Tearing around Taiwan

[OZDUCK]

There were some small temples along the waterfront plus several incinerators to burn offerings.





Unfortunately this appears to have shut down otherwise it could have been a highlight of our trip.

 

[JohnM]

I think the bathhouses in Taiwan are mostly Japanese style, so yeah naked only.

Is there any other way...?

 

[rbjhan]

Is there any other way...?

Afaik most of the world do bathers?
Like, in Australia?

 

[I love to travel]

Sorry to hijack your excellent TR, but wondering if you had any experiences or recommendations for laundromats in Taipei. Thanks

 

[OZDUCK]

Sorry to hijack your excellent TR, but wondering if you had any experiences or recommendations for laundromats in Taipei. Thanks

Sorry I can't help as fortunately for us we didn't need to use a laundromat in Taiwan. Almost all of our hotels had either a coin-operated or free washers and dryers on one of the floors. We take laundry detergent sheets with us.

Here is a site that I used for other research but it does seem to give useful information about laundromats. A quick google search shows a fair few laundromats in Taipei.

How to use Self-Service Launderettes in Taipei - Taipei Travel Geek

How to use self service launderettes in Taipei, with a step-by-step picture guide

www.taipeitravelgeek.com

 

[OZDUCK]

We headed back form a one night stopover in Taipei to begin the tour of southern Taiwan.

That night we went to the Ningxia Night Market for something to eat. This seemed more of a local night market and we appeared to be the only westerners there. It was very crowded and a couple of times we tried to buy food only to for a 30 person queue snaking behind the stall to be pointed out to us. I was amused to see someone walking their pet pig through the market. It was not a 'handbag' pig but about the size of a large Alsatian and was complete with an ornamented bridle.





The next day we headed off to Taichung which is about 1/3 of the way down the west coast south of Taipei.



The elevated road systems in parts of Taiwan were pretty impressive.







Our first stop in Taichung was at the "Rainbow Village". It -" is a military dependents' village that was converted into street art". In my understanding it was once a housing complex for soldiers and their families who came to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. As new housing was built they moved away until only one person remained. In order to stoop the enclave being destroyed by developers he painted almost every inch of it in a sort of naïve folk art way. He only died earlier this year aged 101.

Our Visit to Rainbow Village Taichung (before it was destroyed) - Nickkembel Travels

Rainbow Village in Taichung, Taiwan is a historic and artistic masterpiece. Find out everything you need to know in this detailed guide!

www.nickkembel.com

 

[OZDUCK]

I forgot to mention that for our last breakfast in Taipei we went a small café that is apparently well known for its fried dumplings.





For lunch we had teppanyaki. This seems to be very popular in Taiwan - I assume a leftover from the years of Japanese occupation.

It cost about A$8 per head.





On our return we stopped overnight at the inHouse Hotel on the 8th floor. It was very good but a piece of equipment in our room had us puzzled for a while.



Until all became clear. I didn't really want to have a chance to test out how effective it is.



This is a guide to the nearby night market



We had a couple of hotels in Taiwan which had an 'Australian' style power point but this one was 220V as well instead of the the normal 110V.



The scenic view from our window

 

[OZDUCK]

Taichung Night Market. This market ran down the side of the street and motorcycles and the occasional car still drove through. I began to notice something here that puzzled me all through Taiwan. Even though Taiwan is a prolific producer of Pineapples it is very hard to get freshly juiced pineapple, or in fact any other fruit, juice. There are innumerable types of tea stalls everywhere but only occasionally did you come across a juice stall. And often when you did the juice was 'bottled'.

 

[craven morehead]

We have just had a short trip to Taiwan. The main reason was the wedding of my son to his Taiwanese born, now Australian citizen, partner but that particular event will be pretty much off-limits for this report. My new daughter-in-law planned the trip to try and show us as much of possible of her native land. Being inexperienced she tried to fit too much in our limited time there but we certainly saw lots of things. We travelled in a van with a driver/guide. Apparently pretty normal in Taiwan but very strange to us. The hotels we were booked in never got above 3 star but the were clean and comfortable. Almost all had self laundry facilities that were pretty cheap and one was free.

A couple of things to mention at the outset. The public toilets in Taiwan that we used were uniformly very clean and not at all smelly plus they were all free. Europe could certainly learn from them. The only shortage was toilet paper. There was always at least one 'sitting' toilet as well as squat ones.

Smoking was very rare and looked to be about the same rate as in Australia. After our experiences in Germany last year it was nice not to be enveloped in smelly second hand smoke. In fact a quick check on the internet shows that the rate is about 14%. Something else Europe could learn from Taiwan.

My son, his wife to be and their 15 month son used points from his business expenses to fly on SQ in J. We have very few points left and SQ wanted around $5,500 each for a paid trip in J. So we fell back on our old standby of Scootplus to Singapore and then booked J on China Airlines Singapore to Taiwan. It cost around $1,000 each for Scootplus and China Airlines was around $2050 each.

Looking forward to catching up on this TR

 

[I love to travel]

This is incredibly helpful. I must say visiting Taipei looks daunting but your TR has given it context,

 

[OZDUCK]

Much as it pains me as someone who normally likes to 'do it all myself' I would recommend getting a driver and van for any extensive travel outside of Taipei especially in the hills and on the west coast. The roads in the mountains can be extremely windy and steep. English is not spoken very much in a lot of the smaller places even though someone often knows a few basic words. I think I recall you saying that you had organised one for a trip to Halien.[/QUOTE]

 

[OZDUCK]

We now headed down to Chaiyi the home town of my now daughter in law for the main event - her marriage to my son. As I said at the start there will be only very little of this event here.

Outside the Railway Station



Our hotel and room



A much classier room than a cheapskate like me would normally book.



A couple of our hotels had these tatami mat 'rooms' another leftover of the Japanese times I would guess.






There was a sort of 'funfair' setup in the basement



These 'claw' machines were everywhere through Taiwan. There were often entire shops full of them.

 

[OZDUCK]

Because of 'circumstances we saw very little of Chaiyi.

But we did get a nice pre-wedding meal with the brides family and friends.





And also got in a visit to the nearest night market.


Baseball is far more popular in Taiwan than I realised. There was always two channel on TV showing continous games and baseball diamonds everywhere. This revolving statue is just outside the entrance to the night market.



The food in Chaiyi is apparently famous in Taiwan. The market was very busy and stretched for hundreds of metres.

A mascot for 'something' - human inside.



I was buying this to try it out when some Taiwanese from another city came up and asked me if it was any good - it was actually. It was some sort of fried dough with spring onion? We then had a nice chat with them until my grandson turned up and usual he became the centre of attention.

 

[OZDUCK]

Just a little bit of the event

Outdoor setting - for presentation of the couple. No actual ceremony took place because as far as we are aware the 'official' part just involved signing some forms.



The hotel pool was just in front of this spot.



The function room



Our table


Some of the food. There were 12 courses plus fruit. My son complained that he got nothing to eat as every time he tried to eat he was carted off so his bride could change her dress - about 5 times.





She started off in a 'European' White Wedding Dress and ended up in a traditional outfit.



My grandson made his big entrance by 'driving' down the red carpet. A friend of theirs's was using the remote control.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Did you "tear" up @OZDUCK ??

With Mr Flyfrequently's Chinese family weddings, the bride dresses in traditional style for the tea ceremony then comes out in her white wedding dress with the groom in formal attire.
Though interestingly now that they are 4th++ generation and Australian born, many traditions are not followed (we didn't 47 years ago!)

Thank you for sharing.

 

[OZDUCK]

Did you "tear" up @OZDUCK ??

With Mr Flyfrequently's Chinese family weddings, the bride dresses in traditional style for the tea ceremony then comes out in her white wedding dress with the groom in formal attire.
Though interestingly now that they are 4th++ generation and Australian born, many traditions are not followed (we didn't 47 years ago!)

Thank you for sharing.

A little.

They didn't have a Tea Ceremony. Instead family members attended their hotel room for another 'ceremony'. My son had to answer questions from the brides best friend, who was acting as a gatekeeper, about his future wife (she had given him the answers beforehand). Once that test had been passed he then had to ask his bride if she would marry him. Then the two of them had to see her parents and he had to ask her mother if he was allowed to marry into the family. Once approval was given then the two of them knelt before her parents.

After this the foreigners were given a special form of "wedding cake". It looks similar to the photo below - but without the baseballer. It has a baked pie crust but contains pork floss and salted egg. Luckily her family knew that we couldn't take it home to Australia as they are used to strict quarantine measures on meat products. Plus it didn't have a long use by date. We had about 4 of them in our van and tried one. I have to admit that it was not to my liking. In the end we gave the others away to locals.

囍餅 shi bing, aka “wedding cake”​

Cast aside your notions of frosted tiers. These 8-inch discs – with flaky crusts enclosing red bean paste, peanut powder, sesame, walnut, or other sweet fillings – are delivered along with wedding invitations to guests on the bride's side. The most traditional shi bing add some savory to the sweet, layering pork crumbles inside.




After answering the questions to the satisfaction of the friend at the right of the picture - she is Australian - my son knocks on the door and asks to be allowed to enter.



After her mother has given permission for the marriage they kneel before her parents for their blessing.

 

[OZDUCK]

The next day was trip up to Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area

www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw

On the way there we passed a giant seated Buddha. I am pretty sure that it was the seven-story-tall Maitreya Statue at Pao Chueh Temple.



The we made a stop at Jiji Township to see the Old Wuchang Temple that was badly damaged in a 1990 earthquake and has been given historical heritage status to commemorate that event. It was a magnitude 7.6 quake that killed 2,456 people.

Collapsed temple declared 1999 quake heritage site - Taipei Times

Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

www.taipeitimes.com

A new and larger temple has been constructed nearby.



Construction of the 'old' temple actually only began in 1991 and it was barely complete when it was severely damaged.











You can see how despite all the steel reinforcement the building was simply twisted apart

 

[OZDUCK]

It did seem that reinforcing did maintain the stability of the upper floors




Next door to the temple was a very nice market that obviously gets very busy at peak periods. We bought a few nibbles there.



An as a comfort to those thinking of travelling in Taiwan outside Taipei the toilets were spotlessly clean with a selection of squat or sit toilets. It would be wise to bring a supply of toilet tissues as occasionally they were absent.

 

[OZDUCK]

After this stop we headed off into the mountains



Betel nut palms They were everywhere. I hadn't realised how much betel nut was consumed in Taiwan. In every town there were numerous stalls with flashing lights. Apparently it is very popular with truck drivers to keep them awake.



On one stretch of the road there was a km or so planted with gum trees. They looked very out of place.



Sun Moon Lake











The large temple complex on the right of this picture is the Wenwu Temple which we would visit later in the day

 

[OZDUCK]

The Xuang Zang Temple




We stopped at the small lakeside town of Ita Thao to have a walk through the street market and get some lunch.

Nobody was at all concerned with us driving down this street to the parking area



Looking back up the street



The next street over - no cars



There were lots of boats on the lake with plenty of cruises available





As usual there was koi pond