Ni Hἀo!

We have arrived in Taipei which is in Taiwan and it is the 19 June. We flew with China Airways which took 3 hours and was most comfortable with free food and drinks! We found the main station and made our way from there to the hostel. The station was very busy and full of young trendy people. There was a group of kids about 14/15 years old sat about inside the station with a ghetto blaster practicing their dance routines, it was hilarious and took me back to my dancing days J they were so serious and even the chicken arm/wing move made a preview. We arrived about 8.30pm and was met by Kevin...yes Kevin, who showed us what was what. The room was about 3 times bigger than in Japan with a fridge and flat screen TV all for about a third of the price!

The Shilin Night Market was opposite the hostel so we had a quick look around. Jamie managed to find a famous fried chicken stall so we had a piece of chicken each which was the size of Jamie's head aka MASSIVE! It was very nice and cost about 75p each! The next night we went back to the market for a proper look around, it was like a maze with shops going on forever. They sold everything and anything and I could have bought loads, Chappers would have left bankrupt! There were big flashy shops next to tiny little stalls and the clothes and shoes were just like back home (probably because they are all made in Taiwan). There was also a massage shop, that massaged you with meat clevers! We watched one woman straddle a chair while another woman battered her back with blunt meat clevers! We ventured down to the underground food market which was bustling. For some reason they love a big sausage in Taipei as they were everywhere and it reminded us of the German Christmas market at home. There was a lot of food we couldn't identify and big vats of rotten eggs bobbing about in brown water which looked...well rank! We finally settled on a Teppanyaki style tea which was cooked on a hot plate in front of us, delicious. We enjoyed the little we saw of Taipei and would liked to have spent longer there as the town was surrounded by lush green mountains which looked perfect for trekking.

A few things we learned about Taiwan:

• A lot of tea is made there and exported
• Merchandise city
• They love to shop
• They like rotten eggs
• The fried chicken gives KFC a run for its money
• Looks very lush and looks like it would be good for trekking
• They love a good dance routine.

Lots of Love

H & J