Because it was a Thursday, I didn’t bother getting our tickets back to Taipei right away. We packed up our stuff and walked in the sorta rainy weather to the train station at 10 hoping there were seats available within the next hour or so. Next available train was at 12:20 so we wandered around looking for breakfast. Of course we passed like 4 bubble tea stands on the way.
It was too bad that coming to Hualien, it was night time because we missed out on the mountain and ocean views as the train tracks follow the Eastern coastline. Thankfully we got some really nice scenic views heading back to Taipei. The interesting thing to me is seeing how the infrastructure is built to handle very strong typhoons and massive flooding. The highways have big pillars of concrete and power lines are just as secured.
I keep saying this but I love riding trains so much.
For the past few years I’ve stayed in contact with a guy that I met in the Philippines 3 1/2 years ago. It’s just so cool to have met people randomly on my trips and have the opportunity to see them again in a completely different country. Kelvin is originally from Toronto, he lived in Thailand for a while and solo traveled for 2 years which is when I met him. He’s been living in Taipei for the past 3 years but he travels around Asia all the time for vacation. I think he said he was in Japan 4 times this year. I’m jealous since I’ve only been to Japan a measly 1 time this year :p
He took us to Shida night market which is near where he used to live when he first moved to Taipei. Immediately I thought that the food options here were better than at Shilin but maybe it’s because I had someone who knew the area show us around.
We got scallion pancakes from a well known shop where on busy nights the line will wrap around the building. Joanna got her first taste of Stinky Tofu and enjoyed it. You can smell a stinky tofu stand 50 ft away, it smells like something died inside an old gym sock. I got my favorite Sheng Jian Bao (Pan-Fried Pork Soup Dumplings) which you absolutely cannot find at home. Think pork soup dumplings mixed with the crispy bottom of a good pot sticker. We also got one of Taiwan’s famous desserts, a mango shaved ice with pudding on top.
I don’t know why I decided not to wear my waterproof hiking boots knowing that we were going to be at an outdoor night market tonight in the rain. Shoes are totally soaked now :/
I thought it was kind of neat that the subway posts a sign near the exits letting you know that it’s raining outside. Joanna made the comment that the people seeing me take this picture must think I’m weird.
Catching up with Kelvin was really great. We talked about maybe meeting up in the next year to go scuba diving together. He’s got around 50 dives while I think I have 12 dives so far. It’s easy to lose contact with people and maintaining friendships takes work. I’m really glad that I’ve been able to maintain a connection with him and many of the people I’ve met along the way and I look forward to meeting even more.
