The travel blog for couples - Written by Melanie Waldman
About an hour outside of Taipei, Taiwan, I was smitten (smitten, I tell you) by the historic mountain town of Jiufen.
Pedestrian streets paved with stone, glowing paper lanterns, teahouses with vine-covered patios and twinkling views of the Pacific…it’s enough to make you fall in love all over again, a really long way from home.
It’s always summer in Hawaii…or so we like to tell ourselves, once autumn takes hold.
One of my favorite versions of Hawaii, the northeast coast of the Big Island, has lush and frondy jungles, windswept coves, freakishly enormous flowers, tumbling waterfalls — and the comfortable elegance of the Palms Cliff House Inn.
During our epic 2002 adventure in northern Italy, we foolishly skipped right past Milan on our way from Verona to Lake Como. Now here I am, years later and dear friends with a woman who loves Milan so much that she plans to live there someday. So, since I can offer you little on this exciting, glamorous city, I’ll simply let Jessica Spiegel of WhyGo Italy do the job for me.
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Photo by Ralph Bodenner
While the notorious “pub crawl” often ends in an uncouth level of volume or undignified sidewalk-vomiting (or even both), it remains a popular way for traveling night owls to simultaneously explore and enjoy the local tipple.
However, if you’re not interested in drinking for the sake of drinking (read: are over the age of 25) but you do like the idea of enjoying cocktails in local hotspots to begin an evening in an exceptionally chic city, then Milan has the perfect solution for you:
Aperitivo.
Each August at the Taipei World Trade Center, the Taiwan Culinary Exhibition attracts a huge crowd for every one of its four days. It’s a balls-out parade of some of the most elaborate, exciting, artistic, enticing and baffling foods on Mothership Earth.
Oh, and did I mention? It’s entirely in Chinese. [Read more...]
Wood-carved sculpture in the northeast town of Sanyi
Continued from
Ni Hao, Taiwan: Part One
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** Ni hao = “hello” in Mandarin Chinese, the most common dialect in Taiwan **
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It’s been a few weeks since I returned from my first trip to Taiwan, and the sights, sounds, tastes (and even a few smells) seem to be growing stronger rather than fading with time.
I’ve never been anywhere that was so complicated, visually assaulting, gentle, calm, puzzling and yet somehow familiar, sometimes all in a given day.
But just when I thought I had a handle on the situation, Taiwan would surprise me yet again.
