Seolnal second time around and we hopped on a plane once again (still in keeping with ‘Chinese New Year’ as it’s known elsewhere), this time bound for Taipei rather than Beijing. Only a four day holiday, but enough to see Taeipei and two close towns, Danshui and Juifan.
And we chose just the right time to leave Korea as a cold spell set in…
First, and most importantly, food.
grilled tofu stuffed with vegetables
fried sweet potato with cinammon
noodles and minced shark balls (?)
tea
dumplings and pancakes
pancakes with ice cream, ground peanuts and coriander – seriously yum!
‘frog eggs’ – I think really tapioca balls
airport meal
Taiwan had its fair share of weirdness:
take cheap non-alcoholic beer and add green tea flavour…voila! a disgusting concoction fit, I can only assume, for raising a new generation of alcoholics
amusing English translations
condoms in grabby-claw game machines (what happens if, as is more than likely, your claw fails to pick up your prize?)
random pigs
I did not get a picture of the crazily crowded and countless mixed-up market stalls selling chicken heads next to porn, alongside cheap plastic toys (something for all the family I guess). But the experience of squeezing down never-ending ally ways, big enough for only one person but with three walking abreast, avoiding unrecognisable cuts of meat hanging from above, and trying to not get in the way of the holiday crowd shopping as if this were the last holiday ever, was unforgettable, if not camera-stable.
We saw the main sights in Taipei, which were actually more engaging than I’d imagined. Teipei 101 really was a beautiful building…
…and, on closer inspection…big!
The view was somewhat obscured due to the clouds blowing around its top.
The tall structure is stabilised with ‘dampers’ (huge balls which somehow counteract the movement of the building in an earthquake). They’ve been adopted as the symbol of Taipei 101 in the form of the ‘damper babies’.
There was also a cool art exhibition of delicate gold insect sculptures. Beautiful, but very expensive.
Longshan Temple was the other ‘must-see’. We went in the evening, when it was full of people making offerings for the new year. It was nice to see the temple actually in use, rather than as a simple ornamental building.
The subway system was the most high-tech I’ve seen. Instead of paper tickets, there were reusable plastic counters which you slotted into the machine at the end of your journey.
We used the subway to get to Danshui, originally a fishing village but now a touristic seaside suburb. There were not many people about and all the sites were closed because of the holiday, but it was nice wandering along the promenade and back streets.
The other day trip was a bit more of a mission – train then local bus – to Juifan, the seaside village that inspired the ‘look’ of the abandoned town in Spirited Away. It was more than a little rainy that day, so the sea view was non-existant.
It reminded me a little of Cornwall, with misty, winding streets, tea rooms and little souvenir shops.
antique bed, reused as seating in tea house
Finally, the last day in Taipei.
Formosan Aborigines Park
National Palace Museum
riverside residences
Year of the Bull
private tuition
