Taiwan is awesome!!  We are in Taipei, which is the capital of the country.  It feels more modern and clean here than anywhere I’ve been in a while.  We went to the market and had a little bit of a hard time because Google Translate doesn’t work very well with Chinese.  People speak Mandarin here and only some young people speak English. We found some some snacks and got rice and eggs. You don’t need a lot of groceries here because there are lot of street markets and restaurants.  In fact, a lot of people don’t have kitchens in their Taipei apartments at all because eating outside of your home is very common here because there are SO MANY restaurants and food stands. Then we went to the park and played for a while and then went home to our apartment.  

The next day, we went to the Taipei 101 building.  It is a big building…guess how many floors??? 101!!!   We went up the elevator. It was almost 40 miles per hour and it is the fastest elevator in the world!!  We went to the observation deck on the 89th floor and then climbed the stairs to the 90th floor and went outside.  We walked around and then to the middle of the building where there is a giant metal ball with steel cables. It is called a damper.  When the building sways on a windy day, the damper helps prevent it from swaying as much so that people feel more comfortable. They invented the Damper Babies which are little bodies that have a damper head and little arms and legs.  They are named  “Rich Gold”, “Cool Black”, “Smart Silver”,  “Lucky Red” and “Happy Green”.  

The next day, we went to meet our friend Livia.  We went hiking with her on Elephant Mountain. It’s called Elephant Mountain because it is in the shape of an elephant, not because there are elephants there.  We met Livia at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, so it was kind of a coincidence that we hiked with her at a location called Elephant Mountain Park!!! Livia lives in Taipei.  She works here and her family lives in Taiwan, too. The hike was 1450 meters long and takes about an hour to reach the top. Once you reach the top, it has the best view of the city and the Taipei 101 building.  Then Livia took us to the night market! Taipei is famous for a food that you might think tastes bad …STINKY TOFU!!! It smells yucky, but it is actually REALLY GOOD!!! We all shared it and everyone liked it.

Another thing we did in Taiwan was visited Longshan Temple.  It was a coincidence that on that day in that exact time, there was a giant parade going on with fireworks and giant wooden people.  We went in and looked around. It was really beautiful with dragons and phoenixes on the roof and carved art on the walls. There were a  lot of people and they were all lighting incense and praying. Most people here are Buddhists, just like in other parts of Asia. It was one of the prettiest temples with a lot of nice details.

We also visited Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.  He was a leader of China and then retreated to Taiwan for political reasons.  There is a huge statue of him inside of a big white and blue building. There are two guards dressed in fancy white uniforms that are guarding it at all times.  There is also a beautiful garden with a large pond and a bridge next to the memorial. There were a lot of animals in the garden and pond like turtles, koi and a lot of birds.  

I like the food here, it is very good and some of the most delicious I’ve had on my trip.  There are really good shrimp dumplings, a lot of noodle soups, like beef noodle soup, and sushi.  And, of course, I love the Stinky Tofu!! I also like the people here, they are very nice and always want to help.  I also love how everything is so clean. I can’t wait to come back to Taiwan someday!!

Tomorrow, we are off to JAPAN!!!!