Taiwan in Pictures
NIGHT MARKETS
Taiwan has been a wonderfully fun experience for me. I have to say that I am satisfied with my time here. The thing I would rate the highest here in Taiwan is the variety of food to try. I came to Taiwan with an open mind and heart to allow myself to experience and try everything that this island has to offer. The food here is so delicious and they make the night markets that much more fun to adventure. My favorite food market was Ningxia. Stalls upon stalls of delicious looking food just waiting for someone to take a leap. One thing I am disappointed in is my reluctance to try a Taiwanese staple; stinky tofu. I couldn’t bring myself to try something that smelled so horrid! To my surprise, I had some friends who tried and love the food item. I checked it off as an acquired taste and decided it was best to leave that one off my menu.
I’ve tried more teas at night markets than I’ve ever had in my life. Where I’m from, a small town in North Carolina, there’s two kinds of tea; sweet tea or extra sweet tea. I come to Taiwan not knowing what to expect and end up buying tons of tea in so many different flavors and varieties. Bubble tea, milk tea, fruit tea, oolong tea, Alishan tea, Tieguanyin tea, anything-you-can-name tea Taiwan has it! If I had only come to Taiwan for the tea and food I would have been completely fulfilled!
MAOKONG GONDOLA
One of the other excursions that I really enjoyed was the Maokong Gondola! The sights on the way up to the top of the gondola were breathtaking. I dared to take it at night and saw a beautiful bird’s eye view of Taipei city lit up with lights. Maokong was beautiful. The tea shops there were where I had my first bit of tea. I went to a restaurant there that served the best sweet potatoes there ever was on this earth. The people were incredibly friendly and appreciated my attempt at communicating in Mandarin even though it was bad and broken. Maokong and the gondola was one to remember!
Figure 1 (from L to R) Chandler, me, and Starr posing for a picture while riding on the gondola!