Taipei Day Three - Jinguashi and Jiufen and thoughts

I thought I'd have another go with Jiufen today (29 February), as the weather forecast promised sun and a warmish day of 22C.  Well, again I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the cloud and rain was a little less, but...

I first stayed on the bus to Jinguashi, another old gold mining town in the mountains.  Again, very atmospheric in the cloud, and lots of steps up into the mountains with presumably fantastic views of the sea from what I can see on the internet.  Those of you who know me well will know that when I see steps going upwards, I compulsively have to follow them...  on a fine day I see wonderful views, on a day like today I just get lots of exercise.  I don't have the same feeling about steps going down...

After my fitness training, I had a cup of coffee and a waffle in a nearby teahouse, where I met a Taiwanese group who talked animatedly to me in Chinese whilst I replied in English and Japanese.  Photos and email addresses exchanged all round...  They also invited me to something I couldn't miss on the 4th March.  Unfortunately, I have to miss whatever it is because I leave tomorrow.  They were a lovely group though!  And it was a very nice old teahouse.

Went back into Jiufen, explored and ate more snacks.  The cloud was a little less today, so I could see more than 2metres ahead, which made it more interesting!  Wonderful tiny side alleys and steep stairs cutting into the mountain.

After getting back into Taipei, I went to one of the Modern Toilet restaurants for dinner.  See here for a description of how it came to be - About Modern Toilet.  I went to the larger Xinmending branch, which was an interesting and lively pedestrianised shopping area in itself.  But where else can you sit on a toilet seat, eat your dinner (for me, chicken curry) from a bath tub, your poo-shaped icecream from a porcelain squat toilet and drink jasmine tea out of a plastic urinal?  Isn't it great??!!  The food actually didn't taste like s*** in case you were wondering...

A little more wandering, this time near Longshan Temple, then had to get back because I had to get up next morning at 4:30am for hotel pickup to the airport, rather early!

One thing that I noticed in Taiwan, that probably hasn't come out in my pictures, was that face masks were completely different.  In Japan, they are made of light disposable fabric and are usually white, sometimes pastel coloured.  In Taiwan, nobody wore a white mask!  They were very fashionable, thicker and washable.  I don't know whether they are worn for the same reason in Taiwan - i.e. to keep your cold to yourself, or because of tree pollen allergy.  But the variety of colours and patterns was incredible - black or dark khaki colours for the guys, and prettier or more striking patterns for women.  With patterns like that I'd wear one!

Because I live in Japan, in some ways Taiwan felt familiar, it is after all very close to Okinawa at the southern-most end of Japan.  But because of the different Chinese reading of kanji, it felt like all the rules had been changed!  I really liked Taiwan, and only skimmed the surface even in the Taipei area in this short trip.  There are so many other places I'd like to see there one day.

At night in Taipei, the buildings go through a colour change cycle - beautiful, but sometimes hard to realise you're walking around in circles!

There are many resources in English available in hotels and travel centres (often in MRT stations), and I picked up a lot which meant that I could easily plan my trip when I got there.  But looking at the back of some of these pamphlets, I can see you can actually download them in advance from their website.  For example the Go Taipei booklet is available as a pdf as is a good Taipei city map.  Both of those websites are in English and have a lot of useful information for your trip.  Taipei is an easy city to visit as an English speaker, and one that is well worth the effort.
http://taipeitravel.net/en/
http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/