Trip to Taiwan (long)

In the thread http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/478542/ I asked about handicapped travel. I cannot walk very far or stand for long. We ended up going to Taipei, Taiwan for a few days. Asked for a wheel chair at the airports. We flew Singapore airlines, the best that I have flown (Cathay Pacific is a close second).

We flew out of LAX. The signage is so incomprehensible that the airlines have people roaming around with signs. They direct you. As we headed for the Singapore airlines check in we passed a queue and signs that instructed you to leave your baggage for inspection. The sign stated that your baggage would be delivered to the airline. As we approached Singapore airlines my wife and I realized that we had not been asked which airline we were flying. As the Singapore airlines personnel saw us approaching they brought a wheelchair. When we asked they said that no, we had to get out baggage ourselves. So the fellow and my wife went back and retrieved it. So after the baggage had been inspected it was back in our hands. HOW SECURE IS THAT?

I was wheeled past lines of people and was quickly passed through security. My wife had a bit of a problem--too many hairpins in her hair. On board I found that the seats were a bit wider and had a bit more leg room than on other airlines. The food was quite good (very good for airplane food). Every time I woke someone was in the aisle handing out fruit juices or water. On British airways a year ago the attendants pretty well disappeared after we were fed.

Our flight had left about 1:00 am Sunday morning and we landed Monday around 6:30 am. Their time is 9 hours behind ours and you cross the international date line.

At the Taipei airport we were whisked through immigration and found a person holding a placard with our names. In short order we were at our hotel. The Grand Hotel in Taipei. http://www.grand-hotel.org/ http://www.asiahotels.com/hotelinfo/Grand_Hotel_Taipei/ and this site gives some history http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/taipei/grandindex.htm

We were at the hotel early and it did not take long for them to have a room for us even though we were hours early for check in. This had to be the largest hotel room that I have been in. Clean. No scent, no perfumes, just clean. The hotel provided me with a wheelchair that we drug all over with us. The subway is modern and completely handicapped accessible. Everything is clearly marked with maps that make it easy. Signage is in English and Chinese.

The biggest surprise was the food. We went to a large night market for dinner. The food was rather like Philippine food that I have had in the U.S. We ended up with what I think was pork neck bones in a thin gravy, translucent noodles that were probably rice, Chinese spinach or broccoli. Good but not Chinese as I know it. We wandered and came upon a stall selling dessert crepes and shaved ice concoctions. We each had two strawberry crepes . What a surprise when the woman spoke rather good English. The crepes were $50 Taiwan each (about $1..80 U.S.) not bad but not exactly cheap.

We ate at the same night market another night and this time went to the crepes booth and had her help us a bit. She did get one of the stalls to come up with and English language menu. We had crepes again.

Another afternoon we took the subway to another shopping area and I sat in an alley for a few hours while Sue ran around looking. I made the acquaintance of a cat and tell about it in the Pets forum http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502792/

Part of the package was a breakfast buffet every morning. The food was sort of American and Japanese. Scrambled eggs, tater tots, bacon that was quite good, flavorless sausages, pressed ham floating in water. A variety of cereals. Milk, regular, low-fat, and soybean. Delicious grape tomatoes that were perfectly ripe. Papaya, exquisite fresh pineapple and watermelon to die for. I don't know that I have ever had such good fruit in a hotel.

I am a traditionalist when it comes to breakfast. My wife, Sue, on the other hand is not. She partook of the Asian style items.

We went to the buffet dinner in the hotel a couple of times. Not cheap, $900 Taiwan ($30 U.S.) but quite a variety of very nice things, although the beef was rather tough. Their were a few sushi rolls, but they were filled with cooked meats. Some were wrapped in seaweed, others in pink or yellow layers that seemed to be vegetable and then there was on with a transparent wrapper. The first time it seemed edible, that is it disintegrated in the mouth. The next time it turned out to be plastic film. Oops some one made a mistake.

The same fruit as for breakfast but with the addition of a fruit that looked rather like an apple. I describe it here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502809/

Another day in another part of Taipei we had crossed a street and hit a rough spot. The tire came off a wheel. Almost before I realized what had happened a well dressed, young woman was crouching beside the chair trying to get the tire back on the wheel. By the time that I got up two men older than myself were helping also. The tire was put back on the wheel but was not quite right. One of the men ran over to a worker nearby and brought him back with some tools and in a few minutes everything was right. None of those who had helped spoke English.

One day we went on a tour of marble gorge on the east side of Taiwan. The pick up time was 6:00 am and the breakfast buffet opened at 6. We told the concierge about our plithe and he thought that he could stall the driver for a few minutes. We got to the doors of the buffet about 10 minutes early, they were chained. But we were noticed and suddenly we were inside. Most of the food was ready and we filled plates. A little after 6 the driver showed up but by then we had eaten enough to keep us going. We grabbed a couple of yogurts and bananas and were off. We picked up another couple from a different hotel and then were driven to a small airport. I was wheeled out onto the tarmac and up to a propeller plane. There were a few steps up. The plane held probably 40 people. We spent 15 minutes taxiing and then flew for less than 30 before landing at a small East coast airport.

Aargh!! There was one of those monstrous buses that was my downfall last year in Europe. Our guide was an older man who spoke terrible English. He talked while we drove a short distance. Then he introduced a younger woman who spoke excellent English, the first such person that we had met. The older man got off the bus at the first stop and she took over. She told us that she was half aborigine and half Chinese.

The marble gorge is a miniature grand canyon carved through mountains made of marble. The road is mostly tunnel but with one wall open to the gorge much of the way. Apparently the tunnels were all dug by hand. At one point we stopped and the guide showed us a trail made by the aborigines. A narrow path, high above the river cut out of the hard marble, unlike the trails in the California mountains cut into rotten stone that can be easily scraped into a path.

We stopped for lunch and the older guide showed up again. Once more his English was nearly unintelligible and when I asked questions about some rocks that were for sale he did not have a clue as to English names. I talk about that here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502792/ and here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502331/ and here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/502809/


OK I will stop for now.

Wow George I really enjoyed your adventure. Seems as if there are nice people all along lifes journey.

George, I remember your first post, and wondered how your trip was. Thanks for sharing. it sounds like you had a fun time, I am going to go read your other posts now. did your wife do lots of shopping?

BOY! I think Sue needed me to help her shop! LOL

Looks like ya'll had a really great trip. I enjoyed your Travelog. Jo

Sue does not spend much money but she loves to shop. She can spend hours looking through a thrift store. There was supposed to be used clothes in this area but she never found the shop. Still she had enough to look at to spend several hours.

The total for the entire trip including side tours, food and shopping came to $2500 U.S. for both of us.

George, you did such an excellent job describing it all; I can almost picture me there! ~ Suzi

Hey George! Are you and Sue coming to the SoCal RU in Mission Bay? I hope to see ya'll again. Jo

Maybe! Sue works Saturdays, I will see if she can change with someone.

GREAT!! Jo

What a great trip, thank you for describing it, it sounds like you had a wonderful time.

Wow George, that sounds wonderful and it eased some of my fears of traveling to a foreign country and the language barriers. It sounds like the people in Taiwan are very, very accommodating and friendly. And I was wondering (but didn't want to ask) what your trip cost you. Sounds like you had a great time at a reasonable cost. (Did that include your airfare as well?)

We spent a total of $2500 for the two of us. That includes the Marble Gorge tour and food.

The other Asian countries that we have visited:; Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore all speak much more English, but all of these places were very kind to tourists. In Hong Kong we had been on a tour and a vegetarian restaurant was pointed out. We decided to eat there and were trying to find it. A young man, a salesman, noticed that we were having difficulties and inquired. He did not know the restaurant but ran up the street one direction asking and then came back and ran up the other way. He came back to announce that he had foundit. Then he insisted on accompanying us right to the door.

Thewse mini-tours that we choose include the airplane ride, hotel, breakfasts and a half-day city tour.

Last year we took a Trafalgar tour of Portugal, Spain and Morocco. You ride a big bus day after day. A different hotel nearly every night. Thje hotels have a dozen or more tour busses parked beside them. We stopped for lunch at large roadside gas statation, restaurant places. Again a half dozen busses would be in the parking lot. I don't think that we ever met the real people of the country.

George, I'm curious what you do for a living while in CA :) ?

George,
You are great. Being handicapped, you still managed to travel so far off. 'Taiwan is a treasure island',as we call it. I often dream of having a tour to that beautiful land -- the tropical plant kingdom is always making a person itch to.
Thanks for sharing. I will head for your other threads to see if I can identify some of the plants you photoed during your trip.

I want to write to the woman who had the crepe booth at the night market. I was searching the web for a possible address and happened across the Rotary International site for the Shinlin district. I sent them and e-mail and am waiting to see if I get a response. I am hoping that someone from that area can help.

bump

(I used to live in Taiwan and am missing it, so thought that I would resurrect some old related threads)

Why don't you add some of your experiences?

Aren't the Taiwanese people incredibly kind, George? I'm not at all surprised by your experience with the wheel.

Sounds like you flew down to Hualien for the marble gorge tour? Breathtaking landscapes, eh? Some friends of mine and I rode our mountain bikes around the island over the course of about one week. We started in Taichung and rode down the West Coast, crossed over to TaiTung, then rode back up the East coast -- talk about mountainous and scenic! We then took a bus along the TREACHEROUS cross-island East-West Hwy back home to Taichung. I lived there from 1990-94.