So continuing Taipei LOL

Aight, so after we left the memorial our next stops were some temples. We went to the Bao-an Temple (Taoist), Confuscious Temple, Longshan Temple, and some random ones that we just wandered upon lol. The temples were so amazing. I dont really know how to explain the feeling you get walking into such a religious place. It was really cool because I felt like I was a part of what the people there were doing .I mean, we would walk into the temples and people would be praying and giving offerings and stuff, and we just walked around silently and took photos and just soaked it all in. It was really really cool, and the people didnt even seem phased by our presence.

So, we did the temples for a while, then on we went to the Miniature Museum which was SWEET!! We got lost on our way to the museum so we stopped to check our handy dandy map, and we had figured it out when this guy comes up to us and was like "Are you lost, here let me help" and we were like, "no, we know where we're going." but i guess he didnt really understand that we had figured it out so he started tryign to help and actually pointed us in the wrong direction at first, then was like "oh wait, u go this way," lol which we already knew so we thanked him and continued on our way. They had minature everything at the museum (I was kindof surprsied tho cus some of the things didnt look that mini) From minauture rooms in houses that look painstakingly hard, to the seven dwarfs (which they actually had a lot of). I remember this one miniature that was of Buckingham Palace and it had dozens of soldiesrs lined up in front of it (pic is on FB lol) and it looked so detailed and really cool.

After the museum we decided it was time to get our eat on so off we went to find lunch. We stopped at this random security desk in some random building to try to ask where we could find authentic Taiwanese food, and it was a really funny convo cus we were trying to work it out in Mandarin and he was mixing Mandarin and English so it was pretty funny. Eventually we had to give up and away we went. We wandered around for awhile and finally settled on this random stree restaurant that looked like it would be an experience, so we went in. They spoke no english so again i got to practice some of my Mandarin skills and we all ordered our food. I got some sort of meat on top of rice with vegetables on the side. It wasnt so great and it kindof upset my stomach so then i got some soda and it was all good :)

So, after lunch we hit some more temples and it was starting to get late so we figured our last destination for the night would be The Palace Museum which was freakin amazingly huge and looked madd cool on the outside at night. We got to go in for free because they had free entry after i think it was 8 or 9pm. When we went in we got to see this random orchestra performing in the main entrance way so that was a really cool pleasant surprise. Then...we went into le museum...and what a museum it was. It had all sorts of really cool artifacts and paitings, calligraphy, vases, Pottery, and it was all pretty sweet to be able to chekc out. I gotta admit tho, at that point we were pretty wiped, we'd been walking aroudn for like 12hrs so it was kindof the perfect way to end the night. We walked aroudn and looked at all the things in the museum till it closed and they were kicking people out lol so we left.

Early in the day we had tried to take public transportation Bus style lol which ended pretty funny. I was trying to find out where the bus was going so was standing on the bus and i guess the bus driver got tired of trygin to tell me where he was going cus he started to drive off...only downside was my 2 travel companions weren't on the bus!! So, i jumped off the bus and it left without us. However, when we decided to go the Palace Museum we managed to work out the bus, and we were also able to take it once we left so yay :)

We got back to our Hostel aroudn 1am and decided to hit up the convenience store. We saw all these crazy types of Alcohol so we figured.."When in Rome'Lol. So me an Laura both bought a grape vodka which was really very tasty and yummy, and didnt get us drunk so yay again. then it was off to bed for our last night in le hostel.

We woke up the next morning in time for breakfast again, and packed up all of our stuff and got ready to hit the last Temple we wanted to see b4 we said farwell to Taipei. So, off we went to the temple. It worked out great though, because we didnt stay for very long and ended up with a lot of free time f4 our afternoon flight. At that point we decided "Hey lets go to the History Museum and the Botanical Gardens. Having no idea where either of those were we pulled out our trusty map yet again and off we set. We got SOOOO LOST!! it was hilarious. We went in circles and couldn't find out how to get to the Botanical gardens. Did i mention it was freakin hott as heck that day, which was just hialrious...not....cus we had checked the weahter b4 we left HK and it said it would be rainy and cold and it def wasnt and with our backpacks in tow it got really hott really fast. We were still lost and were standing on this random street corner when this guy drove up on a motorcycle and stopped at the red light. We heard him say to his girlfriend that we looked lost and in my head i was thinking how great it would be to be able to ask him for help, but he was driving so how could we. Thats when the guy pulled his motorcycle off the street and drove over to the curb, and asked if we needed help. We said yes and he pointed us in the direction of the Gardens which happend to be really close to where we were lol. We finally got to the Gardens and realized how close the museum was to it, which we figured was prefect cus after we left the Garden we wouldnt have long to go b4 we could get some good old AC.

We got to the Garden and it was beautiful so we walked around in it for awhile and enjoyed the plants and vegetaion, then we got really hot and decided it was time to head to the HISTORY MUSEUM ( which might i add i couldnt wait to see). and yet, somehow we went out of the wrong exit of the garden and got turned aroudn agan, but we ran into a police officer and explained (in Mandarn) that we were trying to get to the history museun and he instructed us to go back in the way we had come out and then go out the way we had initally gone in. too funny

we got to the museum with about 1 and 1/2 hrs to kill b4 we needed to head to the train that would take us to the bus that would take us to the airport. We got to the musuem, which was having a Van Gogh exhibit that we didnt pay for because we didnt have the time, and in we went. The museum wasnt very large, so we got to see it all before we had to leave. it was pretty much what you'd expect to find in a history museum and I enjoyed jsut walking aroudn and tkaing in everything.

After that alas our adventure had come to an end and it was time to depart form Taiwan :( but I can totally say it was 100& worth it and i had an absolute blast while i was there :)

Alright, so i'm finally sitting down to write in le blog. I know is been awhile so here goes....

So, my first major trip over here was going to Taipei, Taiwan and it was phenomenal. I went with two friends Nicholas and Laura. We left bright and earlish lol on Jan. 29th 2010 and returned on 31Jan 2010 so it was a trip we took on a 3 day weekend. We flew EvaAir and totally ate popeyes at the airport b4 we left which was really cool cus the restaurant had a tv that was playing popeye cartoons. Too COOL :D Ok, so fast-forward to arriving in Taipei. We got there and had to figure out how to get from the Airport to the Hostel we were staying at, which was the Travels Hostel (thank you hostels.com). So we took a bus to a train then a train to the station, which was at the perfect location b/c it was right outside of the MRT Station, which is what they call the Metro System in Taiwan. Our check-in lady was really nice and i got the chance to practice some of my Mandarin with her, b/c one of the languages spoken in Taipei is Mandarin (Yay for getting some practice) We ended up getting an upgrade for our room b/c there were only 3 of us but all of the small rooms were full so we stayed in a room that had 5 beds too sweet. the room we stayed in was madd clean, even the bathroom, which was probably b/c we got a room with a private bathroom. So we set our stuff down and left to begin our adventure....

Our first stop was the Taipei 101 building. We managed to find our way to it by simply walking around for a few minutes, and since its the 2nd tallest building in the world it wasnt too hard to spot over the Taipei Skyline. (it may be the 1st tallest building in the world, but i think the one in Dubai beats it, but is temporarily clsoed to the public) we took some crazy pics on the way to the building. At some moments we even just layed down on the ground and took pics b/c we wanted to get crazy angles, which is a big deal for me cus its not a habit of mine to just lay down on random sidewalks and starts takign pics lol. Anywho...so we were heading over to the building and of course we run into, what else, A McDonals and a starbucks. Oh Americanization. So we get to the building and we head inside. Now, inside this builiding is the worlds fastest elevator, so we bought tickets to ride it and got in line. We got in the elevator and started our ride. I can never seem to remember how long it took to get to the top, but i think one of the pics on FB has it. It was madd fast though, our ears even popped on the way up. So we got off a few floors from the top, and went to take a look around. It was nighttime and the view was mesmerizing, and of course we were really high up. then we walked up a few flights of stairs and went to the very top. You could totally see for miles around and it was completely worth seeing. So we hvoered up there for awhile and then continued on le journey.

At that point we were hungry so decided to go grab dinner .Surprisingly, its really hard to find traditional Tawianese Cuisine in Taiwan, random lol, so we went for some food at this random restaurant situated on the street. The food was awesome, but we were all still hungry after so we decided to go to this street vendor who was right near us. She was this really nice old lady who was selling sausage, so we got some sausage and took a pic with the lady.

Next stop was the Shilin Night Market. Its one of the most famous markets in Taipei and was recommended by a ton of people, so of course we went :D It was soo cool. Its like carnival games meets tons of food, meets inexpensive shopping, meets brights lights...all compiled on street after street after street. When we first got there we came upon this vendor who was selling Egg Cakes which were basically pancakes shaped like animals....and they tasted GREAT!!! The guy selling them to us was really nice and once again i got to practice my Mandarin. So, we walked into the market and started roaming around. We saw so many different types of food like Frog Eggs and Grilled Squid, which was literally a squid that had been split open and its tentacles were just hanging over the edge of the food stand. It was...interesting. then we walked past this guy who had so much energy and we wanted to take a pic with him. I think he was selling meat too, but i cant remember (the pic is on FB tho) He had the biggest smile when we took his pic. We kept wandering further into the market and passed all sorts of racing, shooting, sports, fishing, and every other type of carnival game u can imagine. I decided i wantedto play the game were u have stacked milk bottles and u have to knock them down with a baseball. Little did i know the baseball was as light as a feather and the bottles were like rocks...Fail T. totally got ripped off at that game, but i guess its just all part of the experience. So,we wandered around some more and bought some more food and then decided to head home b/c we needed to catch the last train and it was pretty late and we had an early start the next day.

The next day we got up around 7:30am b/c the hostel offered free breakfast, coffeee, tea, and some other ameninties. Anyways, so we got up and got ready and headed down to breakfast. They had toast, fruit, jams, and Prawn Crackers and tea. We ate a good amount of bread lol then we headed out.

Our 1st stop of the day was the Chang-Kei-Shek Memorial so we got on the train and headed there. The train system was very efficient and pretty easy. In a nut shell every group of 4-5 stops cost the same price and instead of a paper ticket u get this plastic coin that u use. So we got to the Chang-Kei-Shek Memorial (and what we would later find out was also the site of the National Democracy Memorial) and took a look around. The monuments were both beautiful. We totally counted the number of steps leading up to the Chang-Kei-Shek memorial, then totally forgot the number...fail us..but it was def a lot. However, the highlight of that stage of our trip wasnt either one of the monuments. For me, it was the Vegan Fashion Expo that was takign place that day. it wasnt something that we planned on seeing or even knew was there so that just added to its awesomeness. The expo was super cool.