Tour Guides

Time to report on the coming's and going's of yours truly once again...this weekend, as mentioned in last weekends' blog, was Lavigne & Ryan's visit to Taiwan so we had an action-packed weekend in store. Arriving shortly after lunch, we whisked them away to ours so they could freshen up and have a short rest before the rest of the day ensued. Around 3, we set out for an afternoon of sight-seeing...managed to cram in Taipei 101, Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall, and Longshan Temple but it was a lot of MRT riding on Saturday afternoon....not something I normally relish doing but how often do friends come to visit? Around 6:30, we got back to Jinhua Street for a quick change of clothes and then off again for some delicious Mexican fare @ Tequila Sunrise. Filling our stomachs full of burritos, chimichangas, and combo fajitas, we once again returned to our joint for some pre-bar priming. We got to talking, drinking, when out came the infamous kao liang, a local liquor that is 58% alcohol...tastes like burning and one whiff is enough to close off even the strongest of gullets. But, like a true Taiwanese, they all managed to choke down a shot of the vile liquid...michelle took a little more convincing, but after a little peer pressure, finally gan bei'd it down the hatch....see picture for what she thought of her first taste :) Headed out to Ministry of Sound for some hiphop room action and poured ourselves into bed around 7:00....or, at least some of us did.

Sunday was a late start, mainly due to the late night of drinks and dancing. The plan: head out of the city to Danshui, a popular boardwalk destination, full of seafood, aboriginal shops and about half the city of Taipei. Spent a few hours there, soaking in the beautiful weather before heading to Shilin, the biggest night market in Taiwan...i don't know if i've mentioned it before, but it's an amazing place to get just about anything but again, the other half of Taipei usually ends up there at night so pedestrian traffic is reduced to a slow shuffle. We let them explore on their own while leesh and i people watched and recouped our strength. @ 9:00, we decided to check out a different sort of night market that has a notoriety for being seedy, namely Huaxi Street, or Snake Alley. This is where you can drink the lovely cocktail of snakes' blood and bile which is renowned as being the ultimate aphrodisiac....for $500NT ($20/Cdn) a shot, i think it's safe to say i'd be happier with the money...checked out the other sights around the alley besides the snake restaurants, and then around 11:30 retired to ours for some much needed sleep.

Today, leesh and i had to go to work, but we arranged it so we could go in after lunch to see our friends off to the bus station...had a nice lunch of shui jiao (water dumplings) , hopped on the train to Taipei Main Station and said our goodbyes.

So, that was the weekend yet...it seemed to have came and gone before we even realized it was here...needless to say, i am wiped out! Tonight, watching a movie and going to bed as soon as it's over...this week isn't going to be very restful tho i'm afraid...it's elisha's birthday on wednesday, so i've got to get my dearest a gift yet, and then there's luxy on wednesday night so thursday will be a trying day...then, i still have to buy a plane ticket for my visa run, which i haven't priced yet so it'll be fun to find the time to do that this week..anyway, got lots to do but for right now i'm going to say smell ya later as i need to rest my eyes for a little while before the movie.