Trip to Taiwan
 

Hello all! I will post by day so that the trip report is more digestible. It might not be a typical trip report because it will include tips, observations, and my experience navigating Taiwan with a shellfish allergy.
Flights To Taiwan
Our route was IAD to SFO to TPE. We had booked with Eva Air, and we were originally supposed to fly to Los Angeles instead of San Francisco. When Eva rerouted us, they had apparently forgotten to reissue our tickets. So, when it came time to check in to the United domestic portion of our flights (the IAD to SFO was with their partner), United would not let us check in online. Also, due to the recent TSA hindrances, we wanted to get to the airport earlier than we typically do (6:30 AM departure).
We got to the airport around 2:30 AM because our cab arrived a half hour early. We then waited around until the United counter opened at around 4:30 AM (agent on the phone with United said it would be open at 3:30 AM), which made us very frustrated due to the fact that airlines tell you to arrive two hours early for domestic flights: that was cutting it very close. Since it was so early in the morning, there also weren't that many breakfast options open at the airport. The Starbucks was shortstaffed, so we also cut it close getting breakfast and getting to the gate. The domestic leg was pretty typical. I did have an unexpected visitor, and I was very pleased to see that both of our flights had sanitary pads in the lavatories. Note: this also resulted in the experience of navigating buying products in another country. Happy to tell that story in a PM to anyone who's interested.
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Going over Colorado

The Eva flight was as good as it could get for being in coach for 13 hours. They were so good at making sure everyone got enough food. We had a 12:30 PM flight from SFO, and I thought they would have expected us to grab lunch before the flight. They ended up serving lunch inflight.
We deplaned and went through the various checkpoints, including the animal-related quarantine, human disease quarantine, and customs. As a public health professional, I cannot tell you how happy I was that all people arriving internationally had to declare to quarantine if they were feeling sick and the advice to see a provider if you feel sick after coming back from travel. It is perfect? Absolutely not. It's an honor system: human quarantine doesn't make you approach the counter and ask you a series of questions. You approach them if you are symptomatic. It could also be hard to tease out what could be your body reacting to travel vs. you having an infectious disease.
We then checked into CitizenM Taipei North Gate after getting and EasyCard and taking the Airport MRT to Taipei Main Station and walking from there to the hotel. You can pick out an EasyCard with a design at 7-Eleven. There wasn't much choice at the airport, but we both picked out ones with designs of cartoons popular in Taiwan. In terms of the hotel, we enjoyed that there is a large elevated space at the foot of the bed to store our things to avoid bedbugs (although we were not always good at doing that at other places). The bed is at enough of a height that if you have mobility issues, I'd check with the hotel to see if there are rooms with alternative beds. Also, Taiwan has a great amount of humidity, and there was no dehumidifier. This meant that even clean clothes felt like they had been soaked in sweat, and the sheets were also damp.
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Art Outside CitizenM

Day 1
We started the day early to get breakfast since we did not have much food the night before. With my shellfish allergy, I had gotten a card with Equal Eats with information on one side in English and the other side with traditional Chinese (the Taiwan designation). I'd be happy to include pictures if anyone would like. I was advised on a forum to list every kind of shellfish I was allergic to for the best communication. For breakfast, I had found a place where someone had written a review that there was no line, the owner was patient, and he had assured their meal was vegetarian. So, my husband and I attempted to ask if the restaurant was less risky. I've seen enough forum posts about this that go people are not that informed about allergies and go vegetarian. I wish I had known prior to the trip of how to eat balanced vegetarian meals to do this (although one day I completely gave up and started to learn with vegetarian meals). We also stayed with my husband's cousin who is vegetarian and learned more with him later in the trip.
Throughout the trip, my husband was my biggest advocate for my shellfish allergy. There were many times when he went up to the counter to ask because it was enough for me to try to pick places with the best chance of being safe (oyster sauce is everywhere), and all the nos were more dejecting to me than him. In general, the intiial approach was to have one of us stand in line and the other present the allergy card with a Google Translate prompt asking to give a thumbs up if they can accommodate me and a thumbs down if they can't. Either Google Translate did not do a good job with the gestures part, or those gestures are not a thing in Taiwan. Many times we would get a gesture with a big x, which we didn't know if it indicated that it was shellfish-free or if it wasn't safe. The answer of no was the same ambiguity. Eventually, our Google Translate prompt was to ask if the dishes had any of the ingredients on the card, and if yes, to emphasize the cross-contamination section on the card and ask if that could be done for dishes that did not have shellfish ingredients in them.
Back to the breakfast place...Mai Xiang Bao Breakfast Restaurant was so patient with us. The owner popped on his reading glasses, took out an English menu, and x-ed out what I couldn't eat. He also told me to not eat sauces from the bottles and confirmed no shrimp were made on the grill. So far, so good.
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Pancake with egg and bacon, pancake with egg and sausage, and scallion pancake
We went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and were able to watch the changing of the guard, which can be seen at the top of the hour. It was such a nicely choreographed number. We took a video, but I also took some stills.
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We then walked through the gardens and saw someone doing tai-chi with different swords (I didn't video them out of respect). It was awesome. Although I would have been open to seeing some of the exhibits, the heat was already getting to us (huge style points to you if you manage to be fashionable- the temperatures are already summer temperatures, and we sweat through our wick away clothes in the humidity). We quickly noticed that locals use umbrellas to give themselves mobile shade and quickly followed suit by buying one ourselves. After our first one broke, we went back to a 7-Eleven and bought the one that was better constructed. There was only one design option on there, so Batman it was.
On a side note, I love how the walk signs show leisurely walking and then frantic walking when the time's almost up. At one point, I tried taking a video of this, but I couldn't get the timing right and didn't want to attempt multiple times- we had sightseeing to do.
For lunch, we originally intended to go to Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles. We did not end up finding that stall in the food court, but we did find ourselves in a restaurant that we thought was the YouTubed-famed place. When we asked about the shellfish allergy, the owner spoke excellent English and told us that only certain fried rice dishes would meet my needs. I wasn't in the mood for fried rice, but we vowed to come back the next day out of principle (spoiler, we did, see the next post). We found a place that makes only xiao long bao, and the owner enthusiatically said yes it was ok. While in line, we tried our hand at the infamous claw machines (we only ended up gambling less than a dollar US on this, and we were proud of being responsible). No off brand Toothless or Zootopia items for us.
We then rested up for our night market tour. We took a guided tour of one of the Raohe night market so that a native speaker could navigate my shellfish allergy. The food was good, but there was no way to try everything we wanted to try, the market was long and crowded, and I felt absolutely overwhelmed. There also aren't that many places to go off and sit to the side. The more generic seating spots where you don't have to be a customer to sit were at the beginning and the end, and some people need to pause in the middle. The guide was great, providing us several cultural contexts and talking us through the ritual at the temple nearby.
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Famous black pepper bun

Day 2
We wanted to try a different breakfast place. Although the first was wonderful with my shellfish allergies, it did not have as much variety, and we wanted to try different things that breakfast restaurants ordered. Figuring out whether the place could accommodate my shellfish allergy was a bit sketchy, but at this point, I was hungry and wanted variety. So, I tried some fantuan. A little bit later, I thought I noticed some hives on my arm. This prompted a possibly two-hour search for Benadryl. Yes, I know that Benadryl will not prevent anaphylaxis, but it will help localized symptoms. I also had an EpiPen on me. My allergies have never resulted in anaphylaxis but have gotten progressively worse, so I've had an EpiPen on me for several years just in case. I say it took many hours to find a Benadryl because places like Watsons are not familiar with Benadryl. We had to show a picture for them to know what we were talking about (the counter people did not seem to be familiar with the generic diphenhyrdramine), and the pharmacist at Watsons was not at work that day. They did have to point me to a more specialized pharmacy with an actual pharmacist at the counter. After a lengthy conversation which I'm sure would have been a lot shorter without the language barrier, the pharmacist gave me twenty pills of Benadryl. I think the hives were truly localized because they seemed to go away after taking the Benadryl. I absolutely felt guilty of the time we had to take to get me this. Throughout the trip, my husband had to reassure me that I was not a burden for having to take extra time to vet restaurants due to my shellfish allergy.
At that point, we were still adjusting to the heat and a new country, so we decided to have a slow day and walk around Ximending. It was also around this day and the next day that we decided taking more Ubers than initially planned was good for our sanity. After the conversion rate, they are still very affordable. I will go on a tangent and tell a story. My parents while traveling used to nickel and dime things and not do things like buy Cokes on vacation. They eventually realized that if they needed to buy Cokes so that everybody would be less miserable and enjoy the trip more, they would do that, you're already paying enough for vacation as it is. Ubers were our Cokes this trip.
We first stopped at Ruyi Sunny Cake where they have samples of their products. My husband really liked the matcha tea cake flavor, and I liked the taro flavor, but since we couldn't buy them individually, we compromised and bought a pack of original. We were disappointed to find out that we could not ship to the U.S. to send as souvenirs.
As promised, we returned to the shop that had spoken to us the day before about my allergies. My husband got a sausage fried rice, and I got a beef fried rice. I don't know the name of the store, but if you put Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles into your GPS, you will find the food court building which has the following poster on the side door:
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The restaurant has this name:
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If you're really unsure, the inside walls have stickers from satisfied customers:
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I also left a very satisfied sticker
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After lunch, we wandered around window-shopping at Ximending. We stopped at the Red House and bought souvenirs from both the indoor and outdoor vendors. I got a drink container with the Red House mascot Hongfu. The unique part of this drink container (they can be found at every souvenir shop) is that it can convert to either hold one drink or two through a reversible mechanism
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Drink holder in back of photo with two drink configuration
It was at this point of the trip that I started having silly speculations that might not be true about these drink containers, also paired with the fact that we saw one person at the night market put four or five boba teas into one bag. People love their tea here! I imagined stressed assistants bringing their bosses tea in these containers, and their bosses being very specific about which tea store they got their drinks from, the amount of ice, percentage of sugar, etc, and being mad if their orders weren't fulfilled. I also pictured the fashion-conscious people matching their drink containers to their outfits, much like they would a purse.
Another souvenir we bought was beautiful, hand-painted fans. One of the people on our souvenir list wanted a fan, and after I saw them, I decided to purchase for me and my mother as well. Despite my parents saying they had no more space for artwork brought back for them from trips, I contacted Mom and begged her to make an exception, as the fan flower was very significant to our family history.
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Rose fan
Two of the fans also had beautiful poems on the back.
We ended the night at Fuhong Beef Noodles, which was very delicious.
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Day 3
We returned to the breakfast place from day 1 because we were so pleased at how safe I felt. We had also figured out a way to not walk 21 minutes there on an empty stomach (I couldn't just stop at random stalls to get food on the way there). The hotel we stayed at is well known for being near Taipei Main Station (red line), but it's also near the Beiman Station stop (green line), where you can get to Ximending two stops away. And in this heat or on an empty stomach, saving a five minute walk can make all the difference. While we didn't take the MRT this time, we were able to go a different route that went through Ximending since on day 1, we had to find an ATM. On the way there, we also happened onto the boba tea store that's Instagram famous with the dinosaur blow torches (Xing Fu Tang):
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I clearly didn't care about social media quality (see where I could have taken the photo at the best photo spot on the right)
The top that they torch is a creme brulee top.
At our breakfast spot, from day 1, the owner recognized us from two days ago, which was great. If you want to avoid the long lines, don't care about too much variety, and want great service, go there.
We then went to figure out the bus system, as we wanted to go to the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum, and the easiest way to get there was by bus, according to Google Maps. Now, I normally love Google Maps, but it did not seem to understand the concept of telling us when we could get on one colored MRT line and transfer to another. So, going on an MRT in certain scenarios might have been a better option, but Google Maps was not always saying how. I would suggest getting to know MRT maps well in advance. If you want to go to a place, look to see if there is an MRT stop close to the destination and backtrack it on the MRT map. You know how earlier in this post, I said even five extra minutes of walking could affect someone who isn't used to the heat? This also applied to where we went to today. When we got off the bus, Google Maps stated that it was an 8-minute walk to the Historical House. By that point, the heat was already getting to us, and the bus had stopped right at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, so we switched gears and went there.
The museum was free because they did not feel justified in charging when there were so few exhibits available (they are in between temporary exhibits). We really enjoyed the main exhibit that was available, which was the 2025 Taipei Art Awards exhibition. 10 winners of various media had displays, and there was a long video at the beginning where the artists explained their submissions. They ranged from paintings to installations making comments on the perspective of migrant people to being disillusioned about fairytales (there was an interview with someone who worked with Disney and how it was stifling, but it was in Chinese) to having a conversation with a mother-figure actress through a phone unscripted. One of the exhibits was displaying aspects of queer anatomy that is missing from the normal textbooks, and the artist even made a queer anatomy atlas you can buy.
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The paintings have such a good sense of dimension:
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We then took an uber to Din Tai Fung in Taipei 101.
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Uber sign. One of these you clearly don't have a choice on!

My husband kept going back and forth about Taipei 101, but I said what my husband wants on a trip, he gets. We took on my parents' philosophy on trips that every person picks one must-do activity on a trip, and we make sure we do it. Din Tai Fung is known to be overrated in terms of quality, but I didn't really care because they were so good about my shellfish allergy. This would result in repeat trips when other options did not work. Din Tai Fung purports to have the best soup dumplings because they fold them just the right way, are made so that they don't break when you transfer them to the spoon and are precision weighed so that the filling is the exact same amount in each dumpling. I haven't eaten enough xiao long bao to really have a say on that, but it was nice that there was no breakage when I transferred to the spoon. I thought the chicken xiao long bao were more flavorful than the pork
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We also got pork and pork and bok choy buns and chocolate and taro mini buns. The buns were very fluffy.
One of the major cons of going to Din Tai Fung is that they churn you out. The servers are somewhat good about answering questions about the food, but they did not come once to check to see how our food was. Maybe this is more of an American thing, but I would thing given how much a local would pay for this meal, it should be an element of service. And it doesn't have to be annoying, just one check-in.
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Din Tai Fung workers
For it being so fancy, the price was still around $17 American. I felt so safe there allergy-wise that I got their xiao long bao plushie to remind me.
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Din Tai Fung sign. Taiwan loves their mascots!

We then went to Taipei 101. We bought a pass that included level 101 that advertised very well about a magical secret garden experience. The hype around the 101st floor was that it used to be exclusive only to VIPs that took three different elevators to get to and is now open to the public. It was overrated. The garden part looked nice, but the views were not so much more spectacular to justify the extra price.
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Secret garden vibes
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View of Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall from level 101

We then went back down to the 89th floor and loved the views.
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There were a few kitchsy themed areas where you could take pictures and where many, many people ignored the Don't Touch signs. There was a bunny character called Monday Bruce, and he was very jaded about being overworked. We took a picture of my husband pretending to pat (see, we followed the instructions not to touch!) Monday Bruce in the air of the area on top of his head while he was slumped over sleepy on a desk.
We also found our first penny machine at Taipei 101. I was ecstatic because I didn't know if they still existed. I have loved collecting pennies since childhood. There was also another cool feature of being able to put postcards at a post-office box all the way up on the 89th floor to be mailed out.
Afterwards, we went to the food court to grab dinner, but there were so many places that either were not allergy-friendly or had a long wait that we did a repeat of Din Tai Fung and got takeout. We tried the golden lava buns, but either they were just gritty to begin with, or they were gritty because they had cooled off to much by the time we got to them.

Day 4
We checked out of CitizenM after opting for their 400 NTD per person breakfast buffet. It was varied enough for being a breakfast buffet and had Western and Eastern options. This was another concession we made to not nickel and dime so that we didn't have to go to breakfast elsewhere and have a smooth checkout. We then went to Taipei Main Station to take the MRT to Ruifang station, the connection to Jiufen. We decided on this instead of the direct shuttle bus because we needed to store luggage and come back to Ruifang station to take the TRA to Luodong (Jiufen does not have a train station). Before we headed there, we had to make sure there was luggage storage at Ruifang station, as we had heard on a forum that the luggage room that handles oversized luggage was closed due to a typhoon previously hitting the station. If we were unable to store our luggage in lockers, we would not be able to go to Jiufen and would need to make alternative plans. The concierge at CitizenM did a great job of checking into this as well as checking to make sure our suitcase would fit into the regular lockers at the station.
Then, we boarded a bus to go from Ruifang to Jiufen. We were also lucky that there were locker slots available, as we had this problem later on in the trip.
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Jiufen Old Street
Maybe navigating my shellfish allergy colored things (because we really couldn't find anything on Old Street that worked for a main dish), but I found Old Street to be overrated. The food wasn't incredibly unique from anywhere else, the majority of the souvenir shops were generic, and the street was crowded. Also, on the steps, people just have to take their photos at places where you just need to let traffic flow. I would suggest you go to a teahouse, enjoy a more leisurely lunch (even if it's more relatively expensive) and enjoy the scenery. You can take a picture of the characteristic A Mei teahouse if you would like (and no, it's not the inspiration for Spirited Away even if it looks like the scenery from the movie).
We went to a teahouse that was right after the opening of an old mining tunnel that we went through (the only picture I have I can't crop out my husband, and I don't know how to blur, but I'm sure you can find it online). It's called the Sweet Potato Teahouse. Thankfully, after my husband searching and searching and going up and down steps, this teahouse was able to accommodate my shellfish allergy. We got a fried rice and a pork belly to share. Please trust the server when they say it's big. We thought our server meant that it was meant for two people. It's not: it's meant probably for four people.
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Massive pork belly
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View of Jiufen
We also got a tea service. We picked the most basic one with green tea since we don't know what kind of tea we like, and the other ones were pricier. However, we learned at the end of the meal that it was cash only, and my poor husband had to go to the ATM while I stayed and made sure the restaurant knew that we would pay them. I feel the need to explain why my husband was running all over the place in Jiufen, like I mentioned before with him going up and down the stairs to try to find safe restaurants. I had sprained my ankle in late February, and although PT said my ankle would be fine by the time the trip rolled around, it wasn't fully healed (not surprising to me since this was the third or fourth sprain on the same ankle in the span of two decades). We had seen an ATM in the middle of Old Street, but it wasn't working, so my poor husband had to go to the beginning of town to the 7-Eleven's ATM. It was wrong of us to assume that a place that costs thousands of NTD for lunch would require cash. Who would-a thunk?
After lunch, we navigated getting a TRA ticket for the first time to Luodong. I will now give a brief guide into doing this. If you take a local or fast local train, you cannot buy tickets ahead of time, but do not fret. Any ticket you buy for a local or a fast local ticket you can get on the next available train that goes to your destination no matter what your ticket says because the seats are not reserved. I've also seen that you can use an EasyCard to swipe in at the departure station and out at the arrival station, but this only works for fast local and local trains. A fast local train has less stops than a local train but still stops at plenty of small towns. A local train goes to the most locations.
For travelers that do not know the system well, even if buying a local ticket, I would advise to just get a ticket with a particular train number in mind and go to that train's platform. Since you do not have to go on a specific train, a train number will not populate on your ticket. The reason why I say to have a train in mind is because there are multiple routes and times. On the TRA website, you can search for your departure station and arrival station and see all of the scheduled trains for that configuration, but for your sanity, pick one train to shoot for and adjust if need be if you miss that train or get to the station earlier. Also, when you get onto a particular platform, only the trains on that platform will show schedules, and they will not show every intermediate stop, only the originating and terminal stops. Therefore, you should take a look at the general schedule that shows platform assignments before going.
We experienced confusion with this because we wanted a fast local, but the ticket said local, so we thought the system had assigned us another train number because space on the one we wanted was full. When we went to an attendant to try to sort out the confusion when the fast local arrived (thankfully, they were on the same platform), he gestured for us to get on the fast local, and my husband's cousin confirmed the protocols mentioned above.
The fast local train was a good look at how locals tend to take the TRA. We observed a school group of elementary-aged children with an adult getting on and off and also a couple of middle or high-schoolers (the older ones seemed to be in some sort of uniform). This was all around 5-6 PM, so I was curious and later looked into the school system in Taiwan to figure out why in particular the elementary school group was on transit so late.
Also, another tip. Since the local trains do not have reserved seats, you might be standing for your entire trip. If you need seating, book one of the express trains if it goes to your destination.

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Translations can be funny. My mom and husband thought this meant quiet hours the other times of day, and I agree. I just initially kept going, why are there hours we're not friendly?!

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View on train to Luodong
When we got off the train, we attempted to eat at Mos Burger at the train station, but there was a language barrier and confusion about soy sauce. Even though soy sauce is safe, they had asked so much about it that I was wondering if there was a shellfish component to the soy sauce that wasn't true elsewhere. My husband's cousin said later there wasn't. But that place was out and gave me new paranoia about what could be an unknown allergen in my food.
We then got an Uber to The House of Water minsu. The lodging was nice, and we had booked a space with a jacuzzi, so we were looking forward to it.
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Porch at our House of Water room
We then decided we wanted to try the out the night market. We did find a stall that had savory food that had zero shellfish ingredients in it. It was a taco place and clearly not local cuisine, but safe is safe, so it was nice not to worry. The tacos were also good. We then returned home and enjoyed some relaxing time in the jacuzzi.

Day 5
Oof- there are already typos- sorry!
We spent this day in Luodong. Our guesthouse was gorgeous. The breakfast spot has wonderful scenery...
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Fish under our feet
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Great view from breakfast area
Breakfast was also great both mornings.
See that step off in the picture above? The area was so beautiful, I FaceTimed my parents to show them. I swear I was careful to watch where I was going as I showed them the beautiful scenery. Then, probably thirty seconds later when my husband and I were talking logistics (we had gotten off the phone), I stepped backwards and fell down that step, reinjuring my left ankle. The pain was bad, bad enough that I could not hold myself from hollering. Two staff people rushed out; they must have thought I was dying. I don't know why the pain was so bad, and I could still walk on it afterwards. I put on my brace and was ok for the rest of the trip, although I was annoyed I would have to move slowly again and worried about all the steps at Alishan later in our trip.
We moved on from that after resting for an hour or so and went to the National Center for Traditional Arts after lunch. For lunch, I had the staff try to call a couple of places ahead of time to see if my shellfish allergy could be accommodated. After three or four places said no after a longer conversation, I gave up. We went to a restaurant with a fully vegetarian buffet (because even vegetables at other restaurants can have oyster sauce in their sauces), and out of necessity to have a balanced meal with protein, I tried tofu for the first time in decades. It was pretty good. My husband was great and made the sacrifice also.
The National Center for Traditional Arts has a couple of exhibits and classes to take. We picked an indigo dyeing class. Although I have tie-dyed before, the patterns looked different. I dyed a shopping bag that could fold up into itself, and my husband dyed a bucket hat that was reversible, where he could pick different patterns for each side.
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One side of finished bag
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One side of finished hat
We went and saw exhibits and also bought some nice black jade, which is indigenous only to Taiwan. I got earrings for my birthday, and once the shop owner heard that my birthday was this month, they threw in a necklace with one bead on it. For my earrings, they were able to replace the beads with smaller beads to my preference.
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Intricate carving at exhibit
After the Center, we rested and went to the same vegetarian buffet where we ate for lunch. However, they were close to closing, so there wasn't much food left by the time we got there. We ate a small portion and then went back to the night market. I got some sausage, my husband got the ice cream, peanut shavings, and cilantro wrap I got the night before (without cilantro, boo), and I got banana roti.