Puerto Vallarta with Small Kids

To those who once followed my overseas travels by this blog, I apologize for going 7 years between entries! I assure you it was not for lack of aspiration to go global jet-setting! However, once I left expat life in Korea in 2017 my ability to thrust myself to new countries dwindled dramatically. Upon returning to the US, I was saddled with a months-long job search. Then upon moving to Seattle and settling in, my wife became pregnant and had no interest in a “baby moon”. And then once you have kids, of course, everything changes. The cost of traveling skyrockets, the amount of gear you need to carry mushrooms, and the ability to control your itinerary and maintain your sanity both plummet. Throw in a global pandemic and travel bans everywhere in the middle of having kids … and you can see why I didn’t travel blog for 7 years!!

Luckily they didn't fight over the mango

My old passport, which is still active, has become very lonely sitting in a drawer for most of that period. I did manage to travel with my wife to BC Canada (no stamps), to Geneva Switzerland (on business), and twice on family trips to Vietnam (visits #17 and #18 for me), but none of those trips felt blog-worthy, nor did any of my USA travels (which, frankly, weren’t a lot).

 

Flash forward to winter 2024, I’m at home during the “Big Dark” of Seattle winter with my wife and two girls, now ages 5 and 3, and we are starved for some warm sunshine. My wife calls it “winter blue”. She now has her own US passport (yay naturalization!) and we convinced ourselves that our little rug rats could survive a 4.5-hour flight to reach the warm sandy paradise of Puerto Vallarta (yay direct flights!). For me, it had been an embarrassingly long time since I visited Mexico – not since college – and my wife was also keen to add a new country to her list. So, PV was a logical fit for a late-winter excursion.

 

By the time departure day arrived I was more than ready for a vacation. After what felt like a never-ending streak of 47-degree rainy days in Seattle, I could feel the accumulated burden of winter in my chest and knew it was time to get away. I slept restlessly the night before departing.

 

Day 1 - DEPARTURE DAY

Finally, the big morning arrived, and my kids were as eager to go to a new place as I was. Despite waking up early they got ready in record time! Everything was smooth sailing to the departure gate and my girls were excited to be riding on “the plane with the head”. I was excited to have 2 rows on the plane with the middle seat empty … a blessing with kids! After a thankfully tantrum-free plane ride, the girls were very excited to be on the ground, and I was grinning ear-to-ear at all that Puerto Vallarta sunshine … exactly what a Seattle person needs after WINTER! The immigration line at the airport was mobbed, largely with American and Canadian passports, and with no air conditioning the heat made the room quite stuffy. My kids were fussy and eager for the beach, and finally after 40 minutes waiting, we were in Mexico.

 

I had read several blogs before traveling, all of which said something along the lines of “Uber will be way cheaper than taxis” and provided instructions for how to get to Uber as the cars aren’t allowed to pick up at the airport. We exited the “shark tank” after immigration, walked past the hordes queuing for taxis and shuttles, up the pedestrian bridge over the highway, and down to the pickup point near the bus stop. Then – getting an Uber was a total DISASTER. The Uber app quoted me $298 pesos, cheap by American standards, but the app just kept spinning as no driver accepted my ride. I canceled and tried multiple times, to no avail. So, we ended up eating a corn dessert and 2 ice cream bars from a street vendor, then getting a taxi for about the same price ($300 pesos) to our hotel in the “Romantic Zone”. If we could do it over, I would have just entered the taxi line at the airport arrivals area and bargained for the rate. We might have paid less for the taxi by the Uber pickup spot than at the arrivals area of the airport, but I’ll never know for sure. The airport was a zoo, and this wasn’t my only disappointing Uber experience in PV. I was very glad I had ordered some pesos from my bank before the trip!!

 

With the windows open in the taxi from the airport, I was finally able to relax. The mild breeze felt wonderful! Truly sublime. We arrived in Centro at sunset, which I could watch over the ocean. Life was good! 

 

Dinner was at a taco restaurant walking distance from our hotel called Tacos Revolucion. There were many delicious salsas, and my kids were hungry!

 

 

Day 2 – SO MUCH FOR STAYING ON SEATTLE TIME

With the 2-hour time difference between Seattle and PV, my wife and I thought we could stretch the kids out later into the evenings and then sleep in. But the blackout curtains in our room weren’t amazing and by the time the first glimmer of light appeared they both asked eagerly, “Is it morning yet?!” By 7:30am, they were wide awake, peering out at our partial ocean view. The girls were excited to see the big waves.

 

We wandered downstairs. Though the restaurant hadn’t opened yet at the Hotel Tropicana, we did see a line of seniors queueing with towels to get to the beach. Apparently, you could snag beach chairs at the 8am opening time, leave towels on the chairs, and lay claim to them for the day. “There’s blood,” one senior stated in describing the daily fight for beach turf. Thankfully this lady had been around long enough to know the best breakfast in the Zona Romántica, at Coco’s Kitchen. And although our desayuno wasn’t cheap, the portions were large and delicious. I had my first taste of the traditional Mexican breakfast, chilaquiles, which I will forever remember as “nachos for breakfast”. Not quite the same, but close! My wife and I shared her shrimp omelet, and our girls surprisingly did not enjoy the very yummy French toast.

 

We then walked to the Parque Lazaro Cardenas, which has a bustling Saturday market. We didn’t wait in the endless queue for cinnamon buns (“the best in PV”) but the girls did enjoy some ice cream while we sat in the small amphitheater zone and watched live music. I noticed tons of American and Canadian retirees in attendance, which along with the gay male community seemed to dominate the Zona Romántica. There weren’t many families with kids like ours.

 

Parque Lazaro Cardenas amphitheater

From there, we walked along the beach path back to our hotel and found the one umbrella with 2 beach chairs unclaimed by the mass 8:00am land grab. My wife flagged down a vendor to buy some kids beach toys, and our girls played very happily in the sand. Our beach was claimed for those with hotel wristbands, but open to the many vendors trying to sell all sorts of wares – bracelets, jewelry, sombreros, fish and shrimp on a stick, mango, oysters. I kept saying “No gracias” to the beach vendors and my younger daughter started repeating me! Some of the vendors smiled. Good Spanish lesson for her! 

 

It was a big day for my girls with the beach and the swimming pool, and by dinner time they were EXHAUSTED! My 3-year-old passed out at our dinner restaurant (Tacos Sonorita) and had a good nap there while we ate more tacos. There was a Carnaval parade passing through the Zona Romántica that evening, but there was no way my girls could have stayed awake to enjoy it.

 

 

DAY 3 – SIGHTSEEING

We woke up again at sunrise, and my wife wanted to see the Malecón boardwalk before the midday sun started beating down. My 3-year-old, however, wanted to go straight to the beach and threw a tantrum when she saw we were heading to the street and not the direction of the beach. My wife calmed her down (sort of) by telling her we were heading to a different beach … which was sort of true. We walked parallel to the ocean, across the small bridge next to the Isla Cuale, and found a street vendor at the base of the Malecón selling delicious warm pastries, both sweet and savory. So that was breakfast. We continued walking north in the morning shade past the Los Arcos, the various bronze statues, and the Puerto Vallarta block letter sign. It was a nice quiet stroll on another beautiful morning. Did I mention the Puerto Vallarta weather in late February is sublime?! In the upper 60s at sunrise and the low-to-mid 80s in the afternoon, and partly to mostly sunny. It was hot under the sun during midday but great weather to be under an umbrella. And the ocean was reasonably mild as well.

The Malecón boardwalk

At the end of the boardwalk, we found coffee and paid American prices for espresso drinks and frappes. This continued the pattern we experienced our whole trip in PV… some purchases were great bargains (e.g., pastries, street tacos, taxis) and others felt like American prices, or worse! I couldn’t believe what I was charged for Pantene shampoo at the convenience store near my hotel, and sunscreen was expensive too. Exchange rates were all over the place as well … I withdrew pesos from a reputable-looking bank ATM near the Parque Lazaro Cardenas and got a terrible exchange rate … almost as bad as the rate offered by my hotel, and worse than the rate for the pesos I had delivered to my door by Wells Fargo in the US! Many shops and restaurants offered their own rate for US Dollars, and I saw anywhere from 14 to 17.5 pesos per dollar.

 

We finally gave the kids their beach time on the Playa Camarones after the coffee, equally as nice as the Playa Los Muertos next to our hotel, and much quieter and more local. The girls would have played there all day but we made them pack up once the morning shadows departed, and we taxied back to Parroquia de Guadelupe church. It was a big church and my wife enjoyed watching the Sunday service, even though she isn’t Catholic. We eventually meandered back to our hotel beach and parked ourselves under the one free umbrella. My girls happily built sandcastles while I ordered fresh oysters served with lime. My wife calls Mexico “the country of limes”! One of the 65-year-old snowbirds befriended my kids and helped them with their sand creations while educating my wife and I on property ownership rights for foreigners. There were a lot of American and Canadian retirees in PV, possibly more Canadians than Americans!

 

The surf was big, so we couldn’t swim in the ocean, but my kids were content with late afternoons in the pool. They were completely exhausted after and slept in our arms while we waited in the long line to enter Café de Olla for more tacos and sopes.

 

 

DAY 4 – THE BIG CLIMB

Puerto Vallarta is very hilly, and several blogs had advised to climb to the Cerro de la Cruz for the best view in the city. Mindful of my 3-year-old’s tantrum to walk to the Malecón the day before, we booked an Uber to take us on a short drive to where I figured would be the base of the hill to climb to the lookout. But type “Cerro de la Cruz” into Uber and you get dropped off on a skinny dead-end road with no clear indication of where to go. Thankfully Google Maps helped us find the way. Just as we about to turn the corner to get to the path, we saw a snowbird lady walking down, sweating from the hike up and making her way back to Centro. My wife asked her, “Which way to the lookout point?”. This lady took one look at our kids and stated bluntly, “It’s around the corner. But there’s no way you’ll ever make it up there. Look and you’ll see.” That sounded like a dare to me!

 

We saw the slope up and indeed it was quite steep. At this point my 5-year-old gave up and said, “Daddy, carry me!” Not ideal, but thankfully she is quite skinny, so I had enough strength to carry her up slowly. My 3-year-old eagerly ascended with my wife, who quickly became winded. The steep slope became a series of winding and not-too-safe steps with a small railing on one side. The steps were up to my 3-year-old’s knee, but she still wobbled up, to the amazement of all the adults coming down. We saw no other kids up there. My 5-year-old rode in my arms as I slowly ascended, desperate not to lose my balance. My wife moaned and moved deliberately. About 80% of the way up and my 3-year-old finally tired… she was a champ! Thankfully my fresh 5-year-old was willing to go up on her own legs the rest of the way to the top … there’s no way I could have carried 2 of them on those steep stairs! When we made it to the top, the view was quite impressive. It was probably a 100-meter climb. We could see the whole bay and even a couple whales jumping off in the distance

 

After climbing down, the little ones were starving, and we found an amazing little panadería(bakery) just a couple blocks past the bottom of the stairs – Panzabroso. We ordered 3 big delicious pastries for 66 pesos … TOTAL!! What an amazing value! Puerto Vallarta … where everything is either an amazing value or a rip-off. We walked down the street to a coffee shop and each of our drinks cost more than the whole pastry order.

 

After getting our morning exercise in, it was back to the hotel for lazy beach time. Scanning my phone, I saw that it had snowed north of Seattle that morning. I was so glad to get away! The girls played in the sand all afternoon and we dipped our feet in the ocean after the intense sun passed. We changed clothes and walked onto the busy Los Muertos beach pier at sunset, then wandered the streets of Zona Romántica… 2 hungry souls walking past packed restaurant after packed restaurant, carrying 2 sleeping preschoolers. We finally settled for street tacos, which were inexpensive and were quite tasty, actually.

 

 

DAY 5 – FROM ROMANTIC ZONE TO HOTEL ZONE

My sister and her husband were planning to arrive in the evening and stay at the Marriott in the Marina Vallarta near the airport, so to be closer to them we had arranged to leave our Zona Romántica hotel to stay in the Zona Hotelera. We were ready for a change as the Hotel Tropicana is a bit dilapidated and we wanted to see another side of the city. We had a lazy day. Breakfast at the hotel (neither high quality nor so expensive), time in the pool for the kids until the sun came out of the shadows, shower, then walking along the beach to the Restaurant Canto del Mar for seafood lunch. They had a nice sandy beach for my 5-year-old to play in, and the “ceviche” was fine but much more finely chopped than what I remembered from when I first tried in Peru. 

 

We walked back to our hotel in the midday sun, grabbed our luggage, then an Uber to our new hotel, the Krystal Vallarta. In fact, we were staying in a private condo we found on Airbnb but located at the resort and with full access to the pools and beach. The distance was not so far, about 7km, but we were stuck in fierce mid-afternoon traffic. Good time for a slow car ride as both my daughters were asleep in the back of the car. 

The Hotel Zone has a very different feel from the Romantic Zone … not historical and with a suburban feel, not very walkable. The highlight appeared to be an Outback Steakhouse on the other side of a busy throughfare. We might as well have been in Anytown USA. Seemed like we were stuck eating at the hotel. The grounds of the property were far larger than anything in the Romantic Zone and our new hotel had multiple swimming pools, although almost everything looked dated. At least our condo was recently renovated, and quite comfortable. Our room had 2 twin beds and 2 pullouts … a bed for everyone! We ate dinner at the mediocre hotel buffet, where I discovered my girls enjoy horchata, took a walk, and slept soundly.

 

 

DAY 6 – RENDEZVOUS WITH MY SISTER

We planned the trip such that we could get a little time with my sister and my brother-in-law. They spent several days eating and drinking in Mexico City and then took the short domestic flight to PV. As my brother-in-law had some work calls to take, we met them at the Marriott, where they were staying.

 

Immediately it was apparent that resorts like the Marriott cater to a different clientele than the Zona Romántica. The typical persona appeared to be middle-aged businessperson with Marriott Bonvoy status (like my brother-in-law) eager to spend down points earned from the life as a road warrior on a quiet getaway. The resort was almost dull. Yes, it felt luxurious to just wade up to the poolside bar, order a piña colada and charge it to the room, then after time in the sun, find an umbrella and order some fish and chips. But all the activity was around the pool and beach. You couldn’t walk anywhere from the resort, so most travelers were content to be trapped there. The resort was nicer than the hotels we had chosen, justifying its price tag, but I was happy to only be there for a day. Before embarking on our trip, I openly questioned whether at this point in my life, with two small kids, whether I would prefer the all-inclusive experience where most of my vacation was spent at the resort and not the place to which I had traveled. Certainly, I still value being in a vibrant neighborhood over being tucked away in a resort.

 

So, this day was a very lazy day where we mostly just sat at the pool, and later the beach, chatting with my sister. There was a falconer walking around with a trained hawk which my girls enjoyed. We saw our first iguana of the trip at the Marriott … contrary to what I had read about Puerto Vallarta before our trip, iguanas are not commonly found in the tourist zone. At the Marriott, you have the privilege of not being solicited by any vendors at the beach, but I also felt sad I could not snag a $150 peso plate of oysters or shrimp on a stick.

 

We did convince my sister and her husband to take a taxi back to the Malecón to see some of the sights down there. We had dinner at Melissa’s, a tasty and reasonably priced seafood restaurant in Centro. The other clientele consisted of gringo seniors who enjoyed ogling at my girls. I guess we ran up a decent bill as we finished our meal with a round of local tequila on the house. It was solid.

 

 

DAY 7 – WHALE WATCHING

I had read that late February was prime whale-watching season in Puerto Vallarta, so I knew we needed to book a boat tour in the Bay of Banderas. There are many tours which you can book online through sites like Vallarta Adventures or Viator, but we found better pricing on the ground when we negotiated with local tour agents. We were able to find our tour for $60 USD per adult, with the “babies” free!

 

Hard to see the whale from the photo, but it's there!

The tour departed 9am from the Puerto Mágico. The whales we were told are more active in the morning. Thankfully the girls were very prompt to wake up and get ready! Our boat was mostly empty, served a big breakfast of chilaquiles, eggs, and pineapple, and offered free cocktails throughout. It wasn’t long on the boat before we saw our first whales surfacing and the big sea beasts are really something! My sea stomach is quite solid, but my wife and kids all had seasickness and were miserable. About 40 minutes in, my 3-year-old was asking to go back to our hotel, my 5-year-old was keeled over and my wife stared with a pained look towards the sea.

 

Hence, I couldn’t wander around the boat to get the best view of the whales. But there was such an abundance of the whales that they were hard to miss, even from my seat. We eventually made it to a spot in the water where a mother was escorting her baby whale as the baby was playfully jumping out of the water! What a spectacle!

 

We spent our last full afternoon in PV at the beach of the Krystal Vallarta. It wasn’t as mobbed as the Playa Los Muertos but there were some vendors and my girls devoured a $50 peso mango on a stick. We wrapped the day with dinner at La Matona Tacos, halfway back towards Centro.

 

 

DAY 8 – RETURN TO HOME

We had booked a late flight home to save some $$$, departing around 6:00pm, which led to the awkward figuring out how we were going to kill time during the afternoon. No point getting to the airport early (more on that later!) and we weren’t going to go to the beach or pool as we had no place to shower afterwards. So, we checked out of our Airbnb mid-morning and taxied over to the Marriott to get a couple more hours with my sister.

 

At the Marriott we cashed in her complimentary drink tickets near the pool, and of course my girls kept asking why they couldn’t change into their swimsuits, not understanding the constraints we were working under! My sister and brother-in-law left midday with BIG hugs from my girls, and fortunately we were also able to cash in my sister’s complimentary 1-hour kiddie room credit at the Marriott. My girls hadn’t colored for a week and had clearly missed crayons!

 

My wife was unimpressed with the Marriott’s food menu, and as no one was super hungry we decided to roll the dice by postponing lunch until we reached the airport … BIG mistake! (more on that later)  When my kids finally grew bored of the Marriott lobby area we collected our luggage and headed for the airport. Uber quoted $146 pesos but the taxi waiting at the Marriott was only $100 pesos… I was thoroughly unimpressed with Uber in Puerto Vallarta. The taxis are plentiful in the tourist areas, have nicer cars than the Ubers and quoted reasonable rates. I think the Uber app offers a nice way to calibrate what taxi rides (which are unmetered) should cost in PV, but for the most part I think I would stick mostly with taxis if I returned to PV.

 

The airport road was busy but thankfully the security line was short. Beyond security, after walking through the first mega duty-free zone there is a mediocre small food court. Our kids are picky eaters and we found a dismal Sbarro with lukewarm pizzas under heat lamps. The prices weren’t shown on the display as the staff claimed “their electricity wasn’t working”, so I handed my wife our last $500 peso bill assuming she could get more than enough lunch for our family with it, because hey, it’s Sbarro. I then grabbed our carry-ons and herded my kids to look for a table in the very limited seating area. Then my wife called back to me. She needed more money?! I walked to the Sbarro register to figure out what was going on. They had quoted my wife $810 pesos for 3 slices of pizza, a salad, and a calzone. A slice of pizza alone was $159 pesos, about $10 USD per slice!! My kids were starved for pizza, so I told them I would only pay for 2 slices of the pizza and the calzone, then my $500 peso bill evaporated … poof! I was so upset. We should have eaten at the Marriott before coming to the airport.

By our late-afternoon departure my kids, who had been relatively well-behaved on the trip, were starting to come unwound from tiredness, and I knew we had an adventure ahead of us to journey back to our beds at home. With a full flight back to Seattle, we just had 4 seats across in 1 aisle on the plane, and my kids immediately fought over the window seat. Thankfully my little one gave in, and big sister sat at the window contentedly with her Fire tablet for the whole flight. I took middle seat and my 3-year-old had aisle, with my wife across. I helped my 3-year-old to read stories and play games on her tablet, until she fell asleep sitting up and leaning on my shoulder. Her first upright plane nap! And she was out for over an hour, much to my relief, but then she woke up super fussy and slapped me in the face. Ouch!

 

The flight was thankfully calm until we landed at SeaTac at 9:00pm, or 11:00pm Mexico time. So my girls were going to be exhausted, and they showed it! First my 3-year-old cried through one of the biggest tantrums of her life getting off the plane, as I needed to carry our luggage and couldn’t also carry her. She screamed hysterically all the way from the jet bridge until just before immigration … thankfully she held it together in front of the CBP officer. Things calmed down briefly as we exited the airport into the cold, clammy Seattle night and waited for the off-site parking bus. When we finally arrived at our car, it was my 5-year-old’s turn to have her own mega-tantrum about the temperature of the car (which really felt like it had been shivering outside for a week), her sister’s singing, and goodness knows what else. But after 5 more minutes of screaming in the car the two of them suddenly fell asleep on the highway, and it was one of the most enjoyable quiet late night car rides ever! I carried both the girls straight to their beds at home and they slept in their clothes from the long travel day.

 

 

REFLECTION

When we returned to Seattle, the weather was colder than when we left! The 47-degree rainy days that had burdened my chest had been replaced by 42-degree rain. Instead of catapulting into spring, my home city had gone backwards towards winter. So, I had plenty of time stuck indoors to reflect in the week following.

 

In reflecting, I felt nothing but smiles. Puerto Vallarta had been a really good trip! What amazing weather we had, and I was able to set my mind at ease while experiencing a place quite different from my day-to-day. Traveling with small kids had its challenges and compromises, but their enthusiasm for the place made their parents lives just a bit easier. The city felt quite safe and accessible, even with my limited Spanish.

 

Although the tourist area around Centro was quite practical and enjoyable for a first trip to PV, if I were to return, I would like to be more ambitious and escape the city. One place I would like to see is the Botanical Garden, which I’ve read is a lush jungle with great walking trails. I also would have liked to visit the Boca de Tomatlan fishing village and hike along the coast to Las Animas. I would have walked the Jorullo Bridge, taken the boat tour to the Marietas Islands, and maybe also experienced the waterfall at Yelapa. I may have rented a car to check out Sayulita, maybe stay a couple nights there.

 

Inexpensive & delicious oysters delivered on the beach

But when you have small kids, who really just want pool-eat-beach…REPEAT, you stay on a budget, and you don’t stretch yourself too ambitiously. You celebrate small victories, like climbing the Cerro de la Cruz, and you enjoy the restful time together as a family. I look forward to our next adventure!!

New Year's in Bali

As I look back on living 4+ years in East Asia as an expat, I realize that I have been incredibly fortunate to travel to so many places on this side of the world. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” wrote Dr. Seuss. For me, this has included China (three times) & Taiwan (twice), Japan (six times), Hong Kong (twice), Singapore (three times), India (twice), Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand (three times), Malaysia, Australia (twice), New Zealand, and of course… 15 trips to Vietnam! Knowing that my remaining time living in this part of the world may be short, a bit of FOMO is setting in — but I realize that most of the places on my Asia bucket list have been checked. One of the few that remained unchecked was Bali, Indonesia, described by many as an idyllic paradise. I wanted to see for myself!

The memorials cut into the rock at Pura Gunung Kawi were tall and impressive

Once my wife and I decided not to visit my parents in the US for Christmas this year, I was on the lookout for places I could take a winter vacation using my frequent flyer miles. Turns out that Korean Air has a great loyalty program with lots of rewards flights available to Bali — I booked two and got a great deal on some expensive holiday tickets! The flight to Bali from Seoul is long — 7 hours — surprising to some until you realize that Bali is south of the equator, making Seoul to Bali about the same distance as New York to Peru. There is a small detail I left out: late December is the rainy season in Bali. However, that didn’t bother us greatly… even though every day contained a rain shower or two there was still enough abundant sunshine for my wife to receive an unwanted sunburn.
After arriving on a late flight and spending a short evening near Ngurah Rai Airport, my wife was able to negotiate with a Grab driver to take us on the 2-hour journey to Ubud for less than $15! In Bali the local taxi cartel is more rent-seeking than in most places (as evidenced by our $6 taxi ride to drive 2km from the airport) which makes the new competition from Grab and Uber quite welcome for consumers. Realizing this the taxi cartels have placed signs all over tourist areas demanding people not to use Grab or Uber, though I imagine the effect of this has been rather limited. We arrived in Ubud tired after a long bumper-to-bumper car journey — the tiny roads in Bali are packed with cars — and were delighted to have a welcome sign placed up for us at the boutique hotel we were checking into. We stayed next to a rice field but could also walk easily to restaurants and cafes — a nice balance. My Vietnamese wife was also delighted by the warm weather as the bone-chilling winter in Seoul was starting to wear on her!

Tanah Lot had a nice ocean breeze and wasn't too crowded at midday

Ubud is a well-traveled tourist town for the “alternative” Bali experience — up in the hills there are a lot of boutique jungle resorts and yoga retreats. The town is rather small and walkable but congested with cars … fortunately we could walk to Ubud Palace and the nearby Monkey Forest — many friendly monkeys here! The forest is a nice and relatively quiet outdoor walk. We hiked a bit from the center of town to a warung (Indonesian restaurant) for dinner … nasi goreng (fried rice) and chicken skewers seems like a standard meal in Bali … and the warung prices are great!

The next day, New Year’s Eve, my wife hired a local driver — available for about $50/day all-inclusive, if you bargain — to take us on a tour of Hindu temples on the island (Bali is primarily Hindu, not Muslim like most of Indonesia). We started at the “Elephant Cave” (Goa Gajah), which actually didn’t have any elephants but did have a cave famed for its ancient stone carvings of Hindu gods. It was a nice morning walk also with a jungle canyon area to explore. Next we visited the Pura Gunung Kawi temple — at the bottom of a lush green river valley lie 8-meter-tall memorials cut out of the rock face of a cliff. It’s a long climb to get down and up but well worth it! If you’re not soaked in sweat you can hike back up for some nice views … we felt too hot! Next was the Pura Tirta Empul temple, a water temple with many locals wading in the holy waters. For lunch our driver escorted us to a tourist restaurant with a lovely view over Batur Lake, until the pouring rain started — we were lucky to be indoors with the buffet! Sadly our view of the lake was short-lived once we were fogged in by the rain cloud. The rain turned into a downpour once we reached Pura Besakih, the “Mother Temple” — though my wife excited for the views we gave this a pass and retreated back into our car. By the time we reached the empty Pura Kehen the rain had stopped and we were alone in this green, wonderful, peaceful place. Temples are great when they are not full of tourists! Finally on the way back to town we glanced at the Tegalalang Rice Terrace — a little late and soggy for us to hike in. Besides, though the view was nice this place has nothing on Sapa, Vietnam!

Uluwatu Temple was on a majestic cliff edge overlooking the water ... but, whew, HOT!!

For the evening we ate a simple warung dinner and found a coffee shop which was open to 11pm. The amateur fireworks started at sundown and continued to almost 1am, but Ubud had no big public fireworks show — from the television it looked like there was a big show at the Kuta Beach.

Gitgit Waterfall... the only site worth seeing in North Bali

On New Year’s Day my wife and I woke up a little groggy from the late night before and started an early day with the driver again. This time we made the long 2-hour drive north to Pura Ulun Danu Beratan temple. The temple is on the shore of a nice lake but was packed with local tourists … not worth the long trip, in my opinion. Being on a flat seashore rather than a jungle hillside also took away some of the mystique for me. From here we traveled further north to the Gitgit Waterfall, an impressive waterfall 35 meters tall surrounded by tropical trees. It was hard to get a good picture here because of the water spray. We drove down to the road along the northern coast but were disappointed as you cannot actually see the sea from the road as the whole coastline is blocked by resorts. Also the traffic jam here was horrible on a holiday weekend day. My wife wanted to swim at the Banjar Hot Spring but by the time we reached here it was already 4:30pm and crammed with bathing locals. I knew we only had the driver for 10 hours and we had a long drive ahead back to Kuta. Nearly 4 hours later we were in Kuta, a raging concrete jungle packed with loud bars and tattoo parlors and rowdy young Australians. We spent too much time on New Year’s Day in the car — besides Gitgit Waterfall there was nothing worthwhile on the northern part of Bali. Though the distances are relatively small the tiny roads and bumper-to-bumper traffic make any car journey in Bali quite taxing on one’s patience. A massage and yoga day in Ubud would have been much better!

Fortunately once we reached Kuta we were no longer planning any long temple trips by car. The next morning we checked out of uncomfortable Kuta hotel and my wife drove a motorbike to Tanah Lot, a rock formation in the water about an hour’s drive northwest. This place I’m told would have been packed at sunset, but in the middle of the day was manageably crowded and we were able to get some nice photos. That afternoon we moved to the Nusa Dua enclave, a fenced-in resort area on the southern peninsula full of resorts along the beach. We chose the Westin, which had a good deal with Starwood Points. It was a very different Bali experience in the resort — the cocoon has everything you could want without leaving but spending 3x what you would be spending outside for a meal felt like robbery. I have mixed feelings about resort vacations… certainly they are easy but you lose touch with the authenticity of the location you are visiting. They are great for kids though. The water was a little cold but the beach had some nice covered chairs we could lie down on. I was happy to lounge with my wife and take a break from sightseeing. And there was a great pizza restaurant nearby — my wife and I had tired of eating nasi goreng with chicken skewers!

The next day was quite lazy. My wife and I had a long walk along the beach to the Water Blow in Nusa Dua. We watched large waves from the Indian Ocean crash against a jagged limestone cliff. We took time to play ping-pong, go to the resort gym, and eat sushi. Busy day, I know!

Nice to watch the waves crash into the Nusa Dua Water Blow

On our final day in Bali we went to the Uluwatu Temple, a 1-hour motorbike drive away from Nusa Dua on the other side of the peninsula. Fortunately there is not too much traffic and this was a pretty peaceful ride. Like Tanah Lot, this place is popular for sunset views, but we tackled this head-on under the midday sun … boy was it hot! You must be very careful of the monkeys if you visit here — unlike the Ubud Monkey Forest these monkeys have been trained to steal from tourists. I watched a monkey steal the prescription eyeglasses off one tourist and another monkey hissed threateningly at my wife. That said, with a little care Uluwatu is worth the visit for the splendid views over a steep cliff into the ocean. These are probably 10 times better at sunset, but we had an evening flight to catch back to Seoul.

It was difficult to leave paradise to return to the middle of winter in Seoul. Bali has it all — where you stay and what you do depends on the type of vacation you are looking for … beach resort, nightlife, culture, escape into the mountains. I wouldn’t recommend to my American friends to make the very long trip here but for anyone living in Asia I think Bali is a place to visit. I’m glad I checked this off my Asia bucket list.

Honeymoon in Japan

I think for most newlywed couples, Koreans in particular, honeymoon planning is an integral part of the wedding planning process. For my new wife and I, however, this simply never crossed our minds. Faced with the challenges of getting my family halfway around the world to Vietnam and figuring out how to incorporate two distinctly different wedding cultures into one special day, the honeymoon vacation was simply nothing more than an afterthought. Not to mention, we had more-or-less exhausted the tiny list of countries my wife could visit visa-free on her Vietnamese passport, and it just felt rude to simply say goodbye to my family the day after the wedding while they were still exploring Vietnam. Getting my wife to Korea to live with me would be a major accomplishment. I told everyone we would find the time to take the honeymoon "later"...

Turns out Korea has a nice little holiday called Chuseok, usually falling around late September though it varies based on the lunar calendar. Well, it's nice for expats at least... Koreans are busy at home bowing to their ancestors. With 3 workdays off one could make a 9-day holiday for the low price of 2 annual leave days – a real bargain! Other than the gaga airfare prices you must pay to get off the peninsula, of course...

Since moving to Asia I've discovered my single favorite place to visit on this continent is Japan. I love the food, the cleanliness, the serenity, the quirkiness, the way everything is bewildering but all just comes together to fold you into its harmony. I've wanted to do a big Japan trip for a few years, but I was just a tad distracted by my lovely relationship in Southeast Asia, so not surprisingly most of my trips went there. Japan was a dream destination for my wife, too!

Japan would not be an easy trip to pull off on short notice as, of course, my wife needed the visa. The application form was opaque and confusing, asking us to fill out areas like the "sponsor in Japan". I have one distant acquaintance living in Japan but no one I would feel comfortable asking to be a "sponsor". When the travel agency at work refused to help process the visa on our behalf, citing vague difficulties that other Vietnamese citizens had suffered recently at the Japan embassy, I felt increasingly hopeless. Thankfully my wife has a lot of free time on her hands these days and found a helpful staff member at the Japan embassy who could speak English and coach us through the necessary application steps. Though we had to go through some hoops like photocopying 6 months of my bank statements and getting a travel agent to reserve a cancellable ticket for us, the visa came very quickly – just 1 business day! We couldn't wait to pack and go... our first trip together as a newly married couple.

Tokyo
We took a late Friday night flight to Tokyo on Peach – not a bad low cost airline for our trip. On Saturday morning after a night near Haneda Airport and a big breakfast, we were off to Tokyo! Our luggage went into a locker at a train station – the big lockers are difficult to find – and we were free to explore our first stop, Shinjuku.

Yakitori in Tokyo

It was a lovely sunny afternoon to walk around Shinjuku Gyoen, a little hot actually. My wife loved the big evergreen trees. I loved breathing the clean air and finding some solitude... this type of park simply cannot be found in Seoul. We stopped for some green matcha tea before our next stop – Harajuku.

The shopping street was madly packed on a Saturday and we suddenly felt suffocated by the crowds. We needed to break away and Yoyogi Park looked so close ... at least on the map. In fact, we made a wrong turn and discovered the area north of Harajuku is blocked from the park by the JR Rail tracks. After several kilometers of walking to the park's northeast entrance we realized our mistake! Yoyogi is another huge peaceful green park with massive trees and the Meiji Shrine. We enjoyed seeing a procession from a traditional Japanese wedding at the shrine on a Saturday.

Several more kilometers of walking later we finished our afternoon by finding our Airbnb in Shibuya. Airbnb works great in the major tourist cities of Japan – we found good cozy accommodations at a fraction of what we would have paid for hotels. And all the places we stayed at offered portable WiFi units we could carry around during the day ... a real lifesaver at times! Shibuya is a fantastic area to stay in Tokyo, super hip and vibrant. The famous street crossing is there with masses of pedestrians walking across at every signal. We couldn't help but be tourists taking selfies of ourselves in the intersection!

Shibuya is a great place to meet a local acquaintance for dinner. My business school classmate Hiro lives in Tokyo and knew a great yakitori place to take us to. It was a place with about 20 seats and menus in Japanese-only ... my wife and I would have been unable to eat here by ourselves. A wonderful meal! And what a way to start our trip.

For Sunday in Tokyo we started in late morning in Azakusa and made our way to the large crowded Sensoji Temple. I enjoyed all the burning incense but wish we had made our way here a little earlier to avoid the crowds – my wife and I are not good at waking up early when we're on vacation. My wife loved the neighborhood, browsing at all the small shops and trying the fish-shaped waffles filled with red bean. I also loved seeing the local Japanese ladies in their lovely kimonos out and about taking pictures. For the afternoon we toured the Imperial Palace Garden. My wife was sad that she couldn't visit the actual palace itself but she greatly admired the vast space and all the various types of trees that she had never seen back home. Ueno Park afterwards felt disappointing by comparison. After dark we walked through the bright lights of Ginza, but a light rain started falling and we decided to end our day with some food court sushi and edamame back in Shibuya.

On Monday morning we found a great city view at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, much better than Tokyo Tower – and free! Plus when you tire of the view it is an easy place to sit down and enjoy a coffee. We had finished Tokyo sightseeing and we were off to the onsen hot springs of Hakone, about a 2.5-hour train ride from Shinjuku Station. We wanted some R&R away from the city and we were hoping for a view of Mount Fuji.

Hakone
Unfortunately due to its proximity to Tokyo, Hakone is crazy-expensive. The traditional ryokan we stayed in was about $180/night and felt rather dated, but at least it had two private onsen rooms for guests to enjoy. We were served dinner and breakfast from the floor of our room and it was a real treat! We dressed in yakuta robes and feasted on fish, tempura, green tea and tasty mochi. Sleeping on the floor wasn't the most comfy but certainly much easier than in Korean hanok houses – the futon pads we laid on felt soft and pillowy. And the hot water of the onsen felt wonderful for our tired legs after all the walking we did in Tokyo.

The mountain setting of Hakone was lovely but unfortunately our 2 days there were marred by overcast skies and some rain, so we couldn't take in any of the breathtaking scenery and couldn't see Fuji. We did a little exploring by bus on Tuesday and I would recommend the Hakone Shrine near Lake Ashi. But on a rainy day there wasn't much to see, so we returned back to Odawara and rode the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. Super fast but otherwise not extraordinary.

Kyoto
If there is one must-see destination in Japan it's Tokyo. If there is a second must-see destination this is almost certainly Kyoto. Tokyo is enormous and has tons of neighborhoods to explore, but Kyoto has the history.

On Wednesday we headed for Arashiyama to see the famous bamboo forest. So many majestic tall skinny trees... the place actually can feel semi-dark even on a sunny day. More than the bamboo forest though my wife loved walking around the neighborhood and viewing the boutique shops. Then we really started temple-hopping in earnest. Kyoto is a city of temples, the whole place has sprouted up around them. You can't help staying more than a few minutes on a public bus without seeing a temple or Shinto shrine pop up somewhere. And often the temples off the beaten tourist path are more refreshing... more Zen to be found when you're not surrounded by mobs of loud, photo-hungry Chinese tourists. We started at Seiryoji and the outer entrance of Tenryuji in Arashiyama... it was only the beginning.

We spent the afternoon in Nijo Castle, which I had seen during for a nighttime cherry blossoms exhibition during my first Kyoto trip. The large grounds were also wonderful during daytime and quite enjoyable without the cherry blossom crowds. In the early evening we wandered around Higashiyama and viewed the shops. Kyoto unfortunately does not have much going on after 5pm when the temples close. You really can just walk around in the twilight until you get hungry and find a restaurant for dinner. One exception is the Yasaka Shrine, beautifully lit up in the evening. We walked around and after leaving found a historic udon restaurant in Gion. We went geisha hunting and did spot one putting her client in a taxi and waving goodbye.

Thursday was our tour of the temples in northwest Kyoto. The city is sprawled out and the famous temples are all over so you really need to plan your days carefully if you want to see every temple on your list. We started at Ninnaji and worked our way to the famous rock garden of Ryoanji. We found a nice coffee shop nearby and then continued our walk to the gold-covered Kinkakuji Temple. I had a bad feeling when I saw all the Chinese tour buses outside that we were going to be in for a rough afternoon, and indeed it was. Though the place is spectacular, just about any tourist destination in the world can be ruined by masses of Chinese! At least we patiently fought through for a couple nice photos... the place wasn't anywhere near as quiet as the photos looked!

After that mess we ran away to Daitokuji, so quiet you could hear your own footsteps and we felt self-conscious not to raise our voices. The peace and quiet was so welcome after the disaster of Kinkakuji... thank goodness Daitokuji is just a local temple and not in any Chinese tour guide books! Again you run out of things to do in Kyoto after 5pm so we took a twilight walk along the Philosopher's Path before retreating to our Airbnb for a home cooked meal. Japanese food supermarkets are quite nice, BTW!

Really had to fight for this picture at Kinkakuji

Friday was our last day in Kyoto and we still had a long list of places to see, but I knew no visit to Kyoto would be complete without seeing the vast Fushimi Inari Shrine. Once you get past the main temple you are faced with what feels like a never-ending climb in the woods under iconic orange arches. If we had more time or my wife was a more adept hiker perhaps we could have hiked the whole thing – I think we made it 2/3 of the way up which itself was quite a workout. Lots of Chinese tourists here too, but if you hike uphill long enough you eventually escape them! We refreshed with coffee and walk to Tofukuji, then a bus to Nanzenji to admire the aqueduct. We wrapped up our whirlwind temple day at Kiyomizudaera, not an easy place to reach as you face a long uphill hike from the nearest bus stop, but well worth it.

Nara

On Saturday we took an easy train ride from Kyoto to Nara. Thankfully Nara is an easy day trip as the areas worth seeing are all in a compact area around Kintetsu-Nara train station. I put Nara on the list of places to see because of the famous wild deer walking around Nara Park, which my wife loved! Unlike the deer back home, which are scared of people, these deer are always approaching you looking for food and most are quite petable – though be warned that some are a little attack-minded when hungry! My wife loves cute animals and she could not get enough of these Bambis. There are hundreds of deer for miles. Everything else in the area – museums, temples – was a sideshow. My wife didn't want to leave, even though a couple deer did bit her! (Gently, of course)

Osaka
Osaka is Japan's #2 city and more edgy than Tokyo. It is not a place with great historical sites, but rather restaurants, nightlife, and shopping. We came to the Dotonbori on Saturday evening after our day in Nara and sampled takoyaki on the street before finding a nearby teppanyaki restaurant that served the delicious okonomiyaki savory pancake, washed down with a refreshing beer. After a big meal we walked off a few calories along the canal and my wife was mesmerized by the tax-free shops. We could have easily spent the whole night here if we were looking for a drink or a nightclub, but my wife is not particularly into either.

On Sunday, our final day in Japan, we saw the one must-see historical attraction in Osaka – the Osaka Castle – tall and majestic and with a nice city view at the top. Also the grounds make for nice walking and we saw many student performances. There was also a judo tournament in one of the nearby buildings. Unfortunately Osaka didn't have much else to offer. We went to one of the local malls but felt overwhelmed – for the first time on the trip I felt tired and hungry and grumpy.

But the last dull afternoon in Osaka didn't sour our Japan trip. What a wonderful place to explore as newlyweds. So many foods to try and places to visit. I finally got the big Japan trip I was craving and I'm so glad I was able to share the time with my new wife. It's a trip we will never forget.

Return to Da Lat

Da Lat, a city in the mountains about 300km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, has a different feel from the rest of Vietnam. The altitude cools the air to a temperate level, the air is fresh, the skies are blue, and evergreen forests abound. Before my first trip to Vietnam, my Vietnamese friend told me, "Are you sure you want to visit Da Lat? Only honeymooners go there." Indeed, by myself I found the city to be nice and quaint but rather dull.

My fiancee admires the sunflowers in Da Lat Flower Park

However I recently got engaged to my Vietnamese girlfriend (now fiancee) and we needed to spend some quality time together on a retreat to gather ourselves and discuss some of the meaty issues of our future life together – for example, now I know how many children she wants!  (we are mostly aligned)  Da Lat provided us with the fresh air we needed. Almost every time we are visiting each other outside of Vietnam, my fiancee will mention that some tree-lined area outside of the city in Korea or Taiwan or USA "looks like Da Lat". So I figured we must go there together.

Flying to Da Lat is 100,000 times better than driving from Ho Chi Minh City. Flights are cheap and you cut the travel time from 8 hours to 4 hours. And Da Lat airport is a nice little facility. We arrived at a quaint boutique hotel called Stop & Go, away from the motorbike noise of the city center, and the staff had set up a nice little romantic flower arrangement in our room. After enjoying a peaceful lunch we took a taxi to the Truc Lam pagoda, my 2nd time visiting and perhaps my favorite place in Da Lat. It's a majestic and peaceful Buddhist temple with many monks and trees and flowers. It was a wonderful place to walk around and chat. I was sad that we missed the lake below the pagoda (gates close at 4:30pm). We enjoyed a participatory dance show of local villagers with an audience that was half Vietnamese and half Russian ... Russian tourists are amusing :)   We finished the Friday night at a roudy barbeque restaurant full of loud youths grilling meat.

Peaceful hike at Cu Lan Village

The next morning we hired a car to drive us to the Golden Valley, a lovely park with lakes, hills, flowers, and large coniferous trees. It had some decent walking paths and was a great place to lay around for awhile. I enjoyed breathing in the cool, fresh air and felt a bit like I was back home in the US. We enjoyed lunch at Cu Lan Village, a cultural resort with horses and grilled meat and more hiking in forested hills. In the afternoon we hiked Lang Biang, an easy hike mostly up a road, with some shortcuts through the woods available for the adventurous. My fiancee was quite tired from the walk up but even she was able to make the climb in only 90 minutes ... I guess I was pushing her a bit to hike faster! The top has a decent view but the humidity drowned out the opportunity for a nice picture with the valley below.

After a lazy Sunday morning at our boutique getaway my fiancee decided we needed some more exercise. We rented kid-size bicycles from our hotel and we strained to ride up the hills of Da Lat. After a rest for lunch and a post-lunch frozen fruit dessert, we pushed our pedals to the Da Lat Flower Park near the Xuan Huong Lake in the center of town. It has a decent array of flowers and is worth the $2 price of admission. From there we biked halfway around the lake to the Rooster Cathedral, and I sat for the beginning of a Sunday Catholic mass in Vietnamese! It resembled Catholic masses in other countries. From there we biked around the night market and took in some easy time at a coffee shop.

Big coniferous trees in Golden Valley

On Monday morning we caught the airport shuttle bus and flew the short 1 hour flight back to Ho Chi Minh City. Amidst the traffic and heat and pollution of Saigon, I was missing our clean, peaceful weekend getaway destination.

The Return to Taipei: Fooooooood

I was long overdue for seeing my girlfriend in VN, so we agreed to meet for a 3-day weekend in Taipei, roughly halfway between Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul. I had greatly enjoyed my first visit to Taipei for a wedding in 2013 and I was eager to return.

Xiao Long Bao time

Much like my return to Hong Kong, Taipei’s charm and allure faded a little for me on the 2nd visit, but I still consider it a highly appealing and overlooked travel destination — a “diamond in the rough”. Some facts about Taipei that became more apparent on Trip #2: there isn’t a lot to do besides eating delicious food all the time; it is very Chinese, though certainly far more civil and refined than the mainland; there aren’t many tourists besides those from mainland China.

To coordinate flight schedules my girlfriend and I both scheduled strange overnight itineraries: I landed at about 3:30am on Saturday morning from a flight eventually bound for Singapore, and my girlfriend landed at about 5:15am. At about sunrise we were heading on a bus into the city.

We put our bags down at our boutique hotel in the Ximending district and took a walk around to look for breakfast. Fortunately there was a “Breakfast Street” nearby … perfect! At 7:30am people were starting to queue for sticky buns and street dumplings and other foods. We found a food counter with a little bit of seating. I grabbed a wrap of pork surrounded by sticky rice … almost like a breakfast burrito. It filled me up. By the time we were finished a long queue of locals had appeared at the food counter, which certainly justified our decision to eat there.

I touched the top of Taipei 101!  (well, not exactly...)

After coffee, which was actually rather difficult to find, we jumped onto the Metro for early brunch at the original Din Tai Fung restaurant on Xinyi Road near Dongmen Station. At 10am the restaurant was already starting to fill up, it seemed largely with tourists judging my the number of cameras taking pictures of food! We ordered several sets of xiao long bao still steaming in bamboo pots when they arrive at your table. Our favorite was the shrimp with fish roe xiao long bao — the shrimp was so fresh! By the time we finished at 11:30 there was another long queue outside the Din Tai Fung … maybe an hour’s wait for a table … I am glad that we arrived early!

We next checked off the Taipei 101 box by staring up at the tower and taking photos. We didn’t feel the need to ascend … it’s a beautiful building and the only thing you won’t be able to see from the observatory at the top is the tower itself! Plus the entrance fee, about US$15, we deemed too high. The mall below feels quite luxurious and is worth walking around.

Next the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, a big building dedicated to what seems like an important guy, but most of the exhibits were written in Chinese only so its pretty indecipherable. There is an entrance with a big statue of the man guarded by armed soldiers, and the hourly changing of the guard ceremony drew a big crowd. By this point, lack of sleep caught up with us and my girlfriend could barely walk in her high-heels, so we napped at the hotel before going out for a delicious all-you-can-eat hot pot buffet at Mala Hotpot by Zhongshan Station. Though right on top of the station it was a little difficult to find, but quite filling and enjoyable — the certified Angus beef here was superb!

Falling in love with conveyor belt sushi!

When we returned to Ximending in the evening my girlfriend was surprised to see how the pedestrian area had come alive with shops and street vendors and crowds of young people. She thought it was similar to Myeongdong in Seoul, but I agree with the prevailing sentiment that it is more like Harajuku in Tokyo. The area definitely has a Japanese vibe with anime characters plastered on billboards and punk teens walking the streets.

On Sunday morning we got a much-needed late start with lunch at a Sushi Express restaurant near our hotel. Conveyor belt sushi! Fresh and wonderful and a great value! We found some milk bubble tea from one of the many stands and wandering Ximending in search of swimwear for my girlfriend … not the easiest thing to find! We finally found a bright orange bikini and my girlfriend was able to use fingers to negotiate the merchant down a little on the price. Then, we were on the Metro north to the hot spring district of Xin Beitou.

I chose for us to visit the Millennium Hot Spring, a public facility which opens for 2-hour shifts and attracts many Taiwanese senior citizens on a Sunday afternoon. It was crowded and had makeshift changing facilities, but eventually we found our way into one of the cauldrons of hot water. Ow ow ow ow ow! I think I saw a sign that said the water temperature was 43C. It was an endurance challenge to submerge one’s body from the neck down for more than a couple minutes. But once you get out of the water… ohhhhh, it’s so relaxing! We dipped ourselves in the water a couple times before the shift ended and the elderly masters of the facilities shooed us out before the beginning of the next shift.

On our walk back to the Metro station we searched in vain for some bubble tea — it is not as ubiquitous in Taipei as I would have expected — and then took a Metro ride to the Shilin Night Market, which seemed to have opened a little earlier (around 6pm) on a Sunday. This was dinner time… we tried street dumplings and street fried squid and street sausage. So many other foods we could have tried but skipped. The whole place was mobbed with people shopping, eating, or just out for a walk.

Monday morning was another sleeping-in day before a big lunch at Chao Pin Ji Cantonese dim sum restaurant in the San Want hotel by the Zhongxiao Dunhua station. Also some really delicious shrimp dumplings here as well. The atmosphere was more formal than Din Tai Fung but isn’t mobbed with tourists, and certainly the food was of similar quality. The time flew by on Monday, as it always does on days when my girlfriend and I are separating yet again. Before we knew it, we were at the airport eating pork at the cafeteria food court and saying our goodbyes…