Blogs from Ximending, Taipei, Taiwan, Asia - page 2

Ximending Ximending (isn't that a nice word to say, go on say it again)is one of the last areas of the city we have left to explore. It's traditionally been the place to go to watch a film as it has so many cinemas. From what I've read it was hit pretty hard by the opening of the more modern cinemas and shopping malls in the east of the city so the government pedestrianised the main shopping area which has completely revitalised it. It now has over twenty cinemas and is the shopping hub of Western Taipei. It's predominately a young area with gaggles of teenagers perusing fashionable clothing shops and mandopop bands performing live in the street. There are also a million and one different places to eat whether you want traditional Chinese, Japanese or ... read more

Today is our last full day in Taiwan. We stayed 2 nights in Hsinchu, a large town SW of Taipei, where Wendy's aunt's husband is from. Mostly, we've just been laying around in the dense humidity and eating really well. In Hsinchu, I had an amazing traditional Chinese dinner at the inlaw's home. It was a group effort by the grandmother, her daughter-in-law, and the Vietnamese maid. There were about 15 different meat, fish, and tofu dishes, steamed buns, soup, wine, and fruit for dessert. I struggled a little with the chopsticks but I certainly didn't go hungry :) Wendy noticed that there was no rice and asked about it, and it turned out that that family never eats rice. Very abnormal. They are obviously well-to-do. One of the adult brothers is second in command at ... read more

The first six months in Taipei seem to have traveled so fast. The troubles and trials of adapting to life seem so long ago now that it was hard to see why they happened at all. For me it was not an easy transistion into Taiwan life. We arrived in late September and the humidity was rife. Taipei is not on first glance a beutiful city and the hazey skyline offered little respite from the heat that seemed to press down so heavily on my smile. Layers of sweat, smoke and mosquitoes hung in the air like a bad tempered rainbow in our hostel and even the roaches seemed to worn out by the heat to do anything but sit and wait. Only the typhoons were strong enough to life the blanket of heat and came ... read more