Recapping Taiwan
A video recap of our time in Teipai, Taiwan—including what went wrong. 🎥🇹🇼
Recapping Seoul
A short recap of our experience in Seoul. 🇰🇷🎥
The 228 Peace Park was a nice green space to enjoy. It is a Memorial Park to those that died during the February 28, 1947, massacre when the Chinese government cracked down on dissidents. -J 🇹🇼
After spending several days sick in a hotel bed, I decided to try some “alternative medicine.”
2/10, do not recommend. -S 🇹🇼
I saw this at the craft beer bar I went to yesterday in Taipei. I thought our bartender friends would appreciate it 🙂. -J 🇹🇼
I also ventured over to see the Taipei Confucius Temple. Built in the Qing era of the late 1800s, was demolished by the Japanese, but rebuilt in the 1930s.
And I really liked the cute little Confucius they had outside. -J 🇹🇼
I present to you the Temple of Dalong Dong (better known as Dalongdong Baoan Temple and its gardens), which is located on Dalong Street. This is a Chinese folk religion temple built in the early 19th Century by Tong’an clan members who had immigrated to Taiwan from China. -J 🇹🇼
Got up at 4am to watch ASU take back the Territorial Cup in a 49-7 blowout win, which capped off a 10-2 regular season and a spot in the conference championship game, one win away from the playoffs. Not too shabby for a team picked to finish dead last. -S 🇹🇼
Taiwan is definitely a scooter-using place. They are everywhere. They have their own parking spots on the side of the road, and even have their own box painted on the road at intersections beyond the crosswalk where they can wait for the light to change. But unlike in some of the southeast Asian countries I’ve been to, they mostly follow the traffic rules. -J 🇹🇼
Prior to this trip, Jen had never used a bidet. Given her extensive overseas travel, that’s surprising.
But it’s even more surprising because we have a bidet installed at home in Phoenix. Apparently, she’s never actually tried it. 🤷♂️🙈 -S
Not much to post today, but here’s a tile mosaic at an elementary school, flanked by a kickass bicycle and a scooter with far too many empty bottles in its basket (I imagine a teacher who needed a lot of caffeine today).
The other photo is an inlaid relief of that same school—a nice touch. -S 🇹🇼
Scott has a pretty substantial upper respiratory infection, so he visited a local medical clinic.
Walked in, third in line, took 9 mins to be seen, got 5 prescriptions (filled in-house), paid NT$805 (less than our $25 copay in US) which included a “public burden fee” and was gone in 25 mins. -S 🇹🇼
Old versus new.
(I tried out one of these robots yesterday at the museum: youtu.be/Uz18snYjQ…) -S 🇰🇷
Yup, of COURSE this would be when we were visiting! -J🇰🇷
We had a lovely chat with our taxi driver on the way to the airport. He had Google translate running, so he would speak in Korean and it would translate to English for us. And Vice-versa for him. So much easier to communicate than when I first started traveling! -J 🇰🇷
National Museum of Korea
Went to the National Museum of Korea yesterday. Frankly, I learned more at the War Museum yesterday. But we did learn a few things and saw a bunch of artifacts. The green helmet was won at the 1936 Olympics by a Korean who was forced to run for Japan, since Japan was occupying Korea at the time. The marathon was one of the premier sports at those Olympics and Hitler declared that whomever won would get a metal and this helmet, which came from Olympia, Greece.
We managed to be in Seoul during what may be the worst snow storm they have ever had in November. Without any winter clothes! We have been getting numerous safety alerts on our phone about the snow crisis. But it made for some pretty pictures when we went to the National Museum of Korea. -J 🇰🇷
We managed to find some good beer at Chillhops Brewing, a welcome respite from the cold. -S 🇰🇷
I kid you not, this is an actual logo for a brewery I visited here in Seoul. -S 🇰🇷
It’s a winter wonderland here in Seoul -S 🇰🇷