September, 2017
In late September I made my first weekend trip from Hong Kong! My roommate invited me along with a large group (13 of us omg!!) headed there for three nights. I had a tutorial on Friday morning so I left a bit later than the others. I arrived and met the ladies at the train station and then headed over to our AirBnb right near the Taipei Main Station where the six of us were staying. We rested for a bit and then got ready to head out.
We went to the Shilin Night Market for dinner. We entered some sort of basement where all the food was and walked around trying to take in all the options. Soooo much food!!! Taiwan is known for its night markets, so we were keen to try everything. We arbitrarily picked one stall and sat down and started ordering. We had a lot of steamed veggies, tofu, and of course meat for the girls. Again, I lost my gosh darn phone a month later so I have limited documentation. The biggest hit was “little cake inside big cake” which was some sort of fried dough with your choice of flavoring wrapped in a gooey dough. I had taro and coconut and it was divineeee!
That evening we walked around the market some more and bumped into the other eight people in the group (a large group of tall European boys is pretty easy to spot in Asia). We all finished the night at a cute bar and turned in early.
The next morning the ladies and I woke up early to go to Shuanglian morning market for breakfast. Turns out they mostly just sold meat. But like, raw meat. Not quite breakfast food. There was a restaurant outside with very friendly owners that were happy to cook for us. We got a TON of food that was all so so so good. We had some sort of pancake, the equivalent of hash browns, soy milk, and my personal fave: egg and cheese wraps.
We then made our way over to a bus stop to go to the National Palace Museum. My roommate, Jamie, was sitting on the bus when an older woman leaned over and started complimenting her in Mandarin! Jamie was a few weeks into her Mandarin course at HKU so she was able to understand the woman a bit and thank her! Such a sweet moment.
The National Palace Museum was awesome! It has one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts in the world, the majority of valuable pieces were sent from China during the civil war in the 40s. The building and surrounding garden did actually feel like a palace. The artifacts were impressive to view, but there was little background given. It was a bit more of an art gallery than history museum.
We headed back towards the main station and our AirBnb for lunch. We went to a restaurant for some sort of pork dish the girls wanted to try in Taipei. I had veggies on rice! On the menu, it said “vibs dibles” for vegetables which had us in giggles for way way too long.
After a quick break in the AirBnb, we got dressed up and went to Taipei 101 to meet the boys for drinks and the sunset. You need to order to be in the restaurant so we all ordered the cheapest drink on the menu, snapped some pics, and headed out for cheaper food!
All 13 of us hopped into cabs and went to the Linjiang Street Night Market. Near one entrance were these famous fried pork buns which all the carnivores ordered. We watched them stuff the buns and then stick them to the wall of a cylindrical oven to cook. It was pretty cool to see. Then my eating began. I had mochi with condensed milk, mini pancakes, watermelon juice, and shaved ice. My highlight was this dog with eyebrows hehe.
After we had all eaten to our hearts’ content, we grouped up and tried to find a place to go out that night. Our lovely AirBnb host had given us a wifi egg, so we had internet everywhere we went which made last minute planning easy. We decided on a place called Babe 88 (yikes!). We waited in line for a decently long time but finally got in and had a W I L D time. Unlike LKF, this place was mostly locals. I had a bit too much “magic” wine and all of us stayed until the club closed. We somehow all made it back to the AirBnb, with a quick stop in McDonalds. There was a lot of giggling, spilling drinks, and stealing nuggets.
I woke up with the worst hangover of my life, but arguably worth it. We had a later start and went to the Taipei Confucius Temple. It was a beautiful space. They were writing blessings in calligraphy for free, so I got one for happiness. They also had free movies in the 4D movie theatre. We were not prepared for the 4D though, so the mist and wind was quite the surprise.
We then walked over to the Dalongdong Baoan Temple to take a look around. Despite feeling unwell, it was nice to be in the quiet places.
We then grabbed a quick bite and rushed over to hike Elephant Mountain for sunset. We got there a bit later than we wanted so we all but sprinted up the mountain to get there in time. The hike was steep but not very long. The top was super crowded for sunset. There was an actually line for the best photo spot on top of a rock.
We headed down and back to the AirBnb to get ready for dinner. We met the boys for hotpot for our last evening together in Taipei.
We all went to bed early because everyone had an early flight out the next day. I don’t have class on Mondays so I wasn’t leaving until the afternoon. I took the time to see Liberty Square and walk around a bit more.
Taipei was like the sleepy version of Hong Kong. It was nice to be in a city that was less dense and crowded after having spent a month in Hong Kong. We could walk down streets in the city and barely see any cars. The people in Taipei were very kind and the food was all 10/10. I wish we had more time because I’ve heard the mountains surrounding Taipei are amazing as well!