Taipei, Taiwan!

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So, I finally have some time to write about my awesome vacation to Taiwan! The last month has been crazy busy at work and I haven't had that much time to actually sit and get stuff done. Here we go!

Sunday

So on Sunday, July 27 my friend and I started out adventure by missing our train to Narita. I was running down the platform and watched as our train left the station. It was an express and would have taken only a hour but we were lucky and a local came only 10 minutes later. After the long almost 2 hour ride we made it and with no problems we were right on time to catch our plane. Our plane was a Hello Kitty plane! Hello Kitty was on the plane, in the bathrooms, and in the food! The rest of our trip was spend talking about Hello Kitty in a Mr. T voice.

We landed in Taipei at about 11pm in the rain. We got a taxi to our hotel and crashed for the night.

Monday

We were up for breakfast the next morning and looking outside wasn't looking very favorable for a good first day. It was raining and there wasn't anybody out. We were pleasantly surprised that we had arrived right before a typhoon! A glorious way to start out vacation in Taiwan! We ended up just walking around Old Town Center; which was where our hotel was located. It is packed with modern chain restaurants and little hole in the wall stalls. it was great fun to walk around and try some of the different things. Our first meal was this great set of steamed buns, noodles, and gyoza. We also found a small temple and just enjoyed walking around and finding a street of bookstores and a small market street. Most of the stalls were closed because of he typhoon so there weren't many people walking around with us.

We ended up back at the hotel so I could call my friend Bryan and napping. Bryan took us out to dinner and then lead us around a little. We ended up at Chain Kai-shek Memorial. It's absolutely beautiful at night because it's lit up and nobody else is there except for couples out on a date and us. During the day it's really crowded with tours groups and other tourists. It was great to just enjoy the big space at night. After the memorial we ended up at this great shaved ice place called Ice Monster. It was packed with people, but we were able to get a table behind the workers and enjoyed a huge plate of fruit toped shaved ice. It was a great part of a hot summer night. Bryan took us to a small night market after that. It was really fun to see all the different foods and shops, though this market is clearly for locals and not tourists. There wasn't much in the way of tourists things to see. Unless you were shopping for new clothes then there wasn't much to get.

Tuesday

Tuesday was spent doing trip plans and hanging at the Tourist Information desk in Taipei station. After a brief and rather unpleasant interaction with another traveler we were able to get some plans and reservations for Keelung and Danshui. We had wanted to go south and see some serious nature but because of the typhoon we couldn't. Landslides and closing were keeping most people out of the area; which was really disappointing.

After our plans were made we headed out to Taipei 101 and it was amazing! The tallest building in the world is built to look like a stalk of bamboo and it's perfect! You can go shopping in the lower floors and then ride up the elevator to the observation deck and look around. You can see all of Taipei up there and enjoy the "damper babies" that are hanging around ceilings. You can even mail a postcard from up there. The views are amazing and it's great fun to walk around and see the surrounding hills and mountains.

We caught up with Bryan that night after dinner and he took us to Ximending. It is the modern teenager area and it has some great restaurants like Modern Toilet. This restaurant was hilarious! There were toilets everywhere! All the chairs were toilets and your food and drinks came in toilets or urinals. I have my urinal proudly displayed in my apartment now. It crazy funny and kicked off the evening really well. We also headed out to another much bigger night market. I can't remember the name of it now but it was blocks and blocks of stores, food stalls, and arcades. I tried a bunch of little foods and enjoyed walking around. Bryan says it's usually packed and hard to walk around, but we were there at a good time. It was really enjoyable and easy to walk around and see what was where.

Since Bryan had to get back before the last train, we headed back and got all our stuff packed for out next stop: Keelung!

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Comments

[LebdaWhen]

Typhoon Party
Hey Kate the Great - So which was more fun Hurrican Fran or this Typhoon? And, how did you find a toilet restaurant??? How many shrimp did you catch for lunch? Can't wait for the next page..... Love ya, LebdaWhen