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.
