Holidays in Taipei with Riley, Joel, and Theo - Part 1

From the time we decided on going to Thailand to teach English, our daughter Riley and her husband Joel had said they would visit us for Christmas 2012.  As readers of this blog know, they have a young son Theo, who was born last February.  At first we thought we'd meet up in Thailand, but we didn't want the trip to be any more challenging for them than necessary so getting to rural Thailand was out.  We thought about Chiang Mai, but, after our own experience, we decided that might not be the best place to bring a baby (even Thais don't seem to walk infants or toddlers around in Chiang Mai).  So Riley did some research and picked Taipei, the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan), which is in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China.  There are direct flights from Los Angeles to Taipei (although they are long flights).  So that was the destination.

                                     
We decided to meet up a few days before Christmas and leave after New Year's.  In anticipation of the trip, George decided he needed a haircut and went to a barber in Khemmarat.  Before he got out of the shop, George had -- to his great surprise -- lost the beard he'd been wearing for more than 40 years.  Mary's reaction and that of many teachers at our school was that the change made him look younger.  George decided to see if the look grew on him.

So we were off to Taipei on Friday, December 22.  We flew from Bangkok to Hong Kong and then on to Taipei.  George shaved (for the last time?) on December 23 to look as nice as possible for Riley, Joel, and Theo, who arrived that evening.  George met them at the airport and ushered them to a cab for the long ride to our downtown Taipei hotel.  It had been a very long day for them so we visited for a short while, took a quick picture to post on Facebook to let friends and family know they'd made it, and let them go to bed.

Christmas Eve

Riley and Joel were our vacation planners, doing the research about what we should see in Taipei and environs and how to get to those places.  On Christmas Eve, our first destination was Zhongshan Park, where we saw a baseball team in training, two "green whales" cavorting in a sea of flowers, and great views of Taipei.

Next we headed to the Confucius Temple.  Along the way we saw some water birds under an overpass along a stream.  Unfortunately, the temple is closed on Mondays, but there was a series of statues of small monkeys seeing, hearing, and speaking no evil.  Theo liked the one speaking no evil.

Then we took the beautiful Taipei Metro to Taipei Main Station.  (Theo got Ergo rides for most of our trips around Taiwan.)

We wandered down some alleys and found a park where Theo found a little girl to play with.

We had Christmas Eve dinner (with duck, a Christmas Eve family tradition in Burlington, Iowa) at an Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel.

Christmas Day

We decorated for Christmas with more than 100 Christmas cards made for Mary and George by our wonderful students at Baan Nong Phue -- we appreciated their beautiful artwork and sentiments!

We took Metro to the Taipei Zoo and decided to start with the Maokong Gondola, a 2.7-mile line through the Erge Mountains between the Zoo and Maokong.  We rode in cars with glass bottoms, which provided a view down to the tops of trees below.

We saw tea farms, temples, and great views of Taipei, including Taipei 101, formerly the tallest building in the world.

There was a Christmasy view for us at the top.

We had a big lunch at a tea house,

then headed down to the Zoo.

Once in the Zoo, we saw some beautiful birds,

 and lots of interesting land animals, including white rhinos.

 

It was interesting how the Zoo duplicated some of the animals in figures with which the kids could play.  Theo was asleep for the hippo sculpture, but didn't miss the panda.

Our wonderful Christmas Day seeing Taipei ended as the sun went down.

December 26

Boxing Day began as a dreary one in Taipei -- rainy and cold.  So we decided to walk to the nearby Miniatures Museum of Taipei.  There were some beautiful examples of the craft of miniatures.

Miniatures within a miniature:

This contributed to our  Christmas season spirit:

And this reminded us of the elegance of the Christmas home of Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda (Mary's brother and his wife), with whom our family has spent most of its Christmases for the past 38 years.  We missed them very much this year.

Theo was happy to find a playmate.

Riley and Joel brought Theo by Mary and George's room at bedtime for some final playtime.  Theo enjoyed playing with Mary's timer.

December 27 - Tamsui

Thursday was a nice day -- we learned that the weather can be very changeable in Taipei.  Joel and Riley suggested taking Metro to the end of the Red Line and visiting Tamsui, northwest of Taipei on the Tamsui River and near the seacoast.   

It had been a long Metro trip and Theo needed some playtime.

There were beautiful seabirds.

 

The view out toward the ocean:

Theo found a playmate named Teo on the walk along the river.

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant right on the river.

Then we walked to Fort San Domingo, a national historical monument.  Taiwan has a history of colonization by the Dutch, the Spanish, and the British.  The Spanish originally built a fort at the northern end of Taiwan in 1629.  The Dutch expelled the Spaniards.  The structure that stands today is the one the Dutch built in 1644.  In 1868, the British took over the fort and made it their trade consulate.  There are some beautiful buildings and landscaping on the site today.

The walk back  to Metro reminded us that we were in China.

Watch for Part 2 of our Taipei report, which will include our visits to the exotic village of Jiufen, the beautiful Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei 101, and the amazing Longshan Temple, among other places.