Blogs from Taipei, Taiwan, Asia
April 16th 2012
At the end of February I had a few days off and wanted to escape the cold drabness of the Tokyo winter and escape to somewhere a bit warmer. Being only 4 hours away, hot and cheap to get to, Taipei beckoned! The primary objective of getting away was for some warmer weather - January was too cold for me, and my house here is pretty thin and flimsy. Checking the week before, the temperature in Taiwan was almost double that of Tokyo, until of course when I was due to arrive, when it started raining constantly. Whilst a pleasant reminder of British weather, it was a bit disappointing that it had to choose the 3 days I was there to start raining all the time! I stayed at the lovely Homey Hostel, which was within ... read more
April 11th 2012
Taiwan: Since it was on the way to Shanghai, I figured I would stop in Taiwan. I was only planning to spend a few days there but ended up staying for a week because I couldn’t get a reasonable flight to Shanghai on the days I wanted to go. I got to Taipei late on Wednesday night and took the bus from the airport to downtown. I’ve mixed up my hotel schedule. Some days I’ll book in advance, others I’ll find something when I arrive. Since I was getting in late I thought it would be prudent to book ahead. I got downtown late with an address and phone number of the “hotel” I had book on hotels.com. It was really more like an apartment. The girl sitting next to me on the bus asked where ... read more
Two Little Piggies went to Taipei.....
Published: March 15th 2012Asia » Taiwan » Taipei » LongShan Temple
March 11th 2012
K- As you may have realized Mark & I are basically just eating our way around the world. We have had some great food experiences in many countries but Taipei, Taiwan has just jumped right to the top of the list. This place lives and breathes food. I managed to eat one of my favorite foods, chinese dumplings, 5 times in 4 days. In fact I seriously over-ate and will always remember Taipei for a slightly uncomfortable feeling and an inability to walk fast. Taipei is a very modern, clean and calm(ish) City and despite the wintery grey weather we explored the center on foot as we addressed some necessary jobs such as buying me some new shoes (flip flops not being really appropriate for the 6C temperatures to come in S Korea!) and also purchasing ... read more
March 8th 2012
In the summer of 2008, the Kembel family was united in Taipei and wreaked havok down the entire wild east coast of the island. From the steep canyon walls of Taroko to the salt water springs of Green Island, we cruised by car and scooter in the thick heat of the summer and stood out amongst the locals. This time things were a little different. It was just Mom and the two boys, and the Chinese New Year weather was damp and cool. As a result, we spent the better part of our time soaking in the various springs in the Taipei region. First off was a day trip to Yeliu, a coastal park of windblown rock formations and hoodoos. Next we ventured on to Bayan, an undevelopped and technically illegal-to-visit spring on the coastal, Jinshan ... read more
February 25th 2012
This will be my last blog in Taiwan. As i sit in this Taipei internet cafe, Jordan searches for places to use his AMEX. Unfortunately, it's the only card he has and is not widely accepted. Oh well, if i have to cover for him so be it. Today is bitter sweet. I want to enjoy the shit out of my last day here but feel a bit heart broken to leave. Before coming out here, i had little interest in Taiwan or Taipei but now i don't want to leave. Maybe it's being away from work and my everyday life. Maybe it's hanging out with my bro for the first time in 6 years or maybe it's falling for another asian city. Either way, I will be back - hopefully sooner than later. Day 6: ... read more
February 23rd 2012
Love this place. I'm pretty hung over from the craizest night of my life but i feel like writing some of my experiences down before i forget. Day 1: Jet lag, downtown Taipei and getting on famous off the shoulders of Jeremy Lin at the Brass Monkey. Day 2: Shopping at the local Costco for a bed and groceries. We are staying at Joey's apartment abover the Nanshijiao MRT. It feels like my own place. We check out Taipei 101. I walk around taking photos. Joey gets smashed and embarasses himself. I get bit 32 times by a mosquito in my sleep. Jordan doesn't get bit once and is sleeping in the same room. Fuck that shit. Day 3: Jordan and i walk around our new neighborhood and go for a "hike" by this temple. Not ... read more
December 28th 2011
Wed 28th: Travel day. Flew from Incheon to Taipei. Flight was fine. It was really nice to have some company and natter the flight away, I'm sure this helped me to not be as scared as I normally am when flying. The different in temperature was lovely, coming from freezing Korea to it being in the mid teens and humid. I never thought I would be happy to have the humid weather back. Taipei airport was proper third world and I was wondering what we had let oureself in for. This feeling was compounded when we took the airport bus to the city, proper ghetto. When we arrived in Taipei proper we couldn't find our hostel and a lovely young man with perfect English ditched his girlfriend to help us. Bless him, he was googling the ... read more
December 3rd 2011
GOBBLE GOBBLE ‘MURIKA! Late happy Thanksgiving(Gan’En Jie) everyone! Last time I celebrated a national holiday overseas (4th of July) I went all out by studying Chinese non-stop. We’ll have to see if I get Thanksgiving right or not. Reviewing last week, I battled sleep depression, educated the world on the best president in US history (Teddy Roosevelt – LuoSiFu), and started learning Korean! Alright, lets see how I followed it up. Nov 23rd: Yup, next to no sleep, which meant me being basically useless in Chinese, and lucky to be sitting upright in Chinese Philosophy, a class I’m not really getting anything out of anymore. I then went to the hospital and got my medical forms for my visa – and to no ones surprise, I didn’t have HIV (which I mention because me not having ... read more
December 2nd 2011
I got back from Taiwan a week ago and have finally got a free hour to smash out a blog a week later. We left on Thursday evening, Thanksgiving. Three spaniards, two Americans, two Austrians, a German, an Italian and a Brit. REPRESENT. Ten people was a huge turn off for me and i wasn't happy with it initially as i was very worried about fitting everything in but i'll come to that later. From the word go we had the hurdle of feeding the blood-born American a Thanksgiving meal. He got a turkey sub. We arrived in Taipei at 22.00, stopped by the Hostel (VJ's Hostel- which coincidentally had some of the friendliest and most helpful staff i've come across) and headed straight out to sample the nightlife of Taipei. It was late and we ... read more
November 22nd 2011
Hello everybody, so last time I posted on my weekly blogs, I educated my friend on higher comedy, I went to war with mosquitos, and my sleep schedule got all out of whack (spoiler alert, that didn’t change this week!). So while I’m high riding the sleepless-color dream coat, lets see what I remember. Nov 14th: Well I spent most of the night being awake studying for a Chinese midterm, and was pretty dog gone tired when taking it, but I think I did well. I finished faster than most (which is only good when I’m taking Chinese tests – oh look, I was taking a Chinese test!) and the oral was a freakin’ joke. We were given a small passage (maybe 10 lines?) and were told to read and summarize, and could refer to the ... read more
