Travelogue: Taiwan 2025, pt 3 – Visiting my childhood summer home

A trip to my childhood

The next day, we had Taipei street food and coffee for brekkie.

25 years ago, the coffee in Taiwan was pretty meh, but it’s about on par with the rest of the world at this point.

Everyone absolutely loved the food I got and devoured it – forgot to take pics but it was essentially this type of dan bing.

Although I did take manage to take pics of a fruit that I ate like there was no tomorrow as a kid here, the wax apple.

If you ever find any, get it.

Crap, now I want more.

Afterward, we left the AirBnB we called home alla those days and took the bullet train – first time for all of us – from Taipei to my mom’s hometown, Hsinchu.

Trip was ridonk fast, less than 40 mins; used to take like 90 mins by car.

She booked a five-star hotel that was less than seven minutes walking distance from my aunt’s pad and my mom’s childhood home.

This caliber of hotel was not around when I was here last in 2000. Case-in-point, there was not only a bidet in our room, but literally, every bathroom in the hotel.

Son: (trying a bidet for the first time) Oh my god, this is the best!!

Me: (looking out from the balcony) Holy cow, we’re so close. We can see my mom’s home from our room.
Her: I spent a lotta time planning this.
Me: Oh man, I love you!

See all the tall buildings? Zero of those were around when I was a kid.

Zero.

Below’s a pic I took of that exact area 25 years ago. No joke.

We immediately took a walk so I could see the old hometown.

Her: How do we cross the street without getting killed?
Me: Honestly, I have no idea. There were never this many cars around before. This is crazy.

The church that I played at as a kid was still there, which blew my mind.

Everyone was hungry so we took a walk and found a bao joint.

The buns were hot, fresh, and delicious.

The Uber Eats sign made me chuckle.

Of course, we stopped by a convenience store for some drinks and snacks.

Son: I’ve never seen this before.
Me: What?
Him: M&Ms…but as a chocolate bar.
Me: Crazy what you find in other countries, yeah? You gotta travel when you get older, kid. Who knows what you’ll see elsewhere?

We headed home afterward for the kids to crash.

There was a spa in the hotel that the Firecracker and I both took advantage of except I managed to slip in the whirlpool area and cut a one-inch gash on my left knee.

Her: How did you do that!?
Me: Well, first of all, I’ve had very little sleep…

But the staff there patched me up pretty quickly.

Later that night, my cousin picked us up to take us out to eat.

Him: We were so sorry to hear about your late wife and dad. We told your mom but didn’t want to bother you directly.
Me: I know. I get it. It was…it was my year of horror (可怕的一年). What can anyone say?

Met up with my aunt – my mom’s younger sister and his mom – at the restaurant. My cousin insisted on taking us all out to eat.

To a buffet of all places.

Firecracker: Oh man, does he know you or what?
Me: I think it was just an amazingly lucky guess.

This was my kid cousin. He’s now taller and bigger than me.

He’s got two kids of his own to boot – alla the kids got along like a house on fire, which was sweet.

We caught up for a while and then he drove us all back to our hotel, where we all crashed pretty hard.

But before that, we drove past our grandmother’s store/house.

Me: I shoulda come when she…she went away.
Him: Your mom came.
Me: Right. Still.
Him: It’s ok.
Me: I loved that old lady.
Him: Of course. We all did.
Me: Yeah. (nodding, looking away)

The next morning, we inhaled the brekkie buffet, where I ate my weight in dragonfruit.

Son: Papa, your tongue is bright red.
Me: Take a pic and lemme see.

We caught an Uber to a neighboring town where we saw a replica of a Hakka Tulou, something unique to my particular ethnic group.

That’s a full entry for another time as there’s too much to get into now.
Yet another thing that the Firecracker researched and set up for us.

Afterward, we caught an Uber back to Hsinchu, where we went to a mall and had some western food because the kids wanted a break from Asian food and so we could get some new clothes for the kids.

We also brought them to a park to run around before heading back to the hotel.

For dinner, the Firecracker and I wanted some authentic local Taiwanese food from Hsinchu, which is the type of food I think of when I think of Taiwanese food, so my cousin brought me a great local joint.

The beer was really good – kinda sweet and not bitter at all.

Him: When our cousin K came by last time, we blew like $500 USD here.
Me: You’re kidding.
Him: Nope. Closed the place down.
Me: (nodding) We are related.

Something about the lunch we had didn’t sit right with the kid, so he sat alone and didn’t eat – so I knew he was def feeling off.

The Firecracker, her kid, and I absolutely demolished alla that food.

Afterward, we went to my cousin’s pad and hung out with his kids and my aunt for a while before heading back to the hotel.

It was a sobering thought but I thought that this might be the last time I ever see my aunt again.

Firecracker: Not necessarily. We can come back soon.
Me: Maybe. I’d like that, though. Maybe.

Location: my old gym, getting a plaque that says I have a million subs on SF
Mood: ecstatic
Music: Home is where my habits have a habitat (Spotify)
Subscribe!
Like this post? Tell someone about it by clicking a button below.