The exchange ladies (me, Mirella, Romika, and Mable) left for Taipei early Friday morning. Mable lives in Toronto but was born in China and speaks Mandarin fluently, so we were extremely glad that she was with us because very few people in Taiwan speak English! The first place we visited was Danshui, which was a couple stops off the MRT from our hotel in Taipei. We stayed in the TS Hotel right in the Times Square area of Taipei, which was pretty affordable and convenient. The city has a pretty good train system, and we got around very cheaply on trains and buses. Danshui is basically a Fisherman's Wharf, known for its beautiful bridge and street food. The fishball soup was BOMB.
Friday night we went to Luxy, which is a famous club for internationals and locals in Taipei. And by club, I mean CLUB. I haven't been to a place like that since Exit or Sound Factory in my early clubbing days. After pleading with the bouncer to let us in without our passports, and then paying 600NT$ each ($20 US, but is damn expensive in Taiwan) to get in, we had a really good time. The music was awesome, and the crowd wasn't bad either. By the end of the night all four of us were dancing on the podium, so that should speak for
itself :)Saturday we eventually woke up and took a bus up the Jinguashih mountain to Jioufen, known for its spectacular views, tea houses, and street markets. We walked through the street markets, tasting amazing local food on the way. We ate pineapple cakes, wasabi peanuts, fishball soup, almond tea, taro balls, pork stew, stinky tofu (it does stink, but tastes so good!) and so much more. After walking around for a couple hours trying to work off the millions of calories we ate, we sat in a tea house on the top of the mountain for a while, taking in the gorgeous view and delicious teas. We stopped by the famous Shi-Lin night market on the way back home, famous for its street food and shopping. Let's just say that my stomach and wallet hate me right now :/
It started raining on Sunday, but we still managed to do some more sight seeing. After eating amazing sushi with the biggest pieces of fish I HAVE EVER SEEN, we visited Taipei 101 (the world's tallest inhabited building), but didn't go to the top since it was too cloudy to see anything. We also visited the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, who was China's leader and later became part of the Nationalist government trying to free China from communism. Our last stop before leaving for Yanming mountain was Lung Shan temple, a buddhist temple some say is lucky for lovers ;)
We stayed in the Tien Lai Resort in Yanming mountain on our last night, which is known for its hot springs. Unfortunately it was still raining hard when we got there so we couldn't go in the outdoor hot springs. But we took full advantage of the indoor hot spring and sauna. It's imitated after Japanese bath houses, with a natural hot spring, cold pool, sauna, and steam room. Bathing suits are not allowed, so let's just say us ladies got to know each other very well, hah.
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