Taipei, Taiwan (The Final Days)

So, my final days are upon me. From Tainan, I took the bullet train back up to Taipei. As I was on my way to the train station, a doctoral student who spoke great English, helped me get on the right train and buy my ticket. The trip was about two hours long and the lady sat with me and we chatted until she reached her stop.

When I got into Taipei, I headed back to Eight Elephants. It was great to see some of the people that were still there from when I left. I pretty much just hung out until I was able to meet up with an old friend of mine, JoJo, who used to teach in Korea. When I met up with her, we ate some Japanese fast food and walked around for a bit. We met up each day I was back in Taipei. I met here for lunch each day and we went to a Night Market. One of the days we had lunch, we went to a great Taiwanese restaurant. We ordered a beef noodle soup that was so delicious. Plus, the old lady was so helpful with the menu and when we didn’t understand her when she was asking about the kind of noodles we wanted, she brought out the different noodles to show us. Talk about some serious kindness. I miss that. Looks pretty yummy, doesn’t it!?!?!

I was hoping to go to the Taipei Zoo, go on the Gondola, and maybe experience a hot spring, but none of that happened because I was to tired from traveling and the weather was crappy. One thing I did want to do before I left was hike Elephant Mountain. I originally was recommended this place by Sara, one of the workers at the hostel. Well, the day before I left for Korea I did that hike with Stu and a few of his friends. Even better, the weather was awesome!! The best day I experienced in Taipei. Also, the view of Taipei is amazing.

After the hike, we worked up an appetite. We headed to a Thai restaurant were we ordered a crap load of food and pretty much tried it all. One of the best things about traveling is meeting up with old friends, when the opportunity arrises, and meeting new people. We never know when we will run into each other again, but in the life of travel… stars often cross again!!