2023.12.07-10 - Taipei Day 1
Taipei, Taipei! Hello from Taipei!
I still went to work this morning, but left the office at 3pm-ish (how dare I LOL) so that I could get to the airport in time for my 5.30pm flight. So it happened that I got to see the sunset. The Check-In lady needed a bit more training. She looked at my passport left and right and then asked me, "what nationality is this?" And I had to say "Austria. The one in Europe. No kangaroos." She got the joke, but she couldn't read the German on the cover "Republik Osterreich". My dear, on the first page inside, the country is named in different languages.
I got myself a window seat because I figured I'm traveling alone and this way I don't have to give way to anyone. However, I would come to regret a little, not for the window seat, but for my actual neighbour.
We flew over the HZM Bridge, and there's a part of it that's actually underwater (in a tunnel of course), and I got to get a shot of it.
Flight was just 1 hour 20 minutes. When we landed, my immediate neighbour (seats of 3 and 3) was all latisses-faire and did not move. She wanted to let everyone out before she moved. Heck! I got myself a very front seat so that I could leave first! So I made to climb over her, and only then she said "okay, okay," and moved out. She had to take her large bag from the overhead.
Ah, I did the Tourist TWD 5000 lucky draw thing and... NADA! No luck! I'm unhappy, LOL. The reason I wanted to come to Taipei was to have a go at that and get the 5000 (I'm speaking as if winning the TWD5000 is a given LOL). No free money, so I can only move on and take the MRT train to Taipei Main Station. Soon I got to my hostel. I'm pretty happy with my choice this time. It's a hostel, but I chose a private room. Toilet and shower included. Although there is no separation of the shower and the toilet, I'm not here to luxuriate in baths and showers. It gets the job done. The bed is upstairs and the downstairs bed-like place will be my bag dumping ground haha.
If my Mom sees this she's gonna hate it. She hates these "unproper" bathrooms (no dedicated shower area) and all these stairs. But hey, hotels are unimaginably expensive in Taipei, I simply needed a roof over my head and a place to put my bags. I'll live.
Since it was already 9pm-ish by the time I got to downtown, I first went to get a late night dinner at Shida Night Market. But is it because it's a Thursday night? It's... empty..... at least, my "usual dinner place" here was still open. 大台北 "Taipei Soy Sauce Braised Food" was still open. The staff have changed, and it was a bit funny. I remember before they used to call foreign strangers like "missy" or "mister". (In some other places like Bangkok I've heard a direct "lady"). But I guess they've changed somewhat. Now the catch phrase is "My Friend!" And for some reason I kind of got the feeling that I was in India.... LOL.
Basically you choose whatever ingredient you want and they will cook it in their special soup base. I was eating solo so I had to control what I got. One of my Taiwan favorites is this "Pork Blood Cake " 豬血糕. Maybe it's really pork blood, and mixed with some glutinous rice flour to make a cake sort of thing.
After this very satisfying dinner, I made my leisurely way back to the hostel. Stopped at a cosmetics shop and bought some beauty face masks for these 3 nights, and then near the hostel to the convenience store and bought my milk for tomorrow.
The plan tomorrow is to get some local breakfast, then go up to Dansui (Tamsui)... I'll probably stop at Beitou on the way for a walk around and look-see of the Hot Springs, then at Dansui I'm going to brave it and take a bus to some temple deep in the... non-city area. Wuji Tianyuan Temple.
That's the plan, but we'll see.
I still went to work this morning, but left the office at 3pm-ish (how dare I LOL) so that I could get to the airport in time for my 5.30pm flight. So it happened that I got to see the sunset. The Check-In lady needed a bit more training. She looked at my passport left and right and then asked me, "what nationality is this?" And I had to say "Austria. The one in Europe. No kangaroos." She got the joke, but she couldn't read the German on the cover "Republik Osterreich". My dear, on the first page inside, the country is named in different languages.
I got myself a window seat because I figured I'm traveling alone and this way I don't have to give way to anyone. However, I would come to regret a little, not for the window seat, but for my actual neighbour.
We flew over the HZM Bridge, and there's a part of it that's actually underwater (in a tunnel of course), and I got to get a shot of it.
Flight was just 1 hour 20 minutes. When we landed, my immediate neighbour (seats of 3 and 3) was all latisses-faire and did not move. She wanted to let everyone out before she moved. Heck! I got myself a very front seat so that I could leave first! So I made to climb over her, and only then she said "okay, okay," and moved out. She had to take her large bag from the overhead.
Ah, I did the Tourist TWD 5000 lucky draw thing and... NADA! No luck! I'm unhappy, LOL. The reason I wanted to come to Taipei was to have a go at that and get the 5000 (I'm speaking as if winning the TWD5000 is a given LOL). No free money, so I can only move on and take the MRT train to Taipei Main Station. Soon I got to my hostel. I'm pretty happy with my choice this time. It's a hostel, but I chose a private room. Toilet and shower included. Although there is no separation of the shower and the toilet, I'm not here to luxuriate in baths and showers. It gets the job done. The bed is upstairs and the downstairs bed-like place will be my bag dumping ground haha.
If my Mom sees this she's gonna hate it. She hates these "unproper" bathrooms (no dedicated shower area) and all these stairs. But hey, hotels are unimaginably expensive in Taipei, I simply needed a roof over my head and a place to put my bags. I'll live.
Since it was already 9pm-ish by the time I got to downtown, I first went to get a late night dinner at Shida Night Market. But is it because it's a Thursday night? It's... empty..... at least, my "usual dinner place" here was still open. 大台北 "Taipei Soy Sauce Braised Food" was still open. The staff have changed, and it was a bit funny. I remember before they used to call foreign strangers like "missy" or "mister". (In some other places like Bangkok I've heard a direct "lady"). But I guess they've changed somewhat. Now the catch phrase is "My Friend!" And for some reason I kind of got the feeling that I was in India.... LOL.
Basically you choose whatever ingredient you want and they will cook it in their special soup base. I was eating solo so I had to control what I got. One of my Taiwan favorites is this "Pork Blood Cake " 豬血糕. Maybe it's really pork blood, and mixed with some glutinous rice flour to make a cake sort of thing.
After this very satisfying dinner, I made my leisurely way back to the hostel. Stopped at a cosmetics shop and bought some beauty face masks for these 3 nights, and then near the hostel to the convenience store and bought my milk for tomorrow.
The plan tomorrow is to get some local breakfast, then go up to Dansui (Tamsui)... I'll probably stop at Beitou on the way for a walk around and look-see of the Hot Springs, then at Dansui I'm going to brave it and take a bus to some temple deep in the... non-city area. Wuji Tianyuan Temple.
That's the plan, but we'll see.