Taipei 2013

January 3, 2013 was one of my best birthdays, to date. I was able to spend my entire birthday week in Taipei with my good friends, Caroline and Nick. Caroline arrived in Taipei in the late afternoon of January 3 and Nick had to work that day, so I thought I would be wandering around on my own. Fortunately for me, I had met Sue, a wife of one of Nick's coworkers on NYE, and she was free to hang out that day.

Sue and her husband, Louie, are from the Philippines and moved to Taipei when her husband got a job as a tech writer at the same company where Nick works. Apparently, the tech writing staff is made up primarily of Americans and Filipinos. Sue, lacking a work visa for herself, went from being a busy teacher to a housewife with a lot of free time after the move. To keep busy, she manages a great art project website, First Palette. Coincidentally, I had used her website to come up with ideas for my own art class in Korea.

Sue and I outside the National Palace Museum.

We met at the base of a cable car ride and rode the cable car to the top of one of the hills that surrounds Taipei. On the ride, we could see a bit of a cloudy view of the hills that surround the city. At the top, we had delicious hot fruit tea in a small tea house.

After the cable car ride and before heading to the National Palace Museum, we stopped downtown to dine on xiao long bao, soup dumplings, one of Taipei's famed dishes. At the National Palace Museum, we wandered through the throngs of other visitors to see a jade exhibit and other ancient Chinese artifacts. We only saw a small portion of the museums extensive collection of historic pieces.


Sue and I parted ways in the late afternoon and I went back to my hostel in downtown Taipei to meet Caroline. We met up with Nick in the evening for a sushi dinner and drinks on the top floor of the W Hotel.

Having tucked ourselves into bed at a reasonable hour the previous night, we were ready for an all day bike ride. With our rented bicycles, we headed away from the city center toward the outskirts of Taipei. The day went smoothly and included pretty Chinese temples. People had brought noodles and flowers to offer to the gods as well as burning incense.

Because I either lost my camera or had it stolen, all of the photos in this post are from Caroline. (Thank you, Caroline!)

Nick and I outside a convenience store, on our way to rent bikes.

  

Outside a Chinese temple.

Outside a Chinese temple.

Burning incense inside the Chinese temple.

Flowers left as an offering.

Squid on a stick. I think the dinos are hungry. 

Well, Nick was hungry. 

Me when I thought we were almost finished with our ride. We made a few wrong turns and took a few more hours.

Caroline and I after carrying our cycles up onto the bridge and before we cycled across in the rain.

Finally, we were back in Taipei. But, just in time for Friday night traffic.

The National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine.

We returned our bikes and snapped the only group shot of the day.

Mmmm... dinner and protein. The perfect end to a long day.