Taiwan

Taiwan was a pleasant surprise for me. Because of the tsunami and resulting nuclear problems in Japan we had to change our itinerary at the last minute. There is a long-standing political dispute over Taiwan. China claims it but Taiwan declared independence and currently they run their own country through an independent government. However, relations between China and Taiwan are icy to say the least. This meant that we could not sail directly from China to Taiwan; we had to stop in the Ryukyu island chain of Japan just long enough for the ship to be cleared before we sailed to Taiwan. This also meant that the dozen or so Chinese students on board could not disembark in Taiwan because it is not recognized as a country by the Chinese government. In Taiwan I took an air gondola ride up a mountain to a tea plantation from Tai Pei, the capital city. On the plantation we had a traditional tea service and we met a group of Taiwanese students. They told us about how Taiwanese culture was changing and that while the older generation remained very traditional the youth were forgetting the old ways and replacing them with more western ideas and ways of living. The first night in Taiwan we had dinner in a night market in Tai Pei. It was some of the most amazing food I have ever eaten.  I had fried dumplings, hot buns, glazed strawberries, squid, shrimp, and endless other delicious treats. The next morning we took a train to a region famous for its sulfur hot springs. We went for a hike in a national park before heading to the public baths. They smelled of sulfur and were organized into four separate pools. There were three hot pools ranging from very hot to very very hot to scorching hot. There was also a cold pool, which you could stay in just long enough to be freezing before hopping into one of the hot pools. After two days there, we headed back to Keelung, where the ship was docked. We said goodbye to foreign soil and headed for Hawaii.