Taiwan 2014

March 28-April 7, 2014

Friday March 28

Bound for Taipei, Taiwan! I'm ready for the long hours of travel to be over already and eat some yummy food with my in-laws. My biggest travel worry was my nausea acting up around strange smells, such as stinky tofu which I cannot stand. 

Saturday March 29

Late night arrival around 10pm Taiwan time. Straight to bed for us!

Sunday March 30

Breakfast at World Soybean Milk Magnate in Yonghe. We went for a walk to the park with Joe's Dad. We had some of Joe's family over for dinner: us, Mom, Dad, Grandmother, Grandmother's brother & his wife (they own a restaurant nearby), and another Uncle and his wife.

Monday March 31
We ate breakfast again at World Soybean Milk Magnate. Joe and his Dad went to run errands and take care of some paperwork in the city. Joe secured his birth certificate issued from Taiwan. I went to the market with Joe's Mom. She bought loads of fruit for the week as well as other healthy produce for me and the baby to eat. There were fresh bamboo shoots in season this time of year. The most alarming part of Taiwanese open air markets is the raw chicken lying out on the table for you to choose. They cut it up for you right there. In Chinese culture, a pregnant woman isn't to be around cutting or anything that may be disturbing to the child. While we were purchasing the chicken, I had to turn my little belly away and rub it to soothe the baby per mom’s instructions. We bought some fresh squeezed orange juice and then head back to the house. Also in Chinese culture, pregnant women are not supposed to lift anything. Mom would not let me carry any of the bags of groceries back home.
Joe's Great Uncle and his wife took us and the rest of the family out for a really nice dinner that night. It was quite a fun evening.

Tuesday April 1

We ate breakfast at World Soybean Milk Magnate. Are you seeing a trend? Yes this place is really that good and the cheapest food you can find. The menu is big enough to have different things each day and it not get old.

Thankfully I have not had any nausea issues yet, but 13+ weeks is looking promising! I haven't smelt stinky tofu yet, but hopefully the worst of morning sickness may be behind me now...

Joe & I ran some errands in Taipei and avoided the mass protest going on near the government buildings (China trade deal) by cutting through beautiful Liberty Square with the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Theater, and the Main Gate

Wednesday April 2
We had breakfast at a sandwich place in Yonghe that Joe likes.
Today Joe and Jackie ran some more errands. We got all our ducks in a row for paperwork required to be sent to the Netherlands along with Joe’s birth certificate for proper vetting with the government for Joe’s new position.
Afterwards we walked over to the Taipei Arena which we had never seen. This area has a lot of money. Big banks, financial headquarters, Mercedes and other luxury car dealerships.
Taipei Arena

Soccer field

Jackie liked this curved metal panel façade.

We ate lunch in Ximen and then shopped in the Underground Mall. 

For dinner the family made Chinese burritos. They know how much I like them from years ago so they make them about every time I visit.
My baby bump is just now beginning to show: 14 weeks

Thursday April 3

Joe's Grandmother was in the hospital while we were there. In Chinese culture, it is not good for pregnant women to be near sick people or anything involving death around the baby. I was not allowed to visit her, but Joe & his Mom went. I grabbed breakfast at the World Soybean Milk Magnate with Joe's Dad. Joe the translator got many phone calls when I was on my own with his parents. It's not always the easiest to communicate through hand gestures when we both don't know each other's native language. 

Joe's Aunt from Charlotte (second Uncle's wife) happened to be visiting in Taiwan the same time as us. She took us out for dinner tonight.

Friday April 4

Joe and his Mom visited Grandmother in the hospital. She was doing much better today. 

We met up together for Joe, me, Dad and Mom to have lunch. 

Coming out of the metro at Taipei 101, there it was: Din Tai Fung @ Taipei 101. 

I insisted on eating here for lunch. It was Mom & Dad's first time there because this place is pricey. Mmm I love these Taiwanese prices. 1/3 of Bellevue's price and SOOO much tastier! No comparison. Xiao long bao here is the best! 

Taipei 101

Saturday April 5

Beautiful 82 degree sunny day in Danshui on the northeast coast of Taiwan

Mom, Joe & Dad

Mom, Dad & Jackie (and little baby at 14 weeks)

Danshui little eats street food

Mom & Dad were tired from all the walking so they went home. Joe and I decided to walk around Shilin as the Night Market was beginning to setup. We had to get some Hot Star fried chicken steak. The piece is massive! 

Sunday April 6

We had one last breakfast at Yonghe's World Soybean Milk Magnate. Today's mission was to find an old map of Taiwan to hang in the house. After countless stores, the best we had found was a tourist map roll at Eslite Bookstore on Friday.
Mom & Dad made dinner of pounded rice cakes made into noodle form and a few other yummy dishes as always.

Monday April 7
I'm so glad to be home! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and snuggle with my puppy
We had a great flyover of Seattle on our flight in!

Bali, Danshui, & Beitou, Taiwan

Thursday January 12, 2012

We went to Bali today so Jackie could see a building that won some architecture awards in the past few years. Bali was once a thriving port in the 18th century, but the wharves silted up in the 1840s. It is located due west of Taipei on the Pacific Ocean and on the southern shores of the Danshui River. We got off the metro at the Guandu Station which is about 4 km to the museum. We rode the bus over to the Shihsanhang Museum of Archeology. Jackie knew we were in the right place when she saw the large concrete containers at the local water treatment plant. The most remarkable object on display at the museum is the anthropomorphic jar that depicts a human face.

The building won first place in the 2002 “Taiwan Architecture Prize” and the winner of the 2003 “Far Eastern Architect Award”. It was designed by architect Sun Te-hung.

The admission fee of the museum is usually TWD 100, but it was free today. It was built over an ancient archaeological site. The site was the first one in Taiwan to offer evidence of iron smelting and use by the local original peoples. The site was found by a military pilot whose compass had gone awry over it. You enter the museum by first climbing slightly and then gently sloping downward, symbolizing entering a treasure-trove excavated by archaeologists.

The main multi-story interior void space is the most impressive.

This is the angled glass space over the museum entry.

Here is the view from the upper portion of the stair tower.

Joe really enjoyed this exhibit, which I still have no idea why it was in a stair tower of an archeology museum.

After climbing the stair tower (or taking the elevator) you cross a glass floor bridge to look out the glass toward the Tapenkeng Site located on Kuanyin Mountain where the site was discovered and is being researched. Joe really liked the glass floor bridge. You looked down on an archeology dig site replica below (with weird wax figures).

This is looking down from the overlook at the exterior exit stair below.

These photos are looking down the void space at the archeology dig site and the stair tower.

I love the angled concrete panel walls.

This was a tiny exit stair. Unfortunately lighting didn’t seem to be integrated into the original design.

This is just a beautiful termination of the angle precast panel walls.

The museum is made of 3 distinctive shapes representing the mountains, ocean and the past/present. The 3 building materials are exposed concrete, sandstone, and highly plastic titanium alloy. The boat shape is to honor how Taiwan ancestors reached the island from boats they sailed across the ocean.

We climbed the curved “ocean” piece where there are excellent views of the coastline. This is looking back at the sandstone tower representing the merging of past and present.

This one overlooks the breakwater toward Danshui and the Danshui River.

The curved boat “ocean” portion of the building.

There are stray dogs all over Taiwan which just makes us miss Chance more. These guys were cute napping by the museum.

I like the metal ribbed curves.

Joe says Michelangelo’s David has nothing on this guy in the Shihsanhang Culture Park.

The Sunshine Plaza along the seashore has a nice performance stage.

We should have rented bikes to ride along the waterfront so we didn’t walk for so long in search of food for lunch after visiting the museum. This was the view across Danshui River toward Guandu and the mountains.

This was the view from the Bali riverfront looking at Danshui.

We finally reached the Fisherman's Wharf and found a few shops open on the Bali Wharf Street.

We bought some fried squid, sweet potatoes and tempura to eat for lunch. We watched a huge group of middle school students spend $20 dollars on all fried food for lunch. Who knows how all these Asian kids say so skinny!

We also got some shuangbaotai, which means the twin-donut, which Bali is well-known for.
The Bali wharf connects to the Danshui Old Street and Fisherman’s Wharf by ferry. We took the ferry over to Danshui and take the metro home from there. These photos are looking back at Bali from the rough ferry ride.

We walked around and shopped for a bit. We then took the metro over to Beitou, a virtual Taiwanese Hollywood due to the many movies filmed here, but it’s better known for its hot spring baths easily accessible from Taipei.

In Beitou Park I convinced Joe to try out some of their exercise machines. He felt a little uncomfortable with the one that virtually causes him to hump the air.

We like to call this one, ‘wax on, wax off.’ That’s Asian karate skills right there.

I was really interested in seeing the Beitou Public Library. It is hailed as East Asia’s most eco-friendly building opened in 2006. It was designed by Bio Architecture Formosana, a Taipei architecture company. It is the first in Taiwan to quality for a diamond rating (the highest) under the Taiwan government’s EEWH (Ecology, Energy savings, Waste reduction and Health) certification system for sustainable construction. The Taiwan government was the first in Asia and the 4^th in the world to adopt a set of sustainable building standards. EEWH is essentially equivalent to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in the US. The rainwater from the sloped roof is stored and used to flush toilets. The roof also has photovoltaic cells and 20cm thick layer of soil providing thermal insulation. The huge windows provide a tremendous amount of daylight, cutting the amount of electricity used. The windows are also operable providing ventilation lessening the use of air conditioning and fans.

The wooden walls harked back to Japan’s occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945). The extensive amount of wood used was from sustainably managed plantation forests. The one thing that sucks about it is the timber was sourced from North America. It could not have been obtained from anywhere closer because logging has been effectively banned in Taiwan and forests in Southeast Asia are not managed in a sustainable manner. I sure hope that this is beginning to change much like it has been in the US with more and more FSC certified wood products available. Natural wood oils instead of strong chemicals that would contaminate the environment were used to treat the structure and protect it from the elements and insects. The wood walls are also a stark contrast to the extensive amount of concrete buildings in Taiwan. My favorite aspect of the building was the open balconies surrounding the building overlooking the park.

We tested the stream running through the park. Joe says it’s not hot.

We went into the Beitou Hot Springs Museum. The building was built in 1913 by the Japanese based on the design of the baths on Mount Izu Hot Spring Bath in Japan. The Beitou Public Baths were the biggest public baths in East Asia at the time. The deserted baths have now been transformed into the Beitou Hot Springs Museum complete with stained-glass windows, authentic Japanese tatumi room where bathers drank tea after they bathed and the original bathing pool in the basement.

After this we head back to Yonghe for dinner with Dad. On our walk back to the house from the metro station we passed by Joe’s old elementary school at 4pm just letting out. And we wonder we they are smarter than us!

We had hot pot at home for dinner with Dad. Dad ate a duck foot.