I Survived 4 Days in Taipei.... With Children (Part 1)

There are many great posts on traveling on Steemit. These posts gives some really great information on the places they visit. However, this is not one of those posts. This is not going to be how epic the trip was, although Taipei is a wonderful place to visit. No, this is a post on how I survived traveling with two children to Taipei.

The Terror Of Flight 517

Ask any passenger on that flight to Taiwan and they would remember the terror of flight 517. My youngest decided that it was time to train her voice, I don't blame her, it was a rather early flight. Thus, for the next four and a half hours, she wailed and cried all the way to Taipei. We were on an Airasia flight, since we were all packed onto the plane like sardines in a can, it was safe to say that everyone from budget to business could hear her.

She screamed and wailed. Despite all our efforts to calm her down, it was to no avail and she entertained the flight with her voice all the way to Taipei. If you were on that flight, I apologized. I hope I did not discourage anyone from having kids. We landed in Taipei just passed lunch time and managed to find a braised pork rice bowl place that was still open.

I think everyone deals with stress differently. I deal with it by eating and man this was one of the best braised pork I have ever had. The pork was soft and tender and the vegetable and gray matched the rice perfectly. My wife and I gobbled our food as fast as we could. That's because my youngest, a.k.a the terror of flight 517 had fallen asleep. We took the opportunity to eat while we can, not knowing when she would awake again.

But...

After a long and arduous trip, a pleasant surprise greeted us. We were taken through the busy streets near XiMenDing to a rather unassuming hotel called Cho Hotel. From the outside, it looked rather dodgy. You see, we booked the hotel online without knowing how it would be. The reviews were great but we all know that those can be faked. However, it was by far one of the best hotels that I have stayed in.

You see, Cho hotel is no 5 star hotel, its a four storey shop lot with a price of approximately 60 USD a night. However, what Cho hotel lacks in star rating, it more than makes up for in graciousness. Cup noodles, snacks and drinks were all free. In fact, the only drink that is charged is the beer. Other free services include free laundry service. The room was also gorgeous and I have to say, the owners of the hotel are really artistic.

Of course, the best part about all this is that both my princesses love the place. It shows because soon after that, they fell asleep. I mean, they had a short nap.

The Obstacle Course At Ximending

Their afternoon nap did not last long as soon after, it was time to explore to famous Ximending area. Ximending has a night market of its own, but the whole area was teeming with food stores. We found a nice little 'xiao long bao' (soup dumplings) store. Price wise, it was way cheaper than those from where I was from and so we ordered 24 dumplings.

The dumplings were awesome, the skin was soft and the soup and mince oozed out as you bite into it. Well, that's all I could tell you as I had to eat it really fast. You see, its summer in Taipei and the store was hot. As such, my little one got rather uncomfortable. So as my wife fed the my older daughter, I gobbled down about 6 of the soup dumplings before carrying my little daughter off for a walk. Movement apparently, calms her down.

Oh, fun fact, don't gobble down soup dumplings, the soup inside the soup dumpling is hot, so imagine the soup oozing out and burning your tongue, mouth and throat. It was however, totally worth it. After the soup dumplings, we visited the night market around XiMenDing. Of course, we visited the famed Ah Zong rice vermicelli.

Its hard to describe the taste of it, but its all about the broth they use. Its a great mix of salty and tasty octopus like taste. But, if I'm honest, I think they must've cooked a unicorn in the broth to make it taste so good. I say this however as I was carrying my elder daughter on one hand while trying to savour that wonderful bowl of rice vermicelli. It wasn't long before my arm started quivering and shaking under the weight of my daughter. This incredible balancing act was only the start of the obstacle course as we had to line up for the next must-try of XiMenDing, the XXL fried chicken.

The fried chicken was too hot to eat which was a consolation because it started raining. As such, I had to wrap my elder daughter in a raincoat while my wife placed my younger daughter in a stroller. We did a sprint through the rain back to the hotel. Correction, my wife did the sprint, I did the sprint with weights. I held my older daughter in one hand and the fried chicken in the other as we ran back to the hotel.

Oh, and the fried chicken was not warm anymore.

Conclusion

I got home with sore arms and legs. Traveling with two children is extremely tiring. Originally, this trip was planned for my wife as we thought traveling as a family would have been a great idea to get away. It turns out that managing two kids on a trip is no easy task.

But, I love that they had fun in a place, savoring the food and just exploring new places together with the family. I would not have traded the sore arms and legs for anything else. Of course, if I were seeing this in a positive light, I would say that all the running and weight lifting (carrying my girls) burns a load of calories. You know from all the street food I've eaten in Taiwan.

Oh, and the wailing and crying from my youngest daughter on the flight to Taiwan, I still love her with all my heart. She may be loud and difficult at times but she's still super adorable through it all.

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