Spontaneity thy name is RowStein.

Ok, ok, so maybe that is a bit of hyperbole, but hey!  I, DW, have totally bought frivolous things before . . . if the money was a gift . . . and I had a few months to research. . . I mean, you can't rush frivolity, am I right?!

. . . sigh . . .

Ok, fine.  So everyone reading this blog already knows I'm the exact opposite of a spontaneous person, but that just makes what happened two weeks ago all the more shocking.  Whit and I were sitting on the train heading back to the homestead.  Things were moving at a crawl because of "something in Japanese I didn't understand" (the usual culprit), and Whit was killing time on her smart phone.  After a few minutes, she looked up and we had the following exchange:

       WR:  Do you want to go to Taiwan this weekend?

       DW:  Heh, that's funny.

       WR:  No really.  Fares are cheap and I have a three day weekend.

       DW: You do?

       WR: (nods)

       DW: How cheap is cheap?

       WR: About $280 for a round trip, nonstop flight from here.

       DW:  . . . Sure.

So, we did it.  We booked the tickets.

Needless to say, the fear of insufficient planning time quickly sank in and I did my share of frantic research (everything from attractions and currency conversions, to housing and Mandarin).  But 6 days later we boarded a flight to Taipei . . . while a super typhoon approached the island from the other direction.

In the interest of our new briefer format, I will spare you the blow by blow (hehe typhoon . . . blow), and just say that Taipei was AWESOME.  The typhoon made things windy and rainy for the first day and half, and kept us from really exploring outside of the north central part of the island, but we still got to see and do some amazing things.  The "Exploration" section of the photos at the end of the post will be a bit more robust than usual, so if you see things you want more details on just shout.  As for the focus of this week's little snapshot, I thought I would tackle one of the major hallmarks of our trip: the Night Markets.

There are over 100 night markets scattered over Taiwan.  Unsurprisingly, Taipei boasts some of the most celebrated, and while each person seems to have their favorite, our hostel was right on the doorstep of arguably the biggest and busiest in the metro, the Shilin Market.

While words can't give you a sense for the sounds or smells (cue PTSD style flashbacks of stinky tofu), I'll do my best to set the stage.  The streets are flanked with small stores during the day time and at night they either spill their wares onto their associated sidewalk or that space gets co-opted by a small stand.  Next, take any intersection of small streets and cram extra vendors there, and fill in any remaining gaps with push-carts, a bajillion people, and (mindbogglingly) mopeds attempting to make their way through it all.  The following is what you get:

To offer a bit of perspective, here is what that last shot looks like during the day.

At least in Shilin, there is everything from the occasional brand name store to obvious knock-offs and chachkis, but the reason we found ourselves at a night market each and every night of our trip was the food.

At the night markets street food is king, and we did our damnedest to eat as much as humanly possible.  Here are some highlights:

Do we look giddy in these pictures?  And these are our attempts to look slightly less manic.  I still "sqweeeeee" thinking about it.  There is also a "food court," which feels like a re-appropriated subway station, that is hard to capture in pictures.  Fortunately some kind soul did a nice walk through video and put it up on YouTube, so here ya go!

As if all of this weren't enough, I don't think we bought any single item on any evening that cost more than 55 New Taiwanese Dollars.  So yeah, that fried chicken breast as big as my head?  It cost under two dollars US.

While I could wax philosophical about the night markets practically indefinitely, I will cut myself off there as the return to Japan marked the return to counting calories and this is making me seriously hungry.  Be sure to scroll through the remaining space as there are some amazing shots from the rest of our trip.  

Thanks as always for reading, and don't forget to feed the fish!

DW

FOOD.

Have you picked up on my love of steamed buns and dumplings?

Ok, so Bibimbap isn't Taiwanese . . . but it's still awesome.

Happy IS yummy potato chips.

Part of our brunch at a place called The Pig and Pepper we
found through a food blog. It tasted as good as it looked :).

One of the few misses on the culinary journey of Taiwan.  The
three defining adjectives would probably be salty, sweet, and
pulpy, in that order.

STUDY.

Just before we left on the trip we found a couple of extremely helpful videos on Taiwanese Mandarin. This is the first of the two, and having the exact scenarios they demonstrate play out for us during our trip was a constant source of entertainment.

EXPLORATION.

Our base of operations in Shilin.

We felt a lot like these giant metal ostriches after landing
on the outskirts of a Typhoon.

The National Palace Museum has an AMAZING collection
of Chinese art and a STAGGERING number of Chinese
Tour Groups.

A picture of the National Concert hall, taken from the steps of the National Theater.
The shear size of the space is daunting.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.

A beautiful afternoon in front of the National Theater.

Sunset at 228 Peace Park.  A few blocks away from Chiang
Kai-shek Memorial and the National Theater, but a world
apart in terms of aesthetics.

A view out of the MRT station in central Taipei at night.

Storefronts in Shilin

View of south-eastern Taipei from the Maokong Gondola.

Enjoying high-mountain oolong in a tea-house in Maokong.

Prayers tied to the boughs of a pine tree outside Zhinan temple, a Buddhist shrine
on one of the peaks leading up to Maokong.

A profile shot of Zhinan Temple.

The winding steps leading up to the top of Elephant Mountain.  The jungleish mood
was nominally spoiled by the elderly Taiwanese woman following her husband up
the mountainside providing encouragement by blasting Usher's "Yeah" from the
iPhone in her outstretched hand.

One of the many pictures we took from the top of Elephant Mountain.