Longshan Temple

I really love the temples in Taiwan. You're walking down a street in a quiet residential area and then all of a sudden you come across a beautiful temple sandwiched between apartment buildings.

Longshan Temple is one of the biggest temples in Taipei. I went on a busy Saturday so it was a bit crowded. 

Before entering the actual temple, their were these structures with long lines of people. Each person went through, said a prayer under the large ball and lanterns, and then walked out. I'm not sure what was going on, but I don't think that is something that is there all the time.

People buy a bunch of incense or candles when they enter the temple. They stop in front of each god or goddess, light an incense stick, and say a prayer before moving on to the next. 

It's pretty cool how the majority of temples in Taiwan are multi-denominational. Buddha is sitting there right next to the Taoist gods and goddesses.

The temple is so peaceful, even when it was so crowded. The architecture is beautiful and there is even a waterfall within the walls.

Sorry my backlog is so insane. I'm more than a month behind! I'm going to try to get my act together and update more frequently. :-)

You can check out more pictures here.

Everyone is always asking me, WHAT ABOUT THE FOOD??? so I decided to make all of you happy and put up a blog just about the food. If you want to get emailed updates you'll have to sign up for that separately, at the bottom of the blog page. 

What About the Food?

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Huashan Creative Park

I read about an exhibition showing all the Pulitzer Prize winning photography. That's not something I expected to find in Taipei so I had to go check it out!

Of course, there was no photography allowed inside. 

It was amazing to be able to take a walk through history by looking at the top photograph of the year all the way back to 1942.

After going through the exhibition, we were surprised at how cool Huashan Creative Park is. There are a bunch of buildings and spaces showing all different kids of art, films, and music. 

My favorite was the little shop/snack bar.

I mean, how could you not be happy after all that?

There was even a cool masked man playing the accordion!

Out front there were the usual food stalls, but even the stalls were more exciting here!

I've walked past Huashan Creative Park at least ten times but always when it was dark out. I never knew what was back there, I thought it was just a big factory. It was great to see what is hidden back there!

More pictures here.

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Taipei 101

Most likely, the first thing you see when you get to Taipei is the 101. It's pretty hard to miss.

It doesn't seem that tall from around the city because it's kind of on it's own, not surrounded by a bunch of other skyscrapers. 

I can assure you though, it's tall. 101 stories tall. The tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010. 

We waited for a clear night to head to the observatory, and waited in a long line to get on the elevator. Not just any elevator, a fast elevator. It was record breaking at the time it was built, and got us up to the 89th floor in seconds. It felt like a takeoff, complete with airs popping and a bit of vertigo once we got off (for me at least). 

Huge windows surround the whole observation floor, making it a little scary to get too close to the edge when you realize how high up you really are. 

The pictures didn't come out so great because of the glass, but you get the idea. It was high and I was a little freaked to say the least. 

After enjoying the view, we ventured up to the 91st floor. 

Only part of the Outdoor Observatory was open because of weather issues, which is also creepy if you think about it (I tried not to think about it). 

The views were amazing. Taipei is beautiful at night, especially from the top of the world!

You can check out more pictures here.

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Beitou

Taiwan is known for its hot springs, said to have numerous health benefits. The list of hot springs to try seemed endless, but we decided to head to Beitou, located right off the MRT.

From the MRT station we walked through Qinshui Park. Along the long, narrow park is a stream with water from the hot springs. People from all over come and stick their feet in the warm water. 

At the end of the park is the Thermal Valley.

This is also called Hell Valley, because the water can reach up to 212ºF. The water was even boiling a little!

Sure, it smelled like sulfur, but was still such an amazing thing to see. 

The park is also where the public hot spring is located. For only 40NTD (about $1.30) you can bathe outside along with the locals. 

Instead, we decided to splurge on private one at a spa. Not exactly sure what we were getting into, we rented a family spa pool for an hour. We were given a key to a room on the third floor. There was a TV in the room, some chairs and...

a bathtub. Not exactly what we were expecting but once we got past that it was actually really nice. It was like a hot tub with sulfur water, minus the jets. Really relaxing and totally worth the trip!

You can check out more pictures here.

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