Seoul and Jeju-do island, South Korea

ulc · Dec 16, 2019

Taipei Zoo

Maokong Gondola. It's around 4km total length and takes around 20-30 minutes for one way trip on the gondola.

Some kind of fried pancake with egg

Mountain tea farm. I loved drinking tea in Taiwan and brought back lot of tea with us.

Banana tree. I didn't know they grew bananas in Taiwan.

Sunset at Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf

Standing in line to get some egg custard bread

Snacking on some fried crab

Shilin Night Market. The amount of people at this popular night market was insane. It was very difficult to move through the crowd. We gave up on night market after Shilin. Just too many people in too tight of space.

Sid Post · Dec 16, 2019

Nice pictures! Someday, I'll have to give Taipei a visit and sample the local culture.

ulc · Dec 16, 2019

Crowd waiting to dine at Din Tai Fung restaurant. Din Tai Fung is highly rated dumpling restaurant. I think the Hong Kong location is one Michelin Star. We waited around 2.5 hours to eat lunch here. It was pretty good but definitely not worth the wait. It was the only restaurant that charged mandatory 10% service charge. And only cash is accepted at Din Tai Fung.

Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

I ate countless bowls of beef noodles while in Taipei.

And drank equal amount of bubble tea.

My favorite meal in Taipei was at cheap stir-fry.restaurant called Baxian Grill.

The restaurant owner gave us free service plate of marinated stinky tofu. We were the only table I observed that received the free service tofu.

I was scared to try it but it didn't really smell so I gathered the courage and ate some. It was actually pretty good.

Some other foods at stir-fry.

Taipei was really fun, and I'm glad we visited. Thanks for looking!

Raider18 · Dec 16, 2019

Food looks amazing. My BIL lived there for years and now has a Korean wife. Never made it over to visit while they lived there but sent the wife a few times. She sadly only ate at the American joints while there. ugh.

My BIL old roommate opened up a BBQ joint in Seoul called Linus BBQ and their slogan is "Goes in greasy, comes out easy" ha Wife said it was pretty good.

cowgirl · Dec 16, 2019

Amazing!! The food looks fantastic too. Thanks so much for posting!

ulc · Dec 17, 2019

Raider18 said:
Food looks amazing. My BIL lived there for years and now has a Korean wife. Never made it over to visit while they lived there but sent the wife a few times. She sadly only ate at the American joints while there. ugh.

My BIL old roommate opened up a BBQ joint in Seoul called Linus BBQ and their slogan is "Goes in greasy, comes out easy" ha Wife said it was pretty good.

It looks like Linus BBQ is located in Itaewon. That's revitalized area of Seoul where lot of Western style restaurants are located and very popular area with foreign tourists and expats. If you're going to open American BBQ place in Seoul, that's the ideal area.

cowgirl said:
Amazing!! The food looks fantastic too. Thanks so much for posting!

Thanks jeanie! Glad you enjoyed it!

Gore · Dec 21, 2019

Thanks for posting! In the future, please make a separate thread so I don't miss anything! I was in Taiwan about 20 years ago and it looks oh so much more Chinese in your pictures. I really had to get off the beaten path to find Chinese restaurants. The streets were lined with KFC, McDonalds, Tony Roma's and any other American chain you can think of. It was just like a modern mid-western city. I will definitely have to get back. And thanks for the additional Korean posts. Incheon is a beautiful airport. The upkeep is amazing. They have people going through cleaning every part of that airport. Watched little old ladies climb ladders to dust the top of signs on more than one occasion, but I also see them wiping down the ledges and rails at the subway stations. Wonder if ours have EVER been wiped down.

I find it's usually best if you just eat and then ask questions later. :laugh:

...and thanks for the heads-up on the priority lounge. I've been a guest in a couple and found them crowded, uncomfortable and with crappy food I wouldn't want to eat (although the beer poured ok). If there were more like that one, I might consider signing up.

ShadowDriver · Dec 21, 2019

Wow. What an adventure!

Really appreciate the post with great photos and experiences to share.

Gore · Dec 24, 2019

I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment!

op2:

Grabnabber · Dec 26, 2019

Wow, late arrival to this thread- thanks for the pics and insider info- I hope to visit someday.

Thanks ulc!!! :thumb:

ulc · Dec 28, 2019

Gore said:
Thanks for posting! In the future, please make a separate thread so I don't miss anything! I was in Taiwan about 20 years ago and it looks oh so much more Chinese in your pictures. I really had to get off the beaten path to find Chinese restaurants. The streets were lined with KFC, McDonalds, Tony Roma's and any other American chain you can think of. It was just like a modern mid-western city. I will definitely have to get back. And thanks for the additional Korean posts. Incheon is a beautiful airport. The upkeep is amazing. They have people going through cleaning every part of that airport. Watched little old ladies climb ladders to dust the top of signs on more than one occasion, but I also see them wiping down the ledges and rails at the subway stations. Wonder if ours have EVER been wiped down.

I find it's usually best if you just eat and then ask questions later. :laugh:

...and thanks for the heads-up on the priority lounge. I've been a guest in a couple and found them crowded, uncomfortable and with crappy food I wouldn't want to eat (although the beer poured ok). If there were more like that one, I might consider signing up.

I didn't see that many American chain food places in Taiwan. Yes, I saw couple McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC, etc but you see those anywhere and it's easy to avoid. I saw lot of Japanese restaurants in Taiwan and huge number of Japanese and Korean tourists. I just love the social and food culture of Asia. And no tipping is great too.

I get free Priority Pass lounge access for me and two other guests through my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. It's one of the many great perks of the CSR card.

Gore said:
I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment! op2:

Unfortunately, that's it for this Seoul, Jeju, and Taipei trip. We went to lot of places this past year including Budapest, Hungary, Vienna, Austria, Cartagena and Bogota, Colombia, Busan, South Korea, Turks and Caicos, Aruba, Los Cabos, Mexico, and this Seoul, Jeju, and Taipei trip. I don't know if we will do as many international travel in 2020 but we shall see. There are so many places I want to go and see.

Seoul and Jeju-do island, South Korea

ulc

is one Smokin' Farker

Sid Post

is Blowin Smoke!

ulc

is one Smokin' Farker

Raider18

Full Fledged Farker

cowgirl

somebody shut me the fark up.

ulc

is one Smokin' Farker

Gore

Phizzy

ShadowDriver

somebody shut me the fark up.

Gore

Phizzy

Grabnabber

Babbling Farker

ulc

is one Smokin' Farker

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