My Taiwan Experience

First off, I would like to thank my parents for everything from the money spending to the time shared together. Xie Xie!

I fell in love with Taiwan. 

Should I go into the details and make this post lengthy? Hmmm.

Places I visited in Taiwan: 
Well, I didn't really go to many places in Taiwan - only two cities TaiChong and TaiPei. The streets are surprisingly clean despite the huge crowd every night!

high above TAIWAN

Their super cool 7-11

first night hotel lobby

cool statue.

view from the breakfast restaurant

bus

high-speed train

family at train station

name of the train station

TRAIN!

inside the train

going to the city

peacock

at the restaurant

family photo!

boat 

The Food:
I understand the whole comparing-is-very-annoying-as-you-cant-compare-apple-to-orange-kind-of-thing. Honestly, I prefer Malaysian food. Taiwanese food is less oily, fatty, salty, sweet etc - EXCEPT for their fried stuff, of course. But then again almost ALL fried stuff are tasty. & guess what? I'm allergic to yam (most probably anyway). It's weird when you're 16 and traveling in a foreign country, you find out you are allergic to yam. -.- Seriously, who expected that? It's not like I have not eaten yam before, what's with Taiwanese yam?! The rashes started at 2AM (oh dear lord) I managed to fall asleep several unknown hours later. Way to go. Other than that, the food is acceptable for my Malaysian taste bud.


The Weather:

at the hill

around 16- 26 Celsius? For a girl that grew up at a place which coldest temperature is 26 C, the weather was superb. During the cold night, bathing usually involves a lot of shivering, but then it's OK. I'M STRONG, or that's what I said to myself anyway. I brought gloves and thankfully, I got to use them when we were uphill, (16 Celsius, I guess)

The People:
One word - NICE. I can't think of any fancy word to describe them but right now, 'nice' seems like the right word. Most of them are dressed very stylish and one look, you'll know we're not locals - or maybe it was our accent. Our horrible Chinese was well, terrible. I don't think I'll survive there speaking Chinese 24/7. Maybe I  more practice. Anyway, back to the sweet people, they aren't rude, they don't complain when you ask the prices of ALL there products and leave the store without buying anything, they don't yell or curse at you, instead, some of them apologises for not not having anything suitable for you!. FREAKING NICE. I'd never been to Japan but I got a feeling the Taiwanese got the good side of Japan! :D

The Driving:
I won't say terrible but I'm just not used to crossing the pedestrian when it's green but there are still cars turning into your junction (!!!!!!!!!) apparently, it saves time and Taiwanese trust each other. And people wouldn't want to bang you as it would probably cost them a fortune and a lifetime taking care of you. Motorbikes are really popular in Taiwan, especially for the places without MRT. Well, in the Shilin Food Court or what you call the covered-food-centre, I was happily walking in front of my parents and then they yelled "GOT CAR!" My first reaction was to go to the right side of the street and avoid the car (which turned out to be a motorbike...) The motorbike was trying to avoid ME and we both went right side. It hit the side of me. I felt fine but later there was a bruise at the side of the body. (Note to self: find a new word that has the same meaning as 'side')

near where it happened, only with less people

Posted in: taiwan,vacation