Tales from Taiwan 2

It is a joy to travel with people whose circadian rhythms are similar to yours; you can wake up late, loll around in the hotel’s plush robes, and indulge in a hefty breakfast room service trolley without feeling an ounce of guilt.

So it was almost noon when we got to that lofty landmark, Taipei 101. Every tourist’s first and most recognizable stop, huzzah. No, we didn’t venture up to the observation deck, and neither did we trouble ourselves with the mysterious hidden Starbucks, but we did queue for Din Tai Fung.

At lunch time. On a Sunday. You can imagine how long we had to wait before our number finally appeared onscreen.

But that divine xiao long bao was worth every dollar, of course.

Afternoon found us ambling around the district till a sudden rainshower dashed cold water on our plan to walk home. We sought refuge in a bakeshop, hailed a cab soon after, and arrived at the hotel like a trio of sodden chicks.

We had an hour or so before the hotel shuttle left for Ximending, time we spent on our phones, while I realized how important program breaks like this were when travelling with younger millennials. Yes, they absolutely can venture out without power banks and roaming data devices, but you need to herd them into a safe space with plenty of USB ports and a working Internet connection at strategic times throughout the day.

At Ximending we were greeted by a peaceful demonstration (looking at you, mainland) before we dove into the warren of streets that reminded me of Mongkok and the older parts of Kowloon. Everywhere we went was an assault on the senses, all bright neon signs and gaudy displays and flashing lights and intoxicating smells – especially when we approached the ehem, more pungent tofu stalls.

The street food was an Asian dream, of course; we happily masticated whatever we could get our hands on, in between buying up boxes and boxes of even more sweet and savory snacks to take home.

Eventually our stomachs ran out of space and the siblings started worrying they’d spent more than they thought on pasalubong, so we headed for our final adventure of the day: the metro.

Now when you’re from the Philippines, any other country’s metro seems like a distinct improvement, and so it was with Taipei’s. It was the siblings’ first encounter with you know, a proper working metro, one that was clean and orderly and ran on time and didn’t make you walk on the tracks or pack you in like sardines in a tin or anything inhumane like that.

Whyyy can’t we have nice things, I think we collectively moaned at one point.

Anyway we got off at the correct stop, took a wrong turn (map reading is not the family’s strong suit) and were eventually pointed in the right direction by a kind gentleman walking his dog.

Taipei is a city of puppers and doggos and floofs – and helpful hoomans. 💜