Shida Night Markets

On Friday night after work, Rich and I decided to check out one of the many night markets in Taipei.

The Shida night markets are very near our apartments and they are pretty amazing. They are spread over a number of streets and you can buy all kinds of amazing things - there are so many stalls from basic market stalls up to high market fashion stores and so much food! I really want to go back when I have a little but more money to spend.






After checking out the markets we decided to grab some dinner we ended up at "KGB" or Kiwi Gourmet Burger which is a New Zealand themed burger bar. The owner is a Kiwi guy and the food is great - it's just like being in a restaurant in Wellington. They ever have the kiwiana tomato shaped tomato sauce bottles.

The food is so amazing - I am sure I'll be going back again soon.

Taipei Museum of Modern Art

Last Wednesday, Rich and I decided to check out the Taipei Museum of modern art. The museum is pretty amazing, but the exhibition they had on didn't appeal to me too much. Mostly because it was the art surrounding video games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo and I am not much of a gamer. Although certain parts of the Diablo display were kind of interesting as they were horror themed and I am a big horror fan.

I have only been in Taipei for a little while, but so far I am pretty impressed by the art around the city.

These photo's are taken at the station near the modern art museum and as you can see it's a pretty amazing subway station.



Also near the museum are a lot of outdoor mosaic sculptures - my favourite would have to be the rabbits.

I've seen Taipei 101

I love visiting tall buildings, and until quite recently Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world.

Rich and I have now seen Taipei 101 - but we haven't visted inside - but even from the outside it's an incredible building.

Miniatures Museum of Taiwan

When Rich and I were still living in the hostel (we have an apartment now - yah!) we were very near the miniatures museum of Taiwan so we decided to check it out one day before I went to work.

It's a pretty cool little museum with all sorts of things - like robots, barbies and faberge eggs (I always wanted a real faberge egg).
But the main event is, of course, the miniatures - I hadn't really thought about making miniatures as a form of art or craft before but these were simply incredible. The thought, planning and hard work that must have gone into making these miniatures is pretty inspiring.

I especially love the Japanese town with Cherry Blossom's and movie posters - it's pretty amazing.Finally, they had these cute little husky characters at the museum - I'm not actually sure why? They must be some kind of popular characters here (I've actually seen a lot of people with pet husky dogs - despite the hot temperatures) - I just thought they were kind of cute.

Hello Kitty Bus

If you follow my blog, you'll know I am a bit of a Hello Kitty fanatic. So I was pretty excited when I spotted this Hello Kitty bus near my work.

The advertisement is for Hello Kitty mascara, which I have seen in the shops, I'm going to get some soon.

First weekend in Taipei

I am falling a little behind in my blogging, I blame it on adjusting to a new city and the hot weather in Taiwan really isn't helping me to adjust!

Last weekend was our first ever weekend in Taiwan and we decided to get out and about and see some of our new city.

First stop was Huashan 1914 creative park, which is a pretty cool place - lots of great buildings, bars and restuarants (unfortunatly these were shut when we visited) and great spaces for taking photo's.



We also visited the 2-28 Peace Park - it's a very beautiful park in memory of the Taiwanese people that died in civil unrest on the 28/02 (I'm not sure of the year). I'd like to learn a little bit more about what happened.



The National Taiwanese Museum is also in the park, so we decided to have a look. It really is an amazing old building.



Since we have arrived in Taipei we have seen a lot of advertising for an international floral exposition next month. I'm not really into flowers or gardening but this guy makes me want to attend for sure - there's bound to be all sorts of asia cuteness!

Goodbye New Zealand!

Last Thursday Rich and I flew out of New Plymouth to begin new adventures in Taipei. My mum dropped us off at the airport and bought us our last New Zealand hot chocolate (hot chocolates just taste better in New Zealand). Also, here's a photo of Mum and I at the airport just before take off.

Walking near my parents place

My parents own a dairy farm near Hawera in Taranaki. When I was in New Zealand I spent about a week at their place and it was pretty cold and wet (really it felt like it rained the whole time we were in New Zealand).

On the odd occassion it did stop raining, Rich and I would take the oppourtunity to go for a walk. We only managed to head out for two short walks whilst we were at my parents due to the weather, which was a real shame and I would have liked to have done some walks on the mountain but the weather just wouldn't co-operate.

The donkey is my mum's donkey - Sultan, as you can see from his very thick coat the weather was pretty cold!