Tea is just Leafy Water

In Taipei, last stop of my international travels for the summer, and am so happy to be at my cousin Titan's place. He is Alex's older brother (from Hawaii). Upon arriving I picked up the usual collection of maps and tourist info since back in Oz I thought I'd want to explore Taipei from a tourist's perspective. Now that I'm here, I sortof just want to chill. I was here over spring break during freshman year, 2 years ago, and the time before that may have been in elementary school. Even so, there are so many small details, certain streets and restaurants and subway station names that I recognize.

Arrived yesterday, chilled with Titan/Aunt/Titan's significant other, then had delicious Szechuan dinner including noodles that were spicy enough to force frequent intermissions, and explored Raohe Night Market.

With Titan during my last visit to Taipei. I'm sure there
will be plenty of new pictures from this trip.

Raohe Night Mkt entrance.

 Taiwan is known for its night markets which are a nightly shitshow featuring streets lined with tiny stalls of every sort of food and merchandise you could imagine. It was so lively even on a Monday night, and apparently it's the only time the night market is manageable. During the weekends you can barely maneuver down the street.

Pretty typical view of Taipei, less sprawled than Shanghai but
everything is taller and more space-conservative since Taiwan is a
tiny island. Also, everyone is civil and patient on the subway,
fearful to sit in the priority seats even if no one else is there
for fear of being ridiculed and labeled as socially inconsiderate.
Huge change from Shanghai.

 Going to play ultimate tonight! Super excited!
http://www.taiwanultimate.com/index.php

Renegade Province Ultimate. LOVE how this sport is everywhere, and
especially that two of the contact people are from LA-- one from USC
and one from UCLA. Fight on.

 Hopefully I won't embarrass myself too much, having not played in over 2 months and not run (except for sprinting through Shanghai subway stations with Ponyo and Dan to catch the last car, avoiding a long and expensive taxi ride) for almost the same. Walking everywhere around cities isn't quite sufficient.

Also, in reference to my last post title:

Like a donut-- fat and oily. This is how I felt in
the mucky, hot, humid weather in SH/Suzhou.

Just realized I have yet to update Beijing pictures or add Suzhou pictures. Sigh.