Tiawan Part I

Tampa, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California              Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Larry and I left Clearwater Beach at 8:00am to catch a 11:15am flight to Atlanta, Georgia on Southwest Airlines. The flight was unremarkable until it was time to land. The pilot brought the plane down to the tarmac ready to land the plane in Atlanta, coming about 25 feet from the ground, when all of a sudden he floored it and took back off into the sky. Our hearts got a bit of a jolt as we circled around the city  in high winds to land a second time. It was quite unnerving with the second attempt but we finally made it safely to the ground.

After picking up an additional 125 passengers we were off again heading to Los Angeles. It was a smooth trip and we landed in LA on time at 3:40….which was 6:40pm Eastern Time. By the time we gathered our bags and got to the hotel, it was time for dinner and a good night’s rest.

Taipei, Taiwan                                                                   Thursday, January 26- Friday, February 3, 2017

The next day we were back at LAX  airport at 2:30pm taking a nonstop 14.5 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan arriving at 9:00pm….which was 10:00am Eastern time (13 hour time difference). We enjoyed watching a Jack Reacher movie as well as The Birth of a Nation. We were lucky to stretch out and get about seven hours of sleep.

                        How lucky are we to arrive at the beginning of the Chinese New Year!

After going through immigration, we picked up our two pieces of luggage and went into the terminal where our friend, Eagle, and his daughter, Ruby, met us.

         Finding each other  at the airport was as easy as pie....Ruby, Eagle, Larry and Kay.

After a half an hour drive from the airport into the city we arrived at an AirBNB to spend the night.

First AirBNB

             Ruby took Larry and me on the MRT(metro) downtown to the famous night market. 

While waiting for the train, fireworks went off at 12midnight marking the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

                                                    Happy Cock-a-doodle-do....The Year of the Rooster

We ate a delicious meaty treat and walked through the endless markets of clothes, shoes, and other wares before heading back to catch the last MRT at 12:45am.  

Larry and I fell into the bed and went fast asleep until 6:00am.

On Saturday we were packed up and in the cars rolling through Taipei at 6:30am where we stopped at the world famous fish bowl soup restaurant for breakfast.

We had a yummy boiled rice roll with meat stuffing and fish bowl soup.

                                                                   Breakfast was a jolly time!

It was thrilling to see all the Chinese written signs. Most of the shops were closed for the week…the Chinese New Year is a big holiday here….as big as our  American Christmas Holiday. Taiwanese families spend the whole Chinese New Year together. We were very fortunate to experience firsthand a Taiwanese family vacation during the Chinese New Year with our friend, Eagle; his wife, Joyce; his daughter, Ruby; his sister, Lee-whah; her husband, Jing-shee; their daughter, Jowl-ling; their son, Ah-foo; and Joyce’s 80 year old mother, Chung-jee Hwang.

After breakfast we traveled through the city to the most northern point of Taiwan.

Gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean extended before the rocky coast line of tumbling waves.  The car wandered down the coast line of fabulous scenic ocean views where we stopped several times along the way eating special Taiwan cakes and fruits midmorning.

We rode down the highway through the Guanyinshan National Scenic Area, stopping for a snack, we ate a Magee Rice and red bean treat rolled in ground peanuts.

                                                                                Pacific Ocean

Then, around noon we stopped in the Beiguan Tidal Park for lunch having Rustumbally-Zongzu or Rice Dumplings cooked in a Bamboo Leaf. Delicious! 

We walked down to the beach resort area passing by families who were bicycling along together. We ventured into our first  Chinese Temple.

                                                             

                                                                 What an interesting structure! 

Jing-shee, Ruby’s uncle, treated us to a rice bread egg onion cake while we watched surfers catching waves on Fulong Beach. After our hike, Joyce, Ruby’s mother, had prepared Lemon and Black tea drinks with stone cauliflower from the sea. Refreshing and very different! She told us that it was good for your bones.

                                                                   Shoreline Resort

Jing-shee and Lee-Wah

                                                                                                                                Grand-Momma and Ruby

                                                                   Bunker left from WWII

We all loaded back into the two cars and continued our journey turning west into the mountains.

What a gorgeous day of sunshine, fabulous temperatures and beautiful mountain scenery. Returning to the coast, Wushi Fish Port was our next stop where we visited the fish market seeing Maine and Taiwan Lobsters and lots of other fresh local fish.

                              We stopped to enjoy the freshest sushi as well as yummy fried fish.

I got out of the way....Larry is the Sushi lover.

With a quick walk along the marina, we viewed the fishing vessels coming in with their catch of the day. 

Jing-shee loved sucking these little shells to get the critters out...they were cooked...Larry tried one saying they were very, very salty.

                               I, personally, enjoyed the views....not the sucking of the shells.

Our last stop was at the White Goose Temple where we carried our bags to the 5th floor to spend the night. Can you believe….we spent the night in a real temple!

                                                                How awesome was that!

That evening we had dinner in the temple’s kitchen….hot pot soup, a variety of vegetables, fish, lamb, and rice. 

We went to bed with full tummies and were awakened to the sound of fireworks at midnight….Chinese New Year Celebration...every night there were fireworks in every place that we stayed.

Lee-Whah, Ruby, Ah-foo

Taking in our view the next morning.... Our Taiwan friend thought their winter was cold ....70's... Winter in Taiwan is very pleasant for us.

Carved  railing outside our room

 

After a fantastic night’s sleep, we had cabbage, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, peanuts and rice for breakfast...Are we living the culture or what?

On Sunday, we visited the Suao Temple along with hundreds of other Taiwan families. 

Larry and Eagle

We enjoyed a free cup of Chinese soup in the square and ice cream with parsley and ground peanuts in a rice tortilla. Yummy!

Entering one of 61 tunnels

After visiting a shop called Vegan House, famous for its vegan crackers and cookies,  we  headed down the curvy Su-Ha Highway going through numerous tunnels and viewing the fantastic coastal ocean views from 9000 ft. cliffs.

                                                  

We hiked to the Dong ao Coast Cold Spring while eating kumquats and guava fruits. What a relaxing midmorning break!

After driving down the coastline again we stopped at the fantastic Shimizu Cliff. Joyce and Lee-Whah, Eagle’s sister, cooked a fabulous picnic lunch of Noodle Soup and rice dumplings while the rest of the family walked to view the cliffs.

It was just plain awesome scenery of waves breaking the coast from our high cliff views. We picnicked on their delectable main course hot meal with apples, oranges and Xiantao (sweet potato like) fruits and then hiked back to the cliffs for one more view.

Our Taiwan Family..Ah-foo, Lee-whah, Joul-ling, Jing-shee, Eagle, Kay, Larry, Ruby, Joyce,
Chung-jee

Jing-shee's family

We also went to the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation…similar to the Red Cross… an international non-profit organization devoted to spreading Great Love (support) through  its work in the fields of charity, medicine, education and culture in over 35 countries with  millions of supporters and tens of thousands of certified volunteers. We were very fortunate to see the founder that day, Dharma Master Cheng Yen who made an appearance the moment we had arrived. What a nice surprise!

That evening we arrived at an AirBNB in Haulian.  Japanese lanterns hung throughout the city.

We met Eagle’s sister and brother-in-law and their families (20 of us) for dinner at a really fancy Taiwan restaurant. The food just kept coming.

Attempting chopsticks....at every meal...but notice the fork is close by!

Big plates of chicken, seafood medley, red fish, pork butt, long ear greens, octopus, rice cake fish, broccoli and vegetable medley, fish and sausage, jelly fish…I’m sure I have left out several of the dishes. Dessert was Taro Fungus with raisins and pink rice balls. Very different…light and gelatin like with very little sugar.

The men had shots of scotch throughout the meal while the women and young couples had tea and cranberry juice. 

The whole family saluted the Chinese New Year throughout the meal. It was a joyous occasion with lots of laughter and loud talking. The room was filled with other large families doing likewise. The restaurant had three floors of huge rooms.

The place was packed! It is interesting trying to communicate with each other.

The only English speakers were Larry and me, Ruby, and Eagle….but we noticed that by the end of the week…. Everyone was speaking a few words of English just as we were speaking a few words of Taiwanese.

On Monday morning we had breakfast at a small local establishment. The place served both Taiwan style and American style breakfast.

  We left the area continuing down the coastal highway stopping at the Seaside Park to view the largest Eastern Gorge.

We traveled on stopping at Fanshaliao. Larry had a sausage on a stick here.

We stopped at Jigi Beach where the mountains touch the shore. Emerald green mountains rose out of the sea.

Cool breezes from the mountains cooled the sun rays on the shorelines. 

Each home had a Taiwanese saying on red paper that was attached to the entrance of the home. These sayings were rich words of wisdom in keeping the family close and together. They remained up all year and would be replaced with new words of wisdom the following Chinese New Year.

Dan Tiping was an astonishing area of craggy coral rocks. We hiked to the top.

                                                           The views were stupendous!

                                                             Our group at the very top!
We hiked out to the end of the trail to find fishermen with long poles out on the rocks.

                                             We hiked to the tallest rocks to get pictures.

Remarkable views were enjoyed from these heights. It was an amazing adventure. Jing-shee treated everyone to ice cream on a stick at the end of the hike.

Marker for the Tropic of Cancer

                                                 Jing-shee  showing off his new shirt

We stopped at the Tropic of Cancer Marker for a lunch of sausage on a stick, fish ball soup, and a variety of fruits. Lots of little shops were visited and we danced with a Taiwan aborigine while she sang.

                                                      Sanxiantai was  our final stop of the day.

This was an eight arched bridge that resembled the back of a dragon.

After a down pour of rain, we walked the eight steep arches…up 16 steps, over the arch and down 16 steps…..eight times to make it to the little island with a legend of the three stones….then we walked back viewing the marine life all along the way.

                                  The wind was ferocious!

Our fun filled day ended in the Derger house AirBNB in Tomisato.

We had a wonderful dinner in a little restaurant downtown. Lots of dishes of fresh vegetables picked right from the garden outside, medleys of noodle dishes, rice, and a fantastic fish. We had a wonderful time. Upon returning to the house, Joyce made a fine African Coffee and Sun Moon Lake tea before we turned in for the night! What a fabulous day!

Stay tuned for Part II of our Taiwan Adventure.