Category: Taiwan

Subject of the current trip is to visit the largest night market in Taipei. And usually what that means is narrow corridors with tons of people squeezed into impossible-to-move spaces. And for that the Shihlin market does not disappoint. I cannot recall if the size of this market is bigger than the Longhua market that I went to during my last visit, but surely this beats any market in terms of impossibility of moving.

The layout is the same as most asian markets. During the day you have normal shops, and when the evening comes, stalls spring up on the road and sidewalks and the customers walk on the road. By now the shops would have been concealed unless you know which and where to go.

Continue reading “More Taipei Night Market”

In Taipei this week. The land of the scooters, buzzing like mosquitoes all over the place. Nothing new here, just gloomy weather. No earthquake yet. As usual, on the flight from PVG-HKG someone took my seat again. And again, there’s a lot of people that just refuses to sit down during boarding and prefering to block the aisle when everyone is trying to get to theirs. And again, even on Dragonair and Cathay Pacific, its advisable to do the online check-in so that you avoid the queues. When I got to Pudong Airport, within 15mins I was already at the waiting gate. Ok, the 7am time is partly the reason.

Also heard on a podcast this morning (Google for ‘TWIT’) that frequent travellers pack their bag at the last minute. I do that all the time! At least someone’s validating that this is the most efficient way to pack. If you pack too early, you will always have items that you will need to pack later, and chances are you’ll forget it. I pack usually the night before the flight.

Otherwise, nothing special on this trip to Taipei. My third in 2007, and numerous in a lifetime. Here are some photos during the trip. Most of the time I’m in the office working, otherwise I’m looking for some Taiwanese food on the street. Most of them I can’t find outside of Taiwan at all, so that’s definitely interesting.

And here’s one of the waiting room at the Taipei Main Train Station where most people are, I assume, waiting to get their tickets since the booths are directly in front of them.

As usual, my hard working Ricoh GR Digital at work, sometimes with the 21mm wide angle adaptor, and sometimes without.

While on business trip in Taipei, had the weekend of 8-9 Sept 2007 to roam the city. Saturday was with Jerry, an old colleague and friend. Sunday was me roaming Taipei without a map or a real plan, but eventually visiting Kwanghwa Market and Taipei 101.

Po-Ai Street

First thing to do in the morning while waiting for Jerry to pick me up for a Saturday Taipei tour… What is a visit to any city without a visit to where locals buy photographic stuff? Po-Ai Street is the place to go in Taipei, it seems. Quite close to the main train station. Coordinates are: 25.04692N, 121.51124E for the start of the road closer to the train station. How do I like that place? I don’t think it has the feel of a place I’d like to shop in. Most shops look like the type that sell mainstream stuff from the major brands. Ok, they need to make some buck, but I didn’t find anything very interesting in the shops. All more or less the same. Schmidt Marketing (regional distributor of Leica cameras) has a showroom over there that looks a little more like a museum with a guy with suit and a tie on. Very big contrast compared to the other shops in that area. Ok, result is I didn’t find what I was looking for and since I was going to Hong Kong the next week, I was not in a hurry to get anything.

Continue reading “Travels: Taipei”