Category Archives: Hong Kong and Taiwan

Our adventures in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Traveling Home: Two Fridays for the Price of One

We woke up on Friday in time to catch our 6:30 car ride to the airport. On Wednesday, since the phone attempts had failed, we had emailed United and ANA asking for clarification on what was going on with the seats for our first flight. On Thursday we did hear back from United and ANA. United claimed they couldn’t request specific seat arrangements because they don’t have the seat maps for ANA. Fine . . . except we learned from ANA that they aren’t allowed to touch United seats until the 24-hrs immediately before the flight takes off which United hadn’t mentioned every time they told us to ask ANA for seats. I think perhaps the 2nd ANA person I talked to on the phone had been trying to explain this to me but we were having a communication problem (Calvin was screeching in my ear which made it harder for me to interpret everything).

Anyway, we made it to the airport and stood in line to check-in. From what I’ve read, having children ride in car seats in cars in fairly uncommon in Taiwan (though I think this is changing) so taking the car seat on the plane is probably unheard of except for crazy foreigners like us. In any case, we somehow managed to confuse the flight attendant that checked us in so it took longer than we expected but eventually we thought everything was figured out. Because the iPad entertained Calvin so well on the way out, I reduced the number of other toys I brought out and was able to consolidate Calvin and my carry-on bags to 2 (versus the three we’d used on the way out).

After check-in was over we headed over to the security line which I discovered was huge. I’m not sure if it was longer than the security line at Denver but it was certainly organized less well. Instead of a large official queue, there was a smaller queue section with people lined up past all the check-in counters queuing for the queue. As I was looking at it in disbelief a security guard came by, saw Calvin, and motioned that we should follow him. We followed him and he passed us off to another security guard. Neither really spoke English so we weren’t entirely sure what was going on until someone who’s flight was soon, and thus was getting priority security screening, explained that because we had a child with us, they wanted us to skip the line and go straight into the priority queue. Once again, I felt a little sheepish about it but didn’t try to pass up the opportunity. As a result, we passed through security and immigration fairly quickly.

We got breakfast at one of the terminals and then managed to board our plane, with Calvin’s car seat. I was very glad I had gotten our carry-on down to two bags as the area under the seat only fit two bags (on my prior flights I was able to fit all three bags under the seat). The flight served a meal but we had booked through United, which claimed the flight didn’t have a meal, so we weren’t able to request a vegetarian meal. Personally, I am not pleased with how United integrates with its airline partners. There’s got to be a better way to do it.

The flight was unexceptional and we landed in Tokyo. Unfortunately, Calvin decided right at that point he needed to go potty. Calvin and I rushed off the plane leaving Jaeger to deal with the car seat. We dashed towards the nearest restroom, which wasn’t nearly close enough, and I almost despaired when I saw there was a good 10-15 women ahead of us. However, then one women pointed out a room specifically for the handicapped and children and I rushed in. It was a little too late but at least we got there before Calvin started actually dripping onto the floor, or me. The bathroom was amazing. They had all sorts of contraptions, for what I’m not sure, but it looked like a very
useful room if I had any idea what some of the stuff was for. The extra large sink with a hose attached looked great for a diaper explosion but I’m not sure that’s what it was intended for. The toilet momentarily confused me as there were all sorts of functions on a control on the seat, all in Japanese, but finally I figured out the flush was on the wall. Because Calvin hadn’t had any accidents on the way out I had reduced my extra clothes down to 2 spare pair of pants and 4 pairs of underwear. Given how much flying we had left to do, I was nervous about having to use up one pair of pants already.

After I got out of the bathroom we queued for the international security screening. This time I remembered to make sure my water battles were emptied and we passed through without any incident. As an aside, of all the screenings we went through, the US was the only place where we had to take off our shoes. When I asked at one security point if I had to take off my shoes they looked at me like I was insane. Pass security, we found our gate and plugged in our electronics to charge. Jaeger stayed to watch them while I wandered around looking for food. The vegetarian options were grim. Eventually I found a place that had edamame and pizza (very sad pizza) so that’s what I brought back. After we finished that, Jaeger left in search of better food in a different concourse while I continued to watch our electronics charge. After Jaeger got back we went to the little play area we had visited on the way out and Calvin played for a bit. A few minutes before our flight I took Calvin on another potty break and I once again got to figure out Japanese toilets. This toilet had a panel on the side that buttons labeled in English. One button said it was a “flush sound”. Since I wasn’t immediately finding a flush button, I experimentally pushed the flush sound thinking it might just be a translation error. No, it just made an electronic sounding flushing sound. Later, Jaeger posited that this was to cover up the sound of using the toilet. I looked it up and seemed to find collaborating evidence that claims Japanese women didn’t like the sounds of using the restroom and so would continuously flush to cover it up. Ok, that’s fine. But, why did the cover-up sound have to be flushing? Surely there’s another sound that would work just as well and be more pleasant.

I did eventually find the correct flush button and Calvin and I were able to exit the restroom. When I relayed my experience to Jaeger he noted that in his restroom you had icons on the stalls indicating what kind of toilet the stall contained (squat, sit-down, or enhanced sit-down) so I probably accidentally chose a stall that contained an enhanced toilet. In retrospect, I regret that I didn’t document the various toilets I found more thoroughly. There were some that I really liked. For example, one family restroom I used had a regular toilet a tiny divider, and then a preschooler-size toilet next to the large one. Then, they had a large sink and a little sink. It made using the bathroom with Calvin much quicker and easier. Also, I really appreciated that most of the toilets we used did not automatically flush. I’m sure automatic flushing toilets can make people feel more sanitary, or something, but they really scare Calvin. I always scary post-it notes with me to place over the sensors of automatic toilets so they don’t prematurely flush.

Eventually, we boarded our plane to Seattle and took off. This plane was obviously older than the one we flew out on. The entertainment system was a little on the older side. We each had personal screens but instead of having movies/TV on demand, each channel had a movie that repeated the entire flight. So, it was a little tricky to catch the movie at the beginning. However, this wasn’t a huge problem because the movie selection was very dismal. Fortunately, the iPad
entertained Calvin until I asked him to try sleeping, which he did. It helped that it was dark outside so he felt it was a legitimate time to try sleeping. Calvin did go through one-more pair of pants though he claims, perhaps correctly, that it was water instead an accident. I was a little bored but it wasn’t too bad. I felt I should nap but had trouble doing so and spent a fair amount of the flight listening to an audiobook on my iPod. Even though this plane didn’t have electricity I didn’t have any need to pull out the external batteries for the iPad. However, I hadn’t been as vigilant in making sure my iPod was charged so I did end up using one of the batteries for that.

We arrived, bleary-eyed, at SeaTac. Because of the time change, we arrived in Seattle before we had left Taiwan. So, we had two Fridays in a row. We made it through immigration fairly quickly. However, they asked hard questions like “what do you do for a living?” that was hard to answer coherently with the amount of sleep I had gotten. We had to wait for our bags because there was a jam in the system. Eventually it came out and we made it through customs. I was concerned that we’d have to go through normal security but was pleasantly surprised when they had a screening security area setup just for international arrivals (maybe this is normal but I swear I had an international flight that made us completely exit and deal with horrible security on the other side). We got breakfast at a cafe and were excited to be back at a place where we understood everything the menu boards said.

I turned on my phone and picked up my messages and was appalled to learn that Xcel, our gas company, had gas line problems the day we left for our vacation. They had an automated caller who told us that it may have interrupted our heat and to let Xcel know if we needed our furnace or water heater turned back on. Jaeger had said that it had gotten well below freezing in Colorado while we were gone so I had horrible visions of our pipes breaking and a huge water mess to deal with when we got home.

Eventually we caught our plane and arrived in Denver. Unfortunately, mid-way through our last flight Jaeger realized he had left his tablet on the Tokyo plane. After getting off the plane at Denver we went over to a United Customer Service center and after waiting a while talked to a service rep who told us we’d have to submit the lost item to United’s website and hope they had found it on the plane. We got our bags and went to our car only to discovery the battery was dead. We called the parking service company and they sent out someone to give us a jump (with an absolutely adorable portable battery, I know want one) but all that took time so it was sundown by the time we made it back home. The furnace appeared to be set to 50 degrees, though we weren’t entirely sure, but the pipes seemed to be in tact so I was relieved.

We also got a chance to look at our new wood floors which are gorgeous. Unfortunately, the place where the fridge gets water had a slow leak which caused some problems and we may need to see about re-replacing that part of the floor. That part is still better than how our old floors looked but the rest of the flooring looks so good it’s more obvious. Anyway, that’s something to deal with later.

Because our appliances were still in the garage, we went out to eat supper. It was amazing driving in a car and going to a place where everyone spoke English (though we were tired enough it didn’t always feel like they were speaking English). We came back home and managed to stay up till a reasonable bedtime

Thus ends our great Hong Kong/Taiwan holiday experience.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Thirteenth Day

On our last full day in Taiwan we started out by going to the National Palace Museum. On the way there we met a student named Elias who started a conversation with us in order to practice his English. He decided to wander around with us at the museum and it was interesting to get to talk to someone from Taiwan. I thought if we started up at the third floor of the museum the crowds would be smaller but I didn’t realize the most popular exhibits at the museum were on the 3rd level. So, we ended up herded into a queue of people and we dutifully waited in a line so we could see the Jadeite Cabbage with Insects which is a jade carving in the shape of bok choy. Obviously, bok choy is more popular with the Chinese than it is with Calvin. We got to talk with Elias while queuing which made the wait more interesting.

We wandered around to a couple more exhibits before Calvin started complaining of being hungry. We went up to the top of the museum and found some vegetarian dim sum to order as well as some drinks. Calvin insisted he wanted Plum juice even though Elias warned it was a little sour. I tried to convince Calvin he didn’t want it but eventually gave up and ordered plum juice for him and carrot juice for me. As I expected, once the drinks actually arrived Calvin was happy to switch with me. I thought the plum juice was pretty good but definitely not as sweet as the juice I’m use to.

After snack Calvin regained all his energy and started acting up in his carrier. I decided it was time for a retreat outside the museum. Elias and I went outside to let Calvin run around while Jaeger stayed to see a couple more exhibits. Outside, there was a light drizzle and it was probably in the 60s (Fahrenheit). A little later Elias had to run off for a class. Jaeger came out fairly soon after that and we continued to our next destination.

In Hong Kong it was difficult to shop for touristy things because Hong Kong doesn’t make many things. Taiwan, on the other hand, makes many things.. We headed off to the Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center which was four levels of various Taiwan products. We wandered around and Calvin actually stayed pretty quiescent in the carrier. I was extremely grateful to have him in the carrier where he couldn’t accidentally break something expensive. We bought a couple of things and then Jaeger took a taxi to take them back to our hotel while Calvin and I wandered over to a nearby park. We found a covered area and I let Calvin watch some stuff on the iPad while I read. There was a playground at the park but the rain was coming down steadily and there wasn’t a nearby place I could stay out of the rain and watch Calvin play at the same time. Once Jaeger got back to the park we headed off to see Taipei 101.

When Jaeger first started talking about the trip to Calvin, he mentioned Taipei 101 enough that Calvin seemed to get the impression that the city itself was called Taipei 101. The actual building is quite impressive. It’s currently the 2nd tallest building in the world, it was the tallest back in 2003 when it was completed. It also has the fastest elevator in the world. The lower section is a mall. We went up and got tickets for the indoor observatory and went to a cafe to get snacks. The snacks ended up being a bit smaller than we expected, barely bite-sized, but very tasty. We queued and then took the elevator up to the 89th floor. There’s also an outdoor gallery on the 91st floor but it was closed to take down the fireworks display from the new year. Once we got to the top we were giving free audio-guides that provided a commentary about the city from the various windows. It was interesting but I felt like I should be more excited. The building is so high up I felt the view was pretty similar to what one would see from an airplane. Calvin didn’t seem particularly excited and didn’t look out the windows much. I think it would have been more interesting in the day. It was very pretty at nighttime, with all the city lights below, but it was hard to see all of the landscape.

What was particularly interesting was the tuned mass damper which stabilizes the building and is open to the public to view. We finally figured out what the weird cartoon figures we had been seeing everywhere were, they were the mascots for the damper and were called damper babies. Now that we knew what they were, they seemed much cuter. After traveling back down to the fifth floor we stopped by the gift shop and picked up a little stuffed “damper baby” which Calvin proclaimed was something that he had always wanted.

For supper, we investigated the food court which was large but mainly bereft of vegetarian options. Eventually we found a fast food Indian place which provided a larger meal than I was expecting. After supper we took a taxi home which I personally found disturbing, to Jaeger’s great amusement. Our driver had a little TV screen mounted on his dashboard that he watched as he drove us back to the hotel. However, as Jaeger pointed out, the driver obeyed all the traffic rules and did seem a competent driver. Jaeger kept telling me that I should never go to India, which I already knew.

Once we got back to the hotel we packed our bags in preparation for an early departure in the morning.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Twelfth Day

Tuesday night was a lot more restful than our first night in Taiwan. I figured out Calvin slept a lot more comfortably if he had his light blanket I had brought from home rather than the down duvet. As a result, his thrashing was fairly minimal, except when he fell off the bed, which turned out to be an excellent time to take a potty break.

We woke up in time to make it to the hotel breakfast and then came back to plan our day. Jaeger’s original idea was to go to the zoo on Thursday but there was a 70% chance of rain for Thursday and only 20% for Wednesday. So, we changed plans and went to the zoo on Wednesday instead. The zoo is insanely cheap. Children under 6 are free and adults are only $2 US. One of the main attractions of this zoo is the pandas. Various reviewers imply the line to see the pandas can get very long. However, the zoo was almost deserted when we arrived so there was no line. One panda ambled a bit outside while one slept inside. They weren’t especially exciting but they were interesting to see.

Next, we decided to go to the children’s area which has more domestic-type animals. (Though, they also included camels and some monkeys in this exhibit.) On the way to that section we passed a Koala but it was sitting still so we had trouble getting Calvin interested in it.

After the children’s area, we looked for snacks at the in-zoo 7-Eleven. There were many interesting looking things but there was little English on the packaging so we played it safe and got a couple containers of chocolate milk and Jaeger got tea. I also bought what I thought was going to be a fruit snack but, if it was, it was very processed and more candy-like than fruit like.

Our last stop in the zoo was the animals native to Taiwan. Since we were in a Taiwan zoo, it seemed to make sense to see those animals rather than the ones imported from the Pacific Northwest The monkeys were particularly interesting but it was time to start looking for lunch.

There isn’t much around the zoo so the food choices in the zoo itself seemed like our best option. We went to a cafe above the Panda area and ordered spaghetti and risotto, both with creamy-vegetable sauce. It was fairly good, for zoo food, and we didn’t ask any questions about what was in the sauce. All identifiable bits were vegetarian though they seemed overly fond, from my point of view, of fungi (which seems to be a common failing with Asian cuisine).

After lunch we exited the zoo and took the nearby Maokong Gondola. The start is near the zoo and there are several stops till it finally ends at Maokong, which is known for it’s oolong teas. From beginning to end the Gondola goes a little over 4 kilometers, maybe a 20 minute ride, and it goes up and down several hills and ends up around 275 meters from the starting station. The ride provides some fantastic views. Taipei 101 coyly peaks over the hills.

At the top of the gondola there are oodles of tea houses. There’s a narrow rode that takes about 20 minutes to walk to its end. We thought we were going to go to a tea promotion center that sounded like it was a small museum. However, it did not appear open when we got there. We went looking for a teahouse to drink tea at. There were many to choose from but a lot of them appeared to be exclusively in Chinese, making it difficult to order. We found one place that look promising and received an English menu. To our surprise, there was almost no tea except for some Celestial Seasoning offerings. It was a little surreal to be on top of a hill in Taipei, known for tea, and be offered herbal tea from Boulder. We did eventually find a place to drink tea and had deep fried sweet potato for a snack. I ordered
without thinking and then was a little surprised when Calvin enthusiastically ate it as he claims to not like sweet potato.

We wandered back to the Gondola station and took it down to the bottom. Then we traversed the subway to the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. This would be the third place that Jaeger visit about Dr. Sun Yat-sen but only the second for us. I believe Jaeger was amused to get the Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan view all in the same vacation. We hurried and got there just in time to see another changing of the guard ceremony. It was similar to the one we saw for Chiang Kai-Shek but it was apparently the last one of the day as all the guards marched out together.

The changing of the guards is a great photo opportunity for tourists and many tourists, most we think from mainland China, were gathered around and happily snapping pictures. Once the guards left, they turned their picture-taking attention to Calvin. I lost track of the number of Chinese women that took pictures of Calvin and tried to get him to pose with them. Calvin was not excited about this but played along better than I expected.

After we managed to extract ourselves from the picture taking Calvin and I wandered outside to watch the fountain, which seemed to be choreographed with classical music, while Jaeger continued wandering around the memorial. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed that the guards were marching out to take down the flag. We stayed to watch and Calvin seemed to enjoy it.

After the flag ceremony, we wandered off to look for supper. Once again, Google led us astray but, with a bit of luck, we found our destination, PP 99 Cafe. They’re a vegetarian restaurant that serve burgers and other American-type fast food with an Asian twist. For instance, Jaeger got a Ma Po Tofu “Burger” while I got one that was suppose to be vegetarian duck. We got a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich for Calvin. It was really weird but the vegetarian duck sandwich tasted like Adventist food to me. Fake meat is really big in the vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The duck fake meat tasted a lot like the Worthington Chicken Roll which made me wonder about the feasibility of setting up a fake meat store co-run by Buddhist and Adventists.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Eleventh Day

Today was our first full day in Taiwan. The prior night was New Year’s Eve and had been pretty noisy. Lots of people talking and we could also hear the fireworks from Taipei 101 (I believe Jaeger briefly contemplated going to see them but decided it’d be too much work and bed would be nicer). The king bed is technically more than big enough for the three of us but Calvin squirms a lot. Eventually, I figured out that he was too warm under the covers and put a little blanket we had brought with us on top of him instead and that seemed to reduce, though not eliminate, his thrashing. In any case, we all woke up fairly late.

The hotel provides breakfast but I thought when we checked in they said it ended at 8:30. That seemed kind of early to me for New Years Day but I was fairly certain that’s what I had heard. Since Jaeger didn’t stir until it was past 8:30, I started looking for alternative breakfast alternatives without much success. Once everyone was ready Jaeger also looked but we eventually concluded that we’d have to ask the hotel for recommendations.

We got down to the reception desk and learned that breakfast was still ongoing. However, all the tables were full so they requested we go back to our room and they’d call us when ready. Right about the time we were worried they had forgotten us, they called. We went down and had a really good breakfast. The pickings were a little slim compared to what had obviously already been there but I think it’s the best free hotel breakfast I’ve had. I was expecting something like a continental breakfast but this was a full buffet brunch.

After breakfast we set off to explore Taiwan. It was immediately obvious there was a lot less English compared to Hong Kong, not too surprising. Also, I am amused by their crosswalk signals. The crosswalks have animated green men that “walk” when it’s time to cross the street. However, when it gets close to turning red, the little animated man stops strolling and bursts into a run.

We found the subway system here (which is the MRT compared with Hong Kong’s MTR) and got tokens for our destination. Hong Kong’s system seems to have more bells and whistles but this one still works well. Our first stop was a visit to the 2-28 Peace Park which I’m sure Jaeger will discuss more. The park looked nice but there was a steady drizzle so it wasn’t very comfortable. We went into the 2-28 museum which Jaeger was interested in. Calvin and I wandered around in it a bit but I kept having trouble figuring out how to explain the concept of war to him at an age appropriate level.

Eventually, I gave up and shepherded Calvin out to the nearby playground and huddled under some scanty covering (the drizzle had turned into real rain) while Calvin amused himself. Eventually, Jaeger came out and we contemplated lunch.

Unlike Hong Kong, we didn’t get a SIM for Ted’s phone so we were cutoff from cheating with a live Google maps. However, Ted found, and successfully navigated us to a vegan chain restaurant called “Loving Hut.” The food was good and we set out again. This time our objective was the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

I was really surprised when we arrived. I was expecting another museum-looking building but the architecture of the complex is amazingly grand. I was quite disappointed that the weather made taking good pictures extremely unlikely.

Inside, we wandered around for a bit and had a chance to see the changing of the guard. The ceremony is fairly elaborate and Calvin got a good view on Jaeger’s shoulders. However, the highlight for me was when the new guards had positioned themselves like statues at either end of the very large commemorative statue. A security guard came out and, while the guards stood as motionless as mannequin, moved their hands just a tad, tugged the uniform into precisely the right folds and basically ensured that the guards in their stationary position were picture perfect. It was kind of odd to watch.

We wandered around a bit more and got some hot drinks for snack. While Calvin was still nursing his large-to-him hot chocolate, Jaeger wandered off to another gallery. I stayed and read while Calvin finished and then, deciding Calvin wasn’t up to more museum, decided to let him watch a tv episode on the iPad while we waited. Eventually, I decided we had spent too long hogging the bench so I started to gather our things together. As I was placing things into the backpack, a man sheepishly approached me and said his sister, who did not appear to speak English, would like to take a picture with Calvin. I sad they could try but warned Calvin was very shy. Calvin, predictably, squirmed and I’m not sure of they got a good picture of not but by then Jaeger appeared and we wandered off.

Our last tourist stop was a Buddhist temple a couple of subway stops away. Unlike the ones we had seen in Hong Kong, this one was actually packed with worshipers. It was a very elaborate temple and very interesting but it was crowded and much of the walkways weren’t covered so it was pretty wet. Because I mostly carry Calvin on my back I feel very large and have trouble navigating many of the smaller spaces we end up in while sightseeing. Unlike a backpack, Calvin’s legs and arms can randomly shoot out and cause unintended havoc.

After that, we found supper at another vegetarian restaurant. I wasn’t very hungry but didn’t want to discourage Jaeger from eating. We made a wrong turn but did eventually find the right place. The food was good but when we finished I was relieved to be heading back to the hotel. Once back, we gave Calvin a bath and put him to bed but he seems to have fully adjusted to the time change (which is the same as Hong Kong) and resisted falling asleep for quite a long time.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Tenth Day

Monday was the last day we were going to be in Hong Kong. However, our flight left a little after 5pm so we had a bit of time, theoretically. We got a taxi from the hotel to the Airport Express station, which is near central Hong Kong, where we were able to check-in and drop off our checked in luggage. Unfortunately, we learned they didn’t have any window seats left on the flight so we had to check Calvin’s car seat as well.

Once we did that, we took the MTR train to the actual airport where we dropped off a couple of our carry-on bags with a “left luggage” service. Then we got on a bus and with the plan of taking the Ngong Ping 360 cable car to the Tian Tan Buddha. Unfortunately, when we got there, it appeared that everyone else also wanted to take the cable car. The line was at least an hour and a half long which might have left enough time to make it across but wouldn’t let us do anything once we got there.

We ate the pastries I had gotten the previous night in hopes of it inspiring some great plan. However, the options available were not good. Eventually we wandered around the adjacent outlet mall looking for something vegetarian for a real lunch and couldn’t find anything. So, we found a bus to take us back to the airport. The upside of the journey is it was a double-decker bus and we got to sit on top at the very front. Calvin definitely enjoyed that part of the trip.

We got back the airport, grabbed our left luggage, and headed over to terminal one. We found a deli we had eaten at before and ordered some sandwiches. However, they were less satisfying than we hoped (The vegetarian sandwich consisted of a baguette with lettuce, tomato, and hard-boiled egg. I’m not vegan but I don’t like egg when I can taste it).

We wandered closer to security and discovered another restaurant that had vegetarian items clearly marked on the menu (a very rare event). We felt the needed to reward good behavior so we decided to eat there too. We got a little pizza for Calvin, a lasagna for me, and Jaeger got a curry. The curry was pretty good. The lasagna was completely overwhelmed by massive amounts of cheese. I do like cheese but this was going behind what I was able to
consume, especially since I wasn’t really hungry.

While there, we tried to get seats for our flight from Taipei to Hong Kong. Jaeger booked via United’s website but this leg of the journey was flown by ANA. Unfortunately, each airline claimed the other one was responsible for getting us seats. We called ANA, then United, then ANA and never got a satisfactory response. This is important to me because we do have reserved seats for all other legs and I really want to bring Calvin’s car seat on with us.

Our flight for Taiwan departed and was fairly short. We arrived in the Taipei airport and walked past a line specifically for disabled people and those carrying babies. We started to queue in the normal non-resident line but one of the immigration staff people saw us and indicated we should go in the almost non-existent carrying baby line. It is true that Jaeger was carrying Calvin at that exact point but we had thought he was a bit big for the exception. Due to the special line we made it through immigration faster than I ever have anywhere before. It was magical.

Most of our luggage arrived promptly except for our car seat which made me nervous. However, it did eventually arrive and we headed out past customs to find a driver for the hotel waiting for us. It was a fairly long ride to the hotel and Calvin fell asleep just a couple of minutes before we got there.

The hotel itself is very modern-looking, not quite my style. However, the staff are very friendly and so far seem to speak excellent English which is nice. Also, they have a tub! Our hotel in Hong Kong, while nice, only had a shower and as a result, Calvin hasn’t had a bath for too many days. It was too late for a bath the night we arrived but I am hoping that we’ll have a chance to use it later.

Our hotel in Hong Kong was a suite. However, the one in Taipei is only a one-bed room. However, the bed is a king bed so we’re all trying to sleep in it together as one big happy family. Calvin is ecstatic though the rest of us are a little less excited and hope it’ll actually work out.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Ninth Day

Jaeger got in around 11pm last night and we had no specific plans for today so spent a leisurely morning waking up. Eventually, we made it out of the hotel and found a great bakery near one of the MTR stops for 2nd breakfast. We ate it in Victoria Park while Calvin watched model boats meandering around the little pond.

After that, we walked several blocks to hear the Noonday Gun which, predictably, fires at noon every day. Apparently exactly why it fires at noon is somewhat debatable. We almost got there a bit late having had trouble crossing the busy road. Google implied there should be a way across but it wasn’t obvious. We did make it there on time and only, as we were leaving, realized the route meant going under the road, not over. If we’d come from the other direction it would have been obvious but the secret doorway was too easy to miss coming from Victoria Park.

After that, we went for lunch. Yes, we’d recently had second breakfast but when planning the day it wasn’t obvious they’d be so close together. I thought it was prudent to go ahead and eat at a place we’d already vetted than hope for the best later on in a new location. Lunch was good and Calvin managed to keep his mess to a reasonable minimum, which was good because we had real tablecloths.

The plan after lunch was to take a ride on the Star Ferry but Calvin announced himself to be tired of ferries. I’m afraid we’re using alternate transportation enough these days that he’s starting to get rather jaded. So far, we’ve gone through trains, planes, and ferries. He still seems to have some enthusiasm for the tram, probably because I think it’s inefficient and have been avoiding it.

Since Calvin wasn’t interested in the ferry we moved to our next item which was visiting the Dr. Sun Yat Sen museum. No doubt Jaeger will talk in length about him so go read his entry once he’s written it. It isn’t a particularly child-friendly museum but they did have an amusing animated cartoon for kids summarizing his life as well as some coloring pages. Calvin was entranced by the cartoon though the audio alternated between Cantonese and Mandarin so I’m not sure how much he got from it. There were English subtitles but Calvin always gets upset when I try to read subtitles to him so I’ve stopped doing so.

We had some unscheduled time after the museum so went to the playground in the zoological gardens which was fairly close to the museum. There were a lot of kids and at first Calvin just hung out around the edges but eventually started getting involved.

For supper, we went to Starbucks and had drinks and a pastry each. Jaeger has introduced me to the “short” hot chocolate size which is perfect because I think it’s an actual 8 oz rather than the over-sized cup you get otherwise. It doesn’t appear on the menu but if you order it, they provide (though always appear a bit confused when they learn it’s not for a child).

For our return trip Jaeger suggested we take the street tram back. As previously mentioned, I’m not a fan of it so I suggested he and Calvin take it back while I take MTR. Jaeger agreed and I took the opportunity of stopping by the bakery we found that morning to pick up more items for tomorrow. In spite of my detour, I still beat Jaeger and Calvin back by a significant margin.

Calvin must be getting acclimated to this time zone. He voluntarily climbed into his bed but is still singing to himself and occasionally asking us to do things for him.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Eighth Day

Jaeger successfully got his visa for China yesterday so today he got up a little earlier than usual and left on his own. I had no particular urge to drag Calvin to China so we stayed behind.

My original plan was to wander the many Hong Kong parks and let Calvin play while I took advantage of the wifi. However, upon looking at the forecast and noting their predicted heavy rain, I decided a different excursion may be in order.

I looked through our Hong Kong for Kids book and decided to try Bumble Tots. It’s an indoor playground designed for kids 10 and under. The downside is it took 4 train changes to get there. I think Calvin has had enough subway trains at this point that he’s getting a little blase about them. I was hoping to grab an early lunch before we got there but failed to find the nearby food the guidebook suggested should exist. Calvin and I were both getting grumpy on the extended hike so I gave up on that suggestion and hoped the cafe within the facility actually had food we could eat.

Calvin had a lot of fun at Bumble Tots. It is a very large playground-like place that has ball pits for kids to scramble through, large trampolines, and numerous other things for Calvin to play with. The guidebook warned that it could get very crowded on weekends and I thought since it was raining, we were likely to get extra crowded. However, it wasn’t bad while we were there. Calvin ran around like a crazy person. We managed to sustain ourselves on muffins and apple juice from the small cafe until I decided it was time to leave around 2pm.

My next stop was a library, which was on the way back to the MTR station. I planned to stop there just long enough to email my latest journals and make sure there wasn’t any urgent email. It took a little longer than I expected because wifi kept dropping off but Calvin managed to amuse himself looking through some sort of Chinese grade-school reader.

As we were leaving the library, Calvin said he wanted to go play on the playground in the nearby park. I was a little dubious since the rain was pretty heavy but figured we could try it. The playground had a covered area
with benches so I sat there while Calvin joyfully scampered around in the rain. We stayed there for more than an hour till I finally decided it was time for us to leave. Calvin was completely soaked. I was only mostly soaked.

Getting back to the hotel involved the same 4 trains and it took close to an hour to get back to the hotel. We picked up more food for supper and then came back to the hotel and flopped down exhausted. Calvin ate supper and then climbed into bed, though it took him quite a bit to actually fall asleep. Even so, I’m getting spoiled with how easy it is to put him to bed these days. I am not looking forward to back home when we have to cajole him forcefully to stay in bed.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Seventh Day (Disneyland)

Today we went to Disneyland. Getting there required three different trains but other than that, it was relatively easy. The last train was Disney branded and had Mickey Mouse shaped windows.

Calvin didn’t know what Disneyland was and I had a couple moments of doubt where I wondered how much he’d get out of it since he hasn’t seen any of the movies (Cars, the original, is the only Pixar movie he’s seen and they don’t appear to feature it very heavily). However, Calvin did seem excited about a trip that was exclusively for his benefit.

We arrived at Disneyland and merged into the throng of people. There were a lot of people but I suspect it wasn’t as crowded as the US Disneyland. One of our first stops was going to be a stand that made Mickey Mouse shaped waffles to fortify us for the experience ahead. However, just as we entered, a parade started which stopped everything in its tracks and prevented us from going to the other side of the street where the food was. On the plus side, Calvin got a good view of the parade up on Jaeger’s shoulders. Disneyland is still in Christmas theme so all the Disney characters were dressed up for Christmas. Calvin grinned and seemed to enjoy it a great deal.

After we ate our Mickey Mouse waffles we headed to fantasyland which our guidebook recommended as a good place for small children. The first ride that caught Calvin’s attention was Winnie the Pooh. He hasn’t watched the Disney movie but we have read some of the original stories together. The line wasn’t too bad. We got in the little boat and Calvin seemed to enjoy most of the ride, especially Tigger’s appearance, but became less enthusiastic when we went through a stormy rain sequence.

I thought the Small World ride would be a little more pleasant for him so we headed that way but got distracted when we passed the twirling tea cups ride. Calvin decided he wanted to go on that and it was an unqualified success. We next went to the Small World ride and a girl in line ahead of us took the opportunity to get some photos of Calvin, making me once again feel like I was with a minor celebrity. The small world ride was interesting and I was amused by the rabid stereotypes embraced for every culture. The middle east had people flying on carpets and harem girls, Scotland was portrayed with bagpipes, and the US with cowboys and Indians (not fighting each other though).

While lines were short, it still took time to get through so by the end of the Small World ride we went looking for lunch. I had been concerned about vegetarian options in the park but learned online that the Tahitian Terrace restaurant had a Vegetarian Indian option so we headed over for that. The food was really salty but other than that it was decent and much better than I had expected to find in the park.

After lunch, we took a “raft” over to Tarzan’s Treehouse. The Treehouse was large and sprawling and consisted of many steps and platforms. Calvin seemed to enjoy it but was quite disappointed when he learned there was only one “treehouse” rather than several to explore. We got on a raft back to the mainland and then queued for the “Jungle River Cruise”. This was a boat trip around the “river” that showcased fake animals moving in relatively realistic ways. I was a little bemused by the excited picture taking of many of our fellow tourists. It made me wonder if there would come a point where animated fake animals are the best our children will ever get to see. The boat ride also had a bit of a scary moment which the program did mention but I had failed to notice. Calvin really didn’t like that part.

To do something calm and non-threatening we took the Disney train that circles around most of the park. Another tourist snapped a picture of Calvin which I keep finding amusing. As an aside, last night, as we were standing in line at Starbucks, a young women pointed to Calvin’s face and said something. I didn’t quite catch what she said but I figured she was telling me he had a snotty nose or something similar. However, I eventually figured out she was asking if I put makeup on his cheeks. I shook me head and she said in amazement, “oh, it’s natural!”. This reminded me of all the times when he was an infant and people commented on Calvin’s “rosy” cheeks that were really just rashy.

After the train, we decided it was time for dessert. Making sure enough calories are making it into the respective Logans sometimes feels like an activity by itself. However, before we made it to dessert Calvin got distracted by the Dumbo ride which involves elephants “flying” around a pole. Each elephant only took two passengers so I decided to duck out of line and bring back dessert.

I went over to Toy Story Land which is apparently a fairly new part of the park. It was also mobbed, more than the rest of the park. However, I found a stand selling frozen yogurt with toppings. One of the toppings I got was mango flavored little balls of juice that broke once they were bit open. Calvin really enjoyed the Dumbo ride he also seemed to enjoy the dozen yogurt. The weather ended up being much hotter than we expected so I found the dozen yogurt to be particularly nice.

We decided we had time for one more ride so headed over to Tomorrowland. However, once again we got stuck by a parade, this time at the tail end of it. After it was over, we bobbed over to the Obitron ride which was almost exactly like the dumbo ride except it had a spacecraft theme and there were four seats for each pod. Calvin also really liked this ride.

Jaeger had to go back to Kowloon and pick up his visa for tomorrow before 6:30. In addition, Calvin looked like he was loosing energy so it was time for us to leave. Calvin seemed very disappointed but I think that’s the best time to leave, when you’re still enjoying yourself.

Jaeger split off at one of the stops on our second train and Calvin and I headed home. We ate a small supper and then Calvin put himself to bed, though it did take a while for him to actually fall asleep.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Sixth Day

Originally, I was thinking today would be a good day for Disneyland. However, the weather forecast suggested there might be rain so Jaeger convinced me we’d have better luck trying tomorrow. Unfortunately, most of the other things on our list were also outside activities. Eventually we decided to make it a lazy day and visit Victoria Park and then the library.

Naturally, Victoria Park has several playgrounds. Calvin and I settled down at one while Jaeger explored the rest of the park. Then he came back to watch Calvin for a bit. We had talked about Jaeger taking a day trip to mainland China (I have no particular desire to go there) so Jaeger hunted around and found a place that claimed to be able to get him a visa for China by tomorrow so he headed off there while Calvin and I stayed in the park.

After a while, Calvin got tired of the playground. We wandered a couple of meters away and came across a man-made pond specifically designed for model boats. There was an orange speed boat that whizzed around and caused splashing to Calvin’s great delight. We stayed there more than a half-hour, possibly even a full hour. Fortunately, I had a book with me to read while Calvin watched.

Eventually Calvin was done watching so we wandered off in the general direction of the library. It was almost lunch time though so I kept a lookout for food options. I didn’t have internet so I couldn’t find the closest vegetarian restaurant so I settled for a lunch stand-in from my youth when we couldn’t find anything vegetarian to eat: ice cream.

I saw a Haagen Daz in the mall and figured that would provide enough calories until we met up with Jaeger again. What I didn’t realize is that Haagen Daz in a bit city, at least Hong Kong, is a sit-down dessert restaurant. However, I had already promised Calvin ice cream and didn’t want to reneg on our deal. So we sat down and I had a look at the menu. I let Calvin pick and he chose a dessert that featured a snow man made out of ice cream, crem brûlée topped with strawberry ice cream and a strawberry and some sort of frozen berries (maybe currents?). They also offered ice cream fondue, which we didn’t order, which is little balls of ice cream that you dip into chocolate fondue. It looked interesting but was 3-4 times the price of the dessert we got.

After dessert lunch we headed to the library. I knew that you had to make a reservation to play in the “toy library” within the library. However, I didn’t realize there would be nothing at all to play with inside the library other than that. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the libraries in Colorado since all of them have some sort of activities for kids to play with while the parents look for books. We left fairly quickly because there wasn’t enough things to keep Calvin’s attention.

Jaeger had returned from his visa expedition at this point but we decided that he’d go look at the infrastructure gallery while Calvin and I would go explore one of the other playgrounds in Victoria Park. Calvin had a lot of fun at the park and we spent an hour or two there. Then Calvin said he needed to go potty, right away. I should have scouted potty sites out ahead of time but hadn’t. I raced wildly around and eventually found one which turned out to only contain squat toilets. I tried to convince Calvin this was a perfectly respectable way to go potty but I think he was dubious. As an aside, squat toilets appear to be the old-school preferred toilet option. However, newer facilities are grudgingly putting in place sit-down toilets (though often with at least one squat toilet stall also). Also, sometimes there isn’t any toilet paper in the stalls, you have to grab some near the sink before you actually go into the stall. This probably works better when you’re grabbing toilet paper for yourself instead of a preschooler.

I called Jaeger and we agreed to meet up at central station. I put Calvin on my back to hike to the nearest MTR station. On the down escalator a man with a cane and a bag in each hand slipped and fell while we were about half-way down. He couldn’t get up by himself so a person in front of him tried to help. However, he fell again when we reached the bottom, having not completely gotten on his feet. I was one person behind the man and was quickly running out of room. The lady in front of me tried to dodge to one side which left no room for me to maneuver. I grabbed the man under his arms while the person in front pulled and somehow he got off. However, several people behind me stumbled and fell do to the blockage. I think I was quite lucky and was happy Calvin had been on my back instead of on the ground in front or behind which could have been bad. Fortunately, the man appeared to be ok, at least he was standing, though I couldn’t tell for sure because he didn’t speak any English. I was quite relieved when we met Jaeger several stops later with no further incidences.

Jaeger proposed going souvenir shopping which I was a little dubious about since neither of us shop well (I’m ok in a thrift store but don’t have a huge amount of patience shopping other than that). We wandered around and Jaeger found a pretty nice place suggested by his guidebook. However, by that time Calvin had fallen asleep so by the next shop I decided it was time for Calvin and I to head back to the hotel. Naturally, Calvin woke as soon as I started heading back.

I successfully found an MTR station and headed home. Once back, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some things for supper. I also picked up some more Dragon Fruit. We had seen dragon fruit sold in most produce stores but couldn’t figure out what they were until we looked them up. We ended up buying a cheap kitchen knife just so we could try it out. You cut the weird purple fruit in half and then can scoop out the insides. It tastes kind of like a very mild and slightly bland kiwi. It’s very interesting and, assuming you have a knife and spoon, relatively easy to eat. I suspect it’d taste great slightly frozen, kind of like a sorbet.

Calvin was awake when we got back, probably because of the nap. He ate well for supper and managed to demolish almost an entire carton of hummus by himself. While Calvin finished eating, I started doing laundry in the sink. Apparently there aren’t laundromats in Hong Kong because everyone has their own maid (or something like that). There are places to take laundry but it’s inconvenient so I was stuck with the choice of washing in the sink or paying exorbitant hotel rates. At the moment, we’re hand washing the lighter stuff that’ll dry easily and having the hotel wash heavier stuff that would take too long to dry on it’s own. The difference in humidity is pretty significant. Things that would have dried overnight in Colorado are taking closer to a day and a half here (and we have an air conditioned room!).

Jaeger got back while I was doing laundry. He read Calvin some stories and then convinced him it was time to go to bed.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong

The Fifth Day (Boxing Day)

Today was another public holiday which meant that many attractions were probably going to be very crowded. Based on that, I suggested we visit the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, which Hong Kong for Kids describes as “the best-kept secret in the territory”, and then visiting the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery, which is in the same general area.

However, getting there from our hotel was a little more complicated than our prior trips. Jaeger suggested we walk to a nearby ferry to take us across the harbor. From there, we caught a MTR train. By the time we arrived at that station, it was nearing lunch time. 10,000 Buddhas had a vegetarian restaurant on site but we were planning on visiting that second. So we stopped at a local “bakery” to pick up some snacks. We got a raisin bread, which was pretty standard, and then glutinous rice balls in two favors, poppy seed and sweet red bean.

After buying the snacks we walked along a walking and bike path looking for somewhere to sit and eat. Cheung Chau had bicycles everywhere but that was to be expected as there were no cars. However, we hadn’t seen many bikes in Hong Kong itself. However, this area seemed to have a lot of leisurely recreational biking (this would be the kind of biking that Boulder wouldn’t have the foggiest idea what to do with because it was so haphazard and non-serious).

We eventually found a bench and sat down to eat the snacks. Calvin would barely take a small nibble from the rice balls but found the raisin bread, minus the raisins, fine. The rice cakes were interesting. I liked the sweet red bean ones better than I expected but the poppy seed ones seemed a bit more savory than I expected.

After we finished eating we continued on to the museum. It was practically empty which seemed kind of odd. I didn’t have much opportunity to look a the regular exhibits because Calvin really wanted to see there Discovery Gallery which was created specifically for kids. It reminded me a little of OMSI on a very small scale. There were lessons about local sea life and what life was like in a small village, complete with costumes to dress up in. Over all, Calvin seemed amused but not totally enthralled with it.

After the museum we walked a bit to get to the bottom of the hill for the monastery. The trail to the monastery starts at the bottom of a hill and includes about 400 steps to get to the top. Lining the trail were many gold painted figures, about one for every 2-3 steps, that I didn’t have the right background to understand their significance. I carried Calvin up the hill in my carrier, to what I perceived as the amusement of others, and was grateful to get to the top. At the top, we ate in a little restaurant that exclusively served vegetarian food. It was pretty good and I think I’m slowly getting the hang of chopsticks.

After lunch, we went into the temple which apparently has over 12,000 Buddhas in it. The sign requested we be quiet in respect for those praying. However, the din outside from all the tourists made me feel sorry for anyone who was actually trying to do any sort of worshiping. It reminded me a bit of all those cathedrals we visited in Rome where the tourists vastly out-numbered the religious people.

We finished with the monastery by the middle of the afternoon so had time for one more destination. We went to Hong Kong’s small Railway Museum. This was obviously off the beaten tourist trail and after the chaos at the monastery it was very relaxing. The museum itself is quite small. There’s a couple rooms with text and then some engines to look at as well as several train cars put together that the children can go through. There is also, in the “sitting-out” area, a model train that would run around a track when the button is pushed.

Calvin seemed to enjoy this museum even though it was fairly small. There were also a lot of other small kids though it was difficult to tell how many locals vs tourists there were. It felt like more of a local hang-out but I could be wrong.

Getting back to the hotel was also a production though this time we opted to use MTR the whole way instead of taking the ferry for part of it. The MTR station we started at was in a mall so I took the opportunity to try to find some Ibuprofen. The carrier is working fairly well but it is a strain my back isn’t use to so I’ve been going through the Ibuprofen I brought from home a little faster than expected. I found the pain relief section but only found acetaminophen. I asked a local sales girl for ibuprofen and more than 4 sales people later, we concluded they had no idea what I was asking for. (Upon returning to the hotel we discovered that ibuprofen appears to be only available behind the counter at a real pharmacy, though maybe without a prescription??)

We arrived back at the hotel and, for once, Calvin was still awake. However, he promptly asked to be put in bed. He’s certainly sleeping much better on vacation than he does at home, at least for now.

Our Hong Kong/Taiwan Trip:

Traveling to Hong Kong