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.