Half A World Away: Taiwan

Thats right, we did Taipei, Taiwan for the weekend.
We found out late Thursday night that we got an extra day off for the weekend so we thought we would make the best of it. We found affordable tickets and next thing we knew we were headed for Taipei. It is only an 2 hour flight to Taiwan, so we woke up at about 5am Saturday and were in Taipei by 11. We had the two busiest days of our life and arrived back home in Korea at about 11pm Sunday. Here is Michelle Saturday morning as we got ready to fly out of Korea (the nicest airport we have ever been in)

The first thing we did upon arriving is take a bus to the mountains and go hiking in Yangming national Park.

After we were finished Hiking we went back into the heart of Taipei. We walked through the Xingtian shopping area had had some great street food. (Taipei has to be the Street food capital of the world, it was amazing and everywhere)

We then went and saw the Presidential building.

About a block away is Peace park. There are sculptures, temples, a view of the Taipei national museum, and Michelle's favorite, a foot massage stone path.

Then came the single most impressive structure I have ever seen. The Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial. It was like the Lincoln memorial in D.C. times two. It has the most breathtaking arch as you walk in and is flanked by two huge monuments. I am not sure if these pictures can do it justice. But trust us it was amazing.

We then went back to our ridiculously nice hotel, The Fullon House, and showered to get ready for the night.

We started the night off by going to a really nice Taiwannese restaurant.

We then went and saw the Longshan Buddhist Temple.

Then came the famous night markets of Taipei. The first one is the Hwahsi night market also known a Snake Alley because well it has snakes. You can both, see and eat, snakes here, as well as do your typical night market shopping. We then went to the Shida night market which was about the same as Hwahsi but without snakes. We then crashed hard!