Go Joyfulli

In Taiwan: a nice older lady gets on the elevator. Conversation in Chinese (strangers often speak to each other in elevators there): Older Lady: Have you eaten yet?  Me: oh yes, I've eaten OL: Eat more fruits and vegetables Me: What about you, have you eaten yet? OL: I'm going to go buy bread

I haven't flown anywhere in some time... almost exactly three years. I'm very much looking forward to traveling again and am planning to go to Taiwan in a couple of months! Especially because it's been a while, I've been doing what I can to be prepared. The first step (well, other than deciding where to go!) was to make sure that my passport was okay and not about to expire. Around this time, Taiwan hadn't re-opened to US citizens for tourism yet (due to COVID) so I decided to renew my Taiwanese passport just in case. It took a couple months for the new one to arrive since the application had to go from the embassy to Taiwan to be processed.  Note: by now, things are back to normal and US citizens are allowed to visit for tourism without a visa as long as the stay is less than 90 days. Second step was to buy the plane ticket and then book lodging. On a typical vacation, I'd probably look into what cities or other countries I'd like to visit and book lodging/...

One of my friends realized she had never been on a cable car, so we decided to play tourist in San Francisco! I did a little research before we went. There are three different lines, and the Mason-Hyde line supposedly has the best view. If you get on at the turnaround (the start of the line), you'll probably have to wait a long time to get on - but if you just walk up a couple of blocks, you can get on much more quickly. I heard that they usually leave spots open since they expect people to get on later. It worked out well for us - they let us stand on the sides which was pretty great, even though we had to tuck our elbows in from time to time to avoid accidentally hitting cars parked in the street. Of course it meant standing the whole time, too, so maybe not suitable for those who need to sit. It also made me a bit nervous about taking pictures with my cell phone because I didn't want to risk dropping it into the street. The cable car goes all the way to Fisherman's Wharf...

Somebody who heard that I was going to Tahoe for vacation told me about wildflowers in the Palisades (which apparently used to be called Squaw Valley but was renamed because squaw is a derogatory term). I was staying in South Lake Tahoe, so it was about an hour and a half drive each way... and unfortunately, the aerial tram was unexpectedly down when we got there. They told us it would probably be fixed in a couple hours, so we went on a short hike on the Shirley Canyon Trail. It's supposed to be a long and challenging trail up to "high camp," so we only went for a bit to the first waterfall and then turned back to have lunch and wait for the tram to be fixed.  To be honest, I didn't do any research before heading up so I was kind of expecting superbloom-style wildflowers/hills... which is not what we found. There were little patches (which I strategically took pictures of) but the area was kind of underwhelming in general. I don't regret going but I probably woul...

Even though one of the most well-known tourist spots in Nantou County (and possibly Taiwan in general) is Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), I only went for the first time during my last trip to Taiwan. The lake itself is quite nice. There should be places where you can rent bikes or scooters to go around, though I didn't see any where I was. There's also a ropeway that connects the lake to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村), which is an amusement park with museums, roller coasters, shows, games, and lovely trails. It's a great place to learn about Taiwanese aborigines. I hadn't heard of the amusement park before, so I only planned a one-day visit of the lake and we spent half the day in each place. I think that the amount of time to see both places was about right since our itinerary was already pretty full, but it wouldn't have been boring to stay longer either. One reason I finally decided to go this time is because my dad was also back in Taiwan and he drove us. ...

For my first (and only, so far!) time in Scotland, I stayed mostly in Glasgow because I heard that it was nice and also more affordable than the capital... like staying in Brooklyn instead of New York or in Oakland instead of San Francisco.  I decided to go on a one-day tour of the Scottish Highlands since there's no other way I would have been able to visit the more remote places on my own and without a car. I went on the "Myths, monsters, and mountains" Rabbie's tour. Absolutely no regrets at all!  

Jiufen (Jioufen; 九份) - the town which may or may not have been an inspiration for Spirited Away. The streets are full of stands/stores and are decorated with red lanterns. I guess it has a "classic Asian" look, for lack of a better descriptor.  To be honest, Jiufen was a little too crowded with tourists for me, though I guess it was worth going once. My friends went to the teahouse and learned how to properly make tea - they enjoyed it a lot! I probably should have made myself join them in the teahouse too, since I'm unlikely to visit again... but I needed a break from being around so many people. Instead, I went to a little crane game place more on the outskirts of the town (I was even able to win a bunch of souvenirs to take back for friends/family/coworkers :). October 2019. This might be a little confusing, but Jiufen is technically in New Taipei City. We didn't go there directly from Taipei, but if you do, it sounds like it's pretty straightforward to get the...