Taipei, Taiwan- Suitcase City (Post #9)

Dear Friends and Family,
 Niihau! (Hello,)
We left laid back Laos and flew to Taipei, Taiwan. We knew as soon as we reached our baggage carousel that we were in a cosmopolitan city. Our backpacks were easy to spot. They were the only two canvas packs in a sea of huge, sturdy suitcases. Our trek through Taiwan immigration lines was long. Six of ten elderly Korean women, trying to keep their group together, snuck in front of us. “Where are you from?” Bruce asked. “China”, one of them said, and the group burst into laughter. Apparently they had just come from touring China together, but they were from South Korea. We met up with them in a customs line about 45 minutes later and one of them asked Linda where we’re from. “China,” she quipped, and again, they burst into laughter. Laughter is the universal language. We picked up our backpacks, got on the MRT subway and, in 40 minutes, we were at Taipei Main Station, a vast transportation hub. An elderly businessman practically walked us all the way to Diary of Taipei hotel. Without him, we would have been quite lost.  

For 3 days, we had a great room, a delicious Chinese breakfast buffet, and free laundry facilities. Taipei is a big city like New York or Shanghai, with lots of great, cheap Chinese food options. You get 10 handmade dim sum while you wait for only 20 Taiwanese dollars. 20 Taiwanese dollars equals 2 US dollars. Noodle options are plentiful, proof positive the Chinese, not the Italians, invented spaghetti. We were in food heaven there! There were hot spicy pork buns, sweet bean cakes, custard filled egg shells, curried delights, and all kinds of tofu and vegetable specialties. Three days passed too quickly.

The city is busy with traffic. At lights, throngs of scooters line up in front of car traffic. A go signal allows pedestrians to cross every which way while all motorized traffic stops. We took a free walking tour that began in the beautiful “Peace Park,” moved through the historic old town, and ended in an upscale shopping district. We learned about how Taiwan liberated itself from Japan and then mainland China. We visited a gorgeous temple dedicated to the goddess “Matsu.” We took a long walk to the tallest building in the country, Taipei 101. Its segmented design looks like a sugar-cane stalk. At 1671 ft., it was the world’s tallest building until the year 2010. We visited the National Palace museum filled with priceless historical pieces of Chinese history. At the entrance, there is a large seated statue of Sun Yat Sen, the father of the country, similar to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. We also walked to two of the remaining historical gates that were once part of a city wall. 

Taiwanese seem to love meeting Americans and practicing their English. People were super friendly and we got nothing but good vibes wherever we went. We were told that we were fortunate to be there between typhoons. One was building as our flight to Nepal took off in light rain.  

We will update you again soon! Love, BnL 

Author: bnlmos

We are a retired couple, together nearly 35 years, who love International travel. Having a "blog" is brand new to us, so have patience as we do our best to keep in touch with our friends and family. Please feel free to comment on this blog or contact us via personal email. brucemos@hotmail.com View all posts by bnlmos