taiwan

wow, it's been well over a week since my last post. after my four day scooter adventure in northern Thailand I took it easy for a day in Chiang Rai before making my way to Taipei on Friday. There I met up with Amity, Darren, Chris, Ed and Melinda from the HK and Singapore exchange programs for another weekend of eating. Friday was an early night, with everyone tired from traveling, though I did manage to sneak in a very good scallion pancake with a fried egg while walking around that evening. Saturday we made our way to the National Museum, which is full of Chinese artifacts from the mainland, many of which were brought over to Taiwan when the Kuomingtang fled to Taiwan after WWII. Afterward we made our way north to Beitou, which is full of natural hot springs. We stayed there till all our toes and fingers were completely wrinkled and our suits had a pleasant sulfur smell to them :) After retreating to the hotel for a quick nap we went to check out the Shilin night market followed by a somewhat late night at a seemingly popular nightclub. The market was bursting at the seams with great food and was certainly different than the Thai markets I am accustomed to. Much more food and much less crap to buy - not a bad thing at all...

Sunday we made our way east to Jiufen - a former gold mining town located about an hour east of the capital. Though it was wet and cold all day, we once again manage to eat a ton of food walking down the main street of the village. mushrooms, ice cream burritos, sea snails... the list goes on. We eventually were done in by the rain and we decided to retreat to Taipei for a nice dumpling dinner at one of the more famous spots in town - Din Tai Fung. It pretty much lived up to the hype with some delicious pork and crab soup dumplings. Making me hungry just thinking about it again! The night ended with an epic night of bowling in a random, and decidedly unpopular bowling alley. The lack of customers certainly didn't stop us from staying until they kicked us out at midnight.

Monday morning was spent visiting some of the main sites in and around Taipei. Once again it was rather cold and rainy, but we weren't to be stopped :) Most everyone headed out their own ways that evening, while I stayed back with Ed for a few more days. Once everyone headed to the airport, we caught a high-speed rail train to Sun-Moon Lake. It's the largest lake in Taiwan and is supposed to be known for its picturesque setting, with mountains surrounding the lake. We didn't do much that evening besides locate a place to stay and grab some food, but our plan the next day was to rent scooters and make our way around the lake.

Alas, it was raining once again, and so we scrapped that plan. Instead we took the bus to the other side of the lake to visit the main temple there and get a look at the scenery (through much fog). It cleared up a bit once we made it back to the town we were staying in, so we snapped a few pictures, but overall the weather was rather miserable. So we made our way back to Taipei. That evening, Ed had planned to have dinner with some distant relatives and invited me along. And so there I found myself at a table with half a dozen of Ed's relatives. It was a fantastic meal, with chicken, steak, shrimp, ribs, and much much more. I didn't snap any pictures because of the setting, but it was certainly a great experience.

So that's it. Overall, Taiwan was much more enjoyable than I anticipated. It's chalk full of great street food, the people are very friendly and it's super easy to navigate. Certainly a world apart from mainland China. In fact it almost feels like Japan at times. Definitely recommended. Now I'm in Phnom Penh for the weekend and will be heading to Japan on Sunday for the last leg of the trip.