Dan – Waiting for the Train

Loire Valley – Saumur

For the past couple of months we had been traveling at a mostly breakneck pace. Along the Trans-Siberian, we had a relatively structured and organized journey, pre-purchased and non-refundable train tickets made that a necessity, but after leaving Russia, arriving to Copenhagen then Barcelona, the rest of our trip was up in the air.

One constant of our trip was that wherever we were, irregardless of nation or continent we were in the city. Me and Anna are without a doubt city slickers, but after months of concrete and right angles, with the warmth of the Indian summer waning into the fall and winter, it only made natural sense to want to spend some time in the natural world. Ill-equipped for going camping or mountain climbing, we unfortunately had to settle for a couple of weeks of relaxing and drinking wine in Loire Valley.

The Loire Valley is quite a large area (in fact most of the central Loire has become a UNESCO World Heritage site) and there are many places we could have ended up, but we decided on Saumur, small enough have a rural feeling but large enough to be able to get around without needing a car. The place we chose in Saumur also had bikes for us to use (cycling about cities is one of our favorite past times).

On our first night of dinner in Saumur (our first destination), we overheard two British expatriates discuss (rather pretentiously) how the French spoken in the Loire is French at its most beautiful. Beauty of course is in the eye of the beholder, but perhaps the French spoken in the Loire is perhaps the most pure. Due in part to its central location, the Loire is often known as the cradle of the French, and has remained very French throughout much of history, uninfluenced by the Brittans in the Northwest, the Germans in the Northeast, and the Italians throughout southern France.

The next day we decided to give the bikes a try. After carrying them out of cold and cobwebby cellar we were off to the town center, but then we weren’t. My bike pedal fell right off after going about 10 meters. Bikes put back, and we marched by foot to the city center.

The edge of Saumur is end capped by a large Chateau along a hill, we were told to admire it from the outside (we did) but not to bother going inside, we spent most of our time instead going about the town center about a 1.5km walk from the apartment. With lots of cute shops and restaurants, we could tell we had arrived towards the end of the season, a lot sparser than would be during the high tourist season we walked about at a relaxed pace exploring the city comfortably amidst a sunny, crisp fall afternoon.

Having lunch at we think the Pot du Lapin in Saumur

After walking about we picked up some general groceries at a nearby Carrefour, and I picked up some artisanally made pork rillettes at a local butcher, while Anna acquired some hard comte at the cheesemonger right across. Arriving home in the afternoon we spent the evening drinking wine and cooking a lovely pasta dinner.

One of the nice things about the Loire is that they’ve built long stretches of cycling lanes that allow visitors to cycle along the river and make excursions at many of the chateaus that are sprinkled across the entire region. Unfortunately our “included” bikes were (to quote Ken Pogson) not going to pass muster. Searching for bike shops ended up being much more challenging than expected, most had closed for the season! There was only one shop left open, and it was their last day. If we wanted to rent a bike, it would mean returning it to their headquarters in Tours, nearly 80KM away! We decided we could do it.

After getting the bikes we decided to do a ride to the Abbey de Fontevraud, about 15km away, of course if this was a struggle, getting Tours would be… questionable. Fortunately it was smooth riding for most of the journey, we decided to have lunch at a local restaurant just outside of the abbey. What we thought would be a relatively quick lunch ended up taking more than two hours. Course after course of meats, cheese and desserts served by the mere of the restaurant (who helped me with my awful french pronunciations) we were quite full, but had the perfect excuse of riding all this way to justify our gluttony!

Stuffed and puffed we biked the rest of the short distance to the Abbey a place Anna had been really wanting to see. The Abbey was a beautiful stop, constructed in a Roman style, the space has a history of nearly a millenia. A worthy stop if you’re ever in region. After riding to the abbey along a busier path north of the river, we rode back along a secluded path south of the river home, the red evening sky cutting through the fall leaves. Our test run was a success.

We spent the next few days relaxing in Saumur, while getting the necessary resources for a long ride to Tours, namely baguettes, butter and cake. The couple of days went quickly and the next morning we got up just at sunrise and set off on our all day bike ride.

Getting ready to ride as the morning light comes in.

The air was cool and crisp (ideal for cycling) and a light cloud cover kept the sun from beaming on us through most of the ride. The landscape more than we had expected, parts of the ride were through beautiful fall forest with the river beside us, other portions went through lovely small towns. Nearly the entire ride was along separated paths, and if not, along very small winding residential roads. After the journey it’s clear why its such a popular cycling journey.

We reached the halfway point after riding for a little under three hours just a bit after 10am and decided to stop along the road by a small open field to have some lunch, we were pretty chuffed to have made it all that distance. After some baguettes, rilletes, butter, cake and a lot of water, we were off again.

It was a relatively short ride for us to make it to our first and only stop, the Chateau de Villandry, which had an amazing garden, beautifully sculpted and vivid in color. The Chateau even had its own hedge maze (nothing to the level of the Shining, but still). We spent a bit there, I took a nice fall afternoon nap on a bench while Anna did the full walk. After leaving the Chateau, we rode a bit up the hill to a cute restaurant inside what looked like a small farm, the food wasn’t the best we had, but the service warm. Conversing with the owner we learned she had an American father and her daughter was currently in NYC. Small world.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, in a lovely way; calm quiet and relaxing. The only interesting point was when we reached about 10kms out of Tours we were spooked by the sight of black smoke ahead of us along the path. As we approached, we realized we were passing a Romani settlement, as there were a platoon of caravans leaving the area, with what looked like police that were clearing the space out. Some googling taught us that there were perhaps hundreds of thousands of Romani in France often setup in urban camps like the one we had just passed, with unsurprisingly, a conflicted history with the French government and local peoples.

Once we passed through the camp it was smooth sailing to Tours with heaps more traffic, but fortunately for us we were only a short ride to our return destination. We arrived, dropped off our bikes to a very friendly serviceman who wished us well and we were off to get our car and our next destination in the Loire.

Kazan

Before I start just wanted to mention the change to the layout of the blog, I wanted all the words and photos to spill out on from the very front page.

Kazan is the capital of the Tartarstan state of Russia, more than a thousand years old it’s one of Russia’s oldest cities and a legacy of Ivan the Terrible’s conquests.

The city was only an overnight train ride from Yekaterinburg, having left at just after six, we arrived at the crack of dawn in Kazan at just past five. Compared to experiences on a red eye flight, we were very much refreshed after our sleep on the train.

Kazan isn’t a standard destination on the Trans Siberian, in fact it’s not part of it at all, but from our research Kazan seemed fascinating, and seemed to be recommended by locals everywhere.

After hosteling most of our way, we ended up staying at the Double Tree in Kazan, a welcome upgrade, and also a hotel happy to give us our room keys 6 hours before check in. After some warm showers, and some research we were back on the street in search of a hot breakfast which would lead us to a place we would frequent over and over during our time in the city.

Anna enjoying some good ol cafeteria food

Добрая столовая (Dobra Stolovaya), which in english translates simply to “Good Dining Room”, is an awesome cafeteria we found that is serving eager customers from early in the morning until the evening. The food was delicious and a meal between the two of us would usually be less than $3. There was so much variety that we came back over and over never running out of new things to try. Anna’s favorite dish ended up being this sweet cottage cheese cake in a shortbread crust (Sochnik), mine was a sort of meat pie with cabbage. Delicious.

We spent the rest of the day walking about the city, eventually taking a long bus ride into the middle of nowhere to see the Temple of All Religions, an unfinished religious site made by an eccentric man who wanted to honor all the “great” religions of the world in one place, the man died a few years ago, but his disciples continue to work on the building (construction continued as we walked about the site). Anna thought the place was very creepy, it seemed fine during the day, but I suppose I wouldn’t want to be running around the place at night. Seems like a place where the occult may take place.

Selfie in front of the The Temple of All Religions

After a long public bus ride back, we headed to Kazan Kremlin, built by Ivan the Terrible in 1500 interestingly has both a Eastern Orthodox Church and Mosque on site, a symbol of the two religions coexisting peacefully in Kazan for half a millenia. Both sites required Anna to wear head scarf, because a woman exposing her hair is clearly indecent.

Dan’s first time in a mosque. At the top.

We were allowed to climb to the top of the mosque where we had a view down on the prayer room. We then walked over to the church just in time for the 4pm bells. If you’ve never heard an east Orthodox bell ringing ceremony, I would describe as quite… creepy. The bells are rung unmelodious, near cacophony, almost like a clock gone haywire. I actually loved it. The church (which we were not allowed to photograph) had a very gilded, but dark and sombre tone and the bells matched perfectly.

After walking the rest of the grounds (some of it still being used for active government) we headed back to the cafeteria for dinner. Little did we know we had basically saw all of Kazan before we spent even our first night.

That wasn’t so bad though, the rest of our time in Kazan was spent eating great food and the excellent coffee, two of our favorite things to do!

Reading while drinking from the Chemex and munching on donuts at a lovely cafe.

Getting ready to board the train to Moscow!

Irkutsk

After hopping off the bus in the centre of Irkutsk, we headed to our hostel, Rolling Stones. We had a terrible hostel experience in Beijing and were a bit nervous about staying in a hostel again but Rolling Stones turned out to be a true gem. It was the best! Super comfortable rooms, perfect location, great staff and we enjoyed chatting to the other guests too.

We were in Irkutsk for three days. The train from Irkutsk to Yekaterinburg (our next stop) only runs a couple of times each week so we had to choose between stopping for two days or for five. We chose to stop for five days (three in Irkutsk and then two nights on Olkhon Island) but I was worried we’d be bored. Those worries turned out to be totally unnecessary as Irkutsk / Lake Baikal was my favourite stop along the Trans-Mongolian and there was more than enough to keep us occupied. The food in particular was SO good in Irkutsk.

Our first meal was at Antricot. The food was fine, with a very American vibe, and a funny menu (sausages, burgers, fancy iced teas). It also doubles as a hookah bar? Heading out from Antricot we wandered around the city for a while and stopped to watch people dancing by the river. The city is so charming, full of old wooden buildings that are painted so colourfully and as we were there in high summer it was spectacularly green with flowers blooming everywhere.

After resting for a while, we had an excellent dinner at Bierhaus, one of many Belgian beer spots in Irkutsk. It was great German food, a bit pricier but by no means expensive. Dan tried a Baikal vodka that was infused with pine nut, which was really yummy. We also had excellent fried fish, crispy potato pancakes with local cured fish, dill and onions and grilled vegetables.

We took it easy over the next few days, alternating between going out to eat, reading, making travel plans (so time consuming!) and wandering around Irkutsk, which has a really charming vibe.

We had fantastic coffee at a cafe called White Crow and a wonderful dinner at Rassolnik, which staff at Rolling Stones recommended to us. Highlights included a Georgian wine and a delicious rye and cherry cake. I would really love to find a book about Russian baking, as we have tried so many interesting and delicious cakes and biscuits along the way. We also had crepes and condensed milk for the first time (a Russian staple, it seems) and tried lots of types of Russian dumplings (pelmeni, varenyky and chebureki). We tried a sweet varenyky (recommended to us by a waiter at the local dumpling place) which was stuffed with a cream or cottage cheese and served with sour cream and strawberry sauce.

True to form, I also loved exploring Russian supermarkets. I think honey must be a local speciality as there were rows of different types of honey. There were also lots of different types of grapes and tiny, bright orange apricots. We tried cheesecake bars for the first time (a skinny bar of cheesecake coated in chocolate that is apparently a popular breakfast food). Dan also discovered Zhigulevskoye beer – delicious and cheap at 60 roubles.

So all in all, we had a really chilled and enjoyable time in Irkutsk doing not that much. We left Irkutsk rested and relaxed and looking forward to three days on Olkhon Island.

(Written by Anna)

A pit stop in Ulaanbaatar and onwards to Irkutsk

We woke up in our ger on Friday morning very keen to get to Ulaanbaatar (UB to the locals!) and have a shower and a good meal. The food options and bathroom facilities were very limited at our Airbnb and at that point it had been four days since our last shower (WAY too long in Anna’s opinion). We packed up, had a very quick (mediocre) breakfast and then our host drove us back to UB.

When we finally arrived at our hotel in UB the woman at the check in desk told us that there was no hot water at the hotel but that we could go to a nearby hotel for the same price. A quick google made it obvious that the alternative was much cheaper and not nearly as good so we asked for our reservation to be cancelled. We quickly made a booking at a nearby hotel and headed over there instead. I think it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Our back up option had views of the city, a comfortable bed and plentiful hot water.

After showering and putting on fresh clothes, we walked over to Modern Nomads, a chain serving contemporary Mongolian food. Although there were a few tables of tourists, most of the guests looked like locals having a late lunch or early dinner with family on a Friday afternoon. Dan ordered some local beer and milk tea (the former much better than the latter). We had buuz – a Mongolian dumpling filled with mutton, a dumpling soup and Japanese noodles (so called because a Japanese tourist reportedly fell in love with them). The thick wheat noodles were sautéed with onions and mutton and were certainly the highlight. Mongolian food, from our brief survey, is pretty monotonous. We didn’t see any spice or chilli being used and most dishes involve mutton and wheat noodles in some form. Although we had some acceptable meals, there is little doubt that Mongolia is not a foodie destination.

After lunch we headed over to the state run department store, looking out for some cashmere for Dan (it’s widely produced in Mongolia and relatively cheap). We didn’t find anything quite right. Although it’s lovely quality and a great price, a lot of the styles were very outdated – think sitcom Dad c. 2000. But we did enjoy the supermarket on the ground floor of the store, where we stocked up on supplies for the next leg of our trip. I was so happy to find Bob’s Red Mill granola in plentiful supply. (And the next day we found a much cooler cashmere store where I found amazing cashmere joggers that I very much regret not buying).

We started off our only evening in UB with drinks at at Irish pub called Great Khan. And then it was onto dinner at Rosewood, an Italian spot that is highly rated on Trip Advisor. The vibe at Rosewood was really lovely. Even though it wasn’t the best Italian meal ever, the atmosphere, a glass of good red wine and a change of pace from the mutton and noodles of the past three days was so comforting and calming. After dinner it was back to our hotel and early to bed.

The next morning we enjoyed a surprisingly good breakfast at the hotel and hung out in our hotel room for as long as possible, enjoying all the luxuries we wouldn’t have for the next part of our train journey. After check out we went in search of our last proper meal for 24+ hours. We ended up at Millie’s, a little cafe that services mostly tourists and expats. Dan had waffles with bacon and eggs and I had a BLT and took some carrot cake for the road. Then, it was off to the train station! Our destination was Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

The Russian train that we boarded was not nearly as new as the Chinese train we took to Mongolia (and we did not have the luxury of our own bathroom) but we actually enjoyed the old Russian train more. It had lots of character (certainly it was more Agatha Christie-esque) and the bed was so much more comfortable.

Dan surrounded by our supplies for the journey to Irkutsk

At the Mongolian / Russian border we had another lengthy stop, though without the need for a gauge change it took only four hours instead of six (phew!). We were officially in Russia by about 1.30am, very happy to be there and relieved that everything went smoothly with our visas. The next morning we woke up to see that our train was running along the banks of Lake Baikal. This turned out to be my favourite part of our Trans-Mongolian adventure. The lake was lined with lovely colourful and ramshackle homes with gardens blooming with flowers and vegetables. We also saw lots of people camping and boating on the lake.

After skimming the banks of Lake Baikal for a few hours, we arrived in Irkutsk mid-afternoon to a beautiful warm day. The train station is on the opposite side of the river to the main town so we had to find a way to get ourselves to our hostel. After a couple of misfires with taxis, a wrong minibus and standing at the bus stop on the wrong side of the street, we eventually found ourselves on a bus heading in the right direction. Next up, a few days in Irkutsk!

Mongolia – New meets old, staying in an Airbnb Ger

After a long night at the Chinese-Mongolian border we woke up to the sights of Mongolia. Already quite tired of eating instant noodles we opted to get “brunch” in the Mongolian train car.

Quite tired of instant noodles (it doesnt take much), we decided to try out food in the Mongolian dining car. It was a sparse menu, but seeing as we’d only had processed carbs for the past day, we opted for what vegetables we could along with some lamb sauteed with onions. It wasn’t the best meal we’ve ever had, but given our state quite delicious!

Although Ulaanbaatar would be considered small at 1.8 million people is small to us fancy New Yorkers, it houses nearly half of the population of the entire country, and sprawls wider than you could imagine. With more than an hour until reaching the station the reach of the city became evident as sparse Gers became tightly packed shantys with tin roofs, and horses were replaced by Priuses.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar just after 2pm, where we were greeted by our AirBnb Ger host Sainaa who would be taking us to the Genghis Khan monument before the camp site.

It’s incredible to think that less than 1000 years ago Genghis Khan and his sons lead the peoples of this sparsely populated country in a conquest that would have them close to taking over the entire Eurasian continent. Mongolia, now much quieter on the global scene still holds Genghis Khan to great esteem to the point where insulting him could put you in jail.

A panorama from the top of the monument. Khan looking over his vast country.

After checking out the monument we hopped back into our host’s Prius and headed to the camp, about an hour and a half from the city and close to the national park. When we arrived we placed our bags down in our home for the next two nights and headed to his “Ger Restaurant” where we would have our first true Mongolian meal of our trip. Tsuivan a traditional type of Mongolian stir fry noodles with beef and or lamb, and Khusshur a type of meat patty wrapped in dough and deep fried. Both were delicious.

Eating Tsuivan with Khusshur in the foreground.

The climate was a pretty significant departure from the endless heat and humidity of Taipei, Shanghai, and Beijing. Quite a relief, but it would mean that the nights could get below 10C. Fortunately (for us and not the environment) our Ger was equipped with a wood and coal burner which kept us more than toasty overnight.

After our late lunch we headed to a nomadic family where we tried Airag, a mildly alcoholic beverage made from fermented horse milk. Definitely a unique taste, slightly fizzy, a bit sour and an aftertaste that I would probably rather not experience again. It’s the national drink, and beloved by locals, so maybe with due time I could learn to enjoy it (who liked beer their first time drinking it?).

About to answer Anna on what I thought of airag.

At this nomadic family I also got the chance to ride a horse for the first time. Not something I’ve ever been particularly interested in doing, but coerced by our host, I present to you Dan on horse.

Thank you for letting me sit on you Mr. Horse.

After getting walked around on the horse for about 5 minutes, I got off and the family’s young daughter no older than 13 hopped on and showed me how it was done. Across Mongolia you see this everywhere, young teens on horse back herding sheep and cows, it’s quite impressive.

The next day was spent at Terlj National Park, which we both have to say was a bit of a disappointment. The term national park seems to have a very different meaning in Mongolia, having entered the park we were greeted by Ger resorts, restaurants, and various other capitalist enterprises that would never be seen in a “national” park in the US or Australia. There were two man attractions in the park, Turtle Rock, which you can guess is a rock formation that resembles a turtle (which neither of us had the foresight to take a picture of). You could also climb it which meant navigating a very narrow opening.

After hanging out there for a bit we headed to the Aryaval monastery, a temple that sits at the end of a long hike and is something of a spiritual destination for Mongolian buddhists.

Looking back at about halfway on our hike to the temple.

The inside of the temple was colorful in a way that is common in Mongolia and makes it distinct from Chinese buddhist temples which are typically more subdued in decor.

After a long afternoon in the park we headed to Khaan Jims by the river where we had a nice lunch before heading back to the Ger camp to hang out by ourselves in the vast fields before heading to Ulaanbaatar the next morning.

Anna not so keen on eating Sheep’s head.

Anna looking small in the vast meadows of Mongolia (which btw looks like the Windows XP background)

Beijing to Mongolia – The Trans-Mongolian Begins!

Our Trans-Mongolian route, sans stop in Novosibirsk, but with an extra leg to St Petersburg.

After a short sleep, we got up at about 6am, packing up what we hadn’t last night, and with one last double check of our room, headed to the Beijing Railroad Station, located conveniently and intentionally across the road from our hotel. We were on the cusp of beginning our Trans-Mongolian railway journey.

Our experience with Rail stations in China could be described simply as erratic and hectic. Beijing Rail Station, even at six in the morning was no different, but with both of us a bit more seasoned in Chinese rail stations, we were able to make our way through confidently. Enough time for Anna to have a Taiwanese breakfast (wonton soup with youtiao), and myself shamelessly indulging in a sausage egg mcmuffin. Just a few minutes later, it was boarding time.

Tired but excited to start our Trans-Mongolian Journey!

We dropped our bags in our two bunk room with our very own private bathroom, a perk of being in first class, and spent a bit of time figuring out what knobs did what, and how to keep our space somewhat uncluttered.

At just before a quarter past 7, we felt a slight bump in our compartment, and like a ball rolling down a hill we were off. Our journey has begun. First order of business, take a nap.

First Trans-Mongolian meal, Taiwanese noodles for Anna, Macca’s for me.

A wider view of our train car. Anna stretching out on our sofa chair.

Leaving Beijing the landscape was filled with dramatic cliffs and mountains eventually turning into endless green fields and the power line that would hug us in parallel all the way to when we reached the border.

We had our first of what would be many instant noodles during our trip, meanwhile our conductors were busy making dumplings, stir fries and various other delicious looking foods that would be unavailable to us on the less than appetizing dining cart menu.

Most of our train ride involved a lot of relaxing. With free hot water for our trip we indulged in cups of hot tea (the Trans-Mongolian was in fact originally a caravan that brought tea from China into Russia) while reading books and watching movies, and of course staring out the window.

With our door open we eventually made some friends, an older Canadian couple who were also doing the Trans-Mongolian, but were going to be in Mongolia for nearly two weeks doing the whole big trip to the Gobi desert via small propeller plane (which as our blog title suggests me and Anna were not keen for). They were a lovely couple and were nice to have some other English speakers to grumble for our upcoming long delay.

At 8pm we reached Erlian, where a Chinese immigration officer came by and added our passports to a stack on her sleeve and walked off leaving us passport less through the changeover. This would turn out to be a long, long process due to the fact that the rails on Mongolia’s side are exactly 85mm wider than the rails we sat on. This meant that we would all be locked in our train cars with no access to facilities for the duration of the change, where each car would be individually lifted and a cohort of questionable competency changed the wheels to the wider gauge. It wouldn’t be until close to midnight before this was done and the officers politely returned our passports.

Of course once we coasted for about 30 minutes into Mongolia, another passport check was necessary, and a now Mongolian officer would come by and just like her Chinese contemporary would add our passports to her sleeve, and spend the next two hours examining whether we were who we claimed to be. The process went smoothly but we would not be free and clear until after 2am. The both of us exhausted, but relieved, finally went to sleep.

We would wake up the next morning to a dramatically different landscape in a new country. Endless rolling hills spattered with the occasional ger accompanied with flocks of sheeps, and lazy cow herds, not to mention a significant drop in temps from 31C to 20C, quite a relief for both of us.

From Beijing to Mongolia, quite the landscape change.

Our Mongolian Dining Car, much nicer than the Chinese car

Day 1 – Arrival to Hsinchu, Taiwan

Hello friends and family, welcome to our little travel blog, we hope to be able to post stories and photos along our trip here.

Anyways, this is Dan writing the first post (but dont worry Anna will also be writing in her own voice as well).

After quite a bit of trip planning and Anna finally sitting her bar exam, our trip began with a

Our trip officially started with a 1:30am flight from NYC to Taipei, a 15 hour flight, me and Anna’s official longest flight together (yay?). Both of us normally find it rather difficult to sleep on planes, but we were fortunate enough to get an entire row to ourselves allowing us to stretch out our gangly arms and legs. In fact there was enough room to allow us to take turns sleeping flat whilst the other took on sitting duties, acting as a pillow.

*Anna turning our row into a make-shift bed*

Upon arriving in Taoyuan airport we took the MRT (the local subway transit) to the HRT (high speed rail transit) where we zipped to Hsinchu meet Claudia and David, both friends from college who graciously offered a place to stay. The 50km journey on high speed rail took us approximately 9 minutes. Amazing.

Claudia graciously picked us up and took us to where we’d be staying, her parents apartment (who were currently on a trip) just upstairs from her own. After dropping off our stuff we immediately focused on the task at hand, getting food! A quick googling of breakfast options led us to Shandong Breakfast.

The reviews were all chinese translations so we were a little worried that ordering would be a challenge, but it turns out the son of the owner spoke pretty good english, but more so was super kind and gracious and suggested to us everything to order, we ended up with a pretty reasonable amount of delicious food, but more miraculously one of the dishes involved an omelette, and not only was Anna able to tolerate it, she in fact enjoyed it? Is this the start of a new era for Anna? Probably not, but stay tuned to find out.

*Our haul, xialongbaos and chinese omelettes with savory donuts wrapped in flat bread.*

After breakfast we walked back to our place where we subsequently overnapped for a bit before Claudia came back. Finally waking up around noon we headed for lunch at the Chenghuang Temple, as Claudia says, a temple for ghosts that has also turned into a makeshift street food area. We had some delicious meatballs, soup, and local noodles, then topped off with some amazing Taiwanese shaved ice.

Claudia realizing I was taking a photo of them and not just the food.

After eating we spent most of the rest of the day pottering about before having some quick beef noodle soup at Claudia’s and then passing out heavily jet lagged. Day 1 complete!