Tag: travel with kids

Ramblings

Taiwan Road Trip

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After China, we returned to Taipei for one day, then went off on another adventure: a road trip around Taiwan. Locals call this experience 環島.

Since we plan to move back to the US soon (more on that later), we figured this would be a good opportunity to see more of the island. We rented a car from New Taipei City and drove from east to south to west.

To be honest, I was not mentally or physically prepared to go on this trip so soon after China. China was not exactly a relaxing trip, and I was exhausted coming back. But we already had everything booked so I trudged along.

Hualien. Our first stop was Hualien, a beautiful county by the coast. Hualien is also home to Taroko National Park, which we visited back in 2024. But due to the 2024 earthquake, Taroko was ravaged and still isn’t completely open yet. For this reason, plus more recent earthquakes in the area, tourism in Hualien has plummeted, and many businesses have had to shut down. Locals aren’t sure if the county will ever recover. 😔 It’s such a shame, because Hualien is very scenic and peaceful, and still worth a visit if you’re in Taiwan.

Taitung. Next, we made the long 3-hour drive to Taitung, a city known for its nature, clean air and slow travel. The city center looks very much like a tamer version of Taipei.

We stayed at a glamping site in Taitung. Taiwanese people love nature but they also love convenience, so there are many all-inclusive glamping sites in Taiwan. These sites include real beds, a full bath, TV, wifi – some even have food delivered to your door! Now this is my kind of camping. 😎

Kenting. After a couple of nights in Taitung, we drove 2 hours to the city of Kenting. It’s located at the southern tip of Taiwan, and is the country’s closest thing to a beach town. Now that we live so far away from the beach, the boys miss it and want to head to the beach every time we get. The beaches at Kenting were nice – soft, clean sand and calm waves.

We also went to the most southern point of Taiwan, which is marked by a triangular pyramid-shaped monument. Nothing particularly special here, but just wanted to visit since we were nearby.

Since Kenting is near the ocean, there are a lot of restaurants selling sashimi for dirt cheap (i.e., about $6 for a huge plate)! It’s not the best quality of course, but too good of a deal to pass up. We ordered a plate of sashimi practically each time we ate out, and by the end of the trip I was so sick of it. 😐 Interestingly enough, Kenting is also where we had some amazing pizza.

Xiaoliuqiu. Next, we drove to the Donggang port, parked our car there overnight, and caught a ferry to a small island called Xiaoliuqiu. Xiaoliuqiu’s main attraction is sea turtles! This place has been on my travel wish-list for some time. The warm waters, rich coral reefs, and abundant food attract many sea turtles and you can see them year-round. The island is also filled with turtle merchandise: turtle-shaped treats, turtle stuffies, turtle statues, you name it.

We rented e-bikes and biked around the island to different beaches to snorkel. At our second location, Beauty Beach, we spotted SO many sea turtles! The turtles must be used to seeing people, because we got very close several times and they seemed completely unbothered. Seeing sea turtles up close in the ocean felt so magical – what a special treat!

Unfortunately, Xiaoliuqiu was also where I got a stomach bug. 😫 I suspect it might it have been the sushi we ate for dinner (which is why I still haven’t had sushi since we got back, ha!).

Kaohsiung. We got back to the Donggang port and drove about 1.5 hours to Kaohsiung, a major port city and Taiwan’s second-largest city. Kaohsiung felt very vast, with wide boulevards and high rises, but with fewer people than Taipei. Yet, it was the hardest place for me to drive because the roads were so confusing and traffic was heavy all the time. Thankfully, Kaohsiung has its own MRT and while it’s not as comprehensive as Taipei’s, we used it to get around the city and avoid driving.

We visited the Lotus Pond and Temples. It was quite a lively area – a small bazaar, people exercising nearby, fishermen along the pond, and singing voices in the background.

Before we left Kaohsiung, we visited Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum. The place is massive. A 354′ Budda statue sits at the end of a long walkway flanked by 4 pagodas on each side. The museum contains Buddhist art and relics. The whole complex was impressive to see and exceptionally well-built.

Nantou. Nantou is a mountainous county located in the middle of Taiwan. We came here because I was interested in visiting the Xitou Nature Education Area, but I have to admit it was pretty disappointing.

We stayed in Monster Village, a Japanese monster-themed “village”. It consists of a hotel and a few shops and restaurants. On social media, it looked really cute but in reality, it was much smaller than I thought, a bit run down and deserted.

The Monster Village is located right next to the Xitou Nature Education Area. However, we didn’t enjoy that area much either. The trails were short and boring, and mostly filled with older people exercising, so it felt more like a park than a real hike. The boys quickly lost interest so we didn’t stay long.

Miaoli. Last stop on our road trip was Miaoli, a county in the northwestern part of Taiwan and a 2 hour drive from Nantou. Miaoli has a huge Hakka population and a laid-back vibe.

We stopped by the town of Dahu to pick strawberries as January/February is strawberry season in Taiwan. The strawberries were big, juicy and sweet (but expensive!). We also bought a unique variety of white strawberries called Snow Rabbit, which tasted slightly sweet and has a more delicate flavor simliar to a pear. We had a lot of fun picking strawberries.

On our last night, we stayed at another glamping site. I booked this site specifically for their cute camper vans. It’s the boys’ dream to own a camper van one day. 😂 As with most glamping sites in Taiwan, the inside of the cabin was really nice and clean.

We were surprised to find the campsite was practically a jackfruit orchard! There were jackfruit growing everywhere. The owner kindly offered us one but mentioned they weren’t quite ripe yet. Knowing how much work it takes to open a jackfruit, we didn’t want to go through the hassle for something that wasn’t sweet yet, so we passed. Still, it was so cool to see them growing in the wild for the first time!

The campsite also had a fire pit, so we stopped by the nearest grocery store to pick up ingredients for s’mores. They didn’t turn out to be what we’re used to; for instance, graham crackers were replaced with saltines, but it was still fun to relive a little slice of American culture.

That night, Baba and O were hit with the stomach bug. 🤢 We suspect it may have been the strawberries they ate (C and I didn’t have any). I don’t know if they ate too many or if the strawberries weren’t washed properly. Either way, it was a rough night with very little sleep, and we were all exhausted for the drive home the next morning.

Still, I was glad to finally be back home in Taipei. The three of us who came down with stomach bugs spent the next few days recovering. I felt completely drained, both physically and mentally. I was the sole driver on the entire trip (Baba’s license had expired and he’s better at helping me navigate anyway). I was driving anywhere from 2-3 hours every other day, and Taiwan is not an easy place to drive. This was also a packed trip; we stayed in hotels for only 1 or 2 nights. This was fine when Baba and I were in our 20s, but now we much prefer slow travel.

I was in a funk for some time afterwards, and didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere for awhile. After eating out for 5 weeks straight, I was so ready for home-cooked meals. I know this sounds a little spoiled but after weeks on the road, just being back in a normal routine felt like a luxury.

Ramblings

A Weekend in Hong Kong

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Early last month, we took a short trip to Hong Kong. Hong Kong had not been part of our original travel plans because we’ve already visited a couple of times, and we’ve always found the people a bit rude. 😓

But what has been in our travel plans is China. When we left the US, we naively assumed that we could get our visas in Taiwan. (Spoiler alert: we couldn’t.) Turns out there is no Chinese embassy in Taiwan, so we would either need to return to the US to get our visas, OR go to the China visa application center in Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong is only a 1.5 hour flight away, we decided to go that route and make a long weekend trip out of it.

The visa application process has two parts. First, you have to fill out an online application on their website. They ask for a lot of information, including your itinerary, previous travel to China, parents’ birth place, etc., so it can be tedious. After submitting your application, the visa office will review and possibly ask for additional information. It is only after your online application is approved that you can go into the office to submit your passport and get your visa. The online review/approval process was quick, about 2-3 business days between submission to approval.

Early Monday morning, we arrived at the visa office only to find a ton of people already there. 😬Luckily, since we applied for urgent service (next-day turnaround), we were able to skip to the front of the line. Important tip: if you applied for urgent service, make sure to tell them when you check-in! They will give you a different queue number. Otherwise, you’d be waiting with the masses.

The whole process was fairly smooth. We handed in our online application confirmation, passports and payment, and left within 30 minutes. The fees were hefty for urgent service; we paid close to $1200 USD for the four of us. 😯 They advised us to pick up our passports and visas the next day at 5pm but we were able to get them by 3pm, which was perfect because we had a flight to catch!

Ok, enough of the boring stuff. We spent only 2 full days in Hong Kong and ate to our hearts’ content. We miss Cantonese food terribly (there isn’t much of it in Taiwan) so we hunted down all our favorites. It hit the spot for sure!

We also visited Victoria’s Peak, rode the ding ding train multiple times (per the kids’ request), and rode the Star Ferry across the harbor. The lights at the harbor were dimmed to mourn the victims of the recent Tai Po fire, but Hong Kong’s skyline will never not be beautiful to me. 💖

Our trip to Hong Kong was pleasant this time around. Our past experiences were tainted by locals scolding us but this time, we actually had some nice encounters so I call that a win. ✌️ This time, Hong Kong also felt strangely comforting. Maybe because we’ve been living in Taiwan for a while now, but the sights, sounds, and even the city’s unique “smell” barely registered. It was also nice to be able to use the language I grew up with, even though I often mixed it up with Mandarin. 😅

Ramblings

Japan

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Over the summer, we went to Tokyo, Japan for 10 days (followed by Australia but more on that later). This would be my third time in Japan, so I wasn’t too keen on visiting again except for a few reasons:

  1. We brought C to Japan when he was only a year old, and O has never been
  2. DisneySea is often called the best Disney park in the world, so we thought it was the perfect place to take the boys for their first Disney experience
  3. We wanted to climb Mt. Fuji
  4. Japan is only a three hour flight from Taiwan – plus, no jet lag!

Japan has always been a favorite destination for many, particularly in the last few years to the point that it’s suffering from overtourism. To be honest, I never understood it. Japan is nice enough – safe, clean and affordable – but I didn’t think it was any more special than other countries. I never got the hype…until this trip.

First, the food. We didn’t seek out the most popular spots, yet even the little restaurants down the street were amazing. I don’t think we ever had a bad meal there, and everything was so affordable! (As you can tell from the pictures below, we ate a LOT of sushi.)

Next up: DisneySea. We’re not huge Disney fans, but could still appreciate their stunning visuals, immersive experiences, and attention to detail. DisneySea felt especially unique, with rides like Soaring Fantastic Flight and Journey to the Center of the Earth that we had never experienced before.

Tickets to DisneySea were about $70 USD for adults, and $60 USD for kids, which is a STEAL compared to the prices for Disneyland in Anaheim. We did splurge on fast passes for Soaring Fantastic Flight and Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey, at around $15 USD per person per ride. What would’ve been a 1.5 hour – 2 hour wait ended up being a 10-15 minute wait with the fast passes, so the splurge was worth it!

By the end of a full day at DisneySea, our feet were so sore and our wallets a little lighter, but we had an absolute blast. Disney sure knows how to make your experience there enjoyable!

On a less successful theme park note…

We had also planned to go to Legoland Japan for O’s birthday. We were careful to book tickets for Legoland Resort (the full theme park), not the Legoland Discovery Center (the smaller indoor version). The day before while checking the route, we realized it would take us THREE hours by train to get there. (Why we didn’t notice this earlier, I have no idea.) But since it was O’s birthday and we already had the tickets, we decided to make the trek anyway.

At the crack of dawn, we packed our bags and headed to the train station…only for Baba to discover that round-trip train tickets would cost us $700 USD!! 😱😱 We checked, re-checked, and triple-checked, but it was true. Since Legoland is in Nagoya, the only way to get there was the Shinkansen, and those tickets are pricey. (Planning ahead? Clearly not our strong suit.)

We had to cut our losses short. We gave up our Legoland tickets (about $150 USD) and faced the hardest part– telling the boys. Poor O burst into tears, heartbroken that his birthday trip to Legoland was canceled. My mama heart was crushed.

To soften the blow, we went to the Legoland Discovery Center instead (ironically, the very place we had been so careful not to book initially – ha!). Thankfully, it’s right in central Tokyo, and while it’s nowhere near as comprehensive as the full resort, it still had enough rides, games, and Lego builds to keep the boys entertained for most of the day.

We wrapped up by letting the birthday boy choose dinner — AYCE shabu shabu, which helped turn a disappointing start to a day that was still memorable and fun. Happy birthday O, we love you! ❤️

On our last day in Tokyo, we visited TeamLabs Planets, an immersive exhibit that combines art with technology. The boys and I had already been impressed by a TeamLabs exhibit in Taipei, but since Japan is where TeamLabs originated, we wanted to check it out.

The experience was nothing short of psychedelic and fully immersive, from bouncing among giant ceiling-to-floor spheres, to walking barefoot through water as digital fish swam around us! The “wow” factor never stopped. It was wildly creative, awe-inspiring from start to finish, and highly recommended for kids AND adults!

As you can tell, we didn’t exactly dive into Japan’s cultural side on this trip. 😏 Instead, it was mostly theme parks and art exhibits, but we still had a fantastic time.

As for our Mt. Fuji climb…this post is getting a bit long and I think that deserves a post all its own. So, stay tuned!

Ramblings

Thailand

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The last leg of our month-long SE Asia trip was to Bangkok, Thailand. Since we had been bouncing around Vietnam and Cambodia the past few weeks, we decided to station ourselves in Bangkok for the remainder of our trip. Bangkok is one of my favorite cities in the world. There is a special vibe and energy that that’s both comforting and thrilling. There is just so much to do, see, and eat! This is my third time there, and my feelings about the Bangkok remain the same.

It would be negligent to visit Thailand and not eat to our heart’s content. 😊 We love Thai food but as with Vietnamese food, Taipei unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of authentic Thai restaurants and we sorely miss it.

We spent the week in Bangkok eating and eating and eating. Probably gained a few pounds from this trip but boy, was it worth it!

The food prices in Bangkok were not as cheap as Vietnam’s, but more on par with Taipei’s (about $25-$30 for a casual meal for family of four). However, you can also easily find street food that’s much cheaper.

Another “must” when visiting Thailand is getting a Thai massage. Since we didn’t have anyone to watch the boys, Baba stayed at the Airbnb with them while I went to get a 1.5 hour massage. It was a relaxing experience, but not as joint-cracking as I remembered (and hoped for) 😂. At $30, the massage was on the higher-end but still very reasonable compared to the US.

Sightseeing around Bangkok: Chinatown (incredibly chaotic but in a good way!), Icon Siam (the biggest, most fabulous mall in Bangkok), and Wat Arun Temple.

Around the second or third day into the trip, Baba started experiencing GI issues. (We suspect it may have been all that coconut cream from the mounds of Mango Sticky Rice he ate.) So, I decided to book a last-minute Thai cooking class with C, my boy who lives to eat.

We had a total blast!! The class started off at a local wet market, where our teacher showed what some common ingredients are in Thai cooking. We went back to the cooking school via tuk-tuk and cooked four amazing dishes: Tom Yum Goong, Pad Thai, Massaman Curry and Mango Sticky Rice. Every dish was restaurant-quality and surprisingly easy to make! Then again, not having to source ingredients and clean up after ourselves makes a huge difference too 😅.

As the week went on, C caught another stomach bug. 😣 (Or maybe he never fully healed from the last bug in Vietnam?) With two men down, O and I went sightseeing at the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha Temple) by ourselves. I remember seeing these grand, opulent temples for the first time 20 years ago and feeling my jaw drop to the floor. It was moving to see O reacting the same way when he laid eyes on the Grand Palace, and I was reminded why we take these trips with our kids.

And that completes our whirlwind trip in SE Asia! Thankfully, Baba and C recovered from their illnesses before we flew back to Taipei. We even got to sneak in some delicious food (but with extra caution) on our last day. We got back to Taipei in the evening and the boys had school the very next morning 😅. Even after a month-long vacation, they whined and wished they could stay in SE Asia a while longer. But you know what? I felt the same way.

Ramblings

Indonesia Part 1: Java and Bali

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Bali had always been on my list of places to travel to. I was captivated by the blend of culture, beauty and laid back vibe of the island. But the 20+ hour flight from San Francisco deterred us from visiting for the longest time.

So when we moved to Taiwan, I knew we had to take advantage of the 5 hour flight to Bali. As I did more research though, I realized just how many islands there are in Indonesia that get overshadowed by Bali! (Seriously, there are 6,000 inhabited islands in the country.) I felt like we wouldn’t do Indonesia justice by visiting just Bali, so we decided to visit Java as well. Even thought there were other islands I wanted to go to – namely, Komodo, Borneo and Lombok – it was logistically hard to plan. We spent 1 week in Java and 1 week in Bali.

Java. Java is considered the economic and cultural center of Indonesia. The capital Jakarta is also on the island but we decided to skip it after reading many reviews saying there isn’t much to see/do. Instead, we went to Yogykarta and Surabaya.

Yogykarta (or commonly called “Jogja”) is known for its cultural heritage and traditional arts. It’s actually the most popular destination in Java but it never felt overly touristy or inauthentic. I really liked the laid-back vibe in Jogja.

We visited the famous Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Jogja. Prambanan (pictured below) is a large Hindu temple complex that reminded us so much of Angkor Wat. Visitors can also climb up into some of the temples, where a statue of a deity often stood. We went to Prambanan during sunset and seeing the temples in the warm, glowing hues was a wonderful way to end the day.

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Borobudur is actually quite close to Prambanan (about 1.5 hour drive away) so many people visit the two temples in one day. But because we had extra time, we visited each temple on different days so as not to wear ourselves out.

Borobudur temple has several upper levels, which visitors need to buy a special ticket to in order to visit. I had such a hard time securing the tickets (probably due to bots 😒) so ended up working with an agent. Because of its massive scale, the temple is very impressive from afar. We climbed the stairways and walked through the corridors to see the relief panels but the temple has no interior you can walk into. Overall, we enjoyed the architecture and aesthetic of Prambanan more.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but Jogja had the best food out of all the places we visited in Indonesia. The dishes were reminiscent of Southeast Asia flavors: a mix of salty, sour, sweet and SPICY! I have a decent spice tolerance but some of the food set my mouth on fire (in a good way). The downside was finding food for the boys because even the least spicy foods were too much for them. 😂 Food was extremely affordable in Jogja – the total bill was generally no more than $20 for the 5 of us.

After Jogja, we took a 4 hour train ride to Surabaya in east Java. We were pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the trains were! We booked seats in the Executive Class through tiket.com, and each ticket only came out to be about $20 per person.

Surabaya is the gateway city to Mount Bromo, one of Indonesia’s most famous active volcanoes. We booked a Mount Bromo sunrise tour, which picked us up from our Airbnb at midnight (!!) 😱 to then drive 2 hours to a spot where we switched to a 4×4. The 4×4 drove us up a rugged, winding path for another 1.5 hours (which the boys loved of course) to King Kong Hill to catch the sunrise.

Prior to the tour, our guide had warned us about the windy and frigid weather at King Kong Hill. We packed as much warm clothing as we could, but our efforts were futile. The wind chill atop King Kong Hill was brutal. What’s worse is that we had to stand in the cold for 1.5 HOURS in order to see the sunrise from the best viewing spot. Understandably, the boys were very grumpy. At long last, we finally saw the sunrise and it was absolutely glorious…though we would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if it weren’t so damn cold.

After snapping some pictures, we raced down the hill to try and beat the other tourists leaving the area. The road was PACKED with 4x4s, causing a major bottleneck. We had to wait another 45 minutes for the cars to start moving.

The next leg of the tour was climbing up to the crater of Mount Bromo. It’s not a hard or long climb, but can be steep in some areas. It was awe-inspiring to see an active volcano up close!

The last part of the tour was seeing the Madakaripura Waterfall. What we did NOT expect was having to reach the waterfall on the back of a motorbike. 😂 Granted the ride was short (about 10-15 minutes), but you can bet I was hanging onto the driver for dear life! Of course the boys loved it and thought it was the best thing ever.

After the motorbikes dropped us off at the trailhead, we had to hike about 1/2 a mile – including crossing a few rivers and scrambling on rocks – to reach the Madakaripura Waterfall.

And it was STUNNING. Seriously, pictures cannot do this place justice. The soft streams of water flowing down from the cliffside was like a dream. The sound of the waterfall was thunderous yet I felt so at peace there.

The entire tour lasted 16 hours. We were utterly exhausted but agreed this tour was the highlight of our Indonesia trip. The next day, we all slept in and didn’t have the energy to do much except hang out at the pool/gym. There was a mall and food court below our Airbnb, so we never even left the building. The boys later visited a cool balloon exhibit in the mall.

Looking back, we’re a little disappointed we didn’t get to explore much of Surabaya but getting some down time to recharge was also necessary. (I was experiencing cold symptoms at this point too!) From Surabaya, we took a 45 minute flight to Bali. However seeing how long this post is getting, I think I’ll save Bali for another post!