Day 5
Dude, tired could not describe my situation. An all-nighter plus climbing three mountains was far from my idea of the relaxing time I planned on spending in Taiwan. But man, was it pretty incredible.
Well, that’s basically what I thought before I went to bed the night before. Waking up at 1 in the afternoon probably said volumes more about my situation than I could elaborate in words. Breakfast was accordingly light but full of energy with various fruits. I needed to let my body recover.
And by recover, I mean checking out another mountain. However, anyone who has ever been to 象山 (지앙산, Elephant Mountain) knows that Elephant Mountain is what could be described as the prototypical hill in the proverbial major city. For my Seoulites, think Namsan. For my New Haven townies, think East Rock. Not really a climb, but a revitalizing walk. Likewise, it is basically an Instagram hotspot.
That Instagram-like non-Instagram photo was taken by a frequent Instagrammer, Van from Hong Kong, I met just minutes before. I was introduced to the dude, Justin from Baltimore, she met just seconds before meeting me. We spent our time at Elephant Mountain chatting on top of it and learning about each other’s Taiwan experiences. A bunch of cool cats no doubt. Actually while Van had a little Instagram celebrity, Justin was recently in the viral limelight. Yeah, this viral video was made by him and his roommate in their Baltimore home.
Celebrity status aside, we were all tourists in Taiwan so we went to that typical tourists-in-Taiwan thing: a night market. This round: 饒河街觀光夜市 (로해야시장, Raohe Street Night Market). Raohe was definitely more popular than Ningxia. Seemingly longer and with quite a few more options I was quite excited for some more grub. And I had indeed found the gift of the gods in the form of skewered meat.
Chicken sausage changed my life. At that moment, I knew Taiwan was a country I would love for years to come. It may sound like a bold statement, but you don’t even understand the love I felt with each bite. I swear I heard angels singing in the background and the stars twinkled with a glimmer I had not seen before. The warmth around me even began to embrace me as I savored the night market delicacy.
My pseudo-love story was followed with more foods and an early departure by Justin (also a Taiwanese American) who had plans to meet with his relatives in town for a late dinner. Van and I continued from Raohe to 信義 (신이, Xinyi). If you can imagine the one of the nicest and well organized department stores being partitioned and set up as blocks outside, you have Xinyi. Shopping galore, this place like Bloomingdale’s reminded me that I am poor. But that was okay because window shopping is always free. Boy, oh boy, did these building designers put in some work. The aesthetics of the exterior of the various building made me think of a Vegas-ified space colony. The interior, however, worked off of minimalism hardcore. After checking out the Taiwanese Barnes & Noble of Eslite, we enjoyed some blueberry ice cream from 8% Ice.
After parting ways, my night ended near 台北車站 (Taipei Main Station) after finding a small art shop that sold goods from numerous Taiwanese artists. I have a few goodies in store for some friends back home!
