My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
June 2024 (and then my return in September 2024 below)
We were notified a couple of weeks before the cruise where we were going to go to Taiwan that due to weather, a port would be cancelled and we would have an overnight in Keelung. The ship was buzzing with excitement. I don’t get too excited about overnights because we usually have to provide entertainment for the guests staying on the ship, so the schedule usually works out to be about the same for us (though this was great news for the shops and the casino, neither of which can be open while we are in port). I was, however, excited to visit Taiwan – it would be a new country for me! My friend Jack from the Coral Princess is from Taiwan, so I was excited to see his country. Jack loves hot pots, so I sent him a message asking him where the best hot pot was, but I didn’t get his recommendation before we arrived.
Once again a group of us got together and set out for adventure. We changed our money in the terminal, and as soon as we crossed the street, I felt like I was in a foreign country.
We were looking for a hot pot, but when we passed the McDonalds I was very tempted to try a Taiwanese burger.
This was one of my two biggest regrets from visiting Taiwan – that I didn’t try the black burger from McDonalds. But, we return to Keelung on the crossing to Australia in September. If I can get off the ship then, I will try Taiwanese McDonalds and I will buy a lot more mochi balls in the terminal. That was my other regret – that I didn’t buy more mochi balls.
We did, however, find a place to get a hot pot. I have to admit that I really had no idea what a hot pot was. I was picturing something like top ramen, so my expectations were pretty low. Boy was I impressed!
My Japanese friends used google translate to read the menu. We ordered different types of meat so we could share and different soup flavors so we could try each other’s.
We were each given a pot of broth on a burner on our table, a giant bowl of raw veggies, along with the different kinds of meat we had ordered, noodles and cheese (that looked exactly like the craft cheese wrapped in plastic that we have at home).
This was so much fun. This hot pot experience was a lot like the Japanese and Korean BBQ, where we were cooking the food right in front of us on the table, but this time it was in a soup! I couldn’t believe how quickly the raw vegetables and raw meat cooked. There was a side bar where there were extra sauces. I followed Mikiko and copied what she took from the bar. Then we went back to the table and pulled out the pieces that had cooked in the soup, dipped it in our sauce concoctions and then ate it. It was so good, that I feel like I don’t have the right words to describe how delicious and fun this experience was. I now understand why Jack loves hot pots so much.
After lunch we went shopping in the market where I encountered more claw machines than I have ever seen in one place.
These machines had toys as well as snacks and things you would normally find in shops.
Mikiko loves shopping for shoes in Taiwan because they are fashionable, very comfortable and very cheap – she had promised me months ago to show me where to find these magical shoes. Unfortunately, though, my feet are too big for Taiwan – there was not one store that had any shoes my size.
We stopped in a 7 Eleven where Mikiko showed me which chocolate was cheaper in Taiwan than it is in Japan, so I got some, and I also got an egg that had been cooked in vinegar on her suggestion – someone she knew who had lived in Taiwan said these eggs were really good. We agreed that we would not have tried it if it wasn’t recommended.
The market:
We wandered through the market and Mikiko treated me to some bubble tea. I’d had bubble tea in other countries, but not in Taiwan, so we went to Mimi’s favorite place where we could choose how sweet, how milky and how much ice we wanted in our tea. I got a brown sugar flavor, which hit the spot on this hot day.
Then I rushed back to the ship to attend the rehearsal for the Folkloric Show in the Princess Theater that I would be hosting that night. I would host the first show with Masahiro and the second show with Hiroshi. I went to the rehearsal to figure out what they wanted- where they would be at the start of the show so I could indicate to the side where they would enter, and what was the cue for when it was finished, so I’d know when to come on at the end. By the time I showed up for the first show, they added that they would like introductions for each segment, and they’d like me to talk for about two minutes while they changed what was set on the stage. By the second show they had different ways for me to describe what was happening in each segment. It was a little hectic and confusing but it was fun to get to practice hosting in the Princess Theater again. Once again I made all my mistakes in the first show and then fell into my groove for the second.
September 2024
On our way to Australia we stopped in Keelung again, so I had a chance to rectify my regrets – I wanted to try that black McDonalds burger, buy a lot more mochi balls and spend all of my Taiwanese cash.
Andi came with me! This time we docked in a different place so we had to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go.
After a bit of walking things started to look familiar. Andi wanted to take a closer look at some of the temples I had simply walked past before. That’s one of the reasons it’s fun to travel with different people.
After wandering around unable to figure out where we wanted to eat, we finally decided to put McDonalds in the GPS. A running joke had developed where every time we got off the ship, Andi would suggest going to McDonalds, which always inspired an enthusiastic rant from me about the necessity of eating locally. He knew what I was going to say, and I knew that he was joking, and he still kept suggesting McDonalds. But this time I was seriously considering it!
Fortunately we stumbled on a really local place and had an amazing hot pot. Andi had never had a hot pot so I had a great time showing him what to do and how to cook the food.
Afterwards I was so full that I was trying to figure out how I would manage ALSO having McDonalds. The only possible thing to do would be to buy some now and eat it cold later when I could fit more food in my body. Since cold food would not give me the full experience, I decided to leave the black McDonalds burger for next time once again. If I have it I certainly hope this burger lives up to what I’ve built it up to be in my mind!
On the way back to the ship we stopped at the little shop in the terminal and found so many trinkets that will be fun reminders of this day and our time together. Plus I brought back six boxes of mochi balls. I still have a stash at home.