It was a beautiful day outside, blue sky, no humidity, about 22C. Perfect day to take the gondola up to Maokong!
The gondola base is conveniently located at the end of the Wenhu MRT line. The MRT is above ground on the last few stops and pretty scenic. It’s then a 5 minute walk to the gondola. We arrived around 10am to beat the crowds - we only waited about five minutes to get on the gondola. We bought a day pass in case we stopped off at the various stops to sightsee on the way down. (We ended up not, but it was less than 1 CAD each extra for the day pass).
In our gondola cabin was an older couple who had visited Toronto and studied at York. We think they were both professors. Anyways it was nice chatting with them on the 30 minute ride up to the top.
We decided to walk over to Zhangshan Temple, about 20 minutes up the road. It’s a beautiful walk through tea farms with great views of the city skyline. A lot of locals come up here to hike the trails or for bike rides - it’s really close to the centre yet seems miles away.
Walked back towards the gondola and stopped for lunch at a place (Spring Tea County) that looked busy with groups of friends. The restaurant said it would be a 40 minute wait for food, which was okay by us as they had seated us on the balcony with a beautiful view of Taipei 101 and the skyline.
We ordered a bunch of tea-inspired dishes - fried rice with tea leaves, fried chicken in tea oil, fried king mushrooms and steamed greens. We really liked the rice and mushrooms, although it was all good.
We tried to get a green tea ice cream a couple stores down, but the ice cream machine stopped working when we were literally the next in line. Oh well.
Took the gondola back down, and the MRT over to an antique market in town. The market itself was pretty small and just starting to open; however it was in a really cute part of town. We wandered around (one of the best weather days we’ve had), came across a tofu pudding place and stopped in to try some - it was one of the last food items on our list. It was really good.
We browsed through the nearby Yongkang shopping district which was very lively. Google had marked the end of the street as a photo op. I assumed it was where you were supposed to take a pic of Yongkang St. We got there and looked around, and realized there was an unobstructed view of Taipei 101 framed by Xinyi Rd! The lighting was excellent as it was nearing dusk. That was a nice little bonus on our walk.
Walked the rest of the way back to the hotel and cleaned up. We wanted to try Din Tai Fung for dinner, a Michelin-rated dumpling place and supposedly some of the best dumplings in Taipei. There was a branch just next door to us in SOGO mall. It sometimes has wait times of up to two hours! They have a good reservation system though - you can stop by in person and get a number and QR code. You can then use the QR code to place your order and see how long the wait is for your number.
So I went across and got a QR code, the wait was about 80 minutes. Returned back to the hotel (just a four minute walk, almost all underground, similar to the PATH system in Toronto), had a beer and caught up in my blog.
Around 75 minutes later we went back to Din Tai Fung. We still had another 20 minutes wait before we were seated.
I had preordered using the QR code, including xiao long bao, steamed dumplings, shao mai and pot stickers. They run a tight ship here - we were seated, had another server come by to explain the proper way to mix soy sauce and vinegar for our xiao long bao (1 part soy 3 parts vinegar) and then our food started coming out from the kitchen. There was an instruction card on how to eat - place the xiao long bao in you spoon, use your chop stick (just called ‘chops’ in Taiwan) to poke a hole, sip the broth that spills out, then lightly dip in the soy mixture, add a sliver of pickled ginger and enjoy! It was the best dumplings ever.
After dinner we walked about 15 minutes to a place marked on Google maps as Taipei 101 street photo point. I had looked on street view to make sure we weren't being pranked. It had an even fuller view of Taipei 101 with nice street lighting framing the pic.
Thus ended another day of good eats in Taiwan! Good thing we walked over 17km today :)
Tuesday, January 02, 2024
Monday, January 01, 2024
Taipei, Taiwan
We’ve found Jan 1 to be a good day when traveling cause the things that are open are usually very under-touristed. Today we had a train ride to Taipei and then an afternoon to sightsee.
Had breakfast in Tainan, packed up, walked across the street to the train station (much easier now that we had figured out how to access the bridge).
We took a local train from Tainan main to the HSR station, about five stops. Most people were doing the same thing so it was easy, plus they announced the stations in English.
We used our local train ticket to exit and then our HSR ticket to enter the HSR station. The train system is fully automated for passengers here (I guess it’s similar to the GO train back home).
We settled in for the 90 minute ride to Taipei. We used the time to read up on Taipei and what to do over the next couple days.
In Taipei we transferred to the MRT (subway) and three stops later we were at our hotel. Easy peasy.
Our room wasn’t available yet (it was just past noon) so we left our bags behind and headed off for lunch near Taipei 101.
Our hotel had made a reservation for us at a restaurant in a mall (a lot of good restaurants are found in malls here). In the mall we ran into a Onitsuka Tiger store! I’m a big fan of Mexico 66 SD’s, but they’re very hard to find in North America. Here was a store fully stocked with them! Yes, here I was in Taiwan, shopping for shoes in a mall.
Luckily cause we hadn’t yet checked in I still had my passport on me, so was able to claim a tax credit. Conveniently there’s a tax return place right in the mall :)
We left the shoeboxes at the store to pick up later, and went for lunch. The restaurant specialized in teas (their food is also very good). We both had some premium teas, and a set lunch of fried rice with pork, miso soup and accoutrements. We also split a grilled corn appetizer. Mmm good.
Taipei 101 was a few minutes walk away. The entrance is through a mall, on the 5th floor. It was very busy. Bought our ticket at the kiosk. It’s timed entry so we had an hour to kill. We browsed through the mall, but it’s not really a browsing mall - here most stores were luxury goods stores that had retractable belt stanchions in the front to keep out the riff raff like us.
Finally our entry window came up. (Actually we went 30 minutes early but they didn’t care). Waited about ten minutes to catch the elevator. It was very quick, taking 37 seconds to reach the 89th floor.
The views are great from the observation deck, as you would expect. The coolest part was the tuned mass damper in the middle. This is a big yellow weight that acts as a counter-balance in high winds and earthquakes. They had videos of the damper swaying (I guess it’s actually the building swaying but it’s all relative) when recent earthquakes had struck.
There was a longer line up to get back down. We walked back to the Onitsuka Tiger store to pick up my shoes, and caught the subway home.
For dinner we headed back to the Michelin-starred beef noodle place near the hotel. Another day of great eating!
Had breakfast in Tainan, packed up, walked across the street to the train station (much easier now that we had figured out how to access the bridge).
We took a local train from Tainan main to the HSR station, about five stops. Most people were doing the same thing so it was easy, plus they announced the stations in English.
We used our local train ticket to exit and then our HSR ticket to enter the HSR station. The train system is fully automated for passengers here (I guess it’s similar to the GO train back home).
We settled in for the 90 minute ride to Taipei. We used the time to read up on Taipei and what to do over the next couple days.
In Taipei we transferred to the MRT (subway) and three stops later we were at our hotel. Easy peasy.
Our room wasn’t available yet (it was just past noon) so we left our bags behind and headed off for lunch near Taipei 101.
Our hotel had made a reservation for us at a restaurant in a mall (a lot of good restaurants are found in malls here). In the mall we ran into a Onitsuka Tiger store! I’m a big fan of Mexico 66 SD’s, but they’re very hard to find in North America. Here was a store fully stocked with them! Yes, here I was in Taiwan, shopping for shoes in a mall.
Luckily cause we hadn’t yet checked in I still had my passport on me, so was able to claim a tax credit. Conveniently there’s a tax return place right in the mall :)
We left the shoeboxes at the store to pick up later, and went for lunch. The restaurant specialized in teas (their food is also very good). We both had some premium teas, and a set lunch of fried rice with pork, miso soup and accoutrements. We also split a grilled corn appetizer. Mmm good.
Taipei 101 was a few minutes walk away. The entrance is through a mall, on the 5th floor. It was very busy. Bought our ticket at the kiosk. It’s timed entry so we had an hour to kill. We browsed through the mall, but it’s not really a browsing mall - here most stores were luxury goods stores that had retractable belt stanchions in the front to keep out the riff raff like us.
Finally our entry window came up. (Actually we went 30 minutes early but they didn’t care). Waited about ten minutes to catch the elevator. It was very quick, taking 37 seconds to reach the 89th floor.
The views are great from the observation deck, as you would expect. The coolest part was the tuned mass damper in the middle. This is a big yellow weight that acts as a counter-balance in high winds and earthquakes. They had videos of the damper swaying (I guess it’s actually the building swaying but it’s all relative) when recent earthquakes had struck.
There was a longer line up to get back down. We walked back to the Onitsuka Tiger store to pick up my shoes, and caught the subway home.
For dinner we headed back to the Michelin-starred beef noodle place near the hotel. Another day of great eating!
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Tainan, Taiwan
We had seen all the places on our list in Tainan over the last couple days, so had a free day :) We debated just wandering around the random small alleys in the centre. Decided instead to head to the Anping District, about 20 minutes by taxi on the coast. There’s an old Dutch fort to see, a couple temples, and Anping Old Street with markets and small alleys.
Our taxi driver chatted with us on the drive to the coast, the first taxi driver we’ve had that did so. He had actually visited Canada recently, including Yellowknife to see the Northern Lights. He observed that during Covid when travel was largely restricted to within country borders, there were far more options for folks in larger geographical countries such as Canada, vs Taiwan, which is less than 400km tip to tip. In Canada there were also provincial restrictions, but Ontario itself is pretty big :)
We were dropped off at Eternal Golden Castle, a fort on the shores of the Taiwan Strait. Paid our entry fee, and walked around the ramparts. There’s not much to see except some replica canyons. It had a cool atmosphere though.
We walked along the waterfront through a park. It was warm today - the high was near 27C and sunny. The waterfront is being redeveloped, it will look nice when it’s done.
Between the hotel map and Google maps it was confusing to figure out where things were. The hotel map had the same sites marked in multiple places, and Google had yet something different. So we just followed the path along the waterfront.
Crossed over the canal and entered old Anping. It was bustling, maybe cause it was a Sunday? Or maybe this was normal every day? We weren’t sure.
There were lots of food stalls, nothing that caught our fancy, so we continued through to the restaurants just outside the market through small alleyways.
We ended up at a cute little Thai restaurant (Moveforward), rated highly on Google maps. It was excellent, although we might have ordered too much food. (And we had booked a NYE dinner special at 6:30pm back at the hotel!)
Checked out the Anping Kaitai Tianhou Temple after lunch. It was pretty nice, although we are getting a bit out-templed.
We figured out later that there are actually three forts in Anping, and the other two were a stone’s throw from the temple. Oh well. We were done for the day, and just grabbed a taxi home.
Relaxed and then cleaned up for our big NYE dinner special at the hotel. It was the first time in a while traveling that we’ve had a dinner special for NYE - usually these are pretty elaborate and extend to midnight. Here it was just dinner, we had to be out by 9pm so they could set up for the partyers. The soup course was the hit of the meal - a chicken broth with an egg roll.
Around 8pm we heard a pianist start up in the lounge, who was amazing. We settled up at the restaurant to head down to listen; and then realized the pianist was a guest who looked to be about 10 years old. He stopped playing after a couple songs :(
Back up in our room we watched a bit of the NYE fireworks in Sydney, and then went to bed before midnight our time, around 10pm.
Our taxi driver chatted with us on the drive to the coast, the first taxi driver we’ve had that did so. He had actually visited Canada recently, including Yellowknife to see the Northern Lights. He observed that during Covid when travel was largely restricted to within country borders, there were far more options for folks in larger geographical countries such as Canada, vs Taiwan, which is less than 400km tip to tip. In Canada there were also provincial restrictions, but Ontario itself is pretty big :)
We were dropped off at Eternal Golden Castle, a fort on the shores of the Taiwan Strait. Paid our entry fee, and walked around the ramparts. There’s not much to see except some replica canyons. It had a cool atmosphere though.
We walked along the waterfront through a park. It was warm today - the high was near 27C and sunny. The waterfront is being redeveloped, it will look nice when it’s done.
Between the hotel map and Google maps it was confusing to figure out where things were. The hotel map had the same sites marked in multiple places, and Google had yet something different. So we just followed the path along the waterfront.
Crossed over the canal and entered old Anping. It was bustling, maybe cause it was a Sunday? Or maybe this was normal every day? We weren’t sure.
There were lots of food stalls, nothing that caught our fancy, so we continued through to the restaurants just outside the market through small alleyways.
We ended up at a cute little Thai restaurant (Moveforward), rated highly on Google maps. It was excellent, although we might have ordered too much food. (And we had booked a NYE dinner special at 6:30pm back at the hotel!)
Checked out the Anping Kaitai Tianhou Temple after lunch. It was pretty nice, although we are getting a bit out-templed.
We figured out later that there are actually three forts in Anping, and the other two were a stone’s throw from the temple. Oh well. We were done for the day, and just grabbed a taxi home.
Relaxed and then cleaned up for our big NYE dinner special at the hotel. It was the first time in a while traveling that we’ve had a dinner special for NYE - usually these are pretty elaborate and extend to midnight. Here it was just dinner, we had to be out by 9pm so they could set up for the partyers. The soup course was the hit of the meal - a chicken broth with an egg roll.
Around 8pm we heard a pianist start up in the lounge, who was amazing. We settled up at the restaurant to head down to listen; and then realized the pianist was a guest who looked to be about 10 years old. He stopped playing after a couple songs :(
Back up in our room we watched a bit of the NYE fireworks in Sydney, and then went to bed before midnight our time, around 10pm.
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Tainan, Taiwan
It was very foggy out when we woke up - we could barely see the railway station across the tracks. As the sun rose and burnt off the fog, we realized there was quite a bit of pollution here in Tainan. Our iPhone doesn’t give an air quality index for cities in Taiwan, but it looked bad. I guess with all the cloudy days we hadn’t noticed.
The hotel had pretty good western options for breakfast - we both went off-menu and ordered French toast with scrambled eggs on the side. They actually had teapots too!
The forecast called for clouds with no rain, and enough of a UV index to require sunscreen.
As soon as we stepped outside the hotel it started raining, so we went back up to grab our umbrellas.
Most of the buildings in the core have a sheltered walkway, so it was just on occasion that we used the umbrellas. Probably did not need sunscreen though. It ended up raining most of the day, but it wasn’t an inconvenience.
We started at Tiantan Tian Gong Temple. I quite liked this temple - it was really beautiful. The rain seemed to be keeping some tourists away - Google maps said less busy than usual at all the outdoor sites today. I took a lot of pics. There was a good description in English at the entrance about the highlights of the temple.
We randomly walked by Chuan Mei Theatre, which has hand-painted movie posters advertising what’s playing. Wouldn’t have gone out of our way to see it but it was cool to see in passing.
We also randomly walked by a lantern shop where an artist was painting the lanterns. They were okay with pics so I took a few.
We stopped into a couple other smaller temples along the way to Grand Matsu Temples, which were okay.
Next up was Grand Matsu Temple, another highlight of the day. Matsu and Mazu are transliterations of the same word, I’ve just used whatever Google maps uses to make it easier to search for.
Grand Matsu Temple is extensive and very photogenic. I got some good pics of the various ceremonial instruments and tools, such as the percussion temple block, halberds, moon stones and fortune sticks. Some of them I just took the pic and looked up afterwards to figure out what they were called.
A quick visit to Chikan Tower, which was built as a fort back in the 17th century and later turned into a residence. It’s now being restored, with half of it under scaffolding.
We walked through a street market looking for lunch and ended up at place on a street corner, slightly outside the market. Had the pork with rice set meal, which included a salad and miso soup. It was really tasty.
On the way to our next stop we passed by a bào bīng place (shaved ice with fruit and fruit-flavoured sorbet on top). We ordered the mango version - it was excellent!
We found our way to Tainan Art Museum Building 1. We really enjoyed the exhibit - A Garden in the South – The Su Shi-xiong Commemorative Exhibition which chronicled the ceramics and art of Su Shi-Xiong through his life. It included works by his wife and daughter, also accomplished artists.
Next was Tainan Art Museum Building 2, about a five minute walk, and included in the same ticket.
Building 2 had some interesting contemporary exhibits. The highlight for us were the pieces on loan from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This included the Jadeite Cabbage, one of the most well-known pieces from the museum. We had read that it’s quite small, so weren’t surprised. This exhibit was heavily guarded.
On the walk back home, we stopped into the train station to buy tickets for Jan 1 to get to the HSR train station (the high speed train doesn't come into the centre of town).
We also finally figured out how to access the bridge over the tracks. There's a ticket dispenser where you have to press a red button to generate a ticket, which allows entry to the station (otherwise only train ticket holders are allowed) to cross the bridge.
Overall it was a really good day with lots of highlights!
The hotel had pretty good western options for breakfast - we both went off-menu and ordered French toast with scrambled eggs on the side. They actually had teapots too!
The forecast called for clouds with no rain, and enough of a UV index to require sunscreen.
As soon as we stepped outside the hotel it started raining, so we went back up to grab our umbrellas.
Most of the buildings in the core have a sheltered walkway, so it was just on occasion that we used the umbrellas. Probably did not need sunscreen though. It ended up raining most of the day, but it wasn’t an inconvenience.
We started at Tiantan Tian Gong Temple. I quite liked this temple - it was really beautiful. The rain seemed to be keeping some tourists away - Google maps said less busy than usual at all the outdoor sites today. I took a lot of pics. There was a good description in English at the entrance about the highlights of the temple.
We randomly walked by Chuan Mei Theatre, which has hand-painted movie posters advertising what’s playing. Wouldn’t have gone out of our way to see it but it was cool to see in passing.
We also randomly walked by a lantern shop where an artist was painting the lanterns. They were okay with pics so I took a few.
We stopped into a couple other smaller temples along the way to Grand Matsu Temples, which were okay.
Next up was Grand Matsu Temple, another highlight of the day. Matsu and Mazu are transliterations of the same word, I’ve just used whatever Google maps uses to make it easier to search for.
Grand Matsu Temple is extensive and very photogenic. I got some good pics of the various ceremonial instruments and tools, such as the percussion temple block, halberds, moon stones and fortune sticks. Some of them I just took the pic and looked up afterwards to figure out what they were called.
A quick visit to Chikan Tower, which was built as a fort back in the 17th century and later turned into a residence. It’s now being restored, with half of it under scaffolding.
We walked through a street market looking for lunch and ended up at place on a street corner, slightly outside the market. Had the pork with rice set meal, which included a salad and miso soup. It was really tasty.
On the way to our next stop we passed by a bào bīng place (shaved ice with fruit and fruit-flavoured sorbet on top). We ordered the mango version - it was excellent!
We found our way to Tainan Art Museum Building 1. We really enjoyed the exhibit - A Garden in the South – The Su Shi-xiong Commemorative Exhibition which chronicled the ceramics and art of Su Shi-Xiong through his life. It included works by his wife and daughter, also accomplished artists.
Next was Tainan Art Museum Building 2, about a five minute walk, and included in the same ticket.
Building 2 had some interesting contemporary exhibits. The highlight for us were the pieces on loan from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This included the Jadeite Cabbage, one of the most well-known pieces from the museum. We had read that it’s quite small, so weren’t surprised. This exhibit was heavily guarded.
On the walk back home, we stopped into the train station to buy tickets for Jan 1 to get to the HSR train station (the high speed train doesn't come into the centre of town).
We also finally figured out how to access the bridge over the tracks. There's a ticket dispenser where you have to press a red button to generate a ticket, which allows entry to the station (otherwise only train ticket holders are allowed) to cross the bridge.
Overall it was a really good day with lots of highlights!
Friday, December 29, 2023
Tainan, Taiwan
We had a quick breakfast at our hotel in Kaohshiung and got packed up. It took us a bit longer than usual cause we had spread out quite a bit in the room.
Caught the MRT (subway) to the train station, where it was very easy to transfer. It was only 30 minutes to Tainan, hardly enough time to open up the Lonely Planet to plan out the afternoon.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 25C. It’s been an odd trip weather-wise, we’ve been through all types of clothing from max winter gear with all our base layers to dry fit and humidity.
Our hotel in Tainan was just opposite the train station; but on the other side of the tracks so it took us 10 minutes to walk around. Then we realized there’s a pedestrian bridge and exit on the hotel side :(
Anyways it was not even noon so early check in wasn’t yet available. We left our luggage and headed out to sightsee, roughly along the Lonely Planet “Urban Tainan Temple Walking Tour” (not sure what the “Urban” part meant, it would be hard to do a Rural walking tour, but whatever).
Tainan is one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, with lots of temples and old buildings to see.
We started with the City God Temple, which was okay. It had pretty good descriptions in English, and a large abacus over the main entrance (symbolizing the calculation of people’s good and bad deeds).
Along the way we looked for a busy restaurant for lunch. Heather spotted a line up down an alleyway, with food that looked good. We lined up and then did some research. The internet said good things too, and also suggested the best things to try.
After about 45 minutes we were seated! Placed our order (sticky rice with pork and fish floss, breadstick, boiled greens, pork dumpling soup, pork jowl and pork rind). It came out made-to-order (most places are buffet-like). It was excellent, worth the wait.
After lunch we checked out the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. Over its history, Taiwan has had a number of different languages either mandated or suppressed, which makes it difficult to develop a literary history. The museum was interesting. English descriptors were limited (I guess that makes sense, given it’s a literary museum where English isn’t prominent).
We then headed over to the Confucius Temple, which was a combination temple and museum. It’s my first pic of a temple in Taiwan with a blue sky background :)
Nearby was the Hayashi Department Store. It was built in the 1930’s, bombed in WWII (you can still see the effects on the 5th floor), restored in 2006 and is still a department store. It’s an old-school department store, it feels like you’re walking through a movie shoot but it’s real.
Kitty corner is the Land Bank, with Greek columns and a mix of other architectural styles.
It was nearing 3pm and check in time at the hotel. We relaxed back at the hotel, watched the sunset over the city, had some snacks at the lounge, and made plans for tomorrow. A good start to Tainan!
Caught the MRT (subway) to the train station, where it was very easy to transfer. It was only 30 minutes to Tainan, hardly enough time to open up the Lonely Planet to plan out the afternoon.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 25C. It’s been an odd trip weather-wise, we’ve been through all types of clothing from max winter gear with all our base layers to dry fit and humidity.
Our hotel in Tainan was just opposite the train station; but on the other side of the tracks so it took us 10 minutes to walk around. Then we realized there’s a pedestrian bridge and exit on the hotel side :(
Anyways it was not even noon so early check in wasn’t yet available. We left our luggage and headed out to sightsee, roughly along the Lonely Planet “Urban Tainan Temple Walking Tour” (not sure what the “Urban” part meant, it would be hard to do a Rural walking tour, but whatever).
Tainan is one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, with lots of temples and old buildings to see.
We started with the City God Temple, which was okay. It had pretty good descriptions in English, and a large abacus over the main entrance (symbolizing the calculation of people’s good and bad deeds).
Along the way we looked for a busy restaurant for lunch. Heather spotted a line up down an alleyway, with food that looked good. We lined up and then did some research. The internet said good things too, and also suggested the best things to try.
After about 45 minutes we were seated! Placed our order (sticky rice with pork and fish floss, breadstick, boiled greens, pork dumpling soup, pork jowl and pork rind). It came out made-to-order (most places are buffet-like). It was excellent, worth the wait.
After lunch we checked out the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. Over its history, Taiwan has had a number of different languages either mandated or suppressed, which makes it difficult to develop a literary history. The museum was interesting. English descriptors were limited (I guess that makes sense, given it’s a literary museum where English isn’t prominent).
We then headed over to the Confucius Temple, which was a combination temple and museum. It’s my first pic of a temple in Taiwan with a blue sky background :)
Nearby was the Hayashi Department Store. It was built in the 1930’s, bombed in WWII (you can still see the effects on the 5th floor), restored in 2006 and is still a department store. It’s an old-school department store, it feels like you’re walking through a movie shoot but it’s real.
Kitty corner is the Land Bank, with Greek columns and a mix of other architectural styles.
It was nearing 3pm and check in time at the hotel. We relaxed back at the hotel, watched the sunset over the city, had some snacks at the lounge, and made plans for tomorrow. A good start to Tainan!
Thursday, December 28, 2023
Kaohshiung, Taiwan
Breakfast at our hotel was a set tray with an interesting mix of western and local dishes. There was a small bowl of milk and cereal, eggs with grilled chicken and tomato, a mushroom soup and a separate potato broth. They were all very tasty but I couldn’t get past the soup for breakfast part. They did have excellent pastries though.
The things to see that we had mapped out last night were unfortunately spread out across the city. Kaohshiung, a bit like Toronto, is under-serviced by subways. It’s great if what you want is on the subway line but most things aren’t.
So we started by taking a taxi out to Lotus Pond, about a half hour north of the centre. It’s surrounded by numerous temples and is a big tourist draw. Unfortunately for us there was a cruise ship in town (we had noticed it docked last night from our hotel) and so the temples were busier than usual with large group excursions.
The most popular site at Lotus Pond are the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. They’re under restorations and covered with scaffolding. So we checked out the other pagodas. These were covered with pigeon poop. So not very attractive or picturesque.
We tried to hail a taxi to the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and at first jumped into someone else’s Uber. The Centre for the Arts is a Zaha Hadid Architecture (ZHA) designed building. It looked the part, with not many straight lines. It wasn’t quite as interesting as the ZHA building in Baku, where we first became interested in her work.
Close by was WeiWu Mi Mi Village, where murals cover the outside of most of the 3-5 storey buildings in the block. Some of them were cool but we found it a bit over the top.
We were able to take a subway to near our next stop, Hei Bonn Gōrudohausu. It’s a high-end Japanese grocery store on the 1st floor (wagyu beef, sushi etc) and on the 2nd floor is a cafeteria-like setting where you can cook and eat. The store had someone who spoke English help us buy the right ingredients for a hotpot (sliced wagyu beef and an assorted vegetable platter). Upstairs, they then provided a miso broth and we were cooking!
We’ve really enjoyed the street food scene on this trip, but we have found it to be a lot of deep fried stuff. I like deep fried food, but maybe in moderation :). Anyways our lunch hit the spot.
Next door was another ZHA building, the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal. The cruise ship was still in port, and the security staff thought we were returning passengers. The cruise ship also got in the way of pics of the building :( but I guess it is the cruise terminal.
We debated checking out the Museum of Labour that we had stumbled across yesterday, but decided to return to the hotel to rest up.
We had dinner at the grill restaurant in the hotel. Their grilled steaks were excellent, the appetizers were so-so.
After dinner we took a taxi to Sanfong Temple. It’s better visited after sunset cause of the strings of red laterns. There were only a couple other visitors there too. There were worshippers near the back of the temple that were chanting and playing instruments. It was pretty cool to see the temple and hear the ceremonial music.
We were still full from dinner so decided to walk the 45 minutes home. It was a very pleasant walk back. There’s a nice vibe to Kaohshiung, with lots of people out and about enjoying the evening. (It was also perfect weather). We came across a busy Christmas event in a park with performers and a jolly Santa. It was a nice end to the day.
The things to see that we had mapped out last night were unfortunately spread out across the city. Kaohshiung, a bit like Toronto, is under-serviced by subways. It’s great if what you want is on the subway line but most things aren’t.
So we started by taking a taxi out to Lotus Pond, about a half hour north of the centre. It’s surrounded by numerous temples and is a big tourist draw. Unfortunately for us there was a cruise ship in town (we had noticed it docked last night from our hotel) and so the temples were busier than usual with large group excursions.
The most popular site at Lotus Pond are the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. They’re under restorations and covered with scaffolding. So we checked out the other pagodas. These were covered with pigeon poop. So not very attractive or picturesque.
We tried to hail a taxi to the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and at first jumped into someone else’s Uber. The Centre for the Arts is a Zaha Hadid Architecture (ZHA) designed building. It looked the part, with not many straight lines. It wasn’t quite as interesting as the ZHA building in Baku, where we first became interested in her work.
Close by was WeiWu Mi Mi Village, where murals cover the outside of most of the 3-5 storey buildings in the block. Some of them were cool but we found it a bit over the top.
We were able to take a subway to near our next stop, Hei Bonn Gōrudohausu. It’s a high-end Japanese grocery store on the 1st floor (wagyu beef, sushi etc) and on the 2nd floor is a cafeteria-like setting where you can cook and eat. The store had someone who spoke English help us buy the right ingredients for a hotpot (sliced wagyu beef and an assorted vegetable platter). Upstairs, they then provided a miso broth and we were cooking!
We’ve really enjoyed the street food scene on this trip, but we have found it to be a lot of deep fried stuff. I like deep fried food, but maybe in moderation :). Anyways our lunch hit the spot.
Next door was another ZHA building, the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal. The cruise ship was still in port, and the security staff thought we were returning passengers. The cruise ship also got in the way of pics of the building :( but I guess it is the cruise terminal.
We debated checking out the Museum of Labour that we had stumbled across yesterday, but decided to return to the hotel to rest up.
We had dinner at the grill restaurant in the hotel. Their grilled steaks were excellent, the appetizers were so-so.
After dinner we took a taxi to Sanfong Temple. It’s better visited after sunset cause of the strings of red laterns. There were only a couple other visitors there too. There were worshippers near the back of the temple that were chanting and playing instruments. It was pretty cool to see the temple and hear the ceremonial music.
We were still full from dinner so decided to walk the 45 minutes home. It was a very pleasant walk back. There’s a nice vibe to Kaohshiung, with lots of people out and about enjoying the evening. (It was also perfect weather). We came across a busy Christmas event in a park with performers and a jolly Santa. It was a nice end to the day.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Kaohshiung, Taiwan
It took a bit longer to get from Lukang to Kaohshiung than getting into Lukang. A taxi, local train and subway ride and four hours later we were at our hotel in Kaohshiung. We were able to get early check in again!
Our hotel recommended a restaurant for lunch. The folks there provided us a picture menu and helped us order. It was pretty good.
After we walked over to the Pier2 Art Centre and browsed the artsy stores. Kaohshiung is more of a cultural hub than other cities in Taiwan, with two (!) Zaha Hadid Architecture buildings to see. It's a nice variety from all the temples we've been seeing so far.
We were close to Formosa Blvd subway station so checked out the Dome of Light, an art installation inside the station. On the way there we walked past the Museum of Labour which looked interesting, but for another day as we had lost our steam.
Took the subway back to the hotel and made plans for the next day. There’s a few things on the list so we’ll have a full day.
Our hotel recommended a restaurant for lunch. The folks there provided us a picture menu and helped us order. It was pretty good.
After we walked over to the Pier2 Art Centre and browsed the artsy stores. Kaohshiung is more of a cultural hub than other cities in Taiwan, with two (!) Zaha Hadid Architecture buildings to see. It's a nice variety from all the temples we've been seeing so far.
We were close to Formosa Blvd subway station so checked out the Dome of Light, an art installation inside the station. On the way there we walked past the Museum of Labour which looked interesting, but for another day as we had lost our steam.
Took the subway back to the hotel and made plans for the next day. There’s a few things on the list so we’ll have a full day.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Lukang, Taiwan
We took the HSR (high-speed rail) from Taipei to Taichung, and then a taxi to Lukang. It was a three step process to get tickets - I bought a voucher online for the route, and then used the voucher to reserve seats on the day we wanted. Then in Taiwan we had to show our passports at a train station to pick up the tickets. I made the reservation as soon as the window opened up two weeks out - good thing too, as it looked fully booked.
It’s only 45 minutes by HSR to Taichung, about half way south down Taiwan. The taxi ride to Lukang was just as long :) we could have taken another local train but we only had the afternoon to see Lukang.
Luckily our room was available for early check in at noon, so we could freshen up and change to warmer weather clothes. It was beautiful in Lukang, about 22C with a warm breeze. It’s the first nice day weather-wise we’ve had!
Lukang is a quaint little town with really well preserved older buildings. It’s a working town (not just for tourists) and has a nice charm. We loosely followed the Lonely Planet walking tour to get to Lukang Mazu Temple.
First we stopped for food. There’s a number of local delicacies and the restaurants around the temple are some of the best to try them. So we ordered oyster fritters, deep-fried mud shrimp, oyster omelette and some other stuff. It was interesting to try, but it wasn’t to our liking. The restaurant was packed with locals enjoying it though so I’m sure it was very good.
Then we visited Mazu Temple. It’s my favourite temple I’ve seen so far. It dates back to the 17th century. There weren’t many worshippers and hardly any tourists when we visited.
We wandered back to the hotel through little streets and alleys.
After sunset we returned back to Mazu Temple to see it at night. It was even more amazing and magical at night. There were only a couple other people there.
Walked back to the hotel, the back alleys near the hotel were also nicely lit at night. The hotel recommended a place for dinner; they were closing when we arrived but they suggested another place around the corner, which was okay.
We were glad we stayed overnight in Lukang (it’s more common as a day trip) just so we could see it at night. If you’re in Taiwan and have the chance to visit I’d highly recommend it.
It’s only 45 minutes by HSR to Taichung, about half way south down Taiwan. The taxi ride to Lukang was just as long :) we could have taken another local train but we only had the afternoon to see Lukang.
Luckily our room was available for early check in at noon, so we could freshen up and change to warmer weather clothes. It was beautiful in Lukang, about 22C with a warm breeze. It’s the first nice day weather-wise we’ve had!
Lukang is a quaint little town with really well preserved older buildings. It’s a working town (not just for tourists) and has a nice charm. We loosely followed the Lonely Planet walking tour to get to Lukang Mazu Temple.
First we stopped for food. There’s a number of local delicacies and the restaurants around the temple are some of the best to try them. So we ordered oyster fritters, deep-fried mud shrimp, oyster omelette and some other stuff. It was interesting to try, but it wasn’t to our liking. The restaurant was packed with locals enjoying it though so I’m sure it was very good.
Then we visited Mazu Temple. It’s my favourite temple I’ve seen so far. It dates back to the 17th century. There weren’t many worshippers and hardly any tourists when we visited.
We wandered back to the hotel through little streets and alleys.
After sunset we returned back to Mazu Temple to see it at night. It was even more amazing and magical at night. There were only a couple other people there.
Walked back to the hotel, the back alleys near the hotel were also nicely lit at night. The hotel recommended a place for dinner; they were closing when we arrived but they suggested another place around the corner, which was okay.
We were glad we stayed overnight in Lukang (it’s more common as a day trip) just so we could see it at night. If you’re in Taiwan and have the chance to visit I’d highly recommend it.
Monday, December 25, 2023
Taipei, Taiwan
Merry Christmas! Dec 25 is not a public holiday in Taiwan so things were generally open, unlike our last trip in NZ where they shut down almost everything for weeks! We had more of a challenge with today being a Monday (most museums and the like are closed Mondays).
Today on our list was Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall and Bangka Longshan Temple. We took the subway to CKS station, where the exit to the Memorial Hall was very clearly signed in Taiwanese and English. We’ve been really impressed with the subway in Taipei.
CKS Memorial Hall is really amazing to see. The size and scale is enormous. The main building has a 6.3m tall statue of CKS on the top, with 89 steps leading up (he lived to 89). In front are beautiful gardens, and at the other end a concert hall and a theatre.
We were lucky to arrive just on the hour and catch the changing of the guards.
There’s a museum on the ground floor under the massive bronze statue, which describes the evolution of democracy and freedom of speech in Taiwan.
The power cut out for a few minutes while we were visiting the museum which helped clear out the tour groups :)
The memorial hall and the grounds took us about 2.5 hours to see.
The Lonely Planet recommended a dumpling place just around the corner, so we checked it out for lunch. Ordered pork and leek steamed dumplings and siu mai. Both were amazing, some of the best we’ve had.
We then walked over to Longshan Temple. On the way passed by Bopiliao Historic Block, a row of restored old shophouses. Unfortunately it’s closed on Mondays :(
Longshan Temple was just down the street from Bopiliao. It’s the oldest temple in Tainan, founded in 1938. It was pretty busy with worshippers, with the smell of incense in the air and the clatter of moon stones. Worshippers will ask the gods a yes/no question and then throw the stones on the ground. The answer depends on how they land. There’s a bowl with moon stones in the temple - worshippers carefully select their stones (based on what I’m not sure) and then return them later.
Took the subway back home and rested up.
Later we checked out Tonghua St Night Market. We got there around 6:30pm and it was just getting busy. Tried any stall with a line up, except for the stinky tofu. We were full at that point, plus it is really stinky. Maybe on our way back through Taipei we’ll try it. The last thing we tried were pineapple buns. These were amazing. They look just like a dinner roll but have so much flavour. It was served warm with sliced cold butter, mmm good.
Today on our list was Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall and Bangka Longshan Temple. We took the subway to CKS station, where the exit to the Memorial Hall was very clearly signed in Taiwanese and English. We’ve been really impressed with the subway in Taipei.
CKS Memorial Hall is really amazing to see. The size and scale is enormous. The main building has a 6.3m tall statue of CKS on the top, with 89 steps leading up (he lived to 89). In front are beautiful gardens, and at the other end a concert hall and a theatre.
We were lucky to arrive just on the hour and catch the changing of the guards.
There’s a museum on the ground floor under the massive bronze statue, which describes the evolution of democracy and freedom of speech in Taiwan.
The power cut out for a few minutes while we were visiting the museum which helped clear out the tour groups :)
The memorial hall and the grounds took us about 2.5 hours to see.
The Lonely Planet recommended a dumpling place just around the corner, so we checked it out for lunch. Ordered pork and leek steamed dumplings and siu mai. Both were amazing, some of the best we’ve had.
We then walked over to Longshan Temple. On the way passed by Bopiliao Historic Block, a row of restored old shophouses. Unfortunately it’s closed on Mondays :(
Longshan Temple was just down the street from Bopiliao. It’s the oldest temple in Tainan, founded in 1938. It was pretty busy with worshippers, with the smell of incense in the air and the clatter of moon stones. Worshippers will ask the gods a yes/no question and then throw the stones on the ground. The answer depends on how they land. There’s a bowl with moon stones in the temple - worshippers carefully select their stones (based on what I’m not sure) and then return them later.
Took the subway back home and rested up.
Later we checked out Tonghua St Night Market. We got there around 6:30pm and it was just getting busy. Tried any stall with a line up, except for the stinky tofu. We were full at that point, plus it is really stinky. Maybe on our way back through Taipei we’ll try it. The last thing we tried were pineapple buns. These were amazing. They look just like a dinner roll but have so much flavour. It was served warm with sliced cold butter, mmm good.
Sunday, December 24, 2023
Taipei, Taiwan
It’s Christmas Eve, in Taipei. The concierge said to us to Have a nice day, to paraphrase Shane MacGowan.
We had another hearty breakfast and headed out touristing. We checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, which was pretty interesting. It’s not high on lists of things to see in Taipei but we enjoy visiting the contemporary arts museums wherever we go.
Next we wandered down Dihua Street, a pedestrian street with a mix of trendy cafes, street food, and older shops, and lots of character. We tried a few bites - pork meatballs in a pepper sauce, steamed buns (our favourite of the day) and deep fried tofu.
Walked in the direction of our hotel and came across Huashan 1914 Creative Park, a cultural hub in an old sake winery (similar to the Distillery District in Toronto). It was very lively.
Tried out a dumpling place near our hotel for dinner. It was hard to find - it’s in the bottom level of a mall. The pork steamed dumplings were pretty good.
It was a quiet day otherwise. The rains held off but it was cloudy and dreary. We haven’t seen the sun yet in Taiwan :(
We had another hearty breakfast and headed out touristing. We checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, which was pretty interesting. It’s not high on lists of things to see in Taipei but we enjoy visiting the contemporary arts museums wherever we go.
Next we wandered down Dihua Street, a pedestrian street with a mix of trendy cafes, street food, and older shops, and lots of character. We tried a few bites - pork meatballs in a pepper sauce, steamed buns (our favourite of the day) and deep fried tofu.
Walked in the direction of our hotel and came across Huashan 1914 Creative Park, a cultural hub in an old sake winery (similar to the Distillery District in Toronto). It was very lively.
Tried out a dumpling place near our hotel for dinner. It was hard to find - it’s in the bottom level of a mall. The pork steamed dumplings were pretty good.
It was a quiet day otherwise. The rains held off but it was cloudy and dreary. We haven’t seen the sun yet in Taiwan :(
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Taipei, Taiwan
Luckily Heather had read through the various hotel instructions last night, cause we had to book a seating for breakfast (7am/8am/9am). We were up before our alarms, still a bit jetlagged, although at least we’re getting sleep at night.
Breakfast was excellent, I think that’s why we chose our hotel. After breakfast, we planned out our day. We have three full days now, and then two days at the end of our Taiwan leg. We had to plan around a Monday when not many museums are open. Figured we’d start with the National Palace Museum, one of the must-sees in Taipei.
We took a taxi to the museum as it’s a bit out of the centre. The weather held off so far - the forecast was for rain all day.
Bought our tickets and entered. The museum signage includes English so it’s easy to get around and understand what you’re looking at.
We started in the jade section. One of the museum highlights is the Jadeite Cabbage, but it’s on loan to the Tainan Art Museum for the next month. Fortunately we’ll actually be in Tainan next week :)
We also toured through the bronze, calligraphy and porcelain sections. I had to google to figure out the difference between porcelain and ceramic (porcelain is a type of ceramic).
The museum is very popular with tour groups. Heather was flash mobbed a number of times looking at something and had to swim her way out.
It took us about three hours to get through the museum. It’s very impressive. Most of the pieces were moved from the Forbidden City in Beijing during the Great Retreat in 1949.
Grabbed a taxi back to the centre, to Dalongdong Bao’an Temple. Google maps makes it very easy if you don’t speak the local language - it displays the destination in the local script and can sound it out too. So we had no problems communicating our destination with the taxi driver. (Maybe this is commonly known but first time we’ve used it).
We decided to have lunch first and then see the temple. Picked a random spot based on seeing the dumplings they were cooking in the front. Used Google translate to figure out the menu and order. It was excellent.
Walked back over to Bao’an Temple. It’s a Taiwanese folk religion temple, with mostly worshippers and just a couple other tourists. It’s very photogenic - I took a lot of pics.
I’ve been trying to use mostly my iPhone for pics this trip. It has a 15x optical zoom which should be good enough for city pics. It’s definitely lighter and easier to carry. Also it’s waterproof so I don’t have to worry about rain. So far the results are mixed - anything beyond a 3x zoom (when the iPhone switches over to a different lens) it looks really dithered. Anyways I’ll keep on experimenting this trip.
Next door to the Bao’an Temple is the Taipei Confucius Temple. It was similarly impressive with only a handful of people, mostly tourists here. Took a bunch more pics.
We thought about walking all the way back to the hotel, about an hour. After about ten minutes we reached a small outdoor market near Yuanshan station. Tried some snacks and then decided just to catch the subway home. Figured out how to buy a single fare. It’s zone based, cost us about $1 each to get back. You get a token which is scanned to enter, and then you drop it back when you exit at your station. Pretty easy.
Got back around 3:30pm, in time for afternoon tea at the hotel. Had a double breakfast espresso and some cookies.
Later on had a drink at happy hour and caught up in my blog. The hotel made a reservation at a restaurant about a two minute walk away. It was miserable outside, rainy and misty, so just wanted something close.
The restaurant turned out to be Michelin rated, although in Taiwan, Michelin restaurants seem to be as common as a green Pass sign in Toronto. I had the beef noodles, the recommended meal and a Taiwanese specialty. It was excellent, although from my perspective, no more so than any of the other food I’ve had here. Obviously my palette is not sophisticated enough :)
Breakfast was excellent, I think that’s why we chose our hotel. After breakfast, we planned out our day. We have three full days now, and then two days at the end of our Taiwan leg. We had to plan around a Monday when not many museums are open. Figured we’d start with the National Palace Museum, one of the must-sees in Taipei.
We took a taxi to the museum as it’s a bit out of the centre. The weather held off so far - the forecast was for rain all day.
Bought our tickets and entered. The museum signage includes English so it’s easy to get around and understand what you’re looking at.
We started in the jade section. One of the museum highlights is the Jadeite Cabbage, but it’s on loan to the Tainan Art Museum for the next month. Fortunately we’ll actually be in Tainan next week :)
We also toured through the bronze, calligraphy and porcelain sections. I had to google to figure out the difference between porcelain and ceramic (porcelain is a type of ceramic).
The museum is very popular with tour groups. Heather was flash mobbed a number of times looking at something and had to swim her way out.
It took us about three hours to get through the museum. It’s very impressive. Most of the pieces were moved from the Forbidden City in Beijing during the Great Retreat in 1949.
Grabbed a taxi back to the centre, to Dalongdong Bao’an Temple. Google maps makes it very easy if you don’t speak the local language - it displays the destination in the local script and can sound it out too. So we had no problems communicating our destination with the taxi driver. (Maybe this is commonly known but first time we’ve used it).
We decided to have lunch first and then see the temple. Picked a random spot based on seeing the dumplings they were cooking in the front. Used Google translate to figure out the menu and order. It was excellent.
Walked back over to Bao’an Temple. It’s a Taiwanese folk religion temple, with mostly worshippers and just a couple other tourists. It’s very photogenic - I took a lot of pics.
I’ve been trying to use mostly my iPhone for pics this trip. It has a 15x optical zoom which should be good enough for city pics. It’s definitely lighter and easier to carry. Also it’s waterproof so I don’t have to worry about rain. So far the results are mixed - anything beyond a 3x zoom (when the iPhone switches over to a different lens) it looks really dithered. Anyways I’ll keep on experimenting this trip.
Next door to the Bao’an Temple is the Taipei Confucius Temple. It was similarly impressive with only a handful of people, mostly tourists here. Took a bunch more pics.
We thought about walking all the way back to the hotel, about an hour. After about ten minutes we reached a small outdoor market near Yuanshan station. Tried some snacks and then decided just to catch the subway home. Figured out how to buy a single fare. It’s zone based, cost us about $1 each to get back. You get a token which is scanned to enter, and then you drop it back when you exit at your station. Pretty easy.
Got back around 3:30pm, in time for afternoon tea at the hotel. Had a double breakfast espresso and some cookies.
Later on had a drink at happy hour and caught up in my blog. The hotel made a reservation at a restaurant about a two minute walk away. It was miserable outside, rainy and misty, so just wanted something close.
The restaurant turned out to be Michelin rated, although in Taiwan, Michelin restaurants seem to be as common as a green Pass sign in Toronto. I had the beef noodles, the recommended meal and a Taiwanese specialty. It was excellent, although from my perspective, no more so than any of the other food I’ve had here. Obviously my palette is not sophisticated enough :)
Friday, December 22, 2023
Taipei, Taiwan
Our flight to Taiwan wasn’t until 3:30pm so we had a relaxing morning. We checked out, left our bags at the hotel and then headed out in search of the Makishi Public Market. ‘Search’ as in followed Google maps walking directions through the covered arcade.
The market covers two floors. The 1st floor is a wet market with mostly fish mongers; upstairs are restaurants. The fish was super fresh - there was absolutely no smell at all! Heather was suitably impressed. We browsed around, I took a bunch of pics. We weren’t hungry when we arrived but after seeing all the food we figured we’d have lunch and then head to the airport.
Chose a sushi place and ordered tuna, Okinawan soba and oolong tea, trying to stay within our remaining yen. There was a mix up with our tuna order and we got a full sashimi boat. We did some quick math and figured we’d still be okay, although we had to skip the Okinawan donuts. The soba and sashimi were excellent (the tuna in Payao was still the best though).
I took a few more pics of the fishies on our way out. Heather was checking out the large clams when suddenly one started spouting water with an arc like a drinking fountain, landing right on Heather’s shoe. Hopefully she won’t have smelly sneakers tomorrow :)
Got back to the hotel, cleaned up and took a taxi to the airport. Getting through immigration was easy, just a passport scan. Had some Blue Seal ice cream in departures (the last Okinawan food on our list), bought a tshirt too.
We flew on Starlux, a Taiwanese airline, on a brand new plane. It’s only 80 minutes from Okinawa to Taipei. They served a sandwich but we were still full from our lunch.
It took us 90 minutes to get through immigration in Taipei, longer than our flight. Our luggage looked lonely drifting around the carousel. I guess most of the other passengers on our flight were Taiwanese (their immigration line was much shorter).
Another 90 minutes later through rush hour traffic we finally reached our hotel, in the Da’an District in central Taipei. They were just finishing their happy hour, so we had a drink to celebrate my 100th country :)
For those who don’t know the backstory, in 1997 Gerry and I took the route of the Transmongolian. On the Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar leg we met a Brit named James. His goal was to get to 100 countries in his lifetime (this was before the internet when getting to 100 was a big deal). Anyways Gerry and I adopted the goal and then spent many a night debating what counted as a country, and what counted as visiting. Twenty six years later, I finally made it :)
We were somehow tired after a day of just sitting around in airports, airplanes and taxis, so just called it a night after the drinks.
The market covers two floors. The 1st floor is a wet market with mostly fish mongers; upstairs are restaurants. The fish was super fresh - there was absolutely no smell at all! Heather was suitably impressed. We browsed around, I took a bunch of pics. We weren’t hungry when we arrived but after seeing all the food we figured we’d have lunch and then head to the airport.
Chose a sushi place and ordered tuna, Okinawan soba and oolong tea, trying to stay within our remaining yen. There was a mix up with our tuna order and we got a full sashimi boat. We did some quick math and figured we’d still be okay, although we had to skip the Okinawan donuts. The soba and sashimi were excellent (the tuna in Payao was still the best though).
I took a few more pics of the fishies on our way out. Heather was checking out the large clams when suddenly one started spouting water with an arc like a drinking fountain, landing right on Heather’s shoe. Hopefully she won’t have smelly sneakers tomorrow :)
Got back to the hotel, cleaned up and took a taxi to the airport. Getting through immigration was easy, just a passport scan. Had some Blue Seal ice cream in departures (the last Okinawan food on our list), bought a tshirt too.
We flew on Starlux, a Taiwanese airline, on a brand new plane. It’s only 80 minutes from Okinawa to Taipei. They served a sandwich but we were still full from our lunch.
It took us 90 minutes to get through immigration in Taipei, longer than our flight. Our luggage looked lonely drifting around the carousel. I guess most of the other passengers on our flight were Taiwanese (their immigration line was much shorter).
Another 90 minutes later through rush hour traffic we finally reached our hotel, in the Da’an District in central Taipei. They were just finishing their happy hour, so we had a drink to celebrate my 100th country :)
For those who don’t know the backstory, in 1997 Gerry and I took the route of the Transmongolian. On the Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar leg we met a Brit named James. His goal was to get to 100 countries in his lifetime (this was before the internet when getting to 100 was a big deal). Anyways Gerry and I adopted the goal and then spent many a night debating what counted as a country, and what counted as visiting. Twenty six years later, I finally made it :)
We were somehow tired after a day of just sitting around in airports, airplanes and taxis, so just called it a night after the drinks.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Naha, Japan
In the late 17th century, pottery making was centralized in Tsuboya, now part of Naha. Over the centuries a distinct Ryukyuan style evolved. Also, pottery!
We started at the Tsuboya Pottery Museum, which was a pretty decent museum. Most of the signage was in Japanese however they did have a good self-guided audio tour in English. The museum was built over a historical climbing kiln (built into the side of the hill) which was part of the exhibit.
Now knowledgeable of the differences in firing between Jo-yachi (glazed) and Ara-yachi (unglazed) pottery, we checked out the studios and stores that line Tsuboya Yachimun St.
The pottery district includes some side streets so we wandered down those as well. Stumbled across Nuchigafu, a restaurant with local specialties. It was exactly what we were looking for for lunch and we weren’t even really searching!
We both ordered a combo meal so we could try out Goya Champuru (bitter melon), Rafute (braised pork belly), Mozuku (brown seaweed), Jimami Tofu, Okinawa soba and Okinawan salt-cookies-flavoured ice cream. It was all really good, and a great way to sample Okinawan food. It was a more formal restaurant where removed our shoes to enter the dining area and sat at lower tables.
Literally across the street from the pottery district was an entrance to the extensive covered arcade market. There were three souvenirs I was looking to get for our key shelf: a Shisa (mythical Okinawan creature), Maneki neko (lucky cat) and a Daruma doll. We had bought a ceramic Shisa from a pottery place so just had two items to find.
You can find everything in this market from souvenirs to bars and cool hole-in-the-wall restaurants to everyday household goods. Everything, that is, except for a Daruma doll. We asked around, and it seemed that we could find it a place called Don Kee, with some hand gestured directions from other friendly store owners.
Finally a store worker showed us a department store on a map. We went to check it out, it’s actually a popular department store chain, Don Quixote, which is nicknamed Don Qui here. The store itself is several floors selling everything with no order or organization. A store worker told us we could find them on the 4th floor. And there they were! It’s not a tourist thing so it was a harder item to find.
That was it for our day. The full day was a good amount of time to spend in Naha. Tomorrow we leave for Taiwan!
We started at the Tsuboya Pottery Museum, which was a pretty decent museum. Most of the signage was in Japanese however they did have a good self-guided audio tour in English. The museum was built over a historical climbing kiln (built into the side of the hill) which was part of the exhibit.
Now knowledgeable of the differences in firing between Jo-yachi (glazed) and Ara-yachi (unglazed) pottery, we checked out the studios and stores that line Tsuboya Yachimun St.
The pottery district includes some side streets so we wandered down those as well. Stumbled across Nuchigafu, a restaurant with local specialties. It was exactly what we were looking for for lunch and we weren’t even really searching!
We both ordered a combo meal so we could try out Goya Champuru (bitter melon), Rafute (braised pork belly), Mozuku (brown seaweed), Jimami Tofu, Okinawa soba and Okinawan salt-cookies-flavoured ice cream. It was all really good, and a great way to sample Okinawan food. It was a more formal restaurant where removed our shoes to enter the dining area and sat at lower tables.
Literally across the street from the pottery district was an entrance to the extensive covered arcade market. There were three souvenirs I was looking to get for our key shelf: a Shisa (mythical Okinawan creature), Maneki neko (lucky cat) and a Daruma doll. We had bought a ceramic Shisa from a pottery place so just had two items to find.
You can find everything in this market from souvenirs to bars and cool hole-in-the-wall restaurants to everyday household goods. Everything, that is, except for a Daruma doll. We asked around, and it seemed that we could find it a place called Don Kee, with some hand gestured directions from other friendly store owners.
Finally a store worker showed us a department store on a map. We went to check it out, it’s actually a popular department store chain, Don Quixote, which is nicknamed Don Qui here. The store itself is several floors selling everything with no order or organization. A store worker told us we could find them on the 4th floor. And there they were! It’s not a tourist thing so it was a harder item to find.
That was it for our day. The full day was a good amount of time to spend in Naha. Tomorrow we leave for Taiwan!
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Naha, Japan
If we had done some research we would have been aware that our breakfast at the ryokan was going to be a traditional Japanese-style breakfast with multiple dishes. But alas we did not.
At least we wore our yukata (traditional robe and pants). We just wore our own socks though, the ryokan-provided ones were very uncomfortable.
The presentation of the food was again amazing, with everything just so. We’re rather provincial in our breakfast preferences, but it was cool to try. We actually made quite a dent in the food. The salad and in particular the cherry tomatoes were amazing.
The forecast was rainy and windy all day. So we decided to skip on a couple other castles and just drive back to Naha.
A couple of random things I forgot to mention previously. The safety video for Korean Air featured BTS and a couple other K-pop artists. It’s our 2nd favourite after the Lego-themed video for Turkish Airlines.
Also realized that AirTags don’t work in Korea, for security reasons. I had to google to figure out why my phone thought our luggage was still in Canada. The tags are working again now that we’re in Japan.
So we drove back to Naha in the rain. The Avis folks had warned us to use the GPS when returning the car, or we'd end up at Avis Total Landscaping. We followed Google Maps for most of the 90 minute drive back, switching over to the GPS about 20 minutes out from Naha. It promptly took us on a toll highway. The toll instructions were only in Japanese so we guessed at what to do. After about 15 minutes we reached another toll booth where we handed our ticket and 1000 yen (about 10 CAD) and hoped for the best. Got back about 700 yen and a receipt, so we guessed well :)
We returned the car, got the shuttle to the terminal and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. We debated taking the monorail but didn’t want to pull our suitcases through the rain and puddles.
We arrived at the hotel at 1pm. Our room would only be ready at 3pm, so we left our luggage and headed out for lunch. We walked through some charming side streets with little restaurants all along. We had a classic Naha lunch of pork and rice. Okinawa Agu Pork is locally famous - there’s pork dishes everywhere here.
After lunch we stopped in at a 7-Eleven yet again, this time for a type A USB-C adaptor to charge our phones. (Type A is the standard in North America.) I had packed chargers & adaptors for everything except what we used at home.
We really liked our brief walk around Naha. It has a nice vibe to it.
On the way back to the hotel stopped in at a cute little coffee shop for a double espresso and a slice of cheesecake, mmm good.
That took us to exactly 3pm. We checked in, and then relaxed the rest of the day. We had been on the go pretty much since we left Toronto so it was good to do nothing for a few hours.
It was still raining sideways around dinner time so just had some snacks in the lounge and called it a day.
At least we wore our yukata (traditional robe and pants). We just wore our own socks though, the ryokan-provided ones were very uncomfortable.
The presentation of the food was again amazing, with everything just so. We’re rather provincial in our breakfast preferences, but it was cool to try. We actually made quite a dent in the food. The salad and in particular the cherry tomatoes were amazing.
The forecast was rainy and windy all day. So we decided to skip on a couple other castles and just drive back to Naha.
A couple of random things I forgot to mention previously. The safety video for Korean Air featured BTS and a couple other K-pop artists. It’s our 2nd favourite after the Lego-themed video for Turkish Airlines.
Also realized that AirTags don’t work in Korea, for security reasons. I had to google to figure out why my phone thought our luggage was still in Canada. The tags are working again now that we’re in Japan.
So we drove back to Naha in the rain. The Avis folks had warned us to use the GPS when returning the car, or we'd end up at Avis Total Landscaping. We followed Google Maps for most of the 90 minute drive back, switching over to the GPS about 20 minutes out from Naha. It promptly took us on a toll highway. The toll instructions were only in Japanese so we guessed at what to do. After about 15 minutes we reached another toll booth where we handed our ticket and 1000 yen (about 10 CAD) and hoped for the best. Got back about 700 yen and a receipt, so we guessed well :)
We returned the car, got the shuttle to the terminal and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. We debated taking the monorail but didn’t want to pull our suitcases through the rain and puddles.
We arrived at the hotel at 1pm. Our room would only be ready at 3pm, so we left our luggage and headed out for lunch. We walked through some charming side streets with little restaurants all along. We had a classic Naha lunch of pork and rice. Okinawa Agu Pork is locally famous - there’s pork dishes everywhere here.
After lunch we stopped in at a 7-Eleven yet again, this time for a type A USB-C adaptor to charge our phones. (Type A is the standard in North America.) I had packed chargers & adaptors for everything except what we used at home.
We really liked our brief walk around Naha. It has a nice vibe to it.
On the way back to the hotel stopped in at a cute little coffee shop for a double espresso and a slice of cheesecake, mmm good.
That took us to exactly 3pm. We checked in, and then relaxed the rest of the day. We had been on the go pretty much since we left Toronto so it was good to do nothing for a few hours.
It was still raining sideways around dinner time so just had some snacks in the lounge and called it a day.
Monday, December 18, 2023
Onna, Japan
Our flight from Seoul to Naha was at 8:05am so we set our alarms for 4:15am. Got to the airport just before 6am with plans to have breakfast while we waited. Unfortunately nothing was open except for a juice place :( luckily they also had coffee and bagels.
The flight to Naha was full, a lot of US military related folks probably returning to base (the US has a large military presence in Okinawa). It’s just under two hours south from Seoul. We were served a decent hot meal which was good cause we were still a bit hungry.
Immigration was straightforward (Canadians don’t need a visa for Japan). Got a little sticker in our passports, country number 99 for me!
Korean Air had sent me a text in Seoul that my luggage had been loaded on the flight (technically, probably just into the ULD container) plus our AirTags showed our luggage had made it so it was stress-free waiting by the carousel.
There were more people wearing masks here than in Seoul. In Seoul it was about 15% and here in Naha about 50%.
Next up was picking up our rental car from Avis. The shuttle was waiting for us at the terminal, a good sign that they had our car waiting :) The paperwork took forever though.
Finally around noon we started our little road trip in a Toyota Yaris. UNESCO castles, here we come!
Naha’s population is over a million and it’s all urban sprawl. So our road trip wasn’t making any lists :) The car had built in navigation but the search function only had a kanji keyboard, so we used Google maps which worked well.
First up was Nakagusuku Castle. My research had said all the sites were free to enter, but there’s now admission (at least at the two castles we saw today). It was cash-only so we had to drive out to a 7-Eleven (which are ubiquitous here), get cash, buy some water to break the large bill, and then drive back.
The heat and humidity were a bit of a shock. It was 24C here, a swing of over 40C from Seoul if you factor in the feels-like. Our luggage was strewn all over the trunk in our search for our summer gear.
Finally we were set to enter. After we paid for our ticket, a golf cart whisked us up to the top of the hill. The marked path then wound through the castle ruins back down to the entrance.
The castle has been preserved in its ruined state. It was very peaceful to wander through, with only a handful of other tourists.
We then drove to the nearby Payao Fish Market. I had read somewhere that it was a great place to eat. It seemed a bit dubious as google maps guided us down to the wharf through an industrial area. We parked and entered. There was a kitchen in the back, with faded pictures of food options. Somebody else was just picking up their order which looked good, so we just ordered two of those.
Turned out to be one of the best lunches we’ve had! I googled it later, we had their specialty, the Ise-ebi lobster, with a side of sashimi, pickled radish, and miso soup. The sashimi tuna was the best tuna we’ve had. The lobster is baked with uni sauce. The miso was also excellent.
I took some pics of the fishies in the market area and then we were back on the road.
Next up were the Katsuren Castle Ruins. It was a bit awkward to figure out parking cause they’re in the midst of constructing a huge visitor centre. Anyways it was the same drill - a golf cart drove us up to the top and then we toured heading back down. It was pretty impressive, with great views of the ocean and surrounding countryside. You could imagine how impressive it would have been back in the 13th century day.
The atmosphere around the castles reminded me of other UNESCO historical sites that are off the beaten path, like the painted churches in Cyprus or the Roman ruins in Butrint, Albania. It’s really peaceful with good tourist infrastructure, and hardly any other tourists.
Our last stop was our hotel for the night, a ryokan-style hotel on the west coast. The staff had limited English and our Japanese was just welcome and thanks, but we managed to check in and get to our room.
We had booked their Kaiseki dinner, an elaborate multi-course traditional meal. We were somewhat rushed to clean up as they wanted us to start at 6pm, an hour earlier than I had requested. Oh well.
It’s traditional to wear yukata (robe and pants), which were provided in our room. They fit okay. We should have skipped on their socks which were small and uncomfortable.
We enjoyed some of the courses which were quite excellent, others are probably more an acquired taste. We were in it for the experience so it was all good. I particularly enjoyed the beef course. Everything was impeccably presented.
It was a long day, and a transit day at that! We fell asleep quickly, around 8pm.
The flight to Naha was full, a lot of US military related folks probably returning to base (the US has a large military presence in Okinawa). It’s just under two hours south from Seoul. We were served a decent hot meal which was good cause we were still a bit hungry.
Immigration was straightforward (Canadians don’t need a visa for Japan). Got a little sticker in our passports, country number 99 for me!
Korean Air had sent me a text in Seoul that my luggage had been loaded on the flight (technically, probably just into the ULD container) plus our AirTags showed our luggage had made it so it was stress-free waiting by the carousel.
There were more people wearing masks here than in Seoul. In Seoul it was about 15% and here in Naha about 50%.
Next up was picking up our rental car from Avis. The shuttle was waiting for us at the terminal, a good sign that they had our car waiting :) The paperwork took forever though.
Finally around noon we started our little road trip in a Toyota Yaris. UNESCO castles, here we come!
Naha’s population is over a million and it’s all urban sprawl. So our road trip wasn’t making any lists :) The car had built in navigation but the search function only had a kanji keyboard, so we used Google maps which worked well.
First up was Nakagusuku Castle. My research had said all the sites were free to enter, but there’s now admission (at least at the two castles we saw today). It was cash-only so we had to drive out to a 7-Eleven (which are ubiquitous here), get cash, buy some water to break the large bill, and then drive back.
The heat and humidity were a bit of a shock. It was 24C here, a swing of over 40C from Seoul if you factor in the feels-like. Our luggage was strewn all over the trunk in our search for our summer gear.
Finally we were set to enter. After we paid for our ticket, a golf cart whisked us up to the top of the hill. The marked path then wound through the castle ruins back down to the entrance.
The castle has been preserved in its ruined state. It was very peaceful to wander through, with only a handful of other tourists.
We then drove to the nearby Payao Fish Market. I had read somewhere that it was a great place to eat. It seemed a bit dubious as google maps guided us down to the wharf through an industrial area. We parked and entered. There was a kitchen in the back, with faded pictures of food options. Somebody else was just picking up their order which looked good, so we just ordered two of those.
Turned out to be one of the best lunches we’ve had! I googled it later, we had their specialty, the Ise-ebi lobster, with a side of sashimi, pickled radish, and miso soup. The sashimi tuna was the best tuna we’ve had. The lobster is baked with uni sauce. The miso was also excellent.
I took some pics of the fishies in the market area and then we were back on the road.
Next up were the Katsuren Castle Ruins. It was a bit awkward to figure out parking cause they’re in the midst of constructing a huge visitor centre. Anyways it was the same drill - a golf cart drove us up to the top and then we toured heading back down. It was pretty impressive, with great views of the ocean and surrounding countryside. You could imagine how impressive it would have been back in the 13th century day.
The atmosphere around the castles reminded me of other UNESCO historical sites that are off the beaten path, like the painted churches in Cyprus or the Roman ruins in Butrint, Albania. It’s really peaceful with good tourist infrastructure, and hardly any other tourists.
Our last stop was our hotel for the night, a ryokan-style hotel on the west coast. The staff had limited English and our Japanese was just welcome and thanks, but we managed to check in and get to our room.
We had booked their Kaiseki dinner, an elaborate multi-course traditional meal. We were somewhat rushed to clean up as they wanted us to start at 6pm, an hour earlier than I had requested. Oh well.
It’s traditional to wear yukata (robe and pants), which were provided in our room. They fit okay. We should have skipped on their socks which were small and uncomfortable.
We enjoyed some of the courses which were quite excellent, others are probably more an acquired taste. We were in it for the experience so it was all good. I particularly enjoyed the beef course. Everything was impeccably presented.
It was a long day, and a transit day at that! We fell asleep quickly, around 8pm.
Seoul, South Korea
We actually got a decent sleep our first night considering the time change. So after breakfast we bundled up in our max winter gear and set out to sightsee!
There’s so much to see in Seoul. We started with the classic tourist stuff today, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanoi Village. Our hotel is pretty central so we walked over, about 25 minutes. It’s a pedestrian-friendly core plus the city is all decked out for the holidays.
Got the combination pass for five royal palaces, only 10 CAD! About half the visitors were wearing hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. Admission is free if you’re wearing hanbok. It adds to the atmosphere of the palace.
Gyeongbokgung Palace is like a huge open-air museum. It was first established in 1395 and then destroyed and rebuilt a couple times over the centuries. It took us about 90 minutes to see everything, at which point we couldn’t do palace anymore.
We stopped for lunch at Oreno Ramen, a highly-rated restaurant on Naver. It was on a small winding street full of cafes and cool little restaurants.
Turned out to be a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant! We had to wait about 15 minutes in line. The restaurant staff brought out hand warmer packets (equivalent of HotShots) for folks in line, although we were seated before they warmed up.
The ramen was excellent, a good start to eating on this trip!
After lunch we wandered up to Bukchon Hanok Village. It’s a residential area that’s become touristed because of the traditional style of houses. There’s a couple popular spots for pics which capture the houses and the Seoul Tower in the background.
That was it for our day. Got back to our hotel around 3pm. We have an early flight out to Okinawa tomorrow.
There’s so much to see in Seoul. We started with the classic tourist stuff today, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanoi Village. Our hotel is pretty central so we walked over, about 25 minutes. It’s a pedestrian-friendly core plus the city is all decked out for the holidays.
Got the combination pass for five royal palaces, only 10 CAD! About half the visitors were wearing hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. Admission is free if you’re wearing hanbok. It adds to the atmosphere of the palace.
Gyeongbokgung Palace is like a huge open-air museum. It was first established in 1395 and then destroyed and rebuilt a couple times over the centuries. It took us about 90 minutes to see everything, at which point we couldn’t do palace anymore.
We stopped for lunch at Oreno Ramen, a highly-rated restaurant on Naver. It was on a small winding street full of cafes and cool little restaurants.
Turned out to be a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant! We had to wait about 15 minutes in line. The restaurant staff brought out hand warmer packets (equivalent of HotShots) for folks in line, although we were seated before they warmed up.
The ramen was excellent, a good start to eating on this trip!
After lunch we wandered up to Bukchon Hanok Village. It’s a residential area that’s become touristed because of the traditional style of houses. There’s a couple popular spots for pics which capture the houses and the Seoul Tower in the background.
That was it for our day. Got back to our hotel around 3pm. We have an early flight out to Okinawa tomorrow.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Seoul, South Korea
We arrived in Seoul on Sunday evening on a direct flight from Toronto. We had stayed up most of Friday night trying to get a head start on adjusting to the time change, and slept most of the 15.5h flight. Our internal clocks are now completely messed up. Door-to-door it was just over 20 hours, however with the lost day crossing the dateline it took all weekend.
Incheon International is about an hour outside the downtown core. We had debated trying to take the subway, but Seoul is in a cold snap right now (-12C when we landed) so took a taxi instead. (We brought winter clothing for Seoul but it was all packed up).
Outside of rush hour, a taxi is not too bad an option, about the same cost as two fares on the express bus. We used Naver to show the taxi driver which hotel we were staying at, as soon as he saw the directions he knew exactly where it was. (Naver is the app of choice here cause Google maps has limited functionality in South Korea).
Maybe because we were jetlagged we hardly remembered any of the Korean we had learnt on Duolingo. We even had to look up thank-you again (감사합니다). I sort of remember the alphabet.
Anyways we were quickly checked into our hotel. We were out of steam so just had a snack in the hotel lounge and then called it a night.
Incheon International is about an hour outside the downtown core. We had debated trying to take the subway, but Seoul is in a cold snap right now (-12C when we landed) so took a taxi instead. (We brought winter clothing for Seoul but it was all packed up).
Outside of rush hour, a taxi is not too bad an option, about the same cost as two fares on the express bus. We used Naver to show the taxi driver which hotel we were staying at, as soon as he saw the directions he knew exactly where it was. (Naver is the app of choice here cause Google maps has limited functionality in South Korea).
Maybe because we were jetlagged we hardly remembered any of the Korean we had learnt on Duolingo. We even had to look up thank-you again (감사합니다). I sort of remember the alphabet.
Anyways we were quickly checked into our hotel. We were out of steam so just had a snack in the hotel lounge and then called it a night.
Sunday, December 03, 2023
Toronto, Canada
We're heading back to Asia for the first time in almost ten years! Taiwan's been high on our list for a while, and the main part of this trip. The closest direct flight from Toronto was to Seoul, also on our list. About half way between Seoul and Taiwan is Okinawa, which has some cool UNESCO castles, and unique Ryūkyūan culture. It's also part of Japan which means I'll get to 100 countries on this trip :)
The weather in Seoul over Christmas is similar to December weather in Toronto. We're packing for anything from -10C to 20C. The rest of the trip should be comfortable, highs around 22C and lows around 15C. I signed up for typhoon alerts, although typhoon season typically ends in November. We already receive earthquake and tsunami alerts from our last trip to NZ and Fiji.
We're renting a car in Okinawa. Canadians need an International Driver's License for Japan (this is common where your license is in a different script) so I had a little trip to the CAA. I had to look it up, over the years we've had a car rental in 9 countries, and 7 of those were left-hand drive (there's 64 countries in the world that drive on the left, mostly former British colonies). Japan will make it 8 of 10. (Next Christmas we'll be in Namibia making it 9 of 11!). At least Google Maps makes it pretty easy to navigate, especially with offline maps.
In Seoul, Google Maps is limited for security reasons, so I've downloaded Naver. You can't offline or get walking directions in Seoul on Google Maps.
On the technical side, you can now subscribe to this travel blog! I also added cookie consent cause that's now required for Quebec, and this website is nothing if not over-engineered. You can also check out our Google Photos album optimized for the Nest Hub, which you can add as your Nest screensaver.
We fly out on in two weeks (Sat Dec 16), so likely won't post again until then.
The weather in Seoul over Christmas is similar to December weather in Toronto. We're packing for anything from -10C to 20C. The rest of the trip should be comfortable, highs around 22C and lows around 15C. I signed up for typhoon alerts, although typhoon season typically ends in November. We already receive earthquake and tsunami alerts from our last trip to NZ and Fiji.
We're renting a car in Okinawa. Canadians need an International Driver's License for Japan (this is common where your license is in a different script) so I had a little trip to the CAA. I had to look it up, over the years we've had a car rental in 9 countries, and 7 of those were left-hand drive (there's 64 countries in the world that drive on the left, mostly former British colonies). Japan will make it 8 of 10. (Next Christmas we'll be in Namibia making it 9 of 11!). At least Google Maps makes it pretty easy to navigate, especially with offline maps.
In Seoul, Google Maps is limited for security reasons, so I've downloaded Naver. You can't offline or get walking directions in Seoul on Google Maps.
On the technical side, you can now subscribe to this travel blog! I also added cookie consent cause that's now required for Quebec, and this website is nothing if not over-engineered. You can also check out our Google Photos album optimized for the Nest Hub, which you can add as your Nest screensaver.
We fly out on in two weeks (Sat Dec 16), so likely won't post again until then.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Toronto, Canada
We've been back home now for a few days, trying to de-jetlag. Overall it was a really fun trip.
We finally got back to Toronto after a four-day transit back home. The arrival through customs at Pearson has improved since our last time through (pre-covid), although it's still behind all the other international arrivals we had on this trip. It also took almost an hour for the luggage to get from the plane to the carousel. I suppose we should be happy that our luggage arrived at all.
The highlights (in chronological order):
We were lucky to not get sick over the whole trip. There was a lot of uncertainty with covid when we booked back in Feb 2022, but pretty much all the restrictions had been lifted by the time we started out trip. We wore masks on flights and other public transport, and in the occasional museum if it was busy.
It was our first trip where English was an official language in all the countries. Fiji has three (English, Fijian, Fiji Hindi) and NZ has three (English, Māori and NZ Sign Language). Legally, Australia has no offical language but English is considered the de facto national language. (There's a handful of other countries without an offical language, including UK, US and Japan).
Australia is the first country I've spent more than a couple days without having any currency from the country. (We had cash in NZ as a backup -- in a couple places they didn't take foreign credit cards, and some roadside fruit stands were cash-only)
We also traveled with a bluetooth speaker (in our case, an Echo Dot 5th Gen, which can be used offline as a bluetooth speaker). We used it quite a bit, especially in bnb's.
A couple last bits of trivia, the 38 days we spent in NZ is the longest I've spent consecutively in another country. At eleven weeks, this was our longest trip together. It's probably nearing the longest we'd like to be out traveling, after a while we do miss the routine of home.
Time to start thinking about our next trip!
We finally got back to Toronto after a four-day transit back home. The arrival through customs at Pearson has improved since our last time through (pre-covid), although it's still behind all the other international arrivals we had on this trip. It also took almost an hour for the luggage to get from the plane to the carousel. I suppose we should be happy that our luggage arrived at all.
The highlights (in chronological order):
- Snorkeling with manta rays in the Astrolabe Reef
- Flying over the reefs in little prop planes during local flights in Fiji
- Standing on the 180th meridian (the only accessible place in the world where you can do so)
- Snorkeling with all the colourful fishes and coral at Rainbow Reef
- Village walks on Taveuni
- Walking around Hobart
- Road trip to the Outback in South Australia
- Making it to Kati Thanda, our 4th of the Seven Low Points
- Driving along Highway 6 on the West Coast
- Excursions to Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound (Milford more impressive to see, Doubtful a more fun experience)
- Watching the sheep graze from our lodge in Tahakopa Bay in Southland
- Little Blue Penguins in Oamaru
- Seeing Wandering Albatross in Kaikoura (wingspan of 3.7m, the largest flying bird in the world)
- Glowworm caves in Waitomo and Te Anau (my favourite was Ruakuri Cave)
- Learning about wines from the many wine regions in NZ
- Orakei Korako Geothermal Park
We were lucky to not get sick over the whole trip. There was a lot of uncertainty with covid when we booked back in Feb 2022, but pretty much all the restrictions had been lifted by the time we started out trip. We wore masks on flights and other public transport, and in the occasional museum if it was busy.
It was our first trip where English was an official language in all the countries. Fiji has three (English, Fijian, Fiji Hindi) and NZ has three (English, Māori and NZ Sign Language). Legally, Australia has no offical language but English is considered the de facto national language. (There's a handful of other countries without an offical language, including UK, US and Japan).
Australia is the first country I've spent more than a couple days without having any currency from the country. (We had cash in NZ as a backup -- in a couple places they didn't take foreign credit cards, and some roadside fruit stands were cash-only)
We also traveled with a bluetooth speaker (in our case, an Echo Dot 5th Gen, which can be used offline as a bluetooth speaker). We used it quite a bit, especially in bnb's.
A couple last bits of trivia, the 38 days we spent in NZ is the longest I've spent consecutively in another country. At eleven weeks, this was our longest trip together. It's probably nearing the longest we'd like to be out traveling, after a while we do miss the routine of home.
Time to start thinking about our next trip!
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
San Francisco, USA
Day 3 (Fiji Standard Time) of our four-day transit back home, today from Nadi to San Francisco.
The flight didn't depart from Nadi until 10:15pm so we had all day to do much of nothing. We were able to get late check-out at 5pm for $100 FJD which was great. We spent most of the day in our air-conditioned room because we weren't adjusted to the 31C or humidity.
We had one last ferry ride from the Doubletree to the mainland and then a taxi to the airport. We forgot that we had been in the Fiji Airways lounge previously (we had upgraded at check-in for the flight from Nadi to Sydney). It was pretty crowded in the lounge, there were two large flights to LA and SF around 10pm, and I'm guessing most people had the same idea as us, to hang out at the lounge for most of the evening.
Our flight boarded and departed on time. We were able to get a few hours sleep 'overnight'.
Day 3 (Pacific Standard Time)
We arrived in SF around 12:45pm, after a pretty smooth 10+ hour flight. We also gained 18 hours by crossing the International Date Line so arrived nine hours before we took off. We had to clear US immigration and customs before rechecking our bags for the last leg home. Originally the NAN-SFO-YYZ flights had a nice connection, but before we started our trip, Air Canada changed the SFO-YYZ flight to leave an hour before we arrived. So we had 23 hours in transit in San Francisco. I had booked a hotel in Union Square rather than staying at the airport.
We had to wheel our luggage (in a $8 USD cart!) from T1 to T2, where the United / Air Canada desks were. We asked directions from a very helpful airline agent who guessed that we just came off a long flight and would prefer to walk to T2 rather than take the inter-terminal bus.
Unfortunately Air Canada couldn't take our checked bags until the following day. So we would have to lug six suitcases into town. Hopefully this wouldn't affect my Uber rating!
It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. We were lucky cause the previous week the entire coast of California had had torrential rains and flooding. Our hotel people gave us suggestions on where to eat and tourist for the afternoon. We had lunch at E&O Kitchen, just down the street from our hotel. By the time we were done it was almost 3pm, and we realized we were back in the northern hemisphere with early sunsets. So we went back to the hotel to grab warmer jackets for dusk.
We walked through Chinatown and then down Columbus Ave, where the restaurants changed to Italian. We continued down Columbus to Fort Mason for a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Fort Mason is popular with joggers and almost everyone passing by stopped to take pics of the sunset. It was one of the better sunsets we'd seen on our trip!
We took a different route back to our hotel, down Polk St and then back across Sutter St. It was a pretty good whirlwind tour of San Francisco! It looks like a pretty cool place to visit with lots of character. We didn't have much steam left, but wanted to stay up a little longer to try to get back to our time zone, so we stopped in at the Irish Bank for a drink, and then called it a night.
The flight didn't depart from Nadi until 10:15pm so we had all day to do much of nothing. We were able to get late check-out at 5pm for $100 FJD which was great. We spent most of the day in our air-conditioned room because we weren't adjusted to the 31C or humidity.
We had one last ferry ride from the Doubletree to the mainland and then a taxi to the airport. We forgot that we had been in the Fiji Airways lounge previously (we had upgraded at check-in for the flight from Nadi to Sydney). It was pretty crowded in the lounge, there were two large flights to LA and SF around 10pm, and I'm guessing most people had the same idea as us, to hang out at the lounge for most of the evening.
Our flight boarded and departed on time. We were able to get a few hours sleep 'overnight'.
Day 3 (Pacific Standard Time)
We arrived in SF around 12:45pm, after a pretty smooth 10+ hour flight. We also gained 18 hours by crossing the International Date Line so arrived nine hours before we took off. We had to clear US immigration and customs before rechecking our bags for the last leg home. Originally the NAN-SFO-YYZ flights had a nice connection, but before we started our trip, Air Canada changed the SFO-YYZ flight to leave an hour before we arrived. So we had 23 hours in transit in San Francisco. I had booked a hotel in Union Square rather than staying at the airport.
We had to wheel our luggage (in a $8 USD cart!) from T1 to T2, where the United / Air Canada desks were. We asked directions from a very helpful airline agent who guessed that we just came off a long flight and would prefer to walk to T2 rather than take the inter-terminal bus.
Unfortunately Air Canada couldn't take our checked bags until the following day. So we would have to lug six suitcases into town. Hopefully this wouldn't affect my Uber rating!
It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. We were lucky cause the previous week the entire coast of California had had torrential rains and flooding. Our hotel people gave us suggestions on where to eat and tourist for the afternoon. We had lunch at E&O Kitchen, just down the street from our hotel. By the time we were done it was almost 3pm, and we realized we were back in the northern hemisphere with early sunsets. So we went back to the hotel to grab warmer jackets for dusk.
We walked through Chinatown and then down Columbus Ave, where the restaurants changed to Italian. We continued down Columbus to Fort Mason for a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Fort Mason is popular with joggers and almost everyone passing by stopped to take pics of the sunset. It was one of the better sunsets we'd seen on our trip!
We took a different route back to our hotel, down Polk St and then back across Sutter St. It was a pretty good whirlwind tour of San Francisco! It looks like a pretty cool place to visit with lots of character. We didn't have much steam left, but wanted to stay up a little longer to try to get back to our time zone, so we stopped in at the Irish Bank for a drink, and then called it a night.
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