Johan and I headed up to Taipei on the HSR in the afternoon. It was my first time on the HSR and I was really impressed with how smooth the ride is. It almost feels like you're flying because the accel/decel is so smooth and there's no feeling of train tracks underneath (I think it's using magnets or something). The trip up to Taipei Main Train Station took about 20-25 minutes with only 1 stop in Banciao. The ride is about $5 one way.
Once in Taipei Johan suggested I buy a metro card (called an EasyCard). This card basically allows you to load it up with money so that you can use the whole subway system without having to go to the machine and purchase a ticket. You simply swipe your wallet on this little pad and it registers your card and opens up the little gate for you to pass through.
Before I start throwing train terms around I should explain the train systems here.
HSR (High Speed Rail) - this is the bullet train that runs north to south along Taipei. It only has a dozen or so stops and is fairly new ($5 per trip from Taoyuan to Taipei)
TRA (Taiwan Rail System) - this train system runs on different rails than the HRS. It has many more stops and has a fairly extensive network of lines running all over Taiwan (~$2 from Taoyuan to Taipei)
MRT (Taiwan Metro) - this is the subway system underneath Taipei City. Like the skytrain it has frequent stops and multiple lines (less than a $1 per trip. this system is not like how the skytrain you have 2 hours of use. Once you go into the MRT system and then exit, your money is taken and if you go back in you have to pay again).
Ok! Now that that's finished with we can get back t what I did during the day. After purchasing the EasyCard Johan and I took the MRT to the Taipei City Hall district. This is where Taipei 101 is located and a whole bunch of large malls and entertainment complexes. We only came here to pre-purchase some movie tickets for Johan's date happening the next day, so we didn't spend too much time lingering.
After purchasing the tickets we headed back to the MRT and took the train down to Guting, which is where Johan's fitness club is. Johan went in for about 40 minutes and that gave me plenty of time to explore the area. Guting is a suburb of Taipei. All I can say is I completely loved walking around the streets randomly exploring and coming upon new and interesting sites every turn of the corner. I haven't had any time to myself since my arrival and I was in my exploratory element.
Near the start of my exploration I found this small park in the middle of the city, which had playground equipment for both children and adults. The children were playing on the slides and monkeybars, and the adults were using the fitness equipment such an eliptical running thing, this arm... exercise thing, and this leg swinging.. thing. I've never seen anything like them in the Western world so I really have no idea what they're called.
On the far side of the little park area was a shrine/temple and I wnt inside to see what it was all about. I didn't have any coins on me, and I didn't really know what I was doing in there so I just observed the neat little ornaments and soaked up the lovely aroma of the burning incense and then left after a few minutes. I was parched so I stopped into a Family Mart for a big jug of some sort of iced tea. It wasn't sweet at all and really quenched my thirst!
I continued to walk randomly towards buildings and alleys that I thought looked interesting. There is a neat mix of new buildings, old buildings, and super old traditional style buildings. There was also suprisingly a lot of trees integrated into the city, which was really nice to see. After wandering for 20 minutes I slowly made my way back to the fitness club. After my whole adventure was done I'd made a big loop of the area. Woah! Okay this is pretty cool. I was just able to plot out my walking route on google maps. If you want to see it, check it out here:
The red building that you see when you load up the link is the gym.
ANYWAYS, after the gym we headed back to ChingPu on the HSR and Ali and Nikki picked us up and we headed to Jhong Li for diner. Johan wanted to get his hair cut so he got his haircut before we had diner. Wow what a long hair cut. It was 1hour and 45 minutes long. While we waited Ali and Nikki and I conversed about random stuff and they were thinking of cool places I could take my parents/eliza when they come to visit :)
After the haircut we went to this great all you can eat/drink BBQ place (~$11). The food was excellent and I'm definitely taking my parents or eliza here when they visit (unless I find somewhere better). For desert, the place cooks up moochi on the bbq and as it heats up, it inflates into these little pillows, which are then dipped in condensed milk and peanut crumbs. yum!
After diner we traveled back home. What a great (but long) day! :D
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