taiwan 2024, part 2

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taiwan 2024, part 1

A new video is out! Expect more. Check out all my videos by going to the videos tab from the main page.

punk show and hot pot

Went to a pro palestine event called "diy or die" , saw bands perform from all over asia, some were from osaka, where we are going next! After that we met up with some friends for hotpot, which was a really lovely meal. They even made the noodles right in front of you!

Teapot Mountain

We set an alarm for 6am in hopes we could see the lanterns without anyone else around, but they weren't on. Raven explored the town for awhile and i went back to sleep. Later we got our coffee and matcha, loaded up on snacks, and set upon the steep steep hill that is teapot mountain. It was incredibly, incredibly beautiful. Panoramic views of taiwans coast and mountain ridges.. hard to describe. Had to idea to expect soo much natural beauty in taiwan. It took a couple hours to reach the top where we climbed a rope up to the very peak, which looks like a teapot :) i felt bery proud of myself for completing this hike, it was many many many stairs up.

Sandiaoling Eco-Tunnel

Today we checked out and headed to Jiufen, the town with a "spirited away" vibe. But before arriving, we took a detour to do some bicycle riding through a famous decomissioned railway tunnel. The train only took 40 minutes, and dropped us off at the only curved/ half moon shaped railway station in Taiwan. I lost my ticket , but the station was unmanned and there was no one checking. The town we were dropped off at was really small but they had the taipei city bikes, which made renting them easy. We stopped into a cafe on the way and got a bite and a latte, the man that runs it is a local legend and has painted murals all over the town. The tunnel was just out of town, and it was really cool and mysterious.. there was a small segment with wild bats where we had to walk our bikes and lower our voices. The exit features a big placard carved into the wall that says "sincerity will move heaven and earth" in chinese, in reference to the work it took to construct the tunnel in the muddy, hilly area. After that, it was time to check in to our hotel jiufen, a couple towns over. Once we arrived it was like stepping into such a surreal place, greeted with endless stairs and endless red paper lanterns , reflecting from the wet tile and cement surfaces. After a lot of stairs, we made it to our room which we had to walk through an elderly taiwanese couple's living room every time to access. Pretty home-y yet also surreal place. We drank a beer outside in the lantern light.

Xinhe

The weather was perfect today, finally a sunny day with no rain! We took a train to another train, to a gondola! Past a zoo, to a zone called Maokong Station. We had no idea, but its actually a really cute area, high up in the mountains filled with tea farms and tea houses, lots of cat motifs, cafes, and ice cream. We went on a hike from here to Xinhe waterfall, which was really steep with like a million stairs, but sooo sooo pretty as well. The hike was filled with lush moss-covered scenery, in some ways similar to the really rainforest-y redwood areas where we live, but with totally different foliage! We saw a giant taiwanese eagle. There were a lot of terraced fields filled with garden beds or rows and rows of tea plants. One million stairs later we arrived at Xinhe waterfall, this crazy temple built into a waterfall cave. It's hard to put into words..Mysterious! Serene! The place was so amazing, and had a really unique energy.  We walked back along the road and it was really steep and tiring, once we got back to the station area we decided to check out a "tea museum" place up the road, but it was mostly closed except for one small room filled with tea equipment. At the teahouse we ended up at down the way, there was a big lazy dog. Tried the local black tea and got extremely caffeinated. Blabbed to raven awhile about my aspirations to open a dessert business. Took the gondola back down right before the sun was setting. Got dumplings for dinner.

bicycling taipei

We took it pretty easy today as our feet have been pretty tired from all the walking. We slept in and then figured out how to rent the city bikes. Pretty straightforward. We biked around Dihua street, which hs some of the oldest buildings in Taipei. Then we went to the taipei botanical garden, which is free! And huge. There was a lot of interesting plants there. They had an exhibit that showed relevant plants to each chinese zodiac. Raven and i looked at ours, monkey and tiger. There was lots of different people at the gardens. Young people in groups of friends and older people doing stretches/ areobics. There was a carnivorous plant that everybody stopped by to take a picture. After that, we biked to the waterfront for the sunset. The route took us through a tiny doorway in a huge wall covered in a tiled mural. The early dusk was soo beautiful, with people everywhere enjoying, singing, playing tennis, basketball, stretching, biking, drinking (beer and tea), reclining.. was very idyllic. For dinner i stopped by the night market again and got a chopped stir fried sausage dish. Actually i realized it was sausage, seitan (or gluten) onions, and a sausage made out of sticky rice which was my favorite. Raven went to a vegetarian street restaurant. We went to a dessert place after and got warm mochi covered in ground peanuts and sesame seeds. Raven got a soft tofu with adzuki beans and syrup.

taipei national palace museum

Last night we went to karaoke with some friends!! I met up with someone who became friends with my coworker, jocelyn, when she came to taiwan last year. We had a yummy dinner and went to karaoke after. A lot of people met up with us and it was really fun!! Ive never done a private booth karaoke before. Our room was hatsune miku themed. Today we slept in a little late. Since it was still grey out we thought a museum would be a good use of our day today, and it was cool! Full of really really old stuff. Some of the oldest stuff from china ended up in taiwan when the ROC (republic of china) fled to taiwan after losing control of mainland china to the PRC (peoples republic of china). They had a huge collection of ornate jade pieces. Afterward, we went to a flea market nearby, then came to a street food market near our house before returning for the evening.

Taipei

The smell of cloves and cinammon hangs in the air here. You often walk past places simmering broths that smell of that. I smell rain and donuts walking around. Its really pleasant. When we got off the train in taipei, the weather was perfectttt. It was so refreshing to walk around and not be boiling. Kind of a SF vibe. Since that evening it has not stopped raining though. I guess it rains a lot in taiwan. Its less crowded here than bangkok by a lot, and theres way way less white people. I think a lot of taiwans tourists are other asians. Its pretty chilly out. Neither of us have a rain coat and raven only has open toe sandals. The rain is supposed to stop soon i think.. We went shopping in part to try to get some stuff , but i dont know how successful we were haha. I got a cool skirt though and we played a miffy gacha. The clothes are a lott more expensive than thailand , the skirt i bought was $20usd and the uniqlo rain jacket i was considering was fifty. Taiwan uses their own kind of dollar as well (TWD). $5USD is about $160TWD. Thats about 180THB or 123,000 Vietnamese dong. But that really doesnt tell you anything until you see way things are priced. I bought an umbrella today for that amount. We're staying in a really cute and trendy neighborhood and our airbnb is nice. I picked it this time. We like how there are awnings in front of most businesses so you can walk along a dedicated sidewalk and be covered from the rain. Yesterday i took us to this local fried pork chop place. I knew it would be hard to find and it was, but it was so worth it. We walked around the entire perimeter of the building after walking down the wrong street twice (gps wasnt working) before we found the elevator to go to the basement floor with king pork restaurant. Raven got the fried tofu and said it was the best he'd had in his life. I had the braised pork rice and fried pork chop and it was really really good. It made me happy how much raven liked it. We stopped at a vegetarian restaurant later but i didnt get anything, just ate some of ravens dumplings.