5 nights inTaiwan

So took my first trip outside of Korea to Taiwan for a while ago. I had decided for some time that I would make two trips while in Korea, one to Japan and one to Taiwan. A lot of planing and hesitation before I actually got anywhere. So went there totally solo, which makes it my first solo-trip :) Have a friend that I am studying with in Sweden that is doing an exchange semester in Taipei that showed me around the town. First thing I noticed when I got to Taiwan was that it was quite warm .... got the opportunity to  use t-shirt and shorts again and then when I got back to Seoul I had to use my winter-jacket that can withstand -30 degrees.

So used the first day just to walk around a little bit and then stayed at a All you can eat Hotpot restaurant for probably almost 3 hours. That was really good, besides one thing .... 

The day after I went by myself to see some attractions. Went to see the National Museum of Taiwan, where a lot of ancient Chinese artifacts are suppose to be.... but noticed that not everything is as display. Then to Xingtian Temple, which is the Temple of Guan Yo, God of War and God of Business, people go to this temple to pray for their success in business .... hopefully not for success in war :O. On the way to this temple I saw this huge line to a street-food wagon. So on the way back from the temple I decided to join the queue ... I ended up queuing for 1 hour and 15 minutes for some sweet riceballs filled with different fillings (peanut crunch, redbean paste, vanilla custard, sesame) mix rolled in peanut powder. They where of course good but I am not sure if I would queue again for that long :P Then I had my eyes on a DimSum restaurant called Din Tai Fung, which actually is a worldwide chain. Anywho we went there and needed to wait 45 minutes for or table .... but it was totally worth it, OMFG it was delicious. After that we decided to try out 58% Taiwanese risewine ... that was the opposite (really awful) not just the taste but the smell as well.

Hotpot

Swedish guy at a all you can eat place,
quite happy 

Besides the meat you got served you could serve your self
with various things =) 

SUCH AS CHICKEN TESTICLE ..... we put it in the plain
hotpot side (big mistake), so we got the real authentic
testicle taste. Not my favorite 

Museum, was not able to take ANY pictures inside so here are
some from the outside .... 

Xingtian Temple 

There were Dragons everywhere everywhere everywhere 

Many rituals and prayers going on all the time 

Guan Yo, that guy will grant you success in business .... or
War :P

The queue I decided to spend 1 hour
and 15 minutes in

Rice-balls filled with yummy stuff, rolled in peanut powder 

Filled with some kind of sesame mix 

Din Tai Fung, didn't realize it but I had been to one of their
branches in Hong Kong two years ago. But it is such a good
Restaurant, at tripadvisors top 20 restaurants I
believe 5 of them where Din Tai Fung branches 

Don't need to say all to much. At least we tried it :P

That night we decided to go out in Taipei, the one thing that I will remember from that night was that the police raided the club :O The music stopped, the lights went on and 15-20 police officers marched in to the club and spread. Got the feeling that I was in a movie where the police doesn't like the owner of the club so they constantly go in and shut the place down for a while out. This was kinda the truth, people told me that this happens almost every night and at every club because a police officer where killed in a club 1-2 months before that .... and apparently many of the clubs are owned by the mafia. I thought this whole scenario was cool.

The day after we went to play some golf, hit some balls over the fence and out somewhere in Taipei :D Then we went to a night market to get some dinner and try some different food stuff. Had some chicken sasuage, bloodrisecake, salmon, squid, chicken heart and foot (Y).

Night market, if you couldn't read it from the picture (Y)

Chicken meat stuffed in chicken skin = Chicken sausage

Feels like Sweden

Pig's blood cake 

Looks awesome, but was not that of a sensation

Yep, chicken foot 

Yeah, did not really figure out what to do with the
cold chicken foot. Tried to bite the skin of but that
was quite difficult so I went for the toe, and then I heard
a crack and decided I had enough ^^

Then I had plans with my Taiwanese flatmate's family. They wanted to take me for lunch and show me around a little bit in Taipei. I got to say that Taiwanese people are the friendliest :) They picked me up where I stayed and we took the cable car up Maokong and had lunch at the top of the mountain, then headed to a tempel that was quite close and got taught the ritual for praying. You ask the Gods a question and then you drop to moon-shaped wooden pieces, and if one is flatside down and the other one is flatside up you may draw a stick with a text/number, then you go and collect a text that will be your answer for your question. You will have to go to a master to get it rightly translated though. After that he drove us back and we visited Kevin (flatmate) university. Had a really nice day with them :)
Then 10 course seafood dinner with Saké in the evening.

Really good lunch with so many different dishes, had a Chicken
Soup with bitter melon, which has quite a special taste.
But it was good  

According to Chinese zodiac this is "my"
God (he was God the year of 1989)
the year of the Snake, yep I am a Snake

First time we tried Saké. Like it (Y)

Next day I had a Solo day and had made a list on stuff I needed to see that day because I would go back to Seoul the day after that. So the plan was to go to CSK --> Longshan --> Lin Family Garden ---> and Taipei 101 and then dinner with a Taiwanese and a guided night tour on bikes :) It was a really long day but I made it through, and especially because of nice Taiwanese people. When I got to the Longshan temple I got helped by a older Taiwanese man when I tried out my praying skills .... I could not manage to find which note I was suppose to take so he helped me and got me to a master, just to be told I prayed the wrong way..... had to do it again but the man followed and helped me :) Outside the temple we bumped into each other again and he asked if I wanted him to take a picture of me, then I asked him if there was something close by that was worth seeing! He meant that there where an old street just around the corner, he wanted to take me there, but it was closed :P so he asked me where I was going now and I said Lin Family Garden and then he offered or insisted to drive me there, he had the car just around the corner. He didn't really now the way so the ride took over and hour but we had a really nice chat n the car and he was really friendly and happy to have me there :)  Then he provided me with directions on how to get to the closest metro station. I did not manage to get to the metro station so went in to a shop for women hair-color, nail polish and stuff. Asked the ladies who worked there but they didn't know and couldn't speak English, but a small chubby man that bought hair-color understood where I was going and said I have a car ... I drive you, followed him to his car, in the front seat was his wife with a 1 month old baby, and in the back seat two teenager and the guy also had a really small baby. I squeezed in the backseat with the teenager and the baby and went in this not so nice car to the metro. So those to rides probably saved my day and made me realize as mentioned before that Taiwanese are the kindest people I have meet :) Then of to Taipei 101 before meeting up with my friend and a friend of my flatmate that wanted to show us around. Had a really delicious meal and then we rented bikes, got some bubbly tea and pineapple cakes and she showed us around and talked about buildings and events that we never would have noticed by ourselves. Ended up at a night market before heading back. When we got back I remembered that I was suppose to try smelly Tofu, so we bought some and went to a bar to have a beer :)

National Theatre

Ching Kai-Sheks Memorial

Ching Kai-Sheks Memorial

Ching Kai-Sheks Memorial

Longshan temple

Longshan temple

Longshan temple.... DRAGONS 

Longshan temple. So it was here where I meet the nice
old man that drove me around town on and talked about
Taiwan, Taipei and his life story :) 

Lin Family Garden 

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Lin Family Garden

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 

Cranking it out with
Taipei 101 Damper Boy

Fried shrimps with sweet sauce and with sprinkles on top  

Riding the streets of Taipei

Movember?

Stinky tofu 

Mmmmm taste soooo ehhhhh. Well at first the smell and
texture kinda sets you of but then the "aftertaste"
is quite nice so you end up taking a new piece and suffer
for some seconds before it gets good

The day after I just had a look around National Taiwan University before getting to the airport.
Happy that I was able to see everything I wanted to see and do I could go back to Seoul without any regrets.

National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University

Yeah Btw the cops are quite bad ass here with their mopeds
Thank god they did not use these when they went
raiding the clubs :P