Taiwan-Part 2

Hey Everyone!

Some Housekeeping before I begin-I'm actually back in Canada now. While the adventure is officially over, I do have some posts left that I didn't get the chance to make (I hope to get these done quickly), and then I'll write a final post to cap it all off.

Anyway, Taiwan.

After having spent our first day walking around Taipei (literally, all over it, more or less), on our second day we headed into the mountains. We took the metro to a suburban area in southern Taipei, from which we then grabbed a bus to a place in the mountains called Wulai (乌来）. Wulai was a beautiful place-tucked right into the mountains and along a river. It also held some special attractions. For one, there was a lot of Taiwanese aboriginal heritage there (which was marketed as much as possible); there were also hot springs. We started by taking an old log cart to a little touristy area, from which there was a gondola up to a small park. We went the wrong way looking for the gondola, and wound up at first in a museum about the log carts, where we met an interesting old man who told us his stories about working the log carts and about world war II (it reminded me alot of listening to my own grandfathers talk about the good old days). We eventually finally found our way up the gondola, which took us to an amusement park next to a waterfall. Being in the middle of the week, and in the middle of April, the park was mostly empty. It had some great views, a few nice lakes, and a bizare obstacle course attraction (the kind of thing that would have required safety equipment and wavers in Canada, but didn't even have staff working it there). We spent a while in the park before heading back down to Wulai.

After grabbing some fresh pineapple from a cart, we headed to the hotsprings. There were limitless expensive hotsprings, but we opted for the free outdoor ones, where all of the elderly people hung out. The hot springs were extremely hot, and then the river we swam in was equally cold. This was another one of the moments when I just had to sit back and think "Holy crap, I'm swimming in a river in the mountains in Taiwan." It sure beat spending my pre-exam study week in the library!

After doing a little shopping on the main street (including buying some aboriginal rice wine which I actually just drank tonight-for the record, it was much sweater than I remembered), we grabbed some food from the shops (both street food, and a little restaurant where you select individual vegetables and meats to be cooked).After that, we headed back to Taipei, where we grabbed some snacks before heading in.

The next day, we headed out to Taipei zoo station, where we took a Gondola to an area called Maokong. Maokong is a tea-growing area. Rather than exactly following the tourist attractions, we decided to wander down some roads, and then hike up and down mountains. It wasn't the best planned thing I've ever done, but we did see lots of tea plantations, with the tea being picked, so it was pretty awesome. Back down the gondola, we grabbed lunch before heading in to the city.

Next we headed to the palace museum, which was full of artifacts that the KMT took from the mainland when they fled to Taiwan (I won't get into explaining the politics of it here, but I do encourage you to read the wiki articles). It was interesting, but we soon left and headed out to a restaurant we had read about-Din Tian Fung, a Xiao Long Bao restaurant we had read about. It had been rated one of the world's best restaurants by the New York Times, and it certainly didn't disappoint. The food was great, and the service made me laugh-while we were looking in the menus, they slipped a little card about how to eat Xiao Long Bao under my menu (I was both the only person in the restaurant to receive this treatment, which made me laugh! ) The food definitely lived up to what I expected ( I'd love to go back there right now!), and it came in at about 10 Canadian dollars each-much cheaper than any fancy restaurants here!

To finish things, we returned to Shilin night market, for some souvenirs and food.

I loved Taiwan. It seemed like a more slow-paced place than anywhere else I went in Asia. At first, I didn't know how we were going to spend so long in Taipei, since we seemed to get all of the attractions done pretty quickly. But then I realized that Taiwan tourism is more about eating the food, sipping the tea, and enjoying the views, all of which are fantastic. It was a lot greener, slower paced, and smaller scale than most other places too, and it's definitely a contender for a place I'd like to live as an adult.Also, I think it had some of the best food I've ever had!