Birthday in Taiwan

Joel chooses things like kickball and A&W root beer floats for his birthday, but I tend to choose things like long weekend getaways to foreign countries. (slightly different tastes, but we both get the benefit of the other's wishes!)

Thus, this past October, we spontaneously decided to book a three-day trip to Taipei, Taiwan. We only brought carry on's and arrived for what turned into a rainy, yet super fun, birthday getaway weekend!

It's a direct flight from Okinawa to Taipei, so we arrived in the morning and started by grabbing our umbrellas (that I wisely packed) and exploring the area around our hotel. First stop, the temple across the street.

Dragon architecture is just cool.

Near perfect likeness!!

I swear, Doritos makes the BEST flavors in Asia!! These tasted LEGIT (but didn't have meat, just the flavor... I checked!)

As is our modus operandi, Joel and I booked a foodie tour. One of our stops was to a local betel nut shop where all they do is prep these nuts for consumption. They provide a stimulant effect, similar to Nicotine (and are legal, don't worry folks). Our guide informed us that a lot of taxi drivers chew on several a day to stay awake on the job. 

Basically, it comes to you wrapped in a leaf. You bite off the top of the stem and then you stuff the whole thing in your mouth and make sure to "spit your first saliva" in the cup provided because it's super potent. Then you just chew on it for a few minutes and wait for the pick-me-up. It tasted gross and I spit more than my first spit. It did work, though, better than coffee I will say, but only last about 20 minutes.

BEST bread EVER! Green onion and sesame - YUM.

And then..... we did it. We ate stinky tofu. We went to the same shop that was featured on a Bizarre Foods episode with Andrew Zimmern. It. Truly. Is. Stinky. The one featured in this picture was fried, so it wasn't quite as potent, but still... ick.

Now this. THIS was the real stuff. Raw and stinky with a crushed nut and seaweed topping (at least I think that's what it was). The folks in our tour group could barely eat one bite (if that), but I managed to stomach three (barely). Don't know why I felt the need to go over and beyond, but it's a favorite food in Taiwan and the shop owner was really proud to share it with us. Joel thought the taste and consistency were probably what a dirty diaper is like, but I didn't feel quite that strongly. It was almost like a slimy blue cheese that had gone bad. We came, we conquered, we will never try again.

Milk tea is really big in Taipei. It's exactly what it sounds like with giant tapioca pieces as well. I wasn't a huge fan of that part, but the tea was delicious.

So, it really did rain every day that we were there and I don't ever remember seeing the sun, but we made the best of it and still got out and about! One day, we traveled about an hour by train to get to the mountains and take a gondola ride to a cool village. We waited in the longer line to get a spot on the glass bottomed gondola. This picture doesn't do it justice, but those were giant tree tops beneath us!

We caught the fine art of creating fried green onion bread on camera!

We were able to see Taipei 101, the fourth tallest building in the world (formerly THE tallest until 2009) from our mountain top.

Nothing like hiking in the rain then stopping to spend $20 on fine, mountain grown tea! (It was good, but not $20 good!) When in Rome...

Okay, now it's time for a disclaimer: Joel and I heard about this... unique restaurant in Taipei and we HAD to try it for ourselves. It's called "Modern Toilet" so of course it centers around a toilet theme. We were not disappointed, let me tell you! We only stopped in for a snack, so we didn't have the super grand toilet meals, but it was still a hilarious, only in Asia-type experience!!

GREAT window art on the building, clearly making sure you know they mean toilet when they say toilet. :-p

Our table. Notice the seats on the floor are toilets!

Some dessert options....

Of course, I HAD to  have this to-go urinal drinking cup!

  

Yup. Just as advertised. Nothing like drinking Jasmine tea from a bed pan! I'm pretty sure one made it's way to a new home as a White Elephant gift last Christmas, LOL.

Our snacks - cheese sticks in a urinal, French fries and mashed potatoes on a toilet seat.  I have to say, Modern Toilet will go down in Diller history FOR SURE.

Our wonderful friends, Drucie and Jose, watched Bruce while we were gone and made sure to send me this pic on my birthday :) 

Our final day in Taipei, we hiked the hill by Taipei 101. It was a great workout and pleasant, despite the elements.

Taipei is HUGE. It's modern, but has a very different feel than the big cities we've visited in Japan and culturally, it's VERY different than Japan. It was really neat learning about Taiwan's history and having yet another grand Asian experience!

Last but not least, we saw this sign in multiple places. Not exactly sure what the definition of "phubber" is, but we tried our best not to "phub" while we were there, LOL.

 Thank you, Joel, for indulging my birthday wish to strike another Asian country off our travel list!