Exploring Macau and Saying Goodbye to Hong Kong

On Friday, we went to Macau. We had gone back and forth on whether to go, but in the end decided that we wanted to complete our trifecta of Not China while we were in the area. Macau is…very odd. It was a Portugese colony starting in the 1500s, and now it’s the gambling capital of Asia, with an annual gaming revenue seven times larger than Vegas. Many of the Vegas casinos were also there - we took a shuttle from the ferry to the Venetian, just to see what it was like. It was exactly the same as Vegas, just…more. We spent a very surreal hour finding a place to sell us egg tarts and eating them along the canal, and then took several more minutes to find a way out of the casino.

The Grand Canal in the Venetian (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A quick note about egg tarts - they are traditionally Portugese, and Macau and Hong Kong adopted them from the Portugese settlers. They are absolutely wonderful - eggy custard inside a flaky, buttery pie dough. I determined during our time there that even a bad egg tart was good, but the good ones are really amazing. I am excited to keep trying them in Portugal.

Egg Tarts from Lord Stow’s (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Portugese colonization of of Macau created a city with a curious combination of traditionally Chinese and Portugese architecture and religious buildings. There are a lot of temples, and a lot of churches. There are a lot of colorful European buildings with ornate balconies, and a lot of narrow streets with Chinese neon signs. This melding created some of the first recognized fusion food, as well as some interesting fusion architecture. Parts of the city are very charming. Then, when you get near the casinos, it just all gets very weird.

Covered escalators taking visitors between a foodie neighborhood and the casinos (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Colorful buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A canopy-covered set of stairs that I absolutely loved (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A moderately creepy metal man on the porch of an old house (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We next went to Senado Square, which was decorated for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We also got some free beer for World Tourism Day, which was pretty great.

Decorations for the 70th anniversary of the PRC (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Large chunks of Macau are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There’s an entire historical walk of buildings from Macau’s past, and one of them is the Ruins of St. Paul’s, which is the facade of a 17th century Portugese church. The church was destroyed twice between the 1600s and 1800s, and eventually they stopped rebuilding it. There are giant colorful bunnies out front, and I have no idea why. Macau seems to have a thing for rabbits?

Approaching the Ruins of St. Paul’s (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yes, the bunnies were as weird and surreal as this picture appears (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down on (and through) the Ruins of St. Paul’s (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A piano in a clear glass box that was drawing all kinds of musically talented tourists (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Grand Lisboa from the 17th century Fortaleza do Monte (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Walking under decorations for the 70th anniversary (Photo/Jason Rafal)

If you go to Macau, I highly recommend walking around and getting a feel of each distinct, yet somewhat blended area - the casinos, the historical sites, and the “normal” streets where people live.

Views of Macau (Photo/Jason Rafal)

More views of Macau (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the Grand Lisboa casino (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we got back from Macau, we spent some more time wandering the city and waterfront in Hong Kong.

Heading to the metro in Hong Kong (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We’ve decided to start taking self portraits on trips (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out at the waterfront (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Saturday was our last day in Hong Kong, and we spent it eating, walking around, and generally appreciating the city.

A majestic heron (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For breakfast we went to Australia Dairy Company, which has very little to do with Australia except that the founder may have started it when he got back from traveling there. It’s a traditional cha chaan teng, which is a type of restaurant in Hong Kong that’s focused on efficiency - they get you in, seat you at a table with strangers, give you a menu, take your order (in our case, look at which things we pointed to), bring you food, bring you a check, and expect you to leave basically immediately. The entire process takes about 15 minutes, and is rather overwhelming for westerners who don’t know what’s going on. My general advice, if you don’t want to get yelled at in a language you probably don’t know, is to not ask questions or impede the process at all. Just order something, and it will be delicious.

Australia Dairy Company is famous for their scrambled eggs (because apparently Hong Kong is really into fluffy scrambled eggs for some reason). We walked in and were immediately handed English menus, because we’re giant white people, and sat down. The normal crowd orders off of Chinese menus that are under the table glass, and that menu is a lot larger, but we were happy to get the #1 and see what we got (we expected the scrambled eggs and toast, and got that but also macaroni).

After we were seated, five friends who had worked together in Hong Kong and were having a reunion were sat at our table. They were great - they asked to take pictures of our English menus, which had a cover they had never seen, and when we got the macaroni we weren’t expecting, they told us that it was indeed part of what we had ordered. They also asked how we heard about the restaurant, which I consider to be a good sign from locals, and took a picture of us under the disapproving glare of an employee.

Our breakfast (and a disapproving waiter) (Photo/Random Guy at Australia Dairy Company)

The scrambled eggs and thick white bread toast were delicious, and although I wasn’t expecting macaroni soup with ham for breakfast, that was delicious as well. Add in the milk tea at the end of the meal, and we walked away impressed, happy, and very full of liquid.

After breakfast, we took a walk to see the flamingos who apparently lived in the park next to our hotel. They were there, along with some turtles.

Flamingos doing those super weird things they do with their legs (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunbathing turtles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We decided to risk taking the train to the airport, since the protest activity had so far matched what Ed had told us. Hong Kong and Taipei both have a great feature where you can check into your flight and check your bags from the downtown train station, but we decided to keep our bags with us in case. In a somewhat amusing turn of events, this made things somewhat more difficult - we didn’t have our real tickets yet, and the airport security was tightly controlling who got off the train and was allowed into the airport terminal. I only had a flight confirmation on my phone, and was getting worried that it wouldn’t be enough, but eventually they decided we were clearly just Americans going home and let us through.

I think I have to close by saying that we feel incredibly lucky to have been able to visit Hong Kong when we did. The protests started again the day after we left, and the first protester was shot with live ammunition as the clashes with police escalated. From a logical point of view, it will be very interesting to see what happens to the region, but from an emotional place, we’re heartbroken to see the violence that’s tearing the city apart.

The Calm Between Storms in Hong Kong

We picked a difficult time to visit Hong Kong.

We had booked this trip several months ago, before protests picked up in June, and as the trip grew closer we watched the news carefully and with increasing alarm, especially when the western news stopped covering the protests and it became increasingly difficult to find accurate information about what was going on in the city. But, the entire reason we had wanted to go to Hong Kong in 2019 was to experience the city before it just became the same as the rest of China, which was now threatening an escalated timeline. We decided to go, and we were very glad that we did.

Similarly to all of the places we visited, Hong Kong’s politics are very complicated. The city was a British colony from 1842 to 1997, when it was transferred to the People’s Republic of China. Part of the transfer was the promise of a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong, as well as leaving the current social and economic systems of the city intact until 2047. Early in 2019, the Hong Kong government introduced a bill that would allow certain fugitives caught in Hong Kong to be extradited to China, and the protests kicked off as a reaction. Since the protest movement grew, it has increased its message to five demands of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments that center around maintaining the Hong Kong Basic Law, which grants the city’s autonomy. Regardless of how you feel about Hong Kong’s protest movement, it’s incredibly important for establishing how China will treat its territories as it moves forward with the One China policy.

In the end, we got incredibly lucky with our timing of visiting Hong Kong. Our entire time in the city was between protests, which were generally slowing in preparation for a “big one” for China’s 70th anniversary, which was three days after we left. When we arrived in the city and met up with a local, he let us know that we didn’t have to worry about working around protests, so we were able to visit whatever areas of the city we wanted.

Okay, history lesson over for a minute so that I can talk about what makes Hong Kong special.

Hong Kong is a paradox of a city. It’s a world finance capital, with all the money, glitz, and glamor that comes along with that. It’s a former British colony, and it has the UK’s street signs and buses, as well as a lot of residents with British accents. It has areas where residents live in 100 square foot apartments and shop for everything at their local night markets. It has a younger generation who considers themselves Hong Kongers, and an aging generation who just wants the stability of being Chinese. It has Michelin-rated meals under $2, or over $50.

Our first morning in Hong Kong, we hiked up to Lion Rock. This was a bold move at 11 am - it was about 85 degrees and sunny with high humidity. Like the Elephant Mountain hike we did, and really all the hikes we did in Not China, it was basically just stairs the whole way up. Taiwan had been humid and rainy but not hot, so we were completely unacclimated and struggling. No one else seemed to be sweating on our way up, which just seems ridiculous considering the amount of water we were losing.

Signs to Lion Rock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Part way up we saw some people who had brought hammocks and were laying down for a nap in the shade, which seemed rather appealing at the time. Finally, though, we made it to the top, and the view was really really stunning. Lion Rock is on the mainland side of Hong Kong, and you look out over the city, Hong Kong Island, and the water. I would highly recommend the hike, but maybe don’t do it during the middle of the day in September. Lots of people hike it in the evening, and there are some great pictures online of the night that the protesters lit up the entire hike.

Hammocks in the shade beside the Lion Rock trail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason got this cool picture with butterflies and dragonflies that I didn’t even notice (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the top of Lion Rock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A school scene on our walk back from the hike (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Hong Kong also has some good coffee culture (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our local guide took us on a tour to experience the different sides of Hong Kong that afternoon. We started in Sham Shui Po, where the original men’s market was (this appeared to mean that it was full of electronics, from tables selling all colors of light strips, to someone selling every remote you’ve ever seen). We walked around for a few minutes before Ed, our guide, stopped us to eat some cheung fun (steamed rice noodle rolls) from a cart. They’re made by steaming a very thin rice batter with toppings, rolling it up, and putting it on a plate with some sauce. We tried BBQ pork and minced beef with cilantro, and both were delicious.

The traditional men’s market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Making cheung fun (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A shop filled with various types of noodles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Ed and Nicole walk through the streets of Sham Shui Po (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After finishing our food, we took the metro to the Central area, where all the banks are headquartered. The metro in Hong Kong is famous for being so good, and after spending a fair amount of time on it, I have to agree.

Also, Hong Kong escalators are very fast - getting on and off them is tricky. I kept wondering why they wanted people to hold onto the handrail until I tried it a few times, and then it made sense.

One of the many escalators we rode down to the metro (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the HSBC headquarters, Ed introduced us to Stitt and Stephen, the bronze lions at the entrance who were named after two of the bank’s early leaders. They’re sculpted in a fairly western style, and are massive - slightly larger than actual male lions. They were commissioned in 1923 and then taken by Japan for scrap metal during the 1940s, when the island occupied Hong Kong. When the war ended before they had been melted down, some random American sailor somehow recognized the lions from pictures and alerted HSBC that their lions were in Japan, safe except for some bullet holes (there is some debate about when the bullet holes were from). Now, they sit in front of the HSBC building again, watching the world go by.

Stitt stands guard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also rode on a double decker narrow trolley, nicknamed a ding ding for its distinctive and rather British sound, to the other side of the Central district. I would definitely recommend riding one, on the second story if you can - they are adorable and hilariously narrow and going around corners is an adventure.

A ding ding in the Central district (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We wandered through the trendy expat area for a bit, trying food and talking about Hong Kong. The area is a charming mix of fancy and homey. There are a lot of shops selling paper versions of everything - houses, clothes, food - that can be burned for the dead to provide them with what they need in the afterlife. We also tried some more food, including fish balls, sugar cane juice, and a new kind of soup dumpling. We had to wait for fresh soup dumplings, which put us behind on time, so we took a taxi to the waterfront to get on the ferry back to the mainland side of Hong Kong before the light show.

Colorful apartment buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Residents heading home in the dusk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural along one of the many staircases between streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

PMQ, which is an old police building turned into a mixed-use art and design space (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A pedestrian street lit up at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some less traditional lucky cat statues (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Hong Kong waterfront has a nightly light show. I was a little confused about what to expect, and kind of anticipated fireworks, but it turns out that many of the buildings along the waterfront have screens, colored lights, and lasers, and every night there is a city-managed light show over the water. If you’re on a ferry, it will slow down to let you watch from the boat for longer, and if you’re on the mainland side of the city, you can watch from the dock. It’s quite a pretty show.

The waterfront light show (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Protest art in a metro station (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we got up and took the tram to Victoria Peak. It’s a cable car up an incredibly steep hill, and it’s pretty fun to look at the crazy angle of the tram in comparison to the nearby buildings. At the top, we struggled for several minutes to get out of the weird mall building (it’s difficult to find exits), and then I led Jason on a bit of a wild goose chase up to the top of the mountain (he was not pleased). It’s a beautiful view, despite the slightly hazy day.

Riding up in the tram (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tram approaching the station (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the Victoria Peak station (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got back down to the city, we went to the Central-Mid-Levels escalator (Hong Kong loves escalators). It’s a covered elevated walkway, with one side as an upward escalator and one side as stairs, that goes above several streets. It’s weird and awesome. We also got some dim sum in the basement of a mall (surprising amounts of good food in mall basements on our trip).

The Central-Mid-Levels escalator (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Thursday evening was our fancy evening - we went to a classic restaurant to eat roast goose and suckling pig, and then we went to Quinary, which is on someone’s The World’s 50 Best Bars list. The roast goose was excellent - crispy skin, flavorful, great dipping sauce. We immediately wondered why people don’t eat geese in the US, which led us down an entire rabbit hole.

Suckling pig, with roast goose in the background (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Quinary was a funny experience because everything was in English - the menu was English, the people sitting around us spoke English, and our waiter had an Australian accent. The drinks were really delicious - we tried several. One of mine was supposed to be like drinking a pie, and they nailed it.

A very fancy drink at Quinary (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Adventures in Northern Taiwan

On Sunday, we had an entire day on our own to explore the city. We started with coffee, of course, before heading to the weekend jade and flower markets. The jade market was a set of stalls selling wood, jade, and other stone jewelry and sculptures. The flower market had a lot of flowers, but also tea sets and trinkets and lawn ornaments. There was also an animal rescue represented, and we got to pet some adorable dogs.

A wall covered with motherboards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Shopping at the jade market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The flower market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole made some new friends at the humane society adoption area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the markets we took the metro to the Maokong Gondola, where we had heard that you could ride a glass-bottomed gondola up the mountain. Every five or six gondolas is a glass-bottomed one, so the wait is a little longer, but I highly recommend getting one of the glassy ones if you won’t be too freaked out. It’s such a unique viewpoint to see the jungle from above, and it’s really fun to take pictures around your feet.

The animal(?) mascots at the gondola (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The canopy from the gondola (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the gondola (Jason was tall enough to take pictures through the top windows) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Maokong, at the top of the gondola, is a cute little village with a beautiful view of Taipei. There are a few main roads lined with restaurants and tea houses, and we stopped at a random one to have a delicious lunch. After lunch we walked to a city viewpoint at a temple, then decided that we had walked far enough from the gondola that we could just walk back to the city. We then proceeded to walk down stairs for at least an hour. If you’re going to walk one of the ways to and from Maokong, I’d recommend taking the gondola up and walking down. There were far too many stairs, and I was very glad we weren’t walking up.

Fancy lunch drinks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For sunset, we joined the crowd in the hike up Elephant Mountain, which has a couple of platforms and rocks that have a great view of the city and Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world until 2010 , when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa. The hike was rather humid, and we were incredibly sweaty, and I kept being amazed that there were so many people at the top who weren’t sweating through their clothes.

We walked by a puppet show on the way to the hike (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There was quite a line to take pictures on the rocks part way up Elephant Mountain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m not sure words can express how sweaty we were when this picture was taken (Photo/Some Random American Dude)

The view of Taipei 101 from the third platform (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The crazy Times Square-like area of Taipei (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday, we hired someone to take us to the old mining towns to the east of Taipei. We started in Jiufen, which was a gold mining town from the 1400s to the mid 1900s. The town is built into the hillside next to the coast, and it’s an incredibly picturesque area with ocean, jungle, tea houses, and temples. We took a walk through the adorable old street before stopping to have tea at the famous A Mei Tea House, which locals all claim inspired the bathhouse in Spirited Away (there’s a rumor that Miyazaki visited Jiufen and liked it so much that he put it into the movie, but he has claimed this is incorrect). It’s a beautiful tea house that’s still owned by the same family, and they have a nice outside deck for sitting down to have tea and snacks with a view of the ocean.

The coast from a temple in Jiufen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Much like all of the cats we met in Taiwan, this one did not care about us at all (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beautiful A Mei Tea House (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Tea at the A Mei Tea House (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After tea, we visited the first movie theater in New Taipei, which is right across the street. The theater was started as a form of entertainment for the miners, and was rebuilt and restored over time. It had a very cool old projector, as well as some old movie memorabilia.

The old film projector at the Shengping Theater (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From Jiufen we went to Shifen, home to the annual lantern festival and the biggest waterfall in Taiwan. The parking area was a bit of a mess, so I was a little concerned about the crowds, but there were several places to view the waterfall, so it didn’t feel too crazy. The waterfall was beautiful, and the sun even came out for the first time during our trip.

The bridge to the waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Shifen waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There was also an area between the parking and the waterfall that had food, Taoist religious symbols, and places to hang out. We some had sausage, I got a large container of mango slices, and we hung out for a bit.

In which Nicole finds a completely appropriately sized horse (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From the top of the falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A ridiculously tasty sausage (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The lantern festival had originally begun in Pingxi, which was our next stop, but the town was too small to support the crowds, so the festival was relocated to nearby Shifen. The lanterns were originally released for safety, to let everyone know that the bombing had ended during WWII. Now, a giant lantern festival occurs after the Chinese New Year, but people still visit Shifen and Pingxi to write their dreams and hopes on a large paper lantern and then watch it float up to the heavens (or however close the wind will let it get on that particular day).

Repainting a mural in Pingxi (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our day trip included a lantern, but we were not expecting quite the scale of the project when the shopkeeper produced a four-foot-tall, four-sided sky lantern and invited us to write and draw on all four sides. Our guide mocked us gently for not immediately knowing our hopes and dreams.

Drawing on the lantern (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After several minutes discussing and painting on the lantern, the shopkeeper put the paper “money” at the bottom of the lantern, brought us outside to the old railroad tracks, and lit the bottom of the lantern. After taking some pictures, we released the lantern into the sky and watched it rise. I have to admit, since I have no cultural connection to paper lanterns, I wasn’t expecting it to mean much to me. But…there’s something about writing and drawing well wishes on a big piece of paper and sending it up into the air that’s pretty cathartic.

Adding the “money” to burn (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also stopped for a traditional snack of shaved ice cream, peanut candy shavings, and cilantro in a rice wrap. It was weirdly delicious, even as someone who’s not a huge fan of peanuts.

A man shaving a block of peanut candy for the ice cream (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Three guesses as to how much this cat cared about our existence (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got back to Taipei, we headed over to Pier 5 to see dusk settle over the river. There are a few container restaurants along the river, and it’s a nice place to sit and watch the sunset. As it got dark, we headed to one last Taiwanese night market for dinner.

Jason insists that this is the last cool camera trick that the robots can’t do (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A lovely scene at Pier 5 (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Huaxi Street Night Market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Tuesday, we had some more coffee, tried another fantastic beef noodle soup establishment, and got on a plane for Hong Kong.

We stayed on camera street in Taipei (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our Not China Trip Begins

A quick disclaimer about this collection of blogs - during this trip we visited three regions that, while China considers them to be part of China, consider themselves varying degrees of…not China. Hong Kong and Macau are Special Administrative Regions of China, and Taiwan doesn’t have an official status because no one can agree on what it should be. The politics of these regions are all very complex, and while we tried to fact check everything in this blog, I can’t guarantee that we got everything right. If you want to learn more about these fascinating areas, there’s a ton of great information out there.

Taiwan has a pretty bizarre status at the moment. Originally Taiwan had been a part of China, but when the Qing dynasty needed an offering while losing a conflict with Japan, they offered up Taiwan in 1895. For fifty years, Japan occupied the island, which already had some European influences due to Dutch and Spanish mining. In 1945, Japan gave up the island during its post-WWII retreat. Then, in 1949, the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took took control of mainland China. For decades, the two governments, each considering themselves the true Chinese government, existed in an uneasy status quo. Now, under the One China campaign, the PRC wants Taiwan to be officially part of China. Taiwan, which feels like it hasn’t been part of China for 125 years, generally does not agree. Taiwan has some support from the western world, but China is a force to be reckoned with. It’ll be an interesting next few decades for the island.

After an insanely busy six months of moving across the country, starting new jobs, and missing a European vacation due to a freak blizzard, Taipei felt like a gift. It’s different from the U.S., so it fed my need for new experiences, but it’s also just amazingly easy. The food is amazing, the people are wonderful, and the scenery is spectacular. The city is safe and clean, and the public transit is cheap and useful. To our surprise, there’s even a ton of great coffee available from adorable local shops. Many people speak at least some English, and everyone else was happy to interact with us and figure it out.

Our first day was spent being jet lagged, wandering the city, and eating Din Tai Fung. I had been skeptical that we should visit the original, since we have one in Seattle, but I’m glad Jason convinced me to go. Din Tai Fung is amazing everywhere, but in Taipei the menu is bigger and all the flavors are just a bit better. It’s also just a very fun experience.

One of Taiwan’s fantastic birds (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A temple in the 2/28 Peace Park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Taipei 101 through the fog (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A white fluffy bird (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another fun bird in the rain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate cup at a wonderful coffee shop with a wonderful cat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We stopped by the Huashan Creative Park, which is a great collection of shops and exhibits.

A Pocky…exhibit? At the Huashan 1914 Creative Park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Overgrown apartment decks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Waiting in the crowd at Din Tai Fung (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A sign-filled street near our hotel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We went back to the hotel for a bit, then rallied for a rainy (but warm) walk in the dark through some of the city. We headed to a nearby Taoist temple, then to the Ningxia Night Market. The Taoist temples have really incredible carvings on the roof, and they are very brightly colored.

Nighttime street wandering in the rain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Night at the Dalongdong Baoan Temple (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Everyone in Taiwan uses umbrellas instead of raincoats, so we got a lot of stares for wearing our Seattle second skins. Or, you know, maybe they were just staring because we’re giant white people.

Nicole follows the lines and orders a scallion pancake (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The heavy umbrella use is very challenging at crowded night markets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday we took a tour to learn a bit more about Taiwan and tea. We realized while on the tour that for all our coffee tours, we had never done a tea tour, and it was time. We only had two other people on our tour, a young couple from Manila, so it ended up being a small group. It was very rainy, with occasional gusting winds.

Our first stop was a view of Thousand Island Lakes, which is a beautiful area to the southeast of Taipei. The lakes are a water source for the city, and all of the land around them are protected with the exception of families who have been there for generations. We stopped at one such family’s farm to take a look at the lakes. It was incredibly beautiful in the rain and fog.

The beautiful view at Thousand Island Lakes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From there we went to another view and tea plantation area, where we learned some more about tea. Taiwan only grows small amounts of tea, which is mostly oolong - they have a lot of regulations about quality and everything has to be organic, so they end up importing a lot as well. Taiwanese tea is considered pretty special.

Our next stop was a traditional tea shop in Pinglin, where a tea master made three types of tea for us and our guide translated. The first was green tea that had 10-12% fermentation, the second was a black tea with 100% fermentation, and the third was a green tea with 25% fermentation. Green tea is delicate, while black tea doesn’t care how long you steep it or at what temperature.

We were taught to use the sniffer glass to smell the tea and warm our hands (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide explained that the honey black tea that we were drinking had become popular because of a bug, the green cicada. Every late summer, the green cicada would bite the tea leaves and ruin them - the flavor of those leaves, when made into green tea, was apparently not appealing to anyone. At some point, though, some tea farmer thought to make them into black tea, and there the cicada saliva (?), or oxidation of the leaves, or something, could really shine. It created a smooth, slightly sweet flavor that added a lovely complexity. We promptly bought some after trying it.

Our instructional tea ceremony (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A cat who didn’t care about us at all (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Finally, we went to a tea museum, where we learned about all of the steps in tea processing. Tea processing takes quite a while, and requires either a few different machines or a lot of manual labor. The tea has to be dried, fermented to the desired amount, and kneaded. The type of kneading depends on what type of tea is desired - kneading back and forth results in long strings of tea leaves, while kneading in a circle produces round beads. We also learned a bit about the different tea roads - not just the traditional European one I learned about in school, but also the Russian tea road and the common practice of trading horses for tea.

An old circular tea kneading machine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Teas with their relevant details (we had to put them on a sensor to see the translation) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

…I have no explanation for this bowl of bubbles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After our tour, we wandered around in the rain in Taipei and ate a ton of great food. We started with one of the popular places for beef noodle soup, which was the type of hole in the wall that had a 20-person line at minimum (but you only had to wait about 20 minutes to get cycled in). Taiwanese beef noodle soup, when done right, is incredibly delicious - rich brown broth, thick homemade noodles, and tender chunks of beef. The traditional toppings include a sort of pickled vegetable mix, vinegar, soy sauce, and hot oil. It’s amazing.

Waiting in line for beef noodle soup (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After lunch we wandered across the city to try a coffee shop that was on our list (we never quite figured out who had recommended it). Taipei is very walkable, and also has an outstanding metro system - cheap, clean, convenient, well-used.

Let’s get into coffee for a minute - as I mentioned before, we were a bit shocked at the amount of quality coffee in Taipei. Much of Asia is not especially into coffee, and when we were in Vietnam, when there was no Vietnamese coffee available, there was often only instant coffee. From what we can glean from people we talked to and the internet, Starbucks brought reasonably good coffee to Taiwan, and then Taiwan attached to coffee and took it from there. Every specialty coffee shop we tried was between somewhat and incredibly good.

A lot of the coffee shops are also hang out spots that serve beer, snacks, and even full meals. I tried a craft beer, which was really solid. All of the desserts were amazing, as expected.

The delightful trilogy of coffee, dessert, and beer (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After some more walking through the rain we stopped by Raohe Night Market, which I highly recommend. Taiwanese night markets are evening markets that feature street stalls selling all sorts of things, depending on which market you’re at. My favorite night markets have a lot of street food to try, but it’s also pretty common to see clothes, toys, and gadgets. We tried some pork pepper buns from a stall - ground pork is mixed with spices and a whole lot of pepper, then wrapped with a lot of scallions in a thin dough bun, then stuck on the side of an oven (very similar to a tandoori oven) to cook. When it’s golden brown, it’s scraped off of the side of the oven and handed to you in a paper bag. It’s as mouth scalding and delicious as it sounds.

The Rainbow Bridge (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Making the pork pepper bun (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Buns in the oven (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Owls guarding the Raohe Night Market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There were a ton of mopeds in Taipei (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A Few Days in Paris

We were in Paris a little over two years ago for our honeymoon, so we weren’t planning to come back this soon. Jason had a conference, though, and when one gets a chance to tack on a trip to Paris, one should do so.

We landed at 8:00 am local, which is never fun, but we dropped off our bags and headed out to drink a lot of coffee and get some food. We also walked over to Notre Dame, which we were curious to see since the fire. It was…a bit heart breaking. There’s a metal and razor wire fence around the cathedral and surrounding grounds, right in front of the rows of cafes that previously had prime real estate. Notre Dame is such an amazing center point of the city, and it’s hard to see it barricaded. They are working hard to restore it, though, and it’s clear that it will be back.

Notre Dame under construction (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to Shakespeare and Company to say hi to the books and the cat, and headed to the Louvre to do some people watching. We didn’t go in - we’re still pretty intimidated by the crowds and the pure size of the building, and we were exhausted - but it’s a fun area to wander.

Philosophical decisions at Shakespeare and Company (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Wedding pictures at the pyramid (Photo/Jason Rafal)

People watching near the Louvre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

While Jason was napping, I found one of my new favorite parks in the city - Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. There’s a pavillion on top of an island in the lake, and it’s quite beautiful. There’s also a lot of sloping lawn where I got to sit and read with the Parisians.

A multi-layered park view (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Sunday we took a bike tour of Versailles. I’d highly recommend doing a bike tour, since you’re able to see so much more of the grounds that way. It’s also far less crowded than the palace and garden area.

After we took the train out to Versailles in the morning, our guide took us to an indoor/outdoor market to buy picnic food. It’s probably one of my favorite markets that I’ve been to - it’s very picturesque and has a variety of food and wine to purchase (that being said, Jason didn’t get any pictures of it that he liked, so you’ll just have to go yourselves). We picked up the five essentials of a French picnic: bread, cheese, salami, fruit, and wine (we found a Marsannay, one of my favorite white wines, that I was very excited about). From there, we headed into the grounds.

Starting our bike ride in the town of Versailles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very classy classic car (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The grounds of Versailles are used for several things right now - Gordon Ramsey has a restaurant that looks out over the grounds, and there’s a farm to grow the food, as well as sheep and goats. It’s also classically pastoral and quite beautiful. We had a picnic lunch on the west side of the Grand Canal, and it was lovely and peaceful, with only a few other groups nearby.

The Palace of Versailles across the Grand Canal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Biking through the grounds (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A few hedgehogs climbed out of the hedges at Versailles, juch to everyone’s delight (and the confusion of the Australians in our group, who wanted to know how big they get) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide told us a lot of French history as we made our way through the grounds. Most of what we learned was about Louis XIV, since he was the one who did most of the work on Versailles during his impressive 76 years of life, but we also heard about Louis XIII, XV, and XVI, making it a little difficult to keep everything straight. We learned about Marie Antionette, who was both very harshly judged and misunderstood (the quote about cake was not from her at all). But, she also made some rather lavish choices, like creating a sort of Bavarian working farm theme park where she and her children could pretend they were in Austria. It was both adorable and very weird.

Several generations of construction on a Bavarian village building (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another quite out of place village building (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After touring the grounds we went into Versailles, which is a place of excessive opulence. It’s very impressive, but the experience was hindered somewhat by the crazy crowds of people trying to see the most famous rooms. My favorite part (I’m not super into gilding, though it’s cool) was the painted ceilings - the attention to detail from the artists was truly incredible. It was also pretty crazy to imagine living in a place like that. We were only allowed in certain corridors, and we still felt lost a couple of times.

The courtyard of Versailles through the golden fence (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A really incredible map built into a table (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Hall of Mirrors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The gardens outside the palace are also amazing and ridiculous. There are double hedges everywhere so that servants could get around without the nobility seeing them. There are also a ton of fountains - I was blown away by the number of fountains that we happened upon while wandering. The fountains were originally gravity fed (which was one reason so many servants had to run around in the second layer of hedges), and they were still having some issues keeping them all running.

Looking out over the gardens and the Grand Canal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Paris is amazing. It’s always been amazing, and it always will be amazing. We moved over one arrondissement and stayed in the 10th this time, right next to the metro, which was lovely after we walked 31 miles in the first 3 days and were in considerable discomfort. We revisited some of our favorite places and also explored some more of the inner neighborhoods.

An incredibly colorful fountain area in the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Layers of murals (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A scene of Paris (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Late afternoon light (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A blue heron in a city park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Arc de Triomphe at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday we went to the Eiffel Tower (twice, actually - once in the morning and once at night, when it was lit up) and did some general wandering and relaxing. Our feet were in a considerable amount of pain by this point, so we were trying to take it easy (though I still ended up walking over 14 miles, according to my watch). Night walking in Paris is wonderful, and the Eiffel Tower at night is amazing. I have no idea how they light it up so completely, but it’s breathtaking, even when you’re been staring at it for a while.

The Eiffel Tower, all lit up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Since we had already been to Paris and Jason had a conference and some work to do, we did less touristy things and had some more downtime planned in. I spent hours reading - mostly in parks, but on one occasion in a wine bar while locals chatted enthusiastically around me and kids played soccer outside of the school nearby. Being an introvert in a country where I don’t speak the language is a combination that can be somewhat isolating, but it’s always nice to see the similarities in human interaction around the world. We’re very consistent creatures, and it’s comforting to see such familiar joy and frustration.

On Wednesday we went to the Musée d’Orsay, which is a wonderful art museum in an old train station. They have a pretty amazing collection, including a bunch from Monet, Manet, Picasso, and Rodin, which are some of our favorites. There’s also a light-filled indoor courtyard of sculptures, which I’m always a huge fan of.

Looking down the Musée d’Orsay (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view of the city through one of the giant clocks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pompon’s Polar Bear (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a variety of food while in the city - French food, of course, but also some fusions and imports, including Italian, Lebanese, and BBQ that was a mix between North and South American. We also had a ridiculous amount of wine, because how can you not.

Overall, Paris was amazing, as expected. The food, the parks, the views, the absurdly convenient metro system - it’s just a very good city. We’ll be back again.

Also, museums are closed on Mondays. Keep that in mind.

Views from drinks on the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Views of Paris at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An incredibly decorated bench area off of the Promenade Plantée (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Canada is Lovely. It’s Just Not Europe.

Okay, let’s talk about reality for a minute. Because sometimes, you get to go on an awesome vacation you’ve been planning for months. Other times, though, you fly from Seattle to Denver shortly before an unprecedented bomb cyclone with category two hurricane-force winds and the entire airport gets shut down and you can’t get to Europe within 3 days of your scheduled arrival and you have to cancel the trip.

There are some fun things about these times. There’s the fun of exploring an empty airport, the ponderance of how some of those beer taps can be left unsupervised, the thrill of finally getting on a moving train into town after 9 hours in an airport. Mostly, though, it just sucks when you can’t go on your vacation that you’ve been planning and pining after. And yes, I am fully aware that I am supremely lucky to be able to take these trips, and that I have my wonderful life at home to come back to, and I am incredibly grateful for those things. But it sucks.

Denver International Airport, deserted (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Since the trip was for Maia’s graduation from college, Maia, Jason, and I decided to go to Canada for a few days instead since she had never been. We would take three ferries on a route to the Olympic Peninsula, Victoria, and Vancouver. We took our car, which still has Colorado plates and amused lots of Canadians, especially when the car alarm went off mid-ferry ride.

We began on a Tuesday and took our first ferry to Bainbridge Island, where we drove to Port Angeles. There are only a couple of ferries per day between port Angeles and Victoria in the winter, and we carefully timed a stop for lunch and a very short stroll to a waterfall before getting into line.

Mt. Rainier as we left Seattle (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the many waterfalls of the trip (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Waiting to board a ferry to another country is not as complex, cumbersome, or time consuming as going through an international airport, but perhaps because it involves just sitting and waiting, it feels like forever to me. The weather was weirdly sunny for winter in the Olympic peninsula, and we waited with car doors open, lounging half outside of the cars.

We were on the Coho on the way to Victoria (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tugboat doing its job with Mt. Baker in the background (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and I had been to Vancouver before (see Surface-Level Observations of Vancouver), but none of us had ever been to Victoria. It’s difficult to get to without taking an absurdly expensive plane ride (non-plane options include 1.5 hour ferries from the Olympic Peninsula or Vancouver, or an almost 3 hour ferry from Seattle), but Victoria is charming and I would highly recommend it. There are lots of grand government buildings and adorable houses and shiny condo buildings and tree-filled parks, and it’s fun to watch the various types of boats go in and out. It also has some great food (we tried butter chicken poutine in an Irish pub, and it was amazing) and it’s not hard to find a happy hour overlooking the water. We were in the city during an absurdly warm spell, and it was sunny and mid-60s during the day, which felt absurd for British Columbia in March.

One of the beautiful alleys in Victoria’s Chinatown (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Building within an old facade (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Not sure if you remember our coffee crisis from when we were in Vancouver in 2014, but we can confirm that Victoria has good coffee (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of our afternoons in Victoria, we took a trip out to Goldstream Provincial Park for a hike. The park is very close to Victoria and has some lovely huge trees. If you want to do the Niagara Falls and trestle hike in the winter or spring, though, let me know, because it’s difficult to find the correct trailhead (in the summer and autumn, it’s easy to go under the highway, but there was a considerable creek running through that tunnel when we got there). The falls are beautiful, and there is also a trail that goes up to a railroad bridge over the canyon and river. It’s beautiful, and a bit terrifying.

I love all the green everywhere (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very large tree stump (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The trestle (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Finding the trails (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The super moon from our Victoria apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After a couple of days in Victoria, we drove to Swartz Bay and boarded a ferry for Vancouver. On the way, we made a stop at the Butchart Gardens. We were somewhat skeptical because it was early spring and nothing would be in bloom, but I can now back up their advertising and say it’s worth visiting any time of year. My favorite part was the sunken garden, which was built in an old quarry. There were also fantastic statues of various animals, a lovely Japanese garden, and a small boat harbor.

Maia and a random cocker spaniel that she almost stole (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sunken garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A lovely water feature (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dragon guarding the Japanese garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The idyllic harbor (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our ferry to Vancouver was quite large and fancy. It had a full cafeteria, many layers of observation decks, and apparently enough room to carry 34 semis in addition to the passenger cars. We spent a lot of time on the decks, periodically ducking back inside to avoid the wind. The ferry ride from Vancouver island to the city is quite beautiful, especially in nice weather - the boat goes close to several islands. It was a bit early for whales, but we kept an eye out anyway. Either they were in a different area or we didn’t look quite hard enough.

Beautiful islands from the ferry (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived in Vancouver, we immediately drove to a suspension bridge park, since Maia had never been on one and seemed potentially interested in comparing it to the railroad trestle experience. I told her the suspension bridge would be less scary, and after giving it a try, she was not convinced. It looks like she’s having fun though.

Harrisons on the suspension bridge (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the suspension bridge we hiked around Lynn Canyon for a while. Walking along the creek, which was a beautiful light bluish green, we came to both a scary warning sign about cliff jumping and then, predictably, cliff jumpers. The water was quite cold, but I guess March weather in the 60s in Vancouver is not common enough to waste. After visiting a couple more waterfalls, we climbed up a whole lot of stairs and headed into town, where we explored CRAB Park and got some tasty food.

A fairly unhelpful infographic (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Crazy Canadians (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Climbing a lot of stairs through the woods (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dogs in CRAB Park (no idea what’s up with that capitalization) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we realized that our hotel lent out free bikes, requested said bikes, and went on an adventure around Stanley Park. Stanley Park has already been featured in a previous blog, so I won’t spend too much time, but I will tell you that if you want to lead your family on a bike ride from the bottom of the park up to the Prospect Point Lookout, warn them about the intensity of the ride and bring some water. Otherwise, they might become quite cranky at you halfway up.

A very handsome duck (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Biking home through the blossoms (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our next excursion was to Granville Island, where we met our friend Cameron (long story involving well-timed overlapping road trips), ate poutine and gelato, and watched all the tourists interact with some rather aggressive seagulls (one stole a piece of pizza out of a woman’s hand and then struggled to swallow it for the next 10 minutes). Then we went to explore more of the city.

Strolling along the shore (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Granville (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Maia and Cameron ponder some contemporary art (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some really incredible sidewalk art (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the stadium at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last morning in Vancouver, we visited Queen Elizabeth park on the way out of town. I would highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area - it’s a beautiful park with some lovely gardens and a gorgeous view of the city. There’s also a metal family, stuck in time since the 70s, talking a picture at the top, and adopting yourself into the family makes for some great pictures.

Family pictures with our new family (Photo/Jason Rafal)

So, it wasn’t Europe. But Victoria and Vancouver are lovely, and I’m glad we got to go on another version of Maia’s graduation trip.