As of last week, I can no longer say that I have never gotten lost in Taipei. I have recently made a habit of walking in a different direction from my apartment everyday in my quests for lunch. I have found a handful of really good places to eat this way (and a couple not so good places). On one particular day, that we’ll just call Thursday I embarked on my lunch journey through unexplored territory. After about 15 minutes of walking I decided to try out a lunch box place, as I had previously never tried a lunch box that didn’t come from a convenience store. The owners were very nice and they provided me a good opportunity to practice Mandarin.
I left in the direction I thought I had come from. I thought I was on the right path for awhile when soon I noticed that absolutely nothing looked familiar. It is hard to use landmarks as your guide in areas like this because every building more or less looks the same and every corner has a 7-Eleven or a Family Mart. In my defeat, I asked a bank security guard for directions. After about 20 minutes of walking in the now right direction I had come across the familiar sights of my neighborhood. During my expedition in the great unknown I was somewhere in neighboring Yonghe City when I had realized I was lost.
On Sunday I went out with Cathy, I-An, and Ken. We were a short drive from Danshui on the North Coast. In keeping with my recent tradition of posting pictures of food, here’s what I had to eat:
It was raining, so this was as close as we got to the beach, which is probably for the better, because the amount of litter I could see from where we were eating made the idea unappealing:
After our afternoon food and tea, we went to the Ikea store in Hsin Chaung because outdoor activities did not seem like a good idea in the rain. I purchased a small folding table for $279 NT to put my hot plate on because using it on the floor makes cooking a major pain in the ass.
