final day

I got up for breakfast, but everyone staying in the same room with me slept in. I had a classic Taiwanese breakfast, scallion pancake and a fried savory donut type thing, dongtian i think? We took some family photos of the whole group, then left for our first stop. A museum for beekeeping. They sold all different varieties of honey and honey products. Afterwards, we took a short walk into town and got ice cream. Lunch came next, It was family style again, with tons and tons of dishes. Sweet and sour fish, stir fried pork and beef, garlic chicken soup, cabbage, radish and green onion omelette, and probably others I’m forgetting. The next activity after lunch people kept referring to as “DIY” which i curious to see. We drove past sugar cane fields to a giant garden area with big greenhouses. We were tasked with designing little succulent/ cactus planters. It was super cute and fun, and there were tons of little figurines and various color gravels you could use to decorate after picking out your container and several plants. Everyone fell asleep on the drive home except me and the mom. Once we finally got back to their house, I had to pack up quick as everyone had places to be. We parted ways, and I started heading to Taipei. It took longer than I thought, and I didn’t arrive until the evening. My travel time from Taichung to Taipei was something like 4 hours. Catching busses, waiting for trains etc. Now with two huge suitcases what a drag!! That’s the price of souvineir hunting I suppose :) I checked into a hostel for my last night, showered and did some nighttime city bike riding before it was time for bed. Tomorrow I will go to the airport after I check out to catch my plane which leaves at 1:50.

Well, that’s a wrap on my 2026 Taiwan adventure. I felt like I was able to deeply embrace more aspects of Taiwanese culture than ever. It helped to have so many friendly faces helping me every step of the way. Thanks Peggy, the fashion design student who talked shop and introduced me to new global perspectives. Thanks Yvonne, the stranger who I asked for directions to a coffee shop from. Thanks Enly, for letting me stay at your beautiful apartment and getting me into Taipei Fashion Week! Thanks to the big group of hikers at matcha mountain who helped me with directions and always were down to stop for a chat. Thanks Aurora @ponpontou for being so kind when I saw you at the art market. Thanks Zhong, for talking to me about @the_ice_palace and Taiwanese art! Thanks Pearl, Jamie, Jasper and Chaya for having me as a part of your family. And Chaya especially for showing me around Taichung! Thanks Justin, for being my main point of contact in Taiwan, and introducing me to your family! And thanks to all the other countless strangers, who took the time to not only be kind, but also patient. Thanks, all of the taxi drivers, train attendants, people who asked if I needed directions, 7/11 cashiers, and food stand vendors. You make Taiwan amazing! I can’t wait to come back again soon.

family day

we woke up at 8am to get ready to leave for the family trip. Chaya constantly getting chewed out for oversleeping her alarm, lol. We got in the car, got going. Met up with the extended family and put grandma in our car. Then stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. I shared a pancake meal with the youngest daughter Jamie. It made my stomach hurt, nothing else on this trip has. We stopped at a little roadside gift shop to stretch our legs before heading to the first activity of the day. But first, lunch. Kind of an awe-inspiring spread. A large lazy Susan in the middle of a square table ( I sat at the young people table) and more and more dishes just kept coming. A pork and mussel soup, a spicy pork blood and intestine soup, fried shrimp salty egg balls, a Hakka stir fry with squid and pork, sesame boa, stir fried pork, a whole steamed fish, and cabbage topped with fried finely chopped peanuts. Someone brought sliced guava as an appetizer/ palate cleanser. It was really delicious, and the restaurant was frog themed which was cute.

There’s a bunch of kids on this family trip, 8 and younger. We went to a green area. Some guy was giving us a tour of (presumably his) property. I can’t understand much mandarin and I don’t know Taiwanese so I didn’t get much from it. They had us all put on helmets at some point which confused me, until we got to the main point of attraction- a rope swing that you can ride across a small pond. We all took turns riding it across.

After that we checked into the airbnb rental, all 8 cars of us lol. A big house will tall ceilings. I immediately clonked out for a 2 hour nap. I guess getting to Taipei and back last night and having an early morning really took it out of me. I woke up and went out to find my friends playing mahjong and I sat and watched and ate cilantro flavored Doritos (Taiwan exclusive). A little later, it was time to start dinner, which was a huge production. We went to an outdoor area and grilled and did hot pot for hours. It was all really yummy and I enjoyed talking to everyone.

The night came to a close after we played a few games , blind karaoke and bingo, and then regular karaoke. I’m not sure what the plan is tomorrow, but it’ll be my last full day here :,(

acupuncture and taipei fashion week

Slept in late, didn’t leave until around 11 for an early lunch. I’m not sure what it was called, but we ordered a type of soup that was thick and slightly gelatinous, with meatballs and thinly sliced radish and rice. Also ordered a side of braised greens which came with some braised pork belly bits on top. Chaya told me the restaurant belongs to Jasper (her brother)’s friends parents. After that, we visited a historic house with lots of Japanese tea sets and vases. We got some strawberry shaved ice and it was so good- limited time flavor. Chaya kept thinking the waiter was bringing our order but it kept being for a different table, which was funny. Everyone in the restaurant all ordered strawberry.

While walking i asked if we could stop in a shrine or how i could interact with one and chaya gave me directions on how to pray and where to place the incense. At the end i got my fortune told. The process was like this >ask jiaobei if i can get a fortune>yes>grab the bundle of red painted sticks and drop them vertically in the container>retrieve the one sticking up the highest>take it back to the alter>ask the god if this is the correct one>yes> use the number written on the stick to retrieve the paper fortune from one of many small numbered drawers> very auspicious fortune! Many good things to come.

We got on a bus to head the the traditional Chinese medicine practictioner , who’s practice was kinda far and also not open until after 3. Seeing him was a pretty quick and simple process, and Chaya translated for me whenever we had lapses in communication. I was hoping that I would get some herbs to take (for my ailments) but the doctor simply stated that it’s a long and slow process and that it would be pointless to give me a single dose today. Instead he did some acupuncture, just 4 needles. I’ve never had it done before so that was cool.

It was sort of a logistical thing making sure I got on all the right trains to make it to Taipei and back this evening. If I could’ve done it differently, I think I would've left for Taipei earlier. But, I did make it in time to see the runway show Enly got me into, and we met up and chatted for a bit afterwards. It was really cool being in the space, and it was my first runway show ever! The runway I saw was mizuiro ind from Japan. I saw the tail end of the tangtsungchien exhibition, too.

shopping day with chaya

slept in a little bit this morning. Then me and Chaya got ready together and wore coordinating outfits. She lent me a cool black skirt to wear. We went to a noodle shop for the first meal of the day, it was very good. Three colors of hand cut noodles, and mussels and tofu and cabbage and pork. Chaya told me she comes to this spot all the time.

We went to visit the historic train station. Chaya gave me a little tour, she said she used to work as a tour guide there. We stopped for matcha in a cafe they built inside of a decommissioned historic passenger train. Such a cool vibe!

Next, we went to a photo shoot place. We spent hours there and had so much fun picking out photo backgrounds and props. At the end we went downstairs and they had a diy station where we put our photos into little booklet keychains and covered them with stickers. it was so fun!

We spent the rest of the day shopping. Chaya showed me some really cute stores, and I bought a few skirts and other miscellaneous items. We stopped at a fried chicken stand. Eventually I got too tired to shop anymore and we went home.

At home we ate some fruit Pearl had cut up. Wax apples, and guava and star fruit. I mentioned at some point wanting to try century egg and she ordered me some to try with stinky tofu— it was ok. I told Chaya the last thing on my list of things to do in Taiwan is see a TCM practitioner. Pearl called someone on the phone and told me I can go tomorrow, but it would mean I have to cancel my afternoon hang out with Chaya. Both activities wouldn’t be able to happen until 3pm, and later on I am taking a high speed train to Taipei for the evening. I was having a hard time deciding because I didn’t wanna just flake on Chaya. I remembered something I saw in a gift shop that Chaya explained to me about called jiaobei. They are red crecent-shaped blocks that you throw, and the way they land tells you an answer to a yes or no question. I asked if they had any and Pearl seemed really amused. They found some under the cabinet to the shrine for their grandpa and let me have a go. Chaya prayed with me in case the ancestors can’t understand English, ha. At the end, it looked like the blocks said I should go to see the doctor, so that’s what I’ll do tomorrow. They told me to keep the jiaobei as a souvineir, which is so cool. They are wooden and worn.

taichung

I woke up to the sounds of everyone getting ready for school. I rolled over and tried to catch some more zzz’s. So tired. When I got up, Pearl had arrived back from dropping everyone off at their respective schools. She offered to cook me breakfast, but i instead decided to have yogurt and granola, which she kindly cut some star fruit for me to enjoy with it.

My first stop today was Rainbow Village, which is just kind of a tourist trap but I really liked it. Just some guy who painted everything around his house with colorful designs and characters. He died a few years ago and some of his work has been lost. There’s a collaborative effort going on with other artists to try to keep the spirit alive.

It was pretty hot outside, so the next stop was the Taiwan national fine art museum. I got to see a lot of paintings of horses, since its year of the horse. They had a block print station and I made a horse calendar.

I treated myself to a feaaast today for lunch, I went to a Japanese eel restaurant across the street and ordered the full set with sashimi. It totaled to the most expensive meal I’ve had on this trip ($23) but it was so worth it. It came with so many dishes, steamed egg, salad, miso soup, unagi, sashimi, pickled radish, seaweed salad, caviar, some kind of greyish cube (not sure…) and green tea. Yum!

I went to a place that @ponpontou recommended, called the ice palace. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was so cool in there! It had really eclectic decorations and art that reminded me of my friends at home. I talked to the owner for a while and he explained that a lot of the books and decor are his personal collection, and there’s also some Taiwanese artist’s works for sale. He also mentioned the bulk of the income comes from the creative flower arrangement business, very interesting. I liked talking to him, I think his name was Jhong! I think the ice palace is a must see in Taichung. I may have spent several hours there. Every person who walked in looked super trendy. I asked him for some recs of stuff for “a creative person to do on a weekday in Taichung” and he gave me a thrift store and an art exhibition to go to. Super cool to meet you !

I tried going to the thrift he recommended, it was in a really interesting location and looked really cool from the outside, but was unfortunately closed. I went to another thrift I’d found from my research and mann were they yappers in there. Every few minutes a different old person would come in and start talking to the ladies working and block my path a little more. But they were really nice. They even gave me a free latte!I got a couple cute items there.

All day was spent getting around on bike because the metro and bus network is a little limited here,especially compared to Taipei. A lot of the places I went today were cute to bike in. Along the river there is a decent greenway path. I met Chaya on the train we designated. A new challenge for me — get on a specific train at a specific time. We met up in train car 7. She has a studio arts class in a nearby city called Changhua, and I was coming with to enjoy dinner with her and accompany her on the train ride there and back.

She brought me to eat something really unique , and apparently quite famous. It was a dish sort of like a meatball stuffed into a boba. Like a dumpling but surrounded by tapioca instead of bread. And we also had a pork soup with golden flowers. It was so, so delicious. It’s really nice to have someone to show me all the good spots! I killed some time while she was in class by going to a stationary store and a miniature train exhibit. She met up with me midway through her class to get materials and took me to a mom and pop stuff store which was really cool. They had all kinds of various home goods. Once she went back to class I had just enough time to hit one more thrift store. Then we took the train back to her house, where her family was waiting. We ate corn on the cob that her mother made us. Tomorrow,me and Chaya get to hang out all day. She said we can get ready and wear matching outfits together. She told me “Thanks for visiting!” because her mom is letting her have off the next two days of school to show me around, and because she’s done with her tests this week. I think we will do some cute activities tomorrow.

meeting chaya

I woke up, legs so stiff. Seriously thought i was gonna die walking down the stairs of my hostel. The plan was pretty straightforward today, take trains until I reach Taichung. The man who checks tickets to see you paid your fare, checked mine, and I had purchased the wrong one. He was super kind about it though. I paid him for the correct ticket and he gave me a receipt and an official looking stamp and gave me directions on how to get a refund for the first ticket I bought. People have been for the most part,so kind and helpful here. I had to take a stop at songshan station in Taipei to get my luggage. I took a break and ate some king pao chicken at a restaurant in the train station before boarding the next train to Taichung. It all flowed pretty smoothly all things considered.

I waited around for Chaya at the old station market, which was really cute. An old train car has been repurposed to house many small shops and cafes. She got off her train after her school day and had me follow her onto a bus to get to her family’s house. Chaya is Justin’s relative. She is getting ready to study fashion design at the same school as Peggy is enrolled in! After stopping at her house to drop off my suitcase, she showed me around the local night market. I got a rice sausage (one of my favs) and then we sat and ate dumplings together. We got some boba before heading back home. She spent some time showing me her many sketchbooks filled with art and her portfolio. She went to several art and fashion design summer camps and had some clothes to show me as well. Super cool!

Her brother Jasper was the next one to come home, followed a bit later by her mom Pearl and her 8 yr old sister Jaimie. I talked to the mom a bit to thank her for opening up her house to me, and she offered to take me on a hike on Thursday. I’m not sure yet if I’ll go or not, I’m still thinking about it. I’m not even really sure what I want to do tomorrow, but I think my plan is to leave around 10am. Later on, Chaya is going to take me to the town Changua where I can explore a bit while she has a studio arts class.

matcha mountain and stinky tofu

I found out that the majority of Taipingshen is inaccessible currently, due to ongoing road repair. Bummer.

I pivoted and decided to explore Wufengqi waterfall area and matcha mountain. After I arrived at the nearest bus stop, I took a short break and ate some treats I procured from 7/11. A fried rice ball, a tea egg, a yakult. I saved my sweet potato for the return journey. The hike ended up being a little more challenging than I was prepared for, mostly in terms of endurance. One nice thing is that at the very beginning I asked someone in a large tour group for clarification on direction, and for the rest of the hike, anytime I ran into anyone in their group they would stop and happily chat with me.The hike started along a stream with many waterfalls. Hours and many, many stairs later, I reached the vista. A vast expanse of rolling green hills.

I wasn’t initially going to, but figured why not. I stopped at the Jiaoxe hot spring park on the way back. A foot bath was nice after the long walk. Afterwards, I boarded the train back to the town I’m staying in, Luodong. It isn’t exactly the most convenient place to stay unless you intend to go to Taipingshen park, but Taiwan is pretty well connected by rail. I went straight to the night market to get some dinner.

I went to a food stall famous for its Angelica Lamb soup. I read about it in a guide for Luodong market. I wouldn’t have figured it out otherwise, it was pretty confusing where to queue and how to order, but the waiting area was next to a temple at least, the red lanterns are so pretty. I got Angelica mutton soup, braised water spinach and pork, and stinky tofu. It was my first time trying stinky tofu and actually I found it quite good! The soup broth had a somewhat bitter, medicinal flavor. For dessert I went to a nearby shop and got red bean stuffed boba and grass jelly with lemon ice. It was the perfect wrap to my night. Tomorrow is a big travel day.

travel day

I woke up super hungover. Much more than i thought i would be. I had told enly we could do a photoshoot at 8am , so i committed though i think i was a little bleary eyed. Afterwards it took me the better part of 4 hours to repack all my things and rest a bit and talk with raven on the phone. Enly was able to give me information on stowing my luggage at the train station. Now i know! You cannot store things at mrt stations for more than a day, but at the high speed rail stations you can. It was super confusing to find to baggage area, but the attendants were so friendly i forgot all my frustration. Seriously though, it was outside of the station, across the street and around the corner of a hotel building. I had to ask for directions sooo many times lol.

The train ride was seamless. Spent the ride doing a bunch of reaching out to people and answering messages, it went by fast.

I’m in the town Luodong now, all checked in to my hostel (which is super cute). I decided to pay the day use fee and go to the onsen area of a nice resort nearby for some r&r. It was a super luxe setting, which was kinda nice. There was even a beautiful tiled swimming pool. Left feeling refreshed. Had dinner at the local night market , which seems to be a pretty good one. I had chicken wings, chinese sausage, fried assorted mushrooms, glazed spicy corn on the cob and a grass jelly boba drink for dessert.

I’ll spend the rest of the evening figuring out how im going to approach taipingshan national forest.

saturday

Today I was determined, and I got a lot done.

I began my day by taking the green line almost all the way from one end to the other. My mission, shopping. I stopped at a convenience store and got a full spread for breakfast. I’m talking sweet potato, tea egg, chicken cutlet and corn on the cob. If only convenience stores in America had all those offerings. The sweet potatoes are especially my favorite, this store had them nestled on hot rocks. True secondhand stores are kind of hard to come by here in my experience, but this one i went to is true blue. I spent some time shopping there, got mostly clothes. It’s always funny being in some far-flung neighborhood with no touristic influence.

Took a break for a matcha in the Zhongshan neighborhood, it was extremely crowded. I’m glad I spent time here before the weekend.

Then it was time to take the train all the way from south to north to go to a pop-up art market I found from instagram. It was taking place in a hair salon which was a cool backdrop. There was several cool booths, and some vintage clothes. Honestly all the people there looked soo cool I felt pretty out of place. I’m not exactly dripped out when I’m traveling unfortunately! But I did talk a bit to the person who’s instagram tipped me off to the market @ponpontou . She was really friendly and her work is amazing. Check it out! I purchased a stuffed animal bag. She designed a photo overlay for the photo booth in front of the salon and I got some of those too. How extremely cool!

Next, i took a bus to a local flea market, again pretty far from being in central Taipei. I really enjoyed it, people were super friendly and I got some cute stuff! Everyone is just sifting through piles haha.

I took an Uber to see an art exhibition of “nAn” or “not a number”. It was a really cute exhibit of a fantasy world made entirely from cardboard.

After a brief intermission at Enly’s, I went to MAJI square and danced the night away. I had some fun , but I felt a little lonely. I chatted with a few people, but I wish one of my friends here was available to go with me. Oh well, maybe next time! Tomorrow I head to Yilan for some nature time.

a home cooked meal

Today I checked out of my hotel to meet up with my new friend Enly. She’s from the “host a sister” program and I’ll be staying at her apartment for the next couple of days. She’s a project design manager and her company actually helps put on Taipei Fashion Week, so she might be able to get me into a show! Her house is super nice, the kitchen looks like something off of Pinterest. After lugging up my suitcase 5 flights, getting the house tour and meeting the cat, I took a shower. I didn’t have a clue of what to do today, and I’m in a whole new area of the city I’ve never explored. I decided I’d get lunch before I made my mind up, that alone took forever. I went to a famous beef noodle shop for my first beef noodles of this trip at Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles 林東芳牛肉麵. I intended to use a city bike to get from the restaurant to Daan park— where there is a giant flower garden in bloom for spring. I didn’t end up making it there, the combination of wearing a long dress and trying to bike against strong wind and just being generally fatigued got the better of me. Heading back to the apartment took awhile, and I took my time. Enly cooked dinner tonight. She served up Braised food 滷味 , Stir-fried Bitter Melon with Salted Egg苦瓜鹹蛋 , and Bak Kut Teh肉骨茶. It was all really good and it is always so comforting when traveling to eat food at someones house. I enjoyed our evening spent sharing travel experiences and getting to know each other. Thanks Enly!

springs and shimps

I felt a little lousy this morning,it was hard to get going. I woke up early and got some kinda breakfast item (I have no idea what, some kind of goo with pork on top). I came back to my hotel and drank tea and chilled out for a bit before really getting started with my day. Around 10:30 or 11 I got on the train to Beitou , its a district in Taipei famous for its hot springs! I went to check out the beitou hotspring museum. When the Japanese colonized Taiwan, they brought onsen. Beitou was one of the prime time areas. Beitou was called Hokuta then, and they actually found a unique mineral in the springs and named it Hokutite. I thought that was cool. :)

After checking out the museum, I decided to enjoy some hot spring time. It seems that there is some kind of rule that a single person can’t rent a private hot tub here, I guess due to the concern they have of you passing out or something. I went to a public bathhouse instead at SweetMe, which is a long-standing hot spring resort in the town. I spent hours enjoying the spring and the various temperature baths. I even took a light nap near the end. The hot spring helped enormously with my morale, my health, my digestive discomfort, you get the picture. I felt very relaxed.I enjoyed blow drying my hair after.

I stopped at the hotel again before setting out around dusk for Ningxia night market. I stayed near there last time I was in Taipei, and I remembered liking it. It still holds up! I got taro/sweet potato balls, takoyaki, grilled zucchini, and thinly sliced grilled beef wrapped around green onion. I felt satisfied and left, meandering a little bit back towards the Zhongshan neighbourhood and resting at the train stop.

I wasn’t feeling quite ready to wrap up the night yet,but I didn’t know of anything cool happening and I didn’t really want to ambiguously drink at a bar when I have 11am check out tomorrow morning. I looked up some ideas of what to do, and prawn fishing came up. Actually I’ve been eager to try it for awhile! When I got there, I was handed some bait and a pole, and I purchased an hour of fishing time and a beer for around 400NTD (around $12USD) I was really bad at it, and the shrimp were really scary. But I managed to catch 4 and the last one I wrangled and subdued all by myself. I had varying degrees of help for the first 3. I felt like I was finally understanding how to read my bobber as my time was coming to a close. Then the clerk grilled my 4 prawns and I ate them, feeling so proud and awesome. The guys next to me literally caught enough to have a heaping pile hahaha. It’s a really cool thing. When I walked in there was a group of businessmen talking over plates of shrimp they caught. I kinda want to get better at it. I wish we had it in Arcata.

day 1

I decided that going to a cafe in Zhongshan neighborhood was how I wanted to start my day today. I asked a random passerby for directions to a cafe called “waha” and she was kind enough to walk me there and chat with me on the way! It was nice to have a little escort, she even explained my presence to the shopkeep. It was a very friendly interaction and I was able to practice some conversational mandarin. I’ve been lightly studying the language for about a year now, its very challenging. It’s good for me to be able to practice in real world conversations. I feel like with language learning, I have a really hard time retaining the information, but the shock and discomfort of trying to produce words from memory in a real life situation makes them stick a bit better. By happenstance I ran into her again shortly after at a little Japanese dessert shop. I got her name, Yvonne, and her LINE number. She actually sent me some recommendations for a couple restaurants including a beef noodle shop. Cute! I spent most of the day putzing around shops, purchased a few small things. I went to a Hakka restaurant for lunch and got pork and fried tofu and cucumber salad. It was pretty good! Hakka cuisine came from mainland china. I’d love to try some indigenous Taiwanese food also. Another popular cuisine here is Fujian, which comes from the southern part of china across the sea from Taiwan.. Japanese cuisine is also very popular. I saw someone online draw a comparison that pizza isn’t really an “American” food right , because it’s Italian , but then tomatoes aren’t really “authentic Italian” because they aren’t native to that area of the world. So I guess similarly , food in Taiwan is made up of a lot of cultural influences to become what it is today. At night, I met up with fashion design student Peggy at daodecheng dock and we shared a drink and talked awhile. It was interesting to hear her perspective on life in Taiwan,as it sounded like she’d traveled worldwide pretty extensively. I liked talking about fashion design with her. I told her I envy that she gets to live in Taipei and study fashion! She didn’t seem to share all of my enthusiasm , saying that she’d rather live in Europe or England or the US instead. She showed me some of her collections and a clip from her final runway show and they were all very impressive. I hope to have my designs walk down a runway someday.

touchdown

They gave me not one, not two, but three meals on my flights thru Asiana airlines. And its a Korean airline, so they served bibimbap and chicken and rice. Yum. Everything went really smoothly. I decided to pay for an ESIM at the airport instead of buying one ahead of time, which I’m really glad for. The ESIM folder on my phone looks crazy still from my adventure in 2024. I purchased a plan for unlimited data and text and it came out to about 20$. Another perk doing it of this way is that I have a Taiwan phone number, which already came in handy. I was able to create a LINE account and use that to set up a mobile payment to rent a locker at the train station. Mobile pay is really popular in a lot of parts of china, so I feel like this is useful information for when I finally go there. Taiwan is different in a lot of ways though, obviously. Getting off the plane and onto the train, buying an ESIM and setting up a virtual payment. The first day is always so logistical. Then I ran into Justin at Taipei Main Station, which was really random! In a city of 2.5 million, we happened to pass each other. He was my first connection here when Raven and I visited in 2024. Jocelyn, my coworker at Mokka, passed his contact info along then and we met up with him and had lots of karaoke and hotpot fun. I mean, I’m sure it helped our odds of running into each other that i spent an hour aimlessly wandering. He was there because he was headed to the airport for his trip to Japan. I knew that I was arriving and he was leaving the same day, but it just seemed crazy happenstance to run into him there! He gave me some lunch recommendations and was on his way. Have a good Japan trip Justin! I’ll see you on the 28th! I had several hours to kill before my checkin, so I did what any sensible person would do— I went to the busiest, most intense shopping district in Taipei. I wanted to get a novelty item, a 3D figurine version of the card that lets you on the train(easy card). It felt like something I should cross off my list early on, and having surmounted so many logistical challenges already I thought I’d be up for it. Unfortunately, I found myself unsuccessful.The internet gave me a lot of conflicting reports on where to buy them. I actually did see a couple at various 7/11’s and Family Marts, but finding them felt more like finding a needle in a haystack than browsing a beautiful wall of trinkets. I wasn’t super into any of the ones I was finding. I finally gave up, starving, jet-lagged and exhausted. And bought a normal transit card at the station. Re-found the locker which I had stored my luggage in (not the easiest) and headed to my accommodation. Which is super weird by the way , lol. It’s a self check-in and at first I felt like I broke into somewhere, but I finally figured out the way to my room ( I am so lucky a housekeeper was there and help me ). It’s tiny and freaky and sorta smells but I can walk ten paces out the front door and be in the “ Minquan “ train station. Also the neighborhood is pretty cute. It’s close the the SUPER cute neighborhood, which is only one train stop south. It was a struggle to keep myself awake, but I knew it was gonna be crucial to adjusting to the time zone, which is 16 hours ahead. Lost a full day during my flight— must have crossed the international date line? I managed to sit and look at my phone while I rested a bit in my hotel room, then I ventured out to get some things from 7/11 - water and a steamed corn on the cob ( more about the 7/11 offerings to come ) . There were beautiful red lanterns lighting a lot of my evening walk, and I saw a cool temple in the middle of them. I decided to close out my night by getting a foot massage at a parlor, it was definitely a little awkward but I’m glad I did it and might do it again. It’s a big thing here. My feet certainly thanked me. Can’t wait for my first morning here tomorrow!

a new adventure

follow along with me on a new adventure! I'll be visiting Taiwan again from march 15-30th this month. Wish me luck!