Advertisement
5/11/07 (continued)
Upon arriving in Taipei and no one asking about our onward travel, we headed to Jay's friends apartment. Keep in mind we don't speak a lick of Chinese and Taiwan is not one of those places where many people speak English. So, with a picture of Jon's address in hand, we ask a cab to take us. After trying 2 cabs, we finally make our way there. Jay went to college with Jon who has been over here teaching English for a few years. Mitch (who was also in Jay and Jon's fraternity in college and now lives in Taipei) was unfortunately back in the States, so we missed him.
That night, we had our first dose of Asian streetmeat and headed to the Shilin night market. We were overwhelmed by the vast variety of fruits, Chinese snacks and shopping.
5/12/07
Met up with some of Jon's friends and went to Bitan where we rented paddleboats and cruised around for a while. We were also entertained by a man jumping off ridiculously high cliffs into the water below.
From there we headed to Ximen (pronounced, She-men), which Jon has coined the "Third World Times Square."
Since Jon went off to get a haircut, we had to resort to a combination of pointing, sign language, and "Chinglish" to order dinner. These 3 methods of communication would be very common over the next week....
A little more background - Jon still parties like it's 1999. So, at around 1 am, we headed out to a club, Ministry of Sound. It was clear we would have to put our days of waking up at 8 and going to sleep by 11 on hold for this leg of the trip.
5/13/07
We were awoken at noon by Jon's return from the night before with a traditional Chinese breakfast in hand.
That afternoon, one of Jon's friends, Vanessa, was nice enough to ask us to join her at the Sunday jade and flower markets.
For dinner, Jay, Steph, Jon and Mike (another guy from Jay's fraternity who also initially came here to teach English) went to a delicious dumpling place. (Sorry Becca, we had to have some soup dumplings without you).
5/14/07
Got back on the tourist bandwagon and applied for our Vietnam visas, went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, the Botanical Gardens and Longshan
Temple. We then took a train ride outside the city to Jiufen. It's a small town perched in the mountainside with one main, narrow alleyway lined with small shops, places to snack and teahouses overlooking the valley. After perusing the shops, we stopped at a teahouse for traditional Chinese tea and dumplings.
5/15/07
Met Mike in the business district for lunch. From here we got to see Taipei 101 - it's currently the tallest building in the world.
The rainy weather busted our plan to borrow Mike's scooter and go for an afternoon ride. So instead, we improvised and took the train to Xinbitou, which is a town known for its hotsprings. The 5 of us (Jay, Steph, Jon, Honi and Mike (2 of Jon's friends)) got a private outdoor hotspring at Asia Pacific Resort. It was a great way to spend an afternoon! After a little pampering, we went to the Shilhin night market and had a Japanese style tepinyaki dinner (similar to hibachi).
5/16/07
This morning, Steph gave Jay a haircut - his shortest yet, figuring it may be tough to get one over the next few weeks. We then stopped by Jon's school to
see him in action and also give Steph her fill of playing with the kids. The kids (kindergartners) were all really cute and excited to see us (being white and all). One cultural difference we noticed - it's acceptable to have physical contact with the kids as evidenced by them hugging Jon and jumping all over us and one of them smacking Steph's tushy. When we left, they sent Jay off by shouting, "Goodbye Teacher Peetof" - so cute. In the afternoon, we went to a town outside of Taipei, Danshui. It's on the water with a promenade for walking and supposedly shopping/snacking...only problem was that it was absolutely deserted. We think it was because we were there during the day in the middle of the week. We hung around and relaxed for the rest of the night.
5/17/07
Jon took the afternoon off, so the 3 of us went to Ximen for lunch and bummed around his apartment in anticipation for an evening of KTV (private room karaoke). It's extremely popular here - there are huge buildings (the one we went to had 12 floors) completely dedicated to this activity. Before going out for the night, Jon prepared
a Thai whiskey bucket for us to share - yum! We spent the better part of 5 hours ordering beers and dumplings that are delivered to your room, belting out some fun tunes and acting silly with a bunch of Jon's friends (including Mike, Tyler, Vanessa and some Taiwanese peeps too). It was one of the most fun nights we've had!!
FUN FACTS
- Taiwan is an island about 165 km off the coast of mainland China.
- Taiwan was ruled by the Japanese from 1894-1945; thus, has many Japanese influences.
- When Japan was defeated in WWII, Taiwan reverted back to China's control under the leadership of Chaing Kai-Shek's KMT party.
- Taiwan currently has a troubled relationship with China.
- Population is about 25 million.
- The concept of "saving face" highly regarded by the Taiwanese people.
- Hello = Ni hao (pronounced nee-how)
- Thank you = Xiexie (pronounced shea-shea)
RANDOM THOUGHTS BY JAY AND STEPH:
- Taiwan loves 7-Eleven - there's one on every street corner.
- New Yorkers have a reputation for pushing - Taiwanese give this a whole new meaning.
- Nice to finally find "cheap eats"
- Nice not to
debate what to order, what mode of transportation to take or whether or not to go to a museum because it's all so cheap.
- You can drink beer/liquor anywhere - in the street or even as a passenger in a cab.
- It's a very hazy, smoggy place - we saw the sun once during our visit.
- You can't fly directly to China from Taiwan or change Taiwanese money to Chinese yuan in Taiwan.
- People drive scooters all over town - you often see a family of 3 squished onto one scooter.
- Random people say "hi" as you walk down the street or stare at you or take pictures of you because you're white.
- Funny, interesting and challenging all at the same time trying to communicate.
- People have been very nice trying to help us get around - cabbies, people on the street and in train stations have approached us and tried to help us figure out where to go despite the language barrier.
Next stop...China
Advertisement
Tot: 0.125s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0762s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
becca
non-member comment
nooo....(shake fist in air)
Did you at least drop one on the floor in my honor? Hope they were delicious and be sure to eat them many more times beofre you leave. ...mmm...soup dumplings....