Taiwan, Day 1 - Flying to Taoyuan and visiting Jingtong and Yilan
Foops and I both had some leave to clear during the CNY break so we thought of going somewhere for a holiday with the kids.
We settled on Taiwan because I have been hearing many friends rave about their holidays there and my curiosity was piqued! Aside from the sad fact that I was pretty much illiterate in Taiwan (I never knew what to order during meal times), we had a really lovely 1.5 weeks there.
Taiwan had so much to offer (much more than I had expected). There were lots to see and do I really wish we stayed for a bit longer in each place. It also wasn’t exorbitantly expensive (like Japan) and it was easy to find food for the kids (I didn't have to cook any meal for them even though we lugged the rice cooker along).
The people were what made the most impression on us. Everywhere we went, people were effusively warm and sincere. Very often, they would go out of the way to help us and look out for the kids. I actually felt safe and very much at home during our 1.5 weeks there :)
Will share about our trip in the next few entries. Here's a recap of Day 1!
We flew to Taiwan on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. It was a pretty manageable 4.5-hour day flight.
Ry was a dream baby to travel with and he napped in the bassinet for more than an hour. The in-flight cartoons kept Sean entertained so I actually got to eat in peace and watch a movie (Argo - I was a bit underwhelmed by it). I cherished every minute ;)
Once we arrived in Tao Yuan, we met up with Sky who was going to be our local driver and guide for the next few days. The weather in Taiwan was crisp and oh-so-lovely (around 15 deg C).
By then, it was past noon and the kids were a bit tired from the early morning and flying. We tapau-ed some porridge for the kids' lunch and off we headed in the direction of Pingxi and Shifen.
We were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way because the Taiwanese were still in the midst of their one-week CNY holiday and everyone was out and about.
Jingtong
About an hour's drive later, we stopped at Jingtong, a charming old coal mining village tucked in a forested gorge along the old Pingxi Railway line.
We spotted quite a number of sky lanterns floating in the sky as we were approaching which made for a pretty surreal sight. The area is famous for the lanterns. People would come from all over Taiwan to pen their wishes on them and release them to the sky.
We took a short walk along the 'Old Street' of Jingtong station. The Taiwanese are quite fond of playing soft piped music everywhere so there was a hint of a quaint, folksy charm in the air.
There were interesting little stalls offering old-school pinball games and selling street food, ukuleles, music pipes made out of bamboo, etc. We bought some fishballs and chicken cutlet which came sprinkled with savoury pepper-wasabi seasoning and Sean had a small tub of milk icecream.
We caught sight of the old train that still runs along the Pingxi Railway line every hour. Would have loved to take a ride but we didn't intend to spend a lot of time there.
Since everyone was doing it, we too bought a big red lantern. Sean drew our little stick family on it and we walked over to the train tracks to release it. Alas, Foops underestimated how windy it was that day and our lantern flew into the branches of a tree and burst into flames :\
It was truly a dreamy little place, probably one of my favourite stops of the trip. There are actually lots more to do (hikes, waterfalls, river pools, take the old train) here - I wish we stayed longer!
Yilan
We piled back to our minivan and carried on our journey to Yilan. The traffic was quite horrendous and not only did Ry throw a strop in the car, he also threw up all over himself. Sigh.
It was around 6pm by the time we arrived in the town center. Sky dropped us off at the night market for a wander. We were a bit stressed when Ry did a huge, messy poop and the only decent toilet we could find was at MacD's (and it had a very long queue!). Did I also mention Ry was down to his last set of clothes? :\
Anyway, back to the night market. Sean tried out a cute old-school arcade shooting game (which involved using a ping-pong gun to shoot at moving toy targets) and he won a wand!
The night market was ridiculously packed because of the CNY crowd. The kids were quite tired from all the traveling and I was also slowly starting to unravel as well so in the end, we decided to just pack some dinner and head back to the hotel.
It was only when we exited the market area that I realized Ry had lost a shoe (and a sock) in the mad crush of people (no, we didn't go back to look for it). Sigh, thank goodness I brought another pair!
I think we were all quite relieved when we finally checked into the hotel after a full day of traveling!
The pleasant surprise was, we had a hot spring tub right in our bathroom (Yilan is a town renowned for hot springs)! All of us had a good long soak before crashing into bed (before 9pm) :)
So ends a pretty madcap Day 1 for us! Don't worry, it gets a lot better from here on.
We settled on Taiwan because I have been hearing many friends rave about their holidays there and my curiosity was piqued! Aside from the sad fact that I was pretty much illiterate in Taiwan (I never knew what to order during meal times), we had a really lovely 1.5 weeks there.
Taiwan had so much to offer (much more than I had expected). There were lots to see and do I really wish we stayed for a bit longer in each place. It also wasn’t exorbitantly expensive (like Japan) and it was easy to find food for the kids (I didn't have to cook any meal for them even though we lugged the rice cooker along).
The people were what made the most impression on us. Everywhere we went, people were effusively warm and sincere. Very often, they would go out of the way to help us and look out for the kids. I actually felt safe and very much at home during our 1.5 weeks there :)
Will share about our trip in the next few entries. Here's a recap of Day 1!
We flew to Taiwan on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. It was a pretty manageable 4.5-hour day flight.
Ry was a dream baby to travel with and he napped in the bassinet for more than an hour. The in-flight cartoons kept Sean entertained so I actually got to eat in peace and watch a movie (Argo - I was a bit underwhelmed by it). I cherished every minute ;)
Once we arrived in Tao Yuan, we met up with Sky who was going to be our local driver and guide for the next few days. The weather in Taiwan was crisp and oh-so-lovely (around 15 deg C).
By then, it was past noon and the kids were a bit tired from the early morning and flying. We tapau-ed some porridge for the kids' lunch and off we headed in the direction of Pingxi and Shifen.
We were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way because the Taiwanese were still in the midst of their one-week CNY holiday and everyone was out and about.
Jingtong
About an hour's drive later, we stopped at Jingtong, a charming old coal mining village tucked in a forested gorge along the old Pingxi Railway line.
We spotted quite a number of sky lanterns floating in the sky as we were approaching which made for a pretty surreal sight. The area is famous for the lanterns. People would come from all over Taiwan to pen their wishes on them and release them to the sky.
We took a short walk along the 'Old Street' of Jingtong station. The Taiwanese are quite fond of playing soft piped music everywhere so there was a hint of a quaint, folksy charm in the air.
There were interesting little stalls offering old-school pinball games and selling street food, ukuleles, music pipes made out of bamboo, etc. We bought some fishballs and chicken cutlet which came sprinkled with savoury pepper-wasabi seasoning and Sean had a small tub of milk icecream.
We caught sight of the old train that still runs along the Pingxi Railway line every hour. Would have loved to take a ride but we didn't intend to spend a lot of time there.
Since everyone was doing it, we too bought a big red lantern. Sean drew our little stick family on it and we walked over to the train tracks to release it. Alas, Foops underestimated how windy it was that day and our lantern flew into the branches of a tree and burst into flames :\
It was truly a dreamy little place, probably one of my favourite stops of the trip. There are actually lots more to do (hikes, waterfalls, river pools, take the old train) here - I wish we stayed longer!
Yilan
We piled back to our minivan and carried on our journey to Yilan. The traffic was quite horrendous and not only did Ry throw a strop in the car, he also threw up all over himself. Sigh.
It was around 6pm by the time we arrived in the town center. Sky dropped us off at the night market for a wander. We were a bit stressed when Ry did a huge, messy poop and the only decent toilet we could find was at MacD's (and it had a very long queue!). Did I also mention Ry was down to his last set of clothes? :\
Anyway, back to the night market. Sean tried out a cute old-school arcade shooting game (which involved using a ping-pong gun to shoot at moving toy targets) and he won a wand!
The night market was ridiculously packed because of the CNY crowd. The kids were quite tired from all the traveling and I was also slowly starting to unravel as well so in the end, we decided to just pack some dinner and head back to the hotel.
It was only when we exited the market area that I realized Ry had lost a shoe (and a sock) in the mad crush of people (no, we didn't go back to look for it). Sigh, thank goodness I brought another pair!
I think we were all quite relieved when we finally checked into the hotel after a full day of traveling!
The pleasant surprise was, we had a hot spring tub right in our bathroom (Yilan is a town renowned for hot springs)! All of us had a good long soak before crashing into bed (before 9pm) :)
So ends a pretty madcap Day 1 for us! Don't worry, it gets a lot better from here on.