Goodbye Taipei, Hello New Adventures

We bid a sad goodbye to the Miramar Garden Hotel and its tasty breakfast, but were excited to start the next stage in our adventure. Our guide picked us up, we loaded the car, and headed out.

Happily, our first stop was by the water, so we finally saw the other side of the Pacific Ocean. (As Californians, we are partial to this particular body of water.) The seaside town was simultaneously like every other we have seen and at the same time totally different. We stopped to explore the Yehliu Geopark and all of its fascinating formations.  We glimpsed a variety of sea life and wondered at the lack of waves. 

As soon as we finished there, we went in the totally opposite direction, heading up into the mountains. Taiwan is beyond lush and green, with breathtaking water. The heat and humidity are tough to take, but they do make some magnificent jungle.

We climbed higher and higher on narrow and curvy hairpin roads. Lucky for us our guide is a former fighter pilot for the Taiwanese Air Force and handles it like a pro. Our destination was a lovely tea farm with a view of Thousand Island Lake.  

We stayed for lunch, dinning al fresco on the top of a mountain. Lunch included an incredible mango smoothie, scallion pancake, mushrooms, tofu, sea grass and fried tea leaves that Rob promptly renamed tea fries.

Next up was the largest waterfall in Taiwan, followed by releasing a lantern into the wild. It was totally touristy and totally fun. 

We painted four sides of a paper lantern with wishes and desires. Putting our own spin on it, I also included things for which we were thankful and a bit of Hebrew. We released it as a family and watched it fly. It was surprisingly cathartic. 

Blessings sent up and away, we headed to the historic town of Jiufen, which consists of streets that are more narrow and with more stairs than any in Jerusalem. 

Halfway up the ungodly number of stairs our guide turned left into a crevice, which turned out to be a cave that led to a hidden tea house and photo spot. I couldn't make this stuff up.

While not technically a night market, the neighborhood had that feel, with stores and people and food and trucks and scooters all vying for attention.  Among the three of us we indulged in ice cream wrapped in a tortilla with crushed peanuts, hot veggies submerged in ice cold water and eaten with a spoon, and a funky waffle filled with mango and cream.

Our hotel that evening was nestled so deep in the mountain side we had difficulty locating it. The Adiago specializes in creating a relaxing environment. We were given house shoes to wear, we selected a story to serve as our room number, and were presented with three fragrant rocks to choose our room smell. We went with forest. 

It was a day filled with a LOT of sensory input. Romi is loving it and feeling more and more connected to the country and its people, and can almost feed himself using chopsticks!