Taiwan: Miaoli and Hsinchu

Our first 2 days in Taiwan were spent in Miaoli, with a quick afternoon trip to Hsinchu. Miaoli is the city where my mom was raised, and her mom and dad (my grandparents) still live in the same house that she grew up in.

Photo source: go2taiwan.net

It’s a little hard to describe Taiwan for people who have never been. To sum it up in a couple of words, I would just say, “It’s different.” Culture shock would not be an absurd diagnosis to consider when a foreigner visits. Things don’t look that strange in the airport. Or even when you drive out of the airport, onto the interstate. Looks pretty normal. Aaron and I didn’t really “feel” like we were in Taiwan for a little while.

Taiwan is a small island, so there is a limited amount of land to put everyone and everything. Therefore, they built up, and there are 3+ story buildings almost everywhere you look. The awesome thing about the area that my grandparents live is that it is walking friendly.You can walk to the grocery store, the wet market, tons of restaurants 7-11 (we LOVE 7-11!!!), the hair salon, the clinic (of course we noticed the clinics), etc. There are also cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians everywhere. At least I never felt alone 🙂

My uncle and Aaron walking on the streets of Miaoli.

People are also up late at night. Most stores and the malls are open around 10am or earlier, but some businesses do not open until 2pm, and stay open until 10pm-11pm at night. Go home people!

Our first meal when we arrived in Taiwan. Wontons (the real kind) and dumplings (these are special “crystal dumplings”). It was like a party in my mouth. So delicious.

On our very first morning, we woke up around 5am (jet lag!), and were out the door and roaming the streets of Miaoli by 7am. We stumbled across this little restaurant and decided we were going to stop in to eat. I caught myself looking up at this menu, and I think, wait. I can’t read Chinese! What’s the use in staring at the menu, pretending like I can? (This happened multiple times throughout the trip).

All was well, though. It was an open kitchen, so the cooking was happening right in front of us. We just told them what we wanted, and did a little pointing and grunting. Success! Aaron and I can speak Chinese -enough to get by with our family. We pretty much just mime the rest. We can alsoread a few selective characters.

Our first mini meal all by ourselves. Yes, everything is fried, and pretty good! Green onion pancake to the left (think a cross between a tortilla and naan and roti. Fried dumplings to the right.

That very same morning, we took a trip to the hair salon. It’s kind of a “thing” over there to get your hair washed in a hair salon. The hair wash comes with a nice head and shoulder massage, so I couldn’t pass that up. It’s like a very low key Drybar, but with infinitely better massage techniques. They use a special shampoo that foams up when it comes in contact with dry hair, so they’ll wash your hair right in the chair, and then send you in the back to have it rinsed. Then they will blow dry it and make it look nice, but not as fancy as Drybar, of course.

I snapped this photo when my hair washer guy went to the sink to wash off the bubbles that accumulated on my head.

That afternoon, my uncle had an errand to run in Hsingchu, so we tagged along and did a little exploring.

Selfie time in the car.

Hsingchu, about 40 minutes north of Miaoli.

We stayed in the heart of Hsingchu and walked around for a little bit. There were people EVERYWHERE, but it was also Saturday, so it was probably more crowded than usual. The best thing that happened to us in Hsingchu was this:

Let’s just call it the “Frog Drink.” It tasted like an Arnold Palmer (lemonade and tea) with the MOST delicious tapioca pearls (bubble tea!) with some kind of jello mixed in. That is not the greatest description, but let’s just say, we were sad we only ordered one to share and more sorry that we never got to return to get another one later on. In fact, we desperately tried to find something that tasted so good in Taipei (desperate enough to go around asking people if they knew where the “frog drink” was sold. It’s true. And I would literally say “frog drink” in Chinese, because we couldn’t remember what the proper name for it was). We found another frog drink, but it did not taste as good as this one.

Posing next to the frog sign.

We also made a 7-11 run, and got some snacks. It’s our tradition to always get instant noodles in a bowel and pizza Pringles when we go to Taiwan. They also had some interesting Lays flavors. The seaweed chips were awesome! I brought a bag home with me to the states.

I also love those little sushi rice triangles. It’s it basically white rice mixed with either chicken, fish, or other fillings wrapped in a piece of seaweed. So delicious! And of course tea eggs (eggs boiled in soy sauce and tea bags. You can’t go wrong with those.