Our flight, Delta 281 ATL-NRT, departed very close to on time and we settled in for the long 14 hour, 50 minute flight. This was our first trip on a Boeing 777. Our previous trans-Pacific flights were always on the old 747’s (like the one we would not enjoy on our return trip through DTW). In comparison the 777 looked nicer inside and featured a personal TV screen in every seat. But I thought the seats were a bit harder than the old 747’s. I couldn’t help looking forward in envy of the business class travelers in their huge lie-flat seats with thick quilted blankets and a full-size pillow. Meanwhile we are all crammed like cattle and I am using my pathetic blanket and pillow to support my back and my butt on these damn rock-hard seats. As usual I picked an aisle seat so I can easily get up when I want to. My wife sat in the middle and a rather tall gentleman, who was a really nice guy, sat by the window. My wife and I each brought noise-canceling headphones to drown out the steady roar of the engines. Those things are essential for long-haul flights. I was looking forward to watching all the movies I loaded up on my laptop, but unfortunately the power plug under the seat would not work. Oh well, at least we had a decent selection of movies and TV shows on the on-demand system. I watched 3-4 movies but for the life of me I can’t remember them all now. The entire flight seems like a blur. I never can sleep on any flight which makes it extremely tiring and explains why I can’t remember much. What I do remember is looking at my watch frequently (perhaps too frequently) and staring in disbelief at how little time had passed since the last time I looked. We both drank lots of water, quickly depleting the 6 bottles we had brought with us. Dehydration is always a problem on these long flights and we could never seem to get enough water. As far as the food goes, it was OK but nothing fancy. More like the average frozen TV dinner you buy at the supermarket (and not the good ones either!). Time kept moving slowly, we kept asking for more water, and we got more exhausted as the flight went on. Occasionally we would stand up by the galley for a while, stretching our legs and trying to keep our moods up. We talked about how we would most likely fly to the west coast on our next Taiwan vacation before making the flight to Taiwan. It helps to break it up into shorter segments. Sitting on this plane for a solid 14-15 hours is almost more than we can take! The last part of our flight as we got close to Japan was rather bumpy and did not help us feel any better. We safely landed in Narita pretty much on time as the sun was about to set – which seemed pretty early for 4PM in the afternoon. Now we needed to get through the Narita security before doing anything else at the airport. Why we need another security screening, after going through a more exhaustive examination in the USA, is beyond me. A waste of time in my opinion but at least they are quick and efficient at it. No removing of the shoes here, expect for my wife who had a little too much metal decoration on her boots. We gathered our stuff on the other side of security and made our way into the terminal, first in search of a toilet then in search of the Skyclub. We had a couple of hours to kill again and I couldn’t wait to see the NRT Skyclub which I had heard so many good things about. My overall impression of the airport was not great as we walked through the terminal. It looked old, tired and outdated. The bathrooms were not in great shape with lot of broken parts here and there and dingy tile that looked 30 years old (and very well could have been!). This is the main Japan hub for international travel? When we finally discovered the Skyclub location we were pleasantly surprised. It was large, clean, and comfortable. The food selection was not bad and there was a decent choice of drinks, even self-serve beer machines! I want one of those at home! But sadly I didn’t partake of the beer because I think it would have made me feel worse at that point. I went straight for the coffee in a vain attempt at waking myself up. Didn’t help much, but at least I was comfortable for a short time in the cushy chairs while browsing the internet (checking Facebook of course). I wish I would have taken some photos but I just did not have the energy to mess with it. When it got close to boarding time we repeated the same process as Atlanta. This time my wife got snagged for a security check on the walkway to the aircraft. This was something I have never seen before and yet again seemed like a silly waste of time. I was worried about overhead bin space so I grabbed her roller bag and went on to our seats. Getting that bag into the small bins of this ancient 757 was a challenge. I managed to cram it in sideways and the girl already seated in our row was nice enough to move her bag back so I could fit my backpack up there. My wife eventually joined me a few minutes later and we wedged ourselves in another uncomfortable aircraft. Leaving NRT seemed to take forever. We taxied for at least 30 minutes while my wife was in dire need of using the lav. After takeoff the wait was too much to bear for her and she got up long before the seat belt sign was turned off. When you gotta go you gotta go! The flight to Taiwan was rough, adding nausea to our exhaustion. I couldn’t even think about eating the meal they served. We made it to the gate slightly early but still at a late hour of nearly 10PM. With a little second wind of energy we sped through customs and out to the arrivals area. Now we faced the challenge of contacting the rental car company. We had no phone (I brought my GSM-capable phone but we needed to buy a SIM card first) and no Taiwan money for the pay phones. My wife went over to a little shop and bought a couple of drinks so we could have some coins for the phone. While she called I stood by our luggage fending off half a dozen cab drivers who wanted our business. We got our directions where to wait for them and proceeded outside the terminal and across to an island in the middle of the roads in the cool and wet night. It felt good to be outside, even if we were surrounded by a chaos of cars, taxis, and shuttle buses. Our rental company van eventually arrived and we were told we had too much luggage to fit in one van. They suggested I go first and my wife follow on the next van. She was not too pleased with this arrangement but reluctantly agreed. The trip to the rental car office seemed like a crazy maze of incomprehensible logic. I remember at first we made a big loop around to the left and drove right by the very place we were just standing, but from the back side. All that way to go around just to make a right turn! Great planning there. I was dropped off at the office along a dark, dingy road and stood there feeling a bit lost and disoriented. A couple more vans came in but still no sign of my wife. After what seemed like an hour, but was really only about 20 minutes, my wife arrived and stepped out of the van looking a little displeased. I found out later that the van had nearly passed her by and she yelled out some obscenities before another company’s driver assisted and got the van to stop (kudos to that guy!). After a few minutes our Nissan Livina arrived and we were ready to officially begin our vacation in Taiwan. We liked this car from the beginning, with ample space for all of our luggage. It was a little hard to get used to at first and being so late and dark it did not help us to locate all of the controls. We cautiously made our way out to freeway #2 and immediately got a strong dose of Taiwanese driving. Cars flew by us on both sides and, as we merged onto the freeway, they even came by on the right side long after the lane ended. We made it to Jhongli where we had a room reserved at the Chinatrust Hotel. Once we got into Jhongli my wife’s memory kicked in and she knew her way around. We arrived at Chinatrust close to midnight and parked in the sidewalk/courtyard area right in front of the building (with their permission of course). Once we made it to our room we were tired but strangely not ready for sleep. We were hungry and decided to venture out and see what we could find. One thing I love about Taiwan is always being able to find some street food when you are out late at night. We found a corner shop serving a variety of soups, noodles, and dumplings. That really hit the spot! Later we walked down to a nearby night market and everyone was closing up shop already. Too bad, back to the hotel! We hit the bed very late and managed a few hours sleep before another day would begin.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Our Taiwan Vacation - The Flight, and The Arrival
Our flight, Delta 281 ATL-NRT, departed very close to on time and we settled in for the long 14 hour, 50 minute flight. This was our first trip on a Boeing 777. Our previous trans-Pacific flights were always on the old 747’s (like the one we would not enjoy on our return trip through DTW). In comparison the 777 looked nicer inside and featured a personal TV screen in every seat. But I thought the seats were a bit harder than the old 747’s. I couldn’t help looking forward in envy of the business class travelers in their huge lie-flat seats with thick quilted blankets and a full-size pillow. Meanwhile we are all crammed like cattle and I am using my pathetic blanket and pillow to support my back and my butt on these damn rock-hard seats. As usual I picked an aisle seat so I can easily get up when I want to. My wife sat in the middle and a rather tall gentleman, who was a really nice guy, sat by the window. My wife and I each brought noise-canceling headphones to drown out the steady roar of the engines. Those things are essential for long-haul flights. I was looking forward to watching all the movies I loaded up on my laptop, but unfortunately the power plug under the seat would not work. Oh well, at least we had a decent selection of movies and TV shows on the on-demand system. I watched 3-4 movies but for the life of me I can’t remember them all now. The entire flight seems like a blur. I never can sleep on any flight which makes it extremely tiring and explains why I can’t remember much. What I do remember is looking at my watch frequently (perhaps too frequently) and staring in disbelief at how little time had passed since the last time I looked. We both drank lots of water, quickly depleting the 6 bottles we had brought with us. Dehydration is always a problem on these long flights and we could never seem to get enough water. As far as the food goes, it was OK but nothing fancy. More like the average frozen TV dinner you buy at the supermarket (and not the good ones either!). Time kept moving slowly, we kept asking for more water, and we got more exhausted as the flight went on. Occasionally we would stand up by the galley for a while, stretching our legs and trying to keep our moods up. We talked about how we would most likely fly to the west coast on our next Taiwan vacation before making the flight to Taiwan. It helps to break it up into shorter segments. Sitting on this plane for a solid 14-15 hours is almost more than we can take! The last part of our flight as we got close to Japan was rather bumpy and did not help us feel any better. We safely landed in Narita pretty much on time as the sun was about to set – which seemed pretty early for 4PM in the afternoon. Now we needed to get through the Narita security before doing anything else at the airport. Why we need another security screening, after going through a more exhaustive examination in the USA, is beyond me. A waste of time in my opinion but at least they are quick and efficient at it. No removing of the shoes here, expect for my wife who had a little too much metal decoration on her boots. We gathered our stuff on the other side of security and made our way into the terminal, first in search of a toilet then in search of the Skyclub. We had a couple of hours to kill again and I couldn’t wait to see the NRT Skyclub which I had heard so many good things about. My overall impression of the airport was not great as we walked through the terminal. It looked old, tired and outdated. The bathrooms were not in great shape with lot of broken parts here and there and dingy tile that looked 30 years old (and very well could have been!). This is the main Japan hub for international travel? When we finally discovered the Skyclub location we were pleasantly surprised. It was large, clean, and comfortable. The food selection was not bad and there was a decent choice of drinks, even self-serve beer machines! I want one of those at home! But sadly I didn’t partake of the beer because I think it would have made me feel worse at that point. I went straight for the coffee in a vain attempt at waking myself up. Didn’t help much, but at least I was comfortable for a short time in the cushy chairs while browsing the internet (checking Facebook of course). I wish I would have taken some photos but I just did not have the energy to mess with it. When it got close to boarding time we repeated the same process as Atlanta. This time my wife got snagged for a security check on the walkway to the aircraft. This was something I have never seen before and yet again seemed like a silly waste of time. I was worried about overhead bin space so I grabbed her roller bag and went on to our seats. Getting that bag into the small bins of this ancient 757 was a challenge. I managed to cram it in sideways and the girl already seated in our row was nice enough to move her bag back so I could fit my backpack up there. My wife eventually joined me a few minutes later and we wedged ourselves in another uncomfortable aircraft. Leaving NRT seemed to take forever. We taxied for at least 30 minutes while my wife was in dire need of using the lav. After takeoff the wait was too much to bear for her and she got up long before the seat belt sign was turned off. When you gotta go you gotta go! The flight to Taiwan was rough, adding nausea to our exhaustion. I couldn’t even think about eating the meal they served. We made it to the gate slightly early but still at a late hour of nearly 10PM. With a little second wind of energy we sped through customs and out to the arrivals area. Now we faced the challenge of contacting the rental car company. We had no phone (I brought my GSM-capable phone but we needed to buy a SIM card first) and no Taiwan money for the pay phones. My wife went over to a little shop and bought a couple of drinks so we could have some coins for the phone. While she called I stood by our luggage fending off half a dozen cab drivers who wanted our business. We got our directions where to wait for them and proceeded outside the terminal and across to an island in the middle of the roads in the cool and wet night. It felt good to be outside, even if we were surrounded by a chaos of cars, taxis, and shuttle buses. Our rental company van eventually arrived and we were told we had too much luggage to fit in one van. They suggested I go first and my wife follow on the next van. She was not too pleased with this arrangement but reluctantly agreed. The trip to the rental car office seemed like a crazy maze of incomprehensible logic. I remember at first we made a big loop around to the left and drove right by the very place we were just standing, but from the back side. All that way to go around just to make a right turn! Great planning there. I was dropped off at the office along a dark, dingy road and stood there feeling a bit lost and disoriented. A couple more vans came in but still no sign of my wife. After what seemed like an hour, but was really only about 20 minutes, my wife arrived and stepped out of the van looking a little displeased. I found out later that the van had nearly passed her by and she yelled out some obscenities before another company’s driver assisted and got the van to stop (kudos to that guy!). After a few minutes our Nissan Livina arrived and we were ready to officially begin our vacation in Taiwan. We liked this car from the beginning, with ample space for all of our luggage. It was a little hard to get used to at first and being so late and dark it did not help us to locate all of the controls. We cautiously made our way out to freeway #2 and immediately got a strong dose of Taiwanese driving. Cars flew by us on both sides and, as we merged onto the freeway, they even came by on the right side long after the lane ended. We made it to Jhongli where we had a room reserved at the Chinatrust Hotel. Once we got into Jhongli my wife’s memory kicked in and she knew her way around. We arrived at Chinatrust close to midnight and parked in the sidewalk/courtyard area right in front of the building (with their permission of course). Once we made it to our room we were tired but strangely not ready for sleep. We were hungry and decided to venture out and see what we could find. One thing I love about Taiwan is always being able to find some street food when you are out late at night. We found a corner shop serving a variety of soups, noodles, and dumplings. That really hit the spot! Later we walked down to a nearby night market and everyone was closing up shop already. Too bad, back to the hotel! We hit the bed very late and managed a few hours sleep before another day would begin.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Our Taiwan Vacation - Departure Day
We arrived at the airport in Atlanta very early to beat the morning traffic. I’d much rather relax at the airport, even if it’s for 2-3 hours, than sit in rush hour traffic and worry about making our flight on time. And, being so close to Christmas I fully expected a huge amount of people flying today as well. We parked off-site to save some money and rode the shuttle bus in to the terminal. As we made our way into the terminal our bags were already starting to feel a little heavier. We each had a large rolling duffel packed to the limit (just shy of 50 lbs. each). And we each had slightly smaller duffel bags which were also stuffed to the breaking point but fortunately much less than 50 lbs. For carry-on luggage I had my Tamrac Expedition backpack for all my camera stuff and a messenger bag my dear wife made for me. She carried the ubiquitous black rolling carry-on bag as well as a matching messenger bag (with a little more girly flair of course!). Overall we were each loaded down with nearly our own body weight in luggage! As I write this in hindsight now I know that I will never, ever pack so much stuff again. As we entered the terminal (sometime between 6-7AM, I can’t remember now) there was already long lines of travelers queuing up at the various check-in lines and baggage drop off line. Since we had used online check-in we headed straight for the nearest baggage drop-off only to be told to go to another area all the way at the end. The long line moved fairly quickly and in about 20 minutes we were finally free of our heavy bags, for now at least. We made our way through security, which was quick and painless as it often seems to be at Atlanta, and took the underground train out to the international terminal. The international terminal at Atlanta has, in my opinion, the best selection of food anywhere in the airport. But with all those choices we always seem to end up at McDonald's! Today was no different, and it seemed to be the popular choice as there were several long lines of people waiting for their greasy breakfast too. We sat in the food court and enjoyed our high-calorie high-fat breakfast while sipping on piping-hot coffee (McDonald’s coffee is one of our favorites). After we finished our breakfast I decided to make a quick visit to our gate to make sure we had an aircraft sitting there. It was, so now I could really relax. At the same time I looked out the large windows and noticed it was getting close to sunrise and our gate was facing directly east. With the sun rising further to the south this time of year I could see it would come up right under incoming flights. Sounds like a prime photo opportunity! I rushed back to the food court to get my wife and my gear and headed back to the gate. I snapped off several photos of the rising deep-orange sun while trying to get the timing right with the incoming flights. I had to keep the lens hood against the glass to avoid reflections. I got a few decent shots before the sun starting getting too bright.
At this point we still had a couple of hours to kill and fortunately we each had one-day Delta Skyclub passes courtesy of our bank, Suntrust. We had previously signed up for their Skymiles debit card and were each given a one-day pass as a thank you. There are two Skyclubs in Terminal E, one small club open in the morning and a much larger club than opens later in the day. We headed over to the smaller club and first verified that we could use our passes on our connection in Narita, Japan. They said we could and we proceeded to spend the next 90 minutes or so enjoying free wireless internet and free drinks & snacks. I wish we could always enjoy this privilege but I doubt we will ever get the opportunity on future trips. The time went rather quickly and before we knew it, it was time to begin boarding. Boarding a flight is always a fun social observation for me. You always have the people with status at Delta standing right up front long before the flight begins boarding (called “gate lice” on a certain discussion board). They are easily spotted usually wearing a sport-jacket, holding their roller bag with their proud Delta tags attached while talking loudly in their cell phone. The rest of us common folk queue up in the area near the gate, all taking small steps forward as they progress through the boarding sequence. Usually by the time they call our zone I have already quietly & stealthily made my up towards the front. Overhead bin space never seems like enough so it always helps to get to the seats as soon as possible. We took our seats on the 777 and prepared ourselves for the long journey to Japan.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Our Taiwan Vacation - The Plan
We started planning our vacation to Taiwan about a year before the actual departure date. We really didn’t need to start so early, but once we decided to go the excitement got the best of us. Researching locations, reading restaurant reviews, and viewing photos online from scenic spots was too much fun to put off until later. It was a difficult balancing act between seeking out great food and picking the best locations for photography. Originally my wife focused more on food while I did a lot of research on where & when to go for the best photos. As the year went on, my wife took an interest in photography and her priorities shifted slightly, but food was still a very important part of our plan.
We knew we wanted to leave around Christmas and come back in early January. My company typically shuts down for a week during the holidays, or at least operates with a fraction of the regular staff. The advantage of planning around this time is that the week between the holidays does not count against my normal vacation time. We had hoped that this would outweigh the disadvantage of being in Taiwan during winter (i.e. bad weather). With that plan in mind, we waited for the important 331-day mark from our return date to begin searching for flights. That’s the earliest date Delta will allow you to book a flight. And why did we decide Delta? Over the years I had built up a huge stash of Skymiles, some from business travel but the majority from using our Delta Amex card for everything we can. We even switched our banking over to Suntrust to take advantage of their Skymiles debit card and the bonus miles for signing up. They also gave us a couple of Skyclub one-day passes which would be very useful for our flight out. Getting back to the schedule, I waited until we were 331 days from January 10th (our best guess for a return date) to start checking for available award tickets on Delta.com. Delta has low, medium, and high award levels and it can be tricky sometimes to find anything in the low level. Sometimes low level award tickets open up right before the travel dates, but we did not have that kind of flexibility of making plans at the last minute. When I began my searching I was disappointed to see only a few medium and mostly high award tickets available, but around the holidays that’s to be expected. The only dates I could find that fit in with my work schedule was a 12/23 departure and a 01/09 return. At a medium award level we were looking at 120,000 Skymiles per ticket plus about $63 in tax. Not a bad deal for a ticket that usually costs well over $1,000.
With our dates set we could now start planning a formal trip schedule. At first we, of course, tried to fit everything and anything into our trip. We went through many revisions, adding things, removing things, moving things around. Sometimes we put the planning aside for a few weeks to take a break. At some point we realized that we just did not have enough time to fit in everything we wanted to do. So I began searching the Delta award calendar for a new return flight. It didn’t take long for some medium level awards to pop up in that second week of January. These award calendar changes may last weeks or they may only last a day or two so I jumped on a new return date of 01/13. Of course we paid a fee for that change but still overall much, much cheaper than buying a full fare ticket. But we could not get the same route on the return flight and ended up with Taiwan -> Narita -> Detroit -> Atlanta with an old 747 for the Narita to Detroit leg.
Now that we had a few more days in our trip we could spread out our schedule a bit and fit in a few more things to see & eat. We continued revising our schedule over the next few months. We came to our senses eventually and cut out several things from our schedule. It became too busy and not really like a vacation at all. With a little over a month to go we finally had something we were happy with and began making all the hotel & rental car reservations. Now the excitement was really building! We had to shuffle a couple of days around in our schedule due to hotel availability around New Year’s Day, but managed to make it work.
This is the final schedule we came up with:
12/23: Leave Atlanta 11AM, connect through Tokyo
12/24: Arrive in Taiwan at 9:40PM, pick up rental car.
Stay at Chinatrust Hotel in Jhongli.
12/25: Drive to Taichung, relax and eat with family.
Maybe get some Taichung night view photos from 台中望高寮夜景.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market (in-laws’ house is full for a few days).
12/26: Big lunch with family and other relatives. (mother-in-law’s 60th birthday).
Shopping for our road trip at Costco & Watsons.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market.
12/27: My wife needs to renew Taiwan ID, driver’s license & visit bank.
MiaoDong street market in FengYuan.
Visit ShengShin train station & old bridge ruins (龍騰斷橋) in SanYi.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market.
12/28: Drive up to Taipei.
Visit Dihua Street and fabric market.
Beef noodles at 林東芳牛肉麵 and 穆記小吃牛肉麵館.
Visit Bellavita Mall and Taipei 101.
Hike up to Elephant Mountain for sunset photos of Taipei.
DinTaiFung & other stuff around Yongkang Street for dinner.
Some night photography at CKS Memorial.
Stay at Hotel 73 in Taipei.
12/29: Get to 金華街燒餅油條 very early for clay oven rolls.
Drive to Houtong to see the cats, the town, and old train tunnels.
Lunch in Ruifang then drive over to Jiufen. Stay in Jiufen until after sunset.
Miaokou night market in Keelung.
Stay at Blue Ocean Hotel in Keelung.
12/30: HePing Island photos at sunrise.
Drive to Shifen Waterfall.
Stop for lunch near Keelung then take Hwy 2 around north coast to Danshui.
Sunset photos at Fisherman’s Wharf (Lover’s Bridge) and some 小吃 in Danshui for dinner.
Stay at Fullon Hot Springs Hotel in Danshui.
12/31: Spend the morning around Beitou and visit library. Hike up 軍艦岩 if we feel like it.
Drive down to Taipei in the afternoon. Park near 彩虹河濱公園.
Visit Raohe night market.
Get photos of Taipei 101 fireworks from the riverside park.
No hotel, drive to Yehliu area and get ready for sunrise photos (maybe catch a nap in the car).
1/1: Sunrise at Yehliu area (probably 龜吼)
Walk around Yehliu park for photos in the morning.
Take Hwy 2 east and stop at Nanya Rock, Bitou Cape, and keep going towards Yilan.
Dinner at Luodong night market.
Stay at Hotel in Luodong (羅東西樺商務客棧).
1/2: 五峰旗瀑布 waterfalls & 林美石磐 trail in the morning.
Lunch & dinner in the Yilan/Jiaoxi area. Also night market (宜蘭東門夜市).
Stay at hot spring B&B in Jiaoxi (奇立丹 品田雙人房).
1/3: Sunrise photos at Beiguan Ocean Park.
Drive to Hualien in the morning.
Relax at 七星潭 in the afternoon.
Dinner at 賀川日本料理, night market (自強夜市).
Stay at Hotel Bayview in Hualien.
1/4: Sunrise photos at 嶺頂日出.
Night market (自強夜市).
Stay at Hotel Bayview in Hualien.
1/5: Get plenty of food to last the day, drive into Taroko Gorge.
Visit the usual places in Taroko Gorge and continue to HeHuanShan.
Go to HeHuan main peak for sunset photos if we make it in time.
Stay at the Songxue Lodge on Mt. Hehuan east peak.
1/6: Hike up HeHuan east peak very early to get sunrise photos.
Drive down to Qingjing for photos & lunch.
Go to HeHuan main peak for sunset photos if we missed the previous day.
Stay at Sunnydale B&B (日光青境 雲頂南) in Qingjing.
1/7: Sunrise photos in Qingjing, then drive south to Puli.
Visit Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Puli and then lunch in the area.
Dinner in Taichung at 風尚臭豆腐, and other 小吃.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/8: Spend some time with family.
Visit temple (大甲鎮瀾宮) and then the coast for sunset (高美濕地).
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/9: Take HSR down to Kaohsiung.
Spend the entire day there and head back to Taichung late.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/10: Out with family to Changhua, Lugang, & west coast oyster farms.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/11: More family time.
Lunch at the awesome DongShih Beef Restaurant (東勢李炒手).
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/12: Leave Taichung and drive up to Jhongli.
Dinner at the night market (中原夜市).
Stay at Chinatrust Hotel in Jhongli.
1/13: Return rental car and fly home in the morning
We knew we wanted to leave around Christmas and come back in early January. My company typically shuts down for a week during the holidays, or at least operates with a fraction of the regular staff. The advantage of planning around this time is that the week between the holidays does not count against my normal vacation time. We had hoped that this would outweigh the disadvantage of being in Taiwan during winter (i.e. bad weather). With that plan in mind, we waited for the important 331-day mark from our return date to begin searching for flights. That’s the earliest date Delta will allow you to book a flight. And why did we decide Delta? Over the years I had built up a huge stash of Skymiles, some from business travel but the majority from using our Delta Amex card for everything we can. We even switched our banking over to Suntrust to take advantage of their Skymiles debit card and the bonus miles for signing up. They also gave us a couple of Skyclub one-day passes which would be very useful for our flight out. Getting back to the schedule, I waited until we were 331 days from January 10th (our best guess for a return date) to start checking for available award tickets on Delta.com. Delta has low, medium, and high award levels and it can be tricky sometimes to find anything in the low level. Sometimes low level award tickets open up right before the travel dates, but we did not have that kind of flexibility of making plans at the last minute. When I began my searching I was disappointed to see only a few medium and mostly high award tickets available, but around the holidays that’s to be expected. The only dates I could find that fit in with my work schedule was a 12/23 departure and a 01/09 return. At a medium award level we were looking at 120,000 Skymiles per ticket plus about $63 in tax. Not a bad deal for a ticket that usually costs well over $1,000.
With our dates set we could now start planning a formal trip schedule. At first we, of course, tried to fit everything and anything into our trip. We went through many revisions, adding things, removing things, moving things around. Sometimes we put the planning aside for a few weeks to take a break. At some point we realized that we just did not have enough time to fit in everything we wanted to do. So I began searching the Delta award calendar for a new return flight. It didn’t take long for some medium level awards to pop up in that second week of January. These award calendar changes may last weeks or they may only last a day or two so I jumped on a new return date of 01/13. Of course we paid a fee for that change but still overall much, much cheaper than buying a full fare ticket. But we could not get the same route on the return flight and ended up with Taiwan -> Narita -> Detroit -> Atlanta with an old 747 for the Narita to Detroit leg.
Now that we had a few more days in our trip we could spread out our schedule a bit and fit in a few more things to see & eat. We continued revising our schedule over the next few months. We came to our senses eventually and cut out several things from our schedule. It became too busy and not really like a vacation at all. With a little over a month to go we finally had something we were happy with and began making all the hotel & rental car reservations. Now the excitement was really building! We had to shuffle a couple of days around in our schedule due to hotel availability around New Year’s Day, but managed to make it work.
This is the final schedule we came up with:
12/23: Leave Atlanta 11AM, connect through Tokyo
12/24: Arrive in Taiwan at 9:40PM, pick up rental car.
Stay at Chinatrust Hotel in Jhongli.
12/25: Drive to Taichung, relax and eat with family.
Maybe get some Taichung night view photos from 台中望高寮夜景.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market (in-laws’ house is full for a few days).
12/26: Big lunch with family and other relatives. (mother-in-law’s 60th birthday).
Shopping for our road trip at Costco & Watsons.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market.
12/27: My wife needs to renew Taiwan ID, driver’s license & visit bank.
MiaoDong street market in FengYuan.
Visit ShengShin train station & old bridge ruins (龍騰斷橋) in SanYi.
Stay at “In One City Inn” near FengJia night market.
12/28: Drive up to Taipei.
Visit Dihua Street and fabric market.
Beef noodles at 林東芳牛肉麵 and 穆記小吃牛肉麵館.
Visit Bellavita Mall and Taipei 101.
Hike up to Elephant Mountain for sunset photos of Taipei.
DinTaiFung & other stuff around Yongkang Street for dinner.
Some night photography at CKS Memorial.
Stay at Hotel 73 in Taipei.
12/29: Get to 金華街燒餅油條 very early for clay oven rolls.
Drive to Houtong to see the cats, the town, and old train tunnels.
Lunch in Ruifang then drive over to Jiufen. Stay in Jiufen until after sunset.
Miaokou night market in Keelung.
Stay at Blue Ocean Hotel in Keelung.
12/30: HePing Island photos at sunrise.
Drive to Shifen Waterfall.
Stop for lunch near Keelung then take Hwy 2 around north coast to Danshui.
Sunset photos at Fisherman’s Wharf (Lover’s Bridge) and some 小吃 in Danshui for dinner.
Stay at Fullon Hot Springs Hotel in Danshui.
12/31: Spend the morning around Beitou and visit library. Hike up 軍艦岩 if we feel like it.
Drive down to Taipei in the afternoon. Park near 彩虹河濱公園.
Visit Raohe night market.
Get photos of Taipei 101 fireworks from the riverside park.
No hotel, drive to Yehliu area and get ready for sunrise photos (maybe catch a nap in the car).
1/1: Sunrise at Yehliu area (probably 龜吼)
Walk around Yehliu park for photos in the morning.
Take Hwy 2 east and stop at Nanya Rock, Bitou Cape, and keep going towards Yilan.
Dinner at Luodong night market.
Stay at Hotel in Luodong (羅東西樺商務客棧).
1/2: 五峰旗瀑布 waterfalls & 林美石磐 trail in the morning.
Lunch & dinner in the Yilan/Jiaoxi area. Also night market (宜蘭東門夜市).
Stay at hot spring B&B in Jiaoxi (奇立丹 品田雙人房).
1/3: Sunrise photos at Beiguan Ocean Park.
Drive to Hualien in the morning.
Relax at 七星潭 in the afternoon.
Dinner at 賀川日本料理, night market (自強夜市).
Stay at Hotel Bayview in Hualien.
1/4: Sunrise photos at 嶺頂日出.
Night market (自強夜市).
Stay at Hotel Bayview in Hualien.
1/5: Get plenty of food to last the day, drive into Taroko Gorge.
Visit the usual places in Taroko Gorge and continue to HeHuanShan.
Go to HeHuan main peak for sunset photos if we make it in time.
Stay at the Songxue Lodge on Mt. Hehuan east peak.
1/6: Hike up HeHuan east peak very early to get sunrise photos.
Drive down to Qingjing for photos & lunch.
Go to HeHuan main peak for sunset photos if we missed the previous day.
Stay at Sunnydale B&B (日光青境 雲頂南) in Qingjing.
1/7: Sunrise photos in Qingjing, then drive south to Puli.
Visit Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Puli and then lunch in the area.
Dinner in Taichung at 風尚臭豆腐, and other 小吃.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/8: Spend some time with family.
Visit temple (大甲鎮瀾宮) and then the coast for sunset (高美濕地).
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/9: Take HSR down to Kaohsiung.
Spend the entire day there and head back to Taichung late.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/10: Out with family to Changhua, Lugang, & west coast oyster farms.
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/11: More family time.
Lunch at the awesome DongShih Beef Restaurant (東勢李炒手).
Stay with wife’s parents.
1/12: Leave Taichung and drive up to Jhongli.
Dinner at the night market (中原夜市).
Stay at Chinatrust Hotel in Jhongli.
1/13: Return rental car and fly home in the morning
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Getting back to blogging
After a long absence I have decided to try to update my blog more often. My wife took up the photography hobby last year and we are getting out of the house much more, which is a good thing! So much I want to share, so I'll try my hardest to keep this thing updated. Also, we recently returned from a 3-week vacation in Taiwan. I have a lot to share about that trip and many, many photos yet to be processed. Stay tuned...
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Fireworks!
I haven't posted in a long, long time so I will try to get some new stuff on here soon. I've temporarily gotten out of the astronomy hobby so I can concentrate more on photography. I can only afford one expensive hobby right now so some equipment was sold to fund new camera equipment purchases. More on that later. In the meantime, I'll share some photo slideshows from two fireworks shows we attended on the 3rd and 4th.
First is the Sugar Hill fireworks held on July 3rd and it was our first time attending this show. This location is just about two miles from our house which makes it easy to get in and get out. This was a pretty good show - we were quite impressed. The shells were mostly spaced far enough apart to allow for some easy photography. The wind was also in a favorable direction.
The next night we drove down to brave the huge crowds at Lenox Square Mall in the Buckhead area. We've been to this show a few times and it never fails to disappoint. A shorter show than Sugar Hill, but probably five times as many shells fired in the air in a fast and furious pace. Great for the die-hard fireworks fans, but challenging for photography. Along with that slight difficulty, the wind wasn't moving the smoke very much and towards the end of the show the wind was blowing the smoke right at us. Overall I was happier with my Sugar Hill photos but still glad I went to Lenox. The only downside to this show was the 2-1/2 hours to get home. A total traffic nightmare getting out of there!
First is the Sugar Hill fireworks held on July 3rd and it was our first time attending this show. This location is just about two miles from our house which makes it easy to get in and get out. This was a pretty good show - we were quite impressed. The shells were mostly spaced far enough apart to allow for some easy photography. The wind was also in a favorable direction.
The next night we drove down to brave the huge crowds at Lenox Square Mall in the Buckhead area. We've been to this show a few times and it never fails to disappoint. A shorter show than Sugar Hill, but probably five times as many shells fired in the air in a fast and furious pace. Great for the die-hard fireworks fans, but challenging for photography. Along with that slight difficulty, the wind wasn't moving the smoke very much and towards the end of the show the wind was blowing the smoke right at us. Overall I was happier with my Sugar Hill photos but still glad I went to Lenox. The only downside to this show was the 2-1/2 hours to get home. A total traffic nightmare getting out of there!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tamrac 5586 Expedition 6x Backpack
With some new gear comes a need to store it all safely away. Previously I wrote about my Lowepro 200AW and how uncomfortable it was for me, as well as being too small for the amount of stuff I've accumulated in the early stage of this obsession, er...I mean hobby. The Lowepro is long gone, having fetched a decent price on Ebay. Since then I've only had the Crumpler Six Million Dollar Home (6MDH) for day trips. That bag has been perfect for its purpose so far and I definitely call it a keeper. For long trips and flights, I needed something to carry everything from home to my destination, while also bringing the 6MDH for walking around once I got there. As usual, I researched the crap out of everything, looking at all the backpacks out there in my desired price range. I read reviews, discussion boards, and read reviews again. Among the brands I looked at were Tamrac, Tenba, Crumpler, and even Lowepro again (a different one of course!). There may have been others but it's all a blur now. I finally decided that the Tamrac model 5586 in the Expedition 6x series had everything to meet my needs right now and allow a bit of extra room for future stuff. I just received the 5586 a little over a week ago and I can't help smiling and feeling impressed every time I look at it. The build quality is outstanding. Let's start on the outside and work our way in:
On the outside are two "wing accessory" pockets for memory cards, batteries, chargers and any other small knick-knacks you want to put in there. I can stuff a lot of compact flash cards in there and they even have a management system with red flaps to let you know which memory cards are empty and which are full. The lower pocket is meant to hold part of a tripod's feet while two straps in the middle hold the tripod secure. There's another strap on the top that wraps around the upper part of the tripod for even more support. My Slik Sprint Pro tripod with Flashpoint F-1 ballhead fits nicely here. You can't see it in the photo above, but there's a padded laptop compartment right behind all those front pockets and it is sized for a 14.1" screen. I don't plan on taking my laptop with me, so I stuff this pocket with my Cokin Z-Pro filter holder, a pouch holding some 4"x5" graduated neutral density filters, a B+W 77mm MRC UV filter, and a B+W 77mm Kaesemann circular polarizing filter.
Moving on to the inside:
The Tamrac 5586 is capable of holding two DSLR bodies with medium-sized lenses mounted and six additional lenses in the main interior compartment. I suppose you could get one DSLR body with a long telephoto zoom along with another body sans lens too. I don't know that I'll carry all these lenses on a long trip, but it's nice to know I can fit them all in. Everything is well padded and well supported. On the inside of the front flap are two large transparent pockets that I use for my remote switches, USB cord, miscellaneous filters, adapters rings, and my Whibal card too.
The shoulder straps seem very sturdy and feel comfortable, even with 21 lbs of camera gear hanging off my back. A sternum strap provides even more adjustment and support to the shoulder straps, and a waist strap rounds out the great support package. I'm probably not in shape to carry this pack a long distance, but that's not Tamrac's fault. I'll get back into the exercise routine right after the holidays, I promise!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Cokin Z-Pro Filter Holder
I researched a few filter holders in my quest to come up with a decent landscape photography kit that wasn’t too ridiculously expensive. It pretty much came down to the Cokin P and Z-Pro holders, as well as the Lee foundation kit. The Lee seemed very nice but the price with a wide-angle adapter was pushing my budget a bit too much. The Cokin P holder was the cheapest option but I really wanted to avoid any potential vignetting with an ultra-wide angle lens like my new Canon EF-S 10-22mm. I ended up purchasing the Cokin Z-Pro as a combo from 2filter.com with some Hitech graduated neutral density (GND) filters. The combo kit comes with the Z-Pro holder, an adapter ring (you order by size to match your lens filter threads) and one Hitech GND filter of choice. I also added two more GND filters to my order so I have a few selections for different conditions. Below you can see the filter holder adapter ring mounted to a lens (77mm filter size):
The filter holder slides over this adapter and is held on the top and bottom by little plastic push pins. These little pins are a major design flaw which I will get into later. Below you can see the holder mounted on the adapter:
And here is a side view showing all three filter slots mounted:
What I like about the Z-Pro is that it is configurable for 1, 2, or 3 filter slots. The construction is plastic, but seems pretty durable and very lightweight. In the default configuration with three filter slots, I noticed part of the third filter slot becoming slightly visible in the frame at 10mm. I removed the third slot and did not see any vignetting at all. Since I will most likely only use one filter until I get more experience, I removed the second filter slot and then ran into a serious design problem with this filter holder. Those two little pins on the lower part of the filter holder stick out and prevent a filter in the first slot from being pushed down. You need to be able to move the filter up and down to adjust for the horizon. Here you can see a filter mounted in the first slot, and only about a quarter of the shaded portion can cover the lens due to the pins:
While the pins are removable, they are necessary to keep the holder in place on the adapter ring. Eliminating them was not an option. After examining the pins I realized that they could be modified to sit flush and still hold in place. Below you can see my modified pin sitting in front of the unmodified pin. I simply cut off the end so I am left with the groove running the entire length of the pin:
This allows the pin to be pushed flush either way, and still has enough friction to stay put. I rapped the filter holder on a table a few times and the pins didn’t budge. Here you can see the filter holder again, but with the lower two pins sitting flush:
And here you can see the GND filter mounted in the first slot.
As you might notice above, I reinstalled the second filter slot since it does not get in the way at wide angles and I might get some solid neutral density filters in the future to use along with the GND’s. For the price I am pretty happy with what I got, even with the design flaw. The Lee filter holder has a much better design and better construction. Maybe one day I will upgrade, but for now, and for someone just starting out in landscape photography, the Cokin Z-Pro should suit my needs just fine. Now I just need to get out and take some photos!
The filter holder slides over this adapter and is held on the top and bottom by little plastic push pins. These little pins are a major design flaw which I will get into later. Below you can see the holder mounted on the adapter:
And here is a side view showing all three filter slots mounted:
What I like about the Z-Pro is that it is configurable for 1, 2, or 3 filter slots. The construction is plastic, but seems pretty durable and very lightweight. In the default configuration with three filter slots, I noticed part of the third filter slot becoming slightly visible in the frame at 10mm. I removed the third slot and did not see any vignetting at all. Since I will most likely only use one filter until I get more experience, I removed the second filter slot and then ran into a serious design problem with this filter holder. Those two little pins on the lower part of the filter holder stick out and prevent a filter in the first slot from being pushed down. You need to be able to move the filter up and down to adjust for the horizon. Here you can see a filter mounted in the first slot, and only about a quarter of the shaded portion can cover the lens due to the pins:
While the pins are removable, they are necessary to keep the holder in place on the adapter ring. Eliminating them was not an option. After examining the pins I realized that they could be modified to sit flush and still hold in place. Below you can see my modified pin sitting in front of the unmodified pin. I simply cut off the end so I am left with the groove running the entire length of the pin:
This allows the pin to be pushed flush either way, and still has enough friction to stay put. I rapped the filter holder on a table a few times and the pins didn’t budge. Here you can see the filter holder again, but with the lower two pins sitting flush:
And here you can see the GND filter mounted in the first slot.
As you might notice above, I reinstalled the second filter slot since it does not get in the way at wide angles and I might get some solid neutral density filters in the future to use along with the GND’s. For the price I am pretty happy with what I got, even with the design flaw. The Lee filter holder has a much better design and better construction. Maybe one day I will upgrade, but for now, and for someone just starting out in landscape photography, the Cokin Z-Pro should suit my needs just fine. Now I just need to get out and take some photos!
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