Taiwan

Day 1:

We started in Taiwan by grabbing coffee and some breakfast. We were very fortunate to have a hostel near Taipei main station. So, to start the day, we hopped on a train to go to Sandiaoling. Here there were three total waterfalls that we would see. Upon arriving at the train station, it felt almost abandoned. Once we got off the train, we had to walk across the tracks to reach the ticketing booth. Then we had to search for the beginning of the hiking trail. While we searched we made a new German friend named Sarah. She was very helpful as she had phone service and a map! Once we got started, the hike was very fun! The hike was very tropical and the forest felt pretty dense at times. The first waterfall was pretty far away and it was difficult to get a good photo of it. However, the second waterfall you could walk right up to it. Then, you climbed right up the side of this waterfall to reach the third waterfall. From the third waterfall, you could walk out and look out from the top of the second waterfall. It was very cool. In typical Ben fashion, we decided to walk to Shifen instead of taking the train or a taxi. The walk was roughly an hour. Along the way, we ran into a taxi driver who was incredibly nice and pointed us in the direction of the Shifen waterfalls. The Shifen waterfalls were like a smaller version of Canada's Niagra Falls. This area was much more crowded than the other waterfall hikes. Then, we walked through old Shifen. Here, a lot of people were sending lanterns up into the air. On the lanterns, they would write things like good fortune, friendships and etc. The lanterns were much larger than I had anticipated. However they were a bit anticlimactic for two reasons. The first is that it was in the middle of the day. The second was that the lanterns would fly up for a bit and then we would watch them come down right into the mountain. For some of them, we could literally see exactly where they landed. At night, we went to a night market which was not much fun. The streets were incredibly crowded and you had to push your way to get anywhere.

Day 2:

Today we went to the Beitou Hot Springs. We were looking forward to relaxing in the hot baths to recover from our hike. However, we were slightly disappointed. The hot springs were just several tubs and the water inside was really gross. There was dead skin floating around and it did not feel very clean. After the baths, we went to see the actual hot springs. They are too hot to swim in and they would actually kill you if you decided to give it a try. It felt hot enough just standing near the green, steamy water.

After the hot springs, we went to Taipei 101. Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world for a while. Today, it is the tallest green building in the world. The views from the top were very beautiful but they could not be captured on camera very well at all. Instead, we had to settle for pictures with a giant yellow ball which weighed a whopping 660 metric tons. Taipei 101 also has the worlds fastest elevator which took us 89 floors in roughly 30 seconds.

Tonight we went to another night market. This time, we were much more successful. I found a pokemon hat and some pokeball socks. I also tried bubble tea for the first time. It was quite delicious but I was not overly fond of the actual bubbles. They were much chewier than I had expected and easily got stuck in my teeth.

Day 3: Today we ventured out to Juifen. This town inspired the famous animation Spirited Away. The town was located in a beautiful part of the country. Juifen was the perfect mix of mountain and coastline. From Juifen, there was a beautiful view of the Taiwanese coast. The whole town of Juifen was like one big night market. There were shops everywhere and it was very easy to get lost. This was both Zoe and I's favorite part of the trip.

Day 4: Today we went to the Taipei Zoo. We had read that the Taipei Zoo was the best zoo in Asia (granted, we read this in a Taipei pamphlet). Anyway, it was still a fun day. The zoo was very large and took nearly the whole day to see all of the animals. Some of the animals we saw included Giant Pandas, Giraffes, Lions, Hippos and several very strange animals that I cannot recall the names of. The pandas were especially cool because we arrived right at the time that they were fed. It was very entertaining watching the pandas searching their enclosure to find foods.