I have to be honest… I kind of fell into a slump while I was in Taitung (pronounced Tai-dung). Originally, I was only planning to go there as a stopover on the way to Lanyu Island, but two things stopped me from going to the island: 1) A lot of my Taiwanese friends said that because it’s winter, boats wouldn’t be going out to the island as regularly so I could end up being stranded there for a few days longer than planned, and 2) I spent more time in Taipei than planned, so I ran out of time to go to the islands. Instead, I got a train ticket from Hualien to Taitung for 12:30, so I was able to sleep in a bit, pack up my stuff, and go get breakfast in Taroko. However, when I went to get breakfast, the place that I had went to the day before was closed. I picked up a snack and coffee from 7-Eleven and FaceTimed my parents while waiting for the bus. The bus that I was meant to take was the 1133A, which only comes every hour. I waited for quite awhile and it still didn’t come when it was scheduled to come. Suddenly, a bus came speeding down the road and by the time I could actually read what number it was, it had already whizzed by. That was my bus! I started chasing after it and when some locals saw that I was supposed to catch the bus, they waved down the driver. Luckily, he stopped so I ran down the street and got on. The trip to Hualien was about an hour so once I arrived, I still had 45 minutes to find some lunch before catching my train. I walked around and found a place that had an English menu called Mo Dou Dining Room, and decided to order a Teppanyaki with a latte. I didn’t realise how small the Teppanyaki would be and would have ordered more had I known, but I only had enough time to walk back to the train station and share some of my food with a stray dog that looked so desperate for food. I arrived in Taitung 2.5 hours later, just after 3pm. I went to the information booth and they said that I had to take a bus (#8172) to the bus station, and then my hostel was only a ten minute walk away from there. I stayed in Hostel Who Knows in an 8-bed female dorm, and I paid 390TWD per night ($17.70). The woodwork in the hostel was really nice, which I’m pretty sure the hostel owner did himself (bunk beds, showers, and more). When I asked the hostel owner what to do, he suggested taking a bus to the hot springs the next day. I think Taitang is more-known for the region and not for the city itself, so he didn’t give any suggestions about what to do IN the city. I was starving, so I asked where to go for lunch/dinner and he told me to try 老东台米台目 (Lao Dong Tai), which is known for their rice noodles. I went and I was given a Mandarin menu with a checklist (which is how many of the restaurants work here), and then another menu with pictures and English. I decided to go with the noodle soup for 45TWD ($2.04) and was curious to try the “white gourd juice,” which I recognised as wintermelon (I love it!) for 25TWD ($1.13). Honestly, I didn’t think the noodles were that spectacular, and I had to add quite a bit of soy sauce and hot sauce just to get some flavour. I spent the rest of the evening walking around, but it seemed like all of the stuff that was going on (Tiehua Music Village and the night markets) only happen from Wednesday to Sunday nights, and I was inconveniently there on a Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, I got up later and got ready for the day. I really wasn’t feeling like doing anything touristy.. it was day 60 of my trip and I was feeling worn out. I walked to a restaurant called 綠房子 (Greenhouse), which is known for their grape juice and dumplings. This was another Indigenous-inspired restaurant, and the owners didn’t speak any English. I came prepared with the help of Google Translate. If anyone has difficulties with menus, you HAVE to use this – it’s the coolest thing! Basically you need to upload a picture of the menu (which you can often find on the internet) and then you can highlight different symbols and it’ll translate it for you. I had found grape juice and dumplings on the menu, and was excited to put my skills to use. I came in and they gave me the checklist menu, and a translated English menu. I checked what I wanted but then the owner pointed to the dumplings and said, “méi yǒu,” which luckily I understand means none. I pointed to the vegetable dumplings and he nodded his head. The dumplings and juice were good – nothing super spectacular, and they were 110TWD ($4.89).

I decided to take it easy that day. And my “taking it easy” translated into spending 3-4 hours walking through a park (and doing 24,000 steps that day). However, part of me still felt guilty for not going to check out a museum, or going to the hot springs. I first walked to Seaside Park and saw a neat building, which is an art piece.

Then I found the entrance to Taitung Forest Park. In order to go inside, I had to pay 30TWD ($1.33). Most people rent bicycles and bike around the trail, but I didn’t see any bikes at this entrance. It was a nice walk, and there were many lakes and colourful flowers. It was a pleasant and relaxing way for me to spend the day, and for the first time, I felt completely away from most of society. The further I got into the park, the longer it would take for me to see another person, which was a nice break from the usual hustle and bustle of most cities and parks.

I got to the end of the park about two hours later, but then had to turn around and go back. By that point, I was hungry again so I walked a half hour to one of the supermarkets called Carrefour, which is actually a French supermarket (so I was surprised to see it!). I picked up a couple things from the bakery and headed back to my hostel to relax for a bit.

That night, I walked to the cinema because all I wanted to do was sit down and watch a movie. Yes, me… The one who has only been to the cinema once in over three years. The one who has never had Netflix and usually won’t watch a movie unless I’m with someone who suggests it, or if I’m stuck on an airplane. This is how deep my slump was… But I think I just needed a day to recuperate. There is only one theatre in Taitung and it was offering about 7 movies, some of which were in Mandarin and the rest were superhero movies. Therefore, I decided on Mary Poppins Returns for 260 TWD ($12.56), which didn’t start until 8:40pm so I had a couple of hours to kill. I walked a half hour to a restaurant called 鄰家蒸餃 (Lin-Jia Dumplings) because I was hoping to get some soup dumplings (yes, dumplings for lunch AND dinner – I could probably eat them every meal for days!). I chose some pork and vegetable steamed dumplings, but they weren’t the soup dumplings that I was hoping for. However, they were still good! To get eight dumplings and a coke, it cost me 90TWD ($4). I slowly walked back towards the theatre and checked out some of the shops. Then I walked down Tiehua Music Village, which was a tiny bit more active compared to the night before. There were TWO buskers that night, and one was really great! The entire street was filled with lanterns that were decorated by elementary school kids, so it added a nice charm.

Finally, it was time for my movie! There were only six other people in the theatre so it was another getaway. The movie was good – lots of songs, and of course I cried (I rarely cry in everyday life, but play a movie or a sad commercial and I can’t help myself!). I got back to the hostel quite late so I just went straight to bed. Honestly, I probably could have skipped over Taitung and spent more time in my next destination, but it was still nice to have a day of relaxation! Love always

I left Liah’s place at 8:50 on Saturday morning so that I could walk to the Linkou station and catch the MRT at 9:05. The metro took about 40 minutes to get to Taipei Main Station, so I had a half hour to spare before catching my train at 10:25. My train ticket was 411TWD ($18.27AUD), and it would take about two hours. Now, I was completely and totally alone for my first time in Taiwan (other than my train rides), so I didn’t have anyone to translate for me anymore. I was told about lunchboxes by both Mike and Yeh so when I saw a bunch of people eating them, I decided to finally give them a try. The person working didn’t know much English but she said “Pork,” and I went for it. To get a lunchbox and a coffee drink, it cost me 80TWD ($3.78), so I can see why all of the locals were eating them. The lunchbox included rice, a porkchop, and an egg. I mostly just ate the rice and some of the porkchop, but skipped out on the egg. After eating, I went to find my spot on the train (booking ahead gives a reserved seat – otherwise, you might get stuck having to stand the entire time, especially when it was still the Chinese New Year holiday). I got to Xincheng station just after 12:30 and then I had to figure out how to get to my hostel. My hostel was in a convenient location near the Taroko National Park entrance, in the Fushi Village of Sioulin Township. The people at the train station information booth told me to take the 302 bus and get off at Taroko, so I waited at the stop. Another bus came that was going in the same direction (the 1133A), so I got on and was able to tap my Easycard to pay. I actually ended up missing my stop 10 minutes later because the driver yelled something in Mandarin and no one did anything, so he just kept driving. However, the next stop was at the Taroko Information Booth, which was less than a ten minute walk from my hostel. The main street was breathtaking, with enormous mountains surrounding it – it definitely reminded me of walking down the streets of Banff.

I got to the hostel right after 1pm but to my dismay, the hostel was closed from 11am-3pm for cleaning. There was a girl outside named Yana and she was from the States (but teaching in Vietnam), so we talked for a bit. She said that she was going for dinner with some girls that she had met the day before, and said I could meet them at 7pm to join. There were some lockers outside of the hostel so I paid 30THB ($1.33) to store my backpack and then I went to find some food because I was starving. There isn’t a huge selection of places to eat in this village – there’s a 7-Eleven, a few expensive restaurants aimed at tourists, and a few cheap restaurants aimed at locals. I saw a sausage stand on the street when I was walking to the hostel so I stopped there and got a Taiwanese sausage wrapped in a rice sausage – I love these things! It cost me 60TWD ($2.67) so it didn’t break the bank either. I sat down for a bit and researched what hikes I could do the following day and then I headed back to the hostel at 3pm so that I could check in. The hostel was called Taroko Liwu Hostel and just like all of the other hostels and hotels, the price was greatly increased for the Chinese New Year holiday. Therefore, my first night was 700TWD ($31.88) and my second night was 450TWD ($20.49) in a 4-bed mixed dorm. I’m so glad that Liah’s family allowed me to stay with them for the duration of the holiday, since the hostels cost just as much as an Australian hostel would! I got my stuff settled in my room and then asked what hike I could do in less than two hours (because the sun sets before 6pm). The hostel owner’s mom suggested a hike and said that I could do a round trip in 40 minutes. I walked to the tourist centre to grab a map and then tried to find some signs leading me in the right direction. I saw a sign leading to Dekalun Trail (which I don’t think the hostel owner’s mom was suggesting), but I saw that it was 1.3km one way. The hike started off really nice, with trails just going back and forth up the mountain (which I prefer rather than going straight up). However, all of a sudden, it just changed into stairs. And continued. And continued. Taroko is supposed to be known for being cold, but I had to take off all of my layers, and I still couldn’t stop sweating. I swear I did about 2000 stairs (the trail elevated by 300 metres). I ran into a French guy who was coming back down and was finishing a longer 5-hour hike, and he suggested that I do the hike that he did tomorrow. He also warned me that I still had about 1000 steps to go in order to get to the top. I also met two guys from Kyrgyzstan (never met anyone from there before!) who were going to school in Taiwan and were on holiday. We’d stop and chat for awhile every time there was a rest area on the way up.

The good AND bad thing about the hikes there was that every 100 metres was marked, and I noticed that the 100 metre signs felt like they were getting further and further apart. I must admit that the constant signs with warnings of venomous snakes didn’t really put me at ease either. I finally reached a signed that said I had 200 metres left but then I saw the two guys from Kyrgyzstan heading back down. They said that there was nothing at the top, not even a nice view to take a picture. I felt bad coming all this way and having nothing to look at, so I just decided to head back down. Who knows, maybe they were lying and it was the most spectacular view and I missed it! We headed back down together and they further convinced me that going to the ‘stan’ countries should be my next trip. I was hurting by the time we got back down, and my butt muscles were feeling it for the next few days, plus I think I started getting shin splints. I keep vowing never to do more stairs and then what do I do? More stairs! Anyway, I headed back to the hostel after stopping at 7-Eleven to get a refreshing drink and then I relaxed until dinner. At 7pm, Yana and I met up with two other girls from the States named Caroline and Anna. They work for Peace Corps and had been living in China for the past 1.5 years (their contracts are for two years). They both seemed fluent in Mandarin, and I was amazed when we were in the restaurant and they were easily able to talk to the waitress and read the menu. It made me even more curious about how easy it was to learn Mandarin – I feel guilty for not knowing it because it’s been around me since I was 13 when my sister moved over from China. I might have to buy some children’s activity books while I’m here – I’m sure it would be entertaining for the locals to watch me attempt these books while sitting on the train. Anyway, we went to a restaurant called Truku 的屋頂, which is the name of the Indigenous Tribe in the area so the restaurant was obviously of Indigenous background. I decided to get a salted pork dish, which was served beautifully on a huge leaf as a placemat. The pork came with lots of vegetables, a soup, and some bamboo rice and it cost me 180TWD ($8.00).

It was really good food, and the servers were so friendly! After dinner, we all just got ready for bed because we were completely worn out.

On Sunday morning, I got up and got ready for the day. The hostel owner told me to go for breakfast at one of the restaurants next to the 7-Eleven so I headed over (I’m not actually sure what the name of it was). They luckily had an English menu, so I got some fried noodles along with one of the best milk teas I’ve had. My whole meal only cost me 35TWD ($1.56)! I picked up some water at 7-Eleven and then set off on the hike that was suggested to me by not only the French guy, but also by Caroline and Anna. The trail was called Shakadang Trail and was 4.5km one way (2.5 hours). I was already hurting from the day before so I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to do another hike, but I only had one full day left so I wanted to take advantage of it. In order to get to the trailhead, I had to walk about 15 minutes from the Tourist Information Centre through a car tunnel, which led to the Xiaozhuilu trailhead. The Xiaozhuilu trail was only 600 metres long and had the only stairs that I encountered on my whole walk (thank goodness!).

At the end of the trail, there was a huge bridge which started the Shakadang Trail. As these were the only toilets that I might see for the next possibly 5 hours, I decided to use them. Liah actually pointed out to me that in most cases where there are only squat toilets, there will almost always be a handicapped toilet that has an actual toilet. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this before! So yes, now I’m the a****** that uses the handicap toilet, but I just feel so much cleaner – I haven’t fully mastered the squatting technique yet!

The walk was really nice, except for all of the slower people who were literally hiking while on their phones, so they were walking at a snail’s pace. And of these people wouldn’t leave any space for other people to pass because many times, they’d walk two-by-two. About halfway through the trek, there were a bunch of stalls set up by Indigenous groups, who were selling sausage, roasted mochi, and jewellery.

This was also the last place where there was phone service, so the amount of people who continued the rest of the hike greatly diminished (thank goodness!). The water was so blue and it was surrounded by beautifully polished rocks and green mountains – it was such a nice place to be!

The end of the hike was pretty anticlimactic, as it was just a spot where there used to be some houses that were built by the tribes but were no longer there. Therefore, it was just forest. I made it to the end of the trail in 1 hour, so the 2.5 hour suggestion must have been made by someone who was walking while on their phone. I headed back and sat by the river for awhile and then decided to get some food from one of the stalls. I love mochi (which is kind of like a rice cake made with really sticky glutinous rice) but I’ve never had roasted mochi before, so I decided to try it. The lady put it on the grill and then cut it up and added sesame seeds on top, and it only cost 40TWD ($1.78).

It was pretty good – it had a crunchy outside with a soft, sticky inside, and the sesame seeds added a sweetness to it. I went back to the hostel to relax and to do my laundry. The hostel owner said that I was the only person left in the hostel and that he was going to the main city (Hualien, which is about a 40-minute drive away) for dinner and asked if I wanted to go. I said yes and we agreed to leave at 6:30. I finished my laundry and then got ready to go. The hostel owner (Ken) has two kids (a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son), but he told his wife to take them to her family in Taipei for the holiday because he was really busy with the hostel that week. However, we still ended up listening to Disney songs on the drive, which I was okay with. When we got to Hualien, he dropped me off at the night market and we agreed to meet up again an hour later. As much as I love night markets, it’s a lot more difficult to know what everything is when VERY FEW places are written in English. I took the advice of Yeh, who told me that Taiwanese people are very curious and will stand in line for anywhere that’s good. Some people will even go stand in a line and they won’t even know what they’re in line for! The first place that I noticed was really busy was a dumpling place, which was selling my favourite type of dumplings: soup dumplings (or Xiaolongbao, which I was introduced to at their most popular restaurant Din Tai Fung, which is all over the world now). I got a set of of 8 dumplings for 60TWD ($2.67) and they were delicious!

Then, all I wanted was some bubble tea. I searched around until I finally found a stand that had English and recognised a big sign that said taro milk tea – my favourite flavour! Taro is a purple potato and I absolutely love anything taro-flavoured (although some of my Taiwanese friends hate it).

My taro bubble tea was only 35TWD ($1.56) and it hit the spot. I walked around the night market for the rest of the hour and then went back to the meeting spot to find Ken. I was so exhausted by that time, I was ready to just go straight to bed as soon as we got back to the hostel. My train to Taitung wasn’t until 12:30pm the next day from Hualien, so I didn’t have to catch the bus to the Hualien station until about 10:30, which meant I could sleep in for a little bit.

I absolutely loved my time in Taroko National Park! I wanted to stay longer and try more hikes, but I don’t think my body would have let me. I think I started getting whatever Liah had when she was feeling sick, because I wasn’t feeling 100% during my time there. However, I still enjoyed feeling so small in such a massive area – I definitely want to go back again sometime! Love always

Liah and I only spent one night in Nantou, but we jam-packed everything that we could during the two days that we were there. We left Taipei at about 10:30 on Thursday morning and our total driving time that day was 6 hours. Normally, it only takes two and a half hours to get to Nantou but because it was Chinese New Year, the traffic was absolutely insane (although it was a lot worse going back into Taipei, which we got to experience the following day). Liah realised that it would be quicker to take a different highway than the one that we were on (thanks to Google maps telling us that we’d have 40 minutes of congestion on the highway that we were on) so we switched highways, but in reality, we probably didn’t save much time since the traffic between the two highways was so bad. Liah wanted to take me to Sun Moon Lake, which is less than an hour away from Taichung, so we stopped at a small township called Shueili to get lunch at about 2pm. Parking was extremely difficult so Liah made her own parking spot, and then we checked out the two restaurants in the area, which were both completely packed. We decided to just get food from a stall on the side of the road, where the food was cooked on the back of someone’s truck. I got a set of dumplings, and the owner gave us each a stool to sit on beside the highway. A new experience for me!

However, the thing about these stalls is that they’re the cheapest place that you can get food and they’re also the most delicious! My dozen dumplings were 50TWD, which is only $2.28AUD! We continued our drive to Sun Moon Lake and stopped at the tourist centre before deciding to drive around the entire lake. Our first stop was at Wenwu Temple, which was decorated for Chinese New Year, meaning there were a lot of pigs everywhere since it was the year of the pig. The view of the lake was gorgeous, as was the temple!

We continued our drive around the lake until we got to Ci En Pagoda. We had to go up a bunch of stairs to get to the top of Shabalan mountain (which only took us about ten minutes) and then had to climb to the top of the pagoda, which is 9 levels high and rests at an even 1000 metres above sea level. This gave us a beautiful 360-degree view of the lake and all of the surrounding mountains.

We decided not to wait 40 minutes for the sunset, but then by the time we got back down and into Liah’s car, it was only another 10 minutes until sunset. We drove in front of Xuanzang Temple, where we got a perfect view of the sunset. Then, we went into a nearby shop to get a snack and drink before heading to Liah’s godparents. I just got sticky rice and a coke for 80TWD ($3.56).

We got to Liah’s godparent’s place at about 7:30pm and were given even more food, despite us both being full.

They own a restaurant called 阿亞私房菜 on the main road in the Lugu Township, so Liah’s godmom made us some food and finished working at 8pm. After she finished working, she took me and Liah to her sister’s house in Dingcheng, where we met a lot more of the family. The sister owns a tea plantation (which was owned by their father before), so they showed us some pictures of it and it was gorgeous! Unfortunately, their tea plantation was far to get to and went through mountain roads so we didn’t get to visit it. We were more in the country, so I already felt a huge difference compared to meeting Liah’s family in the city. The cousins were all very interested in what I did and where I came from, and were constantly asking questions (which Liah had to translate back at forth). Some of us played mahjong for awhile (I just watched again but I think I’m almost ready to play on my own!) and then we all visited. In this town, a lot of people speak Taiwanese, so even Liah couldn’t understand what they were saying when they were talking to each other. We left at about 11:30pm and drove back to the restaurant because we were staying in a room above it. Liah and I were sharing the room so we got ready for bed and said goodnight. After about ten minutes, the bed started shaking and honestly, the first thing that went through my mind was that Liah was having a seizure or something. However, the window was also rattling – it felt like we were just next to a train station and a train went by. “Did you feel that?” Liah asked, which confirmed that she was, in fact, not having a seizure. “Yeah…” “I think it was an earthquake, I’ll check with my godparents tomorrow.” What?! I checked the next morning and there was an earthquake at 12:52 that night with a magnitude of 4.9. My first earthquake and I honestly would have had no idea if Liah didn’t say anything.

On Friday morning, we got up and Liah’s godmom had breakfast waiting for us. I tried pork floss with my eggs, which is like a cotton candy made of pork (hence the name) and it was so good! I would buy some to take with me if I could, but with transferring meat outside of the country, I figured it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Liah may have been coming down with something so we decided to just have a relaxing day. We started by going to a coffee shop with the most amazing views, called 啡常哲學. The drinks were a bit more pricey but they were worth it when we got to sit outside and see all of the surrounding mountains. I got a coffee and we split a banana strudel-type dessert, which cost us 200TWD each ($8.89).

We stayed for about an hour and then went to the Fenghuang Nature Education Area, where we had the choice of going to see birds or going to the tea plantation. We chose the tea plantation and had to pay 100TWD each ($4.44) to enter. The tea plantation was gorgeous – I can’t believe how green everything is! During the right season, the plantation would also be lined with cherry blossom trees, but they still weren’t in bloom.

After spending some time here, we headed back to town and went to the tea shop that’s run by one of Liah’s god-cousins. Her cousin showed me how the tea leaves were dried, and then let me try some of the teas (apparently this is the birthplace of oolong tea, so I got to try that too!). The shop was really cute and had some really nice teapots that would have been nice to purchase, but I didn’t want to carry it around for the next two months. The teapots were all glued to the shelves so that they wouldn’t fall during an earthquake!

Liah’s godparents joined us shortly after 2pm (as their restaurant is closed from 2-5pm) and then we ordered food from the restaurant next door, called 阿東窯烤雞. The restaurant is known for their chicken cooked in a Claypot so of course, we got that, as well as a bunch of other food (including my first time trying bamboo rice). What I found really interesting was that the servers just brought all of the food to the tea shop whenever any dish was ready so that the cousin could still look after the shop while having lunch. We set newspaper on the tea table and enjoyed our lunch there.

The food was so good! The chicken was tender, and there was even a fried tofu dish that was my favourite (and for someone who doesn’t like tofu, that’s saying a lot!). After lunch, all of the plates had to be taken back to the restaurant. The god-dad then gave me a pineapple-flavoured beer, which was actually good (for someone who doesn’t like pineapple. Now, I just sound like a picky eater but I swear I’m not!).

Liah and I ran over to 7-Eleven to get something to drink for the long drive home and then we went on our way at about 3:30. We got in the long line to get on the highway and then when we got closer to the front, Liah saw that the highway was closed until 6pm for any vehicles that had less than three people in it. She made some phone calls to family to ask how strict it was, and we decided to risk it. We both nervously waved at the police officers as we drove by, and they luckily waved us through. We were finally on the highway but every time there was an entrance/exit, the traffic would slow to a halt. When we got outside of Taichung, Liah’s phone was telling her it would be faster to get off of the highway and go through one of the surrounding towns, and it was probably right – there weren’t any cars where we were. However, when we went to get back on the highway, there were officers actually looking in the windows to check the cars. We decided to try one of the other entrances but if it was just as strict, it was luckily already 5:30 so we’d only have to wait about a half hour until we could go back on the highway. We were let through into 30 minutes of congestion (which probably turned into 50 minutes during out wait time) – I couldn’t believe the traffic! We finally made it back to Liah’s place at around 8pm and Liah’s mom made us some dumplings to eat. Then, Liah and I walked to Family Mart so that I could buy my train ticket to Xincheng. We also got a couple of drinks and just sat at a table outside the store to visit until about 10:30 or 11 before going back home to sleep.

The next morning, I got up, packed up my stuff, and had to leave at 8:50 to take the MRT to the Main Station. Liah’s mom was up and making breakfast and I felt bad that I couldn’t stay. I had such a great time at their place – they really took great care of me and it made the week go by so fast! I’ll be seeing Liah again in Melbourne, but hopefully I’ll see her family in Vancouver sometime. I headed out, and once again (after nearly two weeks of staying with family and friends), I was on my own. Love always

My time in Taipei was longer than what I had planned, due to the fact that one of my Melbourne friends was in Taiwan. She’s from Vancouver but her family is from Taiwan, and she made a last-minute decision to come to Taiwan to spend Chinese New Year with her family. I had actually been looking into doing some Couchsurfing while in Taipei because the prices of hostels were a lot more expensive in Taiwan, especially since it was the Chinese New Year holiday. Liah had (thankfully!) invited me to stay with her and her parents, so I took her up on the offer. I left Tainan at 2:20pm and arrived in Taipei over four hours later at 6:30pm. Then, I had to figure out how to get to Liah’s house in Linkou. I was using Google Maps, which was telling me to take a specific metro, but I couldn’t find any signs to get to it. After walking back and forth from one side of the main station to the other, I finally asked some people where to go and they seemed somewhat confused as well. They pointed me in one direction, which ended up being right. Yeh had given me his spare travel card (called an Easy Card) so I loaded some money on it and then got on the metro. I got to Linkou Station about 30-40 minutes later (just after 7:30), and Liah was waiting for me in a car (phew!). We picked up her parents and then the four of us went to a restaurant called Shin Yeh Bistro for dinner. Liah was really good about going back and forth between English and Mandarin, and translating anything that her parents were saying, although both of her parents spoke English quite well.

On Monday morning, it was Chinese New Year’s Eve so we got up and had breakfast, and then we started making dumplings. There are tricks to rolling the dough so that it won’t rip when you put in the filling, so Liah’s dad taught me how to do it. Then, Liah’s mom taught me how to put in the filling and fold the dumplings. I thought mine looked pretty good, but the family was laughing at how different mine looked compared to everyone else’s. Oh well, at least they all taste the same!

After making dumplings, Liah’s family was going to visit family so I took the bus into Taipei. I decided to check out the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, which had a whole bunch of beautiful buildings. However, the actual hall was closed for Chinese New Year, but I’m not sure if I missed out on much.

After spending about an hour there, I got back on the MRT and got off at Xiangshan, where I would do the walk up Elephant Mountain. By the time I got there, I was so thirsty so I found the closest bubble tea spot and got a milk tea for 50TWD ($2.22AUD). It was a very overcast and foggy day so I wasn’t sure if it would be worth doing the walk up the mountain, especially after seeing the view from the bottom of the mountain.

However, I was there so I figured I might as well go up. Even though it’s winter in Taiwan and it was about 19 degrees with a misty rain AND I was drinking a cold bubble tea, I still managed to sweat my way up the mountain, hating all of the steps that I had to take up. I actually might have to slow down on doing stairs on my trip because I’ve really been starting to feel it in my knees when I go back down. The struggle of getting old.. Anyway, I finally made it to the viewpoint (which is about halfway up the mountain – I wasn’t going any higher!) and if I was reeeeally patient, I was able to wait for a moment when the clouds didn’t completely block the view of the city.

I headed back down and made my way back to Liah’s to arrive just before 7pm, which was our agreed time to come back for dinner. Liah’s mom is a great cook, and made us a bunch of amazing food the entire time that I was there!

We had dinner and then the family had to set up the table for their ancestors. Liah’s grandfather had passed away a couple of months earlier, so she came back to Taiwan to be with her family for this moment. Liah’s dad spent the evening practicing his calligraphy because he had to add his father’s name to their family scroll, which includes all of the family members who had passed away. Normally, Liah’s grandfather is in charge of writing the names, but this time Liah’s dad had to take over.

After he finished the scroll, Liah helped him set up the tablecloth and banner across the table. Then, they set up all of the food on the table, which would be offered to the ancestors.

We waited until midnight (which was obvious just by hearing the fireworks go off) and then the family bowed down to the ancestors, and we all had dumplings (which is tradition). I only wanted one because I was already so full from dinner, but they “accidentally” cooked too many (which tends to happen A LOT here – I’m offered food 24/7!!) and because they were so good, I ended up eating more. After eating our dumplings, we all went to bed.

On Tuesday morning, I got up and ready for the day because I had plans to meet with my friend, Viola for lunch. Viola and her boyfriend (Allen) were my best friends in Warragul, and they both lived in my first house when we started working at the tomato farm. They’d always invite me for dinner, or take me on their day trips to Melbourne, and we still met up even after I moved from Warragul. Viola moved back to Taiwan a few months ago, and Allen is still working at the tomato farm in Warragul. I had to leave Liah’s at 10:45 in order to make it to Taipei 101 by noon, and then Viola and I walked to the Breeze Centre, which is a huge shopping mall. What I didn’t realise was that since it was Chinese New Year, most places were closed except for this shopping centre, so most people had the same idea that we did. The place was absolutely packed! The restaurants were on the 5th floor, so we finally made it up all of the escalators, found a grill restaurant, and they said that we could make a reservation for 1pm. At that point, it was 12:30 so it was just enough time to find a coffee shop and have a coffee (as I still wasn’t fully functioning yet). We had to go down a few escalators with the crowds of people and then when we found a coffee shop, we had to stand in line and wait. By the time we got our coffees and made it back upstairs, it was already past 1pm. We were seated and given iPads with the menu. You would think that since the menu was electric, they would have an English option but they didn’t. However, a few random words were written in English so when I saw “Sirloin,” I decided to go for it. I assumed that it would just be sirloin on rice, but it was so much more than that!

We weren’t even able to finish our meals because there was so much food. After eating, we FaceTimed Allen (Viola’s boyfriend), who was back in Australia. Then we walked around the shopping centre for awhile and found a cafe to sit at.

The cafe had a minimum 150TWD per person spend, which was the exact amount for a coffee. I paid for both of us since Viola paid for lunch, and our two drinks came up to 352TWD ($15.65AUD)! More than Starbucks, for sure – it’s insane! Viola had to be back home at 6pm for more Chinese New Year festivities so we got on the metro, said our goodbyes, and I headed back to Liah’s. I didn’t actually end up having supper that night since I ate so much for lunch, so Liah and I just went to Family Mart, bought some drinks and snacks, and chatted until late.

On Wednesday, we spent the day with Liah’s mom’s side of the family. With Chinese New Year, you spend the first day with the dad’s side of the family and then the second day with the mom’s side of the family. Pretty much everyone gets the week off, so people are constantly travelling and traffic is often really bad. My friend said that the “migration” in China during Chinese New Year is the biggest movement of people in the world! Anyway, we went for lunch at Liah’s aunt’s and uncle’s house, where I got to meet a few aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

After lunch, some of the family played Mahjong, which is a strategic game played with tiles. Only four people could play at a time, so I sat and watched so that I could understand the rules. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it, Liah would play something that I didn’t even notice!

After a couple hours of Mahjong, Liah and I played a card game with her cousin. Then we had dinner, which was most of the same lunch stuff. In Taiwan, a lot of families have hired help so in this case, the aunt’s hired help did a lot of the preparation and clean-up. It was interesting for me to see because I don’t think I’ve ever been exposed to something like that. We got back to Liah’s house later in the evening and we were all worn out, so we all just went to bed. Liah and I had plans to leave the next morning so that we could visit her godparents so on Thursday morning, we got up, packed up our stuff, had breakfast, and started our trip to Nantou, which I’ll save for another post. Love always

My trip to Tainan was a quick one, which was alright because I’ll be going there again in a couple of weeks. I have a cousin who has his own English school in Tainan, and he’s been living there for years. It just so happened that his parents (my aunt and uncle) were planning to visit him at the same time that I would be in Taiwan, so I decided to make an overnight trip to go visit since I haven’t seen anyone in my family for over a year. Yeh and Carina helped me get my train ticket from Taichung to Tainan, which we were easily able to get from a machine found in any Family Mart or 7-Eleven. The only problem with these machines is that there isn’t an English option, so I really don’t know how I’ll buy train tickets without someone who speaks Mandarin. Anyway, my ticket was 363TWD ($16.13AUD) and it would take two hours to travel to Tainan (I decided to save a bit more money by not taking the high speed train, as they tend to be a lot more expensive). Yeh and Carina took me to the platform and I got on my train at 12:15. I arrived in Tainan at 2:15 and my cousin, Mike, was waiting for me in the station. With a motorbike. Great… However, this experience was a lot easier than my first scooter experience, as this bike was a lot more spacious and I wasn’t as tense because I was basically an expert at this point. We arrived at his house in north Tainan about 20-30 minutes later, where I got to meet his wife Sandy, and see my Auntie Linda and Uncle Keith. The whole time I was there was basically a whole bunch of visiting, which is a normal family get-together. Mike, my uncle Keith, and I walked about 30 seconds down the road to a mom-and-pop store, where we got some beer to go with dinner. It was so nice to see such a small shop with all the basic necessities. We went back to the house and Mike grilled up a storm. I was delighted to have a western-style dinner, especially just being able to have barbecued steak and mashed potatoes, which I feel like I haven’t had in ages.

That night, I was finally able to see the Taiwanese garbage truck, which drives around playing music (similar to something you’d hear from an ice cream truck) and alerts everyone to take the garbage out and throw it into the truck as it passes by. After dinner, we walked less than one minute in the opposite direction of the mom-and-pop store to a little fruit stand, where there was a friendly woman selling many different types of fruit. We picked up a few and then went back to the house, where we visited some more before going to bed.

On Sunday morning, I got up and ready for the day, packed up my stuff, had a coffee and visited with my Auntie Linda, and then a taxi came to pick us up at the house. It dropped us off at Mike’s school, which had cute little classrooms and a huge assortment of books. We stored my bag in the school and then walked to the restaurant where we’d be going to for brunch. We also met up with one of Mike’s friends with his wife and two kids. The restaurant was a buffet place called 饗食天堂 (or Eat Together Buffet), and it had many different types of cuisine so that everyone would be able to find something that they liked. I actually stayed away from the western section, and I filled myself up on the Japanese section (twice!), the dim sum section, and of course the dessert section.

The food was so good, and I had been craving sushi for so long, so it was nice to finally have some that I knew was fresh! After we were all too full to eat anymore, I said my goodbyes to my aunt and uncle and then Sandy and Mike took me in a taxi to the train station.

Sandy (who is Taiwanese) went to the ticket counter and I ended up getting the last seat on the next train, which would depart in 15 minutes! My aunt and uncle ended up covering my train ticket to Taipei, and my cousin covered breakfast so I felt kind of spoiled while I was there. With Taiwan being the most expensive country of my travels, it definitely means a lot when I get the extra help!! I said goodbye to Mike and Sandy, who I’d be seeing again in a couple of weeks, and I waited for my train to come. The stop to Tainan was definitely worth it, and it was so nice to see some familiar Canadian family, especially after being away from Canada and Australia for a fair amount of time. I’m looking forward to my next time in Tainan in two weeks! Love always