We are staying in a VRBO apartment near All The Happenings. Our apartment is on the fourth floor of an older apartment building. The door to the building is found down a small street that happens to be slightly larger than an alley. While the apartment is older, it is what appears to be a stereotypical Taiwanese home: no frills, small patio for air drying clothes, a dishwasher that probably hasn’t worked in more than five or six years, and minimal furnishings which are in need of replacement. That said, we have two small bathrooms and three bedrooms which have proven invaluable with the 14 hour time change. About two blocks from our apartment is a day market. While busy on weekdays, it is absolutely packed on the weekends with food, people, produce, meats, and more food.
We remain unsure of some of the things we have eaten as we moved from one street food vendor to another, but almost all of it has been incredible. Even better is the price. Most of the street food is about $1-$3 USD per serving.
We decided to treat ourselves to a more formal Taiwanese dinner one night and went to Wulao Xinsheng. The meal consisted of a giant pot with a divider down the middle so that it could hold two different broths with too many aromatics in each to list. We ordered the various items we wanted to cook, and once the broths were boiling, we each cooked whatever we wanted to eat: the Taiwanese version of fondue. The kids of course loved it, but so did Scott and I. It was a truly unique experience.
Of course if you go to Taipei, you have to go to the top of Taipei 101. With 101 stories, the building boasts the fastest passenger elevator in the world. It also has a huge tuned mass damper to make the building stable during typhoons and earthquakes. It’s a must see for homeschoolers like us because the wind damper is open to the public. It ended up being a quick lesson that the kids didn’t even realize they were getting.
While the 101 gives some great views, in order to see Taipei at its best, you have to hike the Elephant Mountain. From the amazing views of the city to the beautiful vegetation to the incredible path that wonders through a cave and natural sandstone walls, the hike proved to be one of the highlights so far. I would say that it was a bit of exhausting hike up, but since we passed so many elderly Taiwanese people who use it for their daily exercise, I won’t comment on how breathless we were for part of it.
The great news was after the long hike (and five days of only Chinese food) we stumbled across a restaurant called NoLa. It was unbelievable good! Fried chicken and waffles, a pork chop to die for, and even extremely spicy chicken wings followed by a beignet, we all left with full bellies and tired legs.
The gondola, zoo and night markets are next on the to do list. Tomorrow’s going to be busy.
Honorable mention shots in video below :