7/6

Today the boys and girls were going separate ways. Originally the girls were going to a cat cafe then to Chiikawa show in Huashan 1914 Creative Park and the boys were just going to sleep in and chill till dinner time to meet up with the girls. But the boys got in touch with a water polo friend real late and decided to hang out during the day.

The first cat cafe that Catherine and I planned to go doesn't open on Mondays and we found out the hard way. So I searched up another cat cafe close to Huashan 1914 Creative Park. It is a very nice cat cafe with 13 cats. We only saw 7 of the 13 though.

We spent about 90 minutes at the cat cafe then headed to Huashan 1914 Creative Park.

We obtained the tickets to go to Chiikawa about 5 days ago, but the ticketing procedures are quite complicated and I didn't know that I had to get online to reserve a time slot to enter the show so we weren't able to go. We tried to reserve a time for tomorrow but there was only 1 spot left at the only time slot and we purchased 3 tickets. We were going to try to go in tomorrow to see if we can get at least Catherine and I in?!

We then walked around Zhongshan Metro Mall.

We then hopped on the Metro and headed to Yes! Life YuLong City!

We had dinner at Rice Bar with Ivy's middle school friends.

They were really sweet to get me a birthday cake since my birthday is a week away!

After dinner, the boys met up with Sydney again to enjoy the night market. Catherine and I went to Wade and Claire's place to eat my birthday cake together.

We have one more day left in Taiwan and it'll be another packed day for all of us before we head home!

7/5

James has been wanting to play mahjong with Gong Gong this whole trip. He kinda taught Bogdan how to play at the beginning of the trip. Bogdan's first couple game was with Howard and JJ. While we were in Tainan, we actually played a couple games with Gong Gong.  So Gong Gong said that he's going to treat us to lunch today and we could go back to his place and play mahjong using his automatic table.

We took a bus and walked to the Go Bar Shabu Shabu to meet Gong Gong. I thought it was interesting that their kids' meal price were determined by height. Catherine is right at 5 feet so she's considered an adult.

There are lots of Shabu Shabu just on this street and Gong Gong said this is his favorite one because they have an all-you-can-eat seafood bar.

There was a 2-hour time limit for our party. We entered the restaurant at 11am so we had until 1pm to finish our lunch. I saw a flyer that says if it's your birthday month, you get 10% off and if it's your actual birthday, you get 20% off. We happened to have 2 July birthdays so 2 of us got 10% off!

Then we walked to Family Mart to get some drinks and went back to Gong Gong's apartment to start our mahjong game. The boys were fascinated by the automatic mahjong table. It does the tedious stuff for you so it cuts down a lot of wasted time.

We played till 5pm then we went our separate ways. The boys didn't want to tag along with me to meet Chloe, so they went back to meet up with Howard and JJ. Catherine and I went to meet Chloe.

We took Bus G15 to get to Da Ping Ling Metro Station to avoid walking in the rain. We then took the green line to Zhongshan Station.

Chloe took Catherine and I to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi.

After dinner, Chloe took us to a huge stationary store and Catherine bought more stationary.

There is also a Chiikawa shop in walking distance but by the time we got there, they already closed.

7/4

Today we are meeting up with my college friend, Ellen, and her husband, Hans, and her 4-year-old daughter, QQ. Ellen and I have known each other for 30 years!!! She went back to Taiwan around 2003 or 2004 and we've met up maybe 3 times between then and now.

Ellen is treating us to hibachi at Brother Hotel.

The food was of course amazing!

Unlike other hibachi places, this hibachi makes their dessert from scratch! And they make you popcorn if it is your birthday month. QQ, Bogdan, and I all have our birthdays in July!

Then Ellen called an Uber to take us to Breeze Nang Shan for our i-Ride experience. Hans works for i-Ride so he got us VIP tickets to experience 2 shows. We experienced "Fly High over Taiwan" first and there were many places that we've visited during this trip: Taipei 101, Tainan Anping, Tai Tung, etc. It was pretty cool. We also got to "dived" in the ocean for a little bit. The second show we experienced was "Changan Above: A Soaring Journey through the Great Tang." It was beautiful! But this one didn't include English subtitles, and it was reciting lots of ancient poems, I don't think any of the teens understood what the show was about. The view was amazing though!

Since it was still pretty early, we walked to "North Tobacco Factory" which was converted into a pop-up market. But the Taipei Dome next door was hosting one of the most popular pop group, Mayday's concert, so we felt like the whole Taiwan was at the same place. With that many people and the humidity from the overcasting clouds above, we decided to head home instead of walking around more.

I thought the i-Ride experience was pretty cool, but the 2 teens thought obtaining the sparkling soda of Attack on Titan was the highlight of the day, then I have to add the regular flavor of BTS Orea cookie!

7/3

Today, our goal is just to reach Taipei from the east part of Taiwan. The east part of the Taiwan is more mountainous so it will take longer but the view to the Pacific Ocean is stunning.

We started our trip around 9:00am and I was gonna get a selfie with everyone, but the teens were in the van already and wouldn't join us so...

The Airbnb was just all right. We are not recommending it but for reference I still would like to have a picture taken in front of it.

We didn't make a lot of stops today. I think we only stopped twice before reaching Taipei.

We see the Strait of Taiwan on the west side of Taiwan, even though the water is huge and the view is beautiful as well, the east side is just different. It IS the Pacific Ocean!!!! The vast ocean with almost nothing in sight!!!

We also drove past Tropic of Cancer.

The Tropic of Cancer is the northernmost latitude on Earth where the Sun can appear directly overhead, located approximately 23.5 degrees north of the Equator. It is one of the Earth's five major circles of latitude and marks the northern boundary of the tropics. I personally think it's pretty cool that we drove by it but the teens were all resting in the back of the van, so I only took pictures from the moving van.

We got to Hualian around lunch time, so we stopped for lunch in Hualian.

My aunt and I stopped quickly at a local souvenir shop and bought some mochi.

We continued our journey north to Taipei. We drove through countless tunnels, and some were VERY long.

We reached Taipei around 5:30pm and we stopped to get some dumplings to go for dinner.

We informed the friends who let us stay in their empty apartment that we were back, and they told us that today is their oldest son, Howard's, 17th birthday. We walked over for his cake and Uncle Wade ordered him a Hachiware cake, which is Catherine's favorite character right now.

7/2

Today we are heading south. We are just going back to Taipei, but my uncle and aunt said there is no telling when our next visit will be, so they want to drive us back from the east side of Taiwan. That way we will be able to take in all the various sceneries: cities, suburbs, sandy beach, mountains, and rocky beach.

We stopped by the southernmost city, Ping Tong, for their aquarium. We brought our own lunch in, cold noodles, and sat in the designated outside area to eat before we started the tour of the aquarium.

I love the aquarium but not Catherine. I'm glad that she tried to enjoy it as much as possible though. Also, the puffer fish here are huge!!! I guess not everything is bigger in Texas?!

After spending more than two hours at the aquarium, we started our trip south again. We stopped at Shadao, which is a part of the Kenting National Park. This beach is off limits because the sand consists of 97.7% shells and dead coral. The water is from Strait of Taiwan.

We then stopped by Longpan Park. It was literally for 3 minutes.

We then hit the southernmost tip of Taiwan but we didn't stop and we head east. Our last stop of the day was Da Wu. The water here is from the Pacific Ocean.

We had dinner by the ocean and spent about 20 minutes just enjoying the view and the sounds. Then we headed to our AirBnb in Tai Dong. We reached our AirBnb around 9:00pm.

7/1

Today is another historical sites day!

First stop: Anping Tree House! Anping is the earliest port in Taiwan's history and has been through the rules of the Dutch, Zheng's reign of the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and Japanese era. It was also an important trading port of Taiwan. In 1858, the 8th year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign during the Qing dynasty, with the Treaty of Tianjin, more ports were opened in Taiwan, including the earlier Dansui and Keelung ports, and subsequently the ports in Takao and Taiwan Prefectures. In 1865, the 3rd year of Emperor Tongzhi's reign, Anping opened its ports on the 1st of January, and foreign merchants came successively to set up their firms. The British Tait & Co., Elles & Co., Boyd & Co., US Wright & Co. and Germany's Mannich & Co. were the five well-known traders in Anping at the time. During the Japanese occupation, with the Japanese monopolizing the opium trade and taking away the shipping businesses, the foreign merchants gradually withdrew from Anping. The merchant buildings were subsequently converted or used for other purposes. Wright & Co. building was converted into Anping subprefecture, Elles & Co. was converted into Anping Aquatic Products School; and Boyd & Co. was converted into dormitories for Taiwan Salt Company's employees. Tait & Co. building was sold to Taiwan Salt Making Corporation. After Taiwan's Retrocession, its main factory was made into office buildings, and the factory was relocated. Today, Tait & Co., and Mannich & Co. buildings are the only two remaining merchant buildings having witnessed the history of Taiwan's foreign merchants during the late Qing dynasty.

Our second stop: Anping Fort!

In the early 17th century, Dutch military-business alliance troops conquered current-day Anping in 1624 and built Fort Zeelandia as a defense base. The construction was completed in 1634. In 1662, the 16th year of Emperor Yongli's reign during the Ming dynasty, after Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) seized For Zeelandia, he renamed it as Anping Township, and turned the inner fort into government offices. The Taiwanese hence called it the Imperial City. During the Qing dynasty, as the Bay of Taijiang was demolishing For Zeelandia to build the Eternal Golden Castle, it was gradually abandoned. For Zeelandia was rebuilt after the Japanese occupation, and renamed ad "Anping Fort" after Taiwan's Retrocession. Today, the only remnants from the Dutch period are the southern brick walls of the outer fort. The deep-rooted banyan trees have experienced countless years of change and witnessed over 300 years of the ups and downs of the Bay of Taijiang.

Today is a really hot day so we found a restaurant with air conditioning.

After lunch, we went to get some icy treats!

Our last stop of the day: Sicao Green Tunnel!

We went home after the green tunnel experience to do laundry since we will be leaving Tainan and heading south tomorrow.