Location: Taipei, Taiwan

If anybody out there bet that we wouldn’t eat dumplings again today then they were definitely wrong because of course we did. In fact it was the very first thing on the docket today which meeeans we’ve adopted dumplings as an acceptable breakfast food.

I’ll allow it.

All week I’ve been really looking forward to walking back up to DiHua Street, an old town market street filled with traditional medicine shops that are just stuffed floor to ceiling with herbs and bottles, fabric shops with bolts of the most beautiful, intricately patterned cloth, and spice and dried good shops with big open linen bags covering like 80% of the floor space and spilling out into the street. We wandered around sort of window shopping and I was wishing the whole time that I had enough space in my bag to bring back a sampling of half the stuff. We stopped at a corner coffee shop for a game of crib, and sat outside to people watch as well. I didn’t really know what to order because the menu was mostly unrecognizable, so I ended up with a ‘siphon coffee with sea salt foam’ and

mother.

of.

god.

I cannot stand black coffee and this tasted like heaven. I have no idea exactly what siphon coffee is but it was the smoothest, least bitter coffee I’d ever ever had. If black coffee tasted like this normally I’d drink it every single day. Might have to do some experimenting when I get back home…

I was feeling a bit sad today because it’s our last day in Taiwan and I always love every minute of being here and never want to leave. I like to start or end my time in cities from a really high view point, and I remembered a little trek up Elephant Mountain at sunset being a highlight from previous visits. Turns out today was no exception and absolutely turned my mood right around!

I swear I warned Garrett on the way there that it was quite a long set of stairs to get to the top (about 500 feet elevation of just straight up stairs through a jungle) and he seemed totally fine with it. But then we arrived, he looked at me, looked at the stairs, looked at me again and just said ‘Oh. Great.’

We both sweat completely through our clothes, and forty billion steps later we finally arrived at the view-point. We sat down next to a German couple who had just cracked a couple celebratory beers for reaching the top. I looked at the tiny water bottle we brought that was half empty and gave Garrett a look like ‘why aren’t we that smart??’

We ended up chatting with the couple, Louis and Svanja, and shortly after were joined by Jeff from Indonesia. The five of us chatted for over an hour at the top of the mountain as the sun went down and the city lights blinked on. I was absolutely elated to meet them, since meeting new people (even if only for a night or two) is one of my favourite parts of travelling. I don’t think I fully realized how much I missed that aspect of travel until it happened and man it was hard to be chill.

Don’t *shout* at them that you want to be friends. Damn girl. Be cool.

We invited them along to Raohe Night Market for dinner and to my surprise and delight they all accepted. We caught the train, chatting happily the whole way and getting to know each other until we arrived at the gates of Raohe, and gawked silently at the temple near the entrance. We dove right in and tried so many different things because with this many people you can each buy and try something new. Pepper pork buns, peanut mochi (glutinous rice dessert), fried seaweed chicken, dumplings (are we even counting anymore), sweet potato balls (like sweet and savoury hollow timbits), grilled squid, and cilantro peanut ice cream wraps were among the fare we tried.

Hours had passed before we knew it and then it was time to go back to the hostel for a night of life admin and laundry. We said our goodbyes, me feeling completely refreshed from the evening of socializing, and also wildly exhausted from all the walking. At home in real life I usually feel so introverted, but out here in the wild I would happily meet new people every day.

I think Garrett might fall asleep standing if we have to walk any further so now we laundry. We rest. And tomorrow we adventure onwards!

Sav