Taipei

December 11-13

We were not planning on going to Taipei. It had been in the back of my mind for our Asia portion of the trip, because I have a couple of friends who have spent time in Taiwan and recommended we visit, but I hadn't really investigated it further. However, we found out we could easily fly direct from Singapore to Taipei, we could fly from Taipei to Osaka using my Alaska miles, and if we made a quick stop it would bring our final country total to 20 rather than 19, which really was reason enough for the detour. This turned out to be such a happy accident, as our first day in Taipei ended up being one of our favorite of the trip!

First, lets talk about our hotel, which had its ups and downs. The pros were that it was close to a couple of different MRT lines, it was affordable, and breakfast was included. The cons were that our room didn't have a window (which we knew going in, but still), there was an abundance of LED lights in the windowless room that somehow made it brighter than having a window, and the included breakfast ended up being sandwiches from the fast food joint down the street. Also the toilet was a non-bidet no flushing toilet paper situation, which is a combination of things we hadn't navigated thus far. There was a mysterious tub underneath the sink we didn't figure out the use of, but I'm pretty sure it's related. In any case, we've had our share of weird stay experiences on this trip, so at this point its hard to phase us, but this was up there on the weird scale.

For our first day, we took the Maokong Gondola on the recommendation of my friend Timothy to visit the tea fields and tea houses that lie just outside the city. The MRT line right by our hotel took us to the base of the mountain, where we waited a little longer to get a glass bottomed gondola. This allowed us to watch the forests unfold right beneath our feet as well as around us. It was a rainy, misty day, so the vibe was very cozy and wintery--a nice change after spending so much time in tropical climates! The whole ride took about 40 minutes and allowed us to get some amazing views of the city, forests, and tea fields.

"Mao" means "cat" in Mandarin, so to my delight there were cat statues and decorations all over the place, and many of the activities and restaurants had cat themes. The specialty oolong soft serve even came accompanied with a cat-shaped cookie!

After stopping for a quick snack of fresh bao at the convenience store at the top of the gondola (because convenience stores over here are THE place for a quick bite to eat), we set out to take one of the walking paths through the tea fields. Typically, this is a fairly common tourist activity. However, in December, in the rain, it turns out that the popularity greatly declines, meaning we had the path completely to ourselves. We got turned around a couple of times, but we were able to walk through actual oolong fields, some of which had farmers working in them tending the tea! It was misty and magical, and was a nice bookend to our trip, as one of our first adventures way back in Ireland was a rainy hike through the Burren.

When we were sufficiently cold and wet, we made our way back to the main part of town and found a tea house perched on the side of the mountain in which to warm up. We drank local oolong grown in the fields we had just walked through, and sampled some house-made oolong jelly (delicious) and Chinese walnut cookies (just like Biscoff). We spent the afternoon refilling our teapot, playing cribbage, and looking out over the rainy hillside.

We finally made our way back down the hillside and retraced our steps to our hotel. For dinner, we found a tiny noodle spot where we could warm up--the perfect end to a lovely day.

If only day 2 had gone so well...

Our second day in Taipei was also the day I was scheduled for my 4th and final rabies shot--yay! I hadn't thought too much about this, since each of the 3 previous shots had been so easy to obtain. However, unlike Thailand, where rabies is a common problem and therefore every clinic and hospital is readily equipped with the vaccine, in Taiwan it is relatively rare. This means there are limited supplies on the island, and as such they are incredibly difficult to find. On top of this, many hospitals are surprisingly closed on weekends (other than emergency rooms), and most won't see foreigners without an appointment (which I did not have).

After some Googling, we decided to start by going to a clinic near our hotel which had reviews stating the staff spoke English and were helpful to foreigners. I didn't have high hopes that they would have the vaccine, but thought they might be able to tell us who would. While the staff did indeed speak English, they didn't know precisely where I could find the vaccine, and warned that few places would see me without an appointment, especially on a weekend. From here, we trekked over to one of the big public hospitals, which the Taiwan CDC indicated was one of the places that carried the vaccine. This place was big and packed--I had to wait about 20 minutes just to talk to somebody, who informed me that registration of new patients was over for the day. Strike out #2. At this point I was a little panicked, but took comfort in the fact that the doctor in Thailand had told me that the 4th dose could be delayed by a few days if needed without affecting efficacy. Worse case scenario, we could delay until we got to Japan the next day (where the trial continues...). We decided to cut our losses and try to enjoy what remained of the day--it was past noon by this point and we had places to see!

We jumped back on the MRT and journeyed down to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, which is a gigantic white and blue shrine to the leader of the nationalist army against Mao. Seated at the top of a long staircase (89 steps, the age at which Chiang Kai-shek died) sits a great statue of the leader, reminding both of us of the Lincoln Memorial. Below this structure lies the fascinating museum documenting Taiwan's many steps towards democracy and peace over the years, as well as a great art gallery featuring award winners from across Taiwan. From here, we walked through the city over to the Lungshan Temple, which was built in the 1700s and honors both Buddhist and Taoist gods. The temple is active, so as we walked through we watched as locals and travelers alike gave offerings, prayed to the various deities throughout the space, and tossed crescent-shaped wooden moonblocks to divine the answer to a question.

After stopping at one more hospital to no avail, we made our way to dinner. We revisited the place we went on our first night, which is essentially the local version of Din Tai Fung. We sat among locals and watched through the big window in the center of the room where half a dozen guys were masterfully making the dumplings we were about to eat. We enjoyed xiao long bao, shumai, and a large sesame pancake type thing that was stuffed with beef and green beans (my description does not do its deliciousness justice).

The next morning, we awoke bright and early to head to the airport and our final country of this trip: Japan. Our little extended layover in Taipei was unexpected, but even with the trials of tracking down a rabies shot (to be continued), it was a really wonderful experience. The people were kind and welcoming, the food was delicious and inexpensive, and the sites were truly unforgettable.