Yangmingshan & Maokong Gondola

Met up with my friend Jessie this morning and headed north to Yangmingshan National Park to check out the flower festival. The flowers were pretty, but the waterfall was the best part. Would be a great place to have a picnic on a nice day. After walking through the park we headed back into town to grab lunch at one of the night markets. Unfortunately the market wasn't open yet, so we stopped at a kind of outdoor food court to grab something to eat. I tried a fried egg and oyster dish (tasted a lot better than it looked) and finally tried the infamous chou dofu, or stinky tofu, which is a popular treat in Taiwan. The smell is unpleasant, but the taste isn't bad and it has a really nice texture for tofu.

After that headed to the Maokong Gondola which runs through the hills in southern Taipei. I'd heard of the gondola and thought it was just a short ride to the top of a hill, but turns out it's about 2.5 miles each way as the gondolas go up and down the hills into the tea growing area of Maokong. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the hillside, but it was kind of like floating over a jungle - very dense greenery everywhere you looked.

Pimp my ride

There are a ton of taxis in Taipei. They're yellow cars like you'd see in the US, although here I've seen all makes and models of taxis - Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, Ford, GM, etc. But last night was my first time in a taxi full of neon lights. It had multi color neon bars in the rear window and some pinkish lights mounted to the dashboard. I thought maybe the driver would be a younger guy, but no, he was at least 45. Guess he justs likes neon.

Hot springs

Had my first hot springs experience yesterday outside the town of Sansia, about a 40 minute drive southwest of Taipei. The hot springs were part of a resort and spa nestled in the hills outside the town. The springs had three hot pools fed from underground, plus a number of smaller pools featuring cold water or various "treatments" like ozone. The entry fee was about $10, but at a public hot springs or other non-resort location the prices are lower. Very relaxing to sit in the pools, look up at the sky, and let the stress melt away. There are hot springs all over Taiwan and I look forward to check out some others.

Museums

Have been to two musuems so far, the National Palace Museum, Taiwan's most famous museum, and the Taipei Fine Arts Musuem. The National Palace Museum is home to thousands of Chinese bronzes, jades, vases, paintings, and religious artifacts. There are some nice exhibits, but with the exception of the bronzes, most of the items are small. Very intricate, but small.

Half the exhibits at the Taipei Fine Art Museum were closed when I went on Friday which was kind of a bummer, but they do have some interesting sculptures outside.

One really nice thing about the museums here is that they're inexpensive to visit. It cost about $4 get into the the National Palace Museum and less than $1 for the Fine Arts Museum.

Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival

Went to the Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi, a small town about an hour east of Taipei, on Thursday night. Pingxi is normally a quiet place, but on the 15th day of the lunar new year, thousands of people descend on the town to release lanterns. The lanterns are about 3 feet tall with a combustible square of cardboard suspended in the bottom. You write your wishes for the year on the lantern, light the cardboard, wait for the lantern to fill with hot air, then release it into the sky. In addition to all the individual lanterns, a giant lantern was sent off at the end of the night. It was about 30 feet tall and very cool to watch as it disappeared into the sky. There were tons of fireworks going off all over the town so between those and all the smoke from the lanterns it was an asthmatic's nightmare, but a very cool event.

Gambing for sausages

Went out of Friday night for my first experience with KTV, or karaoke. While there are places where you can karaoke in the bar, it's more common the rent a private karaoke room so you can sing with just your friends. We went to a place called Cash Box which looks like a hotel when you first walk in - big lobby, a reception desk, chandeliers, etc. But instead of a room with a bed, you get a room with a big TV, two mics, couches and tables, a private bathroom, and a karaoke machine. You can order food and drinks from an attendant, but otherwise you have the room to yourselves for how ever many hours you've rented. Although I'm not a huge fan of karaoke, it was pretty fun.

Outside Cash Box there was a vendor selling Chinese sausages from a little cart. I don't quite understand how it works, but you can place a bet with the vendor who then rolls a couple of dice in a bowl. Depending on the numbers that come up you can win sausages, or you lose your money and not get any sausages. Once I understand how it works I might have to try it.

7-Eleven

There are an unbelievable number of 7-Eleven's in Taipei. One for every 6,200 people in fact, compared to one for every 48,000 people in the US. I don't think it's possible to walk more than two blocks without passing one and while in Kenting, I could see three while standing in one spot. What's even more amazing is that there are also a large number of Family Mart and Hi Life convenience stores and they all stay in business.

While 7-Eleven's here sell snacks, beer, and juice/soda like in the US, they also sell hard liquor (and not just the cheap stuff), movies, makeup, a large assortment of fresh and pre-packaged food, undergarments, and other random things. You can also pay utility bills and parking fines, get a cell phone, renew your drivers license, and get wi-fi access. And those are only the things I know about...

Sunny Kenting

On Friday we took the highspeed rail, THSR, to the beach town of Kenting on the southern coast of Taiwan. The THSR was great - very clean and a quick trip down south given that the train travels at 180 mph. So nice to get out of cold, rainy Taipei for a few days. We stayed at the Chateau Beach Resort in a building that was once a property of Chiang Kai-Shek, former ruler of Taiwan.

The hotel is right on the beach and although there were a lot of people out sitting under ther umbrellas and kids playing in the sand, no one was laying out on the beach other than me as Taiwanese tend to stay out the sun. In addition, bathing suits tend to be modest, with a lot of women in shorts and tankini-like tops as opposed to one piece swimsuits or bikinis.

Kenting has a very busy night market, with tons of stalls selling fruit, different types of tofu, seafood, sandals, and assorted trinkets. There was a lot of Latin music playing although I have yet to see a person of Latin descent anywhere in Taiwan. Kenting is right next to a national park which features a large botanical garden. We did some hiking in the park, but unforunately never made it to the botanical garden.

Now we are back in Taipei and no suprise, it's wet and cold. Looking forward to the end of winter.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Translation: Happy New Year! We are now in the year of the Rat, the first year in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Tea Pot Mountain

Went hiking to the top Tea Pot Mountain today, just outside of Jiufen in northern coast of Taiwan. After taking a train to Rueifang, we boarded a bus to the trailhead, which is at the base of a local temple. The area is very green and hilly and the trail to the top was a combination of paved roadway, rocky trail, and stone steps. It's called Tea Pot Mountain because the natural rock formation at the top looks like a handleless Chinese teapot. At the very end of the trail there are ropes to assist in the climb to the top from which there are great views of the surrounding hills and ocean.