But I think it's a blessing in disguise as it brought us closer and also created the opportunity for my dad to rest and relax (no stress about his construction project and horrid vampire boss) and enjoy the compassion and love from everyone (and stops being a painful stubborn cow ;)
After working out a detailed roster for his care, mom and I flew to Taipei on SIA (best flight ever) and my third aunt and her sister joined us the next day. Taipei was pouring cats and dogs when we got to the city centre by bus from the airport but luckily we met a kind cab driver who joked and happily brought us to MAI hotel nearby.
The locals are really friendly and helpful, from the hotel staff to the taxi drivers (some with a great sense of humour), and are great ambassadors of Taiwan. I really enjoyed speaking Mandarin in Taiwan too (I have a A in Chinese ok!).
We met le mie amiche Margherita and Paola (we studied Italian together in Perugia) who played guides for the most of Saturday. We enjoyed lunch at Taipei 101's massive food court where you can also find Din Tai Fung and shopped around the city centre.
On day 2, we visited cultural sights like Chiang Kai Sek memorial hall followed by an exploration of the retail jungle of Wufenpu wholesale market. There are thousands of shops and booths here selling all kinds of fashion ware and accessories in all trends. I have to say there was a lot of junk but also treasures to sieve out. It could take days to go through everything - that's why shopaholics will have a field day here. I managed to buy a polka dot top and scallop shorts, plus a really cute strapless floral pantsuit.
On day 3, we took the metro (30mins) and then a cab (15mins) to the beautiful hot spring town of Wulai outside of Taipei. There are in fact many hot spring towns such as Beitou but I chose Wulai which felt like a clone of Hakone in Japan. Not suprisingly, the Japanese colonised the country before and thus there is a strong Japanese influence here. We splurged on a night's stay ($280) at the 5-star Pause Landis resort for a great nudist spa experience. Mom was giggling non-stop as we watched naked women walking around in the sauna and the indoor pool. We could soak in the hot spring pool for hours as it was so relaxing with the water beating down on your back... ahhhh.
Before that, we had walked 15mins to the Old Street in Wulai and enjoyed a great lunch of local declicacies like wild boar dumplings, bamboo rice, and crispy fried river shrimps. I especially liked the white bittergourd-pineapple-pork rib soup and the array of mountain veggies including the bird's nest ferns (I didn't know it could taste so crunchy and smooth).
The next day, we then took a train from Taipei to Hualien (3 hours) and the owner of our minsu (homestay) Rachel picked us up from the train station as promised. According to a friendly cab driver, apparently there are thousands of minsu at Hualien (some not legally registered) and that was why I had booked the Sunrise Hostel to experience the local hospitality.
We then returned to Taipei and had more slices of night markets and shopping at Ximending. After a while, the markets like Shilin all offered around the same street food.
The Zhi Qiang night market at Hualien had the most interesting variety like oyster soup, bbq meats, deepfrid 'coffin' french toasts stuffed with all kinds of fillings. We had a good relaxing trip and I'm most pleased that I got to speak Mandarin everyday with the locals. Chinese is such a beautiful eloquent language and more of us should hold on to this heritage. Come to think of it, Singaporeans have the luxury of being tri-lingual (Eng, Chinese, dialect) - we should encourage our kids to not forsake our mother tongues.
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