Taiwan 101

So where are Thomas and Alex now? A week of silence, last seen in Hong Kong... any suggestions? The plan was mainland China, but with an appalling impression given off by Chinese tourists, terrible pollution, Visa-hassle and more, our ears tingled when more than one fellow traveler enthusiastically ranked Taiwan as their favorite destination so far. So off we go, to a new, totally unfamiliar destination! All I have to go by is my growing-up intuition, which says that it's all just a big factory, and the lofty promises of our travelmates, who say it's the best place they've visited, with the friendliest people, yummyest food and awesomest scenery. We just had to find out for ourselves! 

Well, our record-long period of blogging silence might speak for itself. We've been here for a week now, and have barely had a free moment in between all the fun that's been had. Taiwan has thrilled us, from the very beginning. We found the TripAdvised JV's Hostel in Taipei, the capital, where we received maybe our warmest hotel welcome yet. A super-smily girl gave us piles of practical tips and showered us with suggestions on things to see and do, and we filled the next three days with a small selection of Taipei's highlights.

I'm gonna build stuff like that too when I grow up!

First off was Taipei 101. This architectural and engineering world wonder was the tallest building in the world for seven years - until Burj Dubai came along - and was totally eye-stopping right off the bat. Compared to Hong Kong's skyscraper jungles, Taipei is relatively low-rise, so Taipei 101 soars sky-high over its surroundings, and we can't wait to get up it. However, having not eaten since before our 06.30 Hong Kong pick-up, we first head the other direction: past the ridiculously high-end shopping mall, to the food court downstairs. The JV's girl told us about a Michelin-starred dumpling restaurant there, with affordable prices - a chance we just couldn't miss. It was great. Pro tip: Poke a hole in the dumpling with your chopstick to let out some steam, and dip it in the 1:3-ratio soy sauce and vinegar mixture.

Gucci, Prada, LV, Rolex, Dior, Versace, Burberry, D&G...

Then we went up. The world's fastest elevator - with pressure-controlled cabin (like in an airplane) - took us up the 87 floors in under 40 seconds. At the top we had spectacular but smoggy views over Taipei, and a good dose of engineer-porn in the exhibitions. The enormous wind damper was amazing, absorbing over 40 % of the tower's movement during typhoons or earthquakes.

Unhindered views in all directions - on a smog-free day.

660 tonnes, 5.5 m diameter.

Other stops our first day included the memorial hall of independence warrior Chiang Kai-Shek, an ocean of pandas we had to traverse to get to it, the high-intensity shopping district of Ximending and a poop-themed restaurant therein, and a huge 24 hour book store - enjoyable not only for its enormous amount of Chinese books and still respectable amount of English ones, but also for its conveniently located coffee shop, the freedom to open and sit down with any book for as long as you want, and the amount of people still there when we left at way past midnight.

Many laughs were had!

Dritgodt, like we'd say in Norway.

We've learned to take the heroicness of national heroes with a pinch of salt.

It makes perfect sense that the 2014 World Panda Tour stops by Taipei.

Taipei's transport system is awesome. The subway connects not only every part of Taipei, but also its suburbs and some countryside villages, so on Tuesday we decided to take the tube all the way to the historical seaside town of Tamsui. But even better than the metro system are the city bicycle stands at every station, and the nice and wide bike paths along every road. We didn't need more than five minutes on these before we were certain that we'd found the way to see Taipei.

Oh, the joy: Bike trails are ubiquitous in Taiwan.

Tamsui had a tempting market, nice parks and bike trails where the river met the sea, a whole bunch of tourists, and a slightly historical colonial quarter. The sights weren't of the same level as most we've seen, but in return they had small museums and interesting displays. It was a good way to learn a bit of the history in a more indirect way. The fort, for example, had nine flags in front of it, one for each of its rulers: Dutch, Spanish, two old Chinese dynasties, British, Japanese, Australian, American, modern day Chinese, and finally Taiwanese. There's a lot of history for you!

Various versions of Fort San Domingo have protected various holders
from various enemies for 400 years.

I just love matchingly dressed, singing Chinese tour groups.

Decorated Victorian British, the fort is a popular wedding photo op.

On the way back to town we jumped off the metro on a random station, rented bikes, and had a bit of a frolic around temples, parks and riverside exercise facilities, before joining the traffic on our bikes along the metro line (we might as well bike one more stop... or two more stops...).

Should we see what's up there? Yeah, why not.

We got what we came for: Temple, freaky Chinese statues, and city views.

We really got to see a lot of the city, and it's so much fun. Taipei is a very comfy, well-organized and enjoyable metropolis, and there's interesting shops, foods and sights around every corner. One of its main draws are the night markets, of which there are dozens all over town. Between 6 pm and midnight every day, these seemingly empty streets all of a sudden become a-bustling with locals shopping, snacking from the over 100 stalls of crazy foods, and just enjoying a fun night out. Though they're called "tourist markets", they seem plenty authentic, and we are usually the only tourists there. Some of the tasty dishes we get are black rice (made with pig's blood), eel noodles, jumbo dumplings and clam skewers, but the list goes on.

Rather off-putting gooeyness before cooking, but delicious after!

The few English translations weren't always too helpful.

We're now a few days out of Taipei, enjoying Taiwan's scenic east coast with a huge gang of motorbikers, but this'll have to do on the blogging front for now. I'm already looking forward to getting back to Taipei towards the end of our stay here; there's still so much more to do in that great city.