Before leaving for our late afternoon train to Taichung, we spent the day exploring more of Taipei. When people said that Taiwan would be sickly hot and humid in the summer, they were not joking or exaggerating. I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for a shower in the evening than the days we’ve spent here. Every day, my face has felt like an oil spill, and you could probably stick paper all over my body and have them stay still all day, too.

While at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, we noticed a very long queue for some little tent. We found out that the tent was housing a temporary Sailor Moon pop-up store. Chris thought this was especially funny – “Asians,” he muttered. Then, to make the situation even funnier, right behind the Sailor Moon tent was a truck set up for free Jim Beam cocktails – whiskey cocktails, ALCOHOL – and there was NO line at all! I was confused for a second and figured it was free, but I asked just to be sure. The man standing at the truck said it was a promotion and confirmed that all the drinks were free. So of course we took two and laughed over the fact that everyone wanted to wait in line to buy Sailor Moon products, but not a single person other than the two of us wanted to grab a free whiskey cocktail. The juxtaposition of these two situations just showed the values of the Taiwanese people right there. We clearly value alcohol over Sailor Moon.

We really lucked out today. A lot of visitors who come to see Taroko Gorge on the East Coast of Taiwan oftentimes encounter rain and low visibility, but for us for almost the entire day, it was blue skies and a few clouds. We hired a private guide-driver to take us around, and she seemed really excited to learn that I could speak some Chinese. She chattered away with me about everything from living in the U.S. to race relations to exercise, and she told us that the East Coast of Taiwan, mostly overlooked by foreign visitors, is the favorite place for most Taiwanese when they want to travel in their own country. It’s not hard to see why: the beauty of the mountains, cliffs, and the stunning Pacific Ocean are there. Further to the southeast of Taiwan are the islands and the beaches where Taiwanese people often go for holidays for swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Given that it is lesser touched, I’d imagine it would be extremely pristine there. The Qingshui Cliffs, or “clear water” cliffs, was one of my favorite spots that we visited today.

One thing I hadn’t thought about much when visiting Taiwan was the butterfly life here. I thought about the animals and the exotic fruit, but was stunned to see so many gorgeous butterflies everywhere, ranging in size and colors. Taiwan is known as one of the butterfly kingdoms in the world. These huge black butterflies with red-tinged tips were so big that Chris initially thought they were birds. The ones I loved the most were about three inches in wing-span, outlined in black, with a nearly florescent pale blue and purple color. There were also swallowtail butterflies that I’d never seen before but had identified in a butterfly book long ago, a combination of black outlines, pale yellow, red, and blue. I don’t think they are indigenous to this area, but they made it here somehow. Almost all the butterflies were multicolor and fluttering around in groups. It was almost surreal.

Today was our first full day in Taipei. It wasn’t exactly as how I imagined it. The buildings aren’t as tall as I thought (they look especially small of course when standing around Taipei 101), and it’s really nowhere as crowded as the streets of Tokyo and Seoul were. I guess it’s an unfair comparison given the population sizes of both Tokyo and Seoul are massive next to Taipei, which sits on the little island of Taiwan.

One thing I did expect, though, was the friendliness and willingness to help from the Taiwanese. Twice, when we were looking at maps or waiting for a car, people offered to help. A couple times in an Uber, the drivers made small talk and gave helpful suggestions about where we were going. For the electronics plaza, the driver told us that the two buildings were connected on a higher floor, so there would be no need to exit the building to enter the other, and that the building he’d drop us off at would be a better starting point. At Shilin night market, the driver pointed out where the food was vs. the shopping vs. the games, and also told us that there was more food in the basement level. I never actually asked any questions, but they volunteered all this information to me. I’ve never had that experience anywhere before, whether it’s been in the U.S. on work travel or abroad. I’m sure it’s partly because I can speak the language here, but the proactivity was so kind and thoughtful.

That’s the other thing. I only know basic Mandarin Chinese after studying 3.5 years in college, and because I don’t speak it every day, it took some time to adjust to listen properly and understand what people were saying to me. What has been fun about this trip so far is that as I’m listening to more (and eavesdropping on other people’s conversations so I can remember vocabulary again), I’m realizing even more so that it just takes changing the environment to understand the language better and speak better. I still get annoyed with myself when I can’t always understand what should be a simple question or response (e.g. “are you traveling anywhere other than Taipei?”), but it is what it is, and many basic things will get lost based on accents and speed of speech. It’s actually been a little thrilling when I hear something, think for a few seconds, and recognize what people are saying. Given that the last time I took a Chinese class was in 2007, I think I’m doing fairly well so far.

We arrived in Taipei this evening after a layover in Tokyo, and since Chris has status at this hotel chain, they offered us a number of welcome refreshments and treats and had them sent to our room. One of them was literally called in English and in Chinese a “salty snack.” I had no idea how to interpret that, and I figured it must just be a bowl of rice crackers or something quick and, well, snack-like. The front desk attendant said she would call the kitchen immediately to place our order since they’d be closing soon. I thought to myself… why would they need to call the kitchen for a snack? What I was not prepared for was when room service came to the room and presented a plate of hot braised five-spiced beef, tendon, and cow stomach. This is what they are giving to us as a “snack” before bedtime?!

When I was younger and traveled far less frequently, whether it was for work or vacation, it was never about the journey. It was always about the destination. I paid as little as I could for what were probably the worst flights and the worst (unassigned) seats, and one time, my cheap plane ticket to Singapore required me to lay over in Beijing for over nine hours. There’s oftentimes a cost to being cheap when traveling, and in this case, it was probably my sanity, not to mention the fact that in the Beijing airport in March, they didn’t turn on the heat despite the fact that it was freezing in the terminal I was in. So, that was all fun and games. At least I had two friends to freeze together with me.

Chris, being the son of avid and frequent travelers, made fun of me then for my un-reserved-in-advance seats, my “pleb” airlines (I few Air China once – never, ever again), and my hostel stays. Once upon a time, I didn’t understand or want loyalty to an airline or hotel chain because I didn’t see the value in it. My thought was – I’m not going to said city to enjoy the hotel; that’s just the place I’ll be sleeping and showering. I’m also not going to Malaysia for the actual flight; the flight is just the method to get there. But now, having been loyal for years and seeing the benefits reaped, I think this is the best way for a frequent traveler to go.

Airplane food sucks – if you fly economy, or if you fly a U.S. airline. It is amazing when you fly premium economy or above, where you can get gorgeous bento-box-like presentations of Japanese deliciacies, like fried soft-shelled crab and salmon and salmon roe rice balls, or miso soup that tastes exponentially better than your standard, generic Japanese takeout. On Qantas, even in economy, though, the food is good. You can get mango Weis bars (the best fruit-cream frozen dessert bars in the world), Varlhona chocolates, and basically whatever wine or spirit you want as often as you want it. And you always get real tableware. Nothing comes in a disgusting TV-dinner-like setup.

Now, it’s about the journey and the destination. I still don’t love sitting for 14 hours on a plane to get to Asia or Australia, but I do love the Dreamliner windows, the food and dessert, and the lay-flat bed seats when I have them.

I love it when I meet people who find beauty in the things that others tend to ignore. This morning, a colleague and I were talking about our long weekend travels, and he was curious to learn more about Nova Scotia. Since he and his fiancee have a friend who is from Cleveland, they went out there for the long weekend to visit her. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of Cleveland, but after I gave him some suggestions and told him the food scene there is actually quite good, he went in with an open mind. And he came back beaming and saying he really enjoyed his time there, from the general vibe of the downtown area to the food scene.

“I never thought I’d like it, but I had a lot of fun!” he said.

That makes me so happy.

Long weekends rarely feel long. Three-day-weekends always fly by too quickly. And even when we took off two extra days to stretch our three-day-weekend into a five-day-weekend to Nova Scotia, it still felt like it ended too soon and we didn’t have enough time to see all the beauty that is this beloved province. So I hate it when people ask about your “long weekend” as though it truly was long and felt like some great rest period.

But sometimes, the weekend may be too long for your skin, or at least, maybe the diet you are giving to your skin. I noticed on Sunday morning that i was developing bumps across my forehead, and I wondered if it was because of the lack of vegetables I tend to get during travel, or if it was because of all the seafood I am eating. No one ever said seafood was great for skin.

We had breakfast with Chris’s colleague yesterday, who lives and works here in Halifax. He was telling us about how Halifax was still fairly under the radar but of course, as with any up and coming city, is becoming more expensive. As we could see from the Halifax seaport where we ate together, a lot of construction is actively going on throughout downtown Halifax, with everything from condo and apartment high rises to new office buildings. One very old and tall building looked as though it would soon be knocked down.  And while Canadians certainly travel to Halifax, Americans certainly don’t en masse (no surprise). And even with the people who live right here in Halifax and Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Highlands National Park is not a place that people go to often or even at all given how far to the east end of the province it goes. It is literally at the very tip, and it’s considered to many to be no-man’s-land. Chris’s colleague said he’s only been there about three times ever, and once was for a wedding.

So after breakfast, we drove the 4.5-hour drive out there and settled into our cozy little cabin in the woods, and by the time we left today, we completed three hikes that overlooked the gorgeous Nova Scotia Atlantic coastline. We hiked through dirt, water, massive and unstable rocks, and thorny bushes, and I got my legs all scratched up in the process. The weather was also quite cold, as I realized I had slightly under-dressed. Although the sun just came out as we left today, I’d only imagine that on a sunny blue-skied day, the water would be a brilliant blue against the bright green that is literally everywhere in Cape Breton. That’s kind of the way I imagine Scotland based on the travel photos I have seen. This province is so underrated with so much natural beauty, and since it’s not touched much, it will probably continue on for quite a long time.

I’m happy we’re visiting it at a time when pretty much no one I know has gone here. It’ll be one of those places that will probably become more popular and well known, and we’ll look back and say that we went there before it became all the rage, and we advocated for it long ago. 🙂

Whenever we’re traveling, at some point when I’m taking time off from work or seeing my friends in the time leading up to the trip, colleagues and friends will ask me where I am going. Whenever I’m going to a popular place or a place that seems high on the “it” list for travel, like Australia, Thailand, or Spain, people will inevitably respond with oohs and ahhs, respond positively, and say things like, “I’m so jealous!”, “I want to go there so badly!!”, or “OHMIGOD, HAVE AN AMAZING TIME! TAKE TONS OF PICS!” When it’s places that are a tad bit off the beaten track to those who either don’t travel a lot, don’t travel at all, or only go to “popular,” well known attractions, I get questions like, “why are you going there?”, what are you doing there?”, “what’s there that makes you want to go?”, or lastly, “do you have relatives there who you’re visiting?” (this last one, I got a lot for Korea and Taiwan from white colleagues. I am not Taiwanese. I am also not Korean. And Chris is obviously neither). I realize they don’t mean any harm and aren’t trying to be judgmental, but why should Paris get oohs and ahhs while Halifax gets quizzical looks, and Taipei gets the relatives question?

I was having this chat with Chris, and when I told him a colleague who is actually from Canada (suburbs of Toronto) asked why I was going to Halifax, he looked at me plainly and said, “Because I fucking want to go there. And I don’t care what you think or what you think you know about it.” No one informs his travel decisions. We inform our travel decisions. “I don’t take travel advice from morons.”

Well stated. I love my fierce darling.

Before this trip, other than the greenery, the mountains, and the water of Nova Scotia, I was thinking about eating lobster. Chris and I rarely eat lobster while in the U.S. unless it happens to be part of a dish. It’s so expensive and oftentimes not very fresh, especially in New York City (for the record, I think Luke’s Lobster is just okay, and their crab roll is far better than their lobster roll). The only time I’ve had lobster and been extremely satisfied was the one time I went to Maine, and being in Maine, of course the lobster was extremely cheap and cooked just as I ordered it, so it was perfection. The second time I had it and loved it, it was in a lobster roll (buttered, no mayonnaise) at the famous and well-acclaimed Neptune Oyster in the North End of Boston, and I was so turned off by not only the wait to get in (2+ hours), but also the rude and surly service I received.

Well, when I was doing research for this trip, across the board, I found that seafood was (not surprisingly) far cheaper in Nova Scotia, bordering on Maine lobster prices, and with the added benefit of the U.S. dollar strength against the Canadian dollar, I was so excited to get our lobster fix for (relatively) cheap here. There’s lobster rolls on pretty much every menu, and some are as cheap as $15 CAD (that’s just over $11 USD!). I told Chris that I wanted to eat as much lobster as possible, the glutton I am.

Well, we drove out to Lunenberg, a UNESCO world heritage site town just over an hour west of Halifax, and the places that were supposed to have lobster rolls… had none. In fact, they were completely removed from the menus that I had seen online. When we asked the place we ended up eating lunch at about this, she said that the price of lobster was far too high at this time, and that they couldn’t sell lobster rolls at a reasonable price in order to actually make a profit, so they decided to remove them from the menu completely for now. We were both crushed.

It was fine in the end today. We had delicious seafood chowder and local scallops at rock-bottom prices and high freshness, but the lobster lust continued.