– By Passionfruit
Jetting north for a dose of a larger and more international city
It’s like going to San Francisco or NYC for us, just a lot easier here. We just hop on the the HSR (high speed rail) and within an hour, going 186 MPH, we arrive in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. Round trip is $1400 NT ($44 USD). A quick shout out to public transit in this country. It’s efficient, modern and clean. The HSR reaches almost 90% of the population and runs along the entire west coast. Nangang (north) to Zuoying (south) in as little as 105 minutes.
Mini Mandarin Lesson
Taipei is often pronounced Taibei by locals. Why? The second half of the word means North, in Mandarin it’s pronounced Běi 北
Missing you at Midnight
Bad news for my Skinny Jeans
Fine Dining at the mod Mume
Hipster artisanal cocktail maker. Check.
Taipei does cocktails. Taichung, not so much so we like to enjoy a few of these while we’re in the big city. This is Diary. A hip little restaurant and bar that’s become a fav.
Coffee Shops. Check.
WE LIKE BIG BUNS AND WE CAN NOT LIE
HOT DOGS IN BASKETS
Pretty stone garden wall
Museum of Fine Arts
The Daniel Lee exhibit was amazing (4 photos below).
MODERN DANCE SHOW
Cloud Gate, is in my opinion, the best modern dance in Taiwan. We’ve seen them in Taichung and they blew me away. We got lucky, because this night they were performing free, outside at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall! We met up with Shuchen and Eric to check it out.
I’m obsessed with Shuchen’s turtles. They’re almost as cute as corgis!
Jianguo Weekend Flower Market completes the weekend
I want to live in Taiwan….part to the year…..How come things are so harsh and sad and dreary here in the U S A–and also in mainline China—how did this place somehow escape all that fear and loathing?
I like best: that stone wall, the Buddhist image meditation space and THE BREAD!