When I signed up for my job, I chose to not live in Taipei for a couple reasons. I didn't want the hustle and bustle of a big city. I didn't want the higher expenses. I wanted to be pushed to use my Chinese. Despite all of these good intentions, our trip last weekend showed me how wrong I was.
Our plan was rather haphazard. We managed to get seated tickets there and back (a BIG win in my books) but other than the tickets and a hostel, we didn't have much of a plan. In fact our itinerary was decided on the trip up. We were hoping to see the sights, but most of all, we wanted to have a relaxing weekend.
When we arrived in Taipei, I was immediately reminded of why I love big cities: the subway. The ease and speed with which we traveled to our hostel, dropped our bags then headed to the other side of town for brunch was unparalleled. The most we waited for train was six minutes, which is nothing compared to the thirty minutes I have to wait for a bus back from work every night. As we zoomed around, we kept exclaiming "I wish we lived here!"
We had lunch at Tamed Fox, a health food cafe that drew us in with pictures of lattes with galaxy donuts on top, cinnamon rolls, acai bowls and avocado toast. While pricier than what I would typically spend on brunch, it was something that is nearly impossible to find in Changhua. The food was fresh and tasty, and although the galaxy donuts were sold out, I managed to snag the last cinnamon roll. It was heavenly. (If you plan on visiting make sure to make a reservation. Without one, we had to wait 45min. Not a problem since we had time to wander the neighborhood, but if you're on a tight schedule, call ahead)
The cafe was about a mile away from Taipei 101, so we decided to walk that way. Once the tallest building in the world (between 2004 to 2010), Taipei 101 is a landmark that's hard to miss if you're in Taipei. It's been built to withstand the earthquakes and typhoons that are commonplace on the island, and if you take the ear-poppingly fast elevator to the observation deck, you can see the city stretched out all around you. The three of us however decided to skip the rather pricy tickets and enjoy craning our necks back to take it all in from the ground.
We were planning to do the Elephant Mountain hike later that afternoon to catch the sunset behind the tower and the city, but with a couple of hours to kill, we found a stationary shop and a cute little cafe to chill in and chat. Once it hit four o'clock, we packed up, hopped on the red line for two stops and arrived at a quaint park at the base of Elephant Mountain. At the start of the hike, we joined the flow of people headed up the stairs. It was a pretty decent climb, exacerbated by the rather muggy weather, and the path clogged with people. But the views along the way and at the top were gorgeous. Although the weather didn't quite cooperate in full, seeing Taipei stretch out below us was still a treat.
The thing with Elephant Mountain, is that you may have seen some pictures circulating that have people posing on a rock in front of the view of Taipei 101. It's pretty famous. So famous in fact that a line forms at the top of the mountain and the wait time for a picture is anywhere from 20-30 minutes. That's thirty minutes of standing in sticky air with people constantly squeezing by and bugs drawn in by your cooling sweat. Thirty minutes for thirty seconds of quickly snapping pictures in front of a waiting crowd. So did we do it?
Of course we did.
After snagging the shot for Instagram, we headed back down the mountain. Our early morning was catching up with us and plans for shopping turned into plans for dinner and bed. We officially checked into our hostel, threw our stuff in the room and set out on a search for dinner. It took a while. The first was closed, the second sold out, the third unfindable. So we ended up in an underground attic (you read that right) painted entirely in orange, eating sizzling steak. So it all worked out. We grabbed some ice cream for desert, went back to the hostel, showered and went to bed. A successful day one.
Day two began with some amazing food (Miranda is our food gal and she always delivers). The Golden Flower, which offers breakfast sandwiches oozing melted cheese in flavors from your classic ham and cheese to a bit more daring flavors of taro, egg and condensed milk. I hadn't seen cheese in so long I was eventually swayed by the basic ham and double cheese sandwich. But even that was given a twist, with an almost sweet marinade on the pork.
We checked out of our hostel early. A quick note on Dan Hostel. We booked fairly last minute, so it wasn't our top choice by any means. I also would hesitate to recommend it. While the location in the Ximending Shopping District is great and everything is mostly clean, the staff aren't super friendly, there isn't free breakfast and the room we were in (private for three people) was basically three mattresses on the floor. This wouldn't have been a problem had I not woken up the next morning and found a stream of ants crawling along the floor right next to my bed. So book your hostel early, and maybe book somewhere else.
Our day got much better from the rather rough start as we headed for the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Shek was a military general with a complex history. He was the head of the Nationalist Party (or Kuomintang KMT Party) in China, that eventually lost to the Chinese Communist Party in a brutal civil war. Instead of admitting defeat, Shek brought his people to Taiwan (where he imposed martial law and did some rather dictator-y things before ushering in an era of social reform and economic prosperity). In fact, this is a large part of the reason that Taiwan and China have their whole weird relationship. While I could go into more detail, this is not a history blog, so if you'd like more reading on this controversial figure you can check him out here for more information.
Despite all the rather dubious historical underpinnings, we enjoyed our time at the plaza. The weather was perfect: baby blue skies painted with white fluffy clouds. Direct sunlight was a little too hot for my taste, but sitting on the steps in the shade of an ornate theatre, with the breeze rustling by it was idlic. We took pictures, walked around for a bit and then parked ourselves on the steps and enjoyed the scene. After we had lounged for an hour, we decided it would be a good idea to at least see a few more places, so we reluctantly roused ourselves and headed for the 228 Peace Memorial Park.
The 228 Peace Park is the site of an uprising against the KMT Party. After the Japanese surrender in World War II, Taiwan was handed over to the KMT, or the Republic of China. Local Taiwanese people became unhappy with corrupt officials, seizure of property, economic mismanagement and exclusion from political participation. A revolution ignited when a police officer fired into an angry crowd, killing one man. The revolutionaries stormed the radio tower (located where 228 Peace Memorial Park now stands) and used it to spread word of the revolt. This led to a brutal military crackdown on the park of the KMT, between 5,000 and 28,000 Taiwanese were killed, and martial law ruled the land for 38 years. The monument we visited was a memorial for the victims.
The significance of the history was lost on us arc the time as we sat in the shade and watched people view the monument. (It was only after further googling that I understood the gravity of what had transpired) We enjoyed the pretty views and the respite from the city, then moved on as lunchtime approached.
That pretty much concluded the trip. We grabbed lunch (and donuts) found our way through the craziness of Taipei Main Station and got on a train home. It was a lovely weekend jaunt, with many moments of relaxation beside friends. We didn't have time to see everything Taipei had to offer, but we definitely have plans to go back.
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