My most recent trip took me to Taipei. After a 7 hour flight and a looooong bus ride, we finally arrived at our hotel. A group of us arranged to meet for dinner in the hotel (50% off the buffet, yes please!) and had a delicious dinner trying all the local food (as well as some pasta and pizza of course!). The best dish was by far the sashimi, so fresh and delicious. We had a couple of drinks in the bar then headed up to bed to get a good nights sleep, ready to do some exploring the next day.
Bright and early (well, does 9:30 count as early? I think it does) four of us met in the lobby. Whilst on the flight a crew member travelling as a passenger had given us a few tips of places to go and we’d decided to start by going to a shopping area/market that she’d recommended. What she forgot to mention (along with the concierge who explained how to get there) was that it didn’t open until the evening! So that left us a little stumped and we carried on walking around that area until we saw some signs for a temple.
We spotted the temple from afar and walked over. It’s called the Ciyou Temple and was built in 1753, and has an impressive 6 stories. While we were walking around inside a very sweet Taiwanese man came over to us and explained a little bit about the temple as well as showing us around some of the different areas.
We weren’t completely sure what they meant, but throwing down these two wooden semicircle shapes was (I think) supposed to be some kind of symbol of good luck. One had to land one way up and the other one in the other direction, so it took a few tries before they were the right way!After the temple we walked behind to see the Rainbow Bridge which is on the Keelung River. It wasn’t particularly special by day, but I’ve just read that at night it lights up makes a rainbow reflect onto the water.
As you can see it was pretty windy!We were all feeling a little peckish after lots of walking, so decided to head over to the Taipei 101 Tower and have some lunch there. There’s a shopping mall connected to the tower, and we found a place serving teppanyaki. It was my first time trying it and I’m definitely sold! You order a type of meat (I went for prawns, fish and pork) and they cook it on a huge metal hot plate in front of you. As well as the meat you get a bowl of soup, rice, and veggies to go with it. They pile it onto your plate as it’s ready! I did try and use the chopsticks but in the end we all gave up and had to ask for a knife and fork!Unfortunately we didn’t end up going to the top of the tower which I would have liked to have done, because two of the others didn’t want to pay! (Boring!)
Another love sign outside the tower, I wonder if these were left over from Valentine’s day or if they are always there?If I get a chance to go back to Taipei I’ll definitely be going up the tower. Anybody who has read my blog before will see that somehow I almost always end up going up some kind of tower in all the places I’m in, I love having a great view of the city!
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