Seven Days in Taiwan

"Great Uncle" and "Auntie," my hosts in Taichung City, Taiwan

I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Taiwan from March 8th through the 15th, sightseeing in both Taipei and Taichung City while staying with relatives of my Aunt Lisa. A little background on how I am connected with Great Uncle and Auntie in Taiwan... my Aunt Lisa, whose mother is Taiwanese, married my uncle and her mother's side of the family still reside in Taiwan. While in Japan, I mentioned my interest in visiting Taiwan to Aunt Lisa and she connected me to Great Uncle and Auntie (her Aunt and Uncle) and the rest is history. Needless to say, this connection lent itself to a very unique experience. For the first half of my stay, Great Uncle and Auntie (pictured above) hosted me at their home in Taichung City. As a side note, they visited South Dakota at the time my aunt Lisa married my uncle. I was 10 years old then but remember them vividly as we took a road trip to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Being from a town of 500 people, it was pretty cool to meet and spend time with foreigners. Great Uncle picked me up from the airport on March 8th and said he recognized me from his visit to South Dakota. Something tells me being the only Caucasian in the airport gave it away!

Taiwan is quite a busy place. Only 3 weeks before visiting Taiwan, I spent 4 days touring Tokyo. The best way I can describe Taipei and Taichung City is Tokyo on steroids. Before visiting these places, it seems Tokyo gets stereotyped as a crazy busy city but really, Tokyo seemed quite tame in comparison to the two major metropolitan cities of Taiwan. I reason that a potential explanation is that the streets of Taichung City and Taipei were jam packed with cars, buses, taxis, and motor scooters. It's no secret that Tokyo has a very well developed subway system while all the transportation in Taiwan seems to take place on the ground level. So I'm going to hypothesize that good deal of the action and commotion in Tokyo takes place in the subway and underground shopping malls that accompany it. Taipei and Taichung city, on the other hand, rely more on above ground transportation. BOOM. How's that for a Tokyo-Taiwan comparison?

Milk Tea with Tapioca Balls

I don't talk a whole lot about food and beverage but I did in fact find a new favorite non-alcoholic beverage in Taiwan. The ingredients are milk tea with tapioca balls at the bottom. The straw is especially designed to suck up the tapioca balls as you slurp on the milk tea. After returning to Japan from Taiwan, I did notice a few shops in Japan selling something similar to the Taiwanese treat, but my friends in Taiwan assured me that this drink is a Taiwan exclusive! I may have to introduce this to Denver...