Tremendous Taipei!

January 15, 2025

For some reason Taiwan had never been on my travel bucket list.  Maybe because I had lived in Hong Kong and visited China many times so perhaps I assumed it would just be more of the same?  And in some senses it was. But in others it was a completely new and thrilling experience.  It also came at the perfect time when we were all feeling a little tropical paradise fatigue having been two months in the hot beachlands of Thailand and The Philippines. Taipei, was a cool 50-60 degrees F and was a welcome departure from the Southeast Asia that we would be heading back to for our month in Vietnam. 

We were only there for a quick 3 day "layover" before heading to Hong Kong for one night on our way to Hoi An, Vietnam. It rained a bit, but we were able to walk around a lot and hit some of the major attractions including Longshan Temple, Taipei 101 tower, Raohe St. Night Market, Sun Yat Sen Memorial and attend a cooking class.

This chocolate treat was on offer at the market. It says "Lazy servant's favorite, Must-buy souvenirs in Taiwan.  Big Teriyaki Partial Beliver!" WTF Taiwan??! :)

One of the things Francesca was looking forward to on our travel year was doing as many cooking classes as possible.  But they are often pricey (at least for tourists) and as a result we haven't done too many.  But we splurged and booked a cooking class in Taipei, Taiwan and it did not disappoint. It was one of the hightlights of our brief visit to this wonderful city (more Taipei photos to come). 

The course was called "Cooking Fun" headed by Chef Vivian Chen.  We made 4 items; Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings), Bubble Milk Tea, Tofu Strips Salad and Chicken Vermicelli with Mushroom and Sesame Oil.  It was just our family and a young married couple from New Zealand living in London, Victoria and Brendan.

Of course two of the most memorable experiences for the kids were two unplanned (and free) experiences; an impromptu stop at Daan Park and a getting lost in the bowels of an underground mall area got us an invite to an adult drawing class (Art Gong), when the art teacher saw the kids, she pushed the adults off to the side and sat us down and had us draw still life scenes of cakes from 95 Degrees famous bakery.  The kids did such a good job she put them on ther Instagram feed.  Okay, maybe it was just due to the rarity of American kids finding their way to her studio, but in any case the kids loved it.  We spent 2 hours drawing, oh and they got to eat the cakes at the end.  Sorry other adult students!

We only had a very short time in Taipei, but definitely a place I'd like to return to and explore more.