Good morning from Taipei! The whole crew had a leisurely waking up and we headed out by 10am.
We didn't have to go far to get a cheap Taiwanese breakfast. Yang's Yonghe (楊永和豆漿 Yáng yǒnghé dòujiāng) is only a block from the Airbnb. Note: I think it's meant to be Yonghe-style and is not actually affiliated with the famous Yonghe Doujiang (永和豆漿 Yǒnghé dòujiāng). We got a big variety of food since it was our first breakfast: soymilk (豆漿 dòujiāng) and rice/peanut milk (米漿 mǐ jiāng), doughnut (油条 yóutiáo), meat buns, radish cake (蘿蔔糕 luóbo gāo), rice roll (飯糰 fàntuán) with pork and egg.
We took the MRT red line all the way to the end at Tamsui (淡水 Dànshuǐ). We got to explore Fuyou Temple a bit (淡水福佑宮 Dànshuǐ fú yòu gōng) and went in and out of shops for souvenirs.
While we were wandering the waterfront, Mike got accosted by some high school students that (we think) needed to interview an English speaker for class. He got the celebrity treatment: they held an umbrella over him and one guy recorded it on his phone while the girls all giggled around him.
At random vendors, we bought snacks and drinks. Mike got a spiral potato chip. I got a fresh orange juice yakult which was delicious, like Chinese Orange Julius. The others got fried chicken from J&G. It was sprinkling the whole time we explored the shops and old street. Just when we got to the alley with all the food vendors, though, it started pouring! So we ran into the mall and made it to Saboten, a tonkatsu place, with ~20 minutes to spare before they stopped taking orders. I love tonkatsu restaurants in Taiwan (or maybe it's just Saboten) because they come with unlimited rice, salad, soup, and sides, besides being really good pork.
We made an itinerary change to head home so people could change into rain-appropriate clothes and headed back out again to Longshan Temple (龍山寺 Lóng shānsì), which is a beautiful, anachronistic piece of history and religion in the middle of crazy Taipei. It's pretty neat to see genuine worship mixed with tourists in a temple from the 1700s, spitting distance from the MRT. Admittedly, it's undergone countless bouts of renovation and reconstruction, but it really is still gorgeous and worth seeing.
After the temple, we dove right into the nearby night market, Huaxi Street Night Market, aka Snake Alley (華西街夜市 Huá xī jiē yèshì). Note: The covered block which is well-lit and labeled Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (華西街觀光夜市 Huá xī jiē guānguāng yèshì) wasn't night-market-food-vendor-ish, so we didn't explore it very far before turning back to the main/uncovered street.
Cherry and Eddie have a goal to get Hot Star fried chicken steak and spotted a vendor who had something similar-looking -- Devil Evolution Fried Chicken (惡魔雞排 Èmó jī pái). It was apparently not as good and the search will continue. We also all shared a braised pork rice (滷肉飯 lǔ ròu fàn) and an order of takoyaki before heading home to drop off the girls. They were exhausted. The rest of us got dinner at Mos Burger, less than a block away, and called it a night.
We didn't have to go far to get a cheap Taiwanese breakfast. Yang's Yonghe (楊永和豆漿 Yáng yǒnghé dòujiāng) is only a block from the Airbnb. Note: I think it's meant to be Yonghe-style and is not actually affiliated with the famous Yonghe Doujiang (永和豆漿 Yǒnghé dòujiāng). We got a big variety of food since it was our first breakfast: soymilk (豆漿 dòujiāng) and rice/peanut milk (米漿 mǐ jiāng), doughnut (油条 yóutiáo), meat buns, radish cake (蘿蔔糕 luóbo gāo), rice roll (飯糰 fàntuán) with pork and egg.
We took the MRT red line all the way to the end at Tamsui (淡水 Dànshuǐ). We got to explore Fuyou Temple a bit (淡水福佑宮 Dànshuǐ fú yòu gōng) and went in and out of shops for souvenirs.
While we were wandering the waterfront, Mike got accosted by some high school students that (we think) needed to interview an English speaker for class. He got the celebrity treatment: they held an umbrella over him and one guy recorded it on his phone while the girls all giggled around him.
At random vendors, we bought snacks and drinks. Mike got a spiral potato chip. I got a fresh orange juice yakult which was delicious, like Chinese Orange Julius. The others got fried chicken from J&G. It was sprinkling the whole time we explored the shops and old street. Just when we got to the alley with all the food vendors, though, it started pouring! So we ran into the mall and made it to Saboten, a tonkatsu place, with ~20 minutes to spare before they stopped taking orders. I love tonkatsu restaurants in Taiwan (or maybe it's just Saboten) because they come with unlimited rice, salad, soup, and sides, besides being really good pork.
We made an itinerary change to head home so people could change into rain-appropriate clothes and headed back out again to Longshan Temple (龍山寺 Lóng shānsì), which is a beautiful, anachronistic piece of history and religion in the middle of crazy Taipei. It's pretty neat to see genuine worship mixed with tourists in a temple from the 1700s, spitting distance from the MRT. Admittedly, it's undergone countless bouts of renovation and reconstruction, but it really is still gorgeous and worth seeing.
After the temple, we dove right into the nearby night market, Huaxi Street Night Market, aka Snake Alley (華西街夜市 Huá xī jiē yèshì). Note: The covered block which is well-lit and labeled Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (華西街觀光夜市 Huá xī jiē guānguāng yèshì) wasn't night-market-food-vendor-ish, so we didn't explore it very far before turning back to the main/uncovered street.
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| braised pork rice (滷肉飯 lǔ ròu fàn) |
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| Takoyaki |
Cherry and Eddie have a goal to get Hot Star fried chicken steak and spotted a vendor who had something similar-looking -- Devil Evolution Fried Chicken (惡魔雞排 Èmó jī pái). It was apparently not as good and the search will continue. We also all shared a braised pork rice (滷肉飯 lǔ ròu fàn) and an order of takoyaki before heading home to drop off the girls. They were exhausted. The rest of us got dinner at Mos Burger, less than a block away, and called it a night.
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