Day 6 - Taipei

Taipei is a whole new world.  Everyone here owns a scooter.  There are hundreds of schooters packed together at stop lights.  Old women, teenagers, and entire families pack onto a scooter.  I saw one with four people on it.  People smoke, drink, text, make phone calls, and do tricks while riding.  Traffic laws seem to be optional too.  I'm sure thousands of people die every year.  Being a pedestrian in this city is terrifying.

But first, let's show how I got to Taipei from the airport.



Immigration had no air conditioning.





At least I had a seat.



Taiwan is building a rail line to the airport, but it's not finished, so I was able to experience this lovely bus.  At least it was a good deal.  It was an hour long bus ride for $3.

As soon as I got off the bus, the humidity hit me.  90 degrees and 80% humidity.  I checked online and it's supposed to get worse later in the summer.  Before I even get to do any sightseeing, I'm dreading being outside.  By the time I walked with my backpack to the hostel, I am completely soaked.  Looking around, everyone else is too, so I guess it's just normal here.  Then once inside the hostel, I find all the windows open with fans running.  So the hostel is nice 90 degrees with 80% humidity too.  Maybe I will go outside!

I decided to walk to the this building.  It's pretty hard to miss since it towers over absolutely everything in the city.

2nd tallest building in the world

Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world until 2010 and Taiwan is very proud of the design.  I really enjoyed my visit to the building.  Yes, the view is impressive, but the audio tour, shopping mall, coral museum, exhibits, museums, and everything else packed inside was top notch too.

Dusk

Night

I stayed in the tower for quite a while as you can see from the time difference in the three pictures.  So far, Taipei 101 has been my favorite "attraction" where I paid money to visit.

Afterwards, I headed to the Shilin Night Market to get some food.  It turns out, the market is overrun with gambling, gray/black-market goods, and foods that I never would have thought existed.  You can buy puppies at the market and lots of people did.

No explanation needed.

Mangos on a stick.

I think one sausage feeds a family of four.

You can put anything on a stick.

I was duped into buying five pounds of mangos.  I just wanted one stick.  She handed me a stick and I handed her money.  Then instead of giving me change, she gave me a huge bag of mangos.  So, I ate lots and lots of mangos for dinner.  They were exceptional, so it wasn't all bad.  I found some normal-ish looking bread to go with them.

By the time I finished wandering the market, it was midnight, so I had to head back.  I wasn't able to spend much time in Taipei due to the flight issue earlier, but I was able to see two really interesting places and get a feel for the city.

I will say that Taipei is far less refined than Tokyo or Seoul.  I saw dead animals in the alleys and I mentioned the scooters earlier.  Also, the metro tokens seemed very illogical at first.

Evil token

There is no token slot on the mtro turnstile.  These tokens are simply held over the sensor just like a normal metro card would be.  Why can't Taipei use a card like every other metro I've ever been to?  I wasted 10 minutes of my life feeling really dumb because I couldn't find the slot.

To finish off Taipei for now, here is where my hostel was located.  Just a bit spooky...

The dead cat near the door didn't help.