Day five
We arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and we were here for 1 night. We went to a temple and then to a night market where there wasn’t much vegetarian food so we had mushrooms to share and a passion fruit drink each which tasted like Um Bongo. At the temple loads of coaches and lorries started pulling up and blasting out dance music.
Day six
We had breakfast at the hotel and it wasn’t too great. They had a jam that looked and tasted like Lucozade. The staff were really friendly though. We went to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas.
Then we got an Uber to The Pier2 Art Center. We both loved it. Apart from music, we have very similar tastes in pretty much everything which is good when you’re travelling around together. We struggled to find veggie food but we managed. It wasn’t that good.
Day seven
I have been really into orange for a few years now but it got amplified on this trip. I like cobalt blue/navy with orange/apricot and also green-grey and grey. C and I are enablers of each other. I don’t like shopping with people usually but we seem to bring something out in one another.
We got the train to Taichung – I do believe we bought Starbucks to have on the train. The hotel wasn’t too good. The lady at reception seemed to know this too and tried to sell it to us by pointing out the popcorn machine in reception where we could indulge in free popcorn. We politely declined and checked out one day early.
My book told us to go to a teahouse and we obeyed. C said we didn’t have to do everything the book said and I agreed but still consulted it religiously throughout the trip. The food wasn’t too good but at least it was actual food rather than the snacks we’d been subsisting on so far. Good job we like mushrooms.
Day eight
Thank God we hadn’t opted for breakfast at the hotel. Instead, can you guess where we went? After Starbucks, we continued the day eating. We had planned to go to Rainbow Village but we hadn’t planned well enough because it was shut on Mondays. Bubble tea at Chi Cha San Chen and ice cream at MINIMAL.
Then we hopped on the train to Taipei. We went to Taipei 101 and had dinner at Din Tai Fung which had a massive queue!
Day nine
We got a taxi to Jiufen and we got there relatively early. It was quiet in the morning, so that’s when I’d recommend to go. There wasn’t much to do apart from walk up and down steps and eat and drink.
We spent ages trying to find out how to get in this vegetarian restaurant but it was really good once we did. We managed to do a bit of ‘bag planning’ as well.
Horrendous.
Day ten
We spent the morning wandering around, trying to find some Popmart stuff C’s nieces wanted. It all looked like rubbish to me, so I know I am getting old. We shared a mango shaved ice thing. The staff were scrubbing one of the chairs within an inch of its life which made us wonder what had gone on before we got there. Three of them were having a go and then it got taken outside to get given a more thorough wash. We were in there for about 30 minutes and that went on for the entire time. We trotted to see the graffiti and then had dumplings in a plastic bag which gave us both dicky tummies. Then it was off to the airport to go to Shanghai!
Emily