Summer vacation 2024 – Taipei
I am starting my travelogue by walking back in time, from more recent trips to those in the past. We will see how far the memory takes me – hopefully, at least a few years.
This summer’s vacation was truly grand and genuinely unforgettable. Three different countries in just over two weeks! It started in Taipei, Taiwan. We spent a night near Dulles Airport in Virginia and flew United to San Francisco and from there to Taipei Taoyuan airport, arriving in the evening of July 21st, 2024. Our daughter Maria was already in Taiwan for two weeks, helping our friend Cindy Huang chaperone a group of kids from her Chia Chinese language school on a cultural immersion trip. After the group had left, Maria stayed for a couple of days with our friends Jiangwei Feng, Lu Zhang, and their daughter Veronica. We headed to Lu and Jiangwei’s upscale apartment straight from the airport and had dinner with them at a dim sum restaurant within walking distance from the apartment. After another taxi ride, we finally checked in to Grand Hyatt Taipei. I stayed in that hotel a few times before on business trips. I looked forward to finally showing it to my family and letting them experience a magnificent breakfast.
After a restful night at the hotel and enjoying breakfast, we met our driver and tour guide, Vincent Lee, in the lobby. I am delighted that I pre-booked a city tour from Yolo Taiwan on Viator, which included an air-conditioned car for a very reasonable price. With 94F/34C outside, it would be really tough to survive otherwise. Since the Grand Hyatt is across the street from Taipei 101, we left that for later. After a quick stop to take pictures of 101 and an upscale apartment building,
our first destination was the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, where we watched a change of the guard while using umbrellas kindly provided by Vincent to shade ourselves from the merciless sun.
Our next destination was the Grand Hotel, where Maria actually had a chance to stay a few nights before.
The next stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, where we walked the grounds and went inside to learn a bit about Taiwan’s history.
For lunch, we went to a popular spot. There, we had pancakes with meat and chicken and a delicious fresh mango slushie, which was more than welcome on such a hot day!
After lunch, we stopped at the National Palace Museum for a few minutes but could not go inside because it is closed on Mondays.
After a quick stop at a busy shopping street to marvel at an enormous variety of dried goods,
we headed to our last destination, the famous Longshan temple, where we cast the sticks to have our fortunes predicted. 😊
On the way back to the Grand Hyatt, we stopped at the calligraphy brush store at Hui’s request to pick a few brushes for watercolor painting. The assortment of brushes was quite impressive!
For dinner, we went to a fancy Chinese restaurant a few blocks from Hyatt with a family of friends, Jay Wang, his wife Vincy, and their daughter.
The next day, we finished the “must-see” program and had a self-guided tour of the National Palace Museum. The most impressive exhibits were the bone and jade carvings, and a large collection of watercolor paintings.
Lunch at the Taipei 101 food court, a quick tour of the observatory,
and off we went to the Taoyuan airport, where we met with another family of friends from Corning, Steve, Sabina, and Nicole Miller, had dinner at their hotel, and went on to check in for our overnight flight to Sydney, Australia.