13 Random Things about Taiwan

I was in Taiwan for 4 days and got to explore a bit of Taipei and some of the northern countryside. Below are some interesting things I noticed while I was backpacking here.

1) Sugar cane juice is served hot here.

2) The people here are really devotional and one can see that through the sheer passion that they show at the Longshan temple in Taipei every evening.

3) Taiwan‘s high speed rail covers the entire country (north to south) in 90 minutes.

4) Porn CDs and sex toys are sold openly on the streets of Taipei.

5) Vegetarian food is very hard to get by in Taiwan.

6) Ice cream is mixed with brownies and nuts in a manner similar to how rice is mixed with veggies, oil and salt on a flat pan and then served to you in a cup.

7) Taiwan’s tallest building and the world’s second tallest building, the Taipei 101, gets more than 20,000 visitors every day.

8) The night markets in Taipei are for the locals with the exception of the Huaxei tourist night market. This is very unlike South East Asia where the night markets are primarily for the tourists.

9) It is very difficult to find tourists from the western world in Taiwan. Either, they are students or they are on work.

10) In the Maokong mountain area, you can find fried rice with tea leaves in it. I mean rice cooked with tea leaves.

11) The Taipei MRT is may be a tad faster than the Hong Kong MTR.

12) Taipei’s international airport has all the facilities of a big airport, but it has hardly a small percentage of the crowd that the other international airports have.

13) Stinky tofu, the stench of which you cannot tolerate a good distance away is a delicacy for the local people.