First Day in Taiwan!

Phew! So while this is my third day in Taiwan, its the first time I was able to post as our card reader got damaged during the journey, and I could not get the pictures off the camera. Therefore, I will be posting the days as quick as I can to catch up.

So! Day 1. I landed early in the morning, and Sonny soon arrived to meet me. We caught a bus back in to town and on the way in, discussed our plans for the day. Sonny took the day off of work, and so he wanted to do as much as we could to get me acclimated so I would be alright alone for the rest of the week. First though we had to stop by his lab so he could finish up doing something or other.

Then we headed off to the MRT station nearest us to catch the metro to our first destination.

 Ximendeng, which is often called the "Harajuku of Taipei" - and with good reason!

It is full of young people, all dressed in the latest fashion crazes from Japan, and stores that sell the clothes they want, and restaurants with quirky names, and movie theaters, and four-story hair salons, and just all sorts of craziness. There are blocks of pedestrian streets where few to no cars go and hawkers sell food and crafts and musicians perform. It was quite the overwhelming sight. 

However, the Ximen district is also home to some historical and cultural sites, such as the Red House Theater which is from the time of the Japanese rule and now houses a mini museum and shops...

...and the Tian-hou Temple which was small but very beautiful.

All this walking made us hungry, so when we wandered down a tiny alley and found ourselves at a rustic eatery, we sat down and ordered some beef noodle soup.

We next ambled around in search of the electronics mall, and we did find one, but not the main one. It was a very busy crowded part of town, with underground malls by the MRT and big huge department stores up top.

A bit more wandering and we found ourselves at 2/28 Peace Park which remembers the victims of a massacre that occurred on that date. First off we wandered through the gate of Filial Piety.

Then we admired the cool pagodas and rested our tired legs by the pond, continuing on after we felt rejuvenated enough. We stopped to check out the memorial, which was beautiful, then  we found the nearest MRT station and headed to...

Taipei 101!!!!

It is a very very tall building, with a very very fancy mall on the first few floors. We took peek inside but left pretty quick as it was just not our income bracket. We decided instead to head to more our sort of place, the Shillin Night Market. Before we even made it into the night market proper we stopped for some sweet bean curd soup stuff. Sonny insists its just called bean curd. It was sweet, with peanuts and red bean and different colors of soft bean curd. It was very sweet and I could not even finish. I don't have any pictures of inside the night market itself as it was so busy and crowded and packed that night that we could barely move let alone whip out our nice camera. We are planning to go back, so I will try again.

After eating fresh fruits and fried chicken we were stuffed and tired and getting cranky from the crowds, so we headed home and passed out. I was SO TIRED. Unfortunately, due to jet lag I would be awake at 6 am the next day, but oh well. Stay tuned for more adventures!