Taiwan Part 1
Because I need to hurry up and do this before I forget what I even did =____=
So, like I said before, I took a quick trip to Taiwan with my roommate from April 9th to 13th. We were going to be in Osaka anyway, and the Japanese LCC Peach flies from there to Taipei very cheap (32,000yen return). For a cheap airline, Peach is quite nice. Also they are the cutest airline ever.
They fly Airbus A320s, which look like little BABY PLANES next to the A380s and 747s sitting around the international terminal. And they're PINK and PURPLE. This one even says "The Roots of Kawaii" above an anime character on the side.
DAY 1
Anyway, we arrived at Taoyuan airport about 9am-ish, then caught the bus into the city. The ride in is quite interesting on its own, lush mountains with double decker highways snaking through them.
We couldn't check into our hostel until 3pm, so we first entered Taipei Main Station to get a Taipei Free Pass (roughly $25 US dollars) which would cover all our buses and trains for the trip. Then we headed for Xingtian Temple station.
Unfortunately, for most of the first day, my camera memory card kept giving me errors, so I only have a couple of mobile phone shots.
Xingtian Temple
Rongxing Park
Look familiar? It's one of the filming locations for MOON CHILD (it also appeared in the Drug Party Taiwan documentary and maybe some other places). It's a nice park, but probably not that interesting for non-GACKT fans. Unless you like squirrels. There are a ton of those.
After that, we went to check into our hostel, Taipei Cheeky House. It's basically a youth hostel, quite clean and nice. Beds are super comfy. Location is good (very close to Shandao Temple Station, one stop away from Taipei Main Station). However, the showers are a big problem, because they go from cold to burning hot with no in between. And I mean literally burning hot you can actually scald yourself if you are not careful. Also, we had a bugsplosion in our room on the last night when a nest of underground termites came to the surface in our room, which was below ground level. The staff were SUPER NICE and extremely embarrassed and apologetic and immediately moved us to a different room. Still, that was an unexpected event.
We crashed in the hotel for a bit, since we hadn't really slept the previous night. Then we went to Longshan Temple and Huaxi Night Market. ALSO I GOT MY STUPID CAMERA TO WORK.
Longshan Temple
KITTY. He actually walked to the edge of the roof and posed like RARR IMMA DRAGON but my camera was too crappy to get him :<
After that, we went to Huaxi Night Market, or "Snake Alley". Snake Alley is famous because of several restaurants that have live, extremely large snakes in cages out the front, and serve food and drink derived from snakes.
Stir Fried Snake ala fuckton of garlic
Pot of Snake Soup, with snake oil pills, and various combinations of snake bodily fluids with alcohol. The red is snake blood, second from the left is snake venom, next one is some kind of herbal medicine, next is alcohol that a snake was pickled in, last one is snake bile. The one on the left is something we forgot.
Unfortunately, as the restaurants in Snake Alley are guaranteed a continuous flow of tourists, they don't really bother to be much good. The snake stirfry was rubbery and extremely garlicky. The rest was interesting. I tried the snake venom, herbal medicine, and snake alcohol. My friend said the blood concoction was actually quite good. The venom tasted like nothing (and yes it is safe to drink because venom is only dangerous if it gets in your bloodstream, and your stomach breaks it down before that). I actually liked the bitter herbal medicine, my friend thought I was insane and said it was "Nyquil times one hundred". The alcohol basically tasted like sake. The bile smelled like vomit and neither of us were game to touch it.
DAY 2
On the second day, we went to Wulai. Wulai is a small town in the New Taipei area, famous for hot springs and situated in the traditional lands of the Atayal Aboriginal tribe.
Also, it's gorgeous. Wulai Tourist Bridge.
There is a small temple just across the bridge.
Wulai Waterfall.
Wikitravel says you should avoid the taxi drivers and just walk to the waterfall. LOL NO. It's hot and uphill and a taxi costs like a couple of dollars. Also when you have someone deathly allergic to bees in your party, you can't really walk past a bees nest.
We also met the Saddest Doggy In The World on our failed attempt to reach the waterfall. Doesn't his face just say "I am a husky what am I doing in a tropical country"
Anyway, in Wulai, we went to the Atayal Aboriginal Museum (free and worth a quick look), and then to the Atayal restaurant next door. RECOMMENDED. We had wild boar and ostrich (?maybe a mistranslation, it seemed more like a local kind of bird) and a drink made from honey and spicebush. It's also a nice place to do a bit of souvenir shopping, I got some scarves/shawls for a couple of dollars each that will hopefully look quite classy with my Pinup Couture stuff.
We also rode the Wulai Death Train, sorry, Log Cart
We didn't manage to find the free public hot springs, though we did get our feet nibbled by doctor fish. Apparently I am tasty. Then we got tired and cranky and got back on the bus.
We were a little dead on our feet at this point, but we dragged ourselves to Taipei 101. We got there before the sunset, but there's actually quite a wait to take the elevator up, despite the expensive ticket fee, so it was dusk when we got to the top.
The Tuned Mass Damper (aka Big Heavy Thing That Stops The Building From Shaking) and Taipei 101's mascot, Damper Baby
It lights up a different color every day of the week, apparently.
This little fella is the mascot of a xiaolongbao restaurant that had like a 2 hour wait. No xiaolongbao for us today.
Also, once you get up there, there's also quite a wait to take the elevator back down. We had beef noodles in the food court on the lower floors, and then called it a day.
TO BE CONTINUED (AT SOME POINT) (HOPEFULLY)...
So, like I said before, I took a quick trip to Taiwan with my roommate from April 9th to 13th. We were going to be in Osaka anyway, and the Japanese LCC Peach flies from there to Taipei very cheap (32,000yen return). For a cheap airline, Peach is quite nice. Also they are the cutest airline ever.
They fly Airbus A320s, which look like little BABY PLANES next to the A380s and 747s sitting around the international terminal. And they're PINK and PURPLE. This one even says "The Roots of Kawaii" above an anime character on the side.
DAY 1
Anyway, we arrived at Taoyuan airport about 9am-ish, then caught the bus into the city. The ride in is quite interesting on its own, lush mountains with double decker highways snaking through them.
We couldn't check into our hostel until 3pm, so we first entered Taipei Main Station to get a Taipei Free Pass (roughly $25 US dollars) which would cover all our buses and trains for the trip. Then we headed for Xingtian Temple station.
Unfortunately, for most of the first day, my camera memory card kept giving me errors, so I only have a couple of mobile phone shots.
Xingtian Temple
Rongxing Park
Look familiar? It's one of the filming locations for MOON CHILD (it also appeared in the Drug Party Taiwan documentary and maybe some other places). It's a nice park, but probably not that interesting for non-GACKT fans. Unless you like squirrels. There are a ton of those.
After that, we went to check into our hostel, Taipei Cheeky House. It's basically a youth hostel, quite clean and nice. Beds are super comfy. Location is good (very close to Shandao Temple Station, one stop away from Taipei Main Station). However, the showers are a big problem, because they go from cold to burning hot with no in between. And I mean literally burning hot you can actually scald yourself if you are not careful. Also, we had a bugsplosion in our room on the last night when a nest of underground termites came to the surface in our room, which was below ground level. The staff were SUPER NICE and extremely embarrassed and apologetic and immediately moved us to a different room. Still, that was an unexpected event.
We crashed in the hotel for a bit, since we hadn't really slept the previous night. Then we went to Longshan Temple and Huaxi Night Market. ALSO I GOT MY STUPID CAMERA TO WORK.
Longshan Temple
KITTY. He actually walked to the edge of the roof and posed like RARR IMMA DRAGON but my camera was too crappy to get him :<
After that, we went to Huaxi Night Market, or "Snake Alley". Snake Alley is famous because of several restaurants that have live, extremely large snakes in cages out the front, and serve food and drink derived from snakes.
Stir Fried Snake ala fuckton of garlic
Pot of Snake Soup, with snake oil pills, and various combinations of snake bodily fluids with alcohol. The red is snake blood, second from the left is snake venom, next one is some kind of herbal medicine, next is alcohol that a snake was pickled in, last one is snake bile. The one on the left is something we forgot.
Unfortunately, as the restaurants in Snake Alley are guaranteed a continuous flow of tourists, they don't really bother to be much good. The snake stirfry was rubbery and extremely garlicky. The rest was interesting. I tried the snake venom, herbal medicine, and snake alcohol. My friend said the blood concoction was actually quite good. The venom tasted like nothing (and yes it is safe to drink because venom is only dangerous if it gets in your bloodstream, and your stomach breaks it down before that). I actually liked the bitter herbal medicine, my friend thought I was insane and said it was "Nyquil times one hundred". The alcohol basically tasted like sake. The bile smelled like vomit and neither of us were game to touch it.
DAY 2
On the second day, we went to Wulai. Wulai is a small town in the New Taipei area, famous for hot springs and situated in the traditional lands of the Atayal Aboriginal tribe.
Also, it's gorgeous. Wulai Tourist Bridge.
There is a small temple just across the bridge.
Wulai Waterfall.
Wikitravel says you should avoid the taxi drivers and just walk to the waterfall. LOL NO. It's hot and uphill and a taxi costs like a couple of dollars. Also when you have someone deathly allergic to bees in your party, you can't really walk past a bees nest.
We also met the Saddest Doggy In The World on our failed attempt to reach the waterfall. Doesn't his face just say "I am a husky what am I doing in a tropical country"
Anyway, in Wulai, we went to the Atayal Aboriginal Museum (free and worth a quick look), and then to the Atayal restaurant next door. RECOMMENDED. We had wild boar and ostrich (?maybe a mistranslation, it seemed more like a local kind of bird) and a drink made from honey and spicebush. It's also a nice place to do a bit of souvenir shopping, I got some scarves/shawls for a couple of dollars each that will hopefully look quite classy with my Pinup Couture stuff.
We also rode the Wulai Death Train, sorry, Log Cart
We didn't manage to find the free public hot springs, though we did get our feet nibbled by doctor fish. Apparently I am tasty. Then we got tired and cranky and got back on the bus.
We were a little dead on our feet at this point, but we dragged ourselves to Taipei 101. We got there before the sunset, but there's actually quite a wait to take the elevator up, despite the expensive ticket fee, so it was dusk when we got to the top.
The Tuned Mass Damper (aka Big Heavy Thing That Stops The Building From Shaking) and Taipei 101's mascot, Damper Baby
It lights up a different color every day of the week, apparently.
This little fella is the mascot of a xiaolongbao restaurant that had like a 2 hour wait. No xiaolongbao for us today.
Also, once you get up there, there's also quite a wait to take the elevator back down. We had beef noodles in the food court on the lower floors, and then called it a day.
TO BE CONTINUED (AT SOME POINT) (HOPEFULLY)...