A Taste of Taiwan

I found out that going to Taiwan for a "vaca-shan" meant that I now need a vacation from my vacation.  :) I guess maybe it was because Core and I decided to pretty much exhaust ourselves in the first three days by walking around and exploring for about 15 hours every day in the hottest heat of my life. Note to self:  Don't do that again. We were averaging walking about 13 miles/day...and in 90-degree weather - that was not smart.  Maybe that's why we drank the famous Taiwanese bubble teas everyday. They are SO GOOD. Either way, I discovered that I don't do very well in the heat.  :)

Yangmingshan National Park

Fumaroles from all the post-volcanic activity

Mt. Qixingshan

Taipei, which was once known as the ugly duckling of East Asia, is now a vibrant, bustling city with scooters, Chinese-influenced temples, and street food galore...and might I add CLEAN street food....at least for the most part.
It's easy to eat like a queen here....the street food is delicious, quick and cheap! There are awesome night markets all over the cities of Taiwan. Some are busier than others and they all offer a huge variety of different kinds of dishes. The places right alongside the harbor had a crazy amount of seafood stalls, there were dumplings galore, and of course pig intestines and stuff like that.  And no, for the record we did not eat any disgusting brains, intestines or anything that looked or sounded ridiculously gross. We did, however, try the stinky tofu. And for some odd reason, I kind of liked it. Someone else on the other hand (no names mentioned) literally almost threw-up. But I will be honest...this stuff seriously smells terrible!

Where are all the cars?

Guandu temple

No,  I was not scared.

Yes, she ate it ALL.

August in Taiwan is typhoon season and sure enough there was a pretty big typhoon that struck the island while we were there. Lucky for us we were safe in a small lake town called Sun Moon Lake.  The day the typhoon came was considered a typhoon holiday so almost everything was closed. All buses, trains, and planes were cancelled for the day. The only thing for us to do was to go back and forth between the Family Mart and 7-11 convenience stores to buy food and hang out. But let me tell you, these were definitely the places to be during a typhoon holiday....Thank God they were open!

While the typhoon was happening....

We were enjoying tea-soaked eggs

And relaxing in our lovely little dorm.  :)

We stopped in the Southern part of the island for a few nights in a city called Kaohsiung. The city had a much slower pace than that of Taipei but had some pretty awesome places to visit. The Buddha Memorial hall, Lotus Pond, art district, and tiny little island off the coast were just a few we had time for.  :)

These weren't actually steps....we were only pretending

Buddha Memorial Hall

Lotus Pond

Tiger and Dragon Pagodas

While we were in Hualien on the east coast we decided to take a tour to check out all the sites. Usually we don't do tours but this was one of the best ways to see the coastline as it's lacking in good public transport. Our "tour"actually turned out to be private with our own cab driver since no one else signed up, which was amazing. And funny enough, we ran into the Taiwanese news station who wanted to interview us and ask us why we were taking a cab down the coastline. They are trying to get the government to get a better public transportation system down the east coast. Hopefully we were able to help...although our mandarin isn't quite up to par. :)

Of course we're speaking Mandarin

Coastline :)

On our last Saturday night, we went up to a harbor city called Keelung for what is known as the Keelung Mid-Summer Ghost Festival.  It is one of the biggest sacrificial ceremonies in Taiwan and dates back to 1851. "It is believed that spirits of the dead are released from their realm, or hell,  during this time in order to return to the world of the living. The festival is created to pray for peace and pay homage to ancestors with a variety of activities, such as the offering of sacrifices and water lantern releasing. The practices of offering sacrifices is to please the souls of the dead with flowers, fruits, and delicacies. "

Ghost Festival

Two weeks in Taiwan was definitely enough time to get a good taste of the country and eat enough dumplings to last a lifetime. After spending our last night sleeping in the airport.....back to Japan we go!  :)

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