At the end of December we went to Taiwan. It wasn't our normal type of trip though, since:
1) We took a bus to town (the taxi line was so long!)
2) We stayed in a new area of town (for us), Xi Men Ding.
3) We tried unusual food.
4) We rode the High Speed Rail to Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan.
5) Went up to Guanziling to try the "muddy hot springs" - only a few places in the world have this type of hotspring.
It seems that in recent years a lot of small hotels have opened in buildings that also house offices and privately owned apartments. Our first hotel in Xi Men Ding was located on the upper floors of an apartment building - the check-in lobby was on the 4th floor!
Xi Men Ding is a happening place - there is all manner of shops and eateries and one old building called the Red House now houses shops from local artists. We bought some glass jewelry from one such shop. While we were wandering the streets, we saw an unusual ji dan gao "chicken egg (shaped) cake" stand in that it offered fillings like cheese and peanut butter! We like the original best.
Another unusual food for us (me) was savory ice cream. Curry, sesame chicken, beer, wine... I chose to try pork floss flavor. I found the saltiness came through more than the pork. I'd seen this place that offers 73 flavors of ice cream several times on past trips, but finally coerced the family to try it. They had more traditional flavors like pineapple, peanut, mango and chocolate.
Our first meal in Taipei was at a favorite beef stew noodle place Niu Rou Mien Da Wang on Tao Yuan St, but we tried another one the next day with cousin Henry and family, then walked to nearby Da-An park to play. It was the nicest weather during our trip on that day.
We got to the train station, picked up our tickets, ate ramen at a small shop in the station - the place is ALL eateries, now that they've renovated... Found the Taiwan Railway "bien dang" original pork chop lunch box shop and purchased for a snack on the 1.5 hour trip.
We found a taxi outside the station and drove up to Guanziling along with all the other Taiwanese on their new year's holiday. Traffic doubled the length of the trip and the clerk at the check-in looked a little harried but confirmed we had a reservation. I guess during other times of the year you could just drive up the mountain, partake of the springs, and mosey around until you found a room if you didn't feel like driving back down the windy road at the end of the day - not this weekend! We had local specialty roast chicken, some kind of mountain deer, local vegetables for dinner and bought some fresh mochi for dessert before heading back to the hotel. We went for an evening dip in the outdoor pools - wearing swimsuits, and boy was it crowded - Taiwanese young and old! Noisy, too - not like in Japan where it seemed peace and quiet reigned... The next morning I rose early and was first in the ladies (naked) hotsprings, but the quiet only lasted about 20 minutes...
We were lucky to catch another taxi (instead of having to ride a bus) down the mountain to ride the local train to Tainan City. Unfortunately we were only there for one night so we walked around and saw what we could see - an old Dutch Fort called Eternal Golden Castle, new park by the water, street markets and Tainan food for dinner at a retro-decorated restaurant - local oysters were yummy! We will have to look at some of the oldest buildings in Taiwan and streets near An Ping Fort another time.
We rode the train back to Taipei and met Henry and family again for a Sichuan dinner, walked through the streets to the old Ning Xia night market, and spotted the hu jiao bing (pepper pork bun baked on the walls of an oven that looks like a tandoor) where I would buy a few for an airport snack the next day.
Our last meal in Taiwan was breakfast at a famous "Yong He Dou Jiang" place near our hotel on Chang An W Rd... soybean milk, nutty-flavored rice milk, xiaolong bao steamed dumplings, dan bing egg pancakes, shao bing sesame bread, fan tuan sticky rice pressed together with pork floss, you tiao, pickled vegetables - delicious!
Looking forward to our next trip...
