Biz Trip - Taiwan (22-Nov to 28-Nov)

 

After changing job in June 2015, I was fortunate enough to get my first business trip to Taipei in November. The last time I visited Taipei was in 2008 on a holiday, and even then, I hardly spend much time in the capital city itself, opting instead to spend most of my time in the outskirt hiking around. Can't say I like city life much, so the only thing I was really looking forward to was the half day at the end of the trip where I plan to travel out of town and explore!

The above pix shows Taipei 101 in the early morning around 6:30am when I was out on my daily morning walk around my hotel, and Taipei 101 on my last night when I took a walk to the nearest night market from my hotel. It was a full moon night and quite cooling. I was glad I venture out even though I was tired from the last day of work. Shown also is my fave bubble tea that you can order from office on a daily basis in the morning, and it is delivered to the office just before lunch time. The one I tried was Iron Buddha latte, super smooth!

From my hotel, which I will write more about in another post, it is within walking distance to the nearest mall, which is Sogo. They have like 2 or 3 Sogo near the crossroad. It's only a 10 to 15 minutes walk from the hotel. And because it was cooling at night, the first photo made me felt really Christmasy. The second one was taken on my last morning in Taipei, about 6:45am when I met my vendor at the train station to make our way to Beitou (another post, I promise!). I like the tree and the building behind it being taken together in this one shot. East meets west.

Maybe I should I explain a bit about my daily habit there since you keep seeing photos taken in the wee early of morning. Being a travel bug as I am, the only reason I adore business trip so much is because of the chance to explore a new location. And because I had to work from Monday to Friday from 8:15am (where we meet at the lobby to take a cab to the office), to probably 9pm when we reach our hotel after dinner, I didn't have much time to explore. The first few day, I actually explore the city area from 8pm to sometimes up to 11:45pm. Buy being a female explorer, night time wasn't exactly the safest time to go wondering around. So my solution? Explore in the morning! So I try to wake up around 5:30am daily, and went for a walk around the neighborhood from maybe 6am to 7:30am. After which I will rush back for breakfast and head to the office. So the above photo shows some of the cute shops I saw in the neighborhood, but was not really open, or was too early for me to go in. I actually wanted to try the Hello Kitty bubble tea, but it doesn't open that early. Maybe next time. 

Taiwan is also famous for its night markets, but I actually only managed to drag myself to one on the last night I was there. Even though exhausted from work, I drag myself out around 8pm, and walked to the nearest night market two train stations away. Yes I walked. The weather was cooling enough, and I was already putting on too much weight from all the eating and not exercising. I told myself that on the last night, I will eat nothing much street food! It was a fun night, and I got more than enough food on my own that I couldn't even finish everything.

 Above is a photo of Taipei Taoyuan airport taken before I left Taipei. Hello Kitty is very popular there, and it look so cute too! Can't wait to be back in January 2016 for my follow up workshop with Taipei colleagues. I hope I'll get to explore more and see the Chinese New Year ambiance of Taiwan!