Taiwan Vacation
A few weeks after returning from California, Matt and I had a “couple’s get-away” to Taiwan. His birthday is in November, so we used that as an excuse to get away for a weekend. One of the perks of having trusted house help is leaving your kids for an extended “date night(s)” in a neighboring country! We have really come to LOVE having a tour guide when we visit countries since they know the language and how to get from place to place. So, we found Donna on Viator and were happy with all that we were able to see and do in the 3 full days that we were there.
Day 1:
First impression of Taiwan is that it is clean. This lady was mopping the sidewalk outside of her store!
If you are going to stand on an escalator, stay to the right…everyone follows this rule
Some street food that we tried that was pretty good
Traveling with a Tech-Savvy guy like I do means checking out electronics. However this was not like Fry’s. Many small electronic stores, but at least they were all near enough to each other at an area called “3C”
SCORE! We found the padfone…one of the reasons why we chose Taiwan as a get-away.
Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary…all in one with a new phone and dock/tablet
Dinner at Din Tai Fung Dumpling House. Really yummy food and a pretty famous restaurant
After dinner, we asked our tour guide if she knew where the “Mormon Temple” was at and she took us right to it. We have a friend serving an LDS mission there now, but sadly we didn’t see our friend.
Ended the day by watching a puppet show and opera at Taipei Eye. We got to take photos with members of the cast at intermission
Day 2:
Started off the day by visiting Mengjia Longshan Temple
Outside of the National Palace Museum with our guide…no photography allowed inside
Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall grounds. He was the former president of the Republic of China.
We were able to watch the changing of the guards in front of the Chiang Kai-shek statue.
Beitou hot-springs. You could smell the sulfur and supposedly you can boil an egg in seconds there at the main source.
We opted for our own private hot-springs at Villa 32…and it was a perfectly romantic location; away from the free and/or public hot-springs.
Last stop of the day was at the Shilin Night Market. We have so much fun trying to get the best deal on things.
Day 3:
We rented a car and drove north-east to the mountains and ocean. The wind and water created these cool rock formations.
From the minerals in the water, these are known as the “Golden Waterfalls” in Jinguashi.
The three of us explored Jinguashi mining grounds.
We walked through the crowded Jiufen market.
We walked around Ping Hsi “Pingxi” branch rail where we saw people “play sky lantern”. They would write sayings or wishes on a paper sky lantern and then release it.
We walked to Shifen falls and it was lovely. If it was warmer we may have been tempted to swim there, but it was a chilly day.
We ended the day by having dinner at Taipei 101. We had this whole room to ourselves for about half of our 7-course meal.
Taipei 101 is super tall with 101 floors…we ate on the 86th floor (or there about).
Good-bye Taipei, Taiwan. It was a wonderful weekend get-away.
More photos of our Taiwan vacation here.
