First 24 hours in...,  Taipei,  Taiwan

first 24 hours in… taipei

joe:
what do i like?
the deliciousness and familiarity of the food, the clean streets, the orderliness of society and the huge amounts of greenspace within the city itself.  the metro turnstiles are also restricted to only one direction as well, what a brilliant idea right?!   (points to korea for originality i suppose)  oh, and food is cheap.  the shopping seems to be at about the same price point as korea and japan but who needs to shop when we’re all about that suitcase-life right?

what do i dislike?
nothing yet.  the heat and humidity might start to wear me down towards the end of our stay but at least i can finally leave the house without second guessing if i should be wearing my merino wool tights (which i was wearing on our first day and it felt like my legs were saran wrapped)

biggest adjustments from the previous stop?
the prevalence of common sense and civility; it’s hard going back to a domesticated environment after having lived in the wild.  all joking aside, it’s been challenging to take a shower while simultaneously holding in my bowel movements

what was our first meal?
spicy beef noodle soup at a hole in the wall, courtesy of our tour guide marsha-san!

THAT’S the ticket! mucho generous with the beef as well, i would have gladly swapped two chunks of tendon for more noodles

overall impressions?
love it and i think i’m going to miss it as we leave.  maybe not so much for the city itself but i could eat this food till the day i turned into a bowl of beef noodle.

 

liz:
what do i like?
-The food! Taipei has all my comfort food. Soy milk with you tiao, zong zi, lu rou fan, xia long bao plus all the veggie side dishes and none of them cost an arm and a leg. So far we spent $25 on food in a day for both of us and we ate well.
-Being able to understand what people are saying. Although my mandarin is terrible, at least I can understand what they are saying to me.

what do i dislike?
Same problem as Seoul, lots of fashionable clothing but nothing that fits my body size or style. Everything has ribbons or frills on it. I found a nice shirt but it has faux sweater sleeves sewn onto it to make it look like you have a sweater tied around your shoulders, perfectly good shirt ruined. Biggest size in the store is a medium. I walk around and see plenty of people both in Seoul and Taipei needing more than a medium sized shirt. Where do these people shop?

biggest adjustments from the previous stop?
Need to speak softly again, kinda gotten used to the noise in Seoul. And because people are so quiet here, you don’t hear them coming so I get startled sometimes when I turn around and someone is right behind me.

what was our first meal?
Beef noodle soup, nice and spicy with all you can eat pickled veggies. Side dish included egg, tofu, boiled peanuts and seaweed. All eaten while sharing a large round table with 6 strangers. Total chinese thing and it’s great cuz people are there only for the food anyway.

overall impressions?
Taipei has areas that remind me of Shanghai but clean. There is familiarity in terms of food and language so I feel very comfortable in this city. It’s great to have warmer weather but it does put a damper on my wardrobe as I sweat more and need to do laundry more often. Luckily our Airbnb has a washing machine.

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