Shilin Night Market for the evening!

Well!  I was pretty much ready to go home after Danshui because I was pretty tired, but I had noticed earlier in the day that the most famous night market in Taiwan, The Shilin Night Market, was along my trip home.  I figured who knows when I'm gonna be in this area at night again by myself (sometimes exploring is best done alone so you can "get lost" in the area and be fully absorbed in your surroundings).  So I got off at the Shilin MRT stop.

I bought some iced green tea from a mini-mart in the MRT and headed towards the market.  According to the map it looked about a 5-10 minute walk so I started off :)

Now... as I'm thinking about how to describe the night market.  It's quite difficult to put down into words.  It's something you sort of need to experience.  The bustle of the people, all the loud noises, body heat, navigating crowds, and of course all the different aromas (probably one of the most memorable parts of any night market is the smells).  You really need to experience it to fully understand it!  So in lieu of words I'm going to post some pics!  And keep in mind this is on a Wednesday evening.  I hear on the weekends the volume of people is ridiculous :P

And the food...  Actually one thing that was funny is that there was a "pizza/burrito" place (only one i saw) and it had a huge lineup!

Now, I'm not trying to brag, but I've been told that I have a pretty good sense of direction and I rarely get lost when walking.  To give you another idea of the size and confusingness of this night market; I got lost!  Well I didn't actually get lost.  But I got turned around quite a bit while going through the maze and ended up walking quite a distance in the opposite direction I was supposed to be.  It was quite a surprise to me when I saw an MRT station, and it ended up being the exact same station that I had come from.  It felt like I was in groundhog day or something!  I even went back to the mini-mart to where I bought the drink to make sure I was really where I was (the same clerk was working the till).  Though being lost had it's benefits!  I got a better idea of the area and I have some nice pictures from the exploration!

Now that I knew where I was again, I went back into the Shilin Night market via a different entrance and proceeded to find more and more mazes and areas of the market that I didn't see last time.  I wanted to get a good idea of the layout of the place for when I take my parents and eliza, I can show them the cool stuff and not get us lost ;)

After my second round at exploring the night market, it really was time to go home so I headed back to Jintao MRT station (the correct station this time) and headed back to Taipei Main station to catch the HSR back to ChingPu.  What a great day!