/bike lanes are everywhere and even take you across major bridges.

Riding to New Taipei City. We made it just before it started to dump rain.

So we ride the bike share, we walk a lot, and we use the Metro. That’s our Taipei experience. And yes, we go to night markets and stand in line to buy food, and sometimes eat food from one stall while we’re standing in line to buy food from another stall.

Cold spicy miso noodles at Shilin Night Market.

So it’s off to the Sheng Jian Bao stand.

Two kinds of bao, pork and cabbage. Neither are vegetarian, they let you know as you order.

Both are delicious. There are downsides to Taipei night markets – one of which is no place to sit and enjoy your food. We were standing in a closed up shop’s front steps.

Another downside? Taipei night markets get crowded. They are not for folks who dislike crowds.

There are plenty of restaurants to enjoy as well for when you want to sit to eat. This was a burger restaurant with good craft beer.

With our fondness for Taipei definitely confirmed we’re headed out to explore some more of Taiwan. Where? Anywhere we can get to by train. In a clockwise direction. First stop, Hualien City. Just about two hours by train. More from the rest of Taiwan soon.

Ah, trains. Enjoying the view of the coast.

Taipei 101 – An Introduction

I love the rush and excitement of flying into a new place. And since we transferred through Tokyo on ANA, we flew into the closer Songshan city airport (TSA) and had a window seat on a long double loop around the dramatic hills and skyscrapers of Taipei….a free aerial tour of the city where we would spend our next week!

Lunar New Year Bunny Seats on the 89th Floor of Taipei 101

Lost? You can almost always spy Taipei 101 wherever you are.

Note that most longer flights go out of the much larger and more distant Taoyuan International Airport (TPE). But both have good rail connections right to the center, so no worries if you fly into or out of TPE.

Taipei is a world class city that just doesn’t rise to the top of most (western) tourists lists. But we think the Portuguese nailed it with the name “Formosa”, as it is a beautiful, prosperous, and free place.

Local Agriculture in the Pingxi District

It’s certainly a place that is receiving more attention in the global news due to the complex geo-politics associated with its status and ultra strategic location in the South China Sea. We enjoyed learning so much more about the history of Taiwan. It has left a unique legacy on the psyche of the country.

After the Qing Dynasty lost the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, they ceded Taiwan and the Japanese colonized and controlled Taiwan for over 50 years. When their occupation finally ended after World War II. a dictatorship initially led by Chiang Kai-Shek ruled for the next 40 years under the KMT party, with strict repression of free speech, detentions, and killings known as the “White Terror”.

The massive damper on the 88th floor of Taipei 101 has a series of cute damper babies…this one was my favorite. Way to make science cute.

By the late 80’s, a slow transition to a more open and democratic Taiwan started, and after the election of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2016, it has solidified its place as a liberal and forward looking democracy.

The Pingxi train and Shifen suspension bridge

They were the first Asian state to legalize gay marriage in 2019 and have 42%+ representation of women in the parliament as well as a female president. The Scandinavia of Asia?! Almost, but there is still a huge gender wage gap and other legacy issues of a male dominated business world.

Bali and Tamsui are easily reachable by MRT and ferry for seaside strolling or cycling

However, we could feel the positive energy and openness in Taipei, although all within a society that still values social stability and conformity. It’s an interesting mix but definitely a positive one to experience, even as an outsider.

Run Up to the Lunar New Year on Dihua Street

Here’s the Top 10 reasons we loved our week in Taipei and why you might too:

1. The Food – you can see Cheryl’s last two posts for lots of details on the food scene…great food everywhere, and the amazing and exciting night markets.

Food and SO many boba tea shops…Taiwan invented it and continues to reinvent it for the rest of the world.

2. Unique culture – fun and quirky with a rich history influenced by indigenous, Han Chinese, Japanese, and western culture. There is also a strong fascination with Korean pop culture and clothing. It’s not quite like anywhere else, it’s Taiwan.

Check in option at Tinguan Airport…no takers?

Cat/bartender at the Tipsy Dragon in Songshan

3. Efficiency AND Kindness – This is a neat and orderly city…people follow the rules and you will enjoy yourself more if you do too. Or at least make an effort. It’s an easy, extremely collaborative society, and everyone has built in empathy and spacial radar systems. You’ll never bump into someone or have them cut or push too much, even in crowds…it’s infectious and relaxing once you embrace the system.

Graceful and spacious MRT stations, many outside the core are aerial with quiet platforms, views, and pleasant breezes. No center running freeway noise here.

4. The MRT! – a comprehensive and modern system that carries 2 Million passengers a day. Buy a EasyCard (IC Card) at either airport station for 100 NTD (New Taiwanese $, or about $3 US), load some fare and then tap in and out like the locals for 50c to $1 a trip. We had the airport station agent add 300 to each to start, so paid 800 NTD. If you get a funny beep or issue with your card, there is always a helpful staff person nearby.

The MRT is integrated with neighborhoods, creating nice station area plazas such as this one in Shilin

There are also real time predictions at all MRT and most bus stops, so don’t be intimidated to use buses as well. Big numbers on the front…tap on and off with your IC card when you ride at the front or back doors. So easy.

Keeping an eye on train operations in Jintong

5. Bathrooms – Seriously, Taiwan is the most bathroomed place on the planet (interested to hear about others!?). Every station has one (or two), public parks, museums, attractions, malls, night markets, parking garages, busy neighborhoods….you get the idea. And all free and clean, which really does reduce travel stress and the need to go into “camel mode” walking about like in some counties.

Fun, inviting, and yes, bathrooms in Pinxi District

6. Greenery – Parks, long greenways (140km of bike paths!), and lush hills and mountains make for a pleasant backdrop, plus potted street plants liven up even the drabbest streets.

Street plants seem to be a craze in Taipei and make the vast downtown neighborhoods a bit more livable

Ahead of the curve…the cool interchangeable scooter batteries of the Gogoro energy system

Alley greenery (and the ubiquitous Food Panda!)

7. Clean air – not perfect but good for such a large city due to great public transit, fairly clean vehicles, frequent coastal and island breezes, and the greenery noted above.

Building around tree or tree within building?

8. Safety – Traffic is pretty organized and street crime seems virtually non existent. One of our only social gaffs was inadvertently moving a women’s notepad/binder/IPad? from a back garden of a coffee shop…we thought it belonged to the shop, and she came out surprised to see us in her seat…we offered to move, but she refused and headed to another spot upstairs. Oops.

More fun at the Onsen Museum in the hot spring town of Beitou…via MRT of course.

The historic Pingxi Train line runs 13km from Sandiaoling to Jintong runs hourly, so you can hop off and on or walk between stations.

9. Hiking and cycling culture – a great proportion of the world’s quality bicycles are made here (not to mention 90% of the worlds fast semiconductors), and they actually push cycle touring as a key component of their tourist advertising. On this first “winter” visit, we only grazed the endless mountain and forest trails that crisscross the spine of Taiwan… with many accessible by public transit.

You can walk from the edges of the city far into the mountains and take a train or bus back.

10. Mixing with the locals – not many western tourists makes for a more exotic feel. And at least some English in most places makes interactions more rewarding. We’ve discovered this cool Asian capital, right-:)

Cheryl drying out one of the many cats of Houtong Cat Village

Cats keeping an eye out on the purpose built cat bridge in Houtong

Maybe you’ve been here and are nodding along, but if not, consider at least a stopover in Taipei on your next travels to Asia, or better yet, spend a few weeks or a month traveling around the whole island. Rail circles the island and the more developed west coast has a high speed rail network that takes you all the way south in about 2 hours.

So much to explore outside of Taipei…Shifen village between trains.

We only dabbled on the local trains, but there is a whole island to explore!

The more you learn about the people, history and culture, the more you will understand the how complex the geo-political conundrum really is. Our hope is strong for a positive future for Taiwan and we definitely plan to come back soon to explore by bicycle.

Peace to all and happy travels!

Taipei food love affair.

I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the food in Taipei, but I haven’t run out of food photos.

Waiting patiently at the Shilin Night Market for more soup dumplings.

Rich with an oyster omelette. Shilin Night Market.

Oh yes, the appetizer on our way into the market – Taiwanese Sausage on a ‘bun’ of sticky rice. The sausage is slightly sweet and the sticky rice so chewy- lots of Q. Delicious

This market was mostly moved underground. It’s a different feel to the stalls on the street – which also still remain – but there is seating which is nice.

On a day trip by train to the mountains, here I am in Pingxi, continuing my quest to eat all the soup dumplings.

Rich and his quest to eat all the beef noodle soup.

Ningxia Night Market was our next food stop after a day out of town. The amazing travel planner booked us into a hotel right across the street from an MRT station so it’s easy to get to downtown and the amazing night markets.

First stop, stall 91 for Liu Yu Zi’s deep-fried homemade taro balls that have crispy casing and chewy inside filled with pork floss and egg york.

The chef is using a spring scoop to make the balls of uniform size.

We only got two. The flavors were so unique and absolutely delicious.

As you can see, there is a bit of English on the stall signs, but Google translate camera comes in very handy.

A bowl of squid. Pickled onions on top, we think.

The fun of the night markets is just strolling along and buying whatever catches your fancy.

This is a sorghum sausage inside a crepe with scrambled egg cooked onto the crepe. Another absolutely unique and delicious treat.

The close up. Yes, food photography is not easy. But perhaps this gives you an idea of what it was like. I like the background captures of night market life.

And to finish our evening, a peanut ice cream roll.

A crepe, shaved peanut candy, like peanut brittle, two scoops of taro ice cream, and a sprinkling of cilantro.

This city. Being presented with all new flavor profiles. And in a fairly easy to access way. Even speaking no Chinese we get fed thanks to the kindness of people and multicultural nature of Taipei.

Individual hot pots for lunch one day, with a side of the famous stinky tofu on the right. The smell is stronger than the taste. Glad we tried it but I won’t seek it out again.

For our final lunch we went to a small Japanese restaurant for curry. Rich got pork.

And I had fried chicken. This was a small place, the two chefs you see are the complete staff. They ran an organized and tasty place.

For our final night we went back to the Raohe night market. We both wanted the pepper buns again, and I went in saying, right – done with taking photos. But as soon as we had something new and amazing I was back at it! And again, in good company. There were plenty of other people, locals and visitors, snapping pictures and rhapsodizing about the food. Not many western/non Asian visitors here. Taipei seems to be a slightly ignored Asian city by the western world travelers.

Cabbage and tofu. Both from the small cart over Rich’s shoulder. Both delicious. Each plate $2.00. The market on a Tuesday night was much less crowded than Saturday. We could look around and find places to sit.

I had noticed a stand on our first visit selling pineapple buns filled with ice cream. We didn’t make it back to the stall the first night- I had reached my crowd limit – but on our second visit we made sure to leave time and room in our tummies. There is no pineapple involved in this bun, it’s a soft fluffy milk bun with a cookie like crumbly topping reminiscent of Dutch crunch rolls we get in SF. The top is cut to look like a pineapple.

Fire Ice Pineapple was the Google translation. Note that you can get cheese, butter, cheese and butter, or one of a few flavors of ice cream in your bun.

Both were delicious. I don’t think of desserts when craving Asian cooking, but from now on I will associate Taiwan with some pretty unique and delicious desserts. And not too sweet, which is nice.

With our bellies happy, and with a new love for this amazing City and its lovely residents, we move on. Rich is working on a post all about everything not food related that we did – and honest, we did more than eat!

The Happy Travelers enjoying the city of Taipei.

The amazing food city of Taipei, Taiwan.

Working up an appetite with a morning hike up Jiantan Mountain Park.

So much amazing food. So many fun places to go to eat good food: shopping malls, night markets, little hidden restaurants in office building basements.

We dove right in with Xiolongbao (soup dumplings) at Din Tai Fun, famous for this dish and with many locations around the city.

From our first meal we were captivated. We are so happy to be able to travel in Asia again. Taiwan only opened back up to tourists in October 2022 with no 14 day quarantine required. This is our first trip to Taiwan and yes, we are already talking about when we’ll come back. Hopefully for a bike tour. We mention that to everyone we chat with to get as many tips and recommendations as possible.

Elevenses here means iced coffee for Rich and an iced matcha milk for me. At Cho Cafe in the Wanhua District.

We’re walking and taking transit everywhere we go. Walk, museum, walk, snack. Walk, lunch, walk, bubble tea.

Hot and sour soup, greens, and pork leek dumplings in beef soup.

The beef soup was delicious. The dumplings devine. At Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles.

The workers were so nice to us at this place. They helped us order and the young man who brought my soup and dumplings asked if I liked spicy. Why yes, I do. He brought me a little dish of something spicy from the condiment bar.

Google translate is such a good addition to travel in countries where you don’t speak any of the language, this translates as spicy butter. Yes please.

One more photo of the delicious hand cut noodles in Rich’s soup. I failed to get a photo of the chef making these noodles when we walked in, and of course when we left he wasn’t there.

Taipei is justly famous for its night markets. We’ve gotten to four so far, and the mix of food and goods for sale, families, groups of youngsters, bright lights, and divine smells is intoxicating. Ok, I admit that when passing a stinky tofu stand the aroma is a bit overwhelming, but we did try the stinky tofu with lunch one day. Not bad. The taste is milder then the scent.

Even with so many food opportunities at the markets, there are fan favorites. Look for the lines and join in. This line is for Gua bao, or the Taiwanese Hamburger (刈包)

Rich waiting and watching. The line moves quickly.

四兩刈包-台北創始總店/Si-liang Taiwanese Gua Bao, in the Zhongzheng District was our choice but many places make versions of this.

Here you can see the bao, the peanut powder, and the coriander. There is also pickled mustard greens.

The meat, pork belly. Fat, lean, or half and half. We got half and half.

The delicious result. Many customers were buying multiple bao and riding off on scooters. We found a small park and sat and enjoyed.

Taipei is also loaded with tea stands. Bubble tea. With boba. With jelly cubes. With any base tea or fruit juice you could hope for. Green tea, black tea, milk tea. Again, such patience from the staff. It’s nice to be in a place not overwhelmed with tourists. Type of tea, level of sweetness, quantity of ice. Be ready with those decisions.

Taiwan is working to get rid of single use plastics, so all the bubble teas we’ve gotten have been in paper cups, this one welcoming the upcoming lunar new year of the Rabbit. Yes, still plastic straws but we save ours and reuse them. Many customers have their own tea containers and places offer discounts if you bring your own container.

Ok, another night market – this one really at night. And a Saturday night to boot! We expected crowds, and crowds there were. It was a bit overwhelming, but we dove in and immediately got in line for Fuzhou Black Pepper Buns (福州胡椒餅). Don’t let the lines discourage you, they move quickly and the staff have this down to a science.

The goal. Get those buns in your belly! Yes, those are Michelin notations you see in the sign. We’ve never been to a Michelin starred restaurant, these Michelin noted places are more our style.

These buns are cooked in a tandoori style oven, stuck to the edges.

Closer photo of the buns, clustered like bats in the oven.

And halfway through this very hot, very delicious treat. The sesame encrusted bun did a good job of containing the filling.

Saturday at the night market was crowded. But people here are good with crowds, very collaborative.

If you saw something you wanted, you just pulled over to the side.

It was too crowded for this little dude, they got a lift up out of foot zone.

A note on all the masks, Taiwan lifted the outdoor mask mandate December 1st, 2022. Would you have guessed that from our photos? Probably not. People don’t seem all that eager to unmask outside yet. We mostly follow the crowds and mask when we’re in busy areas or in line for food, but when it’s just us walking around we go mask free.

We have so many more photos and experiences to share, but I’m going to wrap up this post with one last food.

What are these little balls on skewers? So many possibilities. Octopus? Sweet potato and cheese? Meat? None of the above.

Delicious. Halfway between a custard and ricotta cheese. The perfect end to an evening of snacking.

Eating our way through the markets reminded us of our recent time in the Basque area of Spain, and wandering the towns eating pinxtos. Similar ease of ordering, point and gesture if you don’t speak the language, hand over money, thank you and step away.

The well fed and Happy Travelers in front of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.

We’ll share more soon from amazing Taipei!