Tour Journal by Taipei Friends Tour Member
Sihai Soy Milk, Taipei 101 Observatory, National Palace Museum
1. Information:
November 2, 2019 - 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Half day tour
Pick up location: Poshpacker Hotel, Zhongzheng District, Taipei
Destination: Sihai Soy Milk, Taipei 101 Observatory, National Palace Museum.
Tour guide: Saaya Matsukubo (main guide), Alex (supporter guide)
2. Feedback:
“I would like to thank Saaya for being a wonderful and knowledgeable tour guide. She is careful, willing to answer any of my questions and she also recommends so many restaurant options for a vegan traveler like me. I am very grateful for your help and I really hope to see you again in Taiwan in the future!”
3. Journal:
We started out our day by having early breakfast at 6:30 a.m. at Sihai Soy Milk. Although we all had to wake up and lined up early for this meal, June - my Malaysian guest was really happy and excited to try out the Authentic Taiwanese breakfast. As she is a vegan, soy milk and cruller ( which was made from flour ) was definitely the best breakfast combo for her. We are always careful towards our clients with food requests - where to take them and what to recommend. While eating breakfast, we introduced some traditional Taiwanese breakfast and how the food was influenced by other countries such as China and Japan in history.
After that, we travelled by MRT to Taipei 101 Observatory. Since we visited Taipei 101 soon after the gate was opened, we didn’t have to spend a long time lining up and entering the observation deck on that day. We introduced to June the interesting facts about Taipei 101 and also suggested some cool check-in spots for nice photos. We also explained June about the area including the shopping malls and Elephant mountain so that she could enjoy it more when she comes back to this area. We spent roughly 30 minutes at the observatory and then headed to the last destination.
The last place is the National Palace Museum. We took MRT and a bus to the museum. The route to the museum was a little bit confusing for tourists, so June was very happy to have guides to take her there. June was amazed by the museum and she asked us a lot of questions regarding the history and ancient cultures between Taiwan, Japanese, and Chinese. Besides the basic information, we also provided June with other information that we learned from school and from the history books we read ourselves. We had an amazing discussion about the history, languages and cultures as she herself is a huge travel lover and a multilingual person, she absorbs different cultures and creates her own unique identity. Surprisingly, Saaya and June are both vegan eaters and they chatted a lot about vegan travel tips and cooking recipes. Saaya also suggested some tasty vegan-friendly restaurants and cafes for June to try out. We sent her to the nearest MRT station and dismissed the tour there as she wished. At the end of the tour, we exchanged our contacts and we are really glad to make friends with an amazing new friend! See you next time in Taiwan!
4. Questions:
How many holidays do Taiwanese have in a year?
What are the main religions in Taiwan?
How many languages do Taiwanese speak?
How strong is the influence of Japanese Colonisation Period on people and culture in Taiwan?
How many cities in Taiwan have MRT transportation system?
Is Taiwan vegan (vegetarian) friendly?
How easy/safe is it to travel Taiwan alone?
How many tourists have the guides accompanied so far in this program?
Can you recommend other interesting museums?
How big is Taipei 101?
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