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Published: December 3rd 2011
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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 just went to the nearest large club recommended by Wendy, the Hostel worker: Baby18. At the door they asked us where we were staying, down the room number of the Hostel. I've become quite accustomed to the Asian invasion of privacy but a club wanting to know exactly where you'd be laying your head that night, in my eyes, was ridiculous. To
top this, we were stone cold sober and entrance was 10GBP and I haven't paid that much since being back in London. Sufficed to say i wasn't in a great mood as we entered. After the language barrier between us and the short tempered barman was ignominiously overcome, it dawned on us this was like no other club we had ever been to before: it was a club...with an open bar. I set up camp at the bar. As it closed i got chatting to a local outside the club who taught me a bit about the post-party cuisine. He taught me how you buy not only a hot dog (with no bun) but also a clove of garlic: a bite of garlic, a bite of sausage, and repeat.
The following day we woke at 10.00, left the hostel at 11.00 (N.B i found myself with Spanairds again). We turned right out the hostel straight into a market and at the other end we found ourselves in the shadow of the World's second tallest building,
Taipei 101. We hadn't decided what we were seeing that day but this made the decision easier as no map reading or
taxi was necessary. the building stands at around 500m tall, holds a pendulum weighing 132 elephants and claims the Guiness World Record for the fastest elevator. To be honest, the views weren't amazing, but it wasn't expensive and at the top we were introduced to Beer floats: a beer with a large scoop of icecream floating in it which was...a little odd.
We had lunch in a small hot-hot place, which is always fun. It's a shame hot pots haven't made it to the UK. They're a good social activity, fully customisable and can be very flavoursome. By the time lunch was over it was 17.00. It takes SO long to get anything done in a group of ten. Eduardo wants a espresso: everyone stops, Peter needs the toilet: everyone stops. I hadn't had any time to research Taipei before coming out and as i had slowly adopted the role of cub scout leader (it's a long time since i tightened my woggle but if my memory serves me correctly the technical name is Bagiera) i was receiving requests from group members on what they wanted to see. There really wasn't that much for tourists. After a rough schedule
was drawn up in my head, i realised we had enough time to see all the major points even with hangover-recovery time each morning. This was nothing like my normal travelling plans but was a welcome change; there was no rush, and time to fully enjoy the great company i found myself in. That being said, if i hadn't stimulated a little movement now and again i think they would all still be admiring the Taipei 101 views now.
I guided my toddlers on to a nearby
Memorial Hall, which one i couldn't say and to be honest, it wasn't all to memorable. There were some regemental guards who entertained us with their super shiny helmets for a while, and a water fountain display but we soon moved onto
Long Shan Temple, my favourite part of the trip. It was a fully functioning temple on a busy road but past the monks at the entrance and through the first walls it became so serene and peaceful yet still so busy. People were praying, giving food donations, dropping some symbolic wood carvings and watching how they fell (still not sure what it meant or how they read it), lighting candles
and all sorts. We walked round in pure silence trying to absorb it all. After a few mintues it was clear food was brought as a donation to deities, but then was also accepted, with thanks, by other parties; like a large, free and religious bring&buy sale. All of a sudden the whole crowd started to sing together. We had been there twenty minutes and without us noticing hymn (is that the right term?) books had been distributed and a cohort of gowned women had congregated in the main section of the temple. They were leading the chants by microphone and everyone around us was stood still facing the choir. We edged back and watched from afar, feeling rather out of place. It was a very serreal place with a huge sense of community i feel is missing in the UK and a sense of ore for those newcomers. The whole thing was still going on as we left half an hour later.
We headed back to the Hostel to take a break and get ready to hit Tapei's biggest and most famous nightclub:
Luxy. The club was large, with multiple rooms but much like most clubs you would find in a major city: no further description needed.
The second and final day dawned. We headed straight for the
Bei Tou hot springs were we had a wonder round but as most hadn't bought swimming attire we couldn't enter the pools. This wasn't an issue as there are places you could paddle in the nearby river which was a tepid temperature. From here we visited the
National Palace Musuem. It was an impressive building full of cultural artifacts and paintings that kept us happily occupied for an hour or two. As we made our way back the metro by cab, the taxi driver made the awkward error or asking us where we were from. This question had be foolishly stubbled apon by others but this guy, instead of recoiling with a mixed expression of shock and bewilderment, went on to give us a one word response to all the nationalities presented to him: Swiss - music, Italian - Lamborghini, English - gentleman (in my facetious mind i was hoping for teen pregnancy) and finally Spanish - Ricky Martin (Puerta Rican technically but that's fine).
From there we hopped back on the MRT to
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial which was a brobdingnagian (GREAT word) and very humbling open square encompassed by three large structures and an arch: definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Taipei. For dinner we went through a
night market and ended up in a place where you encircled a chef; hot plate between you and him; food is fried in front of you; then flipped onto a piece of tin foil for devouration (not a great word, i just made it up). We had a delicious steak: not all too Taiwanese but an option i rarely come across at such low prices and therefore couldn't resist. We then tried to go to a Karaoke bar but, as it's the most social popular past time in most of Asia, we had an hour and half wait for a room and scrapped the plan. I returned to the hostel and had a long chat with a traveling chinese girl who taught me some more characters over a beer and some very viberant taiwanese T.V.
I have since returned to a mountain of work with deadlines all coming up in the next week and then straight into revision mode so i doubt there will be anymore excting blogs for a while. On the up side, to keep myself from sliding into revision blues, i'm planning my January in Jordan and Burma. Exciting blogs a plenty!!
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