DECEMBER-JANUARY TRAVEL
This post is again very delayed as I have been having trouble for months now to get this site to load pictures – the glory of being behind China’s firewall … the time we waste turning VPNs on and off and struggling with getting things to work here – definitely a low part of being in China. For whatever reason it is suddenly working so want to get out as much as I can before I go to sleep.
One thing I forgot to mention last time was when Morton and I were waiting to board our flight back to the States, the airline offered early boarding to anyone who needed a wheelchair. Then the airline pulled out at least 30 wheelchairs. That many people walked up, mostly older people, and said they wanted a wheelchair. I have never seen anything like it. AT LEAST 30 PEOPLE! And clearly the airline was prepared for this. People must have just been using this to get on to the plane early. So many people!
November brought Morton’s 16th birthday. Can’t get your driver’s license here until 18, but he’s planning for when we return to the U.S. this summer.
Morton and I went out for brunch and going shopping at his favorite sports shop here, Dicathalon.
He tried to talk me into the above bicycle. I tried to talk him into the cute outfit below.
He ended up with some pants and Shokz head phones.
That evening, just like last year, we took a group of kids to the local pub, Swan with Two Necks, for food, darts and some games of pool. They later returned to our house for brownies and some online game.
An artist who has been living in Mongolia for 15 years and with monks for the first 8, came to the school with a student of hers to create a Mondola. It was amazing what they could do with sand.
The above is just a crazy picture to show. Our friend Roberta, who is on the short side but not crazy short, went to an event with Yao Ming. The photo is crazy. I told her I needed a copy!
For our Winter holiday we decided to go to Taiwan, study Mandarin, and travel around the island. We heard from everyone that the street food was amazing and it didn’t disappoint us.
On the airplane to Taiwan, Morton was texting with his school friend. It ended up this friend and his mother were on our plane! They were briefly visiting his father’s family in Taipei on their way to Canada. They invited us to join their family for lunch the next day. That first night we arrived we went out for the famous street food. It didn’t disappoint!
I planned for our first morning we would get up early, take the public rental bikes across the city to where we could do a nice hike before meeting up with Morton’s friends for lunch. All started off well, we were able to rent the Smile bikes. We were having a nice bike ride through the city when we went by a tall building under construction. I heard small rocks hitting the ground and biked quickly, hoping not to get hit. Dan yelled, “OUCH!”. I though he was joking. Unfortunately he wasn’t. A brick fell on his head. We pulled off his wool hat and his head had a deep gash in it and there was lot of blood. We parked our bikes and headed to the closest emergency room. Although the ER didn’t look up to date, we were taken quite good care of and we weren’t there too long. They called the police for us to report the incident. The police kept telling us we needed to call the building owners to get them to pay. I kept telling the police we just needed them to go stop the construction so no one else would get hurt. The hospital gave Dan an CT scan, cleaned him up, stitched him up, gave him a tetanus and some antibiotics and gave us, with no insurance they recognized, a bill equivalent to $250 U.S with no insurance. We thought that was pretty amazing! They told us to return in a few days to get the stitches out.
Dan spent the rest of the day back in the apartment we rented and Morton and I joined his friend’s family for a lovely Japanese lunch and a walk around Taipei.
The next morning we started our Mandarin classes. This cafe became our place to stop on the way to class for Dan to get a coffee.
In the afternoons we would go hiking, explore the city, and eat interesting foods.
One afternoon Morton and I explored the Northern area of Taipei where there had been some beautiful old towns and a precious metals mine. Dan went kite boarding.
After about three days Dan’s wound looked healed enough to take out the stitches. After spending a half hour or so trying to navigate the hospital we realized it was going to be a very long wait to get them taken out. I suggested we should see if there’s was a pharmacy near-by and see if they sold tweezers and a small scissors to see if I could take out the stitches myself. If I failed, I figured our number to see the doctor would still not be up so we could return to the waiting room. We quickly found the tools we needed but as it was raining outside, weren’t sure where to attempt the removal. Dan noticed a phone booth. He sat on the ground and I carefully pulled out his stitches. It was actually really fun. I’m thinking I need to get a job in a hospital as a stitches remover.
I love the umbrella rental Taiwan has in the subways!
Celia arrived in Taipei for our last couple days there. We ran her around – trying to give her a sense of the city before leaving it. She and I rented bikes while the boys walked – Dan wasn’t quite ready for another urban bike ride. We visited Shang Ki Shek’s memorial, she and I stumbled through a large protest – which was shocking to see coming from Mainland China, and we took her out for more street food.
I had originally planned to leave Taipei for the East coast where there is a famously beautiful national park. Just before heading there a friend in China texted that she thought much of the park was closed due to damage from an earthquake. I found out that was the case and quickly had to change our plans. So we then left for Sun Moon Lake. A beautiful lake area a couple hours south of Taipei. We rented what we thought were 2 tandem pedal assist bikes which ended up being electric bikes. I had a lot of trouble starting as I kept thinking the pedals would push the bike forward and I kept almost falling over. Finally I got it and they kept us moving until Dan and Morton’s died. It is super hard pushing those bikes.
We stayed in this super cute hostel that felt like a tree house. In the morning they served us cheese and jelly sandwiches. A strange combination.
The second day we walked to the dock and took a boat across the lake and took a gondola ride up a mountain for some beautiful views.
We next went to Tainan, further south on the west coast. Tainan ended up being a super cute Japanese feeling city. We were sorry we hadn’t planned longer there. We mostly wandered around, checking out different neighborhoods, visiting an old Dutch fort, and an old factory that once abandoned was overgrown by the banyan trees – it was amazing.
We then headed down to Kenting National Park at the southern most tip of Taiwan. Unfortunately the weather was not ideal for hanging out and exploring beaches by motor bike. But we did stop and buy rain “coats” at a 7-11 so we looked super stylish exploring Kenting.
We then took a ferry to Xiao Liu Qiu – a very small island off the south western coast of Taiwan. We stayed in a lovely hotel on the top of the hill that made up the island. We again rented motor bikes to circumnavigate the island. We had a great time swimming with the super large sea turtles and exploring the coastal caves. On our way back to the port, a man on a scooter transported all our luggage! (And did I forget to mention – Dan was lugging all his kite boarding gear!)
Then to our final Taiwan destination. We spent our last week in another southern city, Kaohsiung, where we would again, take morning Mandarin classes and explore the city in the afternoon and weekends. The hotel we stayed at was the worst of our trip, but as Dave, Megumi, and kids would join us there for our last few days, it seemed easier to stay.
On the first evening there Celia found us a vegan Korean restaurant. The place was completely run by one man whose had random stuff stacked all over the tiny restaurant. It was very odd but the food was delicious. The next day Celia and I explored a neighborhood that has been commissioning artists to paint murals on all the buildings in the neighborhood. It was super fun to see. Afterwards we explored the nearby performance arts center which apparently is the largest one in the world. It was impressive!
On our way back to the hotel, we found some delicious Taiwan street food and observed a crowd of kids box sledding in the park.
Kaosiung is not far from the Straight of Taiwan, so while Celia and I were exploring, Morton joined Dan in going to the beach and Dan did some kite boarding.
In Kaohsiung we also found our pre Mandarin class coffee shop. Celia loved the carrying handle the coffee shop had.
On one of the first afternoon we rented bikes and explored our way out to the ferry to a black sand beach on the edge of the city. The kids relaxed and Dan and I climbed up the abutting hill which had an old fort and light house on top.
On the way back to the ferry Morton participated in some carnival games and won a stuffed animal for cousin Leina who would be arriving the next day.
While there we also celebrated Chanukah. Realizing I forgot our menorah, I improvised.
Another afternoon we went on a hike, where the monkeys couldn’t bother to move away from us.
Once the Japan contingent arrived , they’d meet us after our classes for brunch and often some drawing with Leina. We decided to return to the black sand beach with them. Tai, Dan and Dave rented surf boards. I planned to rent a SUP but was told it wasn’t safe – though the ocean was basically a lake. We also rented pedal cars (I’m not sure what you call them) and had fun exploring further down the coast than we’d seen on our previous trip.
Megumi planned a buffet New Years Eve dinner for us at a famous vegan restaurant, which was lovely, followed by an extended family Chanakah celebration with my fancy menorah and a vicious game of UNO (I’m sure I would have won if my Uno skills weren’t so rusty).
While we were all together we also explored an art neighborhood, went to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, and we couldn’t miss the Godzilla cafe which had super yummy dragon snacks.
We took the express train from Kaohsiung to the Taipei airport, getting back to Beijing just in time to throw our annual Chanukah party (a couple days late but still fun).
Gavin was our big dreidle winner this year – retaking the golden dreidle – as his father had won it two years prior and his sister was narrowly pushed to second place last year. Not sure what will happen next year when they will no longer be in Beijing!
While Celia was back in Beijing for a short time, she tried to get to old haunts – her favorite Bing restaurnat, eating bing tang hulu (candied hawthorne on a stick), getting cat manicures from her favorite manicurists who comes to our house, catching up with her highschool pal Tommy who was in from the Singaporean army, and just taking it all in before she and Milo headed to Boston. While we were prancing around Taiwan, Celia’s cat, Milo, who has been in China, was going through medical inspections and injections to be allowed to leave China and enter the United States.
The weekend after school started and Celia left, we hosted the school leadership holiday party. Dan ended up with this beautiful hair/hat concoction. Everyone agreed it really complimented his eyebrows!
The following weekend Morton was headed to Shanghai for a table tennis tournament. Dan and I decided to go a couple days earlier as I still had not had a chance to see Shanghai.
We biked around checking out hip art neighborhoods and museums.
We went to this cool new museum called The Power Station (as that is what it used to be) and we saw a few really nice installations by the Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen.
We went to a rooftop bar/restaurant that I heard was a great view. We weren’t the only ones who had heard this. The entire restaurant was full of female “influencers”. It was crazy. Two women sitting at a table across from one another – each dressed fabulously – each talking into their own phone – filming themselves. And the deck was full of women taking selfies or filming themselves with the fabulous view behind. We see tons of bloggers walking around sites in China – and many places we go – but this was beyond over the top. Dan took our selfie.
On the way down from the rooftop bar/restaurant we had to walk through a mall to get out. There was a line waiting to get into a LV shop. As we waited for a Didi (a cab) these people waited in a hardly moving line to get into the store. My New York friend Chris explained to me that this is a thing when new release collections and collaborations come out people are invited to an exclusive opening which they can wait a long time to get in to spend their money before others get a chance. Seems crazy to me – but what do I know.
The next morning we headed out to the suburbs for Morton’s pingpong tournament. It wasn’t Morton’s most successful, but it was fun to be there and cheer him and his teammates on.
Dan and I headed back to Beijing a day before Morton – hoping to get a little rest before we head out for our Chinese New Year holiday a few days later. So many holidays!
