Foulks' Tales From Korea: Taiwan: Part 1

DAY 1

There are many reasons why I would suggest Korea to someone who is looking to study or work abroad, but the monotony of the country is not one of them. At least in America, if I feel the need to get away, I don’t have to leave the country to experience different weather, people, culture, or cuisine. Outside of maybe Seoul, everywhere in Korea looks and feels the same. Maybe the native Koreans might disagree, but to this foreigner’s perspective, each part of Korea is just a carbon copy of the rest.

After more than a year and a half of living in Korea, I was overdue for a brief escape. As luck would have it, a co-worker and myself had the same vacation time and this lead to the idea to visit Taiwan.

Of course, holiday traveling can never go off without a hitch, and our journey was no exception. A couple days before our flight, I went to the bus terminal to get our tickets to the airport but alas, they were sold out! Some quick calculating led to getting tickets for a midnight bus to Incheon (the city) where we would then have to wait about an hour for the subway to open to finally go to the airport. If the bus rides to and from the airport turn out to be the worst part of an international vacation (foreshadowing), then almost everything else must have gone smoothly…and it did.

Things started to go our way when we checked in for our flight. The counter clerk took one look at me and my friend, Lisa, who is also very tall, and offered to seat us in the exit row. I can’t remember the last time I was lucky enough to get a seat that wasn’t designed for a dwarf. Even though it was only a two-hour flight, I was very excited about being able to enjoy my meal and tea without my knees digging into some aluminum bar of the seatback in front of me. And yes, to you Americans reading this, they served a full meal with tea service afterward on a two-hour flight. Good luck finding that in the U.S!

Check out the leg room!!!!!

Departing Incheon

Somewhere over the East China Sea.

We had beef and noodles for lunch.

Tea Time

Anyway, upon arrival in Taipei, we cleared immigration and headed to our hostel. Our first hostel was very nice. It was located in what once was an apartment so it wasn’t very big, but it was clean, comfortable, and the owners were very friendly and served bananas and banana bread each day. I guess that’s why the name was Banana Hostel…get it?

Lisa with one of the hostel owners.

It was late afternoon once we settled it, so we just decided to walk down the street to get our bearings and visit a monument in a little park located near our hostel. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I was going to like Taipei. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but to say that the atmosphere of the city was definitely unlike anything you might find in Korea. I’m not saying it’s better. Just different.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

I wonder how many people freak out by this sign?

On the memorial grounds.

Concert hall on the memorial grounds.


Yet another doorway in Asia not designed with me in mind!

Beware of bird flu!!!

In front of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

Inside of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Much like their famous counterpart in Britain, they are not supposed to move or speak. However, when one of the little children climbed past the rope, the guard in the foreground loudly slammed the butt of his rifle into the podium multiple times startling the kid. Hopefully he learned his lesson!

The view from the entrance of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

In the evening, we joined a couple people we met in the hostel and went searching for a decent place to eat dinner. We went down some side streets with various restaurants until we found one that looked popular enough, but not expensive. As we are seated, we are given a laminated menu and a crayon with which we were to use to place our order. Low and behold, the entire menu is in Chinese!!! Luckily, the lady who ran the restaurant noticed our predicament and was able to point to a couple items and say “beef noodles” or “shrimp soup” in broken English. Like Korea, many meals are served family style so we ordered four different items for the four of us. Each dish was better than the last! The best part was that the cost was about US $3 per person!!! Aside from the airfare, Taiwan turned out to be a very cheap trip.

Restaurant Exterior

Good luck ordering off this menu!!!

DAY 2

The next morning, we set out to explore some of what Taipei had to offer. We started by going to Taipei 101, currently the 4^th tallest in the world. (When One World Trade Center opens, it will move down to 5^th.) Considering Taipei 101 dominates the skyline of Taipei, it is actually easy to get to, as opposed to the Empire State Building or the Sears Tower, which gets obscured from view by all of the other tall building surrounding you as you walk through the streets. The world’s fastest elevator whisked us up to the observation deck where we were treated to spectacular views of the city of Taipei, as well as the surrounding areas. Free audio guides, in English, were available to explain what we were seeing as we gazed upon the sprawling metropolis. The outdoor observation deck was much less impressive due to the high walls and closely spaced safety bars, which greatly obstructed your view.

Taipei 101


Taipei 101 Entrance

Taipei 101 Lobby

Observation Deck Ticket

The elevators to the observatory are the fastest passenger elevators in the world!

Elevator Specs

The observation deck in Taipei 101.

View of Taipei from Taipei 101 observation deck.

(Limited) View of Taipei from Taipei 101 outdoor observation deck.

This 730-ton ball is suspended inside Taipei 101 to keep the building from collapsing during an earthquake. This is important considering that the building is less than 1/5 mile from a fault line.

For lunch, we went to Din Tai Fung, a famous Taiwanese restaurant once listed by the New York Times as a top-ten restaurant in the world. The restaurant specializes in xiaolongbao, which can best be described as a type of dumpling. We also ordered some other delicious foods such as pot stickers, fried rice covered with a pork chop, and another creation that can best be described as a pork and shrimp dumpling pocket. I forget the name of it. It was by far, the best meal I’ve had in Asia, including all of my time on Korea. The dumplings were juicy and bursting with flavor, the pork chop was tender, and I’ve never had a pot sticker anywhere near as delicious as these ones.

Table set-up at Din Tai Fung.

The dumplings come served in those wicker basket-type trays.

Best pot stickers I've ever had!

Xiaolongbao

Those smiles stayed plastered to our faces long after this delicious meal!

Shrimp and Pork Thingies

Shrimp and Pork Thingy

Pork Cutlet Fried Rice

Din Tai Fung Chefs

The original Din Tai Fung restaurant in Taipei.

To finish off our lunch, we went around the corner to get some mango ice. Apparently, all Taiwanese people, and people who have been to Taiwan before, will tell you that eating mango ice is a must when visiting the country. It didn’t hurt that it was the end of July in a subtropical climate, but the long line attests to the popularity of the dessert in Taiwan. For a total cost around $5-6, we shared a huge bowl of mango flavor shaved ice topped with mango ice cream and chunks of mango. I couldn’t get enough of it! It would almost be worth the trip to go to Taiwan just to eat lunch at Din Tai Fung and grab some mango ice afterward!

Mango Ice Place

Mango Ice

The unmistakable look of anticipation.

With our stomachs full of dumplings and dessert, we headed for the Taiwan National Palace Museum, a must-see according to multiple travel guides. The museum was full of old artifacts from ancient tools and pottery made from copper, jade, and others to old pieces of calligraphy. The museum may have been more enjoyable if it wasn’t overly crowded. The tour groups were the worst. Imagine an amoeba of 30+ people following a single guide holding a giant stick constantly morphing into different shapes as everyone tries to listen to the guide and see as each piece was explained. Now that you have this image, add at least a dozen or two more of these amoebas, often with 2-3 in a single room of the museum simultaneously. In other words, don’t go to this museum on a weekend!

The National Palace Museum

Our last stop of the evening was at the Shilin night market. The biggest such market in Taipei, it is a good spot to just walk around, browse various merchandise for sale, and eat some delicious street food. We had not walked more than 5 meters into the market when we were already hounded by merchants, the first one being from a fruit stand. We were allowed to sample different fruits native to Taiwan. Some were a bit bland, but others were very juicy, sweet, and delicious! To wash it down, we bought a bottle of bamboo juice. I didn’t really care for it, so I let Lisa finish it off. Later, I found a stand that sold fresh-squeezed cranberry juice. I had two of those during the evening!

Street View

Fruit Stand

Bamboo Juice Stand

Lisa liked the bamboo juice more than I did.

Once you wander deeper into the market, you start to notice an odor. It smells like someone wore the same pair of socks for a month, then took them off, inserted a dead fish inside topped off with a fresh poo, and then left them to sit for a week in the hot summer sun. That smell would be stinky tofu. Specifically it is fermented tofu, usually served deep-fried. Lisa really wanted to try it, so we did. At first it didn’t taste bad, but after a few seconds, the after taste was awful!!! I’ll try almost anything once, but for this…once was enough!

Making Stinky Tofu

Stinky Tofu

A short while after we discarded the remaining stinky tofu, we came across a vendor selling penis-shaped cakes. As immature as I am, I had to. Or at least I had to when Lisa bought one and it came freshly baked right out of the oven. Given how conservative Asia is portrayed, at least publicly, seeing this stand was quite a surprise. If you have started to notice that most of our market experience was food-based, it was because we didn’t feel like shopping yet. We peeked in a couple stores, but traveling with only a duffel bag and backpack, we didn’t want to lug any purchases around Taiwan over the next week. Anyway, our night at the market ended with some corn on the cob.