Visiting Taiwan for 20 days – our itinerary & experience (Part 3)

Welcome to Part 3 and the final part of our 20-day Taiwan trip report. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip and seeing all the pictures so far. 

• Visiting Taiwan for 20 days – our itinerary & experience (Part 1)
• Visiting Taiwan for 20 days – our itinerary & experience (Part 2)

After 8 days in Taiwan, we visited Taipei and Jiaoxi and finally made our way to Taichung where we’d spend the next 7 days, visiting relatives, and celebrating the Lunar New Year. We’d wrap up the trip with 5 days in Kaohsiung. 

Let’s find out what we did for the remainder of the trip.  

Day 9 Wedding & Senji New Village

Day 9 was all about attending my nephew’s wedding. We lazed around in the morning, then walked to the wedding banquet hall. Upon arrival I was surprised at how big the banquet hall was – there were four weddings happening in the banquet hall at the same time with about 250 people at each wedding. The weddings over lunch would wrap up in mid-afternoon so the banquet hall could prepare for more weddings in the evening!

It was great to see my uncles, aunts, cousins, and nephews at the wedding. The last time I saw some of them was over two years ago during one of my work trips. For my parents, kids, and Mrs. T, it had been much longer since they saw the relatives in person. We caught up and had a great time at the wedding…

After the wedding, one of my cousins took us to Senji New Village to check out a weekend craft market. We then walked around the Taichung Civic Area that evening and had dinner together. 

Day 10 Visiting family & wagyu teppanyaki dinner 

We spent most of Day 10 visiting my aunt’s (my dad’s sister) family in Daya in Northern Taichung. My aunt and my uncle live on a farm so we walked around to check it out. I also reminisced about the days when I spent time digging and getting dirty on their farm many years ago when I was a child.    

And because the Lunar New Year was only a few days away, my aunt was busy making traditional Taiwanese dishes to prepare for the big Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. It was interesting for both kids and Mrs. T to see what was involved.

Ms. T and I were joking around with my cousins and both kids were busy running around on the farm and playing with my nephews. My parents had a good time chatting with my aunt, uncle, and cousin, too. We had a lot of fun and time passed quickly as a result. 

Before the trip, I booked an omakase teppanyaki place for dinner to treat my parents and my family. The restaurant, Itamae Wagyu Teppanyaki, is a chain in Taiwan with restaurants located in Taipei, Taoyuan, and Taichung. I had dinner at Itamae in Taipei in 2024 for work and was impressed by the quality and the food selection. As the name suggests, the restaurant specializes in Wagyu beef. 

At about $90 CAD per person, it was not the cheapest place for dinner. Both the food and service were amazing. Furthermore, everyone raved about it post dinner so I think it was money well spent.

Day 11 Hanging out with family & omakase again

We visited my aunt’s family again and had a low-key lunch together (and made more food for Lunar New Year). After hanging out and chatting for a few hours, we went to central Taichung together. My parents and the kids hung out with my aunt & cousins. They then had dinner together. Meanwhile, Mrs. T and I booked another sushi omakase just for the two of us. 

Day 12 Lunar New Year Celebration

When I was a child, we usually had the Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner with my uncle’s (my dad’s brother) family at their place. We’d eat dinner, talk, get red envelopes, and celebrate this special holiday.

Unlike my childhood memory, we would have the Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner at a banquet hall with other families. Apparently eating out for the special holiday dinner is very popular in Taiwan nowadays (people are too lazy to cook and it’s getting harder and harder to find a place to host many family members). For the Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner, we were told to arrive at the banquet hall after 6:30 PM and the food would be served at 7 PM. There were close to 60 tables at the banquet hall with ten people per table spanning two floors.  

At 7 PM, the servers brought out the first dish and all the tables were served like clockwork. I was pretty amazed by the efficiency and the service at the banquet hall. It was clear this wasn’t their first time at the rodeo. 

Day 13 Lunar New Year 

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Taiwanese tradition is to pay respect to ancestors. We got up early to visit Lai’s Family House, a heritage traditional Taiwanese house that had been preserved.

After visiting the Lai’s Family House, we went back to the hotel to rest and relax. Later, we walked around the hotel for several hours to soak in the Lunar New Year atmosphere.

Since it was the first day of the Lunar New Year, many restaurants and shops were closed. After walking around for about 15 minutes, I found a hot pot place that was open for dinner. 

Day 14 Family get together

Before the trip, my nephew (the one that we went to his wedding with a few days ago) and his parents invited everyone to have dinner together. Dinner would be ordered and we’d eat at my nephew’s new house, hang out, and have a good time. We were all looking forward to this big family get-together.

After waking up and having breakfast, we went to Ten Thousand Cafe and met up with my cousins. (I was told that Ten Thousand Coffee is a chain that originated from New York. Apparently, it is one of the top ten cafes in New Year). 

During conversations, one of my cousins asked Mrs. T and I if we would be interested in getting a massage. Without hesitation and knowing what to expect, we both said yes.

So in the afternoon, we went to a Thai massage place to get a one hour massage. 

Although Mrs. T and I regularly go for massages in Vancouver, the Thai massage in Taichung was on another level. The massage was super strong (it wasn’t relaxing at all) and we were both very sore afterward!

Anyway, the Thai massage was an interesting experience and I don’t think either of us would try it again!

That night at my nephew’s, we had 29 people in attendance. My uncles and aunts were busy talking to my parents while my cousins and I were busy talking and playing mahjong. The “younger” kids were busy playing Nintendo Switch. 

I also spent some time talking to two of my cousins about FIRE (one of them retired in his early 40s) and work and getting their perspectives. It was good to understand what my cousin has been doing for over ten years since retiring. It was also interesting to hear why my other cousin decided to continue to work despite reaching financial independence.

We wrapped up the night shortly past midnight and everyone agreed that we needed to do another get-together again.

Day 15 Family lunch and travel day

After the fun family get-together the previous night, we had lunch with my uncle’s family to say our goodbyes before getting on a high-speed train to head to Kaohsiung.

The train ride from Taichung to Kaohsiung was relatively uneventful. For the last five days of our trip, I booked rooms in the Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel using Marriott Bonvoy Points again. 

As mentioned before, I believe collecting Marriot Bonvoy points is very worthwhile so we travel hack by applying the American Express Bonvoy cards. You can sign up using my referral links and get more points than the regular offers: 

1. Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card – Earn 55,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $3,000 in the first three months.
2. Marriott Bonvoy American Express Business Card – Earn 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points by spending $5,000 in the first three months. 

Unlike the two Marriott properties we stayed at, I managed to get upgraded from a family room to a suite at check-in (I politely asked the front desk staff if there was a suite for us).

We were all very impressed with the Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel since the building was quite new and offered excellent facilities (breakfast restaurant with a lot of offerings, executive lounge with more food and coffee throughout the day, pool and spa, etc).

Since the Kaohsiung Marriott Hotel was connected to a department store, it was quite convenient to find restaurants and shops.

Day 16 Pier 2 & Ruifeng Night Market

Because none of us were familiar with Kaohisung, I spent a lot of time doing research before the trip. When I met up with my co-worker the previous night, I also asked him about Kaohsiung attractions. 

Kaohsiung is the third most populated city in Taiwan with a population of about 2.73 million as of October 2023. The city is the main port city of Taiwan with more than 67 of Taiwan’s export and import containers going through Kaohsiung. When I was a child, Kaohsiung used to be a heavily polluted industrial city due to all the heavy industrial factories. Over the years, however, Kaohsiung has been cleaned up and now it is very clean and beautiful. 

Before the trip, we heard a lot of good things about Pier 2. It used to be an area of abandoned shipping warehouses on the Kaohsiung Port but was redeveloped into an art district.

Because it was a Saturday and the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, there were a lot of street vendors around Pier 2 and the harbour area. There were tons of people and it was very festive. 

That night we went to Ruifeng Night Market only to discover that it was super crowded. The lanes in the market were extremely narrow so if you were claustrophobic, you probably wouldn’t want to visit this night market.

Day 17 Lotus Pond

When Mrs. T and I visited Taiwan together in 2012, my relatives took us to Lotus Pond and we had some great memories, so we decided to take both kids to check out this nice area in Kaohsiung. 

We took the MRT from Aozihdi Station to Ecological District Station then walked for about one kilometre to get to the south end of Lotus Pond. While walking around, we stumbled upon a group of people parading around the city, welcoming the God of Wealth. For fun, we joined the parade for a little bit…

When we arrived at the southwest end of Lotus Pond, we found that there were street vendors along the entire path of the pond. We visited the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, then the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, before checking out the Zuoying Yuandi Temple.

Before heading back to the hotel, we visited the Kaohsiung City Temple of Confucius at the north end of Lotus Pond. Both kids learned some information about Confucius and why he is an important figure.

Day 17 was a lot of walking with my Fitbit showing over 19,000 steps and over 14 km (the highest day was when we hiked to Wufengchi Waterfall in Jiaoxi with almost 22,000 steps).   

Day 18 Touring around Kaohsiung

After a long day walking around Kaohsiung, we decided to have a more relaxed day. We took the MRT to the pier area and stumbled upon an animal cafe in Kaohsiung Central Park (it wasn’t opened yet but had many different animals).

Despite the plan of having a relaxing day, we ended up walking close to 18,000 steps! Tired and hungry, we had an early dinner at Din Tai Fung (after waiting for about 80 minutes to get in) and relaxed at the hotel spa after.

Day 19 Relaxing, getting ready to return home

We decided to actually take it easy on our second last day in Taiwan. We checked out the hotel pool & spa in the morning and the afternoon and also a park nearby (so both kids can run around and play). We also walked around in the department store next to the hotel but didn’t buy anything. For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant for some delicious sushi.

Day 20 Time to return home

Because our flight was close to midnight, I requested a late 4 PM checkout from the hotel and was given it (a Titanium elite benefit). We spent the last day in Taiwan by going to the park nearby, the hotel spa (again), and packing. After checking out, we hopped on a high-speed train to head to Taoyuan Airport.

We were sad to have to say goodbye to Taiwan but after 20 days, we were ready to go back home and sleep in our own beds. 

Summary – Visiting Taiwan for 20 days, our itinerary & experience (Part 3)

Overall I think the trip was a huge success. It was great we were able to visit four different cities and experience different parts of Taiwan. Toward the end of the trip, both kids asked if we could go back to Taiwan more regularly (like we do with Denmark). It was good that both kids got hooked on travelling and enjoyed their time in Taiwan.

For me, it was great to visit Taiwan without having to think about work (I didn’t check my emails for the entire duration). It was also really neat to see my relatives and spend time with them. 

If you haven’t been to Taiwan before, I’d highly recommend it. Taiwan is clean, safe, easy to get around via public transportation, and much cheaper than Canada. Not to mention that the Taiwanese people are very friendly and always willing to help foreigners (during the trip many came up to Mrs. T and the kids asking if they needed help). 

Readers, I hope you enjoyed the three-part Taiwan trip report!