Taipei at Christmas

I had a week off at Christmas and after much hemming and hawing and spending all my free time looking up tickets, I finally, finally bought a ticket for Taipei, Taiwan. It was a lot cheaper than anything else and I had a co-worker who was going with her family so I thought we could meet up, plus K is living there, so many many birds could be offed with a single plane ticket.


I was sick, Korea was cold, and I was just ready for a vacation that involved me getting out of Seoul for a few days. I booked my hostel and bought my ticket and took a cursory glance at my travel guide, and I was ready to go.

I didn't make any plans, except to meet up with my coworker, Soo, on Wednesday. The first two days were all mine. I will tell you this now: I have been on trips where I've crammed two weeks of sightseeing into four days, I've gone on trips that other people planned, I've planned my own trips: to Scotland and a roadtrip from Cali to Texas. But this trip, I didn't plan. I was, in fact, a lazy traveller. But I wasn't worried in the least. I didn't suffer from any bouts of guilt. This was MY trip and if I wanted to meander the streets of Taipei only to find palm-tree lined university campuses, or take gondolla rides to various temples, or stay at the hostel and invest a few hours in alternately reading Dan Brown and talking to various people, I was okay with that. And that's exactly what I did.

When I did meet up with Soo, she made me be a real tourist and go see all the important sights and walk around, which was good too. So I saw Taipei. And let me tell you, I love it. I don't know what it was, but driving toward the city through hills covered in lush green foliage with the occasional palm tree, I fell in love. It's like a recognition of sorts and you can't explain it, exactly, although I've tried; it's like I "clicked" with the city.

I loved everything about Taipei. I loved the trees, the weather, the brick buildings, I loved that guys didn't wear skinny jeans, I liked the people, I liked that even though I didn't speak the language and would try to be polite and do a head bow, people spoke to me in English and were so friendly. I loved all the motorbikes parked up and down the streets. I liked how, at a stoplight, all the motorbikes would converge at the front, so that when the light turned green, they'd all take off in a roar like a motorcycle gang.


I liked the clothes, the trends, the fact that you might have 84 seconds to cross an alleyway, but 18 seconds to cross a major intersection, I liked the subway, I liked the fact that there dogs everywhere, big, regular sized dogs. I liked the streets, I liked the signs. I liked everything.

And because I liked everything, I took pictures of everything. And I do mean everything. So this is the first batch of pictures. More to come later.
*My trip to Taipei was in December 2010. This post is ridiculously late.

This is a street near my hostel.

It started to snow as I was taking off from Seoul, but Taipei was sunny.

I loved the motorcycles lined up and down the streets.

84 seconds to cross the smallest street, 34 seconds to cross a major intersection.

I found this gorgeous college campus

Palm trees on campus. I felt like I was in California.

Bicycles.

Motorcycles line the sidewalks

All the bikes converge at the front so when they take off, it seems like a motorcycle gang.

I wish they had matching jackets.

Taipei traffic at night

A night market near my hostel

Motorcycle gang!

Street food. Yum!

Shops and street food down an alley way.

They use tokens for their subway system.

Day 2: Temple

Day 2: Temple

People praying in the temple

Like Korea, Taiwan is a mix of ancient and modern

Me!

Gondola ride to see more temples

Taipei from the gondola

This temple was gorgeous. I didn't get to go inside but it was gold and breath-taking.

Lanterns

Temple 3

Temple 3 was gorgeous and I went a little camera happy

The gondolas

On the way back down, they gave me a glass bottom gondola.

Cool and a little scary.

I loved how green everything was.

Tree at the 3rd temple

Art structure

Taipei Zoo

My room at the hostel. I met some really cool French girls.

One was living in Hong Kong. They were very friendly (take that, stereotype!)

and they told me about all the places I should go visit.

The city

They were selling mandoo (I think). I didn't know how to order (language barrier)

so I just pointed. They answered me in English. So cool.