Taiwan Part 2! It was an early morning in Kota Kinabalu. 4:30AM when Meg and I had our alarms blaring to wake us up. Still dark, we fought our way out of bed and into a Grab to the airport. We luckily had a direct flight from KK to TPE. Thank the lord — I slept just about the entire flight!
Landing in Taiwan now for the third time in two years! We knew it by heart. Taking the MRT into town, we were lucky enough to check in early to our Airbnb and drop our bags off. As we opened the door we realized that the photos of the Airbnb looked A LOT BIGGER in the pictures… than in real life hahaha. Well, I guess that’s how it goes. We were now very excited and ready to welcome August and Chantel to their first proper experience in Asia… in a very cramped Airbnb.
It was a rainy, cool day in Taipei. It felt so much like we were back in Seattle lol. We dropped our stuff and headed to… I don’t even need to tell you. You already know where we went first. Yong He Soy Milk!!!! Time to get some xiao long bao and soy milk… but it was closed! Noooooooo… Well, no problem. Beef noodles it is.
We spent the rest of the day at a coffee shop nearby drinking sesame lattes, typing up our Malaysia post, planning out Croatia, and prepping for Aug and Chantel’s arrival the next morning!
Meg woke up at the buttcrack of dawn (5am) to get to the airport and meet August and Chantel and make sure they had a smooth transition to Asia. It’s tough after a long 13-hour flight to find your bearings! (What a great daughter.) Meg had their EasyCards ready and preloaded with enough money to make it to the Airbnb to drop off bags.
I was hoping to be soundly asleep until their arrival at the BnB, but… was not able to fall back asleep once Meg left — so I blobbed until I heard knocking at the door at 7am.
NOW THAT THEY ARE HERE WE CAN GO TO YONG HE SOY MILK!!
Skip to that evening — we made our way via MRT to the famous Raohe Night Market. Now, Meg and I had been here once before at the tail end of our last trip to Taiwan all that time ago (two months). Now you may ask yourself, why would we want to go back to this specific night market? That, dear reader, is the question — and do we have an answer for you.
Black pepper beef buns cooked inside a large tandoor-style oven — like the same big, top-loading ovens they cook flatbread in. These bad boys are flying out of the stall right at the entrance of Raohe Night Market. 45 NTD per bun, which is roughly $1.50 USD. There is always a line, but it goes quick! If I had to guess, they’re flying through 30-40 people in 5 minutes.
This is just to wet the palate, of course. We are just getting started. We spent the evening eating our way down this mile-long road filled with all sorts of goodies. However, there is only one more thing worth noting and that is, of course, the famous pineapple buns with a slab of cold butter.
Now queue the photos:
Ming Ming’s Uncle & Keelung
That next morning we had a surprise guest come to pick us up. Apparently in the background, Chantel had been talking with one of her friends Ming Ming about connecting with her family while we were in Taiwan and — what do you know — an old Taiwanese gentleman was outside our Airbnb that next morning ready to pick us up for a day of adventures in Keelung.
Keelung is a port city about a 45-minute drive from Taipei. We hopped in the car and off we went. It was actually a very impressive port city — great for photos, and for me it was very interesting to see global trade in action. Taiwan is the world’s largest exporter of semiconductors. They account for something like 90 percent of all the world’s chips manufactured right here in Taiwan, and this was one of the ports that shipped them all off around the world. Definitely a very interesting niche area that I find pretty cool seeing in person, mainly since this is what the news talks about all the firkin time.
Probably one of the most memorable moments on this entire trip was when Chantel was trying to talk with Ming Ming’s uncle (Jack) who didn’t speak very much English… and so naturally Chantel, who had recently discovered Google Translate, pulled up the app — plugged in what she wanted to say to Jack, translated it to Taiwanese, and confidently, with her whole chest, she spoke the most broken Taiwanese with the most impressive American accent as we all busted out laughing.
Chantel didn’t know about the speech function, or that they don’t really speak Taiwanese in Taiwan — they speak Mandarin. Without missing a beat, as everyone was chuckling in good fun at the unexpected outburst, she opened up her (unbeknownst to her) fully shaken up sparkling water, which exploded all over the car. Chantel fell into a complete cackling fit, complete with snorting and everything.
Here are some fun photos from our time in Keelung:
Elephant Mountain + 101 + Din Tai Fung
This was our third time hiking up Elephant Mountain, which isn’t really a hike, but more like 1,000 paved steps that go straight up a mountain. Great time if you imagine you’re on a stair climber. That’s the only way I can really get into the zone and not die. We got to take Chantel to the very temple where we FaceTimed her on our very first trip to Taiwan in October 2024! That was pretty epic.
My dumbass forgot to bring a water, so once we reached the end of our hiking adventure, I got three Pocari Sweats from the vending machine at the bottom of the mountain. We were all very, very hungry… I don’t think we’d had any breakfast. But what we did need was some Din Tai Fung. And you wanna know where they have a Din Tai Fung? In the Taipei 101! The very one where we saw Alex Honnold climb the last time we were there. (By the way, did I mention that I am in the Netflix special? Yeah, no biggy. Me and Alex are tight like that.)
The Din Tai Fung experience in Taiwan is different. It’s just better in every way. The food is better, service is better, it’s cheaper, and there is no tipping. Dinner for four of us — with drinks and not going light at all — was literally like $80. I will take that all day long and I don’t care what any of you think.
Cat Village & Spirited Away Town
For our last and final day in Taiwan, we booked a tour through Klook. It was pretty much identical to the tour we did in 2024, but it was so great we wanted to do it again because it takes you to such cool places and trying to navigate all of that yourself really isn’t worth it.
We went to a waterfall. Pretty nice. Check out the photo.
But the new stop was Cat Village. Cat Village was really cool because, well, as the name implies, it’s a village full of dogs. Just kidding! It’s full of cats. There were lots of cats. There were mean cats, there were nice cats, and then there were a lot of fat cats — and I fat shamed them all. They were a bunch of fatties. There were a lot of signs posted that said “please do not feed the cats” because they were getting so fat. I didn’t feed them, I just made fun of them. Meg and I had a lovely coffee at a cat-themed cafe with a couple of cat friends inside. One was particularly chonky. Here is a photo of him. Very cute.
After Cat Village we made our way to Jiufen — the town that inspired Spirited Away. We went there in 2024, but this time we came prepared. We came with receipts, specifically for a tea ceremony, which was actually incredible. We entered a seemingly hundreds-of-years-old building and sat out on the balcony. The fog and clouds were covering the view, which gave it kind of an ominous feeling — very much a Spirited Away vibe. The tea ceremony was really cool, we had a lot of fun, and it was genuinely interesting. Check out the photos below:
Vietnam: Hanoi
The next morning we caught an early flight out to Hanoi. It was a quick three-hour flight. We landed at like 10 in the morning, so we were able to catch a Grab into the city and get checked into our Airbnb early. We essentially had the entire day to wander around the streets of Hanoi, which were so freaking cool.
You are bombarded by shopping when you’re there. It’s filled with shops selling so much fake stuff — dupes of your favorite brands. I mean, you can obviously tell the quality isn’t there, but hey, it’s got an Arc’teryx logo or a Patagonia logo, so who cares? We spent the day shopping. I wanted to get a couple of bro tanks and a few pairs of simple black shorts. I paid about five dollars per item for a few Patagonia tanks and a pair of “North Face” pants. Meg and Chantel hit up silk clothing stores and then we checked out a full dupe watch store that had Patek Philippes, Grand Seikos, Rolexes. It was very tempting. But I will wait for my real Grand Seiko.
We hit a 5pm water puppet show, which was unbelievably cute. Then right across the street, we stumbled into a really fun French-styled coffee shop that had three floors. I took my coffee up to the top floor at 8 o’clock at night and it was quite literally the best coffee I’ve ever had. Ever. Period. The end.
These motherfuckers are not playing around when it comes to their coffee. I had a simple espresso with sweetened condensed milk, and that shit stung my mouth with how good it tasted.
Vietnam primarily drinks Robusta beans, while most of the world (about 70%) drinks Arabica. Fun fact: Vietnam produces 95% of the world’s Robusta beans, and Robusta contains about twice as much caffeine. Arabica is grown at higher altitudes, known for a sweeter, smoother, more acidic flavor. Robusta is grown at lower altitudes, known for a bitter, earthy taste with way more punch. The way they brew it makes it super condensed and strong and rich, and then they use sweetened condensed milk which makes it incredibly sweet. So you end up with a small, cute, super strong, super caffeinated, super sweet coffee. Sign me up.
The Morning From Hell (Getting to Sapa)
The morning we were scheduled to go to Sapa started very calm, cool, and collected. I woke up a little early and left the Airbnb to grab breakfast and coffee with Chantel and bring some back for August and Meg. We again had some of the most amazing coffee you’ve ever had in your entire life, sitting on the side of a sidewalk.
A woman came up to us selling fans. We said no thank you. That’s alright, we’re fine. Don’t want it. Go away. This woman would not leave. She kept pushing the fans into my and Chantel’s faces as we were sitting down drinking our coffee. No. No thank you. Stop. No. But this woman is lucky I’m not more of an asshole because it would have been so easy to yell and scream in her face. Good thing I am a nice person — we got up and walked away back to the BnB. Thank you.
I knew we were supposed to get to the bus meetup point at 9:30. As we were packing up and getting ready to rock and roll, I was looking at my clock seeing it was about 9:20, 9:25 — and it was only a five-minute walk over there. So Meg and I threw our backpacks on and started to walk. In my head, we’d get there around 9:30, get checked in, make sure everything was in order.
Then I look down and check my phone and see about a million missed calls and messages from the bus line saying that if I wasn’t there by 9:30 they were going to leave without us. Naturally I kicked my butt into high gear and jogged on over, to the relief of the bus operators who were so kind. However, I look around and August and Chantel are nowhere to be seen. A panicked couple minutes later — us holding the bus — they pop their heads out. And we all make it on at the very last minute. That one’s on me, everyone. Sorry about the panicked start to the trip.
The Sleeper Bus (and the Breakdown)
We hopped in a smaller bus that took us to the actual bus station, which had our sleeper bus. This thing was nice. Lie-flat seats with privacy curtains and super strong air conditioning. I took my Dramamine because you know my tummy is not that strong. I was listening to my audiobook on the bottom bunk as the bus bounced around, and I drifted in and out of sleep.
However, when I woke up, I was covered in sweat. The bus was not moving. I peeked my head out and saw people getting off the bus. Oh great, rest stop. It was not a rest stop. The AC had broken and people were getting off because it was getting too hot. Check out this lovely photo of me.
We spent the next hour broken down on the side of the road while the bus driver tried to fix the air conditioning. In my exhausted state, I did not want to be sitting in the hot Vietnamese sun. So I walked across the street to a little rickety convenience store and cracked open a cold 7-Up, and got the store owners to turn on the fans for us.
Thank the lord the bus driver was able to fix the AC, and we were back on the road. A few short hours later we arrived in the mountain town of Sapa. And ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to stop you right there and let you know that this — all of the photos and videos you’ve seen about Vietnam — were true. We were looking outside at the most beautiful landscape, the craziest roads, the craziest mountains, the craziest valleys. It was epic. We got checked into our hotel, which was the grooviest mountain hotel with the coolest view.
Stroll Through the Shire
The goal for the first day in Sapa: we needed scooters. Aug and I went to grab them that morning and the first and most important objective of the day was — ride a mountain roller coaster. I’ll let you infer how that went. Hint: it was epic.
But the actual highlight of the day was reserved for a long scooter ride to one of the highest peaks in the Sapa region. We rode for almost an hour through winding mountain roads with STEEP drop-offs. This journey was for a waterfall hike. “Hike” is used liberally here. It was a pleasant stroll through what felt like the Shire.
The sun was at the perfect point in the sky, we were high enough where there was no smoke fogging up the view. It was much cooler the higher we got, which just made for some straight-up chef’s kiss weather. We walked through this beautiful landscape and there were actual water buffalo lounging around in the puddles and mud! There was a baby water buffalo right off the path munching on grass. Very wrinkly. I got to hang out and pet that MF!
We walked to the end of the path and there was a waterfall, where — drumroll — we all dove in and got a good swim in.
And that would seem like it was the end of the day… sun was setting and we should probably head back to the hotel… well NO! We made our way even farther out to a remote village known for herbal baths. Giant fires were roaring, boiling giant pots of water, and they pumped it into bathing rooms and filled big tubs with ripping hot herbal water. Aug and I went to one room and Meg and Chantel to another. We spent the evening cosplaying as soup. But honestly, this was a super cool bathing experience. All of the people in this soup factory were very kind, and it was a lovely experience.
Sapa Sisters: The Hike of All Hikes
That next morning started bright and early. At a whopping 9am. We dragged ourselves out of bed, had breakfast, and made our way over to Sapa Sisters headquarters, which was right up the road.
Sapa Sisters is a guided tour company in Sapa that employs local women from the nearby villages who grew up in the mountains we were going to be hiking through. We were looking at about a cool 11-mile hike, which didn’t feel like that big of a deal. Boy, was I wrong about that.
We started by what felt like almost a vertical climb as soon as we left Sapa town. We could have scrambled up this start of the mountain! I also came so unprepared for this hike. I had zero clue what to expect, and that was a mistake. I forgot sunscreen, my hat, brought a small water bottle… come on. By 11am, the UV was an 11! I was terrified about my perfect pale skin. I borrowed a light scarf that Chantel brought and wrapped it around myself like a cloak. This saved my life.
We had lunch at our guide’s sister-in-law’s house in the mountains. It was very humbling to visit. It felt similar to a barn — no electricity or running water, the ground was bedrock, which kept the place cool. There were animals everywhere! And it was that time of year (springtime) where everyone and everything was having BABIES! Baby kittens, puppies, water buffalo, pigs, chicks, geese… and kids running around everywhere. I have not seen this many kids running around and babies strapped to their mothers’ chests in my entire life. It made Vietnam feel so alive.
We finished the hike sometime around 4pm and were driven back to Sapa (thank the kind, gracious lord above). 25k steps and I don’t know… 4,000 feet of elevation later. We rested.
Ha Giang Loop
Flash forward: Lie-flat bus from Sapa to Ha Giang. Checked into the hotel. Ha Giang town is hot as shit and smokey as shit. Not ideal. AC was off in our hostel room. You know when it’s really hot and everyone has been carrying all their stuff and you’re waiting around and everyone starts to get pissed off? Well, that was this time. Maybe it was just me, but I was ready to have a Coke Zero, food, and watch YouTube videos.
Next morning was DAY 1 OF THE HA GIANG LOOP, MOTHERFUCKERS!
So it started with a bit of frantic rushing by Chantel — who in all honesty was getting up super early this entire trip — who was told by someone from the tour company that Aug, Meg, and I should get upstairs and get rolling. It was probably 7:45am. We didn’t actually get going until 10am. So we were rushed up for nothing. Oops.
The Police Checkpoint
Aug and I needed to show them we had the moves to ride our own motorcycle, so we did a little motorcycle test up and around a mountain — which we aced, no problem. However, it was still illegal for Americans to ride scooters in Vietnam, and you were 100% going to get stopped by police and ticketed.
It’s because the United States and Vietnam have ratified and agreed to two different international driving laws from either 1963 or like 1946 or something ancient like that. Vietnam just doesn’t want to change… because they make so much money from tourists like us!
We got loaded up with all of our things on the backs of our scooters. It was actually a really efficient and solid system they had. I of course opted for the dirt bike and had Meg riding passenger. We got rolling and within the first 5 minutes of riding, we neared the edge of town and there was a full police checkpoint.
They pulled us all to the side of the road and sized up us whiteys. They called me and August over, behind a tent they’d set up behind their police truck. There was a man with — I fucking kid you not — aviators, a captain-looking police outfit, smoking a cigar — sitting behind a plastic desk, with a briefcase. He holds up his phone to me with a calculator showing 3.5 million dong ($130 USD).
I had been briefed beforehand and was prepared to pay up to 6 million as a “fee” to do this ride. I was pleasantly surprised.
I was NOT going to try and negotiate. I just paid my tax and went on my merry way!
First time extorted by the police and paying a bribe. Pretty fun experience!!
The Ride
We spent most of the first day getting out of the smoke of Ha Giang town and up into the mountains. And let me summarize this because this blog post is getting long…
TLDR: The mountains were insanely beautiful. Everything you have heard about the Ha Giang Loop — the views, the nature — all true. The mountains were epic. The cliffs and drop-offs made your balls go into your throat. I have never seen landscapes this freaking cool before. So yes, for the nature, views, and sights — it is so worth it.
We went with a company called Road Kings. They were advertised as a chiller, more responsible, nicer tour company. We didn’t want to get trashed every night and sleep in bunks without AC. We wanted to have fun, wind down by 10pm, and have nice rooms with AC and good food.
The guides took care of literally everything. It was almost embarrassing how much they helped us. They strapped down our bags, helped us put on our gear, got us our food, drove all of the weaklings who couldn’t drive themselves, acted as our tour guides, and even followed us around at night to make sure we didn’t drink too much or get into trouble. It was awesome. These guys were walking angels and deserved big tips!
The riding was incredible. Road Kings took us off the main roads — much more off-roading and back roads. Which was 100% the right move. We went the main road on the last day on the way back and it was a goddamn zoo. So many tourists. It was incredible how many other people were doing this motorcycle trip. Taking the harder routes was definitely the right call. We stopped every 30 minutes for water, coffee, snacks, and what I found out later was that all the guides were smoking… so I guess it was as much for them as it was for us.
On the last full day out, before we looped back to Ha Giang on the highway, we were right at the northernmost point of Vietnam. We got to check out China! It was only a few miles away, so we spent some time spying on those commies.
That night, we jammed on some karaoke with our fellow travelers and made some wonderful friends. A wonderful girl from the UK named Flo. We will visit her in Newcastle after our coast-to-coast walk in September!
And then (looks left and right to make sure they are not looking) we spent some time with some Californians in our group… and they were the absolute worst, most annoying, pitiful people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting. (Well, some were okay… some were not… not going to say who — I don’t remember if we gave them the blog or not hahahaha.) Just had to get that off my chest.
Other insane things we did on the trip: our guide took us deep into a closed-off cave and there was a FREAKING MASSIVE GOLDEN BUDDHA and hidden rooms that we had to crawl into. Scary.
It was a spectacular adventure. Lots of motorcycle riding, insane views, fun adventures, and 100% worth it.
Ha Long Bay (and the 3AM Bus Dump)
We only had two more things left on this trip. Next up, we grabbed an overnight bus — properly overnight this time… but less so than we expected. DUN DUN DUN!!
We hopped on the 8pm bus headed to Ha Long Bay. It was only us four on this bus. Got on, got comfy, and were getting settled in for the 8-hour or so bus ride. We were going to arrive around 5:30am, which wasn’t ideal — but we were going to make the most of it.
Well… funny thing. I fell asleep pretty quickly and woke up a bit delirious, thinking we were at a pee break. I got up and — nope, we were there! But not really. The bus driver was dumping us off on the side of the road, not at a bus station.
In my sleep haze, I grabbed my backpack, stuffed everything else in there (hopefully didn’t forget anything), and looked at the time. It was 3 IN THE FUCKING MORNING. We had made killer time apparently.
Fortunately for me, Meg was on her game. There was a “taxi” guy already there ready to find us a ride to a hotel. I thought this MF was the bus driver since all faces look the same to me when I’ve been woken up at 3am. It was not the same guy, and I bet they were cooking up some scam to charge us up the ass. Meg cut that short and we ordered a Grab to the nearest Marriott.
Unfortunately most hotels were booked up. So I spent 45 minutes going from hotel to hotel banging on doors trying to find us rooms for the night. Luckily — I’m a godsend from heaven and got us two rooms where we were able to sleep until 10am.
I found out the next morning that the bus was stopping every 30 minutes or so and dropping off packages at random houses and stops along the way. Drug running, perhaps? You tell me.
We made it onto a very nice old cruise ship, all made of wood, and spent the next few days sailing around the bay. Insane room. Very nice ship. We went to beaches, caves… but once you’ve seen a few, you’ve seen ‘em all. Ha Long Bay was very beautiful.
Breakfast at 7am, then they kicked us off for a day trip to a “secret” beach (not so secret). We went kayaking around jellyfish, then to another beach for swimming, still more jellyfish. Watched a woman jump off the top deck and belly flop hard… hope she is okay. Followed that up with a visit to a pearl farm while Aug and Meg slept on the roof of the boat. Got back on board for dinner and cards.
Private transfer back to Hanoi. Stopped at some cool rest stops along the way. Electric car. Checked into a cool Airbnb and immediately went retro Seiko shopping for everyone!
The next couple days were all about shopping, shopping, shopping. Our final dinner together was pizza and pasta, and honestly, it was the best food we had in Vietnam. I’m sorry, Vietnam, but your food is ass. BUT your coffee is literally the best in the world, so I’ll give you that one. (Nobody can top how bad the food is in the Philippines, however.)
The morning after, we got Aug a suitcase and squeezed everything we possibly could in there. Chantel flew back to Seattle. The next day, Aug flew to Chiang Mai.
Meg and I had a solo day. Hit the gym. Had another nice dinner. Movie night — Project Hail Mary.
On the walk home, we saw a scooter crash and wandered around the closed-down streets of Hanoi at night.
The next morning, Meg and I flew to Chiang Mai.