Taiwan day 1 + 2
In Japan theres alot of national holidays, in which mostly certain alot of the JET english teachers will go on holiday either in Japan or outwith in asia somewhere. With this in mind and an almost weeks long holiday in September. I went to Taiwan. A country I know absolutly nothing about and have never thought about going to. But as it was cheap and easy to get to from Japan and the company was good...I decided to go :) Shana, Heather, Anna, Chealsea and myself all headed towards taiwan for 6 days to stay in a luxuary hotel http://www.hsuanmeihotel.com/
after a short 2 hour flight, we arrived in Taipei airport where we were then excorted to our hotel by the hotel bus and a lovely bloke who we came to know as Alan.
When we arrived to the hotel we were....very very happy!
you could fit 3-4 people in our bath! There was also a TV set!
Playing Kung fu movies!
When we got ready to go, we decided to explore the area around the hotel and work out the money situation and the language situation.
We decided to eat here, on a street corner, where only the guy with glasses could speak a little english. In Taiwan, hardly anyone speaks english....we really should have bought a Taiwanese phrase book...oh well!
We had some sort of beef noodle thing...
and I think pigs skin and some kind of beans... this wasnt so yummy and just generally chewy!
It was a bring your own drinks kind of thing...so I got some Taiwanese beer, which is nice. I remember dad used to drink Tsingtao back home, tasted the same really.
Then out of nowhere we heard music and the rubbish men came!! They didnt go to the people..the people went to it! This was also around 10pm at night too! That would never ever occur in Scotland!
On the way back, we discovered the cheapness of seven eleven convinience stores, and I discovered that taiwan stocks alot of milk. Tonights flavour of milk to try was Malt Milk.
Yum Yum.
As we didnt speak Chinese/Taiwanese, we decided it would be best to go on some tours to see the sights.
Up early for buffet breakfast of kings! I particulary liked the french toast and honey.
Taiwanese money........is strange. These are dollars. 20 dollars is 60 yen. Its confusing.
We headed to the station.
Working out how to use the subway system was fun.
Instead of tickets they used special coins!
You would buy a coin and then scan it to get through the gate. At the end you would just deposit the coin in the coin dispenser on the way out. It was cool.
Lion and Dragon statues were everywhere. We decided to go to the Shaolong temple, or something along the lines of it. So off we were!
We found some very artistic cows outside of the station.
On to the temple, which had a nice LCD screen to let you know the opening times etc etc.
This was us outside of the temple.
It was very colourful and pretty.
Lots of gold and red and green and blue. Nice primary colours everywhere.
Of course there was goldfish :)
Incense in the inside for prayer.
Offerings to the gods. Often they included can coffee which I thought was strange.
One of the attendants thought it would be nice to give us some incense. However it made our hands go red! I also managed to get it in my eyes a few times.
Inside with the buddha's.
Waiting inside the temple.
I loved walking around. It was very friendly and some of the locals were having their lunch and tea there.
Long walkways too.
Inside they had tiny little buddhas and statues.
Families hanging out in the temple.
Outside the gates of the temple.
next up was some bubble tea! After walking around the temple, Heather and I went to get some Bubble tea.
I think I ended up with some jasmin and honey bubble tea. It was heavenly.
Bubbllllley.
Some of the fruits available in Taipei. Dragon Fruit was back with anger it seemed!
We then decided to find the museum, however we didnt know where it was...so we walked in the direction that the map said it was and ended up looking around the memorials which was nice.
The memorial area was huge!
Jumping outside of the gate :)
The area was huge, it took a while to walk around.
Me and Heather spent some time posing. It was fun!
There was alot of steps, and it was absolutly boiling!
The stunning view.
There was this statue in the memorial hall and the guards were doing there marching thing.....I dont know what its called...
They twirled swords too.
:) Posing. I was really really hot in the sun.
Yey for statues of lions!
Of course it needed to be hugged.
We finally went off to find the museum. Passing by some lovely gardens.
We stopped at the convience store for some drinks and I saw this....
Pot of boiling black eggs anyone?
We were apparently walking down wedding street. Which was covered in Wedding shops and photography shops. Very pretty dresses everywhere.
Finally made it outside of the museum, we went in for a while but me and Anna had the most fun trying to guess what everything was and then we found a dodo picture that made my nose bleed. Very interesting.
There was interesting street paintings outside of the museum.
there was also alot of interesting flowers outside of the museum.
Lotus patch.
I found an interesting phone....and it actually was a phone!
At night we went out to find somewhere to eat.
There was alot of live performers around.
The streets were very similar to Tokyo.
We settled on a restaurant that had pictures we could point to, and thats what we did. We had no idea of the price of it all, but the point and order method seemed to work.
On the way back...there was a half naked man performing.
Then on to the famous night markets! But we honestly couldnt find anything bar food...
Nothing wrong with food, but we had already eaten...
Taiwan...land of the phone straps.
Some school kids were obsessed with chealsea as she had blonde hair and was foriegn. It was funny and a little scary.
I tried apple milk. The single most disgusting milk I have ever drank in my life.
We then headed home, after finding the proper area of the night market. Although everything wasnt as cheap as imagined...it was fun. Not as many fake things as I thought there would be.
The next morning we woke up early and headed out on a tour to see Keelung and some geological rocks. We were up...early....
Out of the window of the van we could see confucious!
Although our tour guide had a strict time rule, he did show us some very interesting places.
White elephants. The gate to the shrine in Keelung.
A giant white buddha was there to fulfil my taiwan expectations.
There was also big Lions with balls.
I promise that we are in there somewhere.
There was a nice view.
The tall Buddha has a sun halo.
Posing at the pagoda's
The shrine was covered in beautiful red lanterns.
It was beautiful and hot!
Just before we were supposed to meet and head on, myself and Heather found that you could climb up the tall buddha! So we did!
Buddha's entrance.
Things inside Buddha.
Picture of outside from inside Buddha.. there was alot of stairs.
There was gold buddhas going up inside the buddha.
The bell to ring in your wishes.
Heading down to the bus.
Pagoda hat.
Then we moved on the the Geological park to see the very famous Queens head apparently.
The geological park was beautiful. The rocks had been roded away by the sea and the rain over hundreds of years. It was very moon-like.
we were on the moon in taiwan....!
It was such a hot day too.
Posing on the rocks. It was fun because you could use them as your playground.
I even found a nice seat in one of the rocks.
Even jumping shots were had.
Sea front.
I just wanted to jump in all the time.
a statue was made of a man who tried to rescue some kids from the sea...except he lost his life in the rescue attempt.
This was the queens head... we expected to see a huge rock..but we were rock. Apparently in 100 years the neck will snap and a new focus point will be found.
This was the elephant rock. You can see its trunk and tusks. This was cool.
This will be the new landmark apparently. I think it looks like a dinosaur.
On the way back we could try squid and dried fruits in the shop alley.
I settled and got some of the strange orange juice that there was. I had no idea what it was.
It had funky jelly in it....I dont want to know what it was really...
On the way back we saw that the fishing boats had lightbulbs to attract the fish to the boats. Overall Keelung was a very beautiful place. I just wish we had more of an opertunity to explore it, but I'm really glad we went! The geological park was amazing!
Next time, more updates from taiwan! Thats enough for one day!.
after a short 2 hour flight, we arrived in Taipei airport where we were then excorted to our hotel by the hotel bus and a lovely bloke who we came to know as Alan.
When we arrived to the hotel we were....very very happy!
you could fit 3-4 people in our bath! There was also a TV set!
Playing Kung fu movies!
When we got ready to go, we decided to explore the area around the hotel and work out the money situation and the language situation.
We decided to eat here, on a street corner, where only the guy with glasses could speak a little english. In Taiwan, hardly anyone speaks english....we really should have bought a Taiwanese phrase book...oh well!
We had some sort of beef noodle thing...
and I think pigs skin and some kind of beans... this wasnt so yummy and just generally chewy!
It was a bring your own drinks kind of thing...so I got some Taiwanese beer, which is nice. I remember dad used to drink Tsingtao back home, tasted the same really.
Then out of nowhere we heard music and the rubbish men came!! They didnt go to the people..the people went to it! This was also around 10pm at night too! That would never ever occur in Scotland!
On the way back, we discovered the cheapness of seven eleven convinience stores, and I discovered that taiwan stocks alot of milk. Tonights flavour of milk to try was Malt Milk.
Yum Yum.
As we didnt speak Chinese/Taiwanese, we decided it would be best to go on some tours to see the sights.
Up early for buffet breakfast of kings! I particulary liked the french toast and honey.
Taiwanese money........is strange. These are dollars. 20 dollars is 60 yen. Its confusing.
We headed to the station.
Working out how to use the subway system was fun.
Instead of tickets they used special coins!
You would buy a coin and then scan it to get through the gate. At the end you would just deposit the coin in the coin dispenser on the way out. It was cool.
Lion and Dragon statues were everywhere. We decided to go to the Shaolong temple, or something along the lines of it. So off we were!
We found some very artistic cows outside of the station.
On to the temple, which had a nice LCD screen to let you know the opening times etc etc.
This was us outside of the temple.
It was very colourful and pretty.
Lots of gold and red and green and blue. Nice primary colours everywhere.
Of course there was goldfish :)
Incense in the inside for prayer.
Offerings to the gods. Often they included can coffee which I thought was strange.
One of the attendants thought it would be nice to give us some incense. However it made our hands go red! I also managed to get it in my eyes a few times.
Inside with the buddha's.
Waiting inside the temple.
I loved walking around. It was very friendly and some of the locals were having their lunch and tea there.
Long walkways too.
Inside they had tiny little buddhas and statues.
Families hanging out in the temple.
Outside the gates of the temple.
next up was some bubble tea! After walking around the temple, Heather and I went to get some Bubble tea.
I think I ended up with some jasmin and honey bubble tea. It was heavenly.
Bubbllllley.
Some of the fruits available in Taipei. Dragon Fruit was back with anger it seemed!
We then decided to find the museum, however we didnt know where it was...so we walked in the direction that the map said it was and ended up looking around the memorials which was nice.
The memorial area was huge!
Jumping outside of the gate :)
The area was huge, it took a while to walk around.
Me and Heather spent some time posing. It was fun!
There was alot of steps, and it was absolutly boiling!
The stunning view.
There was this statue in the memorial hall and the guards were doing there marching thing.....I dont know what its called...
They twirled swords too.
:) Posing. I was really really hot in the sun.
Yey for statues of lions!
Of course it needed to be hugged.
We finally went off to find the museum. Passing by some lovely gardens.
We stopped at the convience store for some drinks and I saw this....
Pot of boiling black eggs anyone?
We were apparently walking down wedding street. Which was covered in Wedding shops and photography shops. Very pretty dresses everywhere.
Finally made it outside of the museum, we went in for a while but me and Anna had the most fun trying to guess what everything was and then we found a dodo picture that made my nose bleed. Very interesting.
There was interesting street paintings outside of the museum.
there was also alot of interesting flowers outside of the museum.
Lotus patch.
I found an interesting phone....and it actually was a phone!
At night we went out to find somewhere to eat.
There was alot of live performers around.
The streets were very similar to Tokyo.
We settled on a restaurant that had pictures we could point to, and thats what we did. We had no idea of the price of it all, but the point and order method seemed to work.
On the way back...there was a half naked man performing.
Then on to the famous night markets! But we honestly couldnt find anything bar food...
Nothing wrong with food, but we had already eaten...
Taiwan...land of the phone straps.
Some school kids were obsessed with chealsea as she had blonde hair and was foriegn. It was funny and a little scary.
I tried apple milk. The single most disgusting milk I have ever drank in my life.
We then headed home, after finding the proper area of the night market. Although everything wasnt as cheap as imagined...it was fun. Not as many fake things as I thought there would be.
The next morning we woke up early and headed out on a tour to see Keelung and some geological rocks. We were up...early....
Out of the window of the van we could see confucious!
Although our tour guide had a strict time rule, he did show us some very interesting places.
White elephants. The gate to the shrine in Keelung.
A giant white buddha was there to fulfil my taiwan expectations.
There was also big Lions with balls.
I promise that we are in there somewhere.
There was a nice view.
The tall Buddha has a sun halo.
Posing at the pagoda's
The shrine was covered in beautiful red lanterns.
It was beautiful and hot!
Just before we were supposed to meet and head on, myself and Heather found that you could climb up the tall buddha! So we did!
Buddha's entrance.
Things inside Buddha.
Picture of outside from inside Buddha.. there was alot of stairs.
There was gold buddhas going up inside the buddha.
The bell to ring in your wishes.
Heading down to the bus.
Pagoda hat.
Then we moved on the the Geological park to see the very famous Queens head apparently.
The geological park was beautiful. The rocks had been roded away by the sea and the rain over hundreds of years. It was very moon-like.
we were on the moon in taiwan....!
It was such a hot day too.
Posing on the rocks. It was fun because you could use them as your playground.
I even found a nice seat in one of the rocks.
Even jumping shots were had.
Sea front.
I just wanted to jump in all the time.
a statue was made of a man who tried to rescue some kids from the sea...except he lost his life in the rescue attempt.
This was the queens head... we expected to see a huge rock..but we were rock. Apparently in 100 years the neck will snap and a new focus point will be found.
This was the elephant rock. You can see its trunk and tusks. This was cool.
This will be the new landmark apparently. I think it looks like a dinosaur.
On the way back we could try squid and dried fruits in the shop alley.
I settled and got some of the strange orange juice that there was. I had no idea what it was.
It had funky jelly in it....I dont want to know what it was really...
On the way back we saw that the fishing boats had lightbulbs to attract the fish to the boats. Overall Keelung was a very beautiful place. I just wish we had more of an opertunity to explore it, but I'm really glad we went! The geological park was amazing!
Next time, more updates from taiwan! Thats enough for one day!.