Taiwan pt. 1

How many of you have heard of Taiwan?  Maybe none of you, but this isn't geography class so it doesn't matter.  If you have heard, maybe you know of the small island nation from the Little League World Series.  Or perhaps from the short lived hype around Taiwanese-American basketball star, Jeremy Lin (Linsanity); once a member of the New York Rangers, he's now rumored to play for the Houston Sprockets.  Punt, pass, shoot.  Go sports!  But enough basketball history.

For those remaining few that know nothing about Taiwan, fear not, I'm about to break you out of your cultural imprisonment.  Join me on this 2 part, or 2 post if you will, journey about Taiwan.  Post 1 will focus on my first trip to the capital city, Taipei.

Taipei is a delightfully modern city, with sights, sounds, and smells that make it uniquely it's own wondrous place.  The most famous of those sights would have to be Taipei 101, currently the 2nd tallest building in the world.

It's not the best photo of the building, but you get the idea, it's tall.  101 stories tall to be precise, 5 of those being underground.  That leaves 96 visible stories in this shot; go ahead and zoom in and count for yourself if you don't believe me.

96 right?  That's what I thought, don't ever doubt me again.  Some other sights in the city that aren't necessarily unique to Taipei, but still fun to see were these:

Clockwise from top left: 1. Taipei Eye 2. View from Taipei Eye
3. Love sign near 101 and 4. Scooters 

Pics 1 & 2 are of the Taipei Eye, which provided a nice view of the city.  You could also see a nice view of the 101 building lit up nicely at night (though the picture does not do it justice). Picture 3 is the Love sign, located outside of 101 building.  I'm not sure if you have to be "in love" to pose in front of the sign, but luckily I didn't have to worry about that potentially embarrassing clause. Also if you look closely at our picture, we are making a human shaped heart in front of the sign.  I don't think that's ever been done before, and that just solidified our status of being "in love" and not just some tourists faking it to get a picture.  The last picture is pretty exciting, parked scooters.  You could see these throughout the city; because of the nice weather year round, scooters are only slightly popular.

Another great place to visit was north of Taipei, located near the coast.  A famous area for tea houses, it was one of my favorite spots of the trip because of the view.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

I'm not a big tea drinker, but enjoying some nice tea with that view was easily one of the best parts of the trip.

Another great thing about Taipei is the ability to easily get pampered.  This included foot massages, which are open 24 hours and located conveniently throughout the city, and also a shampoo/scalp massage. 

The shampoo/scalp massage was pretty inexpensive and quite enjoyable.  The foot massage parlor was another story.  The foot massage also included a foot bath, along with a neck and shoulder massage.  I fully expected these shops to employ dainty women, and to thoroughly enjoy this experience.  Upon entering I immediately found out these dainty women were in fact men, and not dainty at all.  However, I was completely confident there would be no George Costanza type moment, nothing downstairs would be moving during this male given massage.  After a confusingly delicate foot scrub, my confidence was very quickly confirmed.  This male masseuse had very powerful thumbs, and knew how to use them.  I found out the hard way that Asian men prefer deep tissue massages.  During the early foot soaking portion he began working over my neck and shoulders.  His thumbs expertly rolling and kneading my muscles as if it were dough.  Though this felt more like the beginning of some sort of Asian torture technique, when asked if the pressure was ok, I grunted out a feeble yes.  I immediately regretted paying for a full hour and gritted my teeth dreading the thought of him moving onto my feet.  I may have blacked out for a portion of the neck/shoulder "massage" but when I came to he was on to my feet.  While there he attacked pressure points that I never knew existed. By the time he was finished my body was so stiff I could barely stand.  Lucky for him my neck was so sore I couldn't turn my head to tell him how I really felt about his massage.

Quickly moving on from that experience, I'd like to get to my absolute favorite part of the trip.  The food!  First up, a miner's lunch at an old gold mining site:

This included pork cutlet over rice, along with bubble tea and Taiwanese beer.  I chose to ignore the treasure map printed on the place mat.  I'm not Nicolas Cage, and our itinerary did not allow for that (thanks a lot Seongeun).

Also included in the delicious category was the world famous Din Tai Fung, which originated in Taiwan. We got the wildly popular dumpling and beef noodle dish.  It did not disappoint.

Taiwan also has delicious desserts, and who was I to say no. 

Desserts included ice cream over shaved peanuts, tucked nicely into a tortilla like wrap.  This was far and away one of the best things I've ever tasted.  I found it at one location outside of the city, and was unable to find another location anywhere else in Taiwan. That should be a crime, but sadly I don't think it is.  The mango and ice cream over shaved ice was also very good, but might as well have been dog shit after eating that burrito of ice cream and peanut shavings. That's enough about the desserts. Damn it!

Outside of the comforts of restaurants, laid a treasure trove of delicious street food.  Our personal favorite was the fried squid with some spicy powder sprinkled atop.  Pair that with some low alcohol content fruit beer and the result was fantastic.

The food stall was also located near a unique temple where we ate on the steps. All  around it was quite the sensory sensation.

However, all that glitters is not gold.  I believe Bill Shakespeare said that.  Either him or Bill Clinton. I'm not exactly sure, but both were great Bill's, so does it really matter?

I've included this one last because just maybe you've stopped reading and will never have to know the existence of this truly toilet bowl of a restaurant.  You've heard of tourist traps right?  I'm gonna continue assuming you have.  This restaurant was truly a tourist trap at it's best (worst?).  You sit on toilets (not functional) and eat on glass covered sinks.  The food is served in little toilet or sink shaped dishes.  I'm sorry I wasted the time shoving this horrid food into my mouth hole and wasting precious time digesting and breaking down the food into waste.  Had I known how bad it would taste before hand I could have dumped it right into the toilet, saving both time and money.  Besides this black eye on the otherwise delicious food, I was pleased with the bold flavors Taipei offered.

Taipei was a successful, enjoyable trip.  That success led to another trip to Taiwan that would include some other locations.  Post 2 will be coming soon.

Where have I been?

Let me see, it's been about a week since my last....OH, it's been a year.

Since it's been so long since my last post I'll just hit the highlights.  I'm still teaching, and doing some modeling/acting here in Korea.  But enough about that.  The most exciting part of this past year  would have to be the traveling I've been able to do.  My first year in Korea didn't grant me as much free time, so I've really taken advantage of the free time I've had.  I've been lucky enough to visit a few countries in Asia, including Japan, Taiwan (twice), and the Philippines.  To make the trips even more memorable my girlfriend, Seongeun, was able to come along.  It's always nice to travel with someone (and not just because you did most of the planning Seongeun).  Each trip was uniquely different, so I'll give them each their own post.

Up first is Japan, and specifically Tokyo.  We visited a few sites, notably Shibuya, which is Tokyo's equivalent to Times Square.  We also got out of the city to a town called Kawagoe, it's a town significant because it was not damaged during war times.  The style of the building are very old, which made me feel like I was in some old samurai movie.  Once we got back into Tokyo, we went to a small island named Odaiba.  It has many shopping centers, spas, even a Statue of Liberty replica.

Seongeun in the heart of Shibuya.  

At the old bell tower in Kawagoe.

Odaiba Island.  We saw the Statue of Liberty replica.
The rainbow bridge and Tokyo Tower in the background made it a very nice view at night.

Ended our trip relaxing at a spa on Odaiba Island.