Arrival in Taiwan

Off to Taiwan

The 4am alarm comes awfully early. By 4:45am we are getting into a cab and heading to Seoul’s Incheon Airport (about an hour’s drive).

The flight to Taipei, Taiwan is 2 hours and 45 minutes. There was some turbulence but I slept through the whole thing.

It was 9° C when we left for the airport in Seoul and 28° C and muggy when we arrived in Taipei.

We Don’t Monkey Around with Our Accomodations

We take the airport train to Taipei Main Station and then the subway to our Airbnb apartment. At the airport and main station there are English speaking volunteers in blue vests who approach the moment you seem in need of help. They were very helpful in helping us load the EasyCard subway cards we had bought and in pointing us in the correct direction. The transit system is great but the main station is a maze of underground passages and it takes a bit to figure it out.

We get out at Ximen Station and have a short walk to our apartment. The host meets us in the lobby and lets us check in early. The apartment is centrally located, very clean, comfortable with everything we need. The host though must be really into monkeys especially one named Baby Milo. There are Baby Milo decor items all over the apartment.

We quickly get into cooler clothes (ok, a bathing suit would be my choice but it wouldn’t be socially acceptable).

Stinky Tofu and More

I am starving so we head straight to the nearby Ximending Pedestrian Area which is filled with shops, restaurants and food stands.

There are so many foods that I want to try in Taiwan. I start with the “Stinky Tofu”. It is not bad, I don’t know what they call it Stinky.

There is a long line of people at a noodle soup place so we join in. We don’t know exactly what’s in it but it is good. We finish the meal off with a Milky Bubble Tea (John has an iced Mango Tea) and a custard cake.

Longshan Temple

We work off some of the calories by walking to Longshan Temple. It is very warm and I feel like my clothes are sticking to me. Thank goodness it is overcast, I think the sun would do me in at this point.

The temple is beautiful. There are beautiful miniature water falls on one side and and lovely fountains on the other side.

The temple is a mix of Buddhist and some deities. The carvings and ornamentation are beautiful. I love how they even have wires to represent smoke coming from the nostrils of the dragons on the roof.

This temple was originally built in the late 1700s but was destroyed due to earquakes, war etc and rebuilt many times since then.

There are many worshippers at the temple and at one point a service commences. Click here for a short video.

A Friendly Welcome to Taipei

We walk back to our apartment. I stop in at the Seven-11 to pick up some refreshments for the room. John is with me when I line up to pay.
The cashier asks if I want a bag. I say yes (because there’s a lot of refreshments). I pay with my credit card but the clerk says I have to pay for the bag in cash. I have no cash and John has quietly disappeared. A young man near me says he will pay for the bag and then says, “Welcome to Taipei”. How lovely. What a nice welcome. Sometimes small gestures mean so much.

I check out a few massage places on our block. An hour for a full body massage is $45. Not quite the $10 that we pay in Bali, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia but still a good deal when compared to Canada. I know what I will be doing tonight.