The 20th was a pretty eventful day. I went to Bao’an Temple, the Confucius Temple, and Chiang Kai Shek memorial. Unfortunately, I was using slide film that day, and my metering was off, so the pictures didn’t come out too well, which is a shame. Bao’an Temple in particular was gorgeous. Later that night, I met my friend and we went to her uncle’s noodle shop. His place is kind of famous because they use shaved noodles instead of regular ones. It was really cool to watch them make it. After this, we went to Shilin night market.

I try to go clubbing in every cit I visit if I have time, and Taipei was no exception. I went with one of my friends, her brother, and some of his friends. First was a dark, tiny bar where his friend worked. I wish I could have taken pictures: it was a grunge-ily (?) awesome. After that we went to a club in Xinyi called Room18. It was alright. They had two rooms, one for hiphop and the other for techno/house/trance.

I spent the rest of the weekend in Ilan and Jiufen. Jiufen, a tiny town on the north coast famous for mining, was especially pretty. It was rainy that day, but it somehow added to the atmosphere.

After I got back on Monday, I didn’t do much but shop. I shopped. A LOT. Ximending, Wufenpu, Dunhua, SOGO, Breeze, Mitsukoshi, you name it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that impressed by it. The clothes are cheap, yes, but because the quality isn’t so great. Also, because I don’t speak any Chinese, it was pretty much impossible to bargain, so I didn’t have as much fun as I could at night markets. Actually, what I bought most there were Korean and Japanese cosmetics. Japanese cosmetics are cheaper in Taiwan, and Korean brands aren’t that much more expensive. So I ended up with quite a lot of Skin Food, The Face Shop, Etude House, KATE, and Majolica Majorca stuff.

So, all in all, my trip to Taiwan was pretty fun! I could definitely see myself going back again, although I would learn some functional Mandarin before doing so. You can see the rest of my pictures here on flickr. Next, my crazy six days in Tokyo~

I had actually started writing a new entry for each day of my trip, but I was so busy/exhausted by the end of each day, that I quickly gave up. So here is part one of my condensed travel journal. Most of my Taiwan trip was in Taipei, although I did go to my friend’s house in Ilan, as well as day trips to Wulai and Jiufen. Admittedly, I was too busy shopping to take a lot of photos, but I still took a decent amount.

It was rainy season, so my first two days there were pretty wet. I spent an entire day exploring all of the different underground malls that connect the metro stations together. The next day, though, my legs were killing me, so I spent some time around Taipei Main, checking out the department stores and Bo Ai/Hankou Streets, which are famous for their heavy concentration of camera stores. I spent a leisurely time at Sun Yat Sen memorial, where the locals were hanging out for lunch.

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This Saturday, I’ll be leaving on a 16-day trip to Taiwan (10 days) and Japan (6 days). I’m so excited! This is the first time I’ve been on such a long trip, and the first time I’ve been to Taiwan. I don’t speak a lick of Mandarin, and I’ll mostly be traveling by myself, so this should be interesting.

On this trip, I will be shooting (more or less) only film. I’m bringing my Olympus E-P1 as a digital backup, but I’ve decided that most of the photo work will be done by my trusty Nikon FM and 2 lenses (50mm f/1.8D and 35mm f/2). I was worried about taking the FM, since it is a fully manual camera, and I even bought a Nikon FE so I would have the choice of aperture priority. Unfortunately, the test roll came out iffy, so I’m going with my old favorite. It will be slower, but I don’t really do action shots or anything so no biggie.

I started making up plans, but it looks like Taipei is going to be rainy the entire time I’m there, so I don’t know if I can go hiking like planned. I know I’ll be doing a lot of shopping, and night market exploring, though. Tokyo I’m not worrying about too much, since I’m mostly there to visit friends. I do know that I want to visit Koenji (mori girl shopping area), Disney Sea, and Sweets Paradise (the best pasta/dessert buffet ever). Any other recommendations? Especially for Taiwan..