Excursion to Tamsui

The day after my company did the day tour of Taipei they a little excursion to Tamsui, located only like 20 minutes away. It wasn't required but I figured that since I'm new to Taiwan it helps to see as much as I can. Also the Red Fort in Tamsui was on my list of things to see. 

I was surprise on how many people from my training group went. In fact almost everyone went along. We were such a large group that we basically took up half a train car. There was, though, a couple with an actual cat in their bag. One thing about Taiwan's metros and public transportation is that you are not allowed to eat or drink on the trains or even the train station. It is very clean because of this. Also the only time that I've seen them line up has been waiting in line for the train.

After getting off from the train we walked along the bay heading towards the Red Fort. I have to say the view was pretty nice and we saw some interesting things along the way. 

My group. I'm in the front kneeling in pink.

It took us like 15 minutes to walk from the train station to the Fort.It is located on top of a really big hill. As I was talking with the one girl from my group we decided to be crazy and run up the hill. I don't know why we did this we were already hot and sweaty. 

Once at the Fort were allowed to wonder and explore. It was interesting. I grew up visiting forts and other historical landmarks on vacation so this was right up my alley. On of the things that I thought was interesting was that on the walls that told you about the history of the fort were in English. Although learning about history of the was awesome the thing that we all enjoyed the air conditioning. 

After we left the fort we headed down to the food street. It is a really narrow street with tons of food stalls. I decided to get the one traditional Taiwanese treat. It is fruit such as strawberries, tomatoes and small apples coated in a red sugar glaze. The strawberries on mine were really good but I did not really like the tomatoes. I also decided to get some roasted squid which was pretty good.

After eating we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the evening. 

City Tour of Taipei

One of the nice things about my company is that they took us on a small bus tour of Taipei. We couldn't all fit in one group since there was almost 50 of us. Also while one group was on the bus tour the other half were at the hospital getting a check up for our visas. 

Along with taking us all over Taipei. We stopped at one of the luckiest temples in all of Taipei. This was my first time at a temple and I was super excited. I have to say that I was amazed at the craftsmanship that went into building it. 

After that we went to lunch and ate some traditional Taiwanese food. It was the first meal that I was really able to sit down and each with my fellow new members. I also tried Guava juice for the first time and it was so good. 

Me at the Temple

such fancy napkins

After eating lunch they took us on a driving tour of Taipei. We went to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial and the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorials. It was really cool... well ok hot. I am not use to the humidity at all climbing all those steps did not help at all. I also would have found it way more interesting if I could actually read Chinese but it was still fascinating  It was also interesting at both memorials that there were groups of teenagers break dancing outside. At the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial we were able to see the changing of the honor guard. 

The Sun Yat Sen Memorial

The front of the memorial

oh look Taipei 101

the  Chaing Kai-Shek Memoria

Add caption

statue of Sun Yat-Sen

 Changing of the Guards

Sorry for Not Updating

So over the past couple of weeks I haven't been updating. Sorry but I moved and started work, so things have been a little busy.... I also didn't have internet till yesterday so be prepared for lots of post over the next week or so.  Till next time

First to Ximending

So on the same day that I hit up Taipei 101 we also went to Ximending in the evening. It is an area kinda like a street market but really trendy for young women. Although we did see a lot of guys you could tell that it obviously wasn't their main target audience.  Also if you were expecting like a night market type feel you might be disappointed because Ximending is more of a lot of little trendy stores instead of stalls. Oh and it is pretty easy to get to just take the MRT to Ximen station and get off at either Exit 1 or Exit 6 and bam there you are. 

So if you take Exit 1 one of the first buildings that you will see is this little building that has Doritos on it. As far as we could tell it doesn't sell Doritos and has a TV in it besides from that no idea what it is. We were going to check it out on our way out but there was a line and we were tired. 

Anyway walking around there is a lot of different shops and brands. One of the things that we loved was all the shops that had tons of kpop and Taiwanese idols. I didn't buy anything this time but I can totally see myself spending a lot of money here. There was also a lot of make up stores that have some of the cutest make up out there.

As you might have noticed that not only were the make up adorable but they were also advertising with some Korean Idols.

This is probably the closest that I would ever get to Jang Geun Suk

It was pretty crowded even though it was was a week day. There were tons of young people and families out and about. I have to say I was a little shocked on how many small children were out even though it was like nine at night. Anyway there were a lot of small little places to each and some themed cafes. My friend and I didn't really stop at any of them because I was still feeling off from jet lag at that point. 

After walking around for a while we got back onto the MRT and headed back to our hotel for a night's rest. 

My room at the First Hotel

So the hotel that I've been staying at is the First Hotel in Taipei. All honestly it's not a very nice hotel. I'm only staying here because well this is where my company put me up (although I did have to pay for the first couple of nights).

My bed

The view from my bed

So this has been one of the worst hotels that I've ever been in. Looking on the walls I can see weird stains and scuff marks. Also walking down the hallway to get to my room you can see where they piled all the extra/ needed to be repaired furniture. There is also only one key for the hotel room, that we have to turn in whenever we leave the building. Also we don't have to show ID when we pick up the key. We just walk up to the front desk and tell them our room number and they hand us the key. 

the view from my room's window

I have to say that the service though hasn't been bad at all. We have our room cleaned every day by a really nice Taiwanese women that asks us "Want to Make Room?". I must say that I'm really going to miss coming back to a made bed. 

The weirdest thing and probably the most annoying thing is that  we aren't suppose to flush toilet paper down the toilet. It has been a real pain remembering that rule. It is also the reason why we have our room cleaned everyday. Also there is a phone in the bathroom that took me like 4 days to notice it. We are also not suppose to drink the water, so they give us bottled water every day. 

They are renovating some of the rooms but unfortunately my room was not one of them. One last thing to mention is that everyone's room is set up a little bit differently. In my room we have two chairs and a bench but in the next room it is smaller and they only have one chair. Also we have no place to put our stuff and it kinda sucks living out of our suitcases but in another one of my group's rooms they have a dresser so it is not as bad for them.

All in all I understand why this hotel has a 2.5-3 rating