I wish I could say I knew the city of Yilan, because that was where we wanted to go after Hualien. However, we ended up staying in Jaoxi, a town one stop north of Yilan. It was a hot spring town and we stayed at a hot spring hotel that had an outdoor unisex (bathing suits required) hot pool, inside hot pools, and private room hot spring baths. Really good stay given the amount of relaxation due from all the traveling. It felt good to do nothing and soak in a hot tub of natural mineral rich water that was also odorless. None of that sulfurous stank you can safely pass gas in. Nope. This smelled of hot bath and lazy slumber.

And for going out, we actually headed to Loudong, a town one stop south of Yilan. This place was notorious for their night market, which we tried and I loved. But this was also where we decided to rent a car to check local attractions. First was the Rabbit Pencil Factory. Not much of a museum, but the gift shop did carry some unique looking pencils. I had to buy some for some creative friends back home. If you didn’t make an appointment, like we did, to tour the factory, the place would be small. Tiny. You’re confined to one room, being the gift shop, and the other room paying tribute to the history of the factory. Within fifteen minutes we were off to the National Center for Traditional Arts. Not my sorta thing given we’ve been to the real old towns on our trip. This place was a cleaned up artificial looking old town and a major tourist trap to suck the bills out of your wallet. Just to summarize, you have to pay for parking and pay for entrance. Inside, you’ll see fabricated old town architecture housing, you guessed it, gift shops selling you taffy and “traditional” paraphernalia. And by the way, no pictures inside please. Ugh. Well, if capitalism has gotten you down, no fret. Sit down at the old town Starbucks and grab a lunch box from 7-11. They’re definitely looking out for you inside this place. Ooops, let me rephrase that – they’re definitely looking out for what’s inside your wallet inside this place. Defeated we decided to head back to the station.

By the way, we also did the “kissing fish” pool during our stay. If you don’t know about it, it’s these little fish that will help exfoliate skin from your feet. I’ve read about this and decided to try. What I found out was it’s not for the squeamish and definitely not for the ticklish. It only took two or three fish to send me balling, drawing the disapproving stares from the experts. One of them being Vicky. I just couldn’t help it. It’s not every day you get this sort of thing happen to you. And trust me, I really want to be able to do this. The corns on my feet can feed millions.

Sorry Yilan, I will have to stop by next time. For now, it’s back to Taipei to end this around the island trip.

Food:
Good stuff. We tried the Double 3 hot pot chain which was average for Vicky but very good for me. I loved it, and for the price and the amount you get. I loved it. The other memorable time we ate was at, you guessed it, the night market. If you’ve read about the lamb soup place, it’s worth the wait. Not very gamey and you forget you’re eating lamb noodle soup every once in a while. Oh and this area’s known for the green onions. We had this deep fried thing with a green onion mix inside. Very good, but very hot. Wish I took a picture of it to share with you.

Getting Around:
Can’t say, we were driven everywhere.

Overall Feel:
There are sections of mom and pop shops but it has a main area for all your trendy shopping needs. No high end stuff though.

Travel Cost(s):
$39NTD bus ride from Loudong to Taipei
$2300NTD/night hot spring hotel
$800NTD/half-day car rental
$350NTD/day scooter rental
$539NTD meal at Double 3

Although having a chance of rain was worse than it raining all day, it did make for a mystifying view of the Hualien mountains. The way the clouds move around the peaks makes me want to daydream all day. Sometime you couldn’t tell if clouds were swooping down from the skies or billowing up from the mountain side. It was as if a mythical battle had finish and the air was damp of fatigue. And here we were, pack animals, wandering through the battle field in marvel of what was left.

Okay, maybe my imagination took the best of me. But that’s what it felt like here. Especially up in the Taroko Gorge National Park 太魯閣國家公園.

We decided on something different than our usual exploration of a town, a personal driver. But not just a driver, but a tour guide to take us where we wanted to go and learn about what we needed. Great idea given we were tired of exploring and getting caught in the rain (though we still did riding back and forth to the night market). Problem was, our guide only spoke Mandarin so I was only filled in on highlights about the ten spots we visited. So as usual, I played the role of photographer and annoyingly, the videographer. I’m surprised I hadn’t fallen off the cliffs gawking at the 90 degree cliff walls that surrounded us in Taroko. Quite magnificent! We hiked some paths and even made our way down to a natural hot spring where people were already making much use of. The only thing I didn’t like was the local guides (not only ours) were creating “new” landmarks such as, “the sitting frog” or the “half face.” All of which are rock formations that, given the right psychological suggestion, are the proper shapes. But would also be unknown if the highway had not been carved into the mountain. It’s all cloud watching in my book. Just sayin!

The end of the day, we spent pampering ourselves to a two hour foot and body massage. That night was the best night of sleep

Food:

While I can’t rave about the local everyday food, I can certainly say try the Ocean Sunfish. Our driver took us to the “fisherman’s wharf” where you buy fresh fish and take it next door to have it cooked. Kinda like what we did in Kenting. But this place had this fish that had the most interesting texture, close to the chewiness of fish cheek. And it’s intestines were equally as good. If it doesn’t sound appealing, I’d say if you ever want to start being adventurous, start here with this fish. Trust me, get it while you’re here. Not many countries have this.

The Ziqiang Night Market was small, but well worth the visit. The rain fortunately kept the crowds at a minimum. We still waited about 15 minutes for our barbeque skewers which I think you could skip. One of the memorable places was the popular coffin toast place. You’ll know you have the right place by the crowd around the booth. And they also have a seating area. What made this memorable was, if you happen to read my earlier posts, I wasn’t a fan of this stuff. Well, this place let’s you choose your filling. The black pepper steak filling was good! And the bread was nice and dense. About half way through the sandwich, I had to stop to make room for other foods. Glad I did, because the grill seafood shop was a great place to relax, have a beer, and snack on some giant oysters.

Getting Around:
Scooter was an easy way to get around town. To get to the interesting parts, either get a 125cc scooter and be ready for a long ride up the mountains or get a driver. If you think taxi, might as well get a driver for the day. Don’t know about taking the bus.

Overall Feel:
I definitely will be back. Lovely city that’s busy but not too congested. And with the option of getting away to the lovely mountains within half an hour or to the beach in minutes, it’s a trifecta!

Costs:
$568NTD Tze-Chiang train from Fengliao to Hualien (4-hour train)
$2000NTD/night at Royal View Hotel
$350NTD/day scooter rental
$3500NTD personal tour

There were enough people to keep the streets busy though.

Unfortunately, the weather was being unpredictable. At times, it was perfect and other times, we found ourselves driving through the rain. Pretty nerve racking when the rain droplets are pelting your face. But it makes for some nice time lapse footage. We made the best of it. Visiting other parts of Kenting, including a quiet picturesque beach on the other side. Oh how I wanted to stay longer. But alas, it was time to continue our journey.

One of the bad things about going in the off season was that buses don’t run regularly. Shop keepers were kind enough to let us know and offer their transportation services of $300NTD back into Hengchun. As messed up as they were, it did cross my mind to hire them as we sat there for an hour next to the bus sign saying they operate every 15 minutes. Tempting, but luckily Vicky decided to try something out. She got up and simply stuck out her thumb. That’s right, she’s going to try and hitch hike. And by try, I meant would. Within minutes, this kind couple from Pingtung stopped and gave us a ride in a sweet Hybrid Lexus. And to demonstrate how kind Southern Taiwanese people were, not only did they take us into Hengchun, they took us all the way to Fengliao! So I have to mention them in this post because they did so much. Helped us out of a predicament. Cut our travel time ten fold. And gave us a real life account of how wonderful the people of Taiwan are. Thanks again!

Food:
This was a place for fresh seafood! Look for restaurants with fish tanks outside and take your pick. Prices would be higher than the local places but what you get in return was quality seafood. Can’t say much for the sauces they whip it up with, but the textures of fish, shrimp, crabs, and clams rank up there with top restaurants back in the states. Below are some of the dishes we had:

If you wander into old town Hengchun, I’d recommend finding the local places. Yeah, luck would be useful, but in our case, it was good judgement. We were looking at the menu of a nice looking place whose prices shouted “tourist trap.” And with the zero number of patrons inside, it pretty much confirmed it. But next door, behind some blue metal curtains were people slurping down noodles on flimsy plastic chairs and communal metal tables. It was a great meal

My appetite for night markets started to come back, in case you noticed I was getting tired of it. The main street was basically a night market at night. Being the street food snob that I have now become, there wasn’t anything that stood out as spectacular here. Didn’t read up on any must eats either. Tonight was for other street food I see. I finally got to try was that hot dog that looked like a hot dog stuffed inside a hot dog. Oh my. I was braced for a heart attack. But nope, it’s actually a rice sausage and was it so good!

Getting Around:
By bus would be the way we would have traveled if it weren’t the off season. But in the area, I’d recommend traveling by scooter. Car traffic was light and scooters are the most convenient to stop at all the shops. Also, for us, traveling light and by train, get the scooter around the train station. Or else you’d be waiting for at least two buses to get back to the station. And forget about taxis. They’re scarce and overpriced.

Overall Feel:

I’ll predicate my statement by saying I love beach towns. This one’s definitely commercialized but still small enough to enjoy. Plus if you’re adventurous, there are other parts in the area to see. The wind can make it hard to scooter to the other parts. Still, good to have options. But I’d have to say I wouldn’t like this place during the busy season.

Costs:
$250NTD bus ride to Kenting (2.5 hours)
$1800NTD night at the ocean facing hotel
$2300NTD fresh seafood feast on the main street of Kenting
$150NTD local shop lunch feast in Hengchun
$400NTD day scooter rental

There was a miscalculation in our plans. We took the train to Pingtung City before we realized it was easier to take the bus from Kaohsiung. Instead of doubling back or even continuing south, gambling on catching a bus in Fangliao, we decided to stay a night in Pingtung. What we were looking for was a place that was cheap and close to the station. What we got was a “love” hotel, something we Americans would call a roadside motel, but this was far superior. I’ve walked by these places in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Always wondered what they were like being able to stay hours rather than nights. In our case, we were staying the night. Wow. Why can’t we stay at these places normally!?!? It had an individual garage, king size bed, big screen TV, jacuzzi with a TV, and porn! I’d give this place a 5-star review if I could. Or maybe rather than night markets, I should be checking out the best love hotels in each city. I smell a new Travel Channel show.

Food:
Not much to say since we stayed in. We did order from Mos Burger and found out they do delivery. There was no reason to leave the hotel now. Junk food and porn all night long! Anyways, Mos Burger was good. It’s a hamburger with rice patties for buns. Kinda like a spam musubi minus all the saltiness. They also serve “normal” burgers with bread. But why try that when we have good ole burgers back home.

Getting Around:
We taxi’d to the hotel. There are plenty of taxis to take from the train station.

Overall Feel:
Given we only stayed here for the night, I don’t really have much to say about this town.

Costs:
$45NTD by Tze-Chiang train from Kaohsiung to Pingtung
$1759NTD night at the love hotel

We didn’t expect much from Kaohsiung. It was going to be another town on our expedited journey to Kenting. What a miscalculation on our part. I definitely wanted to see more of this city. For starters, the Liuhe Night Market 六合夜市 was good, filled with competing food stalls. That led to some good king prawn eating, freshly cooked and I mean fresh. They were swimming and skewered right before you eyes. Not for the squeamish. But in the end, definitely worth it. Firm and tasty meat after you pull off those hot shells. However, besides the fresh seafood it was a typical night market setting. Not saying it’s not worth a visit. It definitely was. For me though, I’m getting my fill of night market foods, not to mention the pounds. My arteries were hating me.

The really surprising thing was how new parts of the city were. They have this Dream Mall that housed a little amusement park on the roof. Pretty cool and I have to state, for the record, that I was forced into the giant Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel. Really! But hey, it’s no London Eye. It does tower over the city sitting on top of a ten story shopping mall. The rooftop would be a hang out for me back in my younger years (a long long time ago). The stores inside we all modern with high end shops and even some specialty pop brands like a 7-Eleven Open-Jung 小將 store. If you have no idea what that is, look it up. I had to. Nice to see the Hello Kitty shop next door get some competition. Not that I care. I was dumbfounded that a market for all the paraphernalia existed. Yet, I was even more confused by the amount of people at this strikingly lavish mall. There wasn’t that many. Even the movie theater floor felt empty. It was a Friday night! Strange. And let’s not blame it on the economy. From what I have been told an ex-president’s administration had been pouring money into the city. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?

I’m not going to talk politics here.

What I will talk about was our biking around town. Very good thing to do in this town. It may have been the fact that it was Sunday and there was less traffic, but getting around town on a bike was easy. Oh yeah, we had also taken it to the night market the day before. I’d recommend doing this in this town. We made our way from our hotel, who lent us the bikes free of charge (if you want more notes about the awesome place, feel free to send me an email), over to the old British Consulate building and came across a field of abandoned railway stops to a warehouse of art galleries. Definitely wish I knew about it to bye tickets for some of the exhibitions there. That’s what I get for not reading up on this city.

Food:
Food here was good. Back to traditional Taiwanese food, but with more emphasis on seafood. I’d avoid the $100NTD Izakaya style shops unless you know a local to recommend some nice shops. That’s $100NTD a dish. After having a whole meal for under this price at good local shops, it’s hard to pay more for mediocre bar food. Get out to the night market instead of the happy hour places.

And if you’re hungry in the morning, try a Taiwanese breakfast. It’ll only set you back $94NTD. And what you see above was for two people. But don’t expect it to be mind blowing. It’s meant to be carb heavy to get you through the day.

Getting Around:
By taxi, but mostly by bike. Decent bike paths by Love River. On the roads, be mindful. Cars don’t yield like they do in the states.

Overall Feel:
Great city. Can’t imagine how it’ll feel in the summer. But it’s a modern metropolis filled with expensive shops like your Prada and Louis Vuitton. Not my thing, but definitely my kind of town.

Costs:
$75NTD by normal train from Tainan to Kaoshiung (about 55 minutes)
$2380NTD night at the R&R Hotel (surprisingly upgraded to a 4 person suite)
$100-$125NTD for taxi rides to the train station

The first thing we did after arriving, renting a scooter, and checking in was to go check out the Hua Yuan (Flower Garden) Night Market 花園夜市. It’s only open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Being Thursday night, it was our lucky day. Unfortunately, it was lucky for everyone else who loved this market. I can see why. It’s out in the open, like in a large parking lot and was split between food, shopping, and games. We stuck to the food area like everyone else. The place was packed and you pretty much had to eat standing or walking around. There were places to sit but they were for specific stalls if you ordered from them. There was a good variety of foods, including the local favorite Coffin Toast 棺材板 and Danzai Noodles 擔仔麵. After trying it here, I wasn’t a fan, but thankfully there were other foods we tried, like, grilled conch, pork cutlet, stinky tofu, skewered lamb, and deep fried king mushrooms (my favorite!). Sorry I don’t have the Chinese names for them. I’m too lazy to look them up. But the main good thing about this market was what I mentioned earlier. It was out in the open-open, not cramped into city streets surrounded by buildings. So by the end of your eating frenzy, you’re properly aired out and cleansed of that nasty stuff you just tried out. Now if they could do something about stinky tofu breath!

The next day we went into the Anping District (Old Tainan) 安平區. Highly recommended. Plenty of vendor stalls for your tourist trap needs. I usually avoid them, but I saw a mini Coffin Toast stall which I say is how you should eat the stuff. So let me clarify. I’m not a fan of Coffin Toast, but mini Coffin Toast I do like. The right balance of breading and that potpie filler stuff. Anyways, I hate digressing back into food. That’s what the food section below is for. Back to Anping. You can see the famous fort and stuff but the real fun was getting lost in the neighborhood. Okay, you really can’t get lost, but you want to feel like you are so when you stumble upon a small historical building it’s amazing. You can read all about it’s history on a plaque outside and wonder if the people living around there were just designating themselves as historic. Because I know I would. Still it’s cool to walk through the area. We found old Japanese style houses and small temples.

Our favorite find was Haishan Guan 海山館, a recently renovated building combining old time architecture with cartoon pop flare. I’m not sure what the purpose of the building was for. I think it used to be a hostel, but now it’s a place for people to come play and, I guess, to buy things like I did, some nice little lion-like figurines. The people were great and offered to ship them for me since we were traveling like. My way of “back packing” through Taiwan.

We spent most of the day walking through old town. It’s a shame we didn’t see the other side of town. This will do though. Tainan will be this old town with great little places you can find by scooter. Yeah, it felt pretty safe riding in this town. Not so much by traffic laws, but by safety in numbers. There appears to be a larger number of two wheelers in this town that others. And I have to say, they were nicer. And we were your average, but apparently not annoying, tourist by asking our fellow motorists for directions. Not even an eye roll.

Tainan, I will be back to know you more. You supply the alcohol and I’ll bring my drinking habit.

Food:
Don’t really like the lighter/sweeter taste of the Tainan food. There was nothing I tried that a year from now I’ll be craving to have again. The Coffin Toast would be memorable though. It’s a chicken pot pie, with other stuff, and in a better deep fried crust, but still, it’s pot pie. Sorry, I never was a fan of it. The good food was your neighborhood local food. Try out the seafood. They may deep fry most of it but it’s worth the taste.

Getting Around:
Safely around by scooter.

Overall Feel:
Great city. Big, dirty, but warm with character and history. Definitely worth revisiting.

Travel Cost(s):
$105NTD by Tze-Chiang train from Taiching to Tainan to (limited express)
$350NTD scooter rental (50cc for a day)
$1650NTD night at a three star hotel

I love the train systems in Taiwan. The run regularly to every major city and this was just the normal railway. There’s the high speed railway which I haven’t tried out yet. Moving from place to place within one or two hours on the Tze-Chiang, limited express, trains were fine for us. I didn’t even go for the tourist railway pass, which is similar to the JR Railway Pass in Japan. The one in Taiwan seemed affordable, but doesn’t allow you to go on the express trains we were taking. People with the pass were allowed to take the trains the stopped at every stop. While a nice way to see the smaller cities of Taiwan, it wasn’t very time effective.

The trains were nice – comfy, with room to stretch your legs and a little raised foot rest. Airlines should take a look into adding these. If you’re hungry, you’re allowed to bring food on and eat. And if you need to do your thing, there are decent rest rooms (with toilets!) and a sink for every car. Not a bad way to travel. Luckily no one brought stinky tofu on board.

We took the train to Taichung. A nice big city that felt like a Taipei minus half the people and fancy new buildings. I read about this nice little tea house, Wu Wei Cao Tang Tea House 無為草堂, from http://mykafkaesquelife.blogspot.com/ and I have to say, it was worth getting to. It’s situated in this commercial area filled with retail shops and modern restaurants. It was a quiet getaway with a labyrinth of wooden stairs and hallways to the various tea rooms overlooking the Koi pond. We had lunch here and looked into what to do in Tainan. I really wanted to stay and check out the night market here, but we were on a tighter schedule. We only stayed around for five hours and it was back on the train.

Food:

Definitely good. There are some great specialty shops, like pig’s feet with rice. You’ll find shops everywhere for this. Sounds crazy, but give these fatty and gelatinous things a try. I tried them braised and they were great and filled with dietary guilt.

Try the Suncakes 太阳饼 too. They’re light flaky pastries and be sure to have them with tea.

Getting Around:
By cab you’re looking at about $100 – $125NTD per trip from district to district.

Overall Feel:
Felt like a big city I want to come back to. I didn’t spend too much time here so I definitely want to come back. I hear there’s a night life scene I need to see, but it feels more of a eating and shopping town.

Travel Cost(s):
$197NTD by Tze-Chiang train from Hsinchu to Taichung (limited express)
$20NTD locker

From the station we headed out to Beipu where Vicky’s grandmother lived.

Along the way we went by a few interesting spots. First being his school, Chinhua University, where Che was graduating with a PhD in Fuel Cell Technology. Interesting fellow. He had just returned from a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) conference out in France where he had given a presentation. Anyways, he was out tour guide and offered plenty of history around his University. Next was a small stop to a public well of a town with the largest population of twins. People believed it was in the water and visitors were free to siphon water. In our case, there was enough water falling on our heads to warrant a taste. Up the windy road was a nice view of the city reservoir. We had to enjoy it form the interior of our car. Bummer, but soon we were in Beipu.

Beipu was small and had a area catered to tourists. Cobble stone streets crossed in front of the temple aligned with vendors selling foods and souvenirs. Not many were opened obviously, but we found a small tea shop where we tried our hands at Hakka tea. It’s pretty intense and quite involved. You basically grind tea and nuts in a special ridged clay pot to the point you got a thick paste, made possible by the oils in the nuts. After a good 15 minutes of taking turns, we were finally able to add hot water and enjoy our tea. I can see how this could be fun if we had more people. More people to do the dirty work that is.

After saying bye to grandmother we headed back to the city.

For dinner we went to, you guessed it, Chenghuang Temple Night Market. And oh man, it’s small compared to Taipei’s night markets. And I have to say, this one was very disappointing. Bawan was pretty disgusting and the rice noodles that every vendor was selling looked unappetizing. We didn’t eat much. Che didn’t want us to eat-eat there. Instead, he took us a few blocks away to a place that specialized in duck. If you heard of Hainan Chicken, where the chicken is cooked with the rice, well, they do this with duck. And it’s divine. The duck itself was well prepared too. Simply roasted and served in its oily goodness. If you’re a fan of tripe, try the duck version. The texture is thinner and, for a lack of a better term, crisper. This meal made up for all the crap I had been eating.

My thoughts on Hsinchu City…

Food:
Good if you stay away from the crap night market food, but I’m sure you can find some gems in there. Wish I had more time to find them.

Getting Around:
Can’t say, we were driven everywhere.

Overall Feel:
There are sections of mom and pop shops but it has a main area for all your trendy shopping needs. No high end stuff though.

Travel Cost(s):
$177NTD by Tze-Chiang train from Taipei to Hsinchu (limited express)

Today it poured. I take that back, early morning it poured. The rest of the day wasn’t as wet but with the wind, it made for one uncomfortable day to get around town. The only thing we could do was to stay inside something. And if that something, like a bus, taxi, metro, or even gondola would take us somewhere interesting, then all the better. Of course, we did just that. Final destination, Maokong Station.

What was up there was a slew of tea houses nestled in the farmlands of the local growers. Very pleasant place. I’d tell you the name if I could. It’s in Chinese but I’m sure any tea house here would give you the same experience. Many of them being a five minute walk from the station.

But I have to say, the most memorable thing about today was the eating. Even this tea thing fits into this category. So let me rephrase it, this day was all about eating and drinking. We had local food shops where you can buy a Taiwanese hamburger or a fried chicken box lunch for $90NTD ($3 US Dollars) or splurge and on black chicken soup for $180NTD. Everything we had was good, tasty, and full of new flavors I’m going to remember this city for. Those puffy buns wrapped around braised pork, balanced with pickled veggies that were not overpowering, explained why they were called sandwiches. It’s all about the balance of each ingredient. Then the thinly crispy chicken on top of locally grown covered in an assortment of mixed greens. I’d want to call this a Chinese Bento Box, but this was a class of its own. And finally, we stopped by Shida Night Market for some chicken soup, a hearty mix of herbs that were invisible to eye, but clearly apparent on the palette. My only gripe was that they try to market each meal as being beneficial to an aspect of your health. Bullshit. Nothing this tasty was ever good for you! But I sure hope I’m wrong. Anyways, enjoy some of the food photos, though I could have done a better job taking them. Eating them was a higher priority than picture taking.

The other highlight was that the weather was clearing up. The long five days of rain we were suppose to get was being cut down to two days, with the Western cities seeing sunshine as early as tomorrow. Makes my head spin trying to believe what these weather people said. No matter, our journey was going to start tomorrow.

Hsinchu, here come come!

Just to give you some context, the day of our flight we were frantically packing all of Vicky’s things for her return home to Taipei. To add to our stress levels was our flight. Neither of us could get a decent amount of sleep. Before we knew it, it was time to disembark the plane, strained backed and raw eyed. So you got to imagine our little glimmer of hope as things looked like they were turning around and that this adventure was off to a good start. Maybe, but it was going to require some work.

First off, the weather outlook. Rain was creeping in the forecast and was about to stick around like old drunk uncle Charles.

That put a dire strain on circling the country on motorcycle. This, by the way, was a step down from trying to bike around Taiwan. Going by motorcycle would have been great to visit all the small towns and see the beautiful rural areas that aren’t marred with commercial tourist spots. Not like that’s bad. It’s just something my old buddy Wanami instilled in me. Meet the people that make the cities the great places they are. And most likely, those people aren’t living, eating, or even drinking in those parts of town. Ahh, I hope this is still a possibility.

But back to today.

Our next and more important problem was jet lag. I’m only out here for a week. We need to make the best of it and keep the days of fatigue to a minimal. The best way to do it was to get out and explore the city. So it was off to eating around Longshan and shopping in Ximen and lots of lots of coffee.

I think the best thing we did was walk and keep walking. The day was surprisingly hot and that meant stopping for some fantastic shaved ice. Why can’t we get this texture down in the states? Anyways, we were constantly taking breaks and grabbing a small bite. That’s the great thing about Taipei, this was possible at about every corner of the city. And more than likely, you won’t be disappointed. Well, maybe for that Formosa Chang. Vicky finally caved in and took me there to end my stupid curiosity. Oh forget about the food looking nothing like the pictures, the food wasn’t close to tasting good. Ughhh, at least I’ll have at least ten more days of night markets to excite my taste buds.

In the meantime, it’s time to let the sandman win.