Final Days in Taipei

I'm currently in the international transfers area of the KL airport, and since I've got several hours to kill before my flight home, I figured I'd try to get my final blog for this trip up! I have a dodgy battery in my laptop and can't plug in though, so, we'll see how it goes!

Good place for a nap

Seeing as Taipei is the birthplace of cat cafes, I was determined to visit one before my trip was over. I set out Saturday afternoon to try my luck at Toast Chat again. This time when I got there they were clearly open...and had a long wait for a table! So I sat out the front of the cafe, in the 36 C heat, looking in at the air conditioned tables and playful cats exploring cardboard boxes and people's meals.

After what seemed like an hour, a table became available and I entered the magic! This cat cafe was quite different from the one in Melbourne. It had fewer cats, but also actually serves food. So I ordered an iced latte and some French toast and watched the cats go about their business. I think there were 5 cats, and they'd get into all sorts of places! There were a couple having a play on a big group table. It was nice to see the cats be more interactive than they seem to be at the Melbourne cafe.

Manicure time

Leaving the cat cafe, I set off in search of a place to get my nails done. I'd sourced one online and had the directions and set out to walk there. I actually found it perfectly fine, which was pretty impressive because it was in the basement of some random mall, but when I got there and asked if they did acrylics they said they only did gels. Not realising that this is just a different way of achieving the same result, I left in search of somewhere else.

I'd passed a building with a whole bunch of nail salon signs and headed back there. Then it was into what just looked like an office building or apartments, up a lift, and up to the 5th floor. But the nail place was a supply store, not a salon. After trying a couple other floors I was taken up to a salon on the 12th floor where with the help of google translate I decided to just go for getting gels, whatever they were. The girl who did them was really lovely and accommodating, and seriously I can't thank translating software enough! Towards the end of my appointment one of her friends came to visit, and she studies in America so translated between us and asked me about my time in Taiwan (which honestly I have 99% good things to say about).

Street vendor dim sims

Since I was already out and about, and had spent most of the day resting, I decided to head out to a different part of the city to check out the Gongguan night market. This night market, it turns out, is really close to I think it was Taiwan National University, one of the universities anyways. The market was quite big and bustling, and I was able to get lost in it. It's an area that if I was to come back, I'd consider staying in so I could explore it more.

I wandered through the streets, picking up little eats and different types of drinks along the way. I started with a kind of steamed vegetable and tofu borek type thing, and now for the life of me I can't remember what else I ate! I know I had some sugar cane juice and was glad I just got a small one instead of the 2 for $100 the guy was trying to sell. It was OK, just not my favourite.

Hello Kitty shop!

Another thing I'd been intent on this trip was purchasing a Hello Kitty doll. I have 2 from Japan, 1 from Korea, and 1 from Malaysia (2 are also from McDonald's, which I think is great!) They were selling Hello Kitty merchandise on the Hello Kitty train, but the cart kind of would just whiz by and I gave up on it. I'd sort of resigned myself to just buying something at the airport because in my wanders thus far I hadn't actually found much Hello Kitty. BUT THEN, I found the official store and I bought the cutest doll and I'm really happy about that because the selection at the airport was boring (though there is an actual Hello Kitty gate, but I couldn't be bothered with walking across the airport and back to see it when my feet were already killing me).

After having a solid wander around the night market, and happy with my purchases, I caught the metro back to my hotel and decided to make use of the big bathtub, since it was my last night there. My flight on Sunday wasn't until 11:45pm, but I had to check out of the hotel at noon. I left my suitcase and backpack at the hotel and headed off to have a low key last day in Taipei. (And our story continues now that I'm home and plugged in!)

Water feature in Expo Park

Although I was staying relatively close to the Museum of Contemporary Art my guide book said that the Taipei Fine Arts Museum was the one to see if you were only going to see one, and I was only up for seeing one this time around (although my uber driver on my way home was absolutely shocked that I hadn't gone to the National Taiwan Museum... it seemed too big for how sore I was. It's on the list for next time). So I headed to the metro and made my way to Yuanshan station.

To get to the museum I had to first find my way through a park. It's a bit trickier to orient yourself in a giant park than it is on streets, and given the heat and how sore I was by this stage of the trip I nearly gave up, Especially because it suddenly seemed to be 'street harassment Sunday'! I wanted to have a little sit down on a park bench and take a look at my map, but every time I approached a park bench there'd be a man veering into my personal space. Now, I've been approached by men throughout this trip and it's not been an issue at all. Those men were either having a curious and friendly chat, or offering to help me with directions when I was lost. Every woman learns to spot a street harasser from a mile away, and these guys were sending off all the signals. So I veered away from the benches until I could find a place to sit without any men around. Then I figured out the museum was pretty much just across the street and headed on over to see some art.

Daniel Lee

The museum was having an exhibition of work by Daniel Lee, who I had not heard of, though I think I have seen some of his work online before. It was a really interesting exhibition and I'm glad I went! During his studies he'd done a thesis on how to make a simple animation and there was a video of the process. It showed a cartoon of a white man being overwhelmed by foreigners on public transport, which was quite amusing, though perhaps sadly still too relevant several decades on.

Much of his work involves a morphing of humans with animals using digital techniques. The results are striking and disturbing and fascinating. I suspect Margaret Atwood was influenced by his work when she wrote the Oryx & Crake series.

I was actually in a lot more pain than I'd realised though and found myself feeling really dizzy and unwell as I wandered around the museum. I felt better after taking some pain killers, but I still had to take lots of rests. So I made my way through the rest of the museum fairly quickly. The rest of the art work on display was interesting, but, it didn't really grab me like Daniel Lee's work did. The nice thing about art is, you don't have to like it. So after a quick stroll through the rest of the floors I headed back to the station. There was an interesting little shopping area near the station and I decided to have a look around there. It's an area that would be worth spending more time in, but, I needed to move on.

Selfie statue!

I decided to head back to Ximending because I wanted to go see a movie and knew where the cinema was there. And also it's a fun area to hang out in. When I got out of the metro station I saw a selfie statue that I hadn't previously noticed, and managed to get my picture taken with it. I absolutely love that someone has immortalised the immortalisation of selfies in statue form! Fuck that 'rising narcissism' bullshit!

I made my way into the little shopping streets, encountering another Sunday Street Harasser, and skillfully navigated my way to the cinema, where I purchased a ticket to see Ghostbusters (most of the American movies have subtitles instead of dubbing). I then had almost an hour to kill before the movie started, so went in search of lunch. I needed somewhere that I could sit down, and didn't want to leave the street I was on for fear of not finding the cinema again. This meant going to a pasta place, and feeling like a jackass tourist. But, look. That's a silly way to feel. The movie was really enjoyable, and it was nice to be in a theater full of people laughing along at the jokes and not hear any of the "this movie is ruining my childhood" bullshit. Man, fuck your childhood!

Peanut butter icecream wrap

After the movie I decided to head back towards my hotel, and made another stop at the Ningxia Street Night Market for one last wander and some last treats. This particular night market has something of a county fair feel to it. The first bit of it is lined with little carnival games you can play to win prizes. Like pinball type games, and shooting balloons. I didn't play any, but it was cute watching the families play.

Wandering through the food stalls I stopped at one offering peanut butter icecream wraps, complete with coriander. Delicious! This ended up being the only food I got, though as I was heading out of the food stalls a man in a deep voice said "BEER!" and I said "OK!" I drank my beer as I wandered through the game stalls and back down the street to my hotel, feeling very good about my last evening in Taipei, but ready to head home.

When I got back to the hotel I had a fair bit of time before I needed to head off, so I sat in the weird little reading lounge area and made use of the wifi for a bit. Then I collected my suitcases, changed my clothes, and caught a taxi to the airport. I lucked out on both my flights, in that I had an empty seat next to me on both (I'd tried to upgrade to the empty seat option on my longer flight but my request got rejected, so that was a nice surprise). I mostly slept on my flights, despite the 2 coffees I had during my layover in KL!

It's nice to be home. Tifa is very glad I'm back (she's currently sitting on my stomach, making typing a bit difficult). I was supposed to start teaching yesterday and have a long day of teaching ahead of me tomorrow, so I should probably get out of bed and head into the office to get myself sorted out with my classes!! The vacation was just what I needed before setting off on another hectic semester. I feel recharged and ready to take on a new lot of 100 research methods students!