Culinary Taipei

One of the benefits of having local guides is that you get to try really interesting local food. Vivien and Dino really took us on an interesting culinary tour of Taipei on our first night. We tried the famous flour noodles in broth first. We joined the dozens of locals on the pavement outside and ate the noodle soup standing up (the thing to do). Next we tried BBQ chicken Taipei style, veggies, tofu, Chinese sausage and fishcake from a different street café. In case this wasn’t enough we got big mango juices from a street stand. I had noticed lots of trendy bars in the vicinity, but we soon discovered that they are actually tea shops. I tried a black tea this time with “pearls”. The pearls are tapioca balls and you suck them up through a straw. Interesting experience! I ordered a “small” one, but it was probably the biggest tea I had ever had – it came in a pint glass! We staggered home around 11 with full bellies. What a good start to the holiday!

101

We checked in and I called my Taiwanese friend Vivien and we arranged to meet her and her English husband Dino later. We had an afternoon to see some of the sights of Taipei and we unanimously decided that the first place we saw should be 101 tower, the tallest building in the world. We took the subway (MRT) from Ximen station to City Hall Station and then took a bus to 101. The bottom 6 floors are all mall including a really good food court which we went to first. I had a really delicious beef in chili sauce and rice.

We then went up the fastest elevator in the world to the top of the tower. The trip took 42 earsplitting seconds. It wasn’t a great viewing day, but we could make out the buildings in the city and the mountains around it. The audio tour was terrible and rattled off unfamiliar place names really quickly. We couldn’t keep up so ditched it.

高山茶

One thing that I don’t see in Japan are the tea stations and they are all over Taiwan. I soon spotted the Chinese character that I know very well (茶) which identified little counters selling a choice of 50 types of tea, freshly made, shaken over ice and served with a straw in a plastic cup. I like my tea so I was very excited about this discovery. I was keen to have one immediately and walked up to the counter:

Me: Mihao
Tea girl: Mihao (plus lots more Chinese I couldn’t understand).
Me: Can I have a cup of tea please?
Tea girl: Blank stare
Me (wishing I could speak Chinese): Tea please

I know this was a stupid thing to say at a place that sells 50 kinds of tea, but I hoped I’d get the default tea of the day or something. It wasn’t that easy. The tea girl gave me a menu with lists of tea all in Chinese. I spotted three characters I recognized 高山茶　(high mountain tea) and pointed at it. 30 seconds later, I was drinking a gorgeous, slightly bitter iced green tea through a straw and was very pleased at my accomplishment.

Little Shibuya

I had barely even glanced at our Rough Guide to Taiwan before we arrived so knew practically nothing about the city of Taipei. My initial reaction was one of shock at the influence that Japan is having on the youth of Taipei. We found out pretty quickly that the neighborhood where we were staying (Ximending) was like a little Shibuya. Shops selling Japanese-inspired fashion and accessories spilled out onto the pavements, restaurants and street carts sell tempura, yakiniku, sushi and that awful boiled pork patty stuff that we get in convenience stores in Japan. There are games arcades, karaoke and pericular (the photo booths that Elly and Clare liked so much).

Wonstar or One Star?

We arrived at the hotel we had booked on the Internet. A downpour of rain came from nowhere. We had thought that the hotel was called the “One Star” which is a pretty stupid name for a 3 star hotel, but when we arrived, we saw that it was called the Wonstar. Not much better if you ask me.

We weren’t allowed to check in until 2pm (did they get that from the Japanese?) so out we went into the rain to kill an hour.






The Hotel













View from our room








Book the Wonstar online and see more photos

Journey from Nagoya to Taipei

For the third year running we flew on the 31st of July, which means we barely have time to remember, yet alone celebrate our anniversary on the 30th as we are so busy cleaning, packing and doing other jobs you have to do the night before an early flight. The taxi arrived on time and we made the airport bus from Fujigaoka with barely 5 minutes to spare leaving no time for the annual trip to Mister Donuts. The airport bus was completely full. We have never seen it full and we have taken this bus a lot. I always feel that my holiday is beginning when I am sitting on the bus listening to the recorded announcements: “Thank you for taking Meitetsu Bus today. We will take approximately 72 minutes to reach our destination”. We did too – exactly 72 minutes. Japanese buses and trains are amazing.

Japanese immigration at Central Japan airport is amazing too. Amazingly inefficient. We never understand why it takes so long as the queue is mainly full of Japanese people going on holiday. Why should immigration care where they are going or why? Why should each passenger take 5 minutes to be processed? In the queue we got chatting to a Korean Chemistry student going to Seoul. The three of us were getting nervous as we shuffled along slowly as our departure times were drawing dangerously near. We finally got through and legged it to the gate. The pre-departure lounge was deserted and we were worried that everyone was already on the aircraft and that we were too late to board. We did get on board and found a spookily empty flight. The last time we were on such an empty flight was when we flew to Bangkok during the SARS outbreak.

Japan looked beautiful from the air. We guessed that the wooded mountains and stretches of beaches must be Mie prefecture. We landed into the yellow cloud around Taipei airport about 2 and a half hours later.

The taxi took 45 minutes and I had Dubai flashbacks. It felt like Sheikh Zayed Road with everyone speeding and weaving into the emptiest lane to overtake. The driver looked like he was going to fall asleep. His tiny eyes kept closing and his head occasionally nodded. I was pretty scared and kept making distracting noises and sudden movements to keep him awake.