Winter Travels Pt. 4: A Very Taiwanese Christmas

Ah Christmas. That wonderful time of year when Western families come together, eating all sorts of delicious treats, wishing each other well, eating delicious treats, etc. etc.

Or, that would have been what Christmas was like for me if I was in the US.

After thinking long and hard about whether or not I should return to the states for Christmas, I eventually decided that I'd try out spending my holidays abroad this year. I figured I should see the world, and I had just arrived in Japan in August anyways, so why not? My family probably wasn't even missing me yet.

Still, skyping my family over a free hostel breakfast of lukewarm toast, overly sweet jam and bad coffee isn't exactly the Christmas miracle I thought traveling abroad would be.

My traveling buddies (who were from New Zealand and Ireland) had similar qualms about being away from their families on Christmas. Feeling pretty down in the dumps, we decided to treat ourselves to Melange Cafe, a highly recommended Taiwan favorite known for amazing waffles and fresh, fruity iced tea.

My Christmas breakfast, the strawberry waffle (complete with strawberry ice cream).

The deliciousness continued with fresh, creamy milk tea. The milk was so fatty it just sat on top of the tea until I stirred it in. Incredible!

Just for kicks, the gang and I decided to do a last minute Secret Santa gift exchange, and we all ran into a mall and purchased a little something for each other. Bridget found this amazing rabbit ring for me! Talk about good gift giving, huh?

After we had eaten until my pants stopped fitting correctly, we decided to head to Elephant Mountain, a really cool sightseeing spot overlooking the city. The hike gave us a little time to digest, which was necessary after our decadent breakfast feast.

Finally, we finished our evening with Korean barbecue and Coldstone ice cream for dessert. I supposed it wasn't exactly Taiwanese fare, but hey, what's more Christmas-y than Korean barbecue! Am I right?

Not exactly a Christmas duck, but it'll do.

(In other news...)
My last post of the Winter Travel series will be on New Years and Other Adventures in Bali. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. As usual, I've been sort of busy and my computer is almost non-functioning! Gotta get me a new laptop.

However, I have a lot to write about. So much has happened since January, and I'll be letting you know what I've been up to ASAP. In fact, my third years at junior high school and sixth years at elementary school just graduated! Big changes happening around here.

I've also been thinking about revamping the blog with a new look and a new name since I started this in 2012, and I feel like it's about time. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Thanks for reading and check back again soon!

Winter Travels Pt. 3: Jiufen Fun

Hey folks! Long time, no posts! As usual, the wintertime fatigue has caught up to me (as it always seems to during this time of year) and honestly I've just been a bit lazy lately. Well, no more! Here's another set of photos from our Taiwan adventure.

After our Maokong trip (on a gondola floating through the sky over the city to a tiny tea town), I assumed we had seen the coolest parts of Taiwan and that we would spend the rest of our trip being hopelessly disappointed. I thought if we'd already done ALL THAT in just one day, what else could Taipei possibly have to offer?

Apparently, so much more. In fact, so much more that I needed to make three separate blog posts, just so I could include all my favorite photos. You're welcome!

The next day we made our way to Jiufen, a small mining town in the mountains about an hour outside of Taipei by bus. Sure, it sounds quaint and mystical, however, it's known as a huge tourist attraction. In fact, take a good hard look at these photos. If you're familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, you may have seen Jiufen before. According to the internet and all the folks I chatted with on the bus, apparently, Jiufen's downtown area was the inspiration for the spirit town in the film.

I felt a little bit like I was Chihiro, even if the streets were incredibly crowded with other tourists (who also probably felt like they were in the film).

On the bus to Jiufen, we met some new friends, Mu and Meng, who were from Taiwan and Mainland China respectively. They had both studied abroad in Finland for years (so their english was flawless), and they offered to be our unofficial tour guides around town.

Our first stop was this tiny stand that sells a traditional Taiwanese dessert. Balls of gnocchi-like sweet potato, black sesame and matcha in a ginger soup with adzuki beans mixed in kept our hands warm in the slightly cold winter air.

Next we took a trip to the famous Jiufen (spelled Jioufen below) Teahouse. This was absolutely my favorite spot of the whole trip. It felt like walking into a Beauty and the Beast fairytale, but I got to drink tea and look out over an amazing mountain view.

After finishing up in Jiufen, Meng and Mu told us about this amazing night market in Keelung, another hour bus ride away. Since we had no plans for the evening (and we were always up for an adventure), we decided to accompany them and see another city in Taiwan.

Meng trying "Frog Eggs," a drink that actually has nothing to do with frogs or eggs. Taiwan has incredible food. It's cheap and flavourful, and super fun to try as many dishes as you can fit into your stomach!

I had some shu mai (pictured below) which reminded me of the ones I would eat back when I was studying in Hong Kong.

Bien swo was another dish recommended to us by Mu. It was sort of a mochi noodle-y situation. I have no idea what was in it, but LET ME TELL YOU, it was great. I feel like when you're traveling it's always best to just order what the locals are getting, and don't ask too many questions.

Finally, we were all sleepy and full from our day of eating and exploring. Mu and Meng said goodbye at the train station, but I was just so glad to have been able to get to know such interesting people. They were excellent company, and Jiufen wasn't half bad either.

Check out the next installment to see what the gang and I did for Christmas in Taiwan!

Winter Travels Pt. 2: Mad about Maokong

After two days in Okinawa, my band of merry JET friends and I headed off to our next winter travel destination, Taipei! We were only there for three days, but managed to pack a lot of adventuring into that short amount of time. I'm pretty sure it was my favorite destination of the three as well, since the food was incredible and the public transportation made it easy to reach all the destinations we wanted to see. I was glad to have been able to do so much in such a short amount of time.

On our first day, we headed up into the mountains in Taipei on the Hello Kitty themed Maokong gondola. Taipei seems to love Kitty Chan just as much as Japan does.

The gondola floats serenely over the city for about fifteen to twenty minutes, with the option to stop and explore different places along the route. Followers of my blog from the Hong Kong days might remember a similar cable car experience I had when I visited Ocean Park, and it did sort of feel like a deja vu moment. Either way, I'm a big fan of the floating over mountaintops public transportation movement. Talk about a way to travel!

Our first stop was Taisui shrine, a huge ornate building covered in dragons, gods and flowers. The shrine had a sort of a one size fits all sort of thing going, as there were different places to pray depending on whether you were followed the Tao, the Buddha or Confucius. You could also buy a token for good luck to hang on your rearview mirror for roughly $8 USD.

This room was my favorite by far. The ceiling was lit to look like the night sky, and in these cases all around the room were different saints for everyone's birth year. We all went around and found our own personal "guardian angels."

Here's my saint-- if you were born in 1992, you have this lovely scholar watching over you. Apparently, my lucky number is 9, my lucky color is purple, and I have a lot of wisdom, if the shrine is to be believed.

After we had our fill of temple gazing, we returned to the gondola and continued up the mountain, eventually arriving at the little town of Maokong. Famous for tea flavoured soba and special Chinese tea tastings, the tea drinking grandma in my heart was very excited at the opportunity.

We picked a random shop and tried an assortment of tea themed snacks, including tea oil noodles, tea meats, and steamed buns (pictured below). 

 My tea set, complete with tea biscuits, tea jelly, and, of course, tea! I tried a new flavour (but since it was written in kanji, I have no idea what it was called). It sort of reminded me of jasmine tea, since it had a very floral taste.

Black sesame, matcha, orange, cranberry and herb flavored steamed buns were a real treat. You can see the tea oil noodles and Elley's beef dish (possibly also made with tea?) in the background.

After we had stuffed ourselves with tea themed dishes and had a mosey around a couple tea shops, we tried a special Taiwanese dessert, the ice cream spring roll. It was taro and pineapple ice cream with shaved peanut brittle and cilantro-- it sounds nuts (haha, get it?), but I definitely recommend it.

The purple ice cream is taro flavoured, the yellow is pineapple. The cilantro made it so refreshing too! 

 Allison and I triumphantly eating spring rolls. 

A view of the town from the gondola platform

The gondola ride was such a treat on our first day in Taiwan, and it's a really inexpensive way to get to have some really unique experiences. If you like tea, Maokong is really the cream of the crop. Or should I say, the cream of the milk tea.

Actually no one should ever say that. Is it just me, or are my jokes getting worse?

I'm not done with Taiwan yet! Stay tuned for the next Winter Travels post to catch up with the rest of our Taiwanese adventures!