We were originally planning on heading to Jordan after Sri Lanka, but as circumstances evolved, we decided to instead backtrack and head to Taiwan. We managed to make it through some overnight flying— leaving Colombo near midnight, with a connection in KL— surprisingly fresh, and landed in Taipei City. Though we really enjoyed Sri Lanka, we were particularly excited about this destination, and I think that Taipei will be one of the highlights of our trip.
On our way into the city; the excitement is palpable.
The architecture of much of the city is a bit… utilitarian, but even coming in from the airport on the light rail, we could appreciate the beauty of the surrounding environment: the river, the mountains nestled in clouds, the sea, and the lush vegetation. Everything just seemed so green.
One of the best parts of our stay in Taipei was the fact that we were staying with our friends Allan and Sandy. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for over a decade, and have added a bunch of kids to the mix, it just felt natural to get back together and hang out for a few days. It’s been a few months (since Australia) that we’ve been on our own, and staying in a house with people we knew was a nice change!
Not only were Allan and Sandy great hosts, but they were also great tour guides! They took us hiking up a mountain in Yamingshan National Park (easily accessible by bus from the city) to get some stunning views; out to explore some cool neighbourhoods; to the Shilin night market; and Allan even took me out for a run along the river.
The view from the top (Yaminsghan NP).
We told Sandy that eating was a big part of our style of travel, and I don’t think we could have had a better food guide! I think we discovered all of the best things that could be found to eat in the city, including the famous stinky tofu (Ben is a fan!) , a hot-pot restaurant with all-you-can-eat ice cream (everyone was a fan!), lots of bubble tea (of course), the night-market scene, and a bunch of other things for which I forget the name, but remember the taste! I’m staring to get hungry again just writing this…
A couple of fried chickens at the night market.I forget what this was called, but man it was good!
We also headed off to do some of the touristy things on our own, and Taipei’s extensive light rail (the MRT) made it very easy to get around. We hit the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, whose architecture is rather impressive, as well as the National Palace Museum, where a lot of China’s most impressive artifacts and artwork ended up after the KMT fled to Taiwan after the communist revolution.
View from the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial.The National Palace Museum… as circumstances evolved.
With our bento boxes in hand, we then boarded a train to start our journey around the beautiful island.
We’ve left the beaches of the South and the elephants of Udawalawe behind to head into the hill country of Sri Lanka, once prized by the British for not being quite so d@mn hot as everywhere else we’ve been.
Part of the adventure of traveling is finding one’s way from one place to another. In isolated Udawalawe, we didn’t seem to have a whole lot of options— elephants just don’t need public transportation. We were planning a simple solution: a PickMe ride (~ Uber) to our next destination of Ella for about 50 CAD. However, our guesthouse was able to call around and find us a local driver for the same price. We liked this option, since that would mean that this driver would get the full fare, without giving PickMe a cut.
So the next morning our driver showed up for what I can only assume was his first day of work. He was young, polite, didn’t speak much English, and seemed a touch nervous. But we headed off and his driving was great… and so of course we got a flat tyre. No problem for us: our driver did an excellent job of demonstrating to me and the kids how to put on a spare tire, but once we were back in the van he was clearly a touch frazzled. After all, the van had a temporary tyre and we still had a good distance to go. Fortunately, we were in no hurry, and managed to communicate that via a translation app to our driver. Relief took over his face immediately. We stopped for fuel*, spent some time in a local garage seeing the boys change the tires (all of them!) on our van, as well as those of a transport truck. In the end, we made it to our destination a little later than planned, but after an afternoon with the kind of entertainment that tourists would line up to pay for. Our driver had a rough first day on the job, but he did great, and looked to be momentarily on the verge of tears when I gave him a decent tip.
Little adventures.
*(As a side note, the Israeli-Trump war with Iran is clearly having its effect on life and tourism here. When we stopped for fuel, there was a long queue of vehicles overseen by a soldier with an assault rifle. Drivers now have a QR code to keep track of their ration of fuel for the week, and just as we were leaving the station closed (at noon). Due to the fuel shortages, the work-week has been shortened to four days. Our guesthouse here is reporting fewer tourists due to cancelled flights as well. On a personal note, we’ve had to cancel our planned trip to Jordan (due to travel advisories) and have opted to spend a little more time in Asia.)
That was the long version of “we made it to Ella,” a touristy town in the hilly interior with a very relaxed vibe. We had an amazing guesthouse with a beautiful view overlooking Ella Rock and the surrounding hills, and opted to take it rather easy over our few days.
Breakfast without any unfamiliar monkeys.
In the mornings we did short hikes (out to world-famous-in-Sri-Lanka Nine Arches railway bridge one day, and to little Adam’s peak another day), did some homework in the afternoon, and perused tourist shops before finding a resto for rice and curry in the evening. It was great, with the exception of the monkeys terrorizing breakfast that one morning.
The much-photographed Nine-Arches railway bridge.
After Ella, our next stop was Nuwara Eliya. Normally, the way to travel in Sri Lanka is by train and the routes in the Hill Country are known to have some spectacular views, so much so that reserved cars are rumoured to normally sell out well in advance. Unfortunately, these days there isn’t much chance to ride the train, as a cyclone last December (and subsequent landslides) damaged a good part of the rail network. However, we did manage to take a short two-hour trip from Ella to Ambewele (completing the journey to Nuwara Eliya by taxi), so we at least got a taste of what we were missing. And the ride was beautiful, passing on ridges high up and offering stunning views of the valleys below.
Elsie, getting her hanging-out-the-door-of-the-train Instagram video in while her father was not looking.
Nuwara Eliya had a very different vibe compared to Ella, and we had trouble placing the feeling it left with us. I would describe the city as a mix of bustling Sri Lankan city with some sort of amusement park called “Little England,” where there is a golf course, Victorian gardens, a post office out of the English countryside, and a surprising number of horses. Since the town is at 6000 ft, the climate is relatively cool, so we were able to get fresh strawberries, and we also had the thrill of putting a sweater on for the first time in months!
Les fraises de Ceylon.
Sri Lanka (or * Ceylon * if you’re trying to sell a tourist something) is of course famous for tea, and we were in tea country, with hillsides covered by plantation estates. So one morning we grabbed a tuk-tuk out to Somerset Estates and did a tour of the Tea Factory. Our guide took us through the factory and explained the whole tea-processing operation. We learned a lot, helped by the fact that we’re not too shy to ask really dumb questions. Though the tasting of all of the different teas at the end was a bit disappointing (they were extremely bitter… maybe over-steeped?), the tour finished with tea and cookies in the shop, where the kids could put as much milk and sugar as they liked.
It turns our kids aren’t used to that much caffeine, and our early bedtime routine proved to be a casualty of our curiousity.
The author, drinking tea because there is no coffee around.
Je vais parler des foodcourts. Pour commencer, j’ai aimé Singapour parce qu’il avait des foodcourts. On est allé à 5 différents. La première et deuxième fois étaient à Maxwell foodcourt. Il s’appelle comme ça parce qu’il est sur la rue Maxwell. Pour notre dernier souper on voulait manger là, mais il était fermé pour le ménage. Donc, on est allé à un autre (Amoy), mais malheureusement il n’y avait pas beaucoup de stalls ouvertes. Moi, j’ai mangé une salade. Au stall, on pouvait choisir 5 trucs pour mettre dans notre salade et une protéine et moi, j’ai mis des pâtes, du maïs, des tomates, des pommes, et des concombres et pour ma protéine du thon.
Un des jours on s’est arrêté pour aller jouer dans un parc. Il avait des monkey bars. On jouait qu’il fallait traverser les monkey bars le plus rapidement possible. Henri a réussi en 6,3 secondes et il s’est arraché de la peau de sa paume de main!
Donc, j’ai dû choisir son repas au foodcourt. Il voulait que ce soit une surprise. Je lui ai pris des nouilles avec des trucs dessus qu’il a adoré. La prochaine fois, Henri et Benoît voulaient que je leur choisisse leur repas. Henri l’a trouvé pas aussi bon que la première fois et Benoît l’a aimé.
Moi, j’ai mangé un congee au poisson qui venait avec un long beigne. C’était vraiment bon, mais chaud!
Pour choisir nos repas, les parents nous donnaient 10 dollars singapouriens et on allait se trouver un truc à manger.
Maintenant partie de Singapour, je m’ennuie des foodcourts . 😢
Dans le zoo de Singapour, différentes options s’offraient à nous incluant le night safari, le river wonder et le principal, le zoo. Mon préféré était le night safari qui ouvrait seulement le soir à sept heure. Malheureusement on n’a pas pris beaucoup de photo à cause du noir. Mais on va mettre des photos de plus tôt.
Donc après avoir visité les autres attractions on est allé à l’entrée et on a vu les différentes options et on a commencé par le tram. Le tram nous faisait voir plein d’animaux actifs durant la nuit. Durant le trajet on a vu des chèvres de montagne, des hyènes et plein d’autres animaux. Le plus impressionnant était le tigre blanc. On le voyait très bien même dans le noir.
Après le tram, nous sommes allés à l’amphithéâtre qui commençait à chaque heure. Ils nous ont présenté quelques animaux comme un hiboux qu’ils ont fait l’expérience de combien de degrés il pouvait tourner sa tête. Tout le monde a crié des réponses. Finalement la réponse était 270 degrés. Il nous ont aussi montré un porc-épic, une sorte de singe où on avait aucune idée c’était quoi. En dernier un hyène est sortie du haut et toutes les lumières étaient fermées pour pas qu’il nous voit.
Quand il faisait vraiment noir on est sortie faire des trajets et soit voir des animaux de plus proche ou de nouveaux animaux. Quand on est arrivé à une partie vitrée on a pu regarder un hyène à quelques mètres seulement qui faisait la garde. Quand on a vu un gros tamanoir mama a trouvé que ça ressemblait à un extraterrestre. Et on a été au première loge pour voir un gros rhino.
On est partis à dix heures le soir ce qui fait qu’on est resté là trois heures et au zoo au complet plus que douze heures!
I have always had very fond memories of Singapore from our last trip around the world in 2012-2013. At that time, Singapore served as a very easy introduction to Asia for me, and I think that’s part of what I loved about it. I don’t think our trip would have been quite as smooth if we had just jumped into Guangzhou directly!
Old and new.
So, like seeing an old friend that I hadn’t seen in a while, I was looking forward to meeting back up with Singapore. En plus, we planned to slow down our pace a bit and spent nearly a week in the city-state. After our visit, I am happy to report that I’m still in love with Singapore. We’re travelling on a budget, and Singapore is one of the more expensive cities in the world. That’s the downside. But we stayed in a dorm, forewent drinking the $15 pints advertised, ate at Hawker stalls, went to the free beach on Sentosa Island rather than Universal Studios, and spent most of our time walking and exploring the city (being sure to read as many plaques as possible). This kept things reasonable and didn’t blow the budget.
The free beach on Sentosa Island. Though named Palawan beach, it lacks the box-jellyfish!
Our one big activity was exploring the incredible Singapore zoo. This happened to be a Christmas present from Suzanne (thank you!), but it would have been worth stretching our budget nonetheless. I won’t say too much, as the kids will be posting about the zoo, but I will say that it was good enough that we spent over 12 hours there…
The wonderful Singapore zoo.
Now as I mentioned, Singapore is more expensive than some of our other destinations, but with that you get some of the small things that you can appreciate as a family travelling: tap water you can drink, clean washrooms everywhere, beautiful architecture, and free parks and splash pads (Gardens by the Bay) where the kids could roam freely and expend some energy. I also took advantage of the public space along the waterfront to get in a fair amount of running. It was a pleasant change to not be the only weirdo out running in the humidity, and to not have to dodge traffic and stray dogs.
An early morning run along the waterfront.
We explored the city by foot and with public transit, but the true way to explore Singapore is with one’s stomach. Back home, I tend to avoid food courts if possible. But in Singapore, we sought out the amazing food (hawker) centres for every meal. There’s an element of organized chaos and adventure that goes along with ordering there, and it’s one of the best experiences in the city. At every meal, the game plan was to secure a table (not always easy), give the kids money, and have everyone head off to get a meal of their choosing. In such an expensive city, it feels like stealing to get a fantastic meal for only $5. But not only was the food fairly cheap, it was often some of the best I’ve had. I am still thinking of that Laksa! Oh, and the stall that served « vegetable oil, 4 pieces for $2.80 »… we didn’t know what we were ordering, but we trusted the constant lineup and were not disappointed. Along with the food, I also had copious amounts of kopi (strong coffee with condensed milk), which may be why I am still awake writing this!
Laksa, kopi, and… some other delicious dish!
I can’t finish this post without mentioning that we also had to bid farewell to our niece Mackaela who has been with us since Bangkok. It was great travelling with her! We are still struggling not to say that we are a group of 6.
For the full day in Langkawi I ended up going to what’s considered the second top thing to do on the island which is the cable cars and sky bridge. They also had a 3D museum you can walk through and take pictures and it had a few cool scenes. Up top the mountain had such a beautiful view all around. The sky bridge opened up 11 years ago and it’s 650 meters above sea level!
After a few hours of exploring around the top of the mountain I went back to join everyone again, watching a few Olympic highlights and then off to the beach we went. The beach was incredible with soft sand, warm water and all the boats and people parasailing on the water. Later on in the evening I joined a few other travelers for a drink and watched the sunset and a few different fire shows where people spun and threw fire sticks up in the air and caught them (most of the time). It was a super fun day seeing some of the things the beautiful Langkawi island had to offer.
Dans les dernières années, on a eu l’habitude de regarder les Olympiques d’hiver et d’été. Donc, on a décidé d’en faire autant en voyage. On a ici tout.tv sur l’iPad et, après nos devoirs, on en regardait un petit peu.
J’aime beaucoup regarder le patin de vitesse parce qu’il y a beaucoup de différentes épreuves dans ce sport. Dans le patinage de vitesse, il y a la longue piste et la courte piste. Moi, je préfère la courte piste parce que c’est plus stressant quand ils commencent à quatre et j’ai peur qu’ils s’accrochent et tombent. L’autre sport que j’ai trouvé cool était le snow cross. J’ai aimé la stratégie de comment réussir à dépasser les autres.
Le sport que Benoît a aimé regarder le plus était le bobsleigh à cause du départ. Ils commencent tous en même temps en sprintant et poussant le traineau. On en a juste regardé à la fin des olympiques.
Elsie a évidemment préféré le hockey comme quand on regarde les Canadiens de Montréal. C’était surtout parce que Suzuki est sur l’équipe Canada. Malheureusement, l’équipe Canada a perdue en prolongation de la finale. On a vraiment aimé regarder tous les sports et on a déjà hâte aux prochains Olympiques à LA. Mais avant, il y a la Coupe du monde cet été!
After a double-decker overnight bus from Bangkok and a somewhat chaotic minibus transfer, we pulled into Ao Nang one fine morning. Ao Nang was bustling, with lots of tourist shops and restaurants, and a stunning backdrop of the sea with karst islands in the distance rising vertically out of the ocean. So we were starting to wonder if we had erred by booking accommodations in nearby Krabi Town instead. This doubt was reinforced further when our transfer dropped us off on the dusty outskirts of said town. Our driver had offered to take us directly to our hotel… for an exorbitant price. So we instead found a taxi driver who seemingly had nothing else to do that day, and haggled down to a reasonable price.
We had a few days in Krabi Town and we ended up loving it. There was lots of local life, including a bustling market where we stocked up on bananas (one dollar for a bunch) and dragon fruit, a great Thai coffee shop, but also a good number of tourists. Our evenings were spent wandering between a few night markets, which allowed everyone to find the exact food that satisfied their cravings.
Our new favourite coffee joint in Krabi.
To get out of the town, we took a longboat to Railay Beach, one of the spots that Claire was most looking forward to in Southern Thailand. It did not disappoint! It was very much resort-land, and the vibe was very chill. There are a few beaches here nestled among the dramatic karst mountains. We spent the afternoon chilling on one beach until we decided to walk to another beach, or watch some rock climbers, or grab some food, or watch the monkeys/water monitors, until it was time to catch our longtail boat back into town.
Mackaela picked up some hitchhikers….
The next day we booked an island-hopping tour out to Koh Phi Phi and the surroundings. This was our third such excursion (after Fiji and El Nido) and they’ve all been great. Personally I love jumping straight off the boat into the water without having to ever deal with wet sand… it’s paradise!
We started with a quick stop to jam-packed Maya Bay, which was beautiful, but mostly seemed to serve as a staging area for Instagram photoshoots (kids these days… amirite?) since we weren’t allowed in the water in order to protect shark breeding grounds. Next, there was a stop at a nearby lagoon for swimming, and then we were off to snorkel. Of our three excursions, this was the top spot for snorkelling, and we were the last ones back in The boat. There was coral, clams, sea snakes, and all sorts of tropical fish. My favourite was a large purple one that overdid the makeup a touch that morning with its orange lipstick and green eye-liner.
Maya Bay.
Interestingly, our fantastic tour-guide, Kong, was quite safety-focused. He told the whole boat that we HAD to wear a life jacket while snorkelling, which quite surprised us. In the end, we went up to him after to see if we REALLY needed to, since we are strong swimmers. and he quickly told us not to worry about it. We realized that in the south of Thailand, there was tourism from lots of countries, and at least half of the people in our boat (and others) didn’t know how to swim.
The many life jackets of Bamboo Island.
We saw this at our last stop as well: Bamboo Island. The island is a national park and there was a ranger with a megaphone patrolling the beach announcing the rule: you need a life jacket while swimming or there is a stiff fine! This seemed a bit much to us… so Claire took a little walk and discovered that off of the main beach there were tons of beautiful spots where people (mostly westerners) were swimming without life jackets. So we joined. And the rangers patrolling nearby did not even care.
Finding some calm off the main beach at Bamboo Island.
In Port Barton, our first activity was on our last day there. In Puerto Princesa, Ben was wearing a Habs T-shirt. A man saw the Canadiens T-shirt and it turns out he was from Quebec, so he came over to talk to our family. We told him that we were going to El Nido and Port Barton. Alain said that he had a chalet near Port Barton and that we could go there when he was there.
On our last day In Port Barton, we went to Alain’s chalet. That morning we left at 9:45. We went on the beach to look for a boat to bring us to the little village of Bunuangin. A man asked if we wanted to go to White Beach and we said no, but asked how many pisos it would be to go to Bunuangin. He said that his boss would tell us the price. He said 3000. But we found another boat for only 2000. When we arrived, we visited the village. After we went on the neighbour’s boat to go to the net to catch some fish and some crabs for lunch. We caught 6 crabs, 7 fish, one ray, and one squid (he had so much ink). We came back to the chalet to eat. We learned how to eat the crab and left the fish and ray for the neighbour.
El Nido is the main tourist draw on the island of Palawan, and for good reason: the dramatic landscape is full of beautiful karst mountains and islands rising nearly vertically out of the sea. The town is also set up for tourists, so it’s easy to find an island-hopping tour that will take you to some spectacular spots for swimming and snorkeling. It’s definitely a touristy spot, where pasta restaurants abound, and not some hidden gem, but hey… we are tourists after all!
Beautifully dramatic El-Nido.
Traveling for eight months is sure to have its ups and downs; sometimes those ups and downs all occur within a few days. Henri just posted about the ups of our wonderful day of island-hopping, but let me also describe the downs that book-ended that day.
The day before island-hopping started wonderfully. We headed down to the beach (Corong Corong) to get a little physical activity: a relaxed soccer game on the sand that was the very portrait of family bliss. What better thing to do after the game than to wade into the water to cool off? Well, in hindsight, it would have been better to do practically anything else!
Claire and the kids headed out first into the water, and then I followed. Just as the water reached my thighs, I took a step and put my foot into what could best be described as an electrical outlet. By reflex, I pulled my leg out and my left leg went into the outlet next. I jumped back, cursed a few times, and yelled to the family that I got stung by a jellyfish and started back to shore. Now, I have a pretty decent pain tolerance (I once broke my tibia playing soccer, and then watched the second half of the game before going to the hospital), but this definitely… hurt. This wasn’t the kind of jellyfish you find at Parlee Beach.
Claire managed to lead the kids back to safety, avoiding a few other stingers that she managed to spot in the water. Once on the beach, I wandered up to the nearest bar to ask them if they had any… vinegar. The nice folks at the bar had a bottle ready just for this, and sprayed my legs (to disactivate the stinging cells) and we removed the tentacles from my burning skin. When I noticed a few locals gathering around to see what was going on, and the barman talking about how it can be dangerous if you get stung near veins I suddenly thought: “wait, are these those tranparent box jellyfish… you know, the kind that sometimes kill people?”
It looks like the answer, after a bit of googling and AI, was “yes!” Fortunately, I was stung (rather than one of the kids) and I didn’t have any worrying symptoms (shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or … death). I just had to deal with my skin burning for the rest of the day, and some sensitivity afterwards.
My hopes of being a leg-model are dashed.
Needless to say, this encounter made us a little anxious for our island-hopping the following day. But, we went ahead, with caution: we put our rashies on, brought a bottle of vinegar, kept our eyes open for jellyfish, and let others go into the water first!
And we never saw a jellyfish! It was a great time.
To be fair, there are warnings about jellyfish. But I’m pretty sure it’s the winter…
And the day after island-hopping? Well, that’s when I got gastro. And then everyone got gastro. No need for further details there…
5 billets SVP 