Things in Taiwan You Just Don’t See in the U.S. (and I Can Live Without)

1. Certain Street Food – Ok, I know street food topped my list of things I’d love to see stateside, but there are some that I hope to never see, or smell, again. I can dispel the rumors of dog and monkey meat, but bad enough were stinky tofu, pig knuckles, pork blood congealed in [...]

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Things in Taiwan You Just Don’t See in the U.S. (and I Wish You Did)

1. Street Food – Americans like their corn dogs and funnel cakes at county fairs, fast food is omnipresent in our culture, and gourmet food carts are becoming more popular in big cities, but we have nothing like the giant night markets full of food stalls prevalent in Asian countries. Maybe it’s too hard to [...]

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Packing Up: Taking Home More Than Trinkets From Taiwan

We start our long journey home bright and early tomorrow morning. Almost three weeks ago, I sat in piles of laundry carefully deciding what to pack so we didn’t bring too much, and tonight we needed to borrow another suitcase to take home all the generous gifts from family and things we bought. (Did I [...]

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One. Oh. One!

This is my one hundred and first post on this blog. And we just went to the top of Taipei 101. The giant building is one of those things you “have” to see while you are here. But just like I’ve lived in San Francisco for nearly nine years and have never set foot in [...]

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Our Trip Within a Trip: An Excursion to South Taiwan

We are back in Taipei after the trip my in-laws planned to show us more of the country. Beforehand, it was billed to me by my husband as a one-hour ride south on a high speed train, renting a car so we could cruise the rest of the way down the coast, then relaxing at [...]

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Anniversary, Interrupted

We celebrated seven years of marriage by getting away on our own for a night. Our first time leaving Little Man overnight. I was a bit nervous about it, especially since he’s been extra clingy toward me when he doesn’t feel safe here, but fortunately he has become quite comfortable with his grandparents and they [...]

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And Slow It Goes

Exploring Taipei with a nine-month old can definitely be categorized as Slow Travel, a concept I blogged about before we left. We are living like locals, camping out at the in-laws, and venturing out around our baby’s two-nap schedule. Which means we can’t really be out for longer than four hour stints, so we are [...]

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At Home with the In-Laws

We are staying with my in-laws in East Taipei in the Xinyi district, just a few blocks from Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. My husband grew up in Taiwan, and his folks still live in the last place he called home before they sent him to the States in the [...]

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We Made It!: Surviving an International Flight with a Baby

(When we were preparing for our trip to Taiwan and searching for practical information about traveling with an infant we didn’t find much, so this post will be a detailed review of our experience flying from San Francisco to Taipei for those of you planning a trip with a baby. More personal stories about how [...]

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Trip Prep: Packing, Planning and Passports for Baby

I am sitting amidst mountains of laundry. My busy boy is finally napping. My hypochondriac husband is getting checked out for mysterious pains – heart attack? acid reflux? Who knows, but the stress always seems to get him right before we travel. Last time he came down with shingles and then a staph infection, rendering [...]

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