After Taipei 101 we hit a mall and Dons for lunch and got to FaceTime the whole family for a few minutes. Dons outside the states is peak. This particular mall food court also had piggy buns. These yellow egg custard filled steam buns are one of Ryan’s favorite treats to order from Lins, so I died when I saw them shaped like little piglets and ordered some for us. They even came in a cute little dim sum basket.
We had so much food. (Rule #1!)
The best was the spicy fried chicken from Dons. Bless the international Golden Arches for this contribution to our cuisine. Delicious. And sooo cheap! Why doesn’t McDonald’s have these options at home? Quincy agreed that Asia has fried chicken figured out. It’s so good there.
We bought a paper lantern and painted our goals and dreams on the four sides (career/financial, social, love, and physical). The boys wrote some really funny things and also some serious things. One older and very serious/traditional couple were doing one with lots of Chinese characters on them, and then we noticed some English writing on theirs as well and one of their wishes in English was “2 poops every day”. We lost it 😂. This was of course very sentimental for me, since sky lanterns are a long standing tradition before we launch our children. Scroll down to see kindergarten Corbin with his lantern. And here I have a senior and college student and I felt a surge of excitement for how much life is ahead for these men as they prep for missions and experience adulthood.
Shifen is known for lantern releases so every little corner and alleyway was decorated with murals and lantern art. I loved this cute town so much!
Street food is my love language. Aaron was so worried about what I’d eat on this trip since I don’t cook many Asian dishes at home. Let me just say this for the record that this trip had the best food of any international trip I have ever taken. Everything is delicious. Except for “stinky tofu” which tastes exactly how it sounds. 👎🏻
Back on the train and onto Jiufen at night. This mountainous village by the sea is adorned with temples, shrines, and tea houses and is filled with tiny alleyways and they’re all lined with lanterns. It is like a movie backdrop and is said to be the inspiration for the Studio Ghibli movie Spirited Away. We had no plans, and when we stepped off the train we just looked at each other and said, “ok, let’s go get lost!” And we did. Up stairways and down back alleys. We bought calamari, mochi, and fresh fruit, and watched the ocean from a lantern lined balcony with the foggy mountains behind us. It was a vibe. 
When we got back to our hotel in Songshan (Taipei), I headed back across the street to the Raohe night market to get some dim sum because it was just so good. I stopped at the first elote stand and realized Ryan was on my six.
Ryan and Corbin confessed that Quincy had sent them an email with a list of explicit instructions/advice counseling them for successful happy international travels with Meg. Rule #1 is “keep her fed” and #6 was to “keep [me] safe by not leaving [me] alone in sketchy situations and protect me where [I] might get approached by creepos”. I’m sure Quincy was imagining the streets of Paris with the very sketchy night vendors under the Eiffel Tower. I never once felt even close to unsafe anywhere in Taiwan. I saw 3 homeless people the entire week, and zero tweakers. The streets are filled with young families and grandparents alike and mothers are out with very little children on the busiest of streets in Taipei. All that said, I thought it was adorable that the boys agreed to not let me go out alone, and took turns as bodyguard any time I stepped out, even if it was to run down to a hotel lobby at midnight. Look at these beautiful dumplings they were rewarded with. I could eat 100 of them.
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