Taiwan with Two Grannies
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This trip happened not so long before Taiwan had to change its name to Chinese Taipei, so I would like to call it Taiwan. I have to confess that I know very little about the political issue that is going on between China and Taiwan, so please do not get triggered if I use any words wrong. I intend to purely recount all the good memories when I went to Taiwan with my two grannies. One of them is my mom’s mom, and the other is her sister. That was the last trip that I had with my grandma (mom’s mom). We did have a happy time while we visited Taiwan because of all the beautiful nature there.
We went to Taiwan with a tour group because taking care of two grannies by ourselves would be such a challenging task if we had to do it ourselves. My grandma (on the left) was already quite old and had a legs problem. Still, we insisted she go with us because that would probably be the last time she could travel somewhere outside of the country. And, we were right. Her conditions got worse very quickly a year after that, and she passed away in November 2020. Anyway, the important thing is we had a good time there, and she smiled a lot during the trip.
Taiwan was very rich in culture and food. We had a lot of good meals and snacks. I would recommend you to try the black tofu thing, which smells quite bad but tastes good, and Taiwanese milk tea which is very popular and tastes amazing. Some big meals that we had included a steam feast which had a huge steam pot in the middle of the table and a lot of steamed stuff inside. We also tried bitter cucumber juice, but that would be something I’ve got to warn you. No matter how long the line is, it does not mean the juice is great. (But if you want to try, it’d surely be a good tasting experience).
Taiwan is also renowned for its night markets. We went to two markets, if I remember correctly. Shilin Night market was the one we got to taste the bitter cucumber juice and glazed fruits. It was a night market where you could watch several street talent shows. When we went there, we got to see a magic show and an acrobatic one.
On the other hand, Jiufen old street was an old-looking and instagramable place. However, we didn’t quite get to do anything because of the pouring rain. We spent quite some time finding a cafe for our grannies to stay and warm themselves. It was really hard for them to walk in the rain. I did feel bad for them, but I was also proud of myself that I didn’t get tired or frustrated, not even a bit, with helping them.
Talking about the nature of Taiwan, we also went to Alishan national scenic area. We visited the temple halfway up to the hill and then rode a wooden train up to the top of the hill. There were a lot of huge trees, and the area was so green and pretty humid. Alishan was gorgeous, and we took a lot of pictures together.
Another spot that I went to was Qingjing farm which is a sheep farm on the hill. We LOVED this place. The view was amazing, and all the sheep were super cute (though they smelled a bit). It gave me a Switzerland vibe up there, not kidding. Also, on the way to the farm, we got to the fruit market and tasted some Taiwanese fruits. (They were the same as Thai fruit, but the quality seems to be a bit better). Another natural tourist attraction that we went to was the queen’s head in Taiwan. It was where the wind had blown and eroded the stone until it had a shape like the queen’s head. When I went to Taiwan years ago for a math competition, I also visited this place with my friends. It was a fantastic place though the wind was always strong.
On the very last day of the trip, we came back to the capital and explored the area for a bit. We had lunch at Taipei 101 and did some sightseeing through the vast windows. Taiwan did look so organized when we looked at it from the top. We also went to see the National Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall and saw the soldier inside the hall marching. I think Taiwan was such a good place to visit, and I would never get bored of this country. I also love the fact that my grandma got to travel to Taiwan with us. May all the sweet memories nurture and cherish our souls.
After we found out that there are some flights from Willard (a regional airport in Champaign) that are inexpensive, we started flying out from here instaead of Chicago. We got a really good price of plane tickets to Seattle, so we decided to go to more national parks! The two parks that we visited were Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. We thought about going to North Cascade as well, but the time was limited so we planned to visit there next time. Visiting these two popular national parks in the fall was such a good choice–less crowd, nice weather, and fall foliage!
Midwest surprisingly offers us many national parks to visit all year round. One of the national parks near Illinois is the Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. We rented a car from Champaign and drove around 5 hours, excluding small stops in Indiana. We had never been to Kentucky before, and we believe that not many international students had been there. Plus, this was the first time we visited a cave in the US, and we start with the world’s longest known cave system!
We’d been thinking of visiting South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Badlands national park for almost a year. Then an opportunity came when one of our friends gave us a buy-one-get-one-free coupon from Delta. We did not hestitate even a bit in buying two tickets for a round trip from Chicago to Rapid City, SD. Although it was an impulsive trip, we had a lot of fun observing the wildlife in the great plains of South Dakota and North Dakota.
Although Poy graduated from the Scripps-Oxford joint Ph.D. program in Biochemistry for half a year and already started working at UIUC as a post-doctoral researcher, his graduation ceremony was held way later in May 2024. His family also came from Thailand to attend his graduation ceremony in San Diego. We then spent over a week afterward traveling around the west coast, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. It was my first time (and his family’s first time) doing a road trip in the west coast. We enjoyed a huge variety of natural wonders that the west coast has to offer.