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We land around 5:15, and sure enough, a man meets us at the T2 arrival hall and calls the driver.  It will take 45-minutes to get from Taoyuan to Taipei and the Cosmos Hotel. It is Monday morning, and the city has not woken.  I snap a picture of Taipei101 in the early morning light.

At the hotel, we stop by the dining room and greet the early risers. Seeing everyone at breakfast will become one of the best parts of the trip. We meet our tour guide and have the first surprise of the day: 1) it is a full-size bus, 2) we will not be going to Taipei 101 nor the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial. Kent's itinerary and mine have the Taipei events reversed.  It turns out that I did not receive the most recent and revised itinerary.  And the full-size bus?  Apparently, they had changed the bus thinking that we will each be bringing two full-size suitcases per person.  After some back and forth with our contact, Tristan, all or most was resolved by the next morning.

Still, it was hilarious to see the nine of us spread out across a full-size bus.  Chau-Wen dozed off in the back of the bus like a delinquent.  It was a party bus, possibly decked out with karaoke and LED lights.  Kent used a microphone to describe what we are going to see, and I might have caught 50% of what he said.  We are headed North and West  to the sea to Yehliu Geo Park with its weathered hoodoo rocks resembling queen's heads, mushrooms and tofu. It is packed with tourists and our small group of nine is lost among them.  This is the first time everyone is together.  Everyone knows someone if not everyone.  Pete and I met Amy, Chau-Wen, and Kathi at Rice. Deborah and Mary are friends from the Mother-Daughter book/supper club.  Bill and Lisa are friends, colleagues and traveling buddies.  I am not concerned that the group will gel, I am more concerned that what I thought was our itinerary has been changed willy-nilly.  And Kent?  I don't think he knew what to do with us?  We were more independent than most, not docile, I was a bit argumentative (chalk that down to jet-lag), and we did not listen well.  While he advised us to stay in zones 1 and 2 due to time constraints, Pete, Kathi, Mary and Deborah trekked down to zone 3 and back.

My thoughts on Yehliu?  I remember my dad talking about this wild place with these strange, out-of-this-world rocks carved by wind and water.  He always wanted to take us, but back then, it would be a half-day trip instead of the 1 to 1.5 hours the bus took. My favorites?  Seeing the ocean behind the formations, knowing how long this place has been around and how the winds and rocks protected Taiwan to the NW.

On the way back, we stopped by Shifen Old Street and release lanterns with messages.  Blue and I had done that and I had loved the feel of releasing the straining lanterns filled with air.  Kent knew exactly where to take us.  He explained the colors of the lanterns: red for health, yellow for wealth, pink for romance and blue for career success.  You can have single color panels or multi, and the lanterns are hung flat so you can add your messages to two sides, before they are opened to expose the other two sides.  The lanterns are at least 4' high.  Once the messages are written, they are moved outside to the railroad tracks and the lanterns are lit and filled with air. We hold, pose for videos and photos and release them.  Our messages ranged from peace to anger (Pete). This area was a coal mining town and the custom was to release lanterns to signal miners' safety. Afterwards, we walked towards the footbridge and sampled peanut ice rolls and apple custard. The waterfall was small and picturesque.

Next up was Jiufen Old Street, another mining town (gold) during the Japanese era that had narrow and steep streets filled with shops on both sides.  Red lanterns hung below the overhanging eaves.  The street is so narrow that one is well protected from the rain from the overlapping eaves.  We arrive in the rain, and near dusk.  Kent had made reservations at the A-mei Teahouse.  This tea house resembled the bath house in Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and had an amazing view of the harbor.  The surprise was the first lesson in tea service: hot water, clay pots, warming the cups and tea, and the tea snacks: green bean cakes, sweet, powdery preserved plums (made in house), brown sugar mochi, and savory sesame crackers.  Black tea (which in mandarin is called Red Tea), is served in small sipping cups.  And yes, as darkness drew in, all the lanterns were lit, and in the distance, the gentle curve of the bay. The massive crowds were a turn-off, and the food hawkers were constant.  I wish I had been hungrier and gone for the taro balls.  But I had a dinner date back in town with my childhood friend Jo-i and her family, so I refrained.

Back in Taipei, Chau-Wen took the others to dinner at the food court of the Taipei Main Station.  Pete picked up chips and beer from the 7-Eleven, and I met Jo-i, her husband Rik, son Ansel, and her mom Mrs. Cheng at the hotel restaurant.  Mr. Cheng, now in his nineties, no longer left the house much.  Mrs. Cheng is 86, same age as my mom.  The two of them were the stay-at-home-moms during our time in Mexico City.  She and mom had many adventures we will never know about.  Sigh.  Of course, Jo-i would not hear of me paying for the bill, and she gifts me two canisters of TenRen Dong Ding Tea, a beautiful, honey, oolong.

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