Study Abroad and Weekend Get Aways

Going back to school after a 10 day break is not the easiest thing to do but it is definitely more tolerable when you know that you get to travel to Taiwan for a long weekend! This past Thursday after a long week of school (I had my first Mandarin quiz- the only thing I've had to study for this semester!),myself and 12 other people headed to Taiwan for the weekend.

Our main reason for going was to see the end of the lantern festival in Pingxi on Sunday but we were also excited to explore Taipei and Hualien as well!

The journey started early when we caught the E22 bus to the airport. Although City U isn't actually in the city of Hong Kong it is still very conveniently located. Having a bus stop that practically stops outside the residence halls and makes the 45 minute journey to the airport terminals is also a bonus!

After a short hour and fifteen minute flight we all arrived safely in Taipei and caught a taxi to a hostel called The Cat's Pajamas. The hostel was booked after a recommendation from other exchange students and was extremely clean (by hostel standards) and all of the staff were very helpful. Once we were all settled into our rooms we headed out into the city to find some food.

My initial impressions of Taiwan are hard to explain. The area we were staying was not exactly down town and sort of had a deserted feel to it, but that may have been because many of the shops close in the afternoon for a siesta time before the dinner rush. Although the majority of the shops were closed the surrounding landscape of the so called city was still very odd. Unlike Hong Kong there are hardly any tall buildings and there are definitely less crowds of people. It was also much colder than Hong Kong! It may have just been the constant drizzle that made thing seem cooler, but the sky was definitely more grey.

After a little bit of a search, we stumbled across a cafe where we all grabbed an afternoon snack. Tired from traveling and waking up early we all headed back to the hostel for short naps and showers before heading out to explore the famous night markets of Taipei.

Shilin night market is one of the largest in Taipei and probably the most famous. Before leaving for my trip all of the locals told me how much I would enjoy the food and said that I had to try anything and everything that I saw. While street food is a little sketchy in Hong Kong, food vendors and market stalls seem to be the norm in Taiwan for grabbing a quick snack or an entire meal!

Hungry as usual the first stop of the night market was the "food court" which was really just a lot of street vendors crammed into one area of the market. On our way to the food hall we were offered lots of fruit samples from all the different fruit stalls. The sample were supposed to tempt you into buying from the different vendors, but as broke college exchange students we ate the samples pretend to be a little interested and then continued walking (oops!). A few of us did buy fruit after dinner so I don't feel too guilty.

Although I will never acclimate to the smell of stinky tofu the other food in the food court smelled delicious! Good smelling food (by Western standards) is somewhat of a rarity in Asia so we were all relieved to find many different food stalls appetizing.

Fried Everything

The first of many eating stops was the pork bun man. We all tried different pork buns and vegetable buns for a whopping price of 15NTD (51 cents). The pork bun man was also quite possibly the cutest old man I've ever seen. He spoke a little English which is hard to find in Taiwan as everyone speaks only Mandarin and had more swag than most thirteen year old rapper wanna-bes.

While walking through all of the different stalls there were many interesting foods which made for some great pictures. Here is a list of some of the foods I saw. 

1. Pork Buns

2. Bubble Tea

3. HUGE sausages

4. Oyster omelets (a famous dish in Taiwan)

5. More fruit

6. Fried crab, squid, fish 

7. Snails

8. Dumplings

9. Taiwan Taco (that's what I'm calling it at least) 

Chicken Feet

 

Oyster Omelet

 

After eating a pork bun, Taiwan taco, and drinking a delicious strawberry smoothie I was completely stuffed.  To walk off some of the food we explored the rest of the night market which had trinket stores, games to play, and even a stands where you could go "shrimping". Shrimping in the night market is where you hook your own shrimp and then the stall owner skewers and cooks your catch for you! 

Shrimping

Shopping for hats!

 

After exploring all the night market had to offer and making a few purchases, we met up with some other City U kids and headed out to find a place to drink. It is not until we went on a mission to find a place to hang out that we realized how much we all take LKF for granted. Most of the clubs/bars we found turned out to be a bust and we ended up at a smaller patio bar for a casual drink before headed back to the hostel. Friday was a day planned for exploring Taipei and we wanted an early start!