Taiwan

My wife and I traveled through Taiwan for 2 weeks, visiting Taipei, Taichung, and Sun Moon Lake.

Food

We were excited to try out the delicious and inexpensive food that we would be eating in Taiwan. We often had scallion pancakes, pork rice, sandwiches, daikon cake, and beef noodle soup. 

The informal eateries are incredibly basic – kind of like a taco truck in a tiny store space. The kitchen is towards the front of the eatery, and the person does double duty handling payments and cooking at the same time. Breakfast items are often 20-100 NTD (between $1 and $3 USD). In the cheaper places, I noticed that there’s this trend where the plate comes wrapped in plastic, so once the guests leave, there’s no need to wash anything – just replace the plastic and it’s ready to go. We even got noodle soup in a bowl wrapped in plastic. And the silverware was often in what seemed like a UV sterilization machine for customers to pick up themselves. Half of the informal eateries had a printout of their menu in English and handed it out when requested. Christine managed to communicate with people in Mandarin language. Sometimes though the conversation was more complex than we could handle, so we also relied on taking photos of the menu with the Google Translate app.

Christine hadn’t had a chance to eat wax apples from Taiwan since last visiting 20 years ago. It brought back many memories.

Walking around Taipei we randomly came across a bakery promoting  “Dubai QQ” squishy chocolates. Maybe these are similar to the “Dubai Squishy Cookies” that have been going viral in Korea? But of course they were out of stock until the following week.

We went to check out the night markets. We went to Raohe, Shilin, Shida, Feng Jia (this last one in Taichung) night markets in Taipei, trying out the many street foods that we saw on Facebook reels over the past year. Black pepper buns, whole fried chicken, sweet potato balls. Visiting night markets was the highlight of our trip and it’s where we did most of our walking.

Our most expensive meal was lunch at the Bel Air Grill, a Michelin-guide steakhouse housed inside the Grand Hyatt Hotel. We got a F1 Hokkaido 800g Ribeye set menu for two. The price was $300 USD (10,000 NTD) but we applied the $100 Amex FHR credit and got additional discounts due to Hyatt Globalist status and the final bill came out to $170. It had artsy, pretentious side dishes like scallops with vanilla sauce or truffle soup that Christine didn’t enjoy as much. I was fine, I eat anything. Then they finally brought out a big empty wooden cart. Wow, are they going to bring out our meat and cut it right there and then? Then they brought out this huge, whole piece of bone-in ribeye steak and placed it on the cart. The waitress told us “you can record videos now”, so we pulled out our phones, and without any further explanation, she poured alcohol over the steak and lit it on fire. Cool! But then, when we finished taking photos, she took back the meat and the entire wood cart back to the kitchen. So that entire step existed just for guests to take photos. They didn’t even ask us whether we wanted it or not – it was just included by default as part of the set course. Hilarious what people expect in a fancy steakhouse. The ribeye was delicious. AfterwardsI was so full that I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day. Next time, we’ll know to order something smaller.

Getting around

For half of the first 10 days, it was raining on and off. Instead of wearing boots, this time I tried out a rubber shoe cover that I squeeze over my sneakers to keep the water away. It has bottom grips to help it keep steady, but the city hall area around Humble House had a lot of smooth stone surfaces and we were often almost slipping. We had to walk carefully and watch where we stepped. The most dangerous surfaces were the drain grids made of metal.You would think the grid structure would provide grip, but the metal actually made it super slippery.

Similar to Korea and Japan, we were able to use buses and subways in Taipei and Taichung by buying a EasyCard (Taiwan’s IC Card system) and loading it with cash at convenience stores.

One day, we went to visit the National Palace Museum. Christine wanted to show me their Jadeite Cabbage and Pork Belly sculpture. Unfortunately both were on loan in other museums. Gemini suggested checking out the Mao Gong Ding bronze cauldron instead.

On our way back from the museum, we were sore and walked in to a massage parlor. The place was huge and there were dozens of people getting shoulder massages. They had set up the place like a massage “factory”, with people getting shoulder and foot massages in the common area and then getting full body massages in individual rooms. The therapist was effective but also brutal. He used his elbow to “drill” into my sore spots—it was the most painful massage of my life.  

We rented two electric bikes in Sun Moon Lake and briefly biked in the walkways near the hotel.

Hotels

We stayed in Humble House Hilton (2 nights), Episode Daan Hyatt (3), Millenium Taichung (1), Wyndham Sun Moon Lake (3), Grand Hyatt Taipei (3), and Hyatt Regency Taipei Airport (1) using points and credit card statement credits.

I was hoping that we could get lucky, like in New Zealand, and check into Humble House Hotel shortly after arriving in Taipei at 7am. This time we were instructed to check back at 12pm for availability – and our room was in fact available at 12pm. We spent the five hours by first going outside for breakfast and then just waiting at the hotel’s bar area.

Episode Daan had a very annoying AC control system. The AC could only be operated via the small smart display device on the nightstand, via voice or its touchscreen. We found it to be slow and cumbersome to use. The shower was also a bit strange – its showerhead controls could be switched between “bathtub” and “shower” modes, but the actual bathtub was installed separately. So when turned to bathtub mode, the water would stream directly onto the shower floor. 

Episode is a music-themed hotel. You see and hear Taiwanese music everywhere in the hotel, with a focus on Jay Chou, who was big in the pop music scene during the 2000’s. Christine listened to him a lot in college! They had a dedicated CD player in our room with a single music CD by Jay Chou. Their exec lounge was pretty nice, it’s a cozy living room/pub style space where the staff also handle check-in. They had drinks and popcorn available throughout the day, and during 5pm-7pm there were nicer drinks (i liked their black bean soymilk box) and sometimes some cooked snacks like fries, fried noodles and fishcake. And we were surprised to learn that during the globalist breakfast, they let us order up to 4 dishes each morning. So we ended up trying it and we couldn’t eat anymore the rest of the day.

This time we didn’t hit the upgrades jackpot. We either got one-level upgrades or no upgrades, hotels often citing their reservations being all booked out. We spent a lot of time indoors, so it would have been great to get a free upgrade to a room with work desk space and a separate living room if possible. Wyndham Sun Moon Lake was the weirdest case. We got a nice upgrade from their “Superior” base room to “Deluxe with Lake View”, with a giant bathtub – almost half of the room was the bathroom with a hot bathtub that could easily fit four people, plus a separate cold bathtub, probably for people to do the hot/cold swaps. However, our room didn’t have a regular sized desk and chair like the other rooms. We had a coffeetable and our couch looked stiffer than the one in other rooms. It was a strange trade-off. Also the hallways were very hot during our entire stay.

With Christine’s Wyndham Business credit card Platinum status, we had access to Wyndham’s Exec Lounge. It’s a small place that opens 2pm to 10pm and serves desserts, “happy hour” dinner, and basic drinks. During Happy Hour, we could choose a main course item for to be cooked. Hotel staff warned us that main course would not be available every night – it ran on their own schedule. Christine ordered the lobster dish both times. 

The Wyndham lounge overlooks an outdoor courtyard with shaded couches with a view of the lake. On our first day, we grabbed the desserts and tried to walk out to the courtyard but the glass door was locked. I was unlocking the door when the hotel staff caught me and told us that we were not allowed to open that door. Once we were done eating, however, we could walk out of the lounge and enter the courtyard through a side door. This is because the courtyard is open to all hotel guests I think.

We had a funny incident with getting charged with breaking a hotel item. On that first night, we broke one of their decorative clay sculptures while reclining on the couch. The staff told us that the sculpture could be quite expensive and that they wouldl bill us once they got a price quote. The second night, that staff told us that the person in charge of prices was not in the office yet, and that they would update us later. The entire hotel was filled with art pieces, and paintings that apparently had some sort of bidding system – some were labeled “sold”, for around $500-$1,000 USD. So maybe this could be expensive too. I had never heard of being charged for breaking something though, so I looked up some information through Gemini AI, and prepared some basic things to say when asked to pay. Then we on the third night we didn’t hear any updates from the staff. 

We were planning to check out and get on the 12pm hotel shuttle van that would take us back to Taichung. When we went to check out at 11:50am, the reception staff informed us that we had to pay 1,500 NTD ($50 USD for the broken sculpture. So we argued back and forth for a bit, saying that the hotel’s insurance should cover costs like these. Eventually I agreed to pay, and offered to put it on our credit card. Then they said that it had to be paid in cash only. We argued further, and eventually they told us that we didn’t have to pay. What a strange sequence of events. We thanked them and got on the hotel van.

At Grand Hyatt, we got the most out of our Globalist status, having giant meals at their breakfast buffet. The bathtub in the King Bedroom was very narrow – I think it was like 25 inches wide. Apparently it’s an old hotel and this bathtub is one of its quirks. I had to squeeze my shoulders to fit in.

Lastly, I squeezed in a Taipei Airport Hyatt hotel stay to make use of a promotion that Hyatt was running. They were giving 3,000 points every 3 nights stayed. Originally I thought I qualified for two of these since we had 3 nights at Episode and 3 nights at Grand Hyatt. But the Grand Hyatt stay was using both my and Christine’s Amex FHR credits, so it was 2 nights under my name and 1 night under Christine’s name. They told us that they wouldn’t give us EQN to my account for the 1 night stayed under Christine’s name. So I booked one night at the airport for 6,500 points and got back 3,000 through the promo (plus the 1 EQN). We took a nap at that hotel for three hours before taking off the airport for our 11pm departure flight.

Flights

For our LAX-TPE flight, we arrived at the airport at 7:00 PM. The regular security line had over a hundred people, but there was no one at the TSA Precheck line. One agent was handling the precheck line. He said that it gets busier later on.

We flew LAX-TPE on China Airlines CI7 J on their 777. The seats are comfortable, although a bit firm, and food is very nice. I remember that the AA 789 had softer seats. After dinner, I slept 4 hours, stayed up for 1 hour, and slept another 4 hours before they started serving breakfast. 

When flying in economy, I just stow my backpack under my seat and I can access it relatively easily during the flight. In business, there’s no underseat stowage – items have to go either in the compartments or in the overhead bin, and getting things from the overhead bin is a bit of an operation so I can’t be doing it often. I’m starting to develop a routine when boarding these cabins. Bring a small shoulder bag inside the backpack, and once inside, bring out the shoulder bag and use it as my extended pocket during the flight. Stash all the unnecessary items in the overhead bin – safety cards, menu cards, headsets, amenity kit, and my shoes. Then load the trays with my bluetooth headset, laptop, ipad, phone stand, bluetooth keyboard, mouse, USB cables. Then before breakfast, swap out the items and load my shoulder bag with the passport and entry card. Although on this flight I barely used the laptop and iPad. I’ll need to try this out a couple times until I figure out how much to reasonably unpack.

I prepared our transportation from the airport to the hotel with information gathered through Gemini AI. I was out of immigration and customs by 5:35am, and we wanted to take the 1960 Airport Bus which was leaving at 6:00 am and 6:50 am. Turns out that the information was all wrong. Gemini told me to go to the B2 Seven Eleven store or the B2 MRT Vending Machine to get the EasyCard (to pay for the 1960 Bus), and alternatively the Seven Eleven on Floor 5. Turns out that there was no Seven Eleven in B2; MRT Vending Machines didn’t seem to sell EasyCards (although I didn’t stay around to double check this – this was the impression the interface of vending machines gave me). And floor 5 is not directly reachable from B2; apparently it’s located in a limited corner of the airport. 

We missed the 6am bus and ended up taking the taxi, but I didn’t realize that it would cost $45 and in retrospect we might have been better off taking a break at the airport and waiting for the next 6:50am bus.

We took our return TPE-LAX flight on Starlux JX2 J. We started at their spaceship-themed “Galatic Lounge” but ended up going to the Oriental Club Lounge, which has more comfortable seats. The lounge was a bit gimmicky, a bit like being in a Star Wars-themed cafeteria in Disneyland. When you go to the bathroom, you push a round button to open the door, and both sides slide aside as if gas-motorized, and the bathroom lights up with whit lights along with some red and yellow accent lights. There are some spaceship-themed decorations scattered across the lounge. The buffet area has only basic side menus, and main dishes have to be ordered via the QR code. Unlike other QR code menu systems, this one was easier to use – it has a “cart system” and allows multiple users to coordinate their “carts” into a single order. The food was quite nice.  They also had a “make your hotdog” station, where they have a handful of hotdogs rolling on a grill, just like you could see in convenience stores.

When we wanted to rest, however, the seats were too stiff and very upright. It was impossible to lean against the backrest. We asked if we could use the empty first-class quarters downstairs but they were not available to business class passengers. So we went to the Oriental Club Lounge. It was very busy, but towards the back and next to the sunbeds were two unoccupied massage chairs. And apparently there isn’t any expectation that you will leave the massage chair after one use. (I hope I understood this correctly and not being a nuisance to other guests – actually it was Gemini that told us this so maybe I was wrong.) I just sat there getting multiple massages for two hours. Christine eventually felt sore and left to sit in another chair. The flight back was also very comfortable and we arrived well rested to LAX.

Costs

Like other trips, we managed to minimize our out-of-pocket expenses by using points for flights and hotels. Including all cash portions, food and credit card membership fees, we spent approximately $3,000 in cash and 400,000 points, which covered flights and hotels worth $12,000.

Originally, this was a trip planned for three – Christine, my mother-in-law, and me. Because of this, we kept the itinerary extra chill than usual. 

Christine’s mother started having serious back pain over the past few weeks, and decided a week before our trip that she couldn’t join us. We had planned our trip knowing that her health is frail. We switched around reservations and were able to cancel reservations or reuse the nonrefundable ones for us to stay. We also shifted some hotels around to maximize savings and added a 1-night Taichung leg to the trip.

• Flights:
  • $270 + 138k Air France miles: China Airlines LAX-TPE J
  • $100 + 150k Alaska miles: Starlux TPE-LAX J
• Lodging:
  • $460 Taipei 2n Humble House Hilton Hotel
  • 45k Wyndham points: Sun Moon Lake 3n Wyndham Hotel
  • 36k Hyatt points: Taipei 3n Episode Daan Hotel
  • $160 Taichung 1n Millennium Hotel
  • $800 Taipei 3n Grand Hyatt Hotel
• Hotel Credits:
  • $300 Citi Strata Hotel Credit
  • $150 Delta Business Gold Hotel Credit
  • $600 Amex Business Platinum FHR Credit
• Transportation
  • $150 Taxi to/from LAX Airport
  • $100 Taxi to/from TPE Airport
  • $150 Train and Shuttle Bus from Taipei to/from Taichung
  • $50 Bus, Subway and Taxi in Taipei and Taichung
• Expenses
  • $500 Food
  • $170 Bel Air Grill Lunch
  • $80 Massage
  • $40 Steam Cleaner
  • $20 National Palace Museum Admission Fee
• Fees
  • $40: Cancellation Fee for one TPE-LAX seat
  • $500: Credit Card Annual Fees