23 January 2009

Top ten things to do in Taipei


Something from an old notebook that I found today brought back good memories. In summer 2007, Alice, Kaz (11 at the time) and myself went off to a great weekend at the Formoz Festival in a park and baseball stadium in downtown Taipei. In between, there were endless games of 'street basketball' - a game you can play everywhere in Taipei, but nowhere in Hong Kong - while Alice went off in search of hedgehogs. Yo La Tengo were already my favourite band and Kaz had got into the Teryaki Boyz after watching Tokyo Drift. Afterwards we started to listen to Mercury Rev and Alice fell in love with the Taiwanese band Echo (although strangely we missed their set).

I guess the list was some kind of collective literacy event because it shows traces of being written by all three of us. It was evidently unfinished...only nine?

  1. Eat Hot Star chicken at Shimin night market
  2. Go on a hedgehog hunt (Taipei is the hedghog capital of East Asia)
  3. Play 'street basketball everywhere you go [and we did - see photo]
  4. Shi ling bun (dumpling bun) at Dun Thai Fung (yummy)
  5. Go to the Eslite 24hr bookstore in the afternoon (never between 10 pm and 10 am)
  6. Record people entering MRT stations and appreciate the 'city beat' of Taipei
  7. Eating quails eggs in Danshui (and deep-fried durian, haha - [see profile photo]
  8. Go to the Formoz Festival and see Yo La Tengo (or Teriyaki Boyz if you prefer)
  9. Go to the 'retro' toy shop in Danshui and buy a catapult (or a paper doll if you are a girl)

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