Musings Over Tea
a quick dispatch from Taipei (2025)
I am writing this letter while sitting in a plane going to Manila, having recently finished a quick trip with my sister to Taipei.
This is the third time I visited this city, each time with different people. Curious enough, in all those three times, my itinerary almost always flows the same way. I think there is a particular charm about visiting a certain place multiple times. As an easily overwhelmed person, my first visits are always a sensory overload that it’s particularly hard to savor experiences and actually enjoy them. The subsequent time(s), I am able to relax bit by bit and actually immerse myself in all the little things (my favorite things) that makes a place special. My third time here in Taipei is such a case, acting as a (semi) tour guide to my little sister who is travelling abroad for the first time. It was like I am seeing this charming city with fresh eyes.
On our third day, I booked a ticket package that includes a gondola ride, entrance to the Taipei Zoo, and a tea experience in one of the tea houses on top of the Maokong mountains. It was still drizzling when we reached the Taipei Zoo station. We did a quick stroll and exploring in the zoo: sights of pandas, capybaras, formosan black bear, and malaysian tapirs. It was actually my first time visiting it and we were overwhelmed by how big it was. Then we went to one of my favorite part of each of my Taipei trip: going to the mountains of Maokong (and back) via the gondola and everything in between.
We ate at the Red Wood House and got this gorgeous Stir-fried Chicken in Tea Oil with crispy ginseng. There weren’t a lot of people at that time so we ended up eating by the window.
Scrolling through my past Taipei photos (thank you social media and cloud!), I realized that it was the same tea house my friends and I had a tea ceremony in back in 2017! My sister and I proceeded to enjoy the tea with a view and I took out my trusty olive passport travelers notebook1 to record my thoughts:
📍 Red Wood House, Maokong | 02.23.2025
Having tea with this spectacular, serene view is such a full circle moment. 2017 was the year when I was first here, in my very first travel abroad. And now, fast forward to a little more than 7 years this 2025, I am back - sipping tea again in a particularly cold rainy afternoon, at the same place - a changed person. I’ve been to a lot more places since then. I’ve also been through a lot. But at the end of the day, I am still the same girl who is obsessed with romanticising and constantly documenting her life.
Forcing myself to be mindful and just be present is worth it. There is beauty in wanting to preserve moments like this: Sitting with a view at 13° C (a nice change from the humid 20-30s° C of the PH). Drinking some high mountain tea, and it seems I am finishing the whole pot (or two) by myself lol. Feasting in this green (mung) bean cake, which is a traditional cake eaten with tea here. Overlooking the mountainside here at Maokong. Being surrounded by greens, with fog wafting up the slopes, soft rain falling. The sound of chatters all around, from aunties catching up over cups of tea. There is peace in moments like this: life is good, despite everything. And my tea is almost cold now. ~R.
My obsessive need to document my experiences always lead to epiphanies like this. That’s why I still take photos, and journal, and collect ephemera in my everyday life because they serve as my personal time capsule that let me reflect on how far I’ve come.
In 2017, after that first trip2, I wrote this
[…] I never knew I needed a legit vacation until I got one. Maybe the first time in a very long while that I was just enjoying myself without any distraction. The thrill of being in an unfamiliar place. The hum of adventure. It smelled like promise. Good times. Maybe 2018 will be better.
I clearly remember that time: I was on the verge of a low episode, burnt out from work, no identity outside of it. Now, things have completely changed. Things, indeed, got better. And it took actively looking back to actually realize it. 😌
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I got this as my souvenir from Amsterdam last August. Ever since then, I try to write something in it on location whenever I am travelling in a different place.
I can’t even begin to explain how transformative that short trip has been to my 25-year-old self. It opened up the world for me - and made me more curious about things. Reading or looking through screens is one thing but actually seeing them live is another. I wish I started travelling way earlier.
reading this made me tear up a little bit;; sometimes we do need a little trip away to be reminded of calmness haha
I do miss Taipei. And the night markets. And the fact that it's a Chinese Japan.