Taiwan in two

As I’ve said before, to see the heart and soul of a country, it takes time and energy. Finding non-touristy places, eating local food, visiting local parks, and hanging with the people there, especially the children, and volunteering where ever possible connects you with the culture and customs of an area. A cruise ship, on the other hand, is a way to see a big amount of the world in a small amount of time. It is a glimpse into other cultures and for us, it helps us choose places where we’d like to return to explore more. With the help of our sister-in-law who was Taiwanese born and raised, we were able to follow her suggestions and see quite a lot in our short amount of time. We once again spent our day with MJ and J and avoided organized tours all together!

Our first port of call was Kaohsiung. We traded our dollars for NTD, New Taiwanese Dollars, wondering if there were old ones out there somewhere. We negotiated a taxi and set out to Lotus Lake. How do we get our ideas about where to visit? Well, we’ve already done a fair amount of research but in addition to that, there is a cool guy, Jeremy, on board that holds seminars for the independent travelers giving some basic information about taxis, transports of all kinds, money exchange, and photos of local sites. Lotus Lake was perfect! We strolled along the non-busy side taking in the views of the shore and the Tiger and Dragon pagodas on the other side. Then, we dove in! What a crowd! I call them Asian crowds. It’s the Eve of Chinese New Year and people are out in droves. There were street food of all varieties. George tried a meat and a sweet. Kids were playing games. Everyone was shuffling through the pagodas and the temple. The tail-of-the-dragon was the most interesting and colorful with a multitude of up/down stairs through the tail. The heat was excrutiating despite the expectation of cooler weather so we opted to go elsewhere for a lunch. Another taxi drove us through the city to Pier 2 Art District. It was an eclectict street with a bit of everything including locally made souvenirs. We saw beautiful pearls, glassware, and hand-stitched crafts. The best thing we found was homemade ice cream in an air-conditioned building! The noodle houses looked overcrowded and hot so we decided to make our way back to the ship for a late afternoon snack. The walk was a bit more than we had bargained for, longer than I had expected, but we endured and found a nice snack on the Lido deck!

The next day we awake in Keelung Port, the gateway to Taipei. I am trying to beat a nasty cold and the weather is wet and dreary so our first plan was to skip Taipei and hang out in Keelung. Wait! That all changes. In the beginning, we find an amazing taxi driver that takes us to a small town, Jiufen, so we can escape the crowds, see the mountains and enjoy the little tourist area. It’s raining hard! Off we go, just the same. Let’s not forget, this is CHINESE NEW YEAR, the biggest holiday of the year. The crowds prove it. With dripping umbrellas and all, we still enjoyed the quaint little town. We tried, and ultimately bought, some powdered almond milk. They served it hot and it was delicious. Then, we stumbled upon a great tea house where the four of us warmed up, dried out, had some tea, or coffee, and took the time to people watch. At the end of our visit, our great taxi driver took us by the seashore for some photo opportunities. He used his smart phone translator to communicate with us. Multiple times, he’d look at the sky and say, “What a pity!”

We thought we were through for the day but we ate lunch on the ship, regrouped, dried off, and headed out again. This time, we mastered the train and took a 40 minute ride into the city. Crowded, yes but no problems. We exited right at Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan and one of the tallest in the world. We jetted up to the top in 38 seconds and the views were phenomenal. We are so glad we took ourselves back out and didn’t remain on the ship. We decided to taxi home to see what we could see above ground. We returned to the ship just in time to make our way to the Keelung night market. It was like no other. All the markets are filled with new smells but this one wins for the most variety. We just wonder what happens to the food at the end of the night?????? There is so much! Our favorite find was sugar coated strawberries Yum.

We woke up the next day with some rough colds and coughs. It’s a good thing we have a day at sea and time to recupereate. It may be a day of sleeping, drinking hot tea, and watching in-room movies. Any suggestions? Lol!