Return to Taiwan Part I - Grace and Hannah do Taipei

It ended up being a good thing that Sonny got his new passport because a week later we went to Taiwan! It was a very quick decision as Sonny had a job interview and they were going to pay for him to fly there. When I found $600 round trip tickets, I decided to come too! Grace also joined us, marking her first time in Asia. The flight to Taiwan from the US is a very long one. First we had 11 hours to Narita, then after a short layover, another three to Taipei. However, since Sonny booked his ticket separately, he actually ended up on a later flight from Narita to Taipei. Therefore, while Grace and I were getting back on another airplane, he was trying out his first capsule hotel!

Grace and I landed in Taipei and took advantage of the new MRT line that goes all the way out to Taohyuan airport. After a looooong walk through a deserted Taipei Main station late at night, we got on the Bannan line and headed for Nangang. Sonny was worried about me getting to the Academia campus alone, but luckily, even after 5 years I could navigate. We were in our room and asleep by 1 a.m. 

Day 1

The next morning we awoke jet-lagged at 5 a.m. We headed downstairs to check out the free breakfast then out to see how much sight-seeing we could fit into one day. We were not graced with good weather, and that first day was supposed to be our only day of sunshine so we hoped to get as much of the outdoor stuff done as possible. After stopping by my favorite bakery to grab a snack for later, we headed to Chiang Kai Shek square first.

We actually went through the entire museum on him and his life, and had some great discussions about bias in historical reporting. Once we finished, we decided to head over to the botanical gardens, something I had not done on my previous trip. It ended up being a longer walk than anticipated due to construction, but we made it eventually. We both were hankering for a bubble tea byt his point however. We wandered around the gardens and found a vending machine where we bought a bottle of some sort of lemon fizzy drink for NTD30 (USD1). Grace made friends with the local turtles, and we toured a very old building, the Guest House of Imperial Envoys, built in 1888.

We then wandered by all the current government buildings (including the US not-embassy) and checked out the guards before heading into 2-28 Peace Park. We stopped at the memorial for the victims of the massacre then wandered through the rest of the park. 

At this point we were getting a bit peckish so we headed toward downtown and Main Station, stopping to buy Sonny a suit at Uniqlo. I tried in vain to find us some bubble tea, but there are not a many bubble tea places as there were 5 years ago. I did find one, but the menu was completely in chinese with no pictures so I couldn't order. We headed down into Main Station to see if we could find anything. We did succeed and got smoked plum bubble tea from the fancy underground mall. After wandering around the labyrinth that is Main Station some more, we grabbed some sushi and headed upstairs to the main hall to eat. We used the free wifi to get in touch with Sonny. However, it was spotty and we kept losing the internet. We headed back to meet up with him and maybe grab dinner. We ended up eating beef noodles, my favorite Taiwan dish at a local joint.

After dinner Grace and I headed back out to go check out Ximending, the crazy shopping night life area. We watched street performers, shopped for faux birks and other shoes, drank some bubble tea and ate snacks, found my second favorite temple in Taiwan, then finally headed home to pass out.

The gate in is so tiny, its very easy to miss. but then you get inside and suddenly you are in a tranquil temple.

I stole this photo as I didn't take any that night.

Day 2

The next day was supposed to be rainy, so Grace and I decided to spend it in the National Palace Museum. We headed out bright and early after all three of us were wide awake at 4 am. Thanks jet-lag! We took a different route than I had last time, using the brown MRT line then catching a tourist bus to the museum. When we got there, the weather was actually pretty favorable so we paid our entrance fees than hurried upstairs to see the very famous jade cabbage and rock that looks like pork before all the tourists got there. Then we went outside to go tour the gardens while the weather still was nice.

We headed back in a toured more galleries, marveling at the age of so many of the artifacts. By now, the tourists were in full force. They were much better behaved than five years ago, but even so it was an overwhelming experience. We learned to escape back outside to recover occasionally, with the help of some bubble lates and our bakery treats.

I take great photos, don't I?

Eventually we decided we had gotten all we were going to get out of the museum, so we took a different bus to the Shilin MRT stop. I wanted to take Grace to my favorite temple and maybe even to a hot spring!

After exploring the temple and lighting some incense for Sonny, we decided to take our tired bodies to Beitou for some hot springs! We checked out Thermal Valley then paid for access to non-private hot springs located on the roof of a hotel.

I stole this photo from their website as we didn't take any. It was misty and raining while we were there

Feeling rejuvenated, we decided to plunge back into the people and go check out Shilin night market on our way home. I was really craving the giant fried chicken breasts that Shilin is famous for, so we joined the longest line and waited for our chance to taste the original giant chicken. Once we got it, we copied everyone else and took a photo in front of the sign to prove we got the original then dug in. Some passing aunties were thoroughly excited by how excited we were.

Next we ate some kind of strange meat on a stick, and kept wandering around. However, I started to absolutely crash, so we wandered back to the MRT to go home. It had been a long day.

Day 3

Our final day of entertaining ourselves, we planned to stop by Taipei 101 for a quick currency exchange then spend some time "hiking" up Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain), then stop by the zoo to see the pandas and finish with dinner on top of the Maokong mountains after riding the gondola up. However, the best laid plans and all. First Taipei 101 did not open until 11 am which meant that we spent several hours killing time in the food court and the surrounding area before we could exchange cash. This was a pretty big delay. The weather was not the best either, with lots of rain, but we headed up the stairs anyways.

We found a fiddle-leaf fig!

greeeat view

the most dangerous step in the world. ask Grace

Once we summited Xiangshan and caught our breath we decided to keep exploring. We headed out on the main path, enjoying the misty views. I explained to Grace how last time I was here, I kept getting distracted by all the interesting-looking side paths and that's how I got lost. I stated that this time, we should stick to the main paths so as not to have that happen again. The only problem is, Grace and I are very genetically similar so when we passed by a particularly good looking path with a sign that said something "shan" (mountain) 400 m, we couldn't resist. Boredom, Tyler!

However, the path very that started out like this:

Very quickly deteriorated. We climbed up the uneven rock steps pretty easily, but when we hit the first rope climb, we did pause. However, we are VanLaanens and as such figured we'd give it a go. Please note that it was pouring rain and everything is super slippery.

When we hit the flimsy metal ladder that was barely attached to the side of the mountain though, we called it quits. Granted, Grace got most of the way up ladder before deciding that the move to get onto the platform at the top was just too risky for the slippery conditions, but the important thing here is we did at some point call it quits. Mostly because we were worried about going back down. However, it didn't end up being as bad as we worried. We both did end up covered in mud though. :)

 Finally back down on firmer ground we ran into a snake who was not enthused about our requests to please move off the path.

 But, we eventually got by him and continued on our journey, except now covered in mud. We stopped to wash our hands off at the worlds most scenic bathrooms, then decided to go see what the "sky in a stripe" was.

Turns out, its a very cool, very big rock that they just put the path under!

Bye Elephant Mountain!

At this point we realised we would not be able to go to Maokong as we were filthy, tired, and the time was getting late. We bid adieu to Xiangshan as we were starving and set back toward civilization hoping to find a convenience store for some food. We spied a Family mart and bought ourselves some baked sweet potatoes, buns, and chocolate bars which we noshed down in the park by the MRT. We then headed back to get cleaned up and take a nap so we could hit up raohe night market with Sonny later.

When poor Sonny arrived back at the room after a long day of interviews he found two passed out sisters. However, we perked up and convinced him to come to Raohe with us as his chinese just made it easier. Our main mission was to eat the famous black pepper buns, and to get some stinky tofu and oyster omelet for Grace.

We all loved the buns, and while I enjoyed the stinky tofu, it was not the best iteration and I know Grace was disappointed. Next time! We also got ducks blood soup which I love. Neither Grace nor I are big fans of oyster omelet (its the texture) but Sonny loves it and you gotta try it! We also got shaved ice and peanut soup. At the end of all of that, we also got some fruit to take home, then headed home to sleep as tomorrow we were going to hike to Jiufen! And Sonny would be coming with!