I spent last week in October exploring Taipei, so keep reading if you want to see what I got up to.
On our first day, we got into Taipei in the afternoon. We stayed in an area called Ximen (西门), which turned out to be a really cool area. We were really surprised at how cool the area was and how convenient it was – we were a 2-minute walk away from a metro station that had 2 different lines.
After a short break at our Airbnb, we made our was to Elephant Mountain (象山）to watch the sunset. It’s a pretty intense 20-minute hike and it’s stairs all the way up, but we were so excited that we made it all the way to the top in about 15 minutes.
This was pretty much my number one thing I wanted to in Taipei, so I pushed to do it the first evening. It was a really cool sunset, though I think we should have gotten there half an hour earlier. The Taipei 101 is pretty iconic and our reference landmark for the rest of the trip.
After going up the hill, we came back to Ximen and had dinner. We found a place down the street from our Airbnb, which was a pretty reasonably priced street food restaurant. The kitchen was right on the street, so we just pointed at what we wanted, because I knew nothing about Taiwanese food before going.
The next day, we started the day at the botanical gardens.
The botanical gardens led right up to the National Museum, which we explored quite a bit. There were a lot of artifacts and a surprising amount of modern art, which we enjoyed.
I also really enjoyed the calligraphy!
The other museums and buildings surrounding the museum were absolutely gorgeous.
We made a quick detour at a bookshop and a restaurant for lunch, then we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. It turnout out to be this absolutely massive park, which also contained the national theatre.
We walked around for a lot longer than we thought we would, becuase the place was just so big and ornate. We then took a few hours to rest and eat dinner before meeting a friend from Edinburgh at the Raohe Night Market.
We were shocked at how beautiful and massive the nearby temple was, so we checked it out of course.
I didn’t eat much before I went to the market, knowing I wanted to try the food. The most interesting thing by far were these freeze-dried biscuits that I’ve heard of. When you eat them, steam comes out of your mouth and it looks like you’re breathing smoke, so I think in some places it’s called dragon’s breath. The were fun to eat for a while, but I burned my tongue because they were so cold!
On our third day, we started at the Longshan Temple (龙山寺). It was really pretty from the outside, but it turned out to be kind of disappointing. This is the most famous temple in Taipei, and it was just too small and crowded to really experience it. We stayed for about 15 minutes and left to go to another temple nearby.
Our next thing we wanted to check out was the Sun Yat-Sen memorial. They had a really good exhibit about his life and what his role in the history of China and Taiwan was. I learned a lot and it brought back vague memories of an East Asian unit in my high school history class. I hope to find a good book or documentary about the history there so I can learn more.
Since we were in Taiwan, we just had to get bubble tea. Since I’m lactose intolerant, I got mango and passion fruit green tea, which was absolutely amazing! Probably the best tea I’ve had so far.
Near the tea place and the hot pot place where we got lunch was this beautiful park, which I think is connected to the History Museum (the reason we actually were in the area).
The history museum didn’t turn out to be that great. There were only four exhibits in the whole building and the only one I was vaguely interested in (about the native people of Taiwan) was all in Traditional Chinese and I couldn’t really read it!
But the dinosaur room was pretty cool.
That night, we found a Mexican “restaurant.” It was more of a food stand. But they had burritos and it was amazing. I haven’t had Mexican food in two months or so, so I’m glad I got my fix!
While we were eating dinner, the guy next to us started talking to us, and it turned out he was from DC and had actually lived in my hometown in North Carolina! How crazy is that? He also gave us a bar recommendation that was right down the road, so we checked that out.
The place was called Revolver and we luckily were there during happy hour, so it was very affordable. We had a couple of drinks and met this group of Swiss guys who were here visiting a friend and traveling around Taiwan. We had a nice chat with them and left early, because we needed to get some sleep.
The next day, we went to Jiufen, which I will write about in a different post. So the day after Jiufen, our last day in Taiwan, we slept in, which was much needed. Rest was the theme of our last day. We went out and got breakfast, brought it back to the Airbnb, and finished it while watching a movie. We didn’t really leave until about noon.
We went back to Ximen quickly, because I wanted to get my ear pierced at a place we found in the shopping district. I got my third lobe piercing on my left ear, which I am very excited about. The people were really nice and I had some good chats in Chinese with the woman who pierced my ear.
We then went to meet some friends that are from our Chinese course in Edinburgh, who are studying abroad in Taiwan. They showed us around National Taiwan University’s campus, and then we went to a cafe for juice (fresh dragonfruit juice!). We then just basically kept eating. We went to check out an ice cream stand a friend recommended, which has different specialty flavors every day. I had whisky ice cream, which was so good!
Our next stop was a vegan burger restaurant. They had a kimchi burger on the menu, so I *had* to get it. It was absolutely delicious. I can confirm that kimchi is a suitable condiment for (veggie) burgers.
We then went to check out a cafe/bar – also a recommendation from a friend. It’s called Caffe Libero. It’s fairly pricey, but they have a really good selection of whisky. Not that I got whisky, but at least the option was there. Kirstin and I had a drink and chatted for a couple of hours, then walked back through the vibrant streets of Taipei.
I was sad our time in Taipei had come to an end, but I’m very confident I will be back. It’s an absolutely delightful city to be in. The metro is clean and organized and easy to navigate. The people are unbelievably helpful. There is history and culture and natural beauty. I hope to spend a lot more time in Taiwan in the future.
Thanks for reading x Cat
