Hualien and Taroko Gorge

*Written August 20, 2012*

The best way to start any morning

Yesterday we took a train to Hualien, with the ultimate goal of visiting Taroko Gorge. When we arrived, we went directly to our hostel, the 'Colorful Taiwan Hostel.' It was pretty colorful, actually. We became friendly with a volunteer at the hostel named Betty. She's awesome.

Since check in was several hours later than our arrival time, we rented bikes and rode around the city for a bit. We went to the beach, where I spent the majority of my time in a desperate search for the bathroom (I was still sick).

We left, locked up our bikes, and walked around the main area of the city.

The line for these dumplings was at least 30 people long and moved incredibly slowly. We did not wait for them. They look good though!

The bikes were due back at a certain time, and we had planned just enough time to stop at a suggested restaurant before brining them back. The food was incredible. Lots of dumplings and noodles.

When we went back to the hostel we dropped off the bikes, checked in, and then headed out to the night market. On the way we got Chinese meds for stomach problems, hopefully they'll work!

The night market was pretty awesome.

Delicious sushi for under one U.S. dollar a piece 

Milk pineapple 

The key to any successful product in Asia is cuteness 

Lamb with cabbage over rice

Before heading back to the hostel with full bellies, we stopped for a 10 minute massage. Chinese massages aren't meant to be relaxing, but are rather the intensely painful. You walk away feeling great though. Probably because a woman is no longer beating the shit out of your back.

Today we woke up early, ran to the bus station, and went to Taiwan's main tourist destination: Taroko Gorge. Our bus tickets allowed us to hop on and off the bus throughout the day at set schedules and at different locations.

We first got off at the visitors' centre, and then walked to Shakadang Trail, as per our map's suggestion. The only walking route there was through a really long tunnel along a road. Not cute. Shakadang Trail looked pretty, but it was closed. The next bus was a 40 minute wait, so we decided to walk to Bulouwan, the next stop. Little did we know, we would be walking about 6 miles uphill, along a highway. At least it the views along the way were utterly beautiful. We stopped in the Eternal Spring Shrine and bathed in the water, where we were assured longevity.

At Bulouwan, we had some lunch - a glorious refuge from walking. We then took the bus to Swallows  Grotto, and walked around. Again, beautiful views. The bus took us to Tunnel of Nine Turns, offering more incredible views. All of the walking trails were closed! =( Lastly, we took the bus to the final line - Tiansiang, where there were cute puppies that we stared at (too dirty to touch). We then hopped back on the bus and rode it all the way back to Hualien.

Back in Hualien, we went to the hostel, took photos with some of the staff, and then went to dinner with Betty. Hot pot! Yay!

When dinner was finished, we got on a train to Taipei.

Sick Days in Tai Pei Peis

*Written August 18, 2012*

Yesterday and today I've been super sick. Yesterday was worse than today, when all I did was eat light noodle soups and bread during the day.

Last night we managed to venture over to Taipei 101 just to take a peek - we didn't go up because we were in a rush to get over to meet some folks at a different metro stop. Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world (was the first from 2004-2010, when Dubai's Burj Khalifa took over). 

I didn't bring my camera, so here is Taipei 101 courtesy of my iPhone camera + Instagram

We then went over to Longshan Temple's night market - called "Snake Alley" because they sell snake products - to meet up with Dylan and Ellery (one of Tim's friends from Beijing who now teaches English in Taipei). I was too sick to eat anything. Torture.

From the night market, Tim, Dylan, and I went to Ximen's Red House area yet again for some drinks (I stuck with plain old Coca-Cola). We were joined by Sebastian and Oscar for a bit before we went and joined one of Dylan's friend's going away party. There I met Laredo (a hilarious and very blunt Taiwanese guy) and Darien (a Taiwanese guy who studied in Australia and works for Manhunt). The party was fun, but I would've enjoyed it more had I not been so sick.

Me and Dylan. Rockin' the red eye look. Also courtesy of my iPhone and Instagram.

Today I tried introducing dumplings back into my diet, thinking that I needed something other than noodles and bread. We wandered around looking for dumplings, but didn't find any so we settled for noodle soup. We did wind up finding dumplings on the way back, so we had to stop. We ordered two of every kind of dumpling, a dumpling Noah's Ark of sorts. 

After that we came back to Tim's place and planned out the rest of my time in Taiwan before Dylan came over. We played Loaded Questions, which is an awesomely inappropriate board game that Tim brought from the States. 

Later in the evening we met up with Sebastian, Ellery, Ellery's friend Maya (an awesome Taiwanese chick), and Navan (Dylan's South African friend). We got a ton of shared dishes and beer. Perhaps not the best thing to do while sick, but hey, I've been feeling a bit better.

Taiwan Beer

Sashimi 

Some sort of beef dish that was delicious 

Shrimp - om nom nom 

Maya 

Navan 

Ellery 

Tim 

Cabbage 

Egg and shrimp 

Chicken, peanuts, and dried chilli. SO GOOD 

Sebastian acting goofy 

Shenanigans  

"So famous in Taiwan"

Dinner was followed by a Language Exchange - where people meet up in a small restaurant, get drinks, and chat in whatever language they want to practice! I met Belen and Alejandro, two awesome Mexicans studying Chinese here, and Vicky, a Taiwanese girl studying English. Alejandro, Vicky, and I chatted for awhile about East Asian-Latin American Relations, politics and culture in our countries, and a few other things. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought.

From there, Dylan, Tim, Ellery, Navan, Laredo, and I made our way to Twiice, a gay club under a church. The club reminded me a little of DC's Apex (may it rest in peace). They played a lot of K-Pop, C-Pop, Taiwanese pop, and American pop. I noticed a lot of guys were dressed in indigenous clothes made to look gay, which I thought was a bit odd. It wasn't until they began playing indigenous-house remixes that I realized it was indigenous night. Hands down one of the coolest club experiences of my life.

Despite being sick, I've managed to have lots of fun the last two days - mostly because of the people I've met. I'm so grateful for the friends I've made!

Jiufen, Shifen, and Shida

Written August 16, 2012

Dylan took off from work today to hang with his new American friends. We had wanted to go to Wulai, but he suggested something else.

A train, which works on the same "Easy Card" as the subway system, and then a bus took us up to Jiufen. 

The view from Jiufen with a temple in the foreground. 

A temple we checked out in Jiufen.

The view from Jiufen

Jiufen has a series of small, windy, shop-laden streets - overflowing with scents of various foods unique to the town. The three of us ate our way around the town, trying countless new tastes. We mostly ate from street vendors, but managed to stop in a famous "restaurant" that Dylan strongly recommended. The food on the street was actually better. I can't remember all of the things we ate, but I did manage to photograph everything. Below, you'll find only a few of the dishes we consumed (these are the pictures I like the most).

Coming in second place for best Jiufen dish, these shrimp balls were utterly fantastic. They tasted like shrimp latkes. 

Tofu 

Hands down the best food in Jiufen. Taro ice cream with cilantro and shaved peanut brittle, wrapped in a sweet Asian tortilla. 

Jiufen's stinky tofu is the best I've had thus far

From Jiufen, we took a train to Shifen, famous for their TianDeng, or Heaven Lights. Dylan, Tim, and I got a TianDeng, which is like a giant paper lantern that you write wishes on, and then it is set up to some sort of hot air balloon contraption and flies away. We paid a little more to hook up some firecrackers.

In Shifen, the train goes directly through the centre of town 

Someone else's TianDeng

One of my wishes was for Taiwan to be a recognized nation 

Another was for Obama's reelection #youknowyougotoGWwhen 

Our TianDeng flying away

After sending our TianDeng into the heavens, we went and got some more street food.

BBQ chicken stuffed with pork fried rice 

Some sort of pork sausage/hot dog type thing

This girl was cute:

After Shifen, we went back to Taipei. Tim wanted to find some incense for his room, so we hit up the Shida night market. We didn't find incense, but we did find some freakin' delicious pork dumplings.

To appease the internet gods, here are some pictures of adorable cats...