Taipei (Again)

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28th Dec: Well there was no point in going to sleep last night, as I wouldn't get in from work until about 10, and then I had to pack and have a shower and be up at about 4. So I stayed up all night and pottered about. I got a taxi to the airport bus stop not long after 4, and the airport bus left at 5. It wasn't too bad waiting in the cold. Had a little nap on the bus and got to Incheon airport around 6:20 am. Got checked in fine and had another cigarette, before heading through to security and immigration. tnhe lines were massive, it looked like the world and his wife were leaving Korea. Well it is the holiday season and people get so little holiday here. Whilst waiting for the flight to board I drank coffee, read my book, and smoked. God I love Asian airports for all the smoking rooms on offer.

The flight was two and a half hours long, I was gutted because I thought it was only an hour and a half. I read the in flight magazine and my book. The breakfast was alright. The flight last year seemed to go much quicker, maybe because I had someone to talk to. We landed in Taipei, it was nice coming in, in the day time as it meant I could see all around, whereas last year we landed at night. The airport was still getting done up and looked a little bit less ghetto than last year. The immigration lady was lovely, and even wished me a happy new year. Then it was onto the airport bus for the drive into the city. The drive didn't take long, less than an hour and we were dropped off in front of the train station. It's lovely going back to somewhere you've been before as you know your way around and everything is quicker and easier.

It took me two minutes to get to the hostel. When I got checked in and went up to the room and flopped on the bed. It was about one o'clock and I slept until about six. I got up and went to the shop for the essentials: water, a sandwich, and a bottle of coke zero (I would of liked iced coffee, but couldn't figure out which carton it was in the shop, doh!). I was still wrecked, so I went back to bed and set my alarm for 10:30, so I could wake up and stick some slap on before Tasha arrived. I ventured up to the common room, at around eleven, smoked a fag, read my book and chugged on my coke. Tash arrived just before midnight and we headed straight to Family Mart to pick up the essentials, fruity beer, food, and more cigarettes. Then we set up camp on a bench near the hostel and did what we do best, drink, smoke, eat and gossip. I had some seaweed crisps, I love them, but strangely enough you can't get them in Korea, and a rice burger thing, that I was a bit dubious of it was rice, egg, curry sauce, a piece of breaded chicken, and maybe some plastic cheese. It had been nuked in the microwave at Family Mart, so I thought I may get food poisoning from it, but I was fine. We sat there until about half three, only venturing back to Family Mart for more food and beer. Word of wisedom, don't buy a hash brown sandwich, it's like eating cardboard.

29th Dec: It was definitely after 11, and more than likely after 12, ahem 2, when we both woke up. There was only one thing we both wanted to do after showering and getting dressed, and that was to go to NY Bagels, a restaurant in the Q Square shopping centre, which was nearby. There was a 45 minute wait for a table, so we took a wander around the mall, perving on the cheese counter and eyeing up all the expat goodies in Jason's. The restaurant rang to say our table was ready as we were heading back over. We didn't even have to read the menu, as we both knew what we wanted. Eggs Benedict! With smoked salmon for me and ham for Tasha. It was divine, as we expected.

We headed to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall after our late lunch. Sun Yat-sen is considered to be the founder of modern China. the whole complex is massive. We took a stroll through the park area, watching the kites flying in the sky and looking at the different statues. Then we went into the hall and had a look around the museum. We watched part of the lowering of the flag ceremony, too. We saw the sunset and watched as the lights came on at Taipei 101, such a pretty building. We took a walk over to Taipei 101, stopping to watch the rehersals for the New Year's Eve concert in the park. It was good as it meant we got to watch it early and without thousands of people in the way.

Before going to Taipei 101 we stopped and bought some cinema tickets for later. In the Taipei 101 building we went to the large Jason's there and bought a small selection of English goodies that we miss. We had a moch around some of the other shops in the area. We were feeeling a little bit hungry, so we bought some falafel wraps to take in to the cinema. The wrap was good, but as always could of done with more garlic sauce. I would drown my food in it, if I could. We watched Jack Reacher, which was canny, some of the lines were a bit corny in places, but overall enjoyable. When we came out it ws raining, so we thought sod the subway and hopped in a cab back to the hostel.

30th Dec: We woke up late again today. By the time we left the hostel it was after two. We had wanted to go back to NY Bagels for food, however the wait for a table was over an hour. We also tried to get in to Alley Cat, but they had nothing either. I suggested we head back to the shopping centre, where we had been to the flicks last night, and try California Pizza Kitchen. That was a smart move, as the food was amazing. We had these tortilla / spring roll type things for starters and then shared two pizzas. The pesto chicken pizza was lovely, with lots of parmesan. The California Club was amazing, it was a chicken and bacon pizza covered with lettuce, tomato and avacado. Oh my god, it was like biting in to a Marks and Sparks chicken and bacon sandwich (that's a good thing). It was like slice of heaven on a plate for me, I miss some of the stuff that you take for granted back home. Also we were given unlimited refills on our glasses of pop. The poor lass, she was coming over about every ten minutes, coz I drink so much. I must of had 4 or 5 coke zeros.

After lunch was over, we were stuffed. It was getting on to time wise, so we decided to head to Huashan Creative Park. It is a bunch of abandoned warehouses that have been taken over by artists and other creative types and turned into studios and galleries. Well we stopped for a quick coffee first and took it with us. There was a big exhibition on called Candy Wonderland. Yes, you guessed it, it was all about sweeties. They had traditional sweets from different countries around the world. There were loads of random things made from sweets, and also pictures and murals. I have to say the Buddha made of sweeties was a bit wrong like. We got some free sweeties, and wrote our wishes for the new year and attached them to a giant cardboard tree.

We took a look in another building opposite, where we had been at Candy Wonderland and were rewarded with a photo exhibit about Taipei. The photo were amazing. I really enjoyed the photo story about one person donating their corneas, as they were dying from terminal cancer, and the people, who had benefited from it. Then we hopped back on the subway and went to Longshan temple. We had visited it last year during the day, but it was great to see it at night. The temple has such a nice atmosphere and it is a hive of activity. Also it was great taking photos as the sky was dark, but it light at the same time, if you get what I mean (probably not). Opposite the temple is a water fountain and we watched the show there. I prefered the one we had seen the night before at Taipei 101. Probably because people were dicking about at that one and running through the water, where as this one is closed off.

Back on the subway we headed to Ximending to do some shopping. We spent a couple of hours looking around the shops. One of the quotes of the holiday came when Tash was trying some glasses on and she asked me how they looked. To which I replied they made her look a bit Myra Hindly. Poor lass, I don't know how she puts up with me at times. We were unsuccessful on oor shopping trip and we both came away with nothing. We then headed over to Mudan for a beer. We think it is the gay district as there are rather a lot of males about and not too many females. However we could be wrong. It has a nice holiday feel about the place, as it is all open air bars with tables outside and music. Really nice, howevere it was too cold to stay out for too long so after a couple of beers we headed back to the hostel, to wrap up. Once we were wrapped up, we had a hobo party on our bench near the hostel drinking and eating. Word to the wise, don't buy Family Mart microwave pancake and chicken wings, both rank!

31st Dec: Our first earlyish start of the holidays. We made it to NY Bagels in time for brunch, rather than a late lunch. I had a tuna mayo with jalapenos and onion in a bagel with salad and chips. It was blooming delish. I will definitely try to make it at home, nom nom. Since we still had pretty much the whole afternoon ahead of us we headed to Taipei Zoo. We took the same subway as we had last New Year's Eve to that wretched gondola (I still shudder at the thought of it). However we headed in the opposite direction when we got off.

We paid about one pound fifty, a bit less maybe to get into the zoo. We spent all afternoon there, until it closed around half five, so we totally got our money's worth. The zoo is massive and we spent all afternoon wandering around looking at the animals. The animals were really cute, however by the time we had made it to the peguin it at 4:55, it had shut at 4:50. Bit gutted because peguins are well cute. The panda was also hiding so we didn't get to see that very well. There was an intereesting sign about the baboons' arses and why they are red and swolloen. Apparetly, it makes them more attracitve to members of the opposite sex. When we left the zoo there were loads of people sellig balloos and the like. It was funy because the police turned up, one bloke obviously didn't have a permit as he legged it. Yeah mate, no one can see you with your cloud of multi-coloured balloons.

We hopped on the subway and headed to this place where we had been last New Year's Eve for dinner, but we were just going to go for tea ad cake. However when we got there we decided against it, and instead Tash googled the address for Outback. So after a coffee sittng outside, we got in a taxi and headed there. We were lucky when we got there as there were loads of tables free and we were seated straight away. A bit sad, that they don't do pineapple onion rings, but they did this amazing bloomin' onion, like onion rings, but instead it looked like a big flower. Then we shared the Alice Spring's Chicken and Ribs combo, with baked potatoes. It was delicious and we washed it down with champagne cocktails. We had a little bit of room left, so we ordered a brownie and ice cream for dessert, and some very alcoholic coffees.

We were stuffed and took a waddle around the streets, there were loads of people about. then we went back to sit infront of Outback, as we had a cracking view of Taipei 101, to watch the fireworks. We sat and chatted and waited until midnight. The fireworks were really good, I enjoyed them a lot, although the display wasn't as long as last year. Afterwards we wandered the streets and got very lost. It tok forever to get a taxi and we got ripped off, but by that point we just wanted to get home.

1st Jan: Oops! We didn't wake up until half four this afternoon. Well we were knackered after a big day yesyerday, and the weather was crappy and raining, so the sky was very dark, I think that's why we slept so long. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. There was no hot water in the shower on our floor, so we ended up going out like scruffs, without having a shower. There was no point in trying to do anything today, it was too late. We finally managed to get a table at Alleycat's for some food. We had garlic bread, caprese salad, a meaty pizza and a four cheese calzone, all lovely! Then we headed to Jason's to do all of our shopping for expat goodies. I spent about twenty quid and came away with loads of spices, salt and vinegar kettle chips, and pineapple cakes. We then went and watched The Hobbit, it was canny not really my cup of tea, but enoyable. We were half joking that we should go and see Life of Pi, after as it wa son at half twelve. When we came out from The Hobbit we realised we had loads of time, so we went and bought tickets for Life of Pi, and went downstairs for a smoke. It was really funny, as the lass serving us gave up halfway through as she could'nt speak English. Life of Pi was great, we watched it in 3D, so it was amazing. I even shed a few tears at the end. We went back to the hostel and packed and made it bed just before 4.

2nd Jan: Got up not long after seven and boy it was tough after less than four hours sleep. There was still no hot water in the bathroom on our floor, but there was hot water on the floor above, so we took it in turns to troop up there for our showers. We nipped over to Family Mart to get our ice coffees, to have whilst smoking a fag, our daily holiday ritual, before heading for breakfast. Well you can definitely get a table at NY Bagels at 8 am. There was only a few tables filled. Of course we ordered the Eggs Benedict, and of course it was delicious. I walked Tash over to the train station in time for her 10 o'clock train. It was sad saying bye, as she'll probably leave Taiwan this year and doesn't know where she is headed. I went back to the hostel to make use of the facilities and to check out. I dumped my stuff in the reception area, and headed out.

I took a wander to the bus station to check I could remember where it was from last year, and yes my grey matter had retained the information well. I then headed to Starbucks and chilled with a coffee, I was too tired to do any sight seeing, so finished a couple of books on my kindle. I went to Sun Yat-sen's memorial house and garden for a quick peek as they were opposite the hostel. I went back to the hostel and collected my stuff. I had to wait a bit for the airport bus, but it was only about 15 minutes. The journey took about an hour.

At the airport I got checked in and read my book in the departure lounge, with an iced coffee. Airports are always just a bit too hot. My flight left not long after 5. The flight was boring and the food was rank. We flew up over Korea from Jeju island to Incheon. It was great looking down and seeing all the lights. Queues at immigration weren't as bad as they normally are. Just missed the bus home, by about 10 minutes, so had 50 minutes to kill. Finally had a double down at KFC, it was nice, but I did feel a bit sick afterwards. Onto the bus and home before midnight. I was shattered. Gutted, I had to be at work the next day.

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Photos

Kite Flying High
Sun Yat-sen Memorial

All about Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen Memorial