Here’s a recap of what we’ve been up to on our last week:
Monday: On Monday after school, we headed to an area that we knew had a Memorial Hall that we hadn’t seen yet, the original mango shaved ice place and two very very highly rated Indian food places. I did found out before we left that one was closed (most of the city is closed on Mondays) so we wandered through the grounds of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall to get to the other one. Unfortunately, even though the website said otherwise, that was closed too. We ended up finding a new place called Bing! that served perhaps the best gourmet burger I have ever had (I’m not kidding). I am a super fan of a fried egg on a burger now! The chef was trained in one of the top culinary schools in the States. Ugggghhh…I just want another one now! I also had a pretty delicious lychee cocktail.
We were incredibly full from this adventure to have dessert so we headed to the Dongmen area to explore and see if there was anything open. We we’re feeling it and I was more exhausted than I had been all trip so we made the hour+ journey back home.
The trip was WEEEEELLLLLL worth it! We arrived just before they opened but they let us in (we seem to keep doing that – they eat late in this town!).The co-owner, a young Indian guy, came over and immediately took us under his wing. He told us that we should try something new (besides the standard tikka masala and butter chicken dishes) and we pretty much told him we’d get what he thought was best. As an appetizer, he gave us two little potato cakes, a chickpea/tomato hot dish and two little sauces. The server came over and showed us how to make a hole and smoosh the potato cake to put the sauces on top and the chickpea mix on top of that. The owner encouraged us to keep the rest of the chickpea mix (there was a lot) to eat with the rice and naan. The main course consisted of a paneer-ball dish in a delicious sauce (similar to butter chicken) and a stewed and blended spinach chicken dish (really really thick). Several times thoughtout the meal, he mentioned how he hates how spicy some people make their dishes because they lose their taste. After dinner, he gave us complimentary “masala tea” which was freakin’ delicious! It was sweet and chocolaty and came with a cinnamon stick. SO good!
From dinner, we headed to Ice Monster. Ohhhhhh man! This is the site of the original mango shaved ice. There was a decent line-up but it was SO worth it. This time we opted for the strawberry dish and split it. It’s rated as one of the top 10 desserts in the world by CNN for a gooooood reason.
It was POURING rain at this point so we opted to find a hair salon instead of shopping as planned. Joyce, the other Sacred Heart teacher from Michigan who visited us on week one, had mentioned that her favourite thing to do in Taiwan is get a hair wash. After hmmming and hawing for a while about which place looked the most reputable in the area, we bit the bullet and walked into one. They were 45 minutes from closing but they were SUPER excited to have us. We were sat in two chairs and they just got started. Instead of taking us to a sink, they used a squeeze bottle to put water and shampoo in our hair right there. They got an incredible lather going and we had a half hour (or so) massage (head, neck, ears, the works). When we went to the sink to rinse it off, there was more massaging there (and their neck rests had a head rest in the sink which was much more comfortable than the neck rests at home.
None of the workers knew any English. The owner’s granddaughter, however, was there getting her hair done and they kept sending her over to us to relay instructions and questions (“does anything itch?” “would you like your hair curly or straight?” “can you go take the bubbles out of your hair?”). She was adorable and her English was fantastic! Turns out she is only in Grade 4 but goes to an all English private school.
After the wash, I had a cut; a risky move but I was desperate and it is way cheaper. I REALLY liked the stylist’s hair and kept complimenting it (in Mandarin!!) hoping she would do something similar. Sadly, I’m not a big fan of the cut but I will just get my bangs done back in Canada. On the plus side, the long bands that she left will easily go into a ponytail! That’s a huge plus in these temperatures!
After our money-well-spent stop, we headed for home, 100% satisfied with our evening. Well worth the far trek!
Jen got off Wednesday at noon so went to the zoo. After school, I went to meet her and killed time by eating street food (pork buns) and perusing a market area. We got to the show, which was in the sports center at National Taiwan University, and were shown our seats; WE WERE IN THE 6TH ROW!! Front and center!!
The boys had asked us to come up and say hi; Jaren was a drummer and was in a plexiglass cage and Robbie is a trumpet player. They loved having familiar faces and we LOVED being there.
The show was in English with Mandarin subtitles to each side and beneath the stage. The set was PHENOMINAL and it was certainly high calibre. Man, how lucky are we?! I sang along to every word to almost every song. I was in heaven! Man, I love Disney!
After the show the boys asked us out for a drink and we walked through back stage!! Cool, eh! We headed to Beer and Cheese, a place we were before and they actually had what I ordered this time. Jen and I have only had two drinks since getting here so getting out was pretty nice and the guys were nice company (we spend a lot of time alone together haha). They go on tour next to Egypt and Russia.
When we decided to head home, the MRT had stopped running so we grabbed a cab, which was surprisingly cheap considering pricing here for most other things, then hit the hay! I think the show was the highlight of the trip!