February 13: Uptown, Downtown, All Around Taipei Town

This was a day of Rashad and Esperanza showing me various parts of the city. Patrise stayed home, because she was still feeling ill from the effects of jet lag. After another wonderful breakfast, we took a ride share to a shop in their old neighborhood -- the area of town where they had lived in 2017, when they first came for Rashad's language training. Knowing that I wanted to buy a new backpack -- my first one had been damaged in the Singapore airport, as we were transferring to leave for Taiwan -- they were aware of a shop in this area, which would have a selection of luggage, backpacks, hand bags, along with souvenirs. Along the way, we passed through different parts of the city than I had seen earlier. There was one particular restaurant whose signs caught my eye. The major sign was in Chinese, which Rashad translated as "Weekend Chicken Club". However, it was the smaller English motto on the awning, which grabbed my attention. Take a look.

Here are some of the other sights I noted on the way to our first stop.

After purchasing a new backpack and some Lunar New Year good luck coins, we continued our journey, heading to the district that has a store which serves Rashad and Espy's favorite version of scallion pancakes. Like so many good food places, it was basically a hole in the wall, only it had no seats. It was purely takeout, and there was a long line waiting to order some version of a scallion pancake. My hosts love the basil and egg version, but we were not able to order it, because they were out of basil: and the Lunar New Year celebration meant a lot of businesses are closed, including a lot of food suppliers. So we "settled" for the basic egg & scallion pancake, walked to a nearby park, then enjoyed the food. I must say, it was delicious! I would recommend scallion pancakes to anyone traveling to Taiwan. This place, though, has the reputation for having the best scallion pancakes in Taipei; so if you go, plan to wait in line 30-40 minutes before you can order.

After the scallion pancake experience -- I was so busy eating it that I forgot to take a picture. Sorry folks! -- we walked to a nearby souvenir shop. I purchased a few things there, but on the whole, I was not interested in most of their items. Espy had told us that Taiwanese like a lot of food items or food-related items as gifts, and so many of the souvenirs were edible (pineapple cakes, candies, teas) or derivative (e.g. tea-scented candles).

Upon completing my souvenir shopping, we walked to the nearby metro station and hopped on the Red Line to head to our next destination. In the metro station, Esperanza handed me her metro card, which had a 157 NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) balance on it. She explained that the balance would be sufficient, since the ride would only cost 50 NTD. Then, with no explanation, we went to the entry gate, where she proceeded to flash a ring on her right hand index finger. Lo and behold, THE GATE OPENED! I was amazed and flabbergasted.

I then proceeded to ask for an explanation. (Mind you, I paid no attention to her nails, which were polished in the colors and themes of the Lunar New Year. When Patrise saw the picture later on, she picked up on the dragon nail designs right away!) At any rate, she and Rashad explained that the technology to do this with the ring has been developed by a Taiwanese tech start-up. Espy can go to any 7Eleven -- they are everywhere in Taipei! -- and have a certain amount of currency value loaded onto the ring. She can then use the ring to pay for rides on the Metro. As she explained, there are a number of stores in which the ring can be used to purchase goods, including 7Eleven. I told Rashad that given his role as responsible for furthering economic ties between American companies and Taiwanese companies, he should find a major U.S. transit agency to introduce to the tech start-up. Some of the more innovative transit agencies in the US, like the Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA), would love the opportunity to pioneer the technology with a pilot project in their service area. The company can also embed the technology in a key chain as well as a ring. I think this would be a big hit in the US.

At any rate, I geek on a bit too much. We rode the Red Line train until we reached the very last station north. We were headed to the Tamsui (pronounced "Dan-zhway") District, an area next to the Keelung ("Jee-long") River that is one of the older parts of town. Taiwanese love to visit Tamsui on weekends and holidays, and my oh my, did they visit. There were crowds everywhere the eye could see. Lots of families, young couples, singles, old and young alike were all over the district, engaged in all manners of festival kinds of activities: flying small kites on fishing-like rods, watching local acrobats, playing on playground equipment, walking or cycling the track, seniors doing line dances, eating all manner of food and treats, walking dogs (and one young man was walking his pet tortoise!), and shopping for different items in the many small retails shops throughout the area. The streets in the district were barely wide enough for two motorcycles to pass side-by-side, and absolutely no vehicles were allowed, except the garbage truck. Take a look at the many scenes of holiday activity I observed.

After sightseeing in Tamsui ("Dan-zhway"), we took a ride share to a nearby restaurant that Esperanza loves, La Villa Dan Shui (spelled differently, but pronounced the same way), to have a nice lunch seated outside. We were supposed to go to Fort Santo Domingo afterwards, but I begged off further sightseeing and asked to return home. So we took ride back home -- almost an hour drive back across town -- to settle down for a spell and check on Patrise, before heading out to dinner for the evening.

When we arrived, we found Patrise doing much better and watching one of her favorite old Western shows, Tales of Wells Fargo. We rested for a couple of hours, then walked to a nearby restaurant, The Hutong, for our final dinner meal together. It took a while for us to be seated, but we enjoyed the food and the experience, once we were seated: prime shortrib, beef tongue, lamb chops, chicken thighs, corn, zucchini, house salad with Japanese dressing, lotus, plum wine, and water -- all prepared at our table in the style similar to Korean BBQ dining.

We returned to the apartment. I tried working on this blog to publish it that night, but with no success. After falling asleep three times while trying load up the photos, I called it a night. Patrise read a book in bed, while I knocked out for the evening.

I enjoyed the day with Rashad and Esperanza so much; we both so enjoyed the evening, but were a bit saddened, knowing that tomorrow after breakfast, we would be departing.