Taipei, let's get started!

One of the cutest asian cities around the world, similar to Hong Kong and full of japanese influences lays beyond my eyes: Taipei. Skyscarpers, highways, beautiful old streets, sky lanterns is what I see around me. I'm in an Uber heading towards Shilin Night Market for a taste of what means Taipei by night. Live cooking stations full of street food, mostly chinese style and thousands of shops. The market is half covered and half open air. The weather is perfect, around 25 degrees.  Lots of people in the market which indicates this is a popular place. I find lots of cute korean stuff: cute hats and broches, some nice dresses. Prices are good, you can even bargain a little bit. This market seems neverending. I try some local food: french fries with seaweed, honey Lemon Tea and  the famous pineapple cake. Around midnight market is still crowded. Reflexology spas seem very popular around this time.  

                                                                                                                  Second day I head over  Chiufen village, situated on the northeast coast. New Taipei city is called this area. Weather is not that great, cloudy and rainy due to the taifun in Phillipines. Chiufen or Jiufen is an old city in the mountains, used to be under japanese occupation and famous for his gold mine. The old street is narrow and very busy despite the rainy weather. Chinese lampions everywhere, streefood, lots of teahouses. We get some Oolong Tea in one of them. We go up to the last floor. The view would have been perfect if the sky would have had been clear. The landscape of the sea with big rocks inside kind of reminds me of the big ocean drive in Australia. We walk down the streets, heading to a colorful temple we spoted on our way from the car. Beautiful old streets, full of history, ceramic shops and the cutest coffee shop ever. We make a coffee shop and this place has a better view than the teahouse but the sky is covered in clouds now. I can notice that taiwanese people love pets, every shop, restaurant or anything is full of cute dogs and cats. They even walk them in pet strollers. We were supposed to head over Pingxi for a sky lantern experience but the rain is getting heavier So We go back to the city.

Our next stop is Taipei 101. We check the observatory and the visibility is 90% So We go up to 91 floor. This used to be the tallest building in the world before the burj khalifa.   After Taipei 101 I head over Wufenpu market. Similar to Shilin Night Market but between this two I would recomend Shilin. Even So it takes me two hours to check the entire market.

The weather is not getting any better but I still decide to visit  the Elephant Mountain. This is a hiking trail with lots of view points over Taipei 101. The hike takes about 30 minutes and includes lots of stairs. The view is amazing.