Tag: expatfamily

Ramblings

A Family Affair

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This past April, my sister and BIL visited for a week, followed by my SIL who visited for two months over the summer. Then in mid-October, my other sister and BIL visited for 10 days. How lucky are we to have so many family members visit us this year?!

My sister and BIL have been to Taiwan a couple times before, so they’ve visited most of the major sites in Taipei. I had arranged a day trip to Yangmingshan 陽明山 but it was pouring rain so our driver took a detour and drove us to Tamsui 淡水 instead. We had the most delicious blueberry cream castella cake, explored the old street, and took a ferry across to Bali 八里, a small coastal town. Bali was very similar to Tamsui across the river in terms of look and feel, but less busy.

My sister and BIL’s visit also coincided with the Halloween festivities in Taipei. We took them to Yong Kong Street to trick or treat, but also to eat of course! Our “must-eat” places at Yong Kang have always been the Tian Jin Onion Pancake 天津葱抓餅 and Yong Kong Beef Noodle Soup 永康牛肉麵。 But we recently discovered Jingimoo Cafe 金鷄母, which has amazing shaved ice – in my opinion, better than the famous Smoothie House!

Because the boys still had school during their visit, we weren’t able to accompany my sister and BIL to a few places, but I’m glad they got to explore Alishan 阿里山, Jiufen 九分, Shifen 十分, and Hsu’s Noodles 許家麵線 on their own. They were lucky to have had good weather during their visits too!

We also took this time to have an early celebration for my sister’s birthday. After all, can’t say no to eating cake!

Life is really about the simple things. We had so much fun just eating (a lot!), chatting and laughing. In fact, I didn’t even take that many pictures – which is always a sign of good times!

When my sister and BIL left, we were all feeling a little down. Being apart from family is truly the hardest thing about living abroad, but the short time we do have together is even more cherished than before.

Ramblings

Lunar New Year in Taiwan

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Even though our winter break was packed with activities, we made sure to schedule time in Taipei during Lunar New Year. We were curious how the locals celebrated this important holiday.

Turns out, it’s pretty tame. 😆 But it’s also because LNY is a family-oriented holiday, and since we have no relatives here, we didn’t get to partake in many festivities. Still, we have been enjoying the lovely decorations around the city, and of course we visited Dihua Street to buy LNY snacks and goodies.

A lot of Taiwanese locals warned us that Taipei becomes totally vacant during LNY. It was noticeably quieter, but the places that remained open were very busy. I guess those of us who stayed in Taipei were all looking for somewhere to go!

On the first day of LNY, we went around the neighborhood to watch lion dances. The most popular one was at Grand Hyatt. But it was so crowded that we could only see the lion when it was up on stilts. Luckily, we saw another lion dance not too far away and this time, we had a front row view.

The next few days were surprisingly normal, and the majority of stores and restaurants opened back up. The only real disruption was the garbage service. Normally, garbage trucks come around everyday except Wednesdays and Sundays, but during the first week of LNY, the schedule was erratic. Whenever we heard the garbage truck music play, Baba and I rushed downstairs because we just never knew when the next garbage day would be!

About a week after LNY, the Lantern Festival 元宵節 began. The Lantern Festival is not hugely celebrated in SF, so this was an eye-opening experience. The festival celebrates the end of LNY and welcomes the coming of spring. People enjoy fireworks, lanterns, and eating glutinous rice balls (湯圓) during this time. The national Lantern Festival celebration was held in Tainan this year, but Taipei also had its own festival in Ximen.

The lanterns were gorgeous! Some of them were actually created by students in a lantern-making contest too. The whole Ximen area was sprinkled with lanterns everywhere; it was fun spotting them while we roamed around.

The year of the dragon – especially when it meets leap year – is considered very auspicious in Chinese culture. We wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous new year!

Ramblings

Hey Taipei

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We have an ongoing list of things to see, do, and eat in Taipei. It keeps growing! Then, there are places that we’ve already been to but want to go back. But since we’re confined by the boys’ school schedules, we could only go on the weekends…which means more crowds.

So when the boys had a month off for winter break, we planned trips outside of Taipei (Malaysia and Taroko Gorge) but also outings in our backyard. Since many families travel outside of Taipei during Lunar New Year to visit family, we wanted to take advantage of the smaller crowds.

Dihua Street. Dihua is a historic street in the Datong District, lined with traditional shops selling Chinese herbs, tea, and snacks. We’ve been to Dihua before but this time we wanted to take part in the Lunar New Year market. Long blocks on Dihua were filled with vendors selling everything from LNY candies, decorations and food – so festive!

Raohe Night Market. We visited Raohe during our Taiwan trip back in 2019, then tried to go again recently around NYE. Boy, was that a mistake because it was so crowded we could barely get two steps in! This time, we came on a weekday during winter break. It was still busy but much more manageable.

Raohe has a ton of fantastic food: black pepper buns, pork bone herbal soup, tang yuan (rice dumplings), grilled mushrooms, etc. No wonder it is one of the most popular night markets in Taipei!

Meerkat 75 Café. I found this café on Instagram and immediately made a reservation. I tried taking the boys to a cat café before, but we were turned away because of the boys’ age. But Meerkat 75 Café allows kids!

There are a total of 5 meerkats at the café. Groups of 2 people take turns going into an enclosed viewing area where you can play and learn about the meerkats. So fun! Each person has to order a certain dollar amount of food – I think it’s about $8 USD per person, and less for children. The food was mostly pasta, salads and chicken tenders, but it was pretty decent!

Children’s Amusement Park. An amusement park that you can spend the day at but isn’t overwhelmingly big, the Taipei Children’s Amusement Park is really fun for kids mainly 13 and under. Entry tickets are ridiculously cheap too – $1 USD for adults, and $.50 USD for kids – and then you pay as you ride, which ranges from $.50 to $3 USD each. You could also get day passes for about $6.50 USD, but it’s not all-inclusive. We spent the day here with friends and had a great time.

Taipei Zoo and Maokong. We went to the zoo at the end of last August, and the heat was so brutal that we had to leave before seeing everything. This time, the weather was absolutely perfect but the zoo was a bit crowded because it was one of the few places open during the week of LNY.

The zoo also has a gondola that connects to Maokong Mountain. Frankly, I never thought about going but the boys wanted to ride the gondola. The gondola ride was surprisingly long (about 20 minutes) and it went up so much higher than I expected! You can also ride in glass floor gondolas but since it was a busy day, we didn’t want to wait around for one to come by.

Maokong was a special surprise. I didn’t realize how charming this town is! Maokong has little eateries, family-owned farms, tea plantations and shops. We also visited a family living in Maokong that the boys had met on a previous trip. It makes me happy seeing C and O getting along so well with local kids.

Ice Skating at Taipei Arena. This was actually the boys’ first time ice skating! They were a little nervous, but because they’ve been taking inline skating class at school they quickly got up to speed. The arena requires that all skaters wear gloves and if you opt out of wearing protective gear, then you have to sign a waiver. Our calves and ankles were tired from just skating for 1.5 hours!

For the next couple of days, Baba and I decided to split up the kids. We spend a lot of time together as a family, so we wanted to spend individual time with the boys and so they can pursue their own interests.

Wuliaojian Trailhead. C and Baba wanted to go on a very challenging hike called Wuliaojian in New Taipei. This trail is seriously no joke – requiring rock scrambling, rappelling down rocks, and climbing steep trails. It’s a trail known for experienced hikers, but Baba and C did so well. C was the youngest person on the trail that day!

Taipei Astronomical Museum. Meanwhile, O and I went to the Taipei Astronomy Museum. The museum was cheap to get into and had many fun interactive exhibits. O’s favorite was the spaceship ride (and I have to say it was mine too).

Taipei Science Museum. The next day, Baba and I switched kids. 😄 O wanted to go to the Taipei Science Museum, which funnily enough, is directly across from the Taipei Astronomical Museum that we visited the day before. I actually took the boys to the science museum back in November, but O wanted to go back. We didn’t know the little guy loved museums so much!

Addiction Aquatic Development. I took my foodie partner in crime to Addiction Aquatic Development, which is like a fabulous fusion of fish market/supermarket/sushi restaurant. C and I loved this place. The vibe is similar to European markets, with high quality produce, polished décor and delicious food.

Yangmingshan National Park. The day before school resumed, we went to Yangmingshan. Yangmingshan is relatively close to Taipei (about a 45 minute drive), making it hugely popular for Taipei residents. It is a little tricky to get to by bus, so we hired a driver on Klook to take us there and drive us to the trails. The downside to hiring a driver of course, is there is a time limit.

Yangmingshan is beautiful! The landscapes are varied too, with grasslands, lakes, fumaroles, and mountains. There are also flower festivals throughout the year. This time it’s cherry blossom season (though we went too early for that), in the spring it’s calla lilies, and so on. Most trails at Yangmingshan are fairly easy, so it’s perfect for hikers of all abilities. I’d love to go back.

Whew, we did a lot during winter break! I love spending time and exploring Taiwan with my family. Growing up, Baba and I never had these opportunities. My parents worked 7 days a week all year, so I was ecstatic whenever they could spend time with me, even if it was just going to the neighborhood park. I hope the boys are enjoying these adventures with us as we much as we are.