he weather most of the time was also good though it did rain at times and the southern part of Taiwan suffered floods and mudslides. Did not sweat most of the time as the humidity there is much lower than compared to Singapore, the temperature was mostly around 25 șC although it can fall to 18 șC during or after rain. This was not my usual Thailand, Malaysia or Cebu kind of back to nature, adventurous sand, sea and sun holiday and so had to leave my snorkel mask at home. More of the usual tourist type of holiday and went to places most tourist go like the National Palace museum which showcases thousands of ancient Chinese artifacts made of jade, bronze etc which the Taiwanese took with them when they fled mainland China. Also went to witness the changing of guard at the martyr's shrine which is built in typical majestic Chinese architecture. There they pay honour to all the KuoMingTiang soldiers and heroes who died fighting the Japanese and communists in the past. There are 4 guards standing very smartly and still there. Every hour the guard changes and they perform very solid drill along with arms drill. For more natural surroundings I went to YangMingsan which is a mountain that overlooks a lot of Taipei. Winding way up there and the bus driver was driving so fast that I was starting to feel like vomiting. The weather there was cool but sadly did not have a good view down as it was a very cloudy day. For a good view I went up one of the world's tallest buildings in Taipei 101 which is 508 m in height. Took the world's fastest lift which travels at speed of 1010metres per minute and from the 81st story one could see all round Taipei, the towns, buildings, the surrounding mountains and the tiny little toy like cars and scooters moving along down below. Also visited a place called Tansui which is located at the Taiwan straits and experienced the super strong winds at fisherman wharf. The wind is so strong that it could easily blow anything you don't secure properly and sometime you even feel that you are being blow away by the wind.
Taipei is quite a mix between HongKong and Japan. It is similar to HongKong in the sense that there is a lot of types of food to eat. Yes great eaters will love it. Their local favorite is the beef noodles and the best one I found was up in a mountain area called Jiufen. For a bowl of noodles it came with chunky parts of tender beef at very affordable prices. Other local delights include muah chee (see pictures) which come in different versions and defiantly taste better than Singapore version and something called "tie dan" or direct translation meaning metal egg. It is a vaccumed packed egg which taste quite good. They have lots of other local favorites, a lot of Chinese food and plenty which I have never seen before and they don't look very nice to eat but very appealing to the local stomachs. The locals also love fruit juices and bubble tea and coffee, everywhere you go you will find stands/stalls selling juices and bubble tea. Even the taiwanese instant pack of noodles are different from what we are used to as not only is there a pack of seasoning which goes with the noodles but they also pack with it packs of beef or chicken in it ! The Taiwanese are in a way also similar to the Japanese as they are orderly as shown by the way they queue up for MRTs or buses. Everybody follows the lines on the floor in a queue and there are plenty of MRT staff with whistles and light sticks to guide and give warning when the MRT train is about to leave. Getting around Taipei is easy and affordable as the MRT service is extensive going to a lot of places and the buses show the stops in the onboard digital screens in English and Chinese. Even if you don't know where or how to go to some place, there are tourist information counters at every MRT station to ask directions. The locals are also generally very courteous and polite, whether it is a more expensive food stall or just a smaller simpler one they are very courteous and say lots of "xie xie" no matter how busy they are. The staff at the small hotel I stayed in are also very courteous and will help you out in planning a visiting iternary and how to get to various places. Like the Japanese they also like their hot springs and I visited one of them. The water was very hot and although most people say it is refreshing and rejuvenating, I felt more exhausted and dehydrated after just half an hour sitting in the hot spring.
The costs of things are about the same to Singapore. Food wise the costs is quite similar although the quality and variety of chinese food in Taipei is much better than in Singapore. Other things like clothes, bags, electronic items are similarly priced to Singapore. There are also plenty of night markets around Taipei and very very crowded especially on the weekends. They sell lots of foodstuff and clothoing items there on sale but price wise I did not find it cheaper than Singapore and definately cannot be compared to street/night markets in Thailand places. Besides even if you wanted to buy anything as it so crowded and stopping to buy something would be like causing a human traffic jam. Crawled once through the human traffic jam at a speed of 20 cm per second and that was enough for me. All over the popular areas the Taiwanese also like their game stalls. Play the game and you stand to win soft toy prizes and the games range from shooting basket ball into hoops, shooting balloons with pellet guns and darts etc etc. They even had game stalls where if you caught a number of fish or small turtles in a certain time you would win a prize. More sadistic is one game is where the gamers fish up prawns in a certain time period. The prize is the prawns that you catch and you get to skewer it and instantly roast it on the spot over a stove and have it as a snack. The poor prawns die a slow hot death.
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