The Night Time is The Right Time

If you didn't know, my title is a ode to an Adam Sandler comedy CD, where in he has an ongoing skit about a cult and by the end they are chanting “The night time is the right time”...you're welcome.

As promised I'll cover some night markets, Public Transportation things you might want to see, some receipts, and some other odds and ends. My final post on Taiwan will be a better and more detailed post on the Public Transportation and such.

First here are a few shots from around the city...

          

          

          

    

    

Some public transit photos...in no real order...

                          

          

          

                        

                                    

          

                                        

Some things I just found odd/funny...

    

    

    

    

              

Here are the receipts I was talking about. Also, at the convenience stores (7 Eleven, Family Mart, etc...) you'll get the below stickers, which after you collect enough you can exchange fore discounts or things. I'm not spending enough at these types of stores or planning on being in Taiwan long enough so I just had fun sticking the stickers random places. The 7 Eleven is a good friend to me though, you can do a ton of things at the 7. Food, Liquor, Mail, ATM, WiFi (not free), Fax, Copy Machine, pay phone bills, etc...

                          

          

Some places I ate and enjoyed...

There aren't a lot of places that you can get Hispanic or Latin food at and “Tacos 2 Go!” was a good location. The photograph in the lower left is of a coffee shop called Cafe Barista and a great choice for decent coffee/tea and WiFi. The lower right photo is of a Japanese restaurant that I don't know how to translate to English. The food is good at the Japanese place but unfortunately their English is lacking so if you're not familiar with Japanese food you might have a hard time.

          

          

Had to visit the Guatemala embassy, but it was closed :( but I got this creepy photo of myself :)
Also, found they have Salsa in Taiwan...

             

Last but not least, the Night Market is something to experience while in Taiwan. I went to a few Night Markets while in Taipei. You can find just about anything at the night market. It reminds me of a giant 7 Eleven for that reason. You will get a lot of fried foods options, clothes, cellular phone accessories, and mixed into the melee are all of the other random odds and ends, such as: wigs, makeup, movies, electronics, etc... The atmosphere of most street markets is about the same. Most will have random people on scooters trying to make their way down the busy streets and every now and then you get the person in a car thinking they can do it too! People aren't mean, but they will get right behind you and will go around you if you stop but it feels almost like everyone is pushing everyone else forward in the heavy traffic locations.

The style of each market was about the same but the layout and size varied greatly, but most seem to have a temple somewhere in the mix. The largest one in Taipei was Shiling (or something like that) and it was massive! You can get overwhelmed if you either don't do well with large crowds, close quarters, or in Taipei's case narrow streets with high walls. I found my only complaint was that I got tired of moving at a snails pace in the busy parts, which seemed to be almost the entire market in Shiling. The other markets were a little smaller and less busy, which would bring me to the recommendation that you go to the largest market for the experience and spend most of your time at the less crowded markets.

          

          

In my next post I accomplished a few “firsts” for me, which include camping internationally, staying in a hostel, staying in a hotel in Taiwan, and asking locals if I can take their picture. ...stay tuned!