Taipei- 台北

Last weekend we did a whirlwind 48 hour trip to Taipei. It may possibly be our favorite weekend that we have had here in Taiwan!

We went with some friends from Fengyuan and they had booked our train tickets leaving from Taichung at 7AM, which meant we had to be on a train from Changhua at about 6:30AM- it was quite an early morning, but a peaceful bike ride to the train station that early. Hooray for no traffic!

The train ride took about 3.5 hours and when we got to Taipei, we took our first MRT (Taipei Metro) ride to our hostel to drop off our bags and quickly freshen up- for we were off to the Zoo! Ray and I were worried that the zoo would be a waste of time. After all, we don't have kids oggling over the animals and begging us to go. The entrance fee was only $60NT (~$2USD) though, so we figured, what the heck! Turns out, there's something about zoo's that makes everyone turn into a little kid and have the time of their life. Who can say no to monkeys chasing each other through the trees and swinging from branches like you've only seen in Tarzan?

Also, who can say no to your first panda encounter?

I know he's small, but we were being pushed through this huge line of other people trying to take the same photo!

 Right next to the zoo, is the boarding station for the Maokong Gondola. The gondola ride takes you up the mountain surrounding Taipei and provides you with this stunning view of the city. As luck would have it, I'm still pretty much terrified of heights so the whole ride up my palms were sweating like crazy and I had to keep myself from screaming at anyone who dared to move an inch in our gondola. Call me crazy, but that one metal bar attached to a wire holding 7 Americans just doesn't give me oodles of confidence.

Fortunately my group didn't make me go in one of the glass bottom gondolas- I would have died. I also definitely would have been scrapping my return ticket and finding a bus down to the bottom!

When we finished the gondola ride, we boarded the MRT again and headed straight for Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world. It only lost its title of the tallest in 2010 I believe, to Dubai. It really was rather breathtaking walking up to it all lit up like this. The elevator ride to the top (a.k.a the 85th floor) costs $450NT, and there was a 15 minute wait to go- so Ray and I bagged that idea and went for the "been there, seen that" point of view instead. Can't say I regret it either, I had had enough heights for one day really.
 

Following 101, we made one final stop the night market. Night markets may sound like a touristy kind of thing, but they really are part of the Taiwanese way of life. There is one nearly every night and people routinely hit them up for dinner, no special occasion needed. It's like going to the fair- a big party every time! The market in Taipei did not disappoint- only in the sense that we did not budget nearly enough time to explore all of it! We probably only got through 4 streets of the countless ones available. We did however, manage to pick up our new favorite souvenir.

We've noticed in Taiwan a lot of couples wear matching shirts... so we decided we should definitely get in on that action. When in Rome, right? So at the night market we found a fabulous T-shirt shop and managed to scoop up these babies for a steal of a deal. We're cool, you can say it.
 

Ray's says: "I love my wife" and mine says "I love my husband"

End Day 1. Followed by a wonderful nights rest- those beds were the most comfortable thing I've slept on in nearly 4 months. I seriously started planning in my brain how I could get out of the hostel with the pillow.  On Sunday we made it to the Jade Market and spent nearly two hours just enjoying "window" shopping, if you will. I discovered a new found love for coral jewelry and Ray spoiled me by buying me a pair of pink coral, rose shaped earrings. I pretty much love them, and Ray. We got some other goodies too, but I shan't be ruining any surprises here... ;-)

After the Jade Market, we went to the National Palace Museum. I had directions from another blogger on how to get there, but apparently we still looked lost enough that an MRT worker attached himself to us, provided us with English MRT maps, and handed us off to our train conductor with instructions that she was to come get us at the stop we needed. He also gave us a note in Chinese to hand to the bus driver to make sure he took us to the right place. The Taiwanese are so helpful and sweet :) And after being in Changhua for so long, we were amazed at how prevalent English was!

The palace museum was fantastic. It is full of old Chinese artifacts that were brought to Taiwan from China in order to save them from destruction during the Chinese Civil War (1948). Ray loved the history involved, and I enjoyed listening to him retell me the stories as we both admired art, jewelry and tapestries all centuries old. If you're ever in Taipei, it's something you don't want to miss.

We ended the night in probably the best way any night could ever end: MEXICAN FOOD. Oh lanta, it had been 4 months plus since we'd had a burrito, and we knew there had to be a decent place in a big city like Taipei. I did a quick Google search and discovered Macho Taco, a highly recommended Mexican restaurant conveniently located downtown. We were the only ones there when we walked in, but soon the place was busting with white people, it was almost like being in the states :) I was too excited to remember to take a picture of my steak burrito with the works and horchata before, so instead I took a picture of our mess after. Oh it was good.

After our Mexican food we headed to the train station once more, indulged in some Cold Stone ice cream (I love big cities) and made it home in Changhua a little past midnight. Phew! Then it was back to teaching 9AM the next morning.

Taipei was fantastic, we hope we get a chance to go back again because we know there is lots more we'd like to see.