The Wedding Reception

Click here for more photos of The Wedding

Peter is our friend's (Ted and Nancy) son and he married Tracy in September in New York. Tracy is Taiwanese so the purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding celebration for Tracy's family and friends back home.

The celebration was held in our hotel, the beautiful San Want Hotel in Taipei. Needless to say, the room was elegant and the celebration was fantastic. We were privileged to meet and enjoy the company of Tracy and Peter's friends and family. Peter had spent 3 years in Japan so he and Tracy had friends flying in from all over the far east. It was a memorable evening and a great time was had by all.

The table settings

The whole famn damily

Toasting ensued

Here is Ted with his friend, Ru. Ted and Ru met at UAlbany as they persued their respective PhD programs. Ru teaches and lives in Taiwan. She's a really funny lady and she must be a dynamic teacher. Late during the dinner, I was chatting with Ru and mentioned that I wished that I could remember all the wonderful dishes that were served. The food was plentiful and really delicious. She suggested that I take a photo of the menu so I would have a way to always remember what was served. I thought that was a good idea so I did! 

The menu. Thanks for the great idea, Ru!

Thanks for coming!

Getting Around

I'm a big fan of public transportation and when we travel, I like to take the local trains, subways and buses. We've done all that here and more. Here are some observations:

Subway and city bus
The Taepai subway system is not as big as New York City, but it's big enough and there are many lines. Most of what we saw was new, effecient, clean, and timely. Biggest adjustment? Learning to queue in the space probided as we wait for the train. Nice touch? Every station is gated to enter the train. Result; it feels very safe.

There is no separation between cars so one can see from one
end of the train to the other. Neat!

Get in line, Ted!

The upper level is a mall travelling underground for a few miles with the subway running beneath. Notice the queueing as people wait for the train doors to open.

The city buses are nice. They are spotlessly clean and not crowded. We have to get used to boarding in the middle and getting off in front. We pay as we leave. Maybe it's backwards because we're on the other side of the world?

By the way, public transportation costs about $1.50 per ride.

Line up for the bus. Looks like home, right?

We also took a lot of taxis. They were easy to find queued up at every busy tourist stop. Again, clean, no tipping. What's not to like. Oh, no matter where we went it would cost between $4& $6. Not bad for a group of 4.


Scooters 
They're everywhere. Based on what I saw, there are millions of them on the island. The funny thing is that people ride with their dogs and kids on the scooters, standing up and holding onto the handle bars. Quite the sight.

Trains
We travelled for hours on 3 trains. They run on time and are comfortable. We didn't ride a bullet train but we saw miles of bullet train track going up. In fact, infrastructure - bridges, roads, and rail are being constructed like there's no tomorrow. The country will look quite different in a few years.

Waiting for trains in Taipei Station

All Aboard!

Tour buses

The paint job on every bus looks brand new

We took a tour bus to get from the city of Taichung to Sun Moon Lake; about a 90 minute drive into the mountains. Now, these buses are an experience. Every one, without exception looks brand new; inside and out. They can't be, but they are cared for metiullously, otherwise they wouldn't look that way. A very comfortable way to travel.

That's right - 3 plush seats across (2+1)!

So where'd we go? Keep watching!

The Meals Part III

Click here for more photos of Peking Duck

I'm going to pick this story up from my previous post. Following our gondola trip, we returned to the hotel to rest a bit and to get ready for our big night on the town. Tracy's parents, Paul and Pearl. have a big night before wedding reception soiree at a first class restaurant that prepares.....Peking Duck! This has to be experienced to be believed. Suffice it to say that it is a lifetime memorable meal. 

The Dragon Restaurant, Taepei

The restaurant is called The Dragon Restaurant and the food, the service, the atmosphere, is out of this world! It was amazing and all too much! Paul insists that there is no better Peking Duck, including in Beijing, and I found this review to back him up.

I have to mention here that all the men are expected to drink scotch with the meal. And the custom is that there is a fairly consistent raising of the glass for any particular reason. When a toast is made (frequently) everything stops and glasses are clinked (and emptied). This happens over and over, through course after course of food to the point that I'm feeling pretty silly after a while.

Paul would look at me, raise his glass and say"John"? Merriment ensued

And the food does keep coming. In the US our habit is to eat what is on the table and then move on to dessert. In Taiwan, every meal is a serious of deliveries of the greatest dishes you could ask for. One is stuffed early on but all the remaining courses must be tried. You are having a good time, after all; right? Finally, the soup arrives signaling that this is indeed, the final course.

The duck (ducks in our case; we had 2 tables) arrives early and is presented all around. It is then cut up and served. The skin is removed in small pieces and the outer meat is sliced thin and all this is placed on a serving platter.

Our "Christmas Story" moment

Serving the duck

We actually make what I can only describe as burritos next by placing the duck, skin, and sauces on a flat steamed tortilla (it's not a tortilla; but it really is). Then the rice, the pork, the vegatables come out followed by the rest of the duck, now cut up in chunks, sweet potatoes, and finally, the duck soup. What a feast! And what a great memory!

The Meals Part II

Peter's lovely bride, Tracy has a sibling, her brother, Victor, who happens to live in Boston. Victor is back in Taipei for Peter and Tracy's celebration, but also because he'll be getting married next week! His fiance is Joyce and she lives in Taipei (not for long). She and Victor met at a class in New York, of all places. Now that's the thing; everyone here seems to travel and live all over the world, with the US being a major player. As we were to discover, many of Tracy's relatives and friends flew in from all over the globe. 

Now, Joyce and Victor are a lovely couple. It happens that Joyce lives on the other side of Taipei, so she invited us to visit her neighborhood. Close to her home is the Maokong Gondola. So, we took a gondola ride to

Zhinan Temple,  on our way to the summit MaoKong station. This is not your average gondola ride. The trip is probably 3-4 miles long and the entire journey takes a half day. The summit has beautiful views and lots of great places to eat. We had a great lunch outside overlooking the city center in the distance with Joyce and Tracy each sharing the job of preparing the tea, which is quite interesting (and good).

Zhinan Temple

View from the temple

Joyce prepares the tea

The Tea!

...and it was good! Not much left of the soup, the chicken, the rice...

The Crew

Next up: yes, we had Peking Duck at Dragon Restaurant

The Meals, Part I

They're unbelievable. There is always so much food, so many courses; it just keeps coming! I know I've already written about to great meals that we had, but that was our first day! I was soon to learn that every meal is epic. So here are some photos and recollections of some of my favorite meals so far.

Lunch at the GrandHotel
Aptly named. This is a palace. It looks like this:

and this:

And our table had a great view out toward the city. Well, you can't see the view so you'll have to trust me on that one.

Of course, it goes without saying that the food and the service were magnificent. By the way, in Taiwan they put the tip on the bill. For everyone. And there is no tipping anywhere. One doesn't tip cab drivers, bellhops, waiters; no one. And there's no sales tax. So, every thing one purchases costs what it says it costs! Amazing...

Thursday evening we had dinner with Peter's friend and family who had just flown in from Kyoto, Japan. They were charming and we went to a noodle place in the city. These places are rustic and and spartan, in a really good way. We sat on stools; no chair backs.

Anyway, the noodles and dumplings were amazing. I ordered hot, of course, and I paid the price. Glorious!

The noodle place

The noodle place neighborhood

Desperately hoping my mouth would stop burning

Next up will be our lunch at MaoKong and the saga of the real Peking Duck! All in one day. Stay tuned.

The Day That Wouldn't End

We touched down in Taipei at 5:30, breezed through customs and soon all six of us were in a van headed toward the San Want Hotel in the Da’an District, our home for the next 4 nights. The hotel is 2 blocks from Tracy's parents apartment and we were to be guests at their place for dinner that evening. 

Our Hotel, Sun Want Hotel

Peter wisely booked one room the night before our arrival so we were able to hang out with Tracy's parents, relax and wash up before heading out for breakfast and a busy day sightseeing. We had our first Taiwanese food experience at breakfast. We went to a great, old cafe across the street from Tracy's elementary school. We each had a bowl of hot soy milk, and shared the other dishes; a sliced omelet, dumplings and many other dishes I couldn't name. It was a great experience and it felt very exotic!

Next, we walked around the school to the National Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

This is a large building with a great entrance hall and museum dedicated to the father of Taiwan. Surrounding the Hall are many acres of gardens. This is a popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists and the buses stop each hour to drop off visitors to view the changing of the guard inside the hall. The guard changing ceremony is very elaborate and unique with many slow, deliberate movements. It last for 15 minutes and I can't imagine memorizing and performing such an elaborate ceremony. Very interesting.

Something about this statue of Sun Yat-sen looks familiar....(I'm thinking of you, Abe Lincoln Memorial)

(From there, we took a walk around the neighborhood and wound up at a great department store where we took a break and had some coffees. The store had a huge book section which was neat. Apparently it's a popular destination with the Chinese visitors, who are able to pick up books they don't otherwise see. They also has a cool electronics section with phones unlike anything we're seeing at home.

By this time we were exhausted, so we dragged ourselves back to the hotel where we were finally able to check into our individual rooms. Nap time commenced. At 6pm we took a brief walk to Tracy's family home for a wonderful dinner. Tracy's brother and fiancée are also in town from Boston for the wedding celebration. 

Paul and Pearl are lovely people and great and generous hosts. They fed us well with great Chinese dishes including, ribs, sweet and sour pork, broccoli, sweet cucumbers, dumplings, bean curd, beef and more. Paul likes the men to drink scotch. I'm not much of a scotch drinker but there was no getting out of it. Oh, and he enjoys pouring scotch as well... Suffice it to say, we had a wonderful time. Just past 9:00 we had to excuse ourselves and head back to the hotel. The travel experience was really taking its tole. Once back in our room, Diane and I pretty much collapsed into a much needed deep sleep. Of course, time change being what it is, I was up around 6am Thursday morning. And then we began our second day...

It's a 16 Hour Flight!

JFK gets quiet around midnight on a Monday evening. We're traveling on a 777 so seeing hundreds of people lined up in the otherwise empty terminal is impressive. The crew marches down the great hall, 2x2 in line toward the plane; I counted 4 flight officers and 18 attendants, broken down clearly according to gender.

I'm writing this as we pass over Khabarovsk, Russia, 12+ hours into our journey and feeling more comfortable then I thought I would. The entire 16 hour flight takes place in darkness, both outside the plane and in the cabin. Add to that fact that we left NY at midnight and it's been a prolonged period of lightnessless!

So, the route. I've been wondering where the great circle to Taipei would take us, exactly. And now I know! We did the big turn over Jamaica Bay as we left JFK and headed north through central Ct, passed just to the east of Albany, to the west of Montreal and up and over the southern half of Hudson Bay. 

From there, we followed an easterly tack over far northern Canada and then through north/central Alaska, crossing the Bering Strait and into far eastern Russia.

Now the heading is southerly from here on out. We approach the ocean and it looks like we'll skirt southern Japan. Only 1500 miles to go!

Eva airlines is very comfortable. The meal was decent and they keep coming around with water. I never thought I'd rave about aircraft bathrooms, but I'm amazed at how clean and comfortable they are. Ted and Nancy got bumped up to 1^st class which looked amazing what with everyone seeming to get their own semi-private island! I can't wait to hear their story.

Each seat has a video screen and the offerings of movies and TV shows is much better than usual flight fare. Of course, as always, I'm enjoying the gps. The music is all Asian though and I'm not too interested.

I managed about 5 hours of sleep overnight, which is pretty good for me on a plane. Plus, I've been taking brief naps, so I'm feeling okay. 

As we fly south over the Pacific Ocean, I'll take a walk around the cabin and try to nap before we land. Lots more to share, so I'll be back!