It’s all about Taipei!

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Hi everyone.
A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to accompany Michael to Taipei. While he travelled around Taiwan looking at hospitals and aged care facilities we got to tour around and discover Taipei. And we loved it!
The city was warm and friendly, just like the locals. We left Beijing in a cool 2 degrees Celsius and arrived 5 hours later in Taipei where it was 25c. What a wonderful escape that was.
Our Hotel was centrally located so on our first day we walked around to look at the city and sample the shops. Over the course of our 5 days there we visited City Hall, the National Museum where they have the largest collection of antiquities in all of China – just make sure you grab the audio guide headphones, the Sports Arena (where we ice skated on the olympic sized rink with the Taiwan National ice skating team), did several markets, including the famous Shilin Night Markets, which were such an amazing assault on the senses – pungent smells, strange sights, crowds of people, dancing, singing, exotic foods and wares, all squeezed together within a massive maze of narrow alley ways and streets clogged with vendors stalls, trade carts and open tables. Here we could purchase anything from scorpions, snakes and lamb testicles, to chicken heads on a stick. Haven’t they heard about Fairy Floss and Toffee Apples! It certainly made Michael uncomfortable for a while, at one point I am sure I heard him sing ‘Mary Had Little Lamb’ with tears in his eye. Yes, the markets are a chaotic feast for the senses!
So we had fun. The taxi drivers were great, friendly and helpful – Mr Gi was our favourite so we got his card and booked him for our important trips and our final long run to the airport on the last day.
One of our other highlights was the 101 Tower. The building ranked officially as the world’s tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. It consists of 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. The name of the tower reflects its floor count. It boasts the world’s fastest elevator … so hold on to your stomach when the doors close. The views were spectacular as was the massive wind damper suspended in the middle of the 91st floor. It is designed to sway and stabilize the building to prevent it from tipping over in the event of earthquakes, high winds and typhoons (yes, I did do a weather check before went!). At the top was an amazing array of beautiful Taiwanese coral, offering some of the largest pieces available for purchase in the world.
We stayed at two different Hotels during our stay, the Taipei Dynasty and The Howard. The Howard was definitely our favourite and we would recommend it highly, as they couldn’t do enough for us and were so thoughtful. As I have mentioned before in earlier blogs, the children attract attention wherever we go and Taipei was no different. This time it was for Christmas photos - the hotel was decorated beautifully with a huge tree and reindeer, and lots of people wanted the girls to pose in photos with them during our 2 days there.
Anyway, that is enough for now.
Xiangnian ni de suoyou (missing you all)
Nat x

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