Taiwan, Taipei, Week 1!

After about 2 months, i have finally been able to go on a decent length trip again. I've come to Taiwan for 1 month, to sight see, work and learn Chinese! It's the end of my first week and i've had a great time so far, i've sampled local food, beer, night clubs, visited temples and squat villages, played a piano on whilst on the toilet, got hit by a firework, lost numerous times and learnt some Chinese!

Taipei is a huge city and there's always plenty to do day and night. On my first few days, i took the underground to various places. I didn't have a map so i just got on a train and hoped for the best. This worked out quite well as there's something different at every station. In the day i'd visit temples, such as Longshang temple, which is full of people praying or just sitting around relaxing and by night i'd check out the night markets where you can buy all sorts of local dishes, a hearty meal costs around £2, so i never go hungry.

2 days ago i went to treasure hill artist village, it was an amazing place and used to be the home of hundreds of squatters, there is various street art throughout the alley, mainly stencils. In the village, there was a small cafe where we went for an afternoon beer, my favourite part of this cafe was the toilet, the toilet itself was fairly bog standard (bad pun) but next to it was a small piano, which was great to play, needless to say, there was a queue when i came out.

The other night, i went to a night market and had my first near death experience. Every night in Taipei you can hear fire works going off. This particular night, there were more than usual so we went to check out where they were being set off, it was in the middle of a night market and was not cordoned off at all so you could literally stand right next to the fireworks as they were going off, health and safety in England would have a fit if they saw it. There were also guys dressed up in traditional clothing who ran through big patches of fire crackers, it was crazy. We watched the fireworks for a about 10 minutes and then turned around to go find a bar, as we turned round, the fireworks must have  fallen over because the next think i know is fireworks firing into the crowd and me getting hit on my leg and ankle by one. Luckily we were facing with our backs to them so we didn't get too battered. I'll keep my distance, possible had behind a box next time i go to see some.

Next week, i'm doing some work to earn some cash and planning some day trip to various places in Taiwan. I'm also doing two hours a day of Chinese lessons which are going well but it really difficult. It feels like its going to be a very good trip.