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-   Trip Reports (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports-177/)
-   -   RTW: The Funemployed PHinisheD Edition (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1983523-rtw-funemployed-phinished-edition.html)

steveman518 Aug 18, 2019 3:00 pm
RTW: The Funemployed PHinisheD Edition
 
Welcome to my latest TR, featuring a short RTW trip (a real one, not my pseudo-RTW that I did previously). This trip was a trip that I had been envisioning in my head over the last few years to celebrate completing my PhD. (Be warned, though, that we're doctors that don't help anyone ;)) Since I eventually graduated this trip finally came to life, resulting me basically draining my entire mileage balance to make the trip happen. Unfortunately due to the timing of my subsequent relocation and starting my new job the length of this trip was only 18 days. I was traveling with another friend of mine who was also in the funemployment stage between graduation and work. My friend and I settled on 5 destinations during the trip: Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and Berlin. Most of the tickets were booked within 2 weeks of the trip, with the return from Europe being booked while I was in Singapore.

Despite the EVA strike, there was good J award availability through YVR. I would have preferred the SEA-TPE nonstop, but BR25 (the daily frequency) was completely full and BR3 (3x/week) was cancelled throughout the strike, only for the strike to end and the flight reinstated with great J award availability appearing the day of departure. At that point I was basically already on the way to SEA and too cheap to pay the flight change fee. TPE-NRT and NRT-ICN were paid tickets on low-cost carriers. ICN-SIN was booked in SQ J using another spontaneous escapes promotions. SIN-TXL was booked as a cheap cash ticket on Scoot (TR), especially since my trip from TXL back to the US had drained the remainder of my mileage balance. So follow along as I do a relatively whirlwind RTW during this major break in my life!

steveman518 Aug 18, 2019 3:44 pm
Less than a week after I signed for a new apartment for my relocation I was on my way out the door to SEA. After a relatively uneventful trip to the airport I spent a few minutes in the SEA Centurion lounge to grab a quick snack and confirm some of my relocation details.

Turns out award tickets aren't eligible for free wifi on EVA. Also, I left those headphones in the lounge :(
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After making sure that I would have a place to live when I came back, I headed over to the A concourse to board my flight to YVR. Currently there's a fair amount of construction going on in the A concourse, resulting in a long gap in the terminal where there are currently no gates. While AC normally had jetbridges for their flights, they were using bus gates during the construction.

AC8084
SEA-YVR
Dash-8-400
15A

For a turboprop assigned to a bus gate, there was naturally one bus for all the passengers. As the only passenger in group 1 or 2, it was a decent wait on the bus before the next passenger arrived on the bus several minutes later.

After everyone boarded the bus we drove basically halfway to Tacoma to our Dash-8. Now, considering that I grew up flying Saab 340s and Dash-8-200s I would actually pick a decent seat so I could see something...

After a relatively uneventful 40 minutes in the air we arrived at YVR at the faraway transborder concourse, before walking halfway to Richmond to grab my EVA boarding pass on EVA stock.

After grabbing a new copy of my boarding pass, I headed over to the Maple Leaf Lounge in the international terminal. There was no line to get in and, even during the evening/night bank of flights, the lounge was never particularly busy. There are even some plane-spotting opportunities from the lounge.

Since many of the late-night flights are to Asia, they have some Asian..."inspired" food in the lounge. The hot options were essentially an overly dry overly sweet sampling of westernized Asian food which can be described as mediocre at best. After sampling the snack I left the MLL to head over to the Plaza Premium Lounge, which is the BR contract lounge at YVR.

I had brought what Canadian cash I had at home with me so I spent it at a shop on the way to the PPL. Overall the PPL is decently appointed and generally pretty consistent from location to location. EVA also contracts with PPL to set aside an area of the lounge for their own Diamond members. I immediately put my name down for a shower, especially given the number of passengers in the lounge and how few showers are available.

The PPL boasts a better food selection than the MLL, with fresher (and better) hot Asian food. I visited the live station to grab a bowl of fish ball noodles as a somewhat more proper dinner than what the MLL offers.

About an hour later my buzzer rang for the shower. I was assigned to the generously large accessible shower, where I did my trademark 10 minute brush, poop, and shower before heading over to the gate. Generally when I travel I always bring my own toiletries since many of the large toiletries dispensers in lounges (and some hotels) are easy to tamper. In this case, there was a phase separation in the shampoo/body wash...

After showering I left the lounge and made my way to the gate for boarding and the beginning of this RTW trip!

asovse1 Aug 18, 2019 4:15 pm
Looking forward to the rest! Beginning to write my thesis soon but after all this schooling I need some inspiration for a big, big trip in about 400 days.

Congrats on your PhD and new job!

steveman518 Aug 18, 2019 10:47 pm
BR9
YVR-TPE
Boeing 777-300ER
3K

I arrived at the gate just before boarding, where BR had a hot beverage station for coffee and tea. Like many of their flights from North America to TPE, this flight was scheduled to depart around 2AM, with a 5AM arrival at TPE. I boarded soon after when boarding was announced, grabbed a grabbed a newspaper, and settled into the seat. On their 77Ws BR uses the well-known reverse herringbone seats. The seats themselves are relatively roomy, with intuitive seat controls and IFE controls places near the elbow. At the seat is a Salvatorre Feraragamo amenity kit (with the Rimowa kits now being ex-TPE only), a pair of "Thunder" branded headphones, a pair of slippers, and some bedding. While I didn't do any research into it, I have no idea where the headphones are from. To be honest they were just ok and I only used them when I was using the IFE.

Within a couple minutes an FA appeared at my seat and offered me a welcome beverage and chocolate. Given that my western given name is my legal name the confirmed that the service could be conducted in Mandarin. While my Chinese is generally ok, I would admit that this service was more difficult to understand than my pervious F flight with CA. This was especially true during boarding, since the FAs asked a fair amount of detailed questions regarding meal timings, service requests, and the like to try to make the flight a better experience. This attention to detail was generally very apparent during the entire flight. I would say that the BR FAs are somewhat personable and relatively warm, but again this may be different for passengers who have the service performed in English. In the J cabin it seemed that almost all of the passengers were Chinese speakers.

While still on the ground, pajamas were passed around the cabin. The pajamas are from the recent partnership between BR and designer Jason Wu, with the design being much more "fashionable" than anything I would generally wear.

Additionally, menu orders for both supper and breakfast were taken on the ground. BR is known for their catering in J and I would generally have to agree even just by looking at the menu. The food and wine menus follow below:

Soon after we were ready for take-off. BR's safety video is mostly an odd interpretive dance video with narration over the video.

Once in the air, the service begun in earnest to try to maximize sleep. For my supper meal I ordered the "Star Special", which is more of an express service compared to the standard service to maximize sleep. I elected for a glass of the Vevue Cliquot La Grand Dame 2006 as well. EVA is not particularly known for their IFE system, so I settled in for more episodes of the airplane staple Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Showtime
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Amusette with celery crab salad
Pesto bocconcini with roasted tomato and basil leaf
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Nine Nine!
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Traditional delicatessens (already forgot what they were in the back left...)
Dan Zai noodles (a traditional Taiwanese dish)
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Fruit
Valrhona chocolate cake
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Overall the meal was very good and paced appropriately quickly for an express service. The cabin lights were dimmed and I went to change into the provided pajamas while my seat was being turned into a bed. Once I returned from the lav the seat was in bed mode and a bottle of Fiji Water was placed at the seat. I plugged in my ear plugs and slept pretty soundly for a few hours until just before the breakfast service. Something I noticed about the bed was that the mattress pad slipped over the top of the seat to better secure it to the seat, making it another small thing that EVA further does right for their premium passengers.

Once I woke up, I called a FA and requested a cup of jasmine tea and waited for the breakfast service to commence. For the breakfast, I choose the Chinese breakfast option substituting the egg pancake with the turnip option from the snack menu.

Breakfast showtime
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Chinese plain porridge
Traditional delicatessens
Egg pancake with tomato and spring onion
Braised eggplant with garlic pork ragout
Fruit
Stir fried turnip cake with pork julienne and vegetables, beef burger
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I thoroughly enjoyed all the dishes and would say that it was one of the best breakfasts I've had on any flight. Soon after we were preparing for landing, with FAs handing out small candies as we approached TPE, and we landed before 5AM. While I understand that the early arrival is great for connecting passengers, it's still sooooooo early in the morning. Soon after we were deplaning and I was stamped into my first country of the trip. Overall EVA is a fantastic experience in business class with excellent soft and hard products.

Coming up: 3 days in Taipei!

steveman518 Aug 18, 2019 10:50 pm
Originally Posted by asovse1 (Post 31430207)
Looking forward to the rest! Beginning to write my thesis soon but after all this schooling I need some inspiration for a big, big trip in about 400 days.

Congrats on your PhD and new job!
Thank you asovse. There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully you'll be able to take some time off after graduation! I drew a lot of inspiration from a lot of the TRs that I've read throughout the years and hopefully you'll be able to do the same.

757 Aug 19, 2019 4:47 pm
Great report and photos so far. Looking forward to the remainder of your trip!

steveman518 Aug 21, 2019 12:25 am
After clearing immigration I hopped on the Taoyuan MTR express train to Taipei. With the early arrival, I spent most of the 40+ minute ride asleep as we rolled through a bit of the countryside until the train terminated at Main Station.

After arriving at the station I walked over to the Sheraton Grand Taipei, but they were enforcing the 3PM check-in, so I left the hotel to find breakfast before exploring the city. Taipei has many traditional breakfast locations, so I went to the highly-recommended Fuhang Soy Milk down the street from the hotel. The restaurant itself is a stall in a fool hall on the second floor and, due to it's high rating and popularity, has a line that goes down the stairs, outside, and around the block. Since I arrived early and it was a weekday, the line wasn't particularly long and barely went out the door on the first floor.

The line moves relatively quickly, and after a short while I was at the top of the stairs. The shop itself actually occupies four stall spaces, with two spaces dedicated to cooking right at the top of the stairs and the other two spaces dedicated to sales. When I arrived at the counter I was immediately bombarded with questions asking what I wanted. Being prepared, I ordered a hot sweet soy milk, a salted soy milk, and two you tiao/crullers. Salted soy milk is essentially soy milk with some vinegar to induce curdling accompanied by savory toppings. I particularly enjoyed this version of the salted soy milk due to its more uniform consistency compared to most other iterations.

After that wonderful breakfast I headed out to the nearby Longshan temple, a traditional Chinese temple originally erected in 1738 and rebuilt numerous times throughout its history. I took the opportunity to pay respects to my ancestors before carrying on with the journey.

A short walk away from the temple is Bopiliao old street. The street was formerly an active and bustling market, and has been preserved and restored to give a small snapshot into the Qing dynasty. While there isn't much beyond the preserved street and buildings and a small cultural center at the end of the street, there were a number of photoshoots going on, including a wedding shoot.

The cultural center also hosts temporary exhibits, with the one at the time being about the 20 year history of the Taipei film festival. However the exhibit didn't really feature much material.

Summer is really hot in Taipei, with temperatures regularly reaching into the 40s (celsius), so naturally I made the brilliant decision to go visit Beitou, an area of Taipei exhibiting geothermal activity. The area is known for its hot springs, with numerous public and private bathhouses available for soaking in the hot spring water. The trend fo these bathhouses begun in the late 1890s with the Japanese occupation. The area is known for hokutolite, a mineral that contains radioactive radium.

Adjacent to the MTR station is the old Beitou station, which has been turned into a free museum about the original train station. The entirety of the museum is in Chinese, so not sure how much non-speakers would get out of it.

From there I walked through Beitou park along the stream. The water in the stream came from the thermal hot spring, which made the park very warm resulting in me really sweating through my shirt.

At the end of the park there is a path to the Beitou thermal valley (aka hell valley), which is the surface source of much of the thermal water for the area. Today the small lake is fenced off due to the heat and corrosiveness, but previously hard-boiled hot spring eggs used to be popular snack.

On the way back I stopped at the Beitou hot spring museum, a free museum that details some of the history of bathhouses and thermal bathing in the area. It was also an opportunity to get out of the heat and cool off a bit before continuing on through the day.

Near the bottom of the park is the fuxin hot foot spa, which is the main free thermal bath area to soak your feet. However given the number of people there and how some of them seemed to lack good hygiene, I passed on soaking my own feet in the water.

As it was approaching dinnertime I headed back to the Sheraton to check into my room. On the way there I explored many of the underground markets attached to the MTR stations and grabbed a pastry from Yamazaki.

Once at the hotel I checked in and received a one category upgrade to a higher floor corner room. The hotel itself is one of the nice international Sheratons, with clean and modern rooms. What I was particularly impressed with is the soft-close drawers and sliding bathroom door. Additionally there was a small plate of fruit provided in the room.

Soon after my friend arrived and we headed out to Shilin night market. While it is popular with tourists it still features plenty of good food. What I did notice is that some of the stalls seemed to appear more than once and were identical, which is something I noticed at a couple of other places. We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the market just buying random things here and there to eat. Because I love eating.

Stalls
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Obligatory
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Hotstar, which essentially smashes chicken into a thin piece and fries it
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Delicious
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Stalls
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Blurry fish balls
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Non-blurry fish balls
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Rice flour noodles in a delicious broth
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Lemon aiyu jelly, which is made from a type of fig
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Wandering into the night
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On the way back to the hotel we stopped by PXMart, a local grocery store that actually has a no photography policy. I bought a red dragonfruit to eat at the hotel later. Unfortunately the knife that was provided in the room for the fruit wasn't particularly sharp and cutting the red dragonfruit got a bit...messy. After eating the fruit and dealing with the resulting mess, it was time to call it a day.

steveman518 Aug 21, 2019 12:26 am
Originally Posted by 757 (Post 31433893)
Great report and photos so far. Looking forward to the remainder of your trip!
Thank you 757. There is definitely still lots to come.

benjahman Aug 21, 2019 8:26 pm
really enjoying this one! fond memories of EVA Air last summer. Love Taipei as well and all the food offerings. Looking forward to the rest. Thanks for sharing.

steveman518 Aug 23, 2019 11:45 pm
The next morning we awoke to news that Typhoon Danas, the first typhoon of the season, had hit the southeast area of the island and was moving northward. While not immediately important, this will be a continuing theme through the trip...

After waking up we made our way back to Fuhang soy milk for breakfast again. This time I picked up just a sweet soy milk and a youtiao/cruller wrapped in a thin dough roll. I found the wrapped one to be much better since the dough would better absorb some of the oil in the youtiao.

The plan was to do the elephant hike in the morning while we still had some sun, so we headed over to begin the climb. Elephant mountain is well-known as being somewhere to photograph Taipei; particularly Taipei 101. The popular time to go is usually around sunset, but with rain in the forecast later in the day and through the rest of our time in Taipei we made to sure stop by during the day. After arriving at the nearby MRT station we begun the ascent into the hill, with several clearings having well-known views of Taipei 101 throughout the climb. These clearings, while not the easiest, are not particularly strenuous and a fair number of people carry photography gear to these clearings.

There are a few viewing platforms that are reachable within 15-20 minutes of the bottom, but unfortunately my friend wasn't in good enough shape to make it through the entire loop through the hills that I wanted to do despite believing that they work out "a lot" and "am in shape". So while my friend rested at one of the platforms, I went off to do a little more exploration. It wasn't uncommon to see people running the stairs as a workout, which would be something that I would try. The areas further up the hill aren't really for photographing the city or Taipei 101, but there are some small clearings with views of the surrounding areas.

After finding my friend again we headed back to the bottom and to Taipei 101, which was just one MRT stop away. On a late Tuesday morning there was no wait and we were able to go straight up to the top. In addition to the view at the top, there was also a small Lego exhibit and the damper, which is used to counteract any building sway and is the largest damper sphere in the world. And, unfortunately because not all tourism is good, there was basically an entire floor dedicated to selling coral jewelry.

After our visit to Taipei 101, my friend really wanted to go to the original Din Tai Fung for lunch, even though IMHO DTF is mostly ok but way overhyped. Even for a late lunch the wait was about 25-30 minutes for our number to be called. While waiting we filled out the menu (well more like I played translator and filled it out because my friend's Chinese is...poor). The original store is actually two stories and we were assigned a table on the second floor before the deluge of food arrived.

Storefront
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What a crowd
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Food choices
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Showtime DTF style
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Cucumber salad
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Eggplant
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One of several Xiaolongbao/soup dumplings
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Siu mai
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One of several dumplings
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Spicy shrimp and pork wontons
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Red bean "rice cake"
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Overall the meal was good as expected, but not great or hyped as many other people seem to feel about DTF (including my friend who really really wanted to go). After we left, it had begun raining and we sought brief refuge in a boba shop mostly because my friend has an unhealthy obsession with boba. The shop we ended up at is a Bobii Frutii, a chain known for those really Instagrammable fancy bobas. (Side note: this fetishization of the appearance of an establishment and/or its food/drink compared to delivering actually good food/drink is really becoming a problem...) The chain is a recent entry into the boba space, having been founded in 2016 and already franchising internationally. I ended up taking one for the team and ordering one to see what it was all about. I ordered a 不要上班 (I don't want to work), which is supposed to be a layered drink with oolong tea, milk, and their signature blue butterfly boba.

And it sure didn't really taste like anything special either, but at least it wasn't bad...

While it continued raining, we headed to Maokong, which is known as a tea district in Taipei. The area is populated with a number of tea shops with services ranging from tea tastings to full meals and tea ceremonies. The area and the journey there are known to be very scenic as well, though of course in the rain there wouldn't be much to see. While there is limited bus service to Maokong, the primary means of getting there is via the gondola from the Taipei zoo. There are a few stops along the way, including a temple, but most of the intermediate stops are better served in fairer weather.

While there are a number of shops near the gondola station, I had my sights set on the highly recommended Yaoyue tea house, a 20 minute walk from the station. While we were unable to see the city due to the weather, the surrounding area was still gorgeous.

Once at the tea house we sat down with one of the gentlemen to do a taste testing. Most, if not all, of the teas sold by the store are grown locally and are generally very high quality. The employee was excellent in describing all of the teas in great detail, highlighting their differences and what we should be tasting for in each of the varieties that we had sampled. We were also able to shoot the breeze during the tasting, and a couple hours passed by in an instant. After tasting a number of teas, I settled on buying myself 300g each of a tie guan yin and a high mountain oolong as well as a smaller gift for my parents while my friend also bought a smaller quantity. Generally I don't buy that much tea at once, but I was running extremely low so I needed to boost my reserves until my next trip to Asia. Additionally these teas are very good and it can be difficult to find some of these varieties in such quality elsewhere. After bidding farewell we headed back to the gondola and back into Taipei, when it started really pouring.

By the time we arrived back at the Taipei zoo, the rain had reduced in intensity and we headed over to the nearby Rahoe night market. After making a quick detour to ChiaTe for some pineapple cakes, we made our way through the market randomly eating more food, occasionally seeking refuge when the rain would increase in intensity.

Overall we had a wonderful time at the Rahoe night market eating and window shopping. The one thing I would have liked would have been more trash cans, since they were sparse and few between. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a grocery store for some refreshments before calling it a night after a wonderful (albeit rainy) day in Taipei.

steveman518 Aug 23, 2019 11:48 pm
Originally Posted by benjahman (Post 31442304)
really enjoying this one! fond memories of EVA Air last summer. Love Taipei as well and all the food offerings. Looking forward to the rest. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you benjahman. Taipei was lovely, though perhaps next time I'll try not to go during a typhoon

eeflyer Aug 24, 2019 2:13 am
Congratulations Dr. steveman528!! ;) I'm also (hopefully) approaching the end of my Ph.D.- currently writing up my dissertation and will hopefully defend in 1.5-2 months. Thank you for the great report so far. I'm getting a lot of ideas for potential future trips.

nequine Aug 25, 2019 11:45 am
Congrats on getting your PhD :)

Good start to your TR and looking forward to reading more.

steveman518 Aug 28, 2019 12:24 am
By the next morning the storm had further progressed in the general direction of Taipei, though the main part of the storm would miss the city. There would be rain on and off throughout the day, continuing with the theme of the trip.

Our first stop in the morning was Jing Feng braised pork rice, which is known for its braised pork rice (滷肉饭). The dish is one of the favorite dishes in Taipei and Taiwan, and Jing Feng is one of hte most well-known purveyors of the dish. The pork in the braised pork rice (and noodles) is somewhat similar to other Chinese and Taiwanese pork belly dishes, but one of the main differences (other than some of the seasonings) is that the pork is chopped into really small bits.

The shop itself is fairly small and offers both dine-in and to-go options for their dishes. I ordered both the braised pork rice and braised pork noodle in addition to some pork belly. The braised pork was incredibly flavorful and tender, and the sauce had seeped into the rice to give it a nice soy and spice flavor.

After the meal the rain subsided a bit so we ventured out to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall, which was built to honor the namesake former president of Taiwan. The memorial hall is situated at the end of memorial hall square, with the National Theatre and National Concert Hall lining the square.

I had planned to meet up with a friend later in the afternoon so we didn't stick around the area for long before heading over to Ximending, a pedestrian shopping district that's known for its shopping. It was the first pedestrian area in Taipei and spans a decently large area. Immediately upon arriving in the area my friend went to seek out Xing Fu Tang, since it's one of those boba shops that does the whole brown sugar thing and is extremely instagrammable (groan...). However what my friend didn't realize that boba doesn't always mean boba milk tea, and we ended up with boba milk, which seems to be much newer to the scene. Basically what it is is milk with boba (the pearls) and other flavorings. Needless to say I wasn't too thrilled with a glass of milk...

Boba milk (no tea!) with brown sugar syrup...I suppose decently grammable?
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After our boba milk misadventure we went to explore Ximending. The district wasn't too crowded since it was during the week, and we sampled some food while window shopping.

There is also the red house at the edge of the district, which is an older building which has been repurposed to be one of those hip areas with many small vendors selling their wares.

Afterwards we returned to our hotel to meet up with one of my friends who lives in the area who drove us out to Jiufen. Jiufen is an old village up in the mountains outside of Taipei which is mistakingly believed by some to be the inspiration behind Spirited Away, though it would be easy to see how the essence of Jiufen could be evoked through the film. As usual it basically rained all the way there and continued to rain throughout the afternoon and evening.

Once there we wandered up and down the winding roads overlooking the water, and began walking through the covered alleys that are synonymous with Jiufen. The alleys aren't particularly wide and there are many many shops lining the alley. We let my friend take the lead and ended up in a variety of shops snacking on all sorts of enjoyable food.

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Looking below
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Alleys
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Stinky tofu
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Because who doesn't love noodles
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Fish ball soup
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Random pastry
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More alleys
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Savory mochi
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From a ledge
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Glutenous rice dessert bowl
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After a while we settled into a teahouse, but not before stopping by another stall and buying a variety of snacks, including various fish meal products and curdled blood snacks.

After exploring the alleys, we decided to head up to a pavilion (不厌亭) to see if we could see anything, though with all the clouds there wasn't too much to see. It also started to rain again so we made our way back to another area of Jiufen to see the famous lanterns. The plaza wasn't particularly crowded especially since it was raining.

After returning to Taipei we parted ways with my friend and headed to the nearby Jiangxia beef noodle soup shop to grab another dinner. I had an excellent beef noodle soup and my friend had a bowl of wontons.

Since it was already into the evening we decided to see if we could photograph Taipei 101 from within the city without going up Elephant Mountain. I would say we were somewhat successful, though I would have preferred to go up the hill to get the shot of Taipei 101 over the city. Perhaps next time...

steveman518 Aug 28, 2019 12:27 am
Originally Posted by eeflyer (Post 31450860)
Congratulations Dr. steveman528!! ;) I'm also (hopefully) approaching the end of my Ph.D.- currently writing up my dissertation and will hopefully defend in 1.5-2 months. Thank you for the great report so far. I'm getting a lot of ideas for potential future trips.
Thank you eeflyer. Hopefully you'll also be able to celebrate defending with a nice trip of your own.

Originally Posted by nequine (Post 31455195)
Congrats on getting your PhD :)

Good start to your TR and looking forward to reading more.
Thank you nequine. Updating as quickly as I can, but of course moving and starting a new job are...busy


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